Chapter 730: Girl, Young Woman, and Dog
At the Iberia headquarters, Meg Whitman sat in the boss's seat with a sullen face, looking at the group of executives in front of her.
Her eyes were so sharp that no one dared to look her in the eye. They all lowered their heads and looked at the notebooks in front of them, muttering to themselves, wondering who had stepped on the boss's tail again.
Meg Whitman opened her mouth slowly and said, "I think you all heard about the fact that Alibaba Group broke through our blockade and placed advertisements on Baidu and 3721?"
This was the news she had just received, and it was also the reason why she was so angry now.
eBay is an elephant. The elephant peed and surrounded Ali, a small ant. Logically speaking, as long as the ant doesn't want to die, it can only surrender. But now, this ant actually wants to break out!
In Meg Whitman's view, this is a provocation from the ant to the elephant!
It's outrageous!
No one dared to speak at this time.
Meg Whitman went on to say, "According to the company's investigation, the two companies cooperating with Taobao both have Future Capital among their shareholders, and Future Capital is Lu Yiming's company. Alibaba also has Lu Yiming's shares. Taobao's behavior must have been Lu Yiming's idea, deliberately trying to rip off eBay. How can his Taobao be compared with eBay? It seems that we need to speed up our actions."
A senior executive of a Xiaguo company sitting below said, "Now, people say that Lu Yiming is the most successful investor in Xiaguo. Many of the companies he invested in eventually made a lot of money. And this time, he clearly stood on the side of Taobao and cheered for it. I think this may hinder our previous plan."
Meg Whitman was no pushover. She had been planning to establish eBay's invincible image, so she showed . She said, "We acquired eBay for $225 million when we first came to Xia Country. Taobao's market share is now about one-tenth of eBay's. But for the sake of Asia's richest man, I'm willing to offer $30 million, which is enough to help him break even."
This matter was soon publicized by eBay. When people heard that Meg Whitman was willing to invest 30 million US dollars to acquire Alibaba Group for the sake of Asia's richest man, the crowd was excited.
There is no doubt that this is a fight with the richest man Lu! Moreover, investing 30 million to acquire Alibaba is simply an insult to the richest man Lu.
Everyone knows that it costs him 260 million US dollars to buy an airplane, and this 30 million is not even enough to pay for the airplane.
While the outside world was discussing this matter, Lu Yiming was at the Alibaba headquarters, discussing with Jack Ma where to go for fun.
Jack Ma recommended West Lake.
As a well-known business card in the domestic tourism circle, Lu Yiming has heard of the West Lake scenic spot countless times, but he has never been there.
As a result, as soon as he went out, he was blocked outside the door by a swarm of reporters.
Lu Yiming turned his head to look at Jack Ma next to him and said, "Are the reporters in Hangzhou also so enthusiastic?"
Jack Ma said helplessly: "You are the richest man in Asia, just like a firefly in the dark night, a beetle in the rice field. No matter where you go, you are so dazzling. It is normal for you to be sought after."
Reporters don't care about that. They are all fighting for the headlines. A reporter put his microphone in front of Lu Yiming and asked, "Meg Whitman of eBay plans to buy Taobao for 30 million US dollars. She also said that this is a high price for your sake. What do you think, Mr. Lu? Will you choose to sell Taobao?"
Lu Yiming smiled and put his arm around Jack Ma's shoulders, saying, "Ms. Whitman, you're overthinking it. Jack Ma is my dearest friend. How could I agree to sell Taobao? Impossible!"
The reporter asked: "Is it not possible even if I pay more?"
Lu Yiming waved his hand, with an expression that looked like he regarded money as dirt: "This is not a matter of money!"
Jack Ma said unhappily: "Taobao is my brainchild, it is not for sale!"
Ma Jieke, who has always wanted to do something big, will naturally not be bought by the mere 30 million US dollars in front of him. For him, it is either success or sudden death. There is no option of surrendering and losing half.
However, none of the reporters present were optimistic about Taobao.
Seeing that Lu Yiming didn't say anything naughty, he was even more disappointed, and wanted to continue to add fuel to the fire and make a big news.
"Mr. Lu, who do you think will be the final winner in the e-commerce field, eBay or Taobao?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "What you said is true. My Luming Mall is also an e-commerce company, right? There are several types of e-commerce. eBay and Taobao are C2C, while my Luming Mall is B2C. If there is anyone who will have the last laugh, it must be me."
The reporters were of course very dissatisfied with this ambiguous answer, and they corrected him by saying, "Mr. Lu, I mean, which one do you think is better, eBay or Taobao?"
Of course Lu Yiming knew what the reporters wanted to ask. After all, these people are here to stir up trouble. However, Lu Yiming didn't care at all and said immediately: "Of course I am optimistic about Taobao. Otherwise, why would I invest in them? Although I also invested in eBay, I have already sold my eBay shares. eBay is my job, and Taobao is my life."
eBay's stock price has surged recently, and its market value is about to break through the 30 billion US dollar mark. At its peak, eBay was only 73.72 billion US dollars, and it will have to wait until around 2013, after which it will quickly plummet to 26.066 billion US dollars, which is only 9.56% of Alibaba. Therefore, it is no longer worth holding on to.
