How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 278 The enemy is strong and we are weak; the enemy is small and we are large.

Since ancient times, beauties and famous generals have not been allowed to grow old in this world.

The reason why Yahoo, a company that once ushered in the Internet era, has declined so drastically is mainly because the early founding team insisted on the greedy mindset of a portal website that wanted to be "big and comprehensive". They wanted everything, so they did nothing well and ignored users' needs for vertical and precise services.

At the same time, due to greed, they missed the opportunity to acquire Google, Facebook, and YouTube. By the time they realized it, the times had already changed.

At this moment, Ya Hu is like a rotten and dilapidated giant ship, which could be capsized by any storm. Moreover, even without storms, its course has already deviated into the endless fog.

When founder Yang Zhiyuan took over two years ago, he already knew that he couldn't get Yahu back on track with his own abilities. The main reason was that his shareholding had already been reduced to less than 10%, so there was no need to put in any more effort.

But to save face, they invited the legendary CEO, Carroll, to take the blame for the last bit of trouble.

Carol received the highest CEO salary in the world because she didn't take office to lead Yahoo back to its former glory, but rather to use various ruthless methods to clean up the company's corrupt internal problems.

Carroll is quite shrewd in this regard. After taking office, he used a militaristic management style to break through the bureaucratic structure that had already formed within Yahoo!, and used subtle methods to torture employees, effectively laying off thousands of people.

Then, it outsourced its core search business directly to Microsoft. After cutting a lot of R&D costs, it resorted to short-sighted measures to forcefully increase revenue and profits. Although it stabilized the stock price, it directly gave up competing with Google in the search business.

The only things she promoted were Yahoo's mobile business and increased the sales department's budget, but that was only to ride the wave of popularity and create positive news to stabilize the stock price.

She was well aware that Yahoo was beyond saving, a slow death, because the decentralized power within Yahoo's board of directors made decision-making on any major strategies very slow. Beset by internal and external troubles, even the most skilled cook cannot cook without rice.

Until recently, during the Alibaba incident, Carroll received a whistleblower email unexpectedly, which ultimately saved the group from a significant loss and potential risk, and he finally gained greater decision-making power from the board of directors.

Otherwise, even if Deng Wendi and Wang Yao coaxed her into becoming an embryo, it would be difficult to quickly convince Ya Hu to invest in Ms and return to the Asian market.

However, Carol was really interested in the portal search + social media + e-commerce model, so she specifically called Yang Zhiyuan along this time, hoping that the two of them would work together to promote Yahu's transformation.

However, Ms's valuation of $20 billion was indeed too high, so she was very much looking forward to seeing how Wang Yao could persuade them.

Yang Zhiyuan and Carol originally thought Wang Yao would approach the topic from the perspective of the future value of social media + e-commerce advertising on MS, but when Wang Yao opened the PPT, the two of them were stunned at the same time.

The PPT was rather rudimentary and not very elaborate, and the content was also very simple, mainly listing the decisions made by former Yahoo CEO Trisemer in office after 2000.

When Yang Zhiyuan saw Terry's photo, his brows furrowed instinctively, because he had previously clashed with this CEO from the Hua Na Media industry.

"Cooperation is a two-way street. While Yahoo was studying Ms's value, Ms was also studying Yahoo's value. After analyzing the various reasons for Yahoo's decline after the millennium, I finally concluded that it was due to the CEO's incompetence and the wrong positioning of the company, which led to Yahoo's transformation from a legendary company into what it is today," Wang Yao commented.

Yang Zhiyuan raised an eyebrow slightly upon hearing this, a smile playing at the corners of his eyes: "You can't say that. Terry is still a responsible CEO, just with limited abilities."

"This idiot turned Toothworm from a tech company into a media company; it's a matter of intelligence," Carol scoffed without hesitation.

“This is no longer a matter of intelligence. I can understand missing out on acquiring Google, since he doesn’t understand technology. But missing out on Facebook and YouTube is a bit surprising. These are new trends in the media industry. I don’t know if he’s too old to understand them or if he’s deliberately going against Yahoo.” Wang Yao shook his head, his tone mocking.

The key to quickly breaking the ice in negotiations is to find a point of contention and complain together with the client, thereby aligning both sides' positions and emotions.

The essence of negotiation is talking to people, and people have emotions.

Wang Yao started by targeting the former CEO and shifted all the blame for YaHu's decline onto him, saying what Yang Zhiyuan wanted to say and giving Carol a point to criticize.

Furthermore, the sensitive word 'old age' was used to draw their attention and make them realize that Terry missed out on future trends because of his age, and if they also chose to miss out on Ms, they would be 'old people' like Terry.

"The returns from investing in Alibaba are indeed far less than those from investing in Google," Yang Zhiyuan sighed, his face full of regret.

If Yahoo had integrated Google back then, it would undoubtedly be the greatest internet company in the world, and unshakeable, instead of being driven to the brink of collapse by Google as it is today.

"So what I want to ask is, what kind of company is Yahu?" Wang Yao looked at the two of them intently, his eyes sharp.

Yang Zhiyuan was somewhat surprised. He hadn't seen such a sharp, even somewhat offensive gaze in many years, especially from a young man, and he felt inexplicably excited.

