Top of the big era

Zhou Buqi arrived at Kakao Group and met the enthusiastic and ambitious Jin Beomxiu. He felt that this person had changed a lot. His spine was obviously straighter and more confident.

He seems to have the aura of a new chaebol.

In fact, South Korea’s chaebol system has social inevitability.

Under the social structure of a small country with few people, no matter how developed the economy is, the economic scale cannot increase. Therefore, if South Korea wants giant companies to emerge, they must be chaebol-style and involve themselves in all walks of life.

If you only work in a certain industry, the income scale will be too limited, and it will be difficult to become a business giant. Only by continuously expanding to all walks of life and becoming a diversified giant covering all aspects will we be able to rival world-class giants in terms of revenue scale.

There were several major consortiums in Japan back then, and this was also the reason.

However, Japan soon reformed. Although Japan is a small country with a small population, Japanese companies have developed globally and have gone to overseas markets to make money. This has made up for the shortcomings of a small local market.

Developed countries like those in Europe do not have a chaebol system, so giant companies are very rare. Occasionally there is a giant company, and it must be a multinational giant.

This is different for big countries like China and the United States. Many giant companies are not competitive overseas, but they can still become the world's top 500 companies relying on their local markets.

After all, the threshold for cross-border business is too high.

Only the top entrepreneurs can become a world-class multinational giant and sell their products all over the world. There are only a few such companies in China at present. There are only a few such companies like Haier, Gree, Lenovo, Huawei, Asda, and Changyou. Behind them are Mr. Zhang, Ms. Dong, Mr. Liu, and Mr. Ren. The boss and Boss Zhou.

Other companies are always less interesting.

Some companies' products are also very popular abroad, but they are limited in scale. If the scale is too small, it can only be regarded as a competitive boutique company, not a giant company.

From the perspective of cross-border business, even domestic giants such as ZTE, Midea, Alibaba, Baidu, and Inspur are unsatisfactory.

As for state-owned enterprises, they were almost completely wiped out.

Unless it is a rare mineral that is not available abroad but only available in China, you have to buy it.

It is really difficult to build a world-class multinational giant, which means that this company is recognized by consumers from different countries, different races, different languages, and different cultures around the world.

Such companies are all treasures in the field of human commerce, and each of them can be recorded in business history.

This also leads Korean companies to develop in the direction of chaebol, which is an inevitable trend.

Doing cross-border business?

This is so difficult!

A narrow escape from death is almost impossible.

However, if the company wants to develop and expand in scale, it can only develop in an increasingly diversified direction and become a new generation of chaebol, covering all walks of life and exploring the local market as much as possible.

Kakao Group has such a trend now.

Now it only covers the IT field, including social networking, e-commerce, news, instant messaging, streaming media, games, payment, group buying, takeout, search, and a variety of online application tools.

It is simply impossible to do these businesses overseas.

Then we can only work hard in the local market.

Jin Beomxiu had long wanted to discuss Kakao's future development plans with Boss Zhou, so he took this opportunity to express his displeasure.

However, the first thing to discuss is Yahoo Korea.

The report on Yahoo Korea provided by Yahoo is not of high reference value. Zhou Buqi is more concerned about Jin Fanxiu's opinion. After all, he is a new talker in the Korean Internet industry.

Kim Beomsu said: "I believe that Yahoo Korea's actual assets can reach 500 million to 600 million US dollars, including fixed assets, contract assets, cash flow on the books, as well as rich and powerful technology reserves and intellectual property rights."

"Is there really that much?" Zhou Buqi smiled, "According to Yahoo's report, Yahoo Korea's assets are only US$230 million."

"So low?" Jin Fanxiu was a little surprised, but then he suddenly realized, "In fact, the most important asset is brand equity. Yahoo may be included in the statistics."

"Um."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

Yahoo Korea actually doesn't have any decent assets. The so-called fixed assets are office buildings. This is ridiculous. Yahoo has been developing in South Korea for 15 years and has always rented office buildings.

If Yahoo does not withdraw from South Korea, it is good to say that the lease contract is also a positive asset. After all, Yahoo entered the game early, and the office building is located in the core area of ​​Seoul. Now that new companies are entering the market, they can't find such office buildings if they want to, so they have to go to the suburbs.

But if you quit, it would be miserable. You would have to pay a penalty and your positive assets would turn into negative assets.

Contract assets refer to those commercial contracts signed by Yahoo Korea, which can bring some income to Yahoo Korea. But these profits are not even enough to pay employees. Once it withdraws from South Korea, Yahoo will have to pay liquidated damages for these contracts, which will also turn positive assets into negative assets.

The cash flow on the books is real, and Yahoo Korea now has $12 million in net cash on the books.

These assets are actually all nonsense.

The most important and valuable assets are actually the technologies, patents and intellectual property rights owned by Yahoo Korea, which are the core value.

