Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 298 Battle
The spacious and bright office of the chairman of Tengda Group was filled with a tense and solemn atmosphere.

Zhou Hongyi, the CEO of 360, had a flushed face, with veins bulging on his forehead, and slammed his hands heavily on the armrests of the sofa.

He said loudly and indignantly, "Chairman Song, Tencent is going too far! This is intolerable!"

Song Ci handed over a cup of tea and said, "President Zhou, have some tea to calm down."

Zhou Hongyi took the teacup, took a sip, and his anger had not subsided: "What does Ma Boli mean by this? The QQ PC Manager he launched has almost the exact same functions as 360 Security Guard. He's obviously trying to take away my livelihood."

Song Ci understood why Zhou Hongyi was so angry; the incident stemmed from the IT Leaders Summit in March.

After that debate among the four giants, Penguin felt that Tenda Group was very powerful and decided to avoid its head-on confrontation, compete in a different field, and open up new business segments.

So they set their sights on the domestic computer security market.

In mid-April, Tencent upgraded QQ Doctor to QQ PC Manager and forced a silent installation through the massive QQ client, covering 40% of computers nationwide in a short period of time.

With the penguin's aggressive expansion and unstoppable momentum, 360's core business was affected. Zhou Hongyi naturally couldn't sit still. After failing to reach a cooperation agreement with Ma Boli, he decided to fight back.

However, Zhou Hongyi was by no means a reckless person. He knew that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Tengda and Tencent were locked in a fierce battle in the mobile IM field, so it was only natural that Tengda would seek help from him.

After listening to Zhou Hongyi's rant, Song Ci slowly spoke up: "Using QQ to force downloads in the background is really unethical of Tencent. This kind of business tactic is unfair."

"I'm not someone to be trifled with! If you push me too far, I'll fight to the death."

Zhou Hongyi's eyes flashed with a fierce light. Back then, he destroyed 90% of the antivirus software on the market with a single free offer. He was not someone to be trifled with.

After taking a sip of tea, Song Ci went straight to the point: "President Zhou, just tell me what you need me to do."

He knew perfectly well that Zhou Hongyi would never come to him without a reason, and that he must have something to ask of him.

However, Tencent is also a competitor of Tenda. Helping 360 and diverting some of its competitors' attention would be a good thing for Tenda.

"Chairman Song is righteous!" Zhou Hongyi gave a thumbs up, then his face turned ferocious, and he gritted his teeth with a fierce look, saying, "Since Penguin won't give me a way out, I'll smash his pot too."

Song Ci was slightly surprised; he hadn't expected Zhou Hongyi to be so decisive: "President Zhou, are you going to take action against QQ?"

Zhou Hongyi took a deep breath: "I was forced into this situation! If I don't hurt Tencent, they'll treat 360 like an easy target."

After a moment of silence, Zhou Hongyi explained his plan to Song Ci, and added at the end, "I hope Chairman Song will give us his full support in terms of public opinion at that time."

He understood that Weibo and Toutiao were the forefront of online public opinion, and that the subsequent plans needed Song Ci's support to be implemented smoothly; guiding public opinion was of paramount importance.

Song Ci weighed the pros and cons in her mind and nodded slightly: "No problem, Tengda will stand on 360's side, but I still don't recommend that you go head-to-head with Tencent."

Zhou Hongyi was overjoyed to receive the promise and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. His anxiety was greatly relieved. With the support of the richest man, he was confident that he could outmaneuver the penguin.

After discussing some details, Zhou Hongyi prepared to get up and take his leave.

At the elevator door, Zhou Hongyi said, "Mr. Song, please wait! I'm sorry to have bothered you today." With that, he turned and entered the elevator with a worried expression.

As Song Ci watched the heavy alloy elevator doors slowly close, she thought that with Zhou Hongyi's return, the 3Q War was probably about to begin.

When I returned to the office, I ran into Zhang Yong coming out of the door in the corridor.

"President Song, has Zhou Hongyi gone back?"

Song Ci nodded and sighed softly, "A great battle is about to begin! But this matter has little to do with us. Let's just wait and see."

Zhang Yong had also heard about the competition between Tencent and 360 in the security market: "Given Tencent's size and foundation, 360 is probably no match for Tencent."

Song Ci neither confirmed nor denied Zhang Yong's assessment, but changed the subject: "The group's second restructuring is complete. The group will begin financing in the second half of the year, so you and Chen An should put more effort into the financial statements."

