this man is not calm

Chapter 478 Big stick and sweet dates

Leaving aside the situation abroad, among domestic computer software and hardware manufacturers and major IT service companies, the biggest difference between Jinxi Culture and other companies is in their grand strategy: one targets the vast civilian personal computer market, and the other targets the corporate scientific research and office market.

Computers (electronic computers) are production tools, but also household appliances, and are almost daily necessities like color TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. This trend may not be seen at the moment, and even the most optimistic practitioners only regard home computers as an important supplement to public computers.

The rapid development of Internet cafes in recent years has really surprised many industry experts. Public procurement is no longer the main growth point of the computer market. The rapid development of Internet-connected computers for entertainment purposes has allowed major computer manufacturers to see another possibility.

Correspondingly, the demand for core graphics performance has soared and independent graphics cards have begun to win the favor of more people.

In the past two years, Jinxi Culture has acquired several powerful graphic design software companies and incorporated technical teams to enrich the technical development team. In the field of graphics card design, it has certain accumulation and can also produce some low-end product markets, at least a part of it can be consumed for its own use.

After looking through the financial statements for the second half of the year, Jin Shang is generally very satisfied. The gaming industry is developing very fast, and many independent developers have gathered around Jinxi Culture to build a relatively complete ecosystem, which basically forms a closed loop from design, development, evaluation, promotion to after-sales.

The domestic market has gradually grown, and the cross-platform compatibility strategy that Jinshang has been promoting has also begun to show its power.

In the field of e-sports, remote online battles have begun to gain popularity. For example, the "Mob of Fighters" series of games, which are a hit every year, are popular in major video game arcades across the country. Online competitions held based on the Venus series of game consoles attract the attention of many veteran players every season.

After being incorporated into Jinxi Culture, the Beijing Student Union, the largest BBS forum in China, had a channel for diversion, and the number of users and activity increased rapidly. A large part of the computing power and storage space of the data center was prepared for it.

On the contrary, the blog network (weblog), which Jin Shang had high hopes for, has been lukewarm. Even with Jin Shang, a young talent, the most popular star Dai Yiqun, and a number of big and small artists and industry bigwigs, the number of users has not achieved explosive growth.

On the one hand, it's a bit too high-brow and out of touch with reality, and on the other hand, there are no events that attract national attention to fan the flames, such as Mu Zimei, Sister Furong, or the verbal battles among public intellectuals.

Social networking sites make their living from the traffic economy. Without major events that bring in traffic, they are still lacking something.

It is far from enough to just rely on Jin Shang to post some updates and publish some poems and songs from time to time, and let Dai Yiqun's assistant post some daily pictures.

That would be fine, anyway, Jin Shang didn't expect these projects to develop significantly in a short period of time. Only the promotion and popularization of the Bai Ze 98 system was unsatisfactory, which was a bit disappointing.

It’s not that the market is very bad, but even though a lot of real money has been spent on promotion, the market share has not increased much. The leading system manufacturers are still strong, but several small manufacturers are being squeezed out and are about to disappear.

"If you don't move forward, you will fall behind! This is troublesome. The current results prove that the market trend has almost stabilized. The powerful system service providers are gradually gaining a foothold. Small and medium-sized manufacturers will usher in a new round of reshuffles. They will either be cleared out or incorporated. There is no room for up-and-coming companies in China to rise."

Jinxi Culture did not start its development from scratch, but instead acquired existing system service providers, browsers, and anti-virus software. After integration, it spent money on promotion and gradually saw some improvement.

Yang Qi responded calmly:
"The original market structure has stabilized and it is difficult to change it, but... there is still a lot of room for development in the new market. For example, the Internet cafe market, and the laptop computers, which are not mainstream at present but are growing very rapidly, the entertainment audio and video software and hardware, and the microcomputer market. After this round of reshuffle, there will be long-term competition, with at least three and at most five companies dividing the market. In addition, Mr. Jin, can you expand your business scope to programmable computers, tax control machines, industrial computers, and car computer systems? Especially the last one, I see you are very concerned about it. Private cars are not easy to buy, but large production vehicles such as agricultural machinery can be tried."

