Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On the first workday of the third week of May, Magic Camera went live.

Its founder, Xu Jiujiu, had gained widespread attention after taking first place in the initial ”Split 10 Billion in Trial Funds” event for Orange Pay by holding 93 million in her Yu’e Bao account.

After returning to Luzhou, Xu Jiujiu immediately registered official Toutiao and Weibo accounts for Magic Camera and announced to the public that Chen Yansen had invested in the project.

The news instantly caught the attention of numerous investment firms!

After all, Chen Yansen had a reputation in the investment world as both a God of Wealth and a guiding light.

A project favored by President Chen was almost guaranteed to take off.

In reality, Chen Yansen had only made a symbolic investment of one yuan, but Xu Jiujiu insisted on giving him 20% of the company’s equity.

Chen Yansen had intended to refuse, but then he thought about Douyin’s situation and ultimately accepted.

At the time, Douyin’s editing and special effects features were still underdeveloped. Magic Camera’s product characteristics were perfect for promotion on the Douyin platform, which could open up a new path to profitability for it.

As long as app developers saw the success story of Magic Camera, Douyin could seize a portion of the market share from channels like the App Gallery, Qian Du Mobile Assistant, and the Xiaomi App Store.

Therefore, with Chen Yansen’s push, Magic Camera’s first-day downloads reached 3.25 million, with Douyin contributing 790,000 of that total.

Video has better visual effects and stronger user appeal, giving it a huge advantage when promoting novel and interesting apps, especially in the gaming industry.

Seeing this, Liang Bo immediately launched the long-prepared Creator Center. Bloggers on the Douyin platform with 1,000 followers could now gain access, allowing them to place ads in the bottom-left corner of their videos and earn a share of the video’s revenue.

Spurred on by the monetary incentive, users’ creative enthusiasm soared.

Fang Mingzhi, who had gone viral at the beginning of the month with his covers of ”If Back Then,” ”Auditory Hallucination,” and ”Bare Face,” now had over 300,000 followers. He applied for access immediately and filmed a promotional video for Magic Camera showcasing its ’one-tap photo-to-comic’ feature.

The video generated 13,000 downloads in a single day, for an estimated income of 39,000 yuan.

Nearly 40,000 yuan a day!

Seeing that there was money to be made, creators from Youku, Sohu, iQiyi, and Penguin Video flocked to register Douyin accounts. They began their journey of growing their new channels by editing their old works into 15-second highlight clips.

「The next morning, at the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.」

A black-and-white Gusteau rolled to a slow stop. Chen Yansen opened the door, got out, and walked toward the first-floor lobby.

Huang Boxiang grabbed his water bottle, locked the car, and trotted happily into the lounge.

”Brother Huang, you’re here!” Xiaoli looked up and greeted him.

With that, he pushed two piping hot pickled long bean buns in front of Huang Boxiang.

Ever since Lao Huang had arrived, his own job had gotten much easier. They were supposed to work 12-hour rotating shifts, but when Chen Yansen was in Xucheng, he mostly just had to make a trip to Delta in the morning to drop the boss off at the company and drive him back home after work.

He worked no more than two hours a day for a monthly income of twenty to thirty thousand yuan. It was a heavenly life.

”Oh, pickled long bean filling? Thanks,” Lao Huang said cheerfully, plunking himself down on a seat.

When you’re not worried about money, you’re naturally in a good mood.

The perpetually scowling Huang Boxiang from a month ago was a completely different person from the man he was now; it was as if he’d grown five or six years younger.

The various monthly benefits added up to at least twenty thousand yuan. Combined with free room and board, his take-home pay was more than enough to support two families.

With no worries, he was naturally in a good mood.

”Don’t you start your shift in the afternoon?” Lao Huang asked.

”It’s boring at home. Here at the company, there’s food, drinks, and even free fruit,” Xiaoli said in a low voice, chuckling.

It was a stark contrast to his usual quiet and reserved demeanor.

”Our benefits here are better than at a state-owned enterprise. I’m worried President Chen is losing money,” Lao Huang said with a look of concern, taking a bite of his bun.

He was genuinely worried. ’If the company goes bankrupt, where would I ever find a job this good again?’

’An 800-yuan monthly meal allowance, and a bowl of braised beef in the cafeteria is only five yuan. I can’t spend it all. There’s no way I can spend it all!’

”Stop worrying for nothing. Do you have any idea how much Pinbei Mall alone makes in a single day?” Xiaoli said, shaking his head with a smile.

”A hundred million?” Huang Boxiang guessed randomly.

”Last year, it was already clearing over a hundred million a day,” Xiaoli said with a wide grin.

Huang Boxiang knew Chen Yansen was very wealthy, but he had no real concept of the scale. Xiaoli’s reminder made him gasp.

「Meanwhile.」

Chen Yansen walked into his office and started a video conference with Pei Yi, Cheng Weixing, Xiao Jun, Zhang Yiming, and others, listening as they reported on the current status of their respective projects.

Kuai Pao’s food delivery, group buy, and grocery services had already formed an integrated ecosystem. The categories were complementary, with high-frequency services driving traffic to low-frequency ones. Qian Du was desperately throwing money at the problem, but it wasn’t making a single ripple.

After taking advantage of the promotions, users would simply turn around and open the Kuai Pao app again.

Li Yanhong had too much faith in Qian Du’s technology. He believed that by using big data analysis, they could accurately grasp consumer needs, optimize service strategies, and thereby improve user experience and operational efficiency.

But he didn’t even understand the front-line market. Neither he, nor the head of Group Buy operations Gong Zhenbing, nor the head of food delivery Wang Zhongpu, had ever even experienced the complete business process firsthand.

When it came to building a ground promotion team, they were far behind the industry veteran Shan Jiawei. They relied entirely on ultra-low commission policies to negotiate with merchants.

If Kuai Pao charged 5% commission, Qian Du Group Buy would charge 4%.

If Kuai Pao lowered its rate to 4%, Qian Du Group Buy would switch to 3%.

It was simple, crude, and utterly thuggish.