2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 374 The Taste of Money

February 11, 2007, Sunday, the 2th day of the twelfth lunar month, sunny.

At 10:00 a.m., employees from all subsidiaries of Flash Group arrived at the company on what should have been their day off.

There are no work tasks today, just cleaning. I'll come at 10 o'clock, hang out for a while, have lunch, and then clean up in the afternoon before I can have the day off.

Unlike the uniform work clothes worn by everyone in the past, today every employee wore their own clothes, and some even dressed up a bit.

The various winter clothes added a lot of color to the factory area.

"Huh? Sis, you're wearing lipstick today?"

"No, it's lip balm; stop talking nonsense and hurry up and clean the office, and check if the circuit is off." Li Yanning naturally denied it.

Li Jinglan glanced at her cousin and sighed inwardly. Having lived with her cousin all this time, how could she not know what her cousin was thinking?

But how could that be possible?
People in northern Anhui get married early. Even though she's not yet 21, her family is already urging her to get married, while her cousin is almost 27. This is definitely a big problem in their rural hometown.

Children in the village who are the same age as my cousin already have two children, but my cousin has never thought about finding a boyfriend.

I remember hearing someone say something like, "You shouldn't meet someone too amazing when you're young, or you'll never forget them."

"Oh dear, what should we do?"

The food service staff at the company cafeterias were quite good at lunchtime, giving each employee an extra chicken leg compared to usual. However, most employees knew that the real feast would be in the evening.

"What a waste! They usually give us extra chicken legs, but who's short of one today?"

"Who says otherwise? The person in charge of the cafeteria is an idiot too."

"By the way, how much bonus did you get?"

How much year-end bonus you get is the most important topic for all office workers during the Chinese New Year. This question can be heard everywhere in the cafeteria of FlashTech.

The company is doing very well this year. In 2005, it was almost impossible to make a profit, but this year the net profit has increased dramatically.

With little increase in labor costs, the significant increase in sales leads to lower R&D costs, and also reduces costs on components.

In the Dagang Industrial Zone, the situation is basically the same at Jinpeng Industrial's factory. However, compared to the high enthusiasm of the workers at FlashTech, the employees here seem much calmer.

There's no other reason than that the factory was set up in just a few days, and everyone can imagine how much money they'd be paid.

Employees who joined Jinpeng Industrial Garment Factory before the Chinese New Year, except for those who were brought in from the acquired garment factory, basically did not earn much money.

The employees who were able to leave before the Lunar New Year likely had very poor working conditions at their original factories. Unless they couldn't stand it anymore, even if they joined Jinpeng just to secure a job for next year, they would have endured until after the Lunar New Year.

"Hey, is it true that we can also win those cars in the lottery? Is there some kind of inside story?"

"How would I know? But it says that all employees of all subsidiaries except senior executives can participate in the lottery. It can't be a lie, right?"

"You said if I win the lottery, I can sell it back to the company? I don't have a driver's license, so I can't take it back."

"Are you still half asleep? You think you can win when a thousand or two thousand people participate?"

"Haha, thinking about it, it's not bad. There are 85 cars, let's say 1500 people are drawing lots, that's a 5% chance of winning, that's much easier than winning the lottery."
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"It's about a 5% probability, that's a real probability, the chances of winning are quite high."

This is much more realistic than the winning rate of Pony Ma's lottery. Everyone knows that the probability of winning in Pony Ma's lottery is 99%, which is practically 0%.

"What happens to the license plate number of the winner? And what if they don't have a driver's license?"

The person asking the question was Tan Lihua. Their house back home wasn't finished yet, so the Tan family decided to spend the Spring Festival in Ningbo this year. Tan Lihua came over on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.

Tao Yinian and the Yicheng City government expressed their deep regret that Tan Jincheng did not plan to go home for the Chinese New Year.

What a great opportunity to get a good deal, and it just slipped away.

Tan Lihua was shocked when he first arrived at the top-floor office area. The office area on one floor was divided into four sections, two of which were this brat's office and rest area.

That's really too extravagant and wasteful.

The cars parked in the parking lot, the well-arranged venue, the chefs borrowed from the big hotel, and the dazzling array of ingredients all left a deep impression on Tan Lihua.

It's said that many celebrities will be performing later, which explains why there are reporters waiting outside in this freezing weather.

In addition, there are many fans. Xiao Gu said that those are entertainment reporters who are there to protect Jay Chou, and most of the fans are his fans.

In Xiao Zhang's words, it really reeks of money everywhere.

"Is it really necessary to go all out like this? Won't it make people resentful?"

Petrochemical companies also hold annual meetings, but such a lavish one is something that even Tan Lihua, and very few people in the entire Flash Group, have ever personally witnessed. "There are definitely some envious people, but they probably don't hold grudges. Everyone knows that the gross profit margin in the electric vehicle industry is quite good. This year, they were also messed up by those Forbes lists. If they don't make a big splash, it will be easier to cause trouble."

Perhaps it was due to dissatisfaction with Flash's refusal. According to their statistics, Tan Jincheng was clearly not qualified to be on the list, yet they still issued a separate statement, which was somewhat infuriating.

