Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”Let’s drop it, then. We’ll shelve the investment for now and talk about the collaboration between the Alexa Smart Speaker and Spotify instead.” Chen Yansen changed the subject crisply, without a hint of hesitation.

’He wasn’t about to believe that load of crap!’

If Goldman Sachs Capital was willing to offer a valuation over three billion US dollars, why would Daniel have the gall to shamelessly seek an investment from him?

’What was he after?’

That kind of excuse might fool a rookie investor, but in Chen Yansen’s eyes, it was nothing more than a lie riddled with holes.

Daniel’s tone faltered. He hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be so unpredictable.

He gave a dry laugh and could only follow Chen Yansen’s lead. The conversation shifted from the Smart Speaker’s application ecosystem to the mobile phone market in Eastern Europe. Daniel then proactively mentioned that he controlled some carrier channel resources in regions like Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, and could help Orange Mobile Phone break into the Western European market.

”Thank you,” Chen Yansen said calmly.

Daniel held back for a long time before he finally couldn’t resist lowering the valuation to 3.2 billion US dollars.

”Let’s each compromise. 2.8 billion US dollars,” Chen Yansen said coolly.

Daniel was stunned. ’Shouldn’t meeting in the middle be 3 billion US dollars? Spotify clearly compromised twice as much!’

He thought for a moment, then said, ”3 billion US dollars is the absolute minimum.”

”Let’s talk about it next time.” Chen Yansen waved his hand, flatly refusing.

His interest in investing in Spotify wasn’t that strong. If the price was low, he’d invest on a whim. If it was too high, he didn’t mind walking away.

A valuation of 2.8 billion US dollars was on par with Fidelity Capital’s offer and 100 million US dollars higher than Coca-Cola’s. It was hardly a high price.

Seeing this, Daniel had no choice but to drop the matter.

After that, he stopped pestering them about investments and collaborations. Instead, he started telling Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng about Stockholm’s scenery, ski resorts, and hunting activities, as well as its music and beer festivals.

The autumn breeze on the terrace was cool, and they chatted until noon.

As it neared twelve o’clock, Daniel invited Chen Yansen to a restaurant in the city to taste the local specialties.

「In the afternoon,」 Chen Yansen bid Daniel farewell and drove to Göteborgs Top Hunting Ground in Göteborg Province.

Normally, he and Song Yuncheng wouldn’t have hunting licenses, but as long as one was willing to spend money, there were always loopholes to exploit.

With the hunting club pulling some strings, a professional hunter led their party, allowing Chen Yansen to easily experience the thrill of the hunt.

Song Yuncheng, carrying a hunting rifle, managed to bag three wild rabbits in just two hours. She then turned to Chen Yansen, her face flushed with excitement, and said, ”Should we have rabbit for dinner tonight?”

The young woman’s eyes were sparkling, her cheeks rosy.

The past few days had been unforgettable for her. Crabbing at sea, skiing, hunting, deep-sea fishing—every activity was something she had never experienced before.

”Sure,” Chen Yansen replied with a nod.

”Oh, right, I forgot to ask. Are Universal Records and Apple really in talks about an exclusive license?” Song Yuncheng asked curiously, holding up the rabbits.

”I have no idea. I was just making it up,” Chen Yansen said truthfully with a shrug.

”I knew it,” Song Yuncheng said with a faint smile, a look of ’I told you so’ on her face.

Her English was quite good, but Chen Yansen and Daniel’s conversation had been peppered with so much industry jargon that while she couldn’t understand everything, she could still grasp the general gist.

「Meanwhile.」

After Chen Yansen left Stockholm, Daniel immediately began to investigate. He soon learned from someone in Apple’s Market Department that staff from Universal Records had indeed visited the Apple Headquarters Building in September.

Whether it was about a copyright partnership, however, was unclear.

Daniel thought for a moment, his eyes narrowing as a cold glint flashed through them. He was now convinced that Universal Records was making moves behind his back.

After weighing his options repeatedly, he decided to accept the investments from Senlian Capital and Fidelity Capital. He would get the money first and worry about getting through the current crisis later.

Chen Yansen had no idea that his offhand comment, combined with Daniel filling in the blanks himself, had actually sealed the investment deal.

Just as he was preparing to return to his country, he received a call from Daniel. ”Mr. Chen, I’m willing to accept Senlian Capital’s investment. I also agree to the 2.8 billion US dollar valuation.”

