Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 704 One Panda and Three Incense Sticks
Rising's market share was halved within a month, its stock price plummeted, internal morale was low, and a large number of technical personnel were poached by competitors or chose to leave.

Jiangmin also suffered heavy losses, almost completely losing the personal market on which it started, and can only struggle to support some old corporate clients.

International brands such as Trend Micro and Symantec have also been significantly impacted. While high-end users have high loyalty, their new user growth has been almost halved by Kaspersky and 360.

In just one month, the landscape of China's security software market has been completely reshaped.

The alliance between Kaspersky and 360, through its deep partnership with Microsoft and Zhou Hongyi's combined strategies, has eliminated most of the threatening competitors at an astonishing speed, establishing an unshakeable security empire.

Zhou Hongyi stood in front of the data monitoring screen at 360 headquarters, watching the curve representing Kaspersky and 360's market share dominate with an air of absolute supremacy. He took a sip of coffee with a sense of satisfaction.

Ivanov, standing next to him, also showed a rare relaxed smile.

He hadn't expected to win this battle so easily.

“Ivan, this is just the beginning.” Zhou Hongyi put down her coffee cup, looked into the distance towards Jingzhou, and smiled, “Now that we’ve cleared away these noises, it’s time to have a good talk with our old friend Cheng Yi.”

"Talk to Cheng Yi?" Ivanov asked, somewhat surprised. "What do you want to talk to Cheng Yi about? They are Microsoft's competitors."

“They are Microsoft’s rivals, but not our rivals. There’s an old Chinese saying, I wonder if Mr. Ivanov has heard it?” Zhou Hongyi looked at Ivanov.

"A wise man submits to circumstances?" Ivanov asked curiously.

"No, no, no, it's about not putting all your eggs in one basket," Zhou Hongyi laughed. "The market has proven that we are the rule on the Windows system. Now, we should use this power to fight for even greater benefits."

Ivanov frowned slightly and said, "Zhou, how do you want to talk?"

Zhou Hongyi said, "Cheng Yi's Momo system is currently most widely used in internet cafes and the personal user market, but most business users still use Windows. Our Kaspersky 360 has now become the gatekeeper of the Windows system. As long as we slightly relax our crackdown on rogue software and keep Microsoft's market share at around 35%, I think Cheng Yi will definitely be interested. This is our bargaining chip."

His eyes gleamed with shrewd calculation as he said, "We can propose to Cheng Yi that Kaspersky and 360 be allowed to enter the Momo system's app store in a cooperative manner, or even as recommended security components. This would be a win-win situation!"

Ivanov remained silent for a moment, though he felt that this move was quite risky and would cause a lot of trouble if Waters found out.

But the win-win prospect described by Zhou Hongyi is indeed very tempting.

If they can penetrate their influence into the Momo system, then they and 360 will have truly achieved seamless cross-platform coverage.

“Alright, Zhou, you can give it a try. But be careful, Cheng Yi is not someone to be trifled with, don’t talk to him too deeply,” Ivanov warned.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." With Ivanov's tacit approval, Zhou Hongyi smiled happily.

He arrived at the Momo Systems Company at Handong University with complete confidence, but the result was something he never expected.

After he introduced himself, the response he received was: "Mr. Zhou, I'm very sorry, Mr. Cheng's schedule is full recently, and he really can't find the time to meet with you."

After the receptionist finished speaking, she looked at him with a professional smile. Not even a vice president from Momo Systems Company was sent over.

Zhou Hongyi was taken aback, thinking it was because she hadn't made an appointment. She patiently said, "Could you please inform him again that Zhou Hongyi from 360 has an important cooperation matter she would like to discuss with President Cheng in person? If President Cheng is unavailable, could you arrange an assistant for me?"

The receptionist made another call and laughed, "Mr. Cheng really can't arrange a meeting. His assistant is giving birth today."

"Does President Cheng only have one assistant?" Zhou Hongyi asked, still unwilling to give up.

"The other assistants went to accompany them," the receptionist said with a smile.

"What about the vice president? The director? The supervisor?" A surge of anger welled up in Zhou Hongyi's heart.

"They're not here either," the receptionist said with a smile. "Our company is relatively new, and our staff isn't fully staffed yet. I'm so sorry."

After being rejected three times in a row, Zhou Hongyi's smile froze.

He is now the uncrowned king of China's security software market, but even when he personally visited Cheng Yi, he couldn't even get a meeting with him.

A surge of anger, stemming from feeling slighted and even humiliated, welled up inside him instantly.

