Restart life

Chapter 114 0111 [The number of users on the school's intranet has exceeded eight thousand]

Chen Guiliang got up early in the morning and went to the advertising company.

Tailor shops can also make banners, but he didn't know where to find them.

A regular banner costs only twenty or thirty yuan. Chen Guiliang needed to pick it up that day, so he paid an extra express fee, raising the price to 120 yuan per banner.

The advertising company told him to pick it up in 6 hours.

At noon, Chen Guiliang treated Bian Guanyue's roommate to lunch, and He Qinqin, the senior student he met on the day of registration, was also invited.

"You're a real talent, you've become famous at our school!" He Qinqin joked as soon as she arrived.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Has someone posted on the Capital University of Economics and Business's BBS?"

He Qinqin sighed, "Our school doesn't have a BBS, only an intranet forum and Baidu Tieba."

"Has anyone spoken ill of Chen Guiliang?" Bian Guanyue asked quickly.

He Qinqin said, "Yes. But most of them are mocking Peng Haoran. This guy used to be too high-profile, and he was a womanizer who would then abandon her. Many people have disliked him for a long time, and this time they took the opportunity to post and expose his dirty secrets."

Bian Guanyue smiled and said, "That's alright."

“You’ve become famous too,” He Qinqin said. “Some people even posted your photos on the Capital University of Economics and Business forum, saying you’re the school’s most beautiful girl. They even said you’re a femme fatale, causing Peking University students to fight with the school’s most popular student over you.”

“Those people are pretty boring,” Bian Guanyue commented.

As we were talking, my five roommates arrived.

Chen Guiliang reminded the waiter to serve the dishes.

Bian Guanyue's closest friend was her bunkmate, Fu Qiaoying.

Secondly, there's the room leader, Yu Wei.

"Thank you all for taking care of Guan Guan. I'd like to raise a toast to all of you sisters," Chen Guiliang said, raising his drink.

We invited only girls, so we didn't order any drinks today.

The light was dimmer last night, so it's clearer now. Several roommates are re-evaluating Chen Guiliang.

Yes, he is indeed quite handsome.

There was also a girl named Liu Yu who chattered on about "Mengya" magazine and the New Concept Writing Competition, saying that she especially loved literature when she was in high school.

Halfway through the meal, Chen Guiliang started handing out business cards.

This is the third batch of business cards he printed; the first two batches are almost gone. The new business cards don't have mobile phone numbers, only the company's landline number.

Business cards with phone numbers will continue to be sent out, but the recipients will be carefully selected.

Otherwise, his phone would be bombarded with calls!

"You've opened two more companies?" Lin Ruonan asked, even more excited.

Chen Guiliang briefly explained Renren.com, saying, "The internal testing will enter the second phase ahead of schedule at 12 noon tomorrow, opening up the friend invitation function for users. For each friend successfully invited to register, users will receive corresponding 'Renren Coins'."

"Campus Coins" are part of the site's internal billing system, which is currently far from perfect. It doesn't even support top-ups; coins can only be earned through daily logins, inviting friends, and online time.

He Qinqin asked, "Is this the same as QQ coins?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Yes. It's not available yet, but more homepage backgrounds, blog stationery, and background music will be released in the future. Some will be free to use, and some will require campus currency to purchase."

"The campus network is currently in the testing phase, and you must register an account with an invitation code. You can leave me your QQ number or email address, and I will send you an invitation code. When you invite friends, you can also generate an invitation code and send it to them. Each user can only generate 6 invitation codes per day."

Lin Ruonan said, "I'll give you my phone number. Just send me the website address and invitation code."

"Row."

Chen Guiliang took out his phone, wrote down Lin Ruonan's number, but instead of calling her on the spot, he sent a text message to the company.

A few minutes later, Lin Ruonan received a text message with a website address and invitation code sent to her by Guo Feng...

Lin Ruonan couldn't help but roll her eyes.

He Qinqin also received an invitation code and found the website quite interesting. She thought that if it could grow into a large company, she could get to know the founder and maybe even work for Chen Guiliang in the future.

