Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 686 Let's Happily Overturn the Situation Together
“This internet phone is not as simple as Li Zairong thinks,” Cheng Yi said. “There aren’t many domestic consumers who can afford high-priced phones right now. He’s just making empty promises to you because he wants to use you to deal with me.”

“That’s true.” Qi Hongjun agreed with Cheng Yi’s words.

Cheng Yi said, "Brother Qi, we're practically family now, so I'll say something to you as a fellow family member."

"You said."

“The PHS (Personal Handyphone System) business is booming right now, there’s no need for you to get involved in our mess with Samsung so soon,” Cheng Yi said. “This battle will be huge. This time, it’s a real bloodbath between us, Microsoft, and Samsung. No one who gets involved will have a good time.”

Cheng Yi's words made Qi Hongjun's heart skip a beat.

He said in a deep voice, "Understood, thank you for the reminder, brother."

“Yes, this battle is ostensibly between us and Microsoft and Samsung, but in reality it’s a war between Europe and the US, Japan and South Korea,” Cheng Yi said. “We’re just playing the role of pawns. This time, it’s either us or Samsung that will perish. There’s no third possibility. You could have stayed out of it, there’s no need to risk this fifty percent chance.”

After giving Qi Hongjun a piece of advice, Cheng Yi hung up the phone.

Qi Hongjun's tip-off was less about sentiment and more about a precise test of interests.

He leaned back on the leather sofa in his office, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the armrest, his mind already having thoroughly analyzed Lee Jae-yong's tactics.

Cheng Yi chuckled and casually tossed his phone onto the tea table.

Several reports were spread out on the tea table, the top one being the statistics on the loss of franchised internet cafes that Zhang Lingyu had just delivered.

Within this month, 1317 internet cafes in Handong Province have accepted half-price hardware from Gaoping Capital and signed transfer agreements for 10% equity.

The other sheet of paper next to it was an emergency report from the Honor Computer purchasing department.

Intel and AMD's latest processor prices have increased by 22% compared to last week. Although AMD's Athlon 64 has not explicitly raised prices, the delivery time to sales outlets in various countries has been extended from 7 days to 14 days.

The door was gently pushed open, and Zhang Lingyu walked in carrying a cup of hot coffee. Her black business suit accentuated her capable figure, but there was a hint of anxiety between her brows.

"I just received news that Gaoping Capital held another internet cafe upgrade conference in Hebei Province. Nearly a thousand internet cafe owners attended, and 323 signed contracts on the spot." Zhang Lingyu walked quickly into the office.

Cheng Yi smiled, gestured for her to sit down, and said, "Waters and Lee Jae-yong have bet everything on hardware and systems. But this makes it much easier for us to deal with them. We just need to hold these two positions."

Zhang Lingyu said worriedly, "That's what they say, but hardware prices have risen too much now. Nearly 30% of the internet cafes in our alliance have machines installed in 2003, which should have been replaced by now. Gao Ping is offering an olive branch at this time, which is too tempting. Moreover, Samsung Express's on-site service has been extended to all districts and counties across the country. Yesterday, an internet cafe owner in Xingping City told me that Samsung people came to his door with new graphics cards and could replace them on the spot without any deposit."

"Hmm." Cheng Yi nodded slowly. In 2006, door-to-door service was indeed a novelty, and Samsung Express did take advantage of the time difference.

But being new doesn't mean it's irreplaceable.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "What if the internet cafe owner doesn't need to replace the hardware anymore?"

Zhang Lingyu asked in surprise, "No need to replace the hardware?"

“That’s right. The reason why our Momo OS system requires increasingly higher configurations is because it loads a lot of industrial software,” Cheng Yi said. “Now that we’ve come this far, we have to take a different approach.”

"How do we do it?" Zhang Lingyu stared intently at Cheng Yi with her beautiful eyes.

Cheng Yi said, "I have arranged for Huang Ganping to work on a special version of the system for internet cafes, discarding 60% of the unnecessary functions and software, focusing on online games, internet access, and social chat."

"Will this solve the problem?" Although Zhang Lingyu had learned a little bit of computer programming, she still only had a superficial understanding of things that were too profound.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "As long as we only retain the basic entertainment functions, running online games and some popular single-player games will be no problem at all. In the future, any games that want to be included in our internet cafe system will have to be optimized to the extreme."

"If our internet cafes don't need to upgrade to the latest hardware, then their price increase won't mean much to us."

