Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

Although China's software industry started later than the United States, many software companies were still born in the early days of Internet development.

Kingsoft is definitely the leader among them. As early as the DOS system era, it has launched the WPS system. After entering the Windows era, it is also the only office software in China that can compete with Microsoft Office.

Products launched since then, such as the dictionary-based Kingsoft PowerWord, the anti-virus software Kingsoft Internet Security, and the game-based JX Online, are all milestone products in the Chinese software industry.

In particular, the game modifier Kingsoft Ranger is definitely a great innovation. At that time, it was a must-have for playing stand-alone games. Changing attributes and money, and enjoying invincible pleasure, was even more exciting than using cheats.

However, what Li Weidong is interested in is not Kingsoft, a software company, but Mr. Lei, Kingsoft's CEO.

There is no shortage of big names in China's Internet industry, but the one who is truly willing to treat smartphones as a career must be Mr. Lei.

At this time, Mr. Lei was busy with the IPO of Kingsoft Software. This was also the fifth time that Mr. Lei led Kingsoft to go public.

In the first four attempts to go public, Kingsoft successively moved to the Hong Kong Island GEM, the SAR GEM, the US Nasdaq and the SAR Main Board, but ultimately failed. Now Kingsoft plans to try to list on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Speaking of which, Kingsoft's development path is also very bumpy. In the DOS era, Kingsoft relied on WPS office software and Kingsoft Hanka to become a hit. However, after entering the Windows era, WPS was completely suppressed by Microsoft Office and completely Do not marginalize the market.

Kingsoft subsequently launched several counterattacks, but none of them were able to shake the status of Office. Especially in 1997, Kingsoft launched WPS97. As a result, it encountered Microsoft's classic Office97. WPS97 was unable to parry, and Kingsoft returned in defeat. The company is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Fortunately, Mr. Lei turned the tide and launched "Kingsoft PowerWord" and "Kingsoft Antivirus" one after another, which saved Kingsoft.

After that, Kingsoft re-created WPS and completely rewrote all the codes. The WPS2000 system launched in 1999 has integrated multiple functions such as text office, spreadsheet, multimedia presentation production and image processing. It is almost the same as the functions of Office.

This can be regarded as the second venture of WPS. After years of hard work, Kingsoft launched WPS2005 with independent intellectual property rights.

It is this office system that has been purchased by many domestic government agencies, enterprises and institutions, and the market share of WPS systems has jumped to more than 20%.

Jinshan has finally come back to life, and for Mr. Lei at this time, his only goal is to lead Jinshan to go public.

Although Kingsoft was successfully listed, its listing this time was quite embarrassing. At that time, Kingsoft was valued at only HK$5.3 billion. In comparison, Tencent, which was listed in 2004, has a market value of HK$80 billion and was listed on Nasdaq in 2005. Baidu was listed with a valuation of US$4 billion, and Alibaba, which was listed one month later, had a market value of more than HK$160 billion.

In the Internet industry, Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba can only be regarded as Kingsoft’s younger brothers. When Mr. Lei joined Kingsoft, these Internet giants had not yet been born! However, in terms of capital operation, all the younger brothers in the past eventually caught up.

And when Kingsoft successfully went public, Mr. Lei also lost his goal, so he resigned as Kingsoft CEO and went home to count his money. It was not until three years later that Mr. Lei returned to the world and founded Xiaomi.

Mr. Lei is one year younger than Li Weidong, and they are considered to be of the same age. They have a common language and will not talk awkwardly.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Li Weidong took the lead in getting to the point.

"Mr. Lei, Apple just released a new product. You should have heard about it, right?" Li Weidong asked.

"Are you talking about that mobile phone? I remember it was called iPhone." Mr. Lei paused and then said: "This new product not only uses a touch screen, but also uses multi-touch technology. It will take some time for touch technology to enter the practical stage. I didn’t expect Apple to bring this technology to mobile phones so quickly.”

Touch screens are no longer a new thing. Many window industries are already using touch screens, such as automatic ticket vending machines in subways, ATMs in banks, etc., all use touch screens.

Electronic products, such as car central control screens, MP4 players, and mobile phones, also have touch screens. For example, many mobile phones with handwriting functions have a touch screen, which is extremely friendly to people who do not know Chinese Pinyin.

