Chapter 163

One week later, November 18th.

Many QQ users suddenly noticed a new "Pinbei" entry in their menu bar.

"Pinbei? Is this a new game from Tencent?"

In a dorm room at a university in Lucheng, Wang Minghao held his phone, muttering to himself as he tapped inside.

Pinbei had seen a small surge in popularity in early October, but few paid attention—it hadn't even launched yet.

Three seconds later, an H5 micro-page loaded, displaying its first product: a 4-jin package of navel oranges, priced at just 5. yuan, with free shipping!

"Huh? So it's an e-commerce site?"

Wang Minghao had bought things on Taobao before and wasn't unfamiliar with e-commerce.

Realizing it wasn't a game, he didn't close the page; instead, he kept tapping, entering the product page to confirm whether the price was truly only 5. yuan.

Glancing at the main image, he clicked "Buy," and a pop-up window appeared to enter his delivery address; from the weight option, the 4-jin navel oranges were indeed only 5. yuan.

"Cardboard packaging, net weight 4 jin small fruit 【fruit diameter 6–7 cm】."

Wang Minghao measured with his fingers and thought the oranges looked pathetically small; he scrolled down further.

"Cardboard packaging, net weight 3 jin small fruit 【fruit diameter 7–8 cm】."

The fruit was a bit larger, but one jin lighter, and the price rose to 8. yuan—still free shipping.

"I'll buy one box to try—it's not much money anyway."

Facing the low price of 5. yuan, Wang Minghao didn't overthink it; he skillfully entered his address, bound his bank card, activated Orange Pay, and transferred six yuan via online banking.

"Ding! Congratulations on successful payment! Please share this product with other users to complete the group buy!"

Seeing this message, Wang Minghao froze.

After carefully studying the campaign page, he finally understood Pinbei's mechanism: after placing an order, he had to invite friends to order too, or the platform wouldn't ship.

Fuck!

No wonder it was so cheap!

Wang Minghao was annoyed, but he'd already entered his address, bound his online banking, and activated Orange Pay—the sunk cost was too high.

After hesitating, he still sent the group-buy link to his dorm group chat.

"@Guys, help me group buy! We'll eat it together when it arrives."

"Bro, what's this?"

"Damn! These oranges are crazy cheap! I asked the fruit stall at campus gate yesterday—they charged four yuan per jin!"

"5. yuan for 4 jin with free shipping? Could this be a scam site?"

His roommates were skeptical.

In 2011, e-commerce wasn't that cutthroat yet; 9. yuan with free shipping was already the upper limit most users could accept.

"Official QQ campaign—probably helping farmers. Stop doubting and just group buy for me!"

Wang Minghao urged in the group.

Pinbei had no shopping cart; ordering was extremely simple. If Tencent hadn't blocked Orange Pay integration, the checkout flow could've been even simpler.

Soon, one roommate completed the group buy with Wang Minghao.

Wang Minghao checked: the order was now in "Awaiting Shipment" status.

"I placed an order too—sending it to my mom. Who can help me group buy?"

At that moment, another roommate @ed others in the group.

Wang Minghao didn't look at his phone; he kept browsing the Pinbei interface.

Above the product waterfall, only filter buttons appeared: "Featured, Fresh Produce, Food, Home, Digital Appliances, Women's Wear."

He tapped into the Men's Wear section; the first product was a Metersbonwe white T-shirt, with 37 styles, all priced at 19. yuan.

So cheap?

Is this real?

Skeptical, Wang Minghao clicked in; on the product details page, he clearly saw "Metersbonwe Official Flagship Store," followed by a black-gold brand certification badge.

One minute later, Wang Minghao posted another link in the dorm group: "Hurry! Metersbonwe base layer shirts 19. yuan, hoodies 26. yuan, work pants 39 yuan—group buy together!"

Meanwhile.

The navigation bars of QQ's PC client and WeChat's mobile app both displayed the Pinbei entry.

Ads for Pinbei appeared on the homepages of Sina Weibo, Tencent, NetEase, and Sohu News.

