Riding the wind of rebirth

The car stopped at the Qingyang District Municipal Building, and Yang He got off the car: "Elbow, can you spare some time tonight and come visit us?"

"Huh? Why did you get off the bus?"

Feng Xueshan also opened the car door and prepared to switch to the driver's seat: "The group has just taken over the work of the government affairs center. Heshang is in charge here. We come here to change drivers every day."

"So that's how it is." Zhou Zhi smiled. "As a couple, we work less tired and save a thousand yuan in monthly car insurance. We are riding our bicycles to karaoke, so we should save when we can and spend when we can."

After that, he said to Yang He: "Then see you in the evening."

Yang He said goodbye to everyone: "Then I will go to work. Goodbye, Elbow, this..."

I wanted to say hello to Mai Xiaomiao, but I saw that she was concentrating on reading the proposal and didn't even look up from beginning to end. I could only wave my hand awkwardly: "...Uh, forget it."

As the first computer city in Shudu, Anxin IT Plaza is now doing a booming business. It has almost become the information equipment trading center for the four southwestern provinces, namely Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Tibet.

The first floor is filled with various digital product and brand stores. The decoration is full of modern sense. The products include brand desktop computers, notebooks, game consoles, printers, projectors, scanners, video recorders, digital cameras, etc.

The second floor is the DIY area, which is full of small shops that assemble computers. Merchants here consider installation plans tailored to customers, and give prices for everything from chassis and motherboard to keyboard and mouse, focusing on cost-effectiveness. The prices are much cheaper than those in the brand stores downstairs.

The third floor is the software area, selling various CDs, but 99% of them are pirated CDs. This is a common phenomenon in the country. Various software manufacturers can only rely on their own technical means to prevent piracy, but to be honest, their strength is very weak.

This phenomenon has actually hurt the domestic software industry to a great extent. Because of the existence of piracy, the input-output ratio of software development has become seriously unbalanced. At present, except for software used by departments for enterprises and software with relatively high technical content that does not require software packages to be upgraded, which forces people to use genuine software, the rest of the domestic software industry is basically "generated with love."

If Clover Group's software industry wants to take root and survive in such soil, Zhou Zhi did not follow the path taken by domestic manufacturers at the beginning, but chose several different paths.

One way is to deeply bundle it with the operating system, such as the VC programming environment and WMP media player developed for WINDOWS.

This part of the revenue cannot be obtained much in China, because except for large enterprises and government agencies, the rest of the WINDOWS users in China are almost all pirated. However, for every copy of WINDOWS sold overseas, Clover will get a share of the profits.

The second way is to develop one's own unique operating system-level software with extremely high technical content and the ability to penetrate into the industrial control chip level and be bound to the chip. The main market is also overseas and it is used as a benchmark general platform for digital products, which also leaves pirates helpless.

The third way is to use firewalls and anti-virus software. These two things need to be upgraded from time to time. Each time they are upgraded, the upgrade package will include genuine verification. Since there is a time difference between the cracking of pirated copies and the release of genuine copies, many users cannot wait for this time difference and would rather buy genuine copies in order to get timely and satisfactory services, which greatly reduces the number of pirated users.

The fourth way is to simply make it free, such as the Clover browser, the real-time chat software QQ, the Hanwen input method, the Clover forum, etc. The group has also spent a lot of effort on maintenance, and everyone can use it for free.

Although these are all free, they are necessary measures to consolidate and settle users. When the Internet era really comes, these user resources will be the group's greatest wealth. As for the flood of pirated software like the third floor of IT Plaza, Zhou Zhi really can't do anything about it.

The fourth floor sells more professional equipment. Many of the stores here only have stores but no equipment, such as satellite equipment, UPS uninterruptible power supply systems, programmable switches, amplifiers, routing equipment, security equipment, detection and maintenance equipment, etc., as well as high-end servers, minicomputers, mid-range computers, etc.

It is generally peaceful here, and the business discussions here can be described as deserted compared to the three floors below. However, in terms of turnover and profits, it is actually much better than the three floors below.

An IBM minicomputer model from two years ago is sold here for $350,000. As one of IBM's attending shareholders, George Darwin certainly knows how high the profit is.

From the time the product leaves the IBM factory to the time it reaches the customer, the profit-sharers at all levels in the middle will take away 70,000 to 100,000 yuan in profit.

There's no way around it, this is how it feels like to have someone pinching your neck.

Even if it's 400,000, so what? Major domestic financial institutions have never been stingy with their investment in their own information equipment, and their profits can afford such expensive equipment.

If you can't produce it yourself, you can only watch others occupy your market.

After this floor, the service floor is two floors above. According to Feng Xueshan's suggestion, it has been developed into a game hall, food court, cinema, gym, trendy product store and other places that are popular among young people. There is also an open small park-like platform on the large platform on the sixth floor, with an open-air cafe and dessert shop.

Feng Xueshan really understands romance.

These six floors are the base of the building, and above that are standard office buildings.

Now there are many well-known large companies that have rented floors and office space here, including IBM, Oracle, and some communications companies such as Motorola, which have also set up their southwest centers here.

These companies are now troubled by the domestic communication conditions. Anxin Digital Plaza, which has a satellite communication line landing node, is an inherent advantage that attracts them.

Currently, the only places with the same conditions are Zhongguancun in the capital and Guangzhou University Town.

Of course, the Clover Group itself occupies the most floors. It even has the group's internal living area, which includes almost everything from a cafeteria to a gym to a guesthouse.

Under Feng Xueshan's management, this place has become a cozy nest where young people are happy to work overtime. Various small clubs have also been organized within the Clover Group. They use the Clover Forum to share small communities that combine online and offline activities such as travel, fitness, cycling, calligraphy, and music. These small communities that are well managed may even grow into sub-sections of the forum, such as the novel and poetry forum where Zhou Zhi is the moderator.

There is also a CEO's office on the top floor of the Clover Group, but it has been empty for many years and is the least cared-about room in the entire building. (End of this chapter)