“It’s just as hard to do!”

Shaking his head slightly, Jin Shang sighed,
"At present, we can only find familiar people and manufacturers to cooperate with, conduct pilot projects first, see the results, and then gradually promote it. This cannot be done overnight."

In the ever-changing IT field, the cost of accomplishing something last year may be twice as much as this year, or even more.

As a time traveler, even with a "golden finger" and foresight, Jin Shang cannot promote the layout of the business empire too aggressively according to his own wishes. Instead, he has to examine the actual domestic situation and develop step by step.

Several near-field high-speed network technologies have been developed, but none of them can be put into commercial use. Most of them are just technical routes and standard patents, and they require a large number of friendly companies to form an alliance before they can be promoted.

"With a 37% market share in the notebook computer system market and nearly 29% of all PC computer installations in China, we are probably already the second largest system service provider. Next, we need to work hard to maintain our position and wait for the right time, for example, when the mobile Internet arrives as predicted by President Jin, to catch up."

"That's the only way! Next, we have five years to prepare for the next generation of products. We expect to release the next generation of Bai Ze system in 2002, or no later than 2003. Next, we will see if we can think about the browser and promote it together with email, antivirus software, and office systems. In the PC era, whoever can occupy the computer desktop will own the future. Also, we should find one or two server and mainframe manufacturers as soon as possible to seek strategic cooperation. It would be great if we can acquire shares."

"Okay! I'll arrange this as soon as possible..."

As he spoke, Yang Qi closed his notebook.

The work in the past six months has not been as smooth as last year. Behind the rapid development of projects such as electronic games and MP3 is the slow development of system software and office software.

It’s not that the technical center is not doing its job well, but that market development has entered deep waters and there is no room left in the marginal areas. We must either win over new users or seize other people’s market share.

In the past, Jinxi culture was smaller in size and had the potential to play the role of a pig in the wild. But now it has become as huge as an elephant and can no longer hide in the bushes and develop stealthily to gain advantages.

There are only a few large and powerful companies in the industry. If they make some small moves, everyone will be watching. The competitive means can no longer be unexpected, but they have to rely on diligent practice of internal skills and real competition of strength and foundation.

Today's half-year summary report actually did not mention the issue of the wafer fab. Chip design is only one aspect. Success depends on how to manufacture it, improve the yield rate, and successfully launch it into the market.

Only after Yang Qi left the office could Jin Shang help but sigh slightly.

Unlike the emerging Internet IT field, traditional operating system services are already very mature, and there are only a few large companies that share the market. It is very difficult for new players to gain a foothold. Jinxi Culture relies on multi-application cluster tactics, bundled promotion, and spending money to give profits, and can barely occupy a place in China. To be honest, if the company's employees were not so efficient, there was no "golden finger" blessing effect, and they did not catch the last train in the PC computer market and have a sense of presence in the notebook entertainment audio-visual computer market, they might not even make a splash after two or three years of operation.

It is a very core basic market that requires sufficient hard power to support.

Jinxi Culture, which was established only three years ago, still lacks some foundation.

"Either find a powerful and potential chip manufacturer to cooperate with, or build an alliance with yourself as the center, otherwise, the foundation will be unstable."

Wintel is the Windows-Intel architecture, which is the combination of the strongest software and the strongest hardware manufacturers, dominating the entire PC era.

It is possible to take both software and hardware into consideration and make them the best, but it is a troublesome matter to deal with such a huge machine.

Since Microsoft became the absolute dominant player in the global system software service provider, it has been facing antitrust pressure, and this is the consequence of focusing solely on software.

Jinxi Culture's strategy is to have everything, but Jin Shang knows clearly that they must not be mixed up, and for various considerations, they have to be reorganized and operated separately.

"The whole machine business should be separated as soon as possible, focusing on brand and channel construction. The core of R&D should be set up as a separate research institute or laboratory, which should be directly controlled by the head office so as to control the general direction. As for the supply system at all levels, we will see later!"

Thinking of this, Jin Shang couldn't help but come up with the idea of ​​hiring a capable executive CEO. It was unrealistic to figure out all the complicated matters by himself, and he still had to rely on the collective strength.

