Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

186: Chapter 186 Cash Red Envelope RainAt 10:00 PM, all prize draws concluded.

The host said mysteriously, ”There is one final segment.”

Su Chen returned to the stage.

”The prizes just now were about luck. This one is about heart.” He took out his phone. ”I will count down three, two, one, and everyone shake your phones together.”

A countdown appeared on the big screen: 3, 2, 1!

Thirty thousand people raised their phones and shook them simultaneously.

The internal Spark Technology app popped up the red packet page.

”Red packet received: 88,888 yuan”

”Red packet received: 52,000 yuan”

”Red packet received: 16,888 yuan”

...

The amount was random, but the algorithm guaranteed: a minimum of 888 yuan, and a maximum of 880,000 yuan.

Background data displayed in real-time:

Total amount distributed: 1.5 billion yuan

Average per person: 10,000 yuan

Highest amount: 880,000 yuan (won by an engineer on a military project)

Lowest amount: 888 yuan (but the person who won it was also happy—it was free money)

At the Xian base, Old Wang looked at his phone screen: 66,666 yuan.

His hands shook so much he couldn’t hold the phone.

”Sixty-six thousand... sixty-six thousand...” he muttered, ”The down payment for my son’s wedding car is enough... it’s enough...”

He called his wife, and the first thing he said after it connected was to cry: ”Wife, the company gave out money, sixty-six thousand! Our son has a car now!”

On the other end of the line, his wife also cried.

Scenes like this were happening all over the country simultaneously.

At 11:00 PM, outside the stadium.

Five thousand drones took off and formed arrays in the night sky.

First, the Spark Technology logo appeared, flames burning.

Then it changed into Chinese characters: Thank you, every one of you.

Finally, the drones began to change formations—wings spread, tail feathers extended, head held high.

A fire-bathing phoenix soared and flapped its wings in the Shenzhen night sky.

The lights of every drone were precisely controlled; the texture of the feathers was clearly visible, and the dynamic of the flapping wings was smooth and natural.

The whole venue was silent.

Everyone looked up, watching that phoenix.

Li Mengqi was at the control console, her eyes wet. Seven days and seven nights without sleep, all for this moment.

The phoenix circled three times in the air, then held its head high and let out a long cry—although there was no sound, everyone felt as if they had heard that clear whistle.

Finally, the phoenix turned into countless points of light, falling like a meteor shower.

The applause lasted for ten minutes.

CCTV News Channel inserted these 30 seconds of footage with the caption: ”The hardcore romance of a Chinese tech enterprise.”

That night, Spark Technology occupied six of the top ten trending searches on the Chinese microblogging platform:

#Spark Technology Billion Annual Meeting#

#Five Thousand Drone Phoenix#

#Other People’s Company#

#Su Chen Work Uniform#

#1.5 Billion Red Packet#

#Europe Chooses Spark Technology#

The next morning at 9:00 AM sharp.

Shanghai Municipality, Spark Technology R&D Center.

28-year-old chip architect Zhang Chen was eating breakfast when his phone vibrated.

Bank app notification: [China Merchants Bank] Your account *8888 received 400,000.00 yuan on February 12th at 9:00, balance...

Zhang Chen counted the zeros three times.

Four hundred thousand.

His monthly salary was 80,000, and his year-end bonus was five months—theoretically 400,000, but after tax, it should be less than 300,000.

He clicked on the details: Year-end bonus 400,000, marked ”Spark Technology Annual Performance Bonus.”

”Tax... did the company pay it?” he muttered.

The internal company forum had exploded.

Hot post: ”Year-end bonus arrived, show off your numbers!”

Replies flooded in:

”P7, monthly salary 40,000, year-end bonus 200,000, grateful!”

”M3, monthly salary 60,000, year-end bonus 300,000, crying.”

”Technical worker, monthly salary 12,000, year-end bonus 60,000, will work hard again next year!”

”Overseas branch, monthly salary 15,000 USD, year-end bonus 75,000 USD... I love Spark Technology!”

The highest one: A certain chip design expert, monthly salary 120,000, year-end bonus 600,000—after tax.

But what was even more touching were the details: the company paid the personal income tax on the year-end bonus for all employees, and used the most favorable tax calculation method. This meant that what the employees received was pure income.

”My previous company paid a 50,000 year-end bonus, and after tax, only 30,000-plus remained. Spark Technology paid 50,000 directly, and they paid the tax.” An employee posted, ”Just for this, I can work until retirement.”

10:00 AM, Shenzhen North Station.

Two hundred buses brought Spark Technology employees; they held high-speed rail tickets purchased by the company and were preparing to go home.

