Chapter 262: Ye Qiuping: I Want to Report My Work! Creator Platform

May 20th, another ordinary Sunday.

Chen Yansen slowly opened his eyes, walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, then changed into a clean white T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, strolled downstairs, got into the driver's seat of the Bentley, and drove toward the tech park.

The sky was gray and hazy, the street scenes slipping past behind him.

He couldn't help recalling the few news items he had just seen.

Sina, NetEase, Renren, and Shengda, upon seeing 360 Mobile's sales about to surpass one million units, all announced their entry into the mobile phone industry, planning to collaborate with phone manufacturers to launch their own customized devices.

The number of smartphone users surpassed that of PC users for the first time; the balance between PC internet and mobile internet began to tilt.

Meanwhile, Yahoo's Yang Zhiyuan finally gave in, agreeing to Ma Liyun's request to repurchase equity, and both sides reached an agreement: Mama Ali would repurchase Yahoo's 20% stake in Mama Ali with $6.3 billion in cash and $800 million worth of Mama Ali preferred shares.

The remaining 20% would be repurchased at the IPO price when Mama Ali went public.

Yang Zhiyuan had invested $1 billion in Ma Liyun in 2005; seven years later, he recouped $7.1 billion with just half his equity, and the remaining half, upon Mama Ali's IPO, would be worth at least $24 billion.

In nine years, Yahoo made a staggering $30 billion profit.

Perhaps this was Yang Zhiyuan's best investment decision in his lifetime.

Once this matter was fully resolved, Mama Ali would launch its IPO plan; along with Jingdong, China's two major e-commerce platforms were both pursuing financing and listing to secure more development capital.

But Chen Yansen was utterly calm; the $300 million provided by Tencent alone was enough to cover Pinaibei's operational expenses for two or three years, not to mention the daily $60 million in Mao Li revenue flowing in.

This was also why he had long refused to accept financing.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen drove into the tech park and parked beside Gao De.

He glanced at his watch—it was exactly 5:30 a. m.

There was no help for it; his sleep duration now fell below four hours, and he woke up early every day. With nothing to do, besides reading and studying in 0418, he could only come to the company to review business reports, restructure the AuroraOS system, and optimize the Mo Si intelligent voice assistant's algorithm model.

Passing the front desk's drink machine, he spotted a bottle of mango yogurt, picked it up, and walked straight into the elevator, heading to the top-floor office.

He turned on the computer and logged into the data backend.

Pinaibei's current daily active users remained at 50 million, with mobile users accounting for 23%, a full 15% increase since last December.

This clearly showed how rapidly smartphone sales were growing in the domestic market.

In 2011, smartphone shipments totaled only 80 million units, but in the first four months of 2012, cumulative shipments had already surpassed 60 million units; many tech industry research firms predicted that 2012's total smartphone shipments might break the 200 million mark.

The only problem now was that 3G network fees were too high, severely limiting the development of mobile internet.

Otherwise, Pinaibei's mobile user ratio should have been at least 40% or higher.

Chen Yansen had no solution to this issue.

It was nearly impossible to make the three major carriers spit back the meat they had swallowed.

Unless some big shot above gave the order!

Chen Yansen remembered clearly: in his previous life, during the second half of 2013, while interning in Shanghai, he had bought a China Telecom corporate card on Taobao.

Monthly rent: 19 yuan, 1GB nationwide data, with additional usage charged at 10 yuan per GB.

In 2012, data prices were still exorbitant; users had to turn off mobile data while sleeping, terrified that waking up would leave them owing their carrier a house.

Thus, software like e-commerce apps, which required loading too many main images and detailed pictures, consumed more data than users could afford.

Kuai Pao Waimai's coverage had expanded from Luzhou and Shanghai all the way to Jin Ling, Hangcheng, and Sucheng, with daily orders reaching 800,000, a staff of over 7,000 delivery riders, and an additional 2,200 part-time delivery personnel.

Former couriers from Sanyi Yida had either joined Yun Su or Kuai Pao.

In cities where Kuai Pao and Kuaide had entered, Gao De Maps launched ride-hailing and food delivery services, capable of driving traffic to Kuai Pao and Kuaide while also opening a brand-new revenue stream for itself.

