Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 650 You're not convinced? I'll just keep playing!
Around the huge oval conference table, all of Microsoft's senior executives in China looked anxious, exchanging words about the seriousness of the situation.

Waters had forced himself to calm down, but his clenched fists still betrayed the anger in his heart.

He said in an icy voice, "You all know the situation. What I need now is a solution, not to hear you talk about how serious this problem is."

Waters looked at the technical director, David, and said in a deep voice, "David, you go first."

Technical Director David glanced at Waters and said with a troubled expression, "President, this is not easy to solve. Instead of brute-force stopping the program from running, they used the system's underlying permissions to inject a tiny delay or error instruction under specific conditions, thereby triggering the application's own exception handling mechanism."

"The main problem is that we don't have any evidence. Users will only complain that our software is unstable, and they will never suspect that the system has been tampered with. Even if we make a public accusation, the other party can easily deny it and say that our software is not well optimized for the Moc-os system, and then turn around and accuse us."

David stopped there.

"Compatibility?" Li Shan, the vice president of marketing, couldn't help but retort sharply, "Our software runs well on billions of Windows devices worldwide. Why is it that it's only not compatible with their systems? This is clearly blatant exclusionary competition!"

“We understand the logic, Mr. Li,” Legal Counsel James interjected. “But the law demands evidence. Our current technical analysis report is simply not sufficient evidence. To establish irrefutable proof, we would need a long time and countless resources invested in litigation. Besides, this is China…”

That last sentence silenced everyone.

They knew perfectly well that in a market where Momo Group wielded significant influence, the hope of a swift resolution through legal means was extremely slim.

After a protracted legal battle, MSN and KartRider had long since lost their market share.

"Could we fight fire with fire?" a young product manager tentatively suggested. "We could also update the Windows system and optimize Momo's products, such as World of Warcraft, to the same extent, forcing them back to the negotiating table?"

The suggestion immediately sparked a murmur of discussion.

They are very good at doing this kind of thing. If they want to use technical sanctions, they have a hundred ways to sanction all products under the Momo Group.

But they are only good at attacking, not at defending, because no one has ever attacked them.

They were indeed thrown into disarray when someone suddenly attacked them using their own methods.

"Foolish." Seeing that the crowd seemed to agree, Waters immediately shouted, "World of Warcraft is operated by Blizzard Entertainment, and Blizzard is now under Enze Capital. If you touch World of Warcraft, it's tantamount to declaring war on a long-established European capital firm with a complex background. More importantly—"

He took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, and said, "Those guys at the European Commission are watching us with a magnifying glass. We just finished dealing with the tail end of the Pandora project. If we take action against a global phenomenon like World of Warcraft, we will face astronomical fines and even more severe market restrictions."

These words were like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing the last bit of retaliatory impulse in everyone's hearts.

The conference room fell into silence again.

They sadly discovered that they felt as if their hands and feet were tied.

The technological advantage that we are so proud of fails us on the other side’s home turf. Legal means are too far away to help us in the face of the immediate crisis, while reciprocal retaliation could trigger uncontrollable global consequences, making us hesitant to act rashly.

Waters rubbed his temples wearily.

He recalled the high hopes that headquarters had placed on him and the huge resources invested in him, only to find himself in such a passive situation.

His opponent's move really hit him where it hurt.

They have now allowed piracy.

However, the genuine Moc-OS has formed a strong user stickiness due to its deep integration with Momo's software and hardware, especially its absolute advantage in the game ecosystem.

Are we expecting Microsoft to spend money begging users to download pirated versions of Windows?

They are rich, but they are not sick.

Waters closed his eyes, his mind racing.

All conventional methods are no longer working; he must break free from this mindset of technological confrontation.

After a long silence, he suddenly opened his eyes, a resolute glint in them, and said in a deep voice, "We must take legal action, but not as our main focus. James, you must immediately assemble a top-notch legal team to collect all possible evidence, but the target of the lawsuit should not be Momo Group."

Everyone was stunned.

If they're not going to sue Momo Group, then who will they sue?

