Lei Jun was usually dressed casually. Most of the time, he was dressed casually. He would only wear formal attire for very formal occasions.
Today, Lei Jun was still wearing a T-shirt, casual pants, and sneakers at work. But when it was almost time to get off work, he had already changed into a short-sleeved shirt, trousers, and business leather shoes in his office. His assistant knocked on the door with some documents and was shocked by Lei Jun, who had just changed his clothes.
"CEO Lei, are you going out for a business meeting?" The assistant handed the documents to Lei Jun and asked with a smile.
Lei Jun smiled and said, "There will be a very important dinner later."
Lei Jun did not tell anyone about his meeting with Li Mu. He did not tell his partners from Kingsoft and Lenovo. This was because he knew very well that these two companies did not want to continue holding on to Outstanding Internet. They wanted to sell Outstanding Internet as soon as possible. Right now, the only one who wanted to keep Outstanding Internet was himself. Hence, he wanted to hear Li Mu's conditions and offer first.
If he, who did not want to sell Zhuoyue, agreed to Li Mu's conditions, Kingsoft and Lenovo would not hesitate. Instead, they would clap their hands in glee and want to complete the process as soon as possible.
The assistant was a little surprised and smiled. "For you to wear such a formal dinner, the other party must be someone important?"
Lei Jun nodded and smiled helplessly. "Indeed, someone very important."
Li Mu was 20 years old. At this age, he would be labeled as immature in any industry.
But Li Mu, who was 20 years old, was already the godfather of Hua Xia's internet industry. In this industry, no one could be compared to him.
Before Li Mu made a name for himself, if the domestic Internet industry was to be divided into different levels, then based on the current situation in the country, it could be divided into at least four tiers.
The first tier was definitely those who had returned from overseas or had overseas capital connections. For example, BTA, Sina, Netease, and Sohu were all companies that had successfully been listed in the US.
As for the second tier, it was the more famous companies that had yet to be listed. For example, Dangdang, Kingsoft, Zhuoyue, and Equ.
At the third tier, it was the small and medium-sized companies that had just barely survived.
The fourth echelon … Generally speaking, it consisted of those slightly famous individual webmasters.
After Li Mu's strength was fully exposed, Makino Technology and Taobao were no longer two companies in the industry. They were both part of Li Mu's ecological chain. Therefore, as the behind-the-scenes boss of several companies, Li Mu naturally became the new first tier. At the same time, he was also the only member of the first tier. To put it bluntly, he was the most powerful one.
Right now, Li Mu's influence in the Internet industry was much stronger than either of the two in 2016. This was because the two of them could still compete with each other. But right now, Li Mu was standing alone at the top of the mountain, watching the people below him fight.
It was precisely because of Li Mu's influence that Lei Jun, a person who had always been confident, couldn't help but feel a little nervous before the appointment.
After Li Mu and Liu Xiaodong finished discussing the logistics in Taobao, they set off for the agreed restaurant in advance. However, they did not expect Lei Jun to arrive before them even though they had deliberately arrived half an hour earlier.
This was the first time Li Mu met Lei Jianguo in real life. In the past, he had either seen him on the news or in various videos of Xiaomi's press conferences.
Compared to 2016, Lei Jianguo in 2002, other than looking much younger, there was not much change. Even his hairstyle did not change much. It was just the most common side parting hairstyle. It seemed that he had not changed his hairstyle for more than a decade.
Seeing Lei Jianguo for the first time, Li Mu was more or less excited. However, he kept comforting himself in his heart. Although Lei Jianguo was awesome, he had more or less seen the world after his rebirth.
For example, he used to talk and laugh with Li Yanhong. Even now, Li Zong was still chasing after him, wanting to buy Easy Listening Technology. Another example was how he roped in Liu Shixiong as a business partner and devoted himself to his own projects. In terms of assets and corporate strength, these two people were not inferior to Lei Jianguo. Therefore, there was no need for him to be nervous when he saw him.
Li Mu's comforting had a very good effect. At least he did not look nervous at all. Instead, it was Lei Jianguo, who was meeting Li Mu for the first time, who could not hide his nervousness.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Li Mu shook hands with Lei Jianguo and said with a smile, "I have heard of your name for so long. Today, I finally have the chance to meet you in person."
Lei Jun hurriedly said humbly, "Li Zong is too polite. Compared to you, my results do not even reach the passing line."
Li Mu was also humble, "I was just lucky. I do not have enough experience and still need to learn more."
Liu Xiaodong listened to the two of them being humble and couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. They were all awesome people, so why were they being so humble to each other? One of them did not pass, and the other did not have enough experience. What about me …
Coincidentally, Li Mu introduced Liu Xiaodong to Lei Jun, "Boss Lei, let me introduce you. This is the general manager of our Taobao website. He is also my business partner and senior from the same school, Liu Xiaodong."
