Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 212 Alibaba's Future is Worrying: Mobile Phone R&D Strategy! (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
"Of course, if a problem can be solved with money, it's best not to give stock options."

"If that really can't be resolved, then we'll offer the subsidiary stock options as an incentive for future cloud computing development!"

"And tell them that cloud computing will receive an investment of over 10 billion yuan annually in the future, and will become a super giant with a market value of tens of billions!"

Shares shouldn't be distributed haphazardly.

But for the most core talents, giving them some stock options is only fair.

Of course, the parent company's stock options cannot be given out casually.

However, the subsidiary's future cloud computing stock options are still fine.

In particular, several key figures from Wanwang became core leaders of Alibaba Cloud Apsara after the company was acquired by Alibaba.

The talented people at Wanwang and their powerful marketing team have also become the backbone of Alibaba Cloud Computing.

To put it bluntly, Alibaba Cloud was built up by relying on Wanwang's technology, talent, systems, and foundation.

However, with Wang Junshan snatching the deal from Wanwang, the future of Alibaba Cloud Computing has become bleak.

This is another strategic move by Wang Junshan.

In the e-commerce field, it crushed Taobao Mall, leaving Jack Ma and Alibaba exhausted and unable to cope.

Then, taking advantage of the last opportunity presented by the financial crisis, they aggressively bought up shares at rock-bottom prices, acquired Wanwang, and seized control of Alibaba Cloud's future, replacing it!
Wang Junshan's plan was very clear: after Wanwang's acquisition, it would be fully integrated into Future Technology's subsidiary, Future Cloud Computing Company.

Furthermore, a significant amount of capital was invested to comprehensively upgrade, optimize, and improve Wanwang as its foundation.

Upgrade Wanwang from an internet infrastructure service provider to a cloud computing platform!

The whole process is quite complicated.

The integration work after the acquisition alone will take six months.

Pooling is also required!

By integrating the servers, storage, and network equipment of Wanwang's five data centers into a unified, flexibly schedulable large resource pool through virtualization technology and the concept of software-defined networking (SDN).

We are simultaneously developing a suite of cloud services: Elastic Computing Service, Object Storage Service, and Relational Database Service.

The whole process takes about a year.

Although it will take a long time, once it is completed, Wanwang will be able to leap over the dragon gate, and cloud computing will be able to set sail in the future.

At that time, it will be able to provide comprehensive cloud empowerment for WeChat, future games, Vipshop, YouTuan.com, as well as the future OS system, future mobile phones, and so on!
While other major internet companies are still racking their brains over server issues in the next year or two, Future Technology Group will have already started using cloud services internally.

That's absolutely a game-changer.

While iPhone and BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) are still playing with third-generation phones, Wang Junshan has already launched a fifth-generation phone.

The iPhone only started using iCloud in 2011, and it wasn't a complete proprietary cloud service. Instead, it used cloud application integration based on underlying platforms such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

In reality, Apple does not have its own cloud service platform; it relies on third-party underlying cloud service platforms, which are essentially consumer-facing (C-end) services.

Wang Junshan began planning in 2009, and by 2010, the future mobile phone and future OS system would be able to launch future cloud services.

And it is a B2B underlying cloud service platform similar to Amazon AWS and Google Cloud!

It can completely overwhelm iCloud!

By 2011, the future cloud platform, like its predecessor Alibaba Cloud, will be open to the outside world, empowering enterprises of all sizes in China.

It's just that in terms of timing, it was many years ahead of Alibaba Cloud.

At that time, Future Cloud will become the number one and only cloud computing platform in China.

Alibaba Cloud will be many years behind, and Baidu and Tencent will be even slower.

Even Microsoft is ranked lower.

It can be said that the only cloud platform that will be able to lead the future is Amazon AWS, the pioneer of cloud computing, which was launched in 2006!

Even Google Cloud can only compete with Future Cloud on a 50/50 scale.

Google Cloud also had a slow start, only beginning its deployment last year.

By acquiring Wanwang and leveraging Wanwang's infrastructure and core 'quasi-cloud computing' technology, Wang Junshan is fully capable of overtaking Google Cloud.

But it's still a long, long way from Amazon AWS.

“Okay, Chairman, I’ll take care of it.” Cui Qian said confidently.

Wang Junshan nodded: "I'll leave the Wanwang acquisition to you. As for the Gaode acquisition, who's in charge?"

