Chapter 358: Global No. 6! Apple Stirred! 317.4 Billion Huayuan, No. 2 Nationally!

On January 4, the news that OrangePhone topped China’s smartphone shipment rankings sparked heated discussion, with its staggering global sales of 50.1 million units leaving people stunned.

After all, OrangeTech had been in operation for less than two years.

In 2012, China’s total smartphone shipments reached 370 million units (230 million smart devices); behind OrangePhone were Shanxing, Lenovo, Apple, ZTE, and Huawei.

In other words, one out of every eight phones sold last year was an OrangePhone, and one out of every five smartphones was an OrangePhone.

Suddenly, keywords like “OrangePhone,” “Chen Yansen,” “China’s No. 1,” and “50.1 million units” surged to the top headlines of major portals.

An hour later, CCTV devoted three minutes to a brief report on OrangeTech, mentioning the China Association of Science and Technology’s purchase of the OrangeZ1 instruction set architecture license.

As a loyal partner of Senlian Capital, Penguin News prominently displayed on its homepage: “Solidly Ranked No. 1 in China! OrangePhone’s Global Shipments in 2012 Surpassed 50 Million Units!”

NetEase’s headline read: “Only after reading IHS Suppli’s research report did we realize last year’s OrangePhone was a war god, crushing Shanxing and wiping out Apple!”

After finishing the year-end performance review with Zhou Shouzhi and others, Chen Yansen glanced at the trending news and chuckled, shaking his head.

He was more focused on Gartner’s published data: global smartphone shipments in 2012 totaled 1.74 billion units, with Shanxing leading at 380 million, Nokia at 330 million, Apple at 130 million, ZTE at 67 million, and LG at 58 million.

OrangePhone ranked sixth with 50 million units, followed by Huawei, BlackBerry, Motorola, and TCL (largely driven by Alcatel phone sales).

“Boss, CCTV’s ‘Everyone’ and ‘Dialogue’ teams have sent invitations, and Lizhi TV’s ‘Winning in China’ wants you as a startup mentor.”

As soon as Chen Yansen returned to his office, Ye Qiuping caught up with him.

In fact, interview programs from Lucheng, Jin Ling, and Hu City had also called, but Ye Qiuping rejected them all, deeming their reach insufficient, leaving only the three most influential shows.

The former had CCTV’s backing; the latter’s mentor roster included industry giants like Ma Liyun, Liu Chengzhi, and Wang Shi.

Chen Yansen’s wealth and industry influence were certainly impressive, but to most people, he was still just a twenty-year-old business prodigy.

Yet his true financial power was no less than that of the BAT giants.

In an era when TV media still held sway, many entrepreneurs viewed interviews and entrepreneurship shows as vital platforms for company and product promotion.

This mutually beneficial model helped OrangeTech and even Senlian Capital, which was why Ye Qiuping came to report it specifically.

“Tell Wang Xueting to hire me a secretary—brains first, figure and face second.”

Chen Yansen leaned back in his chair and gave Ye Qiuping orders.

“Male or female?” Ye Qiuping ventured.

“What do you think?” Chen Yansen shot back.

Ye Qiuping chuckled awkwardly and added, “Once the recording dates for these three shows are confirmed, I’ll add them to your schedule. Boss, I could be your secretary too.”

“You? No.” Chen Yansen rejected her outright.

“Why?” Ye Qiuping frowned slightly, her expression tinged with defiance.

With her capabilities, she had managed OrangeTech’s branding department flawlessly—being a secretary was no challenge.

“You’re too old—you’re already twenty-nine. Who hires a secretary that old?”

Chen Yansen raised an eyebrow, teasing her.

Too old? Twenty-nine?

Ye Qiuping froze, her chest heaving, her bright, glossy eyes instantly filled with rage.

Where was I old?

Next time I’ll slip rat poison in your sweet soup and poison you, you bastard!

“Looking at that expression—you’re not thinking of poisoning me with rat poison, are you?” Chen Zong grinned, fixing her with a sharp gaze.

“No, no, how could I? Besides, I couldn’t bear to poison you.”

Ye Qiuping blinked, her face softening with flattery, speaking gently in explanation.

“Leave.” After tormenting Ye Qiuping, Chen Yansen waved her off, satisfied.

Asshole!

Ye Qiuping silently cursed inside.

But she wasn’t lying—she dreamed of Chen Yansen, this young, wealthy, handsome, and capable boss.

Even though she was always overshadowed by his brilliance and constantly on the losing side, Master Ye still loved every moment of it!

After Ye Qiuping left, Chen Yansen instructed the admin department to reserve a banquet hall on the rooftop garden for tonight’s dinner.

