Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

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.