Reinventing the Millennium

Most people were happy when they visited the West Lake at night, while some felt heavy in their hearts.

There were also two people who accidentally fell into the water while jumping around on the boat. Fortunately, nothing happened.

On the second day of the symposium, Wang Yan took advantage of the stage to amuse each other with questions, and whispered to his boss that he had talked about search engine cooperation with Zhang Chaoyang very late yesterday.

It can be said that... they hit it off immediately.

The old website Sohu is getting more and more sluggish. Its games cannot match NetEase, its portal cannot match Sina, and its traffic cannot match Penguin. Of course, this is based on the strength of its rivals. For its own sake, it is like the game "Dragon Babu" There is good revenue, and the foundation is still there.

But Sohu is now engaged in entertainment and video. This foundation is not easy to support its multi-faceted development. Sogou needs to bring in funds and partners.

Sina or Yike is a very good candidate.

In business, everyone knows each other very well, and there is no competition in search. In terms of personal relationship, Zhang Chaoyang feels that he and Mr. Fang... are not bad, not bad.

In addition to the feeling that Mr. Fang is a very hard-working person, everyone chatted, drank, and sang together, and got along very well.

The current person in charge of Sogou is Sohu Senior Vice President Wang Xiaochuan. He did not come to Lin'an this time, but after Zhang Chaoyang agreed in principle to introduce funds from the Yike Department, Wang Xiaochuan would come and have a chat in person.

This also means that Sogou will be reorganized and become an independently operated company.

In order to ensure the independence of Sogou, Zhang Chaoyang did not mention any other conditions, but only mentioned an "AB share" equity model. If the Yike department can accept it, they will cooperate. If they cannot accept it, forget it.

AB shares have different rights for the same stock, and a small amount of equity can be used to ensure company control. Since Google went public, it has become increasingly popular in technology companies.

Fang Zhuo agreed to this important prerequisite for cooperation.

He has no ill intentions, he just wants to build and improve the YMS ecosystem, and this process is undoubtedly a win-win pursuit.

Sometimes, Fang Zhuo would wonder why people were still thinking about the hostile takeover of Sina a long time ago. Liu Chiping and the others still mentioned it the day before yesterday.

All in all, the collaborative conversation was cordial.

Wang Yanyan spoke briefly and concisely, and when Fang Zhuo heard the last word, he glanced to the back and right, and met Zhang Chaoyang's gaze. He smiled and gestured OK to him, and the latter responded with the same OK.

This scene fell into the eyes of other people at the venue, and they silently speculated on what the two families had negotiated.

The last guest to speak in the morning was Penguin leader Ma Huateng.

A major topic of this year's symposium was the development of the Internet after the financial crisis. He gave a keynote speech on three aspects: "corporate budget", "value-added services" and "opportunities in crisis".

Fang Zhuo thought it was pretty good. Especially when it came to corporate budgets, his observations on the industry were quite down-to-earth.

He was abroad a while ago, and after returning, his energy was focused on the financial war. He only knew that the semiconductor industry was miserable, and he really didn't pay much attention to the Internet-related situation.

In the afternoon, Li Yanhong, the head of Baidu, also took the stage to give a speech.

The confidence this person showed on stage was even more obvious.

Baidu's revenue in 2008 was 3.2 billion, a substantial increase of 83.3% over the previous year, and profit growth was as high as 100.4%. In the Q1 financial report just released this year, revenue in the first quarter was 810 million, a year-on-year increase of 41.1%, and operating profit was 1.98 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.7%.

Despite the financial crisis and despite the seasonal decline caused by the Spring Festival in the first quarter, Baidu's growth performance was still better than Wall Street analysts had expected.

Fang Zhuo listened to the speech of the head of Baidu and found it quite interesting.

When he took the stage, he also quoted content from Li Yanhong.

"Just now I heard Mr. Li Yanhong in the audience talking about how the Internet has penetrated into every aspect. I agree with this."

"With the development of the Internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to have a pure Internet company. Industries such as manufacturing and communications are increasingly considering the integration of network multimedia, which are closely related to the Internet."

"Because Yike is making mobile phone products, it feels very clearly about this."

"Everyone can feel Mr. Li's confidence just now. Advertising revenue is growing at a rapid pace. The new online marketing is indeed very different from traditional brand advertising and marketing methods. From a foreign perspective, search engine long-tail advertising revenue is much higher than traditional brand advertising. Growth rate.”

"I'm also very optimistic about this area."

