Chapter 321: 10 Hours, 1 Million Users, 46.3 Billion

"Yu'ebao?"

The brightly lit Mama Ali headquarters, Peach Blossom Island office.

Ma Liyun's brow furrowed slightly, the corners of his mouth turned down, a flash of pleasant surprise crossed his eyes, and his expression was a mix of joy and worry, looking extremely conflicted.

"Essentially, Yu'ebao is just a fund distribution product, but its advantage is '1 yuan minimum investment, deposit and withdraw anytime,' changing the traditional fund redemption method to 'T+0.' This move will greatly enhance the account value of Sister Chengzi Pay."

Lu Zhaoxi continued to add.

What is account value?

When there's money in the account, the more funds, the higher the account's value.

Since Zhifubao was spun off from Ali Baba, Ma Liyun had been pondering other profit models.

As a payment tool, the core profit mainly relies on third-party transaction fees.

Two years ago, when Liu Qiangdong hadn't yet fallen out with Ma Liyun, the online payment tool used by JD was Zhifubao. Later, finding Old Ma's transaction fees too expensive, he switched to Sister Chengzi Pay, while also acquiring a payment license to prepare for the launch of JD Pay.

Three months ago, Zhifubao and Sister Chengzi Pay both obtained the "Securities and Futures Business Operating License" and the "Consumer Finance License." According to Ma Liyun's plan, a financial management module would be added to Zhifubao to generate revenue from it.

But when Yu'ebao suddenly emerged, it made him immediately feel that his own operational strategy was no good, and that Chen Yansen's strategy suited Zhifubao better.

Converting users' account balances into financial management funds, deposit and withdraw anytime—this gives users a perfect usage scenario.

Moreover, it can also combine consumption and financial management, forming a positive cycle.

"Don't you think the product Yu'ebao is a natural fit for Zhifubao?"

Ma Liyun asked with a grin, his hands crossed and pressed together, inadvertently revealing his aggressive inner thoughts.

"President Ma, what do you mean?" Lu Zhaoxi asked tentatively.

"Good things should be copied." Ma Liyun said with a slight upturn of his mouth, unconcerned.

The essence of the internet is free, is sharing—what's wrong with him copying Chen Yansen's idea?

Isn't everyone just copying each other?

"Just imagine, if every Taobao user deposited ten thousand yuan into their account, Zhifubao could accumulate over a trillion yuan in idle funds."

Without waiting for Lu Zhaoxi's reply, Ma Liyun impatiently stood up, waving his arms as he spoke.

When users utilize Zhifubao for consumption and transfers, a certain scale of funds settles in the reserve account due to the time lag in the settlement cycle.

The interest income from this portion of funds belongs to Zhifubao. Last year, the interest income from reserve funds accounted for approximately 9.1% of Zhifubao's total revenue.

This is the main reason Ma Liyun is eager to increase Zhifubao's account value!

All the world bustles about, everyone comes for profit. For something unprofitable, Old Ma wouldn't risk offending Chen Yansen by aggressively copying and learning from Sister Chengzi Pay's strategic layout.

At this time, the Bank General Association had not yet introduced a centralized deposit management system for third-party payment institutions' customer reserve funds.

Not only could Zhifubao profit from these idle funds, but Sister Chengzi Pay and JD Pay did the same.

Seeing this, Lu Zhaoxi immediately understood Ma Liyun's true intention, so she hurriedly expressed her stance: "I will assemble a project team as soon as possible and give Yu'ebao top priority in the Q4 development work."

"Let's change the name. If we also call it Yu'ebao, the copying would be too obvious."

Ma Liyun turned around, returned to his seat, coughed once, and said.

After all, Mama Ali is the big brother of e-commerce, and Zhifubao is also the leader among electronic payment software domestically. If they really copy without any scruples, it would be a bit shameless.

Ma Liyun still wanted some face!

"How about Huoqianbao?" Lu Zhaoxi's inspiration struck, and a product name popped into her mind.

"Huoqianbao? Lacks a bit of flavor." Ma Liyun shook his head.

He mulled it over several times, always feeling that Huoqianbao wasn't as catchy as Yu'ebao.

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

For example, Taobao, Pinbei, and JD are all two-character names, and users remember them as soon as they hear them.

"How about Sulitong? It emphasizes the product's instant deposit and withdrawal, and also gives users the impression of quick profit."

Lu Zhaoxi continued.

"I've thought of one, called Lingqianbao." Ma Liyun didn't respond directly, but stated his own idea.

"This name has an air of plagiarism. How about changing it to Lingqiantong? 'Tong' implies smooth and accessible, representing that users' funds can flow quickly within Zhifubao."

Lu Zhaoxi thought briefly, making a slight adjustment on the basis of Ma Liyun's idea.

