Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”Don’t even mention it! The boss said the course I signed up for before was too easy, so he picked an advanced one for me. I’m a man in my forties, and I still have to take notes and do homework every day. It’s torture!”

Liao Wei’s face fell, and he complained bitterly.

”Oh, really? I didn’t realize President Liao was so reluctant.”

A familiar voice spoke up unexpectedly from behind him.

Liao Wei’s expression froze. He reflexively glanced at his watch. ’It’s ten-fifteen in the morning. The boss should be in his office, not here.’

But he couldn’t just ignore his boss. He had no choice but to turn, force a laugh, and say, ”Boss, it’s common knowledge that I love to learn. I’m not even fifty yet—this is the prime age to be working hard.”

”That’s good. I’d hate for you to retire before fifty.”

Chen Yansen looked at Liao Wei with a teasing smile.

Pei Yi, Cheng Weixing, and Xiao Jun struggled to hold back their laughter at Liao Wei’s awkward situation. The sight of their suppressed smiles made Liao Wei feel even more wounded.

”Boss, Happy New Year,” Xiao Jun said, greeting him first.

”Boss!”

”Boss!” Pei Yi and Cheng Weixing followed suit.

”Let’s go. First, we’ll head to Building 9 for the photoshoot.”

Chen Yansen waved, taking the lead and walking straight into the photo studio that had been converted from a conference room.

Huang Zheng of Pinbei, Zhou Shouzhi of Orange Technology, Liang Bo of Today Technology, Zhang Yinjia of Orange Pay, Hu Weiyi of OFO Bike, Mao Chaorong of Mimo, Zhang Yiming of Byte Technology, and Qu Fang of Xiaohongshu arrived at the studio one after another.

Chen Yansen stood in the very center, with Gao Weilin and Zhou Shouzhi to his left and Cao Dahua to his right.

The others split to either side, forming a long, neat row.

CLICK!

The sound of the photographer’s shutter echoed dozens of times.

The shoot didn’t finish until eleven-thirty. Everyone then went to the cafeteria together for a simple lunch.

At two in the afternoon, Yu Chendong and He Boting from Hisilicon arrived by car. Chen Yansen greeted them briefly before handing off the follow-up work to Wu Shengyu and Mike.

’Anyway, the pricing standards for the Orange Z1’s architecture, IP core, and usage licenses are already set.’

Yu Chendong and He Boting had brought over a dozen engineers. They were simply there to verify the encoding efficiency and power efficiency of the Orange Z1 instruction set, so having Wu Shengyu and Mike handle the meeting was the most suitable arrangement.

「Meanwhile.」

Senlian Capital’s year-end review officially kicked off, with Orange Technology as the first to report.

Zhou Shouzhi led the meeting, with Chen Yansen listening in from the head seat.

”Boss, President Zhou, I’ll begin then,” said Yan Peng from the e-commerce department softly.

Chen Yansen nodded.

”In 2012, Orange Mobile Phone’s total sales volume was 50.1 million units, with 43.4 million in the domestic market and 6.7 million in overseas markets. Revenue was 112.7 billion Hua Yuan, with a hardware gross profit of 12.49 billion and a software gross profit of 7.23 billion, for a total of 19.72 billion Hua Yuan.”

Yan Peng put his presentation up on the screen, opened a PowerPoint, and began to speak slowly.

He paused for a moment, then continued, ”The Orange Mobile Power Supply sold a total of 10.39 million units, generating 1.34 billion Hua Yuan in revenue and 410 million in gross profit.

The Moss Smart Speaker sold a total of 3.4 million units, bringing in 2.72 billion Hua Yuan in revenue and 460 million in gross profit.

The Alexa Smart Speaker sold 8.2 million units, with 10.77 billion Hua Yuan in revenue and a gross profit of 2.05 billion…”

Chen Yansen’s gaze fell on the summary column. Including revenue from Bluetooth headphones, tablets, laptops, accessories, and software, Orange Technology’s total revenue for 2012 was 147.5 billion, with a gross profit of 23.5 billion, and a net profit of 7.49 billion Hua Yuan.

’It’s not even as high as Pinbei Mall’s Q4 net profit!’

But to him, Orange Technology was worth ten times more than Pinbei!

Ten minutes later, Yan Peng finished his report.

Ye Qiuping reported next. She summarized the brand department’s entire year of marketing results into a single data visualization chart. Everything from new product launches down to channel promotion data was clearly visible, easy to understand, and grasp.

Although Ye Qiuping’s academic credentials were fake, her abilities were 100% genuine.

Her professional competence, reporting efficiency, and logical thinking were in no way inferior to those of a high-achieving former Ah Li executive like Yan Peng.

After she finished speaking, Wang Teng, He Shuang, Zhang Cong, Zhou Ze, Ding Houmeng, and the others also completed their work summaries and year-end reviews one after another.

