Restart life

Chapter 130 0127 [A New Competitor: 5Q Campus Network] (Bonus chapter for the Alliance Leader's transformation)
If you want to acquire a company, you can't just rely on information gathered online.

After arriving in Beijing, Zhou Yahui went straight to the headquarters of Mop.com to meet Liu Jian.

Zhou Yahui and Liu Jian are both co-founders of Oak Pacific Interactive.

After Qianxiang Interactive acquired Mop, Liu Jian was transferred there to optimize Mop's structure and community operations.

“We can’t access the data on the school’s intranet,” Liu Jian shook his head repeatedly. “It’s just a small company that’s only been around for a few months and doesn’t run any advertising business. They have to publish all their data themselves. If they don’t publish it, the outside world can only guess.”

Zhou Yahui asked, "How much do you know about this company?"

Liu Jian said, "I don't know much about it, except that this company is quite powerful. And their campus beauty pageant has a great influence in major universities in Beijing."

"What valuation do you think Chen Guiliang would be willing to accept?" Zhou Yahui asked again.

Liu Jian did not answer directly, but laughed and said, "He is a student of Peking University. Even if he is stupid, wouldn't he know to ask his teacher? Besides, he can also ask the project managers of Peking University Incubation Park for advice. None of those project managers are stupid."

“I’m asking you,” Zhou Yahui said.

Liu Jian said, "At least $300 million. If Xiaonei.com doesn't need the money right now, they might refuse to invest and wait until the valuation is over $1000 million. Because its momentum is too strong, there are no competitors at all, and the number of users is increasing naturally every day."

The next day.

A member of the Mop.com management team, dressed in a suit and tie, arrived at the Peking University Science Park Building.

He asked for directions and went up to the third floor, then wandered around casually.

I walked to the outside of ByteDance's office and peered inside, wanting to know how many employees the company had.

"who are you looking for?"

"At the workstation near the door," an employee asked.

The man replied, "I'm a Peking University alumnus. I just returned from the United States and am thinking of starting a business here. I'm just browsing. Is your boss here?"

"He's not here; he's out signing books," the employee said.

"Book signing?"

"Yes, our boss is a writer."

How many people are in your company?

"The two companies have a total of 12 people, and they share offices. It's the weekend today, so some colleagues didn't come. By the way, for overseas returnees starting their own businesses, you need to choose an office upstairs; the third floor is full of companies run by university faculty and students."

"I just returned to China and heard about your Renren.com. How many registered users does it have now?"

"It already surpassed 10 two weeks ago, I don't know how many it is now. What kind of company do you plan to start when you go back to China?"

"High-tech medical devices".

“You are a high-tech company.”

"..."

There's really no secret to reveal; this deal was simply impossible to reach.

That afternoon.

Zhou Yahui called his boss, Chen Yizhou: "Renren.com had over 10 registered users just half a month ago. Their growth rate is extremely fast. Chen Guiliang is signing books today. I went to the scene myself and saw several thousand people queuing up to get autographs. He will probably continue to use the royalties to fill the company's hole, and it will be difficult for him to accept external investment in the short term."

“Then come back, and we’ll make a similar website ourselves,” Chen Yizhou said.

Zhou Yahui asked, "Aren't you going to make contact?"

Chen Yizhou said, "Don't alert them. We're working overtime to build the website, and once the university students return to campus, we'll immediately invest in on-the-ground promotion. He'll do it in Beijing, and we'll do it in Shanghai."

Even if Chen Guiliang were willing to sell Xiaonei.com for $1000 million, Chen Yizhou doesn't have that much money to acquire it right now.

He acquired Mop just a few months ago and has been continuously pouring money into it!

Zhou Yahui immediately flew back to Jiangcheng and assigned key personnel to create a similar website.

They wanted to register "campus network," but it turned out to be a generic name that could not be registered under the Trademark Law.

So it was renamed "Alumni Network".

At this time, the Trademark Office had established a partial electronic search system. Although the coverage was incomplete and the updates were lagging, it was still easy to search for relevant trademarks on the Internet.

"The alumni website has already been registered; it was registered six months ago," the staff member informed them.

"Could you check for similar trademarks? Like Tongxue.com or something like that?"

"The classmate network has also been registered."

"..."

This was definitely done by Chen Guiliang!
The senior management of Qianxiang Interactive discussed it for several days, but they really couldn't think of a name that could compare with Xiaonei.com.

A name is very important!

The alumni directory, they've already used it, and it's now a website under Sohu.

I can't register on the campus network, alumni network, or classmate network.

Once the website structure was complete, Chen Yizhou finally came up with a name and announced, "It'll be called 5Q Campus Network. 5Q represents IQ, EQ, AQ, CQ, and SQ, and is also an abbreviation for Fast, High-Quality, Exploration, Sharing, and Q&A. These are the operating principles of our 5Q Campus Network!"

Zhou Yahui thought about it carefully and felt it wasn't very good.

The campus network is simple and straightforward; you can tell what it's for just by hearing its name.

5Q Campus Network always has a knock-off feel to it, making people feel like it's some random, low-quality website that just popped up out of nowhere.

Zhou Yahui couldn't think of a better name either, so he had to follow Chen Yizhou's wishes.

As for the various functions of 5Q Campus Network, they are simply copied from Renren.com. Their advantage lies in their ample funding, allowing them to advertise on various websites and deploy a large workforce for on-the-ground promotion. ...

Beijing, night.

