Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”How much equity is Zhang Yiming willing to give?”

Chen Yansen stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, watching the sky gradually darken as he asked expressionlessly.

Gao Weilin had reminded him last time that after returning to Yanjing, Zhang Yiming had been frequently meeting with several investment firms. Chen Yansen had known what to expect since then.

Chen Yansen understood Zhang Yiming’s little scheme. He was just trying to bring in a few more venture capital firms to dilute the equity, allowing him to secure a large amount of startup capital while still maintaining a controlling stake.

In this respect, Zhang Yiming was far more slick and mature than Zhang Xuhao. He simply agreed to terms with all interested investors, rather than taking the first offer and using it to negotiate a better price with the second.

”Ten percent for two million. Including the other three firms, the total equity released in the seed round is 25%.”

Gao Weilin said with a smile.

In his opinion, the scale of Byte’s fundraising was pitifully small—it didn’t even measure up to Fast Taxi’s.

’Two million for 10% of Byte’s equity?’

Chen Yansen smiled faintly. As long as Senlian Capital continued with follow-on investments, this equity would be worth as much as 40 billion US Dollars in a little over a decade.

’But can Zhang Yiming, who’s now gone down the wrong path, still build a business empire valued at 400 billion US Dollars?’

Often, a single decision can change the course of a person’s entire life.

Even Chen Yansen wasn’t sure.

”Go ahead with the investment. As for whether we do any follow-on funding, we’ll decide when the time comes.”

Chen Yansen replied after a moment’s thought.

In reality, what he was thinking was, ’Instead of waiting for Zhang Yiming to create Toutiao, why don’t I just do it myself?’

To him, content distribution and recommendation algorithms weren’t exactly high-barrier programming technologies.

”Understood, Boss. I’ll take care of it,” Gao Linwei replied.

”Oh, right. I’m going to Yanjing tomorrow, so don’t head back to Xucheng just yet. The day after tomorrow, I’ve arranged a meeting with Liu Zhiping and Cheng Congwu at the Gaode Map headquarters.”

Chen Yansen added, giving Gao Weilin one last instruction before hanging up.

”Alright, I understand.” Gao Weilin nodded. Chen Yansen had mentioned this to him before.

The plan was to invest in or acquire Gaode Map, forming an O2O closed loop with Cloud Speed Express, Kuai Pao Delivery, and Fast Taxi to create a synergy of traffic, data, and capital.

This was a merger and acquisition deal involving billions in capital, so Gao Weilin had to be meticulous. At the thought, he quickly opened the documents he had prepared earlier, planning to review them again to prevent any slip-ups at the meeting in two days.

After finishing his call with Gao Linwei, Chen Yansen took the elevator to the first floor. Once in his car, he sent a text to Song Yuncheng and then started driving in the direction of Xuyuan.

”I’m going to Yanjing on a business trip tomorrow. Remember to bring the clothes I gave you.”

Song Yuncheng was sitting at her desk when she saw the text from Chen Yansen, and a blush couldn’t help but creep onto her cheeks.

”Mm.”

Song Yuncheng didn’t refuse, simply replying with a single word.

「Meanwhile.」

Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun’s war of words had moved from Weibo to text messages. Without the public eye and its constraints, their exchanges grew increasingly hostile.

”We’ve been friends for years. Are you really going to throw an old friend under the bus just to break into a new business?” Lei Yijun demanded.

”I already told you, the phone is manufactured by Haier. 360 is just acting as a sales channel; I never intended to compete with Xiaomi. But what about you hiring an army of paid trolls to smear me? How do you explain that?” Zhou Hongyi retorted.

”That was posted by users online. What does it have to do with me? And can you honestly say there’s nothing wrong with the Haier W910’s screen? A 4.5-inch screen with a 1600 mAh battery? Users have to charge it three times a day! If that’s not garbage, what is?” Lei Yijun was brutally blunt, always hitting where it hurt most.

Even though Zhou Hongyi knew Haier had screwed him over, he refused to back down. ”And Xiaomi isn’t garbage? Poor signal, constant crashing and rebooting, and it overheats like crazy! The only reason you sold two million units is because there are too many idiots in the world!”

”Asshole!” Lei Yijun shot back with a single word this time.

”You dare say that to my face?” Zhou Hongyi had practiced Tai Chi and Judo in college. Even though Lei Yijun was taller and bigger than him, he wasn’t the least bit intimidated.

”Say it to your face? I wouldn’t just say it, I’d slap you across it.” Lei Yijun might have looked refined, but deep down he had a ’talk shit, get hit’ attitude and immediately fired back.

”Three o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Chaoyang Park. Whoever doesn’t show up is a little bitch.”

In a fit of rage, Zhou Hongyi challenged him to a real-life fight.

”Fine. I’ll be waiting.” Lei Yijun had been taking a beating from Zhou Hongyi’s online tirades for the past two days.

It was having a knock-on effect on Xiaomi Mobile Phone sales, too. After all, Zhou Hongyi was the boss of 360, an internet tycoon worth billions. Him trashing Xiaomi all day was bound to affect sales.

’His own Haier W910 wasn’t selling, so now he wants to drag Xiaomi down with him.’

”Li Wanqiang, get me a few colleagues from the Market Department who are good fighters. They’re coming with me to Chaoyang Park tomorrow.”

Lei Yijun put down his phone, unable to suppress his anger. He yanked open his office door and shouted for Li Wanqiang.

”President Lei, when you say ’good fighters,’ do you mean in terms of marketing and promotion skills, or channel integration capabilities?”

Li Wanqiang was taken aback, a look of confusion on his face. He hadn’t understood what Lei Yijun meant.

”The literal meaning. The kind who can actually fight!”

