Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chen Yansen was only willing to spend his time on girls and making money.

What bullshit class team-building? He wasn’t interested in the slightest. Wouldn’t it be better to ask Meng Jie out to the Pearl Lakefront and have a little make-out session?

In fact, that’s what he thought, and that’s what he did. The thrilling ambiguity of being eighteen or nineteen was something he found particularly intoxicating.

After eating and drinking his fill, he hummed a little tune and leisurely made his way back to room 0418. He slept soundly until dawn. For a normal university student, the weekend was a nice break, but for Chen Yansen, going to work was the norm.

Morning meetings, requirement review meetings, campaign operations meetings... he spent the whole morning in meetings without getting anything else done.

Fortunately, while the current FoxTao was small, it was perfectly formed. Under his strong leadership, the website’s daily active users and order volume were steadily climbing. They were just a stone’s throw away from the goal he had initially set.

With some free time on his hands, he browsed the web randomly and decided to check user feedback for FoxTao.

"Whatever you do, don’t use FoxTao! For an Apple 4, some son of a bitch was handing out eggs at the entrance to our village! They even dragged an eighty-year-old man into registering."

"Handing out eggs is a great move! I’m gonna go try it at my neighborhood entrance right now!"

"Has anyone actually gotten a phone for 0 yuan?"

"My aunt’s niece managed to slash the price of a microwave to 0 yuan, but you really do have to get a ton of new users!"

"Who’s the boss of FoxTao? That guy is so shameless. I curse him to have a son born without an asshole."

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, closed the web page, and let out a long sigh. ’Rave reviews,’ he thought to himself. ’I really am a business genius.’

’Once the "Tens of Billions in Subsidies" text message campaign goes live, I’ll probably get even more rave reviews. Still, a good product has to accept criticism and suggestions from users to improve.’

Thinking of this, he called over Wang Zihao and instructed him to keep an eye on the product’s online reputation. If he came across any positive reviews, he was to report all of them.

"Brother Sen, that’s our boss for you!" Wang Zihao gave him a thumbs-up, completely won over by his shamelessness.

"To achieve great things, you can’t sweat the small stuff. A person’s sense of morality is often inversely proportional to their net worth, you get it?"

Chen Yansen said disdainfully. In his previous life, he had realized this far too late and suffered for two or three years because of it. Otherwise, he would have made it big long ago.

"Okay, Brother Sen, I’ll get right on it." Wang Zihao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he nodded in agreement.

"Oh, right. Find some time to consult with Teacher Liu and learn a bit about finance," Chen Yansen added, calling him to a stop.

’I’m in charge of ad placement. What’s the use of learning finance?’

Wang Zihao was full of doubt, but seeing Chen Yansen’s serious expression, he didn’t argue and just grunted in acknowledgment.

Chen Yansen opened the data backend and focused his attention on the screen. The previous day’s new customer growth was 193,000, but the first-order conversion rate was only 7.1%. The vast majority of people were still coming for the "0 Yuan Purchase" promotion. There was still a lot of room for improvement.

The weekly retention rate was only 41.3%. Simply put, of the over one million new customers acquired last week, only 400,000 would log in again the following week. The week after that, only 160,000 would remain, and by the end of the month, that number would drop to just over 60,000.

This was the fatal flaw of shopping guide e-commerce sites. They didn’t generate their own traffic or produce their own goods; they were purely e-commerce middlemen. The moment they stopped running ads, they were just sitting around waiting to die.

But Chen Yansen wasn’t concerned about this. In 2010, customer acquisition costs were low. With his utterly bottomless marketing tactics, he was confident he could make a fortune before the shopping guide e-commerce model went into decline.

When that time came, he could start a new venture. Whether he went into food delivery or short-form video, he would have plenty of confidence and capital.

At 3:00 PM, the text message API was deployed.

Zhuang Rui and the testing team reviewed the logic and backend code for the "Tens of Billions in Subsidies" red envelopes one more time. Only after confirming there were no issues did they have Hu Yun import the user data and send out the marketing texts in batches.