For Lu Yiming, selling eBay shares was an investment decision based on maximizing profits.
But in the eyes of others, this is clearly a desperate move.
"Mr. Lu, are you selling your eBay shares just to support Taobao?"
Lu Yiming said without hesitation: "Of course! I firmly stand with our own company."
Jack Ma was so moved by these words. In order to help Taobao, Lu Yiming actually sold all of eBay's shares. This support was so convincing. And this move undoubtedly offended eBay. The two sides were destined to stand on opposite sides.
He clenched his fists and said to Lu Yiming with a determined look, "Boss Lu, I will do my best in this battle and will never let you down."
Lu Yiming: “???”
Lu Yiming and Jack Ma's attitudes were immediately conveyed to eBay.
Upon learning that Lu Yiming and Jack Ma were unwilling to sell Taobao and expressed their determination to fight eBay to the end, Meg Whitman was angry but still acted quite disdainful.
She felt that from a business perspective, Lu Yiming and Jack Ma's choice was unwise. eBay would be an opponent that Taobao could not defeat, and it would not be long before she could personally end this e-commerce war in Xiaguo.
At this time, Meg Whitman was very confident, even a little arrogant.
But this is also normal. The gap in strength between eBay and Taobao is so big that it makes people unable to see that Lu Yiming and Ma Jieke have any chance of winning.
Meg Whitman immediately approached Shao Yibo, the founder of eBay.
Although she doesn't think highly of competitors like Taobao, Meg Whitman is a qualified CEO. She knows very well that even a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit. She despises her opponents strategically, but takes them seriously tactically.
And it is obvious that Shao Yibo is the one who understands the Xia country market.
In the eyes of ordinary people, someone like Shao Yibo is undoubtedly a genius.
When he was 4 years old, his father taught him math by adding playing cards. Through daily training, he was able to add 52 playing cards in 12 seconds.
In middle school, Shao Yibo won the first prize in the National Mathematics Competition more than ten times. In his second year of high school, he received a full scholarship from Harvard University and skipped a grade to go to college in the United States.
When he was 25 years old and graduated from college, while most college students were still worrying about internships and finding jobs, Shao Yibo had already returned to China and founded Eachnet. Starting with just two companies, he built Eachnet into the largest e-commerce website in China in just one year. He then sold the company to eBay in 2003 and made $225 million.
Now, he is not even thirty years old and looks like a big boy full of sunshine and vitality.
If Lu Yiming had not appeared, perhaps he would be the young business genius that everyone was paying attention to.
In the office, Meg Whitman asked Shao Yibo very seriously: "If eBay wants to occupy the Xiaguo market, what should it do now?"
Eachnet was originally founded by imitating eBay. Compared with Meg Whitman, Shao Yibo is simply more familiar with the market environment in Xiaguo. He can't explain the big policies and strategies, but he can only say a little about his views on Taobao: "I heard that Taobao has launched a slogan of free entry for individual sellers in order to promote their C2C business."
Meg Whitman frowned: "Free?"
In fact, eBay has already discussed whether to charge service fees to sellers.
The final choice is of course to collect it.
After all, if the platform wants to survive, it needs money. If it doesn’t charge money, it will starve to death.
They are capitalists, not philanthropists, so it is naturally impossible for them to adopt any free strategies.
Shao Yibo was born and raised in Xia Country, and was a native of Zhonghai. He was more familiar with Xia Country's economic situation and knew how destructive the three words "free of charge" were. Therefore, he suggested to Meg Whitman, "Yes, that is, do not charge merchants for opening a store. This trick works very well in Xia Country. If eBay wants to become bigger and stronger in Xia Country, I think it is necessary to follow this strategy. Anyway, the handling fee is not much."
When he founded Eachnet, he copied eBay's business model - for every product launched, sellers had to pay a registration fee ranging from 1 to 8 yuan to the platform.
After the transaction is completed, a service fee of up to 2% will be charged for each transaction.
To be honest, Shao Yibo himself didn't make much money by using this method. After all, maintaining the website and platform does cost money.
After a few busy years, his biggest income came from selling the company to eBay.
In Shao Yibo's opinion, eBay is rich and powerful, so there is no need for it to care about Xia Guo's trivial matters. It can just do it for free and compete with Taobao.
eBay can definitely afford the losses more than Taobao.
Unfortunately, Shao Yibo had only been a capitalist for too short a time, and he underestimated how much capitalists hated the word "free".
After hearing his suggestion, Meg Whitman rejected the proposal on the spot: "Free is absolutely impossible. The board of directors will never pass such a proposal."
Shao Yibo found it hard to understand: "With the current transaction volume in Xia Country, even if we waive the handling fee, we won't lose much money, right?"