Only when the last rays of dusk faded and twilight deepened did the group board over a dozen luxury cars and head en masse toward the city center.

At the front and back, Mercedes MPVs carried full teams of company security personnel.

Chen Yansen wasn’t worried about danger himself—he arranged this for Cao Dahua, Liao Wei, Huang Zheng, and others.

These three “hardcore types”—one haggled over labor costs, one over prices, the other over merchants—had driven countless crooked businessmen to ruin; the number of people wanting them dead could stretch from Xu Yuan’s East Gate to Beijing’s Wangfujing.

Better safe than sorry—safety first!

Meanwhile,

The news of OrangePhone’s full-year shipment figures continued to spread, swiftly dominating headlines across all major websites; any report tied to OrangeTech quickly hit ten thousand clicks, comments, and shares.

After learning OrangePhone had climbed to sixth globally in smartphone shipments, Lei Yi felt even more inferior.

Facing Zhou Hongyi’s provocation, Lei Yi gritted his teeth and made up his mind: the operating systems of the Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S must switch entirely to AuroraOS.

MIUI had cost him all his dignity!

He Bo Ting, who had secured the OrangeZ1 instruction set architecture license, rushed back overnight to Shencheng to thoroughly test its power efficiency, performance, and integration.

Compared to ARM, OrangeTech’s licensing fee was a bargain: a one-time payment of 20 million Huayuan plus a 1% royalty.

If OrangeZ1 met Hisilicon’s technical standards, Huawei would abandon ARM’s CPU architecture and adopt OrangeZ1 to cut costs.

For years, being strangled by ARM had been unbearable.

Apple shared the same frustration—ARM showed no mercy, forcing Apple to pay 700–800 million USD annually in patent fees.

Jobs couldn’t tolerate it; Cook certainly couldn’t either.

Since 2011, Apple had initiated work on its own instruction set, but due to extreme difficulty, it remained dependent on ARM’s architecture.

Apple’s “Swift architecture” was, in essence, still a derivative of ARM’s instruction set.

In short—they still had to pay ARM!

When Cook learned of OrangeZ1’s existence, he immediately took interest; judging by his experience, if even the China Association of Science and Technology and Huawei were willing to pay for the license, its coding efficiency, flexibility, and compatibility must be at least on par with MIPS.

“Taylor, notify Isabel at the Asia office—send someone to OrangeTech’s headquarters to acquire the OrangeZ1 architecture patent license.”

After a moment’s thought, Cook instructed his assistant.

Isabel was the English name of Ge Yue, Apple’s Director-General for Asia; her involvement would secure the OrangeZ1 technical patent swiftly.

Whether OrangeZ1 met Apple’s chip development requirements didn’t matter to Cook—three million USD annually in licensing fees was a drop in the ocean for Apple.

What if OrangeTech surprised him?

On the other side,

In the city center, atop the Sky Garden’s rooftop banquet hall.

Inside, golden and dazzling, spacious and bright, dozens of elegantly dressed men and women held wine glasses, smiling and tipsy, moving among the tables.

Chen Yansen sat at his seat, clinking glasses with Cao Dahua: “Been to the school?”

“Nothing changed—I had a few cups of tea with Old Tang,” Cao Dahua chuckled; he now called Tang Qingshan “Old Tang” instead of “Principal Tang.”

“I won’t attend the year-end parties at the Shencheng and Lucheng factories—you and Cai Jingming will host.” Chen Yansen swirled his wine glass gently.

“Huh? Boss, everyone downstairs has been waiting a whole year for you to inspire them at the party!”

Cao Dahua paused, then flattered him.

“Q4 bonuses have already been paid—what’s left to inspire? You’re not balloons! Enough, I trust your judgment.”

Chen Yansen raised his hand as if to pat his shoulder.

Seeing this, Old Cao bent his waist and slipped his shoulders, instantly lowering himself a few centimeters to make it easier for Boss Chen.

Chen Yansen chuckled, placing his hand firmly on Old Cao’s shoulder and speaking seriously: “In my heart, you matter more than OrangeTech or Zhou Shouzhi—keep the factories running well, don’t let me down.”

Hearing this, Cao Dahua’s face flushed with emotion, tears welling in his eyes as he nodded firmly: “No problem! Boss, rest assured.”

Chen Yansen smiled, silently withdrawing his hand, then walked to the next table and addressed Xiao Jun of AutoNavi with solemnity:

“The importance of electronic navigation software to the group far exceeds your imagination—it’s more critical than Pinbei Mall or OrangeTech. Work hard. Among all project leads, I have the most faith in you.”

Xiao Jun nodded repeatedly, his heart warmed.