"What if we need to repair or replace computer hardware now?" Zhang Lingyu asked, expressing her concern.

For example, the internet cafes under Momo Internet Cafe Management Company can spend over 100 million yuan annually just on maintenance and parts replacement.

"I'll get a used one," Cheng Yi replied.

"Secondhand?" Zhang Lingyu asked in surprise, "Are we going back to the secondhand business?"

"Since they want to disrupt things, then we shouldn't be polite to them." Cheng Yi sneered, "We originally used new components to help promote the development of the computer industry. Now that they're using components to hold us back, we're not playing along with them anymore."

He remembers clearly that in the first half of 2006, Huang Fei had a batch of second-hand server hardware imported from Europe that he had stockpiled.

Because the EU introduced a new e-waste management law, this batch of hardware was originally supposed to be destroyed, but Huang Feihua bought it at a low price and has been relying on Momo Group to handle it.

Since both Honor and Hasee have switched to making new computers, the demand for used computer parts has decreased significantly.

Now that Cheng Yi has handed over the smuggling rights of Honor computers to Huang Fei, Huang Fei is no longer very concerned about electronic waste.

Now, the secondhand business should make a comeback, and not only should it make a comeback, but it should be vigorously developed.

Although these hardware components are second-hand, their performance is similar to that of mainstream internet cafe computer parts in China. They can be used with a little refurbishment, and the cost is only 20% of that of new hardware.

Just then, Huang Wenrong called, his voice tinged with urgency, saying, "President Cheng, I just received news that the source of funding behind Gaoping Capital has been confirmed. It's a shell company from Goldman Sachs and Microsoft Asia Pacific. Also, Mike asked if Universal Vision wants to cooperate in creating a wave of anti-hardware monopoly publicity. They've contacted a lot of media resources in Europe."

Cheng Yi thought for a moment and said, "Let's not rush to deal with the European public opinion. Let's wait until Lei Jun arrives. First, let them focus on the hardware price increases by Intel, AMD, and Samsung. Let's add fuel to the fire and make them realize that these giants are looking for opportunities to exploit them." "Okay."

After hanging up with Huang Wenrong, Cheng Yi dialed Huang Ganping's number.

Momo OS is the core of this counterattack. Microsoft's XP Lite attracts users by optimizing older machines, and they need to make changes as soon as possible.

"Huang, how's the development of the lightweight version of Moc-os going?" Cheng Yi asked.

On the other end of the phone, Huang Ganping's voice sounded somewhat tired: "It's almost done. We've cut some less frequently used functions and compressed the system installation package from 210M to 120M. The old computer runs about 20% faster than before. Yesterday, I tested a 2002 Pentium 3 machine. After installing the lightweight version of Moc-OS, the frame rate in World of Warcraft was 15 frames higher than our normal system."

“Very good.” Cheng Yi smiled and said, “Hold a press conference tomorrow to launch this lightweight version. We’ll call it Moc-os Internet Cafe Edition and announce that all Momo Alliance internet cafes will upgrade for free. For ordinary users who want to install it… well, let’s charge 10 yuan. It’s half the price of Microsoft’s XP Speed ​​Edition. Also, go and contact Lei Jun and have him handle the press conference. You can also check his knowledge of computer hardware this month.”

Cheng Yi thought for a moment and said, "Also, take pictures of how our internet cafe version and XP Speed ​​Edition run on old computers and post them on major forums so that Cao Zhengze's online army can give them a boost."

"it is good!"

The internet in 2006 was truly amazing. Forums served as the main battleground for public opinion and were the primary channel for netizens to obtain information. A trending post could spread across the country within half a day, demonstrating the incredible speed of information dissemination. The speed of information dissemination on the internet around 2006 was much faster than that of Douyin and Kuaishou in the future.

Because the former lived in an era of information scarcity, a popular post could stay popular for a long time and even create memes.

The latter, however, is in an era of information overload. Before a trending post has even finished trending, it is immediately overshadowed by a new trending post. The platform can even use big data to control your preferences, ensuring that a piece of information can only be seen by people in this vertical interest area, thus segmenting and classifying a lot of information.

In this day and age, as long as the comparison videos are intuitive enough, and with the help of online trolls, the gimmick of Microsoft's original optimization can be easily exposed.

After all, XP Speed ​​Edition is essentially just a reduction in system services, and it can't compare to the optimizations made at the bottom layer by Momo OS.

The biggest difference between the two is that with XP Speed ​​Edition, users can download software at will. No matter how fast the speed is after reinstalling, as long as the user can download software, his computer will be full of Huajun's junk plugins in less than a week.

