Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 453 The World of Wealth

The next day, the morning light faded.

Song Ci stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, overlooking the bustling street scene of the ancient city of Beiping.

Lately, he has become increasingly fond of this posture of climbing high and looking into the distance, enjoying the sense of openness with an unobstructed view as far as the eye can see.

"Knock, knock, knock." A crisp knock broke the silence inside.

"come in."

Wu Yi pushed open the door and entered, his face beaming with undisguised joy. He walked straight to the chairman by the window and said, "Chairman Song, I've come to report our results to you."

Song Ci turned around, a faint smile playing on her lips: "Tell me the good news."

Wu Yi waved the report in his hand, his tone full of excitement: "Last night, 800 million users participated in WeChat's new feature, and the first batch of red envelopes reached 4000 million!"

During peak hours, 2.5 red envelopes were opened every minute.

Song Ci nodded slightly and asked, "How many WeChat users have linked their bank cards?"

“412 million!” Wu Yi quickly replied, “The number of bank cards bound in just one night is equivalent to a month’s worth of work normally.”

"Good!" Song Ci punched his palm hard, his eyes gleaming with high spirits.

The resounding success of WeChat Red Packets signifies that the most critical "cold start" challenge for mobile payments has been resolved, which will undoubtedly be the turning point for WeChat Pay to completely defeat Alipay.

Holding the report, Wu Yi continued, "82% of users tend to resend the red envelopes they receive, forming a perfect 'reinforcing loop'."

Last night, activity in WeChat groups surged sevenfold, greatly amplifying the "clustering effect."

He paused briefly, deliberately keeping everyone in suspense: "President Song, there was an unexpected surprise last night."

"Oh? There's another surprise?" Song Ci raised an eyebrow.

Wu Yi was very excited: "Although WeChat adopts the 'no intermediary account' model, judging from the data last night, a large number of unclaimed and unwithdrawn red envelopes have formed a short-term fund pool."

According to backend calculations, if 30% of users send 100 yuan red envelopes after the Lunar New Year's Eve red envelope event, it could bring the company 60 billion yuan in cash flow, with a daily accumulated revenue of approximately 400 million yuan.

Upon hearing this unexpected joy, Song Ci's smile deepened: "400 million a day, that's 14 billion a year, that's quite a lot."

Just then, there was another knock on the office door. "Come in."

Secretary Jian Ning slowly pushed open the door, and Zhang Yong, Wang Jing, and Chen An followed closely behind.

"Why are you all at the company on Saturday?" Song Ci was slightly surprised, and then instructed her secretary, "Jian Ning, pour tea for everyone."

"I've come specifically to congratulate Chairman Song."

"Congratulations, Mr. Song, the WeChat red envelope campaign was a great success!"

Although it's Saturday, a day off, the news about WeChat red envelopes is on the minds of every senior executive at Tengda Group.

Zhang Yong, Wang Jing, and others arrived at the company early in the morning to await news. Upon learning the specific data, their anxieties finally subsided, and they immediately came to congratulate the chairman.

"Everyone, sit down and let's talk." Song Ci smiled broadly, his words brimming with confidence. "From today onwards, in the field of mobile payment, Tenda will have no rivals."

As long as we proceed steadily and avoid mistakes, and develop step by step, dominating half of the industry is just around the corner.

After everyone took their seats on the reception sofa, Jian Ning served tea to several senior executives and then quietly left the office.

Song Ci leaned back comfortably on the sofa, looking incredibly relaxed: "President Chen, 2012 is almost over. Approximately how much revenue and profit did the group generate this year?"

After a moment's thought, Chief Financial Officer Chen An replied, "Based on the growth trend of the first three quarters, the group's annual revenue is expected to reach 2300 billion yuan, with a profit of 800 billion yuan."

Everyone was overjoyed upon hearing this, and even Song Ci could not hide his surprise, feeling very gratified by Tengda's business results this year.

Unexpectedly, despite investing huge sums in R&D and market subsidies, the net profit still reached 800 billion.

Chen An added with a smile: "WeChat is expanding rapidly in the global market, and the domestic mobile payment sector is also rising steadily. In fact, the group's profit margin has decreased by 4% year-on-year this year."

However, thanks to the surge in global smartphone users, mobile app advertising and mobile game profits are experiencing explosive growth.

After introducing the main performance growth and profit sources, he changed the subject and began to flatter: "In the end, it is Chairman Song's foresight that is the key!"
The group's early deployment of mobile applications allowed it to seize the initiative in the global mobile revolution, thus securing a solid first-mover advantage.

