The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 734 Not Tendency
"Mr. Ma."

When Liu Shishi entered the house, she saw Lu Yuan talking on the phone with someone on the balcony, and she was curious about which Mr. Ma it was.

"Click."

Hearing the sound of the door closing, Lu Yuan turned his head and looked over.

"I bought some fruit for you."

Liu Shishi raised the two bags in her hands, shook them gently a few times, then turned and went into the kitchen.

After the press conference, I met my old mother at the gate of the community, so I accompanied her to the supermarket and bought some fruits, including grapes, dates, blueberries, pomegranates, and grapefruits.
She washed some of each fruit, arranged several fruit plates in a ceremonial manner, and brought them to the living room.

Seeing that the dog was still on the phone, he felt a little bored and started fiddling with the yellow-skinned pomelo.

"Okay, see you then."

Lu Yuan hung up the phone and saw her struggling to deal with the grapefruit peel. He smiled and said, "Why don't you use a knife to cut it? It's too hard to break it with your hands."

"No." Liu Shishi shook her head and refused, saying seriously: "If you cut it open and eat it, the soul of the pomelo will be gone. It tastes better if you eat it piece by piece."

"It's not that mysterious. It's just your psychology. The taste is the same."

"No, it's just like a watermelon. The taste is different when it's cut and when it's broken."

"Hey, you still don't believe me." Lu Yuan turned around and went to the kitchen to get a knife.

"There are many grapefruits planted in the south. Almost every family in the countryside will plant one in their garden. They are very easy to grow and you don't have to take care of them after you plant them. I have eaten them since I was a child. I have tried every way I can, whether cutting them, peeling them, boiling them, or roasting them."

"When I had a cough as a child, my mother would make tea with grapefruit. She would peel and remove the grapefruit pulp, put the pulp and lily into a pot, add sugar, and cook over low heat for about an hour. The taste is no different from fruit tea. If you have a chance, ask her to make it for you to try."

"It's peeled, no need to go to the kitchen." Liu Shishi interrupted him, threw the pomelo peel into the trash can, tore off a piece of napkin, wiped it gently, and a green stain appeared on the paper.

“There are many pomelo trees in the capital, but they don’t bear fruit.”

Lu Yuan sat down: "Of course, the grapefruit tree is a positive plant and is not cold-resistant. The temperature in the north is too low. Even if it bears fruit, the taste is not very good."

"Ah, come, try it!" Liu Shishi broke off a piece of the fruit, peeled it, and handed it to his mouth.

Lu Yuan took it and chewed it twice: "The taste is just right."

"Really?" Liu Shishi carefully observed his expression and confirmed that he was not lying before she safely broke off a petal and put it in her mouth.

"I told her it wasn't sour, but my mom wouldn't let me buy it, saying it had too many seeds and I couldn't eat it, it would be a waste."

At first, Lu Yuan was wondering why she was staring at him, but now he suddenly realized what was going on and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"You are not sure whether it is sour or not, so you are using me as a test subject?"

"Hehe!" Seeing that her plan was discovered, Liu Shishi stood up, sat on his legs, put her arms around his neck, and acted coquettishly.

She bit a piece of grapefruit, raised her chin, and put it to his mouth: "Brother~Is it my fault?"

"uh-huh."

Lu Yuan stroked her waist, closed his eyes, enjoyed the oral service for a moment, and listened to her.

"Have you read Weibo? Ma Yun liked the blog post posted by Xu Weifeng."

"Yes, I know. Xu Weifeng has already told me."

Liu Shishi picked up a blueberry, bit off half of it, and stuffed the remaining half into his mouth: "If you ask me, Ma Yun's high profile doesn't seem like a Chinese businessman at all. She is more talked about than many first-line artists."

"Indeed." Lu Yuan responded with a smile.

Among all the business tycoons, Ma Yun is an outlier.

He has a strange appearance, a high-profile style, owns a company that ranks first in the e-commerce market, and has astonishing wealth.

What is particularly striking is his high-profile style of doing things.

Chinese culture has always emphasized "making a fortune in silence" and not seeking publicity in everything. Businessmen are well aware of this and act in a low-key manner to avoid unnecessary trouble.

A high-profile rich person usually does not have a good ending, so domestic businessmen are very low-key. However, Ma Yun does the opposite. With just a few words, she can trigger a hot search and become the focus of public opinion.

Therefore, among all the various predictions about Ma Yun’s fate on the Internet, basically all of them are that Ma Yun will be doomed sooner or later, and the reason is always the same: she is too high-profile!

