Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The next morning, a cool autumn breeze was blowing.

Just as Chen Yansen arrived at the company and stepped into his office, Yan Peng, the head of Orange Technology’s e-commerce department, knocked and came in.

”Boss, the Orange Mobile Phone flagship store on Jingdong went live today. Jingdong’s Market Department gave us a splash screen, a homepage banner, and even set up a pop-up notification for the PC version. As of 9 a.m., store traffic has reached 3.7 million, and we’ve sold 116,000 Orange Mobile Phones.”

Yan Peng sat across from him, reporting the details one by one.

”116,000? Did Jingdong offer subsidies?” Chen Yansen immediately realized and asked with a smile.

After all, the Orange Mobile Phone had good resources on Pinbei Mall, too, but it could only sell 80,000 to 100,000 units a day there.

Although Jingdong had a few million more daily active users than Pinbei, its single-product exposure might not even match Pinbei’s.

”Yes, our price for Jingdong is 1,989 Hua Yuan, same as on Pinbei. However, Jingdong also issued 200,000 no-minimum-purchase ’Dong-Coupons’ for 30 Hua Yuan each, which is why we sold over a hundred thousand units.”

Yan Peng explained with a smile.

He knew his boss was always tracking whether the Orange Mobile Phone’s monthly sales could keep up with the Shencheng Factory’s production capacity, so he had rushed to report as soon as the Jingdong flagship store went live.

Chen Yansen smiled. Since Liu Qiangdong was paying out of his own pocket to boost his sales, there was no need to make an issue of Jingdong breaking the price floor.

Yan Peng had been recruited from Ah Li by Wang Xueting. He was originally the Director of Operations for Hua Country suppliers under Ali Baba, with a P8 rank.

To win him over, Chen Yansen had offered him an annual salary of 1.2 million Hua Yuan, plus 100,000 stock options vested over four years.

Orange Technology’s stock options were currently valued at 9 US Dollars per share. By that calculation, Yan Peng’s annual compensation would exceed 2.6 million Hua Yuan.

If Orange Technology’s valuation rose, Yan Peng’s income would rise with it.

Such is the allure of equity incentives!

Two and a half years later, when Ah Li went public, Hang City would gain over a thousand millionaires and more than three hundred ten-millionaires overnight.

Chen Yansen also planned to implement an employee stock ownership plan similar to FoxTao’s during a future financing round, but the time wasn’t right yet.

”What were the total online sales for the Orange Mobile Phone yesterday?” Chen Yansen asked.

”74,000 units,” Yan Peng replied.

”Alright, I understand,” Chen Yansen said, his tone placid.

Yan Peng got the hint, stood up to take his leave, and walked out the door.

Afterward, Chen Yansen called Liu Qiangdong to thank him.

After all, aside from the webpage pop-up, all the other resource placements Yan Peng had mentioned were freebies from Handsome Dong.

Although Liu Qiangdong was also acting in his own self-interest, one should judge by actions, not intentions. Orange Technology had received tangible benefits.

Unexpectedly, before Chen Yansen could even speak, Liu Qiangdong spoke up first with a laugh, ”President Chen, thank you for your support of Jingdong. Next time I have a chance, I’ll be sure to visit you in Xucheng.”

His words had a double meaning. First, he was thanking Orange Mobile Phone for joining Jingdong. Second, he was responding to the matter of Jingdong joining Pinbei.

Any other platform would never have done this.

After all, while Pinbei would profit from this arrangement, Jingdong stood to benefit even more.

There was a degree of sincerity in Liu Qiangdong’s thanks.

”President Liu, you’re too kind. Since we’re partners, it’s only natural for it to be mutually beneficial. I hear you’ve been quite fired up lately?”

Chen Yansen teased with a smile.

”Isn’t Ma Liyun just bullying people?! When FoxTao was in your hands, it treated Taobao, Jingdong, Sunning, Yihaodian, and Amazon all equally. Now that it’s in Ah Li’s hands, it’s become a tool to suppress competitors. I don’t think this New FoxTao will last long!”

Liu Qiangdong got angry just thinking about it.

As the leader in shopping guide e-commerce, New FoxTao’s daily active users had surpassed 10 million after it acquired Yitao.