In the late afternoon, Chen Guiliang went to pick up the banner and delivered it to the student affairs office and the dormitory supervisor.

When presenting the banner, I specifically asked Bian Guanyue to take several photos.

The dormitory supervisor was quite amusing; she even asked Chen Guiliang to develop the photo and give it to her.

Bian Guanyue reluctantly saw Chen Guiliang off at the station.

She has learned to knit and is currently knitting a scarf, which she will definitely finish before Christmas.

……

The following day, at noon, the school's intranet enabled the friend invitation function.

However, there is a limit to the number of invitations. This serves two purposes: first, to observe the rate of fission, and second, to control the number of invitations to test stability.

Chen Guiliang squatted in the office for an hour before asking, "How many registered users are there?"

Guo Feng stared at the backend data and said, "Total users: 1137; 328 currently online. It's the weekend, so the online rate is relatively high. Of these, 271 users registered in the last hour, and 104 of them logged off after registering."

“There will definitely be more people at night,” Chen Guiliang said.

Guo Feng laughed and said, "It's better if there are problems, then we can fix the bugs sooner."

Dong Qianqiu said, "Are you just going to let us slowly work on the recharge and billing systems for Renren.com and Three Kingdoms Kill, instead of hiring two more programmers?"

“It’s still a long way from charging,” Chen Guiliang said. “First, we need to increase the number of users, and then I’ll take out a loan. With the two projects combined, we can get a maximum loan of 100 million yuan, and then we can hire more people.”

In China's early internet market, topping up accounts was always a major problem.

Startups often lack the resources to build their own sales channels, so they have to find large companies to act as agents. The agency fee is roughly one-third of the total cost; if a user recharges 100 yuan, they directly deduct 33 yuan from the user's account.

If the collaboration goes well, then that's acceptable.

But agents always like to delay payments, driving you crazy. Thanks to Shanda, the pioneer, the environment is much better now than it was three years ago, giving rise to many professional regional agents for game cards—even the rental of online game servers was pioneered by Shanda, before which you had to buy your own servers.

After gaining some fame with Three Kingdoms Kill and Renren.com, Chen Guiliang plans to negotiate cooperation with each of the regional distributors of game cards.

We still need to negotiate online banking payments with UnionPay and local banks.

Oh, and we also need to partner with mobile and Unicom operators so users can pay via SMS. These companies are the most ruthless, taking a whopping 50%-70% cut. Game companies can't afford to lose money; the extra revenue has to come from the users. Anyone who pays via SMS is a complete rip-off!
After sitting in the office for a while, Senior Sister Ao returned and slammed a pile of price quotes on the table.

"See for yourself, I need to rest for a while." Ao Yanchen was exhausted.

Chen Guiliang felt a little embarrassed; the boss had gone off to play with his girlfriend, leaving the head housekeeper exhausted like a dog.

These were the costs for the new office's design, materials, and office supplies. Chen Guiliang carefully glanced through them, felt there were no major problems, and then picked up his pen to sign and approve them.

Ao Yanzhen said, "I inquired at the science park, and the acceptance process will be completed in the next few days. We can already apply for office renovation."

"The new home for all of us in the company will depend on Senior Sister Ao. Without your tireless efforts every day, we would be crammed into an old and dilapidated apartment. You are the greatest contributor to our company!" Chen Guiliang offered emotional support enthusiastically.

Ao Yanchen wasn't buying it: "Salary!"

"Haven't we discussed salary yet?"

Chen Guiliang thought for a moment, then, without hiding it from the other employees, asked, "How about 5000?"

“Okay.” Ao Yanzhen readily agreed, very satisfied.

In 2004, the average starting salary for undergraduate graduates nationwide was only around 2000 yuan.

Among Peking University's undergraduate graduates, those working as programmers, management trainees, or investment bankers in foreign companies earn the highest salaries, ranging from 5000 to 12000 yuan.

However, only certain professions in foreign companies can earn such high salaries.

