Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

「September 11th, Yanjing International Conference Center, Conference Hall 1.」

The nearly two-thousand-square-meter indoor space was packed to capacity. Lights glittered from the ten-meter-high dome ceiling. Directly ahead, a massive, curved LED screen dominated the view. Each seat was equipped with a touchscreen panel and simultaneous interpretation headphones.

At ten o’clock sharp, the chairmen of the Council for Industrial Informatization, the Hua Country Engineering Association, and the Internet Association took the stage one by one to give their opening remarks.

They presented awards like the ”Outstanding Contribution Award” and the ”Leading Technology Award” to industry-leading companies in various sectors, including the PC internet, mobile internet, IoT, cloud computing, online marketing, and e-commerce.

To put it bluntly, the awards were nothing more than empty honors with no monetary prize.

Companies like Penguin, Ah Li, and Qian Du all received accolades. Cloud Speed Express, for its part, won the Grand Prize for Innovative Breakthrough with its electronic waybill technology.

Chen Yansen was starting to doze off. ’A pile of empty platitudes,’ he thought, ’completely worthless.’

The chairmen of the three major carriers—Telecom, Mobile, and Unicom—took the stage in succession to share their views on the era of the mobile internet.

Yet for all their talk, they never once mentioned any policies for lowering prices.

’If they hadn’t lifted the restrictions on Wi-Fi two years ago, who would have dared to even turn on mobile data? At 30 to 50 yuan per gigabyte, how could the industry possibly have developed?’

’They can take their sweet time. I, for one, am done waiting.’

Chen Yansen glanced up, his gaze sweeping over the three titans on stage. ’If some groundbreaking products aren’t viable in this country, then I’ll just take them overseas.’

’The Alexa Smart Speaker, for instance, sells three to four times more in overseas markets than it does domestically.’

Chen Yansen’s interest was only slightly piqued when the host announced the next speaker: Ma Wenteng, CEO of Penguin.

Ma Wenteng looked refreshed and energetic, as if he’d had a full night’s sleep. Dressed in a light blue suit, he stood before the microphone and spoke with easy confidence. ”Penguin takes the issue of mobile security very seriously, and we have invested heavily in it. In 2013, Penguin will invest no less than one billion yuan into a security fund to safeguard our users’ mobile security.

”I am personally, strongly opposed to certain companies that, under the pretext of ’security’ and in the name of ’the user,’ recommend misleading search results...”

’Certain companies?’

The moment Zhou Hongyi heard this, his expression darkened.

Although the 3Q War was officially over, the conflict between Penguin and 360 had never truly died down.

A month ago, 360 had initiated the ”3B Search Engine War.” In response, security software companies like Penguin, Qian Du, and Jinshan formed a ”Security Alliance.” Publicly, their goal was to combat phishing websites, but privately, they were working to block 360’s software.

’That Ma Wenteng is completely biased!’

Zhou Hongyi glared fixedly at Little Ma on stage, his eyes smoldering with rage. With the corners of his mouth turned down, his displeasure was written all over his face.

Ma Wenteng hadn’t named names, but anyone with half a brain knew who he was attacking.

Li Yanhong smiled faintly. In the 3B War, Qian Du and Penguin were allies. While Little Ma was taking a jab at 360, he also casually threw in a few words of praise for Qian Du, which secretly delighted Li Yanhong.

After about ten minutes, Ma Wenteng calmly concluded his speech and returned to his seat.

Immediately after, Zhou Hongyi took the stage.

Seeing this, many of the entrepreneurs who had been dozing off suddenly sat up straight, their faces eager to watch the drama unfold.

They knew in their hearts that with Zhou Daqiang’s personality, there was no way he would back down. He was more than likely going to tear Penguin and Qian Du to shreds.

Sure enough, the moment Zhou Hongyi opened his mouth, his tone was dripping with sarcasm. ”I know you all want to hear me sling some mud, but the higher-ups have called me out a few times, so I’ve been trying to be more careful with my words lately. I won’t be slinging any mud today.”

The subtext was clear: if he weren’t being restrained, he would have loved to drag both Ma Wenteng and Li Yanhong up there and give them a piece of his mind.

Chen Yansen smiled. ’Zhou Hongyi isn’t a complete fool,’ he thought.

’This year’s Internet Association conference invited not only domestic companies but also overseas giants like Microsoft, Mountain Star, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Qualcomm, and Cisco. Cursing people out might feel good, but it would embarrass the senior officials present.’

”Also, I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify something. 360 has not poached any of Fetion’s R&D engineers, nor do we plan to launch our own instant messaging software. On this point, Xiaoma can rest easy.”

”The mobile internet is the undeniable future. As for instant messaging software, I’m actually more bullish on Lei Yijun’s Xiaomi. I hear President Lei has invested a great deal in Mi Chat.”

Zhou Hongyi said with a smile, and with just a few sentences, he had successfully steered the conversation to the rivalry between Mi Chat and WeChat.

At his words, the audience couldn’t help but exchange knowing smiles, inwardly cursing Zhou Hongyi for being so devious. He was blatantly trying to sow discord.

The look Lei Yijun gave Zhou Hongyi grew even more hostile.

”In fact,” Zhou Hongyi continued, ”both Mi Chat and WeChat possess a spirit of disruptive innovation. By securing a foothold in the mobile internet, they’ve also dealt a huge blow to the carriers’ SMS business.”

Hiding barbs in his seemingly innocuous words, Zhou Hongyi continued to fan the flames, doing his best to paint a target on the backs of Lei Yijun and Ma Wenteng.

In reality, he wasn’t wrong. The existence of WeChat and Mi Chat had indeed siphoned off a significant portion of the carriers’ SMS business.

After a full ten minutes of such ”scolding,” Zhou Hongyi walked off the stage, looking thoroughly satisfied.

The speeches from Ma Wenteng and Zhou Hongyi were remarkably similar in their strategy: boost the industry influence of their own products, attack their competitors, and stir up some trouble for their peers.

Judging by the results, Zhou Hongyi had come out slightly ahead.

Li Yanhong took the stage next. Having been on the receiving end of Zhou Hongyi’s tirade, he was naturally looking to retaliate. While discussing the development of the search engine industry, he subtly mocked 360 Search for its lack of technology, claiming it relied entirely on underhanded methods.

Chen Yansen glanced around and saw that the local Yanjing tycoons all wore grim expressions.