Chapter 749 I Want to Take the Postgraduate Entrance Examination
Although what Lu Yiming said was a joke, it was actually true to some extent.
eBay has actually made an indelible contribution to the rise of Xiaguo's e-commerce industry.
Just look at the timeline and you will understand.
eBay acquired EachNet in July 2003 and entered the Chinese market, while Taobao was just established in May of the same year.
In 2006, eBay sold its entire Greater China business and exited the market at a loss, which was almost tantamount to de facto admitting its failure, although it never admitted it verbally, perhaps because it was shy.
In the same year, Taobao, which defeated eBay, became the largest shopping website in Asia. Nearly 9 million people went shopping on Taobao every day, and online shopping became an indispensable part of Chinese people's lives.
One year later, Taobao is no longer a simple shopping website, but Asia's largest online retail business district, with annual transaction volume exceeding 40 billion, becoming the second largest comprehensive shopping mall in China.
The fertile soil that Ibe had worked so hard to cultivate was just given away like that. If it had happened in the ancient times, Whitman might have become a saint instantly with such humanitarian merits.
Seeing Lu Yiming's relaxed and comfortable expression when he talked about this matter, Li Quanwang was confused and asked again out of curiosity: "I just don't understand, how did Taobao win?"
Lu Yiming, as a person who had personally experienced it, said: "In fact, the whole process can be called magical. You have to know that when the two sides started the war, Jack Ma of Taobao almost thought that he was going to die. His mood was similar to that of Boss Cao on the eve of the Battle of Guandu. The opponent was also rich and powerful, with many soldiers and generals. Have you heard the saying that in the face of absolute power, any conspiracy is just a paper tiger?"
Li Quanwang said: "Yes, doesn't Taobao have any chance of winning?"
Lu Yiming changed his tone and said with a smile: "But there is a saying that goes, if you don't commit suicide, you won't die. eBay was in great trouble. Facing the emerging market of Xia Country, it didn't adjust its strategy and was slow to react. It used its previous experience to apply it here mechanically. It can be said that failure was doomed from the beginning. Its hugeness is only apparent, just like a giant that can only rise up with balloons, but in fact it will burst with a poke."
In a situation where eBay was sure to win as long as it didn't make any mistakes, it made one stupid move after another.
eBay charges a fee for listing products, and also charges a fee for successful transactions. PayPal must be used as a payment method.
The most amazing thing is that PayPal not only charges a fee for receiving payments, but also for withdrawing cash!
This move can be regarded as the highway toll station in the online payment industry. They charge you once when you enter the highway and again when you exit the highway, asking you whether you accept it or not.
Not to mention that you paid for the construction of the highway and you are also the one who manages it, but as a result, not only do you not get any salary, you also have to pay money to the company.
It's really outrageous that the mother opened the door for something outrageous. It's really outrageous.
Based on this point, eBay is destined to be beaten to the ground by completely free local e-commerce brands.
Take a look at eBay's homepage, it is designed completely according to Western preferences. The foreigners in this company do not understand the Xia people and Xia culture at all, and they are too lazy to understand. This arrogant attitude also means that they will not bend down and listen to the voices of users.
In terms of user experience, eBay was beaten badly by Taobao again.
With these two key factors combined, if eBay can still win, it can only rely on God's help.
Hearing this answer, Li Quanwang was also a little confused: "Ah? That's it?"
At that time, the newspapers praised eBay as being so amazing and powerful, as if it was a fierce dragon crossing the river, and it seemed that it could kill Taobao with just a sneeze.
As a result, Taobao pinned him to the ground and beat him so hard that he had no chance to fight back.
Lu Yiming said: "This is what's wrong with big companies. If it were a normal technology company, it could still crush weak challengers with its monopoly on patents and capital advantages, but the Internet is different. The iteration speed of this industry is very fast. If you can't keep up, you may be finished in a few months instead of a year. eBay paid the price of its own arrogance and became a bloody reference for other Internet peers. There is a saying: Weakness and ignorance have never been obstacles to survival, but arrogance is. This saying is very suitable for eBay."
