The dinner was held at Xie Houming's home. On the one hand, Xie Houming and Cheng Feiyang were busy with their own tasks and the two families had not met like this for a long time. Another opportunity for the meeting was that Xie Qian, now the president of Sitong Online, returned to Shanhai and wanted to meet with Cheng Ran's family for dinner.
Sitong Online was established in February this year. Chen Sitong, who worked with Xie Qian, actually established Sitong Software Company a long time ago. It mainly developed Chinese platform software for indos applications. It also won a bunch of miscellaneous awards. Last year, Chen Sitong also set up an online forum in order to follow the trend of the international Internet and set up the so-called international department. In fact, it was just a server rented from an American university, which cost tens of dollars a month and had 10MB of space.
After meeting with Xie Qian and quickly building a future blueprint for selling advertisements on the Internet, the forum was further upgraded this year and became the current Sitong Online.
Chen Shitong was in charge of the technology and website architecture, while Xie Qian, who was very active, served as the CEO of the website. Secondly, their classmates with different experiences and some Chinese businessmen gathered together for this matter, and thus everyone jointly developed this website.
On the eve of this year's World Cup in France, Xie Qian personally went to the organizing committee with various indicators of Sitong Online and negotiated with the French side to designate a single station for reporting on the event.
"Old Xie also mentioned that it had been a long time since we had invited the two families to have dinner together, so Xie Qian immediately booked a flight and rushed back, saying that he also wanted to have dinner and meet Cheng Ran." Zhang Wei and Xu Lan were cooking in the kitchen. At this time, they were bringing a plate of fried dishes to the table and smiled at everyone in the living room, "It's time to eat."
At this time, Sitong Online was busy revising its version for the World Cup, but Xie Qian was not stationed at the front line. Instead, he took out extremely precious time to return to a small city in the mainland just to meet a young man.
But for someone like Xie Qian who became famous early, successfully ran a business abroad and had experienced the world, he knew that some people could not be inferred by common sense. At his level, he had seen many geniuses who became famous at a young age, just like his classmates. Some graduated from the junior class of USTC and had a bright future at the age of 19 or 20, and some were ten years younger than him and had achieved more than him… So as to why Cheng Ran was mature at a young age and why he had so many sharp insights and foresight, Xie Qian never judged heroes based on empiricism.
After hearing about Cheng Ran's moonlit night fight against bandits, his rescue of Xie Houming, the formulation of the Fulong Basic Law, and his discussion with him about a way forward for the development of the website, Xie Qian became more and more interested in Cheng Ran.
Of course, this doesn't mean that he will obey Cheng Ran completely. What he admires most is Cheng Ran's imagination, such as his descriptions of the future. Xie Qian is quite convinced that all technological progress is based on daydreams and fantasies at the beginning. He loves chatting with Cheng Ran because Cheng Ran's ideas and imaginations are so amazing that even the people in his circle can't compare with him.
Everyone started eating and the wine glasses were full. Xie Qian picked up a thin slice of bacon soaked in oil from the plate with his chopsticks, dipped it in vinegar to remove the greasiness, and put it in his mouth to chew, which filled his mouth with fragrance.
With a satisfied look on his face, he pointed at the plate of bacon with his chopsticks in his hand, "Big brother's bacon is still the best. When I was abroad before, I missed your bacon and sausages. Now that I can have a bite of fresh ones when I come back, I feel like home."
Zhang Wei laughed, "Stop it, you came back because of Cheng Ran."
For Cheng Feiyang and Xu Lan, the first thing they felt was not because they were proud of Cheng Ran. Cheng Feiyang said to Xie Qian, "Don't spoil him!" Perhaps Cheng Feiyang naturally put himself in the role of an older brother like Xie Houming and felt that Xie Qian seemed a little immature.
Cheng Feiyang's inherent thinking is that he is not very receptive to the Internet, and he still feels more at ease with the real economy. After Cheng Ran's subtle enlightenment, his views have changed a little, but overall, he is still not very interested in the Internet.
