Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chen Yansen, of course, wasn’t so bored as to ask the guy if he could sing, dance, and rap.

Xu Kun was articulate and logical, and with his background in e-commerce, Chen Yansen didn’t hesitate to give him an offer on the spot.

"Report for duty tomorrow. Welcome to FoxTao!"

Chen Yansen shook his hand, smiled as he walked him to the door, and then called in the second candidate.

"President Chen, I didn’t recognize you yesterday. My apologies."

The newcomer was none other than Zhang Yifeng, whom he’d met on the basketball court last night. He scratched his head, looking simple and honest.

"You didn’t have this personality yesterday. FoxTao doesn’t hire simpletons; I only want smart people."

Chen Yansen gestured for him to sit down and talk.

"Should I introduce myself then? President Chen, I’m Zhang Yifeng from the ’07 E-commerce program. I previously interned at Zunbao E-commerce for two months, where I mainly dealt with standardized products. I’m familiar with the Taobao Platform’s ecosystem, and the position I’d like to apply for is in product selection and operations..."

Hearing Chen Yansen’s teasing, Zhang Yifeng dropped the act. He composed himself and began to speak with confidence and flair.

"With your internship experience at Zunbao, it shouldn’t be hard to get into a brand company. Even if you can’t get into Taobao or Jingdong, Yixun and Newegg should be no problem. So why choose FoxTao?"

Chen Yansen stared at him and asked, getting straight to the point.

"I want to make money! With my qualifications, whether at a third-party operations company or a major e-commerce platform, it would take three to five years to climb to a manager-level position or higher. But FoxTao is different. It’s in its takeoff phase, which means more room for me to grow."

Zhang Yifeng chuckled softly, his tone sincere.

"That’s only human. I get it. Welcome to FoxTao." Chen Yansen liked people who were honest and loved money. Such people had clear goals and would work harder.

"Thank you, President Chen!" Zhang Yifeng politely took his leave. After stepping out, he left his contact information with Xu Xingxing.

The morning flew by in a flash.

Besides Xu Kun and Zhang Yifeng, Chen Yansen hired several other senior e-commerce students. By the end, he couldn’t help but complain, "These bastards are treating me as the first stop of their fall recruitment."

For the next two days, he was busy with interviews. He hired a female senior from the human resources program to be in charge of HR, made Xu Xingxing the head of the administration team, and assigned legal affairs to a business law teacher recommended by Principal Tang. The other teams also received new members.

The team instantly expanded to 42 people, a not-insignificant size. At this point, FoxTao was using nearly half the office space on the second floor of the Innovation Park.

On November 5th, the 10 million in financing from Penguin finally arrived.

With money in the bank, Chen Yansen’s confidence swelled. He procured another batch of Apple 4s through Zhao Maolin’s channels. The "Slash to 0 Yuan" event page was now stocked with an even richer variety of goods, including refrigerators, TVs, ovens, bicycles, and electric vehicles—you name it.

The number of new users registering for FoxTao through the event link skyrocketed, with the daily peak approaching 200,000.

Wang Zihao and his ad placement team were also going full throttle, spending their 100,000-yuan daily advertising budget down to the last penny.

...

...

「The next afternoon, in Room 206 of the Innovation Park.」

"Zihao, you coordinate with Zhao Maolin. We’re going to use the telecom’s SMS marketing channel. Before Singles’ Day, we have to send a text message with the super red envelope link to every single FoxTao user."

Chen Yansen leaned against the desk, instructing Wang Zihao who stood beside him.

"Okay, Brother Sen. Zhao Maolin’s quote is eight cents per message. As soon as Hu Yun exports the user data, we can get started," Wang Zihao replied with a nod.

"Zhuang Rui, double-check the activation threshold for the super red envelopes. If anything goes wrong here, we’ll all be starving."

Chen Yansen’s tone was light, but his expression was exceptionally grave.

In 2010, Ali Baba hadn’t yet rolled out its super red envelope strategy, but the Singles’ Day mega-sale already existed. Naturally, Chen Yansen wasn’t going to pass up this chance to make money.

Based on the commission rates of products on FoxTao’s pages, he had Zhuang Rui design a red envelope package called "Ten Billion Subsidy": five "2 off 10" coupons, five "8 off 100" coupons, five "20 off 300" coupons, five "30 off 500" coupons, five "60 off 1000" coupons, and five "80 off 5000" coupons.

