The world is in trouble

Chapter 306 Lian Yi's Persistence! Encirclement and Suppression

Quantum Technology sponsored this year's Oscars with $1250 million.

Similar promotions are being carried out in many other places around the world.

Such a level of promotion is simply unbelievable, and even seems like a complete waste of resources.

Especially in China, advertisements for WeChat are ubiquitous, appearing on CCTV and the five major TV stations allied with the Lightning Group.

At first, Tencent was on high alert and had made full preparations for a defensive counterattack.

About a month or two later, they discovered that QQ's daily active users not only did not decline, but continued to grow.

In other words, WeChat's aggressive promotion had absolutely no impact on QQ.

Following its acquisition by Lightning Group, Renren.com underwent a complete redesign and was officially renamed Xiaohongshu.

Currently, Renren's daily active users are probably only about one-tenth of Facebook's, maybe slightly higher, but it's still a very large user base.

Although the team has gradually transformed it into a high-end social networking platform, focusing more on lifestyle sharing, over the past few years, its form of presentation is still relatively traditional.

And after this redesign...

To everyone's astonishment, it had truly undergone a complete transformation.

This...this isn't a social networking site at all.

What is this?
The entire homepage has almost no text; it's all images.

Recommendations: Fashion, Food, Makeup, Movies & TV, Workplace, Relationships, Home Decor, Games, Travel, Fitness.

These are the channel categories for the entire website, and below that are all images, and even videos.

In other words, it's the promotion and sharing by bloggers on various channels.

There's a saying that goes, "If you take too big a step, you're more likely to trip over your balls."

This redesign is a huge leap for most users, making it completely unrecognizable from the previous Renren.com.

As a result, countless users posted messages condemning the attack.

"This is not the Renren.com we want."

"Lightning Group, Xia Xi, give us back the Renren.com we used to know."

"Who was the idiot who designed this? What kind of social networking site is this?"

The criticism was almost unanimous, even bordering on abusive. This was reflected in the data as a continuous decline in daily visits and daily active users.

As a result, many conspiracy theories emerged.

The Lightning Group's acquisition of Renren.com and their frantic efforts are all aimed at destroying Renren.com.

Unease has once again arisen within Chen Yizhou's management team, and questions have been raised once more.

Because the traffic has been plummeting ever since the redesign.

As the chairman, Xia Xi acted very arrogantly, offering no explanation to the management team, not even addressing the sharp drop in traffic, and not holding any meetings.

On the contrary, it was CEO Chen who held meetings frequently.

"Transformation inevitably involves a period of growing pains."

"After Renren.com was acquired by Microsoft China, we couldn't find a way out because our original business model overlapped so much with Facebook's, so we started to transform. We started high-end social networking and focused on female users. At that time, we also experienced a traffic slump for about a year before it started to rise again."

"But... even after the transformation, Renren.com's positioning was still unclear, and its attributes were still ambiguous."

"We even tried to change the name several times, but it never came to fruition?"

"Why? It's because we lack the courage and the support of a powerful force."

"Now, under President Xia's strategic guidance, we have completed a complete transformation."

"Although our traffic is plummeting every day, our positioning has become incredibly clear, and our business attributes have become incredibly distinct."

"The strategic direction for the future has become incredibly clear."

"I might as well tell you all that Mr. Lin, Mr. Xia, and I have all had a meeting and said we need to be prepared for a year's drop in traffic. This is because our users' attention and behavioral habits are lagging behind our strategic plans, which is perfectly normal."

"I can tell you all that I fully support President Xia's strategic guidance, I strongly support this transformation, and I am full of confidence in the future."

"So it's not just me who needs to change my mindset, the whole team needs to change their mindset."

"If they don't change their mindset, we'll replace them. It's that simple."

"There are also rumors that Lightning Group's full acquisition of Renren.com was intended to destroy it. That's a huge joke. I can tell you all that Lightning Group has provided more than $1.5 million in funding to Xiaohongshu this year alone!"

"Furthermore, Facebook Group overseas will also take over Xiaohongshu's internationalization strategy."

"This is President Lin's decision. Xiaohongshu also needs to go global and become international as soon as possible."

........................

Everyone knows that this frantic promotion of WeChat is Lin Xiao's will.

This is one of his biggest moves this year.

Because of his illustrious past, no one dared to question him at first; they simply watched and waited quietly.

Several months passed.

WeChat's market share in instant messaging remains very low, and it has not had any impact on QQ at all.

Tencent even released a special announcement stating that QQ's daily active users, total user time spent on the platform, and other metrics have all increased.

At an event, someone asked Xia Xi a question.

"Mr. Xia, how many users does WeChat have now? How many are active?"

