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

Chapter 258 Winter is Coming
After having the idea of ​​going international, Chen Cheng was always eager to put it into action.

He knew that time was of the essence.

If you wait until Mark Zuckerberg gets moving before trying to catch up, it will be very difficult.

In any industry, the first-mover advantage is extremely difficult to surpass. In the vast majority of internet projects, the first movers can maintain their lead, as is the case with traditional internet giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu.

The same applies to Google, Facebook, and Amazon abroad.

Facebook's growth rate back then was comparable to a rocket launch. Once the product was launched first, entrepreneurs on the other side of the ocean would be unable to catch up.

So, he suddenly had an idea: to take a break from school and go to the United States.

If you only want to make a living in the Chinese internet industry, or the Chinese-language internet industry, you can do it by sticking to your post in Wuhan. But if you want to make a living in globalization, the United States is the only springboard.

Aside from the United States, even in Europe, internet startups follow the same tried-and-true strategy as their Chinese counterparts: whatever is hot in Silicon Valley, we do it.

Moreover, Europe has many countries and a wide variety of languages, so trying to do internet business there would be tantamount to suicide.

For Chen Cheng, taking a break from school was not difficult, nor was going to the United States; the difficult part was what to do after arriving in the United States.

However, this issue will have to wait until we get to the United States to put it into practice. Right now, the most important thing is to take the first step.

So Chen Cheng took some time to get a passport, planning to apply for a visa once he got it, and then submit a leave of absence application once he got the visa.

After the great success of Happy Landlords and Guandan in their public beta, Chen Cheng launched the game store and introduced the Happy Beans system.

This brought significant revenue to the gaming platform; within just a few days of its launch, daily top-up amounts exceeded five million.

Someone on the team suggested that since the gift recycling function has already been enabled, why not enable the recycling function for Happy Beans as well? This would greatly increase users' willingness to recharge.

But the proposal was rejected by Chen Cheng as soon as it was made.

Although internet regulation is relatively lax now, we should still try our best to avoid setting traps. Once the "Happy Beans" feature is enabled, the gaming platform will be suspected of being an online gambling site, and we must nip it in the bud.

The success of the gaming platform has once again drawn the attention of various investors to Xiaonei.com, with many investors extending offers to Chen Cheng. The highest valuation even reached 80 million US dollars, which is only slightly lower than Tencent's current valuation by 10 to 20 million US dollars.

Chen Cheng planned to wait until he arrived in the United States and started Facebook's US business before discussing financing in detail. He prioritized raising US dollars to avoid the hassle of currency exchange and settlement. However, he remembered his verbal agreement with Yan Ruoxuan's father that if Yan Ruoxuan's father could also invest in US dollars, he would be given priority in making an investment.

By mid-January, with winter break approaching, Chen Cheng's passport had been processed.

He found a visa agency, submitted his documents and visa application, and is now just waiting to schedule an interview.

The school's winter break is 35 days long, and many students have started queuing up to book train tickets to go home as soon as possible. Chen Cheng can't leave for the time being, so he can only tell his parents that he still has some things to take care of at school.

A few days before the holiday, Lu Youyou asked him when he was going back. After learning that Chen Cheng was busy with company matters, she told him that her parents would drive to Jiangcheng to pick her up after the holiday, and her brother would also stay in Jiangcheng for a few more days. So if Chen Cheng wanted to go back earlier, he could go back with her.

Chen Cheng didn't want to go back so early, so he told her about the company's general situation and planned to go back when it was closer to the Chinese New Year and the company was on holiday.

Lu Youyou guessed that he was unlikely to go back so early, and asked him again, "By the way, have you gotten your driver's license yet?"

Chen Cheng laughed and said, "What's there to learn? I haven't even had time to register yet, I'm too busy every day."

Lu Youyou sounded a little disappointed, but still urged him, "Why don't you sign up for a license test when you have time? It'll make driving easier."

"Row."

Chen Cheng agreed and said, "I'll try to get the certificate during the winter break."

Lu Youyou said, "Definitely, don't say you're too busy to take care of it later."

"Don't worry, that's for sure."

As the holiday approached, Chen Cheng called his father, but didn't dare to tell him on the phone that he was going to work, afraid that they would think he was doing part-time work in Jiangcheng. So he said that he was going to work on a small development project with his teacher and would need to stay at school for a while longer.

His parents assumed he was highly regarded by his teachers at school, so they readily agreed.

Chen Cheng plans to tell his parents about his entrepreneurial venture face-to-face when he goes home for the Chinese New Year, which will also serve as a prelude to his upcoming leave of absence from school.

At this time, SARS was already spreading in the south.

There are many unfounded rumors circulating online, but they haven't caused widespread panic yet.

The day before the holiday, Su Zishan called Chen Cheng and told him, "My brother's two stores are almost finished with renovations and he plans to have a trial opening on January 25th. He just called me and wants me to take you to the site to give him some guidance."

Chen Cheng asked curiously, "Why didn't Brother Qiang call me himself? Why did he have you pass on the message?"

