Kang Baohong expressed agreement, along with immense respect for Su Zelin.

The boss’s vision is always further-reaching than others!

Actually, he now owns a bit of New Era’s shares, not much, but at least he’s a shareholder.

However, Kang Baohong didn’t consider himself on par with Su Zelin.

He was brought along by Su Zelin, and the shares were a gift from Su Zelin, so he feels very grateful and always regards him as the boss.

They chatted as they arrived at the Snooker District.

All three could play pool, and sometimes they would play a few games while discussing business matters.

Su Zelin and Yang Fen started playing first. After Brother Xiao Yang broke the balls, they chatted while playing.

New Era has firmly established its foothold within the province, and while continuing to delve deeper locally, it also must set its sights on expanding across the entire Jiang-Zhe-Lu region.

This plan had long been clear, but the progress might be slightly advanced because the past year had been extraordinarily smooth for New Era, with the growth of franchise stores far exceeding expectations, so Su Zelin felt they could be even bolder.

As for another matter, it was about operating online sales channels, but currently, there isn’t much to do with it. Mainly, it’s about opening an online store on Taobao and listing all of New Era’s offline products there.

Both Yang Fen and Kang Baohong didn’t think this was very important. However, strangely, Su Zelin seemed to value it greatly, which puzzled them both.

No wonder, as during this period, Xiaguo’s e-commerce was in its infancy, still distant from people’s daily lives.

This term appeared more in academic journals or computer technology reports, scrutinized by critics. Su Zelin’s business management course instructors and related economists all had doubts about whether online shopping could become popular, citing reasons such as the limited number of consumers who understood online shopping, insufficient support from logistics networks, and inconvenient online payments.

In the eyes of most scholars, e-commerce was viewed as an unlikely fantasy to be perfectly realized.

Indeed, compared to future eras where one could easily install a shopping app and place an order in a day, now, online shopping involved many hassles.

The initial preparation alone was troublesome. You had to first go to the bank and spend over a hundred yuan to get a U-key, connect it to your computer via USB, install drivers, and after a series of verifications, you could finally perform online banking transactions.

But there was no other way; if you wanted to shop on a C2C platform, you had to use this thing, entering a verification code to complete a transaction.

Even this operation was quite complex; some novices might struggle with it for a long time. If you switched to a different computer, you would have to go through the process all over again.

The cumbersome process deterred many people, unlike the ease of linking a bank card to a phone in later generations.

After finally setting up your U-key, purchases were still made through transfers, with no third-party payment tool, the money went directly into the seller’s hands, making it hard to feel secure.

Once you managed to make a purchase, you had to wait a long time for it to arrive because the logistics were very backward.

Shopping online during this time offered no comfortable experience, and the low acceptance was understandable.

"Don’t underestimate the power of e-commerce. Look at how profitable Tencent’s QQ Show was last year!"

Su Zelin said.

Yang Fen and Kang Baohong both shook their heads. They didn’t have much knowledge about it.

"In just the first half-year since QQ Show was launched, there were five million paying users, with an average spend of five yuan. That means, in just that half-year, Tencent earned fifty million yuan, not including future income!"

Saying this, Su Zelin sharply shot the cue, accurately pocketing a red ball in a pocket with a "bang."

Fast, accurate, and ruthless!

The hustler was skilled with both large and small balls.

His basketball skills were almost at an expert level, rarely meeting a match on the street courts.

His billiard skills were also on point.

Yang Fen and Kang Baohong had fairly good skills, yet there was still a gap compared to him.

"Five million paying users, earning fifty million yuan!"

Brother Xiao Yang couldn’t help but take a sharp breath.

He understood the scale represented by these two numbers.

"You have to know, this is just a virtual item, but so many users are willing to pay for it!"

The cost of QQ Show was only the design fees, and it could be sold infinitely after creation. It was simply a business of infinite profit.

Kang Baohong was a bit incredulous: "Wasn’t it said before that Tencent planned to sell, and the founder couldn’t even find a buyer willing to pay a million?"

New Era’s earning capacity was already very strong, with its market valuation long surpassing a hundred million!

But this internet company that no one wanted to buy for a million turned out to be more impressive at generating revenue than New Era!

Su Zelin nodded: "Yes, this is the most typical example of underestimating the power of e-commerce!"

"People underestimated the spending power of internet users, believing there was no way to monetize the traffic. Those who missed out on buying Tencent are probably filled with regret."

"Having won this battle, Tencent is no longer that humble company. Once ignored, now unattainable! Tencent realizes how strong it is now, and won’t sell for even several billion!"

"The potential of the internet economy is astonishingly vast, and we absolutely must not overlook this enormous market. Though the time isn’t ripe, and e-commerce has yet to rise, we must prepare for the future and get ready early!"

Three months later, Alipay will be launched by Taobao, solving the third-party payment issues, making online shopping more convenient and providing better security with customer funds; by then, the number of online shoppers will soar.