Lei Yijun put his hands on his hips and started cursing out Zhou Hongyi in his hometown dialect, as if the man were standing right there.

It was mainly because Zhou Hongyi’s insults had been so vile that even Lei Yijun had lost his composure, completely forgetting his usual grace and self-restraint.

That morning on Weibo, Lei Yijun had accused Zhou Hongyi of plagiarism, of copying Xiaomi’s mobile phone design wholesale. He called him two-faced, someone who would call you ’big brother’ to your face while stabbing you in the back—a level of treachery on par with Dongfang Bubai.

Zhou Hongyi fired back by bringing up Meizu, stating bluntly that two years ago, Lei Yijun had visited Meizu, only to turn around and found Xiaomi, copying all of Meizu’s projects and technology. ”You call me Dongfang Bubai? Then you’re Lei Buqun!”

Finally, even Huang Zhang chimed in with a few sarcastic remarks.

’A fight?’

Li Wanqiang was stunned. He asked subconsciously, ”President Lei, who are you going to fight?”

”That bastard Zhou Hongyi, of course,” Lei Yijun replied.

”...” Li Wanqiang opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.

He knew about the war of words between his boss and Zhou Hongyi, but he had assumed it was just a verbal spat to drum up some hype and boost Xiaomi Mobile Phone sales.

Who would have thought that Lei Yijun would now be talking about fighting him in real life? It was utterly dumbfounding.

He really wanted to say, ’President Lei, you’re both billionaires. Why are you acting like a couple of street thugs?’

After ranting for a few minutes, Lei Yijun’s head finally cooled.

It wasn’t that he regretted it, but he felt that if they were going to fight, he had to win. He knew Zhou Hongyi had studied Tai Chi and Judo. He had a height advantage, but since they’d never actually fought, he had no idea what the outcome would be.

’Besides, would Zhou Hongyi bring backup? Hire bodyguards?’

”Find me four colleagues who can fight... wait, no, find me eight.”

Lei Yijun said to Li Wanqiang after a moment of thought.

Unsure how many people his opponent might bring, Lei Yijun decided to bring a group of ten, including himself.

”...Alright, President Lei.” Li Wanqiang fell silent for a few seconds before nodding with a wry smile.

「Elsewhere.」

Seeing the two of them arguing so fiercely online, some mischief-making netizens started to chime in: ”Both Xiaomi and 360 are headquartered in Yanjing. You two should stop trading insults. If you’re real men, go to Chaoyang Park and have it out! Winner takes all, and no calling the cops.”

A crowd of others piled on below, fanning the flames and frantically tagging Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun.

Before long, Zhou Hongyi took the bait and responded: ”Three o’clock tomorrow afternoon. See you at East Gate 5 of Chaoyang Park. If you’re any kind of man, you’ll come talk to me face-to-face!”

Lei Yijun hadn’t wanted to respond, but then he thought, ’If I don’t reply, won’t everyone online think I’m a coward?’ So he also posted on Weibo: ”I will gladly oblige.”

Instantly, the news that two of the industry’s biggest titans were going to fight shot into the top three trending topics.

Some users who weren’t aware of the backstory thought it was a doctored image or fake news, but when they went to check Lei Yijun’s and Zhou Hongyi’s Weibo pages, they were left completely dumbfounded.

’Two billionaires are going to have a real-life showdown?’

It was just as eye-catching as the fight that would be arranged between Zuckerberg and Musk over a decade later.

That night, Li Ling from YY Live called Lei Yijun and asked if he wanted them to livestream the event to build even more hype.

As a true businessman, it never occurred to Li Ling that Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi’s fight wasn’t a publicity stunt—they genuinely just wanted to knock each other out.

Lei Yijun managed to hold back from cursing him out, gave a few noncommittal replies, and hung up. Then, a call from Chen Nian came in. He thumped his chest and declared he would be there tomorrow to back him up.

It left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Reporters from the Yanjing Daily, Yanjing Satellite TV, and the 21st Century Business Circle all received notices to be on-site the next day for follow-up coverage.

Out-of-town netizens begged users near Chaoyang Park in the comments section to be sure to film the event in high-definition for the enjoyment of drama-loving onlookers across the country.

「The next morning.」

Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng took a flight straight to Yanjing.

Gao Weilin picked them up from the airport in a rented Mercedes-Benz and drove them to their hotel.

”Boss, President Lei and 360’s Zhou Hongyi scheduling a real-life fight... what a brilliant marketing plan. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been in the game on Hong Kong Island for many years, and I’ve never seen a play like this.”

Gao Weilin remarked with a laugh in the hotel lobby.

’A marketing plan?’

Chen Yansen chuckled. He had heard about their planned fight in his previous life, and from a businessman’s perspective, he had also thought it was just a publicity stunt, like the proposed fight between Musk and the founder of Facebook.

’Releasing videos of themselves training every few days—if that isn’t a publicity stunt, what is?’

”It is quite brilliant, making it look so real.”

Chen Yansen said, squinting slightly as he nodded.

But he wasn’t very interested and quickly moved on, continuing his discussion with Gao Linwei about the purpose of their trip.

Gaode Map’s stock was currently trading at 11.4 US Dollars per share. Its market performance was sluggish; it had dropped a few more points compared to half a month ago, bringing its total market cap to a mere 620 million US Dollars.

From what Chen Yansen knew, Ah Li would eventually spend 1.34 billion US Dollars to take Gaode Map private and make it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group.

But that would be after 2014, once 4G licenses were issued and the domestic mobile internet entered a period of high growth, which was what led to the valuation more than doubling.

Right now, it was only 2012. 3G still dominated the market, and the mobile internet was only just beginning to sprout.

Launching an acquisition of Gaode now would save several billion in capital at the very least.