Unlike WeChat, which spent other people's money to promote its own product, Alipay was legitimately spending its own money to promote itself.
Alipay's counterattack was quite fierce.
On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Alipay launched its red envelope feature.
Moreover, on the very day of its launch, Alipay added sharing entry points for WeChat, Moments, and Weibo. Users could directly share Alipay red envelopes to their WeChat or QQ friends via sharing links. For a time, WeChat Moments was flooded with Alipay red envelopes.
Seeing this, Chen Pingjiang couldn't help but admire Alibaba's execution capability.
"However, borrowing my WeChat to promote your Alipay is just too unprincipled."
If I don't block you now, am I supposed to save you for the New Year celebrations?
Just five hours after Alipay's red envelope feature went live, people noticed that the red envelope sharing functionality had completely failed.
"Whenever I try to share, a red warning icon pops up, reminding me that the content poses a security risk and cannot be shared to WeChat."
Next, Weibo and Renren fell one after another.
Unexpectedly, the flames of war spread even further.
Some netizens reported that stores opened via the WeChat Official Platform could not process payments or receipts using Alipay, with the page displaying a notice:
"Taobao has blocked browser requests coming from WeChat."
WeChat expanded the scope of its blockade against Alipay. After banning Alipay red envelopes, it proceeded to block all links and requests associated with Alipay across the entire WeChat platform.
Yet Chen Pingjiang felt his actions were entirely beyond reproach. If he and Jack Ma swapped places, would Jack Ma allow him to borrow Alibaba's channels for promotion?
That would undoubtedly be nurturing a tiger to invite harm!
Now, things blew wide open!
Outraged netizens began slinging abuse, merchants were similarly affected, and major news media outlets turned their spotlight onto the feud.
"This is a battlefield without the smoke of gunpowder. WeChat and Alipay are at each other's throats, locked in a fierce head-to-head battle, with online sellers and everyday netizens suffering the greatest impact."
"Some merchants with WeChat stores reported on Weibo that consumers accustomed to using Alipay found themselves unable to adapt once Alipay was blocked, opting instead to abandon their purchases altogether. This not only dragged down transaction efficiency but also dealt a significant blow to the normal operations of these stores."
"In addition, netizens constantly jumping between Alipay and WeChat voiced their exhaustion, and their enthusiasm for sharing red envelopes plummeted. Industry insiders analyze that this direct clash over red envelope sharing between WeChat and Alipay is, in reality, a war for the vast mobile payment market behind it."
"Why won't WeChat let me collect my money! As rivals, fair competition is fine, but WeChat directly blocking Alipay is just far too unseemly. It goes against the corporate image of a major company."
"Chen Pingjiang has also developed the bad habit of acting 'utterly autocratic,' lacking breadth of vision and magnanimity. If WeChat continues to cross the bottom line with users, it will surely hurt its brand image. Then, more and more people will come to hate WeChat."
"Exactly! Who knows, maybe one day another tech company will launch a new social app to replace WeChat. For users, whatever software is good to use, they will use it. It doesn't have to be WeChat."
WeChat's complaint hotlines were ringing off the hook, and media interview requests came one after another.
At four o'clock that afternoon:
WeChat issued a formal response regarding the matter, stating that WeChat Moments would not tolerate anyone engaging in malicious marketing under the guise of red envelopes.
They also cited Article 4.2 of the User Code of Conduct:
"Users are prohibited from posting inducement-based information; otherwise, the information will be blocked, and severe cases may result in account bans."
Anyone with half an eye could tell what was really going on, but WeChat's actions were perfectly legal and within their rights. Beyond complaining, there was nothing anyone could do.
Just two hours after WeChat, Weibo, and Renren implemented the block:
Tencent's suite of products—QQ, Qzone, and WeiLiao—followed suit, blocking Alipay right behind them.
This left people even more dumbfounded.
Was Pony Ma losing his mind?
We know you have a good relationship with Chen Pingjiang, but is it really necessary to play the loyal lackey obeying your big brother's orders?
Besides, if Alipay red envelopes couldn't be shared via WeChat or Weibo, wouldn't people just turn to QQ?
Wouldn't you be profiting handsomely from that? Why turn away business knocking at your door?
"Brother Ma, thanks a lot for supporting my work this time. Say no more—next time you come to Dongjiang, dinner's on me,"
Chen Pingjiang said into his phone with a chuckle. On the other end was Tencent's Pony Ma.
"What's between us? No need to be polite. Let's leave it at that for now, talk later."
After hanging up, Pony Ma shook his head with a bitter smile.
Criticism from the outside world poured in incessantly, and even internally some people were grumbling; he had heard it all.
Things like "degrading oneself to act as WeChat's enforcer," or "as a senior, is it really necessary to obey a junior's every command?" Or even, "Does Tencent belong to Chen or Ma?"
To all this, Pony Ma could only spread his hands helplessly.
He couldn't help it—Chen Pingjiang had simply offered way too much.
The ties between the two companies grew deeper and deeper, leaving Tencent no choice but to completely align itself with Renren. Besides, its relationship with Alibaba was mediocre at best to begin with.
First of all, Chen Pingjiang himself was a shareholder in Tencent, albeit holding a limited stake.
Second, both were shareholders in Renren Buy, and Tencent had reaped plenty of benefits alongside them.
Finally, their business integration was getting tighter and tighter.
This time, Chen Pingjiang slashed in half the processing fees incurred by all Tencent products when using WeChat Pay.
The money saved was an astronomical figure—how could Pony Ma not be moved?
