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

Chapter 336 Has Ma Liyun gone mad? The first strike is unleashed! The upcoming Xiao Ai (AI) classmate!

In late autumn, Xuelin Road is covered with withered yellow sycamore leaves.

A gust of wind swept by, and leaves swirled everywhere.

As Chen Yansen drove by, he could still hear the cleaning staff grumbling, "We have to sweep it every day, when will all these leaves ever fall?"

The man brandished a large broom more than a meter long, looking up at the sky. The beautiful sycamore trees in the students' eyes were, in fact, torture instruments that tormented him, causing him unbearable suffering.

No wonder the sycamore trees in Chun Shen were replaced with camphor trees a few years later.

Chen Yansen glanced out the window and pondered to himself.

Then, an Aston Martin Rapide slowly drove out of the east gate of the Virtual Academy and sped off towards the Science Park.

Autumn in northern Huian is bleak, with the birch trees lining the streets bare, only a few leaves remaining on their branches.

A short while later, Chen Yansen parked his car, walked straight into Building No. 9, took the elevator to his office, and sat down.

The humanitarian torch of October has arrived, and together with the remaining 49 strands from September, there are a total of 163146 strands, which can be combined into 1631 strands of divine torch.

"add a bit!"

With a thought, a golden mist, as thick as a wrist, appeared out of thin air and instantly entered between his eyebrows.

Unlike the human way of life, the divine way of life does not cause a stinging sensation of cold or heat when strengthening the body or spirit; it only brings extreme comfort.

In just a few breaths, his physique value increased to 47.47!

Although there were no visible changes on the outside, Chen Yansen was very clear that his basic physiological functions, including strength, speed, endurance and physical strength, were rapidly transforming.

His five senses evolved once again, with his vision, smell, and hearing undergoing tremendous changes. Standing by the window, he could even see the antennae of an ant three kilometers away.

Her weight reached 134 kilograms!

However, her weight still looks like she weighs around 80 kilograms!

The density, toughness, and hardness of muscles, bones, and flesh are all increasing!

Chen Yansen raised his hand and grabbed a handful of air, which produced a shrill air explosion. His fingers moved so fast that an ordinary person could probably only see a blur.

"When hundreds of thousands of humanitarian torches are thrown in, the effect is indeed different."

Feeling his abundant physical strength and energy, Chen Yansen muttered to himself with satisfaction.

Immediately afterwards, he attached several rings of mental energy to his waist, controlling his weight to 87 kilograms, before slowly returning to his seat.

Turn on your computer, log in to the data backend and email, and handle the company's daily operations as usual.

Half an hour later, he finished his work.

Chen Yansen stood up, pushed open the door, and walked out to the floor where the chip design department was located.

at the same time.

Lei Yijun sat in his office at Xiaomi's headquarters, his face ashen, seemingly unwilling to speak.

The engineering beta version of Xiaomi Box was halted after only eight days.

Although Xiaomi has not obtained an internet integrated broadcasting control license, it has indirectly achieved compliance through its cooperation with Wasu Media.

However, it was still required to rectify the situation on the grounds of violating the rules on the uniqueness of content sources and links.

To put it bluntly, Xiaomi Box is not allowed to link to content from websites such as Sohu, Tencent, and Youku to steal users' data.

"Damn it! Nobody said it wouldn't work before Xiaomi did it!"

Lei Yijun was seething with anger and cursed under his breath.

Only then did he realize that the big shots treated him with respect when they needed him, but completely disregarded Xiaomi's fate when they didn't.

Xiaomi Box failed to be the first to market and instead received a heavy blow, leaving it somewhat dazed.

"Boss, I don't think we need to be too pessimistic. It's just a matter of making changes. If the timing is wrong, everything will be wrong. Let's wait and see."

Sitting opposite Lei Yijun, Li Wanqiang listened to his cursing and quickly tried to comfort him.

"It's okay, I know what to do. The launch of Xiaomi Box will be postponed for now. Let's focus on preparing for the new product launch during next year's Spring Festival."

Lei Yijun waved his hand and said.

After the release of Xiaomi 1S and Xiaomi MI2, a total of 570 million units were sold in five months. However, as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Coolpad launched their own mid-to-low-end models, the sales growth rate declined significantly.

Therefore, Lei Yijun had to accelerate the development of the new machine.

"Okay, boss, but should the Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S really be equipped with the Aurora OS system? The MIUI system R&D department has strong opinions."

After listening, Li Wanqiang pondered for a few seconds, then frowned and said.

"Whose opinion is stronger? Hong Feng? Let him tell me to his face!" Lei Yijun said coldly and irritably.

In order to boost sales and meet user needs, Lei Yijun decided to add an Aurora OS version for Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S based on the MIUI version.

In short, when purchasing a Xiaomi 2S or Xiaomi 2A phone, users can choose between the Aurora OS system or the MIUI system.

