Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees-Chapter 55 - 54: Frantic Fission, New Users Skyrocket
"Chen Yansen, please, have some tea! Finding you an accountant to handle your books? It’s nothing, a piece of cake for me."
Cao Dahua leaned back on the sofa, puffing out his chest as he boasted.
"Then I’ll have to trouble you, Teacher Cao."
Chen Yansen picked up his teacup and took a small sip, exchanging a smile with Cao Dahua.
"Next February, the universities in Huian Province are holding a student startup competition. Chen Tongxue, are you interested in participating?"
Cao Dahua took a sip of tea and spoke unhurriedly.
The moment he heard this, Chen Yansen guessed it was probably Tang Qingshan’s idea. Without a second thought, he said, "Of course I am. What’s in it for me?"
’In his opinion, participating in this student startup competition was a complete waste of time.’
’But since it was Tang Qingshan’s idea, he could just send Song Yuncheng or Zhuang Rui in his stead. He didn’t have to go personally, but he had to make sure he pocketed any benefits.’
Cao Dahua wagged his finger, an exasperated ’you kids’ look on his face. He paused, then said with a serious expression,
"The top three winners get prize money ranging from 100,000 to 500,000. Additionally, the finals will also invite some famous alumni and entrepreneurs from Huian, especially graduates who hold key positions in venture capital firms."
At this point, Cao Dahua shot Chen Yansen a knowing glance, a smile playing on his lips as he waited for the other’s praise.
"Like Shi Yuzhu or Wang Chuanfu?"
Chen Yansen pressed.
Cao Dahua’s expression stiffened, and he said with a wry smile, "Don’t even think about big shots of that caliber. I’ll give it to you straight: if your project takes first place, securing five million in funding won’t be a problem."
’Five million?’
’Who does he think he’s looking down on?’
Chen Yansen curled his lip, inwardly disdainful. FoxTao already had a cumulative total of 160,000 registered users, with daily active users stable at around twenty thousand. It processed over 3,000 orders per day, and its gross profit was nearing the fifteen-thousand mark.
’Once the "Bargain to Zero" feature went live and achieved its expected results, five million would only be about twenty days’ worth of gross profit for him.’
"Five million? In that case, I’ll be sure to prepare seriously for it."
Chen Yansen didn’t want to dampen Cao Dahua’s enthusiasm, so he deliberately feigned a surprised tone and put on a serious expression. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
"As long as you understand. Have some tea."
Having completed the task assigned by the president, Cao Dahua grinned.
Seeing that his objective was achieved, Chen Yansen drained his tea in one gulp, then stood up to take his leave.
Cao Dahua didn’t try to make him stay, simply going back to leisurely slacking off and humming a tuneless melody.
Back on the second floor, everyone was busy testing "Bargain to Zero." The room was filled with constant requests: "Wenbo, help me get a slash!", "Zhuang Rui, you brat, why aren’t you checking your QQ messages? Help me slash the price!", "Chen Xu, let me borrow your Newman phone for a sec. I want to see if the browser is compatible."
Chen Yansen smiled slightly, walked over to his seat, and sat down. He opened Zhuang Rui’s requirements document and read it over again.
’Damn, this kid is devious!’
Zhuang Rui had divided the bargain progress bar into three parts: slashes from returning customers, slashes from new customers, and slashes from users who had not yet made their first purchase.
Simply put, returning users would slash the least amount off the price, and they could only contribute up to 99.9% of the progress bar. The final 0.1% had to come from an invited new user or a user who hadn’t made their first purchase for the bargain to be successful.
The underlying logic was all hardcoded. The value of new customers, returning customers, and users who hadn’t made a first purchase were all detailed in the document.
At six in the afternoon, after a round of careful testing, Zhang Wenbo and Xiang Pengfei found a few more bugs. Only after fixing all of them did they look to Chen Yansen.
"Let’s go live! Song Yuncheng, send the configured page link to Wenbo."
Chen Yansen nodded slightly and announced in a loud voice.
"You got it, Brother Sen!" Zhang Wenbo nodded and called over Zhuang Rui, Song Yuncheng, and Chen Xu. The four of them walked into the temporary meeting room in 204 and got busy with the final launch preparations.
Ten minutes later, Zhang Wenbo made an OK sign to Chen Yansen through the glass.
Chen Yansen clicked the event page link. The first thing he saw was an event banner labeled "0-Yuan Freebies." From top to bottom, the prizes were listed in order: an Apple 4 phone, a Noaki 5230, a Mountain Star I8000, a case of apples, milk, facial tissues, 1,000 yuan in cash, and more.
The event rules were at the bottom of the page. The gameplay was simple and aggressive: invite new and returning users to help, and you could win an Apple phone valued at up to 4,999 yuan.
"@everyone Slash for me, thanks!"
Chen Yansen casually forwarded the link to dozens of QQ groups and then waited quietly for the notifications to explode.
"Brother Sen, did your account get hacked? Is this link a Trojan horse? Everyone, don’t click it!"
"’Slash for you’? Are you kidding me?"
"Brother Sen, I helped you slash. Can you really get the phone for free?"
"Student Chen Yansen, I helped you slash off 39 yuan!"
"Senior, is this a new event for FoxTao?"
The high school group chat, the campus card agent group, the new student welcome group, and others instantly erupted with activity.
"It’s a new event for our project. Everyone is welcome to participate. It’s real and legitimate. I hope you all can get a free Apple phone."
