You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 478: Apple plagiarizes?

Cao Guowei, who took over the position of Sina CEO from Wang Yan half a year ago, felt an inexplicable pressure at this moment.

As an elite returnee who graduated from Fudan University's Journalism Department and studied at an American university, his basic skills are still there, which made him smell something unusual from the "Weibo Product Launch Conference" incident.

As an auditor, he was invited by Mao Daolin to join Sina and plan and operate Sina's listing in the United States.

Since joining Sina in 1999, Cao Guowei has served as vice president in charge of finance, chief financial officer, co-chief operating officer, and president.

He was promoted to CEO in six years, which means he was promoted rapidly in the workplace.

But Cao Guowei knew very well that this had little to do with his ability and talent.

Since its listing, Sina's senior management has been in turmoil. Due to poor performance, Wang Zhidong, one of the founders, was removed from the board of directors by Chairman Jiang Fengnian and Duan Yongji.

Poor performance was just a fuse. The reason was that Sina’s complicated equity structure led to Wang Zhidong being kicked out without any resistance.

After that, the CEO changed frequently, from Mao Daolin to Wang Yan, and then to Cao Guowei. In just five years, three CEOs were replaced, and the chairman also changed from Jiang Fengnian to Wang Yan.

Of the original "Three Musketeers of China's Internet", Sina was the youngest. At that time, Sina, NetEase, and Sohu almost dominated the entire portal network in China, but Sina was the first to go public.

Sina is the portal website with the highest traffic and was the leader in the Internet at that time because it had the most information.

However, Cao Guowei never expected that after its listing, Sina, which was once at its peak, would suddenly encounter the Internet bubble. Afterwards, the top management fell into internal strife and turmoil, which seriously hindered Sina's development.

Under the leadership of Ding Lei, NetEase directly opened up a new track in online games and used the powerful money-making ability of online games to become China's richest man.

Sohu was also making moves everywhere, paying a large sum to become the Internet content service sponsor for the 08 Olympic Games, and teaming up with Qin Shaoyan to form an anti-piracy alliance, thus grabbing a piece of the market in the video website sector.

At the same time, Zhang Chaoyang actively cooperated with Qin Shaoyan to develop online games, which was very successful.

Penguin, Baidu, and Campus Network went public one after another, and each of them thrived in their respective fields and made a fortune.

In contrast, Sina.com, once the largest Internet company listed on the stock market, has had no other highlights in recent years except for following the "blog" track.

Cao Guowei has keenly discovered that with the continuous development of China's Internet, portal websites have gradually declined. NetEase and Sohu have already switched to new tracks, but Sina is still holding on to the information sector and has not made any breakthroughs.

Originally, I hoped to achieve some results through "blogs" and find a new direction for Sina.

As a result, the campus network suddenly emerged and created something called a "micro-blog", the targeting implication of which was too obvious.

Thinking of this, Cao Guowei felt a little depressed, as campus networks are completely minor players in the Internet industry.

Among all Internet listed companies, Campus Network has the shortest establishment time, the least user data, but the highest market value.

Qin Shaoyan from the campus network is a junior, born in the 1980s. In just three years, he has created such a big situation. It really shows that young people are to be feared.

"Young people nowadays are really amazing." Cao Guowei smiled self-deprecatingly. He held a file of Qin Shaoyan in his hand, which contained information about Qin Shaoyan from college to the present.

Judging from the information, Qin Shaoyan has been an ordinary person since childhood. He did not have any outstanding talents in college, and his grades and family background were mediocre.

However, since the establishment of the campus network in 2003, his fortunes have suddenly soared like a rocket.

After creating the campus network, Qin Shaoyan did nothing but abruptly went to the United States for a short stay of three months. After that, he received a large sum of funds and created Facebook.

Then we received investments from Sequoia and IDG, and the development of campus network started to move on the fast track.

Judging from the information, Qin Shaoyan seems to have an aura of weirdness.

Cao Guowei was not interested in Qin Shaoyan's background. What made him wary was the series of actions Qin Shaoyan took since he started his business.

Including how the campus network defeated a number of competitors and became the only dominant one, how to make Qvod bigger and stronger, and the operations of YouTube and Facebook made him even more shocked.

This is definitely not an ordinary person. Cao Guowei took a pen and put a question mark behind Qin Shaoyan's name.

