Age of Legends

Chapter 282 Strategic Alliance
High-end business battles are always simple. Zhang Chen had seen some bosses who were very superstitious before. They would put up jars and pots at home and pray to gods and Buddhas every day, but in private they would cut corners, cheat and swindle. In the end, they would still go bankrupt. The gods and Buddhas they prayed to never protected them.

On the contrary, those who are upright and honest never seek external protection.

Those who constantly offer endless prayers are likely those who committed many wrongdoings while accumulating wealth. The Qing Dynasty scholar Wen Kang said, "First is fate, second is luck, third is feng shui, fourth is accumulating good deeds, and fifth is studying." Later, a team led by Pluchino explored the relationship between luck and success through the red-green ball experiment. They ultimately proved that in this experiment, personal ability and wealth accumulation played only a small role; conversely, luck played the largest role in the accumulation process.

Therefore, Zhang Chen believes this saying should be changed to: first, fate; second, luck; third, education; fourth, accumulating good deeds; and fifth, feng shui.

Fate is something you can't choose. In a macro sense, it encompasses your entire life; in a narrow sense, it can be said to be your birth and the support of your family. Fortune, on the other hand, is something that continues to exist alongside your self-cultivation process, like twins that nourish each other. Fortune should also go beyond studying and self-cultivation, because there's always the difference between getting twice the result with half the effort and getting half the result with twice the effort, and there's also the saying that man proposes, God disposes.

So, if someone wants to grasp the unknown, then accumulating good deeds in secret is the way to achieve that. This positive feedback to society will ultimately benefit ordinary individuals, and from a sociological perspective, accumulating good deeds in secret is also plausible.

As for feng shui, Zhang Chen believes that the objective environment can indeed affect one's emotions and health, which makes some sense. Moreover, being born and raised in a big city is a kind of feng shui, as it can indeed provide more opportunities and resources than in a small town. However, to say that it can specifically guide a fortune teller on whether he will get beaten up today is metaphysics.

Zhang Chen's experience of being reborn made him believe that even if this world is virtual and can be calculated, the computational methods currently mastered by humanity are far from accurate. It's as absurd as trying to interpret AAA games using the Java language.

Liu Qi and his "master" wanted to set up a feng shui formation to scheme against them, so I could use my mother Huang Huifen's arrangement to give them a little shock.

Tell them... what it means to be a chosen one.

……

While Huang Huifen's real estate business in Rongcheng, Zhang Chen, is facing challenges, QQ is also quietly changing. After being bombarded with criticism last month for charging registration fees, QQ has gone from being tough at first to lowering the registration fee. Previously, it cost two QQ coins to register one account, but now it costs one QQ coin. At the same time, it is also cooperating with the operator's recharge activities and giving away free registration membership opportunities.

This was Pony Ma's compromise. He's actually a technically arrogant person, possessing an almost conceited, even dogmatic, judgment about his products. His role in the company is generally one of stability and decisiveness. This is partly due to his position, and partly because he has an extremely deep understanding of his products—few senior executives can match his level of understanding.

He always makes the most astute judgments, but this time, Little Ma miscalculated. Moreover, this was despite Zhang Chen's objections in an internal meeting; his forceful implementation has now triggered a public outcry. The situation is actually quite awkward now.

Ma Huateng (Brother Ma) doesn't easily admit his mistakes. In similar past incidents, he held firm for almost a year before finally compromising. Within the company, once he's made up his mind to do something, no one dares to disobey him. Therefore, he is actually very assertive in his work.

This time, in just over a month, a compromise was reached, and public opinion began to celebrate a phased victory.

"The registration fee has been reduced from 2 yuan to 1 yuan, and they even give away free accounts periodically. I registered, and it's still possible to get a free account. What does this show? Tencent also realizes they're in the wrong, so everyone's protests are effective!"

"It's better to protest now than for them to charge you for logging in later. Maybe they'll even charge you for sending a message! If this continues, QQ will be replaced sooner or later!"

"They still charge 1 yuan for registration, but after getting yelled at, they dared not charge more, but they still haven't given up on making money! Why don't you just rob someone!"

Tencent's decline vented public anger, with many criticizing it and believing that the public's voice had stopped Tencent's ambitions and prevented it from sliding towards a monopoly. However, internally, everyone still remembered Zhang Chen's statement in the group chat: "The rapid growth of membership is precisely because of its free nature... I think charging for new users will shake our very foundation." These were his resounding words.

Everyone knows that although Zhang Chen and Wang Bowen opposed it, Ma Ying-jeou still pushed through the policy. Now, however, he is facing strong resistance, and what truly made him compromise was Zhang Chen's opinion from over a month ago.

At least this suggestion has caught Pony Ma's attention, and now there's a slowdown in the implementation of the decision.

However, the atmosphere within Tencent is currently somewhat delicate.

Since then, neither Zhang Chen nor Wang Bowen have expressed any opinions in the Tencent executive group.

However, what is happening now constantly demonstrates that Zhang Chen's opinion at that time was correct.

However, being small makes it easy to change course. Soon, Pony Ma spoke privately with Zhang Chen, saying, "You're right. I plan to completely cancel the paid registration model and focus on offering basic services for free while charging for value-added services. But we can't cancel it immediately, otherwise people will think they've won and it will backfire and affect our other charging models."

"So how do you plan to solve this?" Zhang Chen asked.

"We'll hold a two-year anniversary celebration in a couple of days, and during that time we'll take in free registrations. Two months later, we'll completely cancel it. That way, we can land safely," Pony Ma said.

Zhang Chen said, "Genius, you really can't just follow public opinion and do it immediately, or you might get caught up in a bigger controversy. A gradual cancellation might not be a bad idea."

In reality, whether Pony Ma canceled it immediately or implemented it in a way he considered safe, he would still receive praise from Zhang Chen. In Zhang Chen's view, neither approach was inherently superior or inferior; the only difference was that charging new users would indeed shake QQ's foundation. He always focused on the key points; as long as this was achieved, everything else was just a minor, insignificant episode.

"Regarding user value enhancement, I think we could try making games. I remember you mentioned last time that you were planning to make games, so why don't you have your department take charge of development?" Little Ma suddenly changed the subject and asked about this.

"I teamed up with a few people to make the game, all of whom are locals in Rongcheng. I think QQ shouldn't make games; it should focus on its social features and value-added services right now. The game can be made by Wanxiang Jianghu, so there won't be any conflict between the two."

"I see... But your Wanxiang Jianghu isn't actually part of Tencent. How about making it one of our departments? I guarantee I'll give it my full support."

“I don’t think it’s necessary. We can do it this way: cross-shareholding. Tencent invests in Wanxiang Jianghu, so Tencent can focus on its core businesses such as social networking, communication, and payment, while Wanxiang Jianghu will mainly lead the development of the gaming business. Through licensing, in-depth cooperation, or exclusive agency, we will form a strategic alliance and be deeply intertwined.”

This was the first time that Xiao Ma had heard such high-level vocabulary from Zhang Chen.

“Strategic alliance…” he murmured to himself.

(End of this chapter)