Top of the Great Era

After some communication, Zhou Buqi became more clear about the direction of cross-border e-commerce.

After coming to Shanghai, he met Liu Qing and Shen Xiangyang.

Then, Zhou Buqi went to the capital with Shen Xiangyang, and under the arrangement of He Yang, he met with the leaders of the Chinese Go Academy and signed a cooperation agreement.

Just a very small contract.

Shen Xiangyang is leading the team to develop Rokid-go, an artificial intelligence Go product. This process requires the cooperation of top Go players without leaking secrets.

There is no need for the top first-class masters, just find two young sparring partners who are almost the same. The cost of each sparring partner is 1000 US dollars per hour, of which the chess players get 200 US dollars, and the chess academy gets 800 US dollars.

It's the little things that work so easily.

But another thing is more complicated.

After Ziweixing International has completed the acquisition of Yahoo, it needs to reorganize at all levels and integrate resources to avoid repeated waste.

Shen Xiangyang is in charge of scientific research.

As a giant in Silicon Valley, Yahoo has the world's first-class technical level, and its background is much stronger than Ziweixing.As far as the current internal technology is concerned, it is far ahead of Ziweijing International.

This is also caused by the different thinking between China and the United States in the field of scientific and technological research and development.

Zhou Buqi attaches great importance to technology research and development, and Ziweixing has invested a lot in this regard, but he still has his own limitations and the constraints of corporate funds, so he is very utilitarian in the field of research and development.

More application-oriented research and development.

The so-called applied research and development refers to the research and development closely related to the first-line products in order to provide technical support for the products.

Ziweixing now has a bicameral system, and this kind of applied research and development is done by Ziweixing Engineering Institute.

There is also a kind of research and development, which is not to participate in any things directly related to the product, but only needs some possible future scientific research directions to do some scientific research behind it.

This business is done by Ziweixing Research Institute.

For example, the three most important sectors of Ziweixing Research Institute are artificial intelligence, cloud computing and AI chips.

In the beginning, it was purely scientific research.

However, Boss Zhou made the final decision in person, and the research framework set for the research institute is all controlled by foresight.Therefore, the utilitarianism is very strong and the goal is very clear.

Ziweixing's strong strength in the field of artificial intelligence and cloud computing now comes from the scientific research results of the research institute.

The AI ​​chip is still relatively far away, and it is still in the stage of pure scientific research for the time being.

This is taking a shortcut.

How can normal technology giants do scientific research so accurately choose the track?
Take cloud computing for example. Google’s research institute may have done in-depth research in 20 major directions. Countless scientists have worked hard to verify it silently and invested billions of dollars in trial and error before finally identifying this direction of cloud computing. .

Ziweixing is different.

With a word from Boss Zhou, he went directly to the scientific research of Ma Yun Computing.

Simple and straightforward.

When I came up, all the wrong options were eliminated, and the final correct answer was determined.

There is no trial and error cost.

This is also the main reason why Ziwei Star can achieve today's achievements before it goes public. Whether it is at the business model level, product level or scientific research level, there is no need for trial and error, and the required funds are greatly reduced.

Boss Zhou is a god!
Because of him, Ziweixing and Ziweixing International do not need to take detours at all, which not only saves money, but also saves efficiency, which shows the pattern of two technology giants at home and abroad side by side.

Scientific research is close to death, death is normal, and success is the exception.

Therefore, domestic technology companies are unwilling to do scientific research. Even if they do scientific research, they are all applied scientific research.

The biggest reason is that there is no money. Many companies have only a small amount of money in their accounts, and they do not have the foresight of the week. They rely on the American scientific research model to continuously experiment, repeat, and trial and error in dozens of technical tracks. ... Nothing was researched, and the company went bankrupt first.

Yahoo is a typical American scientific research model.

Yahoo has a global research institute with "seven institutes and one center".

The "Seven Institutes" are the seven major research institutes distributed around the world, respectively in Silicon Valley of the United States, Barcelona of Spain, New York of the United States, Bangalore of India, Haifa of Israel, Santiago of Chile and the domestic capital.

"One Center" is the Yahoo Global Research Center located in the capital of China.

The Seventh Institute does scientific research work, which has nothing to do with products. What it does is scientific research, which is to find the right track among dozens of technical tracks.

It is equivalent to Ziweixing Research Institute.

"One center" is doing application-oriented research and development, and is responsible for developing and delivering products.

It is equivalent to Ziweixing Engineering Institute.

For this reason, Shen Xiangyang made a very accurate summary many years ago: "The scientific research of the research institute is oriented to the company's strategy; the scientific research of the engineering institute is oriented to the company's business."

The former is to find the correct technical direction, and to find the next strategic direction for the company with the support of technology; the latter is to provide technical support and services for products.

In terms of finding a way out for the future, Yahoo has set up seven research institutes; in terms of business development, only one research center is enough to support it.

It can be seen that Yahoo is anxious about the future and its current business is sluggish.

