Since they are reborn, they must be supported by the school beauties.

Chapter 160 New Entrepreneurship Base

Lu Youyou's sudden mention of Renren.com surprised Chen Cheng.

He asked curiously, "You've been using Renren (a Chinese social networking site)?"

"not yet."

Lu Youyou said, "One of my roommates has been talking about it to us several times tonight. She said that you can find classmates from middle school and university on it, and you can also upload photos, post statuses and logs. It's quite fun, so I asked if you've ever played it. If you have, I'll register an account."

Chen Cheng asked her with a smile, "Do you remember when I first borrowed 20,000 yuan from you to start a website?"

Lu Youyou asked in a surprised tone, "This Renren website... you didn't create it, did you?"

"I did it."

Chen Cheng said with a smile, "I just went online yesterday, and I haven't had a chance to tell you yet."

Lu Youyou was overjoyed: "My roommate said this website is really interesting. She's been promoting it everywhere and has told a lot of her high school classmates about it."

At this point, Lu Youyou couldn't contain herself any longer: "It's too late today, I'll register an account tomorrow at noon, how will I follow you then?"

Chen Cheng said, "I haven't opened an account myself yet. Come to Jiangda University tomorrow at noon, and I'll treat you to lunch. Dress up nicely, and I'll take some photos of you and help you register the account."

"Why do we need to take photos?"

Chen Cheng said, "I'll upload it to your album for you, so everyone can see your photos."

Lu Youyou hesitated and said, "That feeling is so strange..."

Chen Cheng reassured her, "There's nothing strange about it. You'll get used to it. There will be more and more online photo albums in the future, and everyone will upload their best personal photos. Plus, having photos makes it easier to attract attention."

Lu Youyou said, "I don't want anyone to pay attention to me, it's enough that you pay attention to me."

Chen Cheng said, "This is different from QQ. On QQ, you can't add someone without knowing their number, but Renren is a semi-real-name system. Everyone puts their real name and the school they graduated from and are currently attending on it, so that other students can find you."

Lu Youyou asked in surprise, "So, if I register an account and write my name down, then anyone who wants to find me can just search for 'Lu Youyou' on the website and find me?"

Chen Cheng said, "Theoretically, everyone on the website named Lu Youyou will be found. Your name is relatively rare, so there may not be any duplicates. If it were a name like Zhang Wei, Li Wei, or Chen Chen, a lot of results would probably be found. In that case, we can only confirm whether it is the person we are looking for by looking for other information, such as whether there is a real photo, which school, or which year of study."

After saying that, Chen Cheng comforted her, "You don't need to be nervous about others finding you. You can just let them browse and not let them send you messages, so you won't be disturbed."

"Then I understand."

Lu Youyou said with a smile, "It's like QQ. If someone knows my QQ number, they can see my profile, but if I don't accept their friend request, they can't bother me."

"Yes, that's what it means."

Lu Youyou felt relieved and said, "Then I'll come to your school to find you tomorrow at noon."

After hanging up with Lu Youyou, Chen Cheng's phone rang again. It was Tang Jiakai calling.

He said to Chen Cheng, "I own a Sichuan restaurant behind the commercial street. They want to sublet the second floor. The price is quite reasonable. Do you want to take a look?"

Chen Cheng said, "Okay, I'm coming right now."

The Sichuan restaurant that Tang Jiakai mentioned is located at the back of the commercial street, which is considered the least popular spot on the street, with significantly less foot traffic than the front.

The Hunan cuisine restaurant has a floor area of ​​about 40 square meters. The second floor is even larger than the first floor. Tang Jiakai told him, "The first floor has been partitioned off to form a kitchen. The second floor has a large open space and two private rooms. There are restrooms on both floors."

Chen Cheng asked him, "How much is the monthly rent here?"

Tang Jiakai whispered, "The boss's business isn't doing too well, but he can't get the shop to move out. He didn't expect to be able to rent out the second floor anyway, since there's no separate passage on the second floor and people can only enter and exit through his shop. Who would rent a place like that to do business? I told him that he might as well clear it out and let us use it as a studio. Not only could he reduce his costs, but we could also support his business from time to time. He was quite happy and asked for 3,300 yuan. I think we can negotiate a bit more."

"I'm not going to talk about it anymore."

Chen Cheng laughed and said, "The price is much lower than I expected. The place is big and spacious. Tell him to get rid of these tables and chairs quickly and find a cleaner to do a good job so we can put it in use as soon as possible."

After he finished speaking, Chen Cheng asked him, "By the way, senior, have you talked to your classmates?"

"Communicated."

Tang Jiakai said, "Everyone is very interested. Several of my roommates are all capable, and their technical skills are quite good. I know them well, and there are also a few other classmates who are quite capable. I've already spoken to them, and they're all willing to come."

"That's good!" Chen Cheng said, "Let's talk to the boss, and if there are no problems, we'll finalize it with him today."

The restaurant owners are a middle-aged couple from Sichuan and Chongqing. They have been running the restaurant for two years, and business was quite good at first.

However, as more and more canteens opened at Jiangda University, and some of the canteens also contracted out specialty food stalls, their business was significantly affected.

