Chapter 651: 3.7 Million Downloads on the First Day! Build a Factory Overseas? Dream On

Chapter 651: Chapter 465: 3.7 Million Downloads on the First Day! Build a Factory Overseas? Dream On

On the evening of August 18th, WeChat escalated its blocking tactics.

It directly “black-boxed” Laiwang’s event links. After a user shared a link, they could see it, but their friends could not.

When Ma Liyun found out, he exploded in a tirade of curses.

The next morning, as soon as he arrived at the office, he called Lu Zhaoxi, Zhang Yong, and Chen Hang, the project lead for Laiwang, in for a meeting.

“Mr. Ma, Laiwang has been live for two days. Total downloads have reached 8.7 million, with 7.4 million registrations. The day-two retention rate is 18.7%, and yesterday’s active users numbered 4.63 million.”

Chen Hang briefly reported Laiwang’s core operating metrics.

“What about the average usage time?” Ma Liyun asked.

“11.4 minutes,” Chen Hang replied immediately.

“The retention is terrible, and the stickiness is too low. Figure out what hooks we can use to keep users on Laiwang,” Ma Liyun commented.

“I think we should integrate the login methods. In addition to logging in with a Taobao account, we need to add express login options for Wealth Treasure, Weibo, and others,” Lu Zhaoxi suggested.

Ma Liyun nodded, signaling for Chen Hang to take notes.

After a moment of thought, he turned to Zhang Yong and said, “Notify all the Peach Girls to set up accounts on Laiwang.”

How did WeChat rise so quickly?

First, by funneling traffic from QQ; second, by its “Shake” feature.

If WeChat could do it, Laiwang naturally could too.

While Lao Ma was in his meeting, Chen Yansen was in a conference room at the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, reviewing the first-day launch data for Cloud Ship with Liang Bo and others.

“Cloud Ship had 3.7 million downloads and 3.4 million registrations yesterday. Based on the verified corporate information, seventy percent of them are merchants from Pinbei. The remaining thirty percent came from online search engines, online ads, and social media promotions,” Liang Bo reported.

“Cloud Ship is different from Laiwang. Its core users are businesses. Land one company, and you can add tens, hundreds, or even thousands of new users. What’s the activation rate for the corporate ride-hailing and meal services?”

Chen Yansen asked casually.

In truth, his main reason for developing Cloud Ship was to solve the problem of corporate information security. They couldn’t keep using external office software forever, could they?

“1.7%,” Liang Bo answered honestly. He was about to explain when he saw Chen Yansen wave his hand. “A 1.7% adoption rate right after launch is pretty good. There’s no rush. We’ll take our time.”

He was an extremely patient boss. As long as Liang Bo’s operational direction was on track, he was willing to give him time.

“Yes, boss. I understand,” Liang Bo replied.

“Lao Huang, tell Yifeng that from now on, all communication groups for the business management assistants are to be moved to Cloud Ship.”

Chen Yansen said, looking at Huang Zheng.

“No problem,” replied Huang Zheng, who had been sitting in on the meeting, without hesitation.

“Although Cloud Ship is a Today Technology project, it’s also a key project for the group. I expect you all to provide your full support and help Cloud Ship secure a foothold in the enterprise office software market.”

Chen Yansen’s gaze swept from left to right as he gave his quiet instructions.

After the meeting ended, Meng Yun, who was following close behind, reminded him in a low voice, “The CEO of Tesla, Musk, has arrived. He’s in reception room A4 on the second floor.”

Chen Yansen grunted in acknowledgment and took the elevator to the second floor.

With his net worth and industry influence, he certainly didn’t need to personally go and greet Musk.

In terms of wealth, Musk was only on the same level as Huang Renxun at this time.

Tesla was lukewarm; before the launch of the Model S LR version, its annual sales were less than twenty thousand vehicles.

SpaceX was only surviving thanks to cargo delivery contracts from NASA for the International Space Station. It was making money, but not much.

SolarCity, a photovoltaic power company, had gone public just a year ago and had a market cap of about 4 billion US dollars, but Musk’s stake was only 20%.

All told, Musk’s net worth didn’t even exceed 1.5 billion US dollars.

