Reinventing the Millennium

In mid-May, China’s Internet industry was not calm.

Google's working group led by a vice president visited well-known Internet companies in Eastern countries, including their direct competitor Baidu.

I don’t know exactly how it was discussed. The intriguing gossip heard by the outside world is that Baidu employees, under Li Yanhong’s order, invited many friends to top up the salary on the day of the Google team’s visit.

This gossip first spread on Sina and then spread to other people's ears.

Because Sina and Baidu are neighbors up and down, their offices are both in the Ideal International Building in Beijing. Google first visited Baidu, and then went to visit Sina upstairs.

It is said that a member of the Google team was surprised and asked Wang Yan, President of Sina, whether it was because there was a shortage of Internet talents in China that two companies used the same engineer.

Wang Yan was confused and vague. When he asked after they left, he found out that his employees went downstairs to support Baidu, but unexpectedly they met at the door of Sina's office.

The president of Sina was helpless. For a while, he didn’t know whether Google had overlooked the concerns downstairs.

But no matter how ambitious Google is for the Chinese search engine market, they are indeed very serious and polite in monitoring the development of China's Internet industry. One of the key contents is the way in which enterprises and administration get along.

Baidu is ready to face competition and is considering opening a new round of financing in advance to replenish its ammunition.

Even though Dangdang, another company that had recently reached a cooperation with Yike Investment, had obtained the ammunition, it was in a state of disarray after discovering that foreign giants had stopped participating in the competition.

On May 24, Amazon announced that it had officially completed the acquisition of Joyo.com. The latter's dominance had changed hands from Kingsoft and Leijun, and it quickly targeted Dangdang, which has similar businesses.

Lei Jun resigned as chairman and was unwilling to be interviewed. He only left the reporter with an answer of "give me some time to slow down."

The next day, eBay President Whitman, who visited China and served as a special guest at this Internet industry development conference, faced the media and said with a smile: "There will be a large group of small competitors in the Chinese market, and they will only hit eBay's ankles. eBay’s market offensive will undoubtedly defeat its opponents.”

In the middle of 2004, the word "Internet" was particularly popular after the bubble, and the concept of e-commerce also resounded throughout the industry.

At the same time, foreign capital has entered the market, whether through acquisitions, equity participation, or competition, and is also eyeing a piece of the pie that needs to be expanded.

On May 27, the China Internet Industry Development Conference was held in Lin'an. Internet tycoons gathered, heads of major domestic companies were present, and foreign giants coming to China also served as guests with great momentum.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the open-air venue on the edge of the West Lake was full of distinguished guests, and the canopy was like clouds.

At the same time, a car from Shanghai Airport sped into Lin'an city.

At 9:10 am, the Internet Industry Development Conference officially opened.

First, the local leaders of Lin'an gave a warm speech, welcoming domestic and foreign guests to Hangzhou and introducing investment policies and industrial clusters.

Then Google Vice President Darren and eBay President Whitman took the stage to speak as special guests.

Google Vice President Darren once again declared Google's principle of mutual benefit and openness and inclusiveness, as he had previously visited well-known enterprises in China, and also expressed his optimism for China's emerging markets.

All the guests gave enthusiastic applause. Even Baidu’s Li Yanhong did not hesitate to applaud while seriously considering Google’s cooperation conditions.

When Whitman came to power, unlike Google, which had not yet entered the market, the president of eBay, who had already launched an impact on domestic e-commerce, made everyone's eyes somewhat complicated.

"The Chinese market has huge potential."

"eBay is the world's largest online trading platform."

"EBay and I came to China to apply the company's mature experience to this emerging market."

"eBay acquired eBay last year, and will make bigger moves to help China's e-commerce continue to develop."

Whitman did not speak quickly, but his attitude was direct and decisive.

Even though some of the words made the guests in the audience uncomfortable, the scale of eBay is still awe-inspiring.

This year, eBay's stock price reached a new high, and its market value soared to $70 billion.

This is a dazzling number.

Precisely because eBay led by Whitman has grown so rapidly, she is also called the "godmother of e-commerce" by many foreign media and business people.

The godmother talked eloquently on the stage, proudly talking about eBay's successful experience and confident in leading China's e-commerce in the right direction.

Dangdang Li Guoqing in the audience felt very uncomfortable when he heard this. Today he specially sat next to Sina President Wang Yan. While Whitman was interacting with others, he quietly asked Wang Yan: "Isn't President Fang coming today?" ?”

Wang Yan nodded slightly and replied: "We are on the way, we should be there soon. There is no direct flight from New York to Lin'an. We need to get to Shanghai and then come to Lin'an."

Li Guoqing sighed. eBay's offensive was very fierce. In the interview on the 25th, Whitman also clearly mentioned Dangdang and Joyo.com, regarding these two as competitors in the Chinese market.