Nowadays, most of the time, the first floor is not full, so the second floor is basically unused. Only on weekends do students choose the private rooms on the second floor for gatherings. Otherwise, the entire second floor is basically idle.

Chen Cheng had no objection to the monthly rent of 3,300 yuan. It was close to the dormitory, the printing shop, and convenient for meals.

Convenient commuting to work and convenient meals mean that it's more convenient to put in the effort.

So Chen Cheng didn't negotiate the price with the boss, and directly made two requests:
First, he should hurry up and clean up. The partitions between the two private rooms upstairs should be removed. Startup teams should avoid having separate offices. Everyone should squeeze together to create a better atmosphere and increase efficiency.
Second, he should provide meals for his employees.

At first, the boss thought Chen Cheng wanted him to provide meals for the employees, and said with difficulty, "If there are three or four of you, I can manage to provide meals, but I can't handle it if there are too many people."

Chen Cheng laughed and said, "It's not that I'm asking you to supply it for free. I'll pay for it, and you can give us a discount. We may have a dozen or even more employees in the future. Each employee can order food from you every day at noon and in the evening, and you can just cook it for them. I'll deposit 1,000 yuan with you in advance. You can keep track of the accounts every day, and when the money runs out, we'll reconcile the accounts. If there are no problems, I'll prepay you another 1,000 yuan."

When the boss heard about this good deal, he was delighted to learn that each person's meal cost only four or five yuan, which would add over a hundred yuan to his daily income. He immediately agreed happily: "Don't worry, I'll give your employees a 20% discount on their meals!"

Tang Jiakai asked in surprise, "We even provide meals?"

"Tube."

Chen Cheng nodded and said, "As long as everyone eats here, each person will be provided with a rice bowl with toppings for every meal."

When Chen Cheng entered the store, he had already looked at the menu. After all, it was 2002, and the consumption level was not high. A tomato and egg rice bowl cost 2.5 yuan, a green pepper and shredded pork rice bowl cost 3 yuan, and rice bowls such as shredded pork with fish flavor and braised pork only cost 4.5 yuan.

Even if it costs five yuan per person per meal, and the boss gives a 20% discount, the cost is only four yuan, which is eight yuan per day.

For me personally, this amount of money is nothing, but for the work, if the employees have to go to the cafeteria for lunch and dinner, the round trip will waste more than half an hour. Two meals can waste an hour.

The key issue is that everyone comes during their spare time, with only two or three hours at noon and no more than four hours in the afternoon. If they lose time because of lunch, their efficiency will definitely be greatly reduced.

It would be better if everyone just paid for it themselves. Everyone could just tell the boss what they wanted to eat, and the boss would prepare it and bring it up. Everyone could then eat at their computer desks, and when they were done, they could just ask the boss to take it away. This way, they wouldn't have to spend any money or go through any trouble, and it wouldn't waste a single minute. They could even code while eating.

Chen Cheng has never been a stingy person. Since he is a boss and needs to hire laborers, he must first make sure they are fed and watered enough so they have the energy to work.

Tang Jiakai was increasingly impressed by Chen Cheng's vision. 1,500 yuan a month for each person was already higher than the salary of a typical full-time computer-related job in Jiangcheng. Now, he was also providing two meals a day for his employees. For college students, this was of extraordinary significance.

After the deal was settled, Chen Cheng paid the boss a deposit and asked him to start dismantling the partitions and cleaning the premises the next day. He also called the campus network's salesperson to arrange for broadband installation the next day. At the latest, the site would be ready for use the day after tomorrow.

As for office equipment, Chen Cheng plans to go to the electronics market again, but this time he can't buy second-hand machines. Instead, he will buy a batch of new computers and new desks and chairs.

At this rate of spending, he estimated that his funds wouldn't last until next month's commission payments. However, Chen Cheng wasn't worried. The people from Wencheng had already arrived, and the price of taxi license plates would soon be driven up. If he really couldn't free up funds, he could just issue a couple of license plates to alleviate the situation.

After leaving the restaurant, Tang Jiakai couldn't help but ask Chen Cheng, "When are you planning to start advertising on Renren.com? Should I contact the advertising alliance in advance? Our users are definitely nationwide, which fits the requirements of the advertising alliance."

Chen Cheng was not interested in advertising alliances.

These days, advertising networks are more like advertising contractors. After selecting ad slots from a website, they simply add their code and decide what ads to display. The website only needs to share revenue based on clicks and impressions.

In the early years, individual website owners, no matter what they relied on to attract users, ultimately made money through advertising networks.

Chen Cheng said without hesitation, "Those kinds of ads are terrible and they really affect the user experience. We won't touch them."

Tang Jiakai asked in confusion, "Isn't everyone taking on advertising networks now? At first, Galo Forum also took on networks, but then Yang Siqi wanted to become a local business, so he started selling ads himself. By then, our main traffic will definitely be from out-of-town users, so it's definitely not worthwhile to become a local business."

Chen Cheng smiled slightly. He understood Tang Jiakai's thoughts. Like other users, he had become accustomed to the pollution of online advertising and didn't see anything wrong with it.

If you also put up ads, even if you're just following the trend, it won't bother users much.

But what if you don't display ads yourself?

Wouldn't that be like giving other websites a piece of your mind?

Involution is something I excel at.

(End of this chapter)