Li Mu went to Lin Ching-ah to recruit a deputy editor for YY portal. The deputy editor was Wang Nan, one of the three deputy editors of NetEase 163 portal.
Li Mu had never heard of Wang Nan's name before, but he trusted Lin Ching-ah's judgment. Regardless of whether Wang Nan's ability was on par with Chen's, Li Mu would be satisfied as long as Wang Nan could handle the early stages of YY portal.
Wang Nan soon arrived at his post, but Li Mu did not see him. Instead, he asked Lin Ching-ah to follow him. Li Mu had already conveyed his concept of portal to them, so they would communicate with Wang Nan first, and he could observe Wang Nan's ability to understand and execute.
Lu Xinyi of Hong Kong's Weekly News also contacted Li Mu as soon as he returned to China. In addition to greeting him politely, she mainly wanted to confirm with Li Mu in a vague way to make sure that what he said that night was not just an impulsive act.
Li Mu's unwavering tone dispelled all her doubts.
While Li Mu was focused on how to continue destroying Hao123 and Li Xingping's mental endurance, Liu Xiaodong gave Li Mu the latest updates on Taobao's official store. Currently, more than forty brands had signed the agreement and paid the deposit and service fee. Among them were some of the bigger brands, such as TCL, ZTE PHS, Shenzhou computer, and Zinda recorder.
Li Mu found a very interesting situation. Although these brands were all well-known enterprises in their respective industries, they were not the top ones.
Currently, TCL mobile phones were ranked in the top five in terms of sales in China. Other than Motorola and Nokia, there was also the strongest domestic mobile phone brand – Ningbo Guide. Although TCL was the second largest domestic mobile phone brand in terms of sales, it was still a pipe dream to surpass Ningbo Guide.
ZTE PHS was also second in the industry, but sadly, it was suppressed by UT Starcom. UT Starcom's market share was more than half, far surpassing the second place in the industry.
The computer market was becoming more and more popular. As a market disruptor, Shenzhou had launched its own computer last year, but it was suppressed by the entire industry, so it was extremely difficult for it to stand out.
The situation of Zinda recorder was also interesting. In 2001, the domestic market capacity of the recorder exceeded 10 million units, and this year's market capacity was estimated to be around 15 million units. The total market value of nearly 3 billion RMB was quite large, but Bugao alone occupied nearly 40% of the market share, followed by Wanxin at nearly 20%. However, Zinda's technical strength was very strong. This brand had been very strong in the research and development of recorder, but because it did not know how to operate it, so it was not well known in the market. On the contrary, Bugao's technical strength was not outstanding, but due to the brand's brand 'reputation, its market share was high.
After reading the brief introduction of these brands that Liu Yidong had compiled for him, Li Mu called him and asked, "Do the leading companies in these industries have any intention of cooperating with us?"
Liu Yidong said, "Yes, there are. Bugao wanted to cooperate with us. They also applied for an official store, but after we announced the standard of cooperation for official stores, they gave up. Their reply was: Bugao has a strong brand reputation and mature sales channels, so if we let them register for free, they will be willing to come in. If we insist on charging for it, they will not consider it."
Li Mu sighed, "The pride of a big brand."
Liu Yidong said, "They thought that joining Taobao website was an honor for Taobao website, and felt that putting their brand here was giving us an advantage."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Actually, it's not unreasonable for them to think that way. For us, if we want to increase the influence of the platform, the best way is to attract a large number of well-known brands to enter. The more well-known and influential the platform has, the higher the reputation and influence of the platform. But they have overlooked a very serious problem. If they don't cooperate with us, their competitors will definitely."
Liu Yidong said, "I think so too. Big brands may be arrogant, but if we make them aware of the crisis, they will definitely lower their heads and speak. The most important thing now is how to use our platform to help these companies that have already reached an agreement with us sell as much as possible."
Li Mu said, "You decide what kind of operation strategy and method to use. YY can give you enough traffic support. If you want to do it, do it beautifully. Cooperate with these cooperating brands and organize an online shopping promotion festival. Strive to make it the biggest online shopping event in history."
Liu Yidong said, "I understand what you mean. I'll hurry up and do some research in the next two days."
Li Mu reminded him, "Remember to communicate with the cooperating brands in depth. We give them enough exposure, and they have to give us enough concessions on the price. Enough exposure plus price-performance ratio is the key to promoting online shopping. Mango-ME is successful because of this, so the manufacturers must cooperate with us sincerely."
Liu Yidong said, "Okay, I'll definitely communicate with the manufacturers and try to get them to give us the biggest concessions."