But the touch screen at that time was not practical with the multi-touch technology now. At that time, resistive touch screens were mainly used. The touch points of the screen responded slowly and were not durable. If an area was used frequently, it would soon fail.

Apple only acquired multi-touch technology in 2005. The industry generally believes that this technology needs at least three to five years of development before it can be put into actual use. However, it was unexpected that Apple only used it for more than a year. At that time, this technology was used on the iPhone.

Since Rebus knew something about the iPhone, Li Weidong did not beat around the bush. He said bluntly: "Mr. Lei, I think Apple's iPhone is the future development trend of mobile phones. I also want to invest in similar products."

"Does Director Li also plan to make this new type of mobile phone?" Mr. Lei frowned, and then said: "With all due respect, this is probably quite difficult.

Although I haven’t gotten a prototype of the iPhone yet and don’t know the specific structure of this product, judging from the current information released by Apple, the technology included in the iPhone is the most advanced.

This kind of advanced technology is all in the hands of foreign companies. We have no domestic supply chain and cannot manufacture it at all. Even if you go to a copycat, you still lack the corresponding technology. "

"Mr. Lei is right, so I want to start with the operating system first." Li Weidong continued: "I noticed that Apple's iPhone uses a system called IOS. This operating system is developed by Apple itself. developed.

If other companies make similar products, they will also need to use the operating system. Do you think Apple will share their IOS system with other companies? "

"Based on my understanding of Apple, they will definitely not share their operating system." Mr. Lei said without hesitation.

"Yes, so in this industry, another operating system is needed." Li Weidong said.

Mr. Lei frowned and thought for a while, then said, "As far as I know, the operating systems of mobile phones now use the Symbian system."

"Symbian mainly targets traditional types of mobile phones, not this new type of mobile phone." Li Weidong continued: "But in the future, maybe Symbian will also make a special system for this new type of mobile phone, so I want to hurry up and Before launching Saipan, we will seize part of the market.”

"Chairman Li, I can understand your thinking. But I think the risks of this project are a bit high." Mr. Lei continued: "After all, Apple's new mobile phone has just been released and has not been tested by the market. In the future, It’s still unclear whether it can occupy a place in the market. It’s too early to enter the market now.”

Mr. Lei paused and then added: "It's not that I'm not optimistic about this new type of mobile phone, I just think there are too many uncertainties at the moment."

Li Weidong replied: "It is because of the many uncertainties that I decided to invest in this industry. If the uncertainty is eliminated and the market has confirmed that this is a potential product, then there will inevitably be an influx of funds." , there are many first-class technology companies, and the cake I can get will be much less. "

Mr. Lei nodded as if he was enlightened. At this time, Mr. Lei was already considered an angel investor, and he had more successful investment cases. But his understanding of investment is definitely not as good as that of top domestic industrial tycoons like Li Weidong.

Just listen to Mr. Lei ask: "Chairman Li came to me, do you want to get technical support from Kingsoft, or investment? If it is technical support, there should be no problem. Our software development level at Kingsoft is second to none in the country." Yes, we can set up a special project team,

If Jinshan were to invest, this would be a bit difficult. We are in a critical period of IPO. It is not appropriate to invest in uncertain projects at this time, as it will affect our IPO process. "

Li Weidong smiled slightly, and then said: "What I want is not Jinshan's technology or investment. I hope that you, Mr. Lei, can join this project."

Mr. Lei was stunned for a moment, then asked tentatively: "Are you referring to me personally?"

"Yes, it's you personally. I hope Mr. Lei can become my partner and be responsible for this project." Li Weidong spread his hands and continued: "I really don't understand software, so I need an expert partner."

"Chairman Li really thinks highly of me!" Mr. Lei sighed, and then politely declined: "Thank you Chairman Li for the kind invitation, but Jinshan is now in a critical period of IPO, and all my energy is focused on it. , I’m afraid I don’t have time to lead other projects.”

"Mr. Lei, don't refuse in a hurry!" Li Weidong smiled slightly. Then he said: "Mr. Lei, I know that you have been working hard for Kingsoft to be listed for so many years. Now it seems that Kingsoft's IPO will definitely be successful. After Kingsoft is successfully listed, what are your follow-up plans? In other words, what is your next goal in life?”

