I Have A Super USB Drive

by <unknown>

  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!"

  [ol][li data-annotation-id="621ece1e-f5c7-0d78-b29f-221aa8dac5da"]A group of online ghostwriters. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Water_Army[li data-annotation-id="7c27b455-aadb-6d5d-f400-7450bbd5f269"]OL stands for "office lady", referring to a particular fashion style.[/ol]

  Chapter 43: Four-Billion-Dollar Contract |

  When he heard what Sister Ye had said, Chen Chen nodded. "I'm glad to hear that both of your wish to incorporate our product into your respective platforms but…"

  Everyone pricked their ears.

  "If you want Little X Translation Assistant for your platforms, a hundred million won't cut it."

  Chen Chen raised two fingers. "I want two billion!"

  "Mr. Chen, isn't that a bit too much?"

  Tony was stunned. "Our valuation of your company puts you at 1.5 billion only. Two billion already exceeds your company's entire worth. We cannot accept this!"

  "That's alright. We can change to another method of cooperation."

  Chen Chen grinned and said nonchalantly, "Whichever one of you is willing to pay three billion USD, I'll let them own exclusive authorization to use the product in the entire Federation."

  When they heard this, Tony and Alvin turned pale at once. Tony stammered, "Mr., Mr. Chen, what you're doing is immoral. As you people in Mainland China would say… What's the phrase, something price?"

  "Raising the price of a date?" Chen Chen asked mockingly.

  "Pfftt…" On one side, Xia Yin nearly spat out her water.

  "No! It's called… Driving up the price!"

  Tony slapped his thigh angrily. "That's right, driving up the price! This isn't how a gentleman behaves!"

  "There's nothing else to say."

  Chen Chen waved his hand. "I'm giving you only these two options. Otherwise, we can end the discussion."

  "If you insist on doing this, I'm afraid we won't be able to continue negotiating about this business deal!"

  Tony drew in a deep breath and suppressed the rage in his heart. "We don't see any sincerity from you or your company at all!"

  "Manager Xia?" Sister Ye suddenly showed an anxious expression and she tried to get Xia Yin to advise Chen Chen.

  However, Xia Yin merely pursed her lips as she held back her laughter, her face flushed red with the effort.

  "Surely all of you must've noticed: This software of mine isn't suited for China's market."

  Chen Chen suddenly changed the topic and said serenely, "Neither QQ, WeChat, Tieba nor Weibo is suitable for Little X Translation Assistant. The ones who truly need this product are international communication platforms like yours.

  "Our company's translation software was created for international communication platforms. The value of the software itself might not be that high but its true worth goes beyond any superficial revenue to be gained."

  Chen Chen broke it down casually. "Did either of you think about what would happen if my translation software were to be used by your competitors?"

  The moment Chen Chen said this, the entire room fell silent.

  Tony and Alvin exchanged a glance. How could they possibly not know the true value of Little X?

  They had merely been playing dumb all this while.

  Not only that but they also knew that if social platforms like Tumblr or Telegram got their hands on Little X Translation Assistant, what a disaster it would be for them! This might even disrupt their dominance in the field of social media!

  "Both of you, please think about it. If your companies gain exclusive authorization, not only will your hegemony be strengthened but you might also have the chance to access emerging markets!"

  Chen Chen fixed them both with a stare. "Have you thought about breaking into Mainland China?"

  This final sentence came like a bolt out of the blue, causing everyone present to gasp sharply!

  In this instant, they thought of Tencent.

  Everyone knew about how an internet empire like Tencent had risen.

  However, it was precisely this knowledge that drove them mad with envy, to the point where they wanted to eat their flesh and chew their bones!

  With the world's largest market, yet without any strong competitors to speak of; from a small chat software to a corporate empire with tentacles extending into every corner of the internet – Tencent only took a decade to accomplish this!

  They even surpassed Twitter easily and crushed Facebook!

  This was the chronicle of the Tencent empire!

  "There are still many other international platforms like Facebook and Twitter such as Tumblr, Instagram, Telegram, Line, and so on…"

  When he saw their stirred-up expressions, Chen Chen smiled faintly. "Strictly speaking, no matter which international platform gets exclusive authorization to use my product, it could become the next Facebook. Even if both of you aren't willing to take this deal, I think there would be others who are willing, right?"

