Before Li Mu's private plane landed in Boston, the news that Makino Technology and Ford had reached an agreement to acquire Makino had already attracted the attention of the entire Western media.
Although Makino Technology had a wide range of businesses, from social media to web portals, to online music, online games, hardware development, data services, etc., these were worlds apart from the automotive industry.
The degree of surprise that such an Internet company suddenly wanted to enter the automotive industry was like NASA's sudden decision to enter the real estate industry, because these were two completely unrelated industries.
Moreover, what was even more incomprehensible to the public was that Li Mu bought three brands from Ford in one go. This was a shocking move.
The people who were most surprised were the people in the automotive industry, especially the senior executives of Japanese and German car brands.
At this stage, no matter which industry Li Mu entered, it was enough to make the people in the industry nervous. He suddenly entered the automotive industry with such a big move, giving the industry the feeling that they were about to face an invasion.
What Li Mu was good at was breaking down and building up. He entered an industry, first destroyed the industry, and then rebuilt his home from the ruins.
Just like the MP3 player, once mango-me entered the industry, the entire industry was greatly affected. The products that were better than it were not as cheap as it was, and the products that were cheaper were not as good as it was. The price-performance ratio of the products at the same price was much lower than mango-me.
This way, whether it was the products that were stronger than mango-me, or the products that were as strong as mango-me, they would all be greatly affected.
Li Mu suddenly entered the automotive industry, and no one knew if he would use mango-me to enter the automotive industry.
Among them, the only one who was calm was Daimler.
Daimler had long known about Li Mu's intention to acquire these three brands through Davidson of the Goldberg family. They also learned from Davidson that Li Mu's motive for buying these three brands was sentiment.
Knowing that it was sentiment, Daimler and its most important brand, Mercedes Benz, were not too worried.
However, the other brands were more or less worried.
Although BMW felt that the three brands acquired by Li Mu could not be better than BMW even if they were well managed, they were also afraid that Li Mu would use the price-performance ratio. If Li Mu only bought those disgusting models like the Mango-Me, it would be a real headache for them.
The public was also a little worried that Li Mu would take the price-performance route. Once Li Mu took the route of "my things may not be as good as yours, but they will definitely be much cheaper than yours", it would really be a headache.
Cars were like this. If the price of a Jaguar mid-size sedan was similar to that of a BMW, Audi, or Benz mid-size sedan, the German troika would not care about it at all.
Of course, they weren't afraid of Jaguar lowering the price. No matter how much they lowered the price, there had to be a cost. If they lowered it too little, it wouldn't be enough to widen the gap between them and the Big Three. If they lowered it too much, they wouldn't even be able to survive, let alone threaten the Big Three.
But once Li Mu got involved, it would be a different story.
Just like those people in the MP3 industry in the past. They felt that no matter how much Li Mu lowered the price, it would be impossible for him to lower the cost. In the end, Li Mu had a way to lower his cost than them.
For example, Feng Yu had set up a shopping website and a logistics company. He could get rid of all the middlemen, channels, and logistics costs, and sell his MP3 directly to the users. Who could beat him?
Fortunately, the automobile industry was completely different from the MP3 player. The MP3 player was an ultra-lightweight product, while the automobile was a heavyweight product. Moreover, it was probably the most heavyweight industrial product in the civil class. For most families that owned cars, the most valuable thing was the house, followed by the car. The complexity behind such a heavy product was also increased exponentially. Li Mu could sell his MP3 player online, but could he sell his car online? Impossible … …
Among all these, the Japanese automobile companies were the most worried.
Japan had a large population and small land, and the competition was fierce. That's why Japanese entrepreneurs pay more attention to the details.
When the top management of Honda, Toyota, and Nissan knew that Li Mu was going into the automobile industry, they panicked.
Especially Toyota. They had the biggest influence, and they felt the most threatened.
Regardless of the time difference, the senior management of Toyota in North America called the senior management of the Japanese headquarters to have a video conference in the early morning. Almost without any time difference, they told the domestic senior management the news that Li Mu had acquired the three brands of Ford.
Almost all the senior management personnel in Japan were startled.
Toyota was different from Ford. Ford's management style was bold and unrestrained, so it was its responsibility for success and failure. Toyota, on the other hand, was steady and sure, just like what Li Mu had planned for himself, one step at a time.
Looking back at Toyota for so many years, at any time, at any stage, there will always be popular models. Toyota's strategy is to accumulate popular models, create a popular model, and then maintain the popularity of this popular model while developing new popular models. This way, there will be more popular models.
