Restart life

Chapter 145 0142 [Daily Enthusiasm-Boosting for Employees] (Bonus Chapter for the Overbearing Alliance Leader)
Having secretly suffered a heartbreak, Senior Brother Min had recovered his composure and asked with great interest, "Chen Guiliang, are you going to the Two Sessions forum?"

"What Two Sessions forum?" Chen Guiliang asked, puzzled.

Min Wenyu explained, "Every year during the Two Sessions, we invite entrepreneurs who have finished attending the Two Sessions to Peking University for an MBA forum. This year's theme is 'Brand China: From Made in China to Created in China'."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Who is participating this year?"

Min Wenyu said, "I saw on the promotional poster that the bosses of Huangming Solar Energy and Sanquan Foods are involved. There's also the director of CCTV's advertising department and the director of some food engineering technology center."

"No internet companies?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Min Wenyu said, "No, they are all traditional industries."

“Then I won’t go,” Chen Guiliang said.

These forums are nothing more than places to listen to entrepreneurs brag, and you'll probably get a lot of motivational platitudes.

There's no way there'll be any substantial content.

If it's related to the internet, Chen Guiliang can still go; he can take the opportunity to expand his network.

But let's forget about traditional industries.

Senior student Min was very enthusiastic and rode his bicycle straight to the lecture hall. This forum was a collaboration between the Peking University MBA Association and CCTV's advertising department, and Senior student Min wanted to get to know people there, hoping that he might be able to get an internship at CCTV in the future.

"Are you going too?" Chen Guiliang asked as he saw Jiang Junlai running outside.

Jiang Junlai said, "I'm going to attend another conference."

During the Two Sessions, quite a few delegates were invited by Peking University, and various forums and reports were held one after another.

After Min and Jiang Junlai left one after the other, Chen Guiliang sat down at his computer, opened the portal website, and began reading the report. Reading this would be far more useful than attending any school activities.

Having been reborn, Chen Guiliang can now see a great deal from the report, drawing on his experiences from his previous life!

The real estate market in Shanghai will be the first to be affected. Less than a month after the Two Sessions ended, the crackdown will be severe. News of property prices plummeting by 42% or 300 owners of another property collectively canceling their purchases is commonplace.

Those who take out loans to speculate on real estate will suffer greatly this year.

Of course, it is also a good opportunity for the wealthy to buy at rock-bottom prices, such as the large group of coal mine owners. This year, a large number of small coal mines were forced to close down, and many coal mine owners are so poor that they only have money left, which is just the right time to wave their money around and buy houses at low prices.

……

Friday arrived in the blink of an eye, and Peng Fei came to Beijing ahead of schedule.

He already knew what Chen Guiliang did through an online search, but he was still surprised to see the lyrics and music: "Did President Chen write this song?"

"I suppose so," Chen Guiliang said.

Peng Fei asked, "Are there any specific requirements for the arrangement?"

Chen Guiliang had no idea about this, so he could only say, "I hope you can carefully study the lyrics and arrange the music to match the mood of the lyrics."

"Understood." Peng Fei grabbed the lyrics and music and left; he still needed to find a friend to rent equipment.

That afternoon, Peng Fei called again: "Mr. Chen, someone wants to buy your song."

"Who is it?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Peng Fei said, "Li Jian of Shui Mu Nian Hua. Of course, he has already gone solo. He wants to include this song, 'The Wind Rises,' in his next solo album."

Chen Guiliang asked, "How did he know this song?"

Peng Fei explained, "I arranged the string part for his song, and we've kept in touch ever since. I don't have many friends in Beijing, so I asked him to help me use his equipment. He happened to be free and even gave me some ideas for the arrangement, and he immediately liked your song. The price is negotiable."

Chen Guiliang said, "Please tell him that this is the theme song for Renren.com, and it will be released online this year. If he wants to include it in his album, I will grant him the rights to sing it for free without asking for a penny. However, he must mention Renren.com during the recording."

"Okay, I'll pass it on to him." Peng Fei hung up the phone.

Chen Guiliang put down his phone and routinely checked the enemy situation on the 5Q campus network.

This time, I was surprised to see a line of red text on the homepage: "Warmly celebrate 5Q Campus Network's registered users exceeding 10."

Grass!
That's how extravagant money can be; with their aggressive advertising, they quickly surpassed 10 users. Especially their door-to-door promotions in dormitories, targeting students to register and then giving them small gifts.

However, registering is one thing, but using it is another.

User activity on 5Q Campus Network seems to be a problem.

After all, Chen Guiliang had already seized the initiative; one step ahead leads to another.

Chen Guiliang texted his classmate Milan from Fudan University: "Does Fudan University use the campus network or the 5Q campus network more often?"

Milan replied, "Many students use both websites. However, among the few friends I know, they only log in to 5Q Campus Network when writing blogs or uploading photos. Interactions between students are mainly on Renren.com."

This is a common situation because there are too many similar websites.

For example, someone who likes writing blogs (logs) might publish an article on multiple blogging websites, as well as on Renren and 5Q campus networks, after finishing it. The main reason for this complexity is to ensure that more people can see it.

The school's intranet now has nearly 50 registered users, while 5Q campus network has just surpassed 10 registered users.

There is still a huge market gap. It needs a breakthrough to break into the mainstream.

The main purpose of Happy Farm is to increase user engagement.