Momo OS, on the other hand, uses an app store, so users cannot download software themselves, and therefore will not have the plugin for "Chinese Army Brother".

Zhang Lingyu listened intently, and only spoke after Cheng Yi hung up the phone: "Is it really okay to have Lei Jun host the press conference? Lei Jun is just a technician, isn't he? Won't he be too dull?"

Cheng Yi walked to the sofa and sat down. He picked up the cigarette case on the coffee table, took out a cigarette but didn't light it, and said with a smile, "No one is a genius from the start. They all need to be nurtured slowly. I think he can do it."

The next morning, the Momo Technology Industrial Park next to Jingzhou University was bustling with activity.

The press conference was held at the convention center in the industrial park, with a huge banner hanging at the entrance: [Launch of Moc-os Internet Cafe Edition and Upgrade Ceremony of Momo Alliance].

Nearly 100 internet cafe owners from Handong Province were invited to the event, along with reporters from media outlets such as Huanyu Vision, Handong TV, and Popular Software.

The press conference officially began at 10:00 AM.

Lei Jun, dressed in a suit, stood on the stage, holding up a transparent display board. On the board were the core parameters of the Moc-os Internet Cafe Edition, the font so large that even those in the back rows could see them clearly.

Before speaking, he greeted the audience and exchanged a few pleasantries. Then, he suddenly raised his voice, his tone tinged with excitement, and shouted, "Distinguished guests, at today's press conference, I'm going to show you something that defies common sense: what kind of amazing performance will a 2002 Pentium 3 computer have after installing the system we're releasing today?"

After he finished speaking, the staff immediately pushed in a laptop with a yellowed casing and a keyboard that was worn shiny.

Lei Jun walked over, tapped the machine with his finger, and laughed, "Let me show you the configuration of this machine first. It's a Pentium 3 from 2002 with 128MB of memory. It's currently running XP Home Edition. As you can see, it takes more than a minute to open QQ. Now, we'll install Moc-OS Internet Cafe Edition on it and let you see how fast the system reinstallation is."

After saying that, he began to demonstrate the installation of the Moc-os internet cafe version.

His actions were also projected onto the screen by the projection device.

When the screen displayed "Installation complete, time taken 8 minutes and 23 seconds," a gasp of surprise erupted from the audience.

Lei Jun laughed and said, "See that? This speed, on an old machine from 2002, is practically cutting-edge technology!"

"Let's test World of Warcraft, which is more demanding on system requirements." Lei Jun opened the system app store and started downloading the Momo version of World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft was downloaded in no time.

After installing the game, Lei Jun opened World of Warcraft and saw that the game's frame rate was stable at 45 frames per second. Many internet cafe owners in the audience couldn't sit still anymore.

The old computers in their internet cafe with similar configurations could only run World of Warcraft at a maximum of 30 frames per second, and sometimes they would lag, which is why they were considering upgrading their hardware.

If this Momo Internet Cafe system is this awesome, then why bother replacing the hardware with Go8?

"Bosses, that's not all," Lei Jun said with a smile. "Our Momo Group is also preparing to launch an 'Anti-Involution Initiative.' We propose to stop the involution of computer configurations and not give those hardware giants the opportunity to hold us back by raising prices and reaping our profits."

"Starting today, all software listed on the Momo OS system must meet the optimization standards of the Momo OS system. Software that does not meet the optimization standards will not be listed on the Momo App Store."

"We respect their research and development achievements, but we refuse to pay for commercial bullying!" Lei Jun shouted. "In addition, the Momo Internet Cafe Alliance Quick Repair Team officially starts operating today, providing door-to-door service within 2 hours, charging only the cost price for repairs, and ensuring the normal operation of every Momo Internet Cafe Alliance member."

As soon as he finished speaking, a net cafe owner in the audience raised his hand and asked, "Mr. Lei, I'm from Shijiazhuang. Many of the machines in my net cafe have broken hardware, and replacing them would be quite expensive."

Lei Jun smiled and said, "If you need to replace any hardware, you can submit a list to Momo Internet Cafe Management Company. We also have computer parts that meet your requirements. Although they are not brand new, they are sufficient."

A reporter from Popular Software couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Lei, today is the press conference for Momo OS, and you, as the President of Momo Group's European Region, are hosting the launch of Momo OS. Does this mean that Momo Group has begun its counterattack?"

(End of this chapter)