Volume 3: Taking Roots 2016 Chapter 779
Wuzhen, a water town in the south of the Yangtze River and a thousand-year-old ancient town known as "the last waterside village in China", once again hosted another World Internet Conference after a lapse of one year.
Moreover, compared with previous years, this year's Wuzhen Summit will be held earlier, from December to mid-November, just after the e-commerce war that has come to an end.
The sound of oars, the white walls and black tiles, the blue brick and stone bridges. Zhou Dongsheng still remembers it vividly when he revisited the old place after a year. The background of Wuzhen and the unique atmosphere of the Jiangnan town are overwhelming.
However, although only a year has passed, Wuzhen, as the permanent venue of the World Internet Conference, has undergone significant changes.
Perhaps the most obvious point is the shared bicycles that have appeared in the streets and parked on the side of the streets.
In fact, as the first public bicycle led by the government, this type of public bicycle was also present on the streets of Wuzhen at the beginning.
The mere transition from having charging piles to not having charging piles can give people a sense of highly information-based vision, especially in Wuzhen where wireless networks are fully covered, and it is even easier to scan the code with a mobile phone.
At the same time, in the past year, a shared bicycle craze that swept across the country from the Internet has already evolved from a spark into a raging fire.
Not only did it quickly give rise to two leading companies that raised hundreds of millions of US dollars in financing, but many Internet giants also came out to support it, and even many investment institutions were moved by the news.
To date, according to incomplete statistics, domestic shared bicycle companies have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and it is conservatively estimated that there are more than 20 companies!
As an emerging industry, this growth rate is undoubtedly quite astonishing. A war among many heroes to compete for supremacy in the Central Plains is inevitable, and the smell of gunpowder is gradually becoming stronger.
Not only that, the financing scale of these shared bicycle industries is also quite considerable. Under the sweeping wave of shared bicycles, the angel round financing alone has reached tens of millions.
After all, although the shared bicycle project is an Internet startup project to some extent, it is highly dependent on the entity of "bicycle", and the scale of bicycle deployment also directly determines the size of the project to a certain extent.
If you only have a few hundred bicycles, no matter how well you prepare your PPT and how much you boast to investors, it is obviously impossible to get investors to willingly pay a large sum of money.
Therefore, in the past period of time, all the bicycle factories that can be ranked in the top in the country have ushered in the second spring of the industry, just like a dead tree coming back to life. The order volume is likely to be scheduled until next year.
The streets of cities that rank high in the country have long become a battleground for major shared bicycle companies. The colorful bicycles seem to turn the streets into a fashion show for bicycles.
This is true even in Wuzhen. When Zhou Dongsheng first arrived in Wuzhen and was strolling on the blue brick and stone road, he saw a row of small blue cars.
At first glance, Zhou Dongsheng was in a trance, thinking he saw the "Hello Bike" of the future. He couldn't help but go forward to take a look, only to find that it was not "Hello" but "Xiaoming Bike"!
To be frank, Zhou Dongsheng had never even heard of this brand of bicycles. After all, he was just an ordinary person among the general public.
Just like the saying of "the highest peak in the world", Zhou Dongsheng is one of the majority who only knows about Mount Everest. As for the second, third, and fourth highest peaks...
Naturally, there is no time to learn about it specifically. Even if you take a look at it occasionally, you will soon forget about it. After all, who would remember this little-known knowledge that is useless?
Otherwise, the public will only remember the first one.
Therefore, in the surging tide of shared bicycles, Zhou Dongsheng could only catch the two leaders, Mobike and Ofo. As for other "followers", he was powerless.
It is like biting off more than you can chew. Just these two leaders are enough for Zhou Dongsheng to reap the benefits of the development of shared bicycles.
Apart from the Bluegogo that almost made Zhou Dongsheng think he was waking up from a dream, the other two shared bicycles were naturally also present, adding a touch of colorful modernity to the ancient streets of Wuzhen.
Obviously, on Wuzhen, the stage that can be regarded as the "Huashan Sword Contest" in the Internet field, even the unknown newcomers have the ambition to become famous on this stage.
