Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 603 Are You Afraid? (Third of Four Updates!)

To ensure localization and mitigate policy risks, Waters quickly negotiated and established Huaxia Shangding Technology Co., Ltd. as a joint venture with three Zhongguancun technology companies.

With Microsoft holding 70% of the shares and the three partners each holding 30%, MSN was given a pure Chinese identity.

All that's left is to wait for the new version of MSN to be released.

Half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

Jingzhou's largest commercial pedestrian street is bustling with people on weekend afternoons.

"Hello, Microsoft MSN, a leading international instant messaging tool. Free registration, safe and reliable, say goodbye to account theft worries."

"Register now to receive a beautiful gift and a chance to win the latest MP3 player."

A slightly immature yet forceful voice pierced through the noise, coming from a young man wearing a brand-new blue promotional T-shirt.

His name is Fang Kang, a third-year student at Jingzhou University of Technology. A week ago, he and five classmates were recruited by Huaxia Shangding Technology Company as members of the city promotion vanguard team, responsible for offline promotion in this bustling area.

Fang Kang's cheeks were flushed from shouting, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, but his eyes gleamed with excitement and tension ignited by the huge investment.

His booth was meticulously designed: a huge blue MSN butterfly logo backdrop, two long tables filled with cartoon dolls, brand keychains, and stationery sets as freebies, and most attractive of all were the brand-new MP3 players in the center of the tables, which gleamed with an alluring metallic luster in the sunlight as prizes for a lucky draw.

There were also two laptops on the table connected to wireless network cards, specifically for on-site demonstrations and registration.

"Hey, come take a look! MSN, all the white-collar elites are using it." Fang Kang stopped a couple who looked like college students.

The girl glanced at the gift, showing some interest.

The boy asked warily, "MSN? It's similar to QQ? Then why don't you use QQ?"

Fang Kang immediately replied fluently, as if reciting a textbook: "MSN was developed by Microsoft and is used all over the world, so it's safer! It's not as easy to hack as QQ. Besides, we're cooperating with many large companies now, so when you're looking for a job, HR will use MSN to contact you, which makes you seem more professional." This was a line he had been repeatedly taught during his training.

"Is the registration process complicated?" the girl asked.

"It's simple, super simple, much faster than registering with QQ, and there's also a mobile app, so you can chat on your phone too." Fang Kang quickly guided them to the computer and said, "Give it a try. You can register as long as you have an email address. If you register with your phone, you can also get a custom keychain."

He pointed to the pile of keychains with the MSN logo on the table.

Not far away, Fang Kang's team members were also enthusiastically promoting their products.

This is just one of the dozens of promotional locations that Huaxia Shangding Technology has invested in in Jingzhou.

Fang Kang looked at the crowd gradually gathering around him and was amazed by the company's financial power.

Their part-time jobs pay as much as 200 yuan a day, which is an astronomical sum for these students.

Furthermore, you will receive an extra 2 yuan reward for each successful registration of a valid mobile phone number.

The registration gifts were piled up like mountains, and the company's warehouse was said to be full of gifts that could fill several trucks.

The company provided them with uniforms, promotional materials, and even dedicated data SIM cards for on-site demonstrations.

According to the junior manager leading the team, the company allocated 5000 million RMB in marketing budget for the initial phase in Jingzhou City alone.

The goal is to acquire 100 million registered users in Jingzhou City within three months!
5000 Huaxia coins!

When Fang Kang first heard this number, his mind went blank; he couldn't imagine what it meant.

All he knew was that, as he had witnessed firsthand in the past few days, this kind of cost-insensitive promotional approach had immediate and remarkable results.

The generous gifts and lucky draws, coupled with the tireless promotion by these student soldiers, did indeed attract a large number of passersby to stop and watch.

Especially young white-collar workers and college students who have a positive perception of international brands, safety, and professionalism, many of them gathered in front of the computer to try it out, thinking it was free and they might even get a gift.

"Help me register!"

"How do I do this?"

"Will everyone receive a gift?"

Fang Kang and his teammates were so busy that their feet barely touched the water, guiding registration, distributing gifts, and registering information.

Watching the number of registrations in the background rise rapidly, a feeling of participating in a grand undertaking arises spontaneously.

