Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chaoyang District, 360 Headquarters Building.

Zhou Hongyi was holding a brand-new engineering prototype, fiddling with it with great interest.

Ever since 360 was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, his net worth had skyrocketed by several billion. His sights were no longer limited to the internet and mobile security sectors.

He first invested in Penguin Music through his wholly-owned subsidiary, Qifei, and then bought a stake in ROM Flashing Genie.

After Orange Mobile Phone’s cumulative sales surpassed five million units, he set his sights on the smartphone market.

In his view, both Xiaomi and Orange were nothing more than phone assemblers.

If Lei Yijun and Chen Yansen could do it, then of course he could too. And he was confident he could be even more successful.

He believed that with 360’s 400 million users, selling ten million units would be no problem, not to mention several tens of millions.

He used this pitch when speaking with Haier, and after some thought, they agreed it made perfect sense.

The two companies hit it off immediately and began laying the groundwork three months ago.

This way, 360 wouldn’t need to build a supply chain or find a contract manufacturer; it would only be responsible for customizing the software.

To put it bluntly, Zhou Hongyi was copying FoxTao’s playbook, using custom-made phones as a way to monetize his user traffic.

At the same time, these smartphones—with 360 software deeply pre-installed—could also attract new users for the company’s other products.

DRING-RING-RING—!

The phone on the desk rang.

Zhou Hongyi glanced at it. Seeing it was a call from Lei Yijun, he smiled and pressed the answer key. ”President Lei, I hear Xiaomi’s sales have surpassed two million units. Congratulations!”

Hearing Zhou Hongyi’s nonchalant tone, Lei Yijun couldn’t help but take a deep breath. He asked patiently, ”Is 360 going to make phones?”

Only then did he realize the true purpose behind all the dinners Zhou Hongyi had treated him to last winter.

”President Lei, you’ve misunderstood. 360 is merely providing a sales channel for Haier. The phone’s production and manufacturing have nothing to do with 360.”

Zhou Hongyi said glibly.

In reality, he wasn’t technically wrong. The phone 360 was cooperating with Haier on was named the Haier W910. Other than the pre-installed 360 software, it had no other connection to 360.

Zhou Hongyi’s implication was that if 360 were to make a phone, it would be called the 360 W910.

Lei Yijun laughed in anger, but he quickly regained his composure. He sneered internally, once again understanding a certain truth: business is a battlefield, and there are no permanent friends.

”President Zhou, in that case, I’ll wish the 360 Mobile Phone great success in its sales,” Lei Yijun said with a slight scoff.

Zhou Hongyi’s expression turned cold. He heard the veiled mockery in Lei Yijun’s words, but he didn’t feel he had done anything wrong.

’The phone market is this big, so why can’t 360 take a bite?’

’You used to be the big brother, but you can’t be the big brother forever!’

Zhou Hongyi felt that after 360’s IPO, he finally had the confidence to challenge Lei Yijun.

”President Lei, it’s a Haier phone, not a 360 Mobile Phone,” Zhou Hongyi said, narrowing his eyes as he emphasized the point again.

Lei Yijun saw right through Zhou Hongyi’s little scheme. Cooperating with Haier on a custom-made phone would, on one hand, allow them to get a product to market quickly. On the other hand, it was an opportunity to covet Haier’s supplier resources.

Once the time was right, 360 would absolutely strike out on its own, ditching Haier to go it alone.

In fact, Lei Yijun was an excellent judge of character.

Two years later, once he had mastered the supply chain resources, Zhou Hongyi immediately abandoned the custom-made phone model and turned around to start making the 360 Mobile Phone.

Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi talked on the phone, but the conversation grew more and more heated. In the end, Zhou Hongyi couldn’t hold back and abruptly hung up.

Before 360’s IPO, Lei Yijun was the big brother. After the IPO, Zhou Hongyi’s net worth caught up. With money came a louder voice, so naturally, he was no longer willing to listen to Lei Yijun’s nonsense.

On the other end of the line, Lei Yijun listened to the BEEP BEEP BEEP from the receiver. His mouth hung slightly open, and after a long moment, he lowered his phone with a dejected expression.

An hour later, 360’s Market Department publicly announced that it would release the Haier W910 smartphone in a limited launch on February 1st. The first batch would have an inventory of 10,000 units.

It featured a 4.5-inch HD Retina display, a Snapdragon MSM8260A dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM plus 8GB of storage, support for up to 32GB of expansion, and a price of 1,888 yuan.

In terms of specs, the Haier W910 completely crushed the Xiaomi Mobile Phone, and it was over 100 yuan cheaper.

This put Lei Yijun and Xiaomi in an extremely awkward position, as they feared the launch of the Haier W910 would impact Xiaomi’s sales.

「Meanwhile.」

A Bentley Mulsanne sped along the Banghuai Expressway. Chen Yansen couldn’t help but shake his head when he saw the news.

He didn’t know what Zhou Hongyi was thinking. First, he had overestimated 360’s ability to monetize its traffic. Second, he had overestimated Haier’s appeal among young people. And finally, he had underestimated the difficulty of making a phone.

If success was just a matter of piling on hardware, then the knockoff phone factories in Huaqiang North would have had no reason to fail in their attempts to transform.

Over a decade later, the domestic smartphone market wouldn’t have been boiled down to just five giants—Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, Vivo, and OPPO—with all the rest relegated to the ”other” category.

’Knowing Zhou Hongyi’s style, he’s most likely going to have a falling out with Lei Yijun,’ Chen Yansen thought to himself.

”We can go back to Chunshen for beef soup!”

Meng Jie sat beside him, saying this with a grin while her feet swung restlessly.

Xiaoli sat in the driver’s seat, staring straight ahead and focusing on the road.

Xucheng and Chunshen were less than two hundred kilometers apart. They had left at nine in the morning, and by half-past eleven, they could see the large traffic circle in the distance, as well as the faint outline of Tongfei Gate.

”Xiaoli, pull over at that residential complex up ahead.”

Chen Yansen instructed.

”Yes, Boss,” Xiaoli acknowledged, then drove a few hundred meters more before bringing the car to a steady stop.