"Natural Internet Technology Company, YaHu is only temporarily lying low, looking for the next opportunity to take off," Yang Zhiyuan said with a light laugh.

“Although Yahoo has abandoned its investment in the PC market, it has begun to invest in mobile business,” Carroll nodded.

"To be frank, Yahu's technology is already quite far behind Google's," Wang Yao said seriously.

"So, are we investing in Ms, or is Ms investing in Tooth Tiger?" Carol frowned. She didn't like being pressured into negotiations and retorted directly.

"Mr. Wang just said that investment is a two-way street. It seems that Mr. Wang has high hopes for YaHu, and even Ms's development is preparing to rely on the YaHu system?" Yang Zhiyuan subtly expressed the positioning of both parties.

"Mr. Yang is right. Although Ms has the support of a media group, it is still a newcomer in the internet business, while the Facebook/Twitter system is already nearing maturity. With the development of social media, more vertical platforms will emerge to compete for traffic."

Ms. has only secured a spot at the table, but to win, she needs a strong partner. She chose Ya Hu because she values ​​Ya Hu's connection to China and his respect for Ms. Carol. Wang Yao flattered the two men with neither servility nor arrogance.

Carroll's expression softened considerably upon hearing this, and she stared thoughtfully at the PowerPoint presentation.

Yang Zhiyuan stroked his chin: "So, Mr. Wang has placed the key to Ms.'s success in China?"

Ms's biggest advantage is its relatively mature and advanced e-commerce business growth, which will continue to expand along with the development of the e-commerce industry, and may even surpass the traditional advertising business in the future.

This is also why Yang Zhiyuan values ​​the Ms model. After all, to be honest, Yahu doesn't have much spare money, and it's impossible for them to go bankrupt to fund its competition with Facebook in the traditional advertising business.

Facebook's market value is now higher than Yahoo's, and its future potential is even greater. It simply cannot compete head-on with Yahoo. E-commerce is the only opportunity, and that opportunity lies with Alibaba and Yahoo.

"When the enemy is strong, we are weak; when the enemy is small, we are large; when the enemy regresses, we progress; when the enemy has few allies, we have many." Wang Yao smiled.

"On a protracted war?" Yang Zhiyuan raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Facebook has reached a bottleneck in the field of social networking among acquaintances, and it is difficult to shake it. But even the largest has its weaknesses. Just like Yahoo, the world's largest portal back then, Mr. Yang should have heard the saying that a country perishes because of its weakness, while a nation perishes because of its strength. Yahoo's decline proves that strength can also be weakness," Wang Yao said in a deep voice.

"Will Facebook's development hit a bottleneck?" Yang Zhiyuan seemed to be thinking. In his view, Facebook still has a global user base of at least 30 billion, and is far from reaching its bottleneck.

"The development of mobile terminal hardware will become a bottleneck restricting all internet companies until the penetration rate of mobile devices reaches a new height." Wang Yao nodded and presented another set of data:
"This is KT's instant messaging data. Users spend an average of more than 6 hours a day on the marketplace, while PC-based social media communication is less than 2 hours."

“I know this software, it’s very good.” Yang Zhiyuan’s eyes lit up.

“Mr. Wang also believes that mobile business is the real market, right?” Carol smiled, and Wang Yao’s judgment indirectly confirmed her idea. “Currently, internet advertising accounts for less than 10% of the entire industry, but it will inevitably reach more than 50% in the future because the exposure frequency of mobile hardware is far higher than all traditional exposure channels. Elevator ads, billboards, and TV ads will gradually be phased out,” Wang Yao continued.

“Steve Jobs did make that prediction last year, and everyone thought it was an exaggeration of the role of smartphones,” Yang Zhiyuan said with a smile.

"Apple's performance this year will prove everything," Wang Yao said with a slight smile.

"The current smart operating system market is very chaotic. It may take at least several years for iOS, Android, and WS to determine a winner. Samsung has joined the Google Android camp, and Nokia has joined the Microsoft WS camp."

"For us software developers, it would require at least three times the development cost. If we were to bet on a single system ecosystem and it failed, all our initial investment would be wasted. Your assumption is certainly correct, but it's a long-term solution that won't solve our immediate problem." Yang Zhiyuan, being a tech expert, directly exposed the emptiness in Wang Yao's pie plan.

He certainly knew that the future belonged to mobile devices, and had even proposed to venture into the mobile terminal field, but he was just laid off by Carroll.

Everyone can see the big picture, but who can be sure whose ecosystem they will ultimately align with?

Software development often requires tens of millions of dollars in investment each year, and it's normal for third-party bettors to burn through hundreds of millions annually. However, with the current annual increase of tens of millions of dollars in hardware equipment and advertising returns, it's definitely not going to break even.

Yahoo's current mobile business involves developing software for each platform, betting on each separately, and even focusing most of its efforts on the Symbian ecosystem, rather than fully shifting to the smartphone system ecosystem.

Ya Hu himself is struggling to make ends meet, so where would he find the spare money to invest in the future?