The blending of the old and the new, and the interweaving of fast and slow, is also a highlight of the Wuzhen Summit.
The new favorites of this year's Wuzhen Summit are not only shared bicycles, but also live streaming, short videos and other well-known figures in the martial arts world, who have all been invited to attend.
So for Zhou Dongsheng, this is a new experience, the second time is familiar. This is his second time attending the Wuzhen Summit. In addition to a group of bigwigs who are very different from him, there are also many familiar faces who are on par with him.
At the same time, there is Yang Luyu, a character who "should not appear" but appears here because of his influence. Unknowingly, Zhou Dongsheng's fame and connections have begun to show.
Being invited to Wuzhen, Zhou Dongsheng naturally did not need to worry about security issues. After all, it is no exaggeration to say that if there were any security issues in Wuzhen at this moment, the whole world would be shaken.
So it was naturally impossible for the two bodyguards to follow Zhou Dongsheng, and Zhou Dongsheng didn't even bring Li Jiana as his assistant.
Although he came to Wuzhen alone, Zhou Dongsheng was not lonely and even acted as a guide for others.
Whether it was Yang Luyu or Hu Weiwei and others, it was almost the first time for them to set foot in Wuzhen. Before the Wuzhen Summit officially kicked off, the group toured this Jiangnan water town with great interest.
Tired of walking, the group just sat down in a teahouse on the street. The total net worth of all the people at the table could easily reach tens of billions.
Although it is only paper wealth, it is far from the upper limit. After all, the industry in which each of them is engaged is at the forefront of the times. In time, the growth space of this paper wealth is still considerable.
Several people chatted and laughed casually, and the topic naturally revolved around the Internet industry, which was also one of the few common topics among them.
"In the past year, the wave of shared bicycles has been staggering, and the speed of development is dazzling. Hu's Mobike alone has completed four rounds of financing in half a year..."
"This growth rate is like riding a rocket. None of us here can catch up!" Yang Luyu said with emotion, and then changed the subject and added a sentence.
"Except Jay Chou, of course."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone couldn't help but smile knowingly, and Zhou Dongsheng was another one of their few common topics. After all, the reason they gathered together was because of this key figure, Zhou Dongsheng.
With Yang Luyu's words as a starting point, the group started talking.
"To be honest, even I feel it's a little unreal. After all, a year ago, we were still struggling with bicycle production due to a broken capital chain."
"Luckily, Jay Chou showed up and solved my urgent problem, which saved the Mobike project from being aborted. But I didn't expect the industry to change so quickly."
"In less than half a year, I have gone from being ignored to being a hot commodity that investors are vying for. The ups and downs in life are really unexpected..."
Hu Weiwei couldn't help but say with deep emotion, "Mobike can be what it is today, thanks to Jay Chou..."
Seeing that one or two people started to flatter him, Zhou Dongsheng quickly spoke out to stop this "bad trend", "I'm just an investor pursuing profits, don't praise me too much."
"If you praise me too much, I will be embarrassed to cash out and leave." Zhou Dongsheng reiterated his identity very directly, intending to restore his "profit-driven" image.
"Let's put it this way. We are all ordinary people who pursue profit, but Jay Chou's kindness to Mobike not only solved our urgent needs, but also provided us with a lot of help over the past year..."
Hu Weiwei said seriously that not only did they get Papi Jiang, who was at the peak of her career at the time, to endorse Mobike, but they also later introduced Ding Sanshi, a top Internet tycoon, to support it.
In Hu Weiwei's opinion, it was Zhou Dongsheng's repeated support that enabled Mobike to gradually accumulate a luxurious team and catch up with Ofo and keep pace with it.
So from his perspective, Zhou Dongsheng has made an indelible contribution and no amount of praise for him is too much.
Hu Weiwei's words also touched Yang Luyu. "I agree with what Mr. Hu said. If it weren't for Mr. Jay's guidance, I would still be obsessed with the overseas market, and there would be no Douyin app today..."