Li Quanwang was shocked and said, "Ah? eBay, with a market value of several hundred billion dollars, is gone just like that?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "That's not the case. With such a large scale, it will take time for it to disappear completely. eBay may continue to exist, but its development momentum is definitely gone, and its future achievements will be limited. It is estimated that in a few years, its market value will shrink to a level that is unbearable to look at."
Li Quanwang said with emotion: "It turns out that the Internet industry is so dangerous. When I was in the United States, I often heard people say how strong Microsoft's sense of crisis was and that it was always only 18 months away from bankruptcy. My goodness, Internet companies are probably only 18 weeks away from bankruptcy."
Lu Yiming also felt the same way: "Almost the same. The Internet changes very quickly. Maybe when you wake up, the world will have changed a lot. Haven't many companies gone bankrupt in the past two years? Always stay vigilant and stay humble. Nothing in this world is so big that it cannot fail."
When Lu Yiming and Li Quanwang came home after dinner, Shi Qingxue rushed over, hugged Lu Yiming's waist and said, "Lu Yiming, I want to take the postgraduate entrance examination."
Lu Yiming was immediately very surprised. Logically speaking, Shi Qingxue had no worries about food and clothing, and had graduated from university. In this era, these conditions made her a girl of destiny.
The most important thing is that due to the influence of her family, Shi Qingxue's grades were very average, and it was difficult for her to get into undergraduate school. She was able to study at Fu Ri University only because of Lu Yiming's guidance.
Being able to graduate successfully is already a testament to her hard work.
After all, she had to spend four years in college to relearn everything she had learned since childhood.
Lu Yiming pinched Shi Qingxue's nose and asked with a smile, "Why do you suddenly want to take the postgraduate entrance examination?"
Shi Qingxue said distressedly, "It's just boring. I had a very fulfilling time studying in college, but now that I've graduated, I don't know what to do. My mom asked me to work as an assistant at Shi Jin Ji, doing some secretarial work, but I found it so monotonous and boring. It's not as interesting as reading books, so I just want to take the postgraduate entrance examination."
Lu Yiming could understand Shi Qingxue's thoughts. In fact, in later generations, many people who took the postgraduate entrance examination did not do so simply to study something, but to continue hiding in the ivory tower of school and escape the pressure of real life. The postgraduate entrance examination was indeed very hard, but survival was much harder than the postgraduate entrance examination.
However, Shi Qingxue has no pressure to survive. She is just too rich and doesn't know what to do, so she is bored.
Lu Yiming doesn't need Shi Qingxue to have such high business talent. It's actually good for her to read more books.
He jokingly said, "Then since you are a graduate student, doesn't that mean you have a higher degree than me?"
Shi Qingxue coquettishly rubbed against Lu Yiming's chest and said, "Do you support me?"
Lu Yiming smiled and stroked her hair, saying lovingly, "If you want to study, go ahead. But do you really want to take the postgraduate entrance exam? I heard it's quite tiring."
Shi Qingxue said: "I think it's OK. I like the major of literature now. I feel happy reading books."
Without the pressure of life, reading is indeed a very happy thing, and the older you get, the more you can appreciate this.
After a pause, Shi Qingxue continued, "By the way, I've been reading some online novel recently. It's so interesting. I can't stop reading it every day. Hey, it's those authors who suddenly stop writing and say they have to go out to work and make money. I feel so uncomfortable reading it."
Speaking of online novels, Lu Yiming 's thoughts suddenly drifted away.
When I just graduated from college, every time I got home from work, I would pass the time by reading online novels.
I was reading those big books that were bigger than A4 paper and had words smaller than mosquitoes, and each book contained millions of words.
There are also those that are two or three centimeters thick, with similar covers, with Dunhuang Publishing House or Yellow River Publishing House written on them, and four or five copies are published at a time.
