Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Lingxi Search was doing just as much dirty work behind the scenes as 360.

So 360 was the rogue, and Byte was a pure, innocent maiden?

Zhou Hongyi was about to lash out, but then he remembered that 360 Mobile Phone’s development still depended on Orange Technology. In the end, he could only force himself to swallow his anger.

Seeing this, Li Yanhong hesitated for a long time, unable to make up his mind to officially move against Senlian Capital.

To put it bluntly, Qian Du competed with Senlian Capital in the digital map navigation and ride-hailing industries, but they were partners in the information distribution and pre-installed mobile app sectors.

If Qian Du were to suppress Senlian Capital as well, it would immediately push them into 360’s camp.

Furthermore, Orange Mobile Phone accounted for about 25% of smartphone shipments in the domestic market. If they had a falling out with Chen Yansen, Qian Du’s mobile traffic would drop by more than 20%.

This would be extremely detrimental to Qian Du’s strategy of seizing control of the mobile internet gateway!

On top of that, Chen Yansen had close personal and business relationships with people like Lei Yijun and Ma Wenteng.

If they aimed their guns at Senlian Capital, the ”Security Alliance” might just fall apart.

After weighing his options, Li Yanhong made up his mind: first, he would take out 360.

「Meanwhile.」

In a top-floor conference room in Building 8 of the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park in Xucheng.

Chen Yansen sat by the coffee table, boiling water, steeping tea, and pouring it with a series of fluid, practiced motions.

”Thank you, Pres—... Boss.” Zhou Shouzhi took the teacup and nodded his thanks.

”You’re just in time. Old Gao has been run off his feet, so you can start by taking over the CFO position at Orange Technology.”

Chen Yansen said, taking a sip of his hot tea.

Although it was a scorching summer day with temperatures over thirty degrees Celsius outside, the central air conditioning inside kept the room at a mere twenty degrees, with a refreshing, cool breeze circulating throughout.

”No problem,” Zhou Shouzhi readily agreed.

He understood Chen Yansen’s subtext. He was to start as CFO, use the opportunity to get a handle on the operations of Orange Technology’s various departments, and then, when the time was right, take over as CEO.

”Orange Technology’s new product launch is in five days. This one is different from before. Besides the Orange C3 and Orange D1S, we also need to prominently feature the Moss voice interaction engine and the core members of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. You’ll be in charge of overall coordination, and Wang Teng will handle the execution.”

Chen Yansen said calmly, setting down his teacup.

”Understood, Boss,” Zhou Shouzhi replied with a nod.

The huge transition from co-founder of DST Capital’s Great China Region to CFO of Orange Technology had taken him two full days of deliberation before he finally made his decision.

”What are your thoughts on Orange Technology’s current state of development?” Chen Yansen asked casually.

Zhou Shouzhi immediately sat up straight. Facing his new boss’s first question, he gave a risky answer: ”Orange Technology is clearly lacking in its ability to diversify products, build its brand, and expand its market. As a result, its revenue has been slow to reach the level of a top-tier international mobile phone manufacturer.”

This statement was, without a doubt, a negation of the combined efforts of the more than two thousand employees at Orange Technology’s headquarters.

But Zhou Shouzhi knew in his heart that Chen Yansen wasn’t paying him a massive annual salary to just coast along. He was expected to deliver results—at the very least, to boost Orange Technology’s revenue to the entry threshold of a Fortune 500 company.

’Being a yes-man and blending in would only cause me to lose my ambition.’

”Elaborate,” Chen Yansen said with a smile, unconcerned.

”First, product line expansion. Although Orange Technology’s products include mobile phones, power banks, Bluetooth headsets, smart speakers, and phone accessories, it has made virtually no progress in smart wearables. We could add products like smartwatches and fitness bands to enrich the product line.”

”Second, brand positioning is unclear. The Orange D1 sells for 799 yuan, while the Orange C2 sells for 2,699 yuan. I recommend using different series or spinning off a sub-brand to separate the high-end and low-end models.”

”Third, accelerate overseas market expansion. The consumer potential in Southeast Asia, Tianzhu, and the European and American Markets should not be underestimated. Focusing only on the East Africa market makes it easy to miss opportunities. We must also prioritize the offline market, proactively establishing retail stores and experience centers. These can serve as sales channels while also increasing brand reach and user stickiness.”