Chen Pingjiang didn't feel he lost anything either. Tencent planned to build its own payment system anyway; a giant like that wouldn't rely on WeChat Pay forever.
Furthermore, cutting the processing fees was an excellent way to bind Tencent even tighter to his war chariot.
That evening, amid widespread clamor, Chen Pingjiang responded directly to the blockade on Weibo for the first time:
"The shared content poses security risks, and Alipay red envelopes are suspected of malicious marketing. When the Alibaba ecosystem integrates WeChat Pay, then we can talk about this issue again. I personally remain open to any form of cooperation, but you can't eat out of a pot and then turn around and smash it, can you?"
...
Alibaba Headquarters.
Jack Ma tapped the table and said with a smile,
"Now do you see how important social networking is? Without social channels, we can't even promote our own products. Renren and Tencent have locked down every single channel, leaving us unable to leverage any of their interpersonal networks."
Lucy Peng nodded helplessly:
"This falls within the scope of normal business warfare. They used reasonable rules as a pretext, so even though everyone knows their intentions, we can't find a loophole to attack. Lawsuits or formal complaints are completely pointless. Though WeChat doing this is also damaging its own reputation."
Jack Ma laughed softly:
"Chen Pingjiang doesn't care about damaging his reputation. His dominance in social networking is already established; no one can shake the status of WeChat and Weibo—not even Tencent. Didn't you read what he posted on Weibo?
Telling us to integrate WeChat Pay. It sounds nice on the surface, but anyone with sense knows it's impossible. Taobao and Tmall won't do it, and Alipay certainly won't, or else wouldn't I be spending money to promote WeChat for him?"
Everyone present felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
In the past, Alibaba was always the one bullying other companies. They never expected that today they would be put in their place, left thoroughly outmaneuvered.
At this time, Alipay lacked a friend system.
This meant the newly launched red envelope feature couldn't circulate within Alipay's own system.
Alipay couldn't just hand out red envelopes to users directly on its own, could it? That would be meaningless and far too costly.
So Jack Ma came up with an idea: bring merchants into the fold, let them issue the red envelopes, and then have Alipay subsidize the merchants.
Using WeChat and Weibo, they could move quickly.
Jack Ma said,
"Right now, the Laiwang project has already been launched, and Alipay's friend system needs to follow suit quickly. Being cornered like this is too frustrating. Fortunately, we kept an ace up our sleeve this time, foreseeing that WeChat might block us. Old Ni, everything ready?"
Ni Xingjun nodded:
"Passcode red envelopes are ready and can go live tomorrow. This time, whether it's WeChat or QQ, neither will be able to block them. It's going to give Chen Pingjiang a huge surprise."
"Haha, great! I can't wait to see Chen Pingjiang's expression when he sees the passcode red envelopes."
...
The next day.
Chen Pingjiang looked at the Alipay passcode red envelope on his phone screen as Miao Bingwei briefed him from the side.
"We can't block it this time. When a user shares a red envelope to WeChat, Alipay automatically generates an image containing a numerical passcode. It doesn't need a sharing API; users just upload the image to Moments or send it to WeChat friends.
Other users see the Alipay red envelope passcode, memorize the digits, open the Alipay app, tap the red envelope passcode section at the top of the homepage, and enter the code to complete the entire process."
"Alipay clearly came prepared—they were guarding against us all along!"
Weibo CEO Wen Yan shook his head with a smile:
"Who would have thought they'd use such a crude workaround to bypass our restrictions? Not to mention that it's impossible for us to monitor every image and string of numbers, even if we could, doing so would cross privacy lines."
Li Xi pointed to his phone:
"Alipay just issued a response. I forwarded it to our executive group chat. Chairman Chen, take a look."
Chen Pingjiang opened WeChat, clicked on the image, and saw Alipay's announcement.
—Yesterday, the Alipay Customer Center received calls from numerous merchants stating that starting yesterday afternoon, stores opened via the WeChat Official Platform and various mini-programs were unable to use Alipay for payments or receipts. According to our investigation:
—The payment services provided by Alipay to merchants, including their WeChat stores, remain unchanged. If you have any questions, please contact WeChat for inquiries.
—If consumers wish to continue paying via Alipay, they may open their browser to complete the payment.
This announcement made it crystal clear to merchants: "The fact that you can't use Alipay isn't our doing—go complain to WeChat."
After reading it, Chen Pingjiang set his phone aside:
"Their reaction was fast and accurate. It seems we don't have a good way to counter either of these two moves?"
Li Xi's expression was grim:
"Old Ma is really something. We allowed his Alipay to integrate into our WeChat Official Account merchants and mini-programs, yet he never considered accommodating WeChat. Now that something happened, he turns around and bites us. Besides, their red envelope feature was copied from us in the first place!"
At this point, Zhang Yiming, who was attending the meeting, raised an eyebrow as if he had discovered something interesting.
"Chairman Chen, there's a bug in their design!"
"Oh?" Chen Pingjiang looked over with interest. "Go on."
"When they designed this product, they only considered merchants using passcode red envelopes for advertising and promotions, completely neglecting ordinary users. Sure, passcode red envelopes bypass our restrictions, but security drops significantly as well. What happens if someone who knows the passcode spreads it far and wide?"
Miao Bingwei blurted out without thinking:
"Unrelated people will claim them! It could even spawn dedicated studios and automated scripts that spot passcode red envelopes and share them across all their devices to exploit the promotions together."
A playful grin appeared on Chen Pingjiang's face.
"So, in other words, we should fan the flames and give them a little push?"
(End of Chapter)