Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 215 System Ecosystem Construction, Frenzied Acquisitions!
"Okay, boss." Tang Zhi replied. Acquiring such small projects was quite simple.

Wang Junshan is guaranteed to make a profit from this acquisition.

In its previous life, the copyright war of 2013.

BAT giants are all vying for 2 million users, and Tiantian Dongting holds exclusive copyrights to top singers like Jay Chou.

Ultimately, Alibaba invested more in the Series C round, valuing the company at $3 million.

The following year, it acquired Tiantian Dongting in its entirety, with a valuation of at least 20 billion RMB.

If Wang Junshan were to make a move now, 8000 million would be more than enough!
Rounding up, it's practically free.

Earned a net profit of 20 billion in four years!
The reason is that piracy is rampant, copyrights are worthless, music platforms are struggling to make a profit, and valuations are too low.

Furthermore, the financial crisis has further reduced its value.

By 2013, when the government introduced policies to crack down on music piracy and the 4G era fully arrived, online music listening became mainstream, and music platforms became invaluable.

As a result, a copyright war broke out among BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent)!
However, Wang Junshan has now made his move ahead of time, laying the groundwork in advance.

They won directly from the atmosphere!
"As for video apps, we can consider acquiring Youku, Tudou, or PPS and PPTV."

Gao Yang said, "However, I would suggest acquiring PPS or PPTV instead."

Chen Jing agreed wholeheartedly: "That's right. Youku Tudou is mainly a webpage. Although it also has a client, their client is very rudimentary and lacks technical sophistication. It's more of a shortcut to the webpage or an auxiliary tool for uploading and downloading."

"The PPS and PPTV clients are complete platforms with high technical content, especially the P2P technology, which is very valuable."

"If we successfully acquire one of them, we will not only gain hundreds of millions of users and become a top video platform, but also acquire all the technologies, especially P2P technology, which can be integrated into the future OS system, making our video ecosystem barrier instantly incredibly powerful!"

"At that time, Nokia's Symbian, Apple's iOS, and even Android will not be as good as our future OS!"

Wang Junshan strongly supported what the two said.

Although Youku sounds more famous than PPS, that's because PPS was acquired by iQiyi in its previous life.

iQiyi + PPS vs. Youku + Tudou!

Without a doubt, the former beat the latter to a pulp.

However, both iQiyi and Tencent Video only emerged after 2010.

It hasn't been born yet.

Moreover, even if iQiyi develops well in the future, it will still have to acquire PPS in order to grow bigger and stronger.

There's no way around it; if iQiyi hadn't acquired PPS, it wouldn't have been a match for Youku and Tudou combined.

To this end, they spent approximately 23 billion RMB to successfully defeat Youku Tudou and become the number one video platform.

Similarly, even if Future Technology develops its own Future Video, it will still need to acquire PPS, which has over 100 million users, in order to gain users and grow stronger.

If they don't acquire it, then they'll have to follow Tencent Video's example, starting from its launch in 2011, constantly chasing and investing heavily to catch up.

It wasn't until around 2020 that it successfully turned the tables, surpassing Youku + Tudou and iQiyi + PPS to become the number one platform.

A full nine years.

Even with Tencent's incredible resources, funding, and traffic from QQ and WeChat, it still took them nine years to become champions.

Even with future technology, things will still be difficult.

If that's the case, why not just acquire PPS, invest in copyrights, and become number one directly!

It has been the top video platform since 2009 and has maintained its lead ever since.

After all, acquiring PPS or PPTV right now wouldn't cost 23 billion, it might only cost 3 million!
Acquisitions during a financial crisis are nothing short of profiteering!

In 2013, Baidu acquired PPS for 23 billion yuan.

In 2009, Wang Junshan acquired PPS for 3 million yuan.

This deal is equivalent to making a profit of 20 billion over four years!
A 7-fold increase in value is definitely worth it.

“In this way, we’ll negotiate with both PPTV and PPS, and acquire whichever one is easier to advance,” Wang Junshan said.

Tang Zhi strongly agreed: "This is the most appropriate way. Right now, we are in the darkest moment of the economic crisis, and VCs are tightening their purse strings. Both PPTV and PPS are in a difficult situation."

"If we act now, we'll be the saviors, and we'll only save one!"

"Hahaha."

Everyone laughed.

During the darkest moments of the economic crisis, only Future Technology has so much money and is going on a buying spree!

And this feeling is absolutely amazing!
Chen Jing was filled with emotion and spoke again: "And email is also a big problem."

Jiang Fan said, "Email is easy to solve. We are currently acquiring Wanwang. Wanwang already has corporate email, servers, and a complete system. When the time comes, Wanwang will launch a free email service for personal users."

