Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The door swung open and Chen Yansen, Ma Wenteng, and Liu Zhiping walked in, followed by Zhou Shouzhi, Huang Zheng, and Gao Weilin.

”President Chen!”

”Mr. Ma!”

”President Liu!”

Zhang Chaoyang, Lei Yijun, and the others quickly stood up, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with smiles.

”Don’t you all have meetings tomorrow?” Chen Yansen glanced at the coffee table, which was covered in beer, red wine, and whiskey. He couldn’t help but tease them with a playful smile.

”I’ve been to ten of these Internet Conferences. They’re the same old thing every year. Drinking tonight and catching up on sleep at the venue tomorrow is the perfect plan.”

Zhang Chaoyang said with a laugh.

”...” Chen Yansen chuckled, at a loss for words. That definitely sounded like something Zhang Chaoyang would do.

If he wasn’t concerned about saving face for the higher-ups, he probably wouldn’t have bothered to attend at all.

The private room was massive, easily able to hold forty or fifty people, yet it still felt sparse even after they came in.

Everyone took their seats. As soon as Chen Yansen sat down, Zhang Chaoyang sidled over, filled his glass, then poured a whiskey for Ma Wenteng next to him. ”Long time no see.”

”Yeah, it’s been a while since we’ve had a drink together,” Ma Wenteng replied, raising his glass.

”You’re too busy,” Zhang Chaoyang said nonchalantly, swirling the drink in his glass.

Ma Wenteng just smiled and said nothing. Unlike Zhang Chaoyang, his company, Penguin, was still on the rise, so he couldn’t afford to slack off.

If he missed the window of opportunity in mobile internet, Penguin risked declining and becoming the next Sohu. He had to be cautious.

”President Chen, I heard Orange Mobile Phone plans to enter the Eastern European market?” Ding Lei asked curiously.

The question was originally intended for Zhang Chaoyang, but with the man himself right here, there was no need to take the long way around.

”We have plans for that. We’re currently in talks with telecom operators in the Eastern European region about revenue sharing ratios. We also need to coordinate and adapt the hardware and network standards. It will likely be Q4 before we can launch.”

Chen Yansen wasn’t secretive about it.

’It’s just the Eastern European market, not Western Europe!’

If Xiaomi and NetEase wanted to go, he wouldn’t stop them.

After all, he held the manufacturing contracts for both companies. The more phones Xiaomi and NetEase sold, the more jobs and Human Dao Fire the Orange Phone Factory could provide.

Lei Yijun had been listening intently. When Chen Yansen finished, he chimed in, ”The reason Mountain Star and Apple are so strong is mainly because of their overseas markets. The domestic smartphone market is huge, but globally, it’s only about 30% of the total. Expanding abroad is the right move.”

Take Mountain Star, for example. In Hua Country, its quarterly smartphone sales are only around 10 million units, but its global shipments reach over 50 million.

”How far along is Xiaomi’s voice interaction engine development?” Chen Yansen asked casually.

After Lei Yijun obtained the patent license for the speech analysis development tools, he had gone back and established the Xiaomi Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. It had been over two months; there ought to be some output by now.

”Xiaomi is developing a voice interaction engine?” Ding Lei asked with a look of surprise before Lei Yijun could even react.

”Yes. I purchased the patent for the development tools from President Chen. We’ve just gotten started and are still researching algorithm models,”

Lei Yijun answered honestly.

Since Orange Technology had provided the development tools, there was no reason for him to hide it.

Ding Lei nodded, not particularly interested in voice interaction engines.

The group continued to drink and discuss potential collaborations until one in the morning, when the second round of drinking finally wound down.

Chen Yansen waved goodbye to Ma Huateng, Zhang Chaoyang, and the others before getting into a Maybach 62S to head back to the hotel.

The evening hadn’t been fruitless for him. At the very least, he’d finalized next year’s advertising deal for Pinbei with Ding Lei and He Xiaopeng, as well as pre-installation partnerships for UC Browser and the NetEase client app.

Beneath the night sky, the neon lights of Yanjing glittered in the quiet city.

It was nearly one-thirty in the morning when he returned to the Marco Polo Hotel. He had two key cards in his pocket, and Chen Yansen pulled out the second one.

He swiped the card, unlocked the door, and walked inside.

