Source: Brokerage China Author: Qu Hongyan Recently, China Yangtze Power hit a historical high and once again showed the slow bull stock trend of "tripling in ten years". The slow bull market has left behind many passers-by and brought good returns to the steadfast investors. It is "rare for those who triple in one year to be like carp jumping over the dragon gate, while those who double in three years are few and far between." On the other end of the investment world, however, violent collapses are also deafening, with many financial products suspected of "Ponzi schemes" ceasing payments, leaving investors with no hope of recovering their investments. Both positive and negative cases illustrate the importance of forming a suitable mentality towards money in one's lifetime; otherwise, sooner or later, you will divorce yourself from your money. "I call this the money mind, a person's IQ can reach 120, 140, or even higher levels, and perhaps some people's minds are good at doing one thing, while others are good at doing another. They can do things that most ordinary people can't do. But I know some very smart people who make very foolish decisions because they lack the money mind." Buffett once said so. The so-called money mind refers to believing in common sense, believing in compound interest, being cautious and rational, thinking independently, prioritizing security over return, not dealing with people with questionable character, not easily guaranteeing for others, not believing in windfall profits, and not trying to cross legal norms for extra benefits. In today's world of ubiquitous information, everyone's wealth may become the "prey" of those with ulterior motives. Only with the money mind, can one form good behavior habits and shield oneself from separating from one's wealth. Do not entrust your wealth easily. Wealth is easy to lose but hard to accumulate, and trust is a vital reason leading to the rapid loss of wealth. "Do not allow anyone else to manage your business unless you can watch their every move closely and understand their behavior; or you have strong reasons to believe in their character and ability. For investors, this criterion determines when you can let someone else make investment decisions for you." Graham's criterion written eighty years ago is so clear. Almost all the investors who lost their wealth in the financial products have violated the above two criteria. They did not have the ability to closely supervise the whereabouts of their funds, nor did they have sufficient reasons to believe in the character of the product issuers. They easily invested their own wealth solely based on others' glib tongue and a piece of commitment paper. They did not act as gatekeepers of their own wealth and ended up with nothing left even if the government punished the wrongdoers. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This is a phrase Munger often says. Destiny must be in one's own hands, and investors with a suitable money mind will try their best to find suspicious points in their investments to protect the safety of their principal. For example, whether the manager is trustworthy, whether the underlying assets are profitable, whether oneself can timely monitor the risks in the investment process, and whether the sales staff is obtaining large commissions. As long as any unreliable signs are found, these investors firmly will not invest their money. Do not desire to get rich quick. As in the capital market and anywhere else, making money is not easy, and desiring to get rich quick will lead to quick loss of wealth. In the capital market, the desire to get rich quickly often leads to investors over-allocating specific stocks, industries, or assets at the worst time. For example, buying high-risk stocks that can gain huge returns once an adventure succeeds, but the chance of success is very small, also known as "whispering stocks" by legendary fund manager Peter Lynch. "They often tell investors a story with explosive effects. These 'whispering stocks' have a hypnotic effect on people, and it is easy for you to believe that the story the company tells has an emotional appeal that can easily confuse you." This is like hearing a very tempting "sizzling" sound, making you salivate, but you did not notice that there is no steak on the grill. In the eyes of investors who lack the money mind, stable yield provided by blue chips such as China Yangtze Power cannot meet their demands. However, historical experience clearly shows that buying stocks lacking in safety solely based on imagined high yields is unwise. The long-term average investment return of general stocks is 9%-10%, which is also the average investment return of stock indexes in history, a benchmark to measure one's investment performance and the benchmark to measure fund investment performance.

Author: Li Yingchao

Taobao announced in early September its plan to add WeChat Pay capabilities, allowing merchants to access WeChat Pay as a payment method. The announcement at the time stated that with the addition of these services, Taobao would update its platform rules, with the main changes being the standardization of terms such as "payment institution," "payment account," "payment account balance," and "order transaction amount" for payment service providers.

This adjustment was announced on September 5, 2024, and will take effect on September 12, 2024. When Quanshang China reporters inquired with Taobao's official customer service about the latest progress, their response was, "Taobao is committed to enhancing the shopping experience for consumers and is currently inviting merchants to open WeChat Pay in batches. Please stay tuned."

"Many people are eagerly anticipating this"

It is understood that once WeChat Pay capabilities are officially launched, the payment page for Taobao Tmall merchants will directly display the option to pay with WeChat Pay, and users can also use WeChat Pay directly on the Taobao Tmall app.

When Quanshang China reporters inquired with Taobao's official customer service, their response was, "Taobao is committed to enhancing the shopping experience for consumers and is currently inviting merchants to open WeChat Pay in batches. Please stay tuned."