Previously, Chen Jing was busy developing the operating system and did not attend other high-level meetings.

Cui Qian nodded: "Wanwang's enterprise email has powerful functions, so we'll continue to offer it to enterprise users for a fee. The free email with basic functions can be offered directly to individuals as personal email accounts."

"The acquisition of Wanwang is going very smoothly so far, except for a slight difference in the final price. I'll negotiate a bit more, and it'll be settled soon."

“Very good.” Wang Junshan nodded.

Those two simple words made Cui Qian's eyes light up.

"If these are resolved, then eighty percent of the problem is solved. The remaining issues are weather and navigation," Chen Jing added.

Jiang Fan smiled: "I'm currently negotiating with Gaode for a full acquisition. The negotiations have encountered some problems and will take some more time. Once the acquisition is successful, navigation won't be a problem either."

Chen Jing was overjoyed: "That's great, now we basically only have the weather to worry about."

"Should we acquire a weather company? Or should we develop our own?"

Wang Junshan smiled faintly: "We won't acquire it; we'll develop it ourselves. Then we'll buy data from the National Meteorological Network through API access. There's no need to invest money in building our own weather stations."

"Yes, other weather companies also buy data from the National Meteorological Network. We don't need to go through the trouble of acquiring these companies. It's better to connect directly with the Meteorological Network."

"That's right, then that's safe."

Chen Jing breathed a sigh of relief.

System development is just the beginning; the key is to build the supporting ecosystem.

Fortunately, the Android and iOS ecosystems are currently in a complete mess.

With its strong strategic positioning, FutureOS is not only able to hold its own, but could even stage a complete comeback.

Once WeChat, Weibo, WeChat Farm, Angry Birds, and Vipshop are fully adapted to Future OS, Future OS will cover social networking, gaming, e-commerce, and payment!
The acquisition of Gaode Maps, Tiantian Dongting, PPS, Wanwang, and Lian Navigation, along with online music, online video, personal email, and corporate email, provides comprehensive coverage!
In the future, the OS system ecosystem will not only no longer be rudimentary, but will be exceptionally powerful!
What iOS and Android have, future operating systems will basically have as well.

What iOS and Android don't have, future operating systems will also have, and may even be exclusive to them.

It's entirely possible to overtake others by starting later and making a breakthrough!
With these application ecosystems in the future OS, even if other software doesn't actively adapt, it won't be a big problem.

Currently, future OSes are considered top-tier ecosystems, and future phones are sure to sell well!

Unfortunately, in 2009, smartphones were still in their infancy, and both Android and iOS were just starting out, with rudimentary functions. At that stage, consumers weren't picky.

Just like the upcoming Meizu M8, which uses a deeply customized version of Microsoft's Windows CE 6.0 system with very few applications.

It only has a handful of applications such as a browser, calculator, calendar, alarm clock, file manager, email, local music player, local video player, and Snake game.

There aren't even any social media apps, not even the official QQ app.

There's no online music, and no streaming video.

Navigation, farming games, and the like—not to mention, absolutely none of them!

Even so, the M8 still sold well, was still in short supply, and was still sued by Jobs!
There was no other way. In 2009, when smartphones were scarce, as long as you made a touchscreen smartphone like the M8, you would have few competitors and it would sell like hotcakes!

The future OS will integrate WeChat, Weibo, Vipshop, WeChat Farm, Angry Birds, Gaode Map, Wanwang Mail, Tiantian Dongting, PPS, etc.

Completely invincible.

Android, in its early stages, is no match for future operating systems.

Even iOS might not be a match for it in the country.

"You all need to do your jobs and liaise with Tiantian Dongting, PPS, PPTV, Wanwang, and Gaode to discuss acquisitions!"

Wang Junshan said, "At the same time, we will establish a copyright department and take advantage of the current financial crisis when copyrights are worthless to buy out the copyrights of high-quality music, TV series and movies in large quantities, and build an official music library and video library!"

"If you can buy out the permanent copyright in one go, then buy it out directly."

In 2009, piracy was rampant and copyright awareness was weak, so prices were already dirt cheap.

Furthermore, the financial crisis has made copyrights even less valuable.

Many companies are facing financial difficulties and bankruptcy, forcing them to sell their copyrights at rock-bottom prices.

It would be a waste of resources for Wang Junshan not to seize this opportunity to acquire a large number of copyrights and build the strongest music and video library.

"Yes!"

Everyone went their separate ways, each performing their assigned duties as instructed by Wang Junshan!

Chen Jing was in a good mood, completely free of worries, and devoted himself to perfecting the future OS system.

In the following days, Future Technology seemed to have become a nouveau riche, and began a frenzy of acquisitions.

Music companies, video companies, navigation companies... a buying spree.

