Chapter 91: MiTalk Goes Live! Valuation Soars to 1.5 Billion (Subscribe Please)

Chen Yansen locked the car and went up to the second floor, with Song Yuncheng close behind him.

Less than half the people were at their workstations; the rest had gone to the cafeteria for dinner.

Wang Zihao looked up and saw Chen Yansen, called out a greeting, and also noticed Song Yuncheng behind him. Though curious, he didn't ask.

"Brother Sen, come grab dinner with me. The second cafeteria just opened a beef noodle place, not bad." Wang Zihao walked over, smiling.

"Next time. I already ate downtown."

Chen Yansen sat down, leaned back, took out his phone. He'd planned to download a new game from the app store, but suddenly noticed a MiTalk promo banner in the carousel.

MiTalk is out already?

Then WeChat can't be far behind!

Chen Yansen didn't think twice, downloaded and installed it right away, tried it for a while. It had voice chat, text and image messaging, group chat—everything it should have.

This thing really is handy. Back in 2010, sending an MMS on your phone cost 0.5–0.9 yuan a message, and it couldn't even exceed 100kb. A decade-plus later, you wouldn't even imagine it.

Too bad Jun'er launched his product first and still couldn't beat WeChat.

Chen Yansen thought to himself: if he'd been reborn in 2009, he'd at least come up with a CloudTalk, QuickTalk, or FlyTalk to take Pony Ma down a peg.

Forget it. In the 3G era, I'll let you old-timers have your way. 4G is where this brother shines—I'll make you all scream and holler.

Every era has its big brother, and Chen Yansen wanted to be the big brother of the next one.

"WeChat leveraged QQ for traffic, loaded QQ friend lists, and expanded fast in a short time. Looks like Fox Taopin's Series A really can't shake off Penguin."

Chen Yansen was running the numbers in his head.

Just then, Song Yuncheng across from him caught on. She suddenly realized that everything she'd done with Chen Yansen all afternoon was on the "100 Things Couples Must Do" list.

Her fair face flushed instantly. She lowered her head, afraid Chen Yansen would notice.

"Song Yuncheng, on the 7th of next month, the apparel salon at Hangcheng Sijiqing—you'll lead and host it. Zhang Yifeng will be your deputy, Hu Li and Xu Kun will accompany you. A few channel directors from vertical e-commerce platforms will attend too. Watch for business opportunities."

Chen Yansen spoke up suddenly, startling Song Yuncheng.

"Got it. Will you be going?" Song Yuncheng steadied herself and asked.

"No." Chen Yansen shook his head.

This apparel salon exchange was mainly to prepare for next March's spring new arrivals. Seventy percent of Fox Taopin's users were female—the site had to build up strongly related categories before performance could really take off.

Otherwise, only selling digital appliances, furniture, and home improvement—categories with low repurchase rates—Fox Taopin would go under sooner or later.

Categories like furniture and general merchandise, food, apparel, and beauty were the core categories that held up an e-commerce company.

Take Jingdong, for example. It started with just 3C and appliances, then first snatched the book business from "good brother" Li Guoqing, then moved into food, home goods, and beauty categories, and finally wouldn't even let go of small categories like auto parts and accessories.

"Understood." Song Yuncheng nodded slightly, her pretty brows furrowed, seemingly mulling over the exchange's flow and details, and what benefits Fox Taopin could extract from it.

Chen Yansen glanced at her, got up, and left the startup park.

Besides the apparel salon, once the merchant recruitment team doubled in size, next year's wine fair, confectionery festival, beauty expo, appliance and digital expos—he'd send category and recruitment staff to all of them.

One, to get up close and understand brand owners' online needs; two, to train these greenhorns.

Merchant recruitment is run step by step, pounding the pavement. Locked in an office all day—how much room is there to grow?

Back at 0418, Chen Yansen showered and lay down on the bed.

Unable to sleep for the moment, he sent messages separately to Meng Jie and Song Yuncheng, telling them both to register on MiTalk and come online to chat with him.

"Wow! This app lets you send pictures for free, amazing!" Meng Jie tried it for a few minutes, exclaiming in surprise.

Heh, this is nothing—there's even video calling coming later.

"Send me a photo." Chen Yansen replied.

"Wearing too little, not convenient to snap." Meng Jie replied instantly.

"I love seeing the inconvenient kind." Chen Yansen smiled.

"Why'd you have me download this app?" Song Yuncheng messaged.

"To keep me company chatting." Chen Yansen replied.