Song Yuncheng was lying on the bed, her lovely face slightly flushed and her eyes shut tight. She had evidently waited too long and fallen asleep.

Chen Yansen took off his jacket and shirt, stepped into the bathroom for a quick rinse, and then slipped into bed.

「The next morning.」

After breakfast, the group drove to the International Conference Center. They took a right from Anli Road onto North Fourth Ring Middle Road, and after about four hundred more meters, they arrived at their destination.

Chen Yansen got out of the car and looked up at the International Conference Center. The open area outside was swarming with a black mass of media reporters. Even from hundreds of meters away, he could hear the continuous clicking of camera shutters.

This year’s Internet Conference had invited not only domestic internet companies but also overseas investment firms like Goldman Sachs, Temasek, and IDG, as well as international giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

This was, in fact, one of the organizers’ tactics to attract domestic entrepreneurs, as most attendees were there to negotiate partnerships and secure financing.

Chen Yansen started toward the conference hall with Zhou Shouzhi, Huang Zheng, Xiao Jun, Pei Yi, and Cheng Weixing trailing behind him. The Senlian Capital lineup was nothing short of luxurious.

From mobile phone R&D and manufacturing, social e-commerce, food delivery, Group Buy, and ride-hailing to news, express delivery, web browsers, and electronic navigation maps, Senlian Capital’s business interests spanned numerous fields.

Before Chen Yansen’s entourage could even reach the hall, reporters swarmed them, blocking the path completely.

Ma Liyun, Ma Wenteng, and Li Yanhong were regulars at the Internet Conference; every last bit of newsworthy gossip about them had already been dug up.

But Chen Yansen was different. Only twenty years old, he had already extended his business’s reach into all sorts of industries and amassed a net worth in the tens of billions. Interviewing him was far more valuable than interviewing the big three of BAT.

”President Chen, how do you balance your studies with your entrepreneurial ventures? What is the core logic of your time management?”

”President Chen, your company has entered multiple sectors at once, including food delivery, Group Buy, and ride-hailing. How do you avoid spreading your resources too thin? Besides burning cash to seize market share, do Kuai Pao and Fast Taxi have other core competencies?”

”President Chen, as a 20-year-old student entrepreneur, have you encountered trust barriers because of your age? How do you break through that kind of prejudice?”

”President Chen...”

Dozens of microphones were instantly shoved in his face. Chen Yansen took a step back, his eyes scanning the logos on them. He randomly picked seven or eight influential media outlets and answered each of their questions in turn.

Then, he pushed Zhou Shouzhi and the others forward to take over.

Giving media interviews to increase company and product exposure, and thereby boost industry influence, was one of the key reasons for attending the Internet Conference.

Since Chen Yansen was here, he naturally wasn’t going to refuse.

The group was delayed at the entrance for over half an hour. With less than twenty minutes left until the opening ceremony, Chen Yansen and the others were finally escorted by security straight into the conference hall.

Chen Yansen, Huang Zheng, and Zhou Shouzhi’s seats were in the front row, with the others scattered across the second and third rows.

Chen Yansen glanced around; they were nearly all familiar faces. When Ma Liyun saw him, he managed to squeeze out a strained smile.

The establishment of the Cloud Speed Express Alliance had caught him completely off guard.

Ma Wenteng sat ramrod straight in his crisp suit, looking prim and proper. However, his eyes were narrowed as if he were feigning sleep. He had clearly had too much to drink the night before and still wasn’t sober.

Cai Yongjin, the managing director of Goldman Sachs Asia, gave him a small wave and a smile.

Most of the entrepreneurs in the front row returned a polite smile when they saw Chen Yansen.

Only Li Yanhong of Qian Du Network had a tense expression, glaring at Chen Yansen with hostility.

The two companies were engaged in extremely fierce competition in the Group Buy, food delivery, and ride-hailing sectors, with daily losses reaching as high as 15 million. He had previously proposed a truce to the subsidy war, but Chen Yansen had completely shut him down.

”President Li, I’ve heard so much about you,”

Chen Yansen said, speaking first as he looked at Li Yanhong.

”President Chen, a pleasure,” Li Yanhong replied, subconsciously extending his right hand, his gaze intensely fixed on Chen Yansen.