Xia Xi: "We have approximately 9200 million registered users and around 1300 million active users."

Everyone was stunned, not expecting Xia Xi to say it so frankly.

Reporter: "Do you know how many registered users and how many active users QQ has?"

Xia Xi: "9 million registered users, with about 4.9 million active users, as just announced."

Reporter: "Do you know how many users Fetion has?"

Xia Xi: "1.7 million registered users, 5900 million active users!"

Reporter: "May I ask how much WeChat's promotion costs have been over the past two months?"

Xia Xi: "Domestically, it's around one billion."

Everyone gasped in disbelief. They'd spent a billion on promotion, and all they got in return was 1300 million active users?
Does that mean each user spends around one hundred on average?
Reporter: "Mr. Xia, does that mean that Er Gou (the founder of WeChat) has suffered a major setback in his WeChat strategy? Would you call this a failure?"

Xia Xi: "It's too early to say that."

Reporter: "Mr. Xia, Renren.com has been completely redesigned as Xiaohongshu for over a month now. How much has the active user traffic dropped?"

Xia Xi: "Around 38%."

Reporter: "Who is the strategic advisor for this redesign? Is it you, or General Manager Lin?"

Xia Xi: "It was the result of a joint discussion between Lin Xiao and me."

Reporter: "If there can only be one leader, who is the leader of this redesign?"

Xia Xi: "Lin Xiao!"

Reporter: "Does that mean that Lin Xiao's two major initiatives at the beginning of the year are facing failure? To some extent, is it that Lin Xiao has dragged down the performance of Lightning Group?"

Xia Xi: "I still maintain that if everyone could understand Lin Xiao's strategic guidance, he wouldn't have achieved what he has today."

........................

The promotion of WeChat in China can hardly be described as successful.

Internationally, WeChat is slightly better, or rather, much better.

Both the number of registered users and active users far exceed those in China.

It's not that overseas users are better, but rather that there are no super social software like QQ or such monopolistic instant messaging software overseas.

Thanks to the foundation laid by Facebook, coupled with massive promotion and the inherent advantages of WeChat, its development overseas has been quite promising.

Even though there weren't many smartphone users globally at that time, WeChat's activity level on PCs was much higher overseas than in China.

However, on PCs, WeChat can only be considered a decent instant messaging software.

It only demonstrates its advanced and superior features on smartphones.

There is a Chinese saying: "If you plant flowers with care, they may not bloom; if you plant willows without intention, they may thrive."

On the quantum mobile client, there are two apps that became incredibly popular almost instantly.

One is Instagram, which was incubated by Facebook overseas.

This is an app designed specifically for smartphones, and it's available on iOS and X operating systems.

In the first week, the number of downloads exceeded 50, and then it skyrocketed.

Another application is ONLYFANS.

On the surface, this product seems unrelated to Facebook, but... it was actually incubated by a team under Wu Lingxi, and it was also developed with investment and money from Facebook.

The strategic advisor is a certain old lecher, the leader of the Er Gou Cult.

Unlike many in the past, this app started from a very high level, signing a large number of female bloggers from the beginning and guiding them to shoot a lot of sexy photos, or erotic photos and videos.

Many of these individuals have a large following on Facebook, resulting in significant traffic and considerable fame.

Of course, there are also various models, minor celebrities, adult film actors, and so on.

This wasn't a grueling startup; it involved investing a huge amount of resources and money from the very beginning.

The results proved it.

Creating color is truly the primary productive force.

This app went viral almost instantly after being released on iOS and Quantum Phone platforms, quickly rising to the top of the download charts and even generating a surge in traffic on PC web pages.

The other one is Twitter.

Last year, Jerry Yang, Masayoshi Son, and Jim Lin spent $2.6 million to acquire Twitter. Jerry Yang resigned as CEO of Yahoo! Group to focus entirely on Twitter.

This app is also available on iOS and quantum phone platforms.

Currently, its daily active users are also steadily increasing.

Therefore, unknowingly, an ecological moat that excludes the Android system is being built.

However, there are still too few smartphone users, so it didn't generate much of a response.

Conversely, because almost all major global mobile phone manufacturers, except for Nokia and Sony Ericsson, have aligned themselves with Google's Android, global tech media believe that the scales of victory are constantly tipping in Google's favor.

The lawsuit last September saw quantum technology achieve a final reversal, generating a huge response and significantly boosting sales of quantum phones.

But now, more than half a year has passed, and this momentum has subsided.

The growth in new sales of quantum phones has gradually leveled off.

The current global sales volume is approximately 1300 million, with the Chinese market accounting for half and overseas markets accounting for the other half.

