October 18th, Tuesday.
Qiao Liang dragged his suitcase as he once again set foot on Jingzhou soil.
“Jingzhou, Teacher Qiao is back again!”
“Hmm, why did I say ‘again’?”
For some reason, Qiao Liang felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with Jingzhou.
After returning to the capital, he had sold everything he could from his old apartment, terminated his lease, shipped his computer and treasured figurine collection to Jingzhou, and then brought a suitcase with his clothing.
Somehow, Qiao Liang suddenly felt a sense of lightness.
Completely saying goodbye to his previous messy rental apartment, returning to the clean and tidy Sloth Apartments to start a new life!
In July this year, Jingzhou’s high-speed rail station had officially opened, making the journey from the capital to Jingzhou more convenient.
This was Qiao Liang’s first visit to Jingzhou’s high-speed rail station. Following the directional signs inside the station, he arrived at the taxi waiting area.
Many people were queuing for taxis. Qiao Liang dragged his suitcase to the end of the line and suddenly noticed a huge billboard nearby.
“Jingzhou’s New City Business Card”!
This seemed to be a series of billboards. The one closest to Qiao Liang featured a famous historical site in Jingzhou, with a line of artistic text at the bottom.
“Historical City, Ancient Charm of Jingzhou.”
Looking ahead, another billboard displayed a famous scenic area in Jingzhou, with blue skies, white clouds, green mountains, and clear waters. Below was a similar line of artistic text.
“Poetic Landscapes, Beautiful Jingzhou.”
As the queue moved forward, Qiao Liang continued to look at the row of billboards.
Later billboards featured the city’s night view of the high-tech zone with the slogan “Industrial Upgrade, Innovative Jingzhou”; an aerial view of Hangdong University with the slogan “Learning for Application, Educational Jingzhou”; and so on.
Continuing forward, passing these billboards, Qiao Liang’s eyes suddenly lit up.
The slogan on the billboard ahead was “Healthy Living, Livable Jingzhou,” and the content of the billboard was actually about the Tenda Life APP!
At the center of the billboard was a phone screen showing “Tenda Life APP.” Expanding from this APP were labels related to various Tenda Life industries, including Sloth Apartments, Tuoguan Fitness, Slackin’ Delivery, and so on.
Qiao Liang was stunned and quickly took out his phone to take a photo.
“Awesome!”
This kind of city-level promotion definitely couldn’t have been organized by Tenda themselves.
The healthy lifestyle concept advocated by Tenda and these very forward-thinking physical businesses has become Jingzhou’s new business card, becoming part of the city’s culture!
The concept of a city business card is essentially the city appearing as a complete image, seeking more opportunities to showcase itself. It’s not packaging in the traditional sense; more accurately, it’s a comprehensive, three-dimensional, specially promotional brand complex.
In this concept, “lifestyle” is a crucial factor. It’s the carrier of the city’s characteristics and values. People living in the city complete their psychological identification with the city through this “lifestyle” carrier.
Tenda Life-related industries had had a profound impact on the lifestyle of Jingzhou residents, so becoming a city business card was reasonable.
Being able to become Jingzhou’s city business card was not just about being promoted on billboards.
It also meant that Tenda Group had gained recognition from the city of Jingzhou. In the future, it would serve as a benchmark enterprise in various aspects, receiving various preferential policies and support, allowing it to better establish itself in Jingzhou and radiate its influence throughout the province and even the entire country.
“It seems that Mr. Pei’s strategy of ‘rooting in Jingzhou and diversifying development’ has paid off!”
“Is this what strategic vision looks like?”
Qiao Liang couldn’t help but marvel.
If Mr. Pei had tried to expand Slackin’ Internet Café nationwide after its initial success, without venturing into other industries, there would be no “Tenda Life,” and it probably wouldn’t have received recognition as a city business card.
Qiao Liang got into a taxi and headed for Sloth Apartments.
His new life in Jingzhou was about to begin!
…
Meanwhile, Pei Qian was in his office rubbing his temples, feeling a terrible headache.
This wasn’t just about the Jingzhou city business card matter.
In the previous cycle, “Tenda Life APP” had been a big hit, including Slackin’ Delivery, Slackin’ Internet Café, Sloth Apartments, Tuoguan Fitness, GOG Global Invitational, Creepy Inn, and so on, all gaining high recognition.
This series of initiatives had also given the city of Jingzhou high visibility nationwide. As a result, Jingzhou had not only made Tenda a city business card but had also awarded Tenda the title of “Jingzhou Excellent Enterprise” and even provided a batch of tax exemptions for Tenda as a major taxpayer!
If Pei Qian had heard this news during the previous cycle, he would probably have fainted on the spot.
