Chapter 565: Do Weibo First

He tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep.

The next morning, Zhang Dalong ordered a cup of coffee from room service to clear his head.

He hadn’t slept well at all last night. Partly because he’d witnessed the most incredible scene of his life yesterday, but also because he’d spent the entire evening reading criminal law.

That’s right, criminal law!

He could understand a company issuing uniforms, but handing out criminal law textbooks? That made no sense to him.

Were they really expecting a man pushing forty to get into fights and need to know ahead of time if he’d end up in the slammer?

He finally understood why those black-clad men from Wanlong Society had been so professional that night.

Most companies just have a legal department, and they mostly study commercial law. Wanlong Society, on the other hand, had everyone studying law—criminal law, no less.

Absolutely absurd!

After finishing his coffee, Zhang Dalong finally felt a bit more alert.

Just then, the suite’s private line rang.

It was Su Mansu, the Young Mistress’s assistant, calling to inform him that the Young Mistress wanted to see him in the executive lounge on the top floor.

The inevitable had finally arrived.

Zhang Dalong changed into his black suit, skipped breakfast, and headed for the elevator.

The executive lounge on the top floor was quiet with expansive views, offering a panoramic overlook of Pearl City as it awoke.

Liu Yutong sat alone by the window, a half-finished cup of coffee before her.

She’d changed into light-gray casual wear today—less severe than yesterday, more refined, though her eyes remained as bright and sharp as ever.

“Young Mistress!” Zhang Dalong greeted her.

“Sit.”

Liu Yutong gestured for him to take the seat opposite her.

No pleasantries, no small talk—she cut straight to the chase: “Engineer Zhang, did you rest well last night?”

“Well… well enough, thank you for your concern, Young Mistress.” Zhang Dalong was somewhat ill at ease.

“I’m sure you have many questions about why I went to such great lengths to recruit you.”

“Director Lin must have mentioned something to you, right?” Liu Yutong asked.

Zhang Dalong nodded, not bothering to conceal his knowledge: “Yes, Young Mistress. Director Lin and I spoke, and I’ve thought about it myself. Wanlong Society already has Wanhui Preferred as an internet product, which shows you take the internet very seriously. And in the internet space, the biggest gateway and barrier right now is social networking. In China, social networking is synonymous with my former company, Big Goose. I guessed you wanted me to head up a social project to challenge Big Goose’s dominance.”

Liu Yutong nodded, her eyes full of approval: “Talking to smart people saves so much trouble. It seems I chose the right person.”

But Zhang Dalong wasn’t confident: “Young Mistress, to be honest, if this were the project, I wouldn’t have any confidence. Big Goose’s user base, the stickiness of its relationship chains, and brand recognition have formed a nearly monopolistic moat. Although I only managed the email product, I’m well aware of the importance of user experience and distributed systems. That’s a very tough barrier to break.”

He left one thing unsaid: It was an almost impossible task, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot!

After listening to Zhang Dalong, Liu Yutong picked up her coffee and took a sip.

“Your analysis is very rational, as expected from someone with a technical background.”

“However, Engineer Zhang, you guessed wrong.”

“I did?”

“Yes.”

“I never planned for you to challenge Big Goose head-on. That would be foolish, like an egg striking a stone. At this stage, there’s zero chance of success.”

“Engineer Zhang, you’ve heard of Twitter, right?”

Zhang Dalong immediately understood what platform the Young Mistress had in mind.

“Yes, are you planning to build a social platform similar to Twitter?”

Liu Yutong nodded: “You could say that, but it can’t be blind imitation. What we need to build is a microblog that fits the national conditions of China and integrates more deeply with our people’s social habits and information consumption patterns.”

“Think of it this way: Big Goose built closed social circles based on acquaintance relationship chains. What we need to build are weak relationship chains based on interests, information, and celebrity influence—an open public forum, which is Weibo.”

“Microblog, Weibo…”

Zhang Dalong’s mind raced, and soon everything became crystal clear.

Exactly! Why bang your head against the wall on the instant messaging track? They could simply open up an entirely new battlefield.

“But from what I know, there have already been similar attempts domestically, like Fanfou, Taotao, and others…”

“They’ll never amount to anything, don’t worry about them.” Liu Yutong had essentially sentenced those platforms to death.

Zhang Dalong was somewhat surprised by her confidence—wasn’t it too arbitrary to dismiss those platforms so easily?

Liu Yutong directly explained why she didn’t think highly of those platforms: “They’re too small-minded, too confined to tech circles or niche groups. They lack mass appeal. More importantly, they lack a clear business model and understanding of the broader environment. We’re different.”

“Wanlong Society has offline resources and execution capabilities you can’t even imagine. Take Wanhui Preferred as an example: we’re about to close our Series B funding round, after which we’ll completely cover all first- and second-tier cities nationwide, with third- and fourth-tier cities to follow.”

“Engineer Zhang, want to guess how many delivery riders Wanhui Preferred currently has?”

As the country’s first group-buying platform, Wanhui Preferred’s scale was already considerable, even if technology limitations meant orders could only be placed by phone or web.

Zhang Dalong, not having looked into it deeply, could only answer honestly: “That, I couldn’t guess.”

Liu Yutong gave him the answer directly: “Currently, Wanhui Preferred’s daily order volume is stable at over 800,000 orders. However, due to technical limitations and consumer habits, food delivery only accounts for about 30%—roughly 240,000 orders.”

“To support those 200,000+ daily orders requiring instant delivery, we’ve built a massive fleet. The number of full-time and part-time riders contracted with Wanhui Preferred has already exceeded 100,000, spread across more than thirty cities where we operate.”

Zhang Dalong did some quick mental math. 800,000 daily orders was an absolutely staggering number for this era, demonstrating just how substantial Wanhui Preferred’s user base and market penetration were.

And those 100,000+ riders—that number was even more terrifying. Of course, the costs would be equally staggering.

Wanhui Preferred’s losses were definitely not low.

But as long as Wanhui Preferred could continue developing healthily, there would be plenty of capital willing to foot the bill.

Zhang Dalong had to admit he’d previously underestimated Wanlong Society. He never imagined that what seemed like a traditional dark organization could play the internet game so well.

He now completely understood where Liu Yutong’s confidence came from.

Once the Weibo product was built and launched, those 100,000+ riders, hundreds of thousands of partnered merchants, and millions of daily active users could all become seed users and promotional channels for Weibo’s early stages.

This was something those purely online, word-of-mouth platforms like Fanfou and Taotao could never compete with—a complete dimension-reduction strike against them!

Even nationwide, there were only a handful of platforms that could drive traffic like this. Big Goose was one of them, though so far there’d been no word of them building a microblog.

Even if Big Goose did build one, there’d be internal conflict, since they built closed social circles based on acquaintance chains, which naturally resist more open platforms.

“Engineer Zhang, do you still think we’re on the same starting line as Fanfou and the others in building Weibo?”

“I understand now, Young Mistress!”

Zhang Dalong said solemnly, “This project has great potential. I’ll give it everything I’ve got!”

“Excellent.”

Liu Yutong laid out his assignment directly: “Product vision, team building, technical architecture—you have five days to produce a proposal that satisfies me.”

“Within two months, I want to see the product enter internal testing. Money is no object—you’ll get whatever you need. Talent, however, you’ll have to recruit yourself, and compensation is at your discretion.”

“Once the product launches, I’ll give you a generous reward.”