Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 217: More wronged than Dou E, I hate that she didn't fight back!

"However, I seem to remember that once I was asleep and someone secretly kissed me?"

"That was the first time, wasn't it?"

"???" Shen Huaijin was completely flustered and panicked to the extreme: "No, I didn't."

"You must be dreaming."

"Yes, dreaming!"

"They're asleep, they must have been dreaming."

"It doesn't count!"

"Hmph! I'm ignoring you now! All you do is bully me!"

With that, Shen Huaijin quickly got up and fled.

She just couldn't understand how Wang Junshan knew about her stolen kiss.
Are you not drunk? Or are you asleep?

My head hurts!
Watching Shen Huaijin's departing figure, Wang Junshan chuckled, "This girl is really interesting, hahaha, she still won't admit it."

"Last time you said you gave me your first kiss and that I had to take responsibility!"

Wang Junshan shook his head and issued another instruction: [Abandon Tudou.com and focus on acquiring Youku, PPS, and PPTV!]

If the price is similar, Wang Junshan would also consider acquiring Tudou or Youku.

But with a price difference of double, or three or four hundred million, Youku and Tudou become less appealing.

PPS and PPTV still offer the best value for money.

Their technology and user base are no worse than Youku and Tudou, especially on mobile devices, where they are even stronger.

Securing just one company is enough.

With subsequent traffic from WeChat, future pre-installation on mobile phones, and further investment in acquiring copyrights, it will be easy for them to surpass Youku Tudou and become number one!

Although Future Technology is developing well, it is not listed on the stock market and has limited funding.

They bought up many high-quality assets at rock-bottom prices, purchased a large number of high-quality stocks, and made a series of large-scale acquisitions, burning through countless amounts of money.

For example, the acquisition of a large number of shares in Ririshun cost 18 billion.

Riot Games also spent $1.13 million.

The company acquired Little Duck, lent 6 million won to the Jeju State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, upgraded its production lines, and acquired foreign technology and patents for 2 million won.

Xinle Electric Appliances: 7000 million.

Wanwang has 4 million users.

Next up is Gaode Maps, a major client, which may require over 10 billion yuan.

They also bought many courtyard houses in Beijing, and invested in some high-quality properties in Shenzhen and Shanghai...

Right now, we need to set aside funds to acquire a music platform, a video platform, and also to buy out music and video copyrights...

In fact, Future Technology's current cash reserves have already reached a warning level.

Every subsequent acquisition must maximize profits!

Compared to Youku Tudou with 600-700 million users, PPS or PPTV with around 300 million users are clearly more cost-effective and better meet the needs of future operating systems.

There was no other way; the money was almost gone, so we had to be more frugal.

Why did Wang Junshan develop his own browser and input method?
Wouldn't it be simpler to acquire it?

The acquisition cost was just too high!

Currently, Sogou is the most powerful input method, and Sogou also has a browser and a very basic Sogou Map.

Acquiring Sogou seems like a good deal.

After acquiring Sogou, we have an input method, a browser, and Sogou Maps can be integrated into Gaode Maps...

However, the reality is that Sogou is Sohu's core business.

In 2009, Sohu was at its peak, one of the four major portal giants!

Sohu is a listed company. Its market value was 300 billion yuan before the financial crisis, but it was hit hard and now it has about 150 billion yuan.

Wang Junshan simply couldn't afford to acquire it!
But if we only buy Sogou, 20 billion might be enough.

But the problem is, Sohu won't sell!
Sogou is one of Sohu's core businesses right now, just like search engines are to Baidu.

Sohu, currently at its peak, has plenty of money and is unlikely to sell itself.

Four or five years later, Sohu missed out on the mobile internet and suffered a complete decline, forcing it to consider selling Sogou to recoup losses and save its other businesses.

As for the present, Sohu is still hoping that Sogou will grow bigger and stronger, so that Sohu can reach a market value of 50 billion!
It cannot be sold.

Since we can't buy them, we can only make them ourselves, which is even cheaper!
In the realm of future technologies, everything is progressing steadily.

But in Alibaba, the situation is quite different.

In the past few days, Wang Jian has been actively lobbying major shareholders.

We hope that all major shareholders will support us and support Alibaba in fully launching its cloud computing project.

But the effect was only so-so.

Some major shareholders politely indicated they would consider it, while others directly refused.

Finally, the day of Alibaba's board meeting arrived.

Dr. Wang Jian arrived at the conference room with a solemn expression, awaiting the final result.

Jack Ma looked around at everyone and said:

"The board meeting will make two resolutions."

"First, the first resolution concerns providing funding to support Best Logistics' acquisition of Huitong Express."

"Everyone knows that Alibaba is currently at a disadvantage in the logistics race with Future Technology."

"Therefore, Taobao Mall was completely crushed by Vipshop, causing us heavy losses."

