"Yongming, explain this to me. Why are Jiangnan Group's stores appearing on our website!" Brother Ma asked, his expression unreadable.
"It's my dereliction of duty. I've been busy with other work and didn't pay attention to the review process, leaving it to the people below. But I didn't expect them to be so irresponsible. I bear the grave leadership responsibility. Please punish me!" Wu Yongming said with a wry smile.
Wu Yongming was very smart. He took the responsibility himself, then quietly pushed it onto his subordinates, and finally managed to earn himself the reputation of taking responsibility. How clever!
"Have the people below become so lax?" Jin Jianhang frowned and asked.
"No, it's just that our manpower has been stretched to the limit. The few reviewers we have have slept less than 8 hours in total over the past two days. There are simply too many shops to set up, and they've already done their best!" Jin Jianhang sighed.
"Regardless, they made a huge mistake. After this event is over, fire them!" Brother Ma waved his hand. "Alright, let's stop discussing how this problem arose. Next, tell me, how should we deal with this store!"
Hearing Brother Ma's question, everyone fell silent. This was a difficult question to answer.
Of course, there were some bold ones, like Lou Wensheng, who pondered for a moment and then smiled, "Boss, this is actually a good thing. Think about it, even our competitor, Jiangnan Mall, has shamelessly opened a store on our platform."
"What does this mean? It means Jiangnan Group has admitted defeat, believing they are no match for us. They've been scared by our recent series of offensives, and their sales on Jiangnan Mall have plummeted to rock bottom. Otherwise, why would they cast aside their pride and come to us to open a store? It's because they are finished!"
"So, this is a good thing. We should just let them stay, let this matter spread, and let all of China know that in this battle, we achieved total victory in just two days!" Lou Wensheng said passionately.
"Hmm!" Brother Ma nodded. Although his expression remained calm, the smile on his face was somewhat unconcealable.
It was as if JD.com suddenly opened a JD flagship store on Taobao. If this news got out, Brother Ma's prestige would be unmatched.
It was like a mother hen laying an egg.
Of course, some people raised objections. For example, Jiang Fang, the financial manager among the Eighteen Arhats, said, "Boss, I think there's something wrong here. Jiangnan Group would not surrender so easily. They must have ulterior motives and conspiracies in doing this. We must think it through before deciding."
"Hmm, then tell me, what conspiracy is there in their actions?" Brother Ma countered.
"This..." Jiang Fang just felt there was a conspiracy, but she didn't know what it was.
Brother Ma's question had already alerted many senior executives who were familiar with their boss's personality. They immediately spoke up, expressing that this was a good thing and should be widely publicized, as it meant Jiangnan Group had completely surrendered to the Forty Thieves, and they were about to reach the heavens by standing on the shoulders of giants.
This feeling was incredibly exhilarating.
Brother Ma nodded repeatedly as he listened, but he also noticed that Sun Tongyu had remained silent the entire time, a faint smile on his face. It was a smile as if he were looking at idiots, including Brother Ma himself, and everyone else seemed like idiots.
"Tongyu, you should also express your opinion. You are the overall operator of this event. You should tell us your thoughts!" Brother Ma called out.
"Yes, boss. My idea is very simple: immediately ban the Jiangnan Mall official flagship store, and then return all the orders that have been sold, except for those that have been confirmed as received. Intercept the orders and completely drive out the Jiangnan Mall flagship store!" Sun Tongyu said. "At the same time, we must stop issuing new store opening permits, conduct a thorough and strict review of recently opened stores, and disable all high-value coupons..."
"Enough!" Brother Ma's expression darkened, and he stopped Sun Tongyu. Then he said, "First, tell us your reasons!"
"The reason is very simple. Huang He is not softening his stance or surrendering to us. On the contrary, he has stabbed us in our soft spot with a fierce blow!" Sun Tongyu said.
"First of all, although Jiangnan Mall is somewhat losing face by doing this, they have not suffered any losses at all. On the contrary, they have gained huge profits."
"I checked the data just now. They have sold 5 million blind boxes so far, and this number is expected to exceed 10 million within 24 hours. This is the data that Jiangnan Mall could only achieve in nearly a month on online platforms without holding any new product launches!"
"Isn't this a good thing? It shows that our platform's appeal is far greater than their Jiangnan Mall, forcing Jiangnan Mall to open a store on our platform. This perfectly proves the superiority of our platform!" someone said.
