Building an office tower ourselves is not as simple as it sounds.
Just the preliminary feasibility study report, environmental assessment, soil and water conservation, and planning alone require dealing with multiple departments.
These include environmental protection, land, water resources, urban planning bureau, and surveying and mapping institute.
Only after all these are completed can the design bidding begin, followed by commissioning the architectural design, then another series of approvals, and finally, construction can commence.
Fortunately, Renren.com's Twin Star Headquarters building is a key investment attraction project for the Wujiang District government, so all approvals received green lights and didn't take much time.
The final total project cost, including decoration, was determined to be 800 million yuan, featuring a three-story underground parking lot, six elevators, and central air conditioning.
The total construction area of the Twin Star A and B buildings project reached 131,400 square meters, with each building approximately 90 meters high, three underground floors, and 26 above-ground floors.
It will create an ecological smart super high-rise building integrating office, entertainment, dining, and other functions, and will become a new landmark in Wujiang District.
The Twin Star A and B buildings are connected by an ancillary building, offering a distant view of the Yangtze River and adjacent to Binjiang Park.
The design maximizes the visibility of the riverside landscape belt, truly a prime river-view property.
It not only includes comfortable office areas but also features yoga rooms, gyms, lounges, lactation rooms, laundry rooms, basketball courts, and more, with each building having two full floors dedicated to its cafeteria.
Chen Pingjiang put a lot of thought into the design of the headquarters building.
There was no other way; this thing was the face and confidence of a major internet company, and everyone was competing.
To this end, Chen Pingjiang even incorporated a lot of "black technologies."
Building in 2008 offered the best value preservation.
Which major internet company could have imagined that its market value would later fall to be worth less than its company building?
Yes, I'm talking about Sohu.
Chen Pingjiang had an abundance of only one thing now: money.
The Series B funding raised approximately 6.6 billion RMB.
Renren.com, including Renren Farm, had a monthly revenue of 100 million, while DNF's current monthly revenue was as high as 200 million, and was even expected to double in the future.
The abundant cash flow was terrifying.
......
After the Lantern Festival, the long-planned Renren Group Buying project finally launched.
Renren's Iron Army had already penetrated all vertical categories of daily life in Dongjiang City's districts and counties, with over 4,000 local merchants signed up.
These achievements were the result of Renren's Iron Army members each wearing out three pairs of shoes over several months of field work.
However, this also indicated that Renren's Iron Army currently had a significant shortage of personnel.
To expand into markets outside the city, they must accelerate team building, considering that Meituan at its peak had as many as 20,000 people just for ground promotion.
In the future O2O battlefield, in addition to service, the ground promotion team is also a crucial factor for victory.
The role of ground promotion is not only reflected in going door-to-door but also, more importantly, in the rapid dissemination of information.
Let's calculate based on Meituan's 20,000-person ground promotion team.
Whenever Meituan's headquarters posts exciting news online about new services, new projects, or the latest business data, many Meituan employees, especially ground promotion staff, will spontaneously repost it.
Let's assume half of them do, which means 10,000 people simultaneously forward the company's latest information to their Moments (social feed).
On average, each ground promoter's Moments has 500 friends (this number is absolutely not an exaggeration, as Meituan ground promoters often add Meituan merchants and consumers as WeChat friends for work purposes), and these 500 friends are relatively precise Meituan fans.
10,000 x 500 = 5,000,000, meaning that through the reposts of nearly half of the ground promoters, 5 million precise audiences can be influenced in a very short time.
And this only calculates the number of people influenced by the first round of reposts; if we also calculate secondary reposts in Moments, the influence would be even more terrifying.
To facilitate initial promotion, Chen Pingjiang had no choice but to spend money.
Besides lowering merchant product prices, Renren Group Buying itself also had a series of subsidy measures.
For example, new user discounts, daily first-order discounts, and so on.
In addition, Chen Pingjiang also requested that a considerable amount of work be done upfront to avoid problems and subsequent revisions after launch.
First, it was imperative to prevent fake group buying numbers, and second, to introduce a policy of "unconditional refunds for non-consumption within seven days."
"How is it? Are you confident?"
Chen Pingjiang smiled as he looked at Gao Songbin, who was sitting opposite him.
In these past few months, Gao Songbin had indeed endured a lot of hardship.
He had become thinner and tanner, taking the lead and personally participating in ground promotions and door-to-door visits.
This included not only the merchant side but also the user side in major office buildings and residential areas.
"Of course, we're confident, otherwise, wouldn't our efforts over these past few months have been for nothing?"
Gao Songbin had been pouring all his energy into it recently.
Not only himself, but many in the company were subtly comparing him and Li Xi.
They both joined the company at the same time, and their employee IDs were single digits.
Currently, Li Xi had already joined the board of directors, while Gao Songbin had reached the stage where it was time to prove himself.
Succeed, and he would soar; fail, and he would be completely marginalized.
Not to mention Chen Pingjiang wouldn't give him a second chance, even if he did, the entire company wouldn't agree.
It's easy to imagine, could Gao Songbin's pressure be anything but immense?
"The first half-month after launch is critical. Be sure to repeatedly confirm everything to ensure a resounding success,"
Chen Pingjiang said.
