Sun Tongyu was gone, but Brother Ma hadn't forgotten Sun Tongyu's parting words. On the contrary, the more he thought about them, the more sense they made.
That's right, what kind of person was Huang He? From his inexplicable rise in 2001 to the present, nearly 2004. He had transformed a leather factory that owed 350 million yuan into a high-tech enterprise with a capital of over 10 billion US dollars, spanning electronics, e-commerce, small commodity markets, blind box markets, and even luxury goods and railway markets.
Huang He's capabilities were undeniable. It was impossible for him not to retaliate against his actions.
Furthermore, he hadn't attacked suddenly. It had been more than half a month since the event began, so Huang He should have taken action by now.
But he hadn't acted, which meant Huang He must have been brewing even more terrifying actions.
Actually, Brother Ma had considered this matter, but he believed Huang He had already acted. The earlier voluntary promotion, the voluntary sale of servers, and the voluntary opening of stores on his platform were all aimed at bleeding him dry.
However, his superior skill and audaciousness, coupled with his keen perception of opportunities within danger, allowed him to perfectly break through the predicament by extending capital flow, thus lasting until the end of the event. He had defeated Huang He through his own abilities.
But now, after Sun Tongyu's words, Brother Ma began to worry again. Could there still be a problem?
As Brother Ma was pondering these matters, his phone rang. He looked down and saw that it was Little Superman calling.
Brother Ma answered the phone and heard Little Superman say in a very sincere tone, "Mr. Ma, I apologize. I encountered some problems with my investments in the UK and rushed over to resolve them. I didn't expect to be away for over 10 days. I didn't leave a phone number for you, which prevented me from contacting you."
"However, I heard that you are planning to raise funds for the Forty Thieves. Our Yingke Fund is very interested. May I ask how much money you need? I can fly to Hangzhou immediately to discuss it with you!" Little Superman used the formal "you" four times in one breath, indicating a very humble attitude. It was estimated that he only spoke to his father in such a manner.
If this had been a few days ago, Brother Ma would have been very excited to hear such a request and eagerly collaborated with Little Superman.
But now, Brother Ma politely declined Little Superman in a very amiable tone and hung up the phone before the other party could say more.
"Back then, I had no money and needed help. You weren't there. Now that I have ample funds, you come running to invest. How can there be such a logic in the world!" After hanging up the phone, Brother Ma couldn't help but talk to himself, a smug smile appearing on his lips.
Although he outwardly expressed his dislike for the call, he secretly enjoyed it immensely. After all, this was a call from the son of the richest man in China, and this second-generation heir was speaking to him with such an attitude. This showed the value of the Forty Thieves, which had been recognized by the richest man in China.
Not to mention the immense satisfaction of getting revenge for the mistreatment he had suffered at the other party's hands.
After all, the saying "You ignored me back then, but now I'll make you unable to reach me" was the world's ultimate bragging experience, and Brother Ma had truly experienced it.
It seemed as if fate wanted Brother Ma to brag even more. Within the next four hours, he received more than a dozen phone calls, all with the same purpose: crying and begging to invest in the Forty Thieves.
And these investors were almost all the same people who had rejected him when he visited them in Hong Kong a few days ago. Similarly, Brother Ma rejected them all.
Brother Ma felt as if he could open a Damo Academy with all this bragging.
Getting back to the point, although bragging felt great, Brother Ma also learned a lesson from it: the Forty Thieves were indeed very healthy and in high demand.
The fact that so many people wanted to invest in him showed that these people were not bad people, but simply people who lived for money.
These people had rejected him before because they believed that the Forty Thieves' capital chain was about to break and that there was no future. Investing was a sure loss.
And now that they were clamoring to invest in him, it must mean that they believed the Forty Thieves were very healthy and had a bright future.
It wouldn't mean much if only one or two companies thought this way, but when a dozen professional investment institutions all held the same opinion, Brother Ma had to be more confident, thinking that Sun Tongyu's words were unnecessary worries and that the Forty Thieves were about to embark on a bright future.
Immediately, much of the gloom left by Sun Tongyu dissipated. Brother Ma's mood improved, and he quickly instructed the finance department to transfer money to Sun Tongyu's account. He was a benevolent and righteous Feng Qingyang, a hero of his word.
Unfortunately, Brother Ma's good mood only lasted until the afternoon of the same day when someone delivered a heavy blow.
However, this heavy blow did not come from Huang He, whom Brother Ma had been anticipating, but from someone he had never taken seriously.
In Brother Ma's mind, the only heroes in the world were Liu Bei and Cao Cao. Of course, Brother Ma was Liu Bei, and Huang He was the hypocritical, popular Cao Cao. The positions of these two had to be clarified.
Since the only heroes in the world were Liu Bei and Cao Cao, then everyone else was naturally insignificant and not worth mentioning.