"The Wind Rises" is the one that truly broke into the mainstream.

These days, the Chinese music scene is a battleground of titans, but there's a hierarchy for both top artists and online songs. "The Wind Rises" is precisely targeted at the student demographic.

Ao Yanzhen was still on the phone at that moment.

"Hello, this is ByteDance's Xiaonei.com. I saw your company's products advertised on Sohu... Don't worry if you haven't heard of it, Xiaonei.com is the number one campus social networking website, using real-name registration, and all users are high-quality college students..."

"You can visit our website to take a look. The homepage ads are currently being placed by Tencent… We only allocate three ad slots across the entire site, and every single one will be seen by users… You don't need to worry about the ad's effectiveness. Even QQ's newly launched email service chose to advertise on Renren.com, which shows how effective we are…"

"Okay, okay, your company can discuss this further..."

Ao Yanchen made one call after another, making twenty or thirty calls in a row. She rubbed her face and leaned back in her chair, exhausted.

Seeing Chen Guiliang walk over, Senior Sister Ao complained, "You have to give me a raise!"

"Okay." Chen Guiliang only said okay, but didn't say when the price would go up.

Ao Yanzhen and Dong Qianqiu still trusted Chen Guiliang.

Although they cursed capitalists, they knew that Chen Guiliang still had a conscience.

Chen Guiliang registered Game Science independently, and the company hadn't even officially started classes when he submitted the application. This company is Chen Guiliang's sole proprietorship.

Guo Feng joined ByteDance and held a 10% stake at the time of registration.

During this period, Game Science has been continuously injecting capital into ByteDance, essentially meaning Chen Guiliang has been pouring his own money into ByteDance. Under normal circumstances, Guo Feng's 10% stake would have been diluted to almost nothing long ago.

However, Chen Guiliang never mentioned changing the shareholding structure, and Guo Feng's 10% shareholding was never diluted.

This made Guo Feng a little embarrassed, and he even offered to reduce his shareholding.

As for the stock options granted to Ao Yanzhen and Dong Qianqiu, these are usually determined when the investment is accepted. Even if Chen Guiliang doesn't want to grant them, the investors will still require the establishment of an option pool, which is usually around 10% to 15%.

"Mr. Chen, when do you think the real venture capitalists will arrive?" Ao Yanchen asked expectantly.

Previously, MSN was not considered a true venture capital investment by Ao Yanchen because of too many problems.

Chen Guiliang said, "We benchmark ourselves against Facebook. The more attention Facebook receives in the US, the sooner venture capitalists will approach us, and the higher our valuation will be."

Ao Yanchen fantasized, "If I become a millionaire, I'll buy a house in Beijing. When my parents retire, I'll bring them here to enjoy their retirement."

"Are you satisfied with being a millionaire?" Chen Guiliang laughed.

Ao Yanchen laughed and, perking up, said, "Make phone calls and get advertising!"

Chen Guiliang was there to give employees a pep talk, and after that, he immediately left to chat with other employees.

Facebook is currently in talks with venture capitalists. In just over a month, they will complete their Series A funding round, reaching a post-money valuation of $1 million!
By then, venture capitalists should be eyeing Renren.com.

“Old Chen, the number of users on Renren.com is increasing too fast. We need to continue upgrading the servers and bandwidth,” Guo Feng said to Chen Guiliang. “After the upgrade, the monthly operating cost of Renren.com may exceed 10 yuan. That doesn’t include employee salaries. If your song really becomes a hit and increases the number of users in a short period of time, we will have to consider upgrading ahead of schedule. The monthly operating cost is estimated to be heading towards 15 yuan.”

Chen Guiliang said, "It's okay. We can still make money from Three Kingdoms Kill, and Renren.com is already accepting ads. We've also reached an agreement with online banking, and Renren.com will launch the recharge function next month. We can also make a little money by selling background images and stationery."

Guo Feng said somewhat embarrassedly, "I mean, my 10% stake. You've been pouring money in, could you perhaps lower the price a bit more?"

"How much do you think is appropriate?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Guo Feng rationally analyzed, "For the company's future stability, it's best to retain a 15% option pool. I can now reduce my shareholding to 8% and forgo options. When we accept investment for the first time, we'll probably give 10%-15% to the investors. At that time, I'll still have more than 7% equity."

Chen Guiliang thought about it carefully: "Okay. If you ever feel wronged, I'll give you more stock options as appropriate."

"It's settled then." Guo Feng smiled, finally feeling relieved.

Chen Guiliang continued to inspect the territory, chatting with the employees and casually inquiring about their well-being and discussing work.

After browsing ByteDance, I went to Game Science next door.

When Xu Fengyin saw him arrive, she immediately buried herself in her painting, feeling awkward if she said even one more word.

Fortunately, Chen Guiliang never mentioned that comic book.

"Mr. Chen, the boss's wife is here!" an employee shouted.

Chen Guiliang turned and left, and Xu Fengyin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The girl at the next workstation came over to gossip with her: "Have you ever met the boss's wife?"

Xu Fengyin asked in confusion, "The boss got married?"

"My girlfriend is incredibly beautiful," the young woman said.

Xu Fengyin couldn't help but turn her head and look around, seeing a man and a woman standing at the door. The scene evoked a strong feeling in her, and she really wanted to turn it into a cartoon.

(End of this chapter)