"On the B-side (merchant side), you need them to cooperate by offering super discounts and promoting them repeatedly. This is a beneficial measure that can attract consumers and lead to word-of-mouth spread.
The key here is for Renren's Iron Army to negotiate very strong discounts on the B-side, and then convert them into impulse purchases and word-of-mouth. I suggest you gather all merchants in different regions and hold several briefing sessions."
"In addition to negotiating discounts with merchants, ground promoters also need to carry out campus promotions, business district promotions, door-to-door visits, and deploy promotional activities.
Remember, the efficiency of ground promotion itself is low, so don't just blindly push. Collect more information, confirm whether a building needs to be visited, and focus on key areas. Otherwise, even robots wouldn't be able to handle it all."
"Select some merchants and turn them into 'star merchants' to create a leading effect."
"For every merchant successfully signed, ensure they have Renren Group Buying table stickers, door stickers, franchise posters, and refrigerator magnets.
Select the most prominent merchants in each business district and replace their photos and in-store menus with Renren Group Buying logos. In universities, embed Renren Group Buying logos in various locations like dormitory building stickers and restrooms."
Chen Pingjiang practically poured out all the practical knowledge he had.
......
Renren Group Buying's office moved out of Huijin Building before the New Year, relocating to another rented office space near Mochou Road.
As the number of people grew, this was inevitable.
Gao Songbin returned to Renren Group Buying headquarters and immediately gathered all middle and senior management to convey Chen Pingjiang's instructions.
Subsequently, everyone in the company received an email or message:
"Decisive Battle 21 Days."
When the entire massive Renren.com system started operating, the effect was astonishing.
In Dongjiang's seventy or eighty universities, Renren.com hired part-time university students to distribute flyers, with at least three booths set up for promotion at each school.
In addition, various booths were set up in densely populated areas such as shopping malls, residential areas, and urban CBDs.
Gao Songbin prepared two teams to separately gather merchants for briefing sessions.
Under the premise of strictly controlling merchant services and product quality, more traffic was given to high-quality merchants willing to offer discounts and promotions.
To put it plainly, these briefing sessions were a process of brainwashing and persuasion.
The rhetoric was nothing more than:
"We are a major internet company, our parent company Renren.com is a big company, you will definitely make money by working with us. Early super low discounts are a necessary means to attract customers. Only when the pie is big can the cake be made bigger."
Chen Pingjiang also didn't forget the group of small shareholders of Renren Group Buying.
"Old Liu, how about offering some 10% off tickets at your cinema? Old Zhang, you help out with your hotpot place by offering some 10% off vouchers too, alright? And for Old Li's massage parlor and Old Zhou's buffet, same thing."
This group of people was originally quite happy about the launch of Renren Group Buying, but they didn't expect the tone to change a bit when it came to Chen Pingjiang.
"Mr. Chen, with 10% off tickets, I'll lose a lot. 50% already goes to the film distributors."
"Exactly! Even though catering profits are decent, 10% off is too exaggerated, isn't it?"
"Are you worse off than me? For a 10% off foot massage, I'd have to pay the masseuse's labor cost out of my own pocket."
"..."
Facing the "indignant crowd," Chen Pingjiang still explained with a smile:
"It's not like I'm asking you to give all customers 10% off. Offering five such deals a day is enough; this is just a gimmick to attract customer traffic. Don't forget you are shareholders of Renren Group Buying.
Only when group buying takes off can your profits be maximized. Furthermore, the group buying business has just launched. Other merchants don't quite know how to play yet. By attracting attention with discounts and promotions, you can stand out faster from countless merchants."
"What's most important in the internet era? Traffic!"
Saying this, Chen Pingjiang turned to look at He Zhiyu.
The latter immediately understood:
"My Farway Supermarket, restaurants, and bakeries will all actively respond, offering discounted merchants and 10 items at 10% off every day."
Chen Pingjiang nodded:
"Old He still has a grand vision. No wonder you make money."
On the other side, Liu Cheng also said:
"My private kitchens will also go all out, offering one free table per store per day, and five tables at half price."
These two had earned a lot recently thanks to Chen Pingjiang's guidance.
Spending a little money now to maintain their relationship with Chen Pingjiang was well worth it.
The three of them, working in concert, got the matter settled.
At this, the others had nothing more to say and each expressed their strong support.
Chen Pingjiang raised his cup and toasted around:
"You don't understand now, but you'll know later that I wouldn't harm you."
"I've said it before, the internet era has arrived. First there was Taobao, next is group buying. Those of you who have gotten a ticket should just enjoy it. Believe it or not, if you want to get off the ship, there will be a crowd on the dock waving cash to buy your tickets?"
No one refuted him, fearing that if they displeased Chen Pingjiang, he wouldn't include them anymore.
It wasn't that this group of people didn't trust Chen Pingjiang; it was entirely because their old way of thinking couldn't adapt so quickly.
Otherwise, why did so many companies fall behind every time there was an industrial revolution and technological upgrade worldwide throughout history?
Was it that they didn't understand the benefits of this?
To put it bluntly, their vision hadn't reached the corresponding level.
(End of Chapter)