What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 428 I can’t help myself
A storm was brewing in Yu Xing's mind.

He stood there in a daze.

Whether it was Pony, Liu Chiping, or Xing Hongyu, they all politely waited for Yu Xing to finish speaking, but this good friend seemed to have suddenly forgotten his lines and got stuck.

"President Yu?" Liu Chiping couldn't help but remind him.

"Oh, oh, um." Yu Xing came back to his senses. The recent company discussions, the situation overseas, and future trends seemed to have mixed together to form a vague framework, which required more detailed thinking and research.

He smiled again and asked dismissively, "What were we talking about just now?"

Xing Hongyu: "..."

Yu Xing gave a reasonable explanation: "I suddenly thought of a supplier, and it's quite important. Pony, Chiping, and General Manager Xing, once our Silicon Carbon Group's cars are launched, you're welcome to give them a try. After all, these are our own products."

Upon hearing this, Liu Chiping couldn't suppress his long-held curiosity and asked, "I'll definitely try out the car that President Yu built. But, President Yu, there's something I've been meaning to ask you. Is there anything you haven't finished designing for instant messaging?"

He was referring to the brilliant idea from last time.

Yu Xing casually replied, "Just kidding."

Liu Chiping didn't believe him and laughed, "Then you've really made an expensive joke."

“You’re not losing out, you’re actually making a profit, and we don’t have any deep-seated hatred for each other.” Yu Xing put away his phone. “I’m a car maker, what are you talking to me about the internet for?”

He turned and left, this time not to reminisce with his old friends, but to whisper and chat with Zhong Zhiling, who had come with him.

Liu Chiping was somewhat helpless. He turned to Pony and said, "I really want to see what kind of car company this 'mobile-car swingman' can actually create."

Pony remained silent. Regardless of the car manufacturers' situation, the potential of silicon carbon data in the mobile internet, especially after Tencent benchmarked its products, has clearly reached its limit.

This internet conference consisted of some enthusiastic, bureaucratic pronouncements. The speeches by the heads of several well-known internet companies were all rather bland. Even though Alibaba and Tencent were locked in a fierce confrontation, they appeared quite friendly in front of the cameras.

However, in addition to the steady speeches and remarks, this conference also included some refreshing segments.

The following day's meeting featured a Q&A session, allowing these representative figures from the internet industry to have ample opportunity for interaction.

Unlike yesterday's venue, today's setup resembled a salon. The three leaders of BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) served as guests on stage, while Wu Ying, who had previously worked in the mobile phone industry, acted as the host. The audience consisted of CEOs and executives from various companies across the industry.

This setup has a fairly clear hierarchy, but these three companies do indeed have enough weight.

Yu Xing was in the first row, slightly to the left. Although he had become a figure who swayed the industry, he had a rather unique presence in the mobile internet wave of the past few years.

Wu Ying let Li Yanhong ask the first question, while the latter chose to ask Ma Chuan.

"Mr. Ma said yesterday that he was going to retire. I think he can retire because he was a teacher and can teach a lot of capable people. So how can people like us who have never been teachers become bosses?" Li Yanhong asked.

Yu Xing, sitting in the audience, opened his mouth, wondering what kind of question that was.
Ma Chuan picked up the microphone and immediately began speaking in his very distinctive style: "For teachers, good students are not taught, but discovered. You have to believe that your employees will surpass you, so you need to find people who will surpass you and then share your life experiences with them."

Yu Xing felt like playing on his phone.

Polite applause rang out from the audience.

Pony was the second to ask a question, also directed at Ma Chuan, but his words seemed to rouse Yu Xing.

"Mr. Ma previously said that he wanted to use the internet to do finance and challenge banks, which made many banks very wary. I have always been honest with the telecom operators and have never dared to say anything excessive. From the perspective of challenging banks, I think Mr. Ma is quite bold. So, what are your thoughts on this matter?"

Ma Chuan said a few years ago, "If banks don't change, we will change the banks." Back then, he was strongly promoting Alipay. Pony Ma brought this up today because the "Administrative Measures for Bank Card Acquiring Business" were released two months ago, updating the rules of the market and stipulating that third-party payment institutions can bypass UnionPay and connect directly with banks.

Last year, Alibaba made a decision to invest 500 million yuan over three years to develop its offline POS machine business, but it had to withdraw early due to a conflict with UnionPay.

