Technology Bigshot

Chapter 26: Back in the Hot Seat

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

“Let’s move on to questions from the press,” the spokesperson announced.

Gao Yue remained on the stage, while the reporters in the audience raised their hands one by one. Gao Yue, with a professional smile, pointed to the female reporter sitting in the middle wing.

The reporter stood up immediately with microphone in hand and said, “Greetings, Miss Gao! I’m Liu Xiao, a correspondent for NetEase News. May I ask when will your new product be released? And what is the nature of the product?”

“The company’s main task at the moment is the research and development of Real-time Online Translator 2.0 and the construction of the headquarters. We are not considering the development of new products at the moment!” Gao Yue answered.

“Greetings, Miss Gao. I’m Yang Hong, a correspondent for Tencent News. Currently your company has accumulated hundreds of millions of users; have you considered entering the social network field?”

“The company has now entered into a strategic partnership with social media giant, Facebook, so we will not consider entering the social space. XlouS is a technology company; we only deal with technology development!” Gao Yue said and pointed to a foreign reporter.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Gao Yue. I’m Spears Conner, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. May I ask if your company intends to bring in investment and IPO plans in the near future?”

“XlouS is currently running a healthy operation with no shortage of capital, so we have not considered bringing in capital and have no intention of going public at this time.”

*****

After the press conference, XlouS, which had faded from view in recent times, once again became a hot topic of discussion.

Two major pieces of news quickly occupied the front pages of every major media outlet on the domestic internet, and a series of figures in the hundreds of millions were staggering.

[Damn, is XlouS going against all odds? 5 billion USD to build its headquarters! Are they going up against Apple? Are they that rich?]

[The commenter above me is appallingly ill-informed. They do have the money and that’s the only thing they have for now. Allow me to calculate for you! Watch closely! 240 million paying users bring about 15 RMB a month each, and that’s 3.6 billion RMB revenue in total in a month, or more than 40 billion a year. Besides, do you think the number of paying users for Real-time Online Translator will stay at 240 million a year from now?]

[The commenter above me is right! They are like a money printing machine—no, a money printing machine is nothing, they are like grabbing money—no, they are even quicker than that! Real-time Online Translator is indeed a godsend. Young men can’t live without it after using it, and as an English-illiterate, my mom doesn’t need to worry about me not understanding what foreigners are talking about on Instagram anymore!]

In contrast, investors were more eager than anyone else. After XlouS released the figures for Real-time Online Translator, analysts of Wall Street valued the company at 150 billion USD, an increase of another 20 billion USD. XlouS was also listed among the A+++ priorities as an excellent investment by them. In the past, there were many companies listed on Wall Street as A+++, which basically became giant companies with a market capitalization of no less than 150 billion USD. For instance, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Tencent and other internet technology companies or energy giants.

Although Gao Yue mentioned at the press conference that there was no plan to go public and introduce investment, this didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of investors. On the contrary, the more the CEO of the company spoke about the potential of this enterprise, the more eager the investors became. Not many companies in the world wouldn’t bow before capital and this was the source of confidence of investors. Domestic company, SF Express, who said that they would never go public eventually bowed to capital and became a listed company. That was why the investors believed that XlouS would eventually end up the same too.

In addition to that, after the conference, there were two waves of people who couldn’t keep calm—architects from all over the world and merchants bureau in Hainan and Pearl River Delta.

A multi-billion dollar company’s entry into the city, especially the announcement that XlouS would spend no less than 5 billion USD to build its headquarters, was an unimaginable ratio of wealth in terms of regional development and tax revenue generated. XlouS’s entry was definitely a key subject of interest for the two provincial governments.

The government of Wanning, in particular, was surprised and delighted to learn of the news. One had to know that the city wasn’t very competitive and that two years ago, the market was worth only 80 billion RMB. It was good news for Wanning that this large company expressed interest in choosing its city. It was apparent that without a definite result, even the city government was restless. After all, this was a settlement regarding a large private enterprise with a valuation of hundreds of billions of dollars.

At that moment, Ren Hong wasn’t aware that the official announcement of XlouS had touched the hearts of many people. The team he asked for was successfully assembled and now working on version 2.0 of Real-time Online Translator. In addition to being the chairman of XlouS, Ren Hong also held the position of CTO of the company. He was obsessed with technology and the position of chief engineer naturally belonged to him.

On the day of the launch, Ren Hong didn’t show up. Gao Yue was responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations and it was fully sufficient. And apart from him being mainly responsible for the development of Real-time Online Translator version 2.0, there was a more important matter that always tugged at his heartstrings—the design of the company headquarters.

These days, his main focus was on the design of the company’s headquarters. According to his vision, the company headquarters would consist of five separate buildings, with the outline of each building consisting of five letters forming the company name: XlouS.

It was certainly a crazy idea.

“This is too difficult, Sir. The ‘X’ and ‘S’ are not on the same level of difficulty as the other three building blocks, especially the ‘S’ shaped building.” A famous foreign architect hired by Ren Hong shook his head at the 3D model on the computer and said, “Wouldn’t it be better to just let XlouS lie on the ground? The difficulty wouldn’t be so staggering.”

“No no no! Mr. Cullen.” Ren Hong waved his hand, “Look, I want a XlouS that stands firmly on this planet! Not a XlouS that lies down on the ground! That will be unlucky, won’t it?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Cyrus, I didn’t mean that,” Cullen said, still looking at the 3D model on his computer. “It’s still too difficult to realistically render the effect in the concept drawings of the two outer buildings. It’s simply not mechanically sound, especially in the ‘S’ form of this building. The construction materials of today’s world and the core stresses in its middle simply cannot withstand the pressure of the entire building!”

Cullen looked into Ren Hong’s eyes and unabashedly said, “It’s too slender. The bend is too huge, so it’s impossible to achieve. You’re asking too much, Mr. Cyrus!”

They exchanged looks and silence filled the atmosphere. Ren Hong shifted his gaze and cast it toward the computer monitor, quietly watching the ‘S’ shaped building in the rendering.

I must get XlouS standing tall and strong! he thought.