Both the intention of merger and the intention of personal investment were achieved. Li Mu finally attracted an absolutely heavyweight partner for his big ecology.
Holding 25% of Baidu's shares was enough for Li Mu to tie Baidu to his side. The future structure of BTA had already been integrated into his big ecosystem.
What was gratifying was that in Li Mu's "BTA" integration strategy, there was also the addition of Taobao Logistics, which was comparable to Shunfeng, and would definitely surpass Shunfeng.
In Li Mu's previous life, BTA had been balancing each other for a long time. Now, BTA had fallen into Li Mu's hands. Not only was there no internal friction, but all the resources were connected to each other. In this case, BTA would grow faster and fiercer in the future.
After Robin left, Li Mu gathered the core team of Makino Technology and Taobao Technology. He opened a bottle of 3000ml champagne in his office and celebrated this huge achievement with everyone.
No one could understand why Li Mu paid so much attention to Baidu, which was valued at 120 million USD. With the current size of Makino Technology and Taobao Technology, 120 million USD was nothing at all.
After everyone raised their glasses to celebrate, Li Mu told them the reason why he was so happy.
"Search engines will have great development potential in the next five to ten years. This potential is not only in traffic, but more importantly, in accurate user analysis and accurate promotion."
Currently, Baidu had not figured out its own profit model. Most of the Internet companies did not realize the deeper profit potential of search engines, but Li Mu was very clear about this.
Li Mu explained to everyone, "Search engines will become an essential tool and entrance for netizens in the future. Due to their special product tonal characteristics, they can obtain the core information of users. It's meaningless for search engines to obtain this information by themselves. They have to connect with the people who can solve the users' demands in order to convert the users' demands into profits."
Li Mu paused and said, "Think about it carefully. 80% of the users who search for sports shoes on the search engine are potential users of sports shoes. The reason why they search for related information on the Internet is that they want to buy sports shoes but are hesitant about what kind of shoes to buy. At this time, the first three links on the search engine are likely to directly influence their buying behavior. If we put 'Li Ning' in the first three links, then we can associate the users who search for 'sports shoes' with Li Ning, thereby increasing Li Ning's popularity and sales. Is Li Ning willing to pay for this ranking? Of course, the answer is yes. Even if Li Ning is not willing, there are brands like Adidas, Nike, and Anta waiting to cooperate with us. This is the first level of combination between search engines and users' needs.
"Next, let's go deeper. Users still search for sports shoes and put links related to Li Ning in the first three links. However, the link does not jump to Li Ning's official website or other pages specified by Li Ning. Instead, it jumps to Li Ning's flagship store on Taobao, or Taobao's search results for 'Li Ning.' What will happen then?"
Lei Jianguo said, "Like the first one, Li Ning's sales and popularity will still increase. However, the difference is that the user traffic and volume will be transferred to Taobao. In this case, the search engine will profit, the companies related to the keywords will profit, and Taobao will also profit. It is a triple win."
Li Mu nodded. "That's right! This is the most important point. If we don't cooperate with Baidu, what kind of situation will Baidu enter in the future? With the continuous development of search engines and the continuous accumulation of users, they will definitely do this when the time comes. However, they may use the keywords of sports shoes to compete with all the sports shoe brands. They may also use the keywords of cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils, cooking utensils …
"However, if another e-commerce website emerges in the industry and reaches an agreement with Baidu, what will happen? Baidu might use the first mode of cooperation with this e-commerce website and use the second mode to operate in a triple win. In that case, a large number of users who search for specific product names may be hijacked by other e-commerce websites. This will be a huge threat to us.
"Let's use the best-selling electronic products on Taobao as an example and analyze the process of buying a mobile phone online. I think that if they don't have a model they like, they will first search for mobile phones on Baidu. Then, they will understand the price, appearance, and reputation of the current mobile phone brands. After that, they will decide which one to buy. If they have a model they like, they will directly search for this model and see the reputation of this model.
In other words, users will definitely go to search for information on search engines and not order directly on Taobao. In this way, we must have a sense of crisis and be wary of other competitors hijacking our potential users in the middle of this process. This hijacking is most likely to happen on search engines. Once users are hijacked by search engines and other e-commerce platforms, we will not only lose a single transaction, but we will also lose a loyal user who may stay online for a long time.