  Upon hearing this, the representatives of Facebook and Twitter fell silent.

&
nbsp; After a long while, Tony said in a strained voice, "I'll have to contact headquarters for this. If you don't mind, we'll come again tomorrow."

  "By all means." Chen Chen invited them out with a polite gesture.

  As she stared at the group drifting out the conference room, Xia Yin whispered in amazement, "They seemed to be tempted…"

  "It's not just 'seemed to be'. They will take the deal."

  Chen Chen shook his head. "If my predictions are correct, in less than an hour, someone will contact us."

  Indeed, merely half an hour later, Sister Ye knocked on Chen Chen's office door in a frenzied manner again. "Chairman, Emily from Facebook has come!"

  "Let her come in at once," Chen Chen replied.

  "Very well!"

  Soon, Sister Ye walked in with the woman who was with Tony, along with a few lawyers.

  Emily did not speak Chinese as Tony did. Instead, she used English to express hurriedly, "Mr. Chen, we've met before. On behalf of Facebook, I accept your second proposal to buy exclusive authorization for Little X Translation Assistant across the entire Federation at the price of three billion USD!"

  "Is that so? That's really too bad…"

  Chen Chen wagged his finger and said in a pitying tone, "Twitter has contacted me earlier. They were willing to do the same."

  "That's impossible!" Emily suddenly exclaimed loudly and subconsciously glanced at Chen Chen's side. "You're a fraud!"

  "It's best to think twice before you speak."

  Chen Chen said leisurely, "If you don't believe me, why don't you wait for Mr. Alvin's arrival to fight it out?"

  Emily spluttered slightly when she heard this, then she took a deep breath. "In that case, Facebook is willing to purchase exclusive authorization for Little X Translation Assistant at the price of four billion USD. That's the limit, Mr. Chen!"

  "I look forward to working with you!" When Chen Chen heard this, he offered his hand with a gentle smile.

  …

  It took nearly three hours to finish signing the contract.

  After Sister Ye sent out the pale-faced Emily and her team, Xia Yin suddenly poked her head in through the door.

  "Is it done?"

  "It's done." Chen Chen took out the contract. "Four billion USD."

  "Yeah!"

  Xia Yin immediately whooped with joy and rushed over in delight. "My goodness, I'm not dreaming, right? Four billion and it's in USD. Even if I sell off my father, I won't make that much!"

  "Facebook and Twitter, those two jackals aren't any saints in the first place. How can I let them off without teaching them a severe lesson?"

  "They're not saints but you still let them break into Mainland China?" Xia Yin retorted with a smile as she flipped through the contract.

  "Have they broken in?" Chen Chen chuckled and tossed the contract into the drawer. "Even if we put aside barriers like the local government and Tencent, this contract doesn't mention anything about updating the Chinese system…"

  "Huh?" Xia Yin was taken aback. "You're going to freeze them out?"

  "There's no need for that at the moment. If they really decide to break into Mainland China's market, there'll still be time to stop them."

  Chen Chen laughed icily. "Anyway, you just have to remember that these two platforms will become our enemies sooner or later."

  Chapter 44: Blacklight Biotechnology Data Center |

  The name "Blacklight Biotechnology" spread like wildfire with the news that they signed a four-billion-dollar contract with Facebook.

  For the first time, countless people started paying attention to this little-known small company. Following that, the product, Little X Translation Assistant, spread around rapidly as well.

  This was more effective than Xia Yin spending over ten million on advertising.

  The crucial point was, the contract between Chen Chen and Facebook only covered exclusive authorization on their platform. This meant that only Facebook users did not have to pay any fees. Chen Chen could still charge other individual users.

  Therefore, to take advantage of this public opinion effect, Little X Translation Assistant finally imposed a monthly membership fee.

  The membership price was set at 25 RMB per month.

  If one wanted a discount, one could choose a one-time top-up for 6 months at only 120 RMB, thus saving 30 RMB.

  The best deal was the annual membership. By topping up 200 RMB once, the product could be used for a year. This was a discount of 100 RMB.

  In addition, new users could enjoy a 15-day free trial period. Moreover, each time a user shared the product and successfully got a new user to register for an account, they would gain three additional days of free use.

  This was the price for users in Mainland China. As for other continents, the fee would increase or decrease in proportion to the local economy.

