Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Traffic and exposure are basic conditions for success, not necessary ones.

Many companies lack neither money nor traffic, yet their products and services are abysmal. They’re still a lost cause.

When Ma Wenteng found out that ’Douyin’ had gone live, he was taken aback. ”So soon?”

”Douyin’s features and recommendation engine are quite similar to Mimo’s. Aside from some changes to the UI, there’s no real difference. The development workload was small, so naturally, they were much faster,” Liu Zhiping said slowly.

”It’s a shame. I wanted to release Weishi before Chen Yansen, but I underestimated the R&D speed of Today Technology.”

Ma Wenteng sighed.

”Pony, there’s no need to be too anxious. Given the current network conditions, even though Douyin’s user growth is fast, most of them are just curiosity-seekers. I’m afraid only Senlian Star Shining Card holders and a handful of other users will actually stick around.”

Liu Zhiping adjusted his glasses and said with a smile.

”I understand, but we’ve lost the first-mover advantage,” Ma Wenteng said, his eyes downcast and a hint of dissatisfaction on his face.

Liu Zhiping thought, ’You’re too greedy!’

”By the way, how’s the R&D for Laiwang coming along?” Ma Wenteng asked.

Ali Baba’s strength was not to be underestimated, and he worried that Laiwang could pose a threat to WeChat.

”They’re just past the halfway mark. I estimate it won’t launch until the second half of the year,” Liu Zhiping replied immediately.

Planting moles in a competitor’s company was a standard play for internet giants. This was especially true since the head of the Laiwang project was a former Penguin executive.

After moving to Ah Li, he poached a few more people from Penguin to ensure he had the power to execute his vision and to bolster his own authority.

So Liu Zhiping took the opportunity to plant his own person, using them to get real-time updates on Laiwang’s progress.

”An e-commerce platform trying to make a social app? What gives them the nerve?” Ma Wenteng scoffed.

As he said this, however, he conveniently ignored Penguin’s own desperate and awkward attempts to break into the e-commerce sector.

”It takes more than just money and traffic to make a good product.”

Liu Zhiping chimed in, agreeing.

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”With enough money and traffic, you can’t create a blockbuster app?” Chen Yansen asked, his tone noncommittal.

”The core of any software is its functionality and user experience,” Han Sheng said earnestly.

He held a bachelor’s from Jiaoda and a master’s from Fudan, and after graduating, he’d spent ten years working at tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Mimo’s explosive popularity in the North American Region made him sniff out a business opportunity. He planned to return to China and become a ”master transporter” of ideas—modeling himself after Ma Wenteng, Li Yanhong, and Ma Liyun to copy his way into a unicorn company.

But after researching the market, he was dumbfounded.

Penguin was already developing a short video app, and another internet behemoth—Senlian Capital, with its app Douyin—had already entered the pre-launch phase.

’A small-time copycat running into two master copycats!’

’What was the point of even trying?!’

So, he made a bold decision and came to Xucheng for an interview. If you can’t beat them, join them.

After all, even back in Silicon Valley, he had heard people talking about a new giant emerging in China. It had not only developed its own mobile operating system but had also launched a brand-new instruction set technology that was highly favored by companies like Huawei, Apple, and ZTE.

This company was known for being incredibly generous and offering lavish compensation.

Chen Yansen chuckled softly after listening.

He was no stranger to the Han Sheng standing before him.

In the future, this man would become the founder of Micro Film Technology, a company focused on mobile video editing software.

The product was good, but with a singular business model and revenue stream, the company struggled for a long time to go public.

The two of them had met once before at an entrepreneur conference in the East China Region.

Back then, Chen Yansen was already the chairman of Feiyu Technology with a net worth of over two billion, while Han Sheng was still hustling to take Micro Film Technology public.

He understood technology, products, and operations, but he wasn’t skilled in the complex maneuvering of capital markets.

’His skillset is a bit like Liang Bo’s,’ Chen Yansen thought. ’And conveniently, content creation and optimization for Douyin depend on the widespread availability of simple editing tools.’

That was why, after seeing Han Sheng’s resume, Chen Yansen had decided to meet him in person.

”You want to join Douyin’s R&D department? We don’t currently have any suitable openings there,” Chen Yansen said flatly.

Han Sheng’s heart sank when he heard that. He wondered, ’Is this interview going to be a bust?’

