Before Dan Jincheng made a name for himself in the electric vehicle industry, Yu Lin, Xinri's marketing director, had always been known as the number one marketer in the electric vehicle industry.
It was Yu Lin who, last year, when Shanchi just appeared, hired Brother Chun as a spokesperson, discovered Shanchi's marketing highlights, and attempted to poach Dan Jincheng to Xinri.
Later, he discovered that Shanchi's marketing mastermind was the boss himself, and with limited production capacity and being just a small factory, the company didn't pay much attention, so the matter was dropped.
Unexpectedly, a year later, Shanchi grew into another competitor for Xinri and even snatched the Olympic sponsor spot from them.
Every time he thought of this, Zhang Congxun's face would burn, as it was his initial disdain that made Yu Lin abandon further actions.
This also showed Yu Lin's capability.
The rapidly developing electric vehicle industry has no obvious entry barriers or technical barriers, low market concentration, and inconsistent product quality.
Currently, there are over a thousand manufacturers holding production licenses, and the number of unlicensed manufacturers is even harder to count.
Without technological breakthroughs, one can only work on brand recognition.
Xinri's growth trajectory, apart from being slightly longer than Shanchi's in terms of timeline, is otherwise quite similar, also focusing on marketing.
For example, earlier competition proposals for Olympic sponsorship, the previous Jiangnan large-scale promotion plan, and currently, the 'Poor Students Dream of Elite Schools' event being prepared, jointly organized with the Jiangsu Provincial Youth Development Foundation and the Jiangsu Provincial Project Hope Foundation.
Through this method, they establish connections with universities, and by the way, can conduct a round of autumn recruitment at prestigious schools, building their brand image on university campuses.
These marketing plans, whether viewed from a short-term market or long-term planning perspective, are extremely beneficial for the recognition of the Xinri brand.
After hitting a wall in Beicang, Xu Qihua set her sights on Xinri's marketing director Yu Lin.
This was the second plan discussed with Aima's boss Zhang Jian before she came, showing Aima's decisive action and long-term planning.
These were all carried out in secret, and Dan Jincheng and Zhang Congxun naturally couldn't have known.
Even if they knew, they wouldn't tell each other.
For example, the poaching discovered by Dan Jincheng this time was handled secretly.
Within the company, besides Zhou Ao and the poached individuals, only the two secretaries, Zeng Jixiang and Zhao Xinyi, knew about it.
If you poach from Shanchi, you're bound to poach from other big factories.
Why publicize it?
—
"It's finally over, I can go home,"
Cheng Hao exhaled a long breath.
He had been in the Imperial Capital for over a month, from being ignored to subsequent negotiations, and then to data integration for the collaboration.
After a series of procedures, he finally settled and completed all cooperation agreements with MSN.
Cheng Hao is from the south.
He previously worked in Hangcheng, then moved to Yongcheng after joining Orange Tech.
He was genuinely a bit unaccustomed to his more than a month in the Imperial Capital.
The dry climate, differences in diet, and staying in a hotel every day made him feel uncomfortable all over.
He had never been on a business trip for so long before.
In between, Boss Tan came once to attend Jay Chou's event in the Imperial Capital, and also took him out for a break, witnessing Shanchi Technology's strength firsthand.
Three spokespersons, each more famous than the last.
Nine large-scale promotional events within a month went off without any major glitches, and they were able to live stream with text and images simultaneously on Kaixin.com.
Their coordination and organizational abilities were truly remarkable.
By the end of July, Kaixin.com's registered users had exceeded 1 million, and all of this was achieved before officially integrating with MSN data.
Officially launched on July 7th, within 25 days, official registered users surpassed 1 million, and daily activity consistently remained at a very high level.
The most popular section was still the 'Friends Sell Friends' mini-game.
The two social mini-game sections, 'Friends Sell Friends' and 'Grab a Parking Spot,' were the most effective in retaining users.
After meeting Boss Tan, Cheng Hao also asked if advertisers should be introduced later.
Currently, some advertisers had already contacted Orange Tech.
The ultimate goal of the website was to make a profit, and advertising was the best way to monetize.
However, Boss Tan's idea was not to introduce any advertisers before the number of registered users reached 10 million, to maintain the website's clean aesthetic.
Subsequent advertising would also not be as blatant as traditional methods, but rather brand placements within mini-games.
Product placement, compared to traditional advertising methods, is more easily accepted by users.
Some variety shows and TV dramas do this well, but it shouldn't be overdone or too awkward; at least it should fit the rhythm of the plot (game).
Speaking of awkward examples, it should be that film starring Shuangzi and Tangzhu that came out a couple of years later, right?
"Duanmu, he took me to Metersbonwe!"
The entire internet couldn't hold back their laughter.
