Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 601 Testing the Waters (First of Four Updates!)

As Waters listened to the busy tone on the other end of the phone, his hand holding the encrypted phone trembled slightly.

Lee Jae-yong's curt yet resentful "GNMLGB" was like an invisible slap across his face, burning with pain.

He slowly put down his phone, the sound of which was particularly jarring in the suddenly quiet office.

Waters leaned back in the large leather seat, his gaze sweeping across the window at the emerging bustling Zhongguancun, but there was no trace of appreciation in his eyes.

He underestimated Lee Jae-young's resentment and overestimated Samsung's willingness to take risks after a series of setbacks.

The previous failure really dampened Samsung's courage to confront Momo Group head-on again in the short term.

Waters could even imagine the inner turmoil Lee Jae-yong felt before he slammed down the phone: hatred for Momo, the pain of the loss, the fear of another failure, and the humiliation of being the heir of Samsung but suffering repeated losses at the hands of a Chinese kid, all of which ultimately culminated in that brutal 'GNMLGB'.

"Useless." Waters muttered under his breath, it was unclear whether he was referring to Lee Jae-yong or to his own predicament.

Without the assistance of Samsung, a local powerhouse with deep roots in Asia and a vast offline network and influence, it would be nothing short of a pipe dream for Microsoft to try and shake Momo Group's internet cafe empire, which spans the entire country and is beginning to expand outwards.

Building your own channels? That would take years. By then, Momo's Moc-os system would probably have already taken root in the home user market thanks to the success of World of Warcraft.

What are his strengths?
Waters' brain was working at lightning speed, like a sophisticated instrument filtering all available resources.

Lianjiang Group still holds this card.

KFC's entry into the market last time was a lifeline for Lianjiang Group. Now that KFC has been forced out of the market, not only have Lianjiang's thousand internet cafes returned to their hands, but even the thousand new member service centers that KFC established have also fallen into their hands and been converted back into internet cafes.

This is an army that can be directly commanded, but its equipment and morale still need to be updated.

And MSN.

Although MSN suffered a humiliating defeat in the Audition Online battle, the massive investment and bundled promotions in the early stages did indeed open up the market for MSN in Asia, especially among young users, and garnered a considerable number of online users and brand awareness.

This is not a traffic entry point that can be ignored.

It just lacks an application scenario that can continuously maximize its stickiness.

Internet cafes...instant messaging...online traffic...offline physical stores...

Several keywords collided and combined in Waters' mind.

A clear, Microsoft-style solution gradually took shape in his mind.

Since it's impossible to rebuild a massive offline internet cafe empire in a short time to counter it, let's use the existing weapons to fight a different kind of war.

The more than 1,000 internet cafes in Lianjiang are like more than 1,000 front-line positions.

They don't need to become as high-end and all-encompassing as Momo Internet Cafe; they can be given a new positioning.

Waters pressed the intercom button, his voice regaining its usual calm and unwavering tone: "Notify Chen Yongzheng of Lianjiang Group that I will be having a video conference with him in thirty minutes. At the same time, have the heads of the MSN business unit and our enterprise solutions team prepare the relevant materials and report to me in one hour."

His gaze regained its firmness and aggressiveness.

His gaze fell upon the huge map hanging on the wall opposite his desk.

The map is covered with countless red dots.

That's a map of internet cafes from the Momo Internet Cafe Alliance. This 6.3-meter-long and 4.9-meter-high map of China marks 141478 internet cafes.

This figure itself is a suffocating reality, Momo Group's strongest moat, and the biggest defeat for the Wintel alliance in the Chinese market.

Every internet cafe is a miniature Moc-OS system fortress, relentlessly bombarding users with Moc-OS information day and night, eroding their Windows market share.

“We have to make sure their backyard catches fire…” Waters repeated the Chinese phrase in a low voice, his pronunciation slightly stiff, but it accurately captured the core of his strategy at that moment.

He could not allow Momo Group to continue its rapid expansion.

Government and enterprise procurement in October is a strategic high ground that cannot be lost.

If the Moc-os system were to penetrate government agencies and state-owned enterprises based on its proven stability and cost-effectiveness in the internet cafe market, it would be a disaster.

