The next day, Chen Dongcheng accompanied Zhuang Manting to look at the house.
There are many office buildings in Shanghai, ranging from high, high and low-end.
Zhuang Manting searched for a long time and finally settled on an office building located on Yuanshen Road in Pudong New Area.
The office building is a French single-family style building with five floors and a basement.
The above-ground area is 2,500 square meters and the underground area is 423 square meters, which is suitable for corporate headquarters offices.
Wei Ziliang found out the contact information of the owner of this office building, and Zhuang Manting was quite satisfied with the price quoted.
"The monthly rent is 700,000 yuan, and the minimum rent is three years. You have also seen the interior decoration, and it seems reasonable."
Zhuang Manting is quite satisfied with the decoration, but she has some doubts about the age: "Is three years too long?"
She is not worried that Pinduoduo will not survive three years, but that Pinduoduo is developing too fast.
The single-family office building in front of us can only last for one or two years at most. What should we do then?
"It's okay. Maybe I will have other companies that need to rent office buildings by then."
Chen Dongcheng nodded to Wei Ziliang. Since he likes it, the price is not an issue at all.
Wei Ziliang began to contact the owner of this office building, who was drinking coffee nearby.
The office owner is in his early forties and has a very obvious pot belly.
It's summer, so I may be walking a little hastily on the road and my face will be covered with sweat.
"Hello, I'm Delson."
The middle-aged boss took a quick look around and determined the real owner. He smiled and extended his hand to say hello.
"Hello, Chen Dongcheng."
They shook hands with each other and got to the point.
“Before, a financial company rented my office building, and the decoration was all ready-made.
Therefore, the rent will be slightly higher, and you should also know the location of my office building.
The surrounding facilities are quite complete and can meet all office needs.”
Delson went on and on about the advantages of this office building.
However, there is a saying that Chen Dongcheng is indeed very fond of this kind of bungalow-style office building.
"Mr. Dai, your office building hasn't been rented out yet. Isn't it because the three-year lease requirement has caused many companies to worry.
Small companies cannot afford this risk, and large companies simply cannot look down upon your small area."
Of course Wei Ziliang had to sing the opposite tune in order to bargain.
Delson was also a veteran, and said with a smile: "What does Mr. Wei mean?"
"Seven hundred thousand a month is a bit expensive, how about six hundred thousand a month?"
Delson smiled bitterly: "Mr. Wei, how can you bargain like this?
I see that you guys really want to rent, so how about I give you a discount of 20,000 yuan a month?"
Wei Ziliang frowned, it was 20,000 yuan a month, but only 240,000 yuan a year.
"Mr. Dai..."
Wei Ziliang still wanted to continue bargaining.
Chen Dongcheng patted him on the shoulder and said to Delson: "Just sign the contract as Mr. Dai said. It will be for three years. The rent will be paid every six months. Is that okay?"
"Since Mr. Chen is so cheerful, I will give in. In addition to paying for the property fees, I will give you an additional three months.
You can renovate or recruit, and you will be charged a three-month deposit."
"Thank you, Mr. Dai."
Delson waved his hand and said with a smile: "It should be."
After sitting for a while, Delson's female secretary ran over with a standard contract.
Delson wrote down the details and gave them to Chen Dongcheng for review.
This kind of contract couldn't be simpler and has no problems.
After transferring the money, Delson left the key to Chen Dongcheng.
"Then I wish Mr. Chen's company in advance a prosperous business and an early listing. I have something else to do, so I'll take my leave now."
After Delson finished speaking with a smile, he hugged the female secretary and left.
The foreign-style building in front of them will belong to Chen Dongcheng and the others in the next three years.
Wei Ziliang helped contact the decoration company to simply redesign the building.
I used to open a financial company, and the decoration style was a bit old-fashioned and serious.
Chen Dongcheng didn't need this little money, so he decided to renovate it before the company opened.
The budget given by the decoration company is 5 million, which can make the style of the office building completely different from before.
For the basement, Chen Dongcheng plans to transform it into a rest area for employees.
Employees can watch movies, play billiards, and relax.
There is a terrace on the top floor of this office building, and Chen Dongcheng asked the decoration company to design a more exquisite restaurant.
When employees are tired, come over for lunch and their mood will improve.
The office building is being renovated and Zhuang Manting is busy recruiting.
Chen Dongcheng asked He Qian of Blue Whale Online Shopping to recruit a group of e-commerce backbones to enrich Pinduoduo’s team.
Naturally, He Qian did not dare to disobey the big boss's orders.
Among the transferred employees, several are experienced veterans.
