"Musk, Tesla is selling on Pinduoduo, which has brought us a lot of trouble and negativity."
Looking at Musk's projection on the curtain wall, Tesla Greater China President Zhu Xiaotong reported that he had a headache.
"Isn't Pinduoduo the second largest e-commerce website in China? How can it be negative?"
Musk was a little confused. Could it be that Zhang Yida had done some trick without telling him?
“In terms of annual active users, Pinduoduo has more than 400 million, which indeed surpasses Goudong, which has more than 300 million.
But in terms of GMV, valuation/market value, revenue, and profitability, Goudong is better than Pinduoduo.”
Zhu Xiaotong sighed, "Before we cooperated, I reminded you that Pinduoduo doesn't have a very good reputation, and it likes to engage in price reduction activities that damage the brand image."
Musk was a little embarrassed, had he ever been reminded like this? He seemed not to remember, or had ignored it.
In his opinion, Zhang Yida is also a shareholder and a super rich man. What's the problem if they cooperate to sell a car?
Musk asked Zhu Xiaotong to introduce what happened in detail.
After listening to this, Musk rubbed his forehead. Damn it...you shouldn't sell the car to Pinduoduo at the group purchase price.
Originally, Musk wanted Zhu Xiaotong to directly open Tesla's official flagship store in Pinduoduo, but the latter stopped him.
Zhu Xiaotong didn't want to offend Zhang Yida, so she briefly told Musk about the disadvantages of Pinduoduo, and then asked the big boss to make a decision, but Musk didn't care much.
So Zhu Xiaotong suggested not to open an online store with Pinduoduo first, but to work together to see the sales and follow-up situation. Musk accepted it.
Now, as expected, Pinduoduo remained stubborn and continued to cause trouble.
"Musk, we only received payment for ordering 1,000 Pinduoduo cars, how about we forget about the subsequent cooperation of 9,000 cars?"
Zhu Xiaotong suggested that in his opinion, the game of Pinduoduo would lower Tesla’s competitiveness too much, and would also cause trouble for sales through other online channels.
Unlike traditional car companies that adopt a 4S store sales model, Tesla adopts a direct sales model. Under this model, all models in the Chinese market are priced uniformly across the country.
By doing this, Pinduoduo is destroying Tesla's pricing system and at the same time giving some car buyers expectations of price cuts.
I originally wanted to buy a car, but now I don't want to buy it because I want to wait for the price to drop.
Musk listened carefully to Zhu Xiaotong’s analysis and fully realized the seriousness of the matter.
China is the second largest sales market after the United States. What Zhang Yida did was simply a mess!
"Then tell me, how to remedy it now?"
Musk believes that Zhu Xiaotong understands China’s national conditions better and Pinduoduo better, so he plans to let Zhu Xiaotong come up with ideas.
"Ask Pinduoduo to quickly sell out 1,000 cars and end the event. Although this is a bit negative, everyone will forget about it after a while.
Or, let Pinduoduo stop subsidies and sell cars at our company’s official unified price.
But if you do this, no one will take the risk of a fake and buy a car without any price advantage."
Zhu Xiaotong thought for a while and then said: "There is a third option. To put the blame on Pinduoduo, they say that they purchased 10,000 cars at the official price, and the e-commerce platform spent money to subsidize consumers.
However, an additional condition must be added, allowing Pinduoduo to quickly pay the purchase price for the other 9,000 cars.
At the same time, don’t give them any discounts, it’s up to them to see if they still provide subsidies.”
Although Musk also wants to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in sales at one time, he does not dare to bet, what if Zhang Yida continues to subsidize?
As he continues to whet the appetite of consumers, his Pinduoduo e-commerce platform has attracted more attention, and Tesla's official sales side may be experiencing a bleak business.
"Okay, I know how to deal with it."
Zhu Xiaotong wanted to ask the big boss which solution he chose, but since Musk didn't say it directly, it was hard for him as a subordinate to ask.