"Currently, Taobao Mall's daily transaction volume is only 800 million yuan, while Vipshop's daily transaction volume is estimated to be 2.5 million yuan!"

"Thirty times more than us!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of all the shareholders turned very ugly.

The SoftBank representatives sitting at the head of the table all had furrowed brows.

Taobao Mall is so useless!
Jack Ma continued, "To make matters worse, in February, Taobao's logistics resumed delivery, and transaction volume recovered, but it wasn't as high as before."

"It's already February 7th, but our Taobao daily transaction volume is only 2 million yuan, a drop of a quarter compared to the peak of 4 million yuan before the Lunar New Year!"

"The reason for this is that some users have abandoned Taobao and switched to Vipshop."

"Some users have also abandoned Taobao and opted for community group buying on YouTuan.com."

"Especially snacks and fruits, dairy products, alcoholic beverages, daily necessities, and even grains, oils, rice, and noodles."

“In the past, consumers either bought these products offline or online through Taobao.”

"But now, many consumers choose to place orders through YouTuan.com's community group buying platform."

"It's because the prices of community group buying are similar to those on Taobao, but the logistics are much faster."

"Currently, community group buying has achieved next-day delivery in urban areas of 35 cities, two-day delivery in suburban areas, and three-day delivery to neighboring cities."

"But when we shop on Taobao, it still takes a week for delivery."

"The huge logistics gap has led more and more consumers to abandon Taobao and turn to Vipshop and Youtuan community group buying."

"It can be said that the backwardness of logistics caused Taobao Mall's daily transaction volume to drop from 4000 million to 800 million."

"Taobao's daily transaction volume has dropped from 5 million to 4 million!"

"To change this situation, Alibaba must comprehensively improve the efficiency of its logistics and build the Cainiao logistics network."

"Therefore, I propose that Alibaba Group contribute some funds to support Best Logistics' full acquisition of Huitong Express!"

"Going forward, we will integrate Huitong Express's current large-item logistics business with Best Logistics' large-item business to take over the large-item logistics of Taobao and Tmall, in order to compete with Vipshop's RRS Logistics."

"Huitong Express, on the other hand, is leveraging its nationwide logistics network to shift to small-parcel logistics, thereby comprehensively improving the delivery efficiency of Taobao."

"Then, we can use this to drive down the prices of the other three major express delivery companies (STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express), and invest in another one to build the Cainiao logistics network, thereby achieving a comprehensive speed-up and upgrade of Taobao's logistics." "The acquisition of Huitong is expected to require 600 million yuan. As the major shareholder of Best Inc., Alibaba will contribute 400 million yuan, and the remaining 200 million yuan will be provided by other shareholders."

All the shareholders understood Jack Ma's logic and scheme, and nodded in agreement:

"That's fine, it's a core business, we have to support it."

"The three major express delivery companies, STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express all thought that BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) would acquire one or two logistics platforms to do e-commerce, and refused to lower prices. Our introduction of Huitong Express is a perfect solution to break the deadlock."

"Yes, this 400 million was well spent. Without Huitong's interference and price-cutting, we would have had to spend a lot more money to acquire the two companies from STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express, probably exceeding 400 million."

"We have to hesitate about other investments, but e-commerce is Alibaba's core business, and logistics is the core of e-commerce. We must support it!"

“Yes, Wang Junshan has started a logistics race. We have no choice but to follow suit. I support the acquisition.”

"I support it too."

Upon hearing this, Jack Ma breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Let's begin the decision-making process. Raise your hand if you support this."

Brush brush.

Many hands went up.

Ultimately, there were 8 votes in favor, 4 abstentions, and 0 votes against.

"Great, this resolution has been passed smoothly. We look forward to the early completion of Cainiao Logistics and a full acceleration of Taobao Express delivery. Thank you."

Jack Ma breathed a sigh of relief and spoke again: "Next, Director Wang Jian proposed that Alibaba invest one billion yuan annually to launch Alibaba Cloud Computing."

After saying this, Wang Jian walked onto the stage and spoke again:
"If Alibaba wants to become a super giant with a market capitalization of hundreds of billions of US dollars, it cannot do without cloud computing, and it has no choice but to do cloud computing."

"This is an inevitable trend."

"Without cloud computing, Alibaba could still survive for the next few years."

"But four years later, Alibaba's transaction volume will expand so much that the server's computing power simply cannot support it. At that time, Alibaba's development will reach a bottleneck!"

"Therefore, I propose that we start deploying cloud computing now. Only in this way can Alibaba break through its bottlenecks and continue to develop!"

Jack Ma nodded: "I strongly support Dr. Wang Jian's point of view. Doing logistics is for Alibaba's present needs, while developing cloud computing is for Alibaba's future!"

"We hope everyone will give it their full support!"

As he spoke, Jack Ma was the first to raise his hand, fully supporting cloud computing!

