Reinventing the Millennium.

Chapter 494 Competing for Strangeness and Beauty (Two in One)

In mid-May, China's Internet industry was not peaceful.

Google's working group led by the vice president visited well-known Internet companies in the eastern countries, including their direct competitor Baidu.

I don’t know how to talk about it. The intriguing gossip heard by the outside world is that Baidu employees, under Li Yanhong’s order, brought a lot of friends to make up the number on the day the Google team visited.

This gossip was first circulated on Sina, and then spread to other people's ears.

Because Sina and Baidu are neighbors from top to bottom, their offices are located in the Ideal International Building in Beijing. Google first visited Baidu, and then went upstairs to visit Sina.

It is said that a member of the Google team was surprised to ask Wang Yan, the president of Sina, whether it is because there is a shortage of Internet talents in China, so two companies use the same engineer.

Wang Yan was confused and vague, and only found out when he asked after he had left that his employees went downstairs to cheer for Baidu, and unexpectedly ran into them again at the door of Sina's office.

The president of Sina was very helpless, and it was not clear for a while whether Google had noticed the worries downstairs.

But no matter how ambitious Google is in the Chinese search engine market, they are indeed very serious and courteous in figuring out the development of China's Internet industry. One of the key content is the way of getting along between enterprises and administration.

Baidu is ready to face the competition and is considering starting a new round of financing in advance to replenish ammunition.

And Dangdang.com, another company that has not long reached a cooperation with Yike Investment, even though it has already obtained the ammunition, is also a bit disorganized after discovering that foreign giants will end up participating in the competition.

On May 5, Amazon announced that it had formally completed the acquisition of Joyo. The latter’s dominance changed hands from Jinshan and Lei Jun, and the target quickly targeted Dangdang, which has a similar business.

Lei Jun resigned from his post as chairman and was unwilling to accept interviews, so he only gave the reporter an answer of "give me some time, take it easy".

The next day, Whitman, the president of eBay who visited Huaxia and served as the special guest of this Internet Industry Development Conference, faced the media interview and said with a smile: "There will be a large group of small competitors in the Huaxia market, and they will only hit eBay's ankles. And eBay's market offensive will defeat the opponent without any suspense."

In the middle of 2004, the word "Internet" was extremely hot after the bubble, and the concept of e-commerce also resounded throughout the industry.

At the same time, foreign capital enters the market, or acquires, or buys shares, or competes, and they are also staring at such a piece of cake that needs to be enlarged.

On May 5th, the China Internet Industry Development Conference was held in Lin'an. Internet giants gathered, and heads of major domestic companies attended.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the open-air venue by the West Lake was full of guests and the crown was like clouds.

At the same time, a car from Shencheng Airport galloped into Lin'an City.

At [-]:[-] in the morning, the Internet Industry Development Conference officially opened.

First, the local leaders of Lin'an gave a warm speech, welcoming domestic and foreign guests to Hangzhou, and introducing investment promotion policies and industrial clusters.

Then Darren, the vice president of Google, and Whitman, the president of eBay, took the stage to speak as special guests.

Darren, vice president of Google, just like his previous visits to well-known companies in China, once again declared Google's principle of mutual benefit, open and inclusive attitude, and also expressed his optimism for China's emerging markets.

All the guests gave warm applause, even Li Yanhong from Baidu, he was not stingy with his own applause while seriously considering Google's cooperation conditions.

When Whitman came to power, unlike Google, who had not yet entered the market, the president of eBay, who had already launched an impact on domestic e-commerce, made everyone's eyes a little complicated.

"The potential of the Huaxia market is huge."

"eBay is the world's largest online marketplace."

"I came to China with eBay to apply the company's mature experience to this emerging market."

"eBay acquired EachNet last year, and there will be more moves to help China's e-commerce continue to develop."

Whitman's speech is not fast, but his attitude is very direct and firm.

Even if some of the remarks made the audience uncomfortable, the size of eBay was still awe-inspiring.

This year, eBay's stock price hit another record high, and its market value soared to $700 billion.

This is a dazzling figure.

Because of the rapid development of eBay led by Whitman, she is also called "the godmother of e-commerce" by many foreign media and business people.

The godmother talked eloquently on stage, proudly talking about eBay's successful experience, confident in leading Huaxia's e-commerce in the right direction.