Li Yanhong, who was in the first row of the audience, heard what the big-mouthed Zhang Chaoyang said during lunch. He interacted with others while others were still listening, raised his right hand slightly, and said with a smile: "Welcome Mr. Fang to participate in the search competition. "

The rhythm of Fang Zhuo's speech was slightly interrupted, he glanced at the head of Baidu, and smiled: "Okay, it's a deal."

There was some commotion in the venue. Why did these two interact with each other? Mr. Fang is really rich, and anyone can touch it.

Zhang Chaoyang in the field wanted to cheer up. This was Sogou's job, but he felt that the occasion was inappropriate, so he suppressed his emotions.

Fang Zhuo continued his speech and said following the interlude: "I admire Mr. Li's competitive spirit very much, because Yike is also a company that is often under pressure from competition. Business development is not step-by-step. Sometimes, you don't even know it. Where does this competitive pressure come from?”

"Sure enough, Yike, which was selling mobile phones, was hit by people in the financial field. This is also the biggest crisis since our establishment."

Fang Zhuo spread his hands: "Fortunately, Yike has regarded competition as the norm since its birth, and has survived."

The head of Yike reviewed the financial war in April and May in public, showing his true feelings, feeling both scared and grateful.

"I have always believed that normalized competitive thinking is an advantage of Yike's long-term development. Whether it is facing Sony, Apple, Nokia, or Samsung, it has not flinched, but has actively looked for misaligned advantages, so that it can gradually gain a foothold. "

Fang Zhuo really felt this: "It's normal for companies to encounter difficulties in competition, and it's normal to be frustrated when things don't go well. What's abnormal is that there's no competition and no difficulties, which can easily cause companies to deviate from the right path. "

Li Yanhong in the first row was smiling, Ma Huateng kept a calm expression, and Ma Chen exchanged words with the people next to him from time to time.

Among the four companies, Taobao and Tesco are the most intense, Penguin and Weibo are relatively indirect, and Baidu is just following Mr. Fang’s news, but the heads of the three companies all sense some ideas.

Mr. Fang just said that Li Yanhong was confident in his speech. In fact, he wanted to give everyone a more intense gesture to show his confidence.

In particular, Ma Huateng received a message from Maitin last night, "Yike is here." This obviously means that Mr. Fang really wants to increase competition in the country when he returns to China.

However, although Mr. Fang and his Yike Department are indeed worthy of attention, and Weibo has indeed done an excellent job as a social platform, the current situation is not as worrying as it was before.

Ma Huateng thinks Mr. Fang is doing fine this time. Neither his Yike mobile phone nor YMS have any obstruction to Penguin’s QQ software launched in the app store. In this case, Weibo can indeed be strongly promoted by Sina and Yike, and Penguin can also Normal soldiers can block it.

Pay attention to attention, worry to worry...

Ma Huateng even feels that if Weibo is launched when more Android phones are sold in China, he may be more worried.

With the sword out of its sheath, just have your shield ready in the direction you are coming from.

Mr. Fang gave a speech on the stage, but everyone in the audience had different thoughts.

When Fang Zhuo steps down, today's symposium will come to an end.

He spent a lot of time. In addition to talking about Yike's competition, he also openly talked about the huge prospects of social media platforms again. This is consistent with Wang Xing who took the stage yesterday.

Portal website Sina, social media platform Weibo, and mobile phone hardware Yike will be combined to empower and try to take away the cake from Penguin’s user time. As for whether the communication function within Weibo will be strengthened in the future, we need to see further. development of.

"Mr. Fang wants to invest in Sogou? Now our search field is bustling." Li Yanhong smiled and said to Fang Zhuo that his Baidu had the absolute leading market share and was not worried about the emergence of new competitors.

"Hey, give it a try. Yike also needs to tell a new story to the capital market." Fang Zhuo was relatively gentle in the audience.

"Anyway, you and I don't know that Mr. Fang is going to be ruthless in e-commerce." Ma Ren joked that Taobao is developing rapidly and very well, and Mr. Fang deserves to be taken seriously, but there is a gap between the size of e-commerce. The gap has gradually formed.

If it hadn’t been for increasing the number of home appliances going to the countryside since last year, Tesco might have been left behind by two positions.

"If e-commerce companies don't be ruthless, we won't even be able to see the back of Taobao." Fang Zhuo admitted the gap with a smile.

Ma Huateng will not join in the fun. From the current point of view, Penguin Weibo needs to continue to catch up. This is a battle perspective. From the overall strategy, the combination of Penguin’s QQ space, dating network, and Penguin Weibo is already relatively strong. A solid front.

While Fang Zhuo was chatting here, he stopped participating in activities organized by the province in the evening.