"Starting a business is like sailing against the current. If you don't move forward, you will fall behind. If I don't fight for it, this blank business in the domestic market will be filled by others in the blink of an eye. By then, it will be extremely difficult for me to return to the local market for development..."
Obviously, after experiencing the fierce offensive from Toutiao, Yang Luyu couldn't help but feel a little scared.
If I had stood at the crossroads and had not followed Zhou Dongsheng's advice and had acted on my own, I would have inevitably encountered a "fire in the backyard".
By then, I will have no way out and will be caught in a dilemma. Once I reach this point, the dispute over "plagiarism" will become extremely powerless, and I can only argue with each other...
Even now, facing Toutiao, which has almost copied all of its own functions, Douyin, which has the first-mover advantage and the moral high ground, is somewhat helpless.
Although choosing to resort to legal means to protect your rights is a long journey, the ever-changing market will not wait until the results come out to decide the outcome.
Whether it is just or not has never been the first priority for users. What is beneficial to oneself is the decisive factor. This may be the main reason why piracy is so popular.
As the book "The Selfish Gene" says: People are born selfish, which is determined at the genetic level. There is nothing wrong with this. After all, the genetic instinct is to continue...
However, the symbol that truly determined the birth of human civilization came from a decision that went against genetic instinct. A "healed thigh bone" from 15,000 years ago proved the birth of the spark of civilization.
This means that 15,000 years ago, a person who lost his ability to move was not abandoned, but was accepted by his companions and sheltered for several months until he recovered...
This choice also made human society begin to distinguish itself from animals and embark on the path of building civilization.
Ahem, we have strayed off topic. Let's get back to the topic. After Yang Luyu's empathetic speech, they established a connection based on the common point of "Zhou Dongsheng". Although it was the first time they met, they immediately felt a sense of familiarity.
Huang Zheng, who was also present, was different from them and did not resonate much with the two people's true feelings.
In comparison, Zhou Dongsheng plays more of a like-minded person with similar ideas in his eyes, rather than a "mentor" like them.
However, listening to the stories told by others was indeed more convincing, which made Zhou Dongsheng's image in Huang Zheng's heart rise sharply...
"Mr. Yang, you are too kind. But speaking of this, I heard that Toutiao will also attend this Internet conference and hold a symposium. How about we go over there to have some exchanges and get some military intelligence?"
Zhou Dongsheng lightly brushed aside the topic. As an emerging giant with a valuation of over 10 billion US dollars, Toutiao naturally has a considerable weight in the Internet world, so it is natural that it has a place in the Wuzhen Summit.
Although enemies are always jealous of each other when they meet, it is impossible for Yang Luyu to kill Zhang Yiming alone, right?
Although countless real-life cases have proven that the most high-end business wars often use the most unpretentious means...
Scenes like moving the official seal to the belt and climbing over the wall to take secret photos are shocking. Facts have proved that reality is much more magical than novels. After all, reality is illogical.
Of course, the current competitive relationship with Toutiao has not yet reached the point of being irreconcilable, it is just the beginning of the war.
The speaker may not mean anything, but the listener may take it seriously. Zhou Dongsheng's teasing really made Yang Luyu take it seriously. Since he was already here, he might consider going over to take a look...
But he said confidently: "Toutiao is certainly not to be underestimated, but if they can only follow the trend and imitate, I don't think they can threaten our Douyin..."
"Although our technical accumulation is currently our shortcoming, the technology sharing with Mr. Huang is enough for us to gradually make up for this shortcoming, not to mention that we will also have the Golden Second Award next..."
Counting the advantages that Douyin currently has, Yang Luyu is full of confidence. It’s not that he wants to set a flag, but he really can’t think of, “How can Feilong lose by riding on the face!”
"Speaking of the Golden Second Award, when inviting guests for the second Golden Second Award, I'm afraid we'll have to invite more people to liven up the occasion..." Zhou Dongsheng touched his chin and thought.
The reference that comes to mind is the star-studded Weibo Night. To some extent, celebrities and internet celebrities are inseparable, so the support of celebrities can still play a significant role...
