A few days later, a company named “Blacklight Biotechnology” quietly took root in the city of Shangdu.
The company’s office space was located on the 45th floor of an ordinary office building in Central Shangdu. Thus, its appearance did not attract anyone’s attention.
After all, small companies like this were founded every day. At the same time, they vanished into oblivion as well. Their emergence and collapse did not cause the slightest ripple.
It was akin to how, among the living beings of this world, how many were there who could leave even a faint mark in the long river of history?
Once the company had settled down, it immediately entered the recruitment process. Xia Yin, who had taken on a leading role at this crucial point, was busy all day. Fortunately, she had brought in a few employees from Sparkle Entertainment, which allowed the company to keep things going.
After the company had hired its first batch of workers, Xia Yin sent those employees back. After all, they still had to avoid suspicion.
The first batch of employees included only five departments for now: customer service, technical, planning, publicity, and human resources. In total, there were fewer than twenty people.
In terms of publicity for Little X Translation Assistant, Chen Chen let the company take care of it. Xia Yin used whatever tools that web games used such as dissemination campaigns, advertorials by the Water Army[1], webpage pop-ups, and so on. She stopped short of getting Ng Man-tat to shoot a few rustic commercials for them.
The technical department was only responsible for the website’s operation for now. They would not be involved with software development and updates at all. Thus, there would be zero risk of the source code being leaked.
Currently, Chen Chen was lounging in the chairman’s office in a suit.
As the company was newly founded, Xia Yin had strongly requested that Chen Chen put in an appearance. This was the first time Chen Chen had shown up ever since the company was established.
“At present, our products are still in the free promotion stage. We might need to keep this up for a while. If that still doesn’t cut it, we can run ads to prevent losses.”
Xia Yin was standing before Chen Chen. At the moment, she was wearing a black OL outfit[2] and she was more capable and experienced than she was a month ago.
“There’s no need for that. Our products don’t need to rely on other advertisers.”
Chen Chen shook his head, gently twirling the gel pen in his hand. “Every company has its corporate image. If possible, I’d like for our company and products to give people a ‘clean’ impression. This is more important than those petty profits.
“After all, word-of-mouth will proliferate swiftly.”
“Then, when do we start charging for our product?”
Xia Yin asked, then added, “Last month, we spent over ten million in advertising costs. If we go on like this, the company will have no funds left.”
“In truth, among the people of Mainland China, there won’t be much demand for our product.”
Chen Chen thought about it for a while. “After all, you should know that Mainland China has a dense population that’s comparable to that of several continents. Thus, their need for cross-border communication isn’t as urgent as other continents. As such, the focus of our market should be other, more culturally complex continents outside of Mainland China. For instance, Europe has multiple languages and our neighbor, India.
“In particular, those continents that use Facebook and Twitter,” Chen Chen added.
“Chairman, Manager Xia.”
Just then, the voice of a middle-aged woman came from outside the door.
“Come in!” Chen Chen beckoned with one hand.
“This is my assistant, Sister Ye.” Xia Yin introduced her to Chen Chen. “With Sister Ye’s help, I can make up for my lack of experience in managing a company.”
“Manager Xia, you’re giving me too much credit.”
The middle-aged woman addressed as Sister Ye smiled faintly. “Chairman, the representatives of Facebook and Twitter have arrived downstairs.”
Chen Chen looked up abruptly. “They came together?”
“It appears... That way.” Sister Ye did not seem to catch Chen Chen’s drift and stammered, “Is there a problem?”
Chen Chen smiled lightly. “They only came after a month. It looks like they couldn’t crack the code of my program.”
When Sister Ye heard this, she broke out into an awkward smile. “Chairman, will you be receiving them at the door now?”
“Receive them?” Chen Chen made a puzzled face. “Don’t they have legs?”
“Uh...” Sister Ye choked momentarily. “Then, shall I send them to the conference room directly?”
“That’s right, let them wait in the conference room. I’ll be over soon.”
As he watched Sister Ye leave, Chen Chen twirled his pen and observed her departing figure with a thoughtful expression.
A moment later, after he saw a few blonde foreigners filing in past the glass window, Chen Chen got up and walked toward the conference room.
Xia Yin hurried behind.
By the time Chen Chen entered the conference room, five foreigners were already in the guest seats. There were three men and two women, all dressed in work suits. Sister Ye was busy serving tea and water to them.
On Chen Chen’s side, other than himself, Xia Yin, and Sister Ye, there was also a fresh graduate who studied law.
When Chen Chen was seated, the man heading the foreigners said, “Hello, Mr. Chen, Ms. Xia. I’m Tony, the executive officer of Facebook’s legal department. Ms. Emily here is my companion. On this side, Mr. Alvin is Twitter’s representative and the other two are our current assistants.”
What no one expected was that this man would speak in honest-to-goodness Chinese.
Chen Chen swept his gaze across the five of them and nodded. “I’m Chen Chen, the chairman of Blacklight Biotechnology. So, what have you come here for?”
“Well, Mr. Chen.”
Tony smiled. “Facebook and Twitter both hope to invest in your company’s Series A round. Although your company isn’t profitable for the time being, it has established a certain reputation in the industry. We estimate your company’s value to be at 1.5 billion USD. If Mr. Chen agrees, our two companies can buy seventy percent of your company’s shares at one billion USD.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t have any plans to obtain financing at the moment,” Chen Chen responded without any hesitation.
“Er, Mr. Chen, don’t you need time to think this over?”
Tony was rather surprised. “As far as I know, your company’s angel round had only raised eight million USD. Surely this amount wasn’t enough to develop an excellent product like Little X Translation Assistant?”
“That isn’t something you should be concerned about.”
Chen Chen picked up his cup of tea and sipped gently. “If you come here just for that, we no longer have to continue this discussion.”
“Very well...”
Seeing that Chen Chen was being headstrong, the man switched tactics. “In that case, Mr. Chen, please have a look at this letter of intent.”
As he spoke, Emily took out a few thin, white sheaves of documents and handed them to Chen Chen and the rest.
“Just as the letter of intent states, Facebook is willing to purchase the permanent right to use Little X on Facebook’s platform for a hundred million USD, all without interfering with your company’s software operations.”
“The same goes for Twitter.”
On one side, Alvin, who had not spoken up until now, jumped in. “We’re also willing to offer a price of one hundred million USD to incorporate your company’s Little X Translation Assistant into Twitter’s platform.”
In a voice that only Xia Yin and Chen Chen could hear, Sister Ye suddenly reminded them softly from one side, “Manager Xia, their offers are equivalent to both of them paying us to advertise for us. It’s definitely a great opportunity for our company’s publicity!”
[1] A group of online ghostwriters. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Water_Army
[2] OL stands for “office lady”, referring to a particular fashion style.