Fortunately, this cycle had just begun, so Pei Qian was only stunned briefly before quickly adjusting.
It’s still okay!
There was still a long time until settlement, so it wasn’t a big problem.
However, this introduced some uncertainties into the original spending plan.
Moreover, the Tenda Life APP needed to be managed.
Yu Pingan had already tricked Pei Qian enough in the previous cycle. The originally failed Scholar Express APP had been integrated with Tenda’s physical industries, renamed, and subsequently revived.
Now, the Tenda Life APP had already gained such high attention, with bright future development prospects. If left unmanaged, who knew what other problems might arise!
So Pei Qian felt something had to be done.
Following the principle of “whoever makes money spends it,” he needed to find some new tasks for the Tenda Life APP team so they wouldn’t continue to focus on this project.
With this in mind, Pei Qian called Yu Pingan and asked him to come to his office.
…
An hour later, Yu Pingan arrived.
“Mr. Pei!”
Yu Pingan’s face was beaming with a smile. Who wouldn’t feel proud about being featured as a city business card?
From Scholar Express APP to Tenda Life APP, this team had undergone several transformations, each time achieving success.
In Yu Pingan’s view, this success wasn’t based on luck; it was due to Mr. Pei’s foresight and the efforts of all employees!
Pei Qian gestured for Yu Pingan to sit down and asked, “How’s work recently?”
Yu Pingan quickly replied, “Mr. Pei, everything is going smoothly! The number of active users of the Tenda Life APP is steadily increasing, especially in Jingzhou, where our APP’s influence is growing!”
“Of course, our team won’t become complacent or arrogant.”
“I’ve already developed a very comprehensive update plan!”
Currently, the Tenda Life APP still has many issues. Our next goals are mainly two-fold: first, to simplify complexity by optimizing the interface layout, making it more convenient for our users; second, to further deepen cooperation with various industries and introduce more practical features…”
The more Pei Qian listened, the more dangerous he felt the situation was.
The Tenda Life APP itself wasn’t making big money at the moment, but its problem was that it would make physical industries earn big money!
Therefore, this team needed to be given something else to do.
Pei Qian cleared his throat: “Hmm, your plans are quite good, but I have a new project to give you.”
Yu Pingan was taken aback: “Please tell me, Mr. Pei.”
He was a bit confused.
Logically, with the Tenda Life APP being so successful, shouldn’t this be the time to increase manpower and financial investment?
Why start a new project?
Was it related to the Tenda Life APP?
Yu Pingan didn’t ask more questions and listened attentively.
Pei Qian paused, then said, “I want to create a new project, including a website and a mobile APP, called… ‘Useful.'”
Yu Pingan: “Useful APP? So… what exactly is it useful for?”
Pei Qian explained, “This idea stems from some unpleasant experiences I had when searching for information on Thousand Degrees.”
“The internet today is full of all kinds of garbage. The same article is reposted and plagiarized by dozens of websites, making it impossible to find what you’re looking for when searching for keywords.”
“So, I think someone needs to stand up and change this situation!”
Yu Pingan was stunned: “So… Mr. Pei, are we making a product similar to a search engine?”
Pei Qian shook his head: “Although current search engines have many problems, even if we made a conscientious search engine, it wouldn’t solve this issue.”
“If 99% of the internet consists of worthless garbage information, how excellent would our algorithm need to be to find that 1%? It’s not realistic.”
“So, we’re not making a search engine; we’re creating content.”
Logically, making a search engine would likely result in losses.
Thousand Degrees, despite its many issues, was very powerful in terms of accumulated search engine technology. Many large companies had tried to create search engines, but without exception, none had managed to shake Thousand Degrees’ position.
But Pei Qian thought, it’s not about fearing the likely; it’s about fearing the unlikely.
Tenda now had an excellent reputation, and considering factors like the TPDb website, maybe a search engine would attract many users.
Moreover, a search engine was a gateway. What if it created synergies with existing industries? The risk was too great.
Yu Pingan thought for a moment: “Then… perhaps we could create a Q&A platform? Although there are already products like Thousand Degrees Encyclopedia and Thousand Degrees Q&A, we could still make our own.”
Pei Qian said, “We’ll create a combination of ‘encyclopedia’ and ‘Q&A’ models, with three requirements.”
“First, we’ll create a closed environment, dividing our users into two parts: creators and readers. All must be verified with real names, and anyone wanting to become a creator must prove their professional abilities to reviewers and can only answer questions or edit entries within their professional field.”
“Second, we must protect intellectual property rights to the greatest extent possible, not allowing copy-pasting or reposting theft. If someone tries to manually steal content, we’ll pursue responsibility and seek compensation at all costs.”
“Finally, we’ll charge all users-no payment, no viewing. These membership fees will be returned to the creators.”