You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 471 Reconciliation Conditions
Qin Shaoyan's words were powerful and his attitude was very firm.

Xiong Xiaoge frowned and asked, "Is it really impossible to reconcile?"

"There is no possibility of reconciliation!" Qin Shaoyan replied.

"Do you have to fight?"

“We must fight!”

Xiong Xiaoge sighed, "Why?"

"Business is like a battlefield. It's a life-and-death struggle." Qin Shaoyan said calmly, "Penguin's copying of QQ Farm is a serious infringement on the interests of our campus network."

"QQ Farm is just a sub-project of the QQ Space project for Penguin."

“QQ Space can still develop well without QQ Farm.”

"But for the campus network, Happy Farm is a sharp sword for us to break through the existing model. Without this sword, the campus network will be trapped in the student group on campus, and it will be difficult to attract more netizens."

"The Internet seems to be developing rapidly now, and the pie is getting bigger and bigger, but in fact it is also the most dangerous time for Internet companies. If you don't move forward, you will fall behind."

"If we miss this development opportunity, the campus network will be eliminated. If we are slow, we will be slow at every step."

"I can't watch the campus network miss this strategic development opportunity. I will fight anyone who stands in my way."

Xiong Xiaoge sighed, "Why has it come to this?"

"You should ask Penguin about this." Qin Shaoyan also said with a sad face, "I had a very pleasant cooperation with Penguin's President Ma before, and it has only been a short time and we are already going to fight each other."

"Boss Xiong, you know me well. I always like to unite the majority of people who can be united."

"But who are our friends and who are our enemies? This is the question that we must first clarify!"

"Boss Xiong, you are now a shareholder of Campus Network. You have sold the shares of Penguin. You are no longer a shareholder of Penguin!"

"..." Xiong Xiaoge was silenced for a moment. Qin Shaoyan's words seemed to have touched the pain in his heart.

Xiong Xiaoge sighed after a long while, "I didn't expect you to be so resolute."

"Because you have to go all out against an opponent like a penguin." Qin Shaoyan answered seriously, "Penguins are very aggressive. If you don't hit back their outstretched hands, they will get even more aggressive."

"The first step is to copy Happy Farm, the second step is to copy Campus Network, and the third step is to copy Weibo."

"What's the point of starting a business then? I'll just be doing business for Penguin. So I might as well just join Penguin."

Xiong Xiaoge was startled and said doubtfully: "Penguin wouldn't do such a thing."

Qin Shaoyan looked at Xiong Xiaoge in surprise and said, "Boss Xiong, you are an experienced businessman, how can you still have such childish ideas?"

"Look at what Penguin has done in recent years, from QQ Game Platform snatching the market share from Lianzhong to QQ Music borrowing from Kugou Music. They just copy whatever is popular."

"Plagiarism has made Penguin a successful path reliance."

"And then there's QQ Space, which copied all the functions of blogs and campus networks and created a hodgepodge."

"Penguin's biggest advantage is that it has an instant messaging software with a huge number of users. This is its basic base, equivalent to a traffic reservoir, so it can copy whatever it wants. It only needs to import users into the copied product and then it can crush its competitors with its huge user base."

"With such an invincible magical weapon in hand, anyone would be tempted to take advantage of it. That's why I say it is aggressive by nature. It was brought from the womb and cannot be changed."

Xiong Xiaoge seemed to be thinking deeply after hearing these words.

Qin Shaoyan sighed heavily, "Boss Xiong, let me say one more thing. Our domestic Internet was developed by learning from the American Internet. Now those Internet companies are just copying the American ones. There is no breakthrough model innovation at all."

"I am the only one who is creating original ideas, and the American Internet is borrowing my ideas in return."

“I don’t ask my domestic Internet colleagues to learn from me, but they can’t mess with me either.”

"Okay, I will definitely convey your message, but I can't guarantee whether they will listen to me." Xiong Xiaoge thought for a moment and added, "I will also persuade Penguin to give up QQ Farm. They don't need this project, so why make such a fuss?"

After all, I am a shareholder of the campus network, so I always have to do something.

"They may not listen to me, but I have to put enough pressure on them." Qin Shaoyan smiled, "Next I have to put more pressure on Penguin."

Xiong Xiaoge suddenly became nervous, "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing, just updating the version of Happy Farm." Qin Shaoyan said casually.

Qin Shaoyan's words were understated, but his actions were fast and fierce.

The campus network released an announcement the next day. The announcement was short, but the words were full of domineering power.

"Plagiarist, let me teach you a lesson. If you want to plagiarize, you have to keep up with the pace."

Happy Farm underwent a brief server downtime maintenance at midnight, after which Happy Farm users discovered that the game had been updated with many new features.

In addition to farms, the game has also opened up a ranch function, allowing players to not only farm, but also raise chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep.