Meg Whitman said dissatisfiedly: "We are offering free services in Xia Country, so should we also offer free services in America? By then, there will definitely be users who will make trouble and cause unnecessary losses to the company. Another point is that I do not agree with the feasibility of the free business model. You also studied for an MBA at Harvard Business School, so you should remember the most important business principle of the business school - there is no free lunch in the world, and users can only enjoy high-quality services if they pay."
At the end, Meg Whitman seemed confident again: "I believe that we at eBay will be able to conquer Xiaguo's e-commerce users with the best services."
Shao Yibo was very helpless. He even had a bad feeling that Yibei would suffer a big setback because of this.
After all, the word "free" is very useful in Xia Country. Who can resist the temptation of getting something for free?
Soon, eBay and Taobao started a full-scale tit-for-tat confrontation on all issues.
In the large conference room at the Alibaba Group headquarters, facing a group of Alibaba executives, Lu Yiming said seriously, "In terms of fame and strength, we are far inferior to eBay, so don't think too much at this stage, just focus on making money."
To put it bluntly, this trick is to ride on the popularity.
Taobao is taking advantage of eBay's popularity through frequent publicity. Now, newspapers and media across the country are promoting the "ant-elephant battle" between Taobao and eBay.
Although most people were not optimistic about Taobao, it was because of this that the word Taobao began to become well-known to everyone.
This is more effective than any advertisement. After all, many ordinary people will chat about Taobao and eBay after dinner. They are all waiting to see the joke of Lu Yiming, the richest man in Asia.
As time went by, Taobao became a well-known company. At least when the word "Taobao" was mentioned, everyone would instantly understand: "Oh, there is indeed a company called Taobao in our Xia country."
Jack Ma felt a little sorry and said, "Mr. Lu, you don't have to bet your reputation on us. If we really lose, how embarrassing it will be for you."
Lu Yiming glanced at him and said, "Pooh, pooh, pooh, that's unlucky, don't say it again."
Ma Jieke was speechless: "Boss Lu, before I said I would find someone to look at Feng Shui, and you said I was feudal and superstitious..."
Lu Yiming argued, "How can this be the same? It costs money to find someone to look at Feng Shui, but it doesn't cost anything to say something auspicious."
Majek: “…”
Lu Yiming knocked on the multimedia screen and said, "Ahem, let's get down to business. Have you finished the homepage I asked you to make? Just like that, change it up."
Several programmers from Taobao looked at Ma Jieke and Lu Yiming with a puzzled look on their faces.
"Mr. Ma, Mr. Lu, do we really want to use this as the homepage?"
Compared to eBay's simple, elegant and clean page, at Lu Yiming's request, Taobao's page directly chose festive, lively and messy, looking like a small street advertisement.
Lu Yiming said: "Let's use this. Red is so festive. This design is more in line with the shopping temperament of our Xia people. It is to give users a feeling of Chinese New Year."
Lu Yiming has been using Taobao's shopping page for twenty years, so he is very familiar with it, so he made the decision directly.
Jack Ma gave a thumbs up and said to Lu Yiming, "Mr. Lu has a good vision. I also think that the shopping page design is very pleasing and users will definitely like it. And vulgarity has its advantages. As Mr. Lu said, e-commerce platforms should be oriented to the broadest masses of people, so we should provide what the masses like. Only when they are satisfied can we make money."
Several programmers looked at Jack Ma with something strange in their eyes.
This boss, just for money, can say such a conscience-breaking thing, it's unbelievable!
As science and engineering men, they admire the Nordic concise style and like clean, neat, simple and elegant. However, the interface finalized by Taobao is completely contrary to their ideas. It can be said that they feel uncomfortable if they look at it for even a second.
There's nothing we can do about it, since they are the bosses.
Lu Yiming no longer gave people a chance to discuss the interface, and immediately asked: "Do you know who is the easiest person to make money from in this world?"
If this question was asked twenty years later, Jack Ma would be able to hold a press conference and talk for two hours, but now he doesn't know what big data statistics are, nor does he know what the sinking market is.
So, facing Lu Yiming's question, he felt very confused.
"Whose?"
Lu Yiming said seriously: "In terms of spending power, first is young girls, second is young women, third is children, fourth is the elderly, fifth is pets, and men are ranked sixth."
It was the first time for the people present to hear this theory, and they were immediately shocked. But after thinking about it carefully, it really made sense.
Not to mention how extravagant and lustful the rich are, after all, that money is not something they can earn.
Among the general public, young women are the most willing to consume, followed by mothers and children.
"If Taobao wants to develop, it must position itself accurately. You need to understand which customers you need to please."
This is the true teaching of a page of paper, and the family heirloom of ten thousand volumes of books.
Ma Jieke, who had received the "teachings" from Lu Yiming, felt as if the clouds had been cleared and the confusion in his heart had been largely gone. At the same time, he also admired Lu Yiming more and more. He said bluntly: "Mr. Lu is indeed a business genius. With such insightful ideas, how could he not make a fortune?"
