Chapter 680 - 486: 98 Billion US Dollars! Who’s Poor? Boss Chen Has the Final Say

Ma Liyun gave a positive assessment.

The two companies were constantly competing behind the scenes, fighting all the way from e-commerce and express delivery to the food delivery and Group Buy industries. Yet, they also held shares in each other’s companies. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they had a love-hate relationship.

"Are you worried that Pinbei’s market share will surpass Ah Li’s?"

the reporter asked again.

"The cake will only get bigger. I believe that in the process of Pinbei chasing Ah Li, or Ah Li maintaining its lead, the entire industry will be driven forward.

Competition isn’t a bad thing. It allows the people at Ah Li to see their own shortcomings more clearly, and it also forces the e-commerce industry to come up with more innovative models and higher-quality services.

Ultimately, users will vote with their feet. Whoever can truly solve their needs will be the one to stand on firmer ground."

Ma Liyun smiled calmly, his tone carrying a certain sense of worldly wisdom.

Before the reporter could respond, he added, "Besides, as long as the market is big enough, the same track can easily accommodate two, or even three, top-tier companies."

It had to be said, when it came to eloquence, Lao Ma was much better than Xiaoma.

He’d said a whole lot, waxing eloquent, but hadn’t actually answered the question directly.

The reporter gave a wry smile, clearly having realized this as well.

But Ma Liyun was, after all, the leading figure of Hang City’s internet scene, a tycoon worth over ten billion US Dollars. The fact that he was willing to be interviewed was already a huge honor, so the reporter didn’t dare hope for too much.

「On the other side.」

A reporter from the Yanjing Daily walked into Li Yanhong’s office. Compared to the two Mas, the conflict between Chen Yansen and Li Yanhong was much greater.

For the reporter, it was easier to find a sensational headline here.

"Senlian Capital is running rampant through the domestic internet and manufacturing sectors. How many companies have gone bankrupt because of them? How many ordinary people have lost their jobs?"

Li Yanhong commented irritably.

His hatred for Chen Yansen had long since reached unimaginable heights.

In his opinion, not even Zhou Hongyi was as detestable as Chen Yansen.

"President Li, according to statistics, Senlian Capital has over 400,000 employees, all of whom are covered by social insurance. Qian Du, on the other hand, has just over 20,000."

The reporter didn’t spare Li Yanhong’s feelings at all, directly citing the social insurance enrollment numbers for both companies.

"..." Li Yanhong was momentarily at a loss for words.

At the same time, reporters in Shencheng City interviewing manufacturing bosses found that half of what they said had to be edited out before it could be broadcast.

They basically started with a string of curses and then proceeded to "greet" Chen Yansen’s entire family.

The reason was simple. The Orange Phone Factory and Deep Blue Technology’s production bases had raised the hourly wage for frontline operators to 25 yuan. Other manufacturers, in order to recruit workers, had no choice but to passively follow suit and raise their wages.

Although they could afford the extra expense, it meant they would earn several million, or even tens of millions, less each year.

You have to understand, before the Orange Phone Factory moved into Shencheng City, the highest hourly wage for a local operator was no more than 15 yuan. But that troublemaker Chen Yansen had single-handedly doubled their labor costs.

Cursing him was the civilized response; behind his back, who knows how many people wished they could run him over with a big rig to send President Chen on an early trip to the great beyond.

「At the same time.」

Chunshen Experimental Primary School, Chunshen Third Middle School, and Chunshen Second Middle School, however, were a scene of festive decorations. Amid the banging of gongs and drums, they hung a photograph of Chen Yansen in the hallway of a school building.

Upon closer inspection, to the left was Newton, and to the right was Lu Xun.

Boss Chen was in the middle!

Besides a bust-length photo of him in a sharp suit, there was a long caption attached: "A Titan of Commerce and a Vanguard of the Era."

Chen Yansen, a native of Chunshen, Huian, and the founder of Senlian Capital.

With the vision of "letting technology change lives," he successively founded companies like Orange Technology and Pinbei in Xucheng in 2011. He led his team to build the nation’s largest mobile phone research, development, and manufacturing company, driving the vigorous development of domestic mobile phone systems, chips, and the digital economy.

In an instant, the name ’Chen Yansen’ was skyrocketing in fame in Huian, Hua Country, Asia, and even globally, at an exponential rate.

The popularity of products like the Orange Mobile Phone, Cloud Speed Express, Kuai Pao Delivery, and Pinbei Mall also rose accordingly.