Group A: A box of fresh, juicy navel oranges, with bold text: "West Guangdong Navel Oranges, 4 jin, Free Shipping, Group Buy Price 5. Yuan."

Group B: Metersbonwe men's and women's wear posters, with copy: "Buy Autumn Wear on Pinbei! Metersbonwe Brand Direct Discounts, Starting at Just 19. Yuan!"

Group C: Orange Mobile direct price cuts, starting at just 1, 89 yuan!

Wang Zihao, using best-selling products provided by the Business Development team, created a total of 16 ad sets.

First test on a small scale, then amplify the best-performing ones.

The top carousel banner on the homepage of Orange Mall, Orange Community, and the Orange Mobile App Store all linked to Pinbei's download page.

Pinbei's ads also appeared as interstitials on Youku, Tudou, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and LeTV.

With full-scale promotion from the Marketing Department and Ad Placement Team, Pinbei surpassed 3 million registrations within 12 hours of launch.

Over 70% of new users came via QQ or WeChat channels.

Order volume reached 1. 9 million!

Conversion rate neared 40%!

This was vastly different from traditional general e-commerce or guide-based e-commerce; the ultra-high conversion rate energized colleagues in Business Development and Category teams, who began discussing today's final sales figures.

Everyone stayed at the company, watching sales data skyrocket!

At midnight, Pinbei's daily user registration total stabilized at 4. million.

Order volume: 1. million!

Sales revenue: 107. 2 million yuan!

Top-selling categories were food, digital goods, small appliances, and apparel; Orange Mobile accounted for 60% of sales.

Pinbei's Technical Security team monitored the system all day, fearing high concurrency might cause slow response, reduced throughput, or even server crashes.

Fortunately, they'd prepared in advance: load balancing distributed traffic evenly across servers, and database performance was optimized.

No issues occurred throughout the day.

"Sen-ge! Sales broke a hundred million!"

Wang Zihao rushed into the office, turning to Chen Yan.

This was completely different from when they ran Fox Mall—back then, first-day sales were only 20, 00–30, 00 yuan.

"Has Pinbei's team left for the day?" Chen Yan smiled faintly.

Today's ad costs alone exceeded 10 million yuan; after subtracting Orange Mobile sales, actual revenue was under 50 million yuan.

Performance was merely average—not meeting expectations.

But Chen Yan knew: once users accepted the group-buy model, placing orders would become addictive, impossible to stop.

This wouldn't seem unusual over a decade later, but in 2011, it was a massive shock to users.

5. yuan for 4 jin of oranges, 19. yuan for branded T-shirts, 15. yuan for mini fans, 49 yuan for Midea electric kettles, 99 yuan for Joyoung rice cookers…

These low-priced, high-value items were enough to attract users, who would then drag friends and family into group buys to secure them.

The viral growth rate would be astonishing!

"Everyone's just about to leave. Don't worry about customer service—Admin booked them hotels."

Wang Zihao understood Chen Yan's meaning and replied with a smile.

Besides the 60+ customer service staff, most Pinbei members were recent graduates or hires from outside; they lived in faculty apartments or houses across Dongmen, so no worries about dorm curfews.

"It's late. Go home and rest," Chen Yan said directly.

For Pinbei's team, this was the first day of their career's launch.

For Chen Yan, it was merely another project going live.

A single-day sales figure breaking a hundred million brought little excitement—after all, at this time, Ali's daily sales had long surpassed 2 billion yuan!

"Sen-ge, I didn't book a hotel. Can I crash at your place tonight?" Wang Zihao nodded, asking Chen Yan's opinion.

"Book one if you didn't. My place isn't convenient," Chen Yan glanced at his phone message and declined.

"Sen-ge, I'll sleep on the sofa—I don't need to waste money." Seeing Chen Yan head out, Wang Zihao hurried after him.

Chen Yan ignored him and walked straight into the elevator.

His sofa had already been reserved by someone else; as for Wang Zihao—he was a brother, he could sleep anywhere.

At the ground floor, Chen Yan got into the driver's seat of his Bentley and drove toward Xuyuan.

Just two or three hundred meters south, he saw Song Yuncheng waiting by the roadside.

Chen Yan pulled over in front of her.

