Forcing Me to Be a Godly Tycoon, Right?

"As long as someone builds some more fun stuff on top of what we’ve made, there’s a good chance they’ll end up replacing us."

"Because what people are looking for when they come online to play is novelty and excitement. Every website actually has a lifespan—no matter how good you are, how great your content is, you can’t stay at the top forever."

"A lot of the time it’s not that you’re not good enough, it’s just that you’ve been around too long. People get a bit tired of you, and then those users choose to leave."

"Do you agree with this point?"

Even though Lin Qingci felt that what Zhang Jingdong was saying was a bit cruel, she had to admit this was the reality.

It was like how the first online chat tool she used was MSN, but once WhatsApp came out, she kept using MSN for another two years, and in the end still switched to WhatsApp, because all her friends and colleagues were using WhatsApp.

Seeing that she’d figured this out, Zhang Jingdong continued, "And if we want to keep users from abandoning us as much as possible, we have to give them more reasons why they can’t leave us."

"Those reasons can be turned into all kinds of concrete things. For example, users can buy all their everyday necessities with us, they can buy services here that are different from anywhere else, and they can also watch premium content here that they can’t find anywhere else."

"And to achieve this, the first step we need to take is to build a massive supply-chain company, so that consumers can buy all the products they need for eating, drinking, and everything else from our website."

"The second step is to partner with restaurants, cinemas, hair salons, and all kinds of places people have to go to in their daily lives, because our website has a huge number of users. So we can use that to negotiate with those venues, and have them give our users certain discount coupons."

"This point can be broken down even further—the more places we partner with, the more ways there are for us to make money off them. You can imagine that, right?"

Right now, Lin Qingci’s eyes weren’t just clearer; it was like she’d been completely enlightened.

She nodded thoughtfully. "Mm! I can!"

Knowing she’d caught up with his thinking, Zhang Jingdong went on, "And the last point is: as internet technology keeps evolving, more and more people will definitely be getting online, and there’ll be more and more things people can do online. For example, some sites already let you watch videos now."

"Once our website’s user base hits one hundred million, or even several hundred million, we can move the content that’s on TV over to our site."

"Our group still has an entertainment company, right? By then we can produce a ton of TV dramas and movies to stream on our site—and only on our site."

At this, Zhang Jingdong reached out and hooked a finger under Lin Qingci’s delicate chin. "If we can pull off all of the above, don’t you think we can massively extend the number of years users stick with our site?"

Once again, Lin Qingci was completely won over by Zhang Jingdong’s unparalleled sense of strategy and vision, and from the bottom of her heart she felt that everything he’d said was highly actionable.

So she nodded, deeply convinced. "Mm! We definitely will! Boss, your thinking is just way too ahead of the curve, and way too comprehensive!"

"I’m sold. From now on I’ll totally, absolutely do whatever you say!"

Hearing this, Zhang Jingdong was secretly thrilled, and couldn’t help saying, "Do you think, once we’ve achieved all this, our company’s ability to monetize will be insanely strong?"

Right now, there was a hint of haziness in Lin Qingci’s eyes as she sighed. "’Insanely strong’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. If we really manage to do all that, we won’t just be a tech company anymore—we might even become a company on a scale comparable to a state-owned enterprise!"

"Then what do you think our market value would be by then?"

Lin Qingci thought for a full half minute, then laughed and shook her head. "I...I almost don’t dare imagine. It’d have to be at least over a hundred billion—and in US Dollars."

At this point, Zhang Jingdong leaned in and gave Lin Qingci’s little mouth a quick kiss. "From now on, let’s Struggle together for this great dream of ours!"

Lin Qingci nodded eagerly, her whole face lit up. "Mm! From today on I’ll do whatever you say, and I’ll never doubt you again. Once I’m back I’ll go all out to start building the supply-chain company."

Zhang Jingdong said meaningfully, "You’ll really do whatever I say?"

Lin Qingci could hear something off in his tone, but because of the grand vision he’d just laid out, she wanted to reward him a little.

She nodded, shy and delighted at the same time. "...Mm, whatever you say."

"In that case," Zhang Jingdong said, "let’s keep playing our game, shall we?"

Lin Qingci immediately perked up. "Okay!"

As she spoke, she held out her right hand.

Then Zhang Jingdong held out his hand too. "Rock... paper... scissors!"

This time, Zhang Jingdong threw rock, and Lin Qingci also threw rock.

"Rock... paper... scissors!"

This time, Zhang Jingdong threw paper, while Lin Qingci stubbornly stuck with rock.

That cracked Zhang Jingdong up. "President Lin, you’re improving—you’ve actually learned how to stick to your guns! But you have to understand that a lot of the time, persistence doesn’t pay off right away; it takes time to accumulate results."

Right now, Lin Qingci was obviously in a great mood, so even though she rolled her pretty eyes, they were still full of excitement.

"All right then, tell me what the punishment is?"

After a quick moment of thought, Zhang Jingdong said, "I remember you’re a C, right? But looking at you now, it doesn’t really seem like a C. Maybe this kind of thing isn’t obvious just by looking—we’ll need to run a proper check."