Even if the price offered is not high, in the darkest moments of the financial crisis, when major companies are struggling to make ends meet, on the verge of bankruptcy and unable to raise funds, they are lifelines and saviors!
After all, other capital, let alone the price tag, simply doesn't invest or acquire!

Unfortunately, with the global financial crisis raging, other capital markets have seen their assets shrink and their market value halved, leaving them struggling to survive.

Whether they can survive the economic crisis is a question, let alone have the energy to invest.

This financial crisis has caused many top investment banks to go bankrupt, not to mention other investment banks and capital.

Including Alibaba's acquisition of Wanwang in its previous life, it was all done in the fourth quarter, after the domestic economy had already bottomed out and rebounded, and the situation had improved. Alibaba only made the acquisition then, and it was done through installment payments.

Alibaba Cloud Computing was also invested in by Alibaba in the fourth quarter of this year, when the domestic economic situation improved.

But that's all for the second half of the year.

In reality, the domestic economic situation only began to bottom out in March and April, and did not rebound significantly.

The reason is simple: everyone is worried that this is a false bottoming out, a deliberate attempt by capital to unwind positions and drive up prices, so everyone is waiting and seeing.

After a few months of observation, it was confirmed that the domestic economy had indeed recovered, and a full rebound only began in the second half of the year, especially in the fourth quarter.

February was still the darkest moment of the financial crisis!
During this period, none of the BAT companies dared to make large-scale investments.

Future Tech is rich and powerful, so it's been on a buying spree.

Why would companies already on the verge of bankruptcy refuse this lifeline?
Of course, I readily agreed!

Moreover, after being acquired by Future Technology, it can not only be revitalized but also develop even better.

With the support of future technologies, employees at all levels—from senior management to middle management and frontline staff—will have better career development and compensation.

Therefore, various companies are very enthusiastic and proactive in acquiring Future Technology.

Interestingly, some of the people in charge of negotiations at these companies turned out to be treacherous.

They completely disregarded the company's interests and only wanted to expedite the transaction.

This is the case with Wanwang, for example.

Cui Qian negotiated with Wanwang again, and the results were excellent. She immediately called Wang Junshan to report:

"Boss, Wanwang is almost successful. But it seems they've run into some internal problems!"

"Oh? What's going on?"

Wang Junshan became interested.

"Regarding this acquisition, Chairman Zhang insisted on 5 million yuan, refusing to agree to anything less. However, President Li, who was in charge of the negotiations, directly pushed the price down to 4.5 million yuan. Chairman Zhang was so angry that his face turned green."

"Hahaha, isn't that hilarious? They didn't even communicate properly with each other internally."

Wang Junshan laughed: "We have different stances."

Cui Qian immediately understood: "That's right! Chairman Zhang, as the founder, has the highest number of shares, yet he wants a high price."

"Although President Li is only the president and a top technical expert, he has very few shares and his influence is not significant. Instead, he is more concerned about his own development."

"Whether it's four hundred million or five hundred million, it won't cause President Li much loss. As long as Wanwang is acquired by Future Technology, it can develop better, and as a top-notch tech expert, he can also have better career prospects. He couldn't be happier to be acquired!"

Wang Junshan laughed and said, "That's right. Right now, apart from Chairman Zhang and other major shareholders who are still resisting the price of 400 million RMB, the other senior and middle management and employees all think that 400 million is appropriate. If you work on this angle, the deal will be done."

“Okay, should I contact Discuz again to put some pressure on Wanwang?” Cui Qian asked.

Wang Junshan thought for a moment and said, "It's not very meaningful. Discuz and Wanwang are not even in the same league."

"Discuz is just a community forum software provider. Although it monopolizes 70% of the community forum market, it mainly serves small and medium-sized forums and the lower-tier market. It doesn't have servers; it's just an open-source forum development tool and entry point."

"Wanwang, on the other hand, is an internet infrastructure service provider. It offers domain registration, virtual hosting, corporate email, cloud servers (VPS), and so on."

"Discuz can only be used to build small and medium-sized forums, while Wanwang has a quick website builder that serves all personal and corporate websites, whether they are B2B or B2C. It is a basic resource necessary for the operation of websites and online services."

"Even the forums that Discuz has established, more than 90% of them use Wanwang's domain name service, domestic virtual hosting, and registration."

Cui Qian nodded: "That's true. Using Discuz to block Wanwang is indeed a bit like a grandson blocking his grandfather, it's not very realistic."

Wang Junshan then changed the subject: "Discuz can't block Wanwang, but cloud computing can."

"Tell Chairman Zhang directly that cloud computing is the future!"

"Wanwang's current advantages and value will vanish in the era of cloud computing."

(End of this chapter)