Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”President Yang, DiDi Dache can improve your company’s order-taking efficiency and help drivers earn more money...” Cheng Wei said with a bitter smile, reciting his formulaic explanation.

Although he had already anticipated this outcome, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

”What’s the point of all that? No matter how much more the drivers make, the company’s cut doesn’t change one bit!”

Yang Songlin waved his hand, mocking Cheng Wei mercilessly.

”I understand. Thank you, President Yang.” Cheng Wei gave an awkward smile and prepared to leave.

”We have a regular meeting in a bit. All the drivers will be here. I’ll give you ten minutes,” Yang Songlin suddenly added.

”President Yang, does this mean you’re willing to give DiDi a chance?”

Cheng Wei asked, his face a picture of delighted disbelief.

”I’m only giving you 10 minutes to introduce your product. Whether the drivers use it or not is none of my business,” Yang Songlin stressed.

”Thank you, President Yang.”

Cheng Wei bowed to him.

This was the only taxi company boss who had shown him any kindness recently. Although the attitude was perfunctory, it at least gave him a stage to make his pitch.

Twenty minutes later, Cheng Wei was standing in an open area at the Yinshan Taxi Company.

Across from him were over 300 drivers, but to his despair, only 80 of them had smartphones.

As Cheng Wei introduced DiDi Dache’s features, he had to endure a clamor of derisive laughter and doubtful questions.

In his vision, DiDi Dache would expand the drivers’ pickup range, so he hadn’t expected them to be so resistant.

But what he hadn’t anticipated was that after hustling for half the day, only 26 drivers were willing to install DiDi Dache.

And that was only on the condition that Cheng Wei subsidize each of them 10 yuan for data usage costs.

Fuck!

Cheng Wei fought back the urge to curse. Steeling himself, he paid them off one by one and got the app installed, completing the initial accumulation of drivers for DiDi Dache.

What he didn’t know, however, was that if Fast Taxi hadn’t pioneered the market and popularized the concept of ride-hailing, the number of drivers willing to download DiDi Dache would have been cut in half.

He left the taxi company looking utterly dejected. At this rate of promotion, by the time Fast Taxi conquered the national market, DiDi probably wouldn’t even be able to gather 10,000 drivers.

”President Cheng, this promotion strategy isn’t working!” Even Zhang Bo, the tech guy, could see something was wrong.

”I know it’s not working, but the Transportation Association won’t even give me the time of day. Getting the authorization documents is easier said than done,” Cheng Wei cursed under his breath before sighing.

”How about we try promoting to private car owners?” Zhang Bo asked tentatively.

”You mean unlicensed cars? No way! The moment the higher-ups issue a new regulation, DiDi Dache would be dead.”

Cheng Wei shook his head, refusing decisively.

”But from what I know, Fast Taxi has opened up driver registration to private vehicles in Hang City, Jinling, and Luzhou,” Zhang Bo said with a frown.

”If you don’t have powerful backing, don’t do things that aren’t compliant.”

Cheng Wei advised earnestly.

He had known about this for a while. But Fast Taxi was backed by Penguin, Ah Li, and Huake Investment Attraction, while DiDi Dache only had Today Capital. He couldn’t even secure the authorization papers from the Transportation Association, so how could Cheng Wei dare to do something even more out of line?

”Then let’s go to Terminal 3 at Capital Airport. We can bypass the taxi companies and approach the drivers directly. Didn’t President Yang of Yinshan say it himself? The company’s fee is fixed no matter how much the drivers earn, so these bosses have no incentive to facilitate our cooperation.”

Zhang Bo thought for a moment and offered another suggestion.

”Okay, we’ll go tomorrow!” Cheng Wei nodded emphatically.

He was starting to understand that he couldn’t follow Fast Taxi’s path at all.

They had power, backing, and connections. DiDi was no match.

Just as Cheng Wei was wallowing in despair, Cheng Weixing was also in a foul mood. A minute ago, he had received a call from the Jinling Transportation Association, urging him to come and pay a fine.

A private car without an operating license had been caught red-handed carrying a passenger by staff from the Transportation Association.

In the words of the Transportation Association, ”Our authorization only covers taxis.”

After a moment of thought, Cheng Weixing decided to have the manager of the Jinling branch go pay the fine and get the driver out.