  A few days after Chen Chen had reached an agreement with Facebook, an employee of Blacklight Biotechnology, Ye Dongmei, was found to be guilty of inappropriate conduct while acting as the manager's assistant, with evidence of receiving bribes. She was subsequently fired.

  Meanwhile, Chen Chen used the company's name to purchase an IDC data center in Shangdu Industrial Park that was on the verge of closing down.

  This data center referred to an Internet Data Center, an internet-based intermediary that provided information services such as collection, storage or processing.

  Take the web page company of Xia Yin's old man for example:

  After a new user had registered for a game created by Sparkle Entertainment, how should Sparkle Entertainment record their game information to prevent any troublesome data loss the next time the user logged in?

  In most cases, Sparkle Entertainment would have two options:

  The first one: Build a server themselves, which would support user logins for tens of thousands of accounts or even hundreds of thousands of accounts, every second.

  This option required a server to be built from scratch and at least one server room. This room must also have an adequate heat dissipation system. In addition to the cost of hiring professional maintenance services, this would not come cheap.

  The second option: Hand over the task of storing information to a data center. The company itself only had to concentrate on game development and maintenance.

  To put it simply, the data center was a public server room dedicated to storing the network information of several companies.

  This was also known as a cloud server.

  The one Chen Chen had bought was a data center on the verge of closing down due to a string of problems including old equipment, frequent freezes, and serious data lags.

  In terms of size, this data center was considered large. It had eight server rooms with over 4000 servers. Each server room was 10x50 meters in size. Together with the office, the entire building covered an area of 5000 square meters.

  Initially, it was one of the data divisions under Mainland China Public Enterprise Telecommunications. As it had been built so long ago, most of its equipment could no longer be upgraded due to old age and thus, could not keep up with the times.

  According to TIA standards, this data center only qualified as the most basic [Tier 1]. In the sea of countless, newly established, high-level data centers, it had lost its competitive edge.

  As a result, Chen Chen had spent only 20 million to buy it from Telecommunications. This included two years left on the lease.

  After the purchase, Chen Chen did not immediately upgrade or replace the old server equipment. First, he bought a transformer.

  Chen Chen had wanted to buy a district transformer at first. However, he then considered that the installation of such a transformer might lead to abnormal local electricity consumption, thus attracting the government's attention. Therefore, in the end, he bought a 10000KVA, 35KV all-copper oil-immersed transformer.

  When the truck transported the transformer over, Chen Chen found out that this transformer was as large as a room.

  This tra
nsformer also had three times the capacity of the original transformer in the data center.

  The power consumption of the servers in the data center was secondary. The most power-consuming factor would be the cooling of the server rooms.

  According to the power consumption ratio as given by the data center market: Servers accounted for 40% of energy consumption while cooling accounted for 55%. The remaining usage of electricity and lighting took up the last 5%.

  A data center like this required a 3000KVA transformer to supply its needs.

  At this point, he had only tripled its capacity. Surely this would not attract the attention of the power supply station?

  Chen Chen stroked his chin, deep in thought.

  In truth, the best way to charge the USB drive was to build a power plant in another continent.

  For instance, the Indian Subcontinent or the African Continent where the local government would allow Chen Chen a tremendous degree of freedom. The situation was different here where Chen Chen was walking on thin ice.

  Nonetheless, building a power plant would take an astronomical sum of money. In the past, Chen Chen could never afford it.

  Still, with the recent four billion USD from Facebook, he had enough to give it a shot.

  Even so, distant waters would not put out a nearby fire. Building a power plant would take at least years. Presently, Chen Chen was in too much of a rush for that.

  In the meantime, Xia Yin could not understand Chen Chen's impenetrable operations at all.

  Chen Chen could choose to rent cloud servers, yet he insisted on spending a large sum just to buy a rundown data center. Other than the limited value of the lease and the building, those antique servers inside should have been sold off as scrap metal long ago.

  However, Chen Chen was the boss. Although Xia Yin became infuriated after days of advising Chen Chen in vain, she could only go along with his plans.

  Not only that, but a few days later, Chen Chen paid a gigantic price to overhaul the expensive liquid cooling system of the data center. At the same time, he replaced all the servers and ended up selling the old servers as scrap metal.

  Xia Yin: 'What a mother*cker?!'