Rebirth 03: Starting a Business After Giving Up a Secure Job

Chapter 109 Information Attack

Since joining the company, Zhou Bin has led his technical team in developing the website platform day and night.

Three weeks later, Zhou Bin, with dark circles under his eyes, pushed open the door to Lin Feng's office.

"President Lin, the website's beta version is complete. Please take a look." Zhou Bin's voice was hoarse, conveying a sense of relief.

Zhou Bin sent the beta version's URL to Lin Feng, who clicked the link. The screen displayed a simple interface with the "Tongcheng Life Network" logo at the top. Users could select a city; currently, only Shenzhen was available.

The interface is divided into several functional sections: Housing Rental and Sales, Job Recruitment, Second-hand Goods, and Household Services. These four business sections were developed in the first batch.

"The backend management functions are basically complete, allowing for batch import, approval, and publication of information. The frontend display is also working properly; search, categorization, and lists are all functioning correctly."

Zhou Bin entered the administrator password and demonstrated the backend operation interface.

"What we lack now is real data. We've released some test information, but we need actual listings and job postings to fill in."

Lin Feng carefully examined each page, clicking on them occasionally. The interface was simple and clear, and the operation logic was smooth.

Although it is still far from the mature "58.com" in his memory, at this point in time, this beta version has basically met the functional requirements.

"To achieve this level in three weeks, you've worked hard." Lin Feng looked up at Zhou Bin to express his approval.

"Starting today, we'll fill in the information."

The news available on the website spread like wildfire throughout the office. In the information gathering team's cubicle, Lin Xiaoqiang and his team members huddled around Lin Xiaowen's computer.

"Is this our website?" a team member asked excitedly.

"It's an internal beta version, not yet released to the public, but it has all the functions." An engineer from the technical department taught Lin Xiaowen and others how to operate the backend, demonstrating how to enter, approve, and then display a property listing on the front end.

Lin Xiaoqiang stared at the screen and suddenly asked, "Xiaowen, how many verified property listings do we have now?"

Lin Xiaowen flipped through the ledger on her computer: "There are 87 items that the landlord has authorized and verified, and more than 100 more that are pending follow-up or verification."

"Eighty-seven items..." Lin Xiaoqiang murmured, "Not enough, far from enough. If a website only has a few dozen items when you click in, who would come back a second time?"

The pressure is back, but this time it feels different.

Previously, data collection was aimless, like groping in the dark. Now that there's a website, the amount of information is clearly visible. Filling this still empty website with housing listings has become the top priority.

But landlords in urban villages are becoming increasingly wary of these young people who are asking around with notebooks in hand.

Being rejected became commonplace, and sometimes they would even be impatiently kicked out.

We've already gathered enough information on the landlords who are easy to reach and talk to.

The rest are either extremely cautious or have already been targeted by other intermediaries or local bullies, giving them no chance at all.

What's even more frustrating is the speed at which information changes. You might verify and confirm it in the morning, but if you call back in the afternoon, you might be told it's "rented out."

A large amount of repetitive and ineffective work is draining the team's patience and energy.

"Brother Qiang, this can't go on." Tan Zhao rubbed his aching calves. "My legs are about to break. I only got two jobs this morning, and both of them weren't very good."

Lin Xiaoqiang didn't speak; he was also thinking about this question.

The simple "street canvassing" model is too inefficient and unsustainable. The websites are just waiting for content; they need to find a breakthrough.

It was a sweltering afternoon.

Lin Xiaoqiang and his partner once again returned empty-handed from the alleys of Baishizhou.

The two squatted down in front of a roadside convenience store, bought two bottles of ice water, and gulped them down.

Looking at the numerous "For Rent" signs on the wall that had been repeatedly posted and covered up, my partner suddenly said:

"Brother Qiang, look at these papers. Some of the writing is smeared, some are crumpled, and some are only the size of a palm. If I were looking for a place to live, I would get a headache just looking at them."

Lin Xiaoqiang followed his gaze. The handwritten messages were varied and messy, often missing key information, and were easily overlooked among a bunch of small messages like "drain cleaning" and "moving and freight".

An idea struck him.

He stared at the guys for a long time, then turned to his partner and said, "Let's go back!"

Back in his office, Lin Xiaoqiang found paper and pen and began to write and draw.

Lin Xiaowen came over to bring water and, seeing her brother's furrowed brow, asked softly, "Brother, what's wrong?"

Lin Xiaoqiang looked up: "Xiaowen, can you do me a favor? I need to design something on the computer."

He described his idea: a standardized and comprehensive "rental information sheet".