"I booked a hotel. Staying there would be wasteful," Song Yuncheng said softly as she fastened her seatbelt.

"What's your room number? I'll have Zihao take it," Chen Yan smiled after she closed the door.

"No, if Admin accidentally slips up, Zihao will get suspicious," Song Yuncheng whispered.

"No problem. Take my phone and send Zihao the room number."

Chen Yan smiled inwardly.

Wang Zihao already knew.

Seeing Chen Yan insisted, Song Yuncheng picked up his phone, opened WeChat, found Wang Zihao's chat window, and mimicked Chen Yan's tone to send the room number.

After sending, she was about to return the phone when she noticed Meng Jie's chat window.

Song Yuncheng glanced at Chen Yansen, who was focused on driving, and quietly tapped inside.

But after reading just a few lines, her expression collapsed.

"Are you sneaking a look at my messages?"

Chen Yansen kept his eyes on the road and asked with certainty.

"I didn't look!" Song Yuncheng quickly denied it.

This bastard is so promiscuous!

The content of his chat with Meng Jie made her face burn with embarrassment.

"Really?"

Chen Yansen gave no answer, smiling as he countered.

Song Yuncheng forced a nervous laugh and swiftly changed the subject, bringing up Pinaibei's launch day.

"At this rate, we'll hit at least forty billion in annual sales!"

"Forty billion? That's not much—Taobao does six hundred billion."

Chen Yansen dismissed it casually.

"They've been at it for nearly a decade; we've just started," Song Yuncheng retorted.

"Then work harder! When you get Pinaibei's sales up to six hundred billion, I'll promote you to vice president."

Chen Yansen was handing out empty promises.

"Six hundred billion?" Song Yuncheng smiled bitterly—she didn't believe she could ever achieve it.

She knew better than anyone how today's hundred-million sales came about.

First, traffic came from QQ and WeChat; second, they spent tens of millions on ads; third, they relied on Pinaibei's group-buying virality and zero-yuan slashing events; fourth, they leveraged merchant resources accumulated last year on FoxTaobao.

Taobao claims five million merchants; Pinaibei doesn't even have five hundred.

"You still need dreams—what if one comes true?" Chen Yansen joked, quoting Ma Yun.

On the other side.

Wei Yucheng, glued to his computer, stared in shock—since Pinaibei's launch, his store's orders hadn't stopped.

In just one day, he closed 130, 00 orders, selling 260 tons of navel oranges.

Before, he never dared imagine this.

"Boss Wei, I downloaded all your orders from the backend—total sales for these 130, 00 orders are 2. 97 million, gross profit around 194, 00."

Zhang Yifeng sipped rice wine and smiled at Wei Yucheng.

This guy, desperate not to lose money, had pushed him to calculate the gross margin as soon as orders hit 100, 00.

"Calling me 'Boss Wei' is too formal—call me Brother Wei from now on," Wei Yucheng said warmly, pulling Zhang Yifeng into a hug.

In the corner, Li Hui wore a strange expression, glancing between Wei Yucheng and Yuan Wei, silently amused.

For this deal, the three of them had worked half a month in West Guangdong—thankfully, everything went smoothly.

Though Wei Yucheng didn't budge much on price, he didn't cheat on shipping—fruit size strictly followed the page specifications.

"Brother Wei, Yunsu picked up 20, 00 orders today; tomorrow might bring another hundred thousand. We need more packers."

Zhang Yifeng offered a helpful reminder.

"Don't worry—I've already sent people to recruit in town this afternoon. No problem."

Wei Yucheng was in high spirits—net profit of 200, 00 in a single day; he'd bet right this time.

Far away in Yancheng, Liu Qiangdong heard of Pinaibei's launch and thought: Chen Yansen really knows how to stir things up!

He's running a phone business and still has energy for a new platform!

At this moment, he still didn't realize Pinaibei was targeting him and Ma Liyun.

Late at night, countless QQ groups, WeChat groups, and BBS forums still buzzed with users actively sharing group-buying links or zero-yuan slashing invitations.

This surge was even fiercer than when FoxTaobao first rose last year.

(End of Chapter)