Those who work in state-owned enterprises can only earn three to five thousand yuan. Civil servants earn even less, only two to three thousand yuan.

For Peking University graduates who do particularly poorly, getting a job in a small private company is about the same as being a civil servant.

Chen Guiliang offered Ao Yanzhen a monthly salary of 5000 yuan, which was equivalent to her starting salary at a major domestic company. It was even a bit high, considering that she wasn't a technical talent and would have to climb the administrative ladder at a major domestic company.

If Ao Yanzhen wants stock options, he must further prove his value!
Chen Guiliang returned to his dormitory and began writing "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty" diligently. If the incubation project's loans couldn't sustain it, he would have to rely on royalties to keep going until venture capital came in.

At 10 p.m., Chen Guiliang called Guo Feng.

Today is the weekend, and students are online more frequently.

Guo Feng said, "The number of users from Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Renmin University is growing particularly fast, reaching 2132, and the current online rate is close to 40%. It seems... we don't need to do any on-the-ground promotion."

"How many are from the University of Economics and Business?" Chen Guiliang said. "I only gave the University of Economics and Business seven invitation codes. The rest of the users were generated naturally by them. Moreover, four of them don't even have computers."

Guo Feng said, "The Capital University of Economics and Business has 39 registered users, 32 of whom were generated naturally in the last 10 hours."

"It's only been 10 hours since the invitations opened, and the data is pretty good. It should increase even more tomorrow," Chen Guiliang said.

It seems that Renren.com really doesn't need on-the-ground promotion!

The reason why Renren.com in another time and space spends so much money on on-the-ground promotion is mainly for two reasons: first, to grab users, and second, to grab time.

The reason for competing for users is the existence of competitors.

At that time, Mr. Wang (the one from Meituan) returned from the United States and launched Xiaonei.com, which was competing with 5Q Campus Network. Xiaonei.com had to use on-the-ground promotion methods, such as giving away gifts, to attract users.

The rush to act is because investment in Web 2.0 has become overheated, and capital has begun to doubt its value.

The longer it drags on, the more its valuation will be affected. It must accelerate user growth through ground promotion to win over investors before the bubble bursts.

And what about Chen Guiliang?
First, he has no competition, so he can develop naturally.

Secondly, investment hasn't even heated up yet, let alone overheated.

Currently, Facebook has just received $50 in angel investment. A few months later, it secured $1270 million in venture capital, attracting the attention of countless investors. Then, it received another $2500 million in venture capital, completely igniting investor enthusiasm.

Chen Guiliang will not accept any investment until Facebook receives its second round of funding. Because he can't estimate a high price!
He has to endure another six months of hardship.

……

Currently, the functions of the school's intranet are not fully open.

For example, only university communities can be created; high schools are not included for the time being.

Visitors cannot register; they can only do so via invitation code, and each user has a limited number of invitation codes.

A week later, the total number of registered users exceeded 8000.

However, the retention rate is not very high because there are too many alternatives, and people are more accustomed to browsing BBS, forums, blogs and Tieba.

The community ecosystem of Renren.com is still incomplete. Many users register and log in once or twice before stopping, let alone inviting friends.

However, reaching 8000 users in a short period of time is enough to apply for a low-interest loan of 50 yuan.

We need to organize an event, otherwise all of them will become inactive users.

Campus Beauty Contest!
For the next few days, every time Chen Guiliang went to class, he would ask other students, "Who's the prettiest in your department? Don't know? Then who's the prettiest in your class?"

This guy carries a digital camera and takes pictures of beautiful women everywhere, like a madman.

Dong Qianqiu temporarily halted the development of the Three Kingdoms Kill game and went to collaborate with Guo Feng on developing a voting and election system for the school's intranet.

The first stage involves selecting the class beauty. Users can upload their own photos, and classmates will vote.

The second stage involves selecting the most beautiful girl in each department (college).

The third stage is the selection of the school beauty.

Throughout the entire process, Chen Guiliang would also post live updates on the Peking University BBS.

After Peking University selects its campus belle, Tsinghua University will follow suit...

(End of this chapter)