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.
Wu Lei, a local, was the station manager. Besides him, there was one other employee, which was the standard staffing for a service station.
"Brother Lei, I’m afraid the company miscalculated by opening a station out here in the township," the other employee, Hu Peng, said, pulling up a chair and sighing. "I was just squatting by the door watching for a bit. Out of ten people who walked by, only one was using a smartphone."
"What’s there to be afraid of! We get a base salary," Wu Lei said, carrying a stack of posters out from the storage room. "Give me a hand. Let’s put all of these up."
"The base salary is only 3,000 yuan. It’s enough to not starve, but not enough to live comfortably," Hu Peng grumbled as he helped. "Sigh... what can I do? I’m one of the guys from Yuantong Express."
His implication was clear: the service station had no future, and none of Cloud Speed’s veteran employees wanted the job, which was why a newly absorbed employee like him was sent over.
"Xiaohu, take some advice from your big bro. Just do a good job and stick with the company, and you can’t go wrong!" Wu Lei paused what he was doing, advising him with a serious expression. "The big boss planned this project himself. Do you really think he’d let it lose money?"
"President Chen Yansen?" Hu Peng asked quickly, then shook his head in disbelief. "How would you know that?"
"Fuck! Who do you think you’re looking down on, kid?" Wu Lei cursed, his face stiffening. "I’ve been with Cloud Speed for two and a half years. I’m a real veteran. I even had dinner with the big boss at a five-star hotel in Hu City last year."
"And here I thought you were just some unlucky schmuck from Shentong Express," Hu Peng teased with a sly grin, not taking him seriously.
’In his eyes, Wu Lei was probably just bluffing. Who would give up a delivery job in Hu City to run back to their hometown? Only an idiot would do that,’ he thought.
Seeing that Hu Peng didn’t believe him, Wu Lei didn’t explain any further and just lowered his head to get on with his work.
Hu Peng might have been a talker, but he worked fast. The two of them quickly finished putting up the promotional posters on the glass door.
"Orange D1 Phone - 512MB + 1GB Memory, only 799 yuan!"
"Qingcheng D1S Phone - 1GB + 8GB Memory, only 999 yuan!"
"Ship with Cloud Speed Express, starting from just 6 yuan!"
"Shop worry-free! Use the Cloud Speed Express Service Station as your shipping address for free package holding!"
"Pinbei Mall - New users get 6 free eggs!"
In Liao Wei’s vision, the Cloud Speed Express Service Station could earn a "last-mile delivery fee" by holding packages for customers from other courier companies like Best, Shunfeng, Tiantian, and Guotong, while also using its own package pickup services to boost profitability.
It would also sell Orange Technology’s smartphones and run promotions for Pinbei Mall.
Just then, an old man who was out for the market day saw the poster for free eggs and stopped in his tracks. "Young man," he asked Wu Lei, "where do I get the eggs?"
"Sir, do you have a smartphone? First, you have to download the Pinbei app," Wu Lei said, grinning as he enthusiastically approached the potential customer. "New users don’t just get free eggs; you can also get free tissues, apples, and oranges."
"A smartphone? Will this one do?" the old man asked, pulling out his Nokia C102.
"That one won’t work," Wu Lei said, waving a hand.
"Do you have a smartphone? Can you download it for me?" the old man asked, turning the tables.
Standing behind them, Hu Peng couldn’t help but laugh out loud. "Sir," he explained, "you have to buy a 799-yuan smartphone first."
"Hmph! So you’re just a couple of scammers." The old man’s brow furrowed, and he walked away with a disgusted look on his face.
"HAHAHA..." Hu Peng burst out laughing once the old man was gone.
Wu Lei’s face darkened, and he heaved a sigh.
"The Qingcheng D1S phone? Is it authentic?"
A moment later, another customer walked in, a man in his twenties.
Wu Lei smiled to himself and went forward to greet him. "Cloud Speed Express and Orange Technology have the same boss. We’re just an authorized reseller, so the products are definitely authentic. It comes with official after-sales service; you can check online."
"No need! Just get me one," the young man said abruptly after a dozen seconds of silence.
He had actually wanted to buy a Qingcheng D1S for a while, but previously, deliveries only went as far as Chunshen. He would have had to take a bus for over an hour to get to the county seat, so he had put it off.
As for whether the phone was fake, he wasn’t worried.
’If they dared to sell him a fake,’ he thought, ’he could just call a few relatives over and they’d beat Wu Lei and Hu Peng until they were on their knees begging for mercy.’
Hu Peng froze for a second before snapping back to reality. He ran behind the counter and grabbed a brand-new Qingcheng D1S for the customer.
"Want to download Pinbei? You can get free eggs," Wu Lei added, seizing the opportunity to make a pitch.
"My phone plan only gives me 100MB of data a month, and I’ve already used it up," the young man declined.
"You can connect to our store’s Wi-Fi. You don’t know how? I’ll show you." The company paid an 8-yuan bonus for every new Pinbei user, so Wu Lei was naturally very enthusiastic.
Ten minutes later, Wu Lei had helped the young man complete his first online purchase. As he was leaving, Wu Lei made sure to add, "If you run into any issues you don’t understand, feel free to come find me anytime."
As it turned out, on their first day of business, they didn’t get a single package pickup order, but they sold thirteen Orange D1 and eleven Qingcheng D1S phones.
"Brother Lei, aren’t we supposed to be an express station? How’d we turn into a phone store?" Hu Peng asked, completely bewildered.