Waters said in a deep voice, "Momo Group is just a front man. The real power behind the scenes is that damned Enze Capital. We need to point the finger at them. Prepare materials and file a complaint with the UK Financial Conduct Authority, accusing Enze Capital and its actual controller, Smith Leibusch, of manipulating the market through unfair competition and harming the interests of Microsoft as a shareholder of a listed company!"

He now needs to escalate his attack, using international financial regulatory rules to strike at the opponent hidden behind layers of structure.

As long as Enze Capital is hit, it will surely force Momo Group to stop.

"In addition," Waters said, looking at Li Shan, "the public relations battle is also escalating. We can't explicitly accuse the other side of tampering, but we can guide public opinion, emphasizing the unpredictable compatibility challenges that MSN and KartRider encounter in certain specific system environments, and calling on players to switch to Microsoft systems to resolve the issue."

The order was given, and the people in the conference room immediately sprang into action, but everyone's steps seemed somewhat heavy.

They all knew that this was just a defensive battle, and at a high cost.

As the crowd dispersed, Waters stared at the report in front of him, a sense of powerlessness rising within him.

He felt like a beast trapped in an invisible swamp, possessing sharp claws and teeth but nowhere to use them.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the network, users' patience is being worn down little by little by those randomly appearing pop-ups.

Complaints spread from forums to social media, and a general skepticism began to form about the reliability of MSN and KartRider.

This tiny crack also created an opportunity for Penguin Group to fight back.

Jingzhou City, that large Momo Internet Cafe flagship store.

After the War God Temple guild leader, War God Ahao, suffered a near-miss in the third crucial team battle due to an MSN disconnection, he finally erupted.

"Damn it! This crappy MSN is unusable!" He ripped off his headset and slammed it on the table, drawing stares from his teammates.

"Brother Hao, calm down. How about... we switch back to UT and try it?" a team member suggested cautiously.

"UT? Does anyone still use that thing?" Ahao said irritably, but looking at the grayed-out team interface on the screen, he had nowhere to vent his anger.

Frustrated, he closed MSN and casually clicked on the QQ icon, which he had almost forgotten about.

As soon as I successfully logged in, a series of system notification sounds began to beep.

Several long-dormant QQ group icons were flashing wildly; they were all old friends I used to play games with.

Curious, he clicked on one of the chat boxes, where people were excitedly discussing the new racing gameplay in "Sweet Home." He'd barely typed a message when an old friend tagged him: "Hey, isn't this Brother Hao? The missing person has returned!"

"Don't even mention it, MSN really screwed me over," Ah Hao complained.

"Haha, we just got back too! QQ is having a promotion right now, giving back old users a lot of Q coins and rare racing car parts from 'Sweet Home,' it's much better than that crappy MSN, which keeps disconnecting."

"Exactly, and the two-player racing game 'Sweet Home' is really fun. It doesn't require extreme maneuvering, but rather teamwork. You can even decorate the track in your own home. Do you want to play? I can introduce you to a girl."

"Never mind, I still have a bunch of brothers in World of Warcraft." Although Ahao refused, he realized that QQ was still active when he saw that many of his friends' avatars were lit up.

Soon, he first created a QQ group, had the guild members switch from MSN to QQ, and then found UT on the computer desktop, returning to the UT room that they had abandoned for four or five months.

Tencent Group responded precisely this time.

Ma Huateng and his team were working like crazy, executing the strategies devised by Cheng Yi.

The 1 billion yuan was transformed into a massive online advertising campaign, a welcome gift package for returning users, promotional videos by KOLs, and generous rewards for offline internet cafe promoters.

[A tribute to our lost youth! QQ old friends are back, claim your 1000 RMB gift pack now!]

【Sweet Home 'Wind Track': Here, there are no disconnections, only romantic races between you and your loved one.】

UT Voice has undergone a major upgrade, boasting ultra-low latency, making it a must-have for gaming. Bind your QQ account and instantly receive VIP status.

These slogans are simple and direct, yet they hit the biggest pain point for users today.

