RPAGF Chapter 123 Geng Zhi is dismissed
Chapter 123 Geng Zhi is dismissed
Chapter 123 Uprightness Leads to Dismissal (6k)
On the same day that Geng Zhi arrived in the capital to attend the meeting, several coincidences were unfolding in the city.
On this day, Tang Yan, an editor at NetEase who had sensed the business opportunities in the mobile internet, had just placed his resignation letter on his boss's desk.
On this day, Wang Xing, who had suffered repeated entrepreneurial failures, was having coffee with Shen Nanpeng of Sequoia Capital, bringing with him Meituan's business plan.
On this day, Lei Jun was in the Morningside Capital office, talking animatedly to Liu Qin about his dream of building smartphones, gesturing like a child.
On this day, Liu Dong humbly sought advice from Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital on building his own logistics system, filling his notebook with notes.
On this day, ————
1:30 PM.
Ding!
Just as Geng Zhi was about to step into the Baihe.com headquarters building, his phone vibrated with a new message.
[Agent]: The trademark application for "Hello, Momo" has been accepted. Please take note.
Additionally, several trademark registration applications, including "WeChat," have been successfully submitted. Please be aware of this.
[Straightforward]: "Received, thank you for your hard work."
Geng Zhi stared at the word "WeChat" on the screen, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Whether or not he will develop WeChat in the future, or even name it "WeChat," remains to be seen, but he intends to hold onto the "WeChat" trademark tightly.
Because, in his memory, there was a technology company in Shandong Province in his previous life that had registered the "WeChat" trademark long before Tencent launched WeChat, and had even applied specifically for the "instant messaging" field.
Later, another company in Beijing preemptively registered the "WeChat" trademark before Tencent.
Penguin's application was rejected because it was submitted later.
Ultimately, Tencent filed an objection with the Trademark Office, though the specific details of the process are unknown. All that is known is that Tencent ultimately obtained the trademark rights to "WeChat," while the trademarks registered earlier by the other two companies were ruled invalid.
Therefore, Geng Zhi needs to plan ahead and acquire the "WeChat" trademark in advance. It's always a good idea to use it first.
Putting away his phone, Geng Zhi strode confidently toward the headquarters of Baihe.com.
At the same time, Li Haipeng had just come out of Mu Yan's office, where the two had a private conversation for more than half an hour.
During this time, Mu Yan used a carrot and a big stick to hit Li Haipeng.
He first subtly showcased Baihe.com's capabilities in public relations, media, and capital, and then earnestly analyzed several possible outcomes for Li Haipeng regarding the "Jiaotong University matchmaker" project.
The ending can be either very good or very bad.
After thoroughly crushing the other party's confidence, Mu Yan then offered a few sweet treats and promised a promising future.
As Mu Yan saw Li Haipeng off, he patted him heavily on the shoulder: "Haipeng, the future of 'Jiaotong University Matchmaker' depends entirely on you. You were one of the biggest contributors on the day Baihe.com went public. With Baihe.com, your future is limitless."
Li Haipeng pursed his lips, as if making a decision: "Thank you for your guidance, President Mu. I know what to do. I will do what I believe is right."
Three minutes later.
As soon as Geng Zhi stepped into the conference room, he was greeted by a round of enthusiastic and unified applause.
Huh? What's going on?
He stood frozen at the doorway, somewhat bewildered.
Almost everyone looked at him with smiles, which made Geng Zhi feel flattered and momentarily speechless.
This was not a board meeting of "Jiaotong University Matchmaker," but rather a bilateral business communication meeting between "Jiaotong University Matchmaker" and Baihe.com.
The first circle of the conference table was already full of people, leaving only one empty seat for him.
Besides Ma Chunmei, Li Haipeng, and Attorney Zhao, the room also contained Mu Yan, Han Yulu, and Li Li from Baihe.com, along with several unfamiliar faces, which Geng Zhi guessed were some of Baihe.com's senior executives.
"President Geng is here, please have a seat, please have a seat," the host, Mu Yan, greeted him warmly.
"President Mu, everyone, I'm so sorry, I'm 3 minutes late!" Geng Zhi nodded hurriedly and apologized to everyone.
