It was October 1st, National Day.
Far away had organized some activities on National Day, but most of the employees were on leave. Far away's headquarters was much quieter than usual.
After watching the performance in the auditorium, Li Dong said a few words of condolence and left the auditorium.
Ordinary employees could rest, but senior executives like Li Dong could not.
Yuan Chengdao had brought some people to the provincial military division early in the morning to express his condolences. The others also went about their duties.
Only Liu Hong, who had been following Li Dong since morning, had a nervous and uneasy look on his face.
After leaving the auditorium, Liu Hong brought up the same topic again. He said anxiously, "General Manager Li, the international version of Weibo will be launched tonight. Do you think it will be successful?"
Li Dong said indifferently, "We'll see how it goes."
Liu Hong was about to cry. What do you mean by 'we'll see how it goes'?
In order to prepare for the international version, they had been working overtime day and night. In the past few months, almost half of Liu Hong's time had been spent on international flights.
Even so, the international version of Weibo had only reached the UK, the US, Korea, Thailand, and a few other countries.
It was not easy to launch a public opinion platform like Weibo overseas.
Don't be fooled by what the newspapers said about freedom of speech, as if foreigners were really open-minded. In fact, it was just lip service.
Far away's Weibo had encountered countless censorship and restrictions in order to enter the international market.
A large part of its functions had been castrated.
The US government had even made a rule that Far away's Weibo could not do political propaganda, could not violate laws and regulations, could not …
The most important rule was that the government had the right to shut down the website in case of an emergency.
This was the so-called democracy and freedom!
Li Dong did not have the final say in what was an emergency. Far away did not have the final say. It was the federal government that had the final say.
Maybe one day, they would shut it down just like that. What could they do?
Although Li Dong did not really care about these things, he knew very well.
Since they were under someone else's roof, they had no choice but to lower their head.
So far away, Weibo had foreign capital, and Sequoia and IDG had been operating it. Otherwise, it would have been a problem to launch it overseas.
Liu Hong was concerned about this matter, but Li Dong wasn't too concerned.
To be honest, it was much more difficult for a domestic Internet company to go overseas than expected.
It was fine for e-commerce companies, but it was extremely difficult for a public opinion platform like Weibo.
It was said that public opinion was heavily regulated in China, but it was no different overseas.
Far away, Li Dong felt that Weibo's entry into the international market was just a gimmick. There was still hope for Weibo to expand in the Asian market, but in the US and Europe, they were wary of Hua Xia.
Seeing how nervous Liu Hong was, Li Dong could only say, "We're at the last step. We'll know soon whether we can succeed or not. Taking ten thousand steps back, even if he failed, it wouldn't be a big deal. Failure in other countries wasn't just because of the business, but also because of political factors. If we really go all out, who would be afraid of who? Focus on the domestic market. If it works overseas, it's fine. If it doesn't, change the main focus as soon as possible. "
After saying that, Li Dong did not give Liu Hong a chance to refute and asked, "How's Wang Xin?"
Seeing how Li Dong changed the topic, Liu Hong could only say, "I can't tell for the time being. After all, he's only been here for two days. These two days, he's mainly doing some understanding work. There's no substantive work."
"En, let's see. After all, he's the founder of Fanno. He's quite familiar with the Americans. Fanno has also borrowed a lot of Twitter's experience and model. After some time, let him manage the international version first. Let's see how he does, maybe there'll be some surprises. "
Wang Xin arrived on the night of the 29th. Far away, Li Dong did not treat Wang Xin as seriously as Lan Xingguo.
Wang Xin's ability was not weak. In the future, he also founded Meituan. It was reasonable to say that Li Dong should pay more attention to him. After all, his value was greater.
But in fact, now Wang Xin was just a failure. If he paid too much attention, it would pull down Li Dong's style.
Li Dong and Wang Xin met and talked briefly, and then threw him to Liu Hong.
As for whether Wang Xin could climb up on Weibo, it depended on him.
In the international version, if he could make some surprises, then it would be logical to enter Weibo.
…
Li Dong didn't care about the international version of Weibo, but he was very concerned about the mobile version of Wan Kon.
After a brief chat about Weibo, Li Dong turned his focus to Wan Kon and asked, "How is the mobile version of Wan Kon online?"
"The effect is very good, but there are not many types of terminals that support the mobile version of Wan Kon. The number of mobile phones that can download the mobile version of Wan Kon is less than 1% of the total number of mobile phones.
The total number of mobile phone users that really support the mobile version of Wan Kon and can run smoothly is probably about 3 million.
Of course, these people are also our main customer group.
They are mainly business people, white-collar workers, and students. Most of them are our inherent customer group.
In the morning, the mobile version just went online, and the number of downloads reached 20,000.
By the end of today, 50,000 downloads is not a big problem.
The next step is to grind and publicize. I dare not say that these 3 million users will all be converted to our customers, but it is still possible to convert 30%.
If we can reach 1 million downloads, that will be our greatest success. "
Li Dong was speechless. At this moment, 1 million was indeed an extravagant hope.
