msmithbooks Chapter 139 Successful "Revenge"
Chapter 139 Successful "Revenge"
Chapter 139 Successful "Revenge" (5k)
On the way back to the hotel, Lü Siyu kept her head down, scrolling through her phone, her fingertips rapidly swiping across the screen.
Suddenly, she looked up sharply, her eyes wide: "Boss, I just saw a post on Weibo in Xinlang saying that Google is considering withdrawing from the mainland China market! It's even trending!"
Geng Zhi was pondering the details of Momo's press conference when he heard this and was slightly taken aback.
He then immediately feigned surprise: "Huh? How do I exit?"
"I don't know the specifics, but from what I've heard, it seems like it can't be used in mainland China anymore; you can't use search or anything like that. A lot of influential bloggers are discussing it, and they're saying all sorts of things."
As Lü Siyu continued scrolling through Weibo, she spoke with obvious disbelief in her tone.
Geng Zhi sighed, feigning concern: "Oh dear, what am I going to do for researching papers in the future? Google Scholar is so useful; for someone as academically inclined as me, this is a huge loss!"
Lu Siyu looked at her boss with some skepticism.
Does the boss really love academic pursuits?
She stared at Geng Zhi for a few seconds, unable to tell whether what the boss was saying was true or false.
After analyzing for a while, Lü Siyu wanted to discuss with Geng Zhi the academic impact should Google really withdraw.
"Boss, if Google really withdraws, what aspects do you think will be most affected?"
"The one that will have the biggest impact on us—" Geng Zhi thought for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh, "That should be Baidu's stock price. I estimate that the stock price will skyrocket in the short term."
Ok?
Lu Siyu was taken aback: "Boss, aren't you into academics? Why is your first reaction to this business issue? Why don't you care about academic matters at all?"
"Teaching, research, and discussion are integrated," Geng Zhi said earnestly.
"But Baidu's stock price has skyrocketed, which has nothing to do with us! We didn't buy any Baidu stock," said Lü Siyu.
"It's related! I bought Baidu stock!" Geng Zhi said cheerfully.
Lü Siyu: "————"
She decided to change the subject.
Lü Siyu: "Boss, you know what, there's this guy on Weibo called [Paul the Octopus] who predicted Google's withdrawal as early as the first day of the Lunar New Year, and he's getting a lot of likes now!"
"Tch!" Geng Zhi blurted out instinctively.
Previously, when Gengzhi posted on Weibo using the account "[Paul the Octopus]" about Google's impending withdrawal, he was met with ridicule and sarcasm from a group of people. Among them were several influential figures who claimed that mainland China couldn't do without Google and would never withdraw, etc.
At the time, one netizen even vowed that if Google really withdrew, he would immediately go to Times Square and eat a ton of shit.
Now that Google has officially announced it, people are starting to give it a thumbs up again.
I wonder what that guy who swore he'd eat shit is feeling now. Will he be able to gather that much shit? How long will it take? And will Times Square even allow mukbang (eating broadcasts)?
"Boss, what are you cutting? Don't you think Paul the Octopus's predictions are pretty accurate?" Lu Siyu said.
"No, not really. I just think the name [Paul the Octopus] sounds awful—" Geng Zhi replied casually, his eyes drifting out the window.
Lü Siyu was speechless and rolled her eyes at Geng Zhi.
After offering a few straightforward comments, Geng Zhi ignored Lü Siyu and instead opened the [Momo Squad] QQ group.
There are already hundreds of unread messages in the group.
After he briefly climbed downstairs, the group chat was filled with discussions about Momo's official launch promotion plan.
Geng Zhi sent eight words in the group: "Conference call at 10 pm tonight."
10 o'clock sharp, in the hotel room.
Having just finished washing up, Geng Zhi was drying his socks next to the radiator when he dialed Shu Beibei's number.
"Boss, Senior Lu and Sister Xiaowen just got off the plane and won't be coming to the company today. Sister Yujiao has already left work. Everyone else is in the company now."
"
Shu Beibei's voice came through the phone, with some background noise, including the sound of typing and indistinct conversations.
"Okay, let's begin now."
The phone went quiet as everyone pricked up their ears.
Geng Zhi asked Ma Tongtong first, "Tongtong, could you please update us on the product acceptance status? Have both the iOS and Android versions finished testing?"
"Okay, boss." Ma Tongtong answered the phone, her voice crisp. "Both iOS versions V1.0 and V1.1 have been accepted by Beibei and are ready to go live."
