Chapter 533 Text Message
After the meeting, Lu Yiming walked out of the gate of Zhalang Company with his head held high and chest puffed out with brisk steps, his eyes shining brightly and a crowd of people surging in front of him.
The spotlights kept flashing and the microphone was pointed directly at his face.
"Mr. Lu..."
"Mr. Lu..."
Facing the numerous reporters in front of him, Lu Yiming looked calm and said with a smile: "There are quite a lot of reporters here today. Don't worry, if you have any questions, come one by one. I will definitely answer everything I can."
With just one word and one look, he took control of the situation and displayed his extraordinary demeanor.
A petite female reporter squeezed to the front with her size advantage, her face flushed with excitement, and she tiptoed to hold out the long microphone and asked excitedly: "Hello, Mr. Lu, I am Xiao Longjing from Jade Daily. Before Mr. Wang left, he said that you came here to destroy Zhalang. Is this true?"
This question seems to be unremarkable. It's just that Wang Zhidong said this just now, and the reporter asked it to verify it.
But in fact, no matter how Lu Yiming answers, the impact is huge. If he handles it wrongly, it may even lead to a very bad chain reaction.
After all, Zhalang is the first Internet information company in Xiaguo to be listed in the United States, which has epoch-making significance.
Many people regard Zhalang's listing on NASDAQ as a sign of glory for the country. Its demonstration and driving role are self-evident.
Not to mention that the Zhalang Company also creates jobs. Such star enterprises often represent the face of a region and are by no means just a business issue.
If Lu Yiming really admitted that he kicked Wang Zhidong out in order to destroy Zhalang, he would definitely be caught by someone with ulterior motives and be severely punished. He might even be labeled as a "spy" or "agent".
However, who is Lu Yiming? After being reborn, he did not intend to wrong himself, and immediately said: "What he said is right, but not much."
After a brief silence, the reporters suddenly became excited and thrust the microphones in their hands forward desperately.
"Boss Lu, did you make this decision to take revenge on Boss Wang?"
"To destroy Xia Country's first NASDAQ-listed Internet company just for personal grudges, doesn't Mr. Lu think this is too much?"
Seeing that the reporters' words were becoming more and more sharp, the faces of the people following Lu Yiming looked very unhappy, especially Cao Guowei who had just become the chairman.
From the tone of these reporters, Cao Guowei could sense that if this problem could not be properly resolved, these reporters who were eager to create chaos would definitely say all kinds of nonsense. If things went wrong, the image of Zhalang would plummet, and even he, the newly appointed helmsman, would fall into the pit.
However, what Cao Guowei didn't know was that Lu Yiming had already seen through the traps hidden in the words of these reporters. The reason why he said this was to attract everyone's attention and let everyone know why he wanted to acquire Zhalang and why he said he wanted to destroy Zhalang.
"Too much? I've said this more than once before. Zhalang is registered in the Cayman Islands, and its investors are Western capitalists and NGOs. It is a channel for foreigners to culturally infiltrate and spiritually colonize Xia Country. Do you think such a company is the pride of Xia Country? I'm afraid the financial sponsors behind it will laugh their heads off."
"Don't forget, it's only been a few years since we laid down our guns. Have you already let your guard down? The instructor said that the West is determined to destroy us. We must always remain vigilant!"
"Today I paid to take down Zhalang and clean up those foreign capital shareholders, just to make Zhalang a truly pure-blooded Xia country enterprise."
"Since you are an Internet company in Xia Country, you should have your due social responsibilities, even if it's just to treat people equally. You report bad news in China every day, and whitewash it when reporting on foreign countries. How is this different from selling out your country?"
"As for personal grudges... I am the richest man, what is he? I can destroy him with just a few words, does he have the right to make me hate him? Wang Zhidong doesn't have the ability or the mind to do so, so I kicked him out, it's that simple."
These words left the reporters speechless.
After all, Lu Yiming has brought out the golden ticket of "patriotism" to get out of jail free. Who would dare to talk nonsense? Do they really think the relevant departments are dead?
Then Lu Yiming once again made a big announcement, saying, "Soon, Zhalang will complete its reorganization. After cutting off some marginal businesses, it will be officially renamed Quwen, with current affairs news as its core business content, providing all Xiaguo users with the latest and most interesting current affairs news. I want to build Zhalang into a platform that allows Xiaguo people to speak for themselves and let the world hear Xiaguo's voice. Please stay tuned. That's all I have to say. Please make way."
The reporters wanted to continue asking questions, but Lu Yiming had no intention of continuing and just left.
In the evening, Lu Yiming found a hotel and invited Cao Guowei to dinner. The original appointment was at 6pm, but Cao Guowei didn't show up until after 7pm. As soon as he entered the room, he said apologetically, "Mr. Lu, I'm really sorry. I have too many things to do today. I kept you waiting for so long."
Now, Lu Yiming has become the controller of Zhalang and Cao Guowei's immediate superior, so Cao Guowei naturally doesn't dare to call him his junior anymore.
