Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 290 Summit Debut
At the end of March, under a clear blue sky, leaders of the nation's most influential electronics and internet companies gathered in Shenzhen to attend the 2010 China IT Leaders Summit.

This grand event brings together heroes from all walks of life and talents from all directions, carrying the attention and expectations of the entire IT industry.

At around 8 a.m., less than 15 minutes before the summit's opening ceremony, a minivan came to a steady stop at the entrance of the venue.

Reporters on both sides were already poised and ready, cameras in hand, curious about which IT tycoon was about to get off the bus.

The car door slowly opened, and a handsome and refined man stepped out calmly. He was none other than Song Ci, the richest man in mainland China and the head of Tengda Technology Group, the largest internet company in the country.

The reporters' eyes lit up immediately, and they frantically pressed the shutter button.

"Oh, since this person is here too, quickly take a picture, he rarely attends occasions like this."

"So handsome! Seeing him in person, I realize that this face is truly a gift from God." A female reporter couldn't help but exclaim softly, her eyes full of admiration.

"This is interesting. Almost all the big names in China's internet industry are here today. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of sparks will fly."

The reporters whispered among themselves, quite surprised that the usually low-profile Song Ci had suddenly appeared at the event.

It's worth noting that Song Ci was absent from the IT Leaders Summit in previous years, so the presence of the richest man this time undoubtedly added a lot of highlights to the summit.

This was Song Ci's first time attending such a forum event. He didn't try anything unconventional in his attire; he was simply dressed in a plain suit and wore the ordinary Longines watch that Liu Shishi had given him.

Despite her low-key demeanor, she couldn't hide her extraordinary temperament. She wore a faint smile and nodded to the camera from time to time, which was both polite and approachable.

Upon entering the venue, the organizers' staff spotted the richest man from afar and quickly approached him, gesturing with one hand and respectfully saying, "Mr. Song, this way please."

He then led the way, bringing Song Ci to the front row of the inner area.

Song Ci looked around the venue and saw that her seat was located in the first row, slightly in the middle, which was definitely the center position.

He was flanked by government officials and state-owned enterprise executives, who clearly gave him a lot of face, indicating that the organizers attached great importance to his visit.

Just a few minutes after sitting down, the leader entered the meeting room, and Song Ci quickly stood up and went forward to shake hands politely.

“Mr. Song, on behalf of the Pengcheng government, I welcome you. I am eager to hear your insightful remarks.”

"You're too kind, leader. I'm young and inexperienced. I'm here today to learn from you and my seniors."

Mr. Liu, Secretary-General of the Digital China Federation, one of the organizers, couldn't help but exclaim: "It is said that President Song has always been low-key and has the demeanor of a gentleman. Seeing him today, I can confirm that."

The Song Dynasty poem is neither humble nor arrogant, and it makes people feel like they are bathed in a spring breeze: "Secretary-General, you flatter me."

The leader chuckled, his eyes full of appreciation: "The meeting is about to begin, let's sit down and talk."

"Please, leader! Please, secretary-general!" Song Ci smiled and nodded, turning slightly to the side, and only slowly sat down after the leader had sat down first.

As soon as the leader settled down, he turned slightly to examine Song Ci closely, admiring her more and more as he looked at her. He then leaned closer and inquired, "President Song, how old are you?"

The sudden question startled Song Ci, but he answered truthfully, saying that his age could be found online: "I am 24 years old this year."

"Young and promising! Young and promising indeed!" the leader praised repeatedly, then smiled warmly and inquired, "I wonder if President Song has a girlfriend?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the secretary-general on the other side jokingly said, "Your Excellency may not know this, but President Song has been taken for a long time. They just got their marriage certificate on New Year's Day this year. At that time, many young girls on the internet were heartbroken and cried."

"Oh, I have a niece, about the same age as President Song. She works at CCTV, is well-educated and beautiful, but she has very high standards and refuses to find a boyfriend. What a pity!"

The leader sighed repeatedly, it was hard to tell whether he felt sorry for Song Ci, such a talented young man, getting married too early, or for his niece who was living a solitary life.

Song Ci was somewhat used to it; this wasn't the first time he'd been asked about similar things.

Not only him, but his parents were also frequently asked these questions until he officially announced his marriage registration this year, after which the situation became less frequent.

Time passed by, and CEOs from various IT companies arrived at the venue one after another.

Song Ci turned around and looked over. Hey, what a coincidence! Sitting right behind him was Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba Group.

The two locked eyes. After a moment of stunned silence, Ma Jie quickly recovered and nodded to Song Ci in greeting: "President Song, it's been months since we last met. You still look as dashing as ever!"