But the other shareholders remained unmoved.

Some even suggested, "Cloud computing is too advanced. Should we wait and see before making a decision?"

"Yes, if you invest a billion a year, how many years will it take to see results?"

"Five years? That's five billion!"

"Is it worthwhile to exchange five years and five billion for an uncertain future?"

"That's right. To put it bluntly, what Alibaba Cloud Computing? Five billion in five years? I think Alibaba Cloud is more like a scam!"

"Dr. Wang, I don't understand cloud computing, but I think you're just here to scam funding!"

"Even if it's the kind of scam that defrauds a billion a year, it would take five years before there's any return, and it's also very likely to fail!"

"Who could stand this?"

The shareholders all shook their heads, completely opposing the move.

Some even directly called Wang Jian a fraudster who cheated out of funding!
Your position is determined by where you stand.

Investing 1 billion yuan a year for five consecutive years may yield returns, or it may result in total loss.

The investment is too large and the risk is too high, especially during a financial crisis; major shareholders certainly wouldn't agree to it.

And they felt that Alibaba Cloud was just trying to scam funding!
In fact, when Wang Jian proposed to develop cloud computing in his previous life, the internal executives and shareholders all disagreed and called Wang Jian a "fraudster of Alibaba Cloud"!
This scene is playing out again, with fervent opposition.

Only Jack Ma still had his hand raised, his eyes blazing, lost in thought.

"You're making baseless accusations!"

Wang Jian's face turned ashen; he was so angry his liver ached.

"It was Chairman Ma's sincere invitation that led me to resign from my position as Vice President of Microsoft Research Asia and come to Alibaba to help you with cloud computing!"

"You actually called me a liar?"

"Trying to steal funding!"

"A bunch of idiots, short-sighted!"

The shareholders were even more unhappy:
"Dr. Wang, with the current financial crisis, Alibaba's market value has plummeted by 70%, and our net worth has shrunk dramatically."

"Now Alibaba is going to acquire Huitong for 4 million yuan, and then take control of one of the three major express delivery companies, which will be worth several hundred million yuan more."

"The total expenditure is one billion yuan. Other businesses also need money. We don't know when the financial crisis will end. Alibaba also needs to ensure sufficient cash reserves to cope with the crisis!"

"Alibaba's cash reserves are less than 10 billion yuan. After being hit hard by the financial crisis, how much will its net profit be next year?"

"How is it possible to spend another billion yuan every year on some vague and unrealistic cloud computing? Are we going to starve?"

"To put it bluntly, Dr. Wang, if you were to swindle fifty million, we would just turn a blind eye."

"But you just asked for 50 billion right off the bat. We major shareholders' money doesn't grow on trees, does it?"

"That's right, we absolutely cannot let cloud computing fool us!"

"You..." Wang Jian trembled with anger, feeling more wronged than Dou E.

He was so dedicated to Alibaba, but ended up being called a cloud computing scammer!
What a deal!

If I had known this would happen, I would have been better off not coming.

Wouldn't it be better to be the vice president of Microsoft Research Asia and enjoy a comfortable retirement?
Why come here to suffer this scumbag's humiliation?

Everyone was tricked by Jack Ma, and now it's too late.

I can only explain again:

"If Alibaba doesn't develop cloud computing now, it will definitely encounter a computing power bottleneck within five years. The losses will be enormous then, and its development will be hindered..."

Unfortunately, no matter how earnestly Wang Jian tried to persuade them, the major shareholders simply wouldn't believe him!

Instead, everyone thought Wang Jian was just trying to scam funding!

I think Alibaba Cloud is a scam!

The outcome was predictable.

Regarding the project to launch Alibaba Cloud, only Jack Ma gave his vote.

All others were opposed.

There wasn't even abstention.

"You're all short-sighted, so short-sighted!"

"I must have been blind to come to Alibaba!"

Wang Jian was annoyed by his lack of ambition and left in a huff.

"Director Wang!" Jack Ma couldn't help but speak, but he didn't know what to say.

In the end, all we could do was watch helplessly as Wang Jian stormed off in anger.

He knew in his heart that this setback would make the Alibaba Cloud computing project even more distant.

But there is no way.

During the financial crisis, even BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) companies scaled back across the board and dared not make reckless investments.

Alibaba also needs to invest funds in the acquisition of warehousing and logistics platforms and the construction of Cainiao Logistics, so it is even less likely to engage in cloud computing.

The financial crisis isn't over yet, so even Jack Ma wouldn't dare to gamble!

However, at that moment, Wang Jian returned to the conference room and shouted sternly:

“When I proposed Alibaba Cloud computing, you said I was a fraudster, trying to scam funding.”

"But do you know?"

"Just now, Future Technology announced that it will invest 50 billion yuan to develop future cloud computing!"

(End of this chapter)