Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

They had stock options too, of course. It was just a question of how many, so there was no real reason for jealousy.

After speaking, Chen Yansen strode purposefully into Office Building Number Seven.

As soon as he entered the conference room, Zhang Yinjia, Zhou Mingxuan, Jiang Leiming, and the others all stood up and greeted him, "Boss!"

"Let’s begin," Chen Yansen instructed Zhang Yinjia after taking a seat.

"Leiming, you go first," Zhang Yinjia said, his gaze falling on Jiang Leiming.

He knew what the boss cared about most was the development progress of Orange Pay’s red envelope feature—when it could be tested and when it would go live.

Yu’e Bao’s business and financial data were just minor details in comparison.

Ma Liyun was working overtime to copy Yu’e Bao, and Ma Wenteng was working day and night to copy Orange Pay.

Chen Yansen had to copy them right back!

Using the red envelope feature to enhance Orange Pay’s social attributes was the second step of his plan.

"Boss, the testing team has completed comprehensive testing on the red envelope API," Jiang Leiming replied. "This included functional, performance, and security tests. In terms of stability and reliability, the API can fully meet the business demands of high-concurrency scenarios."

"What work has been done regarding security measures?" Chen Yansen pressed.

He trusted the R&D department’s technical capabilities. After the trial by fire that was the Yu’e Bao project, developing a red envelope feature wasn’t a particularly difficult task for this team.

"We’ve focused mainly on encrypted transmission, identity authentication, and anti-tampering mechanisms. These can effectively prevent the red envelope feature from being maliciously attacked or abused, thereby safeguarding user funds and data privacy," Jiang Leiming answered without hesitation.

"Boss, Leiming and I discussed the development cycle. We expect to go live before December 10th," Zhang Yinjia chimed in.

"Bring over a test phone. I want to try it out," Chen Yansen said casually, nodding.

"I have one ready for you." Jiang Leiming reached into his pocket, pulled out an Orange C2, and gently passed it to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen took the phone and expertly typed "0000," the standard lock screen password for the test devices.

He launched Orange Pay, skipped the splash screen, and went to the app’s home page.

Unlike the convoluted payment apps from a decade later, Orange Pay’s interface was extremely clean and tidy. At the very top of the first screen were just three function buttons: Scan, Pay/Receive, and Mobility.

The second row was the channel section, which currently had modules for Kuai Pao, Cloud Speed Express, Mobile Top-up, Transfer, Red Envelope, and Credit Card Payment. The bottom tab bar had icons for Wealth, Messages, Contacts, and Me.

Chen Yansen randomly picked a test account from his friend list and sent them an 888-yuan red envelope. In the chat window, besides options for photos, red envelopes, and transfers, there were also location and voice message functions.

"Add an entry point for Pinbei’s 10 Billion Subsidy campaign," Chen Yansen said after a moment of thought.

If they crammed the entire Pinbei app into it, Orange Pay would feel bloated. But adding just the 10 Billion Subsidy channel would keep it much cleaner while also creating a closed spending loop.

"Got it, Boss. I’ll give Mr. Huang a heads-up later," Zhang Yinjia replied.

"The functionality is very smooth, and the UI design is thoughtful. But you need to consider the operating memory and storage space of smartphones. Keep the number of product features moderate. Think more from the user’s perspective."

Chen Yansen handed the test phone back to Jiang Leiming, instructing him in a slow, deliberate tone.

"I understand," Jiang Leiming said with a nod.

"Go on."

Chen Yansen leaned back in his chair and looked up at the display screen, waiting for Zhang Yinjia to continue his report.

Since its launch on October 10th, in just 54 days, they had grown Yu’e Bao’s fund size to 100 billion yuan. They had also integrated food delivery, Group Buy, and ride-hailing functions into the product, building a more complete business ecosystem alongside Gaode Map.

After the Double 11 sales event, Pinbei’s daily sales figures saw a significant increase, and Yu’e Bao was largely to thank for it.

Once Yu’e Bao’s scale reached 300 billion, 500 billion, or even one trillion yuan, it would undoubtedly become the central transaction settlement hub for all of Senlian Capital’s products.

