The next morning, Su Yingxue got up early and took the bus back to school. Su Yuehua and Wang Shaohua sent her out. After Su Yingxue left, Wang Shaohua asked his wife in a low voice, "How did it go last night?"
Su Yuehua shook her head helplessly and said, "We guessed right. The little girl is in love."
Wang Shaohua hurriedly said, "You have to tell your second brother quickly. This kind of thing is quite serious."
Su Yuehua said, "Don't worry. I told Yingxue to call the boy out. Let's treat him to a meal and see how he is."
Wang Shaohua was stunned. "What are you thinking?"
Su Yuehua didn't answer his question, but asked him, "Do you know the website of 3321, the part-time tutor for college students?"
"Yes." Wang Shaohua nodded and said, "Didn't I tell you? It's a very creative idea. Even our director hired a college tutor for his granddaughter. It is said that the college student he hired is the top scorer in the college entrance examination of Qilu University."
Su Yuehua said, "3321 is made by Yingxue's little boyfriend."
"What?"
Wang Shaohua was stunned. "You mean, the guy who drove Yingxue back last night is the founder of 3321?" Wang Shaohua scratched his head. "What's that guy's name again? CCTV let him off several times, and Yanjing TV also let him off. His surname is Li, what's his name again?"
"Li Mu."
"Yes, yes, yes!" Wang Shaohua said, "His name is Li Mu. Look at my memory …"
After that, Wang Shaohua asked her, "Are you sure it's that Li Mu?"
Su Yuehua said, "It's impossible for Yingxue to tell such a lie. That Li Mu is her high school classmate. Go back and check on the Internet to see if Li Mu is from Haizhou."
Wang Shaohua nodded and turned to go to the study. "I'll check it."
Su Yuehua grabbed his collar and pulled him back. She rolled her eyes at him. "I didn't ask you to check it now. Hurry up and wake our daughter up. We'll send her to her professional class on the way to work, or all of us will be late."
Wang Shaohua hurriedly nodded. "Yes …"
…
As the flagship product of Makino Technology, Happy Farm had won the admiration of the people in the industry. When the game's revenue was calculated in the millions every day, the valuation of Makino Technology had increased imperceptibly.
A company's valuation depends on its products, team, status in the industry, and future prospects. This is why many companies are losing money, but their valuations are getting higher. For example, JD. Capital invested in JD not to make profits now, but to secure a better future.
Makino Technology had been burning money before and had not made much profit. It relied on the millions of Series A financing to maintain its operations, and the money on the books was getting less and less. However, because the product was awesome and the future was promising, the valuation could reach hundreds of millions.
But now, Muye Technology was considered to be very powerful. Happy Farm's game store had been launched, and a new version had been launched. Not only had Happy Farm's status risen a lot, but most importantly, it had begun to make money!
It was quite amazing that such a simple game had a steady flow of millions every day. Therefore, the valuation of Makino Technology in the industry had increased a lot. If Li Mu asked for financing now, offers of more than one billion would probably be everywhere.
After these two heavy blows from Makino Technology, the industry finally understood Li Mu's layout. The biggest Easter egg and foreshadowing was this thing called Alipay.
When Alipay was first launched, Li Mu did not do much publicity to the outside world. He only did precise promotion among the students and parents of 3321 to accumulate a certain user base. However, at that time, the industry did not pay attention to the space behind Alipay. They only saw it as a tool for 3321. A few people, such as Baidu's Li Zong and Tan Yaocheng, realized that there was more to it, but they could not see it at that time.
However, the role of Alipay was instantly clear. In the eyes of the industry companies, it was a complete online payment channel. Li Mu developed it and used 3321 as an experimental field. After it matured, he directly transplanted this channel to Happy Farm, directly giving birth to nearly ten million Alipay users. Moreover, Happy Farm could also save a lot of money by using Alipay as a payment channel. The money in the pockets of Happy Farm's users was all in his pocket, and none of it flowed out.
Because of the crazy increase in Alipay's user base, many companies in the industry saw the benefits. Therefore, at 9 AM the next day, something that even Li Mu did not expect happened.
Lin Ching-ah called Li Mu. A person who claimed to be Shengda's business director had found Makino Technology, hoping to discuss cooperation with Makino Technology.
Li Mu was very curious why Shengda wanted to cooperate with him.
Lin Ching-ah said, "He seems to be more interested in Alipay."
Li Mu immediately understood and told her, "Entertain him first. Tell him that I will be at the company at 10 AM. I will talk to him when I arrive."
After hanging up, Li Mu quickly got out of bed to wash up. He was ready to go to Makino Technology to meet this business director sent by Shengda.
