Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3127 Merger

Zhou Buqi spoke to Netflix again to discuss the current Hollywood crisis.

Both parties come from the technology industry and are "outsiders" in Hollywood.

It depends on whether Hollywood's protective net can be truly opened this time.

When I returned to my home in Beverly Hills in the evening, I found that Shi Jinglin and her second sister Shi Jingmei had also come. The two sisters were sitting on the sofa in the main living room, talking about something.

Seeing the male owner coming back, Shi Jingmei waved her hand with a smile, "Brother-in-law, you're back?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Second sister is here. I happen to have some copies of new movies that haven't been released yet. Shall we go to the movies together later?"

"Sure, it's good to have someone in the court. You can watch unreleased movies at home." Shi Jingmei winked at him, "You invite me to watch the movie, and I'll invite you to see my body. I'm going swimming later, why don't you come too?"

Zhou Buqi cleared his throat. He didn't want to flirt with Shi Jinglin's sister in front of her, so he quickly changed the subject, "What are you two talking about?"

Shi Jingmei said: "Business!"

"Business?"

Zhou Buqi took off his coat casually.

Shi Jing gave him a glare, "Your wife's business isn't going well, and you didn't even offer to help!"

Zhou Buqi looked at Shi Jinglin and laughed, "You haven't done well in the e-commerce business?"

Shi Jinglin was very stubborn and said, "It's OK."

“E-commerce is difficult, and cross-border e-commerce is even more difficult.”

Zhou Buqi was mentally prepared.

How can you be sure of success when starting a business? Even Mr. Zhou himself is very cautious about e-commerce business. If Shi Jinglin goes out alone to start a cross-border e-commerce business, the risks are greater than the opportunities.

After changing his clothes, Zhou Buqi came back. He felt embarrassed to sit between the two of them, so he sat next to Shi Jinglin.

The second sister Shi Jingmei was not shy at all. She changed her position and ran to the other side of Zhou Buqi.

This put Zhou Buqi in the center position again.

Zhou Buqi took Shi Jinglin's hand and said with a smile: "Starting a business is too tiring, especially mentally. If you really can't do it, then don't do it. It's also good to go home and take care of your husband and children. It's enough to have a man working hard outside, and you can go home and enjoy life. How great is that?"

"Who won't do it?" Shi Jinglin rolled her eyes at him. "Don't be so chauvinistic. The Zhou family doesn't belong to you alone. If you can make money to support the family, so can I."

Zhou Buqi said: "I just feel sorry for you because you are working so hard."

Shi Jinglin didn't appreciate it, "If you just give up like this, I'll feel even more distressed."

Shi Jingmei said, "Zhou Buqi, don't look down on others. The three sisters in my Shi family are all strong women. Don't think of raising my sister like a canary at home. If you love her, go and help her give her enough independent space, instead of letting her live in your shadow all her life."

Zhou Buqi could understand that Shi Jinglin had been like this from the beginning.

The eldest sister Shi Jingyue and the second sister Shi Jingmei are similar, and are unwilling to return to their families. They all have great ambitions in their careers. Their families have never lacked money, and the family atmosphere of "preferring sons to daughters" from childhood to adulthood has made these girls determined to make a bigger career than men since they were very young.

At this time, Shi Jinglin became concerned about him and turned to ask, "Have you been in trouble recently?"

"Trouble?" Zhou Buqi shook his head, "How could it be?"

Shi Jinglin said, "I saw it in the newspaper. It said that because hackers broke into the photo albums of many female stars, people in Hollywood were panicking. You had a lot of ideological conflicts with many old forces in Hollywood."

"Small things."

Zhou Buqi didn't take it seriously.

Shi Jinglin said cautiously: "I think you still can't be careless. Things in Hollywood can't be handled with simple business thinking. This is a strategic stronghold of American values."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "I'm not challenging their values. I just want to replace some of Hollywood's business concepts with Silicon Valley's. Hollywood's way of doing things has been around for a hundred years and is a bit outdated. Hollywood now is more like a concept. Those Hollywood film companies that can truly represent the symbol of Hollywood have long been invaded and swallowed up by major media giants. Now, it's just Silicon Valley's turn to invade."