"We can temporarily ignore the advertisers, but some friends in my circle have already approached me, saying some investors want to meet you."
Cheng Hao greatly admired Dan Jincheng's decision.
One must know that Boss Tan was burning his own money; no founder of an internet company did this, they all burned investors' money.
After the number of users exceeded 1 million, introducing some advertisers to subsidize company expenses was actually justifiable.
Cheng Hao had even planned to have the project team prepare positions for ad traffic, but he hadn't expected Boss Tan's vision and ambition to be so grand, not even considering introducing advertisers before reaching 10 million users!
Moreover, the method of introducing ads was actually through more subtle product placement instead of traditional methods, which would lead to an even better user experience.
"Oh? Investors are paying attention to us so early?"
"Not early at all. In fact, investors were already paying attention to us during our first week online, but at that time, they didn't intend to contact us; they were just tracking our website data. I heard this from a friend."
Speaking of this, Cheng Hao beamed. Honestly, he had worked at Pig Factory for so many years, and indeed had many fair-weather friends, but genuinely close ones were few.
After all, he wasn't in a position of power at Pig Factory, otherwise, he wouldn't have come to Orange Tech, a startup.
After resigning, Cheng Hao had a period of being quite dejected.
Already out of favor and without the halo of Pig Factory, many people distanced themselves from him.
However, after Kaixin.com's project went online and registered users exceeded 500,000 in a week, and then surpassed one million in less than a month, Cheng Hao garnered a lot of attention.
All these friends came back!
Human nature is just that realistic: if you're doing well, you're surrounded by kind friends; if you're not, you're nothing.
Dan Jincheng pondered for a moment and said,
"Let's not bother with them. Our current funds are still sufficient. Raising capital now wouldn't fetch a good price, there's no need."
The venture capital round investment came from him and his future father-in-law.
Dan Jincheng was not in a hurry for Series A funding before the existing funds ran out.
Furthermore, regarding Series A funding, Dan Jincheng wasn't too concerned about how much capital he could raise; he valued resources more.
Although Cheng Hao managed the negotiations with MSN, it was very difficult, and this was even with these foreigners being unfamiliar with the national conditions.
From this, it's clear that Cheng Hao's connections would play an increasingly smaller role in future development.
For example, Kaixin.com also wants to cooperate with Tencent in the future.
To expand in social networking, it's certainly unavoidable.
At that point, Cheng Hao's connections might not be useful.
The cunning Tencent is not as easy to deal with as MSN, a company that had a great start but ultimately exited the domestic market.
At this time, investor connections and influence would be needed.
Additionally, Kaixin.com is similar to Xiaonei.com, founded by Wang Xin.
Xiaonei.com eventually seemed to have listed on NASDAQ?
Then Kaixin.com also has a chance to go public.
However, that's for later.
If the listing process is too complicated, Dan Jincheng wouldn't actually mind selling Kaixin.com to cash out early.
Cheng Hao nodded,
"Alright, then I'll reply to them that Kaixin.com currently has no financing plans."
In fact, he also disagreed with raising capital now.
Although the boss could still make a large profit, it would truly be considered a fire sale.
"Hmm, we should wait until we're larger in scale. Also, your stock options will be processed after you return."
Promises must be kept.
Cheng Hao might not be capable of other things, but he is definitely a qualified CTO for Kaixin.com.
The first batch of 1.5% equity is not much.
According to the agreement with Cheng Hao, he could acquire a maximum of 5% shares in Orange Tech.
Of course, if there are financing or listing plans, his shares, including Gu Qingqing's, would still be diluted as appropriate.
Before Series A funding, Cheng Hao's ability to obtain this 1.5% share early also meant that this portion of equity was more valuable.
After completing the data integration with MSN, Cheng Hao didn't linger.
After treating the integration personnel to a meal, he packed his bags and bought a plane ticket back to Yongcheng; he didn't want to stay for another moment.
Besides using MSN users for viral marketing, Boss Tan also proposed a new idea: adding a one-click share function to Kaixin.com's articles, logs, photos, and games.
Simply put, after users upload their photos, to let more people see them, they can choose to share them to, for example, QQ groups, QQ friends, MSN friends, or forums and blogs.
This was definitely a good innovation, satisfying users' desire to share while also enriching Kaixin.com's methods for acquiring new users.
Implementing this feature isn't difficult; the challenge is that it might be blocked by major websites once discovered.
In the previous life, WeChat was very domineering, blocking all links outside its ecosystem.
But it doesn't matter.
Share as much as possible while they're not paying attention.
If it gets blocked, then choose suitable companies to negotiate with.
The internet these days isn't as strictly divided into factions as in the previous life; it still adheres to the concept of interconnectivity.
(End of chapter)