Coupled with Sister Chengzi Phone, Today's Headlines, and Lingxi Browser, Chen Yansen had already locked in the mobile internet entry point.

He was just waiting for the policy to lower fees and increase speeds, so he could step briskly into the new era.

The old internet giants had BAT; the new era had only one god.

"Still need to wait another year."

After finishing his work, Chen Yansen waved his hand, and his phone flew over.

As chairman of Sister Chengzi Technology, the phone he used was naturally the Sister Chengzi C2; he opened an electronic scan of "Power Systems" and flipped through it rapidly.

He finished reading over a dozen books in one go; a faint morning light filtered through the glass window, casting dappled shadows on the floor.

Only at 8:30 a. m. did Chen Yansen put away his phone, take the elevator to the first floor, and head toward the cafeteria.

As soon as he entered, several local aunts from Xucheng immediately called out loudly: "Good morning, Boss Chen! Today we have pumpkin porridge, millet porridge, wontons and dumplings, and tofu pudding—what would you like?"

"Tofu pudding, but less light soy sauce."

Chen Yansen glanced around, picked up a tray, selected a few of his favorite breakfast items, swiped his card, received a bowl of prepared tofu pudding, and sat down at an empty table.

At this point, a few scattered employees had begun entering the cafeteria for breakfast.

Sister Chengzi Technology, Pinaibei, Today's Headlines, and Sister Chengzi Pay all started work at nine a. m., had a two-hour lunch break, and finished at five p. m.

Six-hour workday, no forced overtime.

But since every project was in a phase of rapid growth, coupled with overtime pay up to three times the base rate, most employees' schedules ended up being nine a. m. to eight or ten p. m.

Each month, overtime pay alone amounted to 70% of their base salary—or even more than their full salary.

"Boss, good morning!"

At that moment, Ye Qiuping walked in with her tray and sat directly across from Chen Yansen, offering a faint smile and speaking softly in greeting.

"You're not acting anymore?"

Chen Yansen looked up, glanced at Ye Qiuping, then fixed his gaze on her bowl of salty tofu pudding covered in chili oil.

"People from Qin Dao eat salty tofu pudding too," Ye Qiuping replied with a smile.

Her voice was soft and sweet, just like her body.

But her work style was completely opposite—sharp, decisive, and utterly without hesitation; she turned on a dime.

"Did you settle things with Paramount?" Chen Yansen asked casually.

"Five-year contract, $20,000 per year," Ye Qiuping answered.

"Star Trek" was indeed a major IP, but Alexa was merely a dialogue system in the movie; the licensing fee was naturally absurdly low.

Paramount heard that a Chinese tech company wanted to obtain film character licensing rights for "Star Trek"; they initially intended to make a huge profit, but upon learning the character they wanted was Alexa, they were instantly stunned, then immediately handed this cooperation over to an intern in the copyright department.

After all, a contract worth only a few tens of thousands of US dollars simply didn't matter to anyone.

"200,000 US dollars, one-time buyout," Chen Yansen said calmly.

He feared that if the Alexa smart speaker later sold out in the European and American markets, Paramount would raise the price on the spot.

"What if Paramount refuses?" Ye Qiuping pressed.

"Then we give up," Chen Yansen shrugged, saying indifferently.

Riding the IP traffic of "Star Trek" would be best; if not, he didn't care. For him, creating a "Star Trek" co-branded smart speaker was merely icing on the cake.

For the Alexa smart speaker to sell millions or tens of millions of units in Europe and America, the core still relied on its own product strength.

"Alright, I understand," Ye Qiuping nodded in response.

Chen Yansen hummed, said no more, and focused on eating breakfast.

While eating tofu pudding, Ye Qiuping secretly sized him up: his eyebrows like distant peaks, his eyes deep and bright, the authority between his brows growing daily, his person mixed with the complex aura of a young man and a business tycoon.

Most importantly, whether among pure male college students or entrepreneurs, Chen Yansen's looks and figure were in a league of their own.

"Why are you looking at me?" Chen Yansen asked, head down.