Cao Guowei sighed and looked at his assistant, "Any other information?"

"That's all." The assistant replied, then hesitated, "I heard from people at IDG that Qin Shaoyan has a very impressive background and strong connections."

"I don't care whether his connections are strong or not." Cao Guowei frowned and said, "We are just business competitors. Business is business."

After hearing this, the assistant said nothing more.

Cao Guowei picked up the information again and looked at it, then suddenly asked, "Is there any news from the United States?"

"Over in the United States..." Before the assistant could finish his words, Wang Wei, the general manager in charge of blog affairs, hurried in.

"Mr. Cao, there's some news in the United States." Wang Wei said solemnly, "A newly established technology company has released a new product called Twitter."

"Twitter?" Cao Guowei was stunned for a moment, frowned and thought for a long time but couldn't remember what the word meant, "What is that?"

Wang Wei's face looked awkward and ugly. "Actually, it's Weibo..."

"What?!" Cao Guowei stood up immediately, "Weibo?!"

"Qin Shaoyan posted all his Weibo posts in the United States?"

The reason why Cao Guowei lost his composure was because the news was too explosive. It has always been American Internet companies that have come to China to develop the market, but now Qin Shaoyan is going to develop the American market instead.

This piece of news alone is enough to keep the news media hyped for three days, and it may even be marketed to boost the morale of Chinese netizens.

As a journalism graduate, he came up with several plans in an instant.

If that were true, the number of registered users on Weibo would have taken off immediately.

With such great popularity, no one would let it go.

Qin Shaoyan has always liked to take unconventional approaches. The several marketing cases he has carried out since his debut are quite classic, and anyone who has seen them will have to admire them.

Qin Shaoyan, who is known as a marketing master, likes to make trouble for no reason. How could he miss the ready-made popularity?

"Uh..." Wang Wei hesitated. "It's not clear whether Qin Shaoyan is a shareholder of Twitter, but according to some news, Facebook has invested in Twitter."

"Is there any need to think about this?" Cao Guowei said impatiently, "Qin Shaoyan is a shareholder of Facebook. He must have participated."

"He likes to do this, starting with campus network, Qvod, and then copying Facebook and YouTube in the United States. Twitter is the American version of Weibo."

"What's the reaction of the American media?"

Wang Wei quickly replied, "The media's reaction was normal. It was just a routine report, but Campus Network's stock price rose by another eight dollars."

"It's bound to go up." Cao Guowei suddenly felt something was wrong. "Then what's the reaction on the American Internet?"

Wang Wei was stunned and said awkwardly: "Well, we haven't collected the relevant information yet."

"Why don't you go and take a look?" Cao Guowei said anxiously, "Forget it, let someone else take care of this matter."

“Your most important task now is to keep an eye on the blogs, especially the top bloggers, and pay attention to their dynamics.” Sina’s top bloggers include entertainment and finance bloggers and cultural celebrities, all of whom were invited by Sina with great effort.

Most of these people only have a platform-user relationship with Sina, without any deep ties, so if they want to leave, it would be a matter of minutes.

The reason why they stay on the blog is that Sina Blog is the most famous, has the most traffic, and their exposure is also great.

Sina invited them because they valued their fame and the traffic they could bring. Both parties are just using each other.

"You should make a plan right away." Cao Guowei immediately instructed Wang Wei, "Support those bloggers who are ranked high. Make sure they receive enough traffic and money."

"Let people get in touch with these bloggers, keep in touch, ask about their recent situation, show more concern for them, and pay attention to their dynamics."

"Contact advertisers. We are going to hold a blog writing contest. Ask them to donate more money to sponsor us."

"The first prize will be set at 200,000 yuan."

The assistant asked, "Are you still going to publish news about the United States?"

"If I don't post it, why should I post it?" Cao Guowei said with a stern face, "Let's ignore the news about Twitter for now."

"Then NetEase and Sohu..." The assistant hesitated.

"Don't worry about them, let's stabilize the situation first." Cao Guowei waved his hand.

After Wang Wei and his assistant left, Cao Guowei was still a little uneasy when looking at Qin Shaoyan's information.

A week has passed since the “Weibo” press conference, and apart from the initial media publicity, the campus network has not taken any other action. It seems eerily quiet.