As soon as they arrived, Zhuang Manting's burden suddenly became lighter.
He Qian is not worried that Blue Whale Overseas Shopping will not be taken seriously. They and Pinduoduo are basically on two different tracks.
It took more than a month, and the decoration company was fast enough.
When the employees who had been recruited in advance walked into this French-style office building, they were instantly amazed.
The spacious and transparent lobby on the first floor is facing the Pinduoduo logo, and the design of the corridor is also quite unique.
On the basis of the white walls and black top, adding a touch of red straight lines, the entire corridor becomes active.
The color scheme of the general manager's office adopts a combination of dark green and goose yellow with lower chroma, making the entire space quiet, fresh and soft.
Zhuang Manting is very satisfied. Compared with the old-fashioned design of the previous financial company, she feels much better when working in this environment.
The first floor and basement serve as public areas and are subdivided into reception areas, tea areas and fitness and entertainment areas.
These three spaces are divided by mesh-shaped iron partitions, which can not only distinguish the independent functions of each area, but also maintain the overall connection of the public area and the transparency of the space.
The terrace on the roof is even more exquisite and graceful.
It's a pity that this western-style building is not near the Pujiang River.
Otherwise, while drinking afternoon tea and admiring the scenery on both sides of the Pujiang River, there will probably be more people applying for the job.
Generally speaking, Zhuang Manting was full of praise for this company, and her evaluation of Wei Ziliang also quietly improved.
Wei Ziliang doesn't seem to be reliable, but he really isn't picky about things.
Chen Dongcheng was very generous to Pinduoduo and gave him 100 million in starting capital.
I can't say that I am wealthy, but compared to other start-up companies with limited funds and shabby office environment, I am very happy.
Employees who have joined Pinduoduo know best that this kind of office environment is what countless people dream of.
The boss is still kind. Although I am a little tired from working overtime, at least I can get paid for overtime work.
Other high-temperature subsidies and taxi fares are also included.
Employees work together and are naturally more attentive to the development of the app.
The vast majority of Internet companies cannot develop without their own apps if they want to continue to develop.
However, developing software takes time. What Zhuang Manting needs to do is to have a deeper understanding of the third- and fourth-tier cities that have been ignored, and even the lower-tier rural markets.
While Taobao and JD.com are desperately competing for the high-end consumer market, Pinduoduo is taking the opposite route.
But only in this way can there be hope for a comeback under the high pressure of the two giants.
As for losses, that doesn't matter.
Before the vast majority of Internet companies went public, their losses were more severe than the last.
As long as you can tell a good story, you don't have to worry about capital not paying for it.
Zhuang Manting has been waiting for the development of the app. The first version of the app does not need to be too complicated and can satisfy normal shopping.
Since it is called social e-commerce, it must be started through WeChat.
The largest social software in China are WeChat and QQ.
Chen Dongcheng took the initiative to approach Tengxun. He has a very important relationship with the bank. Brother Xiao Ma very generously agreed to use WeChat to promote Pinduoduo.
Without Xiao Ma’s authorization, Pinduoduo’s promotion of links on WeChat would be a joke, and Pinduoduo’s links could be blocked at will.
Xiao Ma agreed readily because he didn’t take Chen Dongcheng’s Pinduoduo seriously at all.
JD.com, which Tencent supports itself, cannot handle Taobao, let alone a small start-up company.
The cold start phase of Pinduoduo is the most laborious.
Many small and medium-sized merchants who have been left out by Taobao have recently been contacted by Pinduoduo's operations staff.
Even if Taobao heard about it, they didn't take it seriously.
There are too many e-commerce platforms on the market, so what can one new company do?
They have always held the leading position in the market.
Some merchants are hesitant. After all, they have never heard of Pinduoduo. Who knows what benefits they will get from going there.
The only advantage Zhuang Manting can offer is support in terms of traffic, such as giving more opportunities for homepage recommendations.
After many discussions, only a small number of merchants agreed to try Pinduoduo for various reasons.
But when Zhuang Manting contacted me, there was one detail.
She only selects sellers with popular products on Taobao.
It's just because the price per customer is low that Taobao doesn't pay enough attention to it.
For example, there is a seller who runs a children's shoe business on Taobao. The business is very large, with a turnover of tens of millions of yuan a year.
One very bad thing about the children's shoes business is that the inventory pressure is very high.
Because children's shoes come in many sizes and colors, it is inevitable that there will be some inventory in the end.
Zhuang Manting contacted the other party, not only explaining the simple store opening process, but also willing to recommend some homepages.
