Chapter 776 MSN Alliance
At the beginning of the war between MSN and QQ, just like the previous war between eBay and Taobao, no one was optimistic about QQ. After all, the strength of the parent companies behind the two parties was very different, and the gap was even greater than that between eBay and Alibaba.
Although Lu Yiming is the richest man in Asia, the person standing opposite him is the richest man in the world.
When combined with the buff of worshipping foreign things, it can be said that QQ is naturally at a disadvantage.
Not to mention that Microsoft was at its peak from 2004 to 2008.
At that time, mobile Internet was not yet popular, and mobile phones were still in the era of feature phones and 2G networks.
All netizens who want to browse the web basically log in on the PC.
Microsoft is the absolute overlord in the PC era. Relying on its monopoly on the market share of operating software, it can stand on the top of the mountain and look down on all the other mountains.
As for the market value gap, it is even more despairing.
In 1999, Microsoft's market value exceeded 600 billion US dollars, making it the world's most valuable listed company.
The parent company behind QQ, Yixun Technology, has just been listed on the Hong Kong stock market, with a total market value of just HK$10 billion. The size gap between the two companies is nearly 500 times.
Now entering 2004, Microsoft, whose business development had stagnated slightly due to the Internet cold wave, has finally begun to pay attention to the development of overseas markets, including Xiaguo.
MSN, an instant messaging software, is Microsoft's vanguard in opening up the Chinese market.
Everyone believed that it would not take much effort for MSN to defeat QQ and take over the instant messaging market in China.
After all, without any publicity or localization support in Xiaguo, Microsoft MSN has already accounted for 10.87% of the instant messaging market. Although it is still far from QQ's 77.8% share, it is already the second largest instant messaging software in Xiaguo.
Moreover, the commercial potential of these 10.87% of MSN users far exceeds that of QQ's 77.8%!
You should know that in the summer of 2004, there were about 20 million business people among Internet users in China, and MSN accounted for 10.75 million of these users, significantly more than half and more than Tencent's 9.5 million.
What’s even worse is that in the business circle at that time, QQ was considered a very low-end thing in the eyes of most people, because the people who used QQ most widely were young people who hung out in major Internet cafes.
Even in many companies, employees are prohibited from using QQ during working hours.
In the eyes of many bosses, QQ is just a tool for chatting and striking up new people.
Compared to the fancy QQ, MSN's prestigious origin and business temperament are obviously more suitable for business people. Therefore, industry insiders are optimistic about MSN's occupation of China's instant messaging market and believe that Microsoft is determined to win. Even if it cannot crush QQ directly with lightning speed , it will certainly make QQ unable to resist and get a chance to breathe after a persistent struggle, and live in a corner.
However, the development of things is always so unexpected. With QQ's one amazing operation after another, QQ's popularity has become more and more widespread, and its users have increased.
Although many people come here to steal vegetables, and they are all ordinary people who have just come into contact with the Internet, the number of users is indeed increasing, and this cannot be denied.
Social software has a scale effect. The more people use it, the more people will be attracted to it. Because everyone uses it, if you don't use it, you will have no way to contact others.
On the contrary, if the number of users decreases, the user churn rate will also increase. If none of your contacts use this app anymore, then there is no point in you using it.
This is the situation with QQ and MSN now. No matter who uses QQ, more and more people are using QQ, and you can't contact them without QQ.
As for MSN, no matter how high-end or business-like you are, your contacts and customers are all on QQ. Who can you contact using MSN?
In the QQ group, Zhou Hongyi, who had already defected to Yahoo, became more and more brazen, saying, "Boss Lu has no moral principles and actually launched a sneak attack."
Pony Ma also complained: "First it was resume downloading, then QQ Farm. I can't handle any of these two killers, let alone both of them. It seems that Mr. Lu has been planning this for a long time. I heard that he and Bill Gates are good friends and brothers, so good that they wear the same pants. How could he be so cruel?"
During this period, Xiao Ma Ge paid close attention to this matter and put himself in the scene, thinking about how he would deal with the encirclement of MSN if QQ was still in his hands. The conclusion he came to was that there was no way. MSN was coming with great momentum, and its brand and tone were much higher than QQ. This high-end image was something QQ could never catch up with.