Relying on this channel alone, Jingdong had generated nearly 500 million in sales in October.

Who would have thought that after he complained a little on Weibo, that dog Wu Ming would just remove the entire Jingdong ecosystem from New FoxTao.

Liu Qiangdong wasn’t too concerned about the few hundred million in sales, but the feeling of being looked down upon was infuriating.

”Then just hit back during Double Twelve,” Chen Yansen said with a smile, fanning the flames.

”Acquiring new users is too difficult. In terms of user base, Jingdong is less than a fifth the size of Taobao. To be honest with you, I’ve even considered copying the ’Bargain for 0 Yuan’ feature for our new customer section.”

Although Liu Qiangdong said this, he had actually already ordered his product managers to copy it. It was currently in the testing phase and would be launched soon.

He only mentioned it to save face.

”President Liu, if you think it’s useful, feel free to use it.”

Chen Yansen readily agreed.

The feature couldn’t be patented anyway. Aside from the time and manpower required for R&D, companies like Jingdong and Taobao could easily replicate it, and there was nothing he could do to stop them.

Yihaodian’s and Yixun Network’s ”Bargain for 0 Yuan” modules were already online.

But while anyone could build this feature, not everyone could master it.

The version he had implemented on FoxTao could only be considered version 1.0. The psychologically manipulative version 2.0 had yet to be released.

The idea itself wasn’t valuable; what mattered was who could execute it better.

”Haha, then I have to thank you again, President Chen. You’re very generous! When you come to Yanjing, I’ll make the arrangements.”

Liu Qiangdong nodded in satisfaction and extended an invitation to Chen Yansen.

”Alright, we’ll see when the time comes,” Chen Yansen said with a smile.

As their partnership deepened, the two found they got along better and better, talking on the phone for over an hour before hanging up.

’Damn! Handsome Dong sure is full of it.’

Chen Yansen put down his phone and couldn’t help but complain to himself.

...

...

「Yanjing, Xiaomi Headquarters.」

”President Lei, I think Xiaomi should also expand to third-party sales channels. Relying solely on the Xiaomi Mall gives us limited traffic.”

Seeing the astonishing sales of the Orange Mobile Phone on Taobao and Jingdong, Li Wanqiang was tempted. He directly cast aside their previously established sales strategy and made the suggestion to Lei Yijun.

The Xiaomi Mobile Phone had launched a month after the Orange Mobile Phone.

But the Orange Mobile Phone’s total online sales had already reached over 8 million units, and it was a foregone conclusion that they would break 10 million before 2012.

Meanwhile, the Xiaomi Mobile Phone was still struggling to reach 1 million units sold.

”Do you really think the Orange Mobile Phone’s sales are just because of new channels?” Lei Yijun suppressed his frustration and retorted helplessly.

Logically speaking, selling over 900,000 units in two months wasn’t a bad result for the Xiaomi Mobile Phone.

But compared to the Orange Mobile Phone, his heart felt heavy.

”President Lei, I understand, but an extra channel, even if it only sells an extra 1,000 units a day, is still beneficial for the company.”

Li Wanqiang said slowly with a bitter smile.

He understood the business logic and knew that Lei Yijun wanted to build up the Xiaomi Mall, but the top priority right now was to increase the Xiaomi Mobile Phone’s total online sales.

”You handle it.” After a long moment, Lei Yijun tossed out this ambiguous phrase.

But Li Wanqiang understood him and knew this meant he had agreed.

Li Wanqiang walked out of the office and immediately dialed Song Yuncheng’s number.

Influenced by Chen Yansen, Xiaomi was now starting to lay out its third-party e-commerce platform sales channels four years ahead of schedule.

And they were starting with three at once, planning to open flagship stores on Pinbei, Taobao, and Jingdong.

With OPPO and Meizu also joining Pinbei one after another, this almost signified that Hua Country’s emerging mobile phone manufacturers were gradually abandoning the traditional retail sales model and shifting their focus to online sales.

Meanwhile, when Ma Liyun heard the news that Jingdong was about to join Pinbei, he was stunned. It took him a long moment to recover.

”They’re both B2C platforms. How could Chen Yansen agree to that?”

Jack Ma was full of doubt as he looked at Zhang Yong and asked.

