The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 183 Online Walmart (6k)

NewPay can play a bigger role than banks.

From regional banks to big banks, users have a lot of options, but electronic payment is different, almost only NewPay is an option.

Other electronic payment companies have too few users and support too few scenarios, and users lack trust in these electronic payment software.

X.com, founded by Musk, received investment from EBay after the bubble burst, and EBay took about 30.00% of the shares of X.com.

X.com, which is backed by EBay, can only be used on EBay and cannot be used on Amazon, which means that the payment scenarios it supports are very limited.

The limited payment scenarios make users less willing to use electronic payment, which in turn makes electronic payment software less attractive when negotiating cooperation with other companies. This is a deadlock that is difficult to untangle.

X.com tried the same, using incentives to attract customers, and it didn't take long for it to stop.

Musk found a desperate thing from the promotion of the incentive fund, that is, the incentive fund can only allow users to download X.com, and the proportion of them continuing to use X.com after receiving the incentive fund is less than 10%.

In addition to the incentive plan, it didn’t take long for the Nasdaq bubble to burst. For a while, the financial circles felt that after the Internet companies in Silicon Valley got financing, they spent money indiscriminately regardless of 21. Financing is used to acquire customers. In fact, it is difficult to realize its value after acquiring customers.

Wall Street found that after Internet companies advertise, if each customer needs to spend 20 dollars on average, the customers who spend 20 dollars to acquire customers will not even be able to create a value of 2 dollars.

This also caused X.com's incentive fund plan to be stopped shortly after it started by investors, who thought it was meaningless.

When electronic payment was not yet popular, you still had a chance to play like this. Now that NewPay is firmly occupying the top spot in electronic payment, you will get twice the result with half the effort if you play like this again.

If WeChat Pay hadn't found a way to connect social attributes and Chinese traditional customs like WeChat red envelopes, no matter how much money was spent, it would not have the desired effect.

The average expenditure of Cloud QuickPass on user subsidies is much larger than that of WeChat Pay and Alipay, and the cost of acquiring a single customer is sky-high.

Playing like this when the market is flooding may fool investors, and they are willing to give you money to test the waters in the market. The Fed raised interest rates six times from last year to this year, and the capital market has dried up. Investors are still willing to let Musk do this. No wonder it burns money.

So sometimes it is fate, NewPay occupies the right time and place, and later competitors want to burn money to compete with it. At least in the past two years, Wall Street capital is unwilling to pay this money.

In addition, NewPay looks extremely powerful, backed by Zhou Xin, as well as two top investment banks and top banks.Not to mention that investors do not think that other electronic payment software can beat NewPay, and even Musk himself does not think that X.com can beat NewPay.

Bill Gates said: "Your point is right, this is indeed an area that requires a lot of corporate influence, which is completely different from pure e-commerce.

This is more suitable for the approach taken by retail giants in traditional industries in the process of Internet transformation.

Congratulations Newman, you have found a new way to e-commerce, but I am afraid Amazon and eBay will not be very happy.

Walmart puts too much pressure on Amazon and eBay. "

Bill Gates thought for a while, and he still intends to remind the other party: "eBay and Amazon need to rely on NewPay now, and their own electronic payment software is not mature enough. When their electronic payment software is mature enough in the future, it is very likely that NewPay will be removed from them. removed from the payment channel.”

What Bill Gates can think of, there is nothing that Zhou Xin can't dream of. It is even hard for him to imagine why Amazon didn't use its own electronic payment, but kept PayPal occupying their electronic payment channel.

If it were Taobao, it would have let PayPal go as far as it could go.

"I also have such worries, so I will cooperate deeply with Wal-Mart, whether it is to provide a new business model to Wal-Mart, or sell some shares to Wal-Mart.

Including Wal-Mart, which specifically aimed at my investment institutions, made a round of private placement, which is expected to raise 5 million US dollars of funds.

These are all part of the in-depth cooperation with Wal-Mart. Even if Amazon and eBay kick NewPay out, I still have offline channels like Wal-Mart. "

Private placement is a kind of stock issuance by listed companies.Shares are issued to a limited number of investors, and the issue price is determined by bids by investors participating in the additional issue.Only one institution can participate in the private placement of US stocks.

As a retail giant, Wal-Mart is not short of money at all, and there is nothing special to spend money on, so when it reported Zhou Xin's private placement to the American Securities and Exchange Commission, it was in the name of introducing strategic investors.

Wal-Mart also announced to the outside world that Zhou Xin is a strategic partner of Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart has not reached a strategic cooperation with NewPay, but with Newman.Further verified the rumors in the capital market.

