American Fortune Life

"... charge a dollar to download our software to provide users with a clean, simple, ad-free product. What do you think?"

In the meeting room, Andy raised his mouth and asked with a faint smile on his face. He will not keep WhatsApp free. Since there are no ads and no games, there is no way to monetize the traffic, and there is no profit port. , You can’t keep burning money to make money, so you still have to go the way of basic fee and value-added payment.

"This method has been proven to be very effective in reality. However, in the initial stage, some users will inevitably be dissatisfied and uninstall Wattsup. However, because our products really resonate with users, the company will usher in new ones in the future. An impressive burst of growth."

CEO Brian naturally raised his hands in support of his big boss's decision to charge fees. He has been burning money beyond his means, and the most affected one is the CEO of his company.

"I also agree that before WhatsApp, users relied heavily on telcos for their messaging, and they weren't doing a good job. Many of them were charging by the number of messages, raising rates during peak hours, or restricting SMS altogether quantity.

Not only does WhatsApp help users lift these restrictions, but it does so at a lower cost. It offers valuable, welcome features beyond what your mobile carrier offers, including group chat, audio and video file sharing.

However, in order to avoid the emergence of a large-scale uninstall crisis, boss, you see, is it free for the first year, and only $0.99 per year thereafter. Although, we have no trouble competing with most carriers' exorbitant per-message plans, and our extra features make it even more attractive. However, users who are used to free lunch will inevitably have rebellious psychology, and although the difference between $1 and $0.99 is only $0.01, it can make users feel that it is really a small amount of money psychologically, not even a dollar. . "

The manager of the marketing department also expressed his opinion at this time, and reported his thoughts to Andy.

"This is a good idea, $0.99. If you are not willing to pay such a small amount of money, we don't want such users..."

"Indeed, the price we only receive is less than one dollar, which is much cheaper than the SMS package they are using now, and it has powerful functions and no advertisements. If you are stingy, there is really no need to consider serving that kind of people .”

Everyone in the conference room immediately echoed their words. Everyone here knows the value of Wattsup better than anyone else. They have always regarded the initial free service as a means to seize the market and increase the user base. They only wait for one day , the market is mature, the user base is huge, and then harvested.

After all WhatsApp is most popular and successful in many markets with onerous tariff plans and the oldest, cheapest models. The cross-platform operability of WhatsApp and the availability of smartphones and feature phones are all its killer features in the rapid development of the world. If someone thinks that the service fee of less than one dollar per year is expensive, then there is really no need to wait This kind of user.

Besides, the impact of fees may not be great. After all, the popularity of Wattsup is undoubted, especially the group chat among young users. Either SMS does not have this function, or it cannot afford so much SMS charges. In addition to being particularly useful, these community features expand the scope of the explosion beyond the typical 1-to-1 connection of texting to one-to-many. All this with relatively low cognitive overhead for new WhatsApp users.

In addition, the registration process is simple and convenient, users only need to confirm their mobile phone number, and WhatsApp will automatically sync their mobile phone contacts, which will make it inherently convenient for users to switch from standard texts to WhatsApp.

certainly,

The real key is cross-platform interoperability, enabling friends to connect with each other, no matter what phone, operating system, carrier or country.

While BlackBerry and Apple both envied Wattsup's development and offered their own alternatives to SMS, they didn't work across platforms. This in itself is a huge conundrum. Disrupt Wattsup's established market with a service that is not only more affordable, but also more reliable and functional.

Seeing that all the subordinates had basically reached a consensus, Andy couldn't help but nodded slightly, and made a decision, "That's it, on January 1st next year, the official version of WhatsApp will be launched, and it will be free for the first year after downloading. The fee of 0.99 US dollars will be charged every year, and old users can also directly pay 0.99 US dollars in advance to enjoy the value-added function services of our software.

Propaganda must be done well, and users must know that the reason why we charge is to serve them better and protect them from the harassment of advertisements and the bombardment of spam. "

"Okay, boss."

The subordinates replied in unison in the conference room, and Andy nodded in satisfaction. After making a development plan for the next few months, he can no longer worry about WhatsApp in the short term.

