As January 2012 rolled in right after New Year's Day, Chen Pingjiang noticed his mother acting perpetually distracted, muttering under her breath about things like the end of the world.
"Mom, stop listening to those wild rumors spread by the neighbors. It's completely impossible."
Xu Fangjuan rolled her eyes at him.
"Of course I know it's impossible, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. What if it actually happens?"
"What else can we do? Just sit at home and wait to die,"
Chen Pingjiang teased with a cheeky smile.
This rumor had taken on a life of its own with oddly specific details—who knew where it had originated. Compounded by the release of the movie 2012, it had thrown people into a widespread panic.
What made it even crazier was the sheer reach of the rumor; it wasn't just spreading domestically, but globally as well. The closer it got to December 21st, the more nervous people became. Only after that date quietly passed did everyone finally realize, Oh, I was tricked.
"Pingjiang, what are your plans for Lunar New Year this year? It's been two years since we last went back, and the elders back home all want to see you."
Chen Guangming had been hesitating over this matter for a while and only worked up the courage to bring it up today.
He knew that the Chen family now managed a massive empire. Making a trip back would be a huge spectacle—demanding immense effort while pleasing very few.
While a few relatives usually came over to pay New Year's visits each year, it was almost always peers or younger generations.
How could the elders be expected to make the journey? Leaving the old elders unvisited year after year would inevitably invite gossip from the family.
Chen Pingjiang's grandparents on his father's side had passed away back when he was in elementary and middle school. Now, his maternal grandparents were getting up in years, with not much time left.
Taking that very issue into consideration, Chen Pingjiang hesitated briefly before nodding.
"Let's head back home this year. But don't inform anyone in advance—we'll just show up."
Xu Fangjuan glanced between her husband and her son.
"What about Xiao Ge and Yan Yan? Won't they have an issue if you don't spend Lunar New Year with them? Besides, once people know we're returning to our hometown, deciding who to bring and who to leave behind becomes a problem in itself."
At the mention of this topic, Chen Pingjiang felt a massive headache coming on.
Fortunately, Yan Yan was naturally calm, distant, and not clingy at all. Had she been a typical young girl, Chen Pingjiang would have been caught in an explosive romantic mess long ago.
Besides, Yan Yan was currently his official, engaged fiancée. When they got engaged earlier, they hadn't invited the relatives from their hometown.
Now that Lunar New Year was here, if he still didn't bring Yan Yan back with him, not only would the hometown relatives voice their disapproval, but even Yan Yan's parents might harbor second thoughts.
Ge Mengshi's end, on the other hand, was much easier to handle.
In fact, she probably didn't even want to tag along with Chen Pingjiang. Exposing herself to the crowds without an official title or status would only make things deeply awkward.
Chen Guangming added dryly,
"Just a gentle reminder: pay attention to how you spend Lunar New Year's Eve. Don't make anyone feel left out or unhappy."
"We'll spend Lunar New Year's Eve with the Ge family. Then, on the morning of New Year's Day, we'll rush back to our hometown to arrange everything. We can just wait for my father-in-law's family to get off the highway when they arrive."
After thinking it over for a long time, Chen Pingjiang came up with a viable compromise.
Fortunately, Zhang Xinyue and Cong Nini were easy to appease. Otherwise, splitting Chen Pingjiang into four wouldn't even have been enough.
Deciding where to spend the New Year was an annual nightmare, leaving Empress Dowager Xu thoroughly displeased once more.
"So now we even have to put on an act with you? Is it going to be like this every single year from now on?"
Chen Pingjiang stood there with a sheepish, crestfallen expression, taking the scolding without daring to utter a word. Talking back at a time like this would only invite another round of lectures.
While Chen Pingjiang himself didn't feel much pressure, it ended up putting a mountain of stress on his parents.
---
As the end of the year drew near, every group under Chen Pingjiang's umbrella was frantically busy, leaving him with no chance to lounge around either.
He had to personally attend and follow up on the year-end "Three Meetings" for every single enterprise:
1. The Strategy Meeting
2. The Talent Review Meeting
3. The Financial Budget Meeting
These meetings set the directional course, goals, and development plans for each group in the coming year.
