Chapter 322: First Day, Absorbs 143.9 Billion Huayuan! Don

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

“Yi Ge, do you have the Pinbei app on your phone?”

Liu Tianle sat at his desk, asking a colleague beside him.

“Damn! You’re not trying to get me to cut the price for you, are you? Hehe, no way!”

Ye Yi grinned and firmly refused.

“Is Yi Ge a new Pinbei user?” Another colleague leaned in, eyes gleaming with excitement.

“Get lost! If you want a discount, ask Nan Ge—he’s a new user too.”

Ye Yi sipped his coffee and teased.

The Nan Ge he mentioned was the project lead and his boss’s superior—who dared go straight to the general manager for a discount?

In his view, Pinbei, an e-commerce platform built on social viral growth, was no good at all; Taobao had too many fakes, so he shopped online only on Jingdong.

The prices were higher, but after-sales service was reliable and logistics fast, lowering decision costs.

“Yi Ge, you’ve got it wrong—I’m not that kind of person. Pinbei’s running a promotion: place an order and get Yu’e Bao trial funds. I noticed you’ve been researching Yu’e Bao lately, so I thought I’d mention it.”

Liu Tianle explained with a smile.

Yu’e Bao trial funds?

Ye Yi paused slightly. His biggest hobby was finance, but he only dared to put money in fixed deposits, never stocks or gold—he was extremely cautious.

Last month, his mother suddenly fell ill and needed hospitalization, but all his savings were locked in fixed deposits; he had no choice but to withdraw early, losing several thousand yuan in interest.

That made him realize: while fixed deposits offered high annual yields, their liquidity was terrible.

Shortly after, he happened to see a Yu’e Bao promotional poster on Lingxi Browser, and after learning more, he became interested.

At midnight today, he deposited ten thousand yuan to test it, hoping to earn a 5.1% annual yield.

He’d also noticed Orange Pay’s promotion: invite friends to open a Yu’e Bao account and receive trial funds. He got his family to sign up and earned twenty thousand yuan in trial funds in one go.

The estimated seven-day return was nearly twenty yuan—enough for three or four days of breakfast. For him, it was just a few taps away.

Hearing Pinbei Mall also offered trial funds, he immediately felt tempted.

“Order and get it? How much?” Ye Yi asked quickly.

“For every 99 yuan spent, you get 5,000 yuan in Yu’e Bao trial funds. I just bought a Gree 1.5P air conditioner for 2,699 yuan and got 135,000 yuan in trial funds—saved me 132 yuan, almost a 95% discount.”

Liu Tianle replied cheerfully.

Pinbei’s hundred-billion-subsidized products were already discounted; adding another 95% off made them incredibly cheap.

“Tianle, you’d buy appliances on Pinbei? Is that reliable?”

Ye Yi shook his head, thinking Pinbei’s goods might be cheap, but they weren’t guaranteed authentic, and after-sales service couldn’t match Jingdong’s.

“Yi Ge, you’re outdated! The appliance sellers on Pinbei are either factory-direct or authorized distributors—they use the same production lines as offline stores, Jingdong flagship stores, and Taobao flagship stores, and after-sales is handled officially. Is that reliable?”

Liu Tianle’s expression darkened, clearly annoyed.

Ye Yi’s face clearly said: buying appliances on Pinbei? That’s idiotic.

In fact, he’d once been a loyal Jingdong and Taobao user—but since using Pinbei, he could never go back.

“Send me the referral link,” Ye Yi chuckled, telling Liu.

“Sure, I’ll send it to you on WeChat!” Liu Tianle smiled lightly—inviting a new user earned him an 8-yuan no-conditions red packet; why not grab that free wool?

Ye Yi pulled out his Star Galaxy Note, opened WeChat, and tapped the link Liu sent.

First came a mini-page: a quick button at the top to jump to the app store, below it a row of zero-yuan items for new users—eggs, tissue paper, heat-resistant clips, trash bags, fruit cans, etc.

He ignored them and tapped the jump button, then opened the app store and directly navigated to the Pinbei app download page.

One minute later, installation completed, app launched.

The homepage was still the new-user benefits zone!

Looks like I’ve got no choice but to grab this wool!

Ye Yi smiled, clicked into the egg product page, entered his delivery info, and submitted the order.

Though labeled “zero yuan,” only at the payment screen did it prompt him to pay 0.01 yuan; since payment was required, he had to bind Orange Pay.

Pinbei’s new-user funnel was a chain of traps!

