After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 457 Blackmail
Hong Kong Island was impacted by the financial crisis.

It just so happens that Zhou Haoran and Dean Cheng were working together as technical consultants in the national team's financial engineering program. They came into contact with many domestic financial experts, and the atmosphere was generally somber.

Extremely serious!

In this atmosphere, Zhou Haoran became more determined to rush in and do his part in the battle to defend Hong Kong Island.

To fight, you need to have the resources.

Zhou Haoran went to Zhongbo Software to check the accounts, and found that this year's profit was approximately 1400 million yuan.

The numbers are fantastic!

This is definitely a great start for a new company!

Zhou Haoran was not satisfied.

This amount of money is nothing compared to the tsunami of international capital. Reporting to the authorities... they probably won't even listen to you. As long as you don't short sell and harm Hong Kong, you can invest however you want. You don't need to coordinate with the authorities! They don't need you to bail out the market!

Extortion is definitely the fastest way to make money.

Zhou Haoran had two targets in mind: Microsoft and ICQ.

Either pay to cooperate.

Alternatively, Mr. Zhou can develop the product and become their competitor!
Microsoft is very tough.

Bill Gates is alright; he's a scientist and willing to exchange ideas with technical talents like Zhou Haoran. But Bill Gates doesn't have the authority. Ballmer is the president in charge of operations, and he's an absolute hardliner; he won't accept a $2000 million offer.

They'd rather spend $4 million to acquire Hotmail than accept Zhou Haoran's offer!
ICQ is different.

This is just a small Israeli company that has only been established for a year.

After two months of consideration, they couldn't resist any longer. One of the founders, Gao Defen (transliteration), came to China and requested a meeting with Zhou Haoran.

This is a $500 million deal.

If the deal goes through, it will be over 4000 million yuan, which is faster than Zhongbo Software earns money in a year of hard work!
Zhou Haoran brought along Qiao Hai, Ning Yuanjia, Yang Yuanju, Yan Siyuan, and several others who were relatively good at English.

Talks began.

“Five million US dollars…” Qiao Hai and the others arrived at the Peace Hotel, and they were all shocked when they heard this. “Israel is such a tiny place, and it’s just a small startup company. Can they really come up with that much money?”

Zhou Haoran stated bluntly, "I can't produce it."

Qiao Hai chuckled and said, "So you want this much?"

Zhou Haoran snorted, "This is my net worth, it has nothing to do with whether they have money or not."

"what happened?"

Qiao Hai didn't believe in that.

Ning Yuanjia stood by, saying little and mostly listening. He was once a star doctoral student at the university, arrogant and looking down on people like Zhou Haoran and Qiao Hai.

Once you leave the school gates, you realize that the rules of society are completely different.

Only then did I truly realize what the name "Zhou Haoran" meant.

Zhou Haoran said, "Just as you said, Israel is a small country with a small land area and a small population, making it difficult to produce world-class companies. Especially in the technology sector, it requires large amounts of capital, a high density of talent, and a massive user base, all of which Israel lacks. Therefore, Israeli startups have all developed a set of models."

Qiao Hai asked, "What mode?"

Zhou Haoran said, "Sell yourself."

"What?" Qiao Hai chuckled. "Like selling girls?"

Zhou Haoran nodded. "Pretty much. For entrepreneurs, startups are like their children, with a special emotional bond. But for small businesses to survive, the rules of survival are cruel. Once the child is a little older and shows some promise, it has to be sold to a wealthy family as a 'skinny horse.' The principle is the same all time, regardless of the industry."

Ning Yuanjia narrowed his eyes and said, "So the ultimate goal of Israeli startups is to sell to Americans."

“They’re either Americans or Europeans.” Zhou Haoran was no stranger to this; it was an experience he had accumulated in his previous life. “ICQ is no exception. Now ICQ has more than 300 million users, and the difficulty and cost of operation are getting higher and higher. Selling it to a large American company is the only option.”

Qiao Hai asked, "So, what were your considerations in demanding $500 million?"

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "I said I would open the door to the open source world. I had already publicly stated in the United States that all my papers are open-source and will be shared freely with peers around the world."

Qiao Hai was completely confused. "What are you talking about?"

Zhou Haoran said angrily, "You're really stupid. If this were Dongfang Lang, he would definitely know what I'm talking about!"

Ning Yuanjia seemed to understand and analyzed, "The most crucial point for ICQ to be packaged and sold to an American company is that ICQ is competitive enough in the market. If there are many products similar to ICQ on the market, then the American company isn't stupid; why would they buy them at a high price?"

"Ok?"

Qiao Hai was slightly stunned.

Ning Yuanjia laughed and said, "Developing an instant messaging tool is very difficult. I probably couldn't do it. However, if Haoran leads this project and creates an open-source instant messaging product framework that can be shared with the world for free, then ICQ's appeal will vanish overnight."