"The features of Android version V1.0 are still being tested by Haitang and Dakun. If all goes well, it should be available by noon the day after tomorrow."
"Very good. Now I will go into more detail about Momo's promotion goals and strategic positioning, so that we can align with each other."
"Momo's release will be divided into two phases, with March 16th as the dividing line. Before March 16th, it will be the MVP verification phase, and after March 16th, it will be the official version release phase."
"We have two core objectives in the MVP version validation phase."
Geng Zhi paused for a moment, then continued, "First, by March 16th, we need to accumulate 8000 seed users, of which at least 2000 should be active users."
"Second, test the product's functional stability, server load, and user retention data, collect user feedback, and accumulate word-of-mouth from the first batch of seed users."
After explaining the core objective, Geng Zhi asked everyone, "Any questions about this?"
"No!" came the unanimous reply over the phone, their voices filled with enthusiasm.
"Okay. Now, let Shu Beibei give a brief update on the promotion strategy for the first phase of the MVP version," Geng Zhi said.
Shu Beibei answered the phone.
"We originally planned to promote the product in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing and other cities simultaneously, but we found that our team was short-handed, so we changed our focus to Shanghai."
"By promoting it only in Shanghai, any bugs or problems can be communicated and resolved most efficiently."
Shu Beibei coughed lightly and continued, "Our strategy is to promote through online traffic generation and offline engagement, focusing on two core groups: college students and urban white-collar workers."
University students have a high population density, strong social needs, are willing to try new products, and spread word-of-mouth quickly. White-collar workers, on the other hand, have fragmented time during commutes, offline social needs, and high spending power.
Therefore, after discussing with Shu Beibei, Lu Zhijie, Yang Mingxia and others, Geng Zhi decided to target university students and white-collar workers in major universities in Shanghai as the primary target audience for the initial promotion.
"The target student demographic, besides Jiaotong University, mainly includes students from Jiaotong University, Fudan University, Tongji University, Huashi University, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and East China University of Science and Technology."
Seven other major universities, including Shanghai University.
"Promotion is conducted through campus BBS, various QQ groups, on-site promotions in cafeterias, door-to-door visits to dormitories, and collaborations with school clubs, with campus promotion ambassadors —"
"Starting from March 3rd, Baoguo, Zhijie, Zhao Jie, Sister Xiaowen, Wang Feifei, and I each took on two universities and led part-time college students to do promotions —"
Wang Feifei is a newly recruited field sales manager with about five years of experience in field sales, making her a veteran in the industry.
Shu Beibei paused slightly, then continued, "Starting March 5th, all operations and ground promotion teams, except for Mingxia and Sister Yujiao, will be mobilized to target white-collar workers in core business districts such as Caohejing, the Bund, Xujiahui, Wujiaochang, and Zhangjiang High-Tech Park."
"Mingxia is responsible for supplementary online promotion, such as creating buzz on Weibo topics, posting on local forums, spreading invitation codes, and building up engagement in QQ groups—Mingxia will handle the specifics."
Yang Mingxia: "My promotion here—"
Our goal is to have 5000 registered university students and 1200+ daily active users by March 16th, and 3000 registered white-collar users.
"There are over 800 daily active users," Shu Beibei concluded.
Shu Beibei and Yang Mingxia went over the complete promotion plan for the first phase with Geng Zhi and the entire team in detail, which took them a good ten minutes.
"Boss, that's the schedule and plan for this round of promotion. Please take a look and see if there's anything you need to change," Shu Beibei concluded, her tone a mix of anticipation and nervousness.
Geng Zhi remained silent for a few seconds; the phone was so quiet you could hear someone breathing.
""
"The promotional plan for college students and white-collar workers is fine; it's solid and well-thought-out. We just need to monitor the online data performance constantly and adjust it as needed if any problems arise," Geng Zhi said.
Just as Shu Beibei was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Geng Zhi spoke up again: "But we're still missing one link in the core target audience for the initial stage."
"Hmm?" Shu Beibei asked疑惑地, "Boss, what do you mean?"
"Another large group is the nightlife crowd. Nightclubs are a natural setting for strangers to socialize, and the nightlife crowd is one of the most natural and important users," Geng Zhi pointed out.
The other end of the phone went silent instantly.
Hearing terms like "nightlife crowd" and "nightclubs," which are relatively distant from their lives, Shu Beibei, Yang Mingxia, Niu Baoguo, Lu Zhijie, and others were all surprised.
