Hong Kong's new giants

Chapter 647 [Monopoly Market]

Lin Zuhui came to Cyberport, looked at the huge building complex, and slowly felt proud in his heart.

As long as he develops Hong Kong's software and game industries, it will be enough to support the world-renowned 'Cyberport'.And these two industries do not need a hardware industry chain, as long as there are talents, they can be built successfully. Of course, the core is Lin Zuhui's wisdom, channels, and funds.

For example, Ninth City is not only a game development company, but also a game publisher, and can act as an overseas distribution agent for other game studios.The overseas distribution of The Ninth City is naturally based on its own channels, plus the channels of partners such as Activision and Kingsoft.

As long as you develop a good game, you don't have to worry about the market!

As for talents, after many years of hard work by Lin Zuhui, Heung Kong can graduate more than 2500 graduates in various computer fields and more than 2000 graduates in cultural fields every year.

Arriving at the conference room of the 'Cyberport' Ninth City Company, President Gao Kelin and a group of high-level executives and project leaders have already sat in their seats.

After Lin Zuhui came in, everyone concentrated their spirits, and their eyes revealed fanatical admiration.

"Legend" developed by The Ninth City is the world's first real online game. Currently, it has set up network servers in 26 countries and regions.And "Legend"'s hatred system, reputation system, macro command system, etc., these have become the skeleton mechanism of future MMORPG.

"At the beginning of the meeting, I will first understand the development progress of "Legend of Hot Blood", "Miracle MU", and "Ragnarok", and the project leaders will report to me!" Lin Zuhui said first.

At this time, the Internet has improved a lot. The speed of the Internet in the United States, Japan, and Xiangjiang can already support tens of thousands of people online; as far as Lin Zuhui knows, the game "Ever Quest" developed by Sony in the previous life in 1999 has already created 12 Thousands of people are online.

In this life, South Korea's "Paradise" is also running in September, so The Ninth City must speed up the development of follow-up works.

In the Mainland, Lianzhong Games was only launched in June this year, and you can only play online chess and card games. If you want to really develop online games in the Mainland, you have to wait until the end of 1999, because no matter whether it is the speed of the Internet or the configuration of Internet cafes, Only gradually followed.

However, the games developed by The Ninth City are of course not limited to the mainland, but set up servers around the world.For example, "Legend 1", which has been successfully developed so far, is definitely not exactly the same as the primary version of "Legend" in the previous life, but it has easily achieved global success.

After listening to the reports of the leaders of the three project teams, Lin Zuhui knew it!

"Legend of Hot Blood" will be tested at the beginning of next year and is expected to be released in the second half of the year. This game is an Asian-style online game. Lin Zuhui played it for about three years in his previous life, and later played the web version;
"Miracle MU" is a European medieval-style online game, which is undergoing testing and is expected to run in the first half of next year;
"Ragnarok" is a Q-version anime-style online game. It is expected to be tested in the second half of next year and launched in the millennium.

For these games, Lin Zuhui certainly has his own opinions. Although he may not remember much, the game is originally "you copy mine, I copy yours". Enough for these professional people to refer to a lot.

For example: city warfare (creating gangs), alliance warfare (creating alliances), dungeons (experience, equipment, money, "Ragnarok"), equipment (classification, level, mosaic, enhancement), props. There are too many suggestions .

Lin Zuhui is not necessarily a good game planner, but he must be a good game reviewer.

Therefore, as long as you invite him to play when testing the game, Lin Zuhui will immediately bring back many memories, and then point out improvements or additions.

After listening to the report, Lin Zuhui said: "The Ninth City has to continue to recruit people. The era of online games has arrived, and talent reserves are also very important!"

Gao Kelin immediately said: "Okay! In fact, the company has no reserves of talents, and there are many projects."

Lin Zuhui smiled and said: "Then continue to expand the scale and engage in more projects. The brother company ATV Group is also developing the game industry, and now there are many studios in Xiangjiang. Our Ninth City must be a leader!"

"Yes, boss!"

Lin Zuhui nodded and said, "Then let's test the game!"

Everyone got up to leave the meeting one after another, while Lin Zuhui went to the project team of each game to directly communicate with the project leader.

After years of development, the developers of The Ninth City have rich experience and strength. If these more than 500 people go to set up many studios, they will also have a very good development.

Of course, no matter how good the development is, there is no ready-made solution to develop well.Moreover, The Ninth City does not only develop games hand-picked by Lin Zuhui, but also has other projects.

For the game department established by ATV Group, Lin Zuhui will not participate in the planning at all, and let them develop on their own.

Driven by the Ninth City, it is believed that the entire Xiangjiang game industry will have a very good development.