From delivery address to payment account, it increased user sunk costs to prevent them from uninstalling the app right after claiming the first-order bonus.

After Ye Yi completed payment, three red packets immediately popped up.

No-conditions red packet: 3 yuan, effective tomorrow;

Discount red packet: 50-5, effective on day seven;

Discount red packet: 100-10, effective on day fifteen.

These were Pinbei’s effective marketing tools to boost user retention, second-order conversion, and repurchase frequency.

Ye Yi casually closed the pop-ups.

Liu Tianle coached beside him: “Yi Ge, tap here—products in the hundred-billion subsidy channel are cheapest. I bought my air conditioner here—it’s 100 yuan cheaper than Jingdong’s 815 promotion price.”

“Damn! Really? Jingdong’s President Liu said on Weibo that big appliances have zero profit margin for three years—anyone who dares make a penny gets fired!”

Ye Yi asked in surprise.

“Don’t believe me? Compare prices yourself,” Liu Tianle said, gesturing for Ye Yi to check the product section.

Ye Yi thought—his home needed a water kettle. He searched the hundred-billion subsidy channel and found a Supor 1.8L electric kettle priced at just 99 yuan.

But he didn’t rush to order; he switched apps and searched for the same brand and model on Jingdong.

Ye Yi froze—he hadn’t expected such a huge price gap between the two platforms.

Without hesitation, he placed the order on Pinbei and paid. This time, the pop-up read: “5,000 yuan Yu’e Bao trial funds.”

Looking at the bright red, golden-red packet, Ye Yi’s lips curled into a satisfied smile.

5,000 yuan in trial funds, valid for seven days—equivalent to 4.9 yuan in Yu’e Bao returns.

Meanwhile,

Kuaipao users ordering a 20-yuan takeout meal received 1,000 to 2,000 yuan in Yu’e Bao trial funds; topping up 100 yuan in prepaid cards granted 5,000 yuan trial funds, capped at 200,000 yuan. Kuaide Taxi passengers received 500 to 2,000 yuan trial funds after each ride—500 yuan for existing Yu’e Bao users, up to 2,000 yuan for new users; topping up 100 yuan in ride credits earned 5,000 yuan trial funds, capped at 200,000 yuan, matching Pinbei and Kuaipao’s limits.

On Yu’e Bao’s launch day, alongside Orange Pay’s app store, Lingxi Browser, and Toutiao’s ad slots, Pinbei, Kuaipao, and Kuaide Taxi also launched joint promotions—even Kuaisu Express deliverymen handed customers promotional posters when dropping off packages.

Chen Yansen’s operational style had always been this way.

Simple, brutal: throw money, throw traffic!

By 5:15 p.m., the number of activated Yu’e Bao users had reached two million, with total funds hitting 10.06 billion Huayuan.

“Boss, should we get some media outlets to publicly release the exact funding figures?”

In Building 7 of Zhu Xianzhuang Tech Park, Orange Pay CEO Zhang Yinjia asked Chen Yansen.

Publicly disclosing Yu’e Bao’s fund size would first boost user trust, letting users understand its strength and operations—the larger the scale, the stronger its capital management and risk resistance, attracting more users to deposit funds.

Second, it would demonstrate market position and increase industry clout, helping build partnerships with more fund companies.

But there were many downsides!

First, Yu’e Bao’s “T+0” redemption method violated current fund market regulations.

Second, Yu’e Bao’s 5.1% seven-day annualized yield was directly competing with banks for users—if banks got angry, they might use policy to block Orange Pay.

“Release it,” Chen Yansen replied succinctly.

Every bank knew exactly where users’ funds were flowing; burying your head like an ostrich wouldn’t make them stop coming after you.

Just do it first!

The larger Yu’e Bao’s fund volume, the more banks would fear it!

If you’re timid, just trying to hide, you might get crushed by a single finger from above.

Weakness is the original sin—no one’s ever heard of a strong person being suppressed!

“Understood, Boss,” Zhang Yinjia replied immediately.

One hour later,

Under Orange Pay’s marketing team’s efforts, keywords like “Yu’e Bao,” “10 billion funds,” “mass finance,” and “5.1% demand deposit yield” quietly climbed to trending topics.

Number one on Toutiao’s trending list!

Number one on Lingxi Search’s hot list!

Number three on Weibo’s trending list!

“Yu’e Bao Launches, 5.1% Seven-Day Annualized Yield Draws Attention!”

“Orange Pay Launches Yu’e Bao: Start Investing with Just One Yuan, Opening a New Era of Mass Finance!”

