Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1448 Platform Economy
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Zhou Buqi took a copy of the materials provided by Ono Consulting Firm and set off for China.

While studying the materials, I contacted Sony to make an appointment to meet.

There are a lot of materials and there are a full 46 sheets of A4 paper.

On the plane, Wu Yu, who had been busy with blind box market research for several days, went back to the bedroom to take a nap.

Zhou Buqi, Zhen Yu, and Xue Baoshan spread out the materials together, and everyone looked at the materials together.Although Sony's performance is poor, it has a large scale, many business lines, and even an insurance business.

It is also very interesting to read some confidential information inside Sony and study the struggle for power among various business lines and subsidiaries of Sony.

"Huh?" Zhen Yu gradually figured out Sony's thinking from these materials, "Sony is very similar to Apple!"

"how to say?"

"Sony is an enhanced version of Apple!"

"What?" Zhou Buqi was amused, "What is the market value of Sony? What is the market value of Apple? Senior Sister Zhenyu, don't get confused."

Zhen Yu said seriously: "It's true. Look at Sony's core business, which is the entertainment business derived from consumer electronics products, such as movies, music, and games."

Zhou Buqi was stunned for a moment, "It's quite similar."

Zhen Yu said: "It's not quite similar, it's exactly the same. Isn't Jobs a believer in Sony? I feel that he learned it from Sony. Sony sells TVs, mobile phones, Walkmans, and game consoles, and then promotes its own movies on these devices. Music and game products form a closed business loop.”

"There is still a slight difference. Apple's business model is an upgraded version, an Internet version."

"How did you upgrade?"

"Sony sells electronic products, and then sells its own entertainment products on electronic products. Apple sells electronic products, and then builds an Internet platform on electronic products to sell all entertainment products in the world."

"It really is!"

Zhen Yu suddenly realized.

After such an analysis, it is inevitable that Sony will be crushed by Apple.From the strategic level, the two sides are not at the same level.Apple embraces the whole world, while Sony has the characteristics of a typical Japanese-style enterprise.

Zhou Buqi said: "Because Sony only sells its own products, this has caused Sony to suffer from obesity. It has to make its own movies, music, and a huge game department. The game department has to be divided into video games. And handheld games. In order to better adapt their own games, they need to study imaging technology, audio-visual technology, and develop special chips. Mr. Ono said this today, and Apple back then was similar.”

"is it?"

"In the 90s, Apple almost went bankrupt, and Sony failed to acquire Apple. Jobs had no money, so he gave up the infringement lawsuit against Microsoft, and got a sum of money from Microsoft. Then he gave Apple more than a dozen business lines. Closed. Apple embarked on a streamlined Internet consumer electronics model."

Zhen Yu nodded lightly, "Sell iMacs, sell iPods, sell iPhones, and then create a platform economy through the system and software, and get a commission from it. Make a fortune on the hardware, and make another fortune on the software."

Zhou Buqi said: "Basically, in the final analysis, now is the Internet era. Apple has caught up with the Internet, but Sony has not. However, I heard from Ryo Ono that under the leadership of Stringer, Sony also wants to build an Internet platform. I guess it's enough!"

Xue Baoshan buried her head in reading the material, and said thoughtfully, "It's also related to piracy."

"what?"

"It's written here that Sony was the world's No. [-] player in the field of Walkmans back then. Even if Apple launched the iPod, it would be useless. But Sony's strategic decision was wrong. Just like what Classmate Zhou said just now, it's too petty."

"how?"

Zhen Yu was very curious.

Xue Baoshan said softly: "Sony's MP3 is not as good as the iPod, which has something to do with pirated music. The iPod can listen to genuine music, and you can also download pirated music at will. But Sony's MP3 can't, it has designed many complicated formats, and pirated music is prohibited."

Zhen Yu said: "Yes, Sony owns Sony Music, and they definitely don't want pirated music to interfere with the market. But Apple doesn't have a record business. It doesn't make any difference to Apple, as long as it can sell electronic products."

Xue Baoshan said softly: "The weak can defeat the strong, largely because the weak have lower moral standards."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "It's a different stage. Weak and small stages have to give up moral constraints and constantly break through the lower limit to cater to the public. When a company grows bigger, it still needs to have a higher strategic vision. Like me, I can recognize The irresistibility of the new situation in the great era, don't go against the trend."

"you?"

Zhen Yu and Xue Baoshan spoke in unison, slightly coquettish.

Zhou Buqi snorted and said, "What are you doing? Look down on me? Humph, I don't want to brag with you. If I were the president, president, or CEO of Sony, I promise I can lead Sony to do better than Apple. Don't believe me? Let me give you an example, it’s exactly the same as Sony’s pirated music incident. Ziweixing has a small business called Toutiao Literature, you know it?”

