Chapter 493 - 366: President Chen Throwing Money Around Again? 213,000 Per Person! The Year-End Trip to Yanjing

Weibo, Penguin, Sohu, and other websites scrambled to report on it. No one had expected Orange Pay to drop another bombshell right before the Spring Festival.

"I really want to cut open his brain and see what’s inside," Ma Liyun couldn’t help but exclaim after hearing the news. "These marketing ploys just keep coming, one after another."

"Boss, I played the ’Collect the Fortunes’ game for a bit. The business logic is quite simple. It serves as a marketing tool, allowing them to collect advertising fees from clients, while also enhancing the product’s social features and user stickiness," Lu Zhaoxi said with a smile, pushing up his glasses.

"It’s too late this year. We’ll copy it next year!" Ma Liyun declared, making a final decision.

Meanwhile, Ma Wenteng had gathered Zhang Xiaolong, Liu Zhiping, and others to study Orange Pay’s "Collect the Five Fortunes" event.

"Xiaolong, what are your thoughts?" Ma Wenteng asked casually.

"Mr. Ma, can we block the links to Orange Pay’s event?" Zhang Xiaolong asked in return.

"Xiaolong, you know about the cooperative relationship between our group and Senlian Capital," Ma Wenteng said with an awkward laugh.

If it were anyone else, they would have been blocked by WeChat and QQ long ago.

"I don’t recommend we imitate it. Orange Pay is doing this to increase the frequency of social interactions on their platform and boost user retention. QQ and WeChat are already strong social software. If we launched a similar event, it would just overshadow our core functions," Zhang Xiaolong said after a moment of thought.

"I agree with Xiaolong. WeChat and Orange Pay have different strategic positioning, platform functions, and user habits. In essence, WeChat is a mobile social app. A large-scale marketing event would only make users feel spammed and as if their private space is being invaded," Liu Zhiping added before Ma Wenteng could even ask.

"Mm, my thoughts are aligned with yours. But we can still learn from the ’Collect the Five Fortunes’ marketing plan. The amount of funds in Yu’e Bao has already exceeded 20 billion Hua Yuan. This shows that in the payment sector, Orange Pay is ahead of WeChat Pay."

In truth, Ma Wenteng wanted to follow the trend, but seeing that both Zhang Xiaolong and Liu Zhiping were against it, he suppressed his impulse.

Besides, after hearing their reasoning, he thought it made a lot of sense.

The next day, being a Saturday, Orange Pay users got on OFO bikes first thing in the morning. They would ride for 500 meters, stop to end the trip, and then draw a fortune card.

But they gradually discovered that aside from the Patriotism, Friendliness, Prosperity, and Harmony fortunes, there wasn’t a single Dedication fortune to be found.

It wasn’t until eleven o’clock that someone revealed on Weibo: while browsing with Lingxi Browser today, I unexpectedly won a Dedication fortune.

In other words, Orange Pay had placed the Dedication fortune within Lingxi Browser.

The users weren’t stupid. They instantly understood Senlian Capital’s "sinister plot." But seeing through it didn’t mean they could resist it.

The fact that 200 people won the 4,999 Hua Yuan grand prize yesterday wasn’t fake, and the fact that everyone could now split 213,000 Hua Yuan in cash wasn’t fake either.

Faced with a huge prize that only required a few taps of a finger, no one could resist the temptation.

Lingxi Browser’s downloads climbed rapidly, with 150,000 new installations in just three hours.

Chen Yansen threw out a hundred million in cash, but in return, he managed to hard-control over a hundred million Orange Pay users for a full half-month.

In the eyes of his peers, it was a marketing plan of pure genius.

The greatest truths are the simplest. The more simple and direct the event, the easier it is to capture the hearts and minds of users.

Orange Pay’s daily active users also rose from 27 million to 36 million.

In terms of registered users, Wealth Treasure was number one; but in terms of user activity, Orange Pay was the industry leader.

Relying on offline payments, Yu’e Bao, and the "Collect the Five Fortunes" event, they had forcefully dragged their daily active user count from around 10 million all the way up to nearly 40 million.

「Elsewhere.」

Final exams at Xuyuan had just ended. In twos and threes, university students dragged their suitcases straight to the bus station, train station, and high-speed rail station. The campus returned to its usual tranquility.

「Faculty Apartments, Room 0418.」

Chen Yansen leaned against the headboard, holding his phone in his left hand while his right stroked Meng Jie’s smooth back, as if petting a cat.