"The traffic in Beijing is absolutely terrible, you know what I mean!" Li Li laughed, trying to smooth things over. Then, pointing to the unfamiliar faces, she introduced them to Geng Zhi: "These are our Baihe.com's Technical Director, Engineer Li; Public Relations Director, Sister Wang; and Customer Service Manager, Zhu Juanjuan." After the introductions, Han Yulu chimed in, flattering him: "President Geng, your speech at the white paper launch was fantastic! We watched the replay several times!"
Geng Zhi then realized that the applause earlier was because of his speech at the press conference.
But this script is a bit unexpected.
Shouldn't we be harsh on ourselves?
Has Baihe.com changed its ways? Has it suddenly had a change of heart?
He frowned slightly, glancing at Ma Chunmei and Li Haipeng out of the corner of his eye. Ma Chunmei's gaze remained warm, but Li Haipeng seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally avoiding his gaze.
Seeing Li Haipeng's evasive gaze, Geng Zhi knew what was going on, but he still cooperated without showing any emotion.
Mu Yan, having observed all of this, spoke up: "President Geng, before you arrived, we were discussing with President Ma and President Li how to implement the initiatives outlined in the white paper!"
"Oh? Really?" Geng Zhi looked surprised. "When I watched the replay of the press conference yesterday, I was worried that what I said might have offended Baihe.com, and that President Mu might have a problem with me."
"How could that be!" Ma Chunmei replied with a smile, "President Mu just praised you and Haipeng for your foresight and for your excellent press conference strategy."
"This wasn't our idea," Geng Zhi waved his hand dismissively. "It was led by Vice Dean Liu from Jiaotong University. They have a tradition of publishing white papers, and we happened to have a case study, so we hit it off immediately. We just became famous through public opinion—"
Upon hearing Geng Zhi say "becoming famous by following public opinion," the atmosphere in the meeting room froze subtly for a moment.
Everyone assumed that Geng Zhi was unaware of the reversal in public opinion, but no one pointed it out.
The group began exchanging polite greetings and compliments, creating a harmonious and pleasant atmosphere.
Zhu Xiaohu then exchanged a few pleasantries before the meeting officially got down to business.
"President Geng, to be honest, the media storm you stirred up has really hurt the three of us!" Mu Yan spoke first.
Geng Zhi wanted to explain.
Mu Yan didn't give him a chance, changing the subject abruptly: "But, without destruction, there can be no construction. Jiaotong University's white paper is very timely. As a responsible industry leader, Baihe.com has an obligation to take the lead in rectifying the industry."
After saying that, he looked at customer service manager Zhu Juanjuan.
Zhu Juanjuan understood and immediately chimed in, "Yes! Our customer service department has received some user feedback about being scammed in the past two years, and we've been trying our best to resolve them. But Baihe.com is a large company with 20 million users; it's really difficult to completely eliminate the problem."
"Moreover, if we really want to promote real-name registration, it mainly relies on users filling it out voluntarily, with the customer service department manually checking the data, which is extremely costly, but the effect is actually also..."
Zhu Juanjuan's words were subtle; she didn't finish speaking before looking at Geng Zhi.
Geng Zhi frowned slightly upon hearing this, but simply smiled without saying a word.
Han Yulu keenly noticed his expression and quickly asked, "President Geng, is there another solution for the real-name authentication mentioned in your white paper?"
"That's right." Geng Zhi nodded. "The solution Manager Zhu just proposed relies on user integrity and manual review. This is the most basic real-name authentication solution. It's good for preventing honest people from being dishonest, but not for preventing dishonest people. In fact, it's not very effective."
"Oh? So, what do you mean, Mr. Geng?" Han Yulu asked hurriedly.
Geng Zhi leaned forward and slowly began to speak: "President Mu, President Han, everyone, there are now professional third-party identity authentication service providers that can provide encrypted verification of names and ID numbers, which can greatly improve the verification efficiency of real-name authentication and intercept most cases—moreover, it can be used as an auxiliary tool—."
He spoke frankly and honestly about a bunch of existing technical solutions without hiding anything.
After all, he will no longer be involved in the dating industry, and Baihe.com will no longer be his competitor.
Moreover, Baihe.com has tens of millions of users. If it can truly encourage Baihe.com to vigorously promote real-name authentication, it will definitely be a major step forward for the dating industry and for users.