His face was ashen as he turned and strode away.

Once inside the car, he slammed his fist on the seat and cursed, "Cheng Yi! You trying to put on airs with me?"

Little did he know that at that moment, in the office of Momo Systems Company, Cheng Yi was standing by the window, calmly watching Zhou Hongyi's car drive out of sight.

"Boss, Zhou Hongyi has left," Li Weiwei reported.

"Hmm," Cheng Yi responded, his face expressionless.

"He seems very angry."

“As expected.” Cheng Yi turned around and smiled. “He must have come here this time to try to negotiate with me and play the balance game. Unfortunately, he miscalculated because I know him too well.”

In his previous life, Cheng Yi's team had fought a protracted battle with Zhou Hongyi for seven or eight years, which gave him a thorough understanding of the cardinal's style of doing things.

Pang Dongzi and Zhou Hongyi can be summarized by a simple arithmetic problem.

In terms of having no bottom line, Zhou Hongyi is equal to Cheng Yi plus Pang Dongzi.

In terms of greed, Pang Dongzi = Zhou Hongyi - Cheng Yi.

As for the last shred of business conscience, Cheng Yi = Pang Dongzi + Zhou Hongyi.

Zhou Hongyi's attempt to cultivate a powerful enemy to enhance her own influence, using the maintenance of Microsoft's market share to gain access to the Momo system, reveals her inherent greed.

Cheng Yi disdained to make such a deal with him.

While Zhou Hongyi was furious after being turned away in Jingzhou, the scene at Zhonghai's 2345 headquarters was quite different.

The industry's dramatic reshuffling and the rapid collapse of established giants like Rising and Jiangmin have created a large pool of experienced but uncertain security technology professionals.

These people are familiar with the attack and defense of security software and understand the underlying system, making them the high-quality recruits that Pang Dongzi has been dreaming of.

"An opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" Pang Dongzi's eyes lit up as he looked at the thick stack of resumes from former employees of Ruixing Jiangmin submitted by the Human Resources Department.

He's short of soldiers right now, he's desperately short.

"All in! We have to go all in this time!" Pang Dongzi suddenly stood up and paced excitedly around the office. He said, "Take out all the money we can use and recruit as many people as possible. Every technician from Rising Jiangmin, without any exams, is eligible!"

Pang Dongzi's assistant said with some concern, "Boss, if we do it this way, our cash flow will be very tight, and managing so many people at once will also be a problem."

"I can't worry about that anymore!" Pang Dongzi waved his hand to interrupt, his face showing the madness of a gambler, and said, "I only have less than a month left. This month, I must get ten million monthly active users!" "Huh?" The assistant didn't understand what Pang Dongzi meant at all.

What do you mean there's less than a month left?
Does the boss have a terminal illness?

Pang Dongzi knew very well that it wasn't that they lacked technology, but rather that they had too few people. With their original small team, they simply couldn't complete the task of ten million monthly active users on a small scale.

Now is the perfect time to take advantage of this favorable trend and improve the team's capabilities.

As for the cash flow, as long as the traffic increases, why worry about not having money?
On the other hand, if the traffic doesn't go up, their company will just dissolve. What's the point of having a cash flow then?

The only difference between ordinary people and successful people is that ordinary people always leave themselves a way out, while successful people go all in.

If you win, you will be a young model in the club; if you lose, you will go to the adult entertainment industry to work.

The reason why Kaspersky and 360 are able to suppress them now is mainly because there are too few rogue software programs.

Their production can't keep up.

If production can keep up, what's so special about Kaspersky 360?
They currently produce about three variant software programs per day, which Kaspersky and 360 can take down in about 16 hours.

What if they release thirty different software variants every day?
What will they use to kill themselves?

They'll be exhausted to death.

Ultimately, security and defense boil down to a battle of stamina, youth, and endurance.

Soon, thanks to Pang Dongzi's relentless recruitment efforts, the team size of 2345 expanded rapidly, like an inflating balloon.

The office space was not enough, so we temporarily rented two other areas on the same floor.

The new engineers, with different technical backgrounds but the same desire for revenge, quickly threw themselves into the battle to break through Kaspersky's 360 defense system.

With the addition of fresh blood, especially the veterans who were responsible for the core engine development at Rising Jiangmin, 2345's technical strength has undergone a qualitative change.

Their understanding of Kaspersky's engine features and the underlying Windows system is far superior to that of Pang Dongzi's original team.