The Human Resources Department set up a station on-site to distribute ”Spark Technology Spring Festival Gift Packages”: snacks, drinks, spring couplets, ”Fu” characters, and a thank-you letter signed by Su Chen.

”Please line up in an orderly manner and pay attention to safety!” the staff shouted, ”Families who are both at Spark Technology can use the ’Family Lane’!”

A young couple holding their child walked through the family lane. The husband was a software engineer, and the wife was a tester.

”What are your two employee IDs?” the staff member smiled.

After reporting the IDs, the system displayed: Eligible for family package.

”These are the tickets for the three of you.” The staff member handed over three high-speed rail tickets and an additional children’s gift package, ”Have a pleasant trip, see you after the Spring Festival!”

The wife’s eyes turned red: ”Thank you... we haven’t gone home together in three years, we always missed each other’s shifts.”

”Have a good reunion this year.” The staff member said, ”The company said, during the Spring Festival, a family should be together.”

On the other side, employees driving home were registering.

”Fuel and toll fees are fully reimbursed, plus a 2,000 yuan subsidy.” The staff explained, ”But pay attention to safety, don’t drive while tired.”

”Don’t worry!” A young man from the Northeast grinned, ”I’m driving a Red Flag E-MINI back to show my parents what kind of company I work for!”

The list of employees staying behind was also published—the production line cannot stop, and chips must be produced as usual.

Their benefits: Triple salary, 15 days of compensatory leave after the Spring Festival, family consolation payment of 10,000 yuan, paid directly to the family’s account.

On New Year’s Eve, Su Chen and Luo Qinghe personally went to the base to accompany them for New Year’s dinner (already announced).

”Actually, I wanted to stay behind.” A young engineer said on the forum, ”Triple salary + consolation payment, I could get 50,000 more. And I could eat with Boss Su...”

”To the person above, Boss Su said, we’ll rotate next year, everyone will have a chance.”

12:00 PM, #Spark Technology Year-end Bonus# rushed to number one on the Chinese microblogging platform trending searches.

Topic views: 820 million.

The popular post was a screenshot posted by an anonymous account: On the pay slip, ”Year-end bonus: 5.0 months,” actual amount paid: 274,500 yuan.

Caption: ”Second year at Spark Technology, monthly salary 55,000, year-end bonus 270,000. This year I can buy a house for my parents back home. Thank you to the company, thank you to this era.”

Comment section:

”I’m jealous, I’m really jealous.”

”Monthly salary 55,000... I can’t earn this much in five years.”

”The point is the company pays the tax, 270,000 is what you get.”

”Is Spark Technology still hiring cleaners? The 985 graduate kind.”

Another viral post was from an employee who won a Red Flag automobile: Employee badge photo + car keys, with the stadium in the background.

”25 years old, joined Spark Technology for a year and a half, won a car. My dad said ’Does your company still need a dad?’”

Everyone laughed like crazy.

But there were also different voices.

A well-known financial big V wrote a long article: ”Spark Technology is burning money like crazy, is it a feast or the last carnival?”

The article listed: Billion annual meeting, 1.5 billion red packets, 500 cars, year-end bonuses far exceeding industry standards.

Conclusion: ”Spark Technology is using capital bubbles to exchange for short-term cohesion, but this model is not sustainable. Once growth slows down, huge labor costs will crush the company.”

This article was reposted 100,000 times.

But one hour later, Spark Technology CFO Shen Nanpeng responded with his real name.

Verified account ”Shen Nanpeng - Spark Technology CFO” reposted the article, adding:

”Thanks for the concern. Let’s do a simple calculation: Spark Technology 2017 net profit: 150 billion yuan. Total expenditure for this year-end bonus + red packets: about 15 billion yuan, accounting for 10% of net profit. Total employees 150,000, net profit created per person: about 1 million yuan. Labor cost as a percentage of revenue: 18%, lower than the industry average of 22%. Conclusion: We can afford to pay, and it’s worth it. Because good employees are not a cost, they are capital.”

This post included nine pictures: financial data of Spark Technology’s various business lines, per capita efficiency comparison, employee satisfaction survey (98.7%), turnover rate (0.8%, industry average 15%).

Data speaks for itself, irrefutable.

The big V deleted the post.

2:00 PM, a certain new energy vehicle company headquarters in the Imperial Capital.

CEO conference room, the atmosphere was oppressive.

”Spark Technology’s year-end bonus is five months, we originally planned to pay two months.” The HR director said cautiously, ”Now... the employees are all talking about it.”

The CEO rubbed his temples: ”What is our profit?”

”Last year we lost 3 billion.”

”Then pay nothing!” The CEO threw his cup, ”Tell the employees, the company is in difficulty, we must overcome the hard times together. Year-end bonus... 0.5 months.”

