From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 48 Zhang Yong's Attention

In a private office.

As usual, Zhang Yong browsed Alibaba's intranet. Soon, he saw a post that had been highlighted and pinned to the top of the list, edited by a colleague nicknamed "Dayan" (Wild Goose). He clicked on it and read the content carefully, and couldn't help but admire the talent of this colleague named Dayan.

He pondered that this "buy one item on the go" feature was really interesting. He wondered which colleague had suggested it, and perhaps this feature could be helpful to him when he took over Taobao Mall in the future.

In 2008, Huang Ruo served as the general manager of Taobao Mall. During his tenure, Taobao Mall's daily sales reached around 4 million yuan. However, due to the slower-than-expected growth, Huang Ruo left Alibaba gracefully in October.

Then, Zhang Yong, whose nickname is "Xiaoyaozi", took over and served as the general manager of Taobao Mall.

When Zhang Yong took over Taobao Mall, he faced a precarious situation.

On the one hand, Taobao Mall and Taobao have unclear positioning; on the other hand, Taobao merchants are hostile to Taobao Mall, believing that if Taobao Mall grows stronger, they will have no way to survive.

Everyone feels that Taobao Mall is betting on Alibaba's future and competing with Taobao's C-end for traffic—not only do merchants think this way, but many colleagues within Alibaba also share the same view.

Moreover, when Huang Ruo served as general manager, he repeatedly requested Taobao's C-end users to provide traffic support to Taobao Mall.

This unclear positioning, coupled with the former general manager's personal behavior, led to the evaluation scandal.

The "review scandal" took a great deal of effort from CEO Lu to suppress. It was during this critical juncture that Zhang Yong took over Taobao Mall.

At this moment, he is discussing a plan called "Five-Colored Stones" with his internal team to create a key business festival next year, clarify the positioning of Taobao Mall, build its reputation, and achieve self-reliance.

He and his small internal team are still discussing the specific dates and implementation plan.

Zhang Yong thought that if he could recruit wild geese, it might be helpful for the future of Taobao Mall.

But then he shook his head: Taobao Mall only has a few hundred scattered merchants now, so it would be a waste of talent for Dayan to come here.

He summoned Wang Jialei, who was using the alias "Qiao Feng".

Qiao Feng was a key figure under Zhang Yong. He later became the president of Tmall and led the growth of Double Eleven sales from 9 million to 191 billion yuan, becoming a core star figure in Alibaba's B2C business. He was also responsible for the expansion of Alibaba's international business.

Of course, at this moment, Zhang Yong had no idea about the bright future of his capable assistant.

Zhang Yong said, "Qiao Feng, take a look at this internal post. Go and talk to the technical department and ask them to open a port for gray-scale testing for Taobao Mall as well."

"Then you study the logic in the post. We'll test it out in the first half of the year and find the optimal template. Once the 'Five-Colored Stone' project is officially launched, the 'Buy One Item While You're at It' feature should also be officially launched around the same time. This feature should be of great help to our Five-Colored Stone project."

Qiao Feng skimmed the post—this didn't mean he wasn't reading it carefully; he had a special talent: he could quickly understand the content while browsing.

After reading the post, he closed his eyes and pondered for several seconds before opening them and saying, "Huh? This goose looks familiar. I think I saw a great post he wrote on the Taobao seller forum last time, about how to save on shipping costs. It was very well written."

"Oh? There's such a connection." Zhang Yong said.

Qiao Feng suggested, "Mr. Zhang, how about I talk to him and ask if he'd be willing to transfer to the Taobao Mall department?"

Zhang Yong replied, "I reckon it'll be difficult. In the eyes of the operations department, our current Taobao Mall is a complete mess. But you can give it a try, what if?"

Wang Jialei thought about it for a while and realized that if he wanted Dayan to transfer to this position, he would first have to persuade his superiors.

He had to think about how to convince the leaders of Dayan that Taobao Mall was not a quagmire, but a future phoenix nest.

……

Off-get off work time.

Lu Hai relayed Wang Jialei's request: "Lin Mu, Wang Jialei from the Taobao Mall department would like to invite you to a casual meal."

Lin Mu was taken aback: if he remembered correctly, Taobao Mall was still being managed by General Manager Huang, and there hadn't been any news of General Manager Zhang taking over.

Suddenly he realized that there was a discrepancy between the actual handover time and the publicity time, and that Taobao Mall might have already completed the handover work privately.

But why did Wang Jialei invite him to dinner?

It should be noted that Wang Jialei's alias is "Qiao Feng," and anyone who can use this alias is no ordinary person.

In the Alibaba system in later generations, President Wang was definitely in the top tier of senior executives and a big shot in his own right, much more prestigious than him, a senior executive who had been exiled.

Lu Hai, fearing that Lin Mu might not understand the situation, told him what he knew: "Lin Mu, even though Taobao Mall is currently managed by General Manager Huang, he might not be able to keep it going."

"According to rumors, Mr. Zhang Yong will be taking over next. I'm thinking it might be because you've been in the limelight lately, attracting their attention and they want to transfer you to a different position."

At this point, Lu Hai straightened his expression and said solemnly, "Dayan, don't look down on Taobao Mall. It may seem like a quagmire now, but a golden phoenix might very well fly out of it someday. Its future is vast, and Alibaba needs a mall with a completely different positioning from Taobao Marketplace. Although I'm very reluctant to let it go, if they're considering transferring you to another position, you should seriously consider it. It's better to offer help in times of need than to add to someone's success. If you're unhappy with your job, you can always come back. My door is always open for you."

Even after two lifetimes, Lin Mu was deeply moved—such a good leader is rare in today's workplace.

Lin Mu said, "Team leader, don't worry. Even if I'm physically in Cao Cao's camp, my heart is with you. I'll come back to visit often after I go to Taobao Mall."

Lu Hai almost lost his composure and quickly said, "Hey, no, I was just saying, just being polite. Are you really leaving?"

"Huh?" Lin Mu said openly, "Team leader, just like you said, it's better to help someone in need than to add flowers to brocade. I originally planned to submit a transfer application at the end of the year, wanting to transfer to Taobao Mall. I just didn't expect it to be moved up by a few months—my talent is shining brightly, it can't be hidden at all."

Lu Hai waved his hand helplessly: "Fine, go ahead. It's for the sake of the group's strategy. You're full of clever ideas; you should be able to make a difference on Taobao Mall."

"Team leader, where did Qiao Feng choose for the gathering?"

Lu Hai gave the address; it was a hot pot restaurant. After tidying up, Lin Mu said goodbye to his team leader and left.

Lu Hai watched Lin Mu's departing figure, his face full of loneliness, like a lonely old man guarding an empty house, and murmured, "The wild geese have flown away and will never return."