As for why Shengda was interested in Alipay, Li Mu was very clear. They were now in the stage of rapid development, and the payment channel was a big problem they were facing.
Although the major banks had opened online banking, it was still very troublesome to use it alone. It was not as convenient as Alipay. Therefore, most of Shengda's future card sales would have to go to the major internet cafes and newsstands. These terminals would sell the cards on their behalf. Although the coverage was very wide, the disadvantage was obvious. The cost was too high.
For example, Li Mu was secretly setting up Legend of Overlord. A monthly activation code was sold for 15 RMB, but he had to split at least 6 RMB of the profits. The internet cafes' payment channel cost was as high as 40%, and Shengda's card sales business was not much easier than him. For a card that cost 30 RMB, they had to use at least 20% to 30% of the profits to run the payment channel.
If Legend of Overlord also had Alipay, they could save 20% to 30% of the cost. But it was impossible for them to develop a payment channel now. Even if they invested in it, they still had to get in touch with the banks. This was only the initial stage, and it would be a big problem for them to get more users in the future.
Now, Alipay was a mature payment channel, and there were nearly 10 million active users. If Shengda could work with Alipay and get a lower payment channel, it would be a big problem for their card sales.
Li Mu packed up and was about to leave when he received a message from Su Yingxue. "Lazy bum, are you awake?"
Li Mu replied. "Yes. Have you arrived at school?"
"I'm here. I'm in class."
"Did anything happen last night?"
"My aunt asked me about us last night."
"What did you say?"
"She saw me with you, and the dormitory was closed last night, and I didn't go back, so she guessed it. I couldn't hide it from her, so I told her the truth."
Li Mu immediately asked. "What's your aunt's attitude? She won't make things difficult for you, right? "
Su Yingxue replied. "My aunt said she wants to treat you to a meal with Uncle …"
Li Mu was stunned for a moment. When he came to his senses, he immediately replied, "Ask aunt and uncle when they are free. I'll arrange it."
Su Yingxue, who was in class, couldn't help laughing when she saw Li Mu's message. After the professor glared at her, she quickly composed herself and replied to Li Mu. "You should call them Uncle and Auntie …"
Li Mu: "Aiya. It's only a matter of time."
Su Yingxue replied, "You can't be serious. When are you free? I'll discuss it with them. "
Li Mu thought for a moment and replied, "How about this? Let's pick a night in the next few days. As long as they are free, I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll make the arrangements."
"Okay, I'll call my aunt at noon. You have to perform well then. If my aunt is satisfied with you, she might keep our relationship a secret from my family. If she's not satisfied with you, my parents might come to Beijing with just a call."
Li Mu immediately said, "Don't worry. I'll make sure Aunt is satisfied!"
"That depends on your performance."
After chatting with Su Yingxue, Li Mu was a little nervous about Su Yingxue's aunt and uncle wanting to see him. However, he couldn't avoid it now. He could only perform well. Otherwise, if Su Yingxue's aunt told her father that they were together, her father would probably fight him to the death.
When he arrived at Makino Technology, it was already past ten o 'clock. Lin Ching-ah saw that he had arrived at the company, so she went to his office and said, "I've arranged for Shengda's people to be in the conference room. Do you want to meet them?"
Li Mu nodded. "Come with me."
"Okay." Lin Ching-ah nodded and went to the conference room with Li Mu.
In the conference room, a man in his thirties saw Li Mu and Lin Ching-ah enter and hurriedly got up to shake Li Mu's hand. At the same time, he introduced himself. "Hello, Li Zong. Let me introduce myself first. I'm Fu Bin, the commercial director of Shengda Company in Shanghai."
Li Mu shook his hand and said politely, "Hello, Mr. Fu. Please take a seat."
Fu Bin sat opposite Li Mu. He took out two business cards from his briefcase and handed them to Li Mu and Lin Ching-ah. Li Mu took the business cards and asked curiously, "I heard from Boss Lin that Mr. Fu is representing Shengda and wants to discuss cooperation with Alipay?"
"Yes." Fu Bin nodded and smiled. "We know that Alipay is your personal company and registered with a virtual address. That's why we came to Makino Technology to visit you."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Your company's' Legend 'is very popular now."
Fu Bin said humbly, "In terms of profit rate, our 'Legend' is much worse than your Happy Farm."
Li Mu waved his hand and said, "It's not the same. Your business is big, and your income is many times higher than ours."
