Tech startup: I really do make mobile phones!

Chapter 238 Visiting ByteDance
Beijing, late March.

The living room on the first floor of the villa in Yosemite was bathed in the afternoon sunlight, with fine dust floating in the air.

A dark gray cashmere coat is casually draped over the off-white sofa, exuding a sense of homey comfort.

Chen Mo leaned back on the sofa, gently placed a cooperation agreement he had just finished reviewing on the coffee table, and rubbed his slightly swollen temples with his knuckles.

Three days later was the highly anticipated XXTV Annual Economic Figures Awards Ceremony. He entrusted all the company's daily affairs to Gong Yun in advance, and only brought his secretary Zhou Yumeng and bodyguard Xiao Zheng to the capital in a light entourage.

The reason for buying this villa is to have a private space away from the hustle and bustle of city hotels, where I can calmly reflect, amidst my increasingly frequent trips to Beijing.

Zhou Yumeng quietly brought over a cup of warm green tea and gently placed it beside him.

Seeing him staring intently at the agreement on the coffee table, Zhou Yumeng tactfully retreated to the French windows in the courtyard, standing quietly so as not to disturb his thoughts.

The words "Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation between Orange Science and Kangning, Xuxiaozi, and Xiaote" were prominently displayed on the cover of the agreement.

Tucked inside was a note personally written by Feng Guofu, the general manager of Orange Technology. The handwriting was steady and powerful, conveying a sense of resolute determination.

"We plan to add 820 million yuan in loans to urgently build 14 new integrated smelting and die-casting production lines for optical glass blanks, and make sure that we can fully undertake 60% of the orders from the three major giants within three years."

Chen Mo picked up the thin sticky note and tapped the number "8.2 million" a few times with his fingertips. Then he typed on the keyboard of his laptop and brought up the latest financial statement of Orange Technology stored there.

Orange Technology currently has 4.5 million yuan in outstanding bank loans. With this additional 8.2 million yuan, its total liabilities will instantly climb to 12.7 billion yuan.

"Wow!" He chuckled softly, his tone tinged with surprise and amusement. "I really underestimated Director Feng's boldness before!"

When Chen Mo first started working on technology research and development at Orange Technology, he always felt that Feng Guofu had the unique composure and prudence of a veteran state-owned enterprise leader. He liked to weigh things repeatedly, unlike other Orange Group bosses who were bold and decisive.

However, Feng Guofu's speed and determination in this negotiation and subsequent planning completely exceeded his expectations.

He was keenly aware that the bottlenecks in precision machining equipment and skilled workers were difficult to overcome in the short term, so he decisively abandoned the idea of ​​diverting his energy and placed all his bets on the most advantageous roughing stage.

The three-year exclusivity period offered by the three giants was a fleeting "strategic window of opportunity," so Feng Guofu did not hesitate to invest heavily and expand production capacity without any hesitation.

Chen Mo opened the calculator on his phone and quickly calculated Orange Technology's current debt-to-equity ratio.
47.7%!

The number flashed through Chen Mo's mind, quickly contrasting with the manufacturing industry's average debt level of 57.7%. Any slight concern he had about the soaring debt instantly vanished.

Chen Mo couldn't help but sigh, the CEOs of these sister companies in the Orange Group really do have their own styles and abilities.

Some, like Ye Xinghong, are good at meticulous planning; others, like Xu Mingyuan, are good at expanding territory; but Feng Guofu, on the other hand, hides the key to "stability" in his "ruthless" moves!
Currently, Orange Group is definitely the most indebted company in the Orange Group!
However, Chen Mo didn't say much. It was agreed at the end of last year that the Orange Group would "separate" in the future.

Orange no longer unconditionally supports its sister companies; each is now responsible for their own area, and he has delegated authority!

Chen Mo had also read some of the development patterns of the manufacturing industry and understood that reasonable debt is an accelerator for enterprise development, so he was not concerned about the empty name of "zero debt".

Since Feng Guofu is a veteran in the industry, he naturally understands that the market landscape will be full of changes in three years, and he must seize the opportunity at hand.

OrangeTech's production capacity is firmly embedded in the core of the global optical glass supply chain, like a nail.

