Chapter 358
Aubree brought Vincent and a few trusted senior executives from the company to Nadio to attend the Internet Innovation Conference.
She explained, “The Internet Innovation Conference usually gathers almost every large and small enterprise in Lumanon involved in the new media and internet industry. Many promising newcomers will try everything to get into the conference. If they’re lucky, their project might get spotted by a big boss and shoot to the top overnight.”
Even though this was only a domestic conference, not just anyone could participate. For them, as a startup company not even two years old, receiving a VIP invitation was a major sign of their strength.
Aubree smiled. “The main goal this time is to connect and learn.” In plain terms, she meant to network with top executives and expand their connections.
After a successful round of funding, they had rapidly attracted a huge number of users. The user base of GrabCheap was growing like crazy, followed closely by a large influx of merchants. GrabCheap had more users than any other e-commerce platform on the market, and that number was still climbing.
It wasn’t just more users. The platform’s transaction volume was rising too, and money was beginning to cycle back in. At this pace, breaking even was only a matter of time. And this was only their first round of funding. Their original plan had been to secure two rounds of investment.
Of course, not everything was perfect. With more users and merchants came the inevitable problem of a mixed-quality environment. Some low-quality merchants used misleading pictures and sold inferior products at cheap prices. Negative reviews on GrabCheap had begun increasing sharply.
This was an unavoidable issue. All Aubree could do was remain customer-focused and safeguard consumer rights as much as possible, for example, by offering unconditional refunds.
So far, their progress had been groundbreaking, but it still wasn’t enough. Aubree thought about the Tengu Gruppe collaboration, which was now completely out of the question. She had another potential partner in mind. Once the current situation settled down, she’d begin preparing. Once the second partnership succeeded, GrabCheap would truly become a phenomenal platform.
Not only was the e-commerce side in Südlichen Strand preparing for the next phase of development, but the “Zappy” short video platform was now working with Kurtis’s entertainment company to promote various novels through short ads.
The short novel ad format had incredible results. Even Kurtis himself was surprised. On most platforms, long-form novels dominated the market. Short fiction barely made a ripple, and few even knew it existed. But after collaborating with Aubree to launch the ad-driven model, short novels suddenly caught fire, and Kurtis’s platform revenue multiplied several times over. And so far, no one else had noticed this quiet breakthrough.
Meanwhile, back at the Wilson family home in Rithol City. Trevor had been lying low, taking a break from his other projects to avoid any unwanted attention.
Hearing footsteps downstairs, he looked up. “Mom, are you heading out?”
Alice replied, “Yeah. Your dad and Bryan are going to Nadio for the Internet Innovation Conference. Your uncle and the others are going too. I’m tagging along.”
As for what she’d be doing there, of course, she was going to act as a middleman, pulling the Wilson and Diamonde families together to deal with Aubree. Her growth had been far too fast. If they didn’t act soon, Aubree would eventually slip out of their control entirely.
Thinking of this, Alice felt even more confident that her decision at the art exhibition had been right. Even if they’d suffered a minor loss, it wasn’t anything serious.