Therefore, Musk, who had brought his assistant, was behaving himself perfectly in the reception room, showing no sign of impatience.

After all, he knew very well that in terms of business strength, he and Chen Yansen were worlds apart.

Coupled with the fact that he was here to ask for a favor, his posture was even more deferential.

He had rushed all the way from the Lighthouse Country to Xucheng, switching from a plane to a high-speed train, and then to a car. It was only when he saw the wheat fields near the Science and Technology Park that he finally realized he had arrived at his destination.

Thanks to Chen Yansen, the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park was extremely well-known overseas. A few pictures on Senlian Capital’s official website had let countless foreigners know that the Alexa Smart Speakers and Orange B1 smart bands they used every day were born here.

CREAK—!

A frosted glass door was pushed open from the outside.

Hearing the sound, Musk instinctively looked up. The moment he saw Chen Yansen, he immediately stood and strode forward to greet him.

“Mr. Chen, hello! Thank you for taking the time out of your valuable schedule. I’m Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla.”

Musk said with a polite smile.

As he spoke, he covertly observed Chen Yansen.

Just as the Facebook blogger had described, he was a very young Asian entrepreneur. Judging by his looks, he seemed about the same age as a seventeen or eighteen-year-old from the Lighthouse Country. He had a sturdy build and his eyes were level with Musk’s, which meant Chen Yansen was at least 1.85 meters tall.

He wore a sapphire blue shirt and black dress pants. The look in his eyes was calm, and he carried himself with a steady presence that was completely at odds with his age.

“Elon, please have a seat,” Chen Yansen said with a faint smile, gesturing with his hand.

With that, he sat down first and studied the man across from him.

He was in his early forties, dressed in a black suit with a meticulously knotted tie. He was forcing a wide grin, trying his best to project goodwill and sincerity toward Chen Yansen.

“Regarding the supply price for the Deep Blue 4890 battery, it’s non-negotiable for now. Due to the manufacturing process for lithium-sulfur batteries, the costs are persistently high. At 400 US dollars per kilowatt-hour, I’m barely making any money. To be honest, I’m actually thinking of raising the price to 440, or even 460 US dollars.”

Before Musk could even speak, Chen Yansen had already rejected his first request.

The 4890 was a cylindrical lithium-sulfur battery created by Deep Blue Technology. The ’48’ represented the battery’s 48-millimeter diameter, and the ’90’ its 90-millimeter length.

‘Not making money?’

‘Who’d believe that!’

Musk scoffed inwardly. Based on the battery capacity and selling price of the Orange Q1 electric car, he could roughly estimate the cost of the Deep Blue Battery. It was 240 US dollars per kilowatt-hour at most, on par with Panasonic’s 18650 batteries.

But he didn’t dare call him out on it. In the North American Region, while they didn’t have *The Thick Black Theory* or *Zizhi Tongjian*, they did have books like *Crucial Conversations* and *Influence*, which specialized in the art of human relations.

However, Musk had still overestimated Chen Yansen’s conscience.

If the Deep Blue Battery cost 240 US dollars per kilowatt-hour to make, President Chen would absolutely dare to sell it for 600 or 700 US dollars.

“Mr. Chen, I can understand that. In that case, I have a new proposal. What if we build a battery factory locally in the Lighthouse Country? Tesla would pay for the equipment, and your company would only need to assist with installation, calibration, and providing raw materials. You could leave the tedious day-to-day management to me, and Deep Blue Technology would receive a commission of 160 US dollars per kilowatt-hour.”

“The benefits of this are, first, we save on transportation costs; and second, we can collaborate more deeply with Tesla to develop even higher-performance power batteries.”

Musk asked tentatively.

Chen Yansen just smiled. The other man’s little scheme was plain as day. He just wanted to deepen their partnership so that he could later use order volume as leverage to gradually increase his bargaining power.

Besides, if they built a factory overseas, who could guarantee Tesla wouldn’t try to reverse-engineer the technology?

Although it would be difficult and there was a risk of infringement, he knew Musk was no saint.

The moment he agreed, Tesla would set up a battery R&D lab the very next day.