"Xiao Zheng! Bring me that new production capacity planning blueprint from Chengke." Chen Mo called out towards the door.

Xiao Zheng responded and left, quickly retrieving a thick roll of blueprints from the trunk of the car.

Chen Mo spread it out on the large coffee table, and the layout of the 14 production lines was clearly visible on the paper.

The capacity of the smelting furnace, the efficiency of the die-casting machine, the number of workers required, and the average daily output of each production line are all marked in great detail. Even the raw material storage warehouse and logistics channels are planned in a clear manner.

Each production line requires at least 50 people, so 14 lines would require more than 600 people, in addition to the 800 people already employed by Orange Science.
That must be over a thousand people!
Well! Orange Technology has also taken a leap from a small boutique factory to a large-scale factory!

Looking at the meticulous design on the blueprint and the annotations written by Feng Guofu himself, Chen Mo suddenly understood the factory director's profound foresight.

The cooperation with the three giants is by no means a simple act of mutual assistance, but a mutual leveraging of strengths based on a contest of power.

The industry giants need to set boundaries for OrangeTech in the finished product market and give them a three-year buffer period for developing their own technologies.

Orange Technology, on the other hand, needs to leverage the huge orders from industry giants to quickly seize and solidify its absolute market share in the rough billet market.

These three years represent Orange Science's only and final "window of opportunity."

Three years later, there are only two possible outcomes:

Either Orange Glass achieves a breakthrough in its precision processing technology, is reborn, and becomes the fourth largest player in the global optical glass industry;

Either the three giants upgrade their technology again, or Orange Technology will be permanently locked into the role of a rough supplier, a "high-level worker".

If we don't aggressively expand production over these three years and maximize our cost advantage and economies of scale, once the exclusivity period ends and other competitors catch up, the advantages that Orange Technology has worked so hard to build will vanish.

How is Feng Guofu being conservative?
It's clear that they've calculated the value of every single minute of this three-year "window of opportunity" to the extreme, betting all their resources and courage on a high-stakes gamble concerning the future of Orange Optics' business.

"Mr. Chen!"

Zhou Yumeng gently reminded him, interrupting his thoughts.

"The XXTV awards ceremony production team just contacted you and needs you to submit an acceptance speech in advance so that they can review the content and avoid any potential disputes. They emphasized that it must be sent by tomorrow at the latest."

Chen Mo recalled that the theme of this awards ceremony was "The Mission of Industry," which in itself represented a certain direction and expectation from the top.

He looked up and replied "Okay," then carefully put the cooperation agreement and notes into a file bag and began to formulate the "polite words" he needed to say in front of national media.

Although he was "named" and recommended by the leaders of Shenzhen to participate in the selection of China's top economic figures, Chen Mo was not actually very confident.

The award structure is very clear: there are six award slots, one of which, the "Lifetime Achievement Award," is given to senior business leaders who have already achieved great success and retired from the limelight, and has nothing to do with entrepreneurs who are in their prime.

Therefore, there are only five awards being contested.

The shortlist of candidates includes him and fifteen other business leaders.

Upon carefully reviewing the list, Chen Mo discovered an interesting phenomenon:

These companies almost all launched large-scale globalization initiatives last year or this year, either through overseas mergers and acquisitions or by investing in overseas factories.

Fantasy Group, a leading PC manufacturer in China, acquired Motorola Mobility, becoming the world's seventh-largest mobile phone manufacturer.

Wanxiang Group, a leading domestic auto parts manufacturer, acquired North American battery giant A124 and quickly established factories in North America, Mexico, and China, thus splitting and integrating the two companies.

Geli Group adopts the "building ships and going to sea" model, vigorously building production bases in places like Pasir and Southeast Asia to promote the implementation of production capacity.

Lei Jun's investment firm, Shunwei Capital, began paving the way for Xiaomai Company's internationalization by investing in the Indian versions of Q-Chat (SheraChat) and Maasho (Taobao).

These 15 candidates are all members of the 32-member board of directors of the "China Entrepreneurs Club". After excluding entrepreneurs from non-industrial sectors and a few who did not wish to participate for various reasons, this list was finally finalized.

Three people per group, choose five out of fifteen!

