Chapter 778
The news of 263's acquisition quickly spread in the industry.
This news also became the last straw that broke the camel's back for Ourgame.
The investors behind Lianzhong withdrew their capital one after another, leaving Baoyueqiao with no money to burn even if it wanted to.
In fact, with his financial resources, he could not afford to spend as much as Lu Yiming. Even though the prize money for the champion is the same as QQ, the various rewards are actually reduced versions.
For example, QQ gives away Tianyin MP3s, while Lianzhong gives away various unknown brands of MP3s, and the price difference is more than five or six times.
What's worse is that QQ has put a lot of effort into the sound effects of the game, so it is more entertaining than Ourgame and more popular with users.
In the current board and card games of Lianzhong, users come online to claim login rewards, then leave directly and go back to the QQ game lobby.
Even burning money can’t prevent the loss of users. This is the real reason why investors are determined to run away.
Soon, news that the 263 casual game platform had changed hands appeared in the newspapers.
Everyone immediately understood that Lianzhong was finished!
And with the demise of 联众, other anti-QQ alliances also began to feel insecure. At least they did not dare to sign exclusive agreements with Microsoft and go against Yixun Technology as blatantly as before.
After Chen Yongzheng confirmed the news, he immediately convened a meeting of the company's top executives, and Luo Chuan, Xiong Minghua and others were all present.
The Lianzhong incident brought a huge shock to everyone.
You have to know that at this time, Ourgame had just become the world's largest casual gaming platform.
In terms of foundation, Lianzhong was established in Beijing in 1998. It is the pioneer of online chess and card games in China and occupies about 85% of the game market. At its peak, it had more than 200 million registered users and 15 million active users per month. It has servers in China, the United States, the Japanese Empire, and the Korean Empire. In their view, such a scale is simply unshakable.
And what about the opponent ?
Before Jiang Rongfa set up the chess and card interactive entertainment department, the chess and card game group of Junzi Interactive Entertainment had only four developers and operators, and it was a stretch to call it a makeshift team.
Even the game content of chess and card games, Junzi Interactive Entertainment basically copied Lianzhong's military chess, upgrade, chess, landlords and soha games, without any innovation.
In the conference room, Chen Yongzheng had a serious expression on his face. He asked Luo Chuan, "Why can Junzi Interactive Entertainment use the despicable method of ' complete imitation' to attract Lianzhong users? Is it just because Lu Yiming spent a lot of money?"
Microsoft is not afraid of just burning money, but it is afraid of going in the wrong direction and not getting things done due to lack of money, which is a terrible thing.
Luo Chuan had actually started studying this issue a few days ago, and now he has completed the review of the entire incident. He sighed and said, "It's not a matter of money. Unlike large-scale online games, the rules of chess and card games are fixed, and it can be said that there is no technical threshold. The players of Lianzhong are highly overlapped with QQ users, so this result is actually doomed. And the series of operations by the richest man Lu only accelerated the demise of Lianzhong."
Xiong Minghua also agreed with this view and said, "Mr. Luo is right. In fact, Lianzhong was doomed to fail from the beginning. However, Mr. Lu is still very powerful. If it weren't for his creative ideas and money-burning tactics, Lianzhong could at least last two or three years and buy us some strategic buffer time. But now..."
Xiong Minghua didn't say anything else. Everyone present was smart. Although Xiong Minghua didn't say it directly, everyone already understood what he wanted to express.
In their view, this is a case of the lips and the teeth being in danger. As long as Ourgame was there, they still had time to make plans, but now that Ourgame is gone, they have to face QQ directly and fight to the death.
What made everyone feel even more uncomfortable was that just halfway through the meeting, Chen Yongzheng's secretary received a call and said to Chen Yongzheng: "Oh no, Bao Yueqiao just announced his resignation as chairman of Lianzhong!"
"What?"
"What is he doing?"
"Is Lianzhong over?"
Not only Microsoft was shocked, but all the peers who received the news were shocked.