Song Ci nodded in agreement: "The mobile internet era has only just begun. I predict that mobile devices will maintain an upward trend for the next ten years. As long as the product foundation is solid, maintaining growth will not be difficult."

Zhang Yong, who was standing to the side, did some mental calculations for a moment, then his pupils suddenly contracted and he exclaimed in shock: "Converted to US dollars, the group's revenue reached 328 billion and net profit was 114 billion."

That's already high enough to qualify for the Fortune Global 500! I reckon it'll be around 400th next year.

"Really?" Song Ci was both surprised and delighted.

He clearly remembers that in his previous life, Tencent and Alibaba did not enter the Fortune Global 500 until 2017, while Tenda, which he built with his own hands, actually made it four years earlier.

Zhang Yong straightened his expression and said with certainty, "The group's revenue and profit in 2011 were only one step away from the bottom of this year's Fortune 500. With Tengda's current growth momentum, it will definitely be on the Fortune list next year."

"Good! Good! Good!" Even Song Ci, who was usually calm and composed, was overjoyed at this moment, and his heart was so surging that he could hardly speak.

Tenda's entry into the Fortune Global 500 is not just a glory brought by revenue figures; it means that the company has officially entered the top echelon of global business.

They will gain a systematic competitive advantage in terms of brand influence, industry chain power, and strategic layout depth.

This represents a leap in global brand value, transforming Tenda Technology from a "Chinese enterprise" into a veritable "world giant."

Song Ci could no longer contain her turbulent emotions. She rose and paced back and forth in her office, muttering to herself:
"The group has now entered a new era! My Tengda will stand shoulder to shoulder with international giants such as Walmart, Apple, and Microsoft!"

At this moment, Zhang Yong and Wang Jing were also filled with excitement and mixed emotions. They were the earliest pioneers who followed Song Ci in starting their business.

I witnessed firsthand how this leader, with his strategic wisdom and unwavering courage, transformed an unknown small company into a globally renowned internet giant in just eight years.

Chen An and Wu Yi shared in the honor. Although they didn't hold original shares like Zhang Yong and Wang Jing, they were still core executives of Tengda and held equity incentives. The title of Fortune Global 500 is incomparable to that of an ordinary listed company, and the two could already foresee that when Tengda officially went public, it would surely unleash a global wealth feast.

"We must pay them! We absolutely must pay them!" Song said firmly, his voice brimming with barely concealed excitement. "Tengda's current scale is thanks to the hard work of everyone involved. Every employee in the group has put in real, hard work!"

After calming down a bit, he sat down again and instructed: "This year's year-end bonus for all employees will be increased by 30% on top of the original amount. The human resources and finance departments should expedite the implementation of the assessment."

“Yes, Chairman Song,” Wang Jing replied immediately.

As the excitement subsided, Song Ci gradually calmed down and murmured to himself: "Being among the world's top 500 companies is not the end, but the starting point for Tengda to truly participate in the global value chain game."

It has given us a ticket to the top level of the game, but whether we can become winners depends on how well we play our "technology," "ecosystem," and "efficiency" cards. The road ahead is long.

While reminiscing, he suddenly seemed to remember something, and while taking out his phone, he said, "Wilson, the president of WeChat North America, sent me a little thing yesterday. You guys should try it too."

As he spoke, he forwarded the mini-program installation package that Wilson had shared to Zhang Yong, Wang Jing, and others.

"Snapchat?" Everyone installed it on their phones as instructed, and were surprised to find that it was a social media app.

While the group was adding each other as friends, Song Ci introduced: "This is a product made by a few students from Stanford last September."

There's a special feature called "self-destructing messages," which allows users to set photos and videos to automatically disappear after 1 to 10 seconds.

While swiping through the screen, Zhang Yong asked, "Chairman Song, how many users does this software have now?"

"Less than 10."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yong paused in his actions.

He had assumed Wilson's report was because the software had become popular, but he was surprised to find that it only had 10 users in a year, which was insignificant compared to WeChat's nearly one billion users worldwide.

Song Ci smiled and asked in return, "What do you guys think of Snapchat?"

The group exchanged glances, unable to fathom the chairman's thoughts, so they decided to speak the truth.

"It felt so-so, nothing particularly interesting or original."

"This 'disappearing message' feature is a bit silly, to put it bluntly, no wonder the user growth is slow."

One after another, their comments were all pessimistic.

Song Ci didn't respond, but she knew in her heart that if it weren't for her foresight, probably no one would have imagined that the software's user base would experience a viral explosion next year.