Outside of poultry, the farm has also made changes by adding a building called the kennel.

Players only need to invite three new users to the game to get a dog for free.

This dog can not only be raised and interacted with as a pet, but its biggest function is to guard the house. Once it finds someone stealing vegetables, it will have a chance to drive away the thief and reduce the user's losses.

After the doghouse function was launched, the players of Happy Farm were immediately excited.

Players hate vegetable thieves, who often come out in the middle of the night to steal while everyone is asleep. Players often wake up in the morning to find that only the guaranteed harvest has been stolen.

Players have suffered from vegetable thieves for a long time. In order to prevent their hard-earned vegetables from being attacked, many of them often set alarms in the middle of the night to get up and harvest the vegetables, and they can't even sleep well.

Now that I have a dog to guard my house, not only can I reduce the chance of my vegetables being stolen and reduce losses, I can finally sleep well.

Therefore, the doghouse became a must-have item for game players, and the majority of players quickly became enthusiastic about completing the task.

It’s just a new user, I invited all my family and friends to come.

The campus network also generously gave away various props in this update, and there are also new user rewards for inviting new users. You can get powerful fertilizers and rare seeds by inviting a new user in.

Stimulated by the rewards, players burst out with great enthusiasm and actively recommend the game to their real-life friends.

The campus network also announced that "Happy Farm" will be updated every month to add more and more interesting content.

Qin Shaoyan designed a complete set of development gameplay for "Happy Farm", which includes not only growing vegetables but also breeding. In addition to ranches and fisheries, there will also be various processing plants.

At that time, players do not need to sell the agricultural and sideline products directly, but can process them so that they can be sold at a higher price.

More development content such as restaurants and mansions will be opened in the future.

As long as someone follows suit, the campus network will immediately release new content, making it impossible for competitors to copy.

In addition to game content updates, Happy Farm also added an inconspicuous feature, built-in chat.

Campus Network announced that the built-in chat function will allow players to communicate with each other in the game and increase social interaction.

At the same time, the campus network revealed to the media that the built-in chat function could be upgraded at an appropriate time and made into a separate chat software.

This is a direct declaration of war against the penguins.

……

The middleman quickly relayed Qin Shaoyan's words to Ma Huateng, who was silent for a long time after listening. The recent public opinion storm has intensified. In addition to Facebook's constant protests, Internet peers are also working hard to stir up trouble.

Many people deliberately spend money to keep the media hot, just to use public pressure to force Penguin.

Of course, we cannot say that these people are very evil, but they have been bullied before and this time they must pay it back.

As a result of the repercussions of bad karma, Penguin is facing increasingly harsh criticism.

Although the Penguins have no other pressure except public opinion, Ma Huateng knows that gossip can make a person lose his temper. If this continues, the Penguins will be in greater danger.

Although the criticism from the mainland media is harsh, it is still relatively subtle. In the Hong Kong media reports, it is more than just harsh.

The public opinion storm has had a significant impact on the stock price. The stock price has been falling in recent days, and a large number of investors have been selling Penguin shares.

The pressure from public opinion could be withstood, but the pressure from falling stock prices was too much for Ma Hua Teng to bear.

He knew that he had only one way out, which was to reconcile and admit defeat. Actively responding to the lawsuit was just a gesture to the outside world.

In fact, there is no benefit for Penguin to continue the lawsuit. He knows that he can't win at all.

This is not the first time that Penguin has lost a lawsuit in the United States. It started out by locating ICQ in Chinese. It initially used the brand OICQ and registered domain names oicq.com and oicq.net.

Later, AOL (America Online) acquired ICQ and used legal means to resolve the dispute after warnings were ineffective.

Penguin lost the lawsuit without any suspense, and the US court ruled that Penguin should return the oicq.com and oicq.net domain names to America Online.

So Penguin changed the name of the chat software from "OICQ" to "QQ", and after a series of efforts, it acquired the domain name qq.com.

From this point of view, the penguin can be considered a repeat offender with a long criminal record.

After thinking it over, Ma Huateng called Qin Shaoyan again.

"Boss Qin," Ma Huateng said hoarsely, "Can we sit down and talk? We have something to discuss."

"Sure." Qin Shaoyan answered directly, "I can arrange for someone from Facebook to meet you. Their team has already arrived in Beijing."

"No, I'm not talking to the people at Facebook. I want to talk to you, Mr. Qin." Ma Huateng sighed, "How can we reconcile?"

"You can ask Facebook about the terms of the settlement. I don't know." Qin Shaoyan said lightly.

"Boss Qin, there's no need to play dumb at this time." Ma Huateng didn't have time to argue with Qin Shaoyan, so he said directly, "Just state your conditions."

"What's the point of me putting forward conditions regarding your dispute with Facebook?" Qin Shaoyan still refused to budge.