However, this shotgun-style betting strategy has temporarily brought Yahoo's mobile monthly active users to over 3000 million, making it appear to be thriving on paper.

"That's why I asked you two, what kind of company is Yahu?" Wang Yao repeated the question with a smirk.

Yang Zhiyuan and Carol frowned simultaneously, finally understanding what Wang Yao was asking.

If Yahoo is truly an internet technology company and knows that mobile is the future trend, why would it waver between betting on which camp?

"Which camp did Ms choose?" Yang Zhiyuan asked in a deep voice.

"Who Ms. chooses depends on Ya Hu's choice. If Ya Hu remains indecisive, Ms. might choose Gu Ge." Wang Yao shook his head.

“We also received an investment offer from Google the day before yesterday. They sold all their Facebook shares last year and felt they made a mistake,” Deng Wendi added.

“This is different from what we discussed before. If you had chosen Google, Ya Hu wouldn’t have agreed to invest in Sogou in the first place.” Carol said with some dissatisfaction.

Even knowing that this was likely a tactic to inflate the valuation, she was still somewhat annoyed.

"That's why I'm here today to talk to you two," Wang Yao said with a smile.

The difficulty for mobile businesses lies in ecosystem selection. Once an investment is made in Ms, as a public domain traffic portal, if YaHu wants to empower the entire YaHu system as planned, YaHu must adapt to the same ecosystem. Otherwise, the significance of investing in Ms will be greatly reduced, turning into a pure investment behavior like the investment in Alibaba back then.

"Yahoo is currently in a strategic partnership with Microsoft, but is a rival to Google," Yang Zhiyuan sighed.

"Ms, KT, and MLS have formed a third-party login ecosystem in Korea that allows users to log in to multiple accounts with a single account. We call this the 'KT+' model. KT, as an instant social networking service, has a stable and continuous daily active user base, which then indirectly drives traffic to other apps."

Ultimately, an internal ecosystem was formed, and in less than three months, a core user base of millions was accumulated. These users will almost never use other similar software in the future.

"If Yahoo joins, it can become 'Yahoo+' in the future. As more applications are connected, the number of users will also increase. Ultimately, the development of the mobile market is about the choice of ecosystem." Wang Yao said in a deep voice.

"Microsoft's WS system currently has a low market share, estimated at around 5%, while iOS has over 15%. However, with its high-end hardware pricing strategy, its future market share will likely be limited. Android's open-source nature combined with its mid-to-low-end hardware market gives it a real advantage," Yang Zhiyuan sighed.

"RIM? It's selling pretty well," Carol said, frowning.

RIM, formerly known as BlackBerry, once held more than 45% of the market share in North America.

"It seems unlikely that RIM will stick with physical keyboards," Yang Zhiyuan shook his head.

After stepping down as CEO, he had long since achieved financial freedom and transformed into an investor and philanthropist. As a cutting-edge business, mobile terminals are naturally his area of ​​greatest interest.

“If Yahoo’s products were to be made available on multiple platforms, it would require an investment of at least $2 million per year, which is equivalent to working for nothing for a quarter of the year,” Carroll frowned.

“Actually, we could focus on a few products, such as a browser and email, both of which can complement the MS business,” Yang Zhiyuan pondered.

“But no matter which ecosystem you bet on, you’ll be at the mercy of others. Our advertising business on iOS is severely limited because we haven’t integrated with iAd. If we did integrate with Apple, they would charge a 30% handling fee,” Carroll said, frowning.

Wang Yao and Deng Wendi watched quietly as the two discussed the issues surrounding the YaHu mobile app, without making a sound to interrupt.

“Actually, if we cooperate with Microsoft, we should be able to get preferential treatment in terms of hardware integration,” Carroll suddenly remembered.

"But there aren't that many phone manufacturers in the Microsoft camp, so in the end, Android will probably still take over the mid-to-low-end market." Yang Zhiyuan shook his head.

"Thinking about it this way, if Yahoo is to go mobile, it still can't avoid Android?" Carol narrowed her eyes.

Wouldn't that mean working for the opponent? It's like they ignored us before, but now they can't afford to associate with us anymore.

Yang Zhiyuan fell silent, suddenly realizing that the path of making Ya Hu mobile was a bit dark.

"Actually, the battle for mobile operating systems has just begun. Microsoft has already partnered with quite a few mobile phone manufacturers, and the market share difference is not too large at the moment, only around 10%, so there is still a chance."
"I heard that Microsoft just released the WP7 system, a powerful alliance with Nokia, along with manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, Dell, and Acer. They might have a chance," Wang Yao suddenly said.

"So, who will Ms. choose?" Yang Zhiyuan brought the topic back.

“The ‘KT+’ ecosystem is currently dominated by iOS, Android, and WSP7, but if it wants to become ‘YaHu+’, we need to see if the ecosystem can match it,” Wang Yao said seriously.

"A small boat is easier to turn around." Yang Zhiyuan nodded.

Unexpectedly, the issue now is no longer whether Ms's valuation is high or low, but whether Yahoo is 'worthy' of Ms.

This was arguably the most unique of Yang Zhiyuan's countless investment meetings.

Party B silenced Party A.

(End of this chapter)