"My son works at the Orange Phone Factory in Luzhou. They cover his food and housing, and he takes home six or seven thousand a month. Sometimes, during the holidays, he can make several hundred in just one day from overtime pay."

"The benefits at Cloud Speed Express are great, too. They pay the five insurances and one housing fund, and they have supplemental commercial insurance that can cover your wife and kids. It saves a lot of money on medical bills."

"They give out four quarterly bonuses a year! I’m a graduate of Luzhou Academy. I couldn’t find a job last year, so I joined the Orange Phone Factory on a classmate’s recommendation. I had trouble adjusting at first, but now I’m full of regret! I regret not coming sooner!"

Toutiao, Weibo, and Douyin were filled with netizens’ posts.

Some had family members working at Senlian Capital, while others were employees themselves.

Plus, the corporation didn’t forbid employees from discussing their salaries, so most people didn’t hold back.

When they encountered skeptical netizens, they would even post their pay stubs.

As a result, a screenshot of a pay stub from a general worker at the Shencheng City phone factory was pushed to the top of the trending topics by netizens.

"Base salary: 3,300 yuan. Weekday overtime (84 hours): 3,150 yuan. Weekend overtime (32 hours): 1,600 yuan. Holiday overtime (8 hours): 600 yuan;

Housing subsidy: 660 yuan. Transportation subsidy: 200 yuan. Meal subsidy: 500 yuan. Utilities subsidy: 200 yuan. Mid-Autumn Festival bonus: 500 yuan. Quarterly bonus: 3,300 yuan;

Pre-tax income: 14,010 yuan. After-tax income: 13,499 yuan!"

After seeing the screenshot of this pay stub, many netizens were instantly plunged into a state of depression.

A monthly income of thirteen thousand?

90% of the white-collar workers in Hu City, Yanjing, or Shencheng City couldn’t reach that level of income.

However, an employee from the Orange Phone Factory also said, "Last month we were stocking up for Orange’s new phone model, so there was a lot of overtime. Plus there was the quarterly bonus and the Mid-Autumn Festival overtime pay. Normally, my pre-tax income is only a little over 9,000 yuan."

Only a little over 9,000 yuan?

Seeing this, the white-collar workers in first-tier cities collectively lost their composure.

Using ’only’ for over 9,000 yuan... what did that make their own five or six thousand a month, earned by slaving away like cattle day in and day out, exhausted and ordered around by their bosses?

A portion of the more clear-headed individuals immediately opened Senlian Capital’s official website and started searching the recruitment section for suitable positions.

Coincidentally, Deep Blue Technology’s Factory No. 2 and Orange Mobile Phone’s Factory No. 6 were about to begin production and were hiring in massive numbers. There were over 30,000 openings for positions ranging from assembly operators, SMT operators, CNC technicians, injection molding operators, quality inspectors, and logistics staff, all the way to equipment maintenance technicians, automation engineers, and test engineers.

Interested job seekers didn’t hesitate for a second, immediately submitting their resumes and flooding the recruiters’ email inboxes.

Chen Yansen wasn’t idle either. He first accepted his third exclusive interview with "Time Magazine," then participated in a recording of the show "High-End Access," and also granted an interview slot to Luzhou TV Station.

Meanwhile, the entrepreneurial reality show he had recorded in April was dug up again by netizens and went viral for a second time on Douyin.

People had seen plenty of rich tycoons, but one who was young and handsome like Chen Yansen was a rare sight.

With the release of the Forbes Global Billionaires List, a new wave of financial bloggers popped up on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Mimo. They treated Chen Yansen as a clickbait goldmine, repeatedly analyzing Senlian Capital’s subsidiaries and Chen Yansen’s net worth.

They ultimately concluded that Forbes’s estimate of Chen Yansen’s wealth was far too conservative.

Given Deep Blue Battery’s market dominance, once its production capacity increased, Chen Yansen’s net worth would easily surpass 200 billion US Dollars.

Before two days had passed, a group of charity organizations looking to cash in also came knocking. The gist of their message was: Boss Chen is now the richest man in the world, so it’s time he got serious about philanthropy.

Chen Yansen gave a cold sneer and had Wang Shixiang send them away.

’Philanthropy wouldn’t benefit me one damn bit. Rather than giving money to organizations, I’d rather give it to my employees as bonuses.

Who’s poor?

Only I, Boss Chen, get to decide that!’

On October 13th, Yuan Ruli from Shencheng City called. President Li Qingsong of the Huaguo Central Bureau was coming to Shencheng City to tour Deep Blue Technology’s Factory No. 2.

Chen Yansen instantly understood the implications and readily agreed.