stjorthotic Chapter 124: They recruited Jiang Fan?!
Chapter 124: They recruited Jiang Fan?!
Chapter 124: They recruited Jiang Fan?!
On January 31, 2010, Lin Mu completely broke away from Alibaba. After completing all the handover work at Alibaba, he officially started his own business.
He has already registered the company, named Pinduoduo Internet Co., Ltd., and rented an entire office floor in an innovative industrial park in Shanghai. The office floor is 500 square meters, with a monthly rent of 1 yuan, and the payment method is three months' deposit and one month's rent in advance.
Logically speaking, Lin Mu should have set up his company in Hangzhou, or in other areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
But he must take precautions. Hangzhou is Alibaba's home base. If it's just a small-scale operation, it's fine, but once the business grows and poses a threat to Alibaba, Jack Ma is no pushover. He could use all sorts of overt and covert methods to give him a hard time.
Moreover, given Pinduoduo's early strategy, it was inevitable that it would face problems such as rampant counterfeit goods and lax quality control. Shanghai, on the other hand, might be able to help it avoid many unnecessary troubles, given its desire to support e-commerce businesses.
During this past month, besides being busy with various matters related to the company's relocation, Lin Mu also didn't slack off in recruitment. Talent for almost every position and in every aspect has been recruited. After the New Year, the company will be on track to focus on developing the web version and app of Pinduoduo.
Regarding R&D, Lin Mu had already given clear instructions: only two mobile apps needed to be developed, one for Android and one for iOS. As for other operating systems currently popular on the market, such as Symbian and Microsoft, they could be completely ignored.
In the 2010 mobile phone market, various mobile operating systems were mixed together, and Android had not yet established its dominant position.
Therefore, the colleagues in the technical department were somewhat puzzled by Lin Mu's order.
Mi Yu, a Tsinghua University graduate recommended by Sanfeng, voiced her objection in front of Lin Mu: "President Lin, since we want to do business in the lower-tier market, we have to accept the current state of the mobile operating system market, which is a mixed bag. It's true that Apple and Android occupy a large market share, but we shouldn't ignore the users of other operating systems."
He continued, "Users using other operating systems also want to enjoy affordable and high-quality industrial products, and we shouldn't shut them out."
Lin Mu was persuaded. He reflected inwardly, realizing that this was indeed his arrogance as a reborn person. Since he already knew who the ultimate winner would be, he subconsciously didn't want to waste his energy on the "losers." This kind of thinking was undoubtedly out of touch with the market and the users.
Lin Mu humbly accepted the suggestion and instructed his colleagues in the technical department to advance the development of apps for major operating systems. He also gave them an extra month to avoid mistakes due to the busy schedule.
After resolving the technical department's objections, Lin Mu received a call from Lu Hai. Lu Hai said on the phone, "Lin Mu, are you still short of talent? I know a very interesting young man named Jiang Fan. He used to work at Google China, but he couldn't stand the internal divisions and has now left. He's looking for something to do."
"It's actually Jiang Fan!" Lin Mu was shocked, never expecting such a coincidence.
He clearly remembers that after Jiang Fan left Google China, he started his own business and created an internet tools brand called Umeng.
This tool is specifically designed to monitor mobile app data, helping clients identify problems through data analysis. By 2012...
In 2010, Umeng achieved the top position in its category and was acquired by Alibaba for $80 million. The young Jiang Fan thus became a billionaire once again.
After Alibaba's acquisition, Jack Ma appointed Jiang Fan to oversee Alibaba's mobile strategy. Jiang Fan defied opposition and forcefully pushed forward Alibaba's mobile transformation, also pioneering the personalized waterfall-style recommendation algorithm.
In 2016, he spearheaded the launch of the live-streaming e-commerce era. However, his life subsequently took a dramatic turn when a family scandal erupted, exposing the conflict between his wife and mistress to the public. As a result, he was exiled abroad to take charge of AliExpress's business.
Even so, Jiang Fan still managed to break through the encirclement with his own abilities and made AliExpress a great success overseas, which once suppressed the rapid growth of Alibaba Cloud business.
In 2025, the year Lin Mu was reborn, Jiang Fan once again wielded the big stick of capital, integrated Ele.me, renamed it Taobao Flash Sale, and officially launched the food delivery war.
Many people only see Jiang Fan's talent as a leader, but they overlook the fact that he is a technician by training and is also very good at algorithm development.
Lin Mu pondered. According to Jiang Fan's original life trajectory, after leaving Google China, he would have joined Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation Works to incubate the Umeng project. And it just so happened that Lin Mu encountered that few months' time gap.
He had to seize this opportunity to snatch the talent away; he couldn't let such a person slip through his fingers to Jack Ma, no matter what.
Lin Mu was also secretly curious: if Alibaba lacked a core talent like Jiang Fan, could it still successfully complete its mobile transformation? Perhaps it could, but to what extent it could ultimately be implemented was really hard to say.
Lin Mu met Jiang Fan in a private coffee shop.
At this moment, Jiang Fan was very young, only twenty-five or twenty-six years old, not much older than Lin Mu.
While Lin Mu was observing Jiang Fan, Jiang Fan was also sizing him up. He was filled with curiosity about this young man who was younger than him but had already made a name for himself in the e-commerce industry.
After a long conversation, the two found themselves getting along very well. Jiang Fan strongly agreed with Lin Mu's assessment that the future belongs to the mobile internet, and that with the widespread adoption of affordable and user-friendly smartphones, the world will see an additional 20 to 30 billion personalized screens.
This will have multifaceted impacts, not only changing the marketing model of Google but also reshaping existing business models; even the election methods of democratically elected governments in the West will change accordingly.
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As the conversation reached a climax, Jiang Fan shared his thoughts: "Lin Mu, I believe that in the mobile internet era, data will be even more important than in the client-side era, and the data monitoring business has great potential."
Lin Mu followed his train of thought and said, "You're talking about big data, right?"
Jiang Fan's eyes lit up, and he quickly nodded: "Yes, it's big data!"
Lin Mu sincerely invited, "You shouldn't be doing big data monitoring on your own anymore. Why don't you join my company? I'll set up a new department just for you in the data department, so you can be fully responsible for big data research."
As he spoke, Lin Mu explained his entrepreneurial philosophy and plans in detail. Jiang Fan was deeply moved after listening.
First of all, Lin Mu's idea is very touching. He wants everyone in the world to enjoy the benefits of industry and to make industrial products accessible to the lower classes.
Jiang Fan wasn't detached from worldly affairs; he had also visited rural towns to investigate the market. At that time, rural towns were rife with all sorts of counterfeit goods—fake cigarettes, fake alcohol, and even fake medicine were everywhere. Counterfeit memes like "Lei Bi" originated from the large rural markets.
For those at the bottom of society, being able to use inexpensive and qualified industrial products is already a huge improvement in their quality of life. Even the cheapest genuine industrial products are much better than industrial waste and counterfeit goods.
Secondly, Lin Mu's emphasis on mobile internet coincides with Jiang Fan's. Lin Mu firmly believes that mobile will be a key opportunity for Pinduoduo to achieve a leapfrog development.
Finally, Lin Mu's words completely moved Jiang Fan. He said, "Come to my company and observe for yourself. Pinduoduo's core technology is supported by big data and algorithmic recommendations. Even if it ultimately fails, you can observe firsthand the reasons for its failure, accumulating valuable experience for your future entrepreneurship."
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