The most outrageous book Lu Yiming has ever read is a book called "Starting from Zero". More than 30 copies were published in one go, which was really impressive.
Lu Yiming's enlightenment textbook was a book called "YY's Magnificent Three Kingdoms" written by an author named Bu Le Wu Yu.
Lu Yiming learned his craft from that book.
In the future online literature market, although the income of this industry is not very high for Lu Yiming, it is a very important industry in itself.
Not to mention the cultural attributes of the novel, if it is done well, it can also become a hit work, and then go the way of film and television adaptation. The success of Hollywood in the United States is not only due to its strong technical strength, but also various excellent scripts are also an indispensable part of the film industry.
On the other hand, domestic literary creation cannot be said to be stagnant, but it is not making any waves either.
Traditional literature is basically dying out, with only a bunch of monsters and goblins messing around. Lu Yiming is too lazy to take over this mess, but online literature can still be done.
Besides, Shi Qingxue likes to read novels, and Lu Yiming also wants her to have her own career so that she won't be idle all day and have random thoughts. He immediately said with a smile: "If that's the case, then why don't we open a novel website ourselves and let those authors write books on our website? Then you can read books happily, right?"
"Novel website?"
Shi Qingxue was surprised.
Then came the emotion.
In order to let her enjoy reading, Lu Yiming actually set up a website and asked writers to write books for her!
At once……
A very domineering president!
While feeling touched, Shi Qingxue was still very sober: "But let's not do it, right? It costs a lot of money to open a novel website, right? Now reading books is free, I can just read a few more books. There are always some people who don't need to work to support themselves and come to write books, right?"
In the era when Lu Yiming was crazy about reading online novels, the VIP subscription system had been generally implemented in online novels. Readers paid to read their favorite novels, and the authors could get a share of the subscription. Together with the website's creation subsidies, the average number of readers could be around a thousand. If he updated diligently, it would not be a problem to earn five or six thousand yuan a month, which was much more comfortable than working in a factory as a screwdriver.
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Wouldn't it be great if talented people could make money by writing books? I can design a salary system so that talented authors can not only do what they like, but also make a lot of money with this skill."
"Is this really okay?" Shi Qingxue expressed doubt: "You are not trying to comfort me, are you?"
Lu Yiming said confidently: "Do you doubt my ability?"
"Hey, that's not the case."
"Really? No, I still need to let you get to know my abilities better."
After saying that, Lu Yiming picked up Shi Qingxue by the waist and walked towards the bedroom.
In the evening, Shi Qingxue posted a message in the QQ group of the Fu Ri University Literature Society.
“I want to open an online literature website.”
As soon as the message was sent, someone in the group responded quickly.
"Online literature website? What is that?"
"Senior, are you going to start a company?"
"Wow, COOL!"
"I've just recently gotten into online literature."
"I've read a lot of novels recently, but the people who read them all stopped writing halfway through, which made me want to write my own."
In the literature club, Shi Qingxue is definitely a celebrity.
There's no way. Her boyfriend is the richest man in Asia, so it's difficult for her to keep a low profile even if she wants to.
Shi Qingxue made a laughing expression and said, "I was also very unhappy because those authors left halfway through writing. After discussing it with Lu Yiming, he supported me in opening a website. Anyone willing to be my editor can sign up now. Anyone who wants to write a book can start writing now."
Then, Shi Qingxue sent a document to the group and said, "This is an author welfare system that we drafted overnight. You can take a look at it."
This was created by Lu Yiming by copying the welfare system of a previous website. There are two signing methods in total.
One is electronic profit sharing, which means that the author authorizes the electronic copyright to the website and serializes and updates the work on the website. If the word count exceeds 150,000 words, the author can apply for a subscription fee, which is 3 cents per thousand words, and the author and the website will share the profit 50-50. In the first three months after the work is put on the shelves, the website will unconditionally provide a 1,500 yuan creation subsidy. If the average subscription exceeds 500 within three months of the work being put on the shelves, the 1,500 yuan creation subsidy can continue to be received.
