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

Chapter 603 Over a Billion a Month? Prime Member! Daniel: Why are you arresting me?
On April 14, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released a statistical report showing that as of April 2014, the number of internet users in China had reached 7.92 million, of which 7.16 million were mobile internet users, far exceeding the usage rate of PC networks.

Internet penetration rate is 58.7%!

9700 million 4G network users!
At the beginning of 2013, the total number of Chinese internet users was only 5.97 million, not yet exceeding 6 million.

In other words, in the past sixteen months, not counting existing smartphone users, the number of new internet users alone has approached 2 million, averaging 1250 million per month.

The rapid growth of the mobile internet has alarmed everyone!

Once the news broke, internet companies became even more convinced of one thing: the PC era was coming to an end, and whoever could seize the traffic entrance in the mobile era would become the king of the next era!
"Tencent really got incredibly lucky! With QQ on one hand and WeChat on the other, one has 800 million users and the other has 500 million users, it's hard for them to lose!"

"A man who truly rides the wave of opportunity—Shenzhen's Money-Making Guy!"

"If Senlian Capital were to develop social software, I wonder if it could beat QQ and WeChat?"

"It should be very difficult. Every company has its own area of ​​expertise. Take Ali's Laiwang as an example. It was launched a year ago, but its daily active users are not even 300 million."

"But... it seems like Brother Sen is good at everything. Even the business of Orange Supermarket is several times better than Carrefour and RT-Mart!"

In the comment sections of Toutiao, Weibo, and Douyin, netizens are discussing the topic animatedly.

Half an hour later, Dianping made a bold statement, announcing that it would provide 10 billion yuan in cash subsidies, officially launching the group-buying war.

Unlike the group-buying war four years ago, the three surviving group-buying websites this time—Kuaipao, Qiandu Group Buying, and Dianping—are all formidable players.

Behind Kuaipao are Senlian Capital and Tencent.
The parent company of Qiandu Group Buying is Qiandu itself;

Dianping's new "dad" is Ali!
Apart from Baidu being a bit weak, Senlian Capital, Tencent, and Ali are all undisputed internet giants, and they have no shortage of money.

Suddenly, special group-buying deals like one-cent milk tea, one-yuan spicy hot pot, and nine-and-a-half-yuan KTV emerged one after another, much to the delight of netizens.

While following up, Shan Jiawei ordered the on-the-ground business development team to sign exclusive cooperation agreements with merchants.

at the same time.

In a meeting room on the top floor of Building 1 in Senlian Science and Technology Park.

Chen Yansen sat in the main seat, looking down at his phone.

On the LED screen directly in front, video feeds of Liang Bo, Xiao Jun, Pei Yi, Chen Yixiao, and Huang Zheng were displayed.

"Douyin currently has 3.4 million registered users, 1.1 million daily active users, 1.9 million live streaming users, an average daily dwell time of 158 minutes, 4100 million streamer accounts, and monthly live streaming tipping revenue between 10 billion and 14 billion yuan, with total revenue of approximately 5 million to 7 million yuan."

Revenue from StarMap's technical service fees, pre-roll ads, and feed ads totals 8 million yuan per month..."

Liang Bo reported in a calm and unhurried manner.

A billion or more a month?
Upon hearing this, Xiao Jun couldn't help but feel secretly envious.

Gaode Maps has accumulated 5 million registered users and 2.6 million daily active users, but its monthly revenue is less than half that of Douyin.

Upon hearing this, Chen Yixiao's expression became complicated.

Although Kuaishou's registered users have exceeded 2 million, its daily active users have remained around 5000 million, its average daily dwell time is nearly 40 minutes less than Douyin's, and its monthly revenue has just barely reached the 5 million mark.

Looking at Douyin's stable monthly revenue of around 13 billion, he felt like a stone was pressing on his heart.

Despite being short videos, sharing the same platform, and using the same algorithm recommendation technology, Kuaishou's performance is slightly inferior.

What will the boss think?
We must overtake them!

Chen Yixiao pondered to himself.

Douyin and Kuaishou are like two fighting dogs raised by Chen Yansen; they cooperate as well as compete.

"I used the beta version and there were no problems. Adding food delivery, group buying, and e-commerce modules to Douyin and Kuaishou is a completely new attempt. The previous traffic diversion model had a low conversion rate and was easy to waste traffic resources."

Douyin will release the new version first, and Kuaishou will release its version three days later. For details, you can create a discussion group to keep in touch in real time and integrate Kuaishou, Pinbei, Douyin, and Kuaishou's businesses to form a larger ecosystem.