If it wasn't for Zhou Xin's refusal to accept the offer, Wal-Mart would have wanted Zhou Xin to take up a position similar to their chief product manager.

Before Bill Gates answered, Zhou Xin stared at each other: "Bill, isn't there Microsoft? NewPay will cooperate with Xbox, and NewPay will also become a payment channel for Microsoft's online sales in the future, right?
Backed by Wal-Mart and Microsoft, to use the Chinese proverb, it is called peace of mind. "

Bill Gates gestured with his hands on his chest: "So you can cooperate deeply with Wal-Mart, why can't you cooperate deeply with Microsoft?

We have more foundations for cooperation, and Microsoft also hopes to do cross-shareholding with NewPay.Not to mention our personal friendship.

For example, enterprise qq, you can cooperate with Microsoft, and we will do this together.Microsoft's MSN has a stronger presence in American.

Promotion in the early stage is far less troublesome than enterprise qq. "

Since Tencent landed in Silicon Valley in June of the millennium, first Zhouxin’s companies, then Wal-Mart, and then other traditional companies, more and more American companies began to use enterprise QQ as an internal communication tool.

By the time the Internet giants in Silicon Valley, such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL, reacted, it was already October.

Microsoft launched the instant messaging software MSN last year, and AOL acquired ICQ in 98. Yahoo has also been considering launching instant messaging software, and they did develop an instant messaging software-Yahoo Messenger.

All of these companies have the ability and willingness to make enterprise instant messaging software.

Although in the strategy formulated by Zhou Xin and Pony, the development goal of enterprise qq is mainly based on traditional manufacturing, but it cannot stand the promotion of this thing in Silicon Valley Internet star companies such as Riot Games and NewPay.

Riot Games and NewPay employees will share it with their friends who work in other Internet companies.

Then some companies will consider purchasing.

Enterprise QQ was officially launched in American in July, and the buffer time for Enterprise QQ and Tencent was only three months.

Within three months, these giants realized that enterprise instant messaging software has great potential, and began to enter this market one after another.

MSN is the fastest mover. The card MSN has always hoped to play is differentiation. We want to be the instant messaging software that understands the enterprise best, and replace mailboxes as the main communication tool between workers and between the upper and lower levels of the enterprise.

As a result, no one like Tencent took the lead. By the time the responsible department of Microsoft's internal MSN knew about Enterprise QQ, Enterprise QQ had already negotiated several big orders.

MSN is obviously unacceptable. Group building, file transfer, announcements, and group file sharing are not difficult to develop.

After MSN entered Huaguo in the later generations, it also focused on the business card, and had a fight with QQ in the soft battlefield of instant messaging.However, MSN's cross-border operations and the chaos of its management system were a disaster. A good hand of cards was suddenly messed up because of management.

The marketing department and the R&D department have to report to two different bosses. There is no coordinating person in charge of MSN in the Huaguo market. Microsoft Huaguo hopes to vigorously promote MSN. The management in Seattle does not think so. They were facing Google The war with AOL, and Huaguo's business only accounts for 2% of Microsoft's global business. Any project of MSN that is larger than US$50 needs to be reported layer by layer in Microsoft's global system.

Such a system made MSN vulnerable when Huaguo competed with QQ, and Wang Bo had a poor start.

It's different now. The war between qq and MSN is now in Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in American.

When Internet companies began to notice Enterprise QQ one after another, Tencent no longer kept it hidden, and directly launched the signboard. We are a company controlled by Newman, and Enterprise QQ is a product designed by Newman.

The Internet companies in Silicon Valley went to Riot Games, NewPay and other companies to inquire. They are all using enterprise QQ, and then the Wal-Mart supermarkets around them are starting to pull you into the group.

Wal-Mart's advertisements for attracting people into the group are flying all over the sky, and under each payment receipt is the group number of the local life group.

When an online shopping user goes to pick up the goods offline, the Walmart clerk will tell him: "Sir, after you join the group, we will send product discount information and new product information in the group every week.

We will also distribute some coupons through the group, and you can use the coupons when you pay through NewPay for your next purchase. "

Wal-Mart is advertising heavily on TV and in magazines around its customer base and electronic coupons.

Coupled with the news that Wal-Mart and Zhou Xin have reached an in-depth cooperation, Internet companies in Silicon Valley believe that the company behind Enterprise QQ is controlled by Zhou Xin, and this whole set of gameplay is also very similar to Zhou Xin's style.