Lei Jun nodded and took the initiative to shake hands with Liu Xiaodong, "Boss Liu, your name is well-known in the industry! Nice to meet you! "
After the three of them sat down, they were not in a hurry to order but chatted politely for a while. Although it was the first time they met, Lei Jianguo's mannerisms and speech were no different from the Lei Jianguo in Li Mu's impression. He loved to laugh, was humorous, and was talkative. His non-standard Mandarin made Li Mu feel even more amiable.
The reason why he felt amiable was because in his previous life, from 2012 onwards, other than Boss Ma, Lei Jianguo was one of the more high-profile big shots in the internet industry in Hua Xia.
After Xiaomi's hunger marketing became popular, Lei Jianguo's media exposure was very high. There were all kinds of interviews, speeches, press conferences, and activities. There were also all kinds of positive and negative news reports.
With more exposure to this kind of information, it was easier for people to form a general understanding of a person. On the contrary, Liu Shixiong, other than that well-known love story, he rarely appeared in the media. It was very difficult for people to figure out his general approach through his public comments and performance.
The three of them chatted for a while. Although they did not talk about the main topic, it was still a pleasant conversation.
After that, Li Mu invited Lei Jianguo to order. Because it was a vegetarian meal, everyone naturally felt refreshed when they saw the menu. This kind of food and environment could let people focus on business.
Starting from Lei Jianguo, the three of them each ordered some exquisite vegetarian dishes. After that, they asked the waiter for a pot of good tea. Before the dishes were served, the discussion on the table had already started.
Li Mu had three objectives for coming today: to get to know Lei Jianguo, to acquire the Web of Excellence, and to rope Lei Jianguo in to do something together.
The first objective would naturally be achieved once he came. The other two would depend on whether the two of them could reach a consensus.
Li Mu did not beat around the bush. After talking about business, he went straight to the point. He said to Lei Jianguo, "CEO Lei, the Taobao website that Liu Shixiong and I have set up is interested in increasing our investment in books and audiovisual products. You should also know that in terms of audiovisual products, Taobao has already obtained the authorization from almost all the recording companies. There are also other resources to support it. In addition to the overall ecosystem of Taobao, this business has a lot of room for imagination."
Before talking business, he would ask questions first, and before that, he would show off first. This was also Li Mu's usual routine. No matter how much he admired Cult Leader Lei, he could not show off any less. He had to give him a sense of oppression first.
Lei Jianguo had indeed felt a huge sense of pressure from Li Mu's words. He wanted to protect the Web of Excellence, but his rationality told him that the Web of Excellence was under the shadow of Taobao. He had to go with the flow. Now that Li Mu had indicated that he wanted to increase his investment in books and audiovisual products, it was very obvious that he was putting pressure on them.
Lei Jianguo tried his best to appear relatively calm. He smiled and said to Li Mu, "Taobao website is a genius level product. Especially the ecological chain formed by Taobao website, Alipay, and YY, it can be said to be the greatest in the current e-commerce market. I believe that under the leadership of Li Zong and CEO Liu, Taobao will definitely create even more outstanding results."
Li Mu smiled slightly and said indifferently, "CEO Lei, for Taobao website, the next stage of focus is actually not on books and audiovisual products, but on our plans to build our own logistics and warehouse. Right now, these two plans have already been implemented. As for the books and audiovisual business, I am more inclined to integrate a relatively mature vertical platform, such as the Web of Excellence that you are currently working on."
Lei Jun nodded and said, "The Web of Excellence does not reject partnerships at the capital level. At the same time, we are also looking for the next round of financing. If Taobao is willing to invest in the Web of Excellence, I feel that this is a win-win situation for both of us."
When Lei Jun had heard that Li Mu wanted to meet him, he had already guessed that Li Mu wanted to buy over the Web of Excellence. However, he still had an unrealistic fantasy in his heart. What if he could convince Li Mu to give up on the idea of buying over the Web of Excellence and invest in it instead?
If he were to buy over the Web of Excellence, Li Mu would have to waste time and energy to deeply integrate the Web of Excellence. Moreover, the market for books and audiovisual products was not big to begin with. Li Mu had no need to monopolize it. All he had to do was invest some money and resources, and make Web of Excellence a part of his closed loop. If he could really achieve this goal, then the Web of Excellence would definitely take off.
Many large companies, after developing to a certain scale, would lead their teams to battle. Every internet company that was slightly more mature would have gone through at least two or three rounds of financing. The capital structure behind it was rather complicated, and a full acquisition was the most difficult operation. Furthermore, it would take up too many resources. For some of the less important areas, there was indeed no need to carry out a full acquisition. It would be sufficient as long as the companies with potential took a stand in advance.
In the future, Xiaomi also had a large number of ecological chain companies that relied on itself to survive. Needless to say, companies like Teng Xun and Ali, which invested money everywhere, held a certain amount of shares and bound the other party to their own fleet. Under normal circumstances, they would operate independently and obey orders at critical times. As long as they could do what they were told at critical times, it would basically be enough.
Lei Jun felt that Li Mu might also accept this kind of partnership model. Moreover, the future Lei Jianguo had not yet reached that level. Therefore, at this moment, he was very willing to lead the Web of Excellence team.
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