Also, it is the "Yahoo" brand.

Whoever buys Yahoo Korea will have the right to use the "Yahoo" brand in the Korean market. As a multinational giant in the IT field, Yahoo! Even if it declines, the brand will still be there. This is a monument in the Internet industry.

Kim Beom-soo also holds the same view, "Yahoo Korea's most valuable assets are mainly intangible assets. The technology and intellectual property that Yahoo Korea has accumulated over the years, as well as Yahoo's brand."

Zhou Buqi smiled and asked: "How is Yahoo Korea's technology?"

Jin Beomxiu immediately became in awe, "It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the first in South Korea. Yahoo entered South Korea in 1997 and was the first Internet company to enter South Korea. The development of South Korea's Internet technology in the early days almost relied on Yahoo."

With this said, Zhou Buqi understood the positioning of Yahoo Korea here.

Just like domestic Internet companies.

If you want to do technology, you must poach people from MSI, Baidu, Microsoft Research, and Google Research.

However, technology does not equal business.

Good technology does not mean good business performance.

In the past few years, domestic Internet giants have emerged one after another, defeating the menacing Silicon Valley giants. These rising domestic Internet giants have solved many technical problems by poaching technical talents from Silicon Valley giants.

It's still 2012, and when many Internet companies start a business or need technological innovation, they go to Microsoft Research to recruit people.

Microsoft Research is simply regarded as a treasure trove of talents.

If anyone needs it, go dig some.

The Microsoft Research Institute is equivalent to a horse farm, raising a bunch of thousand-mile horses, and they are usually kept here to eat and drink well. Thousand-mile horses are waiting for Bole's arrival, and then leave the racecourse to sprint and gallop in the vast fields.

For Microsoft, of course it will be very frustrating.

After spending money to raise so many Chollima cubs, and working so hard to raise these cubs, they were all poached by others, and then turned around to compete with Microsoft.

Is it tolerable or not...

never mind!

As long as you have money to make, you can endure it!

The domestic market is so big, Microsoft earns tens of billions from the country every year. To make money, you can endure even if you encounter some uncomfortable things.

Yahoo's positioning in the Korean market is similar to Microsoft's in the domestic market. It is a racecourse for Internet technology.

The difference is that Yahoo Korea has no money to make.

Loss year after year.

Still so frustrated.

The only option is to withdraw from the Korean market.

Google China also withdrew in this way. Not only did it have no money to make, but it also had to help its competitors cultivate talents... Then bye bye, my dear! In a sense, these domestic Internet giants are actually “cultivated” by international giants such as Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and Yahoo.

This is the national policy of “market exchange for technology”.

If there is no money to be made, who is willing to cultivate competitors?

Therefore, Yahoo’s determination to withdraw from South Korea is very strong.

Zhou Buqi doesn't care about this. There is no competitor in South Korea that can pose a threat to Ziweixing. Not only will Ziweixing not suppress it, but it will support it, just like it supported Jin Beomxiu to become the Kakao Group.

Jin Beomxiu didn't see clearly all of Boss Zhou's thoughts and said tentatively: "Can Yahoo Korea really sell it?"

Zhou Buqi said: "It must be sold. Including all tangible and intangible assets, all Yahoo Korea's business and intellectual property rights, and Yahoo's brand in Korea. How about it? Is there any need for Kakao?"

Jin Fanxiu smiled, "It depends on Ziweixing's support for Kakao."

Zhou Buqi laughed.

The Internet is a big place for copying, so the boundaries of intellectual property rights in the Internet industry are not clear enough. Even you should stop copying. I might as well open source it.

Yahoo Korea's technology and intellectual property have long been taken away by Yahoo headquarters.

Even if Yahoo Korea is sold at that time, this part of the intellectual property rights will be "shared" instead of losing it if I sell it.

Yahoo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ziweixing International. Yahoo Korea's technical reserves are of course also stored in Ziweixing International's technology warehouse.

If Ziweixing International's support for Kakao is strong enough, these technical reserves of Yahoo Korea can be directly shared with Kakao for free through Ziweixing International's technology warehouse.

What else are you buying?

Kakao has grown so fast in the past few years, and Ziweixing and Ziweixing International have provided a lot of help. Even in order to help the development of Kakao's core product KakaoTalk, Ziweixing International shared part of Helo's core code to help Kakao improve the product.

Jin Beomxiu said: "However, Yahoo's brand is still very attractive."

Zhou Buqi glanced at him, "You want to buy it?"

Jin Beomxiu nodded, "For Kakao, Yahoo Korea's technical reserves... are actually not very attractive. With the support of Ziweixing, Kakao has hardly encountered any problems at the technical level. But Yahoo's brand is too attractive. If we work hard, this will even trigger social effects and become a landmark event in the Korean Internet industry!"