The founder of Qidian did not expect that he would get the chance to ask Li Mu questions at Li Mu's press conference. Not only did he get to promote his brand, but he also got Li Mu's promise of investment. More importantly, Li Mu publicly expressed his optimistic views on online novels, which would definitely lead to the explosive development of online novels.
At that moment, he was extremely excited, and the haze that had been accumulating in his heart was swept away.
The reason why he was feeling gloomy was because the founding team of Qidian was not having an easy time.
They were the pioneers of a new industry, and the initial stage of this industry was a partnership with the authors. This meant that Qidian's business model was the "consignment system" that all sellers in the commercial field were envious of.
The so-called consignment system was where the producer of the product would send the product to the seller. The seller did not need to pay in advance, but would sell the product first, and then pay the producer regularly.
This way, there was no "purchase cost".
Just like Wal-Mart, when a huge store opened, goods that cost tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan were put on the shelves, and Wal-Mart did not spend a single cent. This greatly reduced the operating costs of the company.
Qidian was now the "Wal-Mart" in the field of online literature. All the authors uploaded their works to the website, and then signed a "consignment system" agreement with the website. However, the consignment system was not the actual goods, but the digital content created by the authors. Qidian would put the content on the shelves for sale, and after creating profits, it would split the profits with the authors on a monthly basis.
Under this model, it was easy for Qidian to make money.
However, even though Qidian's data had always been very optimistic, and the pay-to-read model had a certain foundation, and the overall operation of the company had a positive cash flow, Qidian still lacked a real driving force. A strong driving force that could allow it to seize the opportunity to take off quickly.
It was not difficult to run a company that could make money. One only needed to spend ten yuan to buy a leather bag, twenty yuan to print some dog skin plaster advertisements and put them up everywhere. After that, one could make money by going to people's toilets. The total cost would be less than thirty yuan. After clearing three or six toilets, the company would be able to earn back the money. After clearing the toilets, it would be a net profit.
However, it was too difficult to run a company with broad prospects and strong explosive power.
It was just like a self-employed restaurant owner. It was not difficult to open a small restaurant and have a monthly surplus. However, 99% of people did not have the ability to turn an industry that earned 3,000 yuan a month into a monthly income of three million yuan. After all, there were very few giant food and beverage enterprises like Haidilao.
Qidian's team was also not satisfied with their company's monthly cash flow. They hoped to seize this opportunity to make online literature bigger and stronger. However, with their current slow development speed and profitability, they would need a long time to accumulate strength before they could attempt a breakthrough.
Therefore, in order to seek this breakthrough, the Qidian team had been looking for suitable financing and acquisition opportunities, sacrificing shares in exchange for energy.
Li Mu was indeed very optimistic about the future potential of the novel industry. But the reason why he hadn't done it was that the industry still needed a long time to incubate. At least for now, it was just a mosquito's thigh to his own industry. It was not even of little value. He had so many profitable businesses and so many concepts that the world was optimistic about. There was absolutely no need for him to create a web literature industry that no one understood.
If he had not met the founder of Qidian today, Li Mu might have waited for Shanda or another company to establish a good foundation in the industry before he bought the company with the highest potential. Shanda had been operating for so many years, and its final asking price was only a few hundred million USD.
However, since he had coincidentally met the founder today, and he had coincidentally chosen the founder from thousands of companies, Li Mu felt that it was the right time to plan ahead.
In Li Mu's memory, Qidian had been acquired by Shanda in his previous life in 2004, and the purchase price was only two million USD. According to the exchange rate at that time, it was about 17 million USD. From this memory, he could make two conclusions:
First, Qidian's business model had difficulty raising funds in 2003-2004. The story they told and the concept they created were not recognized by the capital at that time. Otherwise, Qidian would have gone through at least one round of financing, gradually releasing shares, and gradually absorbing capital. They would not have sold it to Shanda in one go.
Second, Qidian's founding team did not have high expectations for this project. Otherwise, they would not have agreed to sell it for only two million USD.
With these two judgments, Li Mu could basically determine the appetite of the Qidian team during this period of time.