"Well, online reading, Wu Yu always likes to read those novels."

"Yes, since it is online reading, there must be pirated content. Ziwei Star has a very powerful anti-piracy mechanism, such as Weidian Security Guard and Weidian Antivirus, which can prohibit users from logging in to pirated websites in the form of a blacklist. But this will affect I didn’t do the user experience of Weidian’s products. There is also Weidian’s search, and Weidian’s current market share is very high!”

Zhen Yu smiled and said, "Baidu is 48%, and Weidian is 40%."

"Ah? 40%?" Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "Midian's development momentum is quite strong!"

Zhen Yu snorted, "Boss Zhou, don't interrupt."

Zhou Buqi coughed lightly: "Many people have suggested that when users search for novels, we should not provide pirated websites in Weidian search. This can be done easily, but it cannot be blocked. If it is really done Now, how can Micropoint compete with Baidu? There is also Micropoint browser, which is also based on the same logic.”

Zhen Yu agreed, "That's right, why does Sony's MP3 anti-piracy? Sony Music can't monopolize the entire music industry. Sony's MP3 anti-piracy results in profits for Warner Music and Universal Music, but their own MP3 business Died. They were stubborn."

Xue Baoshan took out another page, "Not only MP3, but also PS3. Look at this, Sony has also designed many formats for PS3, discs that do not meet the standards cannot be played."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "I said why are you two so sad? The worse Sony is, shouldn't we be happier?"

Xue Baoshan pursed her lips and smiled, rolled his eyes at him, and said coquettishly, "Student Zhou, Ziweixing is an Internet company! If Ziweixing wants to cooperate with Sony, it must start from the perspective of the Internet. Sony doesn't understand the Internet very well, what do you think?" How do you cooperate with them?"

Zhou Buqi stretched his waist, relaxed, "Cooperate as you want. Howard Stringer, an American, wants to lead Sony to learn from Apple, and also launch an online content platform. Just cooperate."

Zhen Yu asked: "Do you think Sony's platform can be implemented? Sony doesn't seem to have Internet genes."

"Can't do it!"

Zhou Buqi answered decisively.

If it is done, won't Sony in the future be revived, and won't it be thriving?The result is doomed and can be judged through simple logical analysis.

Sony's online platform was initially built around PS3, called PSnet platform, that is, after users connect PS3 to a computer, they can connect to the Internet through PS3 and use many Internet services in PS3.

Depend on!
In just a few years, Internet TV will become popular all over the world. Why do we need a PS3?
However, the development of the past life is slightly different from Zhou Buqi's judgment.

Sony did give up this online platform in just three years, as he guessed, but it was not the reason he said, it came from Sony's internal power struggle.

Sony Group should support the development of Sony's various businesses!On Sony's Internet content platform, you can watch other people's movies, play other people's games, and listen to other people's music...

Isn't it good that Sony launches a product that sells content for its competitors?
The PSnet platform is only allowed to launch Sony's own content, and block other people's products?This doesn’t work either, as it violates the fairness of the Internet and will lead to monopoly lawsuits.

Howard Stringer had no choice but to take the platform offline due to the pressure. He also retired early like Nobuyuki Idei because of such a decision-making error.

The time when Zhou Buqi cuts in is very good.

First, the economic crisis, Sony's poor performance;

Second, PS3 sales have not met expectations. Sony needs to adjust its business model to revive this product. The answer is to introduce more Internet content;

Third, Apple's model is in full swing, and Howard Stringer, who is under great performance pressure, wants to follow suit.The more successful Apple is, the more courageous Stringer will be;

Fourth, the manufacturing industry was depressed under the economic crisis, but the Internet industry took the lead in recovering, and Nasdaq was rising in a straight line;

Fifth, the veterans of Sony have not yet reacted because of their lack of awareness of the Internet;
sixth……

……

Sony is a super giant, full of treasures.

Many treasures are more important than the copyright of "Spider-Man".

After returning to China, Zhou Buqi asked the office to translate relevant materials into Chinese, printed dozens of copies, and sent them to executives and high-level technical engineers.

Rare opportunity!
In order to build PS3, the most powerful home game console in the world, Sony even specially made a top-level chip Cell for it, which shows the power of its technology.

See if you have a chance to cut a few pieces of meat and taste it while the giant is injured.

Sure enough, Zhou Buqi was churning on the bed with Shi Jinglin and Wu Yu in his arms that night, when he received a very presumptuous call from Shen Xiangyang, CTO of Ziwei Star.

(End of this chapter)