booktalesy Chapter 144 Successfully Outmaneuvered Ali
Chapter 144 Successfully Outmaneuvered Ali
Chapter 144 Successfully Outmaneuvering Ali
At Alibaba headquarters, the head of the public relations department received a report on public opinion from his subordinates.
He logged onto Sina Weibo, carefully investigated the cause and course of events, and asked curiously, "Is this Pinduoduo the platform that Lin Mu, the famous guy from Alibaba's operations department, started after leaving to start his own business?"
The subordinate quickly replied, "Yes, it's him."
Lin Mu is quite famous at Alibaba now, after all, he's the kind of ruthless person that Jack Ma personally approved never to hire again.
The minister studied the situation carefully, trying to figure out how this public opinion crisis had developed. When he finally understood how Lin Mu had achieved such a dramatic surge in online traffic, he couldn't help but exclaim, "A classic dissemination path! There must be a mastermind behind this!"
He pondered for a moment, thinking to himself: the best public relations approach is to sincerely admit our mistake, let the public vent their anger, quickly remove those pirated Taobao shops, and then introduce a new regulation or related activities to support genuine creative works.
However, the public relations department is just one link in Alibaba's huge system, and they simply do not have the ability to make the Taobao department follow their orders.
The minister sighed helplessly. Since that was the case, he could only lie low and play dead. He'd pay Sina Weibo protection money to suppress the heat of this matter. Once new public opinion emerged in a few days, the incident would naturally be overshadowed.
September 1st, Pinduoduo headquarters.
Looking at the battle report brought by this wave of public opinion, Lin Mu couldn't help but smile. Under this wave of public opinion, thanks to the interaction of several celebrities, many people learned about Pinduoduo, and the platform added more than 10 downloads.
Pinduoduo has made a fortune from this wave of public opinion storm.
Of course, even so, Pinduoduo, which was only established three months ago, is still just a newborn baby in front of Taotian Group.
Previously, QQ's strategy of supporting lingerie and the supply chain was very successful, bringing significant growth to Pinduoduo. Lin Mu decided to build on this success and further optimize the strategy, this time setting his sights on a new supply chain.
Phone case.
This accessories market was entirely spurred by the iPhone 4. In 2010, the market size for phone cases soared from $5 million to $12 billion, and the market was chaotic, with counterfeit products accounting for 60% of the market share.
Between 2010 and 2015, you would see many people setting up stalls on the street, specializing in applying tempered glass screen protectors and selling phone cases on the side. Sometimes, the more resourceful stall owners would also offer game boosting services, helping people run mobile games like "Temple Run" on their behalf.
This kind of market, characterized by information asymmetry and ambiguous regulations, is particularly suitable for Pinduoduo to enter. They can start with a price war to make market prices transparent and clear. If managed well, earning 5 to 6 million yuan in revenue from this market alone is not impossible.
Moreover, the design experience he gained from later generations can also be applied in this field.
Soon, Lin Mu summoned Wang Zaixing and asked, "I'm planning to focus our future operations on the phone case market. What do you think?"
Wang Zaixing was somewhat surprised, then nodded and said, "Dayan, I was originally going to suggest that you extend your reach into this parts market as well."
"I believe this accessories market has great potential. There are more and more smartphones around the world now. In the next 10 years, it is not impossible for the world to have billions of smartphones in use. Their accessories market is a huge pie."
Lin Mu said, "I will personally take charge of the supply chain integration. I have already reached an agreement with the leadership of Guanyun County. Changing personnel midway would increase the leaders' anxiety."
"You will be in charge of the mobile phone accessories industry. We need to create several blockbuster products, just like we did with the QQ underwear industry this time, to support a complete industrial chain."
After Wang Zaixing left, Lin Mu began to think about how to enter this market next.
In today's smartphone market, Apple dominates, followed closely by Samsung, while domestic Chinese smartphone manufacturers are vying for dominance. The best way to enter this market is to use Apple phones as a starting point, and among Apple users, female users are the group most willing to pay for phone cases.