Su Zishan smiled and said, "I'm sorry, but he did a bit unfairly in this matter. I'm his own sister, so it's easy for me to accept a loss. But he feels bad about excluding you from the two new stores." Chen Cheng laughed and said, "What's there to be sorry about? It wasn't my store to begin with. You don't need to ask me how you want to do things."

Su Zishan sighed and said, "That's just how he is. He's not entirely good, nor is he completely bad. He's quite a complicated person. Do you want to go? If you do, let's go together this afternoon. My dad said he wants to go too."

"Okay, no problem."

Chen Cheng agreed: "Give me the address, I'll take a taxi there after class."

“There are two stores. It’s too much trouble for you to take a taxi there by yourself. I’ll come pick you up.”

"also."
-
In the afternoon, Su Zishan drove to Jiangda University and picked up Chen Cheng, who was wrapped in a thick down jacket.

As soon as Chen Cheng got into the car, he quickly put his hand on the air conditioner vent to blow the hot air, complaining, "This weather is freezing!"

Su Zishan laughed and said, "It's alright, it's not that cold, just a few degrees below zero."

Chen Cheng complained, "You stay at home with the air conditioning and heater on, and you even have a heater when you drive. Of course you don't understand how cold I feel. The classroom is cold, the dormitory is cold, and it's cold outside. I can only keep warm by shivering."

Su Zishan said, "Why don't you get a driver's license? I'll give you a car, so at least you'll have a warm place to stay."

Chen Cheng laughed and said, "I'll definitely need to take the driving test, so you don't need to drive me. I plan to go to the United States next semester."

"Go to America?"

Su Zishan looked surprised: "You were doing so well in your studies, why would you go to America?"

"Go start your own business."

Chen Cheng said casually, "The campus Facebook is developing so well now, we need to seize the time to go international, otherwise it will be too late when there are similar competitors abroad. We must make a name for ourselves in the United States this year."

Su Zishan said with a sense of loss, "If you go to America, I'm afraid you won't be able to come back anytime soon, right?"

Chen Cheng said, "We'll be running back and forth, but we shouldn't be going back and forth in the early stages. We need to set up the team in the United States first."

Su Zishan asked him, "Are you going to school? Aren't you going?"

Chen Cheng said, "I plan to apply for a leave of absence to retain my student status. If I can't keep it in the future, I'll just drop out."

Su Zishan exclaimed, "You really have guts. You went to such a good school, and after only half a year you just decided not to continue."

"no way."

Chen Cheng frankly said, "Studying is certainly important, but the window of opportunity often only opens for a short year. If you miss this window, you will never have another one. The benefits of seizing this window are far greater than the benefits of studying in school, so you still have to give it your all."

"clear."

Su Zishan nodded wistfully and said, "You're doing something great. Work hard, and I believe you can definitely succeed."

On the way to Su Ziqiang's new store, Su Zishan, who is usually very talkative, was unusually silent and just focused on driving.

When Chen Cheng arrived at the new store, he saw the signboard that was already powered on. It was basically the same as the current Wildness store, except that the words "East City Store" had been added at the end.

Su Zishan parked the car and went inside with Chen Cheng. Su Ziqiang was just introducing his various ingenious ideas to his father, Su Jianfeng. The decoration of the new store showed that a lot of thought had been put into it, and it was much more refined than the current Wildness store.

Upon seeing Su Zishan and Chen Cheng enter, a hint of embarrassment flashed across Su Ziqiang's face, but he quickly regained his composure and said warmly, "Zishan, Chen Cheng, you two have finally arrived."

Su Jianfeng said with a smile, "Manager Chen, you're a real hidden talent. I didn't expect your Renren website to be so successful. It's quite remarkable."

Chen Cheng smiled and said, "Uncle Su, you flatter me."

Su Ziqiang walked over, put his arm around Chen Cheng's shoulder, and asked him with a smile, "Manager Chen, what do you think of this renovation?"

"pretty good."

Chen Cheng said earnestly, "The venue is bigger, the decoration is more detailed, and the newly renovated store looks cleaner and tidier. Brother Qiang, your store should be the top nightclub in Jiangcheng right now."

Su Ziqiang was somewhat smug and said with a smile, "Oh, you don't know, the renovation budget was increased three times. The total cost for both stores was three million more than originally planned, mainly to create the kind of ceiling feeling you mentioned."

At this point, he added with a chuckle, "By the way, I've also ordered a few business vans. Your idea for business vans is brilliant! Everyone knows that Wildlife's membership service is high-end. If I don't provide them, I'll be dragging Wildlife down. You must come on the first day of opening. I'll give you a 50,000 yuan prepaid card for unlimited spending!"

Chen Cheng sighed inwardly: "You've already spent an extra three million on renovations for the two stores, and you still need to buy several commercial vehicles. Early February is the time to make money during the Chinese New Year holiday, but it's also the beginning of the nationwide spread of SARS. From that time on, for at least three and a half months, the business of entertainment venues will continue to decline or even close down. You've expanded your business so much, and you've taken on such a large amount of leverage, just like your father suggested. How will you survive that?"

"Winter is coming, my Brother Qiang."

(End of this chapter)