"Anyway...anyway, I think you should be more cautious and not be so reckless." Shi Jinglin knew her man too well. "Don't be too confident. Even if you are right, it may not have a good result."

Zhou Buqi said "hmm".

Shi Jinglin said, "It seems that Silicon Valley's invasion of Hollywood is an inevitable trend, but the resistance must be very strong. If you take the lead, you will easily become the focus of the resistance. Don't you hate being the focus of attention? In my opinion, we should cooperate internally and externally."

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows, "Inside and outside cooperation?"

Shi Jinglin said, "I'm not too clear about what's going on in Hollywood, but I read in the newspaper that many Hollywood movie giants, such as Paramount, Warner, and Disney, don't agree with your ideas. Is that true?"

"Ah."

Zhou Buqi has already witnessed the "unity" in Hollywood.

This kind of thing has been exposed by the media.

It must have been leaked by an insider.

Paramount, Sony Entertainment, Warner, Disney, and the independent film industry may have formed a united front at this time, which represents the power of the old forces in Hollywood. Even if Zhou Buqi brought Netflix with him, he would still be alone.

Even if they win, it will be a miserable victory.

Shi Jinglin said softly, "Your ideas are definitely the best. The reason they oppose you is nothing more than the uneven distribution of benefits. They are worried that you will take all the benefits. But I believe that if there is a choice, there must be smart people in Hollywood who are willing to stand on your side. One side represents advancement, and the other side represents backwardness. No one is stupid. They all know to choose the advanced side, unless the advanced side will cause great damage to their own interests."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "You are worthy of being my wife! Your analysis is very accurate! This idea is really good. If you hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have thought of it! You are so smart! It's true that a virtuous wife is like a tiger with wings!"

Shi Jinglin was slightly annoyed and glared at him, "Perfunctory."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's true!"

The second sister Shi Jingmei beside him also smiled and said, "I heard that too. It's just perfunctory. There's no trick to flatter people. It's just forced praise."

Having said that, Shi Jinglin was still in a much better mood after receiving recognition. She snorted and said, "Someone must have thought of it a long time ago and was just waiting for me to say it. Then he took the opportunity to coax me, as if no one needs his coaxing. I encountered some minor troubles in my business, but it didn't fail."

Zhou Buqi smiled and asked: "What kind of trouble is it? Let's discuss it together. Maybe I can learn some useful knowledge from your entrepreneurial experience!"

Shi Jinglin said: "There are many people doing cross-border e-commerce in China now."

“Well, it’s a small opening for entrepreneurship.”

"Some of the opponents are quite strong."

"More powerful than you?"

Zhou Buqi looked very exaggerated. Shi Jinglin was naturally unconvinced, "Of course he is not as good as me, but... but he is also doing very well, and even snatched a project that I was interested in, which made me face a certain talent dilemma."

"Intercept?" Zhou Buqi held his head high, put his left hand around Shi Jinglin's slender waist, and the right... forget about the right, he said righteously, "I want to see who dares to intercept the case that my wife likes!"

Shi Jingmei pouted, then took her brother-in-law's arm and put on a cute look, not caring at all about her sister's presence. She smiled and said, "There are many domestic companies engaged in cross-border e-commerce of women's clothing. One of them is doing very well, called ROMWE, and has opened up markets in dozens of countries. The products and positioning are very good, but the funds are not enough. Linlin asked me for help and contacted a few friends to buy this company."

Zhou Buqi said: "That's great! After the acquisition, we got the other party's talents and channel resources. Mergers and acquisitions are the only way for startups to succeed."

Shi Jingmei sighed, "But it failed."

"late?"

"It was intercepted!"

"Someone attacked in advance?"

“It doesn’t seem to be…”

Shi Jingmei was just helping her sister and didn't know the specific details.

Shi Jinglin said: "At first, we also thought that ROMWE had reached an agreement with the other party in advance and sold the company. Later, an investor of ROMWE came to me privately and said that it was not something they had agreed on in advance. Instead, the ROMWE entrepreneurial team evaluated and believed that the other party was stronger, so they rejected us."

"No way?"

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly.

Cross-border e-commerce is a small trend, and a large number of startups have emerged in China to engage in this business.

The one who did the most was, of course, Shi Jinglin.

