this man is not calm

Chapter 421: Easy First, Difficult Later
Some means are already available, but the inherent ideas of the past are too deeply rooted, and no one thinks in this direction, so they do not realize that there are huge business opportunities contained therein.

Another pain point that cannot be stated explicitly is that, while some people may be able to see that there is room for maneuver, there are too few people who have the ability to "dig for gold."

Coincidentally, Jin Shang is not bound by convention and has enough strength and background to have a hand in the matter.

After the two most important issues were clarified, the rest were not so important. After the hearing was completed step by step, Jin Shang walked out with a little sweat on his forehead. It was not because he was nervous, but because it lasted too long and was far more complicated than he had imagined. He consumed too much energy and was a little tired.

Zhang Hua, Hao Qilian and others, who had been waiting for a long time, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they saw the real boss finally come out.

"Is everything going well?"

"It wasn't a big problem. There weren't any unexpected difficulties."

Jin Shang responded with a chuckle, wiped his cheek with a handkerchief, took the iced juice handed over by Sun Daqi, and said cheerfully,

"Technical issues are secondary. The overall solution we provide is more valued. More importantly, we do some thankless tasks that others don't do. Even if we make less money temporarily, starting early is a big advantage."

No matter how things change, the essence remains the same. Whether it is agriculture, new energy, fuel ethanol, biodiesel or the energy tree plan, it ultimately comes down to the relationship between food, land and energy. It's a matter of trade-offs and judgment. Almost all economic activities in modern society revolve around them.

Just like fossil fuels, the general public always thinks that gasoline and diesel are the biggest consumers. In fact, petrochemicals are the biggest destination. Food, medicine, chemical fiber, biology, dyes, coatings, daily chemicals, etc., in today's society, there is almost no industry that does not use petrochemical products.

It is such a waste to simply distill precious crude oil to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, etc. and then burn them. This is one of the most uneconomical ways of utilization. Most petrochemical products are more cost-effective than burning them directly.

This is still the case when the international crude oil price is less than ten dollars. If it reaches sixty or seventy dollars, or even more than one hundred dollars, using it as engine fuel would be a waste of resources. The normal idea should be not to use it if possible. Even if it cannot be avoided, try to use less or find substitutes.

That time will be the time for biodiesel, fuel ethanol, coal gas, new energy, power batteries and hydrogen fuel cells to show their capabilities. Now, except for wind power which is more promising, the others are basically more hype than substance.

The four of them exchanged pleasantries for a while, then found a quiet corner in the hall and sat down. Jin Shang asked curiously:

"What happened in such a short while?"

Second uncle Zhang Hua replied:
"I talked to several foreign traders. This year, the import channels for soybean meal, forage grass, pulp and waste newspapers from the east coast of the Pacific Ocean have become increasingly blocked. The main reason is that the shipping market has seen too much price increase..."

"Lack of ships?"

"It was in very short supply. The North Sea Shipping fleet just added a large container ship and loaded it with cargo and set off. I also wanted to bring back more forage because winter is coming soon. As a result... the orders were booked until March next year, and the Chinese New Year is almost over. It was so tense that I was thinking about whether to build a few ships. Otherwise, it would be too slow to always wait for others. The canned vegetables, condiments, caviar and so on in the port warehouse were spent day by day. It cost a lot of money. Buying futures for hedging could hardly cover it."

"The situation should improve by the end of the year. I'll help you ask around later! If you really need a boat, I'll ask Hong Renquan to look for any abandoned boats and take them over at a low price."

Although it is a boom cycle in the shipping market, there is always a shortage of working capital for shipowners and shipping companies. They cannot withstand the long cycle and have to cancel orders to stop losses.

If we build it ourselves, the delivery period will easily take a year or two, and then it will be too late.

"It would be great if we have it, but it doesn't matter if we don't. This is not urgent. I need to build a plant factory here first, mainly for breeding and raising seedlings. We can't do that in the weather in the north. It's too risky."

Salinization and desertification are common in large areas from the western Songnen Plain to the Hulunbuir grassland, which are basically man-made. Overgrazing, uncontrolled reclamation, degradation of plateau grasslands, and continuous sandstorms have led to the current results.

In the past two years, after the efforts of all parties, there has been some improvement, but it has only prevented the situation from getting worse. If we want to fundamentally improve it, greater investment is needed.

"Sea rice must be planted, and sweet sorghum is a booster. In addition, we should also try some cold-resistant and alkali-resistant pastures and cultivate more varieties that are adapted to the local soil. This will give us more choices for future crop rotations."

"On this aspect, it's enough for my uncle to check it. I'm just a layman who has only a half-baked bucket of water."

