I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 208 You were the eldest brother before, but you can't be the eldest brother forever!
Chaoyang District, 360 Headquarters Building.

Zhou Hongyi was holding a brand-new engineering prototype and playing with it with great interest.

Since 360 ​​went public on the New York Stock Exchange, his net worth has increased by billions, and his focus is no longer limited to the Internet and mobile security fields.

He first invested in Tencent Music through his wholly-owned subsidiary Qifei, and then acquired a stake in Flash Tool.

After Orange Phone's cumulative sales exceeded 500 million units, he set his sights on the smartphone market.

In his view, whether it's Xiaomi or Orange, they are just mobile phone assembly plants.

If Lei Yijun and Chen Yansen can do it, then of course he can do it too, and he is confident that he can do it even more successfully.

He believes that with 360's 4 million users, selling at least 1000 million units, if not tens of millions, is no problem.

He used this approach to communicate with Haier, and after thinking about it, the other party also felt that it made a lot of sense.

The two companies hit it off immediately and began planning three months ago.

In this way, 360 doesn't need to build a supply chain or find contract manufacturers; it only needs to be responsible for customizing the software.

To put it bluntly, Zhou Hongyi simply adopted the same tactics as FoxTao, using specially made phones as a way to monetize traffic.

At the same time, these smartphones, which come pre-installed with 360 software, can also help the company expand its user base.

“Beep bell—!”

The phone on the table rang.

Zhou Hongyi glanced at the caller ID and, seeing it was Lei Yijun calling, smiled and pressed the answer button: "Mr. Lei, I heard that Xiaomi's sales have exceeded 200 million units. Congratulations!"

Upon hearing the other party's nonchalant tone, Lei Yijun took a deep breath and patiently asked, "360 is going to make mobile phones?"

He then remembered the real reason why Zhou Hongyi had often invited him to dinner last winter.

"Mr. Lei, you've misunderstood. 360 merely provides sales channels for Haier; the production and manufacturing of the phones have nothing to do with 360."

Zhou Hongyi made it up on the spot.

In fact, what he said is not wrong. The phone that 360 collaborated on with Haier is named Haier W910. Apart from having 360 software built in, it has nothing to do with 360.

Zhou Hongyi's implication was that if 360 were to manufacture a mobile phone, it should be called the 360 ​​W910.

Lei Yijun laughed in anger, but he quickly regained his composure, a cold smile creeping onto his face as he realized once again that the business world is like a battlefield, and there are no permanent friends.

"Mr. Zhou, then I wish 360 mobile phones great success." Lei Yijun said with a light laugh.

Zhou Hongyi's face turned cold as he heard the barbed sarcasm in the other party's voice, but he didn't think he had done anything wrong.

With such a large mobile phone market, why can't 360 take a bite?
You used to be the boss, but you can't be the boss forever!
Zhou Hongyi felt that after 360 went public, he had the confidence to challenge Lei Yijun.

"Mr. Lei, it's a Haier phone, not a 360 phone," Zhou Hongyi emphasized again, squinting his eyes.

Lei Yijun saw through Zhou Hongyi's scheme immediately. By cooperating with Haier on a special supply model, he could get the product online as soon as possible, and at the same time, he could take this opportunity to covet Haier's supplier resources.

Once the time is right, 360 will definitely start anew and go it alone, leaving Haier behind.

In fact, Lei Yijun is very good at judging people.

Two years later, having secured supply chain resources, Zhou Hongyi immediately abandoned the special edition phone model and turned to making 360 phones.

Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi were talking on the phone, but the more they talked, the angrier they got. In the end, Zhou Hongyi couldn't hold back and slammed the phone down.

Before 360 ​​went public, Lei Yijun was the big brother; after 360 went public, Zhou Hongyi's wealth caught up, and with money comes a lot more power, so naturally he was no longer willing to listen to Lei Yijun's nonsense.

On the other end of the phone, Lei Yijun listened to the dial tone, his mouth slightly agape. After a long while, he put down his phone with a dejected expression.

An hour later, 360's marketing department announced that it would release a limited number of Haier W910 smartphones on February 1st, with an initial stock of 10000 units.

It features a 4.5-inch HD Retina display, a Snapdragon MSM8260A dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, with support for up to 32GB of expansion, and is priced at 1888 yuan.

In terms of components, the Haier W910 blows away Xiaomi phones, and it's also more than 100 yuan cheaper.

This put Lei Yijun and Xiaomi in an extremely awkward situation, fearing that the launch of Haier W910 would impact Xiaomi's sales.

at the same time.