The competition is undeniably fierce.

Chen Mo even saw the names of "Big Sister Dong" from Geli Group and Lei Jun from Xiaomai Group listed together on the list once again.

Holy crap, no way?

What a coincidence!

The council arranges the seating like this, and the selection of the annual economic figure is done like this.
It seems that this time, whether Lei Jun or Dong Jie wins, the conflict between the two will only intensify!

The villa was warm and cozy. He picked up the cup of tea, which had cooled down, and took a sip. Finally, he finalized the speech he had carefully considered and instructed Zhou Yumeng to send it to the XXTV director team for review immediately.

With three days to go before the awards ceremony, Chen Mo unexpectedly had two days of free time, except for the last day when he needed to go to the CCTV studio for rehearsals to familiarize himself with the process and his positioning.

He first called Lei Jun to "get a heads-up," since Lei Jun was his only friend in Beijing!
Lei Jun laughed heartily on the other end of the phone.

"Mr. Chen, it's better to be lucky than early! I'm having a small gathering of friends tomorrow, mostly old acquaintances from the Xinshan and Shunwei groups. Why don't you come along and make some new friends?"

Chen Mo naturally had no reason to refuse.

During his last gathering with Lei Jun's friends, he successfully "hijacked" the "ByteDance Mobilization" project, which had shown great potential in his previous life.

Lei Jun truly lives up to his reputation as a renowned "social expert" in the industry. His network of contacts spans multiple core circles, including the Xinshan Group (Internet), the Daishan Association Group (industrial), the Shunwei Group (diversified investment), the hometown group (Wucheng Chamber of Commerce), and the alumni group (Wuhan University alumni). His network of connections is unfathomable.

Chen Mo was also happy to broaden his business horizons through him.

Moreover, within Lei Jun's high-quality inner circle, the chances of "picking up bargains" and encountering excellent projects are indeed quite significant.

However, Lei Jun's party is scheduled for tomorrow.

Chen Mo thought for a moment, and since he had some free time today, he might as well go and take a look at the projects he had invested in in Beijing.

Last July, Lin Junfeng represented Orange Technology in ByteDance's Series A financing, acquiring a total of 15% equity.

I had heard Lin Junfeng mention it before, that ByteDance was developing "Today's Headlines", but he hadn't personally checked how Zhang Yiming was doing with it.

It is better to choose a day than to hit it.

Chen Mo called Xiao Zheng over to prepare the car, and at the same time asked Zhou Yumeng to contact Zhang Yiming to inquire about ByteDance's current office location, and to express that she wanted to visit it in the afternoon.

A short while later, Zhou Yumeng returned to report. "President Chen, we've made contact with President Zhang!"

He said that after completing its Series A financing in July last year, the company moved from a residential house in Jinqiu Garden, Haiding District, to the 10th floor of Yingdu Building, one kilometer away.

The entire floor is their offices.

He has already extended a warm welcome and is ready to welcome you at any time.

Chen Mo couldn't help but laugh and exclaim, "It hasn't been that long! As long as internet companies are willing to burn money, the speed of their development is truly astounding!"

With his involvement in this life, ByteDance's initial phase of development can only be described as a dream come true.

The mobile internet access resources are fully driven by the "Chengbao" matrix, the financial backing is provided by the top venture capital firm "Hongshan Zhonghua", and the investment trend is led by emerging capital firms known for their insightful vision, such as "Shunwei Capital".

Compared to its previous life, which started with great difficulty in a residential building, its Series A funding relied solely on the efforts of ByteDance's small fund DTS.

Today, it is enjoying great success, with its development speed far exceeding that of the same period in history.

10th Floor, Yingdu Building, Haiding District.

The logo of "ByteDance Technology Co., Ltd." is prominently displayed on the backlit panel behind the reception desk.

General Manager Zhang Yiming suddenly called an emergency meeting for all 14 core members, causing the ordinary employees in the office area to whisper among themselves, speculating about what major event had occurred.

After nearly a year of rapid development and refinement, Zhang Yiming has initially built the core team for ByteDance, forming a "1-14-104" organizational structure with him as the leader, 14 core backbones as the backbone, and 104 ordinary employees as the foundation.

