My 1999

While Xu Liang and the others were celebrating, the senior executives of Baidu at Peking University Ziyuan Hotel were having a tense meeting.

All the Hundred Poisons and Seven Swordsmen have arrived.

"Now everyone knows that Bing search is coming fiercely, how should we respond?" Li Yanhong said seriously.

Everyone was silent for a moment, and Chief Technology Officer Liu Jianguo spoke first.

"Although I have never been to Bing, I understand the technical capabilities and talent status of domestic search engines. Bing's search technology is by no means what can be obtained in China now. They must have external forces that we don't know about."

Baidu Technical Director Guo Yu also nodded in agreement.

"What we should pay most attention to now is not Bing's technology source, but our response strategies." Xu Yong reminded.

So what if you know the source?

Can it interrupt Bing's development?

Everyone looked at each other, of course they knew how to deal with it.

But when technology and capital are inferior to people, it is not easy to defeat stronger local opponents.

"I think we should do two things well."

Operation Director Wang Xiao's words attracted everyone's attention.

"First, now that we have successfully raised US$10 million, we are no longer short of money. We should seize the time to recruit programmers and upgrade our technology.

Second, the other party's search engine has just been launched on the market, and the market lacks trust. It will take a certain amount of time to win customers.

On the contrary, we have already won the domestic search business of Sohu and Tom and established a good market reputation. We should pursue the victory and gain an overwhelming advantage before the enemy catches up. "

Baidu is now a search engine service provider that provides search solutions for corporate users, and is not an independent search engine company.

The difference between the two is whether there is an independent search page and search box.

Yes, it is an independent search engine.

No, it’s just a search engine service provider.

Obviously, Baidu doesn't have it now.

Do they want to have it? Of course I want to, but my strength doesn’t allow it.

Independent search engines have higher requirements for indexing databases and indexing technology, and must purchase a large number of servers.

In the original history, it was not until September 2001, after Baidu established an unbreakable dominance in the enterprise market, that it began to conduct independent searches.

As a result, the investors objected, and Li Yanhong slammed the table and forcefully passed the decision.

It's certainly different now.

Baidu has just won a few major portals, and it is still far away from dominating the enterprise market, let alone an independent search engine company.

But they miscalculated about Bing's business.

Xu Liang had already given orders to Xie Wen and Xu Jun. Except for a few influential portals, Bing would abandon the enterprise market and only become an independent search engine company.

He knows the general trend very well. The enterprise market can only support a few hundred million in revenue, while independent search is facing a commercial advertising market worth hundreds of billions.

The world's total is hundreds of billions of dollars.

This is the real blue ocean.

"I agree with Lao Wang's strategy." Lei Ming said.

"I agree too." Guo Pei agreed.

Then Liu Jianguo also nodded.

Soon everyone's attention was focused on Li Yanhong. After all, he was the general manager of the company and the real decision-maker.

The latter frowned and stared at Bing's simple search box on his computer.

He said slowly.

"Can we also do independent searches?"

"I'm afraid not." Liu Jianguo said immediately.

"First, our technology is not as good as the other's. Once launched, it is easy to leave a bad experience for users. If you want to restore it in the future, you will have to spend several times or more than ten times the energy and money. The gain outweighs the loss."

"Second, once we put more effort into independent search, we will inevitably weaken our focus on the enterprise market, and in the end it is likely to lead to a lose-lose situation. Moreover, the wise will not use the other's shortcomings to attack the enemy's strong points."

“Third, Bing is backed by Hongmeng Company, and their “Legend: Overlord War” is currently the most popular game in China.

According to the latest data, the number of people online at the same time has reached 250,000. Although the revenue cannot be determined, it must exceed 10 million per month.

Moreover, the other party also has Hongmeng website as a revenue tool, which can be said to be rich in funds.

Although we have raised US$10 million in financing, we are still not as good as the other party. We must save money and focus our ammunition in one main direction, which is the enterprise market where we have laid the foundation.

Only when we have an advantage in the enterprise market and have revenue support can we have the capital to compete with Bing in the independent search engine market. "

What he said was reasonable and well-founded, and won the approval of the others.

Although Li Yanhong is unwilling to give in, she also knows that Liu Jianguo's words are sincere words and are also the most suitable development strategy for Baidu at present.

"Recruit people immediately. The technical department and marketing department will recruit people together. I will check them personally."

Li Yanhong said loudly.

There was an urgency in his tone.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a quick knock on the conference room door.

The person who opened the door and walked in was the company's marketing director Ruan Wenwei.

"Mr. Li, Sina just informed us that they have canceled their contract with us."

"What?"

The expressions of everyone in the room changed drastically.

As the most powerful portal website in China, Sina is their most valued partner and has greatly supported Baidu's brand and business.

Therefore, they talked for a month before finally initialing the agreement.

Now that they have suddenly changed their minds, no wonder they are anxious.

"Why? Why do they do this?" Liu Jianguo couldn't help but ask.

"They replied to us and said that the search service of Bing Search is... free." Ruan Wenwei said solemnly.

free? !

Two simple words made everyone stand on the spot.

"Yanhong, we must also be free, otherwise the market will soon be taken away by Bing." Lei Ming said hurriedly.

Li Yanhong felt bitter in her mouth, of course he knew it would be free.

The key is that even if Bing doesn’t make money, they still have Hongmeng with huge revenue, so they can live a comfortable life for free.

But Baidu is a pure search company. If it was all free, how long would it take to raise $10 million in financing?