Concerning the vital interests of both the company and himself, Zhang Yong understood the weight of this responsibility and dared not slack off in the slightest: "Rest assured! I guarantee that the financial statements will be presented beautifully."

The first half of May was uneventful in both the entertainment and internet industries. Even the two companies, Tencent and 360, didn't engage in any direct confrontation.

But those in the know understand that this is just the calm before the storm. As the saying goes, the storm is brewing, and beneath the calm surface, undercurrents are surging!

On May 20th, the calm was finally broken. 360 took the lead, suddenly releasing a "Privacy Protector" accusing QQ of scanning users' hard drives and stealing their privacy.

This news quickly went viral online, triggering a crisis of public trust in penguins.

Just as Tencent's top management was still considering how to respond, only five days later, 360 launched a second wave of fierce moves.

On the 25th, 360 launched "QQ Protector," claiming that the software could block QQ ads and speed up QQ's operation. More importantly, it also hijacked QQ's security functions onto the 360 ​​page.

"QQ Protector" was downloaded over 2000 million times in just 72 hours after its release, directly impacting the heart of Tencent.

The software "QQ Protector" has seriously affected almost all of Tencent's QQ-related businesses, essentially damaging Tencent's lifeline.

The fact that "QQ Protector" can block QQ pop-ups is enough to make Tencent (the company behind QQ) find it unbearable.

QQ pop-ups are the most important media and promotional channels for PC QQ, and one of the core sources of traffic upon which the entire Tencent company relies for its survival.

If "QQ Guard" continues to cause trouble, Tencent's normal operations may be unable to continue.

Faced with a life-or-death situation, the penguins naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait to die; they quickly launched their fiercest counterattack.

On May 28th at 7 PM, Tencent published "A Letter to QQ Users" through various media channels.

The letter took a hard line, demanding that users choose between QQ and 360, or they would be unable to use QQ.

At the same time, they reported the case to the relevant authorities and issued a joint statement with five companies including Kingsoft and Baidu, accusing 360 of unfair competition.

360 countered by accusing Tencent of monopolizing the market and disrupting the industry ecosystem. The two sides engaged in a large-scale online propaganda war.

Night had fallen, and it was 9:30 p.m. Liu Shishi had just finished a day of filming and was busy removing her makeup in the dressing room. The phone next to her was on speakerphone on the dressing table, and Mr. Song's gentle voice came through, adding a touch of warmth to the slightly empty dressing room.

"Yi-yi, who do you think will win, Tencent or 360?"

While letting her assistant Lin Xia wipe the makeup off the corners of her eyes with a makeup remover pad, the eldest sister asked curiously.

During dinner just now, my assistant mentioned this sensational news story, and I couldn't help but ask my husband for his opinion.

"Alas, the outcome was already predetermined."

Hearing her husband keep her in suspense, Miss Liu pouted and said coquettishly, "Riddlers are so annoying."

Song Ci chuckled lightly: "Silly girl, think about it carefully. If you were an ordinary internet user and faced with the choice between QQ and 360, what would you do?"

The woman thought for a moment and said, "I'll probably choose to uninstall 360. After all, 360 is just an antivirus software. If I don't need 360, I can use Kingsoft or Rising to kill viruses. But I can't find a replacement for QQ anytime soon."

"Do I even need to tell you the result?"

"Okay!" Liu Shishi shrugged, suddenly realizing that her question was a bit silly.

But suddenly a brilliant idea flashed into his mind, and he said impatiently, "Honey, I have a great idea! Do you want to hear it?"

Song Ci readily agreed: "Please speak, Ms. Liu Shishi, I am all ears."

The female strategist is online, offering advice to Boss Song: "Honey, netizens are extremely disgusted by Tencent forcing users to choose between two options. Why don't you take this opportunity to develop a PC version of WeChat that's similar to QQ, and seize the chance to replace QQ?"

Listening to the excitement in his wife's voice, Song Ci could imagine Miss Liu raising her snow-white swan neck with a proud expression that said, "Praise me!"

"That's a good idea," the richest man praised, though he secretly regretted it.

With 360's defeat imminent, Tenda had no chance to shake QQ's dominant position in instant messaging. However, seeing his wife so happy, he couldn't bear to dampen her spirits.