Li Guoqing from Dangdang.com in the audience felt very uncomfortable when he heard it. He purposely sat next to Wang Yan, the president of Sina, and while Whitman was interacting with others, he quietly asked Wang Yan: "Isn't Mr. Fang coming today? ?”

Wang Yan nodded slightly, and replied: "On the way, it should be here soon. There is no direct flight from New York to Lin'an. Get to Shanghai and come to Lin'an."

Li Guoqing sighed, eBay's offensive is very fierce, Whitman also clearly mentioned Dangdang and Joyo in an interview on the 25th, and regarded these two as competitors in the Chinese market.

Being targeted by an international giant with a market value of 700 billion US dollars, he felt an itchy spine.

Whitman's speech on stage was quite lengthy, and he also spontaneously interacted with the guests.

At [-]:[-], the godmother of e-commerce finished her speech and walked off the stage slowly, receiving a lot of applause.

As a local company that hosted the conference, Ma Dian from Taobao was the fourth person to speak on stage.

However, just as he said hello to the guests in the audience, he saw a group of people hurrying into the West Lake venue accompanied by two leaders.

Ma Dian stopped speaking, smiled, and looked at Fang Zhuo who had arrived at the meeting.

The guests in the audience looked at the interrupted speech, and followed this person's line of sight to look back.

Those in the front row looked back, and those in the back row looked at the front row in the same way. Everyone looked at the head of Sina and chairman of Yike who had returned from New York.

"Boss Fang is here!"

"Why is Mr. Fang late?"

"Are you just getting off the plane?"

"Boss Fang, long time no see."

The guests greeted each other, and the scene changed from commotion to excitement.

Fang Zhuo nodded with a smile, exchanged pleasantries as he walked, and was accompanied by Director Liu of the Municipal Office to the first row.

Whitman from eBay and Darren from Google were a little puzzled. The person who came was quite young, but he was very pompous. I don't know who it is?

Soon, someone next to him explained the confusion, and only then did they know that the person who came was the richest man in China's mainland.

"Sorry, I'm late, the plane is in a hurry."

When Fang Zhuo arrived in the first row, he didn't sit down immediately, but turned around and apologized to the guests he knew and didn't know.

There was another voice in the venue, and naturally he didn't mind the response.

"Director Liu, I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble." Fang Zhuo thanked the leader of the city office again. This director Liu was the leader he met when he came to An inspected the production line in the city last year. This time he came to An from Shencheng. It's really kind to make a special trip to pick up the plane.

"Oh, why are you being polite? Sit, sit, talk if you have something to say." Director Liu laughed, and then walked back along the side aisle.

Only then did Fang Zhuo sit down, and found that the row reserved for him was Ma Huateng, Ding Lei, Zhang Chaoyang, Li Yanhong and others, and the row behind was Wang Yan, Li Guoqing and others.

"Boss Fang, you're here."

The masher on the stage didn't continue to speak. He waited for Fang Zhuo to sit down before he said with a smile, "You have to come on stage to have a chat."

Fang Zhuo waved his hand and refused, "I just came here, so I can't figure out what's going on. What did Boss Ma ask me to say? I need to hear how Boss Ma has done us a favor as a landlord."

Ma Dian picked up the microphone and said with a big laugh: "I was really troubled by the friendship of the landlord, but now that Mr. Fang comes, I don't worry at all."

He continued to say meaningfully: "I think it is very appropriate for Mr. Fang to speak now. I heard that Mr. Fang's Yike invested in Dangdang. I have always been curious about Mr. Fang's understanding of e-commerce. I can't lift Mr. Fang alone. Everyone's applause is welcome."

Ma Dian put down the microphone and applauded first.

In an instant, the warm applause forced Fang Zhuo to raise his right hand to thank everyone for their enthusiasm.

Ma Dian sat in the vacant seat next to Fang Zhuo, watching him take the stage with a smile.

"Hi everyone, I'm Fang Zhuo."

In a word, there was another round of welcome applause.

Fang Zhuo was in a good mood while holding the microphone.

Where is this place?
Lin'an.

Own hometown (Note: second).

What could be more pleasant than receiving applause and welcome from everyone in your hometown?

What's more, China's Internet industry is so booming. Compared with semiconductors, it took a long time to buy a lot of equipment, and I stood on this stage and looked down. Tsk, there are so many talents.

Two horses and one plum.

Three major portals.

Oh, Dongzi is here too.

Hey, why is Lei Jun's expression so mournful?
The one in red is probably Zhou Hongyi who sold 3721 to Yahoo last year.

