Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1760 Favorable Time, Place and Harmony

An open platform is actually a software center, just like an app store. Third-party developers can use platform resources to release products and generate profits.

Since the resources of the platform are used, a certain percentage of fees must be paid.

It's like setting up shop in a department store.

Facebook's open platform is now the largest department store in the Internet world, and now it is mainly for the PC side.In fact, they also want to target the mobile terminal, but not for the time being.

The performance of the smartphone is not enough to run.

Facebook wants to transfer the open platform system on PCs to smartphones, and it may take three or four years to cultivate the market, and the current commissions are mainly drawn from PCs.

Lu Qi said: "In June, we reached an agreement with Facebook to reduce the commission for Facebook's open platform from 6% to 30%."

"Oh?"

Zhou Buqi was somewhat surprised.

Zhou Shaoning immediately realized something, slapped his thigh, and was very anxious, "Why didn't you say it earlier?!"

Lu Qi glanced at Zhou Buqi, "I reported it back in June."

Zhou Buqi had a vague impression, as if he had seen similar materials from Weishu documents.

It wasn't a big deal, though, and he didn't pay much attention to it.

Zhou Shaoning was different. He took a deep breath and asked in surprise, "Why? Why did Facebook lower the price?"

Lu Qidao: "Because Ziwei Star is a big customer, especially our lightweight game business has developed very well. In the first half of the year, the total revenue on Facebook's open platform reached 4200 million U.S. dollars, of which advertising revenue was 1200 million U.S. dollars, value-added services $3000 million."

"What is the share of advertising revenue?"

"It's also 30%."

"That is..." Zhou Shaoning quickly calculated, "Facebook earned more than 1800 million US dollars in commissions from Ziweixing in the first half of the year?"

Lu Qi nodded, "Yes, Ziweixing is the third-ranked developer on Facebook's open platform. This has nothing to do with the equity relationship, it's Facebook's business philosophy. They want to cooperate with big customers for a long time. They also know that 30% The commission was too high, and after three rounds of negotiations, the commission was reduced to 18%.”

Zhou Shaoning's expression was a little dull, and he asked: "Is there any room for decline in the future?"

Lu Qi said: "If Ziwei Star can continue to create greater profits for Facebook, they should be able to continue to reduce. The 18% commission is actually quite a lot, and there is a lot of room for discounts. The same example, and Farfetch and Spotify."

"Farfetch? What is it?"

Zhou Shaoning doesn't know much about Ziweixing International's business.

Lu Qi explained: "It's an e-commerce website in the UK that mainly sells luxury goods. This year, Farfetch and Spotify have also launched in the US successively, both using Facebook as the entry point."

Zhou Buqi hadn’t asked specifically before, and was curious, “By the way, what is the commission ratio between Spotify and Facebook? Spotify has closed the payment channel on the iPhone, and they are unwilling to tolerate a 30% commission.”

Lu Qi said: "Yes, I can't tolerate it. More than half of the song subscription income on Spotify is copyright fees. If they are charged 30%, they have no possibility of making any profit. Then they found me and negotiated with Facebook .”

"Talked about?"

"Well, Facebook is willing to negotiate commissions with big companies."

"What was the result?"

"Two aspects, if it is advertising revenue, then according to Facebook's open platform policy, the commission is 30%. If it is Spotify's subscription value-added income, because of the particularity of music products, Facebook's commission is 10%."

Lu Qi's answer stunned Zhou Shaoning.

Finished!

be cheated!
After Zhou Shaoning left Boss Ma and joined Boss Zhou, his career went smoothly and he was invincible.Especially Boss Zhou's guidance can almost always play a finishing touch, and he can be called a generation of business wizards.

Unexpectedly, there was a mistake in such an important decision this time!
Asda and Ziweixing paid such a high price, even at the expense of breaking up with Microsoft, to get the conditions from Apple to reduce the "Apple Tax" from 30% to 10%.

Is it worth it?
Facebook's open platform is a living example. There is no need to promise so many conditions. Just a simple talk at the door can reduce the commission!

Isn't it a waste of so many conditions for Apple?

Zhou Buqi also noticed the change in his expression, and said angrily, "What are you thinking? An Apple is an Apple, so can it be the same? Do you think that with Jobs' stubborn personality, he can give in on the Apple tax?"

"Ok?"

Zhou Shaoning was suspicious.

Zhou Buqi said: "This time we can suppress the Apple tax. We have taken advantage of the right time, place and people. Microsoft will release a new smartphone operating system and launch Windows Phone for the iPhone. This is the right time; the place of negotiation It is a hospital, which will instinctively make them psychologically weak, which is the right location; Jobs is critically ill, he can hardly sit still, and now is the weakest time in his life, this is harmony! If it is not for these three benefits, Do you think we can get the Apple tax down?"