Even if one of these insignificant individuals was eBay, whose parent company's market value had reached a staggering 74.4 billion US dollars, making it the ceiling of the entire e-commerce industry and the king of the world.
Yet, in Brother Ma's eyes, eBay was still insignificant, at least in the Chinese market.
But Brother Ma never expected that this insignificant eBay would deliver such a blow.
Because just now, at 4 PM on November 12th, eBay China announced their upcoming event.
Starting from November 20th and lasting until December 12th, eBay China would hold a crazy subsidy event.
The rules of the event were very simple, basically copying the Forty Thieves' event. Except that eBay did not have the Huayouqian and Zhuanqianbao activities, the other activities were almost identical, just with larger subsidy amounts.
The Forty Thieves' subsidies were generally around 20%. However, eBay was more ruthless this time, with subsidies reaching an astonishing 30%.
That's right, eBay was launching a subsidy coupon of 3 yuan off for every 10 yuan spent.
And not only Chinese merchants on eBay, but even foreign goods on eBay were eligible for this subsidy. When purchasing in China, you could buy foreign goods at a 30% discount, a price even cheaper than buying them locally abroad.
As soon as this news was announced, the entire market was ecstatic. Who knew that the leeks in this world were endless? After the Forty Thieves were harvested, there were still eBay's leeks to harvest.
Look, how harmonious and great the online market was in 2003. Users actually had the opportunity to harvest capital's leeks. By 2021, it was only capital harvesting users' leeks.
Some might think that this news seemed irrelevant to Gouhuasuan Mall, as Gouhuasuan's event had already ended, and the other party's event had just begun.
However, Brother Ma felt a chill run down his spine because this successive event was extremely fatal to the Forty Thieves.
The simplest logic was that for the next month, all online shopping users would not dare... no, they would be reluctant to spend. They would not purchase any products on the Gouhuasuan platform.
Because they would save their money for the event starting on November 20th and use it to shop on eBay. After all, it would be foolish not to take advantage of the discount. eBay was 30% cheaper, so it would be stupid to buy things on Gouhuasuan Mall at this time!
As it turned out, Brother Ma's concerns were not unfounded. After the event was announced, transactions on Gouhuasuan Mall immediately plummeted to an all-time low.
Even after the event ended, the transaction volume within an hour was often still two to three million yuan, and the daily transaction volume could reach thirty to forty million yuan. Although not as exaggerated as during the event, this was stable consumer traffic, traffic that could be continuously developed and grown, and it was precisely the actual traffic that Brother Ma had pursued by holding the event at a great cost.
If there could be a stable transaction of 30 million yuan per day, that would be 900 million yuan per month and over 10 billion yuan per year. Gouhuasuan Mall's future would be limitless.
But now, after the event was announced, the transaction volume within an hour suddenly dropped to less than 1 million yuan, and in the second hour, it dropped to less than 500,000 yuan.
It was estimated that at that time, many consumers were not yet aware of the event. As time went by, more and more people would learn about it.
Because eBay's promotion also completely copied Brother Ma's strategy, bombarding the entire network with advertisements. The advertisements on Jiangnan's Facebook and 00 were even more voluminous and frantic than those on Gouhuasuan Mall more than half a month ago. It was estimated that Huang He had earned at least 200 million yuan in advertising fees from eBay.
This was truly infuriating.
But eBay's event was not the key issue. After all, such high subsidy events were unsustainable. After one month, eBay would also stop the subsidies, and then everyone would compete based on their own abilities.
Brother Ma believed that with the subpar skills of the few people in charge of eBay China, he would directly kick them out in normal competition.
But the real problem was that eBay's event prevented the Forty Thieves from attracting more users to consume for the next month.
And starting from December 3rd, the Forty Thieves would have to pay the merchants who were owed payments.
From December 3rd to December 12th, it was estimated that approximately 3 billion yuan would need to be paid, while the Forty Thieves currently had only about 2 billion yuan in hand.
If everything had proceeded normally, with a monthly sales revenue of 900 million yuan and delayed logistics, paying this amount on time would not have been a problem.
But now, with eBay's event, everything was ruined. For the next month, let alone 900 million yuan, even 90 million yuan would be considered a great blessing.
But if there was only 90 million yuan, the merchants' funds could absolutely not be paid, and the Zhuanqianbao would also be in jeopardy. The Forty Thieves were suddenly facing a desperate situation again.
"Should I call Little Superman... and invite him to Hangzhou for dinner?" Brother Ma suddenly felt that all the bragging he had done earlier was going to be thrown away.
[PS: Sorry, after much thought, the original plot had some unreasonable aspects, but with the addition of eBay, everything became very reasonable. Therefore, the plot had to be expanded. It cannot be concluded today, but this plot should be concluded tomorrow.]