Next, on his trip to San Francisco, he only needs to inspect INS and Apple's board of directors, which is the most important part of the trip.

"boom!"

Andy, who was wearing a high-end fabric suit, got out of the car. The bodyguard behind him closed the door, took off his sunglasses, looked at the Apple headquarters building in front of him, smiled slightly, and walked towards the 'Infinite Loop' headquarters surrounded by everyone.

Fifteen years ago, Apple, the giant company that fueled the computer revolution, began to decline. At the time, it had just moved into its shiny new headquarters, a campus of six buildings forming an offbeat ring. So it's called an infinite loop, and the name comes from a well-known programming error where code gets stuck in endless repetition, but no one seems to know who adopted it. The Infinity Loop is where Apple and its engineers made historic shifts, and is the source of stories and legends about Apple, many of which are untold.

Seeing Jobs again, Andy was really a little shocked. Although Jobs returned to Apple after being discharged from the hospital and showed up in a video conference, Andy only felt that he was getting thinner, but he didn't expect him to be so thin. Seeing the thin veins on the neck of the real person and the thinner figure, wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans on such a hot day, Andy felt sympathy for him.

However, this sympathy was quickly dispelled by Jobs' arrogant expression and those rebellious and hostile eyes. Andy greeted Jobs with a cold face with a smile, shook hands for a short time, and then After finding his own seat, he sat down at the conference table safely, greeted other directors around him, and waited for the arrival of other board members.

As the world's largest technology company by market value, who is the real owner of Apple? Who exactly is controlling this company? Why does Andy's wealth exceed Apple's market value, instead of directly acquiring Apple?

I believe that many people have doubts about these issues, why so many rich people did not directly acquire Apple.

In fact, Andy said long ago that there is no actual controller of Apple, and it is the company's board of directors that controls it, not the company's major shareholders.

Why?

Because Apple has no controlling shareholder. For many shareholders of Apple, it is difficult to use their own rights to determine the composition and decision-making of Apple's board of directors.

The reason for the fact that the board of directors controls the company begins 33 years ago. On April 1, 1976, Jobs and others co-founded Apple Inc. At that time, the equity was dispersed in the hands of several founders, of which Jobs held 30% of the shares.

In 1980, after Apple went public and subsequent financing, Jobs' equity was gradually diluted, and his control over the company disappeared.

Five years later, Jobs lost power because he lost the support of the board of directors, and after several failed attempts to regain power, he resigned as chairman and left the company that year. It can be said that he was expelled.

When he left Apple, Jobs still held 11.3% of Apple's shares. In a fit of anger, he chose to reduce his holdings to only 1 share, cashing in $130 million. This last symbolic share was used to participate in the annual Apple stock exchange. The company's general meeting of shareholders.

Later, everyone knew that the declining Apple company invited Jobs back, and Jobs returned as king and led the company to success, but in fact he is not the major shareholder of Apple.

The main reason why no one has been able to buy it is that Apple's shareholding is too dispersed.

Existing disclosure data show that 60% of Apple's shares are currently held by as many as 2,440 institutions, and the shareholding is very dispersed.

American Vanguard Group is Apple's largest shareholder, holding 6.43% of the shares. Andy, as the second largest individual shareholder, only holds 5.23%, and the top ten shareholders hold a total of 23.33%. Therefore, in terms of shareholding ratio, there is no major shareholder who can control the company.

For this kind of high-quality company, I believe that there are not a few capital predators in the capital market who covet it and want to acquire it, but it is necessary to carefully weigh it before taking action. If you want to become its major shareholder, you need to pay more than 25 billion U.S. dollars in capital to get 25% of the equity. In 2009, Apple’s market value has reached 105 billion U.S. dollars. With so much money, although many rich people and companies can spend it all at once. .

However, Apple's cash reserves are constantly growing. It can be said that Apple's board of directors has sufficient funds to fight against any acquisition of the company by capital parties, and can calmly reject all kinds of "barbarians" with hostile takeover attempts. outside. What's more, there is an extremely strong CEO Jobs, no one would choose to jump out of Apple's high-speed development period, unless they are crazy!