Chapter 116: 130 Million Mao Li, 494 Threads of Human Dao Torch (Requesting Subscription)

Mid-to-late March, time slipped away like light smoke in an instant.

After joining the company, Wang Teng communicated the requirements with Chen Yansen, then immediately began drafting the product documentation without rest.

He pulled in the system architect to optimize and refactor the hardware abstraction layer, kernel, system service layer, application framework layer, and application layer, striving to achieve system stability and scalability.

On the last day of the month, this temporarily named Aurora OS (Aurora System) R&D group had expanded to 39 people.

Sixty percent of the engineers were recommended by headhunters, showing how fierce Chen Yansen's recruitment drive was. The remaining 23 were still processing their resignation procedures; by now, the Aurora R&D team was basically fully assembled.

Meanwhile, Zuo Hongyu sent Chen Yansen the list of electronic components used in mobile phones priced between 1,500 and 3,000 yuan on the current market, along with preliminary quotes.

He also informed him that the purchase unit price and payment terms were still negotiable; once the scale increased, there would be at least 20% to 30% room for bargaining.

Chen Yansen secretly calculated; it seemed Lei Yi hadn't lied. Xiaomi indeed made no money on hardware, which explained why they later launched the Redmi series—to seize market share and profit from the software side.

"Brother Sen, all team leaders are here in Conference Room 218," Hu Weiyi said, approaching with a laptop to remind him.

Chen Yansen glanced at the computer time: March 31st, 4:30 PM.

He acknowledged with a sound, stood up, and walked with Hu Weiyi toward Room 218.

As the boss, he certainly could not miss Fox Tao's first quarterly financial meeting.

Pushing the door open, Chen Yansen scanned the room.

Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Song Yuncheng, Chen Xu, Du Yaoyao, Zhuang Rui, Yuan Wei, Li Hui, Wang Zihao, and Meng Xibo occupied most of the seats.

In mid-March, Du Yaoyao was promoted to Editor Team Leader.

Li Hui, thanks to his outstanding performance in Q1, was promoted to Investment Promotion Team Leader.

Chen Xu, as one of the first category teams, was also promoted by Chen Yansen to Category Team Leader this month.

Among these team leaders, except for Yuan Wei, Design Team Leader Tang Qin, and Event Team Leader Wang Yunxia, most were selected from the first batch of seed employees.

"Team leaders' reports will be held after the holiday. Hu Weiyi, let's discuss the data first."

Chen Yansen pulled out a chair, sat down, and said to Hu Weiyi.

"Then let's start with traffic," Hu Weiyi cleared his throat, set up the screen projection, opened the PPT, and said: "January average daily active users were 1.36 million, with new customers accounting for 39.4%; February average daily active users were 1.54 million, with new customers accounting for 40.7%; March average daily active users were 2.07 million, with new customers accounting for 43.6%. Our cumulative registered users total 98.47 million, quarterly active users 59.42 million, and monthly active users 31.09 million..."

"What about the weekly and monthly retention data?" Chen Yansen interrupted and asked.

"Weekly retention rate is 36.9%, monthly retention is 14.5%," Hu Weiyi, who knew these numbers by heart, answered crisply and decisively.

"Much better than last year's Q4 data. Zhuang Rui, good job."

Chen Yansen smiled slightly and praised him by name.

"Thank you, Brother Sen. It's mainly because the Event Team cooperated well," Zhuang Rui said, not taking credit and instead complimenting Wang Yunxia.

"Continue," Chen Yansen smiled and signaled Hu Weiyi.

"January sales target was 400 million, actual completion 430 million, achievement rate 107.5%; February sales target was 320 million, actual completion 290 million, achievement rate 90.6%; March sales target was 500 million, actual completion 570 million, achievement rate 114%..."

Hu Weiyi continued his report.

February was affected by the Spring Festival and courier suspensions, with nearly two weeks where data couldn't be pulled up; that was understandable.

Judging from March's sales situation, Fox Tao's daily sales volume was already approaching the 20 million mark. At this development speed, even if the annual revenue target of 10 billion wasn't met by year-end, the gap wouldn't be large.

After all, there were still the 618, Double Eleven, Double Twelve, National Day, Autumn Clothing Renewal, and Home Decoration Season events ahead; e-commerce companies' second-half performance usually accounts for over 65% of the full year.

"January gross profit was 44.9 million, February gross profit was 30.8 million, March gross profit was 61.7 million. The gross profit margin fluctuated between 10% and 11%. From a category perspective, food, digital appliances, home furnishings, and women's wear form the first tier; mother and baby, luggage delivery, sports, and automotive supplies form the second tier..."

Hu Weiyi finished speaking in one breath, paused slightly, and continued: "Our Q1 total gross profit was 137.4 million. According to the first-half target set by Brother Sen and the finance department, we still have a gap of 170 million."

After listening to Hu Weiyi's report on traffic and financial data, Chen Yansen slowly opened his mouth to add:

"I have reviewed the scores for all team members and synchronized them with Xu Dan and the finance department. After the meeting, team leaders will conduct one-on-one talks with team members regarding quarterly performance results. I won't say much more; I hope everyone focuses their energy on breaking through Q1 performance in Q2."

"Yes, Brother Sen," everyone responded in unison.

"Next, starting from the frontend, let's discuss Q1 project progress and Q2 project plans. Everyone gets three minutes; focus on the key points."

Chen Yansen gently instructed. He always prioritized efficiency in meetings and disliked long-winded speeches; talking too much without focus mainly wasted time.

Zhang Wenbo nodded slightly, representing the frontend team, briefly reported Q1 output and Q2 development plans, and finished in under two minutes.