’7.49 billion Hua Yuan?’

’No wonder Lei Yijun resorted to selling TVs, air conditioners, and electric fans—even desk lamps, mugs, and nightlights. He’d practically turned Xiaomi into a general store.’

After deducting costs for materials, manufacturing, patent licensing fees, and after-sales service, a mobile phone company with nearly 150 billion in annual revenue was left with just over 7 billion in net profit.

’It’s like begging for scraps!’

’The ones really making money are Qualcomm and ARM, not the device manufacturers and retailers.’

”Lao Zhou, we need to accelerate our expansion in overseas markets. Make it a core strategy for fiscal year 2013.”

Chen Yansen instructed Zhou Shouzhi, who was beside him.

”Yes, Boss. I understand,” Zhou Shouzhi immediately replied.

「At the same time.」

Far away in Yanjing, at Xiaomi Headquarters, Lei Yijun sat in a conference room, staring at the large screen in front of him, turning a deaf ear to Li Wanqiang’s words.

Xiaomi Technology’s shipments in 2012 were 7.26 million units. Including digital peripherals, joint game operations, and software revenue, the total revenue was 12.6 billion, with a net profit of 1.74 billion.

’They’d earned over a billion, but for a whole year of frantic work, the amount was pathetic.’

”President Lei, should we issue the announcement?” Li Wanqiang called out a few times. Seeing no reaction from Lei Yijun, he raised his voice.

”We have to face the music eventually. Post it.”

Lei Yijun sighed. His expression betrayed no joy, but it wasn’t one of sadness, either.

Annual sales of 7.26 million units put them in the middle of the pack—a little better than Meizu and OPPO, but far behind Huawei and ZTE.

As for Orange, Mountain Star, and Apple, Xiaomi wasn’t even in the same league.

”Understood,” Li Wanqiang replied.

What he hadn’t expected, however, was that just as Xiaomi’s official social media account posted the year-end results, Zhou Hongyi followed up by announcing the full-year sales for 360 Mobile Phone.

Relying on one ”purebred” special-supply model and one quasi-in-house smartphone, 360 Mobile Phone managed to sell an incredible 8.39 million units in 2012.

Though he didn’t say it outright, the figure stood in stark contrast to Xiaomi’s 7.26 million units.

”Judging from the sales figures, 360 Mobile Phone’s products are solid, much stronger than a certain ’coarse grain’ brand. Since a certain someone wants to make phones, they should do it properly: One, don’t rely on insults and arguments for marketing; Two, don’t rely on copying and plagiarism to follow up with products…”

Zhou Hongyi posted a lengthy tirade, throwing the same insults Lei Yijun had used against him right back in his face.

It sent netizens into fits of laughter!

’Did 360 Mobile Phone even have its own technology?’

’If not for its reliance on Orange Technology’s supply chain and manufacturing capabilities, it would have most likely shared the same fate as the Haier W910.’

”Hello, President Zhou. Can you tell me the IP address of that pig brain of yours? All of 360’s phones are low-end models. How can you even compare them to Xiaomi?”

A netizen whose username had a MIUI system prefix shot back mercilessly.

Zhou Hongyi was so angry he laughed. He immediately put the commenter on blast and publicly challenged Lei Yijun, ”Mid-range phones, you say? 360 is about to launch a 1,999 Hua Yuan smartphone with specs that will absolutely demolish Xiaomi’s. We’ll compete on next year’s domestic sales, and I’m going to slap you right across the face.”

Lei Yijun, Li Wanqiang, and Lin Bing all jumped into the fray, getting into a flame war with Sect Leader Zhou.

Seeing the commotion, and as if things weren’t chaotic enough, NetEase’s Ding Lei chose the height of their flame war to announce NetEase’s phone sales: a cumulative 4.13 million units.

This infuriated Huang Zhang from Meizu and Chen Yongming from OPPO. ’Who the hell are the idiots buying NetEase and 360 phones?’

’They’d worked their asses off all year, only to lose to two amateurs. How is that fair? How the fuck is that reasonable?’

Companies like Coolpad, ZTE, Motorola, and High Technology Corporation were also stunned. ’The combined sales of 360 and NetEase phones are over 10 million units?!’

An hour later, a research firm from the Lighthouse Country named IHS iSuppli published an industry data report on 2012 mobile phone (including feature phones) shipments and market share in Hua Country.

Orange Mobile Phone firmly occupied the number one spot on the list with 42.9 million units sold. Mountain Star was in second place with 41 million units.

Netizens who had been skeptical of the report soon saw a ’clarification’ from Orange Technology: ”Our domestic smartphone sales for the full year were actually 43.4 million units, with global sales hitting 50.1 million!”

50.1 million units!

Crushing Mountain Star and Apple!

For the first time, a domestically produced smartphone had taken the sales crown!

Suddenly, no one cared about the flame war between Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun anymore.