Now, UnionPay, which could have simply collected transaction fees, has been brought to the level of competing with major payment companies. The market has become ambiguous again, and Alipay has been particularly active in responding.

Compared to Robin Li's question, Pony's voice was gentle, but his words were laced with harshness.

Ma Chuan reacted quickly, laughing and denying it in just two seconds: "We are not trying to challenge anyone. Alibaba has the technology and talent, and there is such demand in the market. We will provide a solution that embodies transparency, openness, responsibility and sharing."

He then said, "Of course, it's normal for banks to be a little nervous. I think being nervous is a good thing. It would be strange if they weren't nervous. Just like when I first saw Tencent launch WeChat, I was also very nervous. Nervousness can promote progress. Alibaba has made great progress in the field of instant messaging."

Ma Chuan doesn't mind poking at the penguins' sore spots.

The question-and-answer session between the two revealed some of the original competitive tension, but some people's eyes were drawn to Yu Xing in the first row. Penguin's pain was something that even outsiders could feel.

When it was Ma Chuan's turn to ask a question, he didn't ask Robin Li, but instead asked Pony Ma a recent fashion topic: "What are Tencent's views on the future development of short videos?"

Pony was a little surprised that the other party would ask this question. After a brief thought, he replied, "We believe that short videos have great potential. As network speeds of operators gradually improve, people's access to information will inevitably shift from text and images to videos. This inevitability gives short videos a huge market."

He then countered with a question: "Would Mr. Ma also like to give this a try? We very much hope to have healthy competition with Alibaba in this area."

In China, the current competition is between Weishi and Miaopai, but Miaopai is integrated into Weibo, so there is still some differentiation between the two. Recently, Kuaishou has also experienced rapid development.

Neither Baidu nor Alibaba, two of the BAT companies on stage, have made any moves in this regard.

Ma Chuan said with a smile, "We plan to release it next month, and we also hope to work with Tencent to promote market development."

Pony nodded, not surprised. Let them fight it out, they've been fighting it for so long anyway. But Tencent has made ample preparations and considerations for Weishi, and it's already showing positive development.

After the Q&A session between the three industry leaders concluded, host Wu Ying turned his gaze to the guests below the stage, then turned to the three on stage and asked, "Let's ask the guests here first, who would like to ask..." Ma Chuan picked up the microphone and took over the conversation directly, saying, "Let's ask President Yu. President Yu is too busy; it's usually impossible to reach him. He doesn't even reply to WeChat messages. What does President Yu think about the competition between these three companies on stage?"

After asking the question, he explained his reason for asking: "I remember meeting Mr. Yu in Jinling several years ago. Mr. Yu talked to me about the different stages of the Internet industry. I was deeply impressed at the time and felt that Mr. Yu's observation was very keen. Now there is a BAT in the industry, which I find very interesting, just like when we looked at the three portals back then."

Sina, Sohu, and NetEase, the "Three Musketeers" of portal websites, were representative Chinese internet companies at the beginning of the 21st century.

Yu Xing took the microphone, somewhat surprised that Mr. Ma would ask him this question. He had thought he would be teased about car manufacturing or have a chat about WeChat.

He replied with a smile, "Mr. Ma, you can't find me on WeChat because I'm using WeChat. Send me a message using WeChat next time."

The room erupted in laughter.

After joking, Yu Xing held the microphone, carefully considering his thoughts. The thoughts he had had during his online chat with Zhong Zhiling and Lü Haiying last night back at the hotel were still echoing in his mind.

He was clearly thinking, and the room quietly waited for this wavering individual to finish his thought process.

Today, many people in the internet industry feel that Mr. Yu's choice to enter the car manufacturing industry is wrong. But while we can say that his choice is wrong, we certainly don't think that his thinking on the internet is worthless.

"The competition among BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) will become increasingly fierce, just like the competition in the internet industry." Yu Xing spoke slowly, organizing his thoughts as he spoke. "In fact, there is already fierce competition between Alibaba and Tencent, and there's no need to shy away from that. However, as everyone knows, these two companies previously had their own markets. Alibaba focused on e-commerce, while Tencent focused on social networking. Wouldn't it be better if they could coexist harmoniously in different fields?"