Letting a competing website open a store on one’s own platform—in 2011, this was the first time such a thing had ever been done.

”The more unconventional it is, the more it sounds like something he would do. After all, this is the man who sold his company while the project was still on the rise. What wouldn’t he do?”

Zhang Yong shook his head and said.

Ma Liyun hadn’t expected to gain yet another rival after acquiring FoxTao.

Now that Pinbei and Jingdong were cooperating, he sensed a new trend, likely pushed by venture capital firms in the background.

”When Wu Ming reported his work yesterday, he asked if we should block Pinbei’s merchants on FoxTao. What do you think?” Ma Liyun asked again.

”Let’s not rush a decision. I’ll go talk to Chen Yansen.”

Evidently, Zhang Yong didn’t approve of suppressing Pinbei and was more inclined to find an opportunity to cooperate.

After all, he wasn’t one of Ah Li’s founders. Though he seemed powerful and influential, he was essentially just a high-level executive.

From a business perspective, he believed that leveraging the good relationship they had built during the previous acquisition, focusing on cooperation was the correct path.

Jack Ma frowned for a moment, but his expression quickly relaxed. He smiled and said, ”Then I’ll leave it to you to handle.”

Besides Jingdong, Ah Li also had rivals like Sunning, Yihaodian, Yixun, and Paipai Network. One more, Pinbei, wasn’t a huge deal.

After all, beyond general e-commerce, many vertical e-commerce platforms were competing with Ah Li for market share.

Therefore, although Ma Liyun felt that Pinbei—backed by Penguin and allied with Jingdong—was developing at an unimaginable speed, he didn’t pay it too much mind.

His focus right now was more on buying back the 40% of Ah Li’s shares held by Yahoo. Fortunately, Yang Zhiyuan had already shown some flexibility, and they were now in the negotiation and pricing stage.

What Ma Liyun needed to do now was simply to continue raising money to complete the buyback. Only then could Ah Li go public according to his plan.

...

...

Chen Yansen didn’t care what Ma Liyun thought. From the day he founded Pinbei, competition with Ah Li had been inevitable.

From a business standpoint, Ah Li’s tactics were nothing more than a few types:

First, market segmentation: increasing the number of brand merchants on Taobao Mall to cut into the traffic and merchant resources of other B2C platforms.

Second, trademark wars and public opinion suppression: Take this year’s Double Eleven, for example. Ah Li had previously filed trademark applications for ”Double Eleven” and ”Double Eleven Shopping Carnival.”

Jingdong competed head-to-head with Taobao on Double Eleven, and the very next day, they received a lawyer’s letter from Ah Li.

Simply put, Jingdong could not promote the ”Double Eleven” sales event on its own website, or it would be considered infringement.

Third, the ”choose one of two” Investment Attraction tactic, forcing merchants to make a choice.

However, Chen Yansen wasn’t worried. He had countermeasures for all three points.

Moreover, his goals were different from those of Ma Liyun and Liu Qiangdong.

Their core objective was to make money, whereas Chen Yansen only wanted to scale up his profit model and increase his number of employees.

President Chen’s top priority right now was hiring! Hiring! Hiring!

On the afternoon of the 30th, he received the payroll confirmation reports from Orange Technology, Pinbei, Cloud Speed, and the Orange Phone Factory.

Orange Technology had 347 employees, with labor costs of 9.39 million Hua Yuan, for an average salary of nearly 30,000.

Pinbei Technology had 269 employees, with labor costs of 5.74 million Hua Yuan, for an average salary of just over 20,000.

Cloud Speed had 9,478 employees, with labor costs of 63.18 million Hua Yuan, for an average salary of about 7,000 Hua Yuan.

The Orange Phone Factory had 6,241 employees, with labor costs of 44.61 million Hua Yuan, for an average salary of about 7,000 Hua Yuan.

At this point, the total number of employees in the companies under Chen Yansen was approximately 16,000, with Cloud Speed Express and the Orange Phone Factory accounting for over ninety percent of them.

Next month, Kuai Pao would be added to the list.

For November, he had a total of 12,292 wisps of Human Dao Fire!

Converted to Divine Dao Fire, that was 122 wisps. Chen Yansen finally felt a flicker of anticipation.