Tan Jincheng does need a reputation, but he wants to use that reputation to enhance the company's competitiveness, not for such superficial things.

Electric vehicle business is considered low-end manufacturing, and nobody would look favorably on it. The investment in lithium batteries is huge, and Hangxin New Energy, which was already losing money, suffered even greater losses due to the acquisition of Dexian Electronics.

This thing, well, nobody really cares about it for now, but Orange Technology is different.

In 2006, venture capital firms both domestically and internationally began investing heavily in the internet industry. It was clear to everyone that the internet industry, after its investment recovery, would be a burgeoning sector in the future.

The most important thing is that this thing is fast; after a few rounds of capital speculation, it can be listed and raise money.

Orange Technology has no support from Beicang District. Although Ningbo University is involved, it is only a project to help farmers, and Ningbo University does not hold any shares in Orange Technology.

At this critical moment, Ningbo University may not be willing to get involved in this mess without any benefit to itself.

The lavish annual meeting was less about sharing joy with company employees and the public, and more about Tan Jincheng putting on a show of bravado.

He spent tens of millions to plan an annual meeting in a short period of time, making a big splash that is known throughout the country. His high-profile style of doing things, the fact that there is nothing shameful about how he made his fortune, and the various honors he has received.

Such a business leader would inspire some apprehension if someone wanted to take control.

Although Tan Lihua knows more than most people, he has always been in a grassroots position. Due to the limitations of his environment and background, he does not understand these things.

Tan Jincheng was a businessman in his previous life. He understands that if you want to keep a business going, you have to be humble when you need to be low-key, but you can't back down when you need to be high-profile. You must never back down.

Even if things don't go well, the news we've seen in this information explosion era is already a ready example, but there's no need to mention these things to my father, lest he worry unnecessarily.

Tan Jincheng quickly changed the subject and shifted the discussion to the Chinese New Year.

The family of four spent the Spring Festival in Ningbo this year, and Zhang Qingliang didn't want the hassle of going back.

It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Zhang Qingliang's family, who had hitched rides a few times, clearly didn't want to take minibuses anymore this year since they couldn't get a ride.

Zhang Qingliang is also taking driving lessons in his spare time. He used to be able to drive a tractor, so driving is not a problem for him. However, he has limited time and has to take his driving test step by step.

The two families spent the New Year together in Beicang, so they didn't feel too lonely. Apart from Tan Jincheng, everyone else felt it was a novel experience.

Gu Qingqing will naturally go back to Yiwu for the New Year, but she won't be able to go back until the 29th of the lunar year.

Kaixin.com is different from a factory; it needs to run all the time. As the CEO, Gu Qingqing naturally cannot take a holiday too early. At the same time, the programmers who stay on duty during the Spring Festival must also be taken care of.

In addition, the project to help farmers has been distributing the fruits and vegetables grown by Happy Farm users in batches since before the Lunar New Year. The most popular strawberries are already out of stock, and the happy expressions of the growers during interviews have been frequently reported in various media outlets.

This caused quite a stir before the Lunar New Year, resulting in a surge in the number of Happy Farm users and daily active users. The prerequisite for becoming a Happy Farm user is to become a user of Kaixin.com.

Within just a few days of the news breaking, Kaixin001 set a record of adding more than 1 million new users in a single day, which also caused Kaixin001 to crash for the first time since its launch.

Gu Qingqing was also extremely busy. She could only come to the annual meeting after it officially started in the evening. Originally, the employees of Orange Technology planned to have dinner with the employees of Flash Group and then watch the show.

With something like this happening, who has time to watch any programs? After dinner, everyone should hurry back to work.

The influx of new users caused the server to crash, and competitors like QQ Zone and Renren.com were not about to let this opportunity pass.

Even several counterfeit websites that had previously received lawyer's letters from Kaixin.com have spared no effort in stabbing them in the back, finally seizing the opportunity.

That's how the internet works. Cooperation is one thing, but when it comes to stabbing someone in the back, there's absolutely no hesitation; it's a direct confrontation.

The employees of Orange Technology had clearly never experienced anything like this before. Faced with overwhelming questions, apart from Cheng Hao, who managed to maintain a certain level of composure and order the server to be repaired as quickly as possible, the marketing department was at a loss as to how to handle the public relations situation.

After all, the outage is a fact. You can't handle more than a million new users a day, so it's reasonable to question the server bandwidth and Orange Technology's technology.

If you can't come up with any particularly good ideas, then just ask Boss Tan, the marketing master.

Whenever Gu Qingqing recalled the time she found Tan Jincheng, his reaction was: "Is there really such a good thing?"

This is exactly what happened to Weibo. Back then, when top idol Lu Han and Ha Jingyu announced their relationship, Weibo crashed. Unexpectedly, Weibo used this incident to promote itself in reverse.

From now on, whenever any top-tier or even not-so-top-tier celebrity gets into trouble, Weibo will crash to grab the spotlight.

Whether or not Weibo could be crashed became a barometer of celebrity popularity.

Increasing server bandwidth is a given; you have to be strong yourself to succeed. As for public relations, just follow the Weibo approach.

Now, a new chapter is about to begin.

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(End of this chapter)