The people following were similar.

When it was Song Yuncheng's turn, Chen Yansen finally raised his head and cast his gaze over.

He leaned back, smiling lightly as he looked at Song Yuncheng.

This feeling of nurturing someone with one's own hands was indeed nice. At this moment, he suddenly understood why Ye Qiuping, back then, had taught him personally how to conduct oneself, the hidden rules of the business world, and how to legally and reasonably earn extra income.

She could both make money for him and work hard for him.

Unfortunately, Ye Qiuping overplayed her hand. Chen Yansen was harder to control than she imagined; using her resources and connections, he stubbornly succeeded in starting his own business and even stepped on Ye Qiuping's head.

However, in this life, he was too lazy to trouble her again. A book worn out from reading, read once more, would not produce the slightest sense of novelty.

Song Yuncheng was different. Under his cultivation, he was confident, full of vitality, and youthful; this was exactly what suited Boss Chen's taste.

"In Q1, the Major Client Investment Promotion Department introduced a total of 87 B2C platforms, completed 69 targeted brand events, 13 integrated marketing brand cases, with commission gross profit of 17.2 million and advertising fees of 16 million..."

Song Yuncheng did not notice Chen Yansen's attention; he kept his head down, reporting steadily.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, said nothing, and signaled the next person to continue reporting.

When the meeting ended, it was only 5:15.

Chen Yansen kept Wang Zihao, Zhuang Rui, and Wang Yunxia behind. First, to discuss Q2 user acquisition issues; second, to let Zhuang Rui and Wang Yunxia think from the event perspective on how to improve user retention and repurchase frequency.

It wasn't until past 6 PM that Chen Yansen walked out of Room 218.

"Class monitor, you look super cool today!" Xu Xingxing leaned over, awkwardly flattering him.

"Received the performance email?" Chen Yansen squinted, seeing through it in one sentence.

"Hehe, no wonder you're the class monitor, both handsome and smart." Xu Xingxing truly wanted to get close to Chen Yansen but could never find the right opportunity, so whenever an opportunity arose, he would tease him.

Chen Yansen looked left and right; everyone's expressions were similar, like during Chinese New Year, grinning widely, working while smiling foolishly.

For the Q1 bonus, about 5% of people received three months' salary, 15% received two months, and 80% received one month. For an editor with a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan, doubling it to 8,000 yuan made anyone happy.

Chen Yansen was also quite happy. Tomorrow, when the wages arrived, he would receive at least several hundred threads of Human Dao Torch.

He returned to his seat, played with his phone for a while, and suddenly came across news of 360's listing: the first day saw over forty times the subscription demand, with a market value approaching four billion US dollars.

Heh, the day Old Zhou and Lei Yijun turn on each other is not far off.

After a company goes public and gets rich, the common ailment among domestic entrepreneurs is to invest everywhere or explore new profit avenues, because the original business has long hit a ceiling and won't grow significantly just because of the listing.

Ninety-nine percent of companies peak at listing, followed by three consecutive years of losses, earning them an ST label.

The domestic smartphone market looks like it's going to get even more chaotic.

In the future, Mama Ali, Qian Du, Gree, and Le Shi will all jump in; even a photo-editing software company like Meitu can make phones.

Why can't Chen Yansen make them?

After Wang Zihao finished communicating performance issues with the team members, the two called Wang Teng and headed to the cafeteria together.

……

……

Early the next morning, Chen Yansen woke up and immediately summoned the system panel.

The column for the Torch of Humanity had already accumulated 494 threads.

Seeing so many Torch points for the first time, Chen Yansen knew his kidneys were currently sufficient; without hesitation, he focused his will directly on the Spirit column.

A wisp of white mist, two fingers thick, appeared out of thin air and shot straight toward his brow.

Hiss!

In an instant, like a volcanic eruption, his brain felt the illusion of being scorched by raging fire, thoroughly flushed from the inside out.

In a daze, Chen Yansen felt as though his brain was about to be boiled.

Immediately after, a bone-chilling coolness surged from the depths of his brain, flowing through his entire body in the blink of an eye, as if awakening every single cell.

A few minutes later, everything returned to calm.

Chen Yansen slowly sat upright, feeling light all over; his eyes swept across the bedroom, and when he closed them, he could roughly memorize the position, angle, height, and shape of every object.

The Spirit value surged from 3.49 to 8.43!

According to the system, this was nearly three times that of a limit human.

After some testing, both learning efficiency and memory became abnormally astonishing.

Damn! If I had been reborn a few months earlier, wouldn't Tsinghua and Peking University have been at my fingertips to choose from?

Chen Yansen couldn't help but sigh, but then he thought, things aren't bad now either; the girls at Tsinghua and Peking University, he could still pick and choose at will.

Remembering Wang Teng's words last night that the R&D progress was a bit slow, he suddenly realized that with his current learning ability, starting from scratch to learn computer programming, algorithms, and hardware knowledge shouldn't take much time.

Chen Yansen changed into a set of casual clothes and went straight to the library, found a book titled "Android Application Development Revealed," and began reading it with great interest.

In his past life, his successful entrepreneurship and financial freedom naturally stemmed from his diligent learning in later years.

Without understanding these things, in the future, when those developers were dragging out work that should have taken a week into two, he wouldn't be able to tell.

After some consideration, Chen Yansen decided that while chasing girls, he would also recharge his brain.

As Chen Yansen was deeply engrossed in his studies, the girl opposite him had her mouth slightly open; she never expected to run into Chen Yansen in the library.

After all, he didn't even attend his major courses, let alone come to the library.

(End of this chapter)