Chapter 532: Group buying has overturned the table
This seminar held by Dianping is actually like a loaded gun. After the bullet is fired, the pattern of the group buying market may be rewritten.
Who is at the forefront of the gun? Naturally, it is the group.
Everyone has witnessed the tragic escape of Tuanbao.com. The support from major investors is like a landslide or tsunami. It is difficult to turn the situation around under the public opinion.
They don't even need to make the group buying collapse quickly. As long as they can establish the image of the group buying as untrustworthy and make it difficult for the mob to distinguish between the real and the fake, their goal will be achieved.
Moreover, the cost of this kind of public opinion war is very low. They can do it a second time, a third time... As long as the group buying never accepts financing, this is just the beginning.
Until they were hit by bullets one by one and finally fell to the ground.
After all, group buying is an asset-intensive business system. Without cash flow and users, the downward trend will continue and it will become increasingly fragile.
What’s more, Dianping’s many public relations efforts have let consumers and merchants know that even without group buying, there is still Dianping.
But what was strange was that Jiang Qin's performance never made Yang Xueyu feel that he was anxious.
Especially the last two sentences left by Jiang Qin, which made the senior management of Dianping feel difficult to interpret, even incomprehensible.
The clues really began to show up around nine o'clock in the evening after the cocktail party...
Because the seminar starts tomorrow afternoon, followed by the signing meeting, there are still many procedures to be finalized in the evening. Zhang Li had a simple dinner and then returned to the company.
However, during the work process, he suddenly found two pop-up windows about group buying on his mobile phone.
Every APP will have this kind of pop-up ads, but since the public opinion arose, group buying is probably for risk avoidance, and pop-up ads like this rarely appear. Suddenly seeing that bright yellow color, it makes people miss it.
Zhang Li guessed that this was probably another reminder of the daily special offers, so he couldn't help but reveal a faint smile.
Getting a discount at a time like this is really asking for too much luck.
Because this behavior can easily remind people of the crazy promotions before Tuanbao.com ran away, it will arouse consumers' vigilance.
Everyone is saying that your capital chain is broken, and you are selling coupons loudly. Even a fool would know that there is a problem.
Zhang Li unlocked his phone and planned to delete the pop-up window, but after glancing at it, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.
Because what is written on it is not some flash sale, but a successful refund.
The previous public opinion crisis caused unexpected damage to group buying, so the employees of Dianping also added fuel to the fire and immediately applied for a refund after spending money to buy coupons.
Doing so will not only increase the workload of the group buying customer service department, but may also become the last straw that breaks the camel's back. Why not do it?
However, Zhang Li did not expect that at this juncture, the choice of group buying was not to use money to stabilize merchants, but to use money to stabilize consumers.
This practice is very puzzling, because there is an old saying that goes "As long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood." For group buying websites, merchant resources are the green mountains.
Especially during this public opinion crisis, the most terrifying thing for group buying is not the distrust of consumers, but the betrayal of merchants, which is the most terrifying thing.
"Um?"
"Why is it one hundred and twenty-three dollars and five cents?"
"No, the amount seems wrong?"
Zhang Li looked at it carefully, frowned for a while, and couldn't help but click on the details page, and then he was immediately stunned.
Because the refund application in his group purchase order was still there, but an expired voucher from half a year ago in the card voucher package showed that the refund was successful.
At the same time, the homepage of the group-buying app updated a banner that said to pay for expired coupons, but after entering, it showed a round of rising numbers, with the refunded amount marked below.
Zhang Li's face changed and he immediately took out his cell phone and called Chen Jiaxin.
"Mr. Chen, there is some action on the group buying side."
"They updated their homepage to say they would pay for all users' expired vouchers. I have already received a refund reminder."
“…”
In the era of online banking, if consumers want to buy coupons on group buying websites, they need to log in to the PC web page, link the U shield as a secure payment tool, and receive a security code to make payments. The whole process is very troublesome.
In order to ensure the number of orders on the website and facilitate consumers' use, group buying websites basically release a large number of discount coupons at one time.
Therefore, it is not uncommon to stock up on dozens or even hundreds of discount coupons at one time.
But this also leads to many discount coupons expiring and being wasted because they are not used in time or are forgotten.
Don’t think that this is a small amount. In fact, the amount of coupons wasted in the entire market is huge.
However, there has been an unwritten rule in the group buying business since its inception, that is, expired coupons will not be refunded, and this industry norm has been implemented for two years.
Therefore, even if the money is not used in time, the consumer will have to bear the responsibility.
However, when mobile payment became popular, it became convenient to buy coupons with mobile phones, so the website changed the validity period of discount coupons, and it is rare for consumption coupons to expire.
