Dragon Raja: I practiced Naruto ninjutsu next to Lu Mingfei.

Page 467

This excuse is reasonable, because that's exactly how he and Lee Eun-sook discovered each other. In other words, they provoked me first, and I was just defending myself.

As for the bunker-buster missile attack, they were unaware of it, since they had already left the base. They didn't know why the explosion hadn't destroyed the base, but speculated that a third-party force might have been present and used its power to block the attack.

Gu Ran also thoughtfully listed two possible incantations, such as the Vajra Realm and the Lapis Lazuli Brahma City, for their reference.

After the matter was reported, it was no longer under Gu Ran's jurisdiction, but the Night Watchers Forum still published an update on the matter, requesting the executive department's specialists to keep a close eye on intelligence from the Holy Palace Medical School and the Solomon Temple.

Furthermore, Angers invited some British students to the principal's office for tea, but in reality, the principal wanted to inquire about the Solomon Temple Society.

One student, whose family had ties to Westminster Bank, said that the Solomon Temple had been secretly vying with Westminster Bank for dominance in British finance since World War II.

Westminster Bank, whose history dates back to the 17th century, is now one of the world's largest and best-capitalized banks. It is controlled by a mixed-race British family and originally maintained a peaceful coexistence with the Solomon Temple Society. However, after World War II, the covert rivalry between the two sides intensified.

In short, both of these forces are currently being watched by the Secret Service, and it remains to be seen how far the Secret Service will investigate them.

On the last day of June, Gu Ran packed his bags, picked up his suitcase, and prepared to return to China to visit his fiancée!

*……*……*

At the end of June, Su Xiaoqiang's university was also preparing for summer vacation.

This week is the school's final exam week. Su Xiaoqiang is preparing for the exams while also preparing for the campus entrepreneurship competition.

Su Xiaoqiang's reason for participating in this competition was simple: it offered comprehensive quality credits. As long as she achieved a ranking, she would receive credits, which would be enough for her to graduate.

By her junior and senior years, she no longer needed to worry about credits for general education courses, and her course load would decrease significantly because she had already filled all the credits for both major electives and general electives in her freshman and sophomore years.

This was something she had planned beforehand; she would have more time to visit Gu Ran during her junior and senior years.

On Saturday afternoon, the school auditorium was used as the final of the entrepreneurship competition.

Su Xiaoqiang's startup project in his PPT presentation was an online food delivery platform. More than half a year ago, Su Xiaoqiang invested in the "Eh Bu E" food delivery platform based on Gu Ran's advice.

At this point, Hungry or Not is still in its early stages. In March of this year, it received Series A funding. Su Xiaoqiang, who had previously received angel investment, has now continued to invest, holding more than 30% of the shares, but does not want management control.

The founders of EmuEasy are from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and they had a meeting with Su Xiaoqiang.

They were stunned when they saw that the investor was a beautiful woman and a 20-year-old college student.

Su Xiaoqiang got straight to the point, saying that her boyfriend had suggested she invest in this project, and she wasn't really optimistic about it. She didn't understand why people needed to go online to order takeout; wouldn't it be better to just make a phone call? Besides, it seemed like not many people would order takeout anyway.

Su Xiaoqiang's suspicions were quite reasonable, because at that time the residents' consumption level was not high, and they would rather save that money and add an extra braised egg when dining in.

However, after the four trillion yuan stimulus plan, people's income levels began to rise rapidly, especially in first-tier cities and developed coastal cities.

It was precisely because of this that E'e, the food delivery platform, was immediately valued by major investors and quickly rose to prominence.

Therefore, EmoE has now opened branches in Beijing and Bianzhou, preparing to expand its business.

The company's founders invited Su Xiaoqiang to take on a position within the company, but Su Xiaoqiang declined, citing that he was still a student.

Furthermore, Gu Ran said that the shares in "Hungry or Not" are just for show and will be sold later, because they also have shares in Kangaroo Group, which will probably join the food delivery industry in the future.

At this time, Kangaroo Group was still deeply involved in the group-buying business, and the "hundred-group war" was in full swing. Group-buying projects sprang up like mushrooms after rain, and whoever had more money to burn until the end would win.

Clearly, Kangaroo Group has substantial financial resources and is conducting on-the-ground promotions across the country, inviting merchants to join. This is far superior to those nameless, unknown group-buying platforms.

Chapter 543 You're Wrong Again

Currently, the strongest group-buying platform is not Kangaroo Group, but Lashou.com. Kangaroo Group can only endure it, but even in its endurance, it still has to burn money every day...

Almost all group-buying platforms started by burning money.

However, with the company burning through cash like this, the people at Kangaroo Group were getting a bit anxious. As a result, they contacted Su Xiaoqiang several times, both openly and secretly, to find out if she had any intention of participating in the next round of financing.

