Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Given his style, hiring a new person was the better option.

With this in mind, Chen Yansen picked up his phone and dialed Liang Bo’s number. ”Come to my office.”

”Yes, Boss,” Liang Bo replied.

A short while later, Liang Bo hurried over. Just as he sat down, Chen Yansen said calmly, ”I sent you an industry report. We’ll talk after you’ve finished reading it.”

After saying that, Chen Yansen got up to get some tea leaves and leisurely brewed a pot of tea.

Looking down from the window, he saw that the campus’s outdoor parking lot was filled with a sea of luxury cars—mostly Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, and Audis, with no shortage of Porsches, Maseratis, and Ferraris. They were mostly the personal vehicles of supervisors, directors, and general managers from Pinbei and Orange Technology.

After some time, Liang Bo finally spoke. ”Boss, I’m finished.”

Not counting the images, the research report contained over twenty thousand words of text, all of it in English.

Liang Bo, afraid of misunderstanding anything, had read it with extreme care.

”What if we combined a recommendation engine algorithm with short-form video to create a standalone product?”

Chen Yansen asked casually, holding his teacup.

”Targeting the European and American markets?” Liang Bo asked tentatively.

He hadn’t even considered the domestic market. After all, domestic hardware and network conditions weren’t up to par; launching a short-form video app would be a dead end.

Toutiao, for instance, also had a video module, but less than 1% of its users loaded videos using mobile data; the rest all used Wi-Fi.

The core reason was simple: the cost of mobile data was too high!

”You’re in charge of R&D. I’ll write up a product development document for you.” Chen Yansen didn’t answer directly, instead assigning the task straight to Liang Bo.

Liang Bo didn’t hesitate and quickly agreed.

After receiving the new assignment, Liang Bo asked a few more questions. Only after he had a clear understanding of Chen Yansen’s product requirements did he get up to leave.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, then created a new file on his computer and listed the skill requirements for the head of the short-form video project before sending it to the HR department.

It would be best if they could find a suitable candidate, but if not, he would have Zhou Shouzhi fill the role for the time being.

The morning passed quickly. After a quick lunch in the cafeteria, Chen Yansen drove off in the direction of Xuyuan.

「Meanwhile.」

After integrating the resources of Shentong and Yuantong Express, Cloud Speed Express began opening numerous Cloud Speed Service Stations in the centers of rural townships and towns across the East China Region.

Its main business consisted of only two services: package pickup and package holding.

Because delivery costs in rural markets were too high, when customers previously bought items on Taobao, Jingdong, or Pinbei, their packages could only be delivered to express depots at the county or city level. To pick up a package, they had to travel tens, or even over a hundred, kilometers away.

With the arrival of Cloud Speed Service Stations, online shoppers at the township, town, and village levels were now brought into the scope of operations.

To ensure profitability, Liao Wei required that before any Cloud Speed Service Station was established, it had to undergo a rigorous market survey. The local population, transportation infrastructure, and market potential were comprehensively assessed, and a station would only be set up if it met the minimum revenue projections.

Although the conditions were strict, the rural market was enormous. The initial screening yielded over 600 townships, from which 200 were ultimately chosen for a pilot program.

...

...

「Chunshen, Shaopei Town.」

Across from Shaopei Middle School, to the left of the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bank, a new Cloud Speed Express Service Station had opened.

Perhaps a decade or so later, a township of this size would have at least a dozen such express stations.

But in 2012, Cloud Speed was the first express company to extend its business reach into the rural market.

All e-commerce packages for the two nearby communities and twelve administrative villages, upon arriving in Shaopei Town, now had the Cloud Speed Express Service Station as their final destination.

In other words, the package-sending needs of Shaopei’s more than sixty thousand residents also fell within the Cloud Speed Express Service Station’s purview.