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

Chapter 574 Revenue of 130 billion, Net Profit of 70 billion! Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi, all wanting to make money off fools!
After exiting the airport, a Hongqi L5, sandwiched between two Mercedes-Benz vans, sped along the Jingping Expressway toward Zhongguancun Software Park.

After more than two years of development, ByteDance has become the second largest search service provider in China, thanks to its products such as Lingxi Browser, Lingxi Search, Baidu Encyclopedia, Baidu Tieba, and Baidu Q&A.

The gap between Baidu and Baidu is clearly visible, with an overall market share gap of only 2% to 3%.

However, the competitive landscape differs depending on the specific application scenario.

In the mobile search field, Lingxi Search has a market share that is 15% higher than Qiandu, while Qiandu only holds an advantage in the PC search sector.

Therefore, ByteDance naturally upgraded its operations, moving from its old, dilapidated office building to the bustling Zhongguancun area.

The number of employees has grown rapidly from just a handful to more than 1900, making it a leader in the second tier of China's internet industry.

Zhang Yiming was passionate about working in the mobile browser and search engine field, which completely changed the trajectory of his life.

In contrast, his former underling Liang Bo has gone further and further astray in the fields of information, short videos, and enterprise office software.

Chen Yansen sat in the back seat of the car, took out a Yao Cheng X2 from his pocket, replied to a few messages, put down his phone, and looked out the window.

In 2014, Beijing was filled with skyscrapers, with one towering building after another rising from the ground.

Housing prices are on the verge of going out of control. Right now, you can barely scrape together a down payment if you grit your teeth, but in a few years they will skyrocket to a level that is beyond the reach of most people.

Once they weather this year's real estate downturn, the wealth of domestic real estate developers will skyrocket, propelling them into the top ten of the rich list.

"Has Mr. Ye bought a house yet?"

Chen Yansen asked casually.

The dryness of March in the North is the kind of dryness that seeps into your bones.

After hearing this, Ye Qiuping unconsciously licked her lips and then replied, "Boss, I bought a house in Qingdao, but I actually prefer gold to a house."

"Gold is also a good choice; it should at least triple in value over the next ten years," Chen Yansen commented casually.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Huang Boxiang gripped the steering wheel firmly with both hands. Upon hearing his boss's words, he immediately made up his mind: he would exchange half of his savings for gold bars as soon as possible.

He might not believe what others say, but who is Chen Yansen?
The famous Living God of Wealth!

In some parts of Hui'an, business people even worshipped him as a god of wealth.

However, Guo Shenyi, sitting in the passenger seat, discerned three deeper layers of meaning in Chen Yansen's seemingly casual remark.

First, housing prices are likely to rise in the future; second, gold also has room for appreciation; and third, compared to gold, housing prices may rise even higher.

He spent five years at the Transport Association, during which time he gained access to a great deal of inside information and developed his own judgment on market trends.

That's why he agreed with Chen Yansen's words and felt that his boss's judgment was not unfounded.

"Shenyi, call the Prefect of the Capital and reserve a private room for tonight, for about ten people."

After saying that, Chen Yansen gave Guo Shenyi another instruction.

“Yes, boss,” Guo Shenyi replied.

Having worked within the system for several years, he possesses keen insight and is not only meticulous in his work but also adept at serving others.

A short while later, the car turned onto Houchangcun Road.

As soon as I entered the science park, just a few dozen meters away from the office building, I saw Zhang Yiming leading a group of ByteDance executives standing outside the lobby, with bright smiles on his face.

Compared to two years ago, Zhang Yiming, who has experienced the harsh realities of society, has noticeably softened his edges.

In his view, back then, he almost got fined, ordered to rectify, and went to jail for simply scraping information from three major portal websites, CCTV, and the People's Daily.

But after partnering with Chen Yansen, ByteDance has developed smoothly, with no shortage of money or resources.

Therefore, Zhang Yiming realized: starting a business is too difficult. Without the support of powerful figures, it's like a small boat in a vast ocean, with a huge risk of capsizing at any time.

Currently, ByteDance is valued at over $150 billion. Although his shareholding has decreased from 70% to 8.4%, his personal wealth has increased more than a hundredfold.

He knew very well that without the traffic support and mobile device support from Senlian Capital, ByteDance would never have been able to grow into a super unicorn company within two years.

Perhaps, he might end up like Wang Xin of Kuaibo.

With a click, the car door slowly opened.

Zhang Yiming jogged forward and greeted him with a smile, "Hello, boss!"

"Yi Ming, you've worked hard."

Chen Yansen patted Zhang Yiming on the shoulder and encouraged him in a calm tone.

While ByteDance's growth is certainly inseparable from the support of Senlian Capital's funding, technology, and network, it is undeniable that Zhang Yiming's own capabilities are also indispensable.

