Chapter 76: Dilemma of Treasure Hunting

Sun Yu was under a lot of pressure. Since the establishment of Taobao in May this year, the pressure on him has never been relieved.

Whenever thinking of the past six months, Sun Yu's face was full of sighs.

In March 2003, the world's e-commerce giant e-Bay acquired eBay and entered China. Although e-Bay mainly engaged in C2C business, Alibaba founder Ma knew that the integration of B2B and C2C would be very easy in the future, and realized that the future battle with e-Bay would be inevitable.

In early April, he immediately started to deploy troops. At that time, he secretly summoned less than ten employees, signed an agreement to leave Alibaba immediately, and went to Lakeside Garden, the current entrepreneurial holy land of Alibaba, to do a mysterious project. The team was required to create a C2C commodity trading website within one month, and he was the person in charge of this project.

When Taobao was born, Ma announced the policy that Taobao would not be allowed to make profits within three years. This "fulcrum" really worked. Taobao attracted more than 10,000 registered users in 20 days without any promotion in the early stage.

After all, eBay still charges fees nowadays. Depending on the different products sold, sellers need to pay a service fee ranging from 1 to 8 yuan for each product they put online, and after each successful transaction, a service fee of 2% of the transaction amount will be deducted.

Although Taobao has attracted a group of sellers with free services, it is far from enough.

The strangulation and squeeze from eBay eBay has put Taobao under great pressure.

eBay spent 20 million US dollars to sign an exclusive agreement with Xinlang, Sohu and Wangyi, making Taobao unable to advertise on several major portals.

It is difficult to obtain traffic from normal channels, and the portals are monopolized by eBay. Taobao can only obtain traffic through the "ant army" method, supporting a lot of traffic that is not up to standard. Taobao began to advertise through tens of millions of personal websites, mainly through QQ, Weibo, Renren, Kaixin, forums, etc.

Basically 30% of customers are acquaintances of sellers.

Backed by Alibaba, Taobao's operation in the past six months can only be said to be passable. The sales volume of 30 million is only less than one-tenth of eBay.

Taobao was mainly used for auctioning second-hand goods in its early days, but in the past six months, it has gradually evolved into selling new goods at a fixed price.

Alipay, which is dedicated to Taobao, has also been launched. Although it provides guarantee services for buyers, allowing buyers to place orders with more confidence, a few days ago, the first user of Alipay was born, who bought second-hand goods, which made all the personnel of this project more confident that they can make this project a success.

But Taobao now needs a hot spot, which is also what Sun Yu has always wanted to do, but he has never found a breakthrough point.

......

At 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the 16th, Ke Meng and Feng Xiao followed Chen Changliu off the plane and found out that Chen Changliu had never contacted Taobao at all.

Feng Xiao looked at Chen Changliu with a smile: "Mr. Chen, we have never contacted them. Are we going directly to their headquarters?"

"Haha, this shows that we are sincere."

Feng Xiao and Ke Meng were speechless.

Chen Changliu went straight to Hangzhou, and it was not a decision made on impulse.

Although Taobao has not yet grown in size, its sales in half a year have reached more than 34 million, and it is backed by Alibaba. A company of this scale is not something that a small company like Zhonghuajia, which has no reputation, can easily connect with.

If you contact others to discuss cooperation, you may be regarded as a liar.

Moreover, his plan cannot be settled in a few words on the phone or on the computer, but must be communicated in person.

The three of them got into a car, and Chen Changliu directly reported the name of Lakeside Garden Community.

When Chen Changliu and the other two got out of the car and looked at Lakeside Garden Community, Chen Changliu was very dissatisfied in his heart. Sure enough, there are very few people who can start from scratch.

This Lakeside Garden Community is definitely a high-end residential community. Boss Ma was able to buy a house here a few years ago. His pockets are not ordinary thick.

Seeing Chen Changliu staring at the community, Ke Meng asked in confusion:

"Mr. Chen, shall we go in now?"

Chen Changliu shook his head and said: "No hurry, let's find a place to eat first. People are made of iron and food is made of steel. It's better to work after eating."

He took the lead and walked towards a restaurant sign in the distance.

During lunch, Chen Changliu and Feng Xiao continued to communicate some key points.

At 2:30 pm, at the entrance of Lakeside Garden Community.

"Uncle, let's go to 202, Unit 1, Building 16. The owner's surname is Ma. I really didn't lie to you.

Why don't you believe it? You can only call them to pick them up? Can't you be flexible?"

Chen Changliu still lost, and the two women on the side also held back their laughter.

Chen Changliu thought about it, took out his mobile phone, and dialed a call. After a while, the phone was connected.

"Hello, who are you looking for?"

"Hello, I'm here to apply for a job, but I was stopped by the security guard at the gate and can't get in. I need you to come out and pick me up."

The person on the other end was stunned, then reacted and said, "Okay, wait a minute, we'll arrange someone to pick you up."

After Chen Changliu hung up the phone, she saw Ke Meng and Feng Xiao looking at her with confusion on their faces.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Mr. Chen, have you sent them your resume?"

"No."

"Ah, then where did you get their recruitment phone number? Isn't this cheating?"

Hearing what Ke Meng said, Chen Changliu glared at her, "How can this be called cheating? As long as it can be connected with Taobao, it is a white lie. Do you understand? This is a workaround."

Listening to Chen Changliu's specious excuse, Ke Meng curled her lips and stopped talking.

Not long after, a man wearing glasses, about 40 years old, with a flat head, wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a gray jacket, looked like a programmer.

When Chen Changliu saw this person, he moved slightly. Isn't he Sun Yu, the first general manager of Taobao, who was rarely known in later generations? It seems that he just bumped into him by accident. Chen Changliu was worried that he was not there just now.

Sun Yu came to the gate and saw only Chen Changliu and the other two not far away. He looked at her a few more times. After all, Ke Meng was indeed a beauty. Then he frowned, because he didn't see anyone waiting at the door. Was he fooled?

This is not Sun Yu's fault. After all, Chen Changliu and the other three don't look like they are here to apply for a job. Ke Meng is too young and beautiful, Chen Changliu doesn't look old, and Feng Xiao looks like a professional, but the voice on the phone just now was a man's voice.

Just when Sun Yu was wondering, Chen Changliu walked over with Ke Meng and Feng Xiao.

"Hello, we are here to apply for a job. Are you a staff member of Taobao?"

Chen Changliu's initiative to speak was indeed beyond Sun Yu's expectations, but looking at this strange combination of three people, he quickly came to his senses.

"Yes, I am a staff member of Taobao. Are you here to apply for a job? Then follow me."

Chen Changliu nodded, and then followed Sun Yu into the community. On the way, Sun Yu casually asked a few questions about the three people's understanding of Taobao. Chen Changliu simply responded, but Sun Yu was very satisfied with his casual words. It seems that they came prepared, so they know so much about Taobao.

PS: The typos will be corrected later.