If it was a few years later, would it still be a problem for a million to casually make an app?
In the future, Alipay would have hundreds of millions of users registered with their real names. But at this time, in the mobile field, no one paid attention to it.
As early as the beginning of the year, Alipay launched the mobile payment service.
But now, it was also doubtful whether there were 1 million users. After all, the total number was here. Except for first-tier and second-tier cities, who would use mobile payment for such a high-end service?
Yes, at this time, mobile payment was high-end. Few people would use it, and few people even knew that mobile payments could be made.
Without smartphones, the so-called mobile payment service was just a gimmick.
Li Dong was not disappointed. He nodded and said, "Let's work towards 1 million. At least we still have an advantage now. Support the mobile payment service. Ali can't compare to us in this aspect. We have opened up almost all first-tier and second-tier payment channels. They don't even have this service now. Moreover, even if they do, Ali can't open up so many channels. "
Although Ali had some fame in the internet industry, he was not that famous in the domestic business world.
Li Dong was different. Far away, his business was spread all over the country.
Provincial companies were opened almost all over the country. It was not a big deal to use some of his connections to support the payment of water, electricity, and coal.
Ali might only have some influence in Jiangzhe. If he wanted to open up the channels all over the country, he would have to beat them to death and talk until he had that little bit of hope.
Liu Hong heard that and could not help but laugh. "That's true. The users in first-tier and second-tier cities are quite satisfied with our service. Unlike the smaller cities, people don't have this concept. It's better to implement this new service in the big cities. It will attract more attention and spread more. Even Pingchuan might not be able to accept it as fast as Beijing and Shanghai. We have been cultivating the concept of spending in Pingchuan for a period of time. In the end, most of the people who can accept it are students. "
Li Dong shook his head and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. There's always a process of getting used to new things. Habits need to be developed. Also, mobile payments are troublesome now. "
In 2008, mobile payments had just appeared. The payment method was awesome.
Mobile payments were also available. However, most people used phone charges to complete this service. Although it was called mobile payments, it was still an online service.
As for Tenpay and Alipay, although they had also launched mobile payment services, they were completely different from the modern mobile payment services that everyone understood.
For Alipay, it could only be transferred through Taobao.
Also, it was only applicable to merchants that worked with Alipay.
This meant that if you wanted to use your phone to pay at a merchant that worked with Alipay, you had to first find the merchant's store on Taobao before you could pay through the online store.
It was not like now, where you could just scan the QR code and the money would be transferred to your account.
Tenpay was even more awesome. They did not offer mobile payments, but they introduced a door-to-door payment service.
The salesmen had their own POS machines. You had to swipe your card first, then top up online, and then pay through Tenpay. This was the so-called mobile payment service.
Alipay was not to be left behind. They were working with Lakara and were preparing to launch this service.
The so-called "online purchase, offline payment" model meant that you could buy something on Taobao and then use your card to pay at Lakara.
In short, the mobile payment services launched at the moment were all kinds of strange and bizarre.
If you said it was a mobile payment, then it was.
If you said it was not, then it was the same without a phone. I might as well use my card to swipe. It was more convenient.
Far away, because of Li Dong's guidance, the situation was slightly better.
Now, Wantoon had a special payment interface.
It was bound to your own bank card. As long as the other party had a bank card, you could use the payment interface to make the payment.
Or, if you met a merchant Far away, you could enter a serial number and make the payment.
Yes, serial number. The merchant's serial number.
Li Dong wanted to get a QR code and scan it. The key was that the QR code technology was not mature yet. It could not meet this requirement!
Another problem was the mobile phone. Almost no mobile phone had a QR code scanning function.
Just like that, Wantoon's mobile payment service was the best in the country and even in the world.
It was so simple. You just had to open a payment interface. You could directly use your bank card to make the payment. It was so convenient!
When you met a merchant, you just had to enter the serial number and choose to make the payment. It was so simple. It was not like Alipay and Wantoon, where you had to bring your own POS machine and Lakara.
Far away had a very user-friendly setting. Ever since Wantoon's mobile version was released in the morning, it had received many positive comments.
And for this project, Far away was indeed not as simple as it appeared. Just to get through the bank transfer business, several executives of Far away Technology were almost worried to death.
Now, not to mention inter-bank transfer, even if it was in the same industry but in different cities, they had to pay a handling fee. This money was handed over to the bank.
Li Dong could not change it for the time being. It was much better than Brother Ma bringing a POS machine to the door and charging 15 yuan for a single transaction.
At least, Far away's handling fee was much lower than theirs.
In this day and age, it was not afraid of you charging. As long as you charged less than others, it was success. When Wantoon's service came out, perhaps Brother Ma and Ma Yun would cry.
…
While Li Dong was slandering Ma Yun and Ma Huateng.
These two guys did not cry, but they did look a little strange as they fiddled with the mobile phone in their hands.
Lin 'an.
Ma Yun opened the Wantoon page on his mobile phone, clicked on the payment button, and then a payment page popped up.