"I'm working on the Fox Taopin product promo PPT and the Hangcheng salon planning proposal. Really no time to chat with you." Song Yuncheng refused flatly.

Chen Yansen checked the time—9:15 PM. Figured Song Yuncheng hadn't gotten off work yet. He thought for a moment and replied: "Send me the files by email, I'll help you sort out the logic."

"Thanks, Master. smiley. jpg" Song Yuncheng had been fretting over what to do. Product promo PPTs she was good at, but industry exchange meetings—she really had no experience.

She'd searched on Qiandu for ages and hadn't found much useful info.

"Call me daddy. angry. jpg" Chen Yansen replied to her.

"……Files sent to your email." Song Yuncheng sat at her workstation, muttering softly: "Chen Yansen, you pervert. Just wait till this sis makes it big—I'll make you call me mommy."

The thought popped into her head on its own, and she couldn't help laughing out loud.

Not long after, Chen Yansen replied by email, restructuring the overall plan. Song Yuncheng just had to fill in the content and flesh out the exchange details.

"Snap a photo and show me." Chen Yansen finished coaching and unapologetically demanded his "payment."

"Thanks, boss. I'm off." Song Yuncheng grinned, squinting, and walked lightly out of the startup park.

"Buzz buzz buzz—"

Song Yuncheng pulled out her phone. Seeing Chen Yansen pressing her for a photo, she glanced left and right, stood under a streetlight, and with a "click," sent a selfie over.

Chen Yansen opened the image. In the photo, Song Yuncheng wore that pink down jacket, a wisp of amber lamplight falling on her cheek—delicate nose, cherry lips—looking especially lovely.

"This bro doesn't look for free. I'll send one back." Chen Yansen, bare-chested, casually snapped a photo and sent it over.

Song Yuncheng glanced at the photo and snorted with laughter. She pocketed her phone, blew a breath of warm air onto her chilly little hands, then headed toward the dormitory building.

……

……

Year-end was approaching, and Fox Taopin was swamped from top to bottom.

New Year's Day came with a three-day holiday. They couldn't exactly keep the whole staff at the startup park on duty just to keep the Super Return event running nonstop.

So the merchant recruitment and category teams were under enormous pressure—they had to set up three days of brand group activities in advance. The workload was truly no small matter.

Xu Dan was busy recruiting for the customer service team, as well as handling business development and category social-recruitment initial interviews.

Chen Yansen had nothing much going on, so he prepared to go after Zhang Hanhua. After figuring out Zhang Hanhua's cooperation channels, he first talked with Liang Youzhi from Penguin, then through a third party, found a partner that Zhang Hanhua had kicked out.

A mature plan was quickly put into action.

Although last week's fake-alcohol incident seemed unrelated to Zhang Hanhua, maybe Zhang Hanhua just hadn't been named yet. Chen Yansen didn't want to leave someone hostile to him hiding in the shadows.

Take him down hard first, talk later!

After arranging everything, Chen Yansen felt refreshed. He got up, ready to attend the Business School's New Year's Eve gala.

"Zihao, hold down the fort at the annual meeting tonight. Meng Jie and I will head over after seven."

Before leaving, Chen Yansen specifically instructed.

"Sure. Wenbo and Pengfei said that without you there, everyone feels more relaxed." Wang Zihao nudged Zhang Wenbo with his elbow, teasing with a smile.

"Sen-ge, believe me, I didn't say anything." Zhang Wenbo waved his hands repeatedly, denying it outright.

"Sen-ge, you know me—I've always respected you the most." Xiang Pengfei grinned, buttering him up.

"Get lost, get lost!"

Chen Yansen couldn't be bothered wasting time with them. He cursed them with a laugh, got into his BMW 750, and headed straight for the Business School auditorium.

Walking into the backstage area, he spotted Meng Jie from afar.

Her makeup tonight was exquisite—eyes clear and bright, wearing blue colored contacts, lively and alluring, with curly short hair that looked playful and cute.

In a blue spaghetti-strap tulle dress, the pearl necklace at her neck catching the eye, she looked like a completely different person from half a year ago.

"Wearing so little, aren't you cold?" Chen Yansen walked up, took her small hand, and said softly.

Meng Jie's hand was petite and soft, warm to the touch.

"The dress is lined with heat patches, I'm not cold." Meng Jie replied with a smile.

"Really? Let me check." Saying that, Chen Yansen pretended to lift her hem.

"Cut it out! I arranged with the host—on stage at 18:30, so we can leave half an hour early." Meng Jie dodged backward.