Based on those targets—and combined with the current performance of active employees—bonuses were distributed, formal performance talks were held, and hiring plans were drawn up for the upcoming year.
They also finalized the financial closing for 2011 alongside the budget forecast for 2012.
Looking back, did we go over budget this year? What was the reason? How should each department's budget be allocated for next year?
Financiers and HR teams across every group were running around in absolute chaos.
HR personnel were busy drafting next year's human resources work plans, organizing year-end debriefings across all management tiers, performing annual performance evaluations, selecting top employees, calculating and submitting year-end bonuses, and more.
Finance teams were equally swamped conducting year-end asset inventory counts.
Once the respective corporate annual galas wrapped up, some employees went straight on holiday, while others were in for a stressful Spring Festival.
Beyond keeping essential staff on duty across all companies, the WeChat Red Envelope project team at Renren.com had to stay glued to their computer monitors working overtime, even on New Year's Eve itself.
On January 22nd, Lunar New Year's Eve...
Chen Pingjiang's family of three packed up and moved over to Ge Mengshi's villa.
---
*Hangzhou, Alibaba Headquarters.*
Today, an internal board meeting for Alipay was underway, with top key partners in full attendance.
There was only a single topic on the agenda: *WeChat Red Envelopes.*
"This is an image that recently circulated online—a leaked look at a new feature WeChat is about to roll out: Red Envelopes. I've called everyone here today to discuss how we should respond and whether this deserves our serious attention,"
Jack Ma spoke first, raising the central question.
The Alipay board consisted entirely of Jack Ma's direct allies; representatives from Yahoo and SoftBank had long since been pushed out.
This tied back to a major event that unfolded within Alipay in 2011: the battle over Alipay's equity ownership.
Whether driven by national security considerations or pure commercial interests, Jack Ma had unilaterally terminated the variable interest entity (VIE) structure—the "agreement control"—with Yahoo and SoftBank, two of the group's major shareholders.
He transferred "Alipay," one of the group's core assets jointly owned with foreign shareholders, into a private company under his own sole control, transforming it from a foreign-joint venture into a wholly domestic enterprise.
This equity transfer was only made public in May 2011 after Yahoo disclosed it. Consequently, Jack Ma's slick maneuver sparked a bitter war of words between Alibaba and Yahoo.
Unwilling to take the hit lying down, Yahoo filed a lawsuit against Alibaba with the SEC.
Eventually, all three parties sat down to negotiate a settlement, agreeing that when Alipay eventually went public, 37.5% of its total market value would be paid out as compensation to the Alibaba Group.
However, this incident severely damaged the credibility of both Alibaba and Jack Ma personally, indirectly encouraging short-selling institutions in the US to target domestic Chinese companies.
Sitting across from Jack Ma were Lucy Peng (Peng Lei), Eric Jing (Jing Xiandong), and Ni Xingjun, along with several other Senior Vice Presidents.
Eric Jing currently served as Alipay's Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Ni Xingjun was a true veteran. Joining Alibaba back in 2003, he was a core member of Alipay's founding team and the developer behind its earliest builds—writing the very first line of Alipay's code.
Currently, Ni Xingjun served as Alipay's Executive Vice President, primarily overseeing product direction.
Without a doubt, Ni Xingjun possessed the strongest authority on technical matters among everyone present.
"This feature isn't technically difficult, and its development cost is extremely low. It's built as a public account using WeChat's API, with the server infrastructure being the primary cost driver. From an ROI perspective, it's a product worth following up on."
At that point, Ni Xingjun pivoted his tone.
"However, at its core, WeChat Red Envelopes are developed on a social premise. In essence, it isn't a financial tool, whereas Alipay is fundamentally a financial utility—unless Alipay intends to pivot toward social networking as well."
This single sentence hit Jack Ma right where it hurt most. What bothered him above all else was Alipay's lack of social attributes, and what he envied most was WeChat Pay's inherent social nature.
"Personally, I believe that while we should follow suit, there's no need to engage in a head-to-head battle with WeChat on this specific front. The best response is to play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses. Alipay needs to dig deeper into its financial features, both in breadth and depth.
