Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 302 Entering the Media Industry
Masato Takeshita has a lot of things to do at the beginning of every month. After looking at the monthly data report of the Internet cafe, he goes to Xinghai Entertainment for inspection without stopping.

In the president's office, the young man sat on the sofa drinking tea and eating snacks.

"What do the Murayamas and Uenos say?"

The Murayama and Ueno families are the founding families of Japan's second largest newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, and the fourth largest television station, TV Asahi, and are also the top two largest shareholders.

Masato Takeshita wanted to achieve his goal of controlling the Asahi Group by acquiring part of the shares of the two major families, or by asking the two major families to allow him to increase capital and expand shares.

"Both parties disagree. They don't want to change the Asahi situation."

Rogers was a little depressed. He didn't expect the two major families to be so resolute in their attitudes.

Although he was polite every time, he just wouldn't give in.

"In that case, let's change our target. The Daily News Corporation should be easier to get started with."

Mainichi Shimbun Group is the third largest media group in Japan after Asahi and Yomiuri.

The media is mainly composed of the Mainichi Shimbun, Japan's third-best-selling newspaper, and TBS TV, Japan's second-most-broadcast TV station.

"Will this happen?"

Rogers has been traumatized by Asahi and feels that this task is difficult to accomplish.

"Don't worry, the chances are much greater. The Mainichi News Corporation has financial problems, and the probability of the family behind it compromising is much higher than that of Asahi."

Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" was originally the biggest news in Japan.

However, since the main user group was farmers, the company lost a large number of users after entering the 50s, and its revenue also decreased significantly every year, and it frequently fell into economic crises.

It was also because of the economic problems that when the TV industry was emerging in the 1950s and 1960s, the Mainichi News Corporation did not have the money to build its own TV station. It could only cooperate with Asahi, Yomiuri, Dentsu, and Mitsui Bank behind Yomiuri to establish a TV station.

But the relationship between the three media is very bad.

Mainichi and Asahi belong to the same left-wing camp, so it is natural that they dislike each other.

Competitors are enemies!

As for Asahi and Yomiuri, two media outlets with obviously different news attitudes, they were already beaten to a pulp before World War II.

Therefore, in the early days of TBS TV station, the three media outlets were either fighting each other or on the way to fighting each other.

When Dentsu saw that the situation was not good and it could not get any rights at all, it quickly withdrew from the game.

As for Asahi and Yomiuri, both media were relatively wealthy. After fighting with each other, they soon established their own TV stations, which later became TV Asahi and Nippon TV.

Perhaps because it had its own TV station, the Asahi Group eventually lost ground in the struggle with the Mainichi Group.

In a fit of anger, the Asahi Media Group chose to withdraw.

Seeing that Asahi had withdrawn, Yomiuri simply left a small amount of shares and withdrew as well.

After all, it is difficult for the Mainichi News Group, which only has TBS, to compete with the Nippon Television.

In this way, the Mainichi Shimbun realized its dream of monopolizing TBS TV station.

But there is still a pitfall for TBS TV station, that is the equity of Mitsui Bank.

However, Mitsui Bank is not so concerned about the news media for the time being, and feels that having Yomiuri Shimbun and Nippon Television is enough, so TBS has entered an unprecedented period of peace.

However, during Japan's recent economic bubble period, the Mainichi Shimbun made many investment mistakes, leading to a series of operational problems at its newspapers and TV stations.

At this time, Xinghai Group extended an olive branch, and the Daily News chose to accept it with great consideration.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t accept it, the Daily News is making a bigger mistake.

Now this media is investing heavily in Yamaichi Securities. When Yamaichi Securities faces bankruptcy in a few years, the Mainichi Newspaper will face even tighter funding.

If the Xinghai Group is forced a little, it will probably choose to surrender.

After listening to Masato Takeshita's explanation, Rogers bit his lip.

"Okay, then I'll find an agent to help make the connection tomorrow."

"Yes, the sooner the better."

Xinghai Group must have its own voice and cannot rely on the mercy of Asahi.

Finding that his president was so anxious, Rogers simply set off in the afternoon.

Soon, he contacted the Nishikawa family and the Ueno family, the families behind the Mainichi Shimbun.

The first reaction of the two major families was that Xinghai Group must be joking and they would not sell the stocks they held.