The group looked at each other, not quite understanding.
Why develop this type of user? The boss never mentioned this before!
"Nightlife crowd?" Shu Beibei asked first. "Boss, how do we target this group?"
"We can talk to the managers of bars, KTVs, nightclubs, gyms and other similar venues about potential collaborations," Geng said calmly.
There was silence again on the other end of the phone.
Whether it was Shu Beibei, Yang Mingxia, Zhao Jie, and others who had not yet graduated, or Lu Zhijie and others who already had work experience, they all faced a dilemma.
They had generally never been to bars. Although they had been to KTVs, they were fine with singing, but they had no experience or mental preparation for negotiating collaborations with bar owners or doing promotions in nightclubs.
At this moment, several people began to reminisce about Li Haipeng, who was skilled in this kind of work.
Wang Feifei chimed in, "Boss, I'll take charge of the nightclub business. I can bring Beibei and Zhao Jie along to do the promotions and let them familiarize themselves with promotional techniques—"
"No! Don't let the girls go, it's not safe." Geng Zhi interrupted decisively, "Feifei, you take Baoguo, Zhijie, Peidong, Zhenbiao and a few others with you."
"Uh, boss, nightclubs have more male customers, and they're the easiest to attract. I think it would be better if a few girls went along to promote it," Wang Feifei suggested.
Before Geng Zhi could speak, he continued, "In that case, once users download the app, our female colleagues can act as shills and chat with users online."
"No need. You guys can just change your profile pictures to pictures of pretty girls and change your gender to female, and you can chat with users just the same."
"He said calmly and straightforwardly."
There was complete silence on the phone.
After a long pause, Yang Mingxia spoke first: "Boss, wouldn't doing this...be in line with our company's values?"
"That doesn't quite match up?"
Shu Beibei chimed in, "Yeah, boss, I also think it's a bit strange—"
Geng Zhi didn't answer immediately. After a few seconds of silence, he coaxed, "Back when QQ was first launched, Ma Boni personally played the role of a beautiful girl and chatted with users."
"This—I still don't think it's a good idea," Lu Zhijie chimed in.
"Zhijie, the standard for judging whether something should be done or not is essentially to look at—"
Before Geng Zhi could finish speaking, Yang Mingxia interrupted, "Essentially, it comes down to whether you're helping people or harming them."
"That's right! Let's do it Mingxia said." Geng Zhi said with a smile, "We'll officially launch it according to this plan. When I get back to Shanghai, I'll give you a full overview of my annual promotional plan."
"Okay, boss!"
"Alright, it's getting late. Everyone should go back and get some rest so we can prepare for the tough battle ahead," Geng Zhi said.
"Okay, boss, see you tomorrow."
The phone hangs up.
While scanning the computer for viruses, Lu Zhijie asked Yang Mingxia with a puzzled look, "Mingxia, do you think we're really helping people by dressing up as women? Who are we helping? I still don't quite understand."
Yang Mingxia pondered for a moment and then said, "To be honest, I haven't figured it out either. We're not really helping anyone. But just keep believing that our boss is right."
As she spoke, she gave Lu Zhijie a thumbs-up.
Lu Zhijie paused for a moment, then nodded: "Oh—that makes sense."
The following morning, at the Fosun International Building.
Geng Zhi and Lü Siyu came out of Morningside Capital's office and entered the elevator. As the elevator doors slowly closed, Lü Siyu's face immediately fell.
"It really was just a perfunctory presentation," Lü Siyu complained. "Boss, you gave a 13-minute presentation, and Liu Qin only asked three questions before it was over. That's way too perfunctory! We came all this way, and this is all we got?"
Yesterday, right after Geng Zhi finished talking with Tang Yan, Liu Qin's assistant messaged Lü Siyu, saying that Liu Qin had time this morning and they could chat for half an hour.
But the conversation actually lasted only 18 minutes. Liu Qin remained expressionless throughout, asked three trivial questions, and then said, "Okay, let's study it some more," before serving tea and seeing the guest off.
Compared to the previous communications with several investors, this meeting with Morningside Ventures caused Lu Siyu great dissatisfaction.
"Fortunately, Mr. Liu's time is precious, and he probably has important talks to come. Our project direction probably doesn't align much with his investment direction, so it's fine not to waste each other's time," Geng said in a calm tone.
"Fine, boss, you can always put yourself in my shoes, but I can't." Lu Siyu shook her head and sighed.