“Yu’e Bao Debuts October 11: A Cross-Industry Fusion of Finance and Internet—Less Than a Day, It Attracts Tens of Billions in Funds!”

The comment section was buzzing with posts.

“Finally found a way to eat tea eggs for free every day—just deposit ten thousand yuan into Yu’e Bao!”

“Finally found a way to get a free Apple 5—deposit five million yuan into Yu’e Bao and get one every week!”

“Then tell me—where do you get five million yuan for free?”

“I put my entire semester’s living allowance into Yu’e Bao—earning a few yuan a day, way better than letting it sit in my bank card!”

“A few yuan a day? Sounds like a rich guy! V me fifty and show me your real wealth!”

To be fair, for the vast majority of salaried workers, their few ten thousand yuan typically sat idle in bank accounts, earning nothing.

Yu’e Bao’s launch gave this group a channel to invest small sums.

When users opened Orange Pay, they saw the ad: “Transfer idle cash to Yu’e Bao—earn 14 times more than a demand deposit.”

Even college students with little money put their living allowance into Yu’e Bao—by month’s end, they could at least afford breakfast.

Yu’e Bao’s high-profile launch sent shockwaves through the industry.

Even Tianfu Fund, which had partnered with it, was stunned upon learning that the total purchase amount into Yu’e Bao had reached 10 billion.

Had internet finance become a thing?

The collision of tens of millions of traffic resources with a money market fund had produced astonishing results!

Domestic fund companies typically managed scales of just a few billion, or at most a few tens of billions; given Yu’e Bao’s growth trend, 100 billion might not even be the limit.

Not only were fund industry professionals shocked, but even senior executives at major banks were rattled.

Those who rose to bank executive ranks were no fools; they quickly realized the threat Yu’e Bao posed to their own savings products.

Yet they were powerless, for Orange Pay held both an electronic payment license and fund sales qualifications—it was fully compliant and legal.

But some exceptionally sharp individuals noticed that Yu’e Bao’s use of ordinary consumption accounts to purchase fund products violated the Fund Sales Management Measures’ stipulation that “fund payment and settlement accounts must be effectively segregated from other accounts.”

In other words, when third-party payment platforms operated both e-commerce and fund sales payment services, the two account types should be effectively segregated—but Yu’e Bao had broken this restriction.

Additionally, KuaiPao, Kuaide Taxi, and Pinbei Mall launched promotions offering Yu’e Bao experience bonuses for placing orders or recharging cards, effectively violating the rule that “funds must not be sold through lotteries, rebates, or by giving away physical goods, insurance, or fund shares.”

Although these three companies had no equity ties to Orange Pay, they shared the same boss—thus clearly crossing the red line.

Suddenly, envious fund companies and banks jointly filed complaints against Orange Pay with the Banking Association and the Fund Management Association, demanding immediate rectification.

But to their surprise, the higher authorities refused to act.

“Orange Pay did violate regulations and crossed the red line, but it did not break the law. Moreover, Yu’e Bao’s sales momentum is strong—I believe Chen Yan can forge a new path for internet finance.”

“It’s said Alibaba in Hangcheng plans to launch a similar money market fund product, and they’ve even registered the name—something called Lingqiantong?”

“Penguin in Shencheng is also eyeing this business!”

“So I say, let Orange Pay proceed first. Whether it’s good or bad, since we can’t tell yet, let’s wait and see.”

In Yanjing, inside the Banking Association headquarters, after a discussion among several industry heavyweights, the complaints against Orange Pay were dismissed.

The implication: you can do it too!

But we won’t issue clear guidelines—if you achieve results, the Banking Association will take credit; if chaos erupts, you’ll be crushed outright.

As a result, the “T+1” fund redemption mechanism became meaningless in practice; as long as prepaid funds were used, regulations could be circumvented, turning money market funds into “real-time deposit and withdrawal” demand deposits.

Of course, some voices emerged saying: “Although money market funds offer stable returns, they still carry risk and are less secure than bank term deposits.”

But these voices were quickly drowned out.

After receiving the higher authorities’ response, all fund companies and banks could only reluctantly consider their responses.

Products like Yu’e Bao—micro-investment tools for idle cash—were not something anyone could simply launch; first, there was policy risk, and second, massive traffic resources were required—this was the root of their frustration.

At 23:59:59 on October 11, Yu’e Bao’s number of activated users easily surpassed 2.7 million, with total funds under management reaching 14.39 billion Huayuan!

(End of Chapter)