He even felt that perhaps he could really overthrow QQ's dominance, just as the company had advertised.

"Hey buddy, can you transfer files using MSN? How's the speed? QQ is sometimes terribly slow," a young man wearing glasses asked.

Fang Kang immediately replied, "Of course! Microsoft's technology is definitely fast."

"Oh? What about video chat? Is it clear? My girlfriend and I are in a long-distance relationship, and we rely on QQ video chat." The young man continued to ask.

"It has everything, and it even comes with a beauty filter. We have the latest version, 7.5, which has all the features," Fang Kang said, even though he had never used MSN's video function before.

The young man pushed up his glasses, smiled meaningfully, and said, "Alright, I'll register and see. But to be honest, your promotional efforts are really aggressive."

Fang Kang quickly helped him register, but a slight unease arose in his heart because of the question and answer they had just exchanged.

He was just a promoter who got paid to do the work, and he didn't really have a deep understanding of whether MSN or QQ was better or worse.

All he knew was that if he met today's targets, he would earn nearly three or four hundred yuan, enough for him to live a carefree life for more than a week.

The day's promotion ended as the sun set.

Fang Kang and his teammates, exhausted, packed up their stall and tallied their spoils.

Today, they completed nearly 300 valid registrations at this location, a remarkable achievement.

The team manager came over and patted Fang Kang on the shoulder: "Well done! Fang Kang, keep it up! The company will not let you down. Next week we will go to universities to do a mobile version special event, that is our main battlefield."

"Okay." Fang Kang was so tired that he just wanted to go back and lie down, but when he touched the portion of his daily wage that the company had advanced in his pocket, he still nodded vigorously.

On the bus back to school, he looked out the window at the city rushing past.

Many bus stop signs have been replaced with MSN advertisements: "[Secure communication starts with MSN]".

The blue butterfly can be seen at the elevator entrances of office buildings, on university bulletin boards, and even in the corners of some mainstream newspapers.

Huaxia Shangding's money is pouring into every corner of the city like a waterfall, attempting to forcibly change the chatting habits of hundreds of millions of users. Fang Kang can clearly feel how fierce, how wide-ranging, and how extravagant the investment is in this decapitation operation targeting QQ.

Can QQ withstand this offensive?
Fang Kang had no answer in his heart.

All he knew was that tomorrow he would have to put on that blue T-shirt again and go out on the street to shout and promote the product that he didn't even fully understand.

What he didn't know was that while these offline promoters were working hard to expand their reach, an online battle of perceptions about QQ being unsafe, childish, and unconventional was quietly spreading across various forums and media outlets.

The following morning, Xu Jin, a well-known public intellectual, published a long article on his blog entitled "Saying Goodbye to Naïveness: Why I Chose MSN".

"In this age of information overload, we are choosing not only tools, but also a way of life," Xu Jin wrote in the opening.

When I see those flashy QQ avatars and those childish system notification sounds, I can't help but wonder: do we need a more mature and professional way of communicating?

……

The article quickly sparked heated discussions within intellectual circles.

Xu Jin provided a detailed comparison of the differences between MSN and QQ, describing MSN as the preferred choice for international elites, while QQ was a tool for entertainment among teenagers.

He specifically emphasized MSN's security features: "As a Microsoft product, MSN boasts enterprise-level security, while QQ has been plagued by numerous account theft incidents."

This article was not created by chance.

Huaxia Shangding Technology paid Xu Jin 5 yuan to write this article, and promised to write three more articles in the series, for a total price of 20 yuan.

At the end of his article, Xu Jin appealed: "Let's choose a more mature lifestyle, starting with choosing MSN."

On the same day, five influential bloggers with millions of followers simultaneously reposted the article and shared their own experiences using it.

These experiences were all accompanied by pre-prepared copywriting, with each repost costing between 2 and 5 yuan.

On Tuesday, Southern Finance Weekly devoted two full pages to a special report entitled "The Security Debate on Instant Messaging Tools".

Reporters interviewed several cybersecurity experts, who unanimously agreed that MSN far surpasses similar domestic products in terms of security.

An expert claiming to be a computer science professor at a university stated: "QQ uses relatively outdated encryption technology, while MSN uses the same security protocols as enterprise-level software."