Zhou Shouzhi delivered his points all in one breath, his logic clear and his structure organized, without the slightest hesitation.

”Draw up a plan. You’ll be in charge of moving it forward. All of the company’s resources are at your disposal,” Chen Yansen ordered without hesitation.

Anyone can talk a big game. The real skill lies in being able to implement a plan and see results.

Zhou Shouzhi nodded heavily, understanding clearly in his heart: ’Even though my title is CFO, I’ll still be doing the work of a CEO.’

’Do well, and I’ll advance further. Do poorly, and I’ll be out the door immediately.’

They were both intelligent men; some things didn’t need to be spelled out.

”Let me show you around the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,” Chen Yansen said, standing up.

Zhou Shouzhi quickly put down his teacup and followed Chen Yansen out.

As they passed through the office area, people kept casting curious glances their way.

”Huh? Isn’t that President Zhou from DST Capital? What’s he doing at the company? Is the company raising another round of funding? I haven’t heard anything.”

”I heard the boss poached Zhou Shouzhi with a huge salary. HR has already drafted the announcement email and is just waiting for President Chen’s go-ahead.”

”Damn! No way!”

A few employees from the Market Department were discussing in low voices with their heads down.

Chen Yansen and Zhou Shouzhi arrived on the floor where the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was located.

Zhou Shouzhi looked around, a hint of astonishment in his eyes. He hadn’t expected Orange Technology’s headquarters to be hiding over a hundred foreign R&D engineers.

”They handled most of the speech recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis technology for the Moss and Alexa voice interaction engines,” Chen Yansen explained with a smile.

Due to the significant differences between Chinese and English in terms of semantic richness, linguistic structure, character sets, word segmentation, and data availability, the staff had been divided into two groups when developing the algorithm training models.

”Boss!”

”Boss!”

Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel took the initiative to come over.

”Let me introduce you two. This is Zhou Shouzhi. He was formerly a co-founder of DST Capital’s Great China Region and will now be serving as Orange Technology’s Chief Financial Officer.”

Chen Yansen said unhurriedly.

Zhou Shouzhi extended his right hand and greeted Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel in turn.

When he learned that Zhou Chuangxi held a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UIUC and had studied under the ”Father of Computer Vision” from the Lighthouse Country, he was only slightly surprised. But after hearing Daniel’s resume, he was utterly dumbfounded, his face a mask of shock.

He subconsciously turned to look at the wheat fields outside the window. ’This place is hiding a Johns Hopkins University professor, a god-tier researcher in the field of speech recognition?’

The surreal sense of displacement made Zhou Shouzhi feel like he was in a dream.

Next, Zhou Chuangxi led him on a tour, and only then did Zhou Shouzhi learn that among the staff were R&D engineers who had competed in the ImageNet (Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge), senior researchers from Stanford University’s AI Lab, algorithm designers from Carnegie Mellon University, and top technical experts from Google and Microsoft Research Lab.

Zhou Shouzhi looked completely bewildered. If Chen Yansen hadn’t been with him, he really would have asked, ”How much money did Orange Technology have to pay to get you guys to cross oceans to come work in Hua Country?”

He didn’t understand it, but he was profoundly shaken.

At four o’clock that afternoon, a company-wide email landed in everyone’s inbox: Effective immediately (August 13th), Zhou Shouzhi will assume the position of CFO for Orange Technology.

Orange Technology had entered a period of rapid acceleration!

「On the other side.」

With the help of Gaode Map, Fast Taxi steadily pushed forward with its ”Thousand Talents, Hundred Cities” plan, gradually expanding its operational scope from a few cities in East China to regions including Yanjing, Beihai, and Jinmen.

Its average daily orders surpassed two million!

Meanwhile, DiDi Dache’s daily fulfilled orders still hovered between 400,000 and 500,000.

It wasn’t that Cheng Wei wasn’t trying hard enough. Rather, Fast Taxi had the traffic support of Gaode, Kuai Pao, the Orange Application Mall, Lingxi Browser, and Toutiao. It looked like a one-on-one fight, but it was actually one against six.

This was because Cloud Speed Couriers would also slip users a promotional flyer for Fast Taxi while making their deliveries.

”That good-for-nothing Li Yanhong! Why isn’t the new version of Qian Du Map live yet!” Cheng Wei, waiting anxiously, couldn’t help but curse inwardly.