But this time, the group buying team directly returned all the unused consumer vouchers from 2009 to now, without even having to apply...
Eight or nine o'clock in the evening is the most active time for the Internet, and the traffic of group buying is almost off the charts.
Chen Jiaxin and Yang Xueyu had already returned to the apartment, but after hearing the news, they immediately returned to the company and met Zhang Li.
"Have they all retired?"
“I don’t know, but the refund amount is more than 10 million.”
Zhang Li pointed at the string of numbers that kept scrolling on the computer. He had not yet caught his breath because he had been running all the way here.
Before Chen Jiaxin could even open her mouth to speak, she immediately received a call.
The person who called was the manager of the Internet Public Opinion Department. He said that Tonight's Headlines had joined forces with several media outlets to report on the group purchase refund action, and the first article with a unified tone has been sent out.
The call from the Public Opinion Department had just been hung up when Yang Xueyu also received a call from Dianping’s customer service center.
The center manager’s feedback was that some consumers asked us whether expired coupons from Dianping.com can be refunded and when.
"What is he going to do?"
Chen Jiaxin hung up the phone, with a look of disbelief on her face: "Could this solve everyone's suspicions about the funding chain of group buying?"
"No, it can't solve it, but it can divert attention."
Yang Xueyu suddenly remembered what Jiang Qin said yesterday.
He said that the best way to resolve public opinion is to create another public opinion.
There were rumors before that Jiang Qin spent a week shooting an advertisement, so Yang Xueyu subconsciously thought that was his tool to create public opinion, and thought his idea was a bit naive.
Why? Because public opinion is to attract hatred and have a target of hatred. What can an advertisement do? But he never expected that another point of public opinion creation mentioned by Jiang Qin was to pay for expired consumer coupons.
A company, a product, or a piece of news is actually not enough to become a national level public opinion trend, but Jiang Qin's move is equivalent to dragging the entire group buying market into the water to hype him up.
Pintuan has returned all the money from expired coupons to consumers. What about Nuomi? What about Dianping? What about Lashou? What about Wowotuan?
If any website dares to say that it will not withdraw, the hatred level will be directly raised.
However, paying for the expired consumption coupons for such a long time is a huge workload, which puts a lot of pressure on the customer service center, finance, and operations.
In other words, they couldn't take any practical action for at least a week.
It seems that what group buying has done during this week is far more than just an advertisement.
"It's a rule that expired consumer vouchers cannot be refunded. He's at the end of his rope, is he going to flip the table?"
"But this won't do him any good. What on earth is he going to do?"
“…”
In the early morning, the news that group buying helped users refund expired consumption coupons topped the hot search list and remained at the top.
Tonight's headlines, together with many other media outlets, have also begun to hype up the event in all directions, constantly analyzing the implications of the group-buying move.
Some people say that this is a progress in the group buying industry, while others say that they have seen the greatest sincerity in the group buying market since its formation.
Of course, more people are asking questions, saying they don’t know whether other websites will follow suit.
A large number of netizens also began to leave messages. Some said that group buying was generous, while others questioned how there would still be money if the funding chain for group buying was broken. Of course, more people were asking whether other websites would refund the money.
As the popularity grew, the heads of many websites began to sweat profusely.
The key point is that they are not sweating individually, but they are sweating together.
Because they were all attending a seminar hosted by Dianping.com, they were all eating breakfast in the restaurant at this time. They all saw the trending searches and news one after another and fell into silence.
Finally, everyone's eyes were focused on the floor-to-ceiling windows on the west side.
Jiang Qin was sitting there at this time with a calm expression, holding a pair of scissors in one hand and a toothpick in the other, silently showing off his steak and looking out the window from time to time.
From everyone's perspective, this is just a boy who looks like a student.
Although he is not handsome, he is definitely a handsome guy and has a tall and straight figure.
Just from the outside, you wouldn't expect that he could be so determined to drag everyone down with him. The key point is that he did it so steadily.
"Do you really want to overturn the table?"
“Going crazy at the end is more in line with the mentality of young people.”
Luo Ping and Robin were sitting together, whispering, and then they watched Jiang Qin finish his steak, turn around and leave the buffet restaurant, seeming to be mumbling something.
Kang Jingtao was sitting at the outermost edge. He seemed to have heard Jiang Qin's words clearly, and his expression was startled.
"Old Kang?"
"ah?"
"What did Mr. Jiang just say?"
"He said..."
Kang Jingtao swallowed his saliva and said, "It's great that he said that. He let you live one more day."
(End of this chapter)
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