No matter how strong Cui Qian is, she cannot afford to be distracted.

Both acquisitions were major projects.

“Chairman, leave it to me.” Tang Zhi said, “I was the one who negotiated the acquisition of 47.43% of Haier Ririshun’s shares. Although the final price was personally agreed upon by the chairman, I gained some experience.”

Wang Junshan smiled and said, "Old Tang, Vipshop is currently experiencing a major boom, and you yourself are so busy that you don't have the energy to take care of acquiring AutoNavi."

"Yes, that's true. Vipshop's daily revenue is increasing rapidly, especially with the addition of the second batch of eight major brands to the home appliance shopping festival, which has led to a continuous surge in our daily transaction volume, which is currently maintained at around 2.7 million."

"More and more home appliance brands are applying to join the home appliance carnival."

Wang Junshan nodded: "You just need to take care of Vipshop. During the big promotion, Vipshop's daily transaction volume is 270 million. It's best to keep it stable, so that Vipshop's valuation this year can reach 70 billion. It's not just home appliances; we can also organize co-branded activities with other brands. Ideally, we should aim for a transaction volume of 100 billion!"

Taobao Mall underperformed this year, but Taobao.com will still explode, and reaching 2000 billion yuan in transaction volume is not a problem.

Even if Vipshop reaches 1000 billion, it will only be half the size of Taobao!
However, its value will be higher.

The value of B2C's hundreds of billions in transaction volume far exceeds that of C2C's two hundred billion in transaction volume.

"Okay. But about the acquisition of AutoNavi..."

"It's alright, I'll go!" Jiang Fan said.

“Vipshop is experiencing a major surge in business, and President Tang is too busy to handle it, but I can manage.”

“Community group buying has also seen a small boom and is currently being promoted in an orderly manner. My team of brothers are all very capable and can handle the situation perfectly well.”

"Moreover, community group buying is very much needed by Gaode Maps, including subsequent local group buying, all of which are inseparable from Gaode Maps."

Wang Junshan nodded: "Okay, Mr. Jiang, go and discuss the acquisition of AutoNavi!"

The future of Gaode Maps will ultimately have to be handed over to YouTuan Technology.

Vipshop doesn't actually need Gaode Maps that much. The only business that does need Gaode Maps is logistics, which is also part of the future logistics.

Jiang Fan is currently in charge of future logistics operations.

There's no other reason than that building a single warehousing and logistics system, focusing solely on e-commerce, will definitely result in losses. Focusing solely on community group buying or campus group buying will also lead to losses.

Only when everything is fully integrated, with a single logistics team responsible for both Vipshop's logistics and community group buying/campus group buying logistics, will it be perfect.

Costs can be reduced, and efficiency can be increased.

Furthermore, since Future Logistics was built upon the logistics system of campus group buying, it was simply handed over to Jiang Fan for management.

Jiang Fan did not disappoint Wang Junshan, and the future logistics development was rapid.

The logistics team, warehousing centers, and city coverage are all progressing rapidly.

To this end, Jiang Fan often goes to the front lines, personally negotiates, and even does on-the-ground promotion.

As a result, team efficiency increased rapidly.

Youth is the age for taking risks.

Based on this, Wang Junshan felt more at ease entrusting the acquisition of AutoNavi to Jiang Fan.

Especially after the acquisition, Gaode needs to fully integrate with community group buying, future logistics, and YouTuan.com, which Jiang Fan also has to be responsible for.

After the meeting, as instructed by Wang Junshan, Cui Qian and Jiang Fan immediately formed a team to study the acquisition plan.

Once they have a well-developed plan, thoroughly investigated the backgrounds of Wanwang and Gaode, and are fully confident, they will come directly to discuss the acquisition.

Fortunately, neither of the two companies is publicly listed, and both suffered from a sharp drop in revenue and tight cash flow due to the economic crisis.

In principle, the acquisition should not be difficult.

It's very likely that an agreement can be reached in about two weeks.

And there are no competitors.

Besides potential rivals like Alibaba!
However, Wang Junshan believes that Alibaba has not yet made up its mind to invest 10 billion yuan every year in cloud computing.
Even if Jack Ma agreed, the other senior executives at Alibaba would not.

There's no way around it, cloud computing is just too advanced.