"Putting yourself in someone else's shoes is to comfort yourself, to complain less about the present and look more towards the future," Geng Zhi explained as he stepped out of the elevator.
"Um."
"Quickly hail a taxi to the airport. We'll rebook the next flight back to Shanghai. The sooner we get back, the sooner we can get back into the fight," Geng Zhi ordered.
The two stepped out of the elevator and arrived at the lobby on the first floor. Lü Siyu quickly ran out first, preparing to call a taxi on the roadside.
Just then, a taxi slowly pulled up in front of Fosun International Center, and a passenger was paying and getting out.
Lu Siyu's eyes lit up, and she stood next to the car, waiting for the passengers to get off so she could get on the car directly.
When Geng Zhi saw the taxi arrive, he quickly followed and walked out.
Then, he saw a middle-aged man wearing a dark blue jacket get out of a taxi in the distance.
The man was not very tall, rather thin, and around forty years old.
This is a very straightforward person I know well; I've often seen him online, but I've never met him in real life.
He recognized him all too well; it was that man!
What a coincidence!
Geng Zhi thought about it carefully and realized that it was March 2010, and his company seemed to have been established around that time.
He most likely went to see Liu Qin of Morningside Capital to talk at length about his smart device ideas and to discuss financing—that's my honest guess.
Geng Zhi bit his lip hard, and without hesitation, took out his phone. He pretended to be looking down at his phone to send a message as he quickly walked towards the middle-aged man.
His intention was to bump into the middle-aged man lightly at the bottom of the steps, thus completing a ritualistic act of "revenge".
According to Geng Zhi's calculation, he would only bump into the middle-aged man when he was going down all the steps.
But the other person seemed to be in a hurry as well. After getting out of the taxi, he jogged directly towards Geng Zhi.
Before Geng Zhi had even finished descending the steps, the middle-aged man had already strode up the steps.
This is awkward.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for "revenge." If I don't hit him, I might never have this chance again.
Let's hit him. If we really hurt him, then later—
As he pondered this, the middle-aged man had almost become as straightforward as Geng Zhi.
No sooner said than done, Geng Zhi accidentally elbowed the middle-aged man in the shoulder.
"Ouch!" The man was jolted off balance by the impact and tried to regain his footing, but after a few moments, he fell to the ground.
His head didn't touch the ground; he just squatted down on his butt.
"Areyoy OK?" Geng Zhi quickly walked to the middle-aged man's side and reached out to help him up.
After a few seconds, the middle-aged man was helped up by Geng Zhi. He brushed the dust off his clothes and waved to indicate that he was alright.
"I'm so, so sorry!" Geng Zhi quickly apologized sincerely. "I was typing and didn't realize someone was coming. By the time I realized it, it was too late to hide."
"It's alright, it's alright," the man said, waving his hand again in a Hubei-accented Mandarin.
Lu Siyu rushed over, first looking at the middle-aged man, then at Geng Zhi, and asked with concern, "Boss, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Geng Zhi said, then looked at the man who had been hit earlier. "Grandpa, were you hurt? Should I take you to the hospital? Just in case you have a concussion or something—"
The middle-aged man was slightly taken aback when he heard a young man call him "old man".
"It's not a concussion, I didn't hit my head." He glanced at his watch, frowned, waved to Geng Zhi, and jogged upstairs.
As he got into the taxi, Geng Zhi sighed softly, "I don't even know if I hurt them. Sigh, I feel really bad."
"No, boss," Lu Siyu quickly reassured him. "Look, he was able to run all the way upstairs, which proves he's fine."
After a few seconds of silence, Lü Siyu joked again, "From my perspective just now, I thought you had a grudge against him and deliberately bumped into him."
"How could that be? Don't talk nonsense! You don't even know her, how could you have a grudge against her!" Geng Zhi rolled his eyes at Lü Siyu.
The taxi driver, who had witnessed the latter part of the collision, turned to the back seat and said, "Young man, the guy you just hit was a retired business owner. I overheard him on the phone in the car; he was going upstairs to discuss a big financing deal."
"A retired boss?" Lu Siyu asked casually. "A very big boss? How can he retire so young?"
'
The taxi driver chuckled, "Hehe, young lady, that boss's surname is Lei. He used to be the president and CEO of Kingsoft!"
"Oh, Jinshan? I don't know him/her—" Lu Siyu said honestly.
Two hours later, Geng Zhi and Lü Siyu boarded a plane back to Shanghai.