However, Lu Yuan could understand his approach, which was not much different from the way management companies create artists.

The so-called high profile is actually a carefully planned marketing method, an image creation that is deeply rooted in people's hearts.

For example, the honest Liu Qiangdong and the down-to-earth Lei Jun are all examples of self-packaging.

On the Internet, a platform dominated by young people, a CEO who is approachable and able to make jokes can undoubtedly bring him closer to users than those dull, serious types.

On the one hand, Ma Yun’s high profile saves Alibaba tens of billions in advertising fees for promotion; on the other hand, it is a strong endorsement of its credibility.

When Ma Yun first founded Alibaba, many people didn’t understand what the Internet was. It was an era when even URLs required popular science.

In the eyes of most people, the Internet is a virtual world that has nothing to do with the real world.

What Ma Yun wants to do is to connect the virtual network with the real world.

Whether it was the original Alibaba B2B, or the later Taobao, Tmall, and Alipay, they were all directly related to money.

At any time, money is always a sensitive topic.

Not to mention putting money into the virtual world of the Internet, even putting money into the real world requires users to give bank-level trust.

Banks are backed by the state. Why should users trust virtual spaces like Taobao and Alipay, which are made up of codes?

Ma Yun pushed herself to the forefront in a high-profile manner to show her ability to clients.

The boss of Alibaba is here. Everyone in the world knows this face. If something really goes wrong, he will bear the consequences. Please feel free to open a store and deposit money with me. I won’t run away!

Lu Yuan admired his courage.

But everything has its pros and cons. Although the focus of outside attention has brought huge traffic to Alibaba, it is also bound to cause endless troubles.

As Internet content becomes increasingly unscrupulous, any sentence may be taken out of context and cause an uproar in public opinion.

When one prospers, all prosper; when one suffers, all suffer. By then, the stock price of Alibaba, which is closely tied to Ma Yun, may face the risk of collapse.

"But my mother likes it very much. Alipay has many convenient functions, and water and electricity bills can be paid directly online."

Liu Shishi chattered for a while, then suddenly changed the subject: "By the way, when I came in just now, I saw you on the phone. Who were you talking to?"

"Ma Yun!"

"Yeah." Liu Shishi nodded subconsciously, then paused for a moment and asked again uncertainly: "Who are you talking about?" "Ma Yun."

Liu Shishi was shocked and her eyes widened: "Are you talking about the one we just talked about, Ma Yun who founded Alibaba, the one who founded Taobao?"

"Yeah." Lu Yuan smiled and nodded.

He was not surprised by Liu Shishi's surprise. In fact, he did not expect to receive a call from the other party.

"Why did he call you?" Liu Shishi sat up straight.

Lu Yuan leaned against the sofa, put his left hand on her waist, exerted a little force, hugged her back into his arms, and spoke slowly.

"First, we talked about the marketing strategy of My Love from the Star in August, which relied on lottery tickets and free mobile phones, and the number of paid members exceeded 8 million. Ma Yun claimed that she had also had a similar marketing idea, but we got there first."

"Then, talking about the report on Qvod, Ma Yun believed that this incident showed that PPS still had a big gap in terms of funding compared to iQiyi and Tencent Video, which were backed by Baidu."

"At the end, he said that he rarely watches TV dramas now because there are so many bad movies in the film and television industry, there are many unprofessional actors, and there are countless companies that follow the trend and cheat people out of money."

"He proposed that PPS and Alibaba work together to build a cultural and entertainment industry ecosystem based on Internet video and integrating online and offline, in order to rectify the unhealthy trends in the mainland film and television industry."

At this point, Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes. He did not comment on Ma Yun's outstanding eloquence, but his ability to make big promises was indeed first-class.

"Is that all?" Liu Shishi was curious.

Lu Yuan shook his head and continued, "In addition, he asked us if PPS had any plans to go public and whether we would accept investment. He even proposed to invest 14 billion to buy 20% of PPS's shares and build the entertainment ecosystem he described together."

"14 billion? 20%? So little?"

“It’s not RMB, it’s USD.”

"How much? 14 billion US dollars." Liu Shishi straightened up for the second time, her mouth forming an O shape in surprise.

Seeing her cute face, Lu Yuan couldn't help but kiss her.

Liu Shishi hummed twice and broke free, saying, "Let me do the math. Converted into RMB, fourteen times six is ​​eighty-four hundred million. Fourteen times five is seventy, which is seven billion U.S. dollars. So in Ma Yun's eyes, PPS is valued at 70 billion!"