A very important reason is that Shi Jinglin has the most investment. She has received more than 3 million US dollars in financing from Ziweixing, Ziweixing International, Alibaba, JD.com, Jingtao, Temasek, Softbank, BlackRock and other institutions, and her valuation has exceeded 50 billion US dollars.

As for other similar competitors, none of them has a valuation of over US$10 billion.

Not to mention the technical support and e-commerce resources provided by Ziweixing, Alibaba and JD.com, which are simply unmatched by similar competitors.

The reason why starting a business is difficult is mainly because the road of cross-border e-commerce is too difficult.

The bigger the scale, the harder it is to go.

They wanted to acquire ROMWE, but they didn’t agree and instead turned to another startup company... This is a bit too surprising.

Shi Jinglin said calmly: "This is the fact."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Are there non-market factors that are leading the charge?"

"No." Shi Jinglin shook her head slightly. "This is ROMWE's real choice. They don't seem to trust me, but trust that competitor more."

"What competitor? Which country?"

As a world-class Internet tycoon, it would be very easy for Zhou Buqi to attack one or two startups. No matter which country they are from, he has ways to target them. The simplest way is to contact the investors and persuade them to withdraw their investment.

Shi Jinglin said: "In China, we used to do cross-border wedding dresses, which was pretty good, but later we turned to cross-border e-commerce of women's clothing of all categories."

"Wedding dress?"

Zhou Buqi's eyes lit up.

I think this entry point is really good.

Wedding dresses and formal wear are too expensive, especially in foreign countries, where they cost at least several thousand dollars. If we sell some low-priced and high-quality wedding dresses and formal wear in China to foreign countries through cross-border services, we can have a huge profit margin.

With fewer categories, smaller quantities, higher unit prices and higher profits, it will be easier to operate for a small startup team.

Shi Jinglin nodded slightly, "Yes, this is indeed a good direction to start, and their team has strong execution capabilities and has done a good job. In 2011, they bought off a lot of Internet celebrities on Facebook, Ucgram, Twitter, and Pinterest, and with their publicity and promotion, they said that the return rate reached 300%. The huge success in wedding dresses led them to start women's clothing next."

Zhou Buqi said: "Well, it's a good idea. I've said it before, there are a large number of Internet talents with wonderful business innovations in China, and this team is great."

Shi Jingmei snorted, "But they are competitors!"

"What's so strange about this... huh?" Zhou Buqi vaguely thought of something and asked quickly, "By the way, what's the name of this competitor you're talking about?"

Shi Jinglin said: "After acquiring ROMWE, we just changed the name to..."

"Xiyin."

Shi Jingmei added to the discussion.

Zhou Buqi suddenly realized.

No wonder!

With the support of boss Zhou, Shi Jinglin obtained the most entrepreneurial resources and venture capital in the industry, and built a complete industrial team in both China and the United States. The reason why the business is now facing difficulties and heavy losses is not Shi Jinglin's problem, but a common problem in the industry.

The Internet industry is like this. In the early days, you have to spend a lot of money to develop the market.

A competitor who can compete with her...

In this era, the only one left is the hidden e-commerce king Xiyin.

In this case, there is nothing to hesitate about. Zhou Buqi said, "Isn't that simple? Xiyin acquired ROMWE, the startup company you've taken a fancy to. Then we should be more decisive and directly raise our sights and acquire Xiyin!"

"what?"

Shi Jingmei was shocked.

Shi Jinglin's eyes widened as well, as if she thought this was ridiculous. "Acquire Xiyin? How is this possible? Xiyin and I are competitors! We are fighting!"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Let's fight if we want to. It's a business market, and we don't know each other without fighting. The cross-border e-commerce market is too unstable, and the industry is burning a lot of money. The market is already unstable, and there are constant internal fights in the industry. If we want to escape, it will be too difficult. It's better to merge and form a stronger company, integrate our strengths, and set out together for the same goal!"

"Is this okay?"

Shi Jinglin found it unbelievable.

Zhou Buqi said, "Sure, why not? This is just like the current online car-hailing industry in China. Next, I will try to promote the merger of Didi, Kuaidi, Sudi, and Uber China. This is a very fragile industry. If we keep fighting each other, we won't be able to grow. If we take down Xiyin, the cross-border e-commerce business will most likely be done!"

I'm back!!!