'Getting ready to start a price war,' read a single-line message posted three days ago on Sina.com's 'microblog' service, the mainland's answer to Twitter.
It might have been lost in the sea of Chinese-language cyber-babble were it not for its author: Xia Zhibing, the general manager of Warren Buffett-backed carmaker BYD's vehicle sales unit.
Sure enough, Shenzhen-based BYD yesterday announced aggressive, nationwide price cuts of up to 20 per cent, or 15,000 yuan (HK$17,700), on its top five best-selling car models.
BYD 'fired the first shot of the Lunar New Year' by slashing the manufacturer's suggested retail price of the cars, the company said in a statement - a departure from the usual practice of letting dealers set discounts at the local or regional level.
BYD said it made the rare move 'in response to the negative impact from the withdrawal of government [stimulus] policies', most of which expired at the end of December.
The home-grown carmaker said the price cuts would help it 'seize more market share' and that the 'full impact' of the move would be felt by competing joint-venture brands.