”But this will lead to a loss of talent...”

”Let them leave!” The CEO said irritably, ”That money-burning model of Spark Technology, I’ll see how long they can burn!”

The same situation happened in the mobile phone industry, the internet industry, and traditional manufacturing.

Headhunting company phones were blown up.

”I want to poach Spark Technology’s chip engineers, how much?” a car company HR asked.

The headhunter quoted: ”Monthly salary at least 80,000, year-end bonus guaranteed for six months, signing bonus starts at 500,000. And... they might not come.”

”Why? We are a big company too!”

”Because Spark Technology not only gives money, but also gives dignity and dreams.” The headhunter spoke the truth, ”I contacted ten Spark Technology employees, nine said ’not considering it.’ Another one said ’unless your annual meeting also gives away cars and the boss also wears a work uniform.’”

”They’re crazy, they’re all crazy!”

But the ones who were truly crazy were the university career offices.

Tsinghua, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong... Employment intention surveys of graduates from top universities showed: Spark Technology soared from fifth place last year to first place, far exceeding traditional big factories and foreign companies.

”Students aren’t asking ’how much is the salary,’ they’re asking ’how many months of year-end bonus,’ ’do you give away cars at the annual meeting’.” The director of Tsinghua’s career office smiled bitterly, ”Spark Technology has redefined the rules of the game in the talent market.”

And the most far-reaching impact was overseas.

On LinkedIn, many foreign engineers began following the Spark Technology recruitment page.

An American chip designer posted on a forum: ”Spark Technology has set up an R&D center in Munich, the salary is 1.5 times that of Infineon, and they provide Chinese work visas. I’m considering it...”

Replies below:

”Go for it, China is the future.”

”But political risks...”

”Technology has no borders, and Spark Technology is really doing things that change the world.”

On the evening of February 12th, Su Chen was looking at the data report in his office.

Luo Qinghe pushed the door open and came in: ”The effect is explosive. Employee satisfaction is 99.2%, turnover intention survey, 99% of people chose ’would never voluntarily resign’.”

”What about that 1%?” Su Chen asked.

”Those who want to start a business, or have family reasons and must return to their hometowns.” Luo Qinghe laughed, ”Even headhunters say Spark Technology is now an ’impregnable fortress,’ impossible to poach.”

Su Chen walked to the window, looking at the night view of Shenzhen.

”Old Luo, do you think we are too crazy? Billion annual meeting, 1.5 billion red packets, five months year-end bonus...”

”Crazy?” Luo Qinghe walked to his side, ”If this is called crazy, I hope all Chinese companies are this crazy. Let engineers have dignity, let workers have hope, let technical talents not have to live miserably for a mortgage—this is what a tech company should do.”

”Europe is stable.” Luo Qinghe changed the subject, ”Five countries have officially signed, the ESDA alliance will be listed in Brussels next week. Academician Li Weimin will serve as the chief scientist.”

”What about America?”

”Besides cursing, there are no substantive actions yet. But they must be brewing a bigger move.” Luo Qinghe said, ”Intelligence shows that the Department of Commerce is drafting new regulations, which may prohibit any products using Xinghuo Chip from entering America.”

Su Chen smiled: ”Then let them ban it. The Chinese market is big enough, the European market is opening up, and the Asia-Africa-Latin America market has not been developed yet. Globalization has never been just about America.”

His phone vibrated.

Shen Nanpeng sent a message: ”Boss Su, the year-end bonus has been fully distributed. There is a small problem: some employees have donated.”

”Donated?”

”Many employees, after receiving their year-end bonus, spontaneously donated to the company’s ’Spark Technology Scholarship Fund,’ the total amount has exceeded 50 million. They said ’The company is good to us, we also want to give back to society’.”

Su Chen looked at this message, speechless for a long time.

Finally, he replied: ”Match the donation in the company’s name, for every yuan the employee donates, the company will donate one yuan. Establish the ’Spark Technology Scholarship,’ to fund poor students to study technology.”

Putting down his phone, he looked out the window.

Behind every light in this city is a family, a dream.

What Spark Technology ignited is not just chips, not just cars, but the hope of thousands of ordinary people.

”Next year,” Su Chen said softly, ”the scale of the annual meeting will double. I want more employees to participate.”

Luo Qinghe nodded: ”Good. Then I’ll go back to work—7nm process, still one last step left.”

After he left, Su Chen stood alone for a long time.

On the office wall hung a piece of calligraphy: When gathered, we are a ball of fire; when scattered, we are the stars in the sky.

This is the origin of the name Spark Technology, and it is also his original intention.

Tonight, this fire has already burned across China, illuminated Europe, and started to reflect red on the world’s sky.

And tomorrow, the fire will burn even brighter.