”Mr. Han, you were mainly developing editing software in Silicon Valley?” Chen Yansen asked slowly, seeing the uncertain expression on the other man’s face.

”Yes, President Chen,” Han Sheng replied quickly.

”Premiere and VideoStudio are for the PC market. If Douyin wants to incentivize users to create more high-quality content, it will need a simple, mobile-native editing software,” Chen Yansen said in a measured tone.

”President Chen, are you saying you want me to be in charge of this product?” Han Sheng asked tentatively. The surprise was a bit sudden.

”Are you confident you can do it?” Chen Yansen countered.

”President Chen, I can definitely do it. To be honest, my primary goal when I returned to China was to start a short-video company. My second choice was mobile editing software,” Han Sheng said candidly.

”I’ll have President Liang set up a dedicated project team for you. You’ll start as the project director. If the product reaches a certain market scale, we can upgrade the team to a full-fledged business division.”

Chen Yansen casually dangled this massive carrot, and Han Sheng was thrilled beyond words.

”Boss, give me this chance, and I absolutely won’t disappoint you.” Han Sheng immediately stood up and patted his chest, making a vow.

’He switched to calling me ’Boss’ pretty fast!’

Chen Yansen waved his hand, motioning for him to sit back down.

Han Sheng didn’t waste the opportunity. He was the type to grab the rope and start climbing. He had indeed considered that if he couldn’t get into Senlian Capital, he would just start his own editing software service, falling back on his original trade.

At that moment, he was incredibly glad he had made the trip to Xucheng before trying to start his own company.

Otherwise, the moment his product launched, he would have come head-to-head with the behemoth that was Senlian Capital.

He had already prepared for this, so when the conversation turned to editing, transitions, audio processing, and adding effects, he spoke with articulate expertise.

”Organize a detailed proposal and send it to Liang Bo. Copy me on it as well. The product needs both Chinese and English versions, and its basic features should ideally be integrated directly into Mimo and Douyin.”

Chen Yansen instructed.

”Boss, Mimo is a Senlian Capital product?” Han Sheng’s mouth fell open, and he stood there, stunned.

”Liang Bo didn’t tell you?”

”Boss, this is only my second interview,” Han Sheng said with a dry laugh.

The implication was, ’I haven’t even been hired yet.’

No, to be precise, he hadn’t even received an offer.

”Get the onboarding paperwork done as soon as possible. You’re between jobs right now, anyway,” Chen Yansen said with a smile.

”Okay, Boss,” Han Sheng said, grinning from ear to ear.

Although he had missed his chance to start his own company, joining Senlian Capital and getting the opportunity to lead his own project made the trip entirely worthwhile.

「Elsewhere.」

With the help of virtual location and simulation software, an army of wool-pullers was relentlessly unlocking bikes, ”riding” them, ending the service, and collecting the red envelope bonus. One account could earn four to five yuan in ten minutes, and if they were lucky, they could even hit a large red envelope worth dozens of yuan.

Even at three or four in the morning, Little Yellow Bike was seeing a constant stream of new orders.

The cost of the red envelope promotion skyrocketed from 3 million a day to over 8 million. The amount had nearly tripled in just one day.

The next morning, Chang Wei opened his computer to check the business data.

’Over 8 million?’

He frowned and pulled out his phone to call the director of the data department. ”We only deployed 200,000 shared bikes in the Yanjing Region. At a usage frequency of three to four times per bike per day, our marketing expenses should be under 4 million.”

”President Chang, before the red envelope promotion, the daily usage frequency was indeed three to four times per bike. However, the value of our red envelopes is quite high, which has significantly boosted user engagement.”

The director of the data department thought for a moment before giving a reply based on his experience.

It had to be said, his words made some sense.

As for data like the time of day orders were generated and their proportions, it was hard to notice anything unusual without specifically looking for it.

Although Chang Wei felt the cost was too high, he stopped worrying about it when he thought about market share.

The higher the market share, the higher the valuation.

He knew in his heart that every penny spent was valuable, and the investment firms would be there to foot the bill.

Little did he know that of that 8 million, over 6 million had been siphoned off by Gray Studios and wool-pullers.

Meanwhile, 24 hours after its launch, Douyin had accumulated 3.4 million registered users, but only 570,000 of them—less than 20%—had stayed on the app for more than 30 minutes.

To put it bluntly, data costs remained the biggest obstacle to the growth of short video.