For a project, success cannot be achieved simply by throwing money and traffic at it.

Take QQ Group Buying, Paipai.com, and YiXun.com as examples. Haven't Ma Wenteng invested enough traffic and funds?
Looking at products like Tencent Weibo, QQ Cloud Drive, and Laiwang, the first two rely on QQ, a national-level software with hundreds of millions of daily active users, to continuously drive traffic, while Ma Liyun personally endorses the latter.

But the result?

Not even a splash!
Faced with his boss's concern, Zhang Yiming grinned and said, "Boss, it's all part of my job, nothing to brag about."

"This place is nice, but it's a bit small. Let's acquire a plot of land and build our headquarters here."

Chen Yansen looked around and gave one last piece of advice.

The exterior walls of several nearby buildings are adorned with signs for companies such as Xiaomi, Baidu, Lenovo, 58.com, and Kingsoft, making it a veritable hub for Chinese internet companies.

The environment is good, but the space is insufficient, which is clearly not in line with the needs of future development.

In addition, land prices in Yanjing were cheap in 2014. Although he did not intend to speculate on real estate, he still had to hoard land and build buildings to save on office costs.

ByteDance is similar to Pinduoduo and Today Technology in that it earns a lot and spends little.

Last year's revenue was 130 billion yuan, and after deducting costs such as servers, personnel, management, and user acquisition, the net profit was as high as 70 billion yuan.

Buying land and building is all it takes; it couldn't be easier.

"Yes, boss, I will get on it as soon as possible," Zhang Yiming nodded in response.

He then pointed to a group of senior executives standing to the side and introduced them to Chen Yansen one by one.

Next, the group entered ByteDance's headquarters building. During the tour, Zhang Yiming did most of the talking while Chen Yansen listened, occasionally asking questions about details.

Around midnight, the group had lunch at the Kuaipao Canteen in the park.

After dinner, Chen Yansen got into his car and headed towards the Westin Hotel on the East Third Ring Road.

at the same time.

360 headquarters.

Zhou Hongyi stared at the phone design draft on his computer, pondered for a while, and then asked his assistant, "According to Orange Phone Factory's quote, what will the material cost be?"

"Around 2160 yuan," the assistant quickly replied.

"In other words, after deducting all costs, a Meitu 1 Pro can earn a net profit of 2000 yuan?"

Zhou Hongyi was slightly taken aback, and couldn't help but curse Wu Hongxin for being heartless.

The model name '360 V1' is clearly marked in the upper left corner of the screen.

The hardware configuration of this model is 99% identical to that of the Meitu 1 Pro.

It can be said that, apart from the different appearance designs, the two models share the same operating system, camera algorithm, built-in voice assistant, and battery management system.

This is why Zhou Hongyi was able to calculate the profit of Meitu 1 Pro immediately after hearing the material cost of 360 V1.

You should know that he only earns a few dozen yuan per 360 F Mini; it's all hard-earned money.

The profit from one Meitu 1 Pro is equivalent to that of 30 360 F Minis. In other words, Zhou Hongyi would need to sell more than 2000 million 360 phones to earn the profit equivalent to 88 Meitu 1 Pros.

"Yes," the assistant replied succinctly.

"Put the 360 ​​V1 prototype diagram and bill of materials together and print them out for me."

Zhou Hongyi explained.

When he was preparing for dinner that evening, he asked Chen Yansen to help him assess the feasibility of the product.

In his eyes, these idiots dared to buy Meitu, so why couldn't the 360 ​​V1, priced at 3999 yuan, sell?

the other side.

Chen Yansen returned to the hotel and had just sat down on the sofa when he heard the sound of the door unlocking outside.

Ye Qiuping pushed her suitcase in, looking around nervously as if afraid of being discovered.

"Boss, where to go this afternoon?"

Master Ye pushed the suitcase aside, swayed gently, and asked in a soft voice.

"come over."

Chen Yansen patted his thigh, gesturing for Ye Qiuping to sit down.

……

……

As evening fell, a warm orange hue of clouds gradually disappeared below the horizon with the setting sun.

The lights of the Jingzhao Yin building were instantly turned on, and luxury cars lined up in front of the gate.

Lei Yijun leaned against a Mercedes-Benz, his gaze fixed on the entrance, occasionally peering out.

He Xiaopeng held his phone, his fingers constantly swiping the screen.

"Are you reading a novel?" Lei Yijun glanced at the content on the screen and asked abruptly.

"I've been under a lot of pressure lately," He Xiaopeng sighed, then gave a dry laugh.

Manufacturing cars wasn't as difficult as he imagined, but it wasn't easy either.