Su Xiaoqiang naturally agreed, continuing to demand a higher shareholding percentage, but not management control of the company.

The founder of Kangaroo Group readily agreed, and the money-burning campaign was intensified once again.

Back to the university's entrepreneurship competition, which started last semester, the competition has gone through many rounds of selection from the preliminary rounds to the finals, and today there are only six contestants left.

The winner of the entrepreneurship competition will receive a 10,000 yuan entrepreneurship prize, as well as other support programs from the school. On the day of the competition, local entrepreneurs from Shanghai will be present to participate in the judging.

In other words, students' entrepreneurial projects may attract the attention of local entrepreneurs. As a result, there are more participants this year than in previous years, and the judging panel is more cautious about each entrepreneurial project.

Entrepreneurship competitions are usually conducted by teams, but some are held independently by individuals. Su Xiaoqiang was an individual contestant because her startup project was based on a business development plan obtained from the marketing department of Emeie.com.

Yes, Su Xiaoqiang slacked off in this competition, but it wasn't exactly laziness, because she planned to use this project as a stepping stone. If all went well, it could help Emeie secure the agency rights around the school.

So it's also for the company's benefit, and incidentally it's used to earn academic credits.

Another part of today's entrepreneurship competition is that the six teams are divided into three groups. After the two teams in each group give their presentations, they will evaluate each other's proposals.

Su Xiaoqiang was assigned to the same group as a senior male student named Liang Weihua, who would be officially graduating in a few days this month.

His startup project is group buying, because he believes that group buying is currently booming and will definitely rise to prominence.

Indeed, in the past six months, group-buying websites have sprung up all over the country like mushrooms after rain, with more than 100 group-buying websites launched across the country in just three months!

In an instant, a major battle among group-buying websites officially began, which later became known as the 'Thousand Group War'.

Gu Ran once told Su Xiaoqiang that this "group buying war" would last for about two years. The winner who laughs last will be able to take 70% of the market share, the second place will take 20%, and the last 10% will be the losers who barely survive.

Because the group-buying war was in full swing at the time, Liang Weihua also followed suit and launched his own group-buying website, which has now started operating in counties and cities around Shanghai and is already making a profit.

The only thing he lacks now is funds.

Liang Weihua is a very shrewd person. He knows that today is his chance to shine, and he must not miss it. As long as he can get investment, he can have a good entrepreneurial opportunity after graduation.

With enough investment, his group-buying project can be expanded to the international metropolis of Shanghai. Once successfully launched, he can rival large companies like Kangaroo Group and Nuomi Group!

As the saying goes, "whether you eat porridge or rice, this is your chance."

Therefore, Liang Weihua put extra care into his PPT presentation, and he also paid special attention to the three local business judges today, two men and one woman.

Among the two men and one woman, the most prominent is an entrepreneur named Zhou Yancheng. He is in his early thirties and owns a securities company, which is said to earn hundreds of millions of yuan every year!

Liang Weihua's target today is Zhou Yancheng. As long as he can get investment from him, even if it's just one million, it will be enough for Liang Weihua's company to operate for a while.

Therefore, Liang Weihua put in a lot of effort when presenting his PPT today, and kept a close eye on Zhou Yancheng's micro-expressions, hoping to glean some clues from his expressions to see if he was interested in his project.

To everyone's surprise, Zhou Yancheng seemed very mature, with a poker face that made it impossible to discern his preferences.

Of the other judges, only the female entrepreneur in her fifties seemed interested in him, though there was an ambiguous, inexplicable quality in her eyes…

Finally, with a mix of trepidation and excitement, Liang Weihua concluded his project presentation for the day.

The next step is for competitors in the same group to ask questions about each other's projects, which can be either nitpicking or affirmation.

But in such a competitive situation, there will definitely be more fault-finding than criticism.

Liang Weihua looked at Su Xiaoqiang. Today, Su Xiaoqiang was wearing a white dress with off-the-shoulder design. Her long hair was braided into two pigtails and hung down in front of her chest. The white skirt just covered her calves, revealing her slender ankles. She wore a pair of exquisite white high heels, revealing her snow-white insteps.

This girl is really beautiful, with a noble air about her, and her family owns a mine and is wealthy. Liang Weihua thought to himself that if he could marry her, he would never have to worry about food or drink for the rest of his life. Unfortunately…

He glanced at Su Xiaoqiang's slender, fair hands. A ring adorned the ring finger of her left hand, a testament to her already loving heart. Moreover, he had heard that her boyfriend was a highly talented student at a prestigious private university abroad, having earned over fifty million US dollars in his first year of university...

Sigh, it's true what they say, comparisons are the thief of joy.

Liang Weihua came from a coastal city. Both his parents were teachers, and their income was already quite good. Moreover, his admission to this university made his parents extremely proud.

But compared to wealthy people like Su Xiaoqiang, he felt like he was nothing at all.

