From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 158 Let Ma Huateng Experience Receiving Free Fruit

Chapter 158 Let Ma Huateng Experience Receiving Free Fruit

While Lin Mu and the product department were refining Duoduo Orchard, Wang Zaixing also came to Guangxi to begin supporting and selecting fruit merchants.

Coincidentally, after some searching, he also found a fruit farmer and merchant who had a connection with Pinduoduo. That person was Zhu Ce, the husband of Liu Xiufang, who was the first woman in the village to use Pinduoduo.

Zhu Ce had once partnered with a friend in a business deal but was cheated out of a sum of money. Later, he heard that growing fruit was profitable, and since he had the skills to grow fruit, he gritted his teeth and contracted an orchard to start growing Shatin pomelos.

However, he never expected that the production of Shatin pomelos would explode. After he finished planting and harvesting, the price of Shatin pomelos had plummeted, and buyers were pushing down the purchase price.

At that moment, he was extremely anxious, and it just so happened that he made contact with Wang Zaixing through Pinduoduo.

When Wang Zaixing arrived at the orchard, he immediately saw the area before him. It was considered quite large for the area, with a total area of ​​20 square meters.

The land has already produced 20 jin of Shatang pomelos.

According to previous years' market purchase prices, one jin (500g) could sell for between 1.7 and 2 yuan. However, because this year is a bumper harvest year, the price has fallen directly below the 1.7 yuan mark, dropping to 1.5 yuan per jin.

Zhu Ce took out a loan to contract this orchard. If he sold it for 1.5 yuan per kilogram, he wouldn't even be able to pay back the loan interest.

During this time, he was in a hurry to sell off all of this batch of Shatin pomelos, but he couldn't find a price higher than 1.5 yuan.

With the harvest season for Shatin pomelos drawing ever closer, if he waited until the fruit was fully ripe and he still couldn't find a sales channel, the fruit would simply rot in the orchard. Zhu Ce himself never expected that he would actually find a channel like Pinduoduo.

The specific process was as follows: Liu Xiufang found Chen Ping, who had previously come to the village to promote Pinduoduo, and asked him if she could put her own fruit on Pinduoduo to sell. She didn't know anything about it and wanted Chen Ping to help her husband connect with Zhu Ce.

Just then, Pinduoduo was planning to enter the fresh fruit market, and Wang Zaixing was ordered to come to Guangxi to investigate, which is how the two connected.

Zhu Ce was a countryman who had spent his whole life working in towns and small counties. He knew nothing about "high-end" things like e-commerce platforms, but at this point, he had no choice but to try anything.

At the dinner table, after some conversation, Zhu Ce gripped Wang Zaixing's hand tightly, his eyes reddening, and said, "Brother Wang, are you serious? Can I really sell these goods on Pinduoduo for 3 yuan per kilogram?"

After this period of experience, Wang Zaixing's confidence has also been built up. He patted his chest and guaranteed, "Of course! This is the retail price, not the wholesale price, so the price will naturally be a bit higher."

"However, this 3 yuan is definitely not pure profit. It includes the delivery fee and the platform service fee."

"The most important thing is that when you first go online, you have to be prepared to sort the fruit yourself. There absolutely cannot be any rotten fruit. When fruit rots, a whole basket of it will rot. It takes about two or three days to transport the fruit to the customer. During that time, a lot of the fruit will have rotted."

Zhu Ce quickly said, "Brother Wang, you don't understand. Shatang pomelos don't spoil very easily; they're one of the most durable fruits."

"Of course, I will do my best to sort the goods. But this is 200,000 jin (100,000 kg) of goods, not just a few hundred or a few thousand jin! Can you really let me sell all of them during the harvest season?"

"If not, once the ripening period is over, the fruit will all rot, and I will only be able to sell it to the cannery at a low price. The cannery may not even accept it."

Wang Zaixing pondered for a moment. Before coming, Lin Mu had specifically instructed him to do as usual and first create a few classic cases, even if these cases didn't make money.

To put it bluntly, Pinduoduo's entry point into the fruit market is "free fruit giveaways." The platform itself needs to spend money to purchase a batch of fruit to give away to customers participating in the game. If all else fails, they can simply buy Zhu Ce's batch of fruit at a reasonable price; they have the authority to do so.

So Wang Zaixing said, "How about this, Mr. Zhu, let's add a supplementary agreement to the contract. If the daily sales don't reach the expected 500 boxes (5000 catties) within 10 days after the fruit harvest begins, I'll buy all the remaining fruit at 1.6 yuan per catty. What do you think?" Wang Zaixing wanted to ensure that Zhu Ce wouldn't suffer a loss, nor would he want Pinduoduo to lose too much.

Zhu Ce thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth. Although the price of 1.6 yuan per jin was lower than the usual 1.7 yuan, and even at 1.7 yuan per jin he would still be losing money, he had no better option at this point. He said, "Then I'll have to rely entirely on you, brother!"

12 month 20 number.

Lin Mu arrived in this county in Guangxi and discussed some preferential policies with the local county head, Zhang.

In 2010, Guangxi was still an extremely impoverished province. Although this county was not considered one of the poorest in the country, its economy was mainly based on primary industry, and the average living conditions per capita were only average. County Head Zhang was eager to improve the county's average living standards and attached great importance to Lin Mu's arrival.

Lin Mu directly stated his conditions, saying, "County Chief Zhang, I will build a large sorting center locally for sorting fruit; I will help local fruit farmers open up online sales channels and assist them in marketing. I need three preferential conditions: first, land acquisition subsidies; second, tax reductions; and third, special preferential treatment for highway tolls."

County Head Zhang listened carefully to Lin Mu's conditions, and then negotiated with him. In the end, the two parties reached an agreement: there would be no land acquisition subsidy, but tax reductions could be implemented; the recruited workers would not have to pay the five social insurances and one housing fund, but would have to pay two social insurances and one housing fund; regarding the highway access channels, County Head Zhang would help communicate and coordinate to try to apply for relevant preferential treatment.

At the end of December, the product department completed the second iteration of Pinduoduo Orchard and sent the second internal beta package to Lin Mu's mobile phone.

Lin Mu opened the software and tried it out carefully. He was very satisfied with the experience. The pop-up "GG" that looked like a facehugger, the simple and crude guide that lacked any aesthetic appeal, and the "broken" design that made the phone lag slightly even though it was a small game—every single point hit Lin Mu's heart.

"That's right, this is the flavor I wanted." He nodded in satisfaction and said, "Okay, I'm very satisfied with this version. Let's distribute it and conduct the first small-scale internal test."

Product manager Xiao Su looked at Lin Mu with a blank expression. He had prepared himself for another revision and even for being criticized by Lin Mu, but he never expected that this version would actually be approved.

Feeling guilty and uneasy, he said, "How about I take this version back and revise it again, Mr. Lin? I feel there are still many areas for improvement in the UI design."

Lin Mu shook his head repeatedly and said, "No, I want this version. What I want is this feeling of playing a trashy private server of Legend of Mir."

Xiao Su was utterly disillusioned with Lin Mu's taste, and he reluctantly replied, "Okay."

Next, the product department updated Pinduoduo's beta version, and the "Free Fruit" feature was successfully launched.

Lin Mu casually sent the beta version to Ma Huateng. Since their last meeting, he and Ma Huateng had been in intermittent contact on QQ. Ma Huateng knew that he was going to enter the fruit market and was very interested in his progress. He even specifically instructed Lin Mu to send the beta version over for him to try out once the feature was launched.