Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Xucheng, Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, Building 9, Conference Room 8A3.

Chen Yansen sat at the head of the table. He looked at Zhang Yinjia and said, ”Let’s begin.”

The long table in the conference room was filled with the core executives of Orange Pay. This included the heads of the online payment, offline payment, and commercial monetization departments, as well as the business directors of foundational departments like technology, operations, risk control, finance, legal, and customer service.

Most of these individuals came from Wealth Treasure, Ping’an, or commercial banks. They either had an expert understanding of the financial industry’s operations or were masters of marketing methodologies for internet products.

”Zhou Mingxuan, you’re up first,” Zhang Yinjia said with a slight nod, gesturing for the Vice President of Orange Pay to begin his report.

”Boss, President Zhang, regarding the product plan for Yu’e Bao, I’ve spoken with the fund companies. The current preliminary framework is a ’money market fund + payment and consumption’ model.”

”Users will be able to convert the money in their accounts into a money market fund with a single click to earn returns. When making payments, they can then pay directly using their fund shares.”

Zhou Mingxuan set up the projector, opened a PowerPoint presentation, and began to speak slowly.

He held a Master’s in Finance from Hong Kong University and had fifteen years of experience in the securities industry. Having served as a director or general manager at several fund organizations, he was a well-connected and capable industry veteran.

The reason he had joined Orange Pay was because he saw the development potential of mobile payments, not to mention the valuable stock options and generous annual salary.

”Orange Pay has thirty million active users. If we can embed a low-volatility, stable-return money market fund into the product, it will not only improve user retention and account value but also increase Orange Pay’s profitability.”

Zhang Yinjia grunted in agreement, adding to the point.

At this point, Ah Li hadn’t yet targeted this area of business, so the ’Yu’e Bao’ product name would naturally belong to whoever launched it first!

”Are there any other issues with technical integration, payment settlement, or policy compliance?” Chen Yansen asked.

”High-concurrency transactions are definitely a challenge. A traditional, centralized data architecture would struggle to handle the impact of tens of millions of users. The technology department’s idea is to adopt a distributed architecture, spreading the data and computing power across multiple servers to improve system scalability and fault tolerance.”

Jiang Leiming, the director of the technology department, responded immediately.

”We have the ’Securities and Futures Business Operation Permit’ and the ’Consumer Finance License,’ but the Yu’e Bao product combines three types of business: payments, fund sales, and money market funds. It involves multiple departments, including banks and the fund supervision association. There are no clear rules on whether it’s permissible or if it violates regulations.”

Zhou Mingxuan spread his hands, a look of helplessness on his face.

When the law is unknown, its power is immeasurable!

The task of a pioneer is to cross the river by feeling the stones!

In his view, Yu’e Bao was certainly doable, but it came with certain compliance risks. It all depended on whether Chen Yansen dared to do it.

”Also, to enable the payment function for Yu’e Bao, the product needs a real-time redemption feature. However, most domestic fund companies operate on a T+1 settlement basis, which clearly doesn’t meet our needs,” Zhou Mingxuan continued.

Chen Yansen smiled faintly. His frequent acceptance of investments from Huake, Huaxin, and Investment Attraction had been primarily to prepare for the launch of Yu’e Bao.

”Sky Rich Fund is willing to cooperate. They plan to launch a T+0 redemption method soon, using a procedure where they advance funds to customers to achieve the real-time redemption function.”

Chen Yansen looked up at Zhou Mingxuan and said unhurriedly.

”Understood, Boss. I’ll handle the coordination,” Zhou Mingxuan said, a hint of delight in his eyes as he eagerly took on the task.

”Many things have no precedent, so we’ll create it ourselves! I want to see the final feasibility report within three days. The technology department will be responsible for assessing system capacity, and the legal department will immediately research the regulatory red lines.”

Chen Yansen instructed the group, then paused before adding, ”What Orange Pay needs to do is not chase the wave, but become the wave itself.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yinjia, Zhou Mingxuan, Jiang Leiming, and the others couldn’t help but show their excitement. After securing the licenses and solving the T+0 redemption problem, all obstacles to Yu’e Bao’s launch had been swept away in one fell swoop.

With Orange Pay’s user base and the backing of Senlian Capital, Yu’e Bao’s market performance was destined to be impressive!

As the company’s valuation rose in the future, the value of the stock options in their hands would also multiply.

’The pie in the payment sector is huge. Wouldn’t I have been reborn for nothing if I don’t take a bite?’

