Chapter 512: The Battle of Social Networks

Before coming, Jiang Qin had already arranged with Peng Sheng from Tencent to visit Tencent Tower on the morning of the 22nd, so he got up very early the next morning, changed into a suit, and even had his hair styled at a salon.

Feng Nanshu wasn’t quite suited for business settings, especially around strangers, so Jiang Qin dropped her off at the Shanghai station.

Xu Kaixuan and Guan Shen were in charge of accompanying him.

Since they were there to discuss a collaboration between WeChat and Zhihu, Peng Sheng specially invited Qi Zhong, the manager responsible for WeChat promotions.

“Mr. Jiang, I’ve long heard of your reputation.”

“Mr. Peng, Mr. Qi, please have a seat. Don’t be shy, make yourselves at home.”

Peng Sheng and Qi Zhong smiled and said “good” three times before realizing they were actually at their company.

Jiang Qin then took out a partnership document and handed it over: “Mr. Qi, please take a look.”

“Mr. Jiang, you move fast. I thought we’d have a nice chat first.” Qi Zhong pulled his chair closer, took the partnership plan, and casually commented.

Jiang Qin smiled, “I do enjoy a chat. People say I’m quite talkative. But chatting isn’t quite suitable now since WeChat is short on time.”

“…”

Qi Zhong looked up at him, quietly put away his smile, and his expression grew more serious as he flipped open the first page of the plan.

It read, in just four words, “The Battle of Social Networks.”

Tencent originated as a social networking company, best known for QQ.

This social application is extremely popular among the youth and reached its peak with over two hundred million online users simultaneously, making it a top player in the domestic social network market.

However, since the software is entirely free, it lacks profitability, and the high operating costs resulted in early losses for Tencent.

It’s said that Mr. Ma once planned to sell QQ for 700,000 due to the inability to cover operating costs, only to change his mind, realizing the sale would be too great a loss.

From then on, Tencent also started diversifying, investing in games, media, etc., using QQ’s massive user base as a traffic pool to generate revenue.

Though QQ itself wasn’t profitable, these industries, especially gaming, were veritable cash cows.

Thus, QQ is to Tencent what Zhihu is to group-buy; they’re both types of traffic pools with poor monetization but strong traffic-driving capabilities.

Properly planning the downstream monetization tools and forming a chain can yield profits.

Therefore, Tencent’s current business layout is almost entirely based on QQ’s traffic pool, which serves as a foundation for their industrial setup.

However, the evolution of time always reignites old tracks as new opportunities.

The social network track, once capped by QQ, has again become a new hotspot over the years.

This is due to the advent of the mobile internet era.

Mobile companies first leveraged their huge user bases to develop Feixin, reaching two hundred million registered users to date.

It’s rumored that China Telecom and NetEase are secretly developing Yixin, a tool for free calls and texts.

Alibaba also revealed plans to enter the social network race, fully supporting the later heavily-financed “Laiwang.”

Most notably, Lei of Xiaomi Tech released a messaging app called Mi Chat.

Being Tencent’s home territory, it’s not a good sign when so many competitors emerge.

History’s wheels roll onward, unstoppable.

Tencent now faces a big challenge: how to grasp mobile social networking too.

At that time, they were also working on Mobile QQ, which had already amassed a vast user base, and pursuing that further would likely yield over a 60% success rate.

However, QQ itself tied many revenue-generating industries, more reliant on PCs, and its features were too fanciful; not well defined for mobile use, confusing even for older users.

Feixin and Mi Chat? They kept just the basic “texting” and “voice call” services.

This meant that Feixin and Mi Chat had lower thresholds and a broader audience, including older individuals who could text.

Thus, Tencent decided to develop a new social app specifically for mobile networks that wouldn’t interfere with their existing industries.

And so, WeChat was born.

But how to promote it quickly was another major challenge.

They were already behind and facing tough competitors like communication giants, and the initial product wasn’t as user-friendly as Mi Chat, a truly disadvantageous start.

So, Qi Zhong found Jiang Qin’s proactive partnership proposal appealing.

“The approach in internet business is similar—users are fundamentally essential. Early on, everyone scrambles for users, hoping for a winner-takes-all outcome. It’s all about who’s faster.”

Jiang Qin looked at Qi Zhong, “The mobile internet first touched students, and among them, university students are the prime users. Currently, we’re the most precise in targeting this market domestically.”

Qi Zhong nodded, “I’m aware.”

“So, Mr. Qi, start promotion where it’s easiest. The more precise you are, the faster your speed. When you add QQ’s traffic later…”

“Mr. Jiang, make an offer.”

Jiang Qin held up a finger, swaying it before him.

Qi Zhong paused, then shook his head straightforwardly, “That’s too high. Considering your forum’s user numbers, ad placements won’t reach ten million, and conversion rates are still uncertain.”

“I know my initial price is high, but I’m a bit short on money lately.”