In his eyes, while Chen Yansen was young, the threat he posed to Qian Du was anything but small.

If Qian Du’s LBS division wanted to move forward with its predetermined O2O strategic plan, it would first have to flatten the mountain that was Senlian Capital.

”President Li, how much longer can DiDi Dache hold out?” Chen Yansen asked with a soft laugh, clasping Li Yanhong’s hand.

”How long can Fast Taxi last?” Li Yanhong retorted, not to be outdone.

”My funding for Fast Taxi has no upper limit,” Chen Yansen replied, his smile vanishing as his expression turned serious.

”What a coincidence. So does mine,” Li Yanhong replied, unconsciously tightening his grip.

In response, Chen Yansen squeezed back slightly.

Li Yanhong’s mouth immediately twitched. A sharp pain shot through his palm, and he couldn’t help but curse internally, ’This kid’s got a monster grip.’

Chen Yansen just smiled faintly, not letting go until Li Yanhong’s expression was on the verge of breaking.

’Li Yanhong started it,’ he thought. ’I was just fighting back.’

Wang Xin from Meituan was sitting in the fourth row, his eyes narrowed, staring intently at the back of Chen Yansen’s head.

Zhang Tao from Dianping craned his neck, secretly sizing up Chen Yansen with a complicated look in his eyes.

Chen Yansen sensed both of their gazes but didn’t turn around. ’Senlian Capital has many friends,’ he thought, ’but it has just as many enemies.’

If he dared to attend an electronics manufacturing conference in Shencheng City, he’d probably get to experience the ”reassuring” feeling of having the entire room as his enemy.

Thanks to the existence of the Orange Phone Factory, wages in Huaqiang North had been pushed up by five yuan an hour.

If you didn’t offer more money, you couldn’t find workers!

Because of this, many electronics factory owners wished they could stuff him and Cao Dahua into a stamping press.

Ma Wenteng had been dozing, but the sound of Chen Yansen and Li Yanhong talking woke him up. Seeing that Chen Yansen was there, he decided to start a casual conversation.

Zhang Chaoyang was in the second row, his head bowed, fast asleep.

In addition, it was unclear whether the organizers had done it intentionally or not, but they had seated Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi next to each other, with only a single seat separating them.

Zhou Hongyi had arrived first and was now resting with his head tilted back against his seat.

His sleeping posture was even more audacious than Zhang Chaoyang’s. He was completely oblivious to Lei Yijun beside him, who was glaring daggers.

Remembering Zhou Hongyi’s online taunts, Lei Yijun couldn’t help but clench his fists, filled with an urgent desire to schedule another bout with him at a boxing gym.

「Meanwhile.」

Kuai Pao’s Group Buy codes were now widely adopted, bringing great convenience to both merchants and customers.

Hu City, Riyueguang Subway Station, Happy Lemon Tea Shop.

A long line, consisting mostly of young people, snaked out the door. Every person was holding a smartphone, the screen displaying the Kuai Pao Group Buy order page.

At the top was the title of the group-buy item: Taro Ball Kid Milk Tea, marked with a group-buy price of 6.9 yuan.

Below that were the Group Buy voucher number and the QR code voucher.

The Happy Lemon staff had a clear division of labor. Facing an explosion of orders, they had specially assigned one employee to be in charge of verifying vouchers.

Previously, everything had to be entered manually. Now, they could just open the merchant backend, scan the code with a phone, and complete the redemption process in one second. The efficiency had increased more than tenfold.

As a result, Meituan, Lashou, and Dianping, which lacked a group-buy QR code function, earned the disdain of merchants and customers alike.

After Kuai Pao launched its group-buy code feature, the R&D teams at Meituan, Lashou, and Dianping began working overtime to develop a similar function, but it would inevitably take time.

In the meantime, Kuai Pao leveraged its ultra-low commission rates, commission-free periods, and various marketing campaigns to give milk tea shops, restaurants, KTVs, and movie theaters a taste of what it felt like to be slammed with orders.

As a result, the market share of Kuai Pao’s group-buy business grew at a tremendous pace. In just a few short days, its daily transaction volume had caught up to that of Lashou Network.

In other words, if it could maintain this momentum, Kuai Pao’s market share in the group-buy sector would be solidly ranked third in the industry.