In fact, this professor was merely a consultant hired by Huaxia Shangding Technology, receiving an annual consulting fee of 8 yuan.

Most of the other experts cited also have close ties with Microsoft or Huaxia Shangding.

At the same time, some foreign-owned websites and some media groups that have shifted from offline to online also launched special promotional pages for MSN.

The editors received instructions from their superiors to place positive reports about MSN in prominent positions, while negative news about QQ was deliberately amplified.

The chief editor of the technology channel of a well-known provincial media outlet privately revealed: "Huaxia Shangding offered us a 100 million yuan advertising contract, requiring us to maintain positive exposure of MSN-related content for the next three months. We couldn't refuse."

As night fell, the battle on various online forums had only just begun.

Discussions about MSN and QQ suddenly surged on the most popular online forums at the time, such as Tianya Community, Mop, and Xici Hutong.

Ordinary users shared their experiences of switching from QQ to MSN.

[Finally said goodbye to QQ! I only realized what a professional instant messaging tool is after using MSN.] A user who recently registered posted on Tianya Community.

A netizen immediately responded downstairs: "Yeah, QQ is so childish, it's all just kids' games."

Another user shared: "Our entire company has switched to MSN, and the boss says it looks much more professional."

Smoke filled the emergency conference room on the top floor of the Penguin headquarters building in Deep Summer City.

Ma Huateng sat in the main seat, calmly looking at the report he had just printed out.

The Penguin executives sitting around the long table all had solemn expressions.

“The situation is worse than we anticipated,” Zhang Zhidong broke the silence, his voice hoarse. “Microsoft is not only poaching new users through OEM pre-installation, but also launching a full-scale media attack.”

He pulled up several video clips and article screenshots and projected them onto the big screen: "Look at these. So-called cybersecurity experts are publicly questioning the security of our QQ on TV. Financial channels are also discussing the professionalism of IM tools, clearly favoring MSN. Even some university career guidance courses are implying that it is more formal for students to contact HR using MSN."

Xu Chenhua added, "Our ground promotion team reported that Microsoft has invested huge sums of money in offline promotion in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and has cooperated with high-end venues such as Starbucks. They are doing ground promotion regardless of cost, and this time their approach is very targeted at us."

Chen Dan, the marketing director who once negotiated with Cheng Yi to acquire Xiaonei.com, also took a deep breath and said, "The most troublesome thing is the public opinion field. Suddenly, a large number of posts have appeared on the Internet, belittling QQ and praising MSN. This is obviously an organized online troll campaign. Our brand image is being deliberately portrayed as juvenile, entertaining and unprofessional. Most of these organizations are traditional media organizations that are opposed to Momo Group and foreign-controlled websites."

The conference room was deathly silent, with only the hum of the air conditioner audible.

Anxiety and unease were written all over everyone's face.

Xu Chenhua abruptly stubbed out his cigarette: "Mr. Ma, we must fight back immediately. Microsoft is trying to kill us."

But no one agreed with Xu Chenhua's words; everyone's face was filled with worry.

All eyes were now focused on Ma Huateng.

This usually mild-mannered, even somewhat introverted CEO appeared unusually calm at this moment.

He slowly put down the report in his hand, looked around at his comrades, and softly asked, "Are you afraid?"

His voice was soft, yet it struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.

afraid?
How could they not be afraid?

Didn't you hear their voices trembling?

“Actually, I was afraid too. I was afraid of Microsoft’s size, their funding, and their operating system dominance.” Ma Huateng slowly stood up, placed his hands on the table, and said with piercing eyes, “But when I think back to when we first started our business, I realized I had nothing to be afraid of. How many people didn’t believe in us back then? Some said ICQ had already dominated the market, some said that Chinese people couldn’t make their own IM software…”

His voice rose: "But we did it! We started from scratch and got to where we are today step by step. What did we rely on?"

The meeting room fell silent, and the executives' expressions began to change.

"It's all thanks to that grassroots resilience!" Ma Huateng's voice echoed in the conference room: "Now, Microsoft is here, with their money and pre-installation agreements. Do they think they can crush us like they crushed their other competitors?"

His voice grew increasingly impassioned: "But they forgot that this is China, and they forgot who is supporting us!"

(End of this chapter)