"Nonsense!" Sun Tongyu cursed unceremoniously. "What superiority does our platform have? A platform that hasn't even fully considered its servers, needs to be extorted for 300 million to purchase servers temporarily, crashes once or twice every hour, and is plagued by various system bugs. How can its consumer experience possibly surpass that of Jiangnan Mall?"
"You..." Upon hearing Sun Tongyu's words, everyone's faces turned even darker. This was equivalent to denying everyone's achievements, especially Brother Ma, whose face almost turned ashen as a judge.
But he didn't interrupt Sun Tongyu any further and said, "Continue. Why did Jiangnan Mall come to our platform to open a store?"
"Yes, the reason is actually very simple, because our platform has store subsidies. Although their blind boxes are still priced at 10 yuan, the actual selling price has been lowered to 8 yuan per box. This is an irresistible temptation for many blind box consumers."
"Before I came, I checked several major domestic gaming forums, and they were all calling for members to come online to buy blind boxes. This is why the Jiangnan Mall official flagship store sold 5 million boxes within a few hours."
"But this reduction of two yuan is a subsidy that our company has paid out in real money. Jiangnan Mall still earns 10 yuan per box for the 5 million boxes they sold, but we have subsidized an additional 10 million yuan for this. This is equivalent to using our own money to help Jiangnan Group increase sales. Of course, Jiangnan Mall would happily come to our platform to open a store. Who would refuse such an opportunity to increase sales!"
"We've just become a sucker, and we've been extorted for a large sum of cash by Jiangnan Group again!"
"..." Everyone remained silent. In fact, everyone understood this logic; there was no need for Sun Tongyu to point it out, but it was too embarrassing, and no one wanted to say it out loud.
"Ahem, although Old Sun's words are not wrong, it's not entirely accurate!" Jin Yuanying said. "Although we paid 10 million yuan to subsidize Jiangnan Mall, we also gained Jiangnan Mall's core users."
"As Jiangnan Mall establishes a store on our platform, it means we've also brought their last batch of users who are loyal to Jiangnan Mall and only buy blind boxes on Jiangnan Mall to our platform, greatly increasing our platform's user base. From a long-term perspective, this is beneficial!" Jin Yuanying said.
"That's right!"
"Exactly!"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Hahahaha!" Sun Tongyu couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. "Jin Yuanying, you speak with such confidence, but these users who came for Jiangnan blind boxes, won't they leave because of Jiangnan blind boxes? They just go wherever they can buy cheap blind boxes. If Jiangnan blind boxes are launched elsewhere, they will leave our platform!"
"But our platform has paid out real money, 10 million yuan in cash, and that's not all. After 24 hours, this number will become 20 million, and by the end of the event, this number could very well become hundreds of millions. Can you bear this loss?"
"Old Sun, don't be unreasonable here. This event was designed by you yourself. Since the event rules are like this, you should be prepared for the loss subsidy. And I don't believe that these users will really leave. Some of them will surely stay, and they will be the future of our platform!" Jin Yuanying's face turned pale.
"But we need to have a future for our platform first," Sun Tongyu sneered. "1.2 billion yuan in sales in two days, what an astonishing achievement. This means we subsidized 120 million yuan in two days."
"But the problem is that our money-making treasure only has 1 billion yuan in cash. We were extorted 140 million yuan by Jiangnan Group for advertising, spent 300 million on servers, and subsidized another 120 million yuan. In total, we have lost 560 million yuan, and we only have 440 million yuan left!"
"But there are still 13 days left in the event. At a rate of 120 million yuan in two days, that's 720 million yuan for 13 days. Our remaining 440 million yuan is not even enough for the subsidies. If we run out of funds, our platform will collapse, and there will be no future!"
"And this is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that this 1 billion yuan is not ours, it belongs to our users. How will you repay this 1 billion yuan then!" Sun Tongyu shouted, revealing a fact that made everyone tremble.
"Do you think Jiangnan Mall came to our platform to surrender to us? On the contrary, they are stabbing us, bleeding us silently, wanting us to bleed out every drop of our own blood!" After saying that, Sun Tongyu looked at Brother Ma with red eyes and said, "Boss, I, Sun Tongyu, am telling you my innermost thoughts today."
"If you believe me, then listen to me. We can't continue subsidizing like this. If we continue to subsidize like this, we will have no place to be buried, boss!" Sun Tongyu said, tears streaming down his face.