this man is not calm

Chapter 363 End of the Year
As e-commerce platforms develop to their current level, it is inevitable that they will encounter difficulties.

It is understandable that a few years in advance, under the pressure of inadequate infrastructure and substandard hardware performance, many Internet tracks were forcibly opened up, and now they are facing the dilemma of a lower ceiling.

It was the first time that we moved our offline business online. The common browsers at the time had difficulty even loading images, and we had to develop plug-ins and patches ourselves to facilitate our business.

This was not the first or second time that his computer had been mistaken for a virus by antivirus software and system defense. Before he personally started working in this field, Jin Shang felt that all the rogue software and malicious plug-ins in his previous life were disgusting things, and they deserved to die.

But if you really study it in depth, you will find that the general tools on the market are all crooked and customized services are so difficult that nothing can be accomplished without taking a roundabout approach.

In order to speed up the promotion of the corresponding client, Jinxi Culture spent a lot of money to buy a browser, retained the development team, and is also spending a lot of money to recruit more people. Further development is urgent.

The cooperative Jinxi Computer Manager has caused trouble more than once. Mr. Xiao Jin always shamelessly apologized and interceded for him, and only then did he get through the difficulties.

From systems to applications, from software to hardware, every step is difficult and dangerous. It is no wonder that the big IT companies in the past tried so hard to expand into the upstream and downstream industrial chains. Any inconspicuous field may be strangled by unknown small channel dealers.

When it comes to e-commerce that involves joint online and offline operations, the problems are too numerous to count.

As the first recognized e-commerce platform in China and even in the world, there was actually no road ahead. All the taken-for-granted cognitions of mobile Internet agents did not exist at this time.

You have to rely on yourself to clear the way through all the obstacles.

In a commercial society, no matter what you do, you have to spend money.

If the e-commerce headquarters and logistics storage bases were not built, Jinxi Mall would be profitable, and the profit would be a bit too much, because there were no serious competitors. But if we calculate the overall account, it would be at a break-even point, with a slight surplus.

If you want to develop faster, the only way is to burn other people's money instead of investing your own money.

There is no way to temporarily stop the rapid development as all parties do not support further leverage.

The company's debt ratio in its external financial statements has never exceeded 60%, but Jin Shang himself knows that during the most severe period in the first half of the year, the debt ratio exceeded 110%, and in fact the company was insolvent.

Fortunately, with the sales of game consoles, mobile phones, PHS and other products returning, and many business lines starting to get back on track, the debt ratio was reduced to below 100%.

Of course, the overall debt scale remains high, but the increase in fixed asset prices and the good development of profitable businesses have created a positive cycle.

Not adding leverage is only for the purpose of risk control. It does not mean shrinking the scale, nor does it mean standing still.

You still need to continue borrowing money, but the pace should be slowed down. Wait until your ability to make money improves before considering the next step.

After establishing the development direction, the few of them talked a lot before Wei Shuangping and Qi Zhaoyun left with satisfaction.

In the next few days, Jin Shang visited many subsidiaries and branches to express his condolences, give gifts, and conduct on-site inspections. He was also invited by Hao Qilian to attend several coordination meetings. An acquisition worth hundreds of millions of dollars required some response.

Given the current scale of Fetion, it would definitely be difficult to buy it.

In early November, a second-tier city in the south launched a local chat room service. In just one month, it gained 15 million registered users, which was jaw-dropping. Even though there are a lot of water in it, with duplicate accounts and a lot of inactive accounts, this data is still extremely exaggerated, which shows how popular chat rooms and instant messaging are now.

With a total registered user base of nearly 100 million in China, even if only one-tenth of that number is actually active, it would still be very impressive.

As Internet cafes spread across the country and more channels for accessing the Internet became available, the number of ordinary users with access to the Internet began to surge, especially college students, who became the main force of new users.

It is so popular that even if chat rooms and instant messaging tools are not the main business of telecom companies, they will not sell them easily.

As for how to operate it, according to the information revealed by Hao Qilian, after Jin Shang quoted a nine-digit purchase price, the boss realized that this thing was not only lively but also valuable.

Therefore, it is inevitable to join forces with peers in the industry to make up for the shortcomings. With their natural advantages, there will hardly be much resistance.