"Old Xiao, we need to add hotel and attraction ticket categories to Gaode's O2O traffic redirection service as soon as possible."

After Liang Bo finished speaking, Chen Yansen gave him a gentle reminder.

"Yes, boss!" everyone responded in unison.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and continued, "Pinbei's Prime Super Membership should also be put on the agenda, preferably before the 618 promotion. I have already spoken to Tencent, and the group purchase price for the annual video card is set at 50 yuan per card. Considering the benefits of travel, shopping, ride-hailing, browser and Orange Short Drama, I think setting the price at 99 yuan is more reasonable."

In addition, Song Yuncheng will be in charge of resource coordination, while Douyin and Kuaishou will be responsible for handling the traffic.

After hearing his boss's instructions, Huang Zheng immediately replied, "Okay, I understand!"

Chen Yansen nodded slightly: "The first phase of promotion can be tested on a small scale. For example, we can issue 'membership trial coupons' to high-value users, allowing them to try out the benefits for free for a week, and then guide them to pay."

"Boss, should we implement a differentiated marketing strategy? In the first batch, we can target only core users, and then set a membership activation threshold to guide secondary core users to increase their activity level by placing orders, thereby gaining activation privileges."

Huang Zheng thought for a moment and asked.

"There's no need! What was the original intention behind Pinduoduo's design of the Prime Super Membership? To increase users' order frequency and sunk costs! Not to discriminate against low-value users and ignore their future value."

Chen Yansen shook his head in denial.

Artificially setting entry barriers may increase the sense of superiority and belonging among Prime members, but it also harms the vast majority of low-frequency consumers.

These people might think: "I only buy a small amount, but they won't even let me become a member. I might as well switch to another e-commerce platform!"
Huang Zheng responded with a nod and said nothing more.

In fact, neither path was wrong, but Chen Yansen chose the one that made users more comfortable.

The meeting ended ten minutes later.

Chen Yansen got up and walked outside, with Guo Shenyi following closely behind, carrying his computer and documents.

Back in his office, Chen Yansen took a bottle of cold brew tea from the freezer, lay down on the sofa, took a sip of the tea, and casually flipped through an academic paper on storage.

Signed by: Lu Mingyan!
The R&D Director of the Storage Division at Shanxing is skilled in 3D stacked memory and has worked on mixed-signal circuit design for high-speed memory projects, which directly doubled the data transfer rate of Shanxing's NAND chips.

His position in Shanxing wasn't high, but his abilities were absolutely top-notch.

Chen Yansen read through more than a dozen documents in one go, gaining a clearer understanding of Lu Mingyan's professional competence. He then took out his phone and called the other party.

……

……

Boise, the City of Boise, the Land of Lighthouses.

After completing his handover, Daniel Skinner left Micron's headquarters building.

"I must be crazy!"

Daniel gazed at the sunset over Idaho and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

A few days ago, he never imagined that a phone call would change the course of his career for the rest of his life.

He would never have considered becoming the chief scientist at a semiconductor company in China before.

However, during the communication, he felt an unprecedented sense of importance placed on him.

The other party not only knew about his 3D XPoint memory architecture optimization project at Micron, but could even pinpoint the technical difficulties in suppressing signal interference in the project. They also proposed a new approach to reduce transmission loss using novel packaging materials. "Senlian Capital plans to invest 200 billion yuan to build a memory chip R&D center. If you come, you can lead the projects you want to do, and you can decide the budget and the team!"

Faced with a technically savvy Chinese boss who was willing to invest heavily, Daniel immediately agreed.

Looking back, he felt like he was possessed, but he eventually attributed it to the inexplicable emotions he felt when he met a kindred spirit.

Daniel walked quickly to a Chevrolet, opened the door, got into the driver's seat, and drove home.

His flight is tomorrow at noon, a direct flight to Luzhou. Before leaving the United States, he naturally wants to say goodbye to his family properly.

But Daniel was completely unaware that as soon as his car drove out of the parking lot, a Ford quietly followed.

"Grant, follow them!"

O'Connor shouted to his colleague in the driver's seat.

Both he and Grant are employees of the Beacon of National Security Association.

Tiangong Technology, DeepBlue Technology, and Orange Technology have been making frequent moves to poach a large number of R&D personnel from Europe and North America. These include Chinese engineers as well as top technical experts from countries such as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Anyone with a normal brain would notice something is wrong!