Zhang Yiming already had experience as a senior executive at Flight.com, and had also gone through the entrepreneurial experience of projects such as 99fang and Xiaoyou.com.
Her management skills were honed step by step in real-world practice, and are far more sophisticated than Chen Mo's "hands-off" management style, which leans more towards strategic control and full delegation.

In contrast, Chen Mo mainly manages the six department managers within Orange Technology and the six general managers of its sister companies, forming a "1-12-5800+" structure.

Moreover, he mostly granted a high degree of autonomy to the general managers of his sister companies, focusing his energy more on Orange Technology itself. Even the daily operations of Orange Technology largely depended on Gong Yun.

In terms of management sophistication and experience, the younger Chen Mo does indeed lag behind the more experienced Zhang Yiming.

During the meeting, when Zhang Yiming announced that "General Manager Chen of Orange Technology will be coming to visit and inspect this afternoon," the 14 core members below initially showed surprise, but then they all showed excitement.

Following the infamous "battle for supremacy" between Ali Ma, Fantasy Liu, and Orange Chen two years ago, the name "Orange Chen" has become well-known in the business and technology circles.

However, Chen Mo has always been low-key and rarely appears in public. For most ordinary people, and even employees of these startups, he remains a mysterious figure who is "only known by name but never seen in person".

Zhang Yiming quickly assigned the reception tasks, requiring the core team to demonstrate the best spirit and demeanor of ByteDance.

After all, Orange Technology is currently the company's most important strategic investor and resource supporter, and they cannot afford to be negligent in the slightest.

In the afternoon, Chen Mo arrived on time.

Accompanied by Zhang Yiming, Chen Mo toured the newly renovated office area.

Zhang Yiming specifically introduced him to his right-hand men: Yang Zhenyuan, the person in charge who was obsessed with algorithm recommendation, and Hong Dingkun, the engineering genius in charge of the underlying technical architecture.

Chen Mo shook hands with each of them, and could feel the passion and talent shining in the eyes of these "young people" who were not as young as him.

Zhang Yiming then demonstrated the initial version of the "Today's Headlines" app to Chen Mo and explained in detail the promotion plan for its upcoming launch.

"Read the news, earn gold coins, and share millions in cash!"

After listening, Chen Mo gave Zhang Yiming a suggestion that surprised him.

"This cash withdrawal channel is directly connected to our 'Orange Pay' platform."

The ten million yuan in promotional cash you prepared will be supplemented by an additional ten million yuan from Chengbao as joint promotional expenses.

This will help you expand your reach and also drive traffic to Orange Pay, making it a win-win situation.

Zhang Yiming was thrilled; this was the benefit of having the support of industrial capital giants!
Resources, channels, and funding can all be provided in the most timely and powerful way at critical moments, allowing him to focus more on the product and the team itself.

Although Chen Mo was a few years younger than Zhang Yiming, Zhang Yiming dared not be negligent in the slightest.

This is not only because Chen Mo controls an emerging technology and business empire, but also because of the halo of the other party as a "Director of the China Entrepreneurs Club" and a "Nominee for XXTV's Economic Figure of the Year".

These are official and mainstream business circles' high recognition of its status and influence.

In a private conversation, when Chen Mo mentioned that he had come to Beijing to attend an awards ceremony, Zhang Yiming sincerely congratulated him, but also couldn't help feeling a sense of envy for his peers who had already achieved such great things, as well as anxiety about the progress of his own life's value.

Chen Mo keenly noticed his sudden change in emotion.

He patted him on the shoulder with a smile: "Don't worry, Yiming! Work hard, and you'll be a director of the 'China Entrepreneurs Club' in the future, and the XXTV Annual Economic Figure Award will be yours sooner or later!"

Zhang Yiming suppressed his emotions and responded firmly.

"Mr. Chen, I personally don't really care about these things. I've always believed that delayed gratification is a higher level of enjoyment!"

Chen Mo smiled, recalling a sentence Shen Yiwei had once said to him, which he then passed on to Zhang Yiming.

"Yiming, remember this: sometimes, there are things you can't just get rid of because you want to!"

Just as Chen Mo enjoys hiking, a hiking trend has quietly emerged among the middle and senior management teams within the Orange Group.