At first, the seller was a little hesitant, but with the attitude of giving it a try, he agreed to sell some shoes in stock on Pinduoduo.
For example, he sells shoes costing 40 yuan for 78 yuan on Taobao.
Zhuang Manting recommended him to go to Pinduoduo and set the price of the product at 38 yuan.
For users, the price/performance ratio is definitely very high.
Sales are also very impressive, and inventory is decreasing almost every day.
There are many merchants like this, and their sales are pretty good.
But for a full-category platform like Taobao, it is just a base number and not impressive at all.
Taobao doesn't pay attention to them, but Pinduoduo treats them as treasures.
People from Pinduoduo’s operations department are responsible for formulating various promotional links.
As a result, various family members and friends sent bargaining links to "help me make a cut" and began to spread crazily in various WeChat groups.
As long as enough people are invited to click on the "bargain" link within 24 hours, the user who initiated the "bargain" can get the product for free.
For example, suitcases, projectors, drones that cost hundreds of yuan, tableware, cosmetics, etc. that cost more than ten yuan.
There are a variety of products that can be obtained for free at bargain prices, and they may seem to be of high value, but in fact the customer acquisition cost is much lower than that of JD.com and Taobao.
While helping to bargain, those who click on the link to enter automatically complete the Pinduoduo registration process and become Pinduoduo users.
This social concept is not new. There is another platform that uses WeChat to initiate group shopping, namely Pinhaohuo, which was founded not long ago by Huang Zheng.
It's just that Pinhaohao is a fresh food e-commerce company. Although it also sells orders, it only sells fruits.
In the original trajectory, there would be a game company CEO under Huang Zheng who proposed to turn this order-taking model into a platform.
From then on, Pinduoduo began its cheating journey.
Breaking 100,000 in three days and breaking one million in half a month.
The number of registered users of Pinduoduo is increasing almost non-stop.
Although many people choose to uninstall it after placing a help order for various reasons.
But this does not prevent the number of registered users of Pinduoduo from rising rapidly.
It is very easy to open a store on Pinduoduo. Except for fresh food, beauty and other products, you need to pay a deposit of 10,000.
Other companies pay 1,000 to open a store, while individuals only need to pay 2,000.
This is undoubtedly lowering the threshold, but the lower the threshold, the stronger the platform’s voice.
Pinduoduo simply does not set up a shopping cart mode, and all products come with free shipping by default.
Some businesses were unhappy, but their protests were ineffective.
From the time when the threshold was set, Chen Dongcheng kept this skill.
This company doesn't accept it, but some other merchants are willing to accept it.
With ten packs of toilet paper priced at 9.9, merchants can still make a profit.
If the price is not low enough, how can we impress consumers in fourth- and fifth-tier cities?
Don't mention the quality or lack thereof, Pinduoduo is just cheap and cost-effective.
With this concept in mind, Pinduoduo’s performance has become more and more conspicuous.
Even He Qian, who had offered help before, was shocked.
He has downloaded Pinduoduo, studied Pinduoduo, and even held meetings to discuss it.
Compared with Pinduoduo, their Blue Whale overseas shopping is inferior.
To be able to lower the price to this level, Pinduoduo’s team is indeed very skilled.
For He Qian, he neither wanted to try this idea nor dared to try it.
Pinduoduo sells only small brands, but He Qian needs to connect with international brands.
If you ask those big names to cooperate with you to get the lowest price, isn't that nonsense?
Chen Dongcheng entrusted Peng Zhijian to help contact several senior executives.
Without much effort, Peng Zhijian contacted two people who were interested in changing jobs and brought them to Pinduoduo.
Zhuang Manting was in charge of the interview, and he and Peng Zhijian were drinking tea in the reception room.
Peng Zhijian had a strange look on his face, looked at Chen Dongcheng for a long time, and said with emotion: "I sometimes wonder, there are so many entrepreneurs who are dying, how come none of the projects you fancy are successful?"
Needless to say, there are several companies in the Cao Cao series. Even the recently launched Pinduoduo has triggered a discussion in the industry.
No one has ever tried to penetrate into the fourth- and fifth-tier city markets, but Pinduoduo did just that, and successfully leveraged this big piece of cake.
Chen Dongcheng smiled: "I am not the only one with vision, but I have more conditions for success."
Even if other entrepreneurs have this idea, they have to waste a lot of time just looking for investors with their projects.
Even if you find investors, how many of them are willing to invest tens of millions of dollars to try a project with unknown prospects?
Peng Zhijian took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "Then I have agreed in advance that if Pinduoduo needs financing, you must bring me with you."