Fu Bin smiled noncommittally and said, "In fact, when it comes to the rate of return, Mr. Chen has personally said that he particularly admires your development ideas. You have cultivated such a high-quality payment channel like Alipay in advance. This is much better than us. This time, I am also entrusted by Mr. Chen. I hope to talk to you about the issue of cooperation with Alipay as a payment channel."
Li Mu asked, "How does your company want to cooperate?"
Fu Bin said, "We hope that Alipay can be connected to 'Legend'. Users can buy credit cards through Alipay directly. Do you have any plans to open up Alipay to the public?"
Li Mu said, "Alipay is an online payment channel. Since it's a channel, it's naturally open to the public. We can provide the technical interface and connect your online credit card sales interface. However, we also need to collect a portion of the channel's fees."
Fu Bin nodded. "Of course. But how much do you want to collect?"
Li Mu said casually, "I think 10% of the channel's fees should be more appropriate. Other than the most basic online banking, there shouldn't be any other channels that cost less than this, right?" Fu Bin didn't expect Li Mu to give such a perfect ratio. Currently, the cost of Shanda's payment channels was indeed very high.
Fu Bin didn't expect Li Mu to offer such a perfect ratio. Currently, Shanda's payment channel cost was indeed very high. Online banking cost was low, and each bank's cost was different, but they were all below 5%. However, the problem was that the number of users was small, and most users didn't know how to use it, nor were they willing to use it. The second was Mobile Unicom's SMS payment channel. The channel cost was about 15%. Although the percentage was high, it was more convenient for users to use it than online banking, so there were more users who paid via SMS than online banking. The channel cost was the highest among internet cafes, phone booths, and newsstands. Shanda couldn't go from city to city to internet cafes to reach out to the lowest level merchants. In order to establish a sales network as soon as possible, they could only do it through layers of agents. In this way, they had to ensure the profit margin of the end seller and the middleman. After some calculations, the channel cost was about 30%. But the worst part was that this channel was the most convenient for users, so it was also the channel with the most usage.
Naturally, Shanda didn't want to leave so much money to the distributors, so they set their eyes on Alipay, which already had almost 10 million users. However, Alipay's 10% channel's share was indeed a little too high in Shanda's expectations. Although it was still a good deal, Alipay was not a state-owned enterprise, and its operating costs weren't high. A 10% channel's share was at most 10%, and the remaining 90% was Alipay's profit margin. Shanda wasn't willing to give others such a high profit ratio. This was equivalent to working hard to earn money for others, and no one would be happy about it. To them, 5% was a reasonable ratio, and they could accept it. Alipay still had enough profits.
After 2010, there were more and more online payment platforms. At that time, Alipay's channel's cost was less than 1%, and most of them maintained it at 0.5%. This ratio was even lower than UnionPay's POS. The reason was simple. The competition in the payment channels was too fierce, and everyone could only control the channel's cost to be at the same level as the operating costs. In that era, who dared to ask for 10% of the channel's cost? It was simply courting death.
But it was different now. This was the era of Alipay's monopoly. Before there were any competitors, Li Mu had to maintain the profit margin at a level that the other party was unwilling to accept, yet had no choice but to accept. This control of the profit margin was similar to the amount of money given by the taxi companies. The money they gave would always choke the taxi drivers' necks. On one hand, the taxi drivers would curse every day, feeling that their hard-earned money was easily taken away by the taxi companies. On the other hand, they knew that no matter how dissatisfied they were, driving was still better than doing other work. So, they could only curse the company while driving.
10%. It will be very painful for Shanda to accept it. But aside from these psychological factors, the taxi companies knew that this ratio would allow them to make more profits than before.
Fu Bin thought for a moment and said sincerely to Li Mu, "Mr. Li, we think 5% may be more suitable. If you can leave enough profit space for us, then we will also give a certain discount to our user group. New users will try to use Alipay as much as possible. In this way, we can get more profit, and you can get more Alipay users while getting a lot of profit. This is a win-win situation. What do you think?"
Li Mu was attracted by this suggestion. If Legend of Mir is willing to give Alipay users a discount, it will be beneficial to Alipay. After all, Happy's Farm is only a small portion of users, and Legend of Mir is also a game with a large number of users. If Alipay and Happy's Farm's users can be integrated into Alipay, it will be a great boost to Alipay. But the biggest problem is …
So, Li Mu asked Fu Bin with interest. "How much of a discount are you willing to give the users if you lower my 5% share? It won't be more than 5% because your profit margin will be lower. "
Fu Bin thought for a while and said, "I have to discuss this with the company first."
Li Mu smiled and said, "If you can only give the users a 97% or 98% discount, it will mean nothing to the users. So, it will be very difficult for us to get any additional benefits from this method."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