After fiddling for a while, Ma Yun said to the technical director of Alipay, "Did you bring your bank card?"
"Bank card?"
The technical director reacted for a while and immediately nodded. "Yes, I did."
After that, he took out a bank card and handed it over.
Ma Yun fiddled with the mobile phone, then began to input the account number into the bank card. After a long while, he let out a long sigh and said, "I paid 10 yuan. Remember to return it to me later."
The technical director did not know whether he was joking or serious. He smiled dryly and did not say anything.
After waiting for a long while, Ma Yun suddenly said, "I paid for you. Is there no response?"
The technical director froze for a moment and then said, "I forgot to say that now the major banks only support text message reminders for online banking users, so customers who have opened online banking can receive the notification. This is also a drawback of the Wantoon service. Customers who have not opened online banking can only see the operation page of the other party. If you want to check the accounts later, you can only go to the bank to check it yourself. "
Ma Yun frowned and said, "The Wantoon operation page is considered simple, but the problems are not small. First, no one will know if the payment was successful or not without activating the text message reminder.
But the text message reminder service can only be used by customers who have opened online banking. In this day and age, how many people have opened online banking?
Second, there are too many bank account numbers. Their merchant code is feasible. There are fewer numbers, so it is not easy to make a mistake.
But if they lose, the money will be transferred to the wrong person. How can they get it back?
Do they have to check it many times every time?
Third, the time it takes for the account to arrive is a little slow. Even if they open online banking and activate text message reminders, I'm afraid it will only arrive tomorrow.
The customer will pay on the spot and run away. Whether the money arrives or not is up to the customer.
Fourth … "
Ma Yun summarized a bunch of problems, but in the end, he said with certainty, "In any case, Wantoon is indeed a step faster than us. At least they have truly implemented the mobile payment service. On this point, Li Dong has done a good job. He has pushed the mobile payment service forward by a big step. As long as the problems I mentioned are solved, the mobile payment service can really be promoted. "
The few people in the office nodded. It was indeed so. At present, Wantoon's mobile payment service was already at the top of the industry.
Alipay's CEO sighed softly and said, "Actually, the key is not only our companies. Some of the problems you mentioned are related to the bank's business.
If they fully support it, it will be much easier.
Promote the mobile phone reminder service and shorten the time it takes to arrive at the account. Then, many problems will be solved.
However, CEO, Wantoon actually has another service that is quite interesting.
That is for both parties who are Wantoon users. They have a balance deposit page.
Open it and take a look. If we both have Wantoon and you pay for me, the money doesn't need to be transferred to the bank card for the time being. Instead, it can be transferred to the balance deposit for temporary storage.
You can clearly see how much money there is on it.
As for the balance, it can be transferred to the bank card, but there will be a handling fee. In other words, there will be a double handling fee, but it will be safer than the previous bank card direct transfer. "
When Ma Yun heard that, his eyes lit up. Then, he said, "Let's try it. This is a bit like our third-party escrow account. If it can be successfully implemented, it will be a magic weapon to solve the mobile payment and even online payment problem. I just don't know if it will be useful. "
Everyone did not say much and cooperated with Ma Yun to conduct another experiment.
Ma Yun looked at the balance display on the phone's interface and deliberated for a moment before saying, "This is Li Dong's killer move!
The problems we are worried about will only make other customers and merchants more worried.
However, with this balance account, we can be more at ease. Although there will be an additional handling fee, ordinary people would rather see it with their own eyes and pay an additional handling fee than wait for the next day to go to the bank to check.
This will be very helpful in promoting the mobile version of Wantoon. Everyone around you is using Wantoon to pay. If you don't, you will be behind the times.
Perhaps because of this, you will lose a lot of business. At least, merchants will be willing to use this.
However … "
As Ma Yun spoke, he sighed softly and said, "However, Li Dong is also walking a tightrope. This kind of third-party account is too risky. It is different from the previous online payment. Our third-party account is just escrow. In fact, we are not operating it ourselves. Li Dong, on the other hand, is obviously operating Far away. Once they investigate, I'm afraid there will be trouble. "
The CEO of Alipay's eyes lit up slightly. "Then, should we …"
Ma Yun shook his head and said with a smile, "I understand what you mean. At this time, if we really want to cause trouble for Far away, it will be easy to do so. However, Li Dong is promoting the development of the entire online payment business. We can't trip him up at this time. I, Ma Yun, still have this big picture, and so do the others. "It's not just me. Ma Huateng and the others will not say anything. They will only tacitly agree and see how the situation progresses. If we interrupt it now, it will ruin the progress of the entire online payment business. You have to understand this. "
Everyone could not help but nod. That was indeed the case.
Far away was now the first person to eat crabs. If it was tacitly agreed, then everyone would follow suit. The online payment business would definitely develop better than it was now.
Far away, even if it failed and the balance account was investigated, it could not be because of the attack of the same industry. This kind of enterprise that did not look at the big picture would be rejected by the entire industry.
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