Lianzhong fell so quickly that it felt unreal.
They have clearly survived the Internet winter, and their development is clearly thriving and their future is bright.
In the end, he was beaten to death with just two punches from the richest man Lu?
The once dominant Lianzhong has lost most of its territory, and its founder and chairman was forced to resign under tremendous pressure. Aren’t these two punches of the richest man too powerful?
For a moment, the weight of these three words "Lu Yiming" once again weighed heavily on everyone's heart.
China Overseas, headquarters of Junzi Interactive Entertainment.
Everyone is opening champagne to celebrate. Standing on the corpse of Lianzhong, Junzi Interactive Entertainment has now monopolized almost all the online chess and card game market share.
Apart from those illegal gambling websites, the entire market can be said to be controlled by Junzi Interactive Entertainment's chess and card game room. They can make a lot of money just by selling happy beans every day.
The huge office has now become the venue for a cocktail party. Jiang Rongfa raised the wine glass in his hand and said loudly: "Brothers and sisters, come on, let's raise our glasses and toast to President Lu together!"
Lu Yiming raised his wine glass and said with a smile, "Those of you who can drink can drink, and those who can't can drink juice, cola, or tea. We don't have any drinking culture, everyone is free to do whatever they want. Especially you, Mr. Jiang, you are not allowed to use your position to force female employees to drink, and male employees are not allowed to do that either."
Jiang Rongfa was at a loss for words when he heard this: "Boss Lu, even if you give me two more guts, I still wouldn't dare to do that."
A company executive who had a close personal relationship with Jiang Rongfa mercilessly revealed: "Boss Lu, maybe you don't know this, but Boss Jiang is famous for being henpecked."
Everyone laughed, and the huge office became a sea of joy.
Jiang Rongfa was so angry that he immediately retorted, "What do you mean by henpecked? How can loving your wife be considered henpecked? You bunch of singles don't know shit!"
So everyone laughed even more happily.
On the way back, Li Yiwen said with emotion: "It was too easy to win this time. I thought we would have to fight back and forth with Lianzhong for two or three years."
Lu Yiming said very seriously: "The bad thing about Internet companies is that they rise quickly but die even faster. If you are a step behind others, you may never recover."
Unlike physical assets, Internet assets are a set of data, which is too simple. If someone recognizes it, it has value, but if no one recognizes it, it is nothing. Unlike physical assets, such as a factory, even if the company goes bankrupt, the factory is still an asset and has value. This is an objective fact that cannot be changed by human willpower.
Li Yiwen said: "Your move of combining chess and card games with social software is really amazing. However, aren't you afraid that Microsoft will learn from you and use it on MSN? What if they use their own advantages to defeat us?"
Lu Yiming blurted out: "Microsoft is not good enough."
Li Yiwen was extremely surprised: "Microsoft is not good enough? It is now the most powerful technology company in the world."
Lu Yiming said: "Microsoft does not have the gene to make social software. Look at how many years MSN has been developing, but it is still so tepid and half-dead. There is no point in deepening the white-collar market. Business people do make more money and have more commercial value, but the biggest feature of social software is sociality. What is social networking about? It's the number of people! No matter how awesome your value is, can it compare to my 500 million users? How many exposures does my random advertisement get? This is the value, and the prestige is bullshit!"
Li Yiwen suddenly realized: "That's why QQ keeps sinking into the lower-tier markets, even trying to attract young users like middle school and elementary school students."
Then, Li Yiwen seemed to remember something and said, "Since QQ is so awesome, why did you create MM? Of course, MM was created to compete with QQ, but QQ lost. Now QQ belongs to us, so what is the meaning of MM's existence? And now you don't promote MM anymore, I think you can shut it down to avoid wasting resources."
Lu Yiming smiled slightly and said, "QQ is enough for now, MM is for the future."
"The future? What kind of future?"
Li Yiwen was a little confused.
