Chapter 278 - 274: Grand Opening of WeBank, The Mark of the Tencent Ecosystem

December 12th.

WeBank officially opened for business with the approval of the Peng City Banking Regulatory Bureau.

A giant blue letter "W" was printed on the wall. The first-floor lobby of WeBank was filled with a large crowd of reporters and various guests attending the opening.

First, a representative from Tencent recounted the "arduous journey" of establishing WeBank, then handed the microphone to Gu Min.

"It’s a great honor to be the chairman of Huaxia’s first online bank. With so many friends from the media present, I’d like to take this opportunity to explain our development philosophy here at WeBank..."

Gu Min didn’t speak for long. In just five short minutes, he clearly explained WeBank’s scope of business, products, and services. Speaking off the cuff was a simple matter for a heavyweight of his caliber.

The ceremony was brief. After Gu Min finished his speech, staff members brought out a red ribbon adorned with a red rosette, holding it taut on either side of the stage.

The sound of firecrackers went POP! POP! POP! from two large speakers. Led by Gu Min, the WeBank management team cut the red ribbon with scissors, announcing the official start of business under the media’s spotlights.

Standing in the crowd, Wu Yun smiled and applauded.

Wu Yun knew that today’s opening ceremony was just a formality, so he had declined Gu Min’s invitation to join him on stage for the ribbon-cutting. It was better to keep a low profile recently.

After the ceremony, Wu Yun said goodbye to Gu Min, who was busy dealing with the media, and headed toward the Tencent Headquarters with Li Chaohui.

"President Wu, regarding your Galaxy Network, we’ve decided to send a team in three days to conduct a full evaluation."

Li Chaohui smiled, stroking his beard as he continued, "Of course, your Honor of Kings hasn’t been tested by the market yet, so I can’t guarantee that we’ll invest or acquire shares."

Wu Yun explained, "President Li, I don’t care about the money. What I care about are Tencent’s vast resources. So, if Tencent does acquire shares, I hope you can give us a bit of a priority boost in terms of resource allocation and traffic."

"As long as it passes the company’s evaluation, getting the green light from the higher-ups will definitely not be a problem."

Wu Yun discussed the investment with Li Chaohui as he followed him into the elevator.

According to Wu Yun’s scan, Li Chaohui’s personal Skills were in no way inferior to Peng Zhijian’s. And just like Peng Zhijian, he also possessed his own unique specialty Skills.

"President Wu, great minds think alike! I didn’t expect you to be interested in the short video sector as well. I think Kuaishou is developing very well, but unfortunately, the development of our group’s own Weishi has been less than satisfactory."

Of course, Wu Yun knew why that was, but he had no intention of saying it out loud. Business was business. Although his cooperation with Tencent was just entering its honeymoon period, some things were better left unsaid.

"Indeed! I believe that in the future, Kuaishou’s registered users could even reach the same level as Tencent QQ!"

Li Chaohui naturally didn’t believe him. Although he had a lot of confidence in the short video industry, it didn’t extend to the degree of Wu Yun’s conviction.

"DING~" The elevator doors opened.

"President Wu, please follow me! President Ma is in the innermost room," Li Chaohui said, leading the way.

Li Chaohui knocked on the door and only pushed it open after hearing a response from within.

The two entered the spacious office and saw Xiaomage sitting upright in his chair, smiling at the approaching Wu Yun.

"President Wu! It’s been less than a month, and to think the entire internet now knows you as a young billionaire!" Xiaomage joked.

After escorting Wu Yun to Xiaomage’s office, Li Chaohui turned and closed the office door.

"President Ma, you’re too kind! Compared to you, what kind of billionaire am I? When I have the money, I’m also going to build an office tower like this for my headquarters!"

Xiaomage laughed. "You could do it now. A moderately sized office building only costs a few hundred million. With your—oh! My apologies! I forgot you invested all your money in WeBank!"

Then, Xiaomage’s tone shifted. "Do you know why I asked you here today?"

Wu Yun shook his head.

Xiaomage leaned back in his chair. "Ali invested in Little Yellow Car, and there are rumors that they’re also in contact with Mobike, wanting to acquire a portion of their shares."

"You could say that eighty to ninety percent of the time, whatever move we at Tencent make, Ali will follow suit. Of course, whenever Ali makes a move, we won’t be slow to react either!"

Wu Yun said confidently, "Little Yellow Car and Mobike combined aren’t as big as we are. As long as I hold onto the top spot, Little Red Car will be the ultimate winner. Tencent’s investment is guaranteed to see a high return!"

Xiaomage smiled nonchalantly. "That will depend on how you steer the ship, President Wu. We at Tencent are standing firmly on your side!"

Wu Yun understood Xiaomage’s meaning. He was now on Tencent’s big ship, naturally branded as part of the Tencent Ecosystem.

However, in business, interests always come first. Today, Wu Yun could cooperate with Tencent; tomorrow, he might just end up working with Ali. Of course, that possibility seemed slim right now, but Xiaomage was still giving Wu Yun a little reminder.

"President Ma, don’t worry! I’m very supportive of Tencent’s work. In fact, another one of my companies might be about to accept your investment!"

Wu Yun’s words immediately piqued Xiaomage’s curiosity. "Don’t tell me it’s your game company?" Xiaomage asked with great interest. "I’ve heard about PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Very creative!"

As one of Huaxia’s first-generation netizens, Xiaomage was no stranger to online games, so he knew a bit about PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. He just hadn’t had the time to try it himself due to his busy schedule.

Wu Yun shook his head. "Not the PC version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds! It’s a mobile game called Honor of Kings!"

Wu Yun then gave Xiaomage a simple explanation and even unlocked his phone, handing it to him to try a single-player bot match.

"It uses the same game mode as League of Legends, but the characters and storyline are all original! Given the huge number of League of Legends players, if there were a similar mobile game they could play anytime, anywhere, I believe the vast majority would give it a try."

Xiaomage browsed through the game’s interface, then handed the phone back to Wu Yun and said with a smile, "Alright! As long as Li Chaohui’s due diligence checks out, we’ll have a win-win cooperation!"

Xiaomage glanced at his watch and said with a smile, "President Wu, it’s getting late! Come on! Let me treat you to a meal at our cafeteria!"

As they passed the floor’s lounge area, Wei Wu and Wang Hao saw the two emerge and immediately stood up to follow.

Xiaomage simply smiled and nodded at the two before stepping into the private elevator first.

Under the curious gazes of many Tencent employees, Wu Yun and Xiaomage chatted and laughed face-to-face. Someone recognized Wu Yun and immediately began explaining to the person next to them.

Perhaps because he came and went in such a hurry, Wu Yun felt that the pace of life in Peng City was even faster than in Modu.

However, Wu Yun didn’t have time to experience the entertainment Peng City had to offer. After lunch, he boarded a flight back to Rongcheng.

...