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

Chapter 285, Zhang Wei: Li Yanhong is a useless piece of trash! Why hasn't the new version been released yet!

Yanjing, No. 6 Jiuxianqiao Road, 360 Headquarters.

"Let him sue! The longer it drags on, the better for us!"

Zhou Hongyi said nonchalantly, his eyes narrowed and a mocking smile on his lips.

"Boss, 360 Search's market share is currently 10.34%, far exceeding Sogou Search's 7.09%. Our growth mainly comes from Baidu and Google."

Chen Daofang, head of R&D at 360 Search, responded with a smile.

"How much has Google Search dropped?" Zhou Hongyi pressed.

“8月3号之前是5.61%，现在是3.73%，整体缩减了1.88%。”陈道放立即回答道。

"In other words, 360 Search has snatched 8.46% of the market share from Baidu? No wonder Robin Li couldn't sit still."

Zhou Hongyi grinned, his expression extremely smug.

“Lingxi Search has a market share of around 3%, so Baidu Search’s user churn rate exceeds 11%.”

Chen Daofang added rather meticulously.

He was originally an algorithm expert at Baidu and was very familiar with Baidu's search engine technology, which is the main reason why 360 Search was able to easily crawl data from Baidu Knows, Baidu Encyclopedia and Baidu Tieba.

Facing his former employer, Chen Dao showed no mercy.

"Why doesn't Baidu send a lawyer's letter to ByteDance? That's not fair!" Zhou Hongyi frowned and angrily cursed upon hearing this.

"It's possible that Lingxi Search's approach is more covert and doesn't hijack Baidu's traffic."

Chen Daofang thought for a moment and then said.

In response to Baidu's blocking tactics, 360 hijacked Baidu's search results in the 360 ​​browser, only showing users 'webpage snapshots'.

Simply put, users cannot even redirect to the original Baidu page.

As a result, Baidu lost a portion of its external traffic sources. Since traffic equals advertising revenue, Li Yanhong naturally became anxious.

"Chen Yansen is indeed a smart kid!" Zhou Hongyi shook his head and sighed helplessly.

This is equivalent to him and Chen Yansen going to steal watermelons from Li Yanhong's house. After they were discovered, Li Yanhong beat him mercilessly, while Chen Yansen stood aside eating watermelons as if nothing had happened.

How could Zhou Hongyi possibly feel at peace with this?
In fact, Robin Li had considered a similar idea, taking ByteDance to court as well, but Lingxi Search's offensive in the PC search field was not fierce and had not yet reached Baidu's limit of tolerance.

360 Search, on the other hand, seems to be targeting Baidu's weaknesses with every move.

Cutting off someone's money is like killing their parents.

Once 360 ​​Search's market share exceeds 20%, Robin Li will definitely force users to choose between the two, pushing the 3B war into a decisive battle of "use Baidu or use 360".

It's nothing more than a repeat of the 3Q War!
US stock market opens at 9:30 p.m.

As Baidu's market share fell from 75.44% to 64.17%, its stock price plummeted, marking its biggest drop in nearly ten months at the close of trading at 4 a.m., with a decline of 7.1%.

360's stock price plummeted, with a single-day surge of 17.6%.

The next morning, Li Yanhong had just arrived at the company when he heard the news. He felt dizzy and, despite rarely cursing, he couldn't help but curse Zhou Hongyi's relatives and friends.

After a moment's thought, Li Yanhong took out his phone and called Lei Yijun, Ma Wenteng, Zhang Chaoyang, and others, connecting Zhou Hongyi's 'enemies' together.

However, Zhang Chaoyang rejected the proposal to join forces, replying only, "Robin, Sogou remains neutral. Come over for a drink sometime."

After saying that, he hung up the phone.

Li Yanhong chuckled, but he didn't really take Zhang Chaoyang for a drunkard. He understood the other party's plan; he probably wanted to sit back and watch the two fight, then reap the benefits.

Although Sogou was unwilling to get involved, companies like Kingsoft and Tencent readily agreed.

At 10:00 AM, the Baidu Security Alliance was established, claiming to crack down on phishing websites.

Users were surprised to find that every time they cleaned up adware plugins and system junk files, a series of 360 products would be directly uninstalled.

Including 360 Wallpaper software that is not always completely uninstalled!

Even the browser's default navigation, 360 Navigation, is marked as a dangerous website, prompting users to change the navigation to Hao123.

Users then realized that the security alliance was targeting 360.

This perfectly illustrates what netizens are saying: "They talk about user experience all the time, saying users are like their parents, but when it comes to crucial moments, they treat their parents like toys!"

Rogues and thugs are no pushovers!
Clearly, the practice of Baidu and 360 treating users like fools in their business competition has aroused dissatisfaction among most people.

