Chapter 481 - 399: A Valuation of 40 Billion Dollars! Financing of 500 Million Dollars

Almost half a year had passed since Pinduoduo’s A-round financing, and during that time, the company’s development had never slowed.

Backed by the WeChat platform, Pinduoduo siphoned off its massive user traffic. With this immense flow of users, Pinduoduo unleashed unimaginable potential.

This was especially true with the constant nagging from relatives, classmates, and friends to share "Slash" links. Many people had been pestered by them. Through this model, Pinduoduo grew steadily, its registered user count and monthly active users climbing bit by bit.

Consequently, its revenue also climbed steadily.

On Monday, Wu Yun timed his arrival at the Pinduoduo headquarters for half an hour after the workday began.

Having been notified in advance, the Pinduoduo office had put up several welcome banners.

These included ones for Tencent and Revitalization Capital.

The Pinduoduo employees’ faces were also beaming with excitement. After all, as insiders, they knew the company’s situation far better than any outsider. They understood its immense potential, even if it was currently in a cash-burning phase.

Coupled with the favor of major investors, many felt the company could go public and become the third major player in Huaxia’s e-commerce scene.

Today was the final day of financing negotiations. Some were surprised that Revitalization Capital had suddenly jumped into the fray. After all, given Pinduoduo’s cash-burning model, only the most powerful investors would dare to risk such a massive investment.

The previous night, Wu Yun had learned something during a phone call with Li Chaohui.

Li Chaohui had said, "Tencent wants to lead the investment this time!"

When Wu Yun asked why, Li Chaohui revealed the truth.

"During our first-quarter meeting at Tencent, an executive suggested we just copy Pinduoduo’s model and develop our own social e-commerce platform!"

"A lot of people looked tempted at the time, but in the end, Xiaomage went against the consensus and temporarily vetoed the proposal."

"Xiaomage’s reasoning was that we’re in a honeymoon period with you right now, and there’s no need to burn that bridge."

"After all, Pinduoduo deserves a great deal of credit for the rapid adoption of WeChat Pay."

’But Wu Yun wasn’t surprised. After all, a model like Pinduoduo’s could be easily replicated, as long as one had access to a traffic source like WeChat and enough capital to back it.’

But Li Chaohui was the general manager of the Investment and M&A Department, after all. So after revealing this inside information, he showed his fangs. "That’s why," he said, "I think Tencent needs to lead this round and take a larger stake. That’s the only way to shut some people up internally."

After a moment’s thought, Wu Yun agreed.

’After all, Tencent wasn’t just Xiaomage’s one-man show. The shareholder relationships were a tangled mess, and using this method to placate Tencent for the time being wasn’t a bad idea.’

’Even though Wu Yun and Tencent were cooperating on multiple fronts, business was like a battlefield—there were no permanent enemies or friends.’

’So Wu Yun wasn’t without his defenses against Tencent. After all, the WeChat Pay portal and Tencent’s user traffic were invisible shackles and handcuffs on Pinduoduo.’

That was why, when setting up its payment portals, Pinduoduo had included a channel for UnionPay in addition to WeChat Pay.

’Wu Yun had another ace up his sleeve: Douyin.’

’Once he had Douyin, he would just need to acquire a payment license. Then, Wu Yun could finally shout Lü Bu’s famous line: "A true man is born between heaven and earth! How can he languish long under the heel of another?"’

...

The sound of people calling out "President Wu" pulled Wu Yun from his thoughts. He smiled and acknowledged a few of them before walking into his office.

「Time passed quickly.」

Wang Hao knocked before entering. "President Wu," he said, "the representatives from Tencent and Revitalization Capital are already seated in the conference room. Everyone else from our company has arrived, too. We’re just waiting on you."

Wu Yun nodded, grabbed a new notebook and pen from his desk, and followed Wang Hao to the conference room.

When he pushed open the conference room door, Wu Yun found the room, which could seat thirty or forty people, already more than half full.

Tang Hongjiang from Nirvana Investment was there with his team. After all, Nirvana Investment was, at least on paper, the holding company for Pinduoduo.

Tang Hongjiang’s current role was more akin to a manager for Wu Yun’s personal assets, though Wu Yun had also given him the authority to make some angel-round investments on his own.

When Wu Yun entered, everyone in the room rose to their feet to welcome him.

After sitting down, Wu Yun’s eyes fell on Zhou Shuwen. Just yesterday, she had been wearing a sultry dress during their... "in-depth exchange." Today, she was all business in a professional suit. The cold, glamorous look gave her the powerful air of a CEO.

Zhou Shen, acting as the moderator, cleared his throat. "Everyone’s here! Let’s get started!"

The PowerPoint presentation had been prepared in advance, and Tencent was already well aware of the data it contained.

Revitalization Capital had also done its due diligence, using various channels to get a good grasp of Pinduoduo’s situation. So, going through the presentation was merely a formality. The real show would be the subsequent debate over the company’s valuation.

"As of midnight this morning, our registered user count has reached 159 million, with 39.6 million daily active users. This surpasses Sunning, ranking us sixth among all e-commerce platforms."

"As of midnight, our year-to-date GMV has already exceeded 65.5 billion. We project our full-year GMV will surpass the 150 billion mark."

The technical term "GMV" is a product of the e-commerce boom. It can be understood as the total value of sales, which includes the value of any canceled, refused, or returned orders.

Therefore, this figure is calculated as soon as a user submits an order, regardless of whether payment is actually made.