Liang Weihua stood aside, waiting for Su Xiaoqiang's comments.

Out of respect for her opponent, Su Xiaoqiang had been listening attentively the whole time. At this point, she spoke frankly to Liang Weihua:

"Your project's funding pool is too shallow, only one million, and your investment attraction is too stingy. How can you possibly raise one million? You've already burned through more than one million in Shanghai in just one month. So, given your scale, you can only operate in fifth-tier cities in the west at present. It will be difficult to succeed in cities around Shanghai. At most, you'll only earn a little bit of wages."

"Moreover, your project doesn't include any investment in advertising, nor does it have a plan to expand merchant onboarding, and it doesn't involve burning money on subsidies. In short, your project is too conservative and too idealistic. You have no idea how big the current group-buying market is or how fierce the competition is."

Liang Weihua listened blankly to what Miss Su Xiaoqiang had to say.

Goodness, a million isn't enough?

Keep in mind that his parents' combined monthly salary is only a little over 6,000 yuan, and their annual income is just over 70,000 yuan. Their combined salary would not be enough to save up 1 million yuan in ten years.

He knew Su Xiaoqiang, knew she was a rich girl, so he said sarcastically, "Su, do you have no concept of money? One million is a lot. In my plan, one million is enough to run a business for a year."

"Moreover, my group buying is purely online, without needing to go offline, so there's no need for manpower or material resources. I'm the only one responsible for maintaining the website," he continued.

Su Xiaoqiang smiled and shook her head: "You're alone? If you don't find merchants offline to join, how will they open group-buying services on your platform?"

“It’s all about fame!” Liang Weihua glanced at the judges’ panel below and noticed that Zhou Yancheng, who always had a poker face, was looking at the stage and seemed to have taken an interest in his project.

So he said with even more confidence, "I plan to use this million to promote the platform. I will start promoting my platform through the internet, mobile text messages, and offline flyer distribution channels to attract merchants to join. Then I will use Baidu Tieba, QQ groups, Weibo, and other means to promote my platform and attract customers to buy. That will do!"

Su Xiaoqiang laughed. This senior was too naive. He actually thought that all he had to do was advertise.

She continued, "But the problem is that the core of group buying is low prices. If you don't subsidize the prices and just advertise, what's the point of attracting people? If you attract users and they see that your products are only sold at the original price, they might as well just buy them offline. Why bother with group buying?"

Upon hearing this, Liang Weihua was taken aback.

Of course he knew this, but he was afraid that burning through too much money would prevent him from attracting investment, so he deliberately kept it to himself.

Now that Su Xiaoqiang has pointed this out, he has to explain: "Actually, I do have a subsidy plan, but it's not currently part of the development plan. We need to stabilize the site and increase its visibility first before we can launch a user subsidy program."

What he said makes sense. Currently, his website is only slightly profitable in Kunshan and Nantong. It would be more sensible to expand the website's reach and promotion before spending money on advertising.

Otherwise, no one will know who you are, so who are you trying to impress by burning money?

After listening to his words, Su Xiaoqiang shook his head again: "Your market strategy is wrong again. The money-burning subsidies should not be used to subsidize users, but to subsidize merchants."

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Liang Weihua was stunned again, staring at Su Xiaoqiang with complete bewilderment.

The three expert judges and the entrepreneur judges in the audience also looked up at Su Xiaoqiang, seemingly surprised that she had such insights.

Liang Weihua thought to himself, what nonsense is this woman talking about? Buyers on group-buying platforms are users, so of course the subsidies should go to users. What's the point of subsidizing merchants?

This young lady really has absolutely no business sense.

So Liang Weihua said, "It's already quite good that the platform advertises for merchants for free and doesn't charge them any fees. It's unreasonable for them to subsidize merchants. Moreover, platforms like Lashou.com, Tuanbao.com, and Manzuo.com are subsidizing users. They quickly captured market share. This is the result of their practice, and it must be true. The advantage of the Internet is its replicability!"

"Sigh!" Su Xiaoqiang smoothed her long hair and sighed.

Chapter 544 He still has to thank us!

Su Xiaoqiang said to Liang Weihua indifferently, "There are countless group-buying websites and platforms now. There are more than a hundred of them, big and small. Users just go to whichever one is cheaper. If your money is only used to subsidize users, no amount of money will be enough to burn through."

"Therefore, group-buying platforms at this stage simply cannot retain customers, so subsidizing customers is a wrong strategy. The correct approach should be to subsidize high-quality merchants, especially high-quality merchants. High-quality merchants never lack customers. Group buying is just icing on the cake for them. So as long as you can retain merchants, users will come to you one day."

She concluded by saying, "Moreover, high-quality merchants are actually a living advertisement for group-buying platforms. Think about it, when users enter your website and see that all the merchants you have joined are big brands, while all the merchants you have joined are small shops with no customers... how would you, as a consumer, feel?"