In his opinion, QQ and MM are too similar. Not only are the operation logics similar, but even the interfaces are similar. However, MM has almost no users because it requires real-name registration based on the phone number it is bound to. The threshold is much higher than that of QQ. So now everyone is used to using QQ. In terms of functions, compared to QQ, MM is now a rough draft, without anything you need. File transfer, one-click login, all of these do not exist.
Lu Yiming didn't want to say too much now, and immediately said mysteriously: "You will know in a few years, and it will definitely surprise you."
Li Yiwen said dissatisfiedly: "You are such a good fellow, you even hid it from me."
Li Yiwen thought of his little wife. He hadn't been back for a while. It felt like a long time since he saw her. He continued, "Now that we're done with our work, can we go back to Baiyun City?"
Lu Yiming shook his head slightly and said, "No, I have to go to the capital."
Li Yiwen asked curiously, "What are you going to do in the capital?"
Lu Yiming said: "Didn't I say before that I wanted to poach employees from Microsoft? Now is the best time."
Li Yiwen said in surprise: "Fuck, are you serious? I thought you were just joking."
When Xiong Minghua was leaving get off work, he received a call from an unfamiliar number. He didn't want to answer it, but he hung up twice in a row. The other party still called him persistently, so he had no choice but to press the answer button: "Hello? Who is this?"
The person on the other end of the phone introduced himself: "I'm Lu Yiming."
Lu Yiming?
Xiong Minghua was so startled that he almost dropped his phone. His originally impatient expression turned into astonishment: "Boss Lu, why are you calling me?"
Lu Yiming did not answer Xiong Minghua's question, but said: "I just happened to have something to do in Beijing recently. I wonder if you are free at noon today? Let's have a quick meal together."
Xiong Minghua hesitated for a moment and said, "Mr. Lu invited me to dinner. It would be too disrespectful if I refused."
Lu Yiming laughed: "Okay, then you come..."
After hanging up the phone, Xiong Minghua called a taxi and rushed to the place Lu Yiming mentioned.
Xiong Minghua saw Lu Yiming and Li Yiwen in the hotel box.
We should give enough respect to talents, especially to talents like Xiong Minghua who are proficient in both technology and management. He held important positions at IBM and Microsoft and has experience in managing large companies.
This kind of talent is exactly what Yixun Technology is in urgent need of right now.
So when facing Xiong Minghua, Lu Yiming was very polite: "Boss Xiong, I have heard of your name for a long time. I have long wanted to have dinner with you, but you are a busy man with a lot of things to do, so it is really difficult to make an appointment. Come, let me introduce you, this is my Chief Financial Officer Li Yiwen."
Li Yiwen took the initiative to stand up and shake hands with Xiong Minghua, saying, "Hello, Mr. Xiong."
Lu Yiming pushed the menu in front of Xiong Minghua and said with a smile: "I'm not very familiar with Beijing, how about you order the dishes, Mr. Xiong?"
As people get older, they become more shrewd; as ghosts get older, they become more spiritual.
Xiong Minghua was also a man who had experienced many ups and downs. He knew at a glance that Lu Yiming's behavior was obviously for the sake of asking for help.
"Mr. Lu, you are too polite. Everything is delicious in Beijing, so just order whatever you want."
Lu Yiming said, "That's not the case. Mr. Xiong, are you interested in coming to Yixun Technology?"
Seeing Lu Yiming being so straightforward, Xiong Minghua also smiled: "I told you that you don't come to my temple for no reason. How come you, a busy man like you, Mr. Lu, have time to treat me to a meal? Mr. Lu is so polite, it turns out that he wants me to change jobs."
Lu Yiming did not hide his intentions at all. He said confidently, "Let's be frank. I do have this idea. I know that compared to Yixun Technology, Microsoft is a big ship, but as the saying goes, it's hard to turn a big ship around. What's more, if the ship is too big, the phenomenon of seniority will become more serious. Unlike some small ships, there are more opportunities."