"Yes! In addition, we have abundant wind and solar energy resources over there. If the pilot project here is useful, can we build one in the north as well?"

"It is certainly possible, but the current UHV transmission technology is not very good. Unless there is a large load locally to consume it, otherwise... the generated electricity can only be abandoned, which is a waste."

"In the future, if super farms are built, will they also consume a lot of electricity? I've seen that some people are building buildings to do fully enclosed intensive pig farming. Naturally, they can also do large-scale plant factories for indoor planting. If they control the temperature and humidity, they should need a lot of electricity, right?"

"It will definitely work, but... the technology is not mature, so it's basically impossible to make money. Uncle, don't worry, it hasn't come to that. I will definitely go to the north to grab land in the future. The good places are all owned, so it's not my turn to start. Only the coastal alkaline wasteland, the north is cold and not very fertile, everything is lonely in winter, and the summer is serious with swamps and difficult to navigate, only the ones that others don't like will have my chance."

With the warming climate and the rapid advancement of science and technology, land that was originally of little value will become valuable in the future. These few years may be the last chance to "overtake on a curve."

How much manpower and material resources were spent to acquire a piece of land in Beijing to build a data center? If it weren't for the capital city, which cannot be neglected, and if he were a local tyrant, Jin Shang would have wanted to open a "branch base" long ago.

It's just a few blocks. If it were in the north, with this much investment, it would be a waste of money if it didn't create tens of thousands of acres of unowned land.

"It's good that you have a plan! I think I understand that there is a future only if there is electricity, oil, mechanization, technology, and people. Although Julunbo is poor and not a fertile place, it is a large place with rich water and soil resources. This is the capital."

It is very close to the northern plateau and is rich in coal, copper, iron ore and rare earth resources. If the problems of electricity and heating are solved, it will be a good place to set up several industrial clusters, such as smelting and steelmaking, metallurgy and chemical industry, electrolytic aluminum or fertilizer feed, etc. In the plains, mechanized agriculture and large farms are standard.

If used properly, it can be developed as a strategic depth and rear base, even if it is not called the "dragon's rise place".

I talked with my second uncle about our plans for the next two to three years. Actually, it’s about how to grow quickly, grab some territory, and build up the scale first.

Don’t blame Jin Shang for being realistic. Many business forms in the future will be related to the most basic resources.

Originally, Jin Shang wanted to focus on the fields of technology and culture, but he didn't expect that a small data center would almost get him stuck.

This also made Jin Shang realize that the current social situation is actually the result of countless years of adjustment and has perfectly fit the operating mode of the existing model. Once you want to find a new way in the existing system, it will be quite difficult.

As a business entity that has never appeared before, the first step is to consider land use rights, water, electricity and coal, whether the local government supports and encourages, whether there are surrounding supporting infrastructure, etc. For newcomers, there must be barriers everywhere, which is equivalent to having to cut through thorns and open up a new path when there was no road before.

It doesn’t matter when the scale is small and the impact is not obvious, but once it becomes bigger, it will be incompatible with the original system. At this time, problems will appear in a concentrated manner and it will be time to test the entrepreneur’s ability.

There was no competition from peers or outside influences involved, but insufficient electricity supply almost ruined the data center project, which really taught Jin Shang a lesson.

It is difficult to do things, and it is even more difficult to do something unprecedented.

In his previous life, regardless of whether he became arrogant or not after achieving success, Ma kept trying in the early stage of his entrepreneurship, jumping back and forth on the red line, taking the risk of stepping on a sewing machine, and made e-commerce a success, fooled investors, opened an online bank, and issued a third-party payment license. These few moves alone can be said to be amazing.

While passing the time by chatting, Jin Shang and Hao Qilian discussed the telecommunications restructuring and business splitting. Basically, they have already separated in fact, but nominally they are still eating from the same pot, and they are just waiting for the announcement.

This is also the key reason why Jinshang's proposal to accelerate the ADSL high-speed network pilot process received a very positive response.

In the future, they will not be able to enjoy the dividends from mobile phones, and the postal service will belong to others. The cable TV network is in full swing and has nothing to do with Hao Qilian. They are guarding the fixed-line market and can make a profit regardless of drought or flood, but the potential is not very great. It is not known how long they can enjoy the benefits of Xiaolingtong. The Internet is the main direction for developing business, nothing else.

The consensus reached by Jin Shang and Hao Qilian was to first expand the scale of commercial Internet cafes to cultivate young people's Internet habits, and then start with home broadband to gradually expand the user base.

Of course, there is still an important hurdle to overcome, and that is the number of personal computers in use. Although it is now growing at a rate of more than 30% per year, the base is too low, the increase is too large, and the absolute number is not large.

How to make computers affordable for more young people has become a top priority.

