Chapter 44

Ren Hong paused for a second and at that moment, the main screen above the stage displayed several pieces of information. He said, “In the past two years and eight months or so, as of last week, our first product Real-time Online Translator has reached 1.78 billion user registrations worldwide, and the cumulative number of paid subscribers worldwide has officially hit 1.6 billion.”

Under the bewilderment of the audience and reporters, Ren Hong continued. “As of last week, the total downloads of Real-time Online Translator on Android, iOS, PC, and Mac have exceeded 4.7 billion! At the same time, out of nearly 1.8 billion total users, 1.35 billion users overlap with social network users; 300 million users overlap with video users, a group dominated by domestic users. The rest come from other sources such as overseas web browsers. However, all users overlap their use of Real-time Online Translator across different platforms, and thanks to our strategic partners, the potential of Real-time Online Translator remains endlessly imaginative.

“That’s not a bad result.” Ren Hong smiled and looked at the audience. He didn’t look at the screen behind him, but he said the numbers accurately. It was apparent that he knew it like the back of his hand.

Not a bad result? The audience and those watching the live-stream immediately recovered from their daze of the blinding data and were left speechless. At the same time, some people in the technology sector who were present felt ashamed to show their faces.

Everyone, including Wall Street analysts, underestimated the value of Real-time Online Translator. They underestimated how eager people were to communicate, and how unstoppable a torrent would be if that barrier was ever breached. Everyone had misjudged Real-time Online Translator’s growth. Right now, XlouS was so impressive and blinding that no one dared to look at it directly.

Ren Hong walked back and forth and held up his right hand, thumb and forefinger glued together without much excitement as he continued with ease. “Two years, seven months, and eighteen days ago, XlouS was born in a school classroom and launched its first product shortly thereafter. To date, our company has generated 12 billion USD plus 84.95 billion USD in actual revenue, generating 96.95 billion USD in total revenue and earning a cumulative net profit margin of over 60 billion USD.”

A line of data displayed on the screen startled the entire crowd. That was simply an undoubtable show of wealth. Netizens watching the live-stream stared blankly at their screens, listening to what Ren Hong said as well as looking at the data displayed on the screen behind him. This data, if converted into RMB, was about 630 billion or so of total revenue—nearly 400 billion RMB of profit!

It had only been two years since XlouS was founded, and it was already making a lot of money on its first product.

Some of the business people who were present or were watching the live-stream were envious of the figures. Even Cook, who was at Apple’s headquarters at the moment, was astonished. The figures happened to be about the same as Apple’s net profit last year, which was a whopping 62.7 billion USD, mind you!

The same went for XlouS. The 60 billion USD was also a net profit albeit being the net profit of over a couple of years. It could be said that the Wanning city government was pounding their feet in exhilaration that such a high-revenue company had settled in their city. On the other hand, they were furious that the 60 billion USD had nothing to do with them!

Ren Hong continued. “Over the past two years or so, our company has received tremendous amounts of revenue, and likewise, we have had tremendous expenses.

“We ended up spending 85 billion RMB on the construction of the company’s headquarters. The renovation and construction of the Nanwang Reservoir has cost 800 million RMB, and the final expenditure is expected to reach 1.5 billion RMB and possibly more! Some time ago, another 6 billion RMB was spent to form the company’s in-house supercomputer, ‘L’. In the past two years, our company has spent more than 130 billion RMB on the purchase of all kinds of expensive cutting-edge equipment, as well as research and development and production materials. Some of which were not even sold to us, and we had to spend more money and time to explore, research, and develop what we needed. Fortunately, our research and development didn’t hit many snags and everything went smoothly! Our production department, which is the ‘S’ shaped building at the end, has had to increase our production costs to ensure that our company and the surrounding environment are not contaminated by the waste generated by process production and manufacturing!

“In the last two years or so, our company has spent a cumulative total of over 370 billion RMB! Among them, our company has invested as much as 148 billion RMB in technology R&D, and XlouS’s R&D investment accounts for 35.35% of our annual revenue, more than double that of HUAWEI, the technology company with currently the highest percentage of R&D investment in the world!!!” Ren Hong looked at the crowd and said while his finger pointed to the latest data displayed on the screen behind him.

In just two years, having such a high level of investment and expenditure on research and development was really intimidating to many people. XlouS had spent almost all the money it earned in the past two years, and perhaps such boldness couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world. Everyone was wondering why Ren Hong wasn’t afraid of losses?

Ren Hong felt his throat drying up. He took a sip of water from a bottle of Ganten mineral water, before speaking in amusement. “For that reason, every time I spend money, my CEO storms into my office and gives me, the chairman, a good scolding like I’m a spendthrift, blah blah blah. Maybe I’m a spendthrift by nature and can’t manage money, but it’s good that her objection eventually turned into support, ha~~”

A wave of good-natured laughter sounded from the crowd. Gao Yue stood at the back stage, remembering some of the past. Whenever she gave him a good scolding, he would always playfully coax her. At that thought, Gao Yue couldn’t help but reveal a sweet, warm smile.

The netizens who watched the live-stream also created a fuss!

[Haha, turns out that Sister Gao is the real head of the family at XlouS!!!]

[Haha! Could it be that Chairman Ren is henpecked?]

[Damn, Chairman Ren sure is a spendthrift, but then again, wasn’t S-1 eventually created? Support Chairman Ren!]

[Yes, bump! Bump!]

[What? Am I the only one who realized the truth? Did Chairman Ren just knowingly advertise Ganten mineral water to the world? He sure knows his stuff! I really give in to him!]

It was apparent that Ganten mineral water didn’t hire Ren Hong for advertisement; they couldn’t afford it and wouldn’t do it. At the press conference, Ren Hong’s voice rang out again. “I’m always a firm believer that you get what you put into it, and that XlouS has made a huge investment. It’s paid off in the end. During these years, XlouS applied for a total of up to 3,854 different national and international patents, giving birth to dozens of new breakthrough technologies. This includes new types such as ‘laser-hedge imaging technology’, ‘focused illusory screen display technology’, ‘microchip technology’, ‘micro-integrated batteries’, ‘AI (artificial intelligence)’, etc.”

The audience was stunned by the data that equaled an average of five patents born every day and of obscure terms they had never heard of. Was there really no obstacle to the research and development team at XlouS? Also, were all the technical development engineers at XlouS geniuses? Come to think of it, XlouS’ astronomical investment in R&D was indeed a reflection of high investment and high return. But even so, other tech companies around the world such as Alphabet had no shortage of emphasis on investing in R&D either. Although they didn’t spend as much as XlouS, it was still a hard truth to accept that they, who were also in high tech, were getting the same amount of revenue as XlouS.