Reborn: Billionaire in College

After returning to the hotel in the evening, Bu Housheng only took the time to answer a phone call. When he came back, he said to Chen Ping: "Mr. Chen, are you free tonight?"

"I have time. What? Is there anything?"

"Well, we at Tianyuan Capital have met some startups and seed companies in BJ before. A person in charge named Jiujiufang wants to come over to talk to you in the evening."

Chen Pingjiang frowned, and kept recalling in his mind that he had never heard of the company Jiujiufang.

How could it be a particularly good company that he would not remember?
"Old Bu, it's good for you to see me."

Bu Housheng nodded with some regret: "I am optimistic about this young man, his name is Zhang Yiming."

"?" Chen Pingjiang suspected that he had heard it wrongly, and raised his voice: "What? Zhang Yiming?"

"Yes, boss, do you know him?"

"Uh, I don't know him."

Although he said he didn't know him, Chen Pingjiang's heart was in turmoil. How could he not know him?

But at this point in time, how did Zhang Yiming come up with Jiujiufang?

This is not Chen Pingjiang's fault. At most, he remembers the year when the big guys started their businesses, what awesome products they made, and what awesome words they said.

Where can I remember everyone’s resume clearly?

"I have a lot of time at night, so you can ask him to come over and find a more private restaurant." Chen Pingjiang said.

After saying this, he became faintly excited.

There is an illusion that "all the heroes in the world are within the grasp".

What Chen Pingjiang didn’t know was that in this era, the future bigwigs weren’t doing very well either.

For example, Zhang Yiming just left Fanfou and turned to start Jiujiufang. Fanfou was the blog that he and Wang Xing created together, which copied twttier. Later, it was forced to close in 09 due to violations.

Jiujiufang was the fourth job experience of 26-year-old Zhang Yiming, which started four years after he graduated from Nankai University. On average, each job lasted a little over a year. At this time, Zhang Yiming was a little impatient and desperate for success. He completely lacked the style, determination and patience he would have in the future.

If Chen Pingjiang had not appeared and flapped the butterfly's wings, Wang Xing might still be confused now.

Compared with Zhang Yiming, who keeps changing jobs and constantly looking for a new fulcrum in his life, Wang Xing's situation is even worse.

Fanfou was his hard work, but its internet connection was disconnected. Until the end of the year, there was still no response on whether Fanfou could be reopened.

During that period, Wang Xing was in a state of anxiety all day long. In the constant waiting, he went from hope to disappointment, rekindled hope, fell into disappointment again, and finally became despair.

In the past two years, Wang Jian of Alibaba and the engineers of Alibaba Cloud lived in an apartment in BJ without heating or house number, shivering as they typed code. In summer, they had to manually take ice cubes to cool down the machine. There was no coffee or tea, so they had to bring their own. The external environment was still able to hold on, but the doubts about him within Alibaba were the most fatal. He spent a lot of money but saw no results, and his KPI assessment ranked last year after year. Alibaba Cloud engineers have changed 4 generations, and only 20% of the original core members are left. The resignation letter said: I can't see any hope if I continue to work.

There was a saying on Alibaba's internal website: "Every year, people think Wang Jian will leave, but he just won't leave." Wu Hanqing, a former subordinate, also said: "Dr. Wang is on the verge of falling, but he won't fall."

It is precisely because of this persistence that Wang Jian eventually became the first private enterprise in China to be elected as an academician of the two academies. However, now, almost no one applauds him, and even the participants are half-believing and half-doubting. It is inhuman to think about the days when you have to encourage the team to move forward without being understood or accepted.

Lei Jun's performance this year was also unsatisfactory.

At the thank-you party for Kingsoft's listing, Qiu Bojun toasted Lei Jun, who took the glass and drank it all, then smashed the glass and cried. This was Lei Jun's self-expression of the fact that Kingsoft had worked hard for many years before it went public, but he was just a small fry and it was far from his inner expectations. It was also a farewell for his decision to bid farewell to Kingsoft and seek a new stage.

After leaving, Lei Jun looked for investment opportunities everywhere, but things didn't go smoothly. Of course, at least he was still rich, but he just wanted to build a career.

This year he was drinking in a bar in Zhongguancun. It was his birthday that day, and everyone asked him to talk about his life experience. He said, "I don't know where to start with so many words."

Oh, this year Wang Xin had already developed QVOD. I wonder if he could have imagined that one day he would be able to operate a sewing machine.

Chen Pingjiang gradually withdrew his thoughts and tapped his fingertips rhythmically on the table.

It seems that I can take advantage of these outstanding talents and recruit them before they can shine.

…………

In the evening, Chen Pingjiang met the legendary Zhang Yiming in a private club.

Compared to many years later, he hadn't changed much, except that at the age of twenty-seven he looked young and immature.

When Zhang Yiming saw Chen Pingjiang, the emotion in his heart was no less than Chen Pingjiang's.

Now this young man who is five years younger than him is already the richest man, and he has achieved nothing.

The fate of life is really wonderful.

What Zhang Yiming didn't expect was that after seeing him, Chen Pingjiang actually stood up and walked over to shake hands cordially, which made Zhang Yiming feel flattered for a moment.

"Mr. Zhang, I've heard of your name for a long time." "Well, I'm not worthy of it. I didn't expect that Mr. Chen has heard of me." Zhang Yiming said with a smile.

