Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

In mid-March, the ”War of a Thousand Group Buys” was gradually coming to an end.

It had lasted for two years. Nearly 6,000 Group Buy websites had been whittled down by over 5,000, burning through 7 billion in venture capital funds in the process.

The leading companies began to dominate the market’s direction. Small and medium-sized websites had been abandoned by investors. Unable to secure funding or attract users, they could only wait for their slow demise.

The founder of Didatuan, desperate for funding, had even offered a 20% stake for a 5 million investment—a bargain-basement price.

But investors weren’t fools. In this industry, they were more likely to add flowers to a brocade than to offer charcoal in a snowstorm. They would rather pour money into Lashou, Meituan, Dianping, WoWo Group, and Nuomi Network than waste a single cent on Didatuan.

Chen Yansen opened a market research report. When he saw that Meituan’s market share had reached a high of 21%, second only to Lashou Network’s 27%, his brow furrowed slightly.

’Wang Xin still managed to make Meituan number two in the industry!’

The rest of the culling process would be quick. From five to four, four to three, three to two. In the end, only two or three companies would survive in this race.

Dianping’s rise was astonishing. In just six months, it had surpassed the market scale of WoWo Group and Nuomi Network, jumping from outside the top ten to third place.

Although Lashou Network still held the top spot in the industry, it was beginning to feel the strain under the pincer attack from Meituan and Dianping. Its market share had plummeted from over 40% to 27%.

Who would ultimately emerge victorious was still anyone’s guess!

Meanwhile, *Empresses in the Palace* premiered on satellite TV, Weibo’s user count broke the 300 million mark, a 3D re-release of *Titanic* was announced, and Liu Qiangdong pressed the start button on Jingdong’s IPO preparations.

On the eve of the mobile internet explosion, capital poured in frantically. All sorts of bizarre projects rode the wave and grew like weeds.

From ”24-hour errands to buy sanitary napkins,” to ”boyfriend sharing,” and ”office pet rentals,” even absurd projects like ”Bitcoin mining training” were securing angel investments, leaving netizens dumbfounded.

”KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!”

Just then, a knock came from the door.

”Come in!” Chen Yansen said softly, putting down the report.

HR Director Wang Xueting pushed the door open and walked in. She stopped and explained, ”Boss, Mr. Huang has arrived. He’s in reception room B6 on the first floor.”

”Have him brought here,” Chen Yansen instructed directly, raising an eyebrow.

”One moment, please.” Wang Xueting turned to leave, remembering to close the door behind her.

Three minutes later, an HR specialist from Orange Technology led Huang Zheng to the office door.

”Mr. Huang, welcome!” Chen Yansen said with a smile, rising to greet him.

”President Chen, please forgive my sudden visit! I brought you some new tea from my hometown. It’s just a small token, I hope you’ll accept it.”

Huang Zheng held up the gift bag, showing it to him openly.

”Then I won’t be polite. Please, have a seat! Mr. Huang, what kind of tea do you like?”

Chen Yansen accepted the gift and placed it in the tea cabinet before turning his head to ask.

”President Chen, I’m not picky about tea, whatever you choose is fine. Also, you can call me Colin,” Huang Zheng said, waving his hand, appearing a bit reserved.

”Alright, Lao Huang. We’ll have some Huangya tea, then. You can try a specialty from my hometown, too.”

Chen Yansen returned to the coffee table with the tea.

Boiling the water, steeping the tea, pouring the tea—his movements were as smooth and fluid as flowing water.

Huang Zheng observed Chen Yansen covertly. Even though he had mentally prepared himself before coming, seeing him in person made him hesitate again.

’Chen Yansen is so young. Would following a boss like this be better than starting my own business?’

He had asked for Duan Yongping’s opinion, but the man had only said, ”This is a decision only you can make. The views of others will inevitably be colored by their own subjective feelings.”

After receiving the call from Gao Weilin, Huang Zheng had deliberated for five or six days. During that time, he had once again studied Chen Yansen’s entrepreneurial journey.

August 2010: Founded Senhai Technology. September: Incubated the FoxTao project, which became the leader in the shopping guide e-commerce industry six months later.

March 2011: Founded Orange Technology and assembled the R&D team for the Aurora OS.

August 2011: Launched the Orange C1 Mobile Phone, selling 200,000 units in 14 hours on its first day.

September 2011: Sold FoxTao to Ali Baba, cashing out 12 billion.

October 2011: Founded Pinbei Technology, securing a top-tier traffic portal from Penguin and 300 million US Dollars in funding.

November 2011: Orange Technology received a 1.35 billion US Dollar strategic investment from DST Capital and used the opportunity to optimize its supply chain.

Looking across all of Asia, it would be difficult to find a business genius who could keep pace with Chen Yansen.

Every step he took was perfectly steady and stable. Whether it was promotion, sales, financial management, or supplier relations, Chen Yansen had never stumbled, no matter how thorny the issue.

”Lao Huang, drink your tea!”

Chen Yansen pushed a cup of hot tea in front of Huang Zheng, sizing him up with great interest.

’In a dozen or so years, there won’t be many entrepreneurs who are universally reviled, but Huang Zheng will be the most famous of them all.’

”Thank you, President Chen,” Huang Zheng replied politely, accepting the teacup.

”The CEO position at Pinbei has been vacant. I can give it to you, but I have one condition: within two years, you must increase Pinbei’s annual sales to one trillion.”

Chen Yansen raised his teacup, took a small sip, and spoke in a slow, unhurried manner.

’One trillion. It sounds like an impossible demand!’

But given Pinbei’s current growth trajectory, its annual sales could break 260 billion by the end of the year.

In his past life, it took Pinduoduo four years to achieve this goal.

Chen Yansen believed that with the boost from Penguin and Orange Mobile Phone’s user traffic, if Huang Zheng couldn’t pull it off, then he wasn’t qualified to sit in the Pinbei CEO’s chair.

Huang Zheng was stunned by his words and subconsciously swallowed.

His e-commerce service company, Leqi, had only achieved a total revenue of 300 million last year.