Zhou Xin's product design is definitely not an isolated product. It will form cooperation in unexpected places and create barriers for other Internet manufacturers.

Under the halo of Newman, many Internet giants choose to purchase enterprise qq.

After the launch of MSN and Enterprise ICQ, Internet companies still prefer Enterprise qq. This imported product from Huaguo is considered so cool by Silicon Valley enterprises because of the halo of Newman.

The cooperation between qq, NewPay and Wal-Mart is a complete set of linkages. It is too difficult for MSN and ICQ to find a retail giant similar to Wal-Mart in a short time. able to land.

If the group cannot issue coupons, it will naturally be less attractive to users. If the group can issue coupons, but offline shopping obviously does not support NewPay payment, it can only be paid online, which requires retailers to have wired Go shopping store.

If you want to create an online shopping store, you also need to update the information on the products that can be shopped in offline stores in real time, which places too high requirements on the informatization of traditional retailers.

Millennium American retailers have only figured out the ERP system. This e-commerce system that has lasted for more than ten years is not so easy to handle.

With a model project like Wal-Mart in hand, other consumer brands would not consider MSN and enterprise ICQ at all. The consumer brands here are not just retail giants, but also luxury goods manufacturers, cosmetics manufacturers, home appliance supermarkets, etc.

The market that MSN and enterprise ICQ can expand is very narrow.

For Wal-Mart's method, MSN is very greedy after the launch of user groups and online coupons. This is a long-term enterprise application service.

After doing a good job, it can completely compete with enterprise management software giants like SAP. In 2000, SAP's annual revenue reached 60 billion euros.

It is not only Microsoft and AOL that are greedy for enterprise qq, but also SAP. SAP has talked with Pony Ma several times, expressing its hope to acquire Tencent, at least the acquisition of enterprise qq business.

Zhou Xin pretended to be stupid: "Does Microsoft also have instant messaging software? I didn't know it before."

Bill Gates had doubts in his heart, and he didn't know whether Zhou Xin's words were true or false. The communication between Zhou Xin and him was either by email or phone, and he never used MSN to communicate.

What he suspects is that MSN is not only an instant messaging software, but also has a series of functions such as portal websites and mailboxes. Anyone who uses the Windows operating system knows MSN.

Bill Gates really didn’t know MSN that week: “Well, Enterprise QQ is a very innovative product, and we haven’t been able to find a profit point for instant messaging software before.

Like MSN, Microsoft also regards it as a part of Microsoft's overall software services, and never thought that it could sell some special functions to enterprises. "

Zhou Xin said: "I think there are historical reasons behind this, sending emails in American has become a habit of everyone after entering the workplace.

Emails are so commonplace, and how well you write emails is related to whether you can make a good impression on the other party. Email has become a kind of culture in American.

There is a communication method such as e-mail in the internal management of the enterprise, and naturally there is no need for another communication method. "

Zhou Xin put it conservatively, the quality of the email is even related to whether you can get promoted.

Bill Gates said: "No, this can't be a reason. If it can be a reason, then Huaguo's paid Q&A shouldn't come from you. You must know that Huaguo doesn't have the habit of paying for knowledge now."

Zhou Xin couldn't refute the other party's secret accusations. He couldn't possibly say that it was because of Microsoft's connivance that Huaguo users didn't use genuine Windows.

This is not a reason that can be put on the surface.

Zhou Xin can only explain: "Huaguo's economy is still at a very backward level, and we can't afford the price of tens of dollars for Windows. More and more genuine Windows users."

Bill Gates: "I'm not blaming Huaguo, I just found an example at random, and I didn't specifically mean the Windows operating system.

I have been to Huaguo many times. Huaguo has been making progress in intellectual property protection, but as you said, due to objective conditions, it cannot be achieved in one step.

I have talked with Microsoft executives in Huaguo. People in Huaguo lack the awareness of paying for knowledge. It is very difficult for you to make a product that pays for knowledge like Quora and make it so commercially perfect. .

So I say that the MSN team cannot ignore the help of instant messaging for enterprise management because of American's well-developed e-mail culture.

In fact, not all situations are suitable for sending emails, and instant messaging software can be a good complement to emails.

With mobile phones, any communication in the future can be done through the phone, and a few words can be finished. Except for the phone, face-to-face communication has the least loss of information.

Why even have email?

There are many ways to communicate between people, and enterprise instant messaging can make up for the missing parts of email, such as multi-person communication.

E-mail can only be sent one-to-many, which is extremely inefficient, and online chat rooms or BBS are not strict enough, group chat can perfectly solve this problem. "

MSN copied the enterprise MSN beta version based on enterprise qq. After it went online within Microsoft, Bill Gates also tried it.