Many IT companies in need such as Jingcheng Technology, Jinghua Mall, and Spacetime Network began to contact Jin Shang frequently, forcing Jin Shang to pay attention. It was not because he was afraid that they would steal his business, but because the power of the backers behind them was too great.

In a rapidly growing market, even though Jinxi Culture occupies an absolutely dominant position, it is unable to quickly defeat competing companies.

If you eat the meat and share the leftovers with others, you can live a comfortable life.

"It's difficult. Although I was aware of it early on, it has become a long-term tug-of-war, which is really a headache."

The path of all-round development is definitely not an option. The only option is to hold back, wait for the opponent to make mistakes, and try to launch sneak attacks in individual areas.

Online videos and online electronic music are the areas that Jin Shang feels have potential and can make a lot of money. For example, selling MP3, MP4, handheld game consoles, learning machines, music phones, etc. are all good businesses that will not wither in the next few years.

After a week of intermittent heavy snow, the tense and busy atmosphere subsided a little.

The second Spring Festival Gala, organized by Jinxi Culture and Beihai Shipping as the core and bringing together many partners, opened successfully on the day of the Little New Year.

Last year, Dai Yiqun performed on stage as a special guest, and this year she performed as a friendly shareholder and strategic partner.

In order to accommodate more audiences, Jin Shang contacted Director Zhu Jingxiao and used his connections to rent a large theater as the venue.

In terms of professionalism and magnificence, it is certainly far behind the official Spring Festival Gala, but it is also much more formal than ordinary activities.

Having learned from last year's experience and lessons, the second Spring Festival Gala was obviously much more interesting.

Mei Shuying, Fang Hua, Zhang Yu and others took temporary leave and came back from the rehearsal to show their support.

Due to its greater influence than last year and its success, this year's 14 channels, including two satellite channels, broadcast the show simultaneously, welcoming many famous artists who were unable to perform on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

After all, it is a celebratory program broadcast on New Year's Eve, and the afternoon is not a useless time slot. If the program is good, the ratings will still be considerable.

Because it is an annual meeting for domestic audiences and shows the spirit of the corporate group, even if the presence of specific companies is deliberately downplayed and too many obtrusive advertisements are not inserted, the atmosphere is still much lighter, and there will be no complicated program selection activities and endless rehearsals. The program team will plan and select the list of candidates, and then let the artists who are confirmed to be on stage, and the employees and bosses just need to practice more in their daily lives, and the main focus is to be relaxed and happy and spend the holidays together.

After the recording and editing are completed, just send it to the TV station for broadcast. It’s not a live broadcast, so there’s no need to be so nervous.

Before the opening ceremony, Jin Shang, Mei Yingnian and others had already taken their seats in the best stands before the performance team, many outstanding employee representatives and major corporate leaders entered the venue.

There was still some time left, and the staff outside were confirming the process, while the people inside were discussing some light-hearted topics.

"Ashan, do you have any plans for large loans this year?"

"I don't think so! Why... Second Uncle, are you okay?"

"Isn't the construction of 'Three Kingdoms City' and the Film and Television Tourism Base nearing completion? I have also tried to build a few joint-venture real estate projects to show my presence. Now I have a few good plots of land, which I am ready to develop and recover funds as soon as possible. In the past two years, there have been a lot of large expenditures, but not much income. The cash flow is a bit tight and needs to be replenished."

After such a long period of preparation, it’s time to get the snowball rolling.

Although North Sea Shipping has ample cash flow, it is not unlimited. As a large company with a lot of assets, it needs money everywhere. It would be better to start selling the buildings as soon as possible.

“Two Grade A office buildings and a residential area adjacent to the business district, as well as several developments to the south, dozens of LPG, chemical, ro-ro vessels and offshore cruise ships, have taken up a lot of resources.”

"Counter-cyclical investment, I understand! Don't worry about me. Xiaolingtong makes a lot of money. The next few years will be a golden period. The consumer electronics and white appliance markets are also okay. If it weren't for the bait from Lao Huang, I would have taken the bait voluntarily. I don't feel any pressure at all. I even want to do something big. It's not a problem to be honest for a while now."

"You……"

Mei Yingnian smiled and patted his nephew's shoulder.

"When Minxing Bank goes public early next year, I will have more money. I have quite a few financing projects here, and I was given a 'yellow card' by the regulator. It's not easy to do 'self-financing' in various ways. Anyway, they are all the same routines. As long as they are not too excessive, everyone will turn a blind eye."

