Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On July 16th, Penguin announced to the public that the number of WeChat users had surpassed 200 million for the first time.

”Did Ma Wenteng just get damn lucky? Penguin controlled the traffic gateway in the PC era, and now the mobile traffic gateway is going to fall into his hands too?”

At 360 Headquarters in Yanjing, Zhou Hongyi was so furious he couldn’t help but curse under his breath.

The thought of how he had sued Penguin, only to be countersued and ultimately ordered to pay them five million in compensation, made a fresh wave of anger wash over him.

’Was this reasonable?’

’Was this fucking fair?’

What made him feel even worse was that WeChat was experiencing explosive growth in the second half of the year, and it looked poised to become the undisputed king of mobile social networking apps.

”Lei Buqun is a good-for-nothing, too. Mi Chat launched before WeChat, but Ma Wenteng still overtook him.”

After cursing out Ma Wenteng, Zhou Hongyi turned his ire on Lei Yijun.

After the total online sales for the 360 G800 Pro Shine mobile phone surpassed three million units, his attitude toward Xiaomi and Lei Yijun had grown increasingly dismissive.

’Just making a phone. How hard can it be?’

Full of confidence after the celebration banquet, Zhou Hongyi began assembling a research and development team for 360 Mobile Phone, intending to bypass Huawei and create a truly in-house product.

’That son of a bitch Ma Wenteng. You want me to pay you? No fucking way!’

At this thought, Zhou Hongyi pulled out his phone, swiftly composed a message extending his kindest regards to Ma Wenteng’s loved ones, and hit send.

A minute later, Ma Wenteng replied with a single word: ’Joker’.

Zhou Hongyi immediately tried to fire back a retort, only to find he’d been blocked.

At this time, everyone in the industry was marveling at Ma Wenteng’s good luck. However, some believed that Pinbei, having secured a top-level traffic entry point on WeChat, was the real winner.

Without suffering at all, it could just latch onto WeChat and share in the dividends of the mobile internet.

Quite a few people within Penguin shared this sentiment, including Zhang Xiaolong.

”So what you’re saying is, once Penguin’s contract with Pinbei expires, we don’t renew with Chen Yansen?”

At the Penguin Headquarters in Shencheng City, Ma Wenteng’s gaze swept from left to right as he asked with a smile.

”Renewing isn’t the problem. But I think we could use this as an opportunity to sell our stakes in Paipai Network, QQ Group Buy, and Yixun Network to Senlian Capital. For one, we’d be offloading underperforming assets, and for another, we could exchange them for premium shares in Pinbei.”

A director of the Penguin Group pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and put forth a proposal.

Whether it was Paipai Network, QQ Group Buy, or Yixun Network, which had been acquired in the first half of the year, their performance was all below expectations. They weren’t making money, nor could they shore up Penguin’s weaknesses in e-commerce.

Ma Wenteng frowned slightly, wondering to himself: ’Would Chen Yansen really take on a pile of garbage projects just for the primary traffic entry points on QQ and WeChat?’

”I don’t agree with this!” Liu Zhiping was the first to stand up and object.

He’d had the most contact with Chen Yansen, so naturally, he understood his temperament the best.

Besides, Pinbei was no longer in its startup phase. It now had a cumulative total of 350 million registered users and stable average daily sales of around 800 million, putting it on par with Jingdong.

In fact, in terms of daily active users and average daily order volume, it had already surpassed Jingdong.

Rashly antagonizing Chen Yansen would only do more harm than good.

Sitting in the corner, Zheng Chunbin’s face paled and flushed. He never imagined that in just two short years, his and Chen Yansen’s positions could have been turned so completely upside down.

Back then, he was the general manager of Paipai Network’s business division, and he had literally looked down on Chen Yansen.

In the blink of an eye, the other man’s net worth and industry influence had reached a level where he could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Little Ma.

And now, he was the head of what the big boss was calling a ”garbage project.”

”I agree with President Liu’s thoughts. The company holds a 15% stake in Pinbei. In the future, that could bring the group profits in the hundreds of billions. There’s no need to play games with the renewal.”

Another director spoke up.

”Xiaolong, what do you think?” Ma Wenteng didn’t show any obvious preference, instead turning to Zhang Xiaolong, the head of WeChat.

”Mr. Ma, WeChat shouldn’t be commercialized too early. But I know that Pinbei carries the group’s e-commerce mission and can also generate substantial investment returns, so I don’t object.”

Zhang Xiaolong answered after a moment of careful thought, looking up.

The implication was that he didn’t support it, but he wouldn’t resist it either.

”Martin, when Fast Taxi starts its Series B financing round, I’ll have to trouble you to make a trip and finalize the partnership details with Pinbei at the same time.”

Ma Wenteng did a quick mental calculation. More than half the board was in favor of betting heavily on Pinbei, which put him at ease. He then looked at Liu Zhiping and gave the instruction with a smile.

”No problem!” Liu Zhiping made an ’OK’ gesture and readily agreed.

Afterward, the office was once again filled with the clamor of discussion.

Listening closely, one could tell the discussion was mainly centered on Fast Taxi’s Series B valuation, as well as the future of the ride-hailing market and when the subsidy war might end.

「Meanwhile.」

Hu City, Yiyuan Office Building, Longcao Road No. 200.

In the main conference room on the second floor of Building A, a dense crowd was packed inside, most of them new employees.

”There are three core tenets to expanding the food delivery market. First, you must meet user demand: enrich the variety of dishes, ensure delivery efficiency and quality, and focus on the user experience...”

Wang Yuan stood at the podium, training the new recruits in his capacity as the head of Kuai Pao’s Market Department.

He had heard that similar centralized training courses for new hires were also being held in places like Luzhou, Jinling, and Hang City.

This was the ’Thousand Talents, Hundred Cities’ plan that Pei Yi had organized.

To put it simply, it involved preemptively training 2,000 expansion personnel, including positions in operations, business development, marketing, and delivery.

Once the time was right, they would be deployed directly to 100 target cities to further accelerate the pace of expansion and seize more market share.