If he washed his hands of the matter and abandoned the private car drivers, Fast Taxi’s fulfillment rate would plummet.

After all, there were over thirty times more private cars than taxis.

Having tasted success, Cheng Weixing wasn’t about to give up this juicy piece of meat that had fallen into his lap.

Over the next week, bailing out drivers became a regular occurrence for the Jinling branch. It happened once or twice a day—not a large number, and the fines weren’t high.

The two sides maintained a good, unspoken understanding.

The fines were a drop in the bucket for Fast Taxi, and it allowed the Transportation Association to show their superiors they were doing something.

In the early stages of development, with an incomplete regulatory framework, everyone was just feeling their way across the river.

When Cheng Wei heard that Fast Taxi’s drivers were getting caught every other day, he became even more terrified of bringing private vehicles into the fold.

The Fast Taxi drivers in Luzhou, however, had it the easiest. They had licenses and weren’t worried in the slightest.

Though it started the slowest, its rise was the fastest.

In just a few days, more than a dozen physical altercations broke out between taxi drivers and ride-hailing drivers.

The local taxi drivers reported them to the Transportation Association, but no one cared. They were simply brushed off with, ”The others have proper licenses too.”

Seeing that they couldn’t beat them, they decided to join them and signed up for Fast Taxi.

As a result, the growth of ride-hailing coverage in Luzhou was astonishing. A large number of ride-hailing drivers even appeared in remote areas like Baohe and Feixi.

...

...

On April 27th, Orange Technology announced that cumulative sales of the Orange Mobile Power Supply had surpassed 10 million units.

In less than a month, it had shattered the domestic power bank market, forcing brands like Pisen and Aigo to slash their prices.

Chen Yansen had the Market Department announce a giveaway on their official Weibo and Toutiao accounts, with 10,000 Orange Mobile Power Supply units up for grabs on each platform.

After finishing his meeting with Wang Teng and Ye Qiuping, he took the elevator to the floor of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Orange Technology’s independently developed smart voice-interactive assistant was about to enter the acceptance testing phase.

This product was crucial for Orange Technology’s competitiveness in the smartphone market in the second half of the year, so there was no room for carelessness.

In Chen Yansen’s view, it had to be at least twice as good as Siri to even be considered ready for the market.

”Boss, the test team has verified it. In terms of continuous conversation, personalized learning, and response speed to complex commands, it’s no worse than Siri. I think the time is right to launch,” Zhou Chuangxi said, walking up to him.

”Boss, I agree with Zhou’s assessment,” Daniel said with his arms crossed, nodding in agreement.

”Have you decided on a name for the product?” Chen Yansen asked the two with a faint smile.

”I think ’Orange’ would be good. As a wake word, it has to be simple and easy to remember,” Daniel answered first.

”Lao Zhou, what about you?” Chen Yansen asked, looking at Zhou Chuangxi.

”How about Alexa, Little Orange, Orange Talk, or Orange Voice?” Zhou Chuangxi said with a shrug.

”...You’ve certainly got a lot of ideas,” Chen Yansen said, his brow furrowing slightly. He wasn’t satisfied with any of them.

Zhou Chuangxi gave a dry laugh, sensing his boss’s dissatisfaction. He explained, ”The name ’Little Orange’ sounds catchy and has a friendly feel. ’Orange Talk’ combines Orange Technology and voice interaction. But actually, I’m leaning more toward the name Alexa.”

”Just because the intelligent dialogue system in Star Trek was called Alexa?” Chen Yansen retorted with a smile.

”Boss, you know about that too?” Zhou Chuangxi looked pleasantly surprised.

It was a sci-fi movie from over thirty years ago with a wide audience overseas, and the name was accessible, easy to understand, and simple to remember.

Zhou Chuangxi believed the name Alexa would be extremely helpful for expanding into overseas markets, and that at the very least, the English name should be set as Alexa.

”That’s a great idea! The Star Trek movies and TV series are very well-known in Europe and America. Alexa is more accessible than Orange,” Daniel agreed.

Building on Zhou Chuangxi’s inspiration, Chen Yansen thought of a name.

’But that blockbuster movie hasn’t even started filming yet. If they used that name, users would just be baffled.’

”Boss, do you have a better idea?” Zhou Chuangxi asked directly.