Well, does Wang Xing, who is sitting so late, have short hair at this time?
Fang Zhuo's eyes scanned the audience, seeing the youthful, melancholy, fighting spirit, and yearning representatives of China's future Internet, he felt an inexplicable surge of emotion.

He also saw a few foreigners in the first row on the left, but he didn't know where they came from.

The applause caused by the name of the first sentence gradually stopped.

Fang Zhuo directly talked about some of his thoughts on the development of the Internet: "I flew back from New York yesterday, and I was thinking all the way about what to say this time."

"Two years ago, I said that the spring of the Internet has come."

"The bubbles sweeping the world were blown away by the spring breeze, and all things flourished. Portals, search, e-commerce, online games, and online travel felt like a blink of an eye. The Internet quickly touched many industries."

"It's so diverse and so vibrant."

"This is a great era for the development of Huaxia Internet, and it is also the best opportunity for everyone here to realize their personal values ​​and ideals."

"Huaxia's Internet needs to be developed and tapped, but it must be based on local conditions to grow vigorously."

Fang Zhuo paused when he said this, and obviously noticed that the faces of some people in the audience became more focused because of his words.

Ok?
What happened just now?

A thought flashed in Fang Zhuo's mind, without thinking about it, he continued: "I have talked about our Internet development on many occasions before, saying that there is a more basic logic behind this dazzling array."

"Take Taobao and Dangdang as an example. What is the most basic thing about selling goods, books, and commodities?"

"It is the connection between people and goods through the Internet."

"What about people?"

"Tencent is engaged in social activities using the Internet."

"What about people and information?"

"Portals do information content, BBS do information content, and search engines like Baidu play a great role and value as a bridge between the two."

"People goods, everyone, people information."

"The closer the Internet companies that extend from these are closer to the infrastructure, the more value they can create."

"Mr. Ma asked me just now what I think about e-commerce after investing in Dangdang."

"I'm looking optimistically."

"Who knows best what Chinese people need, what information they need, and how they want to deal with others?"

"My own."

Fang Zhuo said with a smile: "Only our local down-to-earth people can know how to do their own business well. I am absolutely sure of this, but any company that wants to go beyond our local companies and follow the rules will be punished with arrogance. "

"Today is very hasty, I'm just chatting in a casual way."

"This year's development meeting is a very good location. The weather in Lin'an in May has a feeling that everyone is welcoming the Internet summer together."

"In spring, the grass grows and warblers fly, and in summer, they compete for beauty."

Fang Zhuo put the microphone back to its original position, and finally said: "I hope that this summer of Huaxia Internet can be a little longer, and a little longer. I believe that Huaxia's market with a population of more than one billion will surely shock the world."

"Thank you, everyone. This trip can inspect our business environment in Lin'an. It is absolutely top-notch."

Fang Zhuo said another word with a smile, waved his hand, and walked off the stage.

Whitman, the president of a giant with a market value of US$700 billion, has enough qualifications to be condescending. Her previous speech seemed to be more or less like a dark cloud over the hearts of many guests.

But "spring is coming" Mr. Fang stood on the stage, as always, enthusiastic, confident and optimistic, and almost sprinkled the summer sunshine of next month in the venue in advance.

From the opening to now, the warmest applause goes to the most confident people.

Fang Zhuo was sitting in his seat, listening to the long-lasting applause, he couldn't help turning his head to Ding Lei and asked: "Everyone's reaction is so strong? You were bullied just now? Mr. Ding, are you here?" Go up and talk about it?"

NetEase's stock price performance in the past two years has been quite impressive, and its current market value is still higher than that of Sina.

Ding Lei laughed and said, "No, I'm stupid, I can't tell you what Fang Zong smells like."

He felt that even if he came to the stage with Mr. Fang's manuscript, it would be difficult to reproduce that arrogant and confident attitude.

When did this start?
Ding Lei thinks it started with the open letter from the president of Sina that was circulated in the industry.

Fang Zhuo looked at Ma Huateng, who pointed to his lips, feeling ashamed.

At this time, Sohu's Zhang Chaoyang also turned his head and said, "Fang is always going to end up competing in e-commerce?"

Fang Zhuo smiled: "I just think this kind of summer will be more interesting, it doesn't matter whether you end up or not."

It doesn't matter whether you play or not. The first interesting point is that Sina is talking about Sohu's NBA contract that expires this year.

(End of this chapter)