Orange Pay could also start with money market funds, slowly expand its business boundaries, and add more financial products. While maintaining its utility, it could gradually strengthen its social and financial features.

「Elsewhere.」

After arriving at the Los Angeles office, Mao Chaorong didn’t rush into action. Instead, he systematically reviewed the software promotion methods, channels, and pricing for the North American Region. He also conducted a comprehensive analysis of the local short-video market development through various means, including consulting firms and third-party data agencies.

It was safe to say that, aside from Vine, there weren’t many competitor companies focused on the short-video sector.

Just as Chen Yansen had said, it was truly a blue ocean market.

Initially, the core of Mimo’s first promotion plan was to invite famous singers and actors from the Lighthouse Country to join the platform, using their celebrity effect to kickstart the project.

But Chen Yansen rejected it!

"My product positioning for Mimo is absolutely not for it to be some app where a handful of celebrities can show off their lives," Chen Yansen had warned. "We can have celebrities, but they can’t become the mainstream content on the platform."

For example, three years later, a short-video app called Xiaokaxiu would appear out of nowhere, shooting to the top of the App Store charts just two months after its launch.

In its early days, it relied on a large number of celebrities joining to attract tens of millions of users. But celebrities were both its greatest strength and its fatal weakness.

In 2015, the entertainment industry hadn’t yet faced salary caps, and the livestream e-commerce model hadn’t formed a complete industrial chain. Celebrity appearance fees were often astronomical, so they couldn’t be bothered with the paltry earnings from a short-video app.

Videos created by ordinary people struggled to get attention, which severely dampened users’ motivation to participate.

After all, users scroll through short videos to find instant gratification in the spare moments of their day, not to watch celebrities show off.

As a result, the app’s popularity was short-lived, and it soon faded into obscurity.

Following Chen Yansen’s guidance, Mao Chaorong selectively invited a group of creators from Facebook and Instagram who had smaller fan bases but excellent creative abilities. This helped Mimo accumulate its first batch of original video content.

The ’amateurs’ Chen Yansen spoke of could look like amateurs, but their skills couldn’t be amateurish.

The core advantage of a short-video app lies in having content that is innovative, novel, and high-quality.

A powerful recommendation engine is just a tool. Without quality content, the platform is like a river without a source. No matter how much money is thrown at it, it will be difficult to retain users.

It was just like Toutiao, which, before launching, first signed licensing agreements with platforms like Penguin, Sohu, NetEase, Sina, and Youku. Only after securing a rich pool of content resources did it begin its external promotion.

Once everything was ready, Mimo officially launched on the App Store and Android marketplaces on December 6th. Backed by a massive advertising spend, the app’s download numbers instantly skyrocketed.

Under the planning of the events team, countless ’amateur’ users began creating their own cover versions of "Skyfall."

The theme song for *007: Skyfall*, sung by Adele, was incredibly popular in North America at the time and was a strong contender for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Mao Chaorong adapted to local conditions by integrating with the Lighthouse Country’s pop culture. He launched tie-ins with popular movies, TV shows, and music, introducing related hashtag challenges and creative content, which immediately attracted a large number of users to participate.

What surprised local netizens was that Mimo’s recommendation algorithm was extremely friendly to ordinary people. As long as the content they created was good enough, they could receive massive exposure, allowing them to become huge influencers just like the creators on Facebook and Instagram, landing sponsorships and making big money.

Chen Yansen himself had over 30 million followers across all platforms in the North American Region. This resource wasn’t wasted. The Market Department carefully crafted a promotional post for his accounts, adding tens of millions more impressions for Mimo.

On its launch day, Mimo’s downloads surpassed 300,000.

The next day, driven by the promotion on Chen Yansen’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, it gained another 200,000 downloads.

In just two days, Mimo’s downloads reached 800,000.

Driven by the recommendation engine, users began spending more and more time on Mimo. Thanks to word-of-mouth, Mimo’s organic downloads actually exceeded 20% of the total.

By the day before the Double 12 promotion, Mimo’s cumulative downloads had surpassed four million, perfectly completing the project’s launch phase.