The rules were simple. A user goes through FoxTao to Taobao, Jingdong, or Paipai Network and buys an 11.9-yuan item. In addition to the original rebate, they would also get an extra 2-yuan cash red envelope.

More than a decade later, this kind of gimmick would be a dime a dozen, but before the golden age of e-commerce arrived, it was a crude yet effective marketing tactic.

"Brother Sen, don’t worry! I’ve spoken with Wenbo. The product filtering function will go live tomorrow. If a user’s total rebate plus subsidy red envelope amount exceeds the commission we get for the product, it won’t be shown to the user."

Zhuang Rui held his head high and made an "OK" sign.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and turned his gaze to the operations team.

"Brother Sen, on the product selection front, we’ll strictly adhere to the gross margin requirements. We guarantee there won’t be any negative margins," Chen Xu, Hu Li, Xu Kun, Zhang Yifeng, and the others quickly promised.

"Pengfei, you and Wenbo need to finalize the development requirements. All products on the search pages must have the gross margin control filter applied. I can accept not making a profit, but I absolutely cannot lose money. Understand?"

Chen Yansen clapped Xiang Pengfei on the shoulder, reminding him again and again.

"Brother Sen, I definitely won’t screw up this time," Xiang Pengfei said, gritting his teeth with a determined look.

’If I mess up again, I won’t have the nerve to show my face at FoxTao anymore.’

"Next week is FoxTao’s first time participating in a major e-commerce platform sale. Whether we feast or just get scraps is all up to you. Let’s do this!" Chen Yansen gave a faint smile and pumped his fist in encouragement.

The crowd echoed him loudly, their expressions fervent and their eyes filled with excitement.

’Young people are so easy to rally,’ Chen Yansen thought to himself. ’Not like those old foxes from my past life’s company. You had to pay them their salary and overtime in full before they’d even consider busting their asses for you!’

However, with Penguin’s 10 million, he had readjusted their salaries. The monthly income of Zhang Wenbo and the others was now in the upper-middle tier for the entire Huian Province.

Even though he hadn’t mentioned overtime pay or bonuses, the group was still full of drive.

After the meeting, Chen Yansen went downstairs. He had intended to chat with Song Yang for a bit, but seeing him busy with his head down packing parcels, he gave up the idea. He walked out the door alone and started strolling along Xuehai Road.

Rebate e-commerce wasn’t exactly a high-end business, but in 2010, it was too early for news apps or short video platforms; the conditions weren’t ripe. For group buying, there were too many competitors. For food delivery, the supporting infrastructure was lacking. After much consideration, he fell back on his old trade: first, he’d suck some blood from Ali, and once he was full, he’d figure out the next step.

Fortunately, the initial development had been extremely smooth. Ma Wenteng’s 10 million had saved him at least half a year. Backed by the behemoth that was Penguin, it was not only easier to attract venture capital attention, but it also drew in a wave of organic traffic.

Coupled with his special status as a college freshman, he had unwittingly been hyped up into a boy genius.

Eighteen years old, 10 million in financing, a personal meeting with Ma Wenteng—put it all together, and you had explosive news.

Now, when it came to the rebate e-commerce model, FoxTao had already become the industry leader. Although some other websites had been established earlier, they were left far behind in terms of registered users and daily active users.

In a niche industry, people only remember number one!

Passing by Dormitory Building 8, Chen Yansen saw the light on the balcony of Room 8302 and headed inside.

Pushing the door open, he saw Tang Zhenzhe sitting in a chair, headphones on, intently focused on his computer screen.

Chen Yansen went over and glanced at the screen. Turns out, he was watching an "educational film." He cleared his throat. "Ah Zhe, I never realized you were such a dedicated student."

Tang Zhenzhe jumped, startled. Any frustration he felt instantly vanished, replaced by surprise as he shot back, "Brother Sen, how did you get in?"

"Flew in from the balcony." Seeing sunflower seeds on the desk, Chen Yansen didn’t stand on ceremony. He grabbed a handful and started spouting nonsense.

"I could’ve sworn I locked the door." Tang Zhenzhe wasn’t an idiot; of course he didn’t believe that crap. A moment’s thought and he realized he must have forgotten to lock it. His face flushed red as he mumbled in confusion.

"Song Yang opened a package delivery station. You’re not going to go help out?"

