Chapter 728: Teach Jack Ma How to Make Money
Seeing Jack Ma standing there in a daze, Lu Yiming quickly said, "You don't have to be too happy. My matter..."
Jack Ma almost cried: "Mr. Lu, look at my expression, do I look happy?"
eBay’s current market value is nearly 30 billion US dollars, and Alibaba’s current valuation is not even a fraction of it!
For Ma Jieke, this battle could not be described as an adult beating a child. The difference between the two sides was simply that between an elephant and an ant.
Lu Yiming laughed and jokingly said, "What? Are you ready to raise your hands and surrender?"
Jack Ma said: "That's not the case. I was just thinking, if it's really like what you said, how can I survive and defeat them?"
Now, Eachnet has already made him overwhelmed. If a more powerful eBay comes along, even if he does not surrender, he will probably only be able to survive.
Jack Ma is not a person who gives up easily. He can lose and die, but he cannot surrender.
As a major shareholder of Alibaba, Lu Yiming certainly didn't want Alibaba to die. He said, "I have carefully studied eBay's trading model and found that they have a fatal flaw. That flaw is eBay's biggest weakness and our only chance of winning."
Jack Ma asked hurriedly: "What defect?"
Lu Yiming said righteously: "This guy actually collected money from sellers who opened stores on their platform!"
"ha?"
Jack Ma thought he had heard it wrong.
“Is this considered a defect?”
At this time, he had not yet completed his own enlightenment in Longchang, and did not know the terrible tactic of "free".
Lu Yiming said indignantly, "Of course! I opened a store on your platform to give you face, to respect you, and to bring you traffic. It would be fine if you didn't pay me, but you actually want to charge me! Do you think this is reasonable?"
Jack Ma: “…”
He took a deep breath, feeling that something was wrong, but couldn't tell what it was.
"so?"
"So I think that as an e-commerce platform, we should not charge transaction fees for both buyers and sellers. This will definitely be very attractive to sellers, and if sellers make more money, the goods will naturally become cheaper, thus attracting more buyers."
Jack Ma finally realized what was wrong. He spread his hands and said, "Then how do we make money?"
If the website does not collect money from buyers or sellers, then who does it collect money from?
The construction, operation and maintenance of the platform all require investment.
Lu Yiming said: "You can earn profits through value-added services such as 'store promotion' and 'credit card payment'. Compared with directly charging transaction fees, this method is obviously more acceptable to merchants. Credit card services have service fees, basically one thousandth, don't think it's small, as long as the scale is up, it will be a very substantial number. There are so many display windows on the homepage of the website, right? It's just like the display screens in large shopping malls. If you want to display your own store's products on them, isn't it reasonable to pay money?"
The more Lu Yiming spoke, the brighter Jack Ma's eyes became. When Lu Yiming finished speaking, he couldn't help but applaud: "Great, it's really great! If we open a store for free, it will definitely attract many people to open stores here, greatly enriching the variety and quantity of products on our website. And if sellers open stores at zero cost, the price of goods can also be lowered. With more stores opened, the price of goods will be cheaper, and more people will visit Taobao!"
Lu Yiming nodded slightly and said, "That's the truth. As long as there are more people visiting Taobao, there will be more people opening stores on Taobao, and the competition will be more intense. They will start a price war among themselves and push down the prices. Lower prices are good for consumers, and more people will visit Taobao. As long as all online shoppers are drawn to Taobao, won't eBay die immediately?"
Jack Ma laughed out loud: "Yes, yes, that's right!"
Seeing that Jack Ma finally opened the door to sin, Lu Yiming's mouth curled up slightly. He said, "It's free for individual sellers to open a store, so we can charge brand merchants. For example, we can open a special logo section for them, put an official entry label on it, and give them a little more operating rights. Wouldn't they pay obediently?"
Jack Ma worried: "If brand merchants move in, won't the customers of individual sellers who open stores be taken away by brand merchants?"
If the same product is sold in a small store or in a specialty store next door, which one will the buyer choose? The specialty store is definitely more reliable.
Lu Yiming said calmly, "What does this have to do with you? They will find a way themselves. You can give individual sellers a year, and brand stores can open a year later. Now is the best time for Taobao. If they can't break through the siege after giving them a year, they can't blame anyone for being eliminated."
"hiss……"
Jack Ma took a deep breath.
He once again felt the horror of Lu Yiming.
This Lu Yiming has mastered the catfish effect to perfection!
Then, Lu Yiming said, "By the way, there is one more thing I want to talk to you about, which is the payment software. You know, I created Alipay before, and I want to cooperate with Alibaba to make Alipay and Taobao interoperable."
At this time, Ma Jieke has realized the importance .
However, Lu Yiming himself is a major shareholder of Alibaba, and under Lu Yiming's operation, Alipay has gained a high degree of popularity and has been accepted by many Internet users, making it impossible for him to refuse.
After thinking about it, Ma Jieke finally put forward his conditions: "It's fine to embed Alipay into Taobao, but I don't accept exclusivity, which means that users cannot be forced to use Alipay as the only means of payment."