That's why Toyota had many competitive models at any time. In other words, most of the models produced by this company were very competitive.
Ford's way of doing things was not as steady as Toyota's way of doing things one step at a time. Their way of doing things was to throw away their previous achievements.
For example, Mondeo and Focus. These two models used to be extremely popular all over the world, but they died out later. Look at Toyota's Corolla and Camry. Their sales had never fallen for many years.
The Winged Tiger was also popular for a while, but it died out later. But look at the RAV4. Its monthly sales exceeded the Winged Tiger's annual sales.
Toyota had always been steady, and that's why they were scared by Li Mu's sudden attack.
Although Shoichiro Toyoda had white hair, he was still very hardworking. At five o 'clock in the morning in Japan, he was sitting in his study, facing the computer and seven or eight senior executives of Toyota who were in a video call. He said worriedly, "We must be vigilant of Li Mu's next move. We must find out Li Mu's plans in the automobile industry at all costs. We must always be prepared to deal with Li Mu's sudden attack!"
The North America CEO nodded and said seriously, "Chairman, don't worry. I will do everything I can to keep track of Li Mu's every move in the automobile industry!"
Shoichiro Toyoda sighed. "I thought Li Mu's next target would be the electronics industry. Last month, I had reminded the Chairman of Sony and Panasonic to be wary of Li Mu's moves. I didn't expect Li Mu to suddenly acquire these three brands of Ford. This guy is coming at us fiercely!"
Akinami Toyoda, who had already separated from Shoichiro Toyoda and was now a senior executive in Toyota, said, "Father, Li Mu is indeed very strong, but you don't have to worry too much. If Li Mu really has a strong destructive power in the automotive industry, he will have to overcome many obstacles before he can stand in front of us.
Shoichiro Toyoda was right. Toyota was the world's strongest automobile brand with the highest profit margin. If there was a natural disaster in the automobile industry, the weaker companies would be the first to collapse.
But Shoichiro Toyoda was worried. He said seriously, "Hua Xia is one of our biggest markets, and it's too close to Japan. I'm worried that Li Mu will withdraw these three brands from Hua Xia and occupy the Hua Xia market first. After that, he will use Hua Xia as his base and expand to the surrounding countries. At that time, we will be the first to bear the brunt."
Shoichiro Toyoda said, "Father, it's very possible that Li Mu will occupy the Hua Xia market, but I don't think he will enter the Japanese market. For so many years, other than a few luxury brands that have entered the Japanese market, no foreign brands have been able to threaten us in the domestic market."
Shoichiro Toyoda shook his head and said, "Li Mu is young and disruptive. No one knows if he can turn the automotive industry upside down. Furthermore, he is the spiritual leader of the young people all over the world and is worshipped by them. If he really produces a car, he doesn't even need to take the initiative to sell it to Japan. There will be young people in Japan fighting to buy it. You should be very clear about the demand and obsession of our young people for idols."
Shoichiro Toyoda fell silent.
That's right. The demand and obsession of Japanese young people for idols was the highest in the world.
It had even reached the point where there were no idols and virtual idols. Once an idol successfully captured Japanese fans, no matter what he or she tried to sell to the Japanese fans, there would be a huge market for it.
It was common in Japan for fans who were reluctant to spend a single cent, but were willing to spend all their money to buy all the accessories of their idols. Their idols supported them everywhere, and their fans spent money everywhere.
Although Li Mu was from Hua Xia, he was the biggest idol in the hearts of Japanese young people. The Japanese media once did an interview. Among the modern celebrities that young people aged 15 to 25 admired, Li Mu ranked first.
The most frightening thing was that the proportion of young people who admired Li Mu was even higher among the group of university students.
Li Mu had once given a speech to the students of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That speech had inspired young people all over the world, especially the university students. The Japanese students were even more shocked.
After the war, the Japanese people had a very serious mentality. On one hand, they felt that they were the super elites of Asia, or even the entire Chinese race. On the other hand, they felt that they could not lift their heads in front of the white people.
In the past, when the Japanese went to Hua Xia, Korea, and other Asian countries, they all had a sense of superiority. But when they came to the United States, they did not even dare to speak loudly.
In the era when young people in Japan took studying in the United States as the greatest honor, Li Mu, as an Asian like them, could be worshipped by the top students of Harvard and MIT like Julius Caesar, which had an incomparable impact on the young people in Japan.
Under this premise, if Li Mu published an autobiography and sold it in Japan, the Japanese young people would definitely buy it. If Li Mu published a car, who could guarantee that his fans would not come out with money to "support" him?
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