"Wen Wei, tell all portals that all our poisons are free," Li Yanhong said.

Ruan Wenwei said worriedly: "Mr. Li, I'm afraid other Internet companies will have objections to this."

Don't worry about scarcity but inequality.

"Mr. Li, it can't be free, otherwise all our previous achievements will be in vain." Guo Yan said hurriedly.

"If it is not free, the market will also be taken away by Bing." Lei Ming said.

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly became depressing.

Baidu was forced into a corner.

No matter what you do, it's hard to survive.

In the end, everyone's eyes were focused on Li Yanhong. He was the founder of the company, and he was the only one who could make the decision at critical moments.

Li Yanhong was also in a dilemma.

Because whether you advance or retreat, you will die.

After hesitating for a long time, he gritted his teeth and said.

“Not free, cancellation is free.”

Once free, all previous results will be invalidated.

If it's not free, it's slow death.

There is still a chance to survive in chronic death.

Liu Jianguo opened his mouth, and finally sighed in his heart.

He also understands Li Yanhong's difficulties, but conservative decisions cannot solve Baidu's current predicament at all.

at this time.

A young woman in a women's suit hurried into the conference room.

Feeling the depressing atmosphere inside, he looked a little uneasy.

But still fast.

"Mr. Li, Mr. Xiong from IDG just called and wants to meet with you."

Everyone's expressions suddenly changed.

Apparently, investment institutions have also noticed their plight.

Li Yanhong took a deep breath and said, "The meeting is over, I'm going to see Xiong Xiaoge."

After saying that, he strode out.

It's just that the steps are a little frivolous.

——

Bing’s bidding ads will be officially launched on October 2.

Revenue on the first day was 42 yuan.

The next day’s revenue was 89 yuan.

On the third day, the revenue was 157 yuan.

Revenue reached 358 yuan on the fourth day.

A week later, it officially exceeded 1,000.

As word of mouth spread, with the support of Hongmeng Website Directory, a platform with more than 20 million users, bidding advertising revenue exceeded 10,000 yuan after half a month.

Much more successful than Bai Du in history.

After all, Baidu at that time did not have as much financial support as Bing does now, nor did it have the traffic support of Hongmeng website directory.

"Mr. Xu, this is the revenue data for the first month after the official operation of "Red Moon"."

Wu Xifan walked into the office holding a report.

"2.2 million registered, 90,000 online users, and 3.4 million in revenue, it seems pretty good."

"Red Moon" is a game that has been officially launched in South Korea. Because of its rough graphics and simple gameplay, its results in South Korea are average.

But currently China is not South Korea, which has been developing online games for many years.

Chinese game fans who came into contact with online games for the first time felt very strange about all online games.

In particular, "Red Moon" is a rare science fiction online game on the market.

Therefore, after the official operation, although it is not as popular as "Legend: Overlord War", it can still be said to be a success.

With the addition of "Red Moon", Hongmeng Games' monthly revenue officially exceeded 20 million, reaching 20.36 million.

After Xu Liang put down the report, he asked, "How was the negotiation with Beijing Mobile?"

"Generally speaking, it has been agreed that all users who play games on their mobile phones in our game lobby will share the money spent on recharging data with us. The ratio will be 15:85, and we will take the majority."

China Mobile has just separated from China Telecom and lacks business. In order to win over SP Telecom value-added service providers to support Monternet, China Mobile offers a very favorable share.

Hundreds of SP service providers have made a fortune relying on Monternet, including Tencent, NetEase, Sina, TOM, etc.

"Let the people in the marketing department work hard and go to mobile companies in other provinces to sign contracts."

Although China Mobile has been established, business needs to be negotiated province by province.

This was the case for Tencent at the beginning. In order to seize the only profit opportunity, Zeng Liqing took the company's salesmen and carried the company's servers across the country to install QQ on mobile servers in various provinces.

In March 2001 alone, the total number of mobile short messages sent reached 30 million, accounting for more than half of the business volume since the implementation of the entire "Monternet Plan".

By 2003, Tencent's net profit had reached 338 million yuan, and these profits mainly came from mobile value-added services.

Note that this is pure profit. In terms of revenue, Tencent's revenue in 2003 was at least 800 million, or even more.

This is just the penguin family.

Portals such as Sina, Sohu, NetEase, TOM, and China.com all make a lot of money.

This is also the reason why Xu Liang is so greedy and makes plans in advance.

The cake is too big.

I would be sorry for myself if I didn't go in and take a bite.

"By the way, has the source code of "Millennium" been sent over from South Korea?" Xu Liang then asked.

"It's already been sent."

"Lao Liang is leading people to focus on localization and strive to be listed together with South Korea."

"Keep an eye on it and don't make any mistakes."

"clear."

Xu Liang didn't speak again. Xie Wen understood and stood up.

"Mr. Xu, if it's okay, I'll leave first?"

"Go ahead."

Wu Xifan turned around and walked out.

"When "Millennium" is officially launched, the company will have three large-scale online games."

Xu Liang was a little excited.

Regardless of how great the performance of "Millennium" is, as long as it can generate 5 million in revenue, Hongmeng Games' revenue next year will exceed 300 million.

Moreover, Hongmeng South Korea and Hongmeng China have more than three games combined.

In addition, Hongmeng Game Hall is almost profitable, coupled with Hongmeng website’s tens of millions of revenue and Bing’s advertising revenue.

It can be predicted that Hongmeng China will not be short of money.