"I wasn't looking at you," Ye Qiuping said, denying it outright; seeing he hadn't even raised his head, she assumed Chen Yansen was just guessing wildly.

Chen Yansen ignored her, finished his breakfast on his own, and prepared to stand up and leave.

"Boss, I need to report my work to you in a bit."

Ye Qiuping pressed her legs together, blinked her eyes, and said softly.

What does this woman want?

Chen Yansen frowned slightly; when to turn a book, at what angle, with what force, and to what depth, must be decided by him.

"No time today," Chen Yansen refused directly.

Having spoken, he placed the tray at the dish return area and returned to the office at a leisurely pace.

Just as he sat down, NetEase's Ding Lei called.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment and guessed the other party's intent; it seemed the pig farm phone was not far off.

"President Chen, when will you come to Hangcheng? Recently I got two bottles of good wine again; the wine is here, just missing you as a friend."

Ding Lei greeted him with a chuckle.

"If President Ding can't wait, you can bring the wine to Xucheng to find me," Chen Yansen leaned back on the sofa, joking with a smile.

"You're asking me to drink, yet I have to go to Xucheng personally to invite you? Your attitude, kid, is bigger than Zhang Chaoyang's," Ding Lei knew he was joking and deliberately teased.

"You said we're friends, so cut the roundabout talk; I've seen the news. NetEase wants to make a phone, right? Speak: do you want patent licensing or do you want Sister Chengzi's factory to do OEM manufacturing?"

Chen Yansen dropped the smile and asked directly.

"Both!" Ding Lei let out a dry laugh, then explained: "I set up a R&D studio in Hangcheng; I originally wanted to build a NetEase OS, but after thinking it over, I decided to use your AuroraOS system."

It wasn't hard to see from the market feedback of the 360 Phone and Xiaomi 1s that the AuroraOS system's hardware compatibility, system resource management efficiency, and security mechanisms were far superior to the MIUI system.

The result created the awkward situation where the Xiaomi 1s couldn't sell as well as the 360 Phone.

Users also perceived for the first time that piling up hardware wasn't the only way; hardware compatibility, memory utilization, and operational smoothness were equally important.

With identical processor performance and memory configuration, the 360 Phone was smoother than the Xiaomi 1s.

So, Ding Lei figured it out: hire a few R&D engineers from Huawei, ZTE, and Ku Sect, focus only on the phone's hardware and industrial design, and for everything else like the operating system, built-in application software, and driver development, simply adopt Sister Chengzi Technology's products.

After all, in the mobile phone industry, people like Chen Yansen who license their operating systems to other companies are rare "oddities."

BlackBerry did something similar a few years later, but that was an action taken before BlackBerry planned to exit the smartphone market.

To put it plainly, when a company is about to go bankrupt, making some money with an operating system is reasonable.

But Sister Chengzi Technology is different; three models sold over 4 million units a month. There was no reason to do this, yet Chen Yansen did it anyway.

"No problem. Arrange a liaison, and we can sign the licensing contract anytime," Chen Yansen agreed readily.

In his heart, the importance of the Sister Chengzi phone factory was ten times that of Sister Chengzi Technology.

Anyway, the technical patents he gave to 360, NetEase, Meizu, and OPPO were all a version behind the Sister Chengzi phone.

Earning patent licensing fees while also increasing Human Torch income; it was a win-win situation, and Chen Yansen had no reason not to agree.

"Fine. When I finish up these few days, I'll come to Xucheng to find you for a drink."

Ding Lei was deeply moved; the other party gave him too much face. He knew Chen Yansen didn't grant licenses to just anyone.

At least, Big Chili and Hammer phones were rejected by Sister Chengzi Technology.

"Then I'll wait," Chen Yansen smiled, then hung up the phone.

Although Toutiao and NetEase News were competing websites, NetEase's profit focus had long since shifted to the gaming industry, so the two had no conflict of interest.

The morning passed quickly. At lunchtime, Liang Bo sent a message: "Boss, the creator platform functionality has passed acceptance."

Chen Yansen shot up from the sofa and headed to the office area where the Toutiao project team was located.

(End of this chapter)