This means that a huge crack will appear in the enterprise-level ecosystem that Microsoft has spent decades building, from desktops to servers.

This is not just a loss of sales revenue, but also a collapse of the right to set standards.

We must never let them have the resources to even touch that piece of the pie.

We must make them extremely stressed and overwhelmed, and we must make Momo Group unable to take care of itself.

Waters quickly cleared away the emotional turmoil caused by Samsung's rejection and calmly analyzed the current situation.

Building your own offline channels to fight back? Foolish and slow, it's a case of too little, too late, and should only be used as a last resort.

Direct technical strikes? The repercussions of Project Pandora are still ongoing, and the EU and the US Department of Justice are keeping a close eye on it. The risks are too high. Moreover, such a technical strike would ultimately just result in various Trojan viruses spreading throughout the two systems, eventually leading to a DDoS attack.

This style of play is more dangerous.

They might be completely kicked out of the game by China.

The remaining optimal solution is to dismantle the fortress from within.

His gaze once again focused on the more than 140,000 internet cafes.

The data reports in his hands showed that nearly 100,000 of these businesses were run by individual owners.

These people are not directly operated stores of Momo, but franchisees and partners.

What is the basis of cooperation? It is mutual benefit.

A cold smile curled at the corner of Waters's mouth.

Interests are the oldest and most effective lever in the world.

The Momo Alliance can provide them with benefits, and Microsoft can do the same, perhaps even more directly.

These individual business owners are the soft power structure within the behemoth that is Momo Alliance. Unlike directly operated stores, they are not bound by strict orders; they are more flexible, more pragmatic, and more focused on immediate cash flow and profits.

They may be dissatisfied with Momo's commission rate, or they may be secretly complaining about the poor compatibility of certain software with the Moc-os system, despite its smooth performance.

These subtle cracks are usually masked by the alliance's unified management and the benefits of game traffic, but they do exist.

What Waters had to do was find these cracks and then hammer them in hard with gold wedges.

What he needed was not a direct war, but a carefully planned defection.

A targeted marketing campaign aimed at 100,000 individual internet cafe owners.

What would it look like if thousands of internet cafes started to shake at the same time?
Momo Group's already massive operations and management system will instantly be under tremendous pressure.

Complaints, inquiries, withdrawal applications, system conversion disputes... these trivial but energy-consuming matters will flood Momo's headquarters in Jingzhou like a tide.

The executives at Momo Group will have their time and energy largely devoted to putting out these internal fires.

How much spare capacity do they have left to plan for overseas expansion? How much confidence do they have left to make a push in government and corporate procurement in October?
When your core business starts to falter, any expansion efforts must slow down or even come to a standstill; even Microsoft is no exception.
This is the effect he wanted.

He doesn't need to destroy the Momo Alliance immediately, because that's unrealistic.

All he needs to do is make it sick, cause it to have a persistent low-grade fever, and force them into a protracted and costly domestic stability maintenance war, and that will be enough.

The cost to Microsoft is not high for its enormous size.

Some cash subsidies, some traffic sharing concessions, and some preferential treatment in software and hardware cooperation resources.

These investments are a drop in the ocean compared to the enormous gains from regaining market dominance and eliminating a potential competitor that could disrupt Windows.

This is an extremely worthwhile deal.

Waters turned and walked toward his desk, his steps steady and resolute.

His deep blue eyes gleamed with the focused concentration of a hunter locking onto his prey.

Samsung's rejection, however, made him see the more fundamental battlefield.

Samsung has been fighting the surface-level battle with Momo Group, but has overlooked its deepest adversary.

The real opponent is not Momo Group, but the hearts and minds of the 100,000 internet cafe owners scattered throughout every corner of China, all pursuing a better life.

He has enough leverage to win over these people's hearts.

"Let's test the waters first..." he made up his mind.

He quickly took out his phone and made a call.

A short while later, a middle-aged Chinese man walked briskly into the office.

Waters looked at the middle-aged man in front of him and smiled, "Wang, Donglu Province is an important area for the Momo Internet Cafe Alliance. Could you go there for me and try to win over the internet cafe owners there?"

The middle-aged man, Wang Han, is a senior business consultant hired by Waters at great expense. He travels all over China year-round, has extensive connections, and is skilled at negotiation.

