Chapter 321: 10 Hours, 1 Million Users, 46.3 Billion! Ma Liyun: Copy! Call It Ling Qian Tong

"Yu'e Bao?"

The Alipay headquarters, Taohuadao office, brightly lit.

Ma Liyun frowned slightly, lips downturned, a flicker of surprise in his eyes, his expression a mix of joy and concern, visibly conflicted.

"Fundamentally, Yu'e Bao is merely a fund distribution product, but its advantage lies in '1-yuan minimum investment, deposit and withdraw anytime,' transforming traditional fund redemption into 'T+0'—this move will greatly enhance the account value of Orange Pay."

Lu Zhaoxi added further.

What is account value?

The more money in an account, the higher its value.

Since Zhi Fu Bao was spun off from Alibaba, Ma Liyun had been pondering other profit models.

As a payment tool, its core revenue primarily comes from third-party transaction fees.

Two years ago, before Liu Zhiping had broken ties with Ma Liyun, JD.com used Zhi Fu Bao as its online payment tool; later, he found Lao Ma’s fees too high and switched to Orange Pay, while acquiring a payment license to prepare for JD Pay’s launch.

Three months ago, Zhi Fu Bao and Orange Pay both obtained the "Securities and Futures Business Operating License" and the "Consumer Finance License." According to Ma Liyun’s plan, they would add a financial wealth management module to Zhi Fu Bao to generate revenue.

But when Yu'e Bao suddenly emerged, he immediately felt his operational strategy was flawed—Chen Yan’s strategy suited Zhi Fu Bao better.

Converting users’ account balances into wealth management funds, allowing instant deposit and withdrawal, created a perfect usage scenario.

It also merged consumption with wealth management, forming a positive cycle.

"Don’t you think Yu'e Bao naturally fits Zhi Fu Bao?"

Ma Liyun grinned, clasping his hands together, inadvertently revealing his aggressive idea.

"Boss Ma, are you suggesting...?" Lu Zhaoxi ventured.

"Good ideas must be copied," Ma Liyun said casually, a faint smile on his lips.

The essence of the internet is free and shared—what’s wrong with copying Chen Yan’s idea?

Everyone copies each other anyway.

"Imagine every Taobao user deposits ten thousand yuan in their account—then Zhi Fu Bao would gain trillions in idle funds."

Before Lu Zhaoxi could reply, Ma Liyun stood up abruptly, waving his arms.

During Zhi Fu Bao transactions, due to settlement time lags, a certain amount of funds accumulates in the reserve account.

The interest from this portion belongs to Zhi Fu Bao; last year, reserve interest accounted for roughly 9.1% of Zhi Fu Bao’s total revenue.

This was the main reason Ma Liyun urgently wanted to boost Zhi Fu Bao’s account value!

All under heaven throng for profit—Lao Ma wouldn’t risk angering Chen Yan to blindly copy Orange Pay’s strategy unless there was profit to be made.

At this moment, the Bank Association had not yet implemented a centralized custody system for third-party payment clients’ reserve funds.

Not only Zhi Fu Bao, but Orange Pay and JD Pay were all doing the same.

Seeing this, Lu Zhaoxi immediately understood Ma Liyun’s true intent and quickly responded: "I’ll assemble a project team immediately and prioritize Yu'e Bao as the top Q4 development task."

"Change the name—if we call it Yu'e Bao too, it’ll be too obvious."

Ma Liyun turned back, sat down again, and coughed slightly.

After all, Alibaba was the e-commerce leader, and Zhi Fu Bao was the top electronic payment software in China—if we copied without restraint, it would be shameless.

Ma Liyun still wanted some dignity!

"What about Huo Qian Bao?" Lu Zhaoxi suddenly suggested a product name.

"Huo Qian Bao? Lacks something." Ma Liyun shook his head.

He pondered it repeatedly, feeling Huo Qian Bao wasn’t as smooth as Yu'e Bao.

For a product to gain more users, its name must first be catchy and easy to understand.

Like Taobao, Pinbei, and JD—all two-character names users instantly remember.

"What about Su Li Tong? It emphasizes instant deposit/withdrawal and gives users the impression of rapid profit."

Lu Zhaoxi continued.

"I thought of one—Ling Qian Bao." Ma Liyun didn’t directly respond but voiced his own idea.

This name has plagiarism suspicion—how about Ling Qian Tong? 'Tong' implies smoothness and accessibility, indicating that users' funds can flow rapidly within Zhi Fu Bao.