Right now, what we need most urgently is to secure a banking license as fast as possible. Most trends in the social realm are just five-minute fads that fade once the hype dies down—it's just eye-catching gimmickry. Real, hard financial services are what truly matter. Our focus should remain on deepening our financial expansion."
Eric Jing nodded in agreement.
"I see it as nothing more than a wrapper placed over WeChat money transfers. When elders give lucky money to the younger generation, it generally only carries real meaning when done face-to-face—that aligns much better with tradition. Furthermore, WeChat Red Envelopes spread virally through 'friend networks and group chats,' with the primary objective of incentivizing more WeChat users to link their bank cards.
However, while this campaign might pull in a wave of new users, user retention is a completely different story. As it stands, the comprehensiveness and usability of WeChat's financial services fall far short of Alipay. A social network chain isn't the deciding factor in the success or failure of a financial product. Therefore, if we bring in the same volume of new users, Alipay's retention rate will be far higher than WeChat's."
"The core challenge facing Alipay is how to acquire new users and boost retention!"
Jack Ma pondered for a long moment before turning to Eric Jing.
"If you admit that Alipay's main hurdle is user acquisition, isn't a high-leverage tactic like red envelopes actually far better suited for the job?"
Eric Jing shook his head.
"Alipay lacks social attributes and relational networks. The exact same investment on our end would yield nowhere near the results of WeChat Red Envelopes. That's why our current user acquisition relies on brute-force marketing and offline merchant partnerships.
Furthermore, internet financial services are a marathon—at the end of the day, it's a competition of underlying value. It's very similar to e-commerce: the 'commerce' aspect is what truly matters, not just the 'electronic' part. Even if WeChat Pay captures this initial wave, the depth and breadth of their product can't hold a candle to ours.
How can they possibly compete with us? In my opinion, there's no need to let WeChat throw us off course. WeChat Pay won't build long-term stickiness overnight, nor have user habits been formed yet. What Alipay needs to do right now is double down on online-to-offline synergies—this window of opportunity won't wait for us."
Lucy Peng approached the issue from a uniquely sharp angle.
"Jack, what Xingjun and Xiandong said makes complete sense, but I'd like to add one point. The red envelope feature is really just a minor tool for WeChat. Why do I say that? Because users can't live without WeChat anyway. As long as the payment feature exists, users will gradually accept WeChat Pay over time. Rolling out red envelopes is merely a way to cultivate user habits, but that's not something Alipay needs to worry about."
"How many people will simply claim a red envelope without ever linking a bank card? How many are actually willing to link a card just to withdraw the funds? How many are trying to figure out how to spend that red envelope balance without linking a card at all? And how many have no clue what to even do with the money sitting in their red envelope?
WeChat missed a vital step—they failed to immediately guide users toward quick spending or withdrawals, leaving that initial enthusiasm untapped before it could translate into actual consumption or usage loops."
Hearing this, Jack Ma smiled slightly.
"Lucy, isn't it a bit too early to draw that conclusion? The feature hasn't even officially launched yet—these are all assumptions based on your personal judgment. Isn't that a little premature?"
Lucy Peng smiled and shook her head.
"It comes back to the same issue: WeChat Pay lacks depth and breadth. User habits for paying through WeChat haven't been formed yet, and that will take a considerable amount of time. Of course, if WeChat Red Envelopes executes its follow-up moves effectively, it will indeed pose a challenge to Alipay. But the real question is: Who is challenging Alipay? Is it WeChat, or is it the mobile version of Tenpay? That's actually a very interesting question."
---
Had Chen Pingjiang been present in the room, he likely would have applauded their brilliant analysis.
It truly proved the old saying: No one understands you quite like your rivals.
To sum it up, the trio shared a single consensus:
Alipay could introduce a red envelope feature, but there was no need to go blow-for-blow with WeChat over such a minor tool.
WeChat's strength lay in its social network, while its weaknesses were a smaller user base, limited market share, and a product that lacked the depth and breadth of Alipay.
Therefore, rather than competing against the opponent's strengths on its own weak turf, Alipay should focus on honing its internal capabilities, maximizing its strengths while minimizing its weaknesses.
Moreover, they understood clearly that Alipay and WeChat possessed fundamentally different attributes, which would ultimately lead to market differentiation.