Advanced technology and a money-burning endeavor!
In its previous life, it wasn't until the end of 2009 that Alibaba was persuaded by Dr. Wang Jian to go all-in on cloud computing.

This led to the acquisition of Wanwang, which shortened Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure construction time by three years, enabling its rapid development.

But now, everything is different.

Wang Junshan snatched Wanwang from Alibaba, leaving Alibaba helpless.

Even Wang Jian was helpless.

That means it's safe.

Without Gaode Maps and cloud computing, how will Alibaba develop?
E-commerce businesses will encounter bottlenecks in just a few years!

At its simplest point, without powerful cloud computing, how will Taobao sustain its high monthly active users and massive transaction volume in the future?

A few years later, after the mobile internet boom, e-commerce exploded. Without cloud computing, Alibaba wouldn't even be able to organize Singles' Day!

If we try to run Singles' Day, it will definitely crash; the servers simply can't handle it!

In the next five years, with fewer online shoppers and lower Singles' Day sales, Alibaba can still maintain its position by relying on the traditional IOE architecture, which is costly and has poor scalability. It's just a matter of spending more money and building more servers.

However, after 2014, with the widespread adoption of mobile internet, the number of online shoppers exploded tenfold, and the sales volume of Singles' Day reached 500 billion, 1000 billion, 1500 billion, 2000 billion...

This kind of crazy surge cannot be solved by simply increasing the number of servers, nor can it be handled by traditional IOE technologies (IBM minicomputers, Oracle databases, EMC storage).

In its previous life, after 2014, Taobao's incredible transaction volume during Singles' Day was all thanks to the powerful Alibaba Cloud Apsara platform.

Even Amazon relies on its own cloud computing solutions.

But it would be interesting if Alibaba gave up cloud computing.

In the future, Taobao will no longer be able to compete with Vipshop!

The current competition among e-commerce platforms is still a competition for users and transaction volume.

But in the future, it will be a competition of cloud computing technology and computing power!
If Wang Junshan acquires Wanwang, Alibaba's future will be bleak if it abandons cloud computing.

If they don't give up, without Wanwang's support, Alibaba Cloud Computing will be three years behind.

While Jack Ma is still endlessly regretting missing out on the strategic investment in Haier RRS, which has led to his current passive logistics situation, he is unaware that he is about to miss out on even more!

For example, Wanwang, and Gaode Maps.

These two opportunities are even more important than Haier Ririshun!
After all, the gap in logistics can be bridged by spending money. But the three-year gap in cloud computing infrastructure and the gap in underlying map services are things that money can hardly make up for.

Wang Junshan was in high spirits about this:

"If we could also recruit Alibaba Cloud's most core talent, or rather, Dr. Wang Jian, a leading figure in China's cloud computing industry, that would be even more secure!"

"The development of cloud computing will also advance by leaps and bounds in the future!"

If we consider the founders and other core talents of Wanwang as A+ level talents.

Dr. Wang Jian, on the other hand, is an SSS-level talent!
This person is a super expert, the former vice president of Microsoft Research Asia.

In the previous life, it was Dr. Wang Jian's persistence in developing cloud computing, coupled with Jack Ma's support, that led to the creation of Alibaba Cloud Apsara.

That's how Alibaba's cloud computing empire came about!
Without Apsara cloud computing, Alibaba in its previous life would have been just another Baidu, and would have declined long ago.

It was the emergence of Alibaba Cloud that enabled Alibaba to achieve qualitative development.

As a result, Dr. Wang Jian was known as the father of Alibaba Cloud Apsara and became a national academician!

With his involvement, the future development of cloud computing will undoubtedly be rapid and more secure.

There was no way around it; as a senior R&D director, Wang Junshan had no problem writing programs.

However, he lacked experience in high-end areas such as cloud computing.

At most, I know the general direction of development, but I have no idea how it will be achieved.

Not a race track.

With Wang Jian joining, things will be much more stable.

Unfortunately, Wang Jian had already been close friends with Jack Ma since 2007.

In 2007, Dr. Jian Wang, as Vice President of Microsoft Research Asia, and Dr. Rick Rest, the founder of Microsoft Research Asia, received Jack Ma during his visit.

Dr. Wang Jian proposed that Alibaba's massive data volume must be processed through a new, self-developed architecture, namely 'cloud computing,' instead of relying on traditional foreign IOE technologies.