After sitting for a while, Cao Guowei got up and went directly to the chairman's office to report to Wang Yan.

Wang Yan was a little surprised, "Are you taking Qin Shaoyan a little too seriously?"

"Mr. Wang." Cao Guowei sighed, "I have studied this man carefully. He is different from ordinary young people."

"People who work in the Internet industry are either programmers or have business backgrounds and academic qualifications, but he studied clinical medicine, which is completely unrelated."

"But this person's past operations were so unrealistic that it was beyond belief. The early marketing operations of the campus network were included in the business school textbooks. Either he had the guidance of an expert or he was gifted."

"Every time he makes a move, it's so unexpected, but this time it was so quiet and so conventional."

Wang Yan was able to keep his composure and smiled. "It doesn't matter. I won't move unless the enemy does. We still have to wait and see whether his Weibo post is just a flash in the pan or there is something real behind it."

"I'm afraid he'll try to poach people, so I've asked people to check on the top bloggers." Cao Guowei expressed his concerns, "Qin Shaoyan's Weibo post doesn't have good intentions."

Wang Yan nodded, and suddenly asked, "Have you ever thought about what backup plan you have if blogs really can't beat Weibo?"

Cao Guowei was stunned for a moment, then said very seriously: "If you can't beat them, just join us. We will also set up a Weibo account."

Wang Yan was a little surprised, but he still nodded and said, "You can try."

While the two were discussing, Wang Wei called and said, "Mr. Cao, Qin Shaoyan updated a message on Weibo."

"What news?" Cao Guowei asked with a frown.

"Well, he is promoting the mobile phone he designed." Wang Wei said hesitantly.

"..." Cao Guowei was stunned, "What a mess!?"

……

Qin Shaoyan posted a new Weibo post, and it also included a picture.

"I'm just testing Weibo's picture posting function for now. It's quite convenient. Everyone is welcome to try it."

"I think the current mobile phones are still not good enough for posting on Weibo, so I designed a mobile phone myself. What do you think?"

The picture shows a simple rendering of a mobile phone with a 3.5-inch LCD screen on the front. There is only one color, the upper part of the back is silver-gray and made of aluminum alloy, and the lower part is black and made of plastic.

The picture also clearly indicates the dimensions: width 65 mm, length 120 mm, thickness 12 mm.

There were instantly hundreds of comments under this Weibo post, most of which were making fun of the ugly phone, which didn’t even have a button, and wondered how one could post on Weibo.

Some people also criticized Qin Shaoyan, saying that he should focus on making Internet products instead of making mobile phones.

Well, this one was posted by Xiong Xiaoge.

Everyone just laughed off this Weibo post, thinking that Qin Shaoyan was just joking and no one took it seriously.

After posting the message on Weibo, Qin Shaoyan posted pictures of the phone on Twitter and Facebook, and also attached photos of the press conference on Weibo.

“The new phone goes better with Twitter.”

On January 1, Apple CEO Steve Jobs held a product launch conference.

When he enthusiastically introduced Apple's new products to the audience, there was a very strange and indescribable atmosphere at the scene.

Jobs was surprised, but he didn't know what went wrong.

When the reporter asked, "Mr. Jobs, who designed the layout of the press conference?"

Jobs was a little confused. What kind of question was this?
He said perfunctorily: "It is our company's own design. Please pay more attention to our products."

"Then may I ask Mr. Jobs, why does your new product look exactly like a phone designed by a Chinese designer?"

"What?" Jobs was confused. What are you talking about, reporter?
"I don't understand what you're talking about?" Jobs said impatiently, "Let's focus on the product itself."

"Did Apple copy someone else's design?" the reporter asked.

"Ridiculous!" Jobs retorted angrily, and almost had the reporter kicked out.

Soon other reporters grabbed the microphone, and the product launch conference finally returned to normal process, with everyone's attention refocused on the new products.

After the Apple press conference, several hot topics suddenly appeared on Facebook: "Why are the layouts of the Apple press conference and the Weibo press conference so similar?"

“Why is Apple’s new phone exactly like the one designed by the Chinese?”

“Apple plagiarized!”

At this time, Qin Shaoyan, who was in China, looked at the hot topics on Facebook with a smile and gestured happily, "The hot topic is here!"

"Tell the media to hype up the fact that Apple plagiarized!"

(End of this chapter)