A Bentley Mulsanne sped along the Bengbu-Huai'an Expressway. When Chen Yansen saw this news, he couldn't help but shake his head.

He didn't know what Zhou Hongyi was thinking. First, he overestimated 360's ability to monetize traffic; second, he overestimated Haier's appeal among young people; and finally, he underestimated the difficulty of manufacturing mobile phones.

If success could be achieved simply by piling on hardware, then there would be no reason for the counterfeit phone factories in Huaqiangbei to fail in their transformation.

More than a decade later, the domestic smartphone market will not be limited to just five giants: Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, Vivo, and OPPO. The rest will all be categorized as "other".

"Given Zhou Hongyi's style of doing things, he's probably going to have a falling out with Lei Yijun."

Chen Yansen thought secretly.

"I can go back to Chun Shen now and have some beef soup!"

Mengjie sat to the side, smiling and talking, her two legs swinging restlessly.

Xiao Li sat in the driver's seat, looking straight ahead and concentrating on driving.

The distance between Xucheng and Chunshen is less than 200 kilometers. We set off at nine o'clock in the morning and by 11:30, we could see the large roundabout in the distance and the Tongfei Gate in the distance.

"Xiao Li, stop at that residential area ahead."

Chen Yansen gave the order.

"Okay, boss." Xiao Li replied, and drove several hundred meters further before bringing the car to a steady stop.

Chen Yansen got out of the car and took Mengjie's suitcase from the trunk.

The cold wind howled outside the car, and Mengjie shrank her neck and quickly put on her down jacket.

The two walked into the residential area.

Chen Yansen had been to Meng Jie's house once before, so this time he knew the way well. He walked in front, and Meng Jie followed behind.

Anyone who didn't know the situation would think that Mengjie was taking him home.

Not long after, Chen Yansen stopped and pounded on Meng Jie's door.

"They're here! It must be Xiaojie who's back!"

Just then, a gentle voice came from the crack in the door, followed by the sound of footsteps.

Zhang Yanni flung open the door and froze for a moment when she saw Chen Yansen standing there.

"Mom, I'm back. Did you make me some spicy stir-fried snails?" Meng Jie giggled, popped out from behind Chen Yansen, and hugged Zhang Yanni tightly as she asked.

"Little Chen's here! Come in and sit down! Old Meng, go make some tea!"

After dealing with Meng Jie, Zhang Yanni smiled and said to Chen Yansen.

Meng Zhenguo slowly sat up from the sofa and greeted him with a smile, "Xiao Chen, ask your Aunt Su to cook a few more dishes later, so you can have a drink with your uncle at noon?"

"No, Uncle Meng, I have to go back to have lunch with my dad. I'll be going now. Goodbye, Aunt Su," Chen Yansen politely declined.

Seeing that he was adamant, Zhang Yanni and Meng Zhenguo did not try to stop him and escorted him to the entrance of the residential area.

Meng Zhenguo and Zhang Yanni only turned back after they saw Chen Yansen get into the Bentley.

"Xiao Jie has a good eye. Chen Yansen only passed the second-tier university entrance exam. Who would have thought that he would become a big boss in less than two years?"

Zhang Yanni was very satisfied with Chen Yansen.

Meng Zhenguo sighed. He wasn't as optimistic as Zhang Yanni. They were all men. Putting himself in her shoes, if he were in his early twenties with a net worth of billions, would he only have one girlfriend?

But his own daughter now only has Chen Yansen in her heart and mind, and can't stand to hear a bad word about him.

"Why are you sighing?" Zhang Yanni turned to stare at Meng Zhenguo, her brow furrowed as she asked.

“I’m just worried that our Xiaojie is too naive and won’t be able to handle Chen Yansen. She’ll likely suffer in the future. You know he’s only twenty. Even if he doesn’t have any romantic feelings, pretty girls will still throw themselves at him, just like I did back then…”

As Meng Zhenguo was speaking, he suddenly realized something was wrong and quickly shut up.

"What happened to you back then? Tell me about it."

Zhang Yanni glared fiercely at Meng Zhenguo with a fierce expression.

"I'm so glad I married you back then, otherwise my life would be complete." Meng Zhenguo grinned and put his arm around his wife as they walked home.

Zhang Yanni smiled and said with a slight upturn of her lips that she would make a few more dishes to go with Meng Zhenguo's drinks.

"You two are just like each other, so easy to coax and fool."