"Counter-cyclical investment is supposed to be like this. It's a lot of trouble, but if you can get through it, you'll make a lot of money in the future."

Jin Shang responded by smiling but didn't say much. Even though everyone around him was familiar, it was difficult for him to go into too much detail about the specific strategies and inside stories.

The leverage has been increased high enough. If it weren't for the "golden finger" to protect him, Jin Shang wouldn't have played it so thrillingly.

But if you walk by the river often, you will get your feet wet.
Now that my business has grown, there are so many things to do and it’s hard to take care of everything, so it’s better to take it easy.

The short-term goal is to reduce the debt ratio to below 80 percent while maintaining the overall stability of the debt scale.

There was no plan for large-scale debt, at least in 1997.

"Your PHS is really popular. Office workers are everywhere holding their devices to look for signals and talking loudly on the phone."

"Mobile phone bills are still too expensive. PHS is cheaper and doesn't require a card. Except that the signal is sometimes poor and can only be used in hot spots in the city, it's really a good deal."

For example, in this conference hall, the signal is quite good and very suitable for using PHS. Many people can use it at the same time without any signal interference.

“If we have hundreds of millions of users and a turnover of more than a billion per month, that would be great.”

Within five years, it is really suitable to make quick money.

In just a few months, the number of Xiaolingtong users nationwide exceeded 35 million, which is about seven times the current number of mobile phone users. The development was really too fast, and this is the result of the business being concentrated in only a few densely populated cities.

A large number of second- and third-tier cities, and even third- and fourth-tier small towns in the central and western regions, have not yet promoted the policy.

If it is not too close to the spectrum of the long-term 3G plan, it will cause obvious signal interference. There is no need to worry about the short term, let alone the long term.

Spectrum resources are a core competitiveness that cannot be grasped by Jin Shang or even Hao Qilian, let alone Jin Shang. This is a major decision that serves the overall strategy. Young Master Jin can only hope that the business scale will be so large in the future that the people who make the decisions will pay more attention to it.

With hundreds of millions of users, this is a big deal and must be properly arranged. It would be ideal if I could successfully join the 3G4G development team.

While the two were talking, Nan Dabiao, who had been busy with the installation and upgrading of cinemas, increasing the number of films, and expanding the scale of the film market, came over and asked:
"What plans does Mr. Mei have for Xinghai Plaza next year? The cinemas here are crying out for it and can't wait."

“The investment bundling is almost done and should be announced in the middle of the year.”

"That's good. Upgrading old-style cinemas is quite troublesome. It's better to open up new theaters in downtown areas. Opening theaters in large-scale integrated commercial centers is the general trend and a win-win for all parties."

Nan Da Biao said with a smile.

Changdi Culture has spent a lot of money and made a lot of money this year. What's more gratifying is that even though the cinema market is still sluggish overall, the trend of recovery is already obvious.

As the economy improves, people have more money in their hands and they always have to find a place to spend it. They can't always go to dance halls, clubs, bars, etc. Many young people may not like such places of debauchery. Cinemas are actually a good place for entertainment. With the increase in traffic, it can also boost the surrounding consumer market.

"Ashan, many industry analysts predict that this year may be a 'big year' for film and television entertainment. Should we increase investment and make a few films?"

"Isn't there a budget of 50 million?"

"Add another 20 million, and that... big IP you mentioned is indeed promising. A humorous action film, a modern comedy, feels good. If we push Xiao Dai's fame further, we can try to become an international superstar. Europe and the United States... are too far away. The West Pacific is our sphere of influence, and we should be able to carve out a large piece of the market."

Earning an extra 20 or 30 million from a successful movie is secondary. The key is to increase fame. The commercial value of Dai Yiqun's face will rise, and the endorsement fees of several million will gradually fail to match his influence. If he has 20 or 30 million, and takes on ten or eight endorsements every year, he will earn hundreds of millions. Making money should not be too easy.

"You guys decide. If the project is good, I'll let Jinxi Video invest in it. It will have real performance to support it and pave the way for its listing next year."

It is indeed time to put obtaining exclusive online broadcasting rights or filming high-quality exclusive dramas on the agenda.

Fame and hype are both money in the capital market!
(End of this chapter)