As a result, QQ did not compete head-on, but continuously launched new features, creating a generation gap with MSN in terms of technology. It also used a very simple game like QQ Farm to attract new users.
If we look at the monthly active data now, MSN does not even have a fraction of QQ.
The more he studied, the more shocked Xiao Ma Ge felt, and he was completely impressed by Lu Yiming's way of solving the problem.
Zhou Hongyi said: "Hehe, they say there is no father and son on the battlefield. No matter how good the relationship between Mr. Lu and Bill Gates is, it is just a personal relationship. For something like making money, even his biological father wouldn't be beaten to death, let alone just a friend?"
However, at this moment, Lu Yiming silently said, "@Zhou Hongyi, Mr. Zhou, you seem a little arrogant recently. Do you think I can't lift a knife anymore?"
Zhou Hongyi saw that Lu Yiming was furious, and hurriedly said, "Boss Lu, let's put the matter of the knife aside for now. I can tell you an important piece of information. Yahoo and Microsoft have just reached a milestone agreement. Both parties agreed that the two major instant messaging software, Yahoo Messenger and MSN, can enable users to communicate with each other."
Lu Yiming was surprised when he got the news. He recalled carefully and didn't remember any news about Microsoft and Yahoo cooperating on MSN. He immediately understood that QQ must have brought great pressure to MSN, which prompted them to cooperate.
But then Lu Yiming felt something was wrong, because in the original history, QQ also beat MSN and finally drove MSN out of the Xia country's market. I haven't heard of any cooperation between Microsoft and Yahoo in this regard.
Lu Yiming couldn't help but mutter: Damn, you are targeting me, right?
Many of the people in the group who are big names in the Internet circle were also shocked by the news.
Microsoft and Yahoo to join forces?
This means that the two parties are expected to form the world's largest instant messaging community, jointly occupying 44% of the global market share and covering more than 275 million people!
How will QQ respond?
The number of Internet users in China is only about 80 million now, and the consumption capacity of these 80 million Internet users is probably not even one percent of that of American Internet users. The commercial potential of the two sides is simply incomparable.
"@Zhou Hongyi, is this news true?"
"Why don't I seem to have heard any news about this? If they really join forces, it will be a real problem."
"QQ is currently focusing on the domestic market, while their combined market is the entire Western world. We can't even compare in terms of user scale."
"Not many people in China have computers now, and the purchasing power is even lower than that of the West."
After everyone's analysis, many people feel that although QQ can suppress MSN temporarily, in the long run, MSN will definitely be stronger than QQ. Even if QQ can have the upper hand in the Chinese market, looking at the entire international market, QQ can hardly compare with MSN.
Then, Zhou Hongyi released another bombshell: "Mr. Lu, Mr. Luo Chuan of MSN has said that as long as security is guaranteed, MSN is willing to interoperate with more Internet social software including Yixun."
This news once again brought a little capitalist shock to the group.
Jack Ma shouted, "Damn, that's a great statement. As long as there are enough prefixes, you have the final right of interpretation, right?"
"What he said is indeed the same European and American arrogance as always. Now QQ has the upper hand, but he still needs QQ to guarantee security before he can communicate with others? Who does he think he is? Mr. Lu is right."
Lu Yiming saw through the language trap in this statement at a glance, and immediately sent a happy pounding the floor emoji to express his ridicule, and then said: "What do you mean by mutual communication? It's about assimilation, right? Why don't they take a piss and look at themselves? They also want me to guarantee security, bah! Yixun Technology is tough, we would rather accept failure than surrender. What's more, what's wrong with Yahoo and Microsoft joining forces? In the field of social software, they are all stinky little brothers, and even together they are not enough for me to beat with one hand."
When Lu Yiming said this, everyone felt speechless.
Although everyone knows that Lu Yiming likes to brag and has outstanding abilities, this statement is still too shocking.
Don’t you have any idea about the background of Yahoo and Microsoft?
All together, not enough for one hand?