After that, Liu Yidong asked Li Mu, "How's the progress with your YY portal? Do you want to take some time to invite Chen Tong out for a chat? "
Li Mu said, "Not for now. He's a stubborn person. No matter how much we talk, he won't be willing to leave Sina and join Makino Technology. So I'll just follow my own pace and destroy the Sina portal that he built up single-handedly first."
Liu Yidong asked again, "How's the progress with the acquisition of Hao123? From what you said last time, this seemed to be very important. "
Li Mu laughed and said, "I haven't contacted the founder of Hao123, but he should be in a lot of pain right now."
…
Just as Li Mu had guessed, Li Xingping had indeed been in a lot of pain these few days.
He was probably the first entrepreneur in the internet industry to suffer such psychological devastation offline.
No one had expected YY123 to spread the flames of war from online to offline. This feeling was still difficult for the current internet companies to accept. It was just like how the principle that one's wife and children should not be implicated was broken by a powerhouse. Everyone felt insecure for a while.
Almost all of Guangdong Province was filled with YY123 advertisements. Li Xingping could see YY123 everywhere he went. Even the public toilets in shopping malls, which used to be filled with same-sex dating numbers, were now pasted with YY123 sticker advertisements.
Over the past few days, due to YY123's strong promotion, the traffic that Li Xingping had painstakingly stabilized began to decline again. So far, the traffic had been lost by more than 60%, advertising revenue had been lost by more than 80%, and the price of advertising was still dropping.
Advertisers had also noticed the decline of Hao123. To them, advertising at this time could not be calculated based on the current traffic. That was because Hao123's traffic was too unstable and could drop at any time. Therefore, they deliberately used this as an excuse to lower the price. Li Xingping had no choice but to accept it.
The traffic was dropping, and the revenue was decreasing, but YY123's advertisements were still haunting him.
At present, YY123's offline promotion had become a hot topic in the internet industry. Some people said that Makino Technology was practically the god of the internet. While everyone else was still figuring things out, he had already mastered all kinds of gameplay and could use all kinds of methods to kill, maim, and collapse his opponents at any time, anywhere. Some people also said that Makino Technology was Hua Xia's biggest robber in the internet industry. Moreover, he was also the robber with the least professional ethics because he only targeted his peers.
Regardless of the industry's evaluation, it was undeniable that Li Mu's large-scale suppression had produced excellent results.
Li Xingping had met many friends over the past few days, hoping to find some inspiration from their communication to solve the huge problem that he was facing. However, after meeting a large group of people over the past few days, he finally realized how difficult it was to solve the crisis that he was facing.
Not a single person thought that Li Xingping could still turn the tide. Many people even thought that Hao123 would not be able to hold on for much longer under such circumstances. They gave Li Xingping a pertinent suggestion: Take advantage of the fact that Makino Technology had not completely destroyed the company to think of a way to make a move.
Make a move? That was easy for him to say. Who would buy a dying cow? Even if someone would buy it, the price would probably be so low that it would make one's hair stand on end. If he were to sell this live cow at the price of a dead cow, how could Li Xingping be willing to sell it? However, if he were to ask the buyer to pay the price of a live cow, the buyer would not be willing either, unless he had a way to save this cow.
While he was in a dilemma, someone enlightened him with a sentence: Sell to Makino Technology.
Now that Hao123 was on the decline and YY123's market share was constantly increasing, who would buy Hao123 under such circumstances? Whoever bought Hao123 would die in the hands of that person. No one could save it from Makino Technology. However, if it was sold to Makino Technology, it would be a different story. Although Makino Technology's current market share was more than 50%, Hao123 still had about 30% of the market share. If Makino Technology bought Hao123, they would instantly have a 95% market share of the entire navigation website market, which was very meaningful to them.
Therefore, on the second day after Li Mu arrived in Yanjing, Li Xingping took the initiative to contact Makino Technology's business department in an attempt to discuss cooperation with Makino Technology regarding Hao123. To be exact, he was looking for a sale of Hao123.
Lin Ching-ah found Li Mu and told him the good news. She also asked about Li Mu's recent schedule.
Li Mu said to Lin Ching-ah, "I've been too busy recently, so I don't have time to meet him. Why don't you invite him to Yanjing and have a chat with him? For Hao123, I'm willing to buy it all for 15 million. If Li Xingping is straightforward and willing to sell it as soon as possible, I can increase the price a little, but the final transaction price must not exceed 20 million."
After Lin Ching-ah knew Li Mu's bottom line, she immediately nodded. "Then I'll invite him to meet for a chat."
Li Mu reminded her, "Chat is one thing, but you have to put on the right attitude. Since he took the initiative to talk to us, don't be in a hurry to talk about the price when you meet him. You have to give him the necessary contempt and threats first, and wait for him to panic before talking about the price."
Lin Ching-ah immediately said, "I understand, Li Zong, don't worry."
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