Chen Yansen was stunned for a moment, but he quickly composed himself and replied with a smile, ”Alright, let’s meet this afternoon to sign a letter of intent first. Once our company’s finance and legal teams complete their audit, we can formally sign the share transfer agreement. How does that sound?”

”OK, I have no objection,” Daniel agreed readily.

Chen Yansen exchanged a few more pleasantries before hanging up.

For overseas investment projects exceeding 100 million US dollars, one had to report to and get approval from the higher-ups.

Therefore, the process of investing in Spotify was a long one. From auditing core data to making payments in stages, the whole thing would take at least three to five months to complete.

On the afternoon of his last day, Chen Yansen signed the share transfer letter of intent with Daniel at Spotify’s headquarters.

million US dollars in exchange for a 5% stake in Spotify!

As long as he continued to make follow-up investments before the IPO, this stake would one day generate over 7 billion US dollars in returns for him.

It wasn’t until October 9th that Chen Yansen returned to Xucheng.

By this point, the Group Buy, food delivery, and ride-hailing markets had been through a brutal National Day holiday battle, and the competition was so fierce they were practically beating each other’s brains out.

Chen Yansen first returned to Room 0418, then got into a Bentley Mulsanne and sped toward the Science and Technology Park.

Just as he entered the company building, he got a call from Cheng Weixing.

”Boss, our daily subsidy burn rate is around 40 million right now. Should we pause it for the time being?”

Cheng Weixing asked from his office, his eyes bloodshot and under immense pressure.

Since October 1st, the subsidy war between Fast Taxi and DiDi had grown increasingly vicious. Now, regardless of whether a customer was new or old, each platform offered a first-ride discount three times a day. The subsidy amount ranged from 10 to 14 yuan, depending on the local taxi’s starting fare.

At the current burn rate, even with Fast Taxi’s substantial funding, they probably wouldn’t last until December.

The appliance price war between Jingdong, Sunning, and Gome was all thunder and no rain; users barely noticed it.

Meanwhile, Fast Taxi and DiDi were genuinely paying for tens of millions of people to take free taxi rides across the five provinces of North China and the seven provinces and one municipality of East China.

Weibo, WeChat, forums, campus networks, and Tieba were flooded with guides on how to use the free ride-hailing apps.

Li Yanhong was bleeding cash. Even though he knew that continuing to expand would be advantageous for DiDi Dache, he didn’t dare make any rash moves.

Every time DiDi Dache expanded its service area, the cost of subsidies would increase by several million.

”How much cash is on the books?” Chen Yansen asked.

”1.94 billion,” Cheng Weixing answered immediately.

”Spend it all first. I don’t think Li Yanhong can hold out for much longer,” Chen Yansen said with conviction.

”Okay, Boss. I understand,” Cheng Weixing agreed, gritting his teeth.

”We can relaunch activities like the prepaid card promotions, but with more intensity. Right now, the most important thing for Fast Taxi is to seize market share. Don’t worry about profitability for now.”

Chen Yansen added as he stepped into the elevator.

He had pulled companies like Penguin, Ah Li, Huaxin, Huake, Digital Sky Technology, and Goldman Sachs onto the great ship that was Fast Taxi for the express purpose of reducing competition and maintaining a plentiful cash reserve.

When it came to the guts and upper limits for burning cash to seize territory, Li Yanhong was no match for him.

Cheng Weixing acknowledged the order and reminded Chen Yansen that there were two digital contracts for Fast Taxi in his email that needed his approval.

”I know,” Chen Yansen said, then tapped the button to end the call.

DING!

The elevator doors slowly opened.

Chen Yansen walked out, pushed open his office door, and went straight inside.

The money tree on his desk was growing luxuriantly, lush and green, with every leaf plump and full.

He had barely sat down when Zhang Yinjia and Zhou Mingxuan from Orange Pay heard he was back and came to find him.

”Boss, the Yu’e Bao project is ready. Customer service training and market promotion are basically complete. Users are all waiting for the release of Orange Pay version 2.1.”

Zhang Yinjia reported, his eyes bright, his voice steady and strong.

”What’s the seven-day annualized rate of return?” Chen Yansen asked.

”Around 5.4% to 5.7%. According to the original plan, we will only display an actual annualized rate of return of 4.9% to 5.2% to users. The remaining 0.5% will be taken as the project’s profit,” Zhang Yinjia replied.

This 0.5% interest margin was, in reality, a management fee charged to the fund company.