123: Chapter 123 Called Back to Work at the New Year's Eve Dinner Table

Huayao!

Hearing those two words,

Xue Haixin reacted as if he had been triggered,

his whole body giving a jolt.

Suppressing the agitation in his heart,

he asked the people beside him, "What are you all doing?

That grabbing red envelopes and scrolling through videos you just mentioned,

what software is that?"

"Oh, this!

Chairman Xue, you're usually occupied with a myriad of affairs

and are extremely busy,

so you probably don't have much use for this.

This is for people like us who have nothing better to do.

But your company, Ideal, could also make a similar app.

I feel like this kind of thing is quite useful.

It's called Douyin Short Video,

you can download it and give it a try."

Hearing Xue Haixin's question,

the relatives nearby recommended it to him.

Xue Haixin nodded. "Alright,

then I'll download it and experience it."

He pulled out his phone,

searched the app store,

and sure enough, he saw the application of the same name.

Just looking at Douyin's dark, pitch-black icon,

he immediately disliked it.

From a professional perspective,

he felt this kind of icon gave a very unpleasant first impression to users,

leaving one with no desire to use it.

He thought the design of this icon was quite unprofessional.

Then he looked at the description and the publisher,

finding it was produced by a company called ByteDance.

He had never heard of this company,

but it wasn't made by Huayao either!

It turned out to be a false alarm;

it seemed he had just been scaring himself.

So he downloaded it,

installed it, opened it, registered, and logged in.

After scrolling through a few short videos,

he felt that this way of browsing videos was indeed very novel.

"Oh! This software is actually quite good!

Scrolling through videos is indeed very convenient and simple.

But I think I still need to exercise some control;

I feel like this kind of thing could be very addictive.

Don't spend too much time on it on a daily basis.

Time passes unconsciously while scrolling.

You can use it during fragmented moments,

but at other times, you should be doing something productive."

After experiencing it for a bit,

Xue Haixin shared his thoughts with those around him,

warning them not to get addicted.

Of course, in his heart, he was thinking that being addictive was actually good.

After all, for people like them in business and product development,

being able to make a user addicted

proved that the product was very successful.

Only by making users addicted

could they pull money out of the users' pockets

and earn even more.

What kind of company was ByteDance exactly?

What was their background?

The idea they came up with was actually quite excellent!

If it were just a small company,

perhaps Ideal could acquire it.

That way, we could pre-install Douyin on all phones coming out of the Ideal factory,

directly boosting Douyin's installation numbers.

For a mobile phone manufacturer to develop software,

it's simply a unique advantage!

With these thoughts in mind, Xue Haixin

opened his browser,

wanting to do a simple search on Douyin

to see what its background was.

However, there wasn't much information about ByteDance that he could find online right now.

But even from this limited information,

he could clearly see

that ByteDance was indeed fostered single-handedly by Huayao.

One could even say ByteDance was a small brand under Huayao!

Xue Haixin slammed the table with a loud "thump."

Huayao!

Huayao!

It's Huayao again!

This sudden sound gave the people nearby a fright.

"Chairman Xue, what's wrong?

Why such a big temper?"

Someone nearby immediately asked with concern.

Realizing his loss of composure, Xue Haixin

quickly apologized, saying, "Sorry, sorry.

Everyone, there's something going on at the company.

The task I assigned was screwed up by those useless fools again.

I just lost my cool for a moment.

It's nothing, everyone please continue eating.

Don't mind me."

Just as Xue Haixin was about to put his phone away

to reconsider what to do next,

someone suddenly called him.

He quickly stood up,

taking it as a reason to excuse himself.

"You guys go ahead and eat,

I'm going outside to take a call."

Saying this, he went outside

and answered the phone.

After Xue Haixin left,

the child whose mouth had been covered by his mother earlier said, "Mom,

while watching the Spring Festival Gala just now,

I looked carefully

and found that it seems everyone is using xiaomi 6 phones.

There wasn't that Ideal phone Uncle mentioned at all!

What's going on?"

The mother said, "You little brat,

why are you meddling so much?

Don't mention xiaomi phones in front of your uncle anymore,

do you hear me?"

Seeing his mother looking a bit angry,

the child nodded.

Everyone present also realized something wasn't quite right,

but no one took it too much to heart.

The call Xue Haixin went out to take was actually from a major shareholder of the company.

"Xue Haixin, what on earth are you doing?

Did you even reach a contract with the Spring Festival Gala or not?"

Xue Haixin was completely stunned by this opening rebuke.

"What do you mean?"

The shareholder on the other end roared, "Did you fucking watch the Spring Festival Gala?

From the start of the gala until now,

every phone that has appeared is a xiaomi 6.

There isn't a single one of our Ideal phones!"

Xue Haixin frowned. "That's not right.

Didn't we already reach a long-term cooperation agreement with the Spring Festival Gala?

This year, as usual, we gave them our newly released Ideal phones!

How could they not use the phones we gave them?"

The shareholder bellowed, "You're fucking asking me?

How should I know?

You'd better figure it out for me right now!

And that Douyin,

they prepared 2 billion to give out red envelopes to the whole nation.

Such a big move,

such a grand gesture,

and you actually didn't know?

Don't tell me you didn't know that Huayao is standing behind Douyin!"

Xue Haixin gave a bitter smile.

He really had only just found out.

He said, "Don't worry,

I will give the board of shareholders an explanation for this."

Just after hanging up on that shareholder,

several more shareholders called to question him one after another,

all with similar questions,

each urging him to quickly investigate what was going on with the Spring Festival Gala

and to come up with a corresponding counter-strategy.

Xue Haixin naturally didn't want to go. "It's the New Year.

Can't it wait until after the New Year?

At least let me finish my New Year's Eve dinner."

However, the shareholders were surprisingly consistent in their stance: "What fucking New Year's Eve dinner?

By the time you finish your dinner,

you won't even be in time to catch the shit while it's hot!

Don't you have any idea how much this year's year-end dividends have decreased?

If you don't want to do the job, then get the hell out!"

Xue Haixin was truly speechless.

He could only leave the dinner table at this time,

telling his relatives to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves,

while he miserably returned to the company to continue working overtime.