After hanging up the phone, Musk smoked a cigarette and thought about how to communicate with Zhang Yida before making the call.
"Man, I heard you made a big news in China?"
As soon as the call was connected, Musk went straight to the topic.
Zhang Yida had already guessed that Musk would call, but he did not expect that the other party would not get angry.
Based on his understanding of Musk, he is a big talker and talks about whatever he thinks. He would not be surprised even if he and Musk got into an argument on the phone.
"Hey, what big news? My e-commerce website has always been like this. It is on the domestic front page 360 days out of 365 days a year, and it is mine on the other 5 days."
Musk originally called to accuse him, but he couldn't help being amused at this time.
Xiaohehe asked, "I've learned more about your e-commerce website. It's been four years since it was established. Is it profitable?"
Zhang Yida replied, "It has been 16 years since Tesla was founded. Is it profitable yet?"
Musk was not angry, and replied arrogantly: "All the money Tesla will burn can be spent on scientific research investment and factory construction, which will form Tesla's technical barriers.
And you spent all your money on user subsidies, and what did you get in exchange? Users’ gratitude?”
Zhang Yida was unhappy when he heard this. Musk didn't understand Pinduoduo at all.
Zhang Yida said: “Our factory model mainly focuses on daily necessities and agricultural products, and the unit price per customer is too low, causing users to think that our platform only sells low-end products.
If we want to become an e-commerce platform comparable to Ali and Amazon, we must increase the price per customer and attract high-end users.
When we burn money, we burn "user minds" so that users can get rid of their deep-rooted and outdated understanding of our platform."
After Zhang Yida said this, Musk understood a lot.
To put it simply, it means that you have the aura of a nouveau riche and want to join the upper class!
Do a few big things, such as marrying Bai Fumei, to increase your worth.
And this Bai Fumei is a high-priced product like Tesla.
Once you can sell high-priced products, over time, everyone will gradually feel that this platform is reliable, whether they are buying products, waiting to see, or hearing about it.
After all, items costing hundreds of thousands of dollars are genuine, so if you buy them for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, there should be no problem.
"Okay, I understand, and I agree with your model."
Musk paused, "Now let's talk about the subsidies that hurt Tesla's pricing!"
Zhang Yida smiled and said, "I'm not making any money to help Tesla increase sales. I'm also a shareholder of Tesla, how could I harm it?"
"Okay, okay, let's not say these polite words anymore."
Musk didn’t believe Zhang Yida’s nonsense, which made it clear that Tesla was being taken advantage of by Pinduoduo this time.
"Three options..."
Musk went through the three suggestions given to him by Zhu Xiaotong.
Zhang Yida frowned after hearing this.
Whether it is selling 1,000 cars in a month and then stopping cooperation; or stopping subsidies and selling cars at a unified official price;
Or maybe the government will sell the remaining 9,000 cars to itself at a uniform price, allowing itself to be taken advantage of.
None of these plans satisfied him!
"Are there any other plans?" Zhang Yida asked.
"No, there are only three. You choose one."
After Zhang Yida thought about it for a while, he said: "Then choose the third option, but you can't pay the full amount at once. I will pay you 500 car payments every month and help you sell the remaining 9,000 cars in 18 months."
Upon hearing this, Musk smiled. As expected, Zhang Yida wanted to continue the subsidy to the end.
I would never agree to it. Although I can sell 500 more cars every month through Pinduoduo, my hidden losses are even greater.
“I thought of a fourth plan, Tesla would open an official flagship store in Pinduoduo!”
Since Pinduoduo wants to break through the existing limitations, Musk decided to help Zhang Yida, and at the same time resolved the embarrassing problem caused by subsidies.
As for whether Pinduoduo is too low and lowers Tesla’s competitiveness.
These are not important to Musk!
Because for car owners who buy cars through Pinduoduo, each car is hand-delivered to the other party by Tesla, so there will be no problems.
As for whether it can be sold or not?
He gave Pinduoduo the first official flagship store of a third-party platform, so Zhang Yida had to show his respect no matter what!