Hearing this, Peng Sheng, an investment manager, brightened up, “Mr. Jiang is short on money? How much?”

Jiang Qin paused, “I forgot Mr. Peng was here. Actually, I was just joking. We’re not short on money.”

“Mr. Jiang, let’s be frank. If group-buy has funding needs, we’re ready to support its growth fully.”

“Mr. Peng, we haven’t raised much recently and are still developing new projects; community group buying installation is quite expensive, indeed a bit tight, but not too severe. We’re still managing.”

“But at this stage in group buying, if funding is just barely manageable, that’s a significant concern.”

Jiang Qin was silent for a moment, “There are difficulties, but we can still try.”

Peng Sheng leaned forward, “Group-buy is currently in good shape, and Mr. Jiang, you’ve likely contacted many private investors. Hesitation is natural, but Tencent’s conditions are surely the best.”

“I trust Mr. Peng’s words.”

“Then Mr. Jiang should no longer hesitate. With your capability and the funds we can provide, group-buy could unify the group-buying market this year.”

After pondering, Jiang Qin spoke, “I’ll consider it. Let’s talk about WeChat and Zhihu’s cooperation for now.”

Peng Sheng felt he had persuaded him, but something was still missing. It seemed group-buy wasn’t yet at its wits’ end.

Qi Zhong pushed his glasses up, exchanging looks with Peng Sheng, “I’ll need to discuss with the team regarding the price, but it can’t reach the figure Mr. Jiang mentioned.”

“We could consider another form of cooperation.”

“Please, Mr. Jiang.”

“Let’s sign an agreement for a long-term, in-depth partnership between group-buy and WeChat, becoming strategic partners with priority to jointly seek development. What do you think?”

After hearing this, Qi Zhong was stunned, “Mr. Jiang, you seem more optimistic about WeChat than我们 are, istn’ it? But group-buying and social networking don’t seem closely related?”

WeChat was just developed, following industry examples without a long-term development plan; Qi Zhong couldn’t even be sure of its victory in the social network battle.

Yet, he felt Jiang Qin inexplicably believed in WeChat.

Jiang Qin spread his hands, “After all, WeChat won’t lose.”

“…”

“Also, I have another condition. I’d like to meet with Mr. Li from Tenpay. Could you make that introduction?”

Hearing this, Qi Zhong and Peng Sheng instantly understood.

After all the talk about investment and promotions, he was still angling for a cooperation with Tenpay.

But upon reflection, everything seemed logical.

Group-buy had already consumed much of the first-tier cities’ market share; they were aware, but he lacked an online payment channel on mobile, so the real purpose of his visit was this.

Damn, cunning!

He had refused Tencent’s investment; by rights, there should’ve been no chance of cooperating with Tenpay, yet he used the WeChat and Zhihu collaboration as bait, hooking them in!

Now that he’d openly stated this condition, they couldn’t refuse.

What a calculation…

Qi Zhong fell silent, then he and Peng Sheng took Jiang Qin to the Tenpay office area.

From eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon, even having a meal during that time, Mr. Li from Tenpay kept making excuses, claiming to be busy outside and suggesting they meet tomorrow, then stating tomorrow wouldn’t work, maybe the weekend.

As the sun was about to set, Jiang Qin sighed, “Alright, since we can’t meet, I’ll come another time.”

Peng Sheng and Qi Zhong stood up, “Mr. Jiang, please don’t take it personally. You know the issues with the payment license; Mr. Li has indeed been too busy recently.”

“It’s alright. The collaboration between Zhihu and WeChat will proceed firmly.”

Jiang Qin left with Xu Kaixuan and Guan Shen, feeling good all the way back, even humming a song on the road.

Guan Shen and Xu Kaixuan were confused, not understanding what their boss was happy about. The ad fees were cut, and they didn’t even meet with the head of Tenpay, so where was the win?

“Boss, we’ve already signed with Alipay, why are we specifically going to meet the head of Tenpay?”

“You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

Guan Shen responded, “But we didn’t see him, are all the eggs not still in one basket?”

Jiang Qin looked up at her, “That’s different. We made the effort and waited four hours. It was his choice not to meet. When we help Alipay bloom everywhere, Tencent won’t blame us but regret not meeting me earlier.”

“Since we’re already cooperating with Alipay, why worry about offending Tencent?” Guan Shen didn’t understand.

“In the business world, there are no real strategic partners. Alibaba is willing to work with us now because we can help promote Alipay, and we’ll be inseparable during this period.”

“But have you thought, once Alipay takes off and if they want to invest and we refuse, what then?”

“We must always have several paths open.”

“To maintain our independence, we must balance competitors against each other.”

Jiang Qin sat in the back of a Wuling Hongguang van, legs crossed, looking out the window at the Tencent Tower.

The so-called benefiting on all fronts means not offending anyone, keeping options open on each side. Only when constantly pursued can one always be valuable.