"I have asked QQ Space to shut down QQ Farm, and the entire project team has been disbanded." Ma Huateng said tentatively, "We will not launch similar projects in the future."

"Without QQ Farm, you will copy other things, such as QQ Ranch, QQ Fishery and so on." Qin Shaoyan said lightly, "As long as you are brave, there are always more solutions than problems."

Ma Huateng said helplessly, "I promise that QQ Space will no longer run web-based social games. Is that ok?"

"That's not enough." Qin Shaoyan replied, "You have to promise not to copy my ideas again in the future."

"Sure!" Ma Huateng said without hesitation, "We will never get involved in anything that you, Mr. Qin, are doing in the future."

"Words are not enough, you have to write it down." Qin Shaoyan continued, "Write the guarantee in black and white."

"..." Ma Huateng was speechless, "Boss Qin, this is a bit too much."

"Is it too much?" Qin Shaoyan asked back, "I just asked you to write a letter of guarantee, not to sign a contract. You are unwilling to write a letter of guarantee that is not legally binding. How can I believe your promise?"

Ma Huateng thought about it and agreed reluctantly, "I can write a letter of guarantee, but Mr. Qin, you have to promise me one thing."

"You said."

"You can't use instant messaging software," Ma Huateng stressed. "This is the bottom line. Otherwise, there is no way to talk."

Although Penguin now claims to have 300 million users, Ma Huateng is still very wary of Qin Shaoyan. Qin Shaoyan is the number one product designer on the Internet, and who knows what he can come up with.

If he is really allowed to extend his hand into the field of instant messaging, it will be a huge threat to Penguin.

QQ Farm doesn’t matter, even QQ Space can be abandoned, but QQ itself is the foundation of Penguin.

From now on, I will no longer be involved in Qin Shaoyan's work. The Internet is so big and there are so many products. It doesn't matter who you copy. Why bother to get involved with Qin Shaoyan?

"Okay." Qin Shaoyan agreed readily, "Do you want me to write a letter of guarantee for you as well?"

"That's not necessary. I still believe in your character, Mr. Qin."

"Thank you for your praise, Mr. Ma." Qin Shaoyan was very surprised. I don't even trust my own character, and you actually believe in me?
However, the instant messaging field is not yet popular, and Qin Shaoyan has no plans to develop in this area for the time being, so he naturally agreed.

Ma Huateng hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively: "What about our previous cooperation?"

"It's still the same." Qin Shaoyan answered seriously, "We will continue to perform the game agency contract we signed before, one thing at a time."

Ma Huateng breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Mr. Qin. Harmony will bring wealth in the future."

"Well, harmony brings wealth." Qin Shaoyan agreed with a smile, "Boss Ma, can you do me a favor?"

"Please tell me." Ma Huateng agreed immediately, "As long as I can do it."

"Penguin, please help us promote Happy Farm. The fee is negotiable." Qin Shaoyan asked with a smile.

"..." Ma Huateng felt his fists stiffen. How could Qin Shaoyan make such an excessive request?

"This condition is not acceptable." Ma Huateng flatly refused.

"I can persuade Facebook to withdraw the lawsuit and stop pursuing Penguin, and the compensation can also be reduced," said Qin Shaoyan.

"This is the settlement content we agreed on before. It is different from the new conditions you proposed. Let's treat them separately." Ma Huateng still refused.

"Then I'll do you a favor. You'll always agree to it in exchange, right?"

"What help?" Ma Huateng felt puzzled. Is there anything I can do for you?

"How about I help you get rid of 51.com?" Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "They have been copying your QQ space. I will help you solve this problem quickly."

Ma Huateng quickly weighed the pros and cons and said, "Deal."

"It's settled then." After Qin Shaoyan hung up the phone, the smile on his face disappeared and he became a little gloomy instead.

Zhang Pingyi sat beside him and listened to the entire negotiation. Seeing that Qin Shaoyan didn't look happy at all, he couldn't help but be very surprised, "What's wrong with you? Didn't we win the battle?"

"How sad." Qin Shaoyan sighed heavily, "I didn't feel the joy of victory, I just felt sad."

"We won, but hold your breath. If we want to defeat the penguins, we have to rely on foreigners to help us. Do you think I can be happy?"

Zhang Pingyi immediately understood why Qin Shaoyan was unhappy, and he persuaded him, "It's because we are not strong enough that we have to use tricks."

"Victory or defeat is not determined within the chess game, but outside it." Qin Shaoyan suddenly looked at Zhang Pingyi, "Master Zhang, you have to hurry up and get the instant messaging software."

"Ah?!" Zhang Pingyi was stunned. "Didn't you promise Ma Huateng that you would not use instant messaging software?"

"Yes, I agreed." Qin Shaoyan said confidently, "But you didn't agree. This is you who is doing it, not me."

Zhang Pingyi gave a thumbs up, "As expected of you, Mr. Qin."

(End of this chapter)