At this time, Zhang Yiming, in his capacity as CEO of ByteDance, accepted an interview with IT Times Weekly. He first clearly expressed his attitude of "not participating in the war," and then promoted Lingxi Search.

According to Zhang Yiming, Baidu and 360 are a monopoly and a rogue company, respectively, while Lingxi is different; it is a safe, clean, and ad-free search engine product.

Zhang Yiming gives the impression of a tech-savvy CEO who doesn't compete or fight for anything and focuses solely on product development, instantly winning over a large number of users.

Behind the scenes, however, Lingxi Browser is going crazy with its advertising. The homepages of 91 Assistant, Wandoujia, Yingyongbao, Xiaomi, and Orange App Store are all filled with eye-catching posters.

In just two days, Lingxi Browser's downloads hit a new high, and with nearly 10 million new users, Lingxi Search's market share has increased by another percentage point.

"Pah! This guy is shameless!"

After seeing Zhang Yiming's report, Zhou Hongyi almost laughed out of anger. 360 is not the only company that ignores the Robots Exclusion Protocol.

Lingxi Search has done just as many dirty tricks behind the scenes as 360.

So 360 is a rogue, and ByteDance is a pure and innocent person?

Zhou Hongyi immediately wanted to start criticizing, but then he thought that the development of 360 mobile phones still depended on Orange Technology, so he could only swallow his anger.

Seeing this, Li Yanhong hesitated for a long time and could not make up his mind to formally launch an attack on Senlian Capital.

To put it bluntly, Baidu is in competition with Senlian Capital in the electronic map navigation and ride-hailing industries; however, they are in cooperation in the information distribution and mobile app pre-installation sectors.

If Baidu and Senlian Capital were to suppress each other, it would immediately push the other party into the 360 ​​camp.

Furthermore, Orange phones account for approximately 25% of the domestic smartphone market. If they were to break ties with Chen Yansen, Baidu's mobile traffic would decrease by more than 20%.

This is extremely detrimental to Baidu's strategy of seizing the mobile internet gateway!

In addition, Chen Yansen has close relationships with Lei Yijun, Ma Wenteng and others, both in personal matters and in business cooperation.

If the guns are turned on Senlian Capital, the Security Alliance might have to disband.

After careful consideration, Li Yanhong made up his mind: let's destroy 360 first.

Meanwhile, in the conference room on the top floor of Building 8 in the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, Xucheng.

Chen Yansen sat by the coffee table, boiling water, brewing tea, and pouring it, his movements fluid and effortless.

"Thank you, Mr. Chen." Zhou Shouzhi accepted the teacup and nodded his thanks.

"You've come at the right time. Lao Gao is so busy all day long. You can take over as CFO of Orange Technology for now."

Chen Yansen picked up the hot tea, took a sip, and said.

Although it was a sweltering summer day with temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius outside, the room was only 20 degrees Celsius with the central air conditioning on, and a refreshing breeze was circulating throughout the room.

“No problem,” Zhou Shouzhi readily agreed.

He understood Chen Yansen's subtext: start as CFO to gain an understanding of the operations of various departments at Orange Technology, and then assume the role of CEO when the time is right.

"In five days, Orange Technology will hold a new product launch event. This time it will be different from the past. In addition to the Orange C3 and Orange D1S, we will also need to focus on introducing the Moss voice interaction engine and the core members of the artificial intelligence laboratory. You will be in charge of overall coordination, and Wang Teng will be in charge of execution."

Chen Yansen put down his teacup and said calmly.

“Okay, boss.” Zhou Shouzhi nodded in response.

The huge transition from co-founder of DST Capital's Greater China region to CFO of Orange Technology took him two whole days to think before he finally made up his mind.

"What are your thoughts on the current state of Orange Technology's development?" Chen Yansen asked casually.

Zhou Shouzhi immediately sat up straight. Facing his new boss's first question, he gave a risky answer: "Orange Technology's capabilities in product diversification, brand building, and market expansion are clearly insufficient, which has resulted in its revenue level failing to reach that of top international mobile phone manufacturers."

This statement undoubtedly negates the collective efforts of more than two thousand people at Orange Technology's headquarters.

But Zhou Shouzhi knew very well that Chen Yansen offered him a huge annual salary not so that he could sit back and win, but to achieve results, at least to raise Orange Technology's revenue to the entry threshold of the world's top 500 companies.

Being subservient and conforming to the crowd will only make you lose your ambition.

"Tell me more," Chen Yansen said with a smile, seemingly unconcerned.

"First, expand product categories. Although Orange Technology's products cover mobile phones, power banks, Bluetooth headsets, smart speakers and mobile phone accessories, its achievements in smart wearable devices are basically zero. We can add smartwatches, bracelets and other products to enrich the product line."