What is certain is that the seven research institutes of Yahoo will definitely cause a great waste of scientific research, and countless scientific research funds will be spent on trial and error every year.

This has become a significant cost liability for Yahoo.

If you encounter a lot of non-technical entrepreneurs, such as Boss Ma, Jobs, and Bezos, when Yahoo’s business is so poor and costs remain high, they may come up and cut melons and vegetables. Research institutes that did not produce anything were closed.

Cutting R&D expenses is always the first magic weapon to control costs!

However, Yahoo's management is all engineers, and the core executives are all technical backgrounds.

It is difficult for this kind of technical engineer-born executive to understand business at the level of Boss Ma and Jobs, and it is impossible to have such a sharp and unique vision to choose the most correct track with one word.

Especially Jobs, his style can be called domineering.

The senior executives under his command asked, and said, "This direction seems to be okay", "Why don't you try this way", "Other products have succeeded in doing this", "I'm afraid it won't work this way, or else..."

Jobs was always cold and domineering in the face of this kind of problem: "Do whatever I tell you to do, don't think about it!"

That aura is more ruthless than the prophetic Zhou Buqi.

Entrepreneurs of this level are really rare, not Bill Gates, nor Larry Page.

For most Silicon Valley technology giants, it can only be repeated and trial and error. Just like Microsoft, Google, and Oracle, they all rely on unimaginable scientific research investment to derive their business directions.

According to the normal logic, Ziwei Star has the boss Zhou, so what kind of trial and error is it?
After the acquisition of Yahoo, it must increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

Open source is the business development to the mobile terminal.

Throttling... means laying off employees all the way, closing all businesses that should be closed, and the ones that should be closed most are those research institutes that are useless and can only eat and not vomit.

Shen Xiangyang once thought that Boss Zhou would do this.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Buqi went against the norm this time, saying that he would support this American-style scientific research model of constant trial and error, and gradually reduce the total investment in applied scientific research in the group's R&D funds.

Others don't know, but Zhou Buqi is very self-aware.

Sooner or later, prescience fades away.

No one knows how Ziweixing will go in the future.He is not sure that relying on his intuition can always choose the most correct route.

In many cases, it is useless to choose the most correct route, and there must be corresponding technology to support this route.

Such as new energy vehicles.

Everyone knows that the best energy sources are solar energy, pollution-free hydrogen energy, and even controllable nuclear fusion.

This must be the most correct route.

However, the technology cannot reach it.

This requires choosing the second-best solution, the second-best solution... Only the route that can meet all the conditions is the best business route. As a technology company, it must have technical support.

Zhou Buqi knew that his advantages would disappear sooner or later. Ziwei Star was about to go public, and the wave of mobile Internet was also developing vigorously. Ziwei Star and Ziwei Star International would soon be able to make money as if they were stealing money.

It is also time to embark on the road of scientific research that an orthodox technology company should have.

The technical foundation laid by Yahoo is quite good.

Of course keep it.

Not only should it be retained, but it should also continue to expand on the basis of Yahoo's global research institute and become Ziweixing International's global research institute, formally expanding in more non-application-oriented directions, and doing some basic IT research. Field-oriented research.

The capital is the core town of Yahoo Global Research.

This time, Zhou Buqi followed Shen Xiangyang and went to Yahoo's capital research institute and research center to make a big circle, "The dean of Yahoo Global Research Institute, I heard that he is very important?"

Shen Xiangyang said with a smile: "Well, his name is Probakar Rahman, he can be regarded as an authority in the industry, but...but it's not like me."

"Why is it different?"

"He's the academic type, I'm the marketing type."

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi smiled, "Is he a university professor?"

Shen Xiangyang said: "Yes, he used to be a visiting professor at Stanford University, a leader in the Department of Computer Science, he has published two authoritative books on computer science, and he is an academician of the American Academy of Sciences."

"Well, academician." Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth, "I've heard that too."

Shen Xiangyang said with a smile: "Although he is an academician, he is not a scholar... He is an Indian who came to the United States to study from India. This kind of experience cannot be a nerd."

Zhou Buqi asked, "How is his job?"

Shen Xiangyang said: "It's very good. In 09, Yahoo established a research center in the capital, and in March last year, it also established the Yahoo Capital Research Institute. They were all done under his auspices. It can be seen that this person has a good vision. Originally, after Yahoo sold Yahoo China to Ali, Yahoo completely withdrew from the mainland market, and under his auspices, it entered China again to do scientific research.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "That's okay, there are pragmatism considerations, not the typical academic experts."

"Yahoo Global Research Institute has done a good job under his leadership. It has deep research in the fields of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, search, and database." Shen Xiangyang shook his head and changed the subject, "However, he still Also serves as chief strategy officer of Yahoo. As chief strategy officer, he didn't show much talent."

Zhou Buqi said: "Then just let him assist you to do the work of the research institute with peace of mind. Academicians, American academicians are the same, just do the scientific research honestly, and don't let them do business things." participate."