Therefore, Lin Xiao's insistence on treating the domestic market as a major rear base and a core foundation proved to be wise.

This sales volume is already excellent, even astonishing.

However... the percentage of mobile phone users globally is still very, very low.

Especially for an operating system, this ecosystem is far from secure. In fact, the lawsuit between quantum technology and Google's Android has been ongoing for the past six months.

Quantum Technology is suing Google's Android for plagiarism and infringement.

At first, the lawsuit attracted a lot of attention, but as time went on, people gradually stopped paying attention to it.

It's the same everywhere in the world; everyone is focused on new hot topics.

The novelty and attention one gets from something will quickly wear off.

During the more than six months of litigation, Ms. Gerken did not appear on the scene much, while Lian Yi, representing quantum technology, appeared on the scene repeatedly.

In six months, there were five court hearings.

Moreover, they are almost all public trials.

October 2009, 4!
The Northern District of California has issued a ruling.

The lawsuit filed by Quantum Technology against Google for copying Android is unfounded!

While the emails Lin Xiao sent to Andy could be considered evidence of his innocence, these emails were sent to Andy by Lin Xiao himself; he actively showed them to her and discussed them with her.

Furthermore, quantum technology cannot provide more authoritative evidence to prove that Google's Android copied it.

........................

After the court hearing, Wu Lingxi specially invited Lian Yi to dinner.

"Don't be discouraged. In this world, neither winning nor losing is the norm..." Wu Lingxi said with a smile.

Lian Yi: "I just feel that Ms. Gerken's attitude has weakened recently, and her enthusiasm for the lawsuit with Google has waned."

Wu Lingxi: "This is quite normal. After all, Google has a huge influence and will put pressure on her through various channels."

"Little water droplet, you need to be mentally prepared. This is a protracted war."

"Moreover, a certain amount of momentum is also needed."

“Your man hasn’t had any new works in recent months, so his popularity has naturally weakened.”

Upon hearing the words "your man," Lian Yi's face flushed slightly.

Is he my man?

Over the past few years, the two have barely met and have hardly engaged in any intimate behavior, suggesting they are still in a state of breakup.
Moreover, he had already married Teacher Xiao a few months ago.

........................

A few days later!

Google held another technology conference and released the Android 2.0 system.

The entire press conference focused heavily on the operating system.

The core members of Lightning Technology watched the entire press conference.

The result revealed that Android 2.0 is very similar to the Android X operating system in terms of UI design, layout, many operational logics, and especially transition animation design.

Compared to Android 1.0, this is a leap forward.

Originally, Google's Android was strong in its underlying architecture, but its UI design and even some interaction logic were not mature at the beginning.

However, with the X operating system as a benchmark, this gap was completely closed in just one year.

Wu Di said slowly, "This time, they really copied us."

"The entire UI design and interaction logic are copied from countless sources."

"Furthermore, in order to deliberately show that it is different from our operating system, our icons and backgrounds adopt a flat design and a solid color scheme. On the other hand, they adopt a skeuomorphic design, taking a realistic and vibrant approach."

"However, they have infringed on many, many of our patents."

Lin Xiao: "Continue with the lawsuit."

Meanwhile, Google's press conference continued, announcing a series of phones that would be equipped with Android 2.0.

In May, Samsung released the Galaxy i7500.

In August, the Motorola Droid was released. (Earlier than previously thought)

In October, Lianxiang's lephone (which is earlier than its historical counterpart) was launched.
In November, the LG Optimus One (previously launched)

February 2010, HTC Nexus One. (Later than previously reported)

Almost every few months, a new Android phone from a major manufacturer is released.

Following the press conference, many media outlets declared, "Google's counterattack has begun!"

"Quantum phones will face encirclement by global mobile phone giants."

"In just one year, Google's Android has completely caught up with the gap in operating systems."

........................

Almost immediately after the Google Technology Conference, Quantum Technology filed another lawsuit against Google in the Northern District of California, alleging that the new Android 2.0 system infringed on related patents of the X operating system.

Immediately afterwards...

Google has also sued Quantum Technologies for infringing on numerous Android patents.

So, the legal team, who had just had a short rest, was on the go again.

Ms. Gerken's enthusiasm seemed to wane once again.

Lian Yi is the least senior and experienced member of the team, but her strong initiative and the hard work over the past year have put her at the forefront of this lawsuit once again.

This... is indeed a protracted war.

5 Month 18 Day!
Samsung has officially released the Galaxy i7500.

Lin Xiao watched the normal press conference as usual, and even had a prototype in his hands, which was completely different from the previous Galaxy i7500.

It's even completely unrecognizable.

