America: My Time

Chapter 713 Soaring to the Sky

Chapter 703 Soaring to the Sky

"Jimmy, do you think it's possible that John is optimistic about the development of convenience stores or the retail industry in Japan, but not about the continued rise in Japanese real estate prices, or even that he's pessimistic about the Japanese economy? Otherwise, there's no way to explain his current mysterious behavior. To be honest, I'm starting to get interested myself, after all, Japan's development is too crazy. I think those old guys are probably getting restless now, and it shouldn't be long before they start reaping the benefits of Japan."

"In other words, John has now successfully cashed out, and he can now stand by and watch, because he has sold almost all of his assets. Even if there are any problems, they have nothing to do with him. Although he lost some profits, he didn't take any blame!" At this moment, Jimmy understood John's intention. Wall Street would take the blame, and John, the little fox, wouldn't have to bear any responsibility. He had warned those guys in Japan a long time ago, but they didn't believe him.

"I can't rule out that possibility, but I just don't understand why John would make such a move, since they are both members of American financial groups and Wall Street. He has no reason to do this. If he waits, he will reap more benefits, unless he has some other ideas or schemes against Japan! The reason he hasn't given up on 7-Eleven and Dollar Tree is because he sees the development potential of convenience and mass appeal. If Japan's economy collapses, low-price retail businesses like convenience stores and Dollar Tree will have amazing growth. After all, John, that little fox, controls quite a few light industrial enterprises in Asia."

"Those Russians, John used the Russian trade advantage to make those investments in Asia!" Jimmy thought of this too, but all of this was based on the premise of the collapse of the Japanese economy. Even if Wall Street went all out, those guys in Japan would really not react at all and let Wall Street plunder them.

"Oh no, Jimmy, keep an eye on the Japanese stock market. I remember John has a lot of shares in that investment company in Japan. Check if that little fox John is taking this opportunity to sell them. If he has, it means he has made a clean getaway, before we were even prepared."

At this point, Morgan finally understood why John, this little fox, would go to Japan to negotiate with Akio Morita over the internet cafe alliance. This was completely abnormal. Since he didn't have a high opinion of Japan, all of this should have been negotiated by his subordinates, not by him personally. The only explanation was that this little fox was using a diversionary tactic and making other preparations.

Indeed, John holds a significant number of shares in a Japanese investment company, all acquired after Black Monday. Now that the Japanese stock price has been soaring, selling now would yield an absolutely staggering profit.

Starting in October 1987, the Nikkei average stock price was 26,600 yen, but by the end of 1989, it had soared to 38,900 yen; a 50% increase in just over a year. Who wouldn't be astonished and tempted by such a rapid rise? The same was true for real estate; in just one year in 1987, Tokyo land prices skyrocketed by 65.3%.
John's appearance in Tokyo at this time, solely for the purpose of collaborating with Akio Morita, inevitably aroused suspicion and vigilance from Morgan. However, it was too late by then. By the time he realized this, John had already arranged for the sale of the shares held by the investment company, acquiring a large amount of capital.

When Japan reached such an exaggerated level, it would be truly bizarre if there wasn't a bubble. However, at this point, most people in Japan didn't believe it, even though John had warned them that land prices were rising too wildly. Very few people believed him, and some even made outrageous claims about surpassing the United States and buying it up.

Faced with the dazzling, multicolored bubbles, almost the entire nation of Japan lost its senses, thinking only that their own bubbles were incredibly beautiful and powerful, forgetting that such bubbles would eventually burst, and that when they did, they would all face a terrifying disaster and pay a heavy price.

The harvesting of Neon was the plan of those guys on Wall Street. However, they are still pushing up Neon's stock price and want to gain more benefits, so they have not noticed John's actions. Moreover, their denigration of John is not rational, but rather driven by someone with ulterior motives. No one knows where this denigration came from.