The woman thought her husband had taken her advice and was overjoyed, saying, "My vision and perspective are pretty good now, I haven't let Mr. Song down."

After chatting for a while, Song Ci inquired about his wife's situation: "How have you been on set these past few days?"

"Everything is going smoothly. Mimi even came to visit the set the day before yesterday. She also took on a Qing Dynasty time-travel drama similar to 'Scarlet Heart,' called 'Palace.' We made a promise to see whose drama will be more popular."

Song Ci was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but sigh. She never expected that all three of the most popular Qing Dynasty dramas of 2011 would be included.

Some time ago, his college class advisor, Lao Qin, approached him, saying that he was entrusted by several professors in the Chinese department to grant director Zheng Xiaolong the film and television adaptation rights to a novel called "Empresses in the Palace".

Upon hearing this, he agreed without hesitation, not only to give Qin Chaoyang face, but also because he hoped that the pinnacle of palace intrigue, "Empresses in the Palace," would be produced by Zheng Xiaolong.

That day, he also inexplicably thought that Yang Mi is now an artist under Tengda Culture, and he wondered if "Palace" and "The Power of Love" would ever appear again.

Now that Liu Shishi has said this, Song Ci feels a little relieved that "Palace" is coming as scheduled, and she thinks that "The Power of Love" will also be there.

If Honey Sister's fans can't hear that heavenly voice, wouldn't that be a great loss in their lives?
When will filming for "Scarlet Heart" wrap up?

The lead actress calculated the filming schedule: "There are about two more weeks left, and filming will wrap up around June 10th."

“Then I still have time to visit you in Hengdian. In a few days, Tengda’s cloud computing center in Donghai will be completed. I will fly to Donghai and then come to Hengdian after that.”

"Okay, I'll be looking forward to your arrival." Liu Shishi smiled, her eyes full of tenderness.

While Song Ci and Liu Shishi were deeply in love, 360 Company was facing an unprecedented crisis.

From the moment Tencent released its "choose one of two" open letter at 7:00 AM, just three hours later, more than 50 million users across the country uninstalled 360 Security Guard.

Netizens showed Zhou Hongyi through their actions that, given QQ's indispensable role as a daily communication tool, they had no choice but to choose the more reliable QQ.

Seeing the sharp decline in backend user data, 360's top management was extremely anxious and had no choice but to issue a late-night announcement, stating that "QQ Protector" would be temporarily suspended and that they would reach a settlement with Tencent as soon as possible, hoping that users would not rush to uninstall 360 software.

May 28th was destined to be a sleepless night for the entire internet industry, with countless people unable to sleep, especially the leaders of the two companies who were most tormented.

Zhou Hongyi was worried that the company's already precarious software installation volume meant that the slightest misstep could lead to its utter ruin.

Marbury, on the other hand, was worried about the serious consequences of forcing users to choose between two options. The seemingly tough decision would cause immeasurable losses to the penguin.

The following day, in a Penguin conference room, the air was thick with smoke and a pungent smell. Marbury, sitting at the head of the table, looked haggard, his eyes bloodshot and red.

Stubbornly stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, Maberly sighed deeply and made a difficult decision: "Agree to 360's terms and settle."

After saying those words, he slumped into the chair, seemingly having exhausted all his strength.

The QQ representative was still somewhat unwilling: "Mr. Ma, are we just going to let 360 off the hook like this?"

Strategic Director Liu Zhiping frowned and retorted sharply, "Otherwise what? Are we really going to fight 360 to the death?"

Look at today's news: "Tencent's stock price plummeted 10% due to the 3Q war," and "Netizens are calling on relevant departments to take action."

These reports all indicate that the company's current situation is very dangerous, and it risks collapse at any moment.

"The settlement is settled, there's no room for negotiation." Marbury waved his hand wearily, making the final decision.

He couldn't be bothered to listen to his subordinates arguing anymore. He had stayed up all night at the company and now felt a splitting headache.

Liu Zhiping sighed softly, understanding that Ma Boli's agreement to reconcile with their formidable enemy in just one night was also out of necessity.

The extreme measures taken by Tencent will inevitably come at a heavy price: damaged user trust, a decline in brand image, and a deterioration of the industry ecosystem are all unavoidable.

Before relevant departments intervene, the most urgent and important task is to quickly reach a settlement with 360 and quell the situation as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)