Obviously, Ma Jieke has not given up on the payment software and he still wants to compete with Lu Yiming.
"Of course, how could I force a user to do that? Do you think I'm that kind of person?"
Lu Yiming is not at all afraid of fair competition.
After all, with the successful experience in developing and operating PayPal, it would be extremely difficult for Majeke to make a big splash in payment software.
Under his operation, Alipay can now completely open up e-commerce, games, social networking and other fields, realizing the true meaning of "one-click interconnection" and "one-click payment", so that his users no longer need to download a lot of payment software and register four or five accounts.
In the previous life, this was something that no Internet tycoon had ever done, but now Lu Yiming did it easily.
After all, at this time, Lu Yiming had already acquired QQ and invested in Alibaba. Through Future Capital and various financial means, he allowed his influence to continue to penetrate into every corner of the Internet.
The next day, Majek announced the "powerful combination" of Taobao and Alipay.
With the influx of Alipay users, the number of registered Taobao users has also increased dramatically. This finally made Ma Jieke feel a lot better.
The services provided by Alipay are still very attractive to Taobao buyers. After all, they have always been worried about what to do if they cannot get the goods after paying.
Now there is no need to worry. According to the solution provided by Alipay, the buyer deposits the payment into the third-party account provided by Taobao, and then pays the payment to the seller after confirming receipt of the goods.
Both parties are very satisfied!
After the signing ceremony, a reporter asked, "Mr. Lu, you traveled to North America in July and said that after you sold PayPal to eBay, your assets increased by another 10 billion. Is this true?"
Jack Ma, who was standing next to him, was so jealous. He was extremely envious. Ten billion! When could he earn that much money?
Lu Yiming humbly corrected him, "Where is the 10 billion? It's not that exaggerated, it's all rumors. In fact, it's only about 90 billion, just enough to buy a few private jets, it's nothing."
"Mr. Lu, I heard that you only invested 30 million US dollars at the beginning, and in less than two years, this asset has increased in value dozens of times. What do you think about this?"
"For me, this result is just average, nothing to be proud of, so I don't feel anything at all."
reporter:"……"
Jack Ma: “…”
As soon as the report came out, it caused an uproar.
In Zhonghai, Zhao Bin and Luo Yongjie were furious when they saw the news published in the newspaper.
Watching their "enemy" Lu Yiming making money was even more painful than losing money.
Zhao Bin said very unhappily: "Why is it so easy for this guy named Lu to make money? He can easily put tens of billions or even hundreds of billions into his own pocket. Even if his family runs a banknote printing factory, they can't make money that fast."
The Zhao family is one of the top wealthy families after all, so making money is not a difficult task for Zhao Bin.
After all, as long as he sets his eyes on a business, few people dare to compete with him. It is easy for him to make three or five hundred million a year.
In the past, Zhao Bin thought that this was success and that being this way was very cool.
But people are afraid of comparison.
Compared with Lu Yiming's revenue of tens of billions or even hundreds of billions, his annual profit of three to five hundred million suddenly didn't seem so attractive.
Luo Yongjie thought about it, and suddenly an idea came to him. He took the opportunity to suggest: "Let's not talk about anything else. Lu Yiming's investment vision is really good. Then we should just follow him and invest in whatever he likes! I heard that he has recently taken a fancy to the Delong Group, but he has not yet reached an agreement with the Tang brothers on the price. I think we can intervene and get a stake in the Delong Group first."
Zhao Bin's eyes lit up as well. "That's right. Since he's so good at making money, then we should invest in whatever he thinks is good. It's always okay for him to make a little money while we make a lot of money, right? If he makes 10 billion, it won't be a problem for us to make a few billion. But are you sure it's reliable to do this?"
Luo Yongjie said without hesitation: "Absolutely reliable. Tang Wanli is a person who can directly participate in the discussion of local economic decision-making. How many people in the business world can compete with him in terms of relationships and connections? Moreover, the development of the Delong Group in recent years is obvious to all. It is actually too late for us to get on board now."
Zhao Bin was somewhat tempted, but after all, investing in the Delong Group would involve a considerable amount of money, so he was a little hesitant to make a decision easily.
Seeing that Zhao Bin was still hesitating, Luo Yongjie urged him again, "Opportunities are rare and will never come back. If Tang Wanli gives in to Lu Yiming, or Lu Yiming agrees to Tang Wanli's conditions, then we will be out of luck."
After hearing what Luo Yongjie said, Zhao Bin gritted his teeth and said, "Since even Lu Yiming is optimistic about this company, I'll go all out."
On the other side, Lu Yiming, who had been touring Zhonghai and inspecting the progress of various companies, was about to return home when he suddenly received a call inviting him to a high-end business dinner, where many wealthy people and investors from Zhonghai would be present.
Originally, Lu Yiming didn't like this kind of dinner, but the reason he had to attend was that the call was from Wang Hongsheng.
Although I have already graduated from Fu Ri University, I have cooperated a lot with Fu Ri University, so I still have to give face to the old president.