Chen Yansen’s expectations for Orange Pay weren’t excessively high; breaking into the top three in the industry would be enough.

Next, the various departments reported one by one on business progress, performance reviews, product optimization, market analysis, and the competitive landscape.

The meeting lasted for an hour, only concluding as four o’clock approached.

Chen Yansen glanced at his watch. ’So much for a short meeting,’ he thought. ’It turned into a long one again.’

After Zhang Yinjia and the others left, Zhou Shouzhi, Wang Teng, Ye Qiuping, Zhang Cong, Zhou Ze, and Yan Peng entered the conference room one after another.

”Boss!”

”President Chen!”

More than ten greetings rang out in unison.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and said to the newly seated Zhou Shouzhi, ”Lao Zhou, you lead. I’ll just listen in.”

Zhang Cong, Zhou Ze, Wang Teng, and Yan Peng exchanged glances. Their estimation of Zhou Shouzhi’s importance rose several notches.

Everyone understood that although Zhou Shouzhi’s official title was Chief Financial Officer, he also held the authority of a CEO.

It was just that the time was not yet ripe!

Faced with such a down-to-earth nickname as ’Lao Zhou,’ Zhou Shouzhi could only nod with a wry smile. He turned to Yan Peng and said, ”Old Yan, let’s start with a review of the annual data.”

’Old Yan?’

Chen Yansen paused, surprised that Zhou Shouzhi had assimilated so quickly, giving Yan Peng a nickname after just a few days.

Yan Peng gave an awkward smile, connected to the projector, and read from his notes with his head lowered, ”As of September 2nd, total sales for the Orange Mobile Phone are 32.1 million units—27.6 million in the domestic market and 4.5 million in overseas markets. Total revenue is 66.83 billion Hua Yuan, with a hardware gross profit of 8.02 billion, a software gross profit of 4.87 billion, for a combined total of 12.89 billion Hua Yuan.”

”Looking at the domestic market first, the Orange Mobile Phone’s sales channels are primarily online, supplemented by offline. The Orange C1 sold 2.7 million units, the Orange D1 sold 13.4 million units, the Orange C2 sold 5.1 million, the Orange C3 sold 4.5 million, and the Qingcheng D1S sold 1.9 million.”

”Overseas, our main markets are Abysinnia and Nigeria, along with some retail markets in East and West Africa. The Orange F1 sold 2.3 million units, the Orange F2 (a revised Orange C1) sold 800,000 units, the Orange F3 (a revised Orange C2) sold 300,000 units, and the Lemon D1 (a revised Orange D1) sold 1.1 million units.”

In eight months, global sales reached 32.1 million units with revenue approaching 70 billion Hua Yuan. If annualized, Orange Technology could rank among the Fortune 500 companies based on its mobile phone business alone.

”What’s the net profit?” Chen Yansen asked casually.

”1.65 billion Hua Yuan,” Zhou Shouzhi replied softly, taking over the conversation.

Over the past six-plus months, Orange Technology had poured over four billion into R&D and purchased land in Luzhou to build its headquarters. After deducting various costs from a gross profit of over ten billion, it was left with a net profit margin of only 2.5%.

A rough calculation showed they could earn just over two billion a year.

Compared to revenues in the hundreds of billions, this amount was pitifully small.

But Orange Technology supported hundreds of thousands of jobs up and down the industrial chain!

Domestic suppliers like Desai Battery and Jingdongfang relied entirely on Orange Technology to thrive.

For Chen Yansen, the tens of thousands of strands of Human Dao Fire contributed monthly by Orange Technology and the Orange Phone Factory were far more important.

”Continue,” Chen Yansen said with a wave of his hand.

Among all his subsidiaries, Pinbei was still the most profitable. The platform’s GMV exceeded 200 billion, with revenues reaching 29 billion Hua Yuan. After deducting expenses and costs, the net profit was still around 20 billion. It was a veritable money-printing machine.

Manufacturing required high investment and had a long payback period. Its meager returns were no match for the e-commerce and gaming industries.

Why did people like Zhou Hongyi, Ma Liyun, and Ding Lei dare to sell phones at ’zero profit’?

It was all to seize the end-user market and compete for the gateway to the mobile internet. Fortunately, they all failed. Otherwise, domestic smartphones would have likely become nothing more than advertising machines for the various internet giants.

360’s annual advertising revenue was five to six hundred million US Dollars. How much money could you really make by working yourself to death selling phones?

