Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3201 Cold

Wherever Zhou Buqi went, he was warmly welcomed.

Alibaba is no exception.

It’s just that young people nowadays are very aggressive, which is different from the past. In the past, they would express their admiration and respect in a friendly manner, and then leave it at that; now it’s different, and everyone will say something shocking.

This is not the fault of young people, the same is true in the entrepreneurial industry.

No matter how the older generation of entrepreneurs fought in private, they were always modest and reserved in their words. Now it is different, and the style is "fast, accurate and ruthless". For example, recently, Ms. Dong angrily criticized Midea, Mr. Ma said that JD.com was finished, and Xiaomi said that the LeTV model was coming to an end...

The trend of society is becoming more and more direct.

On the Alibaba side, a grassroots female employee named Lan asked Zhou Buqi: "Mr. Zhou, don't you think there is too much competition between Ziweixing and Alibaba?"

Zhou Buqi asked back: "Isn't competition good?"

Ms. Lan listed them: "There are fierce competitions in payment, social software, internet finance, taxi-hailing software, red envelopes, cloud computing, and food delivery... In almost every field, the two sides are competing fiercely. Isn't that exhausting?"

Zhou Buqi thought to himself, why am I so tired? I never care about these things.

But for the sake of face, Zhou Buqi still smiled and said: "We have to compete even if it is tiring. Competition can promote improvement and provide the best service. I believe that everyone present here has suffered from monopoly. The competition in the Internet is indeed very fierce and is developing at a white-hot rate. My advice to you is to enjoy the present moment."

Ms. Lan said: "Moderate competition can promote the progress of the industry. However, excessive competition is likely to be a huge drain on the industry. Take the online car-hailing market for example. Do you think the competition in this field has become distorted?"

"Ok?"

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised and turned to look at Boss Ma.

Depend on!
This was arranged by him!
Now I understand.

The lock-up period for Alibaba's shares is about to expire, and it is conceivable that Alibaba's stock price will face great selling pressure in the next stage. If some good news can be released, the stock price can be controlled. Taodiandian's acquisition of Meican.com is such a strategy.

Of course, this also includes Boss Ma’s obsession with pushing for the merger of Didi and Kuaidi.

Zhou Buqi was unequivocal and frankly said: "The online car-hailing market is indeed somewhat distorted. Some major adjustments are needed in the future to change the chaos in the industry."

Boss Ma was very happy when he heard this. He took him away from everyone and went downstairs to have lunch together.

After leaving the crowd of employees, Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "Old Ma, what do you mean by this? Show me your power."

Boss Ma quickly said, "No, no, they all did it on their own initiative."

Zhou Buqi thought for a moment and said, "If you really want to do it, then do it. It's already March. If you really want to do it, it would be good if it can be completed in the fall."

Boss Ma immediately became happy and said with a smile: "It doesn't matter when it can be done. What's important is that we can release the good news now. It can also cool down the online car-hailing industry appropriately."

Zhou Buqi nodded, his expression becoming serious. "This year, the resources of the Internet industry are being greatly integrated. It's because the weather is cold."

In what situations do we need to stick together for warmth?

In cold conditions.

Although the domestic Internet industry is still booming, capital has already revealed very obvious signals, especially American capital.

Boss Ma knew more about these things than Zhou Buqi, and whispered: "The US dollar funds have basically stopped. The form and status of domestic US dollar funds have changed."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Why did it change?"

Boss Ma said: "One is to convert exports into domestic sales. In fact, it is domestic funds that are converted into foreign exchange, and then the foreign exchange is converted back into the domestic currency. In fact, it is domestic capital, but it is disguised as foreign capital. Not only can it make the foreign capital data look better, but it also provides some preferential treatment for foreign capital."

"Ah."

"There is another type, which is the compound interest investment in China of the previous investment income of the US dollar fund. This is nominally a US dollar fund, but in fact it is the local currency."

"What's the reason?" Zhou Buqi frowned.

Boss Ma said: "It's the instability of monetary assets. Changes in monetary policy have caused huge losses to many foreign investors."

A dollar fund refers to a fund issued in the United States. The investors are basically Americans and the funds used are American money.

The strength of US dollar funds in the domestic Internet market means a huge positive trend.

And the most important point.

American venture capital institutions are more mature, and the investment of US dollar funds is more disciplined. If the investment makes money, everyone is happy, and if the investment loses money, everyone will take it as bad luck. There is no unlimited joint and several liability associated with the founder. Because of this, many entrepreneurs with genius ideas dare to move forward fearlessly.

However, such institutions also need to make money.

The instability of monetary policy has put US dollar funds in trouble.

For example, if a US dollar fund wants to invest in South Korea, it must convert US dollars into won. After making money in South Korea, it can then convert won into US dollars. If the won depreciates significantly during this period, it will be a disaster. Obviously, it has made money in South Korea, but the currency conversion directly takes away all the profits.

Higher financial policies have led to a sharp decline in US dollar funds since the beginning of this year.

The booming venture capital industry in China relies entirely on domestic investment.

The cold is coming.

The entire industry has felt it, and it is time for Didi and Kuaidi to take action and start planning their merger and integration.

Zhou Buqi glanced at him and asked, "Why don't you put on more clothes?"

Boss Ma laughed and said, "I'm not cold. The matter with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has been settled. The problem of counterfeit goods is fake. This has reduced the capital's assessment of Alibaba's policy risks."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "You are really cold-resistant. I can't. It's already March and I have to wear cotton clothes."

"We'll try Taodiandian when we eat later. It's quite convenient."

Boss Ma led him to Alibaba’s employee cafeteria.

Zhou Buqi was quite surprised, "Ah? Takeout?"

Boss Ma said calmly: "There are many high-end restaurants. I have them on my phone. You can check them out later. They are much better than Fantuan. Fantuan delivers food, while Taodiandian orders dishes. The models are different. But it's good this way. Differentiated competition has its market."

As a guest, Zhou Buqi was willing to accept the advice.

Let's go have lunch together.

The food is mainly in the canteen.

No matter how high-end the takeout is, it’s mostly a gimmick.

However, Zhou Buqi found it quite interesting to watch Boss Ma ordering food using Taodiandian. It was indeed different from Fantuan. The Taodiandian page is a bit like Taobao, where you can search for the dishes you want in the search bar.

Boss Ma typed in “Dongpo Elbow”.

Then, the screen was full of the dish Dongpo Pork Elbow, which came from different restaurants and had different prices. Some were priced over 200 yuan, while others were less than 20 yuan. The entire product design was completely copied from Taobao.

Zhou Buqi stared at it and studied it for a while.

Boss Ma was actually showing off his new product. He said with a smile, "How is it? Are you qualified to enter the market? At least it's much better than Baidu Nuomi, right?"

Zhou Buqi told the truth, "I don't know. I've never used glutinous rice. I haven't even used rice balls. It's hard to compare."

"You're not participating?" Boss Ma was surprised. "You're the number one product manager!"

Zhou Buqi said: "I haven't participated in the O2O business, so the Didi and Kuaidi matters will still require you to take care of them."