Meng Zhenguo sighed and commented in his heart.

the other side.

The Bentley drove through Tongfei Gate and headed towards the residential area of ​​the salt company.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen got out of the car and went upstairs.

Faint murmurs could be heard coming from several nearby buildings.

"A Bentley Mulsanne, that car costs over 600 million yuan! Whose car is it?"

"Whose could it be? Unit 3, apartment 401, Chen Guobin's son!"

"Oh, I remember now! I heard that Orange Phone was created by his son, and he made hundreds of millions last year."

"Hundreds of millions? More than billions!"

Chen Yansen frowned. With his physical condition and mental strength, he didn't need to worry about safety, but what about Old Chen?
There's no guarantee that someone won't take the risk.

As he walked and pondered, he arrived at the door of 401 and found it wide open.

Wearing an apron, Chen Guobin poked his head out of the kitchen when he heard the noise outside and said, "There are two more dishes. Go wash your hands first."

"Old Chen, let's eat out. Don't you have any self-awareness about your own cooking skills?"

Chen Yansen joked with a smile.

In his memory, starting from the sixth grade of elementary school, he rarely ate at home. He would either go to Wang Zihao's house for a meal or eat at the snack street.

Chen Guobin's understanding of cooking skills is basically still at the stage of cooking until it is cooked through and edible.

"But it's New Year's Eve tonight, we can't eat out again, can we? There's a pair of chopsticks on the table, why don't you try it first?"

Chen Guobin looked troubled, feeling that he was not a good enough father.

Seeing Old Chen looking at him expectantly, Chen Yansen knew he couldn't refuse him, so he simply picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of beef, and put it in his mouth.

Just as he had imagined, it was cooked, salted, and edible. He put down his chopsticks and said, "Old Chen, stop fussing around. Let's go out to eat. The driver is still waiting downstairs."

driver?

Chen Guobin was slightly taken aback, then understood what Chen Yansen meant, and asked awkwardly, "Do I really have no talent for cooking?"

"What do you think?" Chen Yansen asked in return.

Chen Guobin blushed. In fact, he had tried every dish, and they were indeed not as good as the rice bowls at the entrance of the community.

After a silence of more than ten seconds, Old Chen untied his apron and followed Chen Yansen downstairs.

"Old Chen, have you been thinking about moving?"

Halfway there, Chen Yansen asked.

"Moving? Where to?" Chen Guobin asked subconsciously.

"Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, or Luzhou are all fine. I'll buy you a villa and find a few young and pretty maids to take care of you."

Chen Yansen said with a smile.

"You're getting more and more absurd. I'm not going anywhere! I'm staying in Chunshen." Chen Guobin rolled his eyes at him and said irritably.

If it weren't for Xiao Li's presence, Chen Guobin would most likely have started cursing.

“Even the people in the salt industry residential area know that your son is worth billions. If he gets kidnapped one day, I won’t pay to ransom you.”

Seeing that Old Chen didn't understand, Chen Yansen made his point clear.

"Is it really that bad? The security is so good now." Chen Guobin's expression was hesitant.

“I work in a factory in Shenzhen, paying my workers 20 yuan an hour. I don’t know how many small electronics factories I’ve wiped out. These people wish they could kill me. And then there’s Yunsu Express, which took half of the market share from STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express. Last year, Yunsu’s CEO was almost run over and killed by a truck.”

Chen Yansen said lightly.

"So, if I don't move, I'm doomed? Are you doing business or fighting a war out there?"

Chen Guobin was speechless.

"The business world is like a battlefield, you should think about it yourself," Chen Yansen said, deliberately putting him down.

“I’m not leaving anyway.” Chen Guobin refused again without the slightest hesitation.

"What's there to miss about a run-down county town?" Chen Yansen hadn't expected Old Chen to be so stubborn.

“Your mother is here. If I leave, who will keep her company?” Chen Guobin sighed, his voice choked with emotion.

“It’s fine, we’ll pack up Mom and take her with us.” Chen Yansen said matter-of-factly.

"..." Chen Guobin glanced at the driver, Xiao Li. If there weren't outsiders present, he would have beaten the brat to death.

Seeing that Old Chen was unwilling to leave Chunshen, Chen Yansen decided to buy him a villa outside the city and hire some security personnel.

Ideally, we could find another local bigwig.

Just then, an unfamiliar number called. Chen Yansen pressed the answer button, listened for a couple of sentences, and then laughed. It was just like a pillow being delivered when you're sleepy.

(End of this chapter)