Lin Zuhui summoned Yu Hai, the president of 'Nongfu Spring', and asked, "I heard that your acquisition of Robust is not going well?"

Yu Hai immediately felt a trace of timidity for no reason, although his boss was calm, but the momentum was there.

"Well, He Boquan refused to be acquired, although we offered a sky-high price of 15 billion!"

Lin Zuhui nodded and asked again: "As far as I know, our Nongfu Spring and Baisui Mountain occupy an absolute dominant position in China. So how much confidence does this Robust have?"

Yu Haima said: "At the beginning of this year, our marketing campaign achieved great results. We completely defeated the bottled water of Robust and Wahaha in one fell swoop, and the market share plummeted. However, the main revenue of Robust and Wahaha is AD calcium. , Nah, they even have mineral water series.”

When Lin Zuhui heard this, he tapped on the table. He remembered that Robust was acquired by Danone in his previous life, right?

Thinking of this, he resolutely intends to continue the acquisition, even if it is compulsory.

"In this way, go to Wahaha's Zong Qinghou and tell him that we hope that he will put strong pressure on Robust on AD Calcium. After this is done, if Robust is acquired by us, it will benefit Wahaha AD Calcium A bigger market share, because we don’t pay attention to AD calcium milk, hinting that we may freeze Robust.”

Yu Hai's eyes lit up, and he said in admiration: "The boss's move is brilliant! I remember that He Boquan was the United Zong Qinghou back then, and then Wahaha cut prices comprehensively, and Robust in Guangdong Province suffered a full loss, so Robust in Zhongshan will "Guangdong Province" Robust's acquisition ended the era of the two Robusts. Now Zong Qinghou also knows that mineral water cannot compete with us, so he definitely wants to make efforts in AD calcium milk."

Lin Zuhui nodded. He also knew about these things. Zhongshan Robust is the Guangdong Robust brand leased by He Boquan. Robust in Zhongshan (lease period); and in 1996, the purified water of Robust in Guangdong Province was pointed out by "flood fighting officers and soldiers" as "drinking and diarrhea", which also caused media reports, and he was in trouble.Under the circumstances of internal and external difficulties (vicious incidents, Wahaha's price cuts), Robust in Guangdong Province could only be bought by "pro-son".

But now, Nongfu Spring wants to "treat the person in the same way" and play again.

At this time, the domestic mineral water was dominated by 'Nongfu Spring', and Robust lost a lot of markets, all supported by products such as AD calcium milk.

"This is the first step. After we acquired Robust, we turned around and acquired Wahaha. In this way, we not only 'monopolized' the bottled water market in the mainland, but also entered the dairy industry."

Yu Hai said in admiration: "The boss's move is too clever! In terms of the power of capital, domestic brands are indeed vulnerable. Whether it is marketing, production, or management, they are far behind. Rather than being acquired by foreign capital, it is better to be acquired by our Hong Kong capital. , it belongs to one country anyway.”

After Yu Hai became Nongfu Spring, he began to accept the influence of Lin Zuhui's series of "patriotism", so he has a strong sense of belonging to Huaxia.And Nongfu Spring takes the mainland as the core, so it is bound to show 'patriotism', which makes it easier to do business.

This year's "flood", Nongfu Spring donated 2000 million, which is definitely a huge sum; Wahaha donated less than 400 million, which can be compared.And Wang Laoji donated 1000 million, Jinmailang donated 3000 million, and Red Bull donated 1000 million, which caused a huge sensation in the mainland.

These donations are just a single donation. These four brands must not only do this kind of public welfare every year. For example, Red Bull and Wanglaoji have been sponsoring domestic sports, Jinmailang and Nongfu Spring have been sponsoring education, and spend a lot of money on public welfare activities every year. .

When Lin Zuhui held a meeting with high-level executives, he made it very clear that in the beverage and food industry, one should not first consider how much money to make, but to consider building a brand and monopolizing the market, which is in line with long-term interests.

As for the overseas market, Hengchang Beverages and Foods is steadily advancing as a whole. In the early stage, it was in Southeast Asia and other regions. Now it has acquired a small and medium-sized Korean food company, and plans to use this company to enter the Korean market.

This approach is very normal, and it was the same for Wal-Mart in the previous life. It acquired a Korean retailer, and then took the opportunity to enter Wal-Mart into South Korea.

In the end, Yu Hai asked: "Boss, we spent a huge amount of money to acquire Robust. Apart from eradicating one competitor, don't we really plan to enter ADG calcium milk? Then this acquisition is more or less a loss?"

This is true. After all, Nongfu Spring has no shortage of channels. Unlike other foreign capital entering China, Nongfu Spring has been deeply cultivating the mainland for many years.

