Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

FoxTao, Orange Technology, Pinbei, Kuai Pao, and Fast Taxi were all flourishing under Chen Yansen’s management. In the eyes of any investor, Chen Yansen was akin to the God of Wealth.

Unexpectedly, there were times when even the God of Wealth stumbled.

But when his gaze swept over the two words ”Little Brother,” he couldn’t help but sigh softly. Jingdong and Pinbei had also had their honeymoon period.

He and Chen Yansen had also once called each other ”Big Brother” and ”Little Brother.”

’The last 418 event was too impulsive. I shouldn’t have been the one to provoke Chen Yansen and Pinbei.’

Thinking of this, he took out his phone and called Zhou Shouzhi. After the call connected, the two exchanged pleasantries.

Zhou Shouzhi asked in a formulaic way about Jingdong’s big promotion sales, and Liu Qiangdong fudged the numbers a little when he reported the real-time data.

”President Zhou, you have a good relationship with Chen Yansen. Next time he comes to Yanjing, could you invite me along?” After beating around the bush for a while, Liu Qiangdong finally stated his purpose.

”Looking to smooth things over with Pinbei? No problem, I’ll arrange it,” Zhou Shouzhi readily agreed.

”Thanks, President Zhou. When you have time later, I’ll buy you a drink,” Liu Qiangdong replied enthusiastically, breathing a sigh of relief.

Zhou Shouzhi replied with an ”OK” and hung up the phone.

Prompted by Liu Qiangdong’s call, he couldn’t help but open the official Orange Mall website.

Sales: 1,847 units?

The Moss Smart Speaker was launched simultaneously on seven channels. Adding them all up, the total sales were estimated to be over ten thousand units.

But by this point, more than four hours had passed since the launch.

Clearly, compared to Orange Technology’s other products, the Moss Smart Speaker’s sales performance was too weak.

Chasing clicks, independent media outlets on Weibo and Toutiao couldn’t wait to publish their takes on the Moss Smart Speaker, not even waiting for the official end-of-day sales figures to be released.

”Why Has Orange Technology’s New Product Fallen From Grace? Three Real Reasons Revealed That Will Make You Think.”

”The 799-Yuan Moss Smart Speaker Sells Less Than 2,000 Units. Has Chen Yansen’s Marketing Magic Faded?”

”World’s First Smart Speaker Meets a Cold Reception! This Could Become Orange Technology’s Biggest Flop!”

The related content was mostly negative.

But this content quickly drew the ire of major influencers in the industry. On one hand, they had received ”promotional fees” from Orange Technology; on the other, they genuinely believed the Moss Smart Speaker was a groundbreaking product.

For the sake of the money, and for their own conscience, they absolutely could not allow this product to be smeared by independent media as ”garbage.”

The boss of Zealer, Wang Ziru, jumped into the fray and raged, ”A bunch of bullshit media! Do you even know what a voice interaction engine is? Do you understand the industrial design aesthetic of the Moss Smart Speaker? I’m telling you right now, look back in ten years, and Moss will absolutely be seen as a god-tier masterpiece!”

Gao Fei of Fengchao Review Room reposted his own review video, adding the caption: ”I don’t believe anyone can watch this entire video and remain unmoved by the Moss Smart Speaker.”

Luo Yonghao, who had been rejected by Chen Yansen, also shared his trial experience on Weibo, showering praise on the responsiveness of the Moss Intelligent Voice Assistant.

By three in the afternoon, total sales across all platforms had barely broken twenty thousand units.

”Boss, how about I do a livestream to demonstrate the Moss Smart Speaker’s features for users?”

Wang Teng knocked and entered Chen Yansen’s office, suggesting seriously.

No one knew better than him how much effort the boss had poured into the Moss Smart Speaker.

From system R&D and the supporting app ecosystem to the product’s appearance and hardware design, Chen Yansen had personally overseen the entire process.

”No need.” Chen Yansen waved his hand, rejecting the idea outright.

In the ten days before the launch, the Marketing Department and brand department had already done extensive promotion. Hundreds of bloggers from the digital and tech spheres had been invited. Customers who were willing to shell out the money were already intimately familiar with the Moss Smart Speaker’s features.

Even if Wang Teng praised the Moss Smart Speaker to the heavens on a livestream, users still wouldn’t be convinced.

Word-of-mouth needed time to ferment, allowing the market to gradually accept this new product.

Two years from now, the Echo smart speaker launched by Amazon would take two months to sell 600,000 units.