Wang Han bowed slightly, a humble yet confident smile on his face, and said, "Mr. Waters, rest assured, as long as our conditions are sincere enough, we are not afraid that no one will be tempted."

The next day, Wang Han, full of confidence and entrusted with a great responsibility by Waters, flew to Donglu Province.

His first stop was Qingniao City, a city with a developed economy and a thriving internet cafe industry. He believed that the owners there had a broader perspective and were more receptive to new things.

Through his local connections, he quickly arranged meetings with several owners of large-scale Momo Alliance internet cafes.

The meeting place was set in a private room of an upscale teahouse, with an antique atmosphere and the aroma of tea filling the air.

Wang Han first made some pleasantries about the culture and customs of Donglu, which helped to build a little rapport, before slowly getting to the point and laying out Microsoft's terms in detail: a generous conversion subsidy, MSN traffic commission, game revenue sharing, hardware update support, and most importantly, a three-year management fee waiver.

As he spoke, he carefully observed the expressions of the three bosses opposite him.

When a young business owner surnamed Sun heard the subsidy figures, his eyes lit up for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure.

Another middle-aged boss, surnamed Li, sipped his tea slowly, revealing no emotion.

The last boss, surnamed Zhao, who had dragon and tiger tattoos, was fiddling with beads on his fingers, his face expressionless.

After Wang Han finished speaking, a brief silence fell over the private room.

Seeing the awkward silence, the middleman immediately smiled and said, "Gentlemen, I think the terms offered by Microsoft are very tempting. What are your thoughts?"

After thinking for a moment, Mr. Sun spoke first, his tone carrying the straightforwardness typical of young people: "These conditions sound really tempting. To be honest, just the 200 yuan subsidy per machine for replacing the system is enough to make me tempted."

Wang Han was overjoyed and was about to strike while the iron was hot when Boss Sun changed the subject, saying, "But, my system is stable now, and we're really enjoying the benefits of World of Warcraft. Our customers are used to the Moc-os system, and there haven't been any major problems. Things have only just calmed down, and I really don't want to go through any more trouble."

“Reinstalling the system, training the network administrator, reassuring customers… If something goes wrong and business is delayed, your subsidy might not even be enough for me to pay. Let’s just be safe and sound. It’s fine as it is now.”

Wang Han's smile froze slightly as he looked at Boss Li.

Mr. Li put down his teacup, sighed, and said with a complicated smile, even a hint of lingering fear, "Mr. Wang, what you're talking about are good things. But, alas, you have no idea what we suffered before."

He lowered his voice: "Just a few months ago, back when Audition Online was all the rage, weren't you guys really pushing it? A lot of people came to persuade you, and the offers were pretty good. A few bosses next door couldn't resist the temptation and secretly installed Windows systems to run dual-boot systems and make more money from Audition Online. Guess what happened?"

Mr. Li shook his head with lingering fear and said, "Those internet cafes went out of business in less than a month. Customers went to play Audition Online, resulting in a lot of broken keyboards, and the system kept crashing and causing all sorts of conflicts. The experience was terrible. They want to switch back to Momo? Do they really think Momo Group is some kind of philanthropist? They lost everything. We saw it all. Momo Group's methods... are ruthless. We're a small business, we can't afford that kind of turmoil. A peaceful life is better than anything else."

Wang Han's heart sank. He said, "Times have changed. This time, it's direct support from Microsoft headquarters. You can also exchange your license for Lianjiang Internet Cafe's license..."

Mr. Zhao, who had been silent until now, glanced at Wang Han and frowned, saying, "Mr. Wang, we people from Donglu value integrity and relationships in business."

He fiddled with the prayer beads, looking calmly at Wang Han, and said, "Back then, many of our internet cafes used generic, assembled computers with messy systems and rampant viruses. Everyone was competing maliciously with each other, and profits were declining day by day. It was Momo Group that brought us standards, the Moc-os system, management experience, and a continuous stream of game resources. That's what pulled our industry out of the mire, allowing everyone to make money steadily."

"Yes, they have a lot of rules," Boss Zhao said frankly. "But we're earning much more than before. If we did something so treacherous, people would talk behind our backs."

(End of this chapter)