Lu Yiming then called Ni Cong and Wang Dazhuang to come along for some free food and drinks. Both of them were now dressed in suits and designer clothes, looking like successful people.
At the entrance of the hotel, Ni Cong smiled and said as soon as he saw Lu Yiming: "I saw in the newspaper that you made more than 8 billion after a trip to America? Is this true?"
Lu Yiming said in a very annoying way: "I can't help it. Americans are so hospitable. I just invested tens of millions of dollars, but they insisted on spending almost one billion dollars to buy it. I said I didn't want to sell it, but they still refused. What can I do? I am innocent too."
Wang Dazhuang looked at Ni Cong and said, "Listen, is this human language?"
Ni Cong said, "How about we beat this guy up?"
Lu Yiming quickly said, "Stop, a gentleman should talk, not fight."
After not seeing each other for a few months, the three of them were still talking and laughing as they did when they lived in the same dormitory.
After chatting for a while, Ni Cong complained to Lu Yiming, saying, "Many users reported that the web ordering model you asked us to create was not easy to use."
Lu Yiming frowned slightly and asked in confusion: "How could it be?"
These are all directly copied from successful products of later generations, so how can they not be useful?
Ni Cong explained: "Users find ordering over the phone very convenient, except that it is a little troublesome to get change. If you order online, you have to place the order on the computer, pay the bill, and then confirm the delivery. There are too many steps, and it must go through the computer, which is really troublesome."
Lu Yiming understood it all at once. Before the advent of smartphones, it was a bit unrealistic to pay for takeout online.
Sure enough, being one step ahead is technology, being two steps ahead is science fiction, and being three steps ahead is useless.
Lu Yiming said: "That's fine, you just need to help me promote Alipay. Now we should try to cultivate users' usage habits first."
By cultivating user habits now and waiting for the arrival of the smartphone era, Alipay will be able to make great strides in the food delivery sector.
As they chatted, important figures arrived one after another. CITIC Pacific, which has made great achievements in aviation, infrastructure, real estate and telecommunications, and Rong Zijian, the current head of the Rong family, all came.
There is also Xu Rongmao of Shimao Group, who owns a large amount of land and real estate in Zhonghai, Beijing and Fuzhou; Lu Guanqiu of Wanxiang Group, which makes auto parts; brothers Liu Yonghao and Liu Yongxing, who started out by selling feed; and Ye Lipei, the boss of Zhongsheng Group, a real estate company with considerable strength in Zhonghai.
These people are all the top ten business tycoons on the list. Together with Lu Yiming, the young richest man in Asia, they have completed the "Seven Warlords of the Sea" of Xia's business world.
The brothers Liu Yonghao and Liu Yongxing had met Lu Yiming before and were acquaintances, so they were the first to take the initiative to step forward and say hello.
Then the other five wealthy men also pretended to meet by chance, exchanged business cards with Lu Yiming, and greeted him with smiles.
Ni Cong and Wang Dazhuang watched Lu Yiming chatting and laughing with these wealthy people, and they were filled with emotion. After these people greeted Lu Yiming, Wang Dazhuang said, "When can we get to your level? One by one, wealthy people take the initiative to come to you and want to make friends with you. This is too impressive."
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "When you develop Zhenxiang Fast Food, there will be many business leaders who will want to make friends with you."
Food is the most important thing for people. As long as carbon-based organisms need to eat, there will be demand for the catering industry. And the energy of fast food chains should not be underestimated.
Just at this time, the two brothers Tang Wanli and Tang Wanxin arrived.
Although their assets are not ranked high on the Forbes list, they are both ranked outside the top 20.
However, the Delong Group is very famous and powerful in the business world of Xia Country.
Therefore, as soon as the two of them appeared, they immediately attracted a lot of attention. Many investors were very interested in them and actively or passively chatted with the Tang brothers.
After chatting for a while, Tang Wanli saw Lu Yiming and brought Tang Wanxin over.
"Mr. Lu."
Lu Yiming nodded slightly and responded, "Boss Tang."
Tang Wanli suddenly raised his voice and said loudly: "Boss Lu, what have you thought about investing in Delong?"
When the people around heard Tang Wanli's words, they instantly turned their attention.
Is Mr. Lu considering investing in the Delong Group?
This is important news, I have to write it down quickly!
Lu Yiming is a legendary figure in the investment circle. Since his debut, he has never failed in investment. Recently, he went to the United States and made a lot of money. Many people almost replaced the God of Wealth statue in their homes with Lu Yiming's photo.
The God of Wealth was just a comfort to himself, Lu Yiming was really making money. Billions came into the account without anyone noticing, who could afford this?
Lu Yiming couldn't help but scratch his head.
He had never heard of this Delong before. After returning home, he did a quick search on the Internet, but later put the matter out of his mind. Now when Tang Wanli mentioned it, he remembered that he did say he would consider it.
Tang Wanli was slightly stunned when he saw Lu Yiming was silent, then he lowered his voice and asked, "Boss Lu, you won't forget about this, right?"