He put a lot of effort into obtaining the car manufacturing qualification. While applying for independent car manufacturing qualification, he also indirectly obtained an entry ticket by cooperating with Haima Automobile.

However, in terms of motors, electronic controls, and speed reducers, we have to start from scratch.

"After all, it's a completely new industry. Everything is difficult at the beginning. Look at Tesla, it was delayed for ten years. If it weren't for the advent of the Deep Blue battery, it wouldn't have been able to sell 30,000 to 40,000 units a year."

Lei Yijun immediately understood what his younger brother meant, so he offered words of comfort.

“That’s right, Brother Jun is right. Anyway, the domestic infrastructure is not mature enough yet, so let’s lay a solid technological foundation first.”

He Xiaopeng shrugged.

At that moment, a Maybach S600 drove up and stopped in the parking space in front of the two of them.

Lei Yijun frowned slightly, looking disgusted.

Sure enough, Zhou Hongyi got out of the car, wearing a red stand-up collar polo shirt and a red jacket over it.

Old Zhou's public explanation was that "red clothes" was a homophone for "Hongyi" (meaning "bold and resolute"), which was easy to remember. In reality, a master had divined his fortune and said that he lacked the element of fire in his five elements, and wearing red clothes could replenish that fire.

It seemed absurd, but Lao Zhou believed it anyway.

In the past two or three years, 360 has indeed had a smooth development. Not to mention the company's main business, its annual sales of mobile phones alone have reached more than 100 billion yuan.

Lei Yijun told Chen Yansen this in private.

Mr. Chen immediately became suspicious that Shi Yuzhu and Zhou Hongyi had met with the same master.

Because Shi Yuzhu also loves red polo shirts.

"President Zhou!" He Xiaopeng greeted Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi, who were staring at each other awkwardly.

"Mr. He, congratulations! Ali has acquired UC. You will cash out at least tens of billions, which is comparable to what Mr. Chen did three years ago."

Zhou Hongyi responded with a smile.

"Mr. Zhou is too kind. I am not qualified to be compared with Mr. Chen," He Xiaopeng said modestly.

Does XPeng Motors need investment?

Zhou Hongyi knew that Lei Yijun and He Xiaopeng were good friends, but he still insisted on trying to sow discord between them.

"Thank you for your trust, Mr. Zhou. I will definitely ask if you need anything," He Xiaopeng said politely.

The two chatted enthusiastically.

Lei Yijun occasionally chimed in with a few words, but fortunately, Chen Yansen arrived a few minutes later.

"The color scheme and license plate of the Hongqi L5 were personally selected by Li Qingsong."

Lei Yijun, Zhou Hongyi, and He Xiaopeng secretly expressed their envy.

With their wealth, they could certainly afford and buy a Hongqi L5, but they couldn't buy the one Chen Yansen owns.

"What are you talking about?" Chen Yansen asked casually after getting out of the car.

"Lei and Zhou are making a bet on XPeng Motors' first-day sales."

He Xiaopeng shrugged and said with a wry smile.

"What's the prize?" Chen Yansen asked with a smile, showing interest.

"Whoever loses calls the other 'brother'," He Xiaopeng added.

What a load of rubbish!
Chen Yansen waved his hand, immediately losing interest.

Seeing this, Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi looked embarrassed and glared at He Xiaopeng.

The four people stood at the door, while across the street, a row of media vehicles were parked.

The reporters focused all their cameras on the four of them, filming them from every angle.

In particular, dozens of photos of Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi exchanging angry glances were taken in one go.

As for why he didn't run over and take a close-up photo of her face?
It's because the security guards of the Jingzhao Yin are too powerful. As soon as you get close, you lose control of the camera. You can't leave until you delete all the photos.

After all, it is a high-end restaurant frequented by wealthy businessmen in Yanjing. If tabloids are allowed to take photos and videos indiscriminately, who will dare to eat here in the future?

Not long after, Zhang Chaoyang and Liu Qiangdong also arrived.

The group entered the private room and had just sat down when Lei Yijun deliberately started talking to Chen Yansen about the collaboration on Xiaomi's beauty camera in front of Zhou Hongyi.

This thing isn't difficult!

The algorithm will be licensed from Orange Technology, and the hardware and manufacturing will utilize Orange's mobile phone factory's supply chain and production lines. If we hire a few popular female celebrities, will we still have to worry about sales?

"Is Xiaomi going to make a beauty camera app?"

Zhou Hongyi was stunned, feeling that he and Lei Yijun were incompatible; he was making low-end phones, while Lei Yijun was making Redmi phones.

Just as 360 V1 completed its industrial and hardware design, Xiaomi released a Xiaomi 3 Pro Beauty Edition.

Chen Yansen glanced at Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun. With the two of them interfering, it would be difficult for Wu Hongxin to make money effortlessly again.

(End of this chapter)