Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The next morning, on December 1st, Xiaomi released the Little Love software package, which users could download from the Xiaomi App Store.

In just one hour, the number of downloads surpassed 30,000!

Some users who had wanted to buy the Moss Smart Speaker but were put off by the price immediately installed the Little Love app.

Although they could only use a third of its features due to device and performance limitations, netizens still had a blast playing with it.

This proved that domestic users weren’t averse to smart voice assistants; they were just unwilling to fork over the cash for the overpriced Orange C3 and Moss Smart Speaker.

Chen Yansen was convinced that as soon as material costs came down, if Orange Technology launched a 99 Hua Yuan smart speaker, they could easily sell a staggering 20 million units in a single year.

There’s no such thing as a product that won’t sell, only a price that won’t sell.

Although the launch of Little Love had an impact on the sales of the Moss Smart Speaker, for every download or installation Xiaomi acquired, they had to pay a patent royalty fee to Orange Technology.

Lei Yijun would make a profit, but Chen Yansen would never take a loss!

Half an hour later, Shunfeng announced that it would be launching "Shunfeng Select" on December 3rd, officially entering the e-commerce industry.

At the same time, Yiguan Data Network released its November report on the group buy market. Kuai Pao had taken the top spot in the industry for the first time with a monthly transaction volume of 1.37 billion.

Dianping was in second place with 1.12 billion.

What was shocking was Meituan, whose monthly transaction volume was only 790 million, dropping them to fourth place in the industry.

Meanwhile, under Li Yanhong’s personal supervision, Lashou Network used products like Qian Du Map, the Qian Du search engine, and Tieba as its traffic foundation, boosting its transaction volume from 650 million to 860 million Hua Yuan.

After six months, Lashou Network was back in the market’s top three!

Kuai Pao’s momentum was growing ever stronger, while Meituan was in steady decline. Its food delivery business had failed to take off, and it couldn’t even hold on to its group buy business.

After seeing the report, Dianping’s Zhang Tao was tempted to immediately go on Weibo, tag @WangXin, and ruthlessly mock him.

’Meituan wants to be the top dog in this sorry state?’

’They should take a good look in the mirror first!’

But his happiness didn’t last five minutes before his expression darkened. ’Kuai Pao’s growth rate is astonishing. It’s only been a few damn months, and they’ve already hit number one?’

’In terms of funding, manpower, technology, and product, Dianping is no match for Kuai Pao.’

’Sure, Meituan is failing, but Dianping can’t beat Kuai Pao either!’

’And behind us, Lashou Network is hot on our heels!’

’Maybe next month, Dianping won’t even be able to hold on to its title as number two in the industry.’

Elsewhere, when Wang Xin learned that Ah Li was entering the food delivery industry, that blow combined with the setback in his group buy business caused his morale to plummet.

Since November was the peak season for e-commerce, the group buy industry’s output was expected to be affected. He had thought that a transaction volume of 790 million would secure either first or second place, but he never expected this.

Only Meituan experienced negative growth, while Kuai Pao and Lashou Network had actually defied the trend and pulled ahead.

That afternoon, news broke of Jia Nailiang and Li Xiaolu’s grand wedding. For the occasion, LeTV Network even set up a special live broadcast.

After all, Jia Nailiang was a shareholder in LeTV Vision Pictures; the more users and revenue LeTV Network had, the higher his own profits would be.

Chen Yansen sat in his office, his eyes skimming over the related news. He couldn’t help but shake his head with a smile.

’In 2012, phrases like "a pair of great talents" and "getting one’s hair done" were still just ordinary words. A decade from now, though, they’d become so infamous you could barely look at them straight on.’

"BRRRRING—!"

Suddenly, the landline on his desk rang.

Chen Yansen picked up the receiver, and the voice of the receptionist on the first floor, Tian Tian, came through the earpiece. "Boss, President Yu from Huawei is here."

"Have Lao Zhou receive him. I’ll go over in a bit," Chen Yansen replied.

’Yu Chendong is only visiting Xucheng to get a patent license for the speech-parsing development tools. Zhou Shouzhi can handle it.’

"Okay, Boss," Tian Tian immediately responded.

Chen Yansen placed the receiver back on its cradle, not giving Yu Chendong’s visit much thought.

’It’s not like he’s Ren Zhongfei. There’s no need for me to go downstairs to greet him personally.’

While Zhou Shouzhi was discussing the patent license with Yu Chendong, Wang Xin posted a rebuttal on Weibo: "The industry report from Yiguan Data Network contains huge discrepancies in its data."

The implication was that Meituan’s actual transaction volume was far greater than 790 million.

Three minutes later, Dianping’s CEO, Zhang Tao, used his personal account to post in support of Yiguan Data: "I can’t speak for other sites, but Dianping’s data is pretty accurate."

In an instant, Meituan and Wang Xin were thrust into the eye of the storm.

Seeing this, Pei Yi let out a wicked grin and immediately chimed in: "Thank you to Yiguan Data for its support of the group buy industry."

Although he didn’t name names, he was implicitly acknowledging the authority of Yiguan Data’s report.

Gong Zhenbing of Lashou Network followed close behind, remarking sarcastically, "When Meituan was number one, the data was accurate. The moment they fall to fourth place, suddenly the data is inaccurate!"

Recently, the ground promotion teams from Lashou and Meituan had frequently gotten into arguments and brawls. Gong Zhenbing had an extremely poor impression of Wang Xin, so he wasn’t about to miss a perfect opportunity to kick him while he was down.

Netizens weren’t stupid. With a bit of prodding, they immediately understood Wang Xin’s petty thinking. So, he just wasn’t willing to admit his own failure.

From the users’ perspective, Kuai Pao offered the best experience among the group buy apps. With other products like Meituan, Lashou, and Dianping, they would always run into all sorts of bizarre problems.

For example, they’d arrive at a physical store only for the owner to claim that their partnership with the group buy website had been canceled.

Or, the location information would be fake, and customers would rush over only to find that the shop listed on the website wasn’t there at all.