In the afternoon, Nokia's senior management team led by CEO Simons had arrived in Lin'an. They visited a hotel near the symposium and expressed their request for a meeting through Lin'an's leaders.

The matter between Nokia and Yike actually has nothing to do with Lin'an. The leader felt embarrassed when he suddenly encountered such a situation. He had no suitable position at all, so he could only inform Yike first and then discuss the matter from a personal perspective. .

In this situation, Fang Zhuo naturally agreed to meet him half-heartedly.

Dr. Wang Jian, who graduated from Microsoft China Research Institute, had arrived in Lin'an and understood Mr. Fang's gesture requirements, and soon connected with Elop, president of Microsoft's business department.

Against this background, Yike and Nokia had a conversation about exchange of initiative.

The last time I met Simmons, the interim CEO, was in early May. It was only a month ago. The two sides still had an unpleasant dispute on Twitter. By this meeting... the board of directors has confirmed that Simmons will officially serve as CEO. , and Fang Zhuo became the king of retail investors, and Yike also swept short-selling institutions.

The situation changed too quickly, and it's hard to describe Simmons' mood when he shook hands with Mr. Fang.

The two leaders faced each other, followed by Microsoft executive Elop and Yike Huaxia President Liu Qiangdong.

Simmons talked about the same old talk. After a few pleasantries, he started talking about mutual patent granting and the official attitude of the United States.

Fang Zhuo listened noncommittally.

Perhaps knowing that the new CEO does not have much weight at this time, Elop said happily: "Mr. Fang, the current situation is very clear. Competition between companies must be within the framework. I am coming here this time as well. On behalf of Microsoft, we actively respond to this call."

"It was you, Microsoft, who tore up the agreement last time, right?" Fang Zhuo glanced at Emu Ma and frowned, "You two are such a good team. One is treacherous, and the other follows the wind."

He continued unceremoniously: "It took less than two months for Yike and Microsoft to reach a cooperation, but the results were overturned. Nokia has been clamoring to ban the sale of Yike since last year. Whether it was Google's negotiation in the past or Yike's release of sincerity, you are Ignore it, now it’s fine, if you can’t ban the sale, you’ll have to ask Yike to authorize it, how can such a good thing come from?”

Simmons frowned: "Mr. Fang, we all know whether Yike is infringing or not."

Fang Zhuo's face darkened: "If Nokia doesn't infringe, what are you doing here?"

Elop smoothed things over: "President Fang, now is the time to solve the problem. Delaying it like this is not the solution for Yi Ke. The ITC ruling has been overturned. Steve Jobs will return to work this month. There will always be changes."

Fang Zhuo said: "Elop, I believe there is a reason why Microsoft changed its decision. Nokia just wants to bind Microsoft to pressure Yike, but this idea is bankrupt. I think Nokia is not far away from bankruptcy. "

Simmons chuckled slightly, then put away his expression, and said: "Mr. Fang, I think we should all speak based on the facts. Whether it was Yike's infringement in the past or Nokia's patent issue now, since this is the requirement of the US market, We should all recognize this foundation, and I think you don’t want Samsung and Apple to take our share.”

"I'll tell you what the facts are. The fact is that Yike has not been banned. The fact is that the ITC's trial of Yike's lawsuit against Nokia is still ongoing. The fact is that you still haven't recognized your position." Fang Zhuo stood up and said, "Nokia If you want to talk, no problem, fixed price, licensing fee of US$500 million."

Simmons laughed angrily at this number: "Mr. Fang, you don't want to talk at all? Your prosecution will not be supported."

"Why don't you want to talk? This is a reasonable number." Fang Zhuo said coldly, "We won't know until then whether we support it or not."

Simmons protested: "This is a completely unreasonable and insincere price, and it is shameless blackmail!"

Fang Zhuo looked at Nokia's CEO and said: "Very good, this is the price Nokia previously offered to Yike. Yike only wants 500 million, not a penny less!"

He walked away, followed by Yike's executives.

Simmons didn't expect that this number was not just a random number, but even more passive.

Elop next to him frowned, glanced at the Nokia CEO, and said thoughtfully: "Simons, I will talk to Yike later. There is a former Microsoft executive here in Yike. Let me take a look." Can there be some room for conversation and ask Ballmer to call Mr. Fang again?"

Microsoft CEO Ballmer has a powerful position.

However, from his observation, he always felt that this matter was not easy to discuss. Mr. Fang was an extremely characterful person and had absolute control over Yike.

Now we can only do our best.

If you really can't do anything, then, then...

Elop thinks the situation is really tricky.