Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Mike Keller was an Ivy League graduate. He joined Advanced Micro Devices fifteen years ago and was deeply involved in the R&D for the Athlon K7 processor. He later became the chief architect for the K8, and nine years after that, he joined Apple, where he led the team that developed the A4 and A5 chips.

In Apple’s chip division, his rank and status were second only to its head, Johnny Srouji. His technical skills and industry influence were comparable to those of a senior principal engineer at Qualcomm.

However, that was all in the past. He was now the chief scientist of Orange Technology’s chip division, as well as Wu Shengyu’s direct supervisor, responsible for developing the Celestial Craftsmanship T100 AI chip.

When Lao Wu learned that his new boss was Mike Keller, he was completely stunned!

Mike Keller was a renowned figure in the North American chip industry. If he had stuck it out for another five to eight years, he might have been promoted to chief scientist or even become the head of Apple’s chip division.

’Has he gone mad? Coming all the way to Hua Country just for a job?’

’What’s in it for him?’

Wu Shengyu was completely baffled!

He just couldn’t wrap his head around it!

Little did he know that his own family found his sudden resignation from Qualcomm and resolute return to his home country after nearly twenty years in the Lighthouse Country to be just as bizarre.

Chen Yansen dragged the mouse, quickly scrolling to the last page of the document. Including the main chip, memory, storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and microphone modules, the total material cost was around 20 US Dollars.

This seemed higher than the current procurement cost of the TI OMAP 3630, but the Celestial Craftsmanship T100 integrated the CPU, NPU, DSP, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communications, and an audio codec all onto a single chip, which would save at least 50% in costs.

By then, the material and production costs could be brought down to around 200 Hua Yuan. The retail price of the Alexa (Moss) Smart Speaker could then be dropped to 89 US Dollars (499 Hua Yuan), or even 79 US Dollars (399 Hua Yuan), leading to a massive increase in shipments.

He knew Amazon had launched its Echo smart voice assistant feature and was planning to develop a smart speaker based on the Alexa prototype. However, he had calculated that even with Amazon’s strict supply chain control, their material cost would not be less than 70 US Dollars per unit.

Factoring in production, labor, transportation, sales, and after-sales service, the retail price would absolutely not be lower than 150 US Dollars!

But Chen Yansen wasn’t worried in the slightest!

Because by the time the Echo smart speaker was released, the Celestial Craftsmanship T100 chip would have been on the market for a while. If Bezos dared to sell his for 149 US Dollars, Chen Yansen would dare to sell his for 89, turning the smart speaker into a mass-market commodity.

「Meanwhile.」

The battle between Tmall, Pinbei, and Jingdong over the Double Eleven sales event was intensifying. All three companies were pulling out all the stops to attract traffic and customers, using everything from straightforward, aggressive cash giveaways to an endless supply of category-specific coupons.

One Taobao user complained on Weibo that despite not making a single purchase, his account had been flooded with over a hundred coupons, from store-specific to product-specific to category-specific ones. It was an endless stream.

Jingdong users had similar complaints. There were as many coupons as there were platform gimmicks. They were staying up all night snatching up coupons, terrified of overpaying for something.

Only Pinbei was the outlier. It mostly offered unconditional cash subsidies and rarely spammed its users with coupons.

On the rare occasion it did issue a coupon, users could sense its genuine value, unlike the ones from Jingdong, Sunning, and Taobao, which were riddled with all kinds of restrictions.

At two in the afternoon, Sunning started trending on social media—and not in a good way.

The reason was its ”Zero-Cost Purchase” event. The redemption options for the rebate coupons were becoming increasingly narrow. Most small appliances were out of stock, leaving only food, beverages, and cosmetics—primarily from obscure, white-label brands that did little to entice shoppers.

And yet, Sunning was stubbornly refusing to restock the popular items!

Some customers had already received the phones, computers, or appliances they’d bought. If they wanted a refund, they would have to pay for return shipping. The customers who had been duped finally realized what was happening and began cursing up a storm.

The complaint hotline for the Jinling City Supervision Association was ringing off the hook!

Seeing his chance, Liu Qiangdong immediately posted a passive-aggressive jab on Weibo: ”To certain competitors: if you can’t afford to run a promotion, then don’t. But what’s this all about, deceiving your users?”

Huang Zheng was even more ruthless than Handsome Dong. He partnered with Cloud Speed Express to offer targeted 10-Hua-Yuan, no-strings-attached shipping coupons to Sunning customers.

All they had to do was upload a screenshot of their Sunning return confirmation on Pinbei’s promotion page.

The implication was clear: return your items with confidence!

”That son of a bitch! Is Huang Zheng out of his mind? Who the hell does business like that?”

