Initially, Chen Pingjiang only wanted to empower Xiao Chen Barbecue with Renren.com's online traffic, while also adding an online ordering channel and home delivery service for the barbecue shop.
But Miao Bingwei was too bold; extrapolating from this, he mentally conceived the prototype of an early food delivery platform.
Didn't Chen Pingjiang want to build a food delivery platform?
If it was possible, he naturally wanted to do it.
But now with Renren.com and a catering company, adding another food delivery platform, he truly feared being spread too thin.
Noticing Chen Pingjiang's gaze, Miao Bingwei became more and more excited as he thought:
"And that's not all! Once the marketplace develops, it can be spun off. We have a social platform like Renren.com serving as a traffic portal, focusing on traffic distribution – it's incredible, Boss, I'm convinced."
Chen Pingjiang gave a few dry laughs, worriedly saying:
"But I'm afraid I won't be able to manage it all."
Miao Bingwei, however, was unconcerned,
"The ground promotion team can add more staff to directly negotiate with merchants, the tech department can sort out the merchant side in the shortest time, and the payment interface already exists.
The conditions are very ripe. Even after going online, we will mostly be doing oversight, so it won't be very busy. The key is that you can continuously earn commissions, which can feed back into Renren.com, and even attract capital after it becomes independent."
Looking at Miao Bingwei's excitement and keen business acumen, Chen Pingjiang really wanted to ask which one of them was actually reincarnated.
"Alright, let the ground promotion team integrate merchant resources, and your tech department get moving too."
Since things had come to this, Chen Pingjiang was pushed into it; he had to do it whether he wanted to or not.
If he really became too busy or ran short of money later, selling it directly would also be a good option.
After moving into the new office location, the entire team's operating speed significantly increased.
In terms of personnel, the tech department had expanded to about fifteen people, half of whom were part-time university students.
The part-time students were usually responsible for maintaining Renren.com, while Miao Bingwei, now freed up, led the team in developing web games, and Wen Yan was responsible for the food delivery platform project.
Everyone was well-ordered.
The content department, under Chen Pingjiang's suggestion, developed a trending topics list, gathering many hot news items and popular posts on the website.
But strangely, even the post commenting on Chen Pingjiang, despite having thousands of replies, still couldn't make it to the trending topics list.
The promotion team was responsible for two projects: the first was naturally Renren.com's ground promotion work in other universities, and the second was negotiating merchant entry for the food delivery platform.
The sales team was also extremely busy.
Not only did they have to attract advertisers and constantly be out on the road, day and night, but after Renren.com added a new "Find a Job" section, a batch of people was assigned to negotiate with some local enterprises in Dongjiang.
Unbeknownst to them, the number of full-time employees at Renren.com had already exceeded sixty, with an auxiliary part-time team of forty.
The staff composition also changed from exclusively Dongcai students to mainly Dongcai students, supplemented by students from other universities and social workers.
This staff composition was more reasonable, avoiding business suspension due to exams or holidays.
As Chen Pingjiang frowned in thought, Li Xi's shout came from outside, growing closer:
"Boss, Boss!"
Chen Pingjiang, whose thoughts were interrupted, stood up and opened the door, asking Li Xi, who had just rushed to the door:
"What's going on? Why all the yelling?"
Li Xi's entire face was an unbelievable pig-liver color, whether from running or excitement.
He waved the contract in his hand,
"I got New Oriental, 366,000."
Chen Pingjiang, who was still frowning moments before, immediately changed his expression, happily patting Li Xi on the shoulder:
"Excellent, we must celebrate tonight."
Li Xi had been pursuing this project for a long time, and Chen Pingjiang had been providing guidance.
New Oriental, as a nationally renowned education group, had just successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the summer, becoming the first stock in Chinese education.
Now was when they were most flush with cash.
Its CET-4 and CET-6 training and tutoring programs, exam preparation training, and even language training for studying abroad perfectly overlapped with the university student demographic.
So Chen Pingjiang was not at all surprised about New Oriental advertising and promoting on Renren.com; it was just a matter of time and how much the order amount would be.
Finally, through Li Xi's continuous communication, the deal was closed.
"An invoice will be needed," Li Xi added.
Chen Pingjiang nodded and asked:
"Kickback? Rebate?"
Li Xi paused for a moment, saying:
"It's a rebate."
Kickbacks and rebates are different.
A rebate is a business contract, explicitly stated in an agreement.
A rebate without an agreement is called a kickback.
In other words, kickbacks themselves are illegal, but rebates are legal.
During this period, the sales team had negotiated more and more orders, and the order amounts also grew larger.
Other departments looked on enviously, with some even starting to apply for a transfer.
"Damn, Li Xi got rich. A 366,000 order, the commission alone is 36,000."
"Oh my god, that's enough for me for one or two years."
"Sounds great, I even want to go into sales now."
"Oh, come on, can you handle their kind of hardship? Morning meetings are like a pep rally, after the meeting they run around the city all day, and after running, they come back at night to continue meeting. They only get off work at 8-9 PM every day. I heard Zhou Gang say he ruined a pair of leather shoes in just a few days."
"Alright, then it's more comfortable sitting in front of a computer. I can't stand crowded buses."
"Li Xi is just an exception. Aren't there still people in the sales department who haven't closed a single deal yet?"
...
Li Xi signing a big order also greatly stimulated other sales teams, making them more actively and frequently pursue clients, mainly because Chen Pingjiang really paid well.
Originally, according to Shu Mang's estimate, Renren.com's advertising fees this month would exceed 400,000 yuan.
Now, including this big order of 360,000, this month's advertising fees could even exceed 800,000 yuan.
The website also began to become profitable.
A monthly salary of 40,000 in 2006 was quite impressive; not many people even have a monthly salary of 40,000 in 2023.
Chen Pingjiang's business commission for the sales team was top-tier in the industry, a treatment usually only found in large companies.
Outdoor advertising sales commissions were relatively low, about 3% due to costs, while website advertising sales were generally 6%-8%.
Chen Pingjiang directly gave 10%.
Chen Pingjiang would not lower commissions or intentionally pay less on the grounds that the company needed more funds in its early entrepreneurial stage; such entrepreneurs have too short-sighted a view.
With Li Xi as an example, the work potential of the entire company could be further stimulated.
In the end, the news of Li Xi signing a big order even spread outside the company and into the campus, later turning into a monthly income of 100,000.
Students from Caida and surrounding universities became more and more curious about Renren.com, and many planned to go for interviews.
Mainly because the news was too shocking.
The monthly salary of newly graduated university students at that time was only between 1,000-2,000 yuan, with some even earning 800 yuan.
But Renren.com's employees were earning dozens of times that salary.
Eventually, this matter even reached the ears of the teachers, and they were also envious.
These days, the normal income of university teachers wasn't high either.
An associate professor at Peking University once posted his payslip in 2006; after deducting various taxes and provident funds from his total salary, only 1,918 yuan remained.
Including associate professor allowance, workshop teaching, holiday subsidies, and work as a thesis reviewer and as a chairman or member of defense committees, his total monthly income was only 4,786 yuan.
At least, not counting research projects, these were just the official figures.
Regular lecturers earned even less.
One can imagine how big an impact a third-year university student earning 40,000 a month brought to the campus.
Apologies for being a bit late in checking the information
(End of Chapter)
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