The new variants are no longer satisfied with simply bypassing behavior monitoring; they are starting to attempt deeper levels of confrontation. They use the system's unpublished APIs to construct extremely complex polymorphic code and even study potential logical vulnerabilities in Kaspersky's own drivers to counteract them.

Their methods of embedding software into their suites have become more diverse and covert, evolving from simple software bundling to exploiting browser vulnerabilities for network hijacking, and even collaborating with some hardware manufacturers' driver installers.

Pang Dongzi's order to the new team was to significantly increase the detection cost of Kaspersky 360, so that Zhou Hongyi's group would be overwhelmed and exhausted from killing them.

In Yanjing, Zhou Hongyi was still brooding over Cheng Yi's rudeness. He was sulking when his deputy, holding the latest data report, cautiously reported, "Boss, something's not right with 2345."

"What is it now?" Zhou Hongyi said impatiently, "I already spared their lives, and they're still so ungrateful?"

"Yes, their variants are iterating much faster and their methods are much more sophisticated than before. Several of our previously effective rules have suddenly become ineffective. Moreover, they seem to have a very good understanding of our engine logic, and their new variants are highly targeted."

"How is this possible?" Zhou Hongyi snatched the report, quickly scanning the data and analysis, her face growing increasingly grim.

Although the active data at 2345 is still under their pressure, the downward curve has become significantly flatter, and even a slight rebound has occurred in some local periods.

What alarmed him even more was the rising proportion of user complaints about 2345 being difficult to completely remove and automatically resurfacing after cleanup.

“I understand now, it’s those guys we took down.” Zhou Hongyi recalled the intelligence he received a few days ago about 2345’s massive recruitment drive and immediately understood. He said in a deep voice, “That bastard Pang Dongzi thought that by recruiting the remnants of Rising and Jiangmin anti-software, he could contend with us. He’s really overthinking it.”

"Adjust the rules, increase the crackdown, I refuse to believe that a bunch of rabble can turn the world upside down." Zhou Hongyi slammed her hand on the table and shouted domineeringly.

In the field of security, they now have no rivals!
This time, however, the Kaspersky 360 engineering team clearly felt unprecedented pressure.

The new variants of 2345 are no longer simple code obfuscations; they are as slippery as eels and mutate as rapidly as viruses.

Often, as soon as a rule is updated, a new bypass method will appear.

Most importantly, there is too much malware.

These malicious software programs are different from Trojans and are not illegal at all; they are simply a disguised marketing and promotion mechanism.

It's nothing more than bundling it with another software application and installing a legitimate software application in the background.

The constant stream of 20 to 30 rogue micro-software programs a day was starting to overwhelm the tech team.

While Zhou Hongyi focused most of his attention on how to crush the evolved 2345, he overlooked another potential risk.

That is the subtle shift in public opinion.

On some tech forums and social media, dissenting voices have begun to emerge:
Does Kaspersky/360 have too much power? A look at the software that has been mistakenly penalized.

"The Collapse of Rising and Jiangmin: Concerns about Monopoly in the Security Market"

When gatekeepers start setting the rules, do users still have a choice?

Kaspersky keeps popping up windows; it's even more intrusive than malware!

……

These voices were initially small, but with the deliberate guidance of some people and the push from some netizens who were dissatisfied with Kaspersky 360's domineering behavior, they began to slowly ferment.

At this moment, Pang Dongzi stood in the crowded yet vibrant office area of ​​2345, looking at the traffic curve in the background that was beginning to rise, and grinned.

He made the right bet!

The boost to skill brought by going all in is real and tangible.

"Zhou Hongyi, you think you can become the leader of the martial arts alliance and clean house?" Pang Dongzi's eyes flashed with a ruthless glint as he said, "I won't let you have your way. You want to monopolize? I'll be the troublemaker and we'll see who wears out whom first!"

He turned to the expanded technical team and shouted, "Brothers, you've done a great job lately, but it's not enough. Keep pushing us harder, make the variants faster, penetrate deeper, and add more software. Everyone, work overtime during this period! Double your salary, double your bonuses, there's only one goal: to crush Kaspersky and 360!"

Just as Kaspersky, 360, and 2345 were locked in fierce competition, in a rented room, a frustrated young man was engrossed in editing a small program. The program was now in its final stage: adding a cool graphic to it.

He carefully sketched using the computer's built-in drawing board. He liked pandas, so he downloaded a chubby panda from the internet. He drew three small incense sticks for the panda to hold up, hoping to offer incense and find a stable and good job.

(End of this chapter)