Another type is a guaranteed profit sharing. The website signs a contract with the author at a price not less than 20 yuan per thousand words. When the profit sharing is lower than this price, it will be paid at this price. When the profit sharing exceeds 20 yuan per thousand words, it will be settled according to the actual profit.
After reading about the author's welfare system, everyone in the group was immediately excited.
"A creative subsidy of 1,500 yuan a month?"
"No less than 20 yuan per thousand words. If I write 5,000 words a day, wouldn't I get 100 yuan? That's 3,000 yuan a month!"
It's no wonder they were shocked. The national average monthly salary is only 1,170 yuan, and that's still the average. The median is probably only over 800 yuan. For college students, a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan is definitely a high salary. Even if you only get 1,500 yuan for full attendance, it's still higher than the national average monthly salary.
The most important thing is that from now on, you can make money by writing online novels!
This is a huge leap from zero to one!
Before this, online novels, whether one was running a website or writing a novel, were all done purely out of love and did not bring any profit at all.
Only the pirated booksellers made money.
In the era before Lu Yiming was reborn, the development of online literature had already been very mature, so it was not difficult for Lu Yiming to copy the framework and retain the essence.
In just two days, he listed the entire company's structure, including the technical department, audit department, editorial department, legal department...
As soon as Shi Qingxue raised her call in the literature club, many people immediately expressed their willingness to come and be editors.
After all, those who can be admitted to Fu Ri University have good learning abilities.
Anyone who can join the Fu Ri University Literary Society must have a certain literary foundation and a passion for literature.
With these two buffs, the website's editorial lineup starts at a very high point.
Lu Yiming created a new group and invited all those who were willing to be editors into it.
Including Lu Yiming and Shi Qingxue, there are a total of twenty people in the group.
Lu Yiming said jokingly: "Hello everyone, welcome everyone. From today on, we are all comrades in the same trench."
For these newly graduated college students, being able to work for Lu Yiming, the richest man in Asia, is undoubtedly a very high starting point.
The group was very lively.
"Hello, Mr. Lu!"
"I never thought that I would be able to work for Mr. Lu, the richest man, just when I was about to look for a job."
"Who says not? This job is perfect for me. I love reading and writing. There is nothing cooler in the world than being able to turn a hobby into a job."
Among these eighteen people, there is Wu Mengmeng.
She said with some concern: "Lu Yiming, can we really do this? We have never done business before, will we lose money?"
Lu Yiming said confidently: "With me here, what are you afraid of? I have plenty of money , but I lack professionals like you. If you don't have experience, then go and hone your skills. Do it boldly and confidently. I can afford the tuition."
None of those who can be admitted to Fu Ri University are mediocre. As long as Wu Mengmeng and others are given opportunities to hone their skills, they will sooner or later become independent leading generals.
Now is still the pioneering era of online literature, and it is just right to start cultivating your own team from now on!
When it comes to the field of online literature, everyone is now feeling their way forward. After all, the earliest online literature website was only established in 1997.
The VIP system that will promote online literature has not yet been implemented.
The most important thing is that in this race where everyone is feeling their way forward, Lu Yiming is a real veteran!
If he can't even lead an elite team, Lu Yiming might as well just find a rock and hit himself to death.
Lu Yiming asked: "Who among you knows the website CMFU?"
This website is naturally the starting point for the online literature circle, but it has only been established for less than half a year. However, its predecessor, the Fantasy Literature Association, was established in 2001.
“I think I’ve heard of it.”
"I have registered an account with them. There is a book written by a man called 'Wandering Toad' that is quite good. I am reading the serial now. It seems to be called 'Tian Peng Zong Heng'."
Lu Yiming was of course clear about this book. It was the first online novel to charge VIP fees and was destined to have a place in the history of online literature.
Wu Mengmeng asked: "Oh, by the way, Lu Yiming, what is the name of the website you opened?"
