Chapter 322: Day One Frenzy: 143.9 Billion Billion Huayuan Siphoned

October 11, 10:30 a. m., inside an office building in Shanghai.

"Yige, do you have the Pin-Be app on your phone?"

Liu Tianle sat at his workstation and asked the colleague beside him.

"Cèna! You're not trying to get me to slash a dollar for you, are you? Hehe, no way!"

Ye Yi grinned and refused without hesitation.

"Is Yige a new Pin-Be user?" Another colleague's eyes lit up, and he leaned over excitedly.

"Go go! If you want to bargain, find Nan-ge, he's a new user too."

Ye Yi picked up his coffee cup, took a sip, and teased.

The Nan-ge he mentioned was the project lead, also the boss of their boss — who would dare go ask the general manager for a bargain?

In his eyes, an e-commerce platform like Pin-Be that rose through social fission and viral spread was nothing good; Taobao had too many counterfeits, so for online shopping he only chose JD.

The price was higher, but the after-sales was good, logistics fast, and the decision cost low.

"Yige, you misunderstand. Am I that kind of person? Pin-Be now has a promotion where placing an order gives you Yu'e Bao experience gold. I saw you've been researching Yu'e Bao lately, so I figured I'd let you know."

Liu Tianle explained with a smile.

Yu'e Bao experience gold?

Ye Yi paused slightly. His biggest hobby was financial management, but he only dared put money in fixed deposits, never dared trade stocks, never dared hoard gold — he was extremely cautious.

But last month his mother suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized, urgently needing money, yet all his savings were in fixed deposits. He had no choice but to withdraw early, losing several thousand yuan in interest.

This made him realize that although fixed deposits had a high annualized rate, their flexibility was too poor.

Afterwards, he happened to see a Yu'e Bao promotional poster on the Lingxi Browser. After looking into it, he became interested.

At midnight today, he put ten thousand yuan in to test the waters, wanting to see if he could get the 5.1% annualized return.

As for the activity where Sister Chengzi Pay invites friends to open Yu'e Bao and gives experience gold, he had actually seen that too, and dragged his family to open accounts, earning twenty thousand in experience gold in one go.

The seven-day estimated return was nearly 20 yuan, enough for three or four days of breakfast. For him, it was just a matter of moving his fingers.

Hearing now that Pin-Be Shangcheng also had an experience gold giveaway, his heart immediately stirred.

"You get it just for placing an order? How much?" Ye Yi hurriedly pressed.

"For every 99 yuan worth of goods you buy, you get 5,000 yuan in experience gold. I just bought a Gree 1.5p air conditioner for 2,699 yuan, and got 135,000 yuan in Yu'e Bao experience gold. That's 132 yuan cheaper — basically a 5% discount."

Liu Tianle replied with a grin.

Pin-Be's Hundred Billion Subsidy goods were already at special prices, and getting another 5% off on top of that was naturally a great deal.

"Tianle, you dare buy appliances on Pin-Be? Is it reliable?"

Ye Yi shook his head, thinking Pin-Be's goods might be cheap, but first they might not be genuine, and second the after-sales wasn't as good as JD's.

"Yige, you're behind the times! The appliance merchants on Pin-Be are either factory-direct or brand-authorized dealers — same production line as the offline stores, JD flagship stores, and Tmall flagship stores. After-sales is also handled officially. You tell me, is that reliable or not?"

Liu Tianle's face darkened, and he was immediately displeased.

The expression on Ye Yi's face clearly said: Buying appliances on Pin-Be — isn't that for fools?

In fact, he used to be a loyal user of JD and Tmall, but ever since using Pin-Be, he could never go back.

"Send me an invite link." Ye Yi gave an awkward laugh and said to Liu.

"Alright, I'll send it to you on WeChat!" Liu Tianle smiled lightly. Inviting a new user earned an 8-yuan no-threshold red packet — free wool, why not shear it.

Ye Yi took out his Shanxing Galaxy Note, opened WeChat, then clicked the link Liu Tianle had sent.

First he entered the mini-page. At the top of the screen was a shortcut button to jump to the app store, and below was a row of new-user-exclusive 0-yuan goods, including eggs, tissues, anti-scald clips, garbage bags, canned fruit, and so on.

He ignored them, tapped the jump button directly, which then brought up the app store and precisely located the Pin-Be app's download page.

A minute later, installation succeeded, and he launched the app.

The homepage was still the new-user benefits section!

Looks like he had to shear this wool!

Ye Yi smiled, tapped into the eggs' product detail page, entered the shipping info, and finally submitted the order.

But it said 0 yuan — only at the payment screen did it prompt him to pay 0.01 yuan. Since payment was required, he had to bind Sister Chengzi Pay.

Pin-Be's new-user funnel was one ring after another!

From shipping address to payment account, each step increased the user's sunk cost, preventing them from uninstalling the app right after shearing the first-order discount.

