Chapter 96

Voting time!……

After finalizing the expansion plans for Huating City, Zhang Ruoxi, who couldn't sit still, pulled Song Chen into a private booth to go online. Song Chen was originally planning to return to the company, but with Zhang Ruoxi clinging to him, he had no choice but to sit down and accompany her online.

The walls were adorned with high-end wallpaper and European-style wall lamps, separated by aluminum alloy panels. Although the booth was small, it was very luxurious. The couple's booth had two computers, which were better configured than those in Song Chen's computer room. Since the current internet cafes did not use the diskless system of future internet cafes, there were many files left by previous users on the desktop—of course, including pornographic images and novels. If one was familiar with computer operations, they could even open the browsing history to find more content.

Thinking about the diskless workstations, Song Chen also thought about the direction of the branch company. He planned to make the branch company an independent entity of Chenxing Company in the future, focusing on software solutions for various industries. After the internet cafe system was developed, whether it was Qiu Lin or another hired manager, the branch company must be formalized.

Curious like Xu Xiaoying, Zhang Ruoxi casually opened the images or TXT files left by customers, only to see various indecent texts and pornographic images. Coincidentally, Zhao Lin pushed open the door of the booth at that moment, saw the adult content on the computer screen, and was initially stunned. However, she, who was usually careless, did not scream in embarrassment but instead said with interest, "Oh! You two are really bold! Looking at such inappropriate things!"

Zhang Ruoxi's face turned as red as if it were on fire. She hurriedly closed the image and gave Song Chen a glare, then asked Zhao Lin fiercely, "What are you doing here? Third wheel!"

"Get lost!"

Since it was a side-by-side sofa, Zhao Lin squeezed between Song Chen and Zhang Ruoxi without making it seem crowded. Zhao Lin, who had no sense of being a third wheel, said confidently, "I want to go online too!"

"There are other places!" Zhang Ruoxi rolled her eyes.

"No way! I want to go online with you two!" Zhao Lin said with a smile, trying to please Zhang Ruoxi, "Ruoxi, we're close, right!"

Zhang Ruoxi laughed and shook her head, indicating that she had no choice but to accept Zhao Lin.

"Didn't you ask for my opinion?" Song Chen asked innocently. Naturally, he received a fierce glare from Zhao Lin and promptly raised his hands, accepting the fact that his computer was being taken over by Zhao Lin.

Zhang Ruoxi opened the browser, and the default homepage was a website called "hao123," which Song Chen had registered. The Chinese name of the website was: hao123 URL Directory.

This idea came to him while having dinner at his father's house, directly copying the early hao123 navigation website, which had a significant impact on internet users. Since hao123 provided the most convenient online experience, beginners could quickly find the websites they needed without remembering complex URLs, making it popular among both internet cafes and individual users to set their homepage to hao123.

Of course, Song Chen did not hesitate to use the aggressive methods commonly used by websites in the future, such as forced installation and stealth installation, to capture the market. For this, Song Chen specifically hired three talents to handle the planning and editing of the hao123 website, responsible for updating and maintaining it. Since it would eventually be integrated with the Baidu search engine, the hao123 website, as a mature product, had its own product manager, on par with the Baidu engine development department.

Like QQ, hao123 quickly spread across the country through internet cafes and QQ users.

With Song Chen's guidance and experience, the hao123 product manager categorized and arranged the top 1,000 websites in China by purpose. The website's page style inherited the clean and simple design of Alibaba.

In the e-commerce category, Alibaba naturally ranked at the top with prominent red text. Following it were the China Chemical Network and the newly launched Made-in-China Network. The title bar featured GIF ads for QQ and Alibaba, which were very effective.

Not to mention the internet cafe billing system, hao123 was the most likely product of Chenxing Company to generate revenue first, even though the income might be minimal. In the current internet industry, where most companies were burning money, this was a significant encouragement for Baidu, which had not yet produced any revenue.

Zhao Lin opened the QQ software, entered the five-digit number 10001 and the password. Unlike Tencent, which started with five-digit numbers, Chenxing QQ began with six-digit numbers. The five-digit numbers were the work numbers of Chenxing employees, who only had usage rights, which would be confiscated by the company upon resignation.

The first 100 numbers, reserved for senior management, were already locked by the company.

Song Chen, of course, was 00001. In the future, the starting numbers might differ based on the business company. For example, QQ employees started with 10000, and as a Chenxing employee and the original author of Q Brother and Q Sister (with Song Chen providing the idea), Zhao Lin was 10001; Alibaba started with 20000, Baidu with 30000, and so on.

As the default boss, Zhang Ruoxi, through her relationship with Song Chen, naturally owned the most special number, 00000! The creation of this number was closely watched by the employees from the beginning. Some employees secretly complained, "What if they break up?"

Of course, there was no answer to that now!

It's worth noting that Song Chen also had Ruan Lika confiscate all the "special" numbers, such as "123456," "234567," or "111111," which were easy to remember.

Soon, the sound of message notifications filled the booth. Song Chen rolled his eyes and weakly said, "Ladies, you both have boyfriends..."

"Get lost!" Zhao Lin replied.

"It's not like we're dating them!" Zhang Ruoxi shot a flirtatious glance at Song Chen and said confidently.

...

After Cai Chongxin joined the company, Song Chen decided to gather the company's senior management to systematically discuss the development direction of Chenxing Company.

In the meeting room, the floor-to-ceiling windows were covered by Venetian blinds. Song Chen, wearing a white shirt and black trousers, looked handsome and serious as he stood in front of a large projection screen.

"Everyone here is the future wealth of Chenxing Company, the 'ministers' of my dream empire. Therefore, I can reveal many plans to you, including why I repeatedly rejected the investment offers from venture capitalists!"

Everyone in the room perked up, including Cai Chongxin, who was eager to hear his new boss's insights. Indeed, Chenxing Company's repeated rejection of favorable investment terms stood in stark contrast to other internet companies that were eager to secure funding, making it a topic of discussion in Hong Kong's venture capital industry and gradually attracting the attention of world-class investment banks.

Holding a white chalk, Song Chen fearlessly wrote a word on the blackboard: IM.

Song Chen looked at the senior management seated around the round table, who would soon become his "founding ministers." "Given the achievements and attention Alibaba has received, you might think I would start by discussing this new company, but I will tell you! That is clearly wrong!"

Using the chalk, he drew a circle around IM and said, "IM is a revolutionary network application product. The earliest product was ICQ, an instant messaging software developed by three Israeli youths. In an era where mobile communications were not yet fully widespread, this changed the way people communicate, destined to be a revolutionary product!"

"But!" Song Chen raised the chalk and said solemnly, "As the leader in the IM field, ICQ's parent company, Mirabilis, clearly has not yet realized the core value of this revolutionary software!"

Song Chen wrote "users" next to the IM circle, connecting them with an equal sign.

"The performance of a website is supported by traffic. Without traffic, it means no one is visiting, and without visitors, an internet-based company cannot succeed! Therefore, users are the key! Based on the current growth rate of QQ and the promotion through online and offline internet cafe platforms, conservatively estimated, QQ will have at least one million registered users within a year."

Song Chen wrote "one million" under "users" and smiled confidently, proposing a bold assumption with enthusiasm: "So, let's make a bold assumption! Assume we now have ten million free registered users!"