"Mr. Nishikawa, Mr. Ueno, if buying the stock directly doesn't work, we can also raise funds at a 20% premium based on your company's market value yesterday."

In his heart, Rogers actually hopes that the two families will choose financing, because this shows that the two families are still very enterprising.

He knew clearly that his chairman would not be satisfied with a daily news group. The entire Asian media industry would be turned upside down by Takeshita Masato.

If the young man were here, he would definitely feel like he had found a close friend.

This is what he thinks, and he hopes to dominate the Asian public opinion environment through various means.

"Let me think about this."

"Me too, it was too sudden."

Hiroshi Nishikawa and Masato Ueno, the people behind the scenes of the Mainichi Shimbun, looked at each other and decided to unify their thoughts internally first.

"Ok, no problem."

Next, Rogers stopped talking about the acquisition financing and instead chatted with the two of them, further narrowing the distance between them.

The business public relations level can reach at least four stars.

After the dinner, the two simply sat in the same car.

"Nishikawa-san, do you think we should agree to this?"

"I tend to agree. Without the support of the consortium, it will be too difficult for us to transform and develop."

Masato Ueno, who holds a slightly smaller stake, would rather see better development of the Mainichi Shimbun than control.

Anyway, I am in the minority, so even if one more person joins in, it won’t have much impact.

"I'll think about this."

Hiroshi Nishikawa was also somewhat tempted, because with the support of the chaebol and sufficient funds, he could get higher quality news and achieve rapid expansion of the group.

It’s not like now, in order to fill the financial holes caused by investing in real estate and stocks, I have to put a large amount of money into Yamaichi Securities.

However, with advantages comes disadvantages. One will lose the dominance of the daily news and become a wage earner of the Xinghai Group.

Just as Hiroshi Nishikawa was thinking it over carefully, Masato Takeshita boarded a plane to China again.

Japan is not far from China, and the plane soon landed at the Beijing airport.

"Hello, is this Mr. Masato Takeshita?"

"Yes, are you?"

"I'm Zhou Quan from the Foreign Trade Department, welcome to the capital."

"Thank you, it's our first meeting. Please give me your guidance."

After a brief greeting, the two quickly came to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, which was Masato Takeshita's residence during the meeting.

However, before meeting the main leaders of foreign trade and economic cooperation, Minister Wu of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications came first.

"Hello, Minister Wu. I am Masato Takeshita. It's our first meeting. Thank you for your guidance." "Thank you for your guidance!"

After a brief greeting, Minister Wu praised directly: "You are worthy of being the light of Asia. The operating system you developed can actually beat the United States."

The Xinghai operating system has created a huge sensation in the world's science and technology fields.

Minister Wu also had to admire Japan's current R&D capabilities. They were able to make a breakthrough in a market that was originally completely monopolized by the United States.

"Minister Wu, you are too kind. We are just standing on the shoulders of giants to replicate Microsoft. That's nothing."

"This is already very remarkable. Unfortunately, it was not completed in the end."

At the end, Minister Wu couldn't help but shook his head with empathy.

Because not only Japan, but every country in the world has suffered countless frustrations from the United States.

There is no way, a world dominated by one company is so cruel.

"It's normal. It's because we are weak. If we don't have the strength, we will be beaten."

The young man then smiled and said, "Besides, this is all within our expectations. The markets in Asia, Australia and the CIS countries are already large enough for us to develop."

"That's right. Asia is the most populous region and the future of the telecommunications market."

Since we were talking about operating systems, Masato Takeshita thought about his future development plan for Xinghai Software Company.

"Xinghai Software, which owns the Xinghai operating system, is planning to raise funds in the near future. I wonder if Minister Wu is interested. We can sell up to 20% of our shares."

The most important communications markets in Asia are China and Japan, so Masato Takeshita is preparing to transfer part of his equity to China to form a community of interests.

In this way, even if there are changes in the future, it will not affect the development of Xinghai Software.

"Xinghai Software's equity?"

Minister Wu was worried that he had heard it wrong, and couldn't help but ask another question.

"Yes, 20% equity."

"Okay, if the price is right, it will be fine."

Who wouldn't be interested in controlling part of a computer's operating system?

Minister Wu was decisive and agreed without hesitation. He wanted to contact higher-ups immediately to get the shares.

However, thinking that it would be too rude to do so, he suppressed his inner excitement and calmed down, then talked about what he wanted to talk about the most - making money.