When the words "goal in life" were mentioned, Mr. Lei was slightly startled.

Over the years, he has been working hard for Kingsoft to be listed. When it comes to Kingsoft's listing, he really has no new goals planned.

Li Weidong continued: "With all due respect, I think Kingsoft's development strategy is too conservative. It is also because of this conservatism that the upper limit of Kingsoft's development is not very high. It is already very good to complete the IPO.

In the future, Kingsoft will at most spin off its businesses and then list them on the market, and this is at the level of capital operation and has little to do with product manufacturing. Of course you can make a lot of money through capital operations, but Mr. Lei, playing with capital may not be what you want, right? "

Mr. Lei did not speak, which was equivalent to acquiescing to Li Weidong's statement.

Rather than engaging in capital operations, he prefers to make products and use products to change people's lives. That's why Xiaomi started by making mobile phones and gradually extended it to the entire smart home field. In this regard, even Apple is not as good as Millet.

As Li Weidong said, it is indeed difficult for Jinshan to make big breakthroughs in business now.

Looking at Kingsoft's development path, although it is a veteran technology company in China, it has been obsessed with computer software and has always been slow in the Internet.

Kingsoft missed out on instant messaging software; Kingsoft missed out on in the portal era; Kingsoft missed out on in the e-commerce platform era; and even in terms of game development, there was only one IP called Swordsman Love, which had been speculated for twenty years.

Think about other Internet tycoons. When they see something with development potential, they immediately invest money in it. If they know how to do it, they will create something original, and if they don’t know how, they will copy it.

In comparison, Kingsoft's business strategy is indeed too conservative.

The situation of Kingsoft is relatively complicated. In the early days, Kingsoft was a Hong Kong company. Later, Kingsoft merged with Founder Group, while the mainland part was independent and established Kingsoft Computer. In 1998, Lenovo invested in Kingsoft and became the largest shareholder, reorganizing Kingsoft.

In 2000, Kingsoft underwent a joint-stock restructuring, and it was only then that Rebus became Kingsoft’s president. After that, Kingsoft began to seek IPO listing work, and it took eight years to successfully go public.

Judging from the development history of Kingsoft, the company's ownership is constantly changing, which will inevitably affect the development of the company, and the company's management may not have too much real power.

To put it simply, the company's development direction is not decided by the management itself, and the boss above changes people every few days, so naturally there is no long-term strategic plan.

Perhaps Mr. Lei has never fully recognized Kingsoft's strategic planning and management philosophy, so he resigned as CEO after Kingsoft went public.

When Mr. Lei returned to Kingsoft as chairman a few years later, the first thing he did was to make a thorough reform. From product focus to development direction, from system construction to corporate culture, everything was changed.

Kingsoft has also successfully transformed from a software company to an Internet company, with annual revenue rising from less than 1 billion yuan to 12 billion yuan.

Anyone who has watched "Wind and Cloud" must have heard the phrase "golden scales are not a thing in the pond." It is most suitable to apply to Mr. Lei. The current Jinshan Company can no longer raise a big fish like Mr. Lei. Yes, Rebus needs a bigger stage!

Li Weidong said impassionedly: "Mr. Lei, the current Jinshan Company is no longer suitable for you. You need a stage with full autonomy to give full play to your talents!

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, they all changed the world. And I asked you to be my partner because I think you will be the next person to change the world! "

Li Weidong's praise is a bit exaggerated. In 2007, when it comes to the next person who will change the world, people will definitely think of Zuckerberg. A few years later, they will definitely think of Elon Musk. It is not Rebus's turn. on the head.

But Li Weidong's words made Mr. Lei feel a fire of hope burning in his chest.

Human beings all have desires, but different people have different desires. The poor pursue food and clothing, ordinary people hope to live a prosperous life, the middle class longs for the luxurious life of the rich, and the rich desire to live longer.

For Mr. Lei, using his own abilities to change the world is the desire hidden in his heart.

Mr. Lei sighed softly, and then said, "Chairman Li, can you give me some time so that I can think about it carefully."

"Okay, then I'll wait for Mr. Lei's good news!" Li Weidong smiled and nodded, knowing that he was more than half successful.

To deal with such idealistic people, talking about money or relationships may not be effective. It is better to just talk about how to contribute to the development of mankind!