This is no exaggeration at all.

As long as Apple survives the current crisis of internal and external troubles, it will become a hard bone in the future, and it must protect the 30% "apple tax" at all costs.

Even super giants such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Oracle have to obediently pay a 30% "Apple tax".

Facebook has for a while developed payment methods that can bypass the "Apple tax".

What was the result?

Apple blocked Facebook!
The reason is that Facebook violated the relevant promotion policies of the Apple Store.

Later, Facebook had no choice but to back down and cancel the new payment method before re-listing the Facebook App in the Apple Store.

There are also similar things, such as the popular game "Fortnite" developed by the game giant EA, which paid 5 million US dollars to Apple for the "Apple tax" in one year.

EA was very dissatisfied, so it learned from Facebook and opened a payment method for "Fortnite" that bypassed Apple.

Then, Apple got angry and blocked "Fortnite".

This time, EA did not accept softness and decided to head-on. At the same time, it filed lawsuits against Apple in the United States, Australia, and the European Union, accusing Apple of monopoly.

EA is the big brother of the game industry, with an unprecedented position in the industry.

When EA was launched, game manufacturers all over the world mobilized one after another, and filed monopoly lawsuits against Apple for the "Apple tax" all over the world.

Apple has encountered the most serious legal crisis in history.

Once Apple loses the lawsuit, the Apple tax will inevitably be reduced.

However, that was ten years later.

Zhou Buqi took advantage of the fact that Jobs was still alive, taking advantage of the serious illness of Apple's internal CEO and the aggressive crisis of external Microsoft and Google, he quickly negotiated favorable terms!

Regardless of whether Apple wins or loses the lawsuit in the future, at least "Ziwei Galaxy" can enjoy a lower "Apple Tax".In more than ten years, at least $20 billion in Apple taxes can be saved.

However, Zhou Buqi was very interested in another thing that Lu Qi said, "Farfetch is an e-commerce company, so it also needs commission?"

Lu Qi said, "Yes."

Zhou Buqi asked: How could this happen?
You should know that the "Apple tax" is not a tax on every transaction on the Apple terminal, and the income generated by the transaction of physical goods and services is not taxed.For example, e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Taobao, travel service platforms such as Ctrip and Qunar, as well as online car-hailing and food delivery platforms, etc.

Apple doesn't collect taxes, but Facebook's open platform does?

Lu Qidao: "The concept is different. Merchants on Facebook's open platform can use Facebook user data. This is equivalent to the e-commerce platform can use part of the platform resources to carry out precise marketing to users. The so-called commission is mainly It refers to this kind of user data resources.”

"There are advantages and disadvantages," Zhou Buqi shook his head, "We must be cautious when opening data from third-party platforms, and we must ensure that nothing goes wrong. Data assets and financial assets are equally important."

Facebook later had a data breach incident.

These data can give a precise portrait of a user, and can exert a targeted influence on it, thereby affecting its vote in the general election.This matter is so serious that it almost killed Facebook directly.

Zhou Shaoning didn't pay much attention to this, he only cared about the commission, "What happened later? Have you negotiated with Facebook?"

Lu Qi said: "It's settled. In August, I had 8 meetings with Facebook, and I went to 5 of them. The main reason is to sell more products on the open platform and to get support. Later The fixed commission is 1%, which is a little higher than Amazon, but it is also very good, at least you don’t need to develop the market yourself, and you can directly sell to 8.5 million North American users.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Well, it's okay. But this matter is not enough. If the e-commerce thing is done well, it will easily damage the reputation of the platform." Then, he turned his head to look at Ning Yaxian, and ordered Said: "Go back and tell Youyou.com, don't learn from this. You can have e-commerce services on the open platform of Youyou.com, but only for regular big customers."

Lu Qi smiled, "You are so accurate!"

"Ok?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows.

Lu Qi said: "Talk to Fu Sheng when you have time. He told me. The entrepreneurs born in the 80s are much better than the older generation. The entrepreneurs of the previous generation were cheated That is to say, if we do something domestically, the new generation of entrepreneurs have an international perspective, and they all go to the world to do things.”

"It's not surprising." Zhou Buqi didn't care too much, he couldn't control this kind of thing at all, and waved his hand, "That's it, the cooperation with Apple is decided like this. The cooperation is not only in overseas markets, but also in domestic. It is the highest level of business secrets, and the documents can only be circulated in the decision-making committee. As for Microsoft...don't turn your face, it's easy to say good things, and keep delaying. Bill Gates told me that he wanted to put Microsoft's Live search on the ' Instructions' promotion, I think this is a good idea."

Lu Qi glanced at him, "Help Microsoft promote the search business?"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "Microsoft is a giant, it can contain Apple, and it can also contain Google."

(End of this chapter)