Because they use different mobile operating systems, some electronic components have been slightly modified. The configurations are similar, but each has its own characteristics, mainly to improve the compatibility between software and hardware.

However, the Xiaomi 1S, which runs on MIUI, has consistently outsold the Aurora OS version, which is undoubtedly an insult to the MIUI system R&D department.

"Uh, I understand." Li Wanqiang nodded helplessly.

As Lei Yijun's right-hand man, no one understands the changes in the boss's mindset over the past six months better than him.

Not only can't they beat Orange Phone, but now Xiaomi's cumulative shipments are actually lower than 360's phone sales, and even NetEase phones have sold more than 200 million units.

Lei Yijun initially wanted to be China's Steve Jobs, but now, let alone Jobs, he can't even catch up to Chen Yansen's coattails.

"How is the development of Xiao Ai? Will it be ready for the spring launch event?" Lei Yijun asked again.

"We are doing the final debugging work, but in terms of performance and user experience, it is not as good as the Moss voice interaction engine. It may be because the other party uses a more advanced algorithm model."

Li Wanqiang answered immediately.

"It's okay. Compared to the Orange C3, the Xiaomi 2S or Xiaomi 2A are not priced high. They just have slightly fewer features, but they're still usable."

Lei Yijun said dismissively.

Just then, his phone on the table rang. He leaned forward and, after seeing the caller ID, immediately pressed the answer button.

"Mr. Lei, is the development of Xiao Ai (Xiao Ai's AI assistant) finished?" Chen Yansen skipped the pleasantries and asked directly.

"It will be soon. I plan to launch it at the spring product launch event."

Lei Yijun didn't hide anything, after all, Xiao Ai's creation was entirely due to the language analysis development platform.

"Does Xiaomi have any plans for a smart speaker?" Chen Yansen continued to ask.

Upon hearing this, Lei Yijun was slightly taken aback, unsure how to respond.

In fact, the industrial and hardware design teams for the Xiao Ai smart speaker are already in the works, but the technology was provided by Chen Yansen, and he was too embarrassed to tell them that Xiaomi wanted to compete with Orange Technology for the smart speaker market.

So, without batting an eye, Lei Yijun forced a denial and said, "No." "That's a pity. Orange Technology is developing a dedicated AI chip that can reduce hardware costs by 20%. I was going to ask Mr. Lei if he would be interested in cooperating."

Chen Yansen leaned back on the sofa and said casually.

As for Lei Yijun's words, he wouldn't even believe the punctuation.

"AI chips? President Chen has set up a chip design department?" Lei Yijun asked incredulously, his eyes wide.

It's important to know that in the mobile phone industry in 2012, only Huawei, a telecommunications giant, possessed chip research and development capabilities.

Although neither the HiSilicon K3V1 three years ago nor the HiSilicon K3V2 this year achieved sufficient market performance, they at least pioneered the development of self-developed chips for domestic mobile phones.

How long has Orange Technology been in the industry?
A year and a half at most!

"The procurement cost of the TI OMAP 3630 is too high. General-purpose chips waste too much performance and cannot unleash the full potential of the MOSI intelligent interaction engine. Creating a dedicated chip that integrates CPU, NPU, DSP, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication, and audio codecs can save costs and enhance performance. Mr. Lei doesn't make smart speaker products, so he may not understand the difference here."

Chen Yansen jokingly said with a smile.

I know it all too well!
Lei Yijun almost blurted it out, but he managed to hold back in time.

He had actually done research on smart speaker products, and the material cost alone was no less than 350 yuan. Even with production, transportation, sales and operating costs, the price would not exceed 600 yuan, leaving little room for profit.

In other words, Orange Technology's dedicated AI chip can reduce costs by about 70 yuan, which naturally appealed to Lei Yijun.

"Mr. Chen, I've been thinking about it and I believe Xiaomi can also make smart speakers. You won't mind, will you?" Lei Yijun couldn't keep up the pretense any longer and asked tentatively.

“Of course not,” Chen Yansen replied immediately.

Selling a Tiangong T100 chip to Xiaomi for 40 US dollars isn't unreasonable, is it?

In addition, since Xiaomi doesn't have a contract manufacturer, Orange Phone Factory can earn an extra contract manufacturing fee.

Winning twice means you're not losing money no matter how you calculate it!

Moreover, does that mean Lei Yijun will stop making speakers if he doesn't provide Xiaomi with a speech analysis development platform and AI chips?

It's better to have more friends than more rivals.

Alexa smart speakers are a huge hit in Europe and America. Don't Qualcomm, Intel, Broadcom and Nvidia see this?

Orange Technology's real competitors are in Europe and America, not in the country.

"Thank you, Mr. Chen, for your support of Xiaomi. I will definitely pay you a visit another day." Lei Yijun felt a warmth in his heart and realized that Chen Yansen's character was much better than Zhou Hongyi's.