Chen Yansen sent a unified reply, then thought to himself, ’Should I just leave these groups first, to avoid getting relentlessly flamed later?’
’This ’slashing’ gameplay was truly detestable.’
’For example, an ex-girlfriend calling late at night just to get you to download Pinduoduo; an old friend you haven’t spoken to in twenty years suddenly sending a message, all because you’re a new user.’
But Chen Yansen had no other choice. His funds were limited, and if FoxTao was to grow quickly, he had to resort to some unconventional methods.
Wang Zihao and the other two were also hard at work. On one hand, they were paying to get trending search terms. On the other, they were frantically spamming the event link on Xiaonei Network, university forums, and Tieba, making posts on social media platforms using different personas.
For example: "Bros, I got my hands on the uncut version of Titanic, link attached"; "The story of seven men and a little girl, link attached"; "My ex-boyfriend has AIDS, should I go get checked?"
These promotional messages spread across the internet as rapidly as a computer virus.
At the same time, the outreach team placed interstitial ads on video sites like Youku, Tudou, and 6.cn. They also bought some banner ad space on the three major web portals.
The ad creative featured an Apple 4 phone with the eye-catching words "0-Yuan Freebie." The click-through rate was ridiculously high.
Even after it grew completely dark, everyone was still glued to their computers. Chen Yansen sighed, took out his phone, and called the off-campus Shuangqing Hotel. He ordered over 1,000 yuan worth of food in one go, asking them to pack it for delivery.
On the large screen, the number of new user registrations for the day was climbing at an incredible speed.
On a normal day, it was a struggle to get even 1,000 new registrations. Now, the count had already surpassed ten thousand.
An hour later, two staff members from the restaurant came to deliver the food, having driven over in a minivan specifically for the order. It was their first time receiving such a large order, and they were worried the food would get cold and the customer would be dissatisfied.
"Let’s take a break and eat!"
Chen Yansen slapped the table and shouted.
"Holy crap! Brother Sen, you’re treating us to a feast!"
"Whoa! Just how many dishes are there?"
"Brother Sen is so generous!"
At his words, everyone dropped their mice and began to suck up to him with cheeky grins.
"You call this a feast? When our sales break ten million, we’re going straight to the city’s Sky Garden."
Chen Yansen said in a flat tone.
With FoxTao’s growth, no one thought Chen Yansen was just bragging anymore. Instead, their faces were filled with anticipation.
After all, the Sky Garden was Xucheng’s most luxurious hotel, with a per-person minimum of 800 yuan. In the past, they wouldn’t have even dared to dream of going there.
"Brother Sen, can we get that in cash instead?" Zhang Wenbo asked, scratching his head with a cheeky grin.
"Yeah, Brother Sen!"
As soon as Zhang Wenbo spoke, several others chimed in.
"Cash, my ass! Once we hit our target, you’ll get bonuses, raises, and a seafood feast. You’ll have it all."
Chen Yansen cursed at Zhang Wenbo, but his words were meant for everyone present.
In an instant, everyone was fired up, looking as if they couldn’t wait to drop their chopsticks and get back to work.
「Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in Hu City.」
Zhang Peng was running from room to room in his dormitory building, phone in hand. He had won 888 yuan in cash from FoxTao’s last voting event and had successfully withdrawn the money to his account.
Because of this, his trust in FoxTao had skyrocketed. In just one month, he had not only placed over a dozen orders on the site, but the moment the "Bargain to Zero" event went live, he went all out, mobilizing his friends to help him slash the price.
An Apple phone worth 4,999 yuan—who wouldn’t want one?
Most people would be too embarrassed, at most asking only their close classmates and friends for help.
But Zhang Peng was different. He was like a man possessed, and he began "sweeping" the male dormitory, going from door to door. He would first tell everyone about the previous FoxTao voting event, then pull out his phone to tell them about the new event to get a free phone, asking if they wanted to participate.
It seemed like an unreliable method, but the success rate was actually quite high. After all, the one thing university students weren’t short on was time.
After working at it all night, Zhang Peng’s progress bar reached 93%. He was only 7% away from getting the phone for free. He was so excited he couldn’t sleep well all night, and the next day he continued looking for people to slash the price for him.
There were quite a few people like Zhang Peng. Seeing their progress bars so close to the end, who could give up on a phone that was within arm’s reach?
They had already invested so much effort; the sunk cost was too high, compelling them to continue trying to get more slashes.
When Chen Yansen walked into Room 206, Zhuang Rui lunged at him, his face flushed with excitement, shouting, "Brother Sen, it’s blowing up!"
"You’re the one who’s blowing up!"
Chen Yansen rolled his eyes and retorted irritably.
"Since ’Bargain to Zero’ went live, in just 16 hours, 46,000 new customers have registered through the event link. And as the number of participants grows, the viral spread is getting faster and faster."
Zhuang Rui was so excited his brain was buzzing; he hadn’t even heard what Chen Yansen said and just kept rattling off the data.
"Not bad! Keep it up!"
Chen Yansen’s expression remained calm. In his past life, he had toiled in the e-commerce field for over a decade and had even founded a successful business. His vision and perspective were naturally top-notch. Moreover, after his rebirth, every step he took was ahead of the curve.
For him, success was to be expected; failure would be the real surprise!
Just then, Cao Dahua walked over with someone in tow, his face wreathed in smiles.
Chen Yansen looked up and was surprised to see it was an acquaintance.