After Ye Yi finished paying, three more red packets immediately popped up.

A no-threshold red packet of 3 yuan, effective the next day;

A discount red packet, 50 off 5, effective on the seventh day;

A discount red packet, 100 off 10, effective on the fifteenth day.

This was Pin-Be's effective marketing tool for boosting user retention, second-order conversion, and repurchase frequency.

Ye Yi casually closed the pop-up.

Liu Tianle guided from the side: "Yige, tap here — the Hundred Billion Subsidy channel has the cheapest goods. I bought my home's air conditioner there, 100 yuan cheaper than JD's 815 promotional price."

"Cèna! For real? JD's Boss Liu said on Weibo that for big appliances there's zero gross margin for three years — whoever dares earn a single cent gets their procurement-sales guy fired."

Ye Yi asked in surprise after hearing.

"Don't believe it, compare yourself." Liu Tianle couldn't be bothered with more talk, gesturing for Ye Yi to find the product section and compare prices.

Ye Yi thought for a moment — his home happened to need a kettle — so he searched in the Hundred Billion Subsidy channel and found a Supor 1.8L electric kettle for only 99 yuan.

But he didn't rush to order. Instead, he switched apps and searched the same brand and model on JD.

119 yuan!

Ye Yi was stunned. He hadn't expected the price gap between the two e-commerce platforms to be so large.

So without overthinking, he submitted the order on Pin-Be and paid. This time the pop-up became "5,000 yuan Yu'e Bao experience gold."

Looking at the red and golden red packet design, the corners of Ye Yi's mouth lifted slightly, revealing a satisfied smile.

A 5,000 yuan experience bonus, valid for seven days, representing 4.9 yuan in Yu'e Bao earnings.

At the same time.

Kuaipao users ordering a 20 yuan takeout could also receive between 1,000 and 2,000 yuan in Yu'e Bao experience bonus. For every 100 yuan recharged onto a stored-value card, they could get 5,000 yuan in experience bonus, capped at 200,000 yuan. Passengers of Kuaidi Dache, after their trip ended, could likewise receive between 500 and 2,000 yuan in experience bonus—old Yu'e Bao users at least 500 yuan, new users up to 2,000 yuan. For every 100 yuan of ride-hailing funds recharged, they could get 5,000 yuan in experience bonus, capped at 200,000 yuan, consistent with the reward caps on the Pinbei and Kuaipao platforms.

On the day Yu'e Bao launched, besides the ad slots on Sister Chengzi's app store, Lingxi Browser, and Today's Headlines, Pinbei, Kuaipao, and Kuaidi Dache also rolled out co-branded campaigns. Even the couriers at Yun Su Express, when delivering packages, would casually hand customers a product poster along the way.

Chen Yansen's operating style had always been like this.

Simple, brutal—burning cash on one side, burning traffic on the other!

At a quarter past five in the afternoon, the number of Yu'e Bao activated users had already reached 2 million, with a fund scale as high as 10.06 billion Hua yuan.

"Boss, should we find a few media outlets to publish the specific capital inflow figures?"

Inside Building No. 7 of the Zhuxianzhuang Tech Park, Zhang Yinjia, CEO of Sister Chengzi Pay, looked at Chen Yansen and asked.

Publicly disclosing Yu'e Bao's fund scale could, first, strengthen users' sense of trust, letting them understand Yu'e Bao's strength and operating conditions—the larger the scale, the stronger the fund operations and risk resistance, which would attract more users to deposit funds into Yu'e Bao.

Second, it could showcase market position, increase industry clout, and establish cooperative relationships with more fund companies.

But there were plenty of downsides too!

First, Yu'e Bao's "T+0" redemption method did not comply with current fund market management regulations.

Second, Yu'e Bao's 5.1% annualized return over the past seven days was effectively competing with banks for users. If the banks got anxious, they might very well clamp down on Sister Chengzi Pay through policy.

"Release it!" Chen Yansen answered concisely.

The flow of users' funds was crystal clear to every bank—it wasn't as if burying your head and playing ostrich would stop the banks from coming to make trouble.

Do it first, talk later!

The larger Yu'e Bao's fund scale, the more the banks would hesitate!

If you cowered and only wanted to play it safe, you might just get crushed by a single finger from above.

Weakness is the original sin—nobody's ever heard of a powerhouse being suppressed!

"Understood, boss." Zhang Yinjia immediately responded.

One hour later.

Under the operation of Sister Chengzi Pay's marketing department, keywords like "Yu'e Bao," "10 billion in funds," "wealth management for all," and "5.1% current deposit yield" quietly climbed onto the trending searches.

No. 1 on Today's Headlines trending list!

No. 1 on Lingxi Search hot list!

No. 3 on Weibo trending list!

"Yu'e Bao launches, 5.1% 7-day annualized yield draws attention!"