In this regard, Jin Shang can only try to assemble second-hand products. As for the current effect, it cannot be said that there is no effect, but it is just quite unnoticeable.

Jinxi Culture's software and Internet business can still expand overseas, but Hao Qilian is completely helpless. He can only hope that Internet cafes will expand faster and that domestic hardware manufacturers will work harder to reduce the cost of computer host computers to a level acceptable to ordinary families as soon as possible.

It is estimated that there will be 1.2 million online computers by the end of the year, radiating over 5 million netizens. This number is not much, but it is not too small either. Since Internet cafes have a large proportion of installed computers, Jin Shang even has the idea of ​​developing online games to make money. As long as the number of active registered players exceeds 300,000, it will be profitable. If it exceeds 500,000, it will make a lot of money. If it exceeds 800,000, it will basically reach the starting data of "Legend of Mir 2" in the first year. As for one million... forget it. I dare not think about it for now. I will see if I can get this number of players after operating it for more than a year.

In comparison, Sun Daqi's problems are a little bigger.

“I’m ready to start a business again.”

Turning his attention over here, Jin Shang was not surprised at all when he heard this.

"You were able to endure for more than two years before you decided to go into the entertainment industry again. I thought you were going to pursue a career in politics."

"I had this idea last year, but I put it off for so long because I wanted to learn more about foreign trade. Also, your e-commerce platform is too successful, which makes me a little worried and I don't know whether I should quit."

"The market is huge and can accommodate two large e-commerce companies. You don't have to worry about me. The competitors are not just you, Old Sun, but also Old Tan, or some other weird guys. Not to mention Jinghua Mall, even the Spacetime Information Network is copying Jinxi Mall and Northern United Online Portal. Spacetime Port is even benchmarking our Internet Cafe Alliance. Calling you shameless is an understatement."

As Jin Shang complained, everyone couldn't help but laugh a few times. The current Internet ecology in China is basically one where everyone copies each other, especially Jinxi Culture, which is a disaster area for infringement. Every month, the Legal Department will pick out a few of the most enthusiastic "chickens" and kill them, so that the monkeys who are eyeing them will take it easy.

Up to now, the legal department has become the seventh largest revenue-generating department of the entire group company. For a technology and cultural company that has been in business for less than three years, this is really ridiculous. There are not so many infringement lawsuits in the cultural business sector.

Seeing Jin Shang in a relaxed state, Sun Daqi felt a little relieved. In China and even abroad, e-commerce platforms basically cannot avoid the influence of Jinxi Mall. Not to mention active support, as long as Jin Shang does not feel disgusted or even deliberately targeted, the start of the entrepreneurial plan will be smooth.

"At present, I plan to start with cross-border e-commerce wholesale foreign trade, first gain a firm foothold, and then expand into domestic small and medium-sized merchants and self-employed e-commerce, which is what Xiao Jin said C2C. In the B2C field, Jinxi Mall has gone too far, and I can't afford to build my own warehousing and logistics, so I can only start with light-asset C2C..."

"It's a good way to go, but if you do it this way at the beginning, it's like being in an online flea market, surrounded by fake and shoddy products. When you become big in the future, it will be difficult to wash away the stigma."

"This is the only way, and it seems to be feasible at the moment."

Sun Daqi said helplessly with a wry smile,
"Jinxi Mall has already occupied most of the market, and there are still a number of offline hypermarkets that are eyeing the dream of integrating with the online market. They are rich and powerful, with a solid foundation and abundant resources. How can I compete with them? Only the small and medium-sized merchants that everyone looks down upon may be able to succeed. They are not strong enough and their quality varies, but they are numerous enough and are also a force that cannot be ignored."

“First, attract merchants and give them some sweet benefits, then increase the number of users, use buyers to control sellers, and complete the closed loop of preliminary business logic. The rest is to burn money and work hard to squeeze out competitors. The last one standing will be the winner!”

"I can't hide anything from you. I know it, and you've seen it, but you're just too lazy to do it."

Jin Shang shrugged and said bluntly:

"At first I thought it was too much trouble, but now that I have money and a foundation, I think it's unnecessary to go to the trouble of doing C2C market."

"So, after confirming that you have no intention of exerting any effort in this regard, I have gained a little more confidence."

"When will Brother Sun start?"

"Next March, after the Chinese New Year, no later than May."

"That's good. We are all competitors in the same field, but it doesn't affect our personal friendship. We should keep in touch more in the future, especially in cross-border e-commerce. We may still have a lot of room for cooperation."

"Opponent or something..."

Such praise made Sun Daqi feel humbled.

"By the way, the appointments with the people from the bank, fund, and trust are coming up soon. Have you got the basic information?"

(End of this chapter)