"Not bad! Lingqiantong is catchier than Lingqianbao. Let's tentatively settle on this name. After all, before the product launches, we can adjust it anytime." Ma Liyun nodded slightly, initially approving the product name 'Lingqiantong.'

"Then I'll start preparations immediately." Lu Zhaoxi stood up and said.

"Set the project priority to S-level, concentrate manpower and material resources, and strive to launch in Q1 of next year."

Ma Liyun originally wanted to shorten the development cycle to two months, but Q4 is the peak season for e-commerce, and three months' revenue often reaches 40% of the year's total income. Worried that the Lingqiantong project would affect the Double Eleven and Double Twelve promotions, he changed his mind on the spot, extending the project cycle to five months.

"Okay." Lu Zhaoxi responded immediately.

As for whether the 'T+0' fund redemption method was compliant, it was completely outside the two's consideration.

Even Chen Yansen dared to bypass the Financial Regulatory Association and use a shady operation with prepaid funds to achieve the 'T+0' instant redemption method—would Zhifubao not dare?

One must know that Ma Liyun established Zhifubao nine years ago, so naturally he is also an old horse daring to wade across the stream by feeling for stones.

Indeed not compliant, but also not illegal!

Do it first, talk later!

After Ma Liyun issued the decision, Zhifubao established the Lingqiantong project team that very day, including liaison departments for fund companies, bank channels, and technical systems.

On the other side.

At Penguin headquarters, Ma Wenting and others were also discussing the product Yu'ebao.

Unlike Mama Ali, Penguin's interest in Yu'ebao wasn't as strong as Old Ma's.

"I think we can do it; not only will it increase the account value for Caifutong users, but it will also generate additional revenue from fund float."

A Penguin director proposed.

"Utilize the account funds of QQ Group Buy, Paipai, and Yixun users. It might even drive the group's e-commerce business growth."

Another Penguin director nodded in agreement.

In reality, the 2012 online shopping users only regarded Caifutong, Zhifubao, and Sister Chengzi Pay as nothing more than a payment tool.

They would only top up the money from their online banking into the balance when buying goods online.

First, third-party payment software did not possess financial attributes and could not generate additional returns, so users had no motivation to keep money in the balance; second, trust in third-party payment software was not strong.

This was utterly different from the situation more than a decade later!

"Martin, what do you think?" Ma Wenteng, seated at the head of the table, turned his gaze to Liu Zhiping and asked.

"For Caifutong, the product Yu'ebao holds three points of strategic significance: first, transforming from a payment tool into a financial platform; second, attracting a massive number of wealth-management users and boosting activity; third, completing Caifutong's ecosystem construction and paving the way for subsequent financial products."

Liu Zhiping considered for a moment, then answered carefully, weighing every word.

The implication was that Penguin should also enter the 'spare-change wealth management' industry to seek longer-term development for the group.

Ma Wenteng frowned, considered seriously for several minutes, then spoke: "Let's go a step further—combine WeChat Pay with the Yu'ebao business, downplay Caifutong's presence, and primarily push the WeChat Pay product concept."

"Yu'ebao is Sister Chengzi Pay's product name; we should change to a different one."

"How about Shanyingbao?"

"I think Lingdongjin sounds pretty good too!"

For a moment, a group of Penguin's directors all joined the discussion one after another.

On October 10th, on the eve of Yu'ebao's launch, Mama Ali and Penguin—these two internet leviathans—independently conceived the idea of 'copying and replicating' it.

The moment the clock struck midnight, Sister Chengzi Pay's PC page and app both launched pop-up ads: activate the Yu'ebao function to instantly receive 5,000 yuan in trial funds, or invite one new user to receive an additional 5,000 yuan in trial funds, with a maximum cap of 10 million yuan in trial funds, valid for seven days.

Calculated at the page's 5.1% recent seven-day annualized return, the maximum earnings would be around 9,800 yuan.

Once the event launched, in less than half an hour the number of participants surpassed 100,000.

Driven by Pinbei, Kuaipao, and Kuaidi Dache, Sister Chengzi Pay's cumulative registered users had long surpassed 100 million, with daily active users exceeding 18 million.

Add to that three days of full-network pre-heating, and achieving such a result was actually within Zhang Yinjia and others' expectations.

By ten in the morning, the number of Yu'ebao accounts had already surpassed one million; excluding the trial funds portion, the actual fund volume reached 4.63 billion, with an average Yu'ebao balance of 4,630 yuan per account.

This demonstrated that even with Senlian Capital's endorsement, most users' trust in Sister Chengzi Pay remained low.

However, many were still willing to use a few thousand yuan to experience Yu'ebao's ultra-high returns.

At the same time.

Pinbei launched an event: place an order and receive Yu'ebao trial funds!

Kuaidi Dache and Kuaipao also rolled out corresponding co-branded events!

(End of this chapter)