Do you think you are the Buddha?
Seeing that Lu Yiming refused to give in, Zhou Hongyi immediately dropped another bombshell. He directly @ Jack Ma: "Old Ma, come out and say something."
Jack Ma, who was originally lurking around to watch the show, was helpless when he saw Zhou Hongyi directly @ him. He said, "Why @ me? I don't have anything to say."
Lu Yiming joked: "@Jack Ma, you, a guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes, have also betrayed me?"
Jack Ma quickly said: "I am not, I didn't, don't talk nonsense."
However, Zhou Hongyi didn't seem to have any intention of letting him go, and said directly: "Stop pretending, didn't you also receive an invitation from MSN to join the 'Anti-QQ Alliance'?"
As soon as this news came out, there were a lot of question marks in the group.
"?"
"?"
"???"
"Is it a prophecy?"
"Jack Ma, you are awesome."
"Fuck, I didn't expect you, Old Ma, to be so well hidden. Are you planning to backstab Mr. Lu?"
Even Lu Yiming slowly typed a "?".
Jack Ma panicked and quickly defended himself: "Don't talk nonsense , what backstabbing or not, Mr. Zhou, I'm telling you, don't sow discord and destroy the deep friendship between me and Mr. Lu."
Then, he @Lu Yiming: "Don't think too much. I just found out about this not long ago. I haven't had time to tell you yet."
However, Zhou Hongyi was merciless and continued to expose him, saying, "I see that you are still busy with internal discussions and have not had time to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision."
It is obvious that many of the so-called personal relationships between business tycoons are just superficial friendships.
As long as the benefits are big enough, backstabbing is not a big deal.
Being stabbed in the back by Zhou Hongyi repeatedly, Jack Ma felt very tired and was too lazy to explain anything. He just accepted his fate and said, "Okay, whatever you say is what it is."
Lu Yiming didn't think Jack Ma was a traitor. After all, the business world is like a battlefield. Everyone is out there selling themselves out. The world is bustling with people seeking profit. As long as the profit is big enough, anything can be sold.
Does anyone really think that pure friendship exists in this world?
No way?
No way?
Although he had no special feelings about Jack Ma's backstabbing, Lu Yiming still took MSN's formation of the "Anti-QQ Alliance" very seriously. And seeing Zhou Hongyi's fearless attitude, he was afraid that the alliance had already been formed.
Although Zhou Hongyi and Lu Yiming have many collaborations, in fact, Zhou Hongyi's bottom line is really disappointing. He is capable of doing things like backstabbing old teammates or selling out friends for fame and fortune.
For example, in order to promote his anti-virus software, he spread viruses everywhere...
Lu Yiming searched on his computer and saw that MSN had launched its own Chinese website.
Not only that, Luo Chuan also put each channel of the website out to public bidding in the form of contract management. With the reputation of MSN, it naturally attracted many well-known partners quickly, including 9 large websites such as CCID, MOP, Lianzhong, and English Village.
Jack Ma’s Taobao naturally also received an invitation, which is what Zhou Hongyi just mentioned.
However, Lu Yiming did not see Alibaba's website on the MSN website. It seems that Jack Ma was not lying and was still waiting and watching.
After all, QQ had just injected a wave of traffic into Taobao not long ago. If it stabbed Taobao in the back at this moment, Jack Ma was afraid that Lu Yiming would directly ban him.
In this way, QQ's situation is different from before. MSN's "Anti-QQ Alliance" can not only unite a group of allies to fight QQ in a short period of time, but also import the traffic on MSN Messenger to the portal website, convert it into income, and quickly realize MSN's profitability in the Xiaguo region, thus achieving the goal of fighting to support the war.
In this way, even if it drags into a protracted war, they can still bring down QQ through continuous blood transfusions.
Lu Yiming couldn't help but sigh that a big company is worthy of being a big company. The counterattack came so quickly and the offensive was so fierce.
MSN is currently entering into the telecommunications value-added services, which is the lifeblood of Yixun Technology. The QQ at this moment is no longer the QQ of the mobile Internet era. The main profit model at present still relies on telecommunications value-added services.