There was also a crucial elephant in the room that no one explicitly mentioned: peer-to-peer money transfers didn't generate any profit!
Was it underestimating the enemy? Not necessarily.
At this juncture in 2011, whenever people thought of making digital payments, Alipay was overwhelmingly the first choice, while WeChat Pay was barely on the radar.
Whether in terms of reputation or product maturity, WeChat was simply no match for Alipay.
This wasn't just an internal consensus within Alipay—it was the consensus of the broader user base.
In reality, WeChat Pay and Alipay were distinct products serving different niches.
If one insisted on a direct comparison, the mobile version of Tenpay was the true counterpart to Alipay—though at this stage, even Chen Pingjiang himself would be embarrassed to bring mobile Tenpay into the conversation.
Yet, while Lucy Peng and the other two offered sound and grounded advice, they also poked right at Alipay's sore spot—its complete lack of social attributes.
And that was precisely the issue Jack Ma cared about most!
In reality, he hadn't absorbed a single word of their arguments.
His mind was completely consumed by one thought: *Social! Social! Social!*
And you couldn't even say Jack Ma was wrong.
Because anyone with eyes could see that, backed by WeChat's social framework, WeChat Pay would inevitably build strong usage habits among a massive user base over the next three, five, or eight years.
When that day came—when users used WeChat to top up game accounts and pay for everyday in-store purchases—that would be the true nightmare.
If Alipay could acquire social attributes, it could crush WeChat Pay at its root, turning WeChat Pay into a river running without a source.
Thus, from the very beginning, Jack Ma's goal was to eradicate WeChat, whereas Lucy Peng and her colleagues were aiming for a degree of peaceful coexistence.
It's fair to say that none of them quite grasped Jack Ma's core obsession.
After a brief silence fell over the conference room, Jack Ma cleared his throat.
"I still want to pursue social networking. Alipay must have a social component. After all, social interaction is a core human need—and a single app can fulfill it, whereas Alipay currently cannot."
It was a well-known fact that Old Ma was utterly obsessed with social networking.
From AliWangwang to Laiwang, then to DingTalk, Alipay Friends, and later features like Circles and Ruxi...
Whether it was Alibaba as a whole or Jack Ma personally, they never abandoned their dream of conquering social media.
And that obsession had now extended directly onto Alipay.
Because social networking was simply too lucrative.
As a sharp businessman, Jack Ma knew better than anyone that future consumption would be driven primarily by sharing and recommendations.
If Alipay remained nothing more than a financial payment tool, its registered user count would eventually hit a ceiling over time. Active user engagement would steadily decline, and user retention time would shrink further and further.
And history proved that this was precisely how things unfolded: a decade or so later, Alipay registered the lowest user retention time among all major apps!
Thus, Jack Ma was never satisfied with Alipay being a low-frequency, low-activity utility tool. He constantly sought to build up its social features to retain users, boost stickiness, and drive up usage frequency.
The stark reality was that even as a pure payment tool, fewer and fewer users were choosing Alipay when making payments, which naturally fueled Jack Ma's anxiety.
In terms of vision, Jack Ma was exceptionally sharp. However, bound by the sheer difficulty of building a social network from scratch, he was never able to make it work—yet Old Ma refused to accept his fate.
Historically, after Alipay's "Circles" feature failed disastrously, Ant Financial held a group-wide strategy meeting with heads of all global business lines and core management, officially adopting a "No Social Networking" strategy.
From that point on, Alipay abandoned its social media ambitions and publicly declared a return to its core commercial and financial utility.
As Eric Jing once shared during an internal session:
"Alipay doesn't need to chase user screen time. Users are free to spend their time on social media, gaming, or watching videos. For Alipay, as long as users think of us at critical moments when solving essential needs, that is enough."
Yet, just a few years later, Alipay grew anxious once again due to abysmal user retention, attempting to pivot back into social media yet again. Because without user retention, users might stop downloading Alipay on their phones altogether.
"Let's leave it at that for now. Since the New Year holiday is around the corner, let's see how WeChat's Red Envelope feature performs during the Spring Festival break before deciding our next move."
(End of Chapter)