On September 4th, Taobao Tmall announced that in order to enhance the consumer shopping experience, Taobao plans to add WeChat payment capabilities and make platform rule adjustments after the end of this opinion solicitation. It is reported that this adjustment will cover all Taobao and Tmall merchants.

In response to this, Taobao Tmall stated to the reporter of Quan Shang China that Taobao Tmall has always adhered to the concept of open cooperation, actively exploring interoperability and cooperation with various platforms, and constantly improving the consumer shopping experience, making shopping more convenient, enjoyable, and efficient for consumers.

WeChat Pay also responded that the current compatibility with Taobao platform merchants is being opened, please pay attention to the specific online time in the Taobao platform announcement.

WeChat Pay has always adhered to the open cooperation concept and actively explored interoperable cooperation with various fields. WeChat Pay has previously carried out payment interoperable cooperation with UnionPay Cloud QuickPass, JD Pay, payment platforms of the three major operators, digital RMB, and others, and will continue to explore to continuously provide convenience to users while ensuring transaction security.

As the current main payment service provider for Taobao, Alipay promptly stated: openness leads to a greater future. Alipay responded that openness, collaboration, innovation, and sharing are the basic spirit of the Internet and the general trend of industry development.

Alipay will continue to deepen strategic cooperation with Taobao Group, increase technological and product innovation, and continue to create greater value for the majority of merchants and consumers. Alipay also stated that openness leads to a greater future. Alipay will open up greater business opportunities for the platform in terms of Internet technology, AI technology products, and a broader ecological environment, helping to revitalize and prosper the digital economy.

Interoperability

Previously, the domestic internet giants' payment ecosystems were once in a state of non-interoperability and mutual blocking, but now gradually breaking the closed state. Taobao's support for WeChat Pay can be seen as a recent node of interoperability among internet platforms.

Taking into account the overall background, this interoperability between the two parties should be considered for the benefit of all parties involved, according to industry insiders. The e-commerce industry has changed rapidly in recent years, and the Taobao Group, after many years of development, needs to innovate and change, while WeChat Pay is a more widely used payment tool domestically.

The industry generally believes that this interoperability will create a better experience for consumers and also bring more business growth opportunities for merchants on the Taobao and Tmall platforms. Allowing WeChat Pay access after Taobao will not only provide better services to Taobao merchants and users, but will also complement the service scenarios for WeChat Pay. At the same time, it also increases service channels for Taobao merchants and provides users with more payment options, contributing to an overall enhancement of the service experience on Taobao.

'Before this, some users who prefer to use WeChat Pay and some users in the sinking market were unable to consume smoothly on the Taobao Tmall platform due to payment limitations.' Some e-commerce professionals also told Quanshang China reporters that after Taobao added the ability to use WeChat Pay, these users have the opportunity to become new additions to the Taobao/Tmall merchants.

A larger market, more traffic, and merchants have long been looking forward to the growth potential that WeChat can bring.

Frequent actions.

'Helping merchants manage their businesses in the long term, leading the industry to optimize the business ecosystem of the e-commerce industry, seems to have become an important development trend for Taobao at present.' Industry insiders pointed out that with the integration of WeChat Pay into Taobao and Tmall, more interconnection will bring more new dividends. Merchants may obtain more certain growth, and the platform will also usher in a new wave of new merchants entering.

In fact, in recent times, Taobao has been taking frequent actions regarding merchant operations.

In the second half of this year, Taobao has officially launched a new version of the experience rating system, which encourages merchants to provide good services to consumers in order to increase their business through the linkage between the experience rating and search ranking.

According to information obtained by Chinese brokerage journalists, on July 26, Taotian Group officially announced a series of new strategies, including the launch of the new version of the experience scoring system, optimizing the "refund only" policy, and completely abolishing Tmall annual fees. Overall, the new strategies announced by Taotian this time aim to improve the platform's service quality, enhance user experience and protect consumer rights, and promote the healthy development of businesses.

It is understood that since the launch of the new "refund only" policy, thanks to the empowerment of merchants in after-sales service and upgrades to the model for identifying abnormal "refund only" behaviors, the intervention of the Taobao Tmall platform in the "refund only" scenario where the buyer has confirmed receipt of the goods has decreased by 20%, and the number of unreasonable "refund only" cases has sharply declined.

Overall, major e-commerce platforms have successively launched the "refund only" policy this year, effectively protecting consumer rights. However, it should not be ignored that while "refund only" protects consumers, it is also exploited by some opportunistic individuals at the expense of the legitimate rights of businesses.

The aforementioned insiders in the e-commerce industry also told China Securities Journal reporters that platforms also need to actively explore a way to protect consumer rights while optimizing the business environment and creating a healthier e-commerce ecosystem.

Editor/Rocky