"Therefore, for our future development, Baidu must be completely controllable. If it is not controllable, we will support other controllable competitors and then defeat it. Now, Baidu has willingly joined our big ecosystem. Once the contract is fully executed, I will officially request from Robin. Baidu must provide all product keywords to Taobao. Not only must they place Taobao's links in the top three, they must also ensure that there are no competitors for the other two links in the top three! Think about it, product categories and specific names are all-inclusive, at least in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. Assuming that each keyword is searched five to ten times a day on average, how big is the total search volume? If Taobao locks down all the search volume, which e-commerce website can compete with us? "
Li Mu's words made everyone in the room understand.
So this was the reason why Li Mu wanted to control search engines!
Thinking about it carefully, Li Mu's words were very reasonable.
There were too many keywords related to products, it could be said to be a sea of them. With so many keywords, it corresponded to a huge number of search users and potential purchase demand. If Baidu started to capture this demand one day, it would definitely be able to reap huge profits.
Li Mu saw this market today. One year later, Baidu might capture this market. When that time comes, Baidu's market value would definitely skyrocket along with the profit margin. At that time, it would be very costly and difficult to invest in Baidu. Moreover, it would be very easy for competitors to use Baidu as a tool to counterattack Taobao.
But now, they could rest assured. Such a huge blue ocean of search engine traffic had been locked down by Li Mu in advance.
At this time, Li Mu said to Lei Jianguo and Liu Shixiong, "Currently, 25% of Baidu's shares is not enough. Before Baidu gets listed, there will definitely be shareholders in the founding team who want to cash out in advance. Think of a way to keep a close eye on this area. From today onwards, all Baidu shares that you can get, even if it's only one ten thousandth or even one hundred thousandth of the options, don't let go of it. Absorb the entire country."
The two of them nodded repeatedly. "Don't worry, we'll do our best."
Li Mu said, "This matter must be done separately. Find a few shell companies or agents. Keep a low profile and absorb the shares separately. In addition, look for powerful partners in the American capital market in advance. In the future, when Baidu goes IPO, you can use the capital to absorb Baidu's shares. In the future, the more shares you have, the better. Other than this 25%, spread out the rest and hide it well, in case of emergencies."
…
As the negotiation went better than expected, even after a small celebration, Li Mu still ended his work for the day more than an hour earlier than planned.
After calling his mother and telling her that he was going back early, Li Mu called Li Ziwei to his office and asked her, "Do you have any plans after work?"
Li Ziwei shook her head. "I don't have any plans. Right now, the epidemic is spreading everywhere. Every day after work, I rush home. I don't dare to go anywhere."
Li Mu nodded and said, "Put your work aside for now. Come with me in ten minutes. My mother said she wants to invite you to her house for a meal. She hasn't seen you for so many days, and she said she misses you."
Li Ziwei was surprised for a moment, and said a little embarrassedly, "Thank you for thinking about me, Auntie Xiao …"
At this point, Li Ziwei's heart began to feel particularly conflicted.
Li Ma liked her very much, and she was particularly grateful for it. However, she was Li Mu's employee and his assistant after all. If she was too close to Li Ma, she was worried that it would affect her boss's judgment of her. She was also worried that it would leave a bad impression on her boss. If her boss thought that she was deliberately close to Auntie Xiao in exchange for a better future, he would hold a grudge against her.
Li Ziwei didn't have much ambition. She just cherished the opportunity to grow and learn quickly by Li Mu's side, so sometimes she would worry in her heart that if she was too close to Li Mu's family, it would appear that her motives were impure.
However, Li Mu didn't think so much. For him, if he lost an assistant like Li Ziwei, he could train another one. However, there was only one girl that his mother wanted to take as her goddaughter in both lives.
Seeing that Li Ziwei was still standing there, Li Mu urged, "Don't just stand there. Go and pack your things. We're going to leave."
Li Ziwei had to nod and said, "Then I'll come to you in ten minutes."
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