…
After that, Li Mu chose the second person to ask the question. This time, he chose a western-looking reporter.
The reporter stood up and nodded to Li Mu. He said politely, "Hello, Li Zong. I'm a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. When Google announced its acquisition of Muye & Baidu, many western media, internet, and economic experts expressed their concern. That is, after Google's acquisition of Google's shares, Makino Technology will have a negative attitude towards future cooperation. I would like to ask you a question. After today, how will Makino Technology cooperate with Google? Or should I say, what kind of priority will Google have? "
After hearing this question, the corners of Li Mu's mouth rose a little, and he answered in fluent English, "Your question gives me the feeling that it's like the question the bride's relatives or friends ask the groom before a wedding. For example, 'She is going to marry you today, will you treat her well in the future?' How will you treat her well? Will you tolerate her at all times … "
When Li Mu said this, the audience burst into laughter. The reporter who asked the question also laughed. He hadn't thought about this before, but after hearing what Li Mu said, he felt that there was no difference.
At this time, Li Mu's expression gradually became serious. He said, "In fact, whether it is cooperation or marriage, it shouldn't be the responsibility or obligation of one party. Whether two people can last long after marriage doesn't depend on whether the man treats the woman well or not, but whether the woman treats the man well. It depends on whether the two people can work together and maintain a close relationship. The cooperation between Makino Technology and Google is the same. For us, we will definitely do everything we can. For example, we will guide Google's search traffic in all aspects of our products, bring more users to Google, and realize Google's request to us. At the same time, Google must also cooperate with Makino Technology's strategy to realize Makino Technology's request to Google. Only in this way can we maintain a close cooperation relationship for a long time."
The reporter who asked the question nodded his head very seriously and said, "Thank you, Li Zong."
Li Mu smiled slightly. "Regarding the question you just asked, I have something to add."
The reporter quickly said, "Li Zong, please go ahead."
Li Mu said, "There's a nickname in Hua Xia called 'gossipy woman.' The original meaning is to describe those women who especially like to gossip about others behind their backs. Of course, I don't have any gender discrimination here. This is just an old saying that has been passed down for many years in Hua Xia. Now, who is the typical portrayal of a 'gossipy woman'?"
Speaking up to this point, Li Mu paused and smiled. "It's the media and experts that you mentioned just now who speculated that we will have a negative attitude towards Google! This kind of irresponsible empty talk is like a girl who is about to get married, and a bunch of gossipy women insist on telling her: Your fiancé actually doesn't love you at all. Actually, he is marrying you for your money, not your person. Actually, he already has other women outside, and even if he marries you, he won't treat you well … "
"To be honest, these kinds of people are quite wicked in the eyes of us Hua Xia people."
The audience once again burst into laughter. In fact, every enterprise of a certain scale had encountered the empty talk of the media and so-called experts. Today, they said that you are not good, and tomorrow, they will say that you are not good. Therefore, no one had a good impression of such people who dared to say anything. Li Mu's words just happened to say what everyone had always wanted to say, but had never had the chance to announce it.
After the applause, Li Mu chose another entrepreneur representative. After the other party stood up, he could not wait to ask Li Mu, "Li Zong, just now you have been emphasizing the Internet 2.0 era, and you have been emphasizing that Makino Technology should be the first to enter the 2.0 era and transform into an open platform. Then, I would like to ask, what is the core difference between the 1.0 era and the 2.0 era?"
Li Mu smiled and replied, "The core difference between the 2.0 era and the 1.0 era is actually the difference between large farmers and landlords. Large farmers plant their own land no matter how much land they have. If they can't plant it themselves, they hire more workers to help them. They are responsible for what to plant, how to plant it, and how to deal with the harvest after planting. The workers are only responsible for putting in effort and receiving wages. On the other hand, landlords, no matter how much land they have, plant a part of it or not plant it at all, and contract the rest to others to plant. They don't care what to plant, how to plant it, or what to do with it after planting it. They only collect rent based on the area, or receive a share based on the harvest."
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