From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 53 Clearance Marketing

At Alibaba's headquarters, Lin Mu clocked in at the check-in counter and leisurely walked to his workstation.

The operations department's offices are located on the third floor. There are two ways to get to the third floor: one is by elevator, and the other is by stairs.

Having grown accustomed to the convenience of elevators, Lin Mu could no longer bear the hardship of climbing stairs.

Just as he was waiting for the elevator, one came down. The elevator doors opened, and a group of men with worried expressions were carrying cardboard boxes containing personal office supplies such as file folders, keyboards, and mice.

Lin Mu turned his head curiously and glanced at them, thinking to himself: Judging from this situation, have these people been transferred or laid off?

Mobilizing so many people at once is quite a commotion. Which department are these people from?

Lin Mu walked up to the third floor and happened to run into Guo Xiaoxi, the beautiful HR lady who had just been hired. He asked, "Xiaoxi, did you see a group of people carrying cardboard boxes downstairs? Which department are they from?"

Guo Xiaoxi replied, "Which department could it be? Taobao Mall, of course. I heard that Lao Ma is very dissatisfied with General Manager Huang and wants to transfer him. Naturally, the old guard who used to work with General Manager Huang will also be replaced. It's not exactly a resignation, but I heard that the group is going to set up a project team called 'Juhuasuan' with its office in the city. These old guards will be transferred to the city."

"I see," Lin Mu suddenly realized. It seemed that the handover of Taobao Mall's work by General Manager Zhang had officially begun.

In his previous life, he had never paid attention to where these colleagues went afterward.

He stroked his chin and smiled, saying that Juhuasuan later had a scandal, with serious corruption issues. Alibaba set up an anti-corruption team and took down many corrupt officials.

Lin Mu returned to his workstation and sat down, about to start working, when he overheard his colleagues chatting next door.

Someone asked, "This time, Taobao Mall has undergone a major personnel change. I wonder which CEO will take over this mess next."

Another person said, "Do you think it's possible that this entire project will be cut by the group?"

The man shook his head and said, "It's unlikely. I personally think that Taobao Mall's direction is correct; the problem lies in its execution. If a suitable person could be brought in to take charge, they should be able to turn things around."

Lin Mu thought to himself: Those who get into Alibaba aren't stupid. Everyone knows that Taobao must launch a mid-to-high-end platform; it's just that during this painful transition, countless people will feel lost, conflicted, and opposed. Only those who withstand the pressure and shoulder responsibilities that ordinary people cannot bear are true heroes.

If he wants Pinduoduo to grow big in the future, he absolutely cannot do it alone. He also needs countless generals like Zhang Yong to help him expand the business. Thinking of this, Lin Mu curiously looked towards that workstation. At this point in time, being able to see the direction of Taobao Mall clearly is quite a talent.

Then, he saw a face that was both unexpected and yet perfectly logical. Lin Mu felt a sense of relief: it was Fugui (Wang Zaixing).

Following his later trajectory, Wang Zaixing left Alibaba and founded his own Taobao agency, becoming the top figure in the industry.

If I don't interfere, it would be quite difficult to get Fugui to join Pinduoduo. He's doing quite well working independently, and most of his skills are well-suited for Alibaba's businesses.

But with my interference in this life, if I can give him some pointers at key junctures and help him develop better in his career, I might be able to take him with me when I leave Alibaba to create Pinduoduo, and we can all move towards a broader and more promising future together.

Thinking of this, Lin Mu called out to Wang Zaixing, "Fugui, how's business lately?"

Upon hearing the voice, Wang Zaixing turned around and said, "Oh, it's Dayan. Everything's been going well lately. I've learned a lot, especially Lao Ma's suggestion of 'thinking upside down.' I've found that this way of thinking is quite helpful to me."

Lin Mu recalled how Wang Zaixing had actually stood upside down thinking under the slogan last time, and asked with a strange expression, "Oh? Like what?"

Fu Gui replied, "For example, I used to only look at problems from the perspective of my own interests and career development: if merchants couldn't sell their goods, I would suggest that they hold discount activities. At that time, I thought that as long as the price was low enough, there would be no goods that couldn't be sold."

"For example, when merchants ask me how to change titles or select products, I find it troublesome, and even think these merchants are stupid. Why should they come to me with problems that they should solve themselves?"

"But after learning to think in reverse, I started to see things from the merchants' perspective. Simply lowering prices is useless. Many merchants are middle-aged or elderly people who are not familiar with e-commerce or even computers. Our Alibaba mission is 'to make it easy to do business anywhere,' so now I help them find market entry points and select products from their own perspective. Since I figured this out, my performance evaluation has improved a lot."

Lin Mu secretly admired him: "No wonder he's the 'Operations Prince'; his ability to learn by analogy is truly rapid." He then asked, "Do you know there's a bug in the membership discount system?"

"Huh?" Wang Zaixing was taken aback; this question had hit a nerve. "What bug?"

Lin Mu explained the bug in detail.

Wang Zaixing pressed further, "Has this bug been reported to the technical department?"

Lin Mu replied, "We reported it a long time ago, but the technical department isn't quick to fix bugs. However, from a certain perspective, this bug also has a positive side."

"Huh?" Wang Zaixing asked, "What makes you say that?"

Lin Mu said, "We can exploit this bug to capitalize on users' desire to find bargains and help merchants clear out their slow-moving inventory. Moreover, once users become store VIPs, they will have some brand awareness, and when we send them coupons or promote new products, they will at least click to take a look."

Wang Zaixing suddenly realized something, his eyes lit up, and a marketing idea seemed to immediately come to mind. He said, "Dayan, are you planning to use this bug to launch a new marketing campaign?"

Lin Mu nodded and answered truthfully, "Yes, I'm going to use Alibaba's Alimama and QQ groups to do a new type of marketing. If you want to watch, feel free to come and observe."

Wang Zaixing said, "Then I'll treat you to dinner after get off work!"

Lin Mu edited the settings in the backend, selected the Three Little Bees store, and enabled its membership system. He then communicated with Boss Gu, who configured the system in the merchant backend: anyone who spends 50 yuan or more can become a member and receive a 15 yuan coupon.

Next, Boss Gu launched Alibaba's Alimama platform, linked the sales links of the three Little Bee stores, and set a 10% commission for each sale.

At the same time, he activated the QQ account matrix he had prepared beforehand—that day at the dinner table, Lin Mu had instructed Boss Gu to prepare several QQ accounts to search for online coupon groups and Alibaba Mama sharing groups.

Because QQ accounts have restrictions on the number of groups they can join, and joining hundreds of groups a day will trigger risk control, Boss Gu bought dozens of QQ accounts. Each account only joined a few dozen groups, and the dozens of accounts combined formed an account matrix covering hundreds of groups.

He controlled these dozens of accounts, communicating with each QQ group owner one by one, giving each group owner a fee of twenty or thirty yuan to have his Alibaba Mama link pinned to the top for a week.