Compared to two years ago, she had changed a lot. Her ear-length bob had grown into a waterfall of long hair, and her figure had seen some... progress. Though still petite and delicate, she had reached a B-cup.

After a few minutes of "petting," President Chen felt there wasn’t much to it, so he flipped Meng Jie over, rested his hand on her little "hamburgers," and began to casually trace circles.

"Are you really not going back to Chunshen for the New Year?" Meng Jie giggled, trying to dodge Chen Yansen’s large hand.

But Chen Yansen’s hand was like it had auto-aim enabled; no matter how Meng Jie dodged, she was held firmly in President Chen’s grasp.

"Why don’t you stay in Xucheng and keep me company?" Chen Yansen suggested.

"I’d love to, but I’d never get it past my parents." Meng Jie sighed softly and slipped her hand under the covers.

"All rested up?" Chen Yansen raised an eyebrow, teasing her playfully.

"Don’t get the wrong idea. I just grabbed it by accident," Meng Jie giggled.

"You’re quite ’not careful,’ then, aren’t you?" Chen Yansen bantered. He then added, "I got you a little present. It’s on the table."

Hearing this, Meng Jie immediately slipped out from under the covers. With her back to Chen Yansen, she unhurriedly unwrapped the gift box.

But when she saw what the "little present" was, her face flushed red in an instant. She spun around, raised a small fist, and scolded, "Chen Yansen, you pervert! I’m not wearing this!"

With that, she tossed the small, lacy, openwork garment onto the bed, where it landed on Chen Yansen’s forehead.

"Just try it on. You might end up liking it," Chen Yansen said persuasively, pulling the garment off his head.

"No!" Meng Jie turned her face away, the tips of her ears bright red.

"But what if *I* like it?" Chen Yansen asked with a wicked grin.

"Then... let’s get this straight. I’ll only wear it once," Meng Jie said with a stern face, trying to sound principled.

"No problem," Chen Yansen chuckled. ’Silly girl,’ he thought, ’once means countless times.’

President Chen picked up the little garment and personally helped Meng Jie put it on, immersing himself in the experience.

Before long, Teacher Wang next door once again heard a series of moans and whimpers.

The next morning, OFO Bike deployed another 40,000 shared bikes in the East China Region, becoming the brand with the most deployed bikes in the entire country in a single leap.

Far away in Yanjing, Cheng Wei and Chang Wei were at each other’s throats. The two sides had been locked in a bloody price war for days, with daily net losses in the hundreds of thousands for labor costs.

Immediately after, Chang Wei entered An Ci, Jinmen, Tang City, and other areas, expanding the battlefront with DiDi Bike.

DiDi Bike, which had originally been profitable, immediately began losing money across the board after being forced into the price war.

Cheng Wei was so angry he cursed out loud. To avoid that mad dog Chang Wei, he shifted his focus to the Central China Market, just wanting to lie low and develop for a while.

He felt that Chang Wei was targeting him, while Chang Wei believed that the best way to eliminate a competitor was to strangle it in the cradle.

This was a strategy Chang Wei had learned from Cheng Weixing: suppress DiDi Bike relentlessly. Whoever couldn’t hold on would die first, and the survivor would have the northern market all to themselves.

While the two were fighting to the death, Chen Yansen flew to Yanjing for an interview with the "Dialogue" program team.

Among the entrepreneurs interviewed, Chen Yansen might not have been the wealthiest, but he was definitely the youngest.

However, just as Chen Yansen landed, he got a call from Zhang Chaoyang. "Eight o’clock tonight. Yun Ku Bar. You in?"

"Did you put a tracker on me?" Chen Yansen wondered. Old Zhang’s information network was terrifyingly efficient.

"You think I’ve been getting by in Yanjing for nothing? By the way, Ding Lei, Liu Qiangdong, and Lei Yijun are coming too," Zhang Chaoyang replied with a laugh.

He was on good terms with the producer of the "Dialogue" program. The last time they were out drinking, the producer had mentioned it, so he was able to guess the approximate time of Chen Yansen’s arrival in Yanjing.

"Got it," Chen Yansen replied.

He had come to Yanjing not only for the interview and to promote his products, but also to see some old friends.

Zhou Hongyi had actually invited him out several times, but Lei Yijun would also be at the gathering tonight. If he brought Zhou Hongyi along, a fight might break out.

’Forget it,’ he thought. ’I’ll just meet with Lao Zhou separately.’

To be blunt, when he was out and about, he was almost embarrassed to admit he even knew Zhou Hongyi.