In Tokyo, after selling off all his Japanese shares, John breathed a sigh of relief, a faint, cold smile flashing in his eyes: "Now those guys on Wall Street probably believe the collapse of my investment myth, that I no longer understand the Japanese economy. And this is just the beginning. When the Taiwanese investments withdraw, they will be even more certain that my financial investment acumen is seriously flawed. At that time, no one will pay attention to the actions of Hurricane Investment and HSBC." After completing all the arrangements, summer vacation was fast approaching. John left Japan in a hurry, leaving just as quickly. The Japanese guys didn't even have a chance to arrange a party to test John again. Before they could prepare, John left Japan and returned to San Francisco.

When John returned to San Francisco, new developments were also emerging in Taiwan. Dance Dance Revolution had already made its debut. Before everyone could recover from the impact of the Internet Cafe Alliance and online games, Dance Dance Revolution took center stage. Following the press conference in Taiwan, the United States also began to take action.

"Dance machine? What is this?" The game world was quickly dumbfounded. The arcade hadn't recovered from the impact of the Internet cafe alliance and online games, and now they had to face the impact of dance machines. At this moment, they finally realized that John was suppressing them in all aspects and wanted to destroy the arcade market.

At this point, even the old guys were completely dumbfounded. The arcade market suddenly cooled down and there wasn't much market left. Gamers were attracted to the online games of the Internet Cafe Alliance, and now the emergence of dance machines has further accelerated the impact on arcades, causing them to cool down instantly.

Discussing countermeasures? Completely useless. Arcade games couldn't compare to online games, nor could they match the allure of dance machines. Besides, the latter's slogan was "healthy," entirely for physical well-being. This was far more appealing than arcade games, and had a wider audience. The arrival of dance machines completely crushed arcades. Before long, the arcade market froze. From the US to Europe, and then Asia, the arcade market lost a large portion of its market share. Only a small number of die-hard arcade fans persisted; most gamers switched to other platforms.

At this point, ASUS entered a high-profit mode, from personal computers to dance machines and VCDs. They wanted to make money and make those old guys in the US realize that their era was over. Even if they took over the game world from John, they wouldn't be able to run it well because they didn't understand market demand. They were just looking at everything with old eyes, so their plans were completely useless.

The market is eliminating them now, arcades are dying out, which has cost the gaming world a lot of money, but they can't do anything about it. And John hasn't backed down; at least for now, John hasn't confronted them head-on.

At this point, even the White House wouldn't step in again. After all, John couldn't keep accepting their requests, and all of this proved that those old guys had no vision in emerging markets like gaming. Continuing to fight John wouldn't yield any results.

If anyone had previously mocked John's setbacks in Japan, no one would say that now. Although John made some mistakes in his arrangements for Japanese real estate and the internet cafe alliance, after the emergence of dance machines, they realized that John was still the king in the gaming field and unrivaled in the semiconductor field. Now, the best example is that not only has ASUS entered a high-profit mode, but Nvidia is too. Now, Global Online's internet plan is also beginning to show endless prospects, and profitability is no longer a problem.

Some people want to enter this industry and join the internet cafe alliance, but things are not that simple. At least for now, it is still very difficult. The demand for personal computers in the United States is staggering, not to mention the existence of servers. Dream World has also benefited greatly from the rapid expansion of the internet cafe alliance, and the accumulated servers have been sold off quickly.

The entire industry chain is now on a fast track of development. Under these circumstances, anyone who wants to compete with Nvidia for the chip market is dreaming. Nvidia has truly taken off and no one can stop it. At the same time, Seagate is also a force to be reckoned with. After all, with the boom of ASUS, Seagate's hard drive shipments are also growing rapidly. At this time, everyone suddenly discovered that Seagate also has its own factory in Taiwan.

Although the factories in the US did not stop production, it was clear that they would not expand further. The real production was still in Taiwan. No one expected that Seagate, the hard drive manufacturer, would also quietly enter Taiwan and establish its own production plant. At this point, everyone understood that this was all premeditated. Otherwise, ASUS could not have soared to the top and occupied an absolute share of the personal computer market, making it difficult for latecomers to catch up. This was because they could not integrate into the Internet Cafe Alliance system at all, and their performance was far from meeting the needs of the Internet Cafe Alliance!
(End of this chapter)