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "With the acquisition of Wahaha, we have entered the AD calcium milk! Of course, the acquisition of such a large sum of money is not to eliminate the opponent, but I want Robust to enter the field of lactic acid bacteria, which will come later." discuss."

Yu Hai nodded, he had no doubts about the accuracy of the boss' general direction.

In Lin Zuhui's view, the lactic acid bacteria series drinks, especially the 'Yakult' products, can take the lead in seizing the market.After all, Yakult entered the mainland around 2002. As for other lactic acid bacteria drinks, there is no shadow of it.

Of course, lactic acid bacteria is a very high technical threshold. In the previous life, the world's "lactic acid bacteria" was monopolized by two international giants, directly stuck in the neck of local lactic acid bacteria drinks.

'Lactobacillus' is facing many technical difficulties, whether it is research and development or activity maintenance, which requires a lot of money and manpower. This is also the reason why Huaxia is close to a blank in the independent intellectual property rights of functional probiotics.It will take about 20 years before Huaxia will have its own core technology. I have to say a pity.

If Robust enters this industry, it will naturally import 'lactic acid bacteria' to produce lactic acid bacteria beverages for sale, and at the same time establish independent research and development; it can be linked with universities, so that the effect will be better.

Yu Hai, the president of Nongfu Spring, invited Zong Qinghou, the president of Wahaha, to come to Xiangjiang for a meeting. Zong Qinghou naturally readily agreed that although the two companies are competitors, they may cooperate.

In his heart, he doesn't mind Hengchang Beverage and Food Company taking a stake in Wahaha, after all, foreign capital can be used for development Wahaha.

However, when the two met, after Yu Hai made a request, Zong Qinghou's first reaction was 'conspiracy'.

Seeing Zong Qinghou's face changed slightly, Yu Hai immediately explained: "Mr. Zong, this is beneficial but not harmful to Wahaha. Nongfu Spring aims at mineral water, and has no great ambitions for AD calcium milk; on the contrary, Wahaha is now AD calcium should be monopolized while developing carbonated drinks (very cola). Am I right?"

Zong Qinghou thought about it and was quickly persuaded, but he still said, "How can you ensure that you don't use AD calcium milk?"

Yu Hai smiled and said: "First of all, the competition between Robust AD Calcium Milk and Wahaha AD Calcium Milk is already at a disadvantage; secondly, Mr. Zong should have confidence in Wahaha, after all, you are already the leader in this industry; finally, we have spoken promise."

Zong Qinghou had no choice but to say: "Okay, I can do it, because it is beneficial to Wahaha." He didn't say he believed in Nongfu Spring, after all, it was driven by profit, and the trust came from there.

Yu Hai stretched out his hand and said: "Win-win cooperation! We aim at mineral water, and you aim at AD calcium milk. The fewer people share the cake, the more conducive to the development of the enterprise!"

"Haha, Mr. Yu said yes!"

In late October, the price of Wahaha AD calcium milk series products suddenly dropped, making Robust even worse.

The two brands of AD calcium milk, one red and one green, can be said to be full of CP; but now the green one intends to defeat the red one through price cuts, and it immediately becomes a red-green confrontation.

Robust Corporation.

He Boquan urgently held a high-level meeting, and the high-level leaders also understood what happened.

"Everyone knows that Wahaha's AD calcium milk series suddenly cut prices across the board, which can be described as menacing. What do you think?"

A senior executive said: "Now is the financial crisis, and Wahaha's sudden price cut is obviously targeting us! Just like Nongfu Spring's sudden large-scale advertising and marketing at the beginning of the year, it is an act of suppressing market peers."

Another executive said: "From 1992 to this year (1998), Robust has been competing with Wahaha for the first place in the industry, but there is a big gap between Robust and Wahaha. Nongfu Spring attacks our bottled products. Water, Wahaha is attacking our AD calcium milk again, it is indeed in a bad situation, I think we should bring in allies from outside."

He Boquan looked at the executive and said, "You mean Robust sold himself?"

The executive nodded and said, "Boss, you are also feeling very tired. You can consider cashing out when you are high!"

He Boquan suspected that this high-level executive had an affair with Nongfu Spring, but now is not the time to pursue it, because he has already moved.

After a meeting, the top executives did not offer any valuable advice, but many people persuaded them to sell.

What you mean is very simple. The parent company of Nongfu Spring is Hengchang Beverage and Food. This company has many well-known brands in the mainland and its business is developing very well. Behind Hengchang Beverage and Food is even more of a mountain. It is the largest enterprise in Hong Kong - New Times Group.

He Boquan sighed in his heart: "Sure enough, you can't raise the company as your son, otherwise you will end up crying for nothing!"

At this time, he was also moved, ready to contact Nongfu Spring again.

Sometimes, cashing out in time is also forced.

(End of this chapter)