In order to appease the entire company, Cao Guowei was very busy today. He went to meetings in one department after another, made various promises, and also had to observe everyone's reactions to prevent someone from colluding with Wang Zhidong and causing trouble, which would make the situation difficult to handle.
The difficulty involved made Lu Yiming feel his scalp tingling just thinking about it.
So he simply threw it all over to Cao Guowei, because only Cao Guowei had the status and reputation to shoulder this responsibility.
Acquiring a listed company is not an easy task.
Unless Lu Yiming really doesn't care about making a loss, everything he does must be carefully considered before being implemented.
In the world of capital, there are too many companies that fail to adapt to the local environment after being acquired.
He had to vent his anger, but Lu Yiming also didn't want to miss the opportunity to make money.
Lu Yiming poured Cao Guowei a glass of red wine and said to him politely, "Senior, please take a seat. You have worked hard. Since you have chosen to take on this responsibility, I will leave the future of Zhalang to you."
"What's the situation at the company now?"
After hearing about Lu Yiming's culture, Cao Guowei drank the wine in his glass and felt much more relaxed. He immediately answered in an orderly manner: "For now, the employees have been calmed down, but everyone is still very worried, mainly because the company is planning to change its name and move its headquarters."
Although Wang Zhidong is from Dongguan, Guangdong Province, he went to university in Beijing, so he set up Sina's headquarters here. His purpose was to make the best use of the various social resources provided by Beijing University. In particular, as one of the top universities in Xia Country, Beijing University could provide Sina with a large number of high-quality talents.
This is not only a win-win situation, but also a kind of feedback from Wang Zhidong to Beijing University. After all, Beijing University has made great efforts behind his rise.
Now that Lu Yiming has completed the acquisition of Sina and wants to take complete control of the company, the first thing he needs to do is naturally to carry out a "purge" of internal personnel, especially the group of "old servants" that Wang Zhidong brought out from Peking University.
As the saying goes, a new emperor appoints his own ministers. Most of the employees originally recruited by Wang Zhidong graduated from Peking University, and they might not be on the same page with Lu Yiming. Lu Yiming did not dare to study there either, so it would be better to move the company's headquarters to Zhonghai directly now, so as to facilitate a major reshuffle within the company and replace the employees in core positions with "their own people".
For example, if we replace them with graduates from Fudan University, they will be much more adept at doing things in the future.
Of course, this kind of thing cannot be rushed and must be done slowly, otherwise it will provoke a "civil uprising" within the company, which would cause a big mess.
Cao Guowei explained the pros and cons to Lu Yiming, and then asked, "Mr. Lu, what are you going to do about this?"
Lu Yiming thought about it and seemed confident: "I think these problems can be divided into three steps."
"The first step is that the company's headquarters will be relocated. Those who are willing to go with us will receive a 10% increase in base salary. Those who don't want to leave will not move for the time being. We will deal with them once the new company is completely stable."
"The second step is to change the company's name after the headquarters is moved, completely erasing the original traces of Sina and changing it to Fun News World. It will also start to eliminate some redundant departments and streamline staff."
“The third and final step is to respond to all doubts with the success of the new business. As long as the new business can bring benefits, we will be invincible.”
Seeing that Lu Yiming had clear ideas and the strategies he adopted were extremely mature and steady, Cao Guowei finally put his mind at ease.
No wonder Junior Brother Lu could become the richest man in a country at such a young age. It’s definitely not just luck.
Cao Guowei said admiringly: "Mr. Lu has a lot of ideas in mind. With these three steps, it is not impossible for Zhalang to get back on track, and even for its stock price to soar on the Nasdaq."
Then, he asked curiously, "What is this new business that Mr. Lu is talking about?"
Lu Yiming did not answer, but asked Cao Guowei: "What do you think is the core value of the portal website?"
Cao Guowei thought for a moment and said, "It's news."
This is what he learned himself.
Lu Yiming agreed, "That's right. The so-called portal website actually provides users with the latest, fastest and most real-time news information. The core selling point is 'real-time'. To put it bluntly, it is faster than traditional newspapers and magazines."
"For example, if a piece of news happened at 9am this morning, traditional media would not be able to deliver it to users until the next day at the earliest, because interviewing, recording, typesetting, printing and finally delivering it to newsstands all take time."
"But portal websites rely on the Internet. We don't need to print or use newsstands. We can deliver news to users directly on the Internet. That's why we can be faster than traditional media, and we must be faster than traditional media. Speed and efficiency are the lifeblood of our products."
Cao Guowei thought for a moment and said, "It's not difficult to make news, and it's not difficult to make it quickly. The biggest problem now is, how can we make money from this? Should we learn from Yahoo and take orders for advertising? You know, if there is no profit point and a positive cycle cannot be formed, this thing will not last long."
At this time, the Internet in Xiaguo was generally still busy copying ready-made successful cases from abroad, and lacked thinking about the meaning and value of its own existence.
The three major portals are all direct copies of Yahoo, the e-commerce companies imitate Amazon and eBay, and the social networking company Penguin has no shame at all, and its name is a direct imitation of QICQ.