At this moment, Mu Yan looked at the development director who had remained silent and asked, "Director Li, is the technical solution that General Manager Geng just introduced technically feasible?"
Director Li had been listening to the conversation while simultaneously searching online for the techniques and standards that Geng Zhi had mentioned.
He had already reached a conclusion and hurriedly reported to his superior: "President Mu, judging from President Geng's description just now, this should be technically and theoretically feasible."
"What about the technical difficulties of implementation?" Han Yulu immediately followed up. "I mean, won't this result in huge development costs?"
"The development cost itself isn't that high, but integrating third-party services is charged per use, so the cost can be huge," Director Li said awkwardly.
"How vast is the sea?" Han Yulu asked again.
As the CEO, her biggest concern is actually cost.
"According to the data I just checked, the most basic comparison service costs 5 yuan per comparison. If more than 5 items are compared, the cost is 10 yuan per comparison."
boom-!
Upon hearing Director Li's words, not only did Han Yulu's expression freeze, but everyone else in the conference room, except for Geng Zhi, was also stunned.
In 2010, the simplest two-factor authentication fee of "name + ID number" was indeed exorbitant compared to the price of less than two cents per comparison in later years.
At this moment, he was thinking most about Mu Yan. He quickly did some mental calculations.
With nearly 20 million users, Baihe.com's current user base means that the cost of real-name authentication alone would be 100 million yuan.
As the number of users continues to grow in the future, the cost of real-name authentication will be even higher.
This is just the price comparison for each person once. What if someone submits two or three times?
Mu Yan, who had initially agreed with Geng Zhi's suggestion, now clearly hesitated.
Compared to the certification fee, what worries him more is:
Once such strict verification is implemented, how many paying users will be scared away? Of those, how many are scammers? How many are just too lazy to do it? Will they go to Century Family Network? Will they go to True Love Network?
Having calmed down, Han Yulu noticed Mu Yan's worry and said, "President Geng, your proposal is really good, but the technical cost is just too high."
Geng Zhi took a deep breath and said frankly, "President Han, President Mu, the reason why our Jiaotong University Matchmaker has become so popular in just three months is because of our core principle of 'authenticity.'"
"That's precisely why your Baihe.com has taken a liking to us and is willing to invest a large sum of money in us, right?"
Geng Zhi took a sip of the slightly sweet Nongfu Spring mineral water on the table and continued, "The gap between Baihe.com and Century Home Network is widening, and they are aiming to become the first listed company in the online dating market. If Baihe.com doesn't have a strong determination to reform, it will be impossible for them to overtake us."
"In this industry, there are only the top player and everyone else; there's no such thing as a second or third place. If Baihe.com can't become the first listed company in the industry, it will only be able to be integrated and swallowed up in the future."
After speaking frankly, Geng Zhi stared straight at Mu Yan.
A brief silence fell over the meeting room.
Actually, being straightforward only tells half the story, or rather, it's exactly the opposite.
In its previous life, Century Home Network significantly outpaced Baihe.com in terms of user base, revenue, and brand awareness, and indeed became the first listed company in the matchmaking industry.
However, after listing on the US stock market, Century Home Network's valuation remained low for a long time, and it had a strong desire to delist and return to the domestic capital market.
At that time, Baihe.com, the second largest player in the industry, had already listed on the New Third Board and had access to capital channels. So, through a series of capital operations, it completed a reverse merger and acquisition, swallowing up Century Home Network like a snake swallowing an elephant, and became the new Baihe Home Network.
After the merger, Mu Yan, one of the co-founders, gradually withdrew.
Geng's straightforward comments resonated with Mu Yan. After pondering for a while, he wholeheartedly agreed and said, "Mr. Geng, please continue your analysis."
Seeing that Mu Yan seemed moved, Geng Zhi began to speak passionately: "Now that 'Jiaotong University Matchmaker' has established a good reputation, Baihe.com can take advantage of this opportunity to cooperate with us, become a breath of fresh air in the industry, win the hearts of a large number of users, regain the favor of capital, and crush Xiaolongnv."
Upon hearing this, Han Yulu, Li Li, and several other female executives were slightly taken aback, feeling a bit uncomfortable with what they heard.