He thinks group chats are a great way to communicate, especially for projects driven by multiple people.

Zhou Xin said: "Enterprise QQ is doing very well in China, with many enterprise customers.

Enterprise qq has been in Huaguo for about half a year before coming to American, and Huaguo's enterprise customers have given a high evaluation.

It is precisely because of market verification that we came to American.

But because of American's e-mail culture, it makes us very concerned that this product will not be used in American.

That's why I specially designed a whole set of mechanisms that open the enterprise QQ group to customers, as well as online shopping, offline pickup, and electronic coupons.

Even if the enterprise qq has a poor reputation among other companies in American and does not achieve the results we expected, it can at least bring value to consumer companies.

The results are not bad, and the employees of Riot Games and NewPay have said that the experience is good.

Later, we also felt relieved to promote it in other companies. "

Bill Gates said with a smile: "Newman will still worry that his products will not be popular. It is difficult to see you have such worries."

Zhou Xin said: "Because of the mandatory check-in and read functions of corporate QQ, I am worried that employees will feel offended and their hidden benefits will be affected. Originally, they could arrive at the company at 09:30, but now with the mandatory check-in, they need to arrive at the company at [-] o'clock. .

While employees are negatively impacted, management is unaware of the benefits.

This is the contradictory point of enterprise software. In many cases, if it is not done well, employees will complain, and the management will not see the value. "

The reason why Dingding has been criticized in later generations is because of its existence, which seriously squeezed out the original time of the workers.

There is no such thing as 955 in Huaguo, let alone 996. At home after get off work, you can be called by @ at any time, or by the leader at any time. As soon as the news comes, you have to work immediately. There is no such thing as a work-life boundary.

DingTalk and WeChat are just accomplices to fuel this trend. In the mobile Internet era, if you say you don’t look at your phone, the probability of your leader believing it is lower than if you say you didn’t hear the phone call.

WeChat and Dingding simply do not give workers a chance to survive.

Bill Gates said: "This is not only a problem faced by enterprise QQ, but also a common problem faced by many enterprise software. For example, human resources consulting, the transformation of the original salary system, to put it bluntly, is to reduce employee wages and save costs.

Let employees need to put in more effort to get their original salary, and at the same time, it cannot affect the overall efficiency and enthusiasm of all employees. After the salary reform, there needs to be more output.Human resources consulting companies survive on the ability to dance on the tip of their knives.

Enterprise-type instant messaging software does not have much feeling at this level, and human resources consulting can live well even if it touches the fundamental interests of employees. "

Bill Gates continued: "But this time Wal-Mart's online shopping system has caught the eyes of many people, including me.

More and more people realize the power of NewPay.

There are two theories. One is that the electronic payment software itself is powerful and can bring huge growth space for Internet companies. The combination of traditional industries and electronic payment can find new space for online transformation. "

This is brought about by coupons, which revitalize the "dead" customers in Wal-Mart's regional customer base.

"Another way of saying it is that NewPay is only as powerful as it is in Newman's hands.

If anyone is in charge of NewPay, it is impossible for Newman to find so many areas for product innovation.

NewPay's value is far less than Newman's.

When I was on vacation in Europe, I heard them say that European retail companies are also pushing for the liberalization of electronic payments in Europe.They also want to create a business model similar to the online Wal-Mart. Carrefour wants to privately issue some shares to you at a price of 50%, and introduce you as their strategic investor.European entrepreneurs agree with the second statement.

But I want to give you some advice, that is, the value of electronic payment software is indeed too great, I suggest that you should change a girlfriend.

If you find a white person or a Jew, you can largely avoid unnecessary trouble for you.

This is a little suggestion from me as a friend. It is not for you to break up with your current girlfriend. You can have many girlfriends. "

Zhou Xin knew that the suggestion Bill Gates made at the end was really heartfelt. He thought to himself, probably because he had been dealing with him for so many years, so the other party's suggestion.

The greater the value of NewPay, the more likely it will usher in accusations similar to Microsoft, that is, monopoly.

Monopoly is the best way to split up NewPay.

Zhou Xin is skeptical that finding a white girlfriend can fend off accusations of monopoly, but it can fend off some political risks.

"Bill, I will seriously consider your suggestion." Zhou Xin would not accept such a suggestion because he knew that he would have to return to China in 08 at the latest. Invitation card."

　Since I moved, the Internet at home has been disconnected. I don’t know why, but I still use the hotspot of my mobile phone to send this chapter.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)