So in order to make trouble for QQ, MSN quickly acquired a telecom value-added service company in Pengcheng, which provides MSN users with a monthly SMS package service of 10 yuan.
Obviously, Luo Chuan, who is familiar with the Xiaguo market, is well aware of the huge profits in the mobile phone text message market, and MSN intends to get a piece of the pie.
Lu Yiming packaged the information he had collected and sent it to Zhang Xiaolong, and also told him about the things that came out in the group chat.
After Zhang Xiaolong received the news, he immediately realized the seriousness of the matter.
There are eight large websites including CCID, MOP, Lianzhong and English Village, covering multiple fields such as current affairs, news, entertainment, games and education, covering all aspects of life.
Obviously, MSN has fought back against QQ's invasion of MSN's business market. They are also launching a fierce attack on QQ's traditional field to compete for young users.
QQ has one-click login, MSN also has one-click login, and Microsoft is rich and powerful, so it can conquer more small and medium-sized websites and directly use its power to suppress others.
Lu Yiming complained, "These Angsa people really have no moral principles. I competed with them in technology and creativity, but they actually wanted to compete with me in spending money."
If it were any other company, they would just burn money, but when it comes to spending money compared to Microsoft, Lu Yiming's brain is not broken. After all, this is a ruthless company that spent nearly 70 billion US dollars to acquire Activision Blizzard.
Zhang Xiaolong said: "They are forming cliques to isolate us. This is not a good sign. How about we also form an anti-MSN alliance?"
This is Microsoft's overt strategy, spending money to win over allies and isolate QQ.
The Anglo-Saxons are very traditional. Whether in politics or economics, they like to form cliques, use their numbers to bully the few, and use the big to bully the small.
Even if Lu Yiming is the richest man in Asia, how will you respond if I show you the richest man in the world?
Facing Zhang Xiaolong's proposal, Lu Yiming weighed the pros and cons in his mind and said, "Spending money to win over small and medium-sized websites may seem like a way out, but it's actually a dead end. After all, no matter how rich we are, can we be richer than Microsoft?"
When it comes to assessing strength, Lu Yiming is still very calm. As the richest man in Asia, his wealth cannot be compared with Microsoft. It is a sure death if they just burn money.
Zhang Xiaolong also knew that what Lu Yiming said was true, but he still felt unhappy. After all, Microsoft had surrounded him: "Are we not going to do anything?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Of course we are not doing nothing. Since we cannot increase our allies, we will find a way to reduce the allies of our opponents."
Zhang Xiaolong was confused and asked, "How can we reduce it?"
Lu Yiming said: "Just randomly pick a lucky player from their allies and beat him to death. Wouldn't that reduce the number of allies of the opponent?"
Zhang Xiaolong: “???”
In Beijing, at the Lianzhong Games headquarters, Bao Yueqiao, who was in a meeting, sneezed. Wang Jianhua, who was standing next to him, immediately asked with concern, "Old Bao, do you have a cold?"
He didn't know that he had become the "lucky player" chosen by Lu Yiming. He just felt a chill running down his spine. He tightened his collar and said, "No, maybe it's because the weather is too cold."
Jian Jing on the other side frowned slightly and said, "Isn't there a heater? Why don't you go to the hospital for a checkup?"
Bao Yueqiao quickly shook his head and said, "The company's business is expanding recently, so I don't have the time. Let's talk about it later. I know my health well, so I'm fine. Let's continue the meeting."
It has to be said that Lianzhong is one of the many lucky ones who took off on the Internet wave at the end of the last century.
In 1998, as part of the first wave of Internet companies, Lianzhong was established in Beijing. Its founders were Bao Yueqiao, Jian Jing and Wang Jianhua.
None of them had imagined that starting with a registered capital of 500,000 yuan, 5 years later Lianzhong would have become the world's largest online gaming and entertainment website.
There are 80 million registered users, including 1 million members, and the peak number of people online at the same time is 400,000!
Now they have even embraced Microsoft's strong support through MSN. In the eyes of the three founders, they are about to reach the peak of their lives and soar to the sky.