Geng Zhi, oblivious to the inappropriateness of his words, continued, "Moreover, technology is developing rapidly, and the price of real-name authentication will definitely drop significantly in the future, possibly by tens of times. That's an ironclad rule."
Mu Yan weighed the options in his mind but did not question them further.
Next, Geng Zhi explained in detail how to build a credit scoring system and how to cooperate with relevant departments to gain a competitive advantage.
Mu Yan's gaze shifted from hesitation to thoughtfulness, a look that held a newfound respect for Geng Zhi's complex personality.
Geng Zhi knew the other party was trying to get his advice, but he still chose to pour out all the good suggestions he had.
Having completed his mission in the capital, now it's up to Baihe.com to make their move.
"President Geng, your point of view is very valuable, not bad at all." Mu Yan finally spoke, his tone softening. "Then, let's discuss the deep integration of 'Jiaotong University Matchmaker' and Baihe.com."
After Mu Yan finished speaking, he gestured for C00 Han Yulu to introduce herself.
Han Yulu cleared her throat and looked at Ma Chunmei, Geng Zhi, and Li Haipeng: "Recently, thanks to President Li's tireless efforts, the integration between 'Jiaotong University Matchmaker' and Baihe.com has been getting better and better, especially with the excellent example effect in Nanjing."
"Therefore, we suggest that our two companies further integrate their online data. The online system and data of 'Jiaotong University Matchmaker' should be fully integrated into Baihe.com, under our unified management, to achieve a synergistic effect greater than the sum of its parts."
Upon hearing Han Yulu's words, Geng Zhi, Ma Chunmei, and Li Haipeng exchanged glances.
Han Yulu's tone was full of goodwill, but in reality, it was a blatant attempt to gradually absorb "Jiaotong University Matchmaker".
Ma Chunmei did not express her opinion. After thinking for a moment with her head down, she turned to look at Geng Zhi beside her.
Li Haipeng pretended to think for a moment and then looked at Geng Zhi.
The two seemed to be tacitly waiting for Geng Zhi to speak out.
Seeing this, Geng Zhi sighed and, as a co-founder, had no choice but to step forward once again.
"Mr. Han, thank you for Baihe.com's kindness. I have no objection to in-depth offline collaboration to grow the market together. But to start by connecting systems and merging data now—that's taking too big a step." Geng Zhi remained polite as ever.
Han Yulu offered a few more explanations, but Geng Zhi persisted, and neither of them would give in.
Geng Zhi's stance is clear: independent development is the soul of "Jiaotong University Matchmaker," and this bottom line cannot be compromised.
After several rounds of back and forth, Geng's insistence had already displeased many people, and Han Yulu's voice unconsciously rose a little: "President Geng! Your new website has only been online for a short time, and it's already having all sorts of problems. How many times has it crashed? What about the user experience?"
Do you realize how much this will affect the company's reputation? This kind of incident is absolutely unacceptable at Baihe.com!
"Your technical level is simply not up to par, and you'll run into big problems sooner or later! The best solution is to merge you into our big platform as soon as possible!" R&D Director Li chimed in.
Upon hearing this, Geng Zhi pretended to be taken aback, pursed his lips, and looked at Ma Chunmei, hoping she would explain that the website was not made by him, but by Manager Zhao's team.
But Ma Chunmei remained silent.
Helpless, Geng Zhi continued to explain, "Mr. Han, actually, this online website wasn't developed by me, it was..."
Director Li slammed his hand on the table: "President Geng! Are you the CTO?"
"Yes."
"You're the CTO, so you need to take responsibility instead of shifting blame to your subordinates! As a CTO, you're clearly unqualified!" Director Li snapped again.
Geng Zhi was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this, and could only look at Ma Chunmei again: "President Ma, could you help explain this?"
"President Geng, Director Li is right. You are the CT0, and you are ultimately responsible for the technical department. We will not pursue individual responsibility, but we must pursue management responsibility," Ma Chunmei said bluntly.
Geng Zhi's eyes widened, and he immediately started arguing with Ma Chunmei.
At this moment, Zhu Juanjuan suddenly spoke up: "President Mu, President Han, President Ma, Geng Zhi, the public opinion on the internet has reversed!"