"I came here today to talk about the expansion of the Internet cafe, but I didn't expect Mr. Takeshita to suddenly talk about such an important matter."

Internet cafes gave the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications a big surprise. The monthly revenue of more than 100 Internet cafes exceeded 3500 million yuan, reaching one-third of the investment cost. In other words, Internet cafes can recover all costs in at most half a year.

With such good benefits, Minister Wu wishes he could open another 1,800 stores.

Masato Takeshita smiled slightly and did not mention the Xinghai software again.

"Expansion? I think it's better to wait for now. China doesn't have that many users right now. At most, we can open a few more stores in economically developed cities as a trial."

The price of 6 yuan per hour is indeed cheaper than when Internet cafes first appeared in the past, but it is still sky-high.

Just a few days of surfing the Internet will cost a month's salary.

Perhaps only R&D experts like Ma Huateng and Lei Jun, as well as players with money at home, can afford it.

We need to wait until the hourly Internet access price drops further and the monthly salary becomes higher before it is suitable for larger-scale deployment.

"Sorry, that makes sense. I was impatient."

"It's okay, it's human nature."

When the young man thought about the 4000 million RMB revenue he earned in China in the first month, he actually had the idea of expanding rapidly.

But after thinking about it carefully, I quickly gave up this absurd idea.

After talking about the Internet cafe, the two talked about Xinghai computers and the Internet.

"Minister Wu, I hope we can work together to carry out promotional activities. For example, if you buy a Xinghai computer, you can install a telephone line at a cheap price."

Currently, the mainstream of the world's telecommunications industry is still in the dial-up Internet access stage, requiring Internet services to be provided through telephone lines.

As for better broadband Internet access, we will have to wait for some time.

"I'm sorry, but this activity will probably be difficult to advance in the short term."

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is now the only dominant player in the industry, and the installation of telephone lines is in short supply, so people who want to be installed have to wait in line.

Under such circumstances, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications would naturally not form an alliance with Xinghai Computer and play the trick of lowering prices to attract more users.

That is the tactic that needs to be used in the stock market stage, not in the incremental market period.

"Well, I took it for granted."

Masato Takeshita also asked tentatively. He had never thought it would succeed, so naturally he didn't care about these things.

Afterwards, the two stopped talking about specific business development and started talking about the future trends of the entire telecommunications industry.

"Dial-up Internet access is too slow and will sooner or later be replaced by fiber-optic Internet access."

"But before that, it may take some time for the router to provide Internet service."

The router Internet service stage mentioned by Masato Takeshita also uses telephone lines.

However, the telephone lines at this time can make calls and surf the Internet at the same time, and the network transmission speed is also faster.

"But eventually, all countries in the world will enter the era of fiber-optic Internet access. It's just a matter of time."

"Fiber optic? I also think this is the future of the telecommunications industry."

Since the invention of optical fiber in the 60s, countries around the world have begun research.

The current leaders in fiber optic technology are Japan and the United States.

In particular, ATT, which owns Bell Labs, and Japanese telecommunications giant NTT have conducted very in-depth research in this area.

China's technology is also very good, with many unique patents.

“Yes, fiber optics is the future of telecommunications.”

After talking about the development of telecommunications, Masato Takeshita suddenly thought of an important reason for his visit to Beijing.

"Minister Wu, our company has also developed VCD projection technology and would like to cooperate with your department to produce related machines."

"VCD technology, what is this?"

Wanyan is still an inconspicuous small company at present, and the VCD players it launched on the market this month have basically been bought by foreign companies.

Minister Wu naturally didn't know that China actually had new inventions in electrical appliances.

"A projection technology similar to a VCR, but using VCD discs. Discs are very cheap to produce, and I think it is very suitable for countries like China and Southeast Asia where there are not many VCRs."

"Similar to a video recorder. OK, I'll discuss this with my colleagues first."

"That's as it should be. I'm only giving a brief introduction to the project today."

In addition to VCD, Masato Takeshita also thought of establishing a graphics card department in China, but there was no need to cooperate with telecommunications companies in this regard.

Relevant laboratories have already been established in Beijing and Shanghai. All that is left is to invest heavily and we will soon get the desired results.

After all, the graphics card industry is in its infancy and there are basically no industry barriers. It all depends on which company invests more money.

(End of this chapter)