Zhang Yiming wants to keep a low profile and "delay gratification," but his team, investors, and market environment will keep pushing him forward to strive for those symbols of success and status.

Sometimes, personal will seems insignificant in the face of the driving force of the times and platforms.

Chen Mo doesn't like to "show his face," but he still came!

After the visit, Chen Mo took a group photo with ByteDance's core team of 15 people, including Zhang Yiming.

"Chen the Orange" is already a well-known "new darling" in China's tech circle. For the employees of these startups, being able to get up close and personal with an entrepreneur of this caliber and take photos with him is undoubtedly exciting.

Chen Mo's visit not only brought an additional 1000 million yuan in promotional funds from Orange Treasure for the upcoming launch of "Today's Headlines".

More importantly, it greatly boosted the morale of ByteDance's expanded team.

The employees were pleasantly surprised to discover that their "small company" was actually backed by "Orange Group," a rapidly growing technology and business empire!

It's important to understand that "Chengbao" is now unstoppable in terms of mobile internet infrastructure:
Its flagship product, Orange Treasure Input Method, holds 80% of the global market share for simplified Chinese input methods, boasting 2.8 million users, making it the undisputed king.

After Google withdrew from the domestic market, App Store, as a third-party app store for Android devices in China, holds a market share of 73.6% and has 1.1 million users, firmly ranking first in the country.

After Ali Group acquired VC Browser, it fell directly into the "Ali curse," with Orange Browser topping the domestic third-party browser charts for the first time with a 36.8% market share and 5884 million users.

Even Orange Pay, which started relatively late, has amassed 280 million users and managed to carve out a niche in the fiercely competitive payment sector.

Industry analysts have predicted that with the deepening of the mobile internet era, the future landscape is likely to evolve from the traditional "ATB" (Ali, Tencent, Baidu) three-way competition to a "ATBC" four-way battle for supremacy.

That "C" refers to the formidable Orange Treasure.

Orange Treasure's original plan for seven mobile infrastructure-level applications (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) has been directly implemented:
A: App Store (AS)

B: Browser (BRW)

F: Mobile Payment System (FPS)

Another method that Chen Mo believes was indirectly achieved is through the mobilization of ByteDance, which is controlled by Orange Technology!
G: Global Social Network (GSN)

Now, the employees ByteDance has mobilized understand that their company is deeply intertwined with potential giants like Orange Group.

They all felt honored and were filled with unprecedented confidence in the future of Toutiao.

After Chen Mo left, Zhou Yumeng, as his representative, returned and presented Zhang Yiming and his 14 core team members with a thoughtful little gift each.

The Apple iPad 3, which was just launched a couple of days ago, is in high demand and short supply.

Zhou Yumeng even had the phone number of the person in charge of the Pingguo Flower Planting Area; it was actually very easy to get it!

Zhang Yiming personally escorted Zhou Yumeng to the company entrance and expressed his sincere gratitude.

Zhou Yumeng said gracefully, "President Zhang, you don't need to be so polite!"
Mr. Chen instructed that you can contact me directly if your company encounters any difficulties that require coordination and resolution in the future!

If I can't resolve this, I'll report it to him immediately and do my best to help you!

Well! Basically, Zhou Yumeng resolved Zhang Yiming's matter by using the resources of the Orange Group herself, so Chen Mo rarely heard anything about ByteDance's involvement last year.

Zhang Yiming treated Zhou Yumeng with great politeness and respect.

He's a seasoned veteran in the business world, a "seventh-rank official before the prime minister's gate."

This young and beautiful secretary was, in a sense, Chen Mo's spokesperson, his mouthpiece, and his eyes and ears.
Her attitude often reflects the importance and support that Chen Mo and the Orange Group behind him place on ByteDance's mobilization efforts.

He must carefully maintain this goodwill from the core circle of investors, in case it comes in handy later!

Hmm! Although Zhang Yiming is equal in terms of personality, he is not qualified to be on equal footing with Chen Mo in terms of social status. In fact, because he has something to ask of Chen Mo, he is inexplicably inferior to Zhou Yumeng, the little secretary!
(End of this chapter)