The line "No disconnection here" was a stroke of genius. Although it didn't explicitly refer to MSN, all users who had been tormented by pop-ups would understand.

More importantly, the two-player racing gameplay of "Sweet Home" has truly filled a gap in the "KartRider" ecosystem.

KartRider leans towards hardcore racing, while the two-player racing game focuses on the vertical social field of couples/friends cooperating, combining the excitement of racing games with the warmth and stickiness of social games. Teaming up with friends for competition adds a deep sense of showing off.

The expert was overjoyed.

Even beginners strive to become experts so they can impress their girlfriends and friends.

Deep Summer City, Penguin Building.

Ma Huateng stared at the large data screen in the background, his eyes bloodshot, but the excitement in his eyes was hard to hide.

The curve representing QQ's daily active users, after a long period of decline, has finally begun to stubbornly rise.

Although the growth rate is slow, the trend has been established.

The number of concurrent online players for "Sweet Home" has reached a new high in nearly half a year, thanks to the new expansion and return events.

"Increase investment! Allocate all resources to optimizing the return and traffic generation!" Ma Huateng ordered in a hoarse voice. "Tell everyone that the time for the decisive battle has come. We want to show the outside world who is the king of Chinese social networking."

Penguin Group, a machine that was once on the verge of shutting down, has unleashed astonishing fighting power driven by huge amounts of funding and clear goals.

Their counterattack is no longer a blind confrontation, but a precise exploitation of the opponent's weaknesses, a breakthrough into a differentiated market, and an appeal to users to return through emotional appeal and incentives.

The online public opinion has also begun to subtly shift.

The previously overwhelming praise for MSN and KartRider is now mixed with more and more complaints and comparisons.

"QQ is still the most worry-free to use, at least it doesn't disconnect."

"The racing in 'Sweet Home' is quite fun, mainly because you don't get angry; even if you lose, you can still laugh it off."

"UT Voice seems to be working smoothly now, and it's quite convenient to link it with QQ."

This kind of word-of-mouth effect is something that no amount of advertising can replace.

Although Waters ordered Microsoft's public relations team to do everything they could to guide users to switch systems, this was easier said than done.

Who would be willing to change their system for a game that has been online for less than a month?
And isn't it free to change the system? It usually costs fifty or sixty yuan, which is enough to buy two months' worth of game cards.

At the headquarters of Momo Group, Cheng Yi listened to Li Weiwei's report on the recovery of Tencent's data and smiled as expected.

Huang Ganping's technical interference is like drilling a tiny hole in Microsoft's sturdy dam. As long as Tencent continues to drive traffic, this seemingly tiny hole will keep getting bigger.

That's the charm of a well-intentioned strategy.

I clearly told you my methods, but you were helpless.

Cheng Yi is now experiencing the joys of working at Microsoft.

That was fucking awesome.

Cheng Yi even felt a sense of control over everything; if you don't submit to me, then I'll just keep playing.

Once this mindset took hold, even he was startled.

A month has passed since the pop-up report issue first appeared. During this month, MSN's new user growth rate has slowed significantly, and its activity level has begun to fluctuate dramatically.

The number of online players for "KartRider" also plummeted, dropping from a peak of over 400 million to less than 100 million.

The main reason is that hundreds of thousands of internet cafes in China can no longer play KartRider.

Because the frequency of the shots was too high.

Within a month, MSN's daily active users in the Chinese market dropped by 35% month-on-month, and new users almost stopped growing.

On the other hand, although Tencent's CEO Ma Huateng did not fully achieve the goal of stopping the decline and rebounding daily active users, QQ's daily active user curve did show a solid V-shaped rebound, which can be considered as stabilizing the core user base.

With its expansion pack featuring two-player racing and strong social features, "Sweet Home" broke its historical peak in concurrent online users, successfully regaining its home ground in the casual social game field and becoming the biggest dark horse in the online game industry in the first month of the second quarter.

All of this is thanks to Microsoft's overwhelming advertising campaign for racing.

The saying "One generation plants the trees, another enjoys the shade" perfectly illustrates this point.

(End of this chapter)