The two had met a few months ago at the CCTV Annual Economic Figures Awards Ceremony. Although they had previously exchanged barbs online, Song Ci responded appropriately and remained calm: "Mr. Ma, how have you been?"

After greeting Ma Jieke, Song Ci's gaze casually swept across the room, taking in familiar faces: Ma Boli from Tencent, Li Yanhong from Baidu, Zhang Chaoyang from Sohu... all prominent figures in the IT industry.

At 9:00 AM sharp, the 2010 China IT Leaders Summit officially opened, followed by speeches from the top leader, other leaders, the organizers, and company representatives.

The boring and tedious process made me drowsy while listening to the Song Dynasty poems, but because I was sitting in the front row and constantly under the media's cameras, I had to force myself to stay awake and pretend to listen carefully.

After a series of speeches, it was already past 11:30 a.m., and the morning session of the conference came to an end. Staff members then led the attendees to the banquet hall for lunch.

Considering the upcoming debate in the afternoon, and to maintain clear thinking, most attendees refrained from drinking alcohol, planning to rest in a side hall after lunch to prepare for the main IT leaders' summit in the afternoon.

After dealing with a series of greetings and acquaintances, Song Ci finally found a moment of peace and sat quietly in a corner.

While eating, he took out his phone to chat with Liu Shishi on WeChat.

Mr. Song's sweet wife: My dear husband, what are you doing?

The non-celebrity husband of a top female star: I'm eating, what about you?
"Hehe, I'm eating too, but the boxed lunches from Xu Jinglei's crew are really awful."

"Xu Cairen is trying to ride your coattails. She invited you to have a cameo role in her drama, shouldn't she treat you to a nice meal?"

"Forget it, let's skip the meal. I just want to finish filming my cameo scenes and go back as soon as possible."

How's everything going on set?

"It went quite smoothly. By the way, Xu Jinglei is very strict and demanding of herself when filming."

Song Ci didn't pay much attention to what Miss Liu meant by "ruthless" and "strict," and simply replied, "I hope everything goes smoothly. I'm going back to Beiping the day after tomorrow."

"I should be able to finish filming my scenes by the day after tomorrow, so see you at home the day after tomorrow! I miss you, my husband."

"President Song!" A deep, steady voice interrupted Song Ci's conversation. Song Ci looked in the direction of the voice and saw a middle-aged man standing beside her with a smile on his face. He was wearing a gray jacket with the zipper casually open, revealing a signature red T-shirt underneath.

The visitor was Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Company, who was known as the Cardinal.

"We have guests, let's talk about our wives tonight." After hastily replying to Liu Shishi's WeChat message, Song Ci stood up and shook hands with Zhou Hongyi: "Hello, Mr. Zhou!"

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Zhou Hongyi sat down next to Song Ci: "I just saw you sitting here, Mr. Song, and thought I'd come over to say hello. I didn't mean to disturb your meal, I'm so sorry."

Song Ci waved her hand: "No disturbance, I've just finished eating."

"The main reason is that I have always admired Mr. Song as an outstanding person. Now that I have met him, I really couldn't help but want to come and pay him a visit."

The other party adopted an extremely humble attitude, making Song Ci feel a little embarrassed: "President Zhou is too kind. We are both in Beiping and both work in the internet industry, so we should keep in touch."

"As long as President Song doesn't find me troublesome in the future, that's fine." Zhou Hongyi looked delighted. Although he was a few years older than Song Ci, he didn't dare to be presumptuous.

In the business world, seniority is never based on age. You can tell from the seating arrangement in the venue that Song Ci and the other CEOs in the front row are the real big shots.

Living in the same capital city, he deeply understood how powerful this seemingly low-key tycoon was. The more he learned about him, the more he respected him, which is why he went out of his way to get close to him.

Both are leaders in the internet industry, but their conversation quickly drifted back to their original professions.

"Mr. Song, to be honest, 360's business development has hit a bottleneck, and we are preparing to try to enter the mobile security field. I wonder if you have any insights or advice for Mr. Zhou?"

After speaking, Zhou Hongyi glanced at Song Ci without making a sound, wanting to see his reaction.

Currently, Tenda's mobile security software dominates the mobile security field. If 360 enters this field, it will inevitably encroach on Tenda's market share. The stakes involved are self-evident.

Song Ci, of course, understood the old fox's thoughts. He chuckled and said, "President Zhou, the market has always been open. Tengda's mobile security guard is free. If 360 wants to enter this field, it should be prepared to lose money first."

However, I personally believe there is still much room for development in the PC security business. Mr. Zhou should focus his efforts on that instead of seeking solutions far more distant than those readily available.

Zhou Hongyi leaned slightly closer, his tone urgent: "Please, President Song, do not hesitate to offer your guidance."