"Alright, I'll wait for you in the auditorium." Chen Yansen smiled, chatted with Meng Jie for a while, then headed toward the auditorium.

The Business School had many majors and many freshmen. After Chen Yansen went in, he found there wasn't even an empty seat. He didn't mind, just leaned against the wall.

A bespectacled girl beside him caught sight of him in her peripheral vision, and her eyes lit up at once.

After a moment's hesitation, she took the initiative to chat him up: "Classmate, do you want this seat?"

"Is that okay?" Chen Yansen asked with a smile.

Seeing his roguish grin, the girl felt even more that Chen Yansen was impossibly handsome. She hurriedly stood up to give him the seat: "I made plans with a classmate to see a movie, I'm leaving right away."

"Thanks, this seat is just right for filming my girlfriend." Chen Yansen emphasized deliberately.

Girlfriend?

The bespectacled girl was instantly disappointed, almost blurting out: Classmate, on second thought, maybe you should just keep standing.

Chen Yansen couldn't care less about her. He pulled out his phone, chatting with Song Yuncheng while waiting for Meng Jie to come on stage.

After three performances in a row, Meng Jie finally walked onto the stage with a microphone.

"Starlight like tears, unspoken longing turns into dark circles, hundreds of days of passion, one cold front shatters it all"

"……"

"You're in the room, like a slideshow, spreading in my eyes, you're on my phone, you're on my laptop, can't be cut off……"

Meng Jie's singing was beautiful. She reproduced about seventy to eighty percent of the song. Combined with her naturally vibrant personality, she drew a wave of male gazes.

Ten-some minutes later, Meng Jie changed clothes and walked out with Chen Yansen.

"Classmate Meng Jie, you're really beautiful tonight. This flower is for you."

The two had just stepped out of the auditorium when they saw a boy rushing over, holding a bouquet of roses, all excited.

Meng Jie froze, her expression awkward—her boyfriend was right beside her.

This boy was really annoying. She'd rejected him hundreds of times, yet he didn't even give a heads-up and came straight to deliver flowers.

I clearly said I have a boyfriend. How can someone with such poor comprehension have gotten into college?

"Oh, tulip roses—buddy, you've got taste. Thanks."

Without a word, Chen Yansen snatched the roses from his hands.

"Who are you?" The boy was completely bewildered, looking at his empty hands, and demanded loudly.

"Senior He is my boyfriend." Meng Jie's words completely extinguished the boy's hopes.

The boy lowered his head, his face flushing red.

Meng Jie had used those words to reject him before, but he'd never seen Chen Yansen come to the Business School to find Meng Jie, so he thought it was just an excuse. Had he known, he definitely wouldn't have come to make a fool of himself.

"Buddy, these flowers really smell great!"

Chen Yansen shook the bouquet, twisting the knife with his words.

The boy let out an "Ah!", ran off in shame, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"You're so mean." Meng Jie laughed uncontrollably.

"For you." Chen Yansen used the borrowed-flowers-offered-to-Buddha trick, handing them to Meng Jie.

"I don't want flowers someone else bought. I want ones you bought." Meng Jie put her hands behind her back.

"Silly girl, isn't it better to save the money and buy you a gift? That guy's a fool—wasting the flowers would be a shame. Let him feel involved." Chen Yansen grinned wickedly.

Too bad that boy left early. If he'd heard this, he might have wanted to jump straight into Pearl Lake on the spot.

"You're rotten to the core." Meng Jie said with a grin.

"Let's go, Zihao's still waiting." Chen Yansen took Meng Jie's hand, they got in the car together, and headed toward the city center.

Meanwhile, the venture capital firms that had previously come to inspect all received Fox Tao's Q3 business and financial reports.

October: average daily active users 167,000, average daily orders 25,000, average daily sales 810,000 yuan, monthly gross profit 3.57 million yuan;

November: average daily active users 613,000, average daily orders 104,000, average daily sales 4 million, monthly Mao Li 15.6 million;

December: average daily active users 1,024,000, average daily orders 207,000, average daily sales 13.8 million, monthly Mao Li 67.2 million.

Chen Yansen did not reveal operating expenses, but Fox Tao had fewer than 100 people in total; including advertising costs, the net profit margin was at least 50%.

Can shopping-guide e-commerce really make so much money?

Originally, venture capital valued Fox Tao at a maximum of 700 million or 800 million; after receiving this material, the valuation immediately soared to over 1.5 billion.

(End of this chapter)