Zhou Haoran's eyes lit up. "Dr. Ning, you're amazing! I think you're more suited to be the general manager than Qiao Hai! Why don't you give up your technical work and take over the management role?"

Ning Yuanjia waved his hand repeatedly, "Let's talk about it in a few years. I'll focus on the technical aspects first and familiarize myself with the company's operational processes."

After hearing this, Qiao Hai finally realized what was happening and muttered, "Damn! This really is extortion!"

Zhou Haoran said irritably, "How is this extortion? This is called intellectual property service. It's a very common trick in the IT industry. If you pay more attention to the market, you'll find it everywhere."

Just like Microsoft's Windows system, pirated versions are everywhere in the country.

The advantage of piracy is that it saves money in China.

The hundreds of billions of dollars saved should be invested in more important national development projects.

The drawbacks are also obvious. With a free Windows operating system available, why would there be any need to develop a domestic operating system? This indirectly stifles the survival space for domestic operating systems.

Similar practices are even more common in the internet industry.

You created a top-notch product, and it was a great success. I developed a product to compete with you.

What if you can't compete?
Then I'll open-source my product and share it with the whole society!

Then, a whole host of products using my open-source framework will emerge in a short period of time, all coming to take you down! If I'm having a hard time, you won't have one either; it's a lose-lose situation.

“If that’s the case…” Qiao Hai’s eyes lit up, “then the negotiations with ICQ might actually work out!”

Ning Yuanjia also believes this: "Microsoft has the confidence to refuse, but ICQ, a small Israeli startup, doesn't even have the right to resist and will probably have no choice but to surrender."

The group burst into carefree laughter.

The meeting place is at the Peace Hotel.

Gao Defen is an Israeli with curly hair, a thin face, and thick eyebrows—a typical Jewish appearance.

Speak in English.

"How about it, do you want to cooperate?"

Zhou Haoran took the initiative right from the start.

Gao Defen asked curiously, "I heard that you are in talks with Microsoft about a collaboration."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "That's right. We plan to spend $2000 million to help them improve their email system."

"How many?"

Gao Defen opened her eyes wide.

"Email products are a bit more complex than instant messaging, so naturally they are more expensive."

Zhou Haoran then realized why the other party had come to China specifically; it turned out they had been provoked by Microsoft.

Gao Defen asked anxiously, "Did the deal go through? I heard that Microsoft is going to acquire Hotmail..."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Bill Gates will come over next month, and the final decision will be made then."

"Uh……"

Gao Defen's expression was complicated.

Bill Gates made a special trip to China to see him. It seems that this legendary "Good Man Zhou" is even more impressive than the rumors suggest!
Zhou Haoran said calmly, "I've looked at ICQ a few times, and it has many shortcomings. The reason it's successful isn't because your product is so good, but because other similar products on the market are too bad."

Gao Defen frankly stated, "We also know that ICQ has many technical problems, and we would like to ask Mr. Zhou Haoren for guidance."

"In my opinion, there are two things that need to be addressed right now." Zhou Haoran knew what instant messaging would be like twenty years from now, and he was speechless at the state of ICQ in 97. "First, users' chat history should be saved; second, offline messages should be received. One is based on local services, and the other is based on network services."

Gao Defen, who works in technology, said with difficulty, "It's too difficult to implement technically!"

"Difficult?" Zhou Haoran found it amusing and turned to look at his followers. "Is this technique difficult? Do you guys know it?"

Qiao Hai laughed and said, "It's too easy."

Ning Yuanjia said, "It's not difficult."

Yang Yuanju exaggeratedly said, "Give me three days, and I can handle it all by myself!"

Zhou Haoran thought to himself, "These people are really good at bragging."

Gao Defen is also a computer science PhD from Israel.

What can you guys do?

In this day and age, instant messaging products are still a relatively new market. Since it's a new market, it's pioneering work with many unknowns, making it very difficult.

In another six or seven years...

The initial development was successful, but instant messaging technology has long been commonplace.

For example, when QQ was short of money and couldn't survive, it wanted to be sold to Sohu.

Old Zhang took one look and thought, "What utter nonsense!"

I was able to develop it by finding a few college students, and then I launched a product called SoQ.

Failed due to a cold reception.

Later, Lao Zhang had another opportunity to acquire QQ, but at that time QQ was already doing very well thanks to its mobile internet business. The other party asked for $9000 million, which Lao Zhang thought was too expensive, so he didn't buy it...

It is now the end of November 1997.

Zhou Haoran's informational and technological advantages make him virtually omnipotent in the internet field.

"In short, you give me $500 million, and I'll spend a few days solving both of these problems for you."

Zhou Haoran's words were powerful and domineering.

This gave Qiao Hai a misconception.

I thought to myself that making money through legal business was too slow.

Extortion is still the most satisfying!

(End of this chapter)