Therefore, Chen Yansen didn’t think the Moss Smart Speaker’s sales were low. He simply believed the domestic smart speaker market was too small and needed to be cultivated before it could hatch into a market with an annual capacity of 40 to 50 million units.

At the same time, the size of the domestic broadband user base also limited the ceiling for the Moss Smart Speaker’s sales.

Wang Teng was taken aback for a moment. He hadn’t expected the boss to refuse.

”Is there anything else?” Chen Yansen asked nonchalantly, seeing him still standing in the doorway.

”No, I’ll get back to work then.” Wang Teng shook his head and turned to leave.

In stark contrast to the Moss Smart Speaker’s sales, Pinbei’s sales figures were climbing frantically.

Compared to last year’s Double Twelve festival, the number of merchants on Pinbei had soared from two or three thousand to over twenty thousand.

The long-tail effect intensified!

Before 8:00 PM, Pinbei’s sales for the day had already broken the 1.5 billion mark. Added to yesterday’s 1.06 billion, the total was 2.56 billion.

With four hours left, it remained to be seen if Pinbei could break the 3 billion sales record.

In the middle of all this, Zhou Shouzhi called Chen Yansen and briefly explained the situation with Liu Qiangdong.

Chen Yansen didn’t refuse. Since Liu Qiangdong wanted to host a dinner to apologize, there was no need for him to reject the gesture and make him lose face.

In the world of business, it’s better to have one more ally than one more enemy.

Besides, they both had a common rival: Ma Liyun of Hang City.

Ah Li was the biggest obstacle standing in the way of both Pinbei and Jingdong.

The domestic e-commerce arena was large enough for Ah Li, Pinbei, and Jingdong, as well as Sunning, Gome, and Dangdang. With a consumer market of over a billion people, creating a few e-commerce giants with trillion-yuan market caps was not difficult at all.

But everyone wanted to be number one, so conflicts naturally arose.

Clearly, after weighing the pros and cons, Liu Qiangdong had decided to aim his spear at Ah Li first.

At 10:30 PM, Chen Yansen sat in the lobby of Pinbei’s first floor, holding a grilled skewer and gazing at the large video wall in the distance, waiting for the final promotion results to come out.

”The growth rate of sales has slowed down. It looks like hitting 3 billion will be difficult,” Song Yuncheng said from the side, a hint of regret in their voice.

”Then we’ll save that breakthrough for Double Eleven! So what if we hit 3 billion? It’s not like the higher-ups are going to give us an award.”

Chen Yansen said nonchalantly.

Zhang Yifeng, Cai Qiming, Yang Pinglun, and the others knew in their hearts that the boss actually wanted to hit 3 billion in sales for the promotion too.

First, it would demonstrate the economy of scale and establish an industry benchmark.

Second, it would attract the attention of capital and lower the difficulty of fundraising.

And third, it would guide the allocation of merchant resources.

Whenever e-commerce platforms released their big promotion ”battle reports,” there were many deep meanings behind them; it was never just for showing off.

The higher the sales performance, the more traffic it generated, simultaneously sending different implicit messages to users, merchants, and investors.

Time ticked by, second by second, and in the blink of an eye, it was midnight.

The sales figure for June 18th stopped at 1.73 billion. Combined with yesterday’s sales, the cumulative total was 2.79 billion.

The debut day’s sales for the Moss Smart Speaker settled at 31,000 units.

Chen Yansen stood up, walked straight out, got into the driver’s seat of his Bentley, and sped off in the direction of Xuyuan.

Hundreds of kilometers away in Yanjing, Liu Qiangdong took a deep breath, staring intently at the number on the big screen—1.74 billion.

”For tomorrow’s battle report, write it up as 2 billion!” Liu Qiangdong snapped back to reality and ordered Xu Lei from the Marketing Department.

”Let’s make it 2.07 billion then.” Xu Lei smiled, tactfully adding another 70 million. This way, the data would be more believable.

”I wonder what Pinbei’s sales figures are?”

Liu Qiangdong murmured to himself, his eyes narrowed.

He knew Jingdong couldn’t compare to Ah Li, but with Pinbei being the rising star of the e-commerce industry, Liu Qiangdong naturally didn’t want to lose to Chen Yansen.

”We’ll find out tomorrow. Just take Pinbei’s reported numbers and knock off twenty percent, and that should be pretty close to the real figure,” Xu Lei replied with a smile, judging others by his own standards.

’And what about Ah Li?’

Liu Qiangdong wondered silently.