Chen Yansen asked casually, cracking sunflower seeds.

After a few days of pretending to go to the library with his backpack, Wang Zhengqiang dropped the act entirely. How could reading be as interesting as starting a business? Plus, Song Yang was short-handed. The two of them hit it off and teamed up.

"Teacher Guo dumped all the department’s miscellaneous tasks on me. I’m so busy I can’t even catch my breath. I finally squeezed out some time to watch a movie and even forgot to lock the door."

Tang Zhenzhe complained hastily. His family was well-off, but not exactly rich. Seeing Meng Xibo become the customer service team lead at FoxTao with a monthly income of over two thousand, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t envious. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Being the class president was cool, sure. He’d easily snagged a vice-chairman position in the student union that others were desperate to get into, and he had more opportunities to talk to girls. But the key was, most of the pretty girls in class weren’t interested in him.

He had openly and secretly sucked up to Su Meiling for a month, but her attitude remained lukewarm. Later, he asked around and found out she was interested in Chen Yansen.

’Compared to Chen Yansen, a class president title is worth jack shit!’

Meanwhile, Chen Yansen’s titles were numerous: CEO of Senhai Technology, founder of FoxTao, Xucheng Academy’s Star of Innovation, a business genius earning tens of millions a year.

He’d heard from Guo Dongchen that the department was planning to award Chen Yansen the "Outstanding Student" title at the end of the year, plus a first-class scholarship. ’That bastard barely attends three classes a month, and he still gets awards and honors? Where’s the justice in that?’

"That just shows Teacher Guo values you. Keep up the good work," Chen Yansen teased with a smile.

He knew Tang Zhenzhe’s capabilities. In his past life, Tang Zhenzhe had been a channel director at a lumber company, in charge of the Southeast Asia market. He was stationed in An Nan year-round and had a real knack for market development.

However, given FoxTao’s current situation, they didn’t need someone for business development, so he hadn’t tried to recruit Tang Zhenzhe.

"Class team-building event tomorrow. Did Song Yang tell you?" Tang Zhenzhe waved his hand, changing the subject.

"He didn’t. Where are you guys going? He probably got busy and forgot. The number of participants in FoxTao’s ’Slash to 0 Yuan’ event has doubled. He’s getting nearly five hundred packages a day now; he can barely keep up," Chen Yansen said with a chuckle.

"To Delta Park, for an outdoor barbecue. I even borrowed a DV camcorder and three cameras from the teacher in the equipment room so we can take pictures and make some memories..."

Tang Zhenzhe said enthusiastically.

Hearing this, Chen Yansen gave an awkward smile. Back when he was helping Tang Zhenzhe campaign for class president, he had promised to take the whole class to a movie. But since he never even went to class, he naturally couldn’t fulfill that promise.

"Can’t make it! Taobao Network’s Singles’ Day starts next week. We have to work overtime these next few days," Chen Yansen said, shaking his head.

"Uh... alright then." Tang Zhenzhe sighed and couldn’t help but ask, "Brother Sen, did you come to college to study or to do business?"

"What’s the purpose of going to school?" Chen Yansen shot back.

"To find a good job and make more money," Tang Zhenzhe answered subconsciously.

"Exactly. So I’m just choosing to make money directly and cutting out the two-year detour," Chen Yansen said seriously.

"Then why did you even come to college?" Tang Zhenzhe asked, confused.

"That’s because college life is great!" Chen Yansen got up, waved goodbye, and replied in a leisurely tone.

His mindset was no longer young, but he could rediscover the taste of youth through young women.

...

...

「Hu City. Inside a residence.」

A middle-aged man with a slicked-back, retro hairstyle asked his partner across from him, "Brother Zhong, FoxTao is developing too fast. Our approach of focusing on search and the B2C model might have been wrong."

"Are you saying we should copy FoxTao’s model? But we don’t have the money."

Gu Yaosheng frowned, a troubled look on his face.

As one of the earliest pioneers in the country to imitate Ebates, he had struggled for four years without ever managing to attract the favor of venture capitalists.

’And now an eighteen-year-old college freshman has just entered the game and already secured a ten-million-yuan investment from Penguin. On what grounds?’

"A classmate of mine works at Siwei Capital. He’s heard of our project. Maybe we can go talk to him," the slick-haired man said seriously. If they couldn’t secure funding soon, he’d have no choice but to give up on the project.