Chapter 467: Developing

These words left the few people present both shocked and furious.

The situation was even trickier than imagined.

Programmer Ye Chen: "From a technical standpoint, the functions of Kuaida Delivery are not complex; I could replicate them in two months, but with my thesis defense coming up immediately, I cannot spare much time for technical work."

Another man in glasses sighed: "Time waits for no one. Even if we replicate the functions perfectly, what good would it do? The 10% commission barely keeps the website running. We've already poured so much of our own money in; what do we have to compete with them? Maybe we should just stop here and cut our losses.

While we haven't graduated yet, we should all hurry up and send out resumes to find jobs."

The last one, a skinny guy, chimed in: "Yeah, we've really done our best to get to this point. Merchants are very unfriendly to us now; several have already withdrawn from the platform directly.

Technology, capital, connections—we can't compare to them in any aspect. To put it bluntly, they could easily crush us like ants just by lifting a foot."

Hearing these words, Zhang Qiankun felt a piercing pain in his heart, yet he had to face reality.

He took a drag of his cigarette with a sorrowful face, then exhaled gently, the entire movement appearing heavy and helpless.

It seemed to have exhausted a great deal of his energy.

"We've worked hard for so long; if we give up now, we'll have nothing. Ye Chen, you replicate their functions first; Skinny, go stabilize the merchants and lower the commission to 5%... 4%. See if you can negotiate some coupons. Glasses, come with me to pull in some investment."

The other three looked at each other; they would persist for a while longer.

After all, having fought side-by-side for so long, they had to give Zhang Qiankun this much face.

There is a saying: "If you don't try hard, you won't know what despair is."

Sure enough, the merchants didn't buy what "Ele. me" was selling at all. What were they doing earlier? They only played the hindsight game after a competitor appeared—it was too late!

Kuaida Delivery can do better, so why would anyone give you face?

Unless you can bring us more users or benefits.

Merchants pursue profit; this is beyond reproach.

Over the next two days, the terms "Kuaida Delivery" and "Fan Ye" spread rapidly throughout the entire campus; their shadows existed in QQ groups and campus forums of all sizes.

Great discounts, efficient delivery, good functional experience...

There is no harm without comparison.

Without surprise, students were more inclined to choose Kuaida Delivery.

This caused the transaction volume of Ele. me to decrease again and again, until no one cared about it.

Seeing this situation, those delivery riders who were familiar with Zhang Qiankun "defected" one after another and joined the ranks of Kuaida Delivery. There was no help for it; the other camp made money too easily.

Ten yuan or so per trip; running a few more trips a day meant an income no worse than a white-collar worker.

It would be even more profitable when all the students returned to school.

Facing such a helpless scene, programmer Ye Chen, Skinny, and the man in glasses simply gave up and stopped resisting.

Unable to pull in investment in the short term to fill the gap and pull back the disadvantage, Ele. me was destined to be finished.

And Zhang Qiankun, a graduate student about to finish his studies, didn't know any big shots. He asked around the school and nearly wore out his phone, but no one was willing to invest.

After all, whether it could make money was still unknown, but the powerful competitor in front of them was real.

They didn't believe they could beat Kuaida Delivery, and throwing money into it would just be like tossing it into the water.

At this very moment, Zhang Qiankun regretted it so much his guts turned green. Why was he so ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, thinking he could accomplish great things with just a heart full of passion?

If he had known it would be like this, he might as well have agreed to Shen Yan's investment plan.

That would have been better than two years of hard work going down the drain.

Zhang Qiankun couldn't help but think of his old rival, "Little Leaf Housekeeper," feeling like a fellow villager meeting a fellow villager, with eyes full of tears.

He looked again at the offer for advanced studies at the University of Hong Kong in his hand.

The situation was stronger than the person; Zhang Qiankun finally made up his mind.

On the evening of May 5th, Shen Yan, having successfully secured 11 universities, led his team back to Hangzhou.

And he met with He Yichen at a cafe near the school.

Over these days, He Yichen had conducted in-depth exchanges with Yirui Technology.

Following Shen Yan's instructions, He Yichen avoided the key points in his rhetoric to Yirui Technology.

"Yancheng Technology hopes to add a 'Scan' function to mobile phones, that is, the ability to quickly identify QR codes. Your company is unique in the field of QR codes. Mr. Shen Yan hopes to invite your company to co-develop this function, and he will bear all research and development funds and pay corresponding remuneration, with the requirement that all research results belong to Mr. Shen Yan."

On the surface, it was under the guise of adding a 'Scan' function to mobile phones, but in reality, it was "harboring evil intentions."

Plotting to obtain the patent rights for the "Scan" function.

Mobile phone quick identification of QR codes?

Regarding this term, the representative of Yirui Technology easily understood the meaning.

A very interesting idea!

For Yirui Technology, wanting to realize this technology was not difficult; it was similar to the principle of a barcode scanner. Considering that this business did not conflict with the company's interests and was conducive to promoting the practicality of QR codes.

In principle, Yirui Technology did not reject this deal.

However, it still required some investigation.

After investigation, Yirui Technology discovered that Yancheng Technology did not involve mobile phone business, but the boss, Shen Yan, was a major shareholder of Xiaogu Company, and Xiaogu Company was fully developing mobile phone manufacturing.

The rhetoric matched!

And Yancheng Technology's capital was very strong; the cooperation could be achieved.

They required Shen Yan to pay a remuneration of 5 million RMB and arrange for a few software engineers to assist. The R&D time would not exceed two months, and all R&D results would belong to Shen Yan.

Time is money; Shen Yan almost couldn't help but agree on the spot.

It was simply too cheap!

He had He Yichen try to haggle, and finally reached an agreement at the price of 3 million.

Holding the agreement in his hand, Shen Yan picked up his coffee and took a shallow sip, suppressing his restless mood.

The first step of the plan was successfully completed.

Next, he only needed to wait patiently for the function to be successfully developed and preemptively apply for patent rights.

Once successful, the alliance between Kuaida Delivery, Easy Pay, and Xiaogu Mobile would inevitably trigger a tidal wave of impact across the internet.

Honestly, Shen Yan had never felt so full of drive.

Reborn into this life, he never thought that a small fry like himself would actually possess the possibility of prying up the foundation of the internet; although the start was a bit late, relying on the advantage of foresight, the future would be infinitely vast as long as he operated properly.

Opposite him, He Yichen keenly noticed the flames dancing in Shen Yan's eyes.

So intense, so ambitious!

In the dark, he had a feeling that he seemed to have done something extraordinary.

What kind of function could a mobile phone "Scan" actually have?

Unable to figure out the reason, he simply stopped thinking about it, and He Yichen asked: "Junior Brother Shen, as your company grows larger and larger, it seems inappropriate to continue staying in the school's Entrepreneurship Center; how about it, do you have any plans to move into an office building?"

Shen Yan's heart stirred: "I have been pondering this matter recently; could it be that Senior Brother He has a good place in mind?"

"The company on the floor above the firm moved out just a few days ago; if Junior Brother Shen is interested, you might as well go and inspect the site," He Yichen said, his lips curling slightly as he offered the suggestion enthusiastically.