At this point in history, Samsung was undecided about its operating system: Android, Microsoft, or even Nokia's Symbian.
Therefore, Samsung's first Android phone was experimental in nature, and its configuration, appearance design, and even screen resolution were only so-so.

It could even be described as thick and ugly, and it also has several physical buttons.

However... the success of quantum phones seems to have set an example for these mobile phone giants.

Therefore, this Android phone from Samsung has been completely upgraded.

It has a 4-inch screen, a 480P screen, and even the same 800-megapixel camera.

Not only that, but the thickness was also controlled at 9.8 millimeters.

Moreover, it also uses a glass-like back cover!

This design is far superior to the previous Galaxy i7500.

Everything seemed so wonderful.

Most importantly, Samsung's brand power is stronger than that of the Quantum Phone.

Therefore, quantum technology is now experiencing the double-edged sword of being one step ahead.

Especially UI design and mobile phone exterior design.

Even if you overdraw your aesthetic design budget for several years, others can catch up in the shortest time and follow suit.

"The Android camp is getting serious!"

"The crackdown on quantum phones has officially begun!"

"The first-mover advantage of quantum phones has vanished. Next, the Google camp will completely crush quantum technology with its massive scale advantage."

"The victory of the Second Dog Cult Leader seemed so short-lived, lasting less than half a year."

"In 2009, Er Gou's mainstream teachings suffered a major setback. He spent huge sums promoting WeChat, but with little success. He acquired Renren.com and completely revamped Xiaohongshu, but traffic plummeted, almost declaring it a failure!"

"As expected, Master Er Gou is not omnipotent. This may be the starting point of his failure. From now on, he should get used to this kind of failure."

........................

Lin Xiao held the Samsung Galaxy i7500 in his hand.

While marveling at Samsung's strength, one also feels a sense of helplessness regarding Samsung's situation.

In fact, even in this world, Samsung's phone doesn't have this design; it still uses the design from history.

However, quantum phones have emerged out of nowhere and achieved tremendous success.

Therefore, Samsung almost completely overturned the previous design and adopted a brand new design, not only in terms of appearance but also in terms of related configuration parameters.

But... it was all too rushed.

From finalization to the launch event, it took less than ten months.

Historically, it used the MSM7200A processor, but this world has upgraded it to the Qualcomm QSD8250 processor.

However, this processor was only released a few months ago, and the Android 2.0 system was released just over a month ago.

The result of this haste was that the phone looked great at the launch event, and even its design was excellent.

However, after using it for a period of time, it turned out to be quite disastrous.

The Qualcomm QSD8250 processor uses a 65-nanometer manufacturing process, which inherently results in significantly weaker performance, and there wasn't enough time for fine-tuning.

So the problem is overheating, and it's not mature enough to be compatible with Android 2.0.

This leads to another problem: lag.

Because Samsung forced the use of a 480P resolution screen and an 800-megapixel CMOS sensor, while they couldn't buy Sony's flagship CMOS sensor.

Although the original i7500 was very rough and had relatively low specifications, it was at least very mature and highly complete.

Even though it was released a month later than usual, it was still extremely rushed, resulting in a product that looked great on the outside but overheated and sluggish on the inside.

The key is the characteristics of AMOLED screens. Although they also have a 480P resolution, their clarity is only about 70% of that of an LCD screen with the same resolution.

Forcing a 4-inch sensor results in large pixels, and the clarity is far inferior when you hold it in your hand.

In addition, due to the inability to purchase Sony's flagship CMOS sensor and the fact that Samsung's own CMOS sensor is not yet fully mature, the photo quality is significantly inferior despite the claimed 800-megapixel resolution.

Of course, Samsung announced it in mid-May, but it wasn't publicly available until the end of June.

They probably hope to use this month or two to solve the problems related to the phone as quickly as possible.

But without a doubt, the press conference was a great success.

The entire press conference showcased various advancements in quantum mobile phones.

Moreover, it is slightly more expensive than the quantum phone, basically about $30 more per version.

This indicates that Samsung's brand value is higher than that of the Quantum Phone.

Because Samsung and Google fully promoted this phone, with overwhelming media coverage, and the pre-launch hype for smartphones was higher than ever before.

Therefore, this phone has gained more attention and appeal than ever before.

A week after the press conference, Samsung issued a statement.

In just seven days, the number of pre-orders for the Galaxy i7500 exceeded 280 million units worldwide!

This figure far exceeds last year's sales figures for quantum phones!
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Note: Finally finished writing! I'm going to eat now. Happy Dragon Boat Festival everyone! For those of you with monthly passes, could you please grant me a few? Thank you!

(End of this chapter)