In other words, I do whatever others do, which is a typical I-rabbit style, following the lead of others.
But this brings up a new problem. In the United States, Internet companies and Wall Street are colluding with each other and can work together to cheat money from the stock market.
The local rich people in Xiaguo are not so easy to fool, mainly because they are not very receptive to new things like the Internet. Many wealthy people in China do not judge whether a project can succeed by looking at how big the pie you draw is, but by asking about your profit model and how you plan to make money.
It is such a simple question, but 99% of Internet companies cannot answer it because they themselves don’t know how to make money.
But Lu Yi knew it, so he already had a comprehensive idea about this matter.
As a user in his previous life, Lu Yiming hated advertisements on various apps and websites.
Therefore, he rejected Cao Guowei's proposal to put advertisements on the portal website without saying anything: "You are wrong. Advertising and taking orders can only make quick money, and may even lead to death faster. Because from the user's perspective, do you like advertisements? No. So once your competitors come up with other better profit models, you will die on the spot. Don't look at Yahoo's current glory. In a few years, it will not be able to maintain its current traffic."
Cao Guowei felt that Lu Yiming was exaggerating and said in surprise, "It's not that serious, is it? Yahoo's market value is now over 100 billion US dollars, and it even reached 130 billion US dollars at its peak. In Xia Country, this is a trillion-level giant group. It will collapse in a few years? How can it be so exaggerated?"
"The Internet is like this. When it's booming, it's extremely prominent. When it's down, it's like a pile of mud that everyone steps on."
Lu Yiming took out a laptop from his bag, called the hotel staff, answered the phone in the box, dialed successfully, logged on to the Internet, waited for a few minutes, and finally opened the Yahoo website. He asked Cao Guowei: "What was your first impression after seeing the Yahoo homepage?"
Although he didn't understand what Lu Yiming meant, after carefully looking at Yahoo's official website, Cao Guowei answered truthfully: "Indeed, there are a lot of advertisements."
Lu Yiming casually clicked on a few of them and said, "Look at these advertisements. They are so colorful. Aren't they an eyesore? And the fonts are so large, as if they are afraid that you can't see them. On the contrary, the headlines of some news are unremarkable, and the text lacks a sense of design."
Ten years later, the only websites that dare to design their homepages like this are probably Greedy Blue Moon and Sexy Dealer Online Dealer. It is so fancy and looks very unserious.
But nowadays, all the Internet portals are like this. Even the trillion-dollar Internet giants have made their own website homepages look like street brothels.
Lu Yiming then opened Sina's homepage. Just like Yahoo, there were all kinds of advertisements flying around, even squeezing the news to the corners, which was quite outrageous.
Lu Yiming criticized mercilessly: "Look, when users click in, are they here to read news or ads? If you were a user, and wanted to read the news, but came in and saw ads everywhere, wouldn't you be annoyed by being forced to watch shit?"
Cao Guowei was immediately embarrassed and sweaty: "Well, all portal websites are like this."
Lu Yiming's tone suddenly became serious: "Others do this, so we do this too? Does it mean that if we all act badly together, it won't be bad anymore?"
Then Lu Yiming closed Sina's homepage, opened a folder, showed it to Cao Guowei, and said, "This is the homepage of the interesting news portal that I just asked someone to make. Although it has not been officially launched yet, it basically has all the necessary functions."
As soon as Cao Guowei took a look, he felt that the homepage of the news website in front of him was different from all the portal website homepages he had seen before. The biggest difference was that it was clean!
There are no messy advertisements that look like dog-skin plasters, and the color tone of the layout is unified, rather than being colorful and giving people the feeling of a custom place. The light blue background looks very soft and soothing, and the layout is very reasonable. Each piece of news is arranged in a specific order, and the most conspicuous ones at the top are the news content that is most likely to interest people.
Users can click in and easily receive all kinds of real-time news information without having to search for it themselves. Many news items even have not only text titles but also pictures, which make people want to click in and take a look.
I have to say, this layout design is so strong!
Cao Guowei said sincerely: "Mr. Lu, where did you find such a master? This interface is so refreshing. Reading the news is simply a kind of enjoyment."
Lu Yiming sighed with a depressed look on his face: "I would like to find someone to do it, but the problem is that everyone who does this now has the same idea, and the things they make are worse than the last. I have no choice but to do it myself."
Accustomed to the graphic news sections of later generations, Lu Yiming couldn't bear to look at the current portal websites, so he had to do it himself to have enough food and clothing.
"You made this yourself?"
This time, Cao Guowei was really shocked.
Many professional designers are unable to create these coordinated web pages. Is Lu Yiming too versatile?
"Yeah, have you forgotten that I'm from the computer department?"
“…”
Cao Guowei was speechless for a moment.
"Okay, then if we don't accept advertising, how are we going to make a profit? We can't rely entirely on you, Mr. Lu, for blood transfusions, right?"
Lu Yiming smiled slightly and said, “Senior, do you know the text message?”
"Short message?"