After seeing Liu Qiangdong’s and Huang Zheng’s Weibo posts, Zhang Jindong’s face went white with rage. He wanted nothing more than to bash their heads in with a brick.

His first instinct was to pull out his phone and call Chen Yansen.

Sunning and Pinbei had always been on good terms. Orange Technology had a flagship store in Sunning, and Sunning Appliances was a vendor on Pinbei Mall. Yet Huang Zheng showed him no respect whatsoever. What was this supposed to mean?

’Does he not want to work with Sunning anymore?’

But then he had another thought. ’Would Huang Zheng and Liao Wei dare to pull a stunt like this without Chen Yansen’s approval?’

’To put it bluntly, the one who really wants to poach Sunning’s customers is that son of a bitch Chen Yansen. Calling him would just be asking for humiliation.’

In a fit of rage, Zhang Jindong considered terminating their business partnership with Pinbei, but after agonizing over it for a long time, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

For one, he couldn’t bear to lose the traffic and sales revenue from Pinbei Mall.

For another, he was afraid of retaliation from Chen Yansen.

Faced with Chen Yansen’s vindictive, ”eye-for-an-eye” personality, Zhang Jindong had to be cautious. What if Pinbei focused its efforts on large appliances? Would Sunning even survive?

Ten minutes later, Zhang Jindong let out a long sigh, then narrowed his eyes and muttered, ”Does Liu Qiangdong really think I’m afraid of him?”

With that, he immediately summoned the head of Sunning’s e-commerce department to re-strategize their approach to the Double Eleven sale and launch a ”Super Group Buy” event targeting Jingdong’s strongest product categories.

The event included consumer electronics, large appliances, and small appliances. The price tags were brazenly marked with phrases like ”200 Hua Yuan Cheaper Than Jingdong,” ”140 Hua Yuan Cheaper Than Jingdong,” and ”270 Hua Yuan Cheaper Than Jingdong.”

At first, users were skeptical, but after copying the product titles and price-checking on Jingdong, they discovered it was true!

The public’s opinion shifted in an instant!

After all, Liu Qiangdong had famously vowed that Jingdong’s large appliance division wouldn’t turn a profit for three years. Yet here was Sunning’s Super Group Buy, undercutting Jingdong’s prices by anywhere from dozens to hundreds of Hua Yuan.

Customers instantly felt like they’d been played for fools, and they were furious!

The comment section on Handsome Dong’s Weibo account was quickly overrun, with users cursing out Liu Qiangdong and his entire family tree.

In reality, Sunning’s Super Group Buy prices were only so low because the platform was heavily subsidizing them.

Liu Qiangdong was in a tight spot and couldn’t explain the situation. Having clawed his way up from the very bottom of offline retail, he knew all too well how fickle people could be. Fortunately, the solution was relatively simple.

With a decisive wave of his hand, Handsome Dong chose to match Sunning’s Super Group Buy event. For any product of the same brand and model, Jingdong would sell it for ten Hua Yuan cheaper than Sunning.

The shoppers’ anger came quickly, but it vanished even faster!

The man they had been calling ”Pu Jiedong” and ”Da Qiangzi” just three minutes ago was once again ”President Liu,” ”Brother Dong,” and the ”Price Butcher.”

Liu Qiangdong had come to a clear realization: customers had absolutely no loyalty. Retaining them was going to be difficult.

For a moment, he sat in his office lost in thought, quietly mulling over operational strategies to improve user stickiness and retention.

「On another front.」

A business financing story hit the Yahoo homepage: music streaming giant Spotify had completed its $140 million US Dollar Series E funding round the day before, giving it a post-money valuation of $2.8 billion US Dollars!

The article detailed the background of Senlian Capital and the legendary business career of its founder, Chen Yansen.

Twenty years old, a college junior, and a net worth in the tens of billions—these three descriptors combined were a recipe for viral buzz and online traffic!

On Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, a number of bloggers even popped up who specialized in calculating Chen Yansen’s net worth.

Pinbei: valued at 22 billion US Dollars!

Orange Technology: valued at 20 billion US Dollars!

Cloud Speed Express: valued at 18 billion US Dollars!

Fast Taxi: valued at 3.5 billion US Dollars!

Kuai Pao: valued at 2 billion US Dollars!

Gaode Map: valued at 1.2 billion US Dollars!

The companies that could be accounted for were mostly those that had undergone public financing rounds. For privately held subsidiaries like Orange Phone Factory, Today Technology, and Byte Technology, the North American bloggers couldn’t find any reliable data to support a valuation.

But even a conservative estimate put Chen Yansen’s net worth at over 50 billion US Dollars, instantly sparking a firestorm of discussion across the Lighthouse Country!