A person with a short mind will always fail to think things through.

Thinking about the talents that can be brought in, Hong Renquan is the most suitable, but unfortunately he is too old and has already retired; Zheng Liangzhi is half-qualified, and is very good in the field of public relations, but is a little unfamiliar with specific business; Li Xuan has great potential, but her personality and identity doom her to be unable to form a "dual-headed" governance model with Jin Shang, otherwise it will easily lead to big problems; Huang Yiyi is very capable and learns very quickly, but unfortunately she is too young, is proficient in practical work, but has no experience in being independent;

After much thought, Wei Shuangping and Qi Zhaoyun are the most suitable. The former still needs to be in charge of Jinxi Mall, which is the mainstay. As for the latter, although his past resume has some flaws, he is still a very good person. What determines Jin Shang's decision is that he possesses the power of the "Golden Broom", which can judge his condition to a large extent and avoid the embarrassment of entrusting the wrong person.

Just as I had made a preliminary decision in my mind, there was a knock on the office door.

"Come in!"

Immediately afterwards, Qi Zhaoyun walked in holding a stack of documents.

"Boss Jin, the unaudited semi-annual report from Jinxi Video has been submitted. The finance and legal departments have conducted a preliminary review and no major issues have been found. The evaluation summary has been prepared."

"Ok?"

After taking it and looking at it, Jin Shang asked naturally,

"Goodwill valuation is low, inventory turnover is abnormal, and the whereabouts of some fixed asset impairments are unknown?"

"Correct!"

Sitting on the chair opposite Jin Shang, Qi Zhaoyun answered with a prepared answer,
"The accounting firm that the listed company cooperated with was conservative in its valuation model for emerging industries, especially IT Internet, and its view on the goodwill of Jinxi Video was not very objective. In addition, the natural loss of books, movies and discs in the rental and sales stores was reported very high, and there may be problems with the supervision of the newly opened third and fourth-tier outlets. Finally, expired or unsold goods are usually given away as gifts of related online shopping products. There may be improper operations and abnormal flexible pricing, which has led to many losses that could have been avoided."

"These three problems are actually one problem. The parent company's control over Jinxi Video has declined, resulting in insufficient communication between the upper and lower levels. In addition, the management of the listed company is testing our tolerance. Someone has to make the first move in the process of adjustment!"

Unable to help but sneer, Jin Shang said nonchalantly.

The current Young Master Jin is no longer the rookie he was three years ago. He has more or less anticipated all kinds of strange ideas from his subordinates.

For a listed company, holding a majority stake and being the actual controller does not mean that Jin Shang can fully control every aspect of Jinxi Video. This company was probably formed by purchasing part of the business of Shanghai Animation Film Studio, divesting the chain bookstores and local audio-visual rental and sales stores, and injecting the online video business of Jinxi Culture. The new company is reorganized, and the main revenue is still generated by the original Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

In the past three years, Jin Shang has been downplaying the influence of its former employer and striving to bear the imprint of its new boss's culture. The results have been neither good nor bad.

This business has produced Jiang Long, a prospective senior executive who was highly expected, and some middle-level managers have been "exchanged" to other sister companies. However, the existing channel sales business is still filled with a large number of old employees who are accustomed to the original system.

Jin Shang actually doesn’t care if the employees of the subsidiary have their own ideas, as long as they don’t actually harm the interests of the company. Based on their past resumes, and then through the company’s personnel screening, supplemented by the judgment of the “Golden Finger”, he can basically pick out relatively outstanding managers.

Even so, some bad signs should be suppressed as much as possible so as not to send wrong signals to employees who are unaware of the truth.

"We need to have a good talk with the original accounting firm. If they cannot meet the requirements, we will not renew the contract when it expires. The warehouse material management and logistics of Jinxi Video must be connected to a special software system to strengthen remote control. The current key executives will remain in their positions, but their year-end incentive bonuses will be temporarily withheld and reissued after the full life cycle management ERP system is completed and the paperless office regulations are met. You will be the one to master how to do this..."

(End of this chapter)