"Okay, let's do it this way for now. We'll discuss further cooperation once the Tiangong T100 chip is designed and manufactured."

Chen Yansen took the initiative to end the conversation.

"No problem, let's talk again later." Lei Yijun hung up the phone with a smile on his face.

The negative impact of the sanctions against Xiaomi Box was instantly swept away.

"Ali, speed up the preparations for the Xiao Ai speaker, and try to launch it together with the spring press conference."

Lei Yijun gave instructions to Li Wanqiang.

"Boss, would Chen Yansen be so kind?" Li Wanqiang felt that something was off.

"He simply wants to sell chips and earn manufacturing fees. As long as the price is reasonable, it's fine for Xiaomi to cooperate with Orange Technology."

Lei Yijun waved his hand and said.

We can't keep letting outsiders benefit from this forever, can we?

Now, relying on Orange Technology's supply chain, Xiaomi has changed its screen supplier to EEWorld, also supporting domestic products.

Previously, Zhou Hongyi had been criticizing Xiaomi on Weibo for purchasing Sharp screens for its mobile phones, accusing it of making money off Chinese people but refusing to use domestic suppliers.

In this way, Master Zhou lost his reason to attack Xiaomi.

the other side.

Chen Yansen had just put down his phone when there was a knocking sound at the door.

"Go in!" Chen Yansen said.

Huang Zheng rushed in, grinning, and said, "Ma Liyun has gone mad!"

Chen Yansen leaned back, waiting for the other party's explanation.

He certainly didn't believe that Old Ma had suddenly fallen ill and been sent to a mental hospital.

"This is the latest announcement from Ali's mom. The bosses of Mogujie, Meilishuo, and What's Worth Buying are furious."

After speaking, Huang Zheng handed over a document containing the new rules that Taobao Alliance had released at noon.

Starting January 1, 2013, the alliance will cancel the Taobao Customer model, which offers cash back on purchases made through Taobao (including Yaomao Mall), and will only allow non-cash rebate methods such as points, physical goods, coupons, and shopping vouchers.

In other words, giving users direct cash back is a violation of the rules, and Ali's mom has the right to deduct points and freeze the platform's cashback account.

Perhaps not wanting to affect the 2012 Double Eleven shopping festival, Ma Liyun set the effective date for New Year's Day 2013.

Old Ma's move officially signaled the end of the honeymoon period between Ali and the shopping guide e-commerce platform.

Chen Yansen glanced at it and was not surprised.

He knew that Ma Liyun and Liu Qiangdong had the same attitude towards shopping guide e-commerce: they looked down on it and didn't care about it, but they were also reluctant to give up the traffic and orders from third-party external channels.

Essentially, Taobao, Pinduoduo, and JD.com are all middlemen in the internet traffic market.

They acquire users at low cost, then repackage them as marketing tools and sell them to merchants on the platform.

"This is nothing. Shopping guide e-commerce will only suffer for a while. If Jack Ma removes the sales weight of shopping guide e-commerce, that will be the death knell for Mogujie, Meilishuo, and What's Worth Buying."

Chen Yansen put down the documents and said with a light laugh.

"I don't think so, do you?" Huang Zheng was skeptical.

"By strengthening cooperation with e-commerce platforms, Pinduoduo Alliance will absorb all the market share that Ali lost."

Chen Yansen looked at Huang Zheng and gave him instructions.

The relationship between affiliate e-commerce platforms and general e-commerce platforms is delicate, involving both cooperation and competition.

The reason why Ma Liyun suppressed shopping guide websites is also very simple.

First, the traffic strategy needs to be adjusted. The Taobao promotion model of the PC era is not compatible with Ali's wireless traffic strategy. Ma Liyun wants to focus the business on the wireless end.
Secondly, to protect the interests of Tmall and Taobao, Mogujie, Meilishuo and What's Worth Buying, while bringing traffic to Ali, also took away a portion of the merchants' advertising fees, thereby reducing the investment in advertising products such as Taobao Express, Taobao Display, and Juhuasuan.

Making money for Lao Ma is fine, but trying to rob Lao Ma is not?

no way!

Third, build an industrial closed loop by replacing the cash back model with the points product of Ali's wealth management system, namely Jifenbao, to bind users' consumption behavior within Ali's e-commerce system and form a transaction closed loop.

Fourth, support its own product guides. Foxconn spent billions of dollars, why not leave the benefits to its own products instead of supporting external "adopted sons"?
After confirming Chen Yansen's stance, Huang Zheng continued to use the cash rebate model, which led to a rapid increase in Pinbei's external traffic.

From November 1st to November 3rd, Taobao's affiliate marketing business plummeted, while Pinduoduo's affiliate marketing business saw a surge in output. During the pre-sale phase of the Double Eleven promotion, it managed to maintain daily sales of 12 to 14 billion yuan, significantly outperforming JD.com.

(End of this chapter)