After exchanging pleasantries, Chen Yansen approached Liao Wei of YunSu Express: “I’m stricter with you because I have the highest confidence in your operational and managerial talent.”

After going around, Boss Chen didn’t give pep talks—he only fired up adrenaline, handing out endless big promises that left everyone too full to drink more wine.

“Senior Sen hasn’t changed one bit,” Wang Zihao grinned.

“Boss Wang, shall we go toast the boss?” Hu Weiyi nudged Wang Zihao’s arm, whispering.

Compared to OrangeTech, Pinbei Mall, and YunSu Express, OFO bikes was just a small project with daily revenue of 300,000 Huayuan—how could she wait passively?

Anyone with even a shred of sense knew to step forward proactively.

“Alright,” Wang Zihao spotted an opening and squeezed over with Hu Weiyi.

“Boss, thank you for leading us forward. Next year, we’ll work even harder,” Hu Weiyi smiled sweetly.

“Senior Sen, may your wealth roll in and your annual income exceed 100 million,” only Wang Zihao dared joke with him in the entire banquet hall.

“Madam Hu, Zihao has mentioned to you that Tencent, Hillhouse, and Sequoia Capital all intend to invest in OFO bikes. The group will assign a team to assist you with your Series A financing—how far you go depends entirely on you.”

Chen Yansen spoke casually.

“Thank you, Boss, I understand,” Hu Weiyi nodded.

“Are you getting used to Hangcheng?” Chen Yansen draped an arm around Wang Zihao’s neck, asking casually.

“Apart from the food not suiting my taste, everything’s fine. Offline business is much harder than online—OFO bikes use smart locks and GPS chips, yet we’ve still lost over 300 bikes. It’s insane.”

Wang Zihao sat down, gritting his teeth.

“Any business involving people is never simple. When you finally understand human nature, you’ll be ready to stand on your own.” Chen Yansen said calmly.

“Senior Sen, I’ll just follow you—why do I need to stand on my own?” Wang Zihao scratched his head, seizing the chance to show loyalty.

“I don’t want someone too stupid.” Chen Yansen replied.

Like Liao Wei—if he can’t keep up with the company’s pace, Chen Yansen would kick him out without hesitation.

“...” Wang Zihao frowned and muttered weakly, “Sen-ge, you don’t have to be so blunt.”

“I trust your abilities. No matter what, you’ve studied under me for two years—if you’ve made zero progress, it’s my reputation that suffers.”

Chen Yansen laughed freely.

“Sen-ge, how much valuation do you think ofo can get?” Wang Zihao pressed.

“Forget all your financial knowledge?” Chen Yansen shot him a glare, annoyed.

“At current daily revenue levels, annual revenue is 108 million Huayuan. Using the price-to-sales ratio method, a conservative valuation is 500 million, an optimistic one 800 million; but Didi Bike, with only 50,000 bikes deployed, secured a 2-billion valuation. Using industry comparison, ofo’s fair valuation exceeds 2 billion.”

“I haven’t forgotten the financial models, but the two valuation methods yield very different results—that’s why I’m asking.” Wang Zihao smiled broadly.

“Isn’t it simple? Use the higher price. As long as investors accept it, you could even ask for 10 billion—it’s still a reasonable offer.”

Chen Yansen explained calmly and slowly.

Wang Zihao nodded, lost in thought.

After three rounds of drinks, the night outside the window had grown deep.

Chen Yansen glanced at his watch, then signaled everyone to disperse; they had a meeting tomorrow, ending at 10:30 was just right.

“Boss, I made some sweet soup.” Before the hotel entrance, Ye Qiuping whispered.

“Never mind. I’ve been drinking sweet soup too often lately—I’ve gotten fat.”

Chen Yansen replied vaguely, then got into his Rolls-Royce and told Xiao Li to drive him back to Sanjiaozhou.

The next morning, Zhuxianzhuang Technology Park.

Conference Room, Building Six.

Chen Yansen sat at the head of the table, with Huang Zheng presiding over the year-end summary and performance review meeting; Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Hu Yun, Zhuang Rui, Cai Qiming, Fei Qiwén, Chen Peng, and Song Yuncheng sat to either side.

“Same as always—Hu Yun goes first,” Huang Zheng said coolly.

As Director of the Data Department, it was indeed more reasonable for Hu Yun to report first.

“Boss, General Huang, let’s first look at Pinbei’s core data: annual GMV of 317.4 billion Huayuan, a 2486.7% increase over 2011, ranking second in the industry.”

Hu Yun opened his PPT, connected it to the projector, and began speaking slowly.

Pinbei launched on November 18, 2011, with total annual sales of 12.27 billion—hence the extremely high growth rate.

(End of chapter)