"Sister Chengzi Pay launches Yu'e Bao, starting from 1 yuan deposit, ushering in a new era of wealth management for all!"

"Yu'e Bao debuts on October 11—a new attempt at cross-border integration of finance and the internet, sucking in billions in less than a day!"

The comment sections were buzzing, with netizens leaving messages one after another.

"Finally found a way to eat free tea eggs every day—just deposit ten thousand yuan into Yu'e Bao!"

"Finally found a way to get a free iPhone 5—just deposit five million yuan into Yu'e Bao, and you can claim one every week!"

"Then let me ask you! Where do you get five million for free?"

"I put a whole semester's living expenses into Yu'e Bao—a few bucks a day, way better than letting it sit in my bank card!"

"A few bucks a day? Looks like a rich bro! Venmo me 50 to prove it!"

To be fair, for the vast majority of working-class salaried people, the few tens of thousands of yuan in their hands usually just sat in their bank cards gathering dust, generating not a single cent of return.

The moment Yu'e Bao launched, it provided this group with a wealth management channel for small sums of money.

The moment a user opened Sister Chengzi Pay, they would see the slogan: "Transfer your spare change into Yu'e Bao—earnings 14 times higher than current deposits."

Even cash-strapped college students were putting their living expenses into Yu'e Bao—at the end of the month, they could at least still afford a breakfast.

Yu'e Bao's high-profile launch caused a stir in the industry.

Even Tianfu Fund, which was partnering with it, was dumbfounded upon learning that Yu'e Bao's capital inflow had already reached 10 billion.

Internet finance—has it actually worked?

Tens of millions of traffic resources colliding with money market funds could produce astonishing results!

One had to know that domestic fund companies ranged in size from a few billion to tens of billions at most. Judging by Yu'e Bao's growth trajectory, even 100 billion might not be enough to contain it.

Let alone fund industry practitioners being shocked—even the senior executives of major banks were shaken.

Anyone who'd risen to a bank's senior management was no fool, and they quickly realized the threat Yu'e Bao posed to their own savings products.

But they were helpless, after all, Sister Chengzi Pay held both an electronic payment license and a fund sales qualification—fully compliant and legal.

However, some particularly shrewd people also noticed that Yu'e Bao using ordinary consumer accounts to purchase fund products violated the fund sales management regulation that "fund payment and settlement accounts must be effectively segregated from other accounts."

In other words, when a third-party payment tool simultaneously operated e-commerce and fund sales payment businesses, the two types of accounts should be effectively segregated—yet Yu'e Bao had broken through this restriction.

In addition, Kuaipao, Kuaidi Dache, and Pinbei Shangcheng had launched activities offering Yu'e Bao experience bonuses with orders and card recharges, which in fact also violated the regulation that "lotteries, rebates, or gifts of physical goods, insurance, fund units, etc. shall not be used to sell funds."

Although these three companies had no equity relationship with Sister Chengzi Pay, the boss was the same person, so naturally the red line had been crossed.

In no time, jealous fund companies and banks jointly filed complaints about Sister Chengzi Pay's conduct with the Bank General Association and the Fund Management Association, demanding immediate rectification.

But to their surprise, the higher-ups did not agree!

"Sister Chengzi Pay has indeed violated the rules and crossed the red line, but it hasn't broken the law, and Yu'e Bao's sales momentum is strong. I think Chen Yansen can blaze a new trail for internet finance."

"I hear Hangcheng's Mama Ali Baba is planning to launch a similar money market fund product—they've even registered the name, something called Lingqiantong?"

"Shencheng's Penguin has also set its sights on this business!"

"So I say, let Sister Chengzi Pay do it first. Whether it's good or bad, since we can't see clearly right now, let's wait a bit longer."

In Yanjing, inside the Bank General Association building, after a discussion among several industry heavyweights, the complaints against Sister Chengzi Pay were dismissed.

The implication: you can do it too!

But we won't issue explicit regulations—if you produce results, the Bank General Association will claim credit for guidance; if things go wrong, all of you will be crushed.

In this way, the "T+1" fund redemption mechanism became effectively defunct; by using prepaid-fund operations, one could bypass the regulations and turn money-market funds into "real-time access" demand-deposit investments.

Of course, some people also piped up: "Although money-market funds yield steady returns, they still carry risk and aren't as safe as bank time deposits."

But such voices were quickly drowned out.

After receiving the reply from above, the major fund companies and banks could only helplessly think of countermeasures.

A money-management product like Yu'ebao isn't something you can just build on a whim—first, there's policy risk; second, it requires enormous traffic resources. That is the fundamental source of their distress.

At 23:59:59 on October 11th, the number of Yu'ebao activated users easily broke through the 2.7 million mark, with total funds under management reaching 14.39 billion Hua yuan!

(End of chapter)