"What do you mean?" Han Yulu asked, feigning surprise. "Juanjuan, please explain in detail."
Zhu Juanjuan turned the computer screen towards Han Yulu, and said while sliding the mouse, "President Han, many netizens are criticizing President Geng, saying he's hypocritical, creates division, and is deceitful—"
She assumed that Geng Zhi was unaware of public opinion, so she only picked out words that were against him, trying to attack him relentlessly.
Geng Zhi also pretended to be completely dumbfounded.
15 minute later.
Mu Yan, who had been listening in, took a deep breath and slowly spoke again: "At this stage of the company's development, what it needs most is consensus. But the current situation is that the founders have serious differences in their ideas, and the employees and partners don't know whose advice to take."
"This isn't one person's fault, but a solution is needed."
After another 10 minutes of arguing.
Mu Yan secretly gave Han Yulu a wink.
Han Yulu understood and looked at Ma Chunmei, saying, "President Ma! Without rules, there can be no order. 'Jiaoda Hongniang' is a large, ambitious company, but now that President Geng is like this, he's no longer suitable to continue as CT0. You have to make the difficult decision to let him go."
Ma Chunmei pondered for a moment, then stood up. She first looked at Li Haipeng and Geng Zhi, then looked at Mu Yan and said, "President Mu, in my capacity as chairman, I propose adding an agenda item to the upcoming board meeting to remove the CTO."
"Ma Chunmei!" Geng Zhi jumped to his feet, glaring at her angrily. "You, don't go too far!"
Ma Chunmei did not back down. She glanced at Attorney Zhao and continued, "Attorney Zhao, please draft a notice for the shareholders' meeting in the name of the chairman. The meeting will be held on February 20th, and the agenda is 'Removal of Director Geng Zhi'!"
The reason for choosing February 20th is that, according to the company's articles of association, all shareholders must be notified 10 days in advance of the shareholders' meeting.
More importantly, choosing the first day back to work after the Spring Festival meant that public opinion had naturally cooled down, and public attention was diverted to the Spring Festival Gala and the Spring Festival travel rush, thus minimizing the impact of impeaching Geng Zhi.
Mu Yan was the first to stand up: "Chunmei, calm down, don't act impulsively!"
"Ma Chunmei!! You even picked the date, you did this on purpose, didn't you!!" Geng Zhi appeared furious, but was secretly overjoyed.
He experienced the same scenario as in his previous life, where he was kicked out by the alliance. The only difference was that in his previous life he was passive, but this time he was active.
The following afternoon, the "Jiaotong University Matchmaker" board meeting was held as scheduled, and the atmosphere was extremely serious.
Directors Geng Zhi, Mu Yan, Ma Chunmei, and Li Haipeng of "Jiaotong University Matchmaker", independent director Mr. Lian, and Zhu Xiaohu as an observer attended the meeting.
Attorney Zhao, the finance manager, and Supervisor Zhao were among those present.
According to the meeting agenda, after reviewing the "Proposal on Removing Mr. Geng Zhi from the Position of CTO of the Company", the directors voted by raising their hands.
-
Ma Chunmei and Mu Yan agreed, Geng Zhi opposed, and independent directors Mr. Lian and Li Haipeng abstained.
Although Zhu Xiaohu also opposed the removal of Geng Zhi, he was only an observer and had no voting rights, so his votes were not counted.
With 2 votes in favor and 1 vote against, the majority requirement was met, and the resolution became effective.
Geng Zhi was dismissed from his post.
As Geng Zhi stepped out of Baihe.com's headquarters, he immediately felt a sense of relief.
In his past life, he was the least good at scheming.
But in the past few months, he has been forcing himself to keep acting in order to pursue a grander ideal, and he is getting tired.
Starting a business is never a leisurely affair, but thankfully this drama is about to end.
Geng Zhi took out his phone and personally posted two statuses on Weibo.
"When the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked. When the birds are all gone, the good bow is put away. When the enemy state is destroyed, the strategist is killed."
"The innocent will prove their innocence, and time will tell."
He called a taxi and went directly to Beijing Capital International Airport to fly back to Shanghai.
With the Spring Festival just a few days away, Geng Zhi should bring some joy to the people of the country.