The listing should have clear sections: property address, apartment type, size, floor, rent, payment method, property highlights, landlord's name and phone number, and finally leave a blank space for "landlord's special requirements".

Lin Xiaowen immediately understood: "Brother, you want to unify the housing information interface so that it's easy to see at a glance."

"Yes! That's exactly what I mean!" Lin Xiaoqiang nodded vigorously.

"We provide services to landlords, helping them rent out their properties more effectively. They benefit from this and are therefore more willing to share their information with us. It's a win-win situation!"

Lin Xiaoqiang's thinking became clearer and clearer: "For landlords whose houses are in good condition but whose self-application of the posters is not effective, we will design, print, and post them for them free of charge, and place them in better and more conspicuous positions than if they had done it themselves."

At the same time, he needs to authorize us to put his property listings on our website. The website is currently in beta testing, but it will be publicly available soon, allowing his information to be seen by more people immediately. It can only benefit him!

Lin Xiaowen said, "Okay, I'll design the table right away!"

She sat back down at her computer and quickly designed a simple and clear template, adding the eye-catching slogan "Local Life Network" at the bottom. When she printed it out, it was indeed much more professional than those unsightly graffiti on the wall.

Lin Xiaoqiang took the "sample form" and immediately went to find Lin Feng.

After listening to Lin Xiaoqiang's complete idea, Lin Feng looked at the designed table and pondered for a moment.

"That's a great idea. It's about shifting from simply acquiring information to providing value and exchanging resources," Lin Feng affirmed the direction.

"But have you considered the problems that might arise during implementation? For example, while the cost of printing and posting isn't high, it becomes an expense when done in large quantities. For example, if a landlord's property ultimately doesn't rent out, won't he think we're useless? For example, do we have enough manpower to cover so many landlords?"

Lin Xiaoqiang had clearly thought about it: "Boss, I want to do a pilot program first. Instead of expanding, I'll select three or five properties that are particularly competitive in terms of location, price, and conditions."

We focus our efforts on posting the notices in the most visible places. If even one or two of them are rented out quickly, it's considered a successful listing. Landlords will help us advertise, and people who see the notices might become website users.

As for the cost... I think it's worth spending this amount of money if a high-quality property listing and potential new users are involved.

In terms of manpower, we can first optimize the existing routes, combining posting with daily information verification.

Lin Feng acknowledged Lin Xiaoqiang's serious attitude and nodded: "Go ahead and do it. Try it first. If you need any support, go through the internal procedures with Xiaowen. I need to see feedback on the results."

"Understood!" Lin Xiaoqiang returned to the information collection team with great enthusiasm.

He didn't start blindly.

Instead, they discussed and came up with five principles together with the team members:

The property must either be in a good location, have a competitive price, or possess unique selling points. More importantly, the landlord should be relatively easy to communicate with and seem quite concerned about the current rental status.

With a carefully designed form in hand, Lin Xiaoqiang began his first "service-oriented" visit.

The first landlord was a woman in her forties who lived on the fifth floor of a farmer's house in Baishizhou.

Lin Xiaoqiang explained his purpose and handed over a carefully designed form.

The older sister held the form, flipping through it several times, then looked at Lin Xiaoqiang's sweat-soaked shirt and sincere face.

"Free? Really, it's free?" she confirmed.

"Really, no. We'll put your house information on our website so more people can see it. We'll print out several copies of this form for you and post them in prominent places like intersections and markets; it's much better than you writing it on that little piece of paper yourself."

The older sister thought about it and realized that she had indeed posted that handwritten note for almost half a month, but very few people had asked about it.

"Okay, I'll give it a try. But you have to put my phone number on it."

"Of course, just write down the number you left." Lin Xiaoqiang quickly took out a pen and filled out the form neatly according to the older sister's instructions.

When filling in the "Property Highlights" section, he specifically asked, "Ma'am, what's particularly good about this apartment? Like, is it well-ventilated? Quiet?"

"Oh, although my apartment is on a high floor and there's no elevator, it faces south and gets lots of sunshine! Plus, there are only two apartments on my floor. My neighbor is a teacher, so it's quiet and not noisy," the older woman said.

Lin Xiaoqiang noted all of these down in the "Highlights" column.

Finally, the eldest sister signed the form, agreeing to the authorization.

Holding the signed form, Lin Xiaoqiang felt like he had found a treasure.

He and his partner immediately set to work, making twenty copies of the information sheet and carefully posting them at several major intersections in Baishizhou, at the entrance of the vegetable market, and on bulletin boards next to bus stops.

Each sheet was sealed with transparent tape on all four sides to prevent it from being easily torn off.

Over the next two days, they used the same method to sign up seven or eight more landlords.