"Yes."

Compared to his girlfriend, Lu Yuan himself is much calmer.

He expected Alibaba to invest in a video website.

Since the rise of mobile Internet, the industry has been turbulent. The BAT giants have been throwing money around and luring companies of all sizes to join them. From capital to market, from online to offline, the competition is extremely fierce.

After Baidu took the lead in creating iQiyi, the remaining two BAT companies had to follow suit, even if they were reluctant.

The current situation is that Tencent has its own Tencent Video, Baidu has iQiyi, but Alibaba does not have its own video portal.

So everyone is guessing when Alibaba will enter the market.

It was not until recently that Alibaba’s three major moves in the entertainment industry made everyone realize that this giant could no longer hold back.

First, it poached Liu Chunning, the general manager of Tencent Video, from Tencent; second, it took control of China Culture Media; and third, it acquired Wasu Media.

The purpose of Liu Chunning's poaching is self-evident. China Culture Media owns a large number of film and television drama copyrights. By holding a controlling stake in China Culture Media, Alibaba immediately has the capital to compete in the cultural field. The same is true for Wasu.

But Lu Yuan didn't expect that Ma Yun would choose PPS.

Although PPS does not have sufficient funds, it has never disclosed its intention to seek financing.

On the contrary, Youku Tudou's CEO Gu Yongqiang mentioned Alibaba more than once during an interview. Lu Yuan could feel his eagerness to get on board and find a father for Youku Tudou even through the screen.

But Alibaba didn't like it.

After a brief shock, Liu Shishi recovered and couldn't help wondering: "Isn't Mr. Ma's valuation of PPS a bit exaggerated, 400 billion?"

Since August, PPS has launched many popular products, with online and offline sales making progress simultaneously and its market share rising steadily.

There is no need to say much about online activities. The red data reports on Weibo are the best proof. Offline, in addition to a large number of advertisements, wherever the flagship stores of vivo and oppo are opened, there are slogans like "Watch videos on PPS".

Any young person knows PPS.

Thanks to the achievements of the past three months, there are already voices within the company calling for putting the listing plan on the agenda.

However, the target valuation is only about 260 billion, which is still the most ideal situation. You should know that the market value of Youku and Tudou after the merger is only around 200 billion.

“It’s indeed a bit exaggerated.”

Lu Yuan agreed with her opinion, and then added: "But it is also reasonable."

"Why?" Liu Shishi was puzzled.

"Alibaba is going to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange next year and is now in the final stages of its listing. This timing is crucial."

"They have increased the value of Alibaba's stock by acquiring a series of high-quality companies, both in terms of book value and strategic significance, which can attract investors and push up the upper limit of Alibaba's stock price when it goes public."

"Although Ma Yun's current offer is very high, once Alibaba goes public next year and the stock price rises slightly, the extra money spent can be earned back dozens of times."

Liu Shishi blinked, not quite understanding, and simply stopped struggling and asked, "So what are you going to do? Will you accept Ali's investment?"

Lu Yuan frowned: "I personally don't lean towards it."

"Why? With Alibaba's investment, PPS can..." She hesitated for a long time and did not give any specific benefits.

Lu Yuan grinned: "BAT divides the world into three parts, but Alibaba is not a good partner."

Seeing Liu Shishi at a loss, he took out his mobile phone and opened an Alipay interface.

"What is this?"

"Koubei.com is a website similar to Dianping.com that provides information on merchants in the fields of catering, shopping, leisure and entertainment, and life services, as well as consumer discounts and consumer reviews."

"what do you want to say?"

"The potential of this website was not inferior to that of Dianping.com, but after being acquired by Alibaba, it eventually became an insignificant review website, and the gap between it and Dianping.com has widened."

Liu Shishi seemed to understand something.

Lu Yuan put away his phone. "Alibaba's acquisition goal has never been to be optimistic about the project and product and invest at the right time in the hope of a future return. After the acquisition target enters Alibaba, there is only one purpose, which is to obtain traffic entrances and serve the long-term strategic goals of Alibaba's huge empire and become a screw."

"For example, this time, Alibaba wants to invest in PS. The fundamental reason is still for Alibaba's stock price after its listing. PPS is just a piece of wood in the bonfire of Alibaba's listing, unless Alibaba only pays money and does not interfere in the company's operations, but this possibility is not high."

At the end, Lu Yuan curled his lips and said, "Besides, Alibaba is engaged in film and television content, do they understand it?"

(End of this chapter)