"Secondly, the brand positioning is unclear. The Orange D1 is priced at 799 yuan and the Orange C2 is priced at 2699 yuan. I suggest adopting different series or creating a separate sub-brand to separate high-end and low-end models."

"Third, accelerate the expansion into overseas markets. The consumption potential of Southeast Asia, India, and Europe and the United States should not be underestimated. Focusing only on the East African market could easily lead to missing development opportunities. Pay attention to the offline market and set up offline stores and experience stores in advance. These can serve as sales windows and improve brand reach and user loyalty."

Zhou Shouzhi spoke in one breath, with clear logic and well-organized presentation, without pausing at all.

“Draw up a plan, and you will be responsible for its implementation. You can use all the resources in the company at your disposal,” Chen Yansen arranged without hesitation.

Everyone understands the big picture, but the real skill lies in putting it into practice and achieving results.

Zhou Shouzhi nodded heavily, realizing that although his position was CFO, he still had to do the work of a CEO.

If you do well, you'll advance in rank; if you do poorly, you'll be fired immediately.

Both of them are intelligent people, and some things don't need to be said too explicitly.

"I'll take you to visit the artificial intelligence lab," Chen Yansen said, standing up.

Zhou Shouzhi quickly put down his teacup and followed Chen Yansen outside.

As I passed through the office area, I kept getting curious glances from people.

"Hey? Isn't that Mr. Zhou from DST Capital? What's he doing at the company? Is the company raising funds again? I haven't heard anything about it."

"I heard that Zhou Shouzhi was poached by the boss with a high salary. The HR department has even prepared the appointment email, and they are just waiting for General Manager Chen to notify them."

"Holy crap! No way?"

Several marketing staff members were talking quietly with their heads down.

Chen Yansen and Zhou Shouzhi arrived at the floor where the artificial intelligence laboratory was located.

Zhou Shouzhi looked around, a look of surprise appearing in his eyes. He hadn't expected that Orange Technology's headquarters would house hundreds of foreign R&D engineers.

"Most of the speech recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis technologies for the Moss and Alexa voice interaction engines were developed by them," Chen Yansen explained with a smile.

Because Chinese and English differ greatly in semantic richness, language structure, character sets, word segmentation, and data richness, two groups of people were divided into two groups when developing the algorithm and training the model.

"boss!"

"Boss!"

Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel came over on their own initiative.

"Let me introduce you two. This is Zhou Shouzhi, formerly the co-founder of DST Capital's Greater China region, and now the CFO of Orange Technology."

Chen Yansen said slowly.

Zhou Shouzhi extended his right hand to greet Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel respectively.

When he learned that Zhou Chuangxi was a PhD in Electrical Engineering from UIUC and a student of the father of computer vision in the United States, he was only slightly surprised. But when he heard Daniel's resume, he was stunned and his face was full of shock.

He subconsciously turned his head to look at the wheat field outside the window. In this place, there was also a Johns Hopkins University professor, a top researcher in the field of speech recognition?

The surreal sense of displacement gave Zhou Shouzhi a feeling of unreality.

Following that, Zhou Chuangxi led him on a tour, and Zhou Shouzhi then learned that among them were R&D engineers who had participated in the ImageNet (Visual Recognition Challenge) competition, senior researchers from Stanford University's AI Lab, algorithm designers from Carnegie Mellon University, and technical experts from Google and Microsoft labs.

Zhou Shouzhi looked bewildered. If Chen Yansen hadn't been there, he really would have asked, "How much money did Orange Technology pay you guys to come all the way from the ocean to work in China?"

He didn't understand, but he was deeply shocked.

At 8 p.m. that day, an email was sent to everyone's inbox: effective immediately (August 13), Zhou Shouzhi will assume the position of CFO of Orange Technology.

Orange Technology has entered a phase of rapid growth!
the other side.

With the assistance of Gaode Maps, Kuaidi Dache has steadily advanced its "1,000 People, 100 Cities" plan, gradually expanding its operating scope from some cities in East China to areas such as Beijing, Hebei, and Tianjin.

Daily order volume exceeds 200 million!

However, Didi Chuxing's daily order fulfillment volume is still hovering between 40 and 50.

It's not that Cheng Wei didn't work hard enough, but that Kuaidi Dache has the traffic support of Gaode Maps, Kuaipao, Orange App Store, Lingxi Browser and Toutiao. It looks like a 1v1, but in reality it's a 1v6.

Because when Yunsu Express couriers deliver packages, they also slip users a promotional poster for Kuaidi Dache (a ride-hailing service).

"That useless Li Yanhong! Why hasn't the new version of Baidu Maps been released yet!" Cheng Wei cursed under his breath as he waited anxiously.

(End of this chapter)