This is unreasonable!

What does China have?
In terms of social status and research environment, it is inferior to that of Europe and the United States.

These highly intelligent industry experts are willing to travel across oceans to join Senlian Capital.

It's so abnormal!

Therefore, the Anguo Association has included all mid-to-high-level scientific research talents within the country under its supervision.

Daniel triggered the alarm when he booked his flight.

O'Connor checked and found that Daniel had just left Micron.

"Captain, judging from the other party's route, he's most likely heading home. Should we continue to keep an eye on him? He's flying to China tomorrow."

After following for more than ten minutes, Grant came to a conclusion.

"Intercept him ahead, don't wait any longer! Take him back to the branch."

O'Connor immediately made a decision.

"Ok!"

Grant replied.

Grant jerked the steering wheel, and the Ford cut in front of the Chevrolet, forcing Daniel to brake suddenly, the tires screeching on the asphalt.

Daniel frowned and muttered under his breath.

Just as he was about to get out of the car to argue, O'Connor strode over with two men in black suits, flashed an identification card, and said, "Anguo Association, Mr. Daniel Skinner, please come with us to cooperate with the investigation."

"What kind of investigation are you cooperating with?"

Daniel asked, displeased.

He is the Director of Mobile DRAM Architecture at Micron and a Visiting Professor at the MIT School of Microelectronics. He has a strong academic background and is a respected and influential figure.

An ordinary person might feel intimidated upon seeing the Anguo Association's credentials, but he wouldn't!
“The investigation involves ‘national technology security.’ Now is not the time to bargain with you. Either you get on board willingly, or we will take you away by force.”

O'Connor spoke forcefully and reached for the car door.

“I need to call my lawyer. You have no right to take me away without a lawyer present.”

Daniel snorted and took out his phone.

O'Connor clearly didn't want to give him a chance, signaling Grant to force the door open, but saying, "Your lawyer can see you at the Angolan Association branch."

Daniel ignored him and dialed his lawyer's number: "I'm on Highway 27, being stopped by people from the Anguo Association. They're trying to forcibly take me away!"

Upon seeing this, Grant immediately pulled a crowbar from his waist, squatted down, and stuffed it into the gap of the Chevrolet's door.

The metal pry bar made a screeching sound as it rubbed against the car door's sheet metal, and Daniel braced himself against the inside of the door with his body.

Three minutes later, Daniel was pushed into the Ford by O'Connor and Grant, and they headed straight for the Angolan Association's branch.

After a moment's thought, Daniel's lawyer shared the information with MIT and the Association for the Advancement of Science.

Because he knew in his heart that the potential energy of both MIT and the Association for the Advancement of Science was frighteningly large.

Not long after, Daniel was 'invited' to the interrogation room.

"I'm going to file a complaint with the Idaho State Central District about your actions! You have no right to restrict my personal freedom!"

Daniel said angrily.

"A complaint?" O'Connor leaned against the table in the interrogation room, arms crossed, a disdainful smile on his face.

He paused and then said, "Mr. Skinner, you just left Micron and are going to China immediately. Who knows if you will take our core technology with you? Don't even think about going anywhere until we investigate this thoroughly."

"So, you're going to illegally detain someone on a charge that doesn't exist?"

Daniel's face flushed red as he coldly questioned him.

He never imagined that he wouldn't even have the freedom to choose his employment.

O'Connor ignored him and instructed Grant, "Find a psychiatrist and a colleague who is skilled in hypnosis to see if he is being mind-controlled."

"You're absolutely insane! You're trampling on the law and insulting the professional dignity of a researcher!"

Daniel, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, pointed at O'Connor's nose and angrily rebuked him.

the other side.

After learning that Daniel had been taken away by the Anguo Association, his teachers and students, MIT, and the Association for the Advancement of Science immediately mobilized their connections to inquire about the specifics.

"Fuck! By what right does the Anguo Association restrict the employment and personal freedom of researchers?"

"The United States has always been known for its freedom of movement. If word gets out that this is true, which of the world's top scientists would dare to come to North America?"

"Nonsense! Who made this mess? Clean it up yourself!"

The phones of the local central government officials were quickly ringing off the hook, from former principals to former teachers.

The implication was that if the people weren't released immediately, they would take to the streets to protest the next day.

Whether Daniel chooses to go to China or India is his personal freedom.

Subsequently, someone posted the news of Daniel's arrest on Mimo, Facebook, and Twitter, instantly sparking heated discussions.

(End of this chapter)