Forcing Me to Be Reborn?!
Chapter 700 - 486 "The Vice Minister

Chapter 700: Chapter 486 "The Vice Minister

Cheng Zhu remembered clearly that the father of WeChat, Zhang Xiaolong, would make a rare public appearance next January after many years.

Zhang Xiaolong pointed out that more and more products are being developed through official accounts because the development, user acquisition, and dissemination costs here are lower.

The split into service accounts did not provide better services, so the WeChat team was researching a new form called "WeChat Mini Programs."

For many merchants, this meant a new channel and a new mode of selling their products.

Especially for many catering brands, Mini Programs were of utmost importance.

Brands like Hey Tea, McDonald’s, and others relied heavily on it.

It differed significantly from food delivery platforms in that it not only featured some of the functionality of such platforms but also allowed merchants to have their own traffic circles.

Initially, delivery platforms had their own subsidies, but a few years later, as the money-burning wars subsided, merchants’ costs actually increased year by year. The difficulty of attracting traffic grew, platform fees became higher, and platforms began to exploit the merchants.

During that period, the high cost of traffic acquisition meant that it was hard to retain it, and it would eventually be converted into platform traffic.

But WeChat Mini Programs were different; they gave each merchant an independent page, and merchants could also set personalized services.

For example, offering certain types of discounts, choosing third-party delivery or own delivery, organizing activities, managing monthly membership cards, etc.

By adopting a registered member model within the Mini Programs, merchants could obtain their own user base—their own traffic circle was now in place.

In fact, McDonald’s did this quite well, creating a successful "McCafé Gold Card" model.

If Cheng Zhu wanted to order McDonald’s delivery later on, he would typically choose to do so through the Mini Program.

Later on, many merchants, even in-store, would often have customers directly order through scanning a QR code on the Mini Program.

Although providing convenience to merchants and customers was secondary in Cheng Zhu’s view,

What he valued more was, "With the Mini Program and our own traffic circle, that means we have massive and complete consumer data in the background."

"The future is the era of big data."

"This data can then be used to predict user preferences through recommendation algorithms."

Overall, for the average merchant, the assistance provided by WeChat Mini Programs was actually limited.

But for internet celebrity brands, those with self-generated traffic, and brands that needed to manage and maintain a fan base, the help offered by Mini Programs was significant!

Cheng Zhu recalled, "Now it’s May 2015, and the launch of the Mini Programs happened at the beginning of 2017."

"It seems there’s still more than a year’s time."

"But actually, in 2017, it was precisely the time when Youu Tea really needed delivery services the most."

"By then, there would be at least several hundred stores nationwide."

"These stores would be concentrated in first, second, and third-tier cities."

"Once there were enough stores, the operations in each store wouldn’t be so saturated."

"By that time, everyone would already be used to ordering takeout."

"Getting in early and laying out plans in advance surely won’t be mistaken."

This was also one of the reasons why Cheng Zhu, despite being in Hang City where Alibaba was also located, tended to prefer Tencent’s Meituan, which was metaphorically standing behind him.

His personality was such that he didn’t like others dictating what to do with his company.

Alibaba typically first invested money and then parachuted in executives which was particularly annoying.

Ousting the founders was a common occurrence.

Indeed, if it weren’t for the "Kidnap the Shen Family Plan," Cheng Zhu could have chosen to cash out and leave at a high point, as the future of premium milk tea was not promising.

But since he decided to lock down Ningning, it was different.

"Besides, I won’t always do premium fruit teas; when the time is right, I can begin to transform and launch subsequent mid-range products."

While the tea drink business might be a fleeting success for others,

For Cheng Zhu, the reborn, he could precisely hit every opportunity.

He aimed to build the longest popular tea beverage brand in the country!

...

The countdown to Youu Tea’s second round of funding began.

As the founder of Youu Tea, Cheng Zhu had to start some preliminary warm-up for the second round of funding.

Since he had already become well-known on the internet, he didn’t mind stepping into the limelight.

Precisely speaking, as his business grew larger and larger, this became unavoidable, and it was hard to maintain the same level of mystery as he did in the past when he was just doing e-commerce.

Cheng Zhu began selecting some suitable media for interviews before the second round of funding, revealing a bit of information to lay the groundwork for the subsequent major announcements.

During this process, the leaders of Technology University contacted him, wanting him to accept an interview with campus reporters and record a special feature video.

Once completed, the video would be shown internally at the university, such as on the canteen’s TV screens.

Then, through the university’s official WeChat and other online channels, it would be published.

Inescapably, Technology University was now most famous for Cheng Zhu.

And what made the university ecstatic was, "This kid is just a freshman; we still have three more years to use him!"

Having the identity of an on-campus student was certainly more advantageous than being an outstanding graduate.

Cheng Zhu wondered, "When it’s enrollment season, will they want me to make a video saying ’Welcome to apply to Zhejiang University of Technology’?"

Given the current attitude of the school leaders, he thought there was a very high possibility they would ask him to go "sell himself."

Interestingly, as Cheng Zhu became incredibly popular online, there seemed to be a trend of him becoming the heartthrob of Technology University...