Lu Zhaoxi paused briefly, refining Ma Liyun’s idea.

"Good! Ling Qian Tong flows better than Ling Qian Bao—let’s temporarily settle on this name; we can still adjust before launch." Ma Liyun nodded slightly, preliminarily approving the product name "Ling Qian Tong."

"I’ll start preparations immediately," Lu Zhaoxi said, standing.

"Project priority: S-level. Concentrate manpower and resources to aim for Q1 next year launch."

Ma Liyun had originally wanted to shorten development to two months, but Q4 was the e-commerce peak season—three months’ revenue often reached 40% of annual income; he feared Ling Qian Tong might disrupt Double Eleven and Double Twelve promotions, so he changed his mind and extended the timeline to five months.

"Understood," Lu Zhaoxi replied immediately.

Whether the T+0 fund redemption method was compliant was not considered at all.

Chen Yan had dared to bypass the financial regulatory association with prepayment tricks to achieve T+0 instant redemption—why couldn’t Zhi Fu Bao?

After all, Ma Liyun had founded Zhi Fu Bao nine years ago—he was no stranger to crossing rivers by feeling the stones.

It was indeed non-compliant—but not illegal!

Do it first, worry later!

After Ma Liyun issued the decision, Zhi Fu Bao established the Ling Qian Tong project team the same day, including departments for fund companies, banking channels, and technical systems.

On the other side.

At Tencent headquarters, Ma Wenteng and others were also discussing Yu'e Bao.

Unlike Alibaba, Tencent’s interest in Yu'e Bao wasn’t as strong as Lao Ma’s.

"I think we should do it—it can enhance WeChat Pay’s account value and generate extra revenue from fund accumulation."

A Tencent director proposed.

"Leveraging account funds from QQ Group Buy, Paipai, and Yixun might even boost the group’s e-commerce growth."

Another Tencent director nodded in agreement.

In fact, in 2012, online shoppers viewed WeChat Pay, Zhi Fu Bao, and Orange Pay merely as payment tools.

Users only topped up their balances from online banking when purchasing goods.

First, third-party payment apps lacked financial attributes and couldn’t generate extra returns, so users had no incentive to keep money in their balances; second, trust in third-party payment apps was weak.

This was drastically different from the situation over a decade later!

"Martin, what do you think?" Ma Wenteng, seated at the head, turned to Liu Zhiping.

"Yu'e Bao holds three strategic significances for WeChat Pay: First, transforming from a payment tool into a financial platform; second, attracting massive wealth management users to boost activity; third, completing WeChat Pay’s ecosystem to pave the way for future financial products."

Liu Zhiping replied after careful thought.

Implicitly, Tencent should also enter the "pocket wealth management" industry for the group’s long-term development.

Ma Wenteng frowned, pondered for several minutes, then spoke: "Let’s go further—integrate WeChat Pay with Yu'e Bao, downplay WeChat Pay’s presence, and promote WeChat Pay as the core product concept."

"Yu'e Bao is Orange Pay’s product name—we should choose another name."

"What about Shan Ying Bao?"

"I think Ling Dong Jin is also good!"

Soon, Tencent’s directors joined the discussion.

On October 10, the day before Yu'e Bao’s launch, Alibaba and Tencent—the two internet giants—simultaneously conceived the idea of "copying and replicating."

At midnight, Orange Pay’s PC and app interfaces displayed pop-up ads: activate Yu'e Bao to receive 5,000 yuan in trial funds; invite one new user for an additional 5,000 yuan, up to 10 million yuan total, valid for seven days.

With a 5.1% annualized yield on the page, maximum earnings reached around 9,800 yuan.

Within half an hour of the campaign’s launch, participation exceeded 100,000.

With Pinbei, Kuai Run, and Kuaide Taxi driving traffic, Orange Pay’s cumulative registered users had already surpassed 100 million, with daily active users exceeding 18 million.

Coupled with three days of nationwide preheating, such results were expected by Zhang Yinjia and others.

By 10 a.m., Yu'e Bao’s account openings had surpassed one million; excluding trial funds, actual capital reached 4.63 billion yuan, averaging 4,630 yuan per account.

Clearly, even with Senlian Capital’s backing, most users still had low trust in Orange Pay.

But many were willing to try a few thousand yuan to experience Yu'e Bao’s high returns.

Meanwhile.

Pinbei launched a shopping order campaign: receive Yu'e Bao trial funds!

Kuaide Taxi and Kuai Run also rolled out joint promotions!

(End of Chapter)