Everyone has their own fixed thinking patterns, which are gradually formed with the years and experience, and can only be changed through years and experience. It is not something that can be enlightened by just a few words from someone.
Even Cheng Ran, a reborn person, is powerless to do anything about this.
Cheng Feiyang now thinks that Xie Qian's Sitong online Chinese platform is a bit like a small-scale venture, but it is just an enthusiastic attempt at new things.
After three rounds of drinks, Xie Qian talked about the situation in the industry. "After talking with you, I went back to the meeting and proposed that our business model is to be an ICP (Internet content service provider) and make advertising as the main profit. Then the upcoming World Cup is a very important point for us. After all, as a CEO, so many people are watching. This first battle must make a name for itself. If it doesn't, my prestige will be ruined!"
Cheng Ran smiled and said, "No."
Speaking of which, it was really God's help for Sitong. After all, Xie Qian was not from a technical background. Chen Sitong had been famous in this field in China for a long time, but Chen Sitong's mobility was not as good as Xie Qian's. Therefore, Xie Qian was nominated as the CEO of the newly established Sitong online Chinese platform. No matter whether it was the potential investors or partners behind the scenes, all their eyes were on him.
Even a group of people who used to work under Chen Shitong might not be completely convinced to be led by Xie Qian.
Of course, Xie Qian omitted some of his objections to the company's direction. Now, some people are probably observing whether he is really qualified for the position of CEO.
Cheng Ran said no, but still put forward his own suggestions. For example, could a concise index be made in the news reports, or even a combination of text and pictures? It would be best to use some writers with good writing skills to try to make the World Cup games seem immersive.
Due to the limitations of the Internet, videos are still a luxury at this time and they take up a lot of server resources. It is naturally impossible to fully report every World Cup game through video, and fans will naturally watch through broadcasts. More importantly, they need a platform where fans from all over the world can gather together to talk.
As long as this is done well, there will be great gains in this battle.
Of course, Cheng Ran would not reveal too much and could only put forward some of his own suggestions for Xie Qian's reference.
Xie Qian listened attentively throughout the whole process, and sometimes he would bring up his own ideas and discuss with Cheng Ran. He didn't have any notes on hand, but Cheng Ran knew Xie Qian's ability and didn't need to take notes. He seemed to be a natural notebook for everything he heard, and he was absolutely accurate to the millimeter.
Xie Qian sighed, "There are only two modes for a company to develop. One is that the company grows slowly through its own accumulation like a snowball. The other is that the company grows continuously by leaps and bounds by introducing various external funds. Raising funds and growing bigger is the dream of almost all companies."
"But in the Internet economy, the market returns to the first and second place are very different. For example, the market value of Yahoo and the second place Exited is 8 times different. Just like the lunar exploration, we always know that the first person to enter space was Gagarin, and the first person to land on the moon was Armstrong. Who cares who is second? I think that now that Sitong Online has been established, we can't be in the middle. We can only aim to be the leader from the beginning, so that we can get financing and grow in the next few stages of the plan."
Xie Qian now has all kinds of pressure on his shoulders.
There are people who are dissatisfied with him internally and have opinions about the strategic direction. It can even be said that he currently has no prestige at all and is only bound to the position of CEO by contract.
Once a website is established, it is like a child that constantly needs a lot of nutrition to grow. These nutrients, in the final analysis, are all money and funds. The pressure of financing is borne by him in all aspects.
Many people start businesses, but most of them fail to meet any of these harsh conditions, and end up becoming the ant hole that causes the dam to break, leading to collapse.
Therefore, Xie Qian was almost throwing everything he had into the World Cup.
So on the eve of the war, he was worried and sought answers from many parties.
But no one could give him a definite answer.
However, only Cheng Ran knew.
The unique advantages of this World Cup match led to the website that fully tracked and reported this World Cup match in the previous life surpassing all competitors on the market at that time and directly occupying the market, setting the highest record of Chinese visits at that time.
And all this will happen in just one or two months.