This idea was a revelation for Jack Ma, who was struggling with Alibaba's technological development path, and he wholeheartedly agreed with it.

Subsequently, Jack Ma repeatedly invited Wang Jian to join Alibaba, offering him absolute support and trust.

Dr. Wang Jian was tasked with leading Alibaba Cloud Computing, for which Alibaba invested one billion yuan annually for ten consecutive years.

This greatly appealed to Dr. Wang Jian.

At Wang Jian's level, as the vice president of Microsoft Research Asia, he is not short of money at all.

What's lacking is realizing one's life's pursuits and making significant global contributions to the field of cloud computing!
Unfortunately, such a vision is difficult to realize at Microsoft.

Even though Amazon has already achieved success, Google has begun to follow suit.

Microsoft remains oblivious and hesitant, still unable to see the future of cloud computing.

It wasn't until 2008 that Microsoft decided to enter the cloud computing field, and the Microsoft Azure cloud computing project was officially launched.

However, the core strategy of the Azure project remains "software + services".

Being tightly bound to the Windows system is not the purer, more fundamental "general-purpose computing platform" that Dr. Wang Jian is pursuing!
It can be said that it is simply a tool that serves the Windows system.

This greatly disappointed Dr. Wang Jian.

In addition, Jack Ma's attitude was sincere and genuine.

In 2008, when cloud computing was incomprehensible in China and even Baidu's CEO, Li, said it had no future, Jack Ma was the only one who supported and was optimistic about cloud computing!

So, in September of last year, Dr. Wang Jian left Microsoft Research Asia and joined Alibaba as Chief Architect, helping Alibaba formulate its technology strategy and reporting directly to Jack Ma.

During this period, even if Wang Junshan wanted to hijack Alibaba's deal and bring Wang Jian into Future Technology ahead of time, it would be unrealistic.

Last September, Future Technology was still in its development stage and far from being as powerful as it is now.

The financial crisis didn't happen, and Alibaba wasn't as weak as it is now.

We had no choice but to let Wang Jian join Alibaba.

In the previous life, it was through Wang Jian's persuasion and Jack Ma's strong opposition that Alibaba finalized the Alibaba Cloud Apsara plan as its core strategy for the future.

It was only at the end of 2009 that they acquired Wanwang, and only then did they invest one billion yuan every year, which led to the creation of Alibaba Cloud Apsara.

But now, everything has changed.

Without Wanwang, Alibaba Cloud would fly very slowly.

Especially now that Taobao Mall is being hit hard by Vipshop, Alibaba's revenue is declining, and with the added impact of the financial crisis, Alibaba's cloud computing business is likely to face even more setbacks.

Will Jack Ma once again steadfastly support Wang Jian, just as he did in his previous life?
Can Wang Jian and Jack Ma maintain the same harmonious and tacit relationship as they did in their previous life?
It's all problems.

And that is the opportunity.

Wang Junshan had the opportunity to recruit Wang Jian!
At its simplest point, with the decline of Taobao Mall and the uncertain future of Alibaba, can cloud computing still be promoted as scheduled as it was in the past?
Does Jack Ma's annual investment of one billion count?
are all unknowns.

Even if Jack Ma supports it, but the other shareholders don't, it won't make a difference.

However, Future Technology has already decided to strategically develop cloud computing, with annual investments exceeding 10 billion, or even 20 billion.

The acquisition of Wanwang is already under negotiation.

Once Wang Junshan successfully acquires Wanwang and invests 1 billion yuan in cloud computing, he will extend an olive branch to Wang Jian, who will be tempted!
On one side are Jack Ma and Alibaba, who make grand promises but fail to deliver; on the other side are Wang Junshan and Future Technology, who invest heavily.

What will Wang Jian choose? Is there even a question?

Without Wang Jian, Alibaba's cloud computing business will likely face even greater difficulties.

Thinking of this, Wang Junshan called Tang Jinghe over: "President Tang, how much do you know about Dr. Wang Jian?"

"Dr. Wang Jian, a leading expert in the field of cloud computing?" Tang Jinghe immediately guessed.

"Yes, keep an eye on it. Once we acquire Wanwang, if there's an opportunity, we can poach Dr. Wang Jian to serve as the chief architect of future cloud computing and lead its development."

"By the way, I would like to tell Dr. Wang Jian that we will invest 20 billion yuan in cloud computing this year, and 10 billion yuan every year thereafter for ten consecutive years!"

