Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2925 Internet Dumping

The Qualcomm matter is not over yet.

Next, the EU needs some cooperation.

It is best for all parties to work together.

If Qualcomm is caught in a dilemma, it will quickly lose the battle.

However, now that the topic has been brought up to the confrontation between the EU and US tech giants, Zhou Buqi naturally would not let it go, and said with some displeasure: "Ziweixing has always been developing the European market with a very friendly attitude. You may be able to see that we are much more restrained than many US companies. But I heard that you are organizing an investigation team to investigate Helo?"

Carrel smiled and said, "That's true. However, we are not targeting Ziweixing. Instead, we hope to seek some opportunities for cooperation."

"cooperate?"

Zhou Buqi replied and waited for the other party's explanation.

At this time, Ansip, another vice president in charge of the digital market, spoke up. He smiled and said, "You may also know that the EU has recently intended to promote the unification of the European digital market and carry out reforms in policies, laws and other aspects to reduce the operating costs of companies in the European market."

The EU is different from China and the US.

As an economic entity, the European Union is made up of many countries.

Different countries have different cultures, different languages, and more.

The significant differences among EU member states in contract law, tax law, consumer protection law and copyright law have hindered online trade between EU countries. Many companies, especially SMEs and startups, need to face complex VAT regulations and dispute resolution processes.

This has invisibly created difficulties and increased costs for business operations.

Small and medium-sized enterprises simply cannot afford to play.

Ansip was a bit dogmatic and read from a script: "Now, only 15% of EU consumers choose to obtain goods and services in EU countries through cross-border online shopping, and only 7% of EU small and medium-sized enterprises conduct cross-border sales. Although the potential consumer base in the EU reaches 5 million people, the growth space of European small and medium-sized companies is limited due to the existence of 28 different laws."

After a pause, he continued as if reading from a script: "In order to solve this series of problems, the European Commission proposed to unify the management of VAT on commodity sales activities within the EU, significantly revise the existing rules of the telecommunications industry, and revise and coordinate the copyright laws and online content management of EU countries to create a good digital network service environment. This strategy will create a fair competition environment for companies in the single market, enable European SMEs to operate across borders, and ensure that digital technology becomes an important driving force for European economic growth."

Zhou Buqi was not interested in such high-sounding statements. "But what does this have to do with investigating Helo? Shouldn't you be investigating Qualcomm now?"

"No, no, it's not the same thing." Ansip explained immediately, "The investigation of Helo is more of a research. In fact, in our plan, we will investigate not only Helo, but also Microsoft's Skype. Because when we open up the European digital market, there will be a lot of obstacles to user privacy protection. As instant messaging, Helo and Skype can get in touch with users at the closest distance. We want to know what strategies you have adopted to protect user privacy."

Zhou Buqi exchanged a glance with Tang Binchen, who was sitting next to him without saying much.

Then I will have a better idea.

Not just investigating Helo alone, but also another Microsoft product Skype.

Zhou Buqi asked: "Data privacy does need to be taken seriously. In this regard, no one can do better than Ziweixing. Since the day we developed the European market, we have established data centers in Europe and have also formed a complete system to protect user privacy. If you have any needs, of course we can help. However, I heard that the notice of investigating Helo seems to be more than just user privacy, right?"

Ansip nodded and said solemnly, "Indeed, there is another controversial topic surrounding operators. Instant messaging products like Helo and Skype bypass telecom operators through Internet services, which has caused huge losses to operators."

“This is the result of market competition.”

Zhou Buqi would not back down on this point.

Ansip said: "As far as I know, many of the Internet services provided by Helo have huge operating costs. Is this true?"

"indeed."

"How much does Helo's annual operating cost in the European market?"

“At least 5 million euros.”

Zhou Buqi had already understood the situation on his way here.

Helo has 1 million daily active users in Europe and is the most popular Internet product here.

This means that Ziweixing International will have huge operating costs. The costs are roughly divided into three parts: server depreciation costs, labor costs, broadband electricity costs, etc.

Ansip frowned slightly. "With such a huge investment, the service provided by Helo is free. What's the point of doing this? If you compete with super low prices, it will be suspected of dumping and price monopoly, which will cause serious damage to the existing economic structure in the market."

This is the truth.

This is exactly what Zhou Buqi thought.

This is Helo’s competitiveness.

Helo is an instant messaging product that bypasses operators. It mainly bypasses voice and video call functions. In addition, it can also transfer pictures between users. These functions will generate huge amounts of data, requiring huge server and broadband loads. The electricity bill alone is tens of millions of euros.

  That would be great!

The operating costs are too high, which means that if some emerging Internet startups appear in the market and want to provide services similar to Helo, it will be difficult for them to stand out even if they develop some interesting new features.

  Because I can’t afford to play!

It's too expensive.

In the early stages of a product, it has no profitability and can only rely on continuous burning of money.

Those small and medium-sized enterprises are powerless and it is simply impossible for them to provide so many high-quality services to users for free.

Products like Helo, WeChat, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook will continue to thrive.

For example, Snapchat in its previous life was a rare startup that emerged under the oppression of Facebook. Its functions were very limited. It could only send pictures or videos of a few seconds, and the messages would be destroyed after reading... The reason why the messages would be destroyed after reading was not only because of the product's creativity, but also a relief at the operational level.

After it is “burned”, the huge bandwidth and server load are released, thus reducing the operational pressure a lot.

You can save more money.

But even so, Snapchat has not been able to generate profits for more than a decade.

Helo aims to provide many high-quality services for free, which is suspected of dumping monopoly in traditional industries. I produce a product and sell it in large quantities in the market at a price lower than the cost, thus killing all competitors.

Wait until all competitors are dead, then slowly raise prices to dominate the market.

Many of the so-called Internet business models are transformed from traditional business fields.

It is covered with the cloak of the Internet.

It becomes more noble.

It can scare people.

Zhou Buqi said: "The significance of the Internet is peer-to-peer. This has nothing to do with dumping or bypassing operators. This is determined by the nature of the Internet itself. As an Internet company with dreams and aspirations, we want to provide users with the best and most outstanding services."

Ansip said: "But this will cause the operator industry to be plundered and will cause damage to the industrial structure."

"I don't think this is sabotage." Zhou Buqi also has his own reasons. "I know that many companies will go astray when competing in the market. Some companies will engage in monopoly, some will engage in vicious dumping, and some will smear the industry. Such behavior should indeed be strictly restricted. It will cause great damage to the industry. However, there is another model, which is industrial upgrading. Replace the old with the new, and replace the backward with the advanced."

"Even if the industry is upgraded, if it moves too fast, it will cause serious damage to the existing industry."

Ansip's thinking is typical of Europeans.

Every day I just dream of living off my savings.

This is the leader of the European Union.

  It is not surprising that China and South Korea have overtaken China after being suppressed by the United States for a long time.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Indeed, instant messaging products have blossomed everywhere in a short period of time, causing a great impact on the traditional operator industry. However, we cannot ignore the theme of this era. This is the era of technology. This is the case all over the world, whether it is China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, or Canada. This is an established fact. If Europe restricts instant messaging products in order to protect the backward operator model, then Europe's technology industry will only get worse and worse."

Ansip nodded. "I don't intend to help the operators restrict instant messaging products, but the operators are constantly exerting pressure, so I have to take action and understand the situation first."

Zhou Buqi made a compromise and said, "It's easy for me to talk to you. I will definitely cooperate with you. But the American technology giants will definitely not agree. The operators are the product of the previous era. I think we should still target Qualcomm in the short term. Kill the chicken to scare the monkey and create a demonstration effect."