Next, Yan Peng presented the revenue and gross profit data for the Moss (Alexa) Smart Speaker, mobile power banks, Bluetooth headsets, and phone accessories. The total revenue came to a final figure of 72.63 billion Hua Yuan.

”Kuai Pao’s Orange Intelligent Life Hall is now online, and sales are looking pretty good. The self-operated offline stores can maintain brand consistency with the online presence to increase recognition. There’s no need to deliberately wait for the Orange Pad 1 and Orange MagicBook to launch. Let’s get the offline sales, after-sales, and experience channels built up quickly.”

After Yan Peng finished his report, Chen Yansen turned to Zhou Shouzhi.

”No problem,” Zhou Shouzhi replied with a confident and composed smile.

He already had a plan in mind for building out Orange Technology’s offline channels: expand from first-tier cities to second- and third-tier cities, focusing on directly-operated stores supplemented by specialty and authorized stores. This multi-pronged approach would ensure a comprehensive presence covering shopping malls, neighborhoods, and communications stores.

The second person to report was Wang Teng, followed by Ye Qiuping, Zhang Cong, Zhou Ze, and others.

The weekly meeting continued until five o’clock, as the brilliant golden glow of the setting sun colored the windows.

Chen Yansen didn’t take a break. Only after finishing consecutive business and finance weekly meetings with Huang Zheng and Liang Bo did he push open the door and head out.

Twilight had fallen. The evening wind blew with a restless urgency, as if carrying the first cool chill of autumn.

The development of Orange Technology, Pinbei Mall, Orange Pay, and Toutiao was all proceeding in an orderly fashion, right according to his plan.

Last week, he had received an invitation to the 11th Internet Conference. According to official data, the number of internet users in Hua Country had reached 540 million, a penetration rate of 42.1%.

The number of mobile phone users had surpassed one billion, with 360 million of them using smartphones. From this data, it was easy to see that the great era of the mobile internet was about to arrive.

This was the core reason why companies like Ah Li, 360, NetEase, and Shanda were all rushing to manufacture mobile phones.

Currently, the main factors limiting the growth ceiling for products like Toutiao and Lingxi Browser were smartphone penetration, mobile network speeds, and data plan costs.

’360 million smartphones in circulation is still too few,’ Chen Yansen thought.

’The operational strategy for the Orange D1 and Qingcheng D1S has been very effective. It’s driven down the prices of low- to mid-range smartphones from manufacturers like Xiaomi, 360, OPPO, Huawei, Lenovo, and Coolpad by several hundred Hua Yuan. If the prices are too high, users simply won’t buy them.’

Chen Yansen pondered this to himself as he walked toward the cafeteria.

「Meanwhile.」

The Yanjing Inspection Institute, in a joint operation with the institutes in Jinmen, Changshan, Tang City, An Ci, and other locations, took unified action late at night on September 3rd, at 10:30 PM.

They took down 19 Gray Studios in one fell swoop. The case involved up to 40 million, and countless wool-pullers received inquiry calls.

Many were still lost in their dreams of earning millions a month when Inspectors broke down their doors and cornered them by their beds.

That night, gray industry operators throughout the North China Region were scared half to death. They only breathed a sigh of relief when they discovered the Inspectors were only targeting the wool-pulling studios that exploited DiDi Dache.

「On the other side.」

Brother Hui and his crew, who had long since fled to An Nan, felt a wave of relief upon hearing the news. If they hadn’t run so fast, they might have ended up in jail, too.

”Brother Hui, what do we do now?” Yaozi asked in a panic.

”Relax, the Inspection can’t touch us. The ’Little Milk Cow’ is gone, but we can still find a ’Big Golden Bull.’ I refuse to believe we can’t find another system loophole in DiDi Dache!”

Brother Hui said dismissively.

People in the gray industry are like weeds; you cut one down, and another springs up. Although the Little Milk Cow software was cracked and some of their clients were arrested, there were still plenty of people out there looking to make a quick buck. They weren’t afraid of a lack of buyers.

The only problem was that they had to develop a new piece of software as soon as possible.

”Brother Hui, there’s no shortage of tech guys here in An Nan. We can go recruit tomorrow,” Ah Zhen said from the side.

”Alright, I’ll leave it to you,” Brother Hui grunted in acknowledgment.

DiDi Dache was a fat sheep that could generate millions in income for them each month. No one was willing to give that up!