Chen Pingjiang nodded and said, "I run Weibo, and Wang Xing runs Fanfou, so naturally we know our competitors, so it's no surprise that we know you. I admire your technical ability very much."

Bu Housheng, who was standing by, held back his laughter as he listened to his boss bragging.

"They are all little tricks that are not worthy of your attention."

After sitting down, Chen Pingjiang asked, "I heard from Mr. Bu that Mr. Zhang wanted to see me very much. Is it because of the funding for Jiujiufang?"

"That's not the case. We have the financial support from SIG for now. We came to you hoping to cooperate with Mr. Chen and use Mr. Chen's Renren, Weibo, Ju mobile and even Renrengou to promote Jiujiufang." Zhang Yiming said: "Renren and Weibo are of course important. Jiujiufang APP can be pre-installed on Ju mobile. Renrengou, as a local life application, also has a basis for cooperation with Jiujiufang."

Chen Pingjiang laughed out loud: "I'm fighting to the death with your fellow countryman Wang Xing's Meituan. If he knew that you came to me for cooperation instead of Meituan, he would be furious."

"Business is business, and personal relationships are personal relationships."

Unfortunately, in the face of Zhang Yiming's expectant eyes, Chen Pingjiang slowly shook his head: "Sorry, I'm afraid you will have to make a wasted trip. Jiujiufang has only achieved phased success and is still some distance away from becoming my strategic partner."

Chen Pingjiang refused so bluntly that Zhang Yiming felt a little embarrassed.

The immense enthusiasm just now and the cold rejection now, it's really like heaven and hell.

"First of all, it is impossible for Jiujiufang to pre-install Orange mobile phones. Applications that are too niche are not suitable for pre-installation. Only browsers and chat tools are more suitable. For the same reason, I am not optimistic about the cooperation between Renrengou and Jiujiufang. The group buying war has not yet ended. We don't have much energy to make plans in this area. I think you must have contacted Wang Xing before me, and he replied to you in the same way, right?"

After saying this, Chen Pingjiang saw that Zhang Yiming's face turned pale, and his heart probably began to sink to the bottom of the valley.

When the atmosphere was almost brewing, Chen Pingjiang changed the subject: "However, although I am not optimistic about the Jiujiufang project, I am particularly optimistic about you as a person."

Chen Pingjiang's thinking was so fast that Zhang Yiming could hardly keep up with the pace.

When I heard his words, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Jiujiufang was his hard work, but it was commented as "not promising" by Chen Pingjiang, who was known for his sharp vision. If the news got out, Jiujiufang would basically be sentenced to death.

But Chen Pingjiang is particularly optimistic about himself, which is a kind of comfort after all.

Zhang Yiming was also a little distressed. He thought he had strong technical skills, but he always couldn't find the direction.

Chen Pingjiang continued, "Come and work with me. The sea is wide for fish to leap and the sky is high for birds to fly. The stage of Jiujiufang is too small and not suitable for you. Renren.com may be your final destination. Right now we have a project internally that I personally think is very suitable for you. If you are willing to come, I will hand this project over to you."

Zhang Yiming was somewhat tempted.

He is a bit arrogant, otherwise he would not have started businesses so many times. Isn't he happy with the high salary at Microsoft?

It would be a lie to say that he was not flattered when Chen Pingjiang, who was now crowned with glory, extended an olive branch to a "little man" like him.

"Can I ask what kind of project this is, Mr. Chen?"

Chen Pingjiang nodded and began to introduce: "The internal name of this project is "Toutiao". It has reached the testing stage and will be online soon. However, I am not very satisfied with some of the algorithms. Toutiao is actually a recommendation engine product based on data mining. It recommends news and information to users and provides service products that link people and information. To some extent, it can also be called the mobile version of a portal website."

"But I don't want to make rigid news recommendations. Instead, I hope to maximize the use of algorithms and information distribution technology to customize for users. When users use Toutiao, they can have different faces. The user model is calculated based on the user's interest distribution, and then the information is extracted, mined, deduplicated, and classified before being recommended to users."

Zhang Yiming's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he sighed in his heart that he was indeed a man praised to the sky by the outside world.

Any small project is so innovative and has a market potential that it is completely incomparable to the products he had worked on before.

"Mr. Chen, you don't have to explain it in such detail. Otherwise, aren't you afraid that I will steal your idea?"

Facing Zhang Yiming's temptation, Chen Pingjiang smiled heartily: "What are you afraid of? Not to mention that we have almost developed this product and can launch it at any time. Just talking about you as a person, you are worthy of my trust. I am not just optimistic about you. I sincerely hope that you can join my team."

Zhang Yiming hesitated.

Faced with the invitation from the first person in the Internet, few people can resist such temptation, especially when it is a new product, a promising new product, or the person in charge of a project.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Chen, this is a huge matter. After all, I am still the CEO of Jiujiufang. I... need to go back and digest it and think about it seriously."

"Then I'll wait for you in Dongjiang!"

Not long after, Zhang Yiming left.

At this time, Bu Housheng asked curiously: "Mr. Chen, are you so optimistic about Zhang Yiming?"

Chen Pingjiang did not answer this question, but instead asked: "Do you think he will be moved?"

"I think so. Compared to an unclear future, almost no one can resist the temptation of independently leading a project or a business group in a leading company, right?"

"Then I hope he can figure it out." (End of this chapter)