Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3029: Users, Not Customers

There was some minor controversy surrounding the acquisition of the Los Angeles Clippers.

It may take another month or two to operate.

There is no need to bother Zhou Buqi with this.

  Let Ballmer do it himself!

He was quite interested in Hollywood, so he followed Zhou Buqi to Ziweixing Global. His main concern was Peacock, a video streaming platform that would be officially launched in a few months.

Regarding this matter, Zhou Buqi put forward his own requirements. This is an Internet product, and we must focus on users. For the time being, we should not consider those platform-related plans, but first do a good job in user services. After attracting users, the product can be gradually improved and upgraded, and gradually developed in a global strategic manner.

Compared to when Netflix was promoting its streaming business before, it is much easier for Ziweixing Global to do this now.

The most critical link is online content.

That is, the movies and TV series stored online, in various resolutions, such as 480P, 720P, 1080P, etc., are all ready and stored in the servers of Ziwei Cloud. Peacock can directly use the services of Ziwei Cloud, and then call up any content that has copyright.

This process did not shy away from Ballmer.

Although Ballmer is an industry veteran with extensive experience, he is also very aware that he is already "outdated" and is considered a symbol of the old era within Microsoft.

The Internet, in particular, can be said to be far behind the younger generation.

After Zhou Buqi sat on the sofa and held a meeting with several executives, Ballmer finally couldn't help asking: "Why do you think Microsoft has not been successful in the development of the Internet in recent years?"

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "How should I know? I don't know much about Microsoft."

Ballmer said: "Just say it."

Zhou Buqi said: "Just like what I told them in the meeting just now, although both are making and selling products, there is an essential difference between Internet products and traditional product thinking, that is, the Internet must be user-oriented. We need to think clearly about who the users are? What problems will users encounter when using my products? What problems have competitors not solved? What problems have I not done well, but can I do better?"

Ballmer shook his head. "That's easier said than done."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "In traditional business, people are actually thinking from the customer's perspective, that is, serving customers. This is actually very bad and will also make people appear to have no vision. It is no longer in line with modern business values. In many restaurants, if you don't consume in the restaurant, they will not let you go to the restroom. KFC has been able to sweep the world because it is actually a user-oriented mentality."

He doesn't know much about the situation in the United States.

But he knows the situation in the country.

Some people from other places come to the capital to see a doctor, but they don't want to spend money on hotels, so they can stay in KFC at night. Many of them don't consume in KFC, and if they don't consume, they are not customers. But as long as they enter KFC, they are all users.

If a normal restaurant encounters this situation, they will definitely kick the person out.

KFC’s purpose is not to drive away any customer.

This is user thinking.

It's no wonder that it has become the largest and most successful hotel in the world.

If a restaurant hangs a sign on the wall that says "No hitting or scolding of customers" to warn its staff to be friendlier to customers, then such a restaurant will not be able to survive even if it has taken advantage of all the policy benefits and even if it has a compulsory monopoly on the market.

Ballmer mused, "Indeed, Microsoft has become more customer-focused over the years."

Zhou Buqi said: "For example, there are many people in our country who use pirated Windows systems. They are not Microsoft's customers, but they are all Microsoft users. What is incredible to me is that Microsoft has repeatedly discriminated against pirated systems. This is not good at all, very bad!"

"Ah?" Ballmer's eyes widened. "You're still tolerating piracy?" Zhou Buqi said, "Not to mention tolerating it, but at least don't be too harsh. Treat them as users and use better services to guide them to genuine products. Learn from KFC, and don't be like many restaurants that kick people out if they don't buy from you. The more aggressive your attitude, the more rebellious they will be. They might have become your customers, but they refused to buy from you because of your tough tactics."

Ballmer asked: "What about Changyou? Changyou has many AAA games, so there must be a lot of pirated copies, right?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Indeed there are some. After all, no matter how ingeniously designed a game is, it is easy to release a cracked version."

Pirated 3A games are not just a problem in the domestic market.

Playing large-scale 3A games has a high threshold and requires an extremely good computer configuration. Ordinary laptops simply cannot run them. Due to some historical reasons, China has not formed a culture of stand-alone games, so the market for 3A masterpieces is very small.

Even the pirated market is not large.

Ballmer asked: "What would you do if piracy of Changyou's games became rampant?"

Zhou Buqi sighed, "If you have money, who would use pirated products? We should be kinder in our mentality. After all, not everyone in this world has the purchasing power. I have also seen some situations in American society. A few days ago, Alibaba's boss Ma talked to me about doing e-commerce business in the United States. There is a very important problem in doing e-commerce in the United States. That is, there are some uh..."

He wanted to say "black people", but quickly changed his mind.

God knows if Ballmer is recording now.

Be careful!

Clippers owner Sterling caused an uproar because someone recorded and released some black words he said in a private conversation. It seemed that he might even lose the team.

Zhou Buqi paused for a moment before continuing, "Some groups with insufficient spending power will take advantage of loopholes in the e-commerce mechanism and continue to make zero-dollar purchases online, but it is difficult for all parties to stop them. I have told Bezos before that Amazon loses more than $60 billion every year due to this type of dishonest transactions."

"Ah."

Ballmer has seen this kind of thing many times and can only acquiesce.

Zhou Buqi said, "In our country, this kind of dishonest transactions can be controlled relatively easily, at least it won't be as widespread as in the United States. But you can't do anything about it. When I talked to Boss Ma, he couldn't believe it. I guess he's as anxious as you are. In fact, it's the same logic. Piracy can also be classified as dishonesty. If you hold an attitude of tacit approval of the dishonest transactions in the United States that cannot be solved, and face some of our country's piracy problems, maybe you can have new considerations."

You say it's hard to do business in China because there's too much piracy; I also say it's hard to do business in the United States because zero-dollar shopping is difficult!

This is actually the same thing, it’s just the difference between virtual goods and physical goods.

No one should look down on anyone.

It seems that every family has poor people and some historical and policy issues left over.

Ballmer was silent for a long time, then he said nonchalantly: "Forget it, I'm retired anyway. I won't be involved in Microsoft's affairs anymore. I want to buy the team right now and build the most powerful team in the NBA!"

Zhou Buqi said with a laugh: "Sure, you can also participate more in the Hollywood fame and fortune world when you have time."

"Forget about that..." Ballmer cleared his throat. After all, he was not as shameless as Ellison and Musk. "I don't want to be on the front page of the news because of some personal scandals."

Zhou Buqi found it a little funny and helped him to comfort himself, "But it's still okay to participate in a private event occasionally."

Ballmer thought for a moment, as if thinking about something important, then took a deep breath and said seriously, "Well, it's not impossible to participate occasionally. After all, this is Los Angeles, and it's a circle that cannot be avoided."

(End of this chapter)