After hearing what Lu Yiming said, Xiong Minghua's expression looked a little unnatural, because Lu Yiming just hit his sore spot.
Although his position in Microsoft seems glorious, in fact he is restricted everywhere. Many things cannot be carried out according to his ideas, and he has to balance the interests of all parties.
What's more, in Microsoft, no matter how well he did, he was still an "outsider" and was about to reach the ceiling of his promotion.
Although Microsoft claims to be a large international company, as a Chinese, Xiong Minghua naturally cannot hold a higher position than others.
Now that the MSN project was about to fail, Xiong Minghua, as the main person in charge, would definitely be dragged out to take the blame. At that time, those who disliked him in the company would definitely come over to add insult to injury.
Now, all kinds of unpleasant words have reached his ears from the head office. In recent times, Xiong Minghua has been thinking about how to deal with the current situation.
However, the appearance of Lu Yiming gave Xiong Minghua a new idea to solve the problem.
Change jobs.
In fact, this was also the reason why he hesitated but finally agreed when Lu Yiming asked him to have dinner.
They were all people in the same circle, and any small information would be caught and analyzed and magnified. Lu Yiming took the initiative to contact them at this time, and his intention was very obvious.
At that time, he was just thinking about what Lu Yiming might do. Now that Lu Yiming showed his true colors and directly brought up the topic, to be honest, Xiong Minghua was a little tempted.
But after all, he was a cultured man, so he couldn't lose his dignity. Xiong Minghua didn't want to be too proactive, which would lead to his own devaluation. So he said in a joking tone: "Mr. Lu, you are the richest man in Asia, how can you be a small boat? If I change jobs, what position can Mr. Lu give me?"
Lu Yiming had obviously already thought about what position Xiong Minghua should be placed in. He said without hesitation: "How about Chief Technology Officer? If Mr. Xiong is willing to come to our Yixun Technology, I plan to appoint you to be responsible for improving the company's R&D strategic planning and process management capabilities, and to be responsible for managing the company's platform R&D system department, including the basic instant messaging platform, and large-scale online application systems. "
Xiong Minghua originally wanted to be reserved, but when Lu Yiming said this, he even omitted the reserve: "Since Mr. Lu thinks so highly of me, then I can only refuse it disrespectfully."
The next morning, Xiong Minghua walked into the company humming a little tune.
When Li Zhengkai saw Xiong Minghua, he immediately came over and whispered, "Boss Xiong, you're finally here. Someone from the head office is here to do an in-depth investigation on the MSN project. I think they may be here to hold someone accountable. Please pay attention."
Xiong Minghua was actually prepared for this matter, and now he already had a buyer, so he was not panicking at all. He asked, "Have the people arrived? Where are they now?"
Li Zhengkai said: "In the president's office, President Chen and President Luo are entertaining us."
"Okay, I'll be there right away."
At this time, inside the office, a blonde woman sat on the sofa, crossed her legs, and said arrogantly, "MSN has suffered a setback in Xiaguo, and you are primarily responsible."
Chen Yongzheng was very unhappy and said, "If the head office hadn't been giving us instructions remotely, would we have been so restricted and slow?"
"Don't make excuses for your failures."
This person's name is Audrey Morley, and she is a senior vice president in the Microsoft system.
At this moment, Xiong Minghua opened the door and walked in. He looked around and finally stopped at Audrey Molly, and said jokingly: "Isn't this Ms. Molly? What brings you here?"
Seeing Xiong Minghua, Audrey Morley's expression became even more unhappy. The two had not gotten along in the company before. It was Audrey Morley who originally came to Xiaguo to be in charge of the MSN project, but this "fat job" finally fell into Xiong Minghua's hands.
At that time, many people in the company had objections. After all, they all felt that MSN would win without a doubt and whoever came would win. Xiong Minghua getting this job was like a math Olympiad participant taking the answers into the exam room.
Isn’t this a definite result?
However, the development of the matter was beyond everyone's expectations.