"Yes, Chairman, I'll make the arrangements."

Tang Jinghe had a plan.

The chairman has his eye on Dr. Wang Jian and intends to poach him.

This is a good thing.

Although Tang Jinghe didn't understand what cloud computing was or whether it had a future.

In fact, at the beginning of 2009, there were very few people in the world who understood cloud computing and were optimistic about its prospects.

There's no way around it; this thing is too advanced and too expensive.

"By the way, how's the recruitment of core engineers for the mobile phone R&D center going?" Wang Junshan asked.

Cloud computing is a long-term strategy, a way of honing internal skills. It's difficult to achieve success in less than two or three years.

The mobile phone is the core technology that must be mastered as soon as possible, and it can be considered a quick and easy solution!

"I am currently in contact with Dr. Zhou Ping, the general manager of Motorola's Beijing R&D Center," Tang Jinghe said.

"Dr. Zhou Ping!"

Wang Junshan's eyes lit up.

He knew this person very well, extremely well.

Many people may not know who Zhou Ping is, but if you mention Xiaomi 1, everyone will know who he is.

That's right, this person is Zhou Ping, one of the original co-founders of Xiaomi and vice president of Xiaomi.

Specializing in hardware R&D and supply chain!

The most difficult aspects of mobile phone R&D are hardware and establishing a smooth supply chain.

A mobile phone has so many components that a layman would be completely lost and unable to figure it out.

But if you have an expert, it's easy.

As the general manager of Motorola's Beijing R&D center, Zhou Ping is not only an antenna expert himself, but he can also bring a complete hardware team!
The reason why Xiaomi 1 was able to be successfully developed and put into production in such a short time was thanks to Zhou Ping.

The reason why an emerging brand can cooperate with international giants such as Qualcomm, Sharp, and Sony is also due to Zhou Ping!

After Lei Jun invited Zhou Ping to join him, Zhou Ping directly brought a core hardware team from Motorola to Lei Jun.

That's the power of a big shot's influence.

If you recruit the right person, recruiting one person is more effective than recruiting a group of people.

With Motorola's hardware R&D team, R&D was no longer a problem.

With Zhou Ping around, the supply chain is no longer a problem.

It was Zhou Ping and his Motorola team that made the first generation of Xiaomi, including the second generation, 2S, third generation, and Xiaomi Note.

It can be said that Xiaomi's development in the first five years was all thanks to Zhou Ping.

Perhaps Zhou Ping's hardware concept is not suitable for future development, but it is more than enough for the current breakthrough from zero to one.

Similarly, Wang Junshan's future mobile phone can also replicate this model.

Zhou Ping led Motorola's engineers to create the phone of the future, achieving a breakthrough from zero to one.

With Wang Junshan overseeing the process, Zhou Ping's subsequent strategic limitations were addressed, leading to rapid and stable development.

"Boss, Motorola's performance is declining continuously. In 2007, it was among the top three in the world, but last year its market share was halved, and it became fifth. And this year, it will continue to plummet."

Tang Jinghe said, "Under these circumstances, Motorola is facing constant internal conflicts. It is said that Motorola is preparing to split into two, Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility."

"This has created a climate of fear among everyone. Layoffs seem inevitable, and many people are looking for a way out."

"After all, Motorola's market share had already been halved even before the split, and if it splits again, it would probably be even worse. Some people even speculate that the split is to sell the mobile phone business."

"Undoubtedly, this exacerbated the internal turmoil."

"If we make a move now, we can poach some of Motorola's core engineers, or even Zhou Ping."

Wang Junshan nodded in agreement: "That's right, this is the best opportunity."

Motorola was thriving and ranked among the top three globally, so employees naturally didn't want to leave, and even a small increase in salary wouldn't help.

But now Motorola's market share has dropped from 13% to 4%, and employees feel that Motorola is failing and are thinking about changing jobs.

With the current technology available, the compensation is sufficient, so it's not a problem at all.

"Then I'll push forward on both fronts: on one hand, I'll continue to recruit core engineers from Motorola, and on the other hand, I'll contact Dr. Zhou."

“That would be great. Once Zhou Ping joins the company, he can bring another R&D team with him. With the two teams integrated, the R&D of our future mobile phones will no longer be a problem.”

(End of this chapter)