Facebook and Twitter Negotiations

A few days later, a company named "Blacklight Biotechnology" quietly established itself in the city of Shangdu.

The company's office was located on the 45th floor of an ordinary office building within Shangdu's central business district. Its arrival went unnoticed by anyone.

After all, every day, several small businesses like this were founded, and several disappeared. Their comings and goings barely stirred a ripple.

Just like the countless ordinary people in this world, how many could leave even the slightest mark on the long river of history?

Once the company was set up, it immediately entered the recruitment phase, leaving the newly appointed Xia Yin in a flurry. Fortunately, she managed to bring in a few employees from Huiyao Entertainment, which helped the company get on the right track.

After the company hired its initial core team, Xia Yin sent those employees back, as it was important to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

The company's first team was temporarily organized into five departments: Customer Service, Technology, Planning, Promotion, and Human Resources, totaling fewer than twenty people.

Chen Chen also handed over the publicity and promotion of Little X Translation Assistant to the company. For everything from building hype and using soft-sell articles to webpage pop-ups, Xia Yin directly adopted the strategies used for web games, stopping just short of hiring Uncle Da to film some cheesy commercials.

The Technology Department was temporarily only responsible for website operations. They had no involvement in software development and updates, thus eliminating the risk of source code leakage.

At this moment, Chen Chen, dressed in a suit, sat lazily in the chairman's office.

Because the company was just starting, and at Xia Yin's strong insistence, Chen Chen still made an appearance. This was his first time showing his face since the company was established.

"Currently, our product is still in the free promotion phase. This situation may continue for some time. If necessary, we can accept advertisements to mitigate losses."

Opposite Chen Chen was Xia Yin. She was wearing a black OL suit, and her demeanor was noticeably more capable than a month ago.

"There's no need. Our product doesn't need any advertisements."

Chen Chen shook his head, idly spinning a neutral pen in his hand. "Every company has its own corporate image. If we have a choice, I hope our company and our product can leave an impression of being 'clean and pure.' This is far more important than those petty profits."

"After all, reputation ferments."

"Then when should we start charging?"

Xia Yin asked, "We spent tens of millions on advertising last month. If this continues, the company will run out of money."

"Actually, for the people in the Central Continent Region, the demand for our product isn't very high," Chen Chen said after some thought. "You have to understand, the population density of the Central Continent Region is comparable to several other regions combined. Their need for external communication isn't as urgent as in other regions. Therefore, our market focus should be on other more complex regions outside the Central Continent Region, such as the multilingual European region, and our neighbor, the Indian region."

"Especially those regions where people use Facebook and Twitter," Chen Chen added.

"Chairman, Manager Xia."

Just then, a middle-aged woman's voice suddenly came from outside the door.

"Please come in!" Chen Chen waved.

"This is my assistant, Sister Ye," Xia Yin introduced Chen Chen. "With Sister Ye's help, it compensates for my lack of experience in managing the company."

"Manager Xia is too kind,"

The middle-aged woman, addressed as Sister Ye, smiled faintly. "Chairman, representatives from both Facebook and Twitter have arrived downstairs."

Chen Chen's head shot up. "They came together?"

"It seems... yes," Sister Ye, struggling to keep up with Chen Chen's thoughts, stammered, "Is there a problem?"

Chen Chen chuckled lightly. "They've kept me waiting for a month. It seems they still can't crack my program core."

Sister Ye gave an awkward laugh. "Chairman, will you be going down to greet them now?"

"Greet them for what?" Chen Chen asked with a puzzled expression. "Don't they have legs?"

"Uh..." Sister Ye was momentarily speechless. "Then, shall I have them go directly to the conference room?"

"Yes, have them wait in the conference room. I'll be there shortly."

Watching Sister Ye turn and leave, Chen Chen spun his pen, gazing at her retreating back with a thoughtful expression.

After a short wait, seeing several foreigners with blonde hair and blue eyes file in through the glass window, Chen Chen finally stood up and walked towards the conference room.

Xia Yin quickly followed.

When Chen Chen entered the conference room, five foreigners were already seated in the guest seats. There were three men and two women, all dressed in business suits. Sister Ye was busy serving them tea and water.

On Chen Chen's side, besides him, Xia Yin, and Sister Ye, there was also a recent law graduate.

Once Chen Chen's group was seated, the man leading the foreigners spoke first. "Mr. Chen, Ms. Xia, hello. I am Tony, an executive from Facebook's legal department. This lady, Emily, is my colleague. Mr. Alvin next to us is Twitter's representative. The other two are our assistants."

To everyone's surprise, they spoke fluent, authentic Chinese.

Chen Chen scanned the five people and nodded. "I am Chen Chen, chairman of Blacklight Biotechnology. May I ask the purpose of your visit?"

"It's like this, Mr. Chen,"

Tony smiled. "Facebook and Twitter, our two companies, hope to make a Series A investment in your company. Although your company is not yet profitable, you have already built a certain reputation in the industry. We value your company at 1.5 billion US dollars. If Mr. Chen agrees, our two companies can acquire 70% of your company's shares for 1 billion US dollars."

"Sorry, I don't have any plans for financing at the moment," Chen Chen replied without hesitation.

"Uh, Mr. Chen, don't you want to reconsider?"

Tony seemed surprised. "As far as I know, your company's angel round only raised 8 million US dollars. Isn't this amount insufficient for developing excellent products like Little X Translation Assistant?"

"That's not something you need to worry about."

Chen Chen picked up his tea and took a sip. "If this is the only reason for your visit, then there's no need to continue this discussion."

"Alright..."

Seeing that Chen Chen was unresponsive, the other party changed tactics. "Since that's the case, Mr. Chen, please take a look at this letter of intent."

As he spoke, Emily, who was standing nearby, took out several thin, white-covered books from her handbag and handed them to Chen Chen, Xia Yin, Sister Ye, and the others.

"As stated in the letter of intent, Facebook is willing to purchase the permanent usage rights of Little X on our Facebook platform for one hundred million US dollars, without interfering with your company's software operations."

"Twitter is willing to do the same."

Alvin, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "We are also willing to pay one hundred million US dollars to have your company's Little X Translation Assistant establish a presence on the Twitter platform."

Sister Ye, standing beside them, quietly reminded Xia Yin and Chen Chen in a voice only they could hear, "Manager Xia, their offer is essentially like both companies paying us to advertise. This is definitely a great opportunity for our company's promotion!"

Thank you to the four great patrons [Feng Wu Ting Chang] [Zhu Zai Hei Long] [He Quan Wu Ye] [Qiao Zhi Zhong Shan] for the rewards, I'm crying