Song Ci paused briefly to organize his thoughts: "President Zhou, there is great potential in the security business. Currently, 360 Antivirus only protects computer security, which is too narrow a scope."

Think about it: are the steps a user takes to open a webpage using a browser and find a link through a search engine truly secure?
Since 360 ​​is an internet security company, it should provide comprehensive and systematic protection for users' computer and internet security.

Zhou Hongyi's eyes lit up, and he felt his mind suddenly clear. Overwhelmed with excitement, he even started breathing rapidly: "Yes, yes, yes! You're right!"
There's a lot of harmful information on the internet. Who can guarantee that the web pages users click on and the information they search for are safe? We at 360 can develop browsers and search engines that provide comprehensive security for our clients.

"That's right!" Song Ci nodded in satisfaction when she saw that Zhou Hongyi understood immediately: "Not only that, but are the pop-up message boxes and advertisements of some software installed on users' computers really safe?"

"Mr. Zhou, in the internet industry, we need to put ourselves in our customers' shoes to make our products bigger and stronger."

The cardinal was so excited that his face turned red, and he kept exclaiming in amazement: "I wish we had met sooner! I, Old Zhou, should have paid a visit to President Song earlier. Listening to your insightful opinions today is like a wake-up call."

"No problem, no problem. There's no conflict or competition between Tenda and 360's businesses. Let's communicate more in the future. Mr. Zhou is welcome to visit me sometime."

"I will definitely pay a visit to President Song in a few days." Zhou Hongyi was delighted with the goodwill shown by Song Ci and readily agreed.

After the two had a more in-depth conversation, and seeing that it was almost time for the afternoon meeting, Zhou Hongyi suggested, "President Song, let's add each other on WeChat so it will be easier to keep in touch in the future."

"Does Mr. Zhou also use our company's WeChat?" Song Ci readily agreed, and at the same time opened the WeChat QR code on her phone. "Mr. Zhou, please scan the code to add me."

"WeChat is really convenient." Zhou Hongyi used WeChat's newly launched scan function to quickly scan a QR code to add a friend.

At the same time, I couldn't help but admire Tenda's capabilities. Since its launch, WeChat has introduced various features, such as Moments and Drift Bottle, and in the past few days, it has launched a new function of adding friends via QR code.

Various novel methods have emerged one after another, putting immense pressure on Tencent's WeChat, leaving it completely overwhelmed, and the number of users has already widened significantly.

"A top female star's husband outside the entertainment industry!" Zhou Hongyi was somewhat surprised to see Song Ci's WeChat name.

He never expected that the usually calm, composed, and strategically shrewd billionaire would choose such a nickname that was full of childishness and had a tendency to idolize celebrities.

He couldn't resist asking out of curiosity, "Mr. Song, which top female star do you like?"

Song Ci clicked to verify and added a note, then smiled and said, "She's my wife."

Before Zhou Hongyi could ask any more questions, Song Ci patted his arm and said, "I'll introduce you two when I have the chance. It's time, let's go in together for the meeting."

"Mrs. Song? A top female star!" Zhou Hongyi was very surprised. Several big stars' faces flashed through his mind, but it was hard to associate them with the richest man.

However, seeing that Song Ci had no intention of revealing his wife's identity, he could only bury his doubts and curiosity in his heart.

At 2 PM, after the morning's tedious opening ceremony, the much-anticipated 2010 IT Leaders Summit finally began.

On the stage, the organizers have brought together the heads of China's four major internet technology giants—Tenda, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent—to engage in an exciting debate.

Below the stage, thousands of IT industry elites attended, making it a rare spectacle for the entire IT industry in recent years.

At the same time, Weibo has also made a bold and innovative attempt, launching a simultaneous live broadcast on the official account of the IT Summit.

Within just five minutes of the broadcast starting, over two million viewers had already flooded in, with countless comments scrolling across the screen.

On stage, the host was already prepared. Among the four people opposite, Song Ci, Ma Boli, and Li Yanhong were all in high spirits and dressed in suits.

Only Ma Jieke stood out; he wore a yellow sweater over his shirt, making him particularly eye-catching.

"Exciting! Looking forward to the debate among the experts." In the official live stream room, a barrage of comments flew by.

"Interesting. Is this seating arrangement based on looks? Song Ci > Li Yanhong > Ma Boli > Ma Jieke."

"To be fair, Li Yanhong is already considered handsome, but compared to Song Ci, he is still far inferior."

"The organizers went to great lengths to bring together the four giants of TBAQ, since Song Ci is a homebody and rarely participates in such events."

"Weibo has come up with a new trick again, but this kind of live debate is really interesting. I guess many programs and events will be live-streamed in the future."

(End of this chapter)