In this era, the Singles’ Day event only lasted for one day. Chen Yansen’s "Tens of Billions in Subsidies" red envelopes, however, were valid for a full fourteen days, giving users plenty of time to consider.

"[FoxTao] Your Tens of Billions in Subsidies red envelope has arrived! Dear user, congratulations on receiving a 100 yuan exclusive red envelope subsidy, with a maximum discount of 80 yuan! Click the link to claim now. Reply T to unsubscribe."

In an instant, most FoxTao users across the country clicked the link. In an era when marketing texts and telecom scams weren’t yet rampant, most people still had a certain degree of trust in websites they were familiar with.

Some people discovered that the so-called "Tens of Billions in Subsidies" and "100 yuan exclusive red envelope" were just gimmicks. What they found in their accounts were tiered-spending coupons that could only be activated after making a purchase.

However, another group of people were pleasantly surprised to find that the coupons could also be activated by purchasing home appliances and furniture, and their interest was immediately piqued.

Buying an electric kettle and using the rebate plus the subsidy coupon would save them over ten yuan, roughly equivalent to a 20% discount.

Buying a pair of sneakers and using the rebate and subsidy coupon would immediately save them over forty yuan, which was nearly a 10% discount.

Buying a down jacket and using the rebate and subsidy coupon would instantly save them over a hundred yuan, which was about a 15% discount.

With the big Singles’ Day sale just around the corner, some sharp-minded online shopping enthusiasts immediately sensed a business opportunity.

As a result, forums, Tieba, and QQ groups were suddenly full of "kindhearted" people offering to place online orders for others. Not only did they not charge a service fee, but they even offered a 2% discount. People who didn’t know any better were actually fooled by them.

But there were plenty of smart people, too. They quickly figured out their money-making scheme. Some quietly imitated the method, following along to get a piece of the action, while others directly exposed how these proxy shoppers were making a profit.

On the third day, Chen Yansen finally noticed an anomaly in the data.

First, a few individual users had extremely high single-day order volumes, and all their purchases were high-value items. Even though the order information sent back by Ah Li wasn’t complete, he still had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

Second, there was an increase in the number of new customers registering from the same IP address.

"Brother Sen, I figured it out! It’s the work of some e-commerce proxy shoppers. Should we ban their accounts?" Wang Zihao suddenly shouted.

While monitoring user feedback online, he had discovered people selling FoxTao’s subsidy coupons, which finally confirmed the source of the abnormal data.

"Why would we ban them?" Chen Yansen asked in return.

"But these people are exploiting the promotion! It’s outrageous," Zhang Wenbo said indignantly, frowning.

"Zhuang Rui, what do you think?" Chen Yansen remained noncommittal, turning to ask Zhuang Rui.

"First, we need to limit the number of user registrations from the same IP. I suggest lowering the cap from five to three. Second, we need to limit the number of orders from the same IP at a single store. Ah Li might flag this kind of activity as click farming and penalize us. Finally, we should add a referral program for existing users. For every new user they invite, they automatically receive a set of thousand-yuan subsidy coupons."

Zhuang Rui pushed up his glasses, thought for a moment, and answered in a calm and unhurried manner.

"Applause! Zhuang Rui, you’re a really fast learner!"

Chen Yansen led the applause, praising him generously.

The proxy shopping business was still active over a decade later. Before smartphones and 4G networks became widespread, the first step to shopping online was owning a computer. The second was setting up online banking. The third was registering an e-commerce platform account. These three steps alone were a barrier for ninety percent of ordinary people.

Chen Yansen clearly remembered that there were Taobao proxy shopping service stores on the streets of Chunshen, and their business was booming.

Wang Zihao and the others fell silent.

It wasn’t that they were slow-witted. They hadn’t thought of it because they were focused on the company’s losses and felt the top priority was to eliminate the source of the damage. They had overlooked the fact that in a business ecosystem, every seemingly insignificant link is a crucial element of success.

In this Singles’ Day battle, making a name for themselves was far more important than a few extra percentage points of gross margin.