Zhang Chaoyang, who was standing next to him, chimed in: "President Yu, things were going so well, didn't you sell WeChat to Alibaba?"

Laughter filled the hall.

“Yes, I sold it, but the intensified competition between Alibaba and Tencent, or among the three BAT companies, is an overall trend that is difficult to change. Alibaba’s willingness to buy WeChat is just a local change under the overall trend.” Yu Xing said very seriously, “So, why is the competition inevitably intensifying? I think it’s because the essential logic of competition is gradually becoming fixed.”

Upon hearing this, the three people on the stage sat up straighter, clearly showing greater interest, while the guests in the audience pondered this "essential logic" approach and their own answers.

Yu Xing paused for a few seconds, organizing his thoughts: "The development of hardware such as smartphones has spurred the mobile internet wave. People are spending more and more time on their phones, which is a completely different change from the PC era."

"The competition among BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), and the broader competition in the mobile internet, has become a battle for users' time. This is true for apps like WeChat, Weibo, UC, and others."

"Besides user time, another area of ​​competition is the control of data assets by companies like BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent)."

At this point, Yu Xing noticed a look of confusion on someone's face, so he gave an example: "What is the control of data assets like? I can use a Tencent account to quickly log in to many software programs, which are not made or invested in by Tencent itself. Similarly, I can use an Alibaba account to log in to many software programs, but Alibaba obviously does not have as much influence as Tencent in this regard, and the same goes for Baidu."

“It’s even more obvious overseas. In its early days, Facebook even allowed friends to share their accounts and passwords in order to share information. Later, it developed a technology to provide login for third-party services. Many small and medium-sized websites were thus brought under Facebook’s control. Tencent is the best in this regard.”

"By mastering users' login data, we can analyze their habits and understand their behavior. This is Facebook's strength and a competitor that even Google finds challenging."

"Furthermore, I feel that the formulation of rules for commercial monetization is also a very basic form of competition."

"Let's take Facebook and Google as examples again. 90% of mobile apps overseas that want to monetize must go through Google's AdMob and Facebook's Audience Network. That's incredibly powerful."

"If you can even control the monetization rules, then you will truly become the leader of the entire industry chain."

Yu Xing spoke from the heart, and after a two-second silence, he summarized: "User time, data assets, and monetization rules are things that large companies like BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) must compete for, while small companies like us can only helplessly follow suit."

The underlying competitive logic of the mobile internet, when analyzed in this way, becomes quite ruthless. In particular, the latter two approaches are almost impossible for small companies to utilize, leaving them with no choice but to try to cultivate user time.

The room fell noticeably quiet, as if everyone was being forced into a state of unconsciousness.

However, this kind of analysis clashes somewhat with the theme of "letting a hundred schools of thought flourish."

The host, Wu Ying, noticed the admiration on Ma Chuan and Pony's faces and sensed the atmosphere in the room. He quickly added a few words and then handed the questions to the guests below.

These questions eased the tension in the room.

At this point, Sina Weibo, which is competing in the short video field, asked a question about Tencent's Weishi platform, and Pony directly instructed Xing Hongyu, the person in charge, to answer it.

Xing Hongyu took the microphone and spoke eloquently, stating that Weishi is currently the leading short video platform in China.

Furthermore, he received resource permission from the CEO at a Tencent headquarters meeting last week, which will further boost user growth.

He was in high spirits and concluded by talking about the next test of Weishi: "We want to inspire users' creativity. In the future, we will introduce a series of resources from Tencent, including QQ Music and Tencent Video. I believe they will bloom with more vitality in the short video field."

Upon hearing this ending, Yu Xing stopped chatting with Zhang Chaoyang next to him, raised his hand slightly, and indicated that he also had a question to ask.

He was the one answering before, and now he's the one asking the questions, still targeting Ma Chuan.

Yu Xing asked with a hint of doubt, "Mr. Ma, I have a question for WeChat. Since you're making a super app, you naturally want to attract everyone's attention. So why not integrate short video features into Moments as well? Wouldn't that kill two birds with one stone?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Chuan's eyes flickered slightly.

Upon hearing this question, Xing Hongyu's face suddenly turned pale before he could even process what he was thinking.

broken!

wrong!

Mr. Yu, you are such a cold-blooded and ruthless person...

(End of this chapter)