“Wilson discovered it by chance,” he said slowly. “He noticed that his daughter really liked using it, so he looked it up and found that the software was slowly spreading among young people in the United States.”

Zhang Yong, Wang Jing, and the others' expressions immediately turned serious. Young users are the foundation of social media apps; if Snapchat can truly capture this group, its future potential is immeasurable.

“Wilson has always been cautious in his actions,” Song Ci continued. “At first, he was just as skeptical as you are, but he felt that if it could attract young people, it must have something special about it.”

Later, after consulting with a social psychology expert, I understood that the core of Snapchat lies in precisely addressing the psychological needs of teenagers and young adults, resolving their social pain points.

“Content on traditional social media platforms is permanently stored and can easily be retrieved by parents and teachers.”

However, "disappearing messages" forcibly destroy content using technology, cutting off any avenue for information traceability. Users are more willing to share private information and are not afraid of "social annihilation."

Wu Yi's eyes lit up. As the president of WeChat, he instantly grasped the key point: "I understand! Ordinary social platforms are encouraging users to showcase their meticulously packaged lives, which is basically 'competitive social interaction'."

But Snapchat goes against the grain. Its content is fleeting, and its brief, somewhat rough edges don't require pursuing "like value," thus returning to the joy of sharing itself.

“That’s exactly the point.” Song Ci sighed softly. “With Snapchat, users don’t have to worry about being ‘socially dead’ because of poor photos or low image quality.”

The "disappearing message" feature naturally embraces imperfections and encourages improvisation, perfectly aligning with young people's pursuit of authenticity and aversion to overly embellished social interactions.

Upon hearing this, everyone's minds suddenly cleared, and they understood how much the chairman valued Snapchat.

Wu Yi tried the "read and destroy" function several more times and had grasped some of the core logic of the software.

He immediately suggested, "Chairman Song, the 'read-once-destroy' function may seem technically sophisticated, but its core is simply the mandatory timeliness of sharing, coupled with anti-screen recording mechanisms."

"If we're talking about development, our company can definitely handle it. Since you're optimistic about this direction, why don't we just develop a similar product and launch it on the market?"

Before Song Ci could express his opinion, Zhang Yong pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and rejected the proposal first: "Personally, I think it would be more appropriate to invest in Snapchat."

Overseas markets are different from the domestic market; overly aggressive imitation can easily give others a handle against you, which is counterproductive.

Tenda certainly has the ability to bypass Snapchat and create a social software with similar functions. With the support of WeChat's traffic, it won't be long before it can crush its competitors in terms of user scale.

But if we do that, Tenda's reputation will inevitably be damaged, and it will also arouse the collective hostility of European and American local companies, which would be a losing proposition.

Song Ci nodded in agreement: "Mr. Zhang is absolutely right. For Tengda Group to go global, its business reputation and word-of-mouth in the global market are more important than anything else."

He paused briefly, then continued, "In the future, there will only be more and more products with potential like Snapchat."

Domestically, we have the home ground, so being assertive is fine; but in the international market, we can't just copy every product we see and attack every single one we encounter, can we? That's unrealistic, and it won't get us far.

He had long planned ahead: Tenda aimed to be an "enabler" rather than a "predator" in the global market. Investing in and supporting products like Snapchat was essentially using capital to buy time and equity to build an ecosystem.

This approach is particularly suitable for markets like Europe and the United States, where local barriers to entry are high, compliance requirements are stringent, and rapid market positioning is essential. Ultimately, this lightweight collaboration trades efficiency for ecosystem and win-win outcomes for openness.

Seeing that the chairman and CEO had reached a consensus, Wu Yi stopped insisting. He understood his position; unlike the two who needed to have a global vision, he naturally had fewer concerns.

Thinking about WeChat's development history, one can't help but sigh. As WeChat's overseas twin brother, WeChat has faced many challenges along the way. It is no easy feat to have reached its current size, unlike WeChat's smooth sailing in China.

“I have already asked Wilson to follow up,” Song Ci said. “The goal is to spend a lot of money to acquire more than 51% of Snapchat’s equity, but Tenda will not interfere with the founding team’s management rights, and WeChat will also provide it with appropriate traffic.”

He sighed softly and added, "In the end, there is no absolute right or wrong in whether to invest or develop in-house, only whether it is suitable or not."

Core technologies that will shape the future, such as cloud computing and AI, must be firmly in the group's own hands, and it must not yield an inch of ground in the global market; however, more often than not, open cooperation can lead to greater success.

(End of this chapter)