With brand recognition, he could then successfully negotiate annual contracts with major B2C platforms, securing preferential treatment in terms of rebate percentages, settlement cycles, and promotional policies. He could even negotiate CPA rebates for new customers. Without a reputation, he probably wouldn’t even be able to get in their front door.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

Thunderous applause filled the second floor. Everyone looked at Zhuang Rui, who had been praised by the boss, their eyes filled with envy.

"Get back to work! After Singles’ Day is over, I’ll increase the November bonus pool based on our gross margin. I hope that number is as big as possible, so let’s push it!"

Chen Yansen waved his hand, signaling for everyone to return to their workstations.

In the following days, the ad placement team’s budget continued to increase.

On Singles’ Day itself, the ad spend on just the major long-form video sites and the three major web portals reached 600,000 yuan, a full six times the usual amount.

Of course, the number of new customers they gained was also considerable. Combined with the new customer growth from the "0 Yuan Price Slash" event, the daily new user registration count broke the 300,000 mark for the first time.

Chen Yansen led the operations and design teams in a three-day marathon session. Finally, on the eve of Singles’ Day, they launched a special Singles’ Day version of the FoxTao homepage.

The homepage now featured event pages for blockbuster products in thirteen major categories. They also handpicked over 2,000 core products from top-tier brands and presented them to users in the form of "brand collections."

The entire website’s tone and quality were instantly elevated!

On the screen in Room 206, the site’s daily order volume and sales revenue scrolled in real time.

At 3:47 PM, the order volume surpassed 200,000!

At 5:29 PM, the single-day sales revenue broke 10 million!

Tang Qingshan, having heard the news, rushed to the Innovation Park at 8:00 PM. By then, the sales revenue on the screen had reached 12.03 million!

"Student Chen Yansen, are you sure this data is correct?" Tang Qingshan asked, his face a mask of astonishment and disbelief.

A week ago, FoxTao’s daily sales were merely 200,000!

In just a few short days, the numbers had multiplied several dozen times?

"President, the order data sent back from Ah Li’s side has a 15-minute delay. The actual sales revenue will only be higher. The data team will recalibrate it tomorrow based on the orders from Ah Li’s backend."

Chen Yansen’s answer was flawless.

Special e-commerce holidays like Singles’ Day only happened a few times a year, and he didn’t feel the need to explain further.

After all, the more successful FoxTao became, the more comfortable his life at Xucheng Academy would be.

And the connections and resources a university president possessed were beyond an ordinary person’s imagination. This was the main reason he had chosen to start his business at a university.

"Teacher Cao, contact the logistics department and have the faculty cafeteria prepare a late-night meal for fifty people. Have it sent to the Innovation Park," Tang Qingshan said to Cao Dahua, nodding in satisfaction.

"Right, I’ll go make a call and arrange it," Cao Dahua hastily replied with a nod. Before heading downstairs, he couldn’t help but give Chen Yansen a long look. ’This kid is really something else. I was already in bed at home, and they had to drag me out! If this happens too often, my body won’t be able to take it!’

...

...

In Hang City, Ali Headquarters was brightly lit.

"Daniel, the GMV has broken 900 million! We’re just one step away from 1 billion. With four hours left, we’ll definitely hit Mr. Ma’s target."

A subordinate walked into Zhang Yong’s office, his face flushed with excitement, and reported loudly.

"Why is the sales volume generated by the Ali Alliance 5.1% higher than its usual share? Have you identified the data source?"

Zhang Yong stared intently at the data, analyzing it calmly.

"It’s a shopping guide website called FoxTao. Since midnight, they’ve directed 200,000 visits to the main Taobao site. I just had the data department run the numbers; their cumulative sales for today are 12 million."

The subordinate answered factually.

’FoxTao?’

’A shopping guide e-commerce site can actually hit ten million in single-day sales?’

This news took Zhang Yong by surprise.

The thought of meeting them even began to form in his mind.

Singles’ Day was the e-commerce holiday gimmick he had come up with. The higher their sales, the better it was for him.