Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”Choice is more important than effort. In the e-commerce industry, I discovered a brand-new niche: piggybacking on platforms like Tmall Mall, Jingdong, and Sunning. By leveraging their product and merchant resources, we launched a shopping guide e-commerce platform that provides supporting services to merchants, the platforms, and users. As it turns out, my choice was the right one.”

Chen Yansen replied.

”Orange Pay’s ’Collect the Five Blessings’ event has become a phenomenal marketing campaign. Where did that idea come from?” Chen Hongwei asked.

”The inspiration came from collecting stamps and Water Margin cards as a child. Chinese people have a strong penchant for collecting things, but the key was figuring out how to generate commercial value from the event.

To achieve that, we designed it with three layers. The first is social fission; you have to share to collect them all. The second is brand exposure; every blessing card comes with an ad. The third is creating payment scenarios; you get more blessing cards by using products like Pinbei, Gaode, and Kuai Pao.

That way, we solved user growth, ad revenue, and the cultivation of payment habits all at once.”

Chen Yansen smiled faintly and spouted some nonsense off the cuff.

”I heard that event earned Orange Pay over 60 million. Is that true?” Chen Hongwei pressed, curious.

”Just a rumor. While we covered some of the costs through advertising partnerships, it was nowhere near 100 million.”

Chen Yansen flatly denied it.

’I can’t very well tell the users that Orange Pay made money *and* gained traffic, can I?’

’Some things are better left unsaid, for everyone’s benefit. It saves the users from feeling like idiots.’

Chen Hongwei was secretly amused, thinking, ’As expected of a business genius. He can lie without batting an eye.’

”In the e-commerce sector, Ah Li and Jingdong already hold an absolute advantage. How did Pinbei manage to find a breakthrough?” Chen Hongwei continued to ask.

”My thinking is the exact opposite of yours. While Ah Li and Jingdong have high market shares, there are still untapped lower-tier markets they can’t reach. Besides, Pinbei can use group buying models and social fission to lower customer acquisition costs.”

Chen Yansen said dismissively.

”President Chen, from what I understand, Pinbei launched an agricultural assistance program, bringing agricultural products from all over the country onto its e-commerce platform. In 2012 alone, it generated over 40 billion in transaction volume. Compared to products like cosmetics and home appliances, the profit margin on agricultural products is low. Why did you do it?” Chen Hongwei asked seriously, his eyes fixed on Chen Yansen.

”To compete with Ah Li and Jingdong by targeting a different market segment, creating a differentiating advantage for our platform. And to increase the income of merchants in towns and rural areas. The dividends of internet technology should be shared by everyone, not confined to first- and second-tier cities.”

Chen Yansen replied with a straight face.

He was also quite skilled at spouting lofty rhetoric and grand principles.

His statement sounded innocuous at first, but upon reflection, it carried an audacious undertone of criticism. The university students in the audience were deeply moved.

Chen Hongwei’s heart skipped a beat. He turned to look at the producer and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the man nod.

”President Chen, what is Orange Technology’s next focus? Artificial intelligence or internationalization?”

Chen Hongwei quickly changed the subject, not daring to probe any deeper. He was afraid that Chen Yansen, in a fit of passion, might shout something like, ”The wheat has been harvested thousands of times, but the farmers shouldn’t have to suffer so much.”

”Why choose one? I believe we can walk on two legs,” Chen Yansen answered succinctly.

He paused, then added, ”Both are very important. In terms of AI, Orange Technology established an Artificial Intelligence Laboratory focused on breakthroughs in computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing. Moss and the Alexa Smart Speaker are the results of the AI Lab’s research.”

”As for internationalization, we’ve chosen Africa as our first stop and the Eastern European Market as our second. Last year, total sales for the Orange Mobile Phone were 6.7 million units. This year, our target is 20 million.”