The 12 employees from ByteDance and Game Science, plus Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue, are having their year-end dinner together at a small restaurant.

"Those Things About the Ming Dynasty" has been on sale for half a month, with cumulative sales of 14.6 copies. This is slightly higher than Guo Jingming's "How Many Flowers Fall in Dreams," but it includes pre-sale data from Dangdang.com.

The bookmarks for the card game "Three Kingdoms Kill" included with each book surprisingly attracted many readers to download the game.

The banner ad for the game "Three Kingdoms Kill" on 17173's homepage has long been removed, but the recommended ad slot remains open.

With the addition of traffic from other online channels, the number of registered users has reached 19, with approximately 4.5 daily active users and a peak concurrent user count exceeding 1.

The paid subscription rate is currently only 3.5%.

However, this was due to the New Year's Day event. Many veteran players had not yet expired their free memberships because they participated in the event, and they had not yet used up all the items they had accumulated.

Chen Guiliang raised his glass to everyone: "I didn't make any money this year, so I can only treat everyone to hot pot. But the company's growth rate is obvious to all. When the company grows bigger, everyone here will be a veteran, and I will definitely show my appreciation then. Saying this sounds like empty promises, but the year-end bonus is more tangible."

"Come to the office tomorrow to collect your year-end bonus; everyone will receive one. The bonus will vary slightly depending on your length of service and performance. I hope that next year, everyone's year-end bonus will double, and then double again!"

"cheers!"

"cheers!"

Everyone stood up, raised their glasses, and clinked them together, all in high spirits.

Just as Chen Guiliang said, the company is developing very rapidly, and everyone is full of expectations for next year.

Xie Yang has already been promoted to a full-time employee and currently earns 1800 yuan a month. His main responsibility is promoting the game "Three Kingdoms Kill" and Renren.com. Don't think it's too little; it's a salary beyond his personal capabilities. If it weren't for his outstanding performance on Tieba (a Chinese online forum), people in the company would probably be gossiping about him.

Xie Yang understands this very well and is cramming on communication studies every day. He also plans to study management books on his own next year.

Ao Yanchen took out four train tickets: "These are your train tickets, we've already bought them."

Of the company's 12 employees, only 4 went home for the Spring Festival: Dong Qianqiu, Cai Yifei, Zhu Xia, and Gong Chunyan.

Gong Chunyan is a newly recruited cashier.

Gong Xiaozhen, who is quite pretty, is a native of Beijing, but her hometown is quite far from Peking University, in a rural area on the outskirts of Beijing.

Everyone was drunk and helped each other back to the dormitory.

Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue recently rented a one-bedroom apartment in the school's staff quarters. Since they were only renting it for one month, the rent was a bit expensive, at 1200 yuan per month.

This is a simply furnished small apartment, specifically designed to be rented to young couples.

Bian Guanyue, however, regarded the rented room as her love nest and even went out of her way to buy flowers to decorate it.

She took out her laptop and went online, specifically browsing posts related to Chen Guiliang: "Come and take a look!"

"What's wrong?" Chen Guiliang sat down next to him.

Bian Guanyue said, "Tianya Forum is in an uproar again because of you."

Chen Guiliang glanced at a few replies and laughed, "They argue every day. The better 'Those Things of the Ming Dynasty' sells, the fiercer the arguments become on the forum."

Some people were envious, some were pretentious, but they just couldn't stand Chen Guiliang.

Haters are still fans.

The more heated the online debate, the more netizens paid attention to Chen Guiliang, and the more people paid attention to "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty", Renren.com, and the Three Kingdoms Kill game.

Bian Guanyue then logged onto portal websites such as NetEase, Sina, and Sohu, going straight to their reading channels and specifically clicking on those related to Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang was resting in bed when his phone beeped with a text message notification.

Li Rui, our high school class monitor, sent this message: "Are you and Bian Guanyue really not coming back? There's a high school reunion in two days. Teacher Liu, Teacher Li, and Teacher Gao will all be there."

For first-year college students, the high school reunion during the Lunar New Year is basically the last time they'll ever get together.

By the time we were sophomores, we couldn't even get together anymore.

Chen Guiliang replied to the text message: "I won't reply, I'm too busy. Go to Xinhua Bookstore and buy a few sets of 'Those Things About the Ming Dynasty' for the teacher."

"Okay," Li Rui replied with a single word, and then stopped talking.

Chen Guiliang is also going to appear on a TV program, which Li Xunhuan arranged for him.

The TV station didn't pay him an appearance fee, but they took the opportunity to ride on his popularity.

He also took the opportunity to promote himself on television.

The New Concept Writing Competition also invited him to make an appearance, and Chen Guiliang had no choice but to agree.

This year's New Concept Writing Competition has been met with overwhelming public outcry, with major universities refusing to offer any lower admission scores. This is only temporary, and things will likely gradually recover next year.

But it has a particularly big impact on the New Concept Writing Competition. Last year, there were 42 submissions for the preliminary round, but this year the number has dropped to less than 25!

The number of participants has decreased sharply.

The organizers invited Han Han, Guo Xiaosi, Zhang Yueran, and others, but they all declined due to various reasons.

Only Chen Guiliang was somewhat accommodating.

While he was traveling between Beijing and Shanghai, his old high school classmates were already having a reunion.

There are nearly 50 students in the class, and more than 30 of them showed up this time.

Although Chen Guiliang was not present, he became the focus of everyone's discussion.

(End of this chapter)