Lin Mu thought of a powerful weapon from later generations: collaborations. Were there any IPs or anime that could evoke memories for female Apple phone users? Soon, Lin Mu came up with a long list.
In terms of anime, there are "Cardcaptor Sakura" and "Sailor Moon"; in terms of TV dramas, the currently popular ones are "Hi My Sweetheart" and "You're Beautiful"; in terms of movies, "Harry Potter" and "Alice in Wonderland" are both very good.
However, Lin Mu didn't expect to negotiate the copyright with Disney; they would definitely ask for an exorbitant price.
For established IPs like "Cardcaptor Sakura" and "Sailor Moon," the copyright fees should be cheaper.
The film and television copyrights from Hong Kong and Taiwan are relatively easy to negotiate, as their peripheral development is relatively backward.
In fact, if Lin Mu were ruthless enough, he could have simply started piracy and ignored the copyright of the original.
If the copyright holder sues him, he will push the partner merchants to take the blame, and he, as the platform provider, can simply remain out of the public eye.
However, Lin Mu has not been completely corrupted by capital, and if he can secure official authorization, he will have a greater advantage in terms of promotion.
Coincidentally, Lin Mu knew someone with expertise in this area: Peng Zhijian, the vice president of Tencent's investment department.
Soon, Lin Mu contacted Peng Zhijian and explained his idea and plan to enter the mobile phone accessories industry.
This strategic plan received high praise from Peng Zhijian, who offered to help by acting as a go-between with Toei's copyright holders.
At the same time, Peng Zhijian also said, "President Lin, the collapse of Paipai.com is a foregone conclusion. Our investment department's additional investment in Pinduoduo has once again been presented to President Ma (Ma Huateng). President Ma is quite interested in this investment and would like to meet with you to discuss future cooperation."
"Oh, Little Ma wants to see me?" Lin Mu's heart skipped a beat. He had met Jack Ma in his previous life, but he had never met Pony Ma. He immediately and readily agreed, "Sure, I'm always welcome."
After some time, Lin Mu received a quote from the copyright holder in Japan, and he was so angry at the quote that he laughed.
First, the minimum guarantee is 50 yuan, and 15% of the total revenue is deducted as copyright fees. In addition, the design of product images and promotional plans must be sent to the copyright holder for review. Only with the permission of the copyright holder can they publish the product.
Lin Mu could never accept this condition.
It's worth noting that, according to his plan, this co-branded phone case, while intended to command a relatively high premium, will still have a limited premium.
Priced at 19.9 yuan with free shipping, this phone case means the manufacturer's net profit is only about 5 to 6 yuan.
In other words, just the minimum guarantee alone would require selling 10 phone cases to avoid losses. Add to that the 15% commission on total revenue, and it's practically a joke. Lin Mu had already mentally sentenced Dongying, his copyright partner, to death.
On the other hand, the copyright cooperation offers from Hong Kong and Taiwan are much more reasonable.
The most significant one was "Meteor Butterfly Garden," which had a guaranteed minimum of 8 yuan. The copyright holder also demanded a share of the revenue, but the share was only 3% of the total revenue.
The other two TV series are even cheaper.
The guaranteed minimum investment for "Hi My Sweetheart" is only 8 yuan, with no requirement for a profit-sharing ratio.
The copyright holder of "Next Stop Happiness" even offered to forgo the minimum guarantee fee, but would take 6% of the total revenue as a share.
Ultimately, Lin Mu decided to put the cooperation with Toei's copyright holders on hold for now and see if he could negotiate the copyrights of other Japanese IPs later.
Cooperation with Hong Kong and Taiwan can be started immediately, as Wang Zaixing has already found a suitable partner in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen.
Meanwhile, Ma Huateng finally had some free time and asked Peng Zhijian to invite Lin Mu over for a chat.
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