Being targeted by an international giant with a market capitalization of US$70 billion made him feel itchy down his spine.

Whitman's speech on stage was quite lengthy, and he also spontaneously interacted with the guests.

At 10:10, the godmother of e-commerce finished her speech and slowly walked off the stage, receiving a lot of applause.

As a local company hosting this conference, Taobao's Ma Ren was the fourth person to speak on stage.

However, just as he said hello to the guests in the audience, he saw a group of people hurrying into the West Lake venue accompanied by two leaders.

Ma Ren stopped speaking, smiled, and looked at Fang Zhuo who had arrived at the meeting.

The guests in the audience looked at the interrupted speech and looked back along the line of sight.

The people in the front row looked back, and the people in the back row looked at the front row in exactly the same way. Everyone looked at the head of Sina and Chairman of Yike who had returned from New York.

"Mr. Fang is here!"

"Why is Mr. Fang so late?"

"Just got off the plane, right?"

"Mr. Fang, long time no see."

The guests greeted each other loudly, and the scene changed from commotion to liveliness.

Fang Zhuo smiled and nodded, chatting as he walked, and arrived at the first row accompanied by Director Liu of the Municipal Office.

Both eBay's Whitman and Google's Darren were a little confused. The person who came was quite young, but the appearance was quite grand. Who was he?

Soon, someone next to them answered the question, and they realized that the person coming was the richest man in mainland China.

"Sorry, I'm late. The plane is in a hurry."

When Fang Zhuo arrived in the first row, he didn't sit down immediately. He turned around and apologized to the guests he knew and didn't know.

There was another voice in the venue, so naturally he didn't mind the response.

"Director Liu, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Fang Zhuo thanked the leader of the municipal office again. This Director Liu was the leader he contacted when he inspected the city where the production line was launched in Lin'an last year. This time he came to Lin'an from Shanghai, and he came to Lin'an again. We made a special trip to pick you up at the airport, which was really gracious.

"Oh, why are you so polite? Sit down, sit down, let's talk if you have something to say." Director Liu laughed, and then walked back along the side aisle.

Fang Zhuo then sat down and found that the row reserved for him was occupied by Ma Huateng, Ding Lei, Zhang Chaoyang, Li Yanhong and others, and the row behind was occupied by Wang Yan, Li Guoqing and others.

"Mr. Fang, you are finally here."

Ma Ren on the stage did not continue to speak. He waited for Fang Zhuo to sit down before he smiled and said, "You have to come on stage to talk."

Fang Zhuo waved his hand and refused: "I just came here and I can't figure out what's going on. What did Mr. Ma ask me to say? I have to hear how Mr. Ma showed us his loyalty as a landlord."

Ma Chen picked up the microphone and laughed and said: "I was really worried about the friendship between landlords, but as soon as Mr. Fang came, I wasn't worried at all."

He continued to say meaningfully: "I think it is very appropriate for Mr. Fang to speak now. I heard that Mr. Fang invested in Dangdang's Yike. I have always been curious about Mr. Fang's understanding of e-commerce. I can't lift Mr. Fang up by myself. I am welcomed with everyone’s applause.”

Ma Chen put down the microphone and was the first to applaud.

In an instant, Fang Zhuo had to raise his right hand to thank everyone for their enthusiasm.

Ma Ren sat in the empty seat next to Fang Zhuo and smiled as he watched this person take the stage.

"Hello everyone, my name is Fang Zhuo."

In one sentence, there was another welcome round of applause from the audience.

Fang Zhuo held the microphone and felt comfortable.

Where is this place?

Lin'an.

My hometown (note: second).

What could be more pleasant than receiving applause and welcome from everyone in your hometown?

What's more, China's Internet industry is so booming. Compared with semiconductors, which have been struggling for a long time, there are still a lot of equipment that have not been purchased. Standing on this stage and looking down, tsk, there are so many talents.

Two horses and one plum.

Three major portals.

Oh, Dongzi is here too.

Hey, why does Lei Jun look so sad?

The man in red is probably Zhou Hongyi who sold 3721 to Yahoo last year.

Well, does Wang Xing, who is sitting so far back, not have much hair at this time?

Fang Zhuo's eyes swept across the audience, and he felt an inexplicable surge in his heart when he saw the representatives of China's future Internet who were young, depressed, fighting and longing.

He also saw several foreigners in the first row on the left, but he didn't quite know where they were coming from.

The applause caused by the name of the first sentence gradually stopped.

Fang Zhuo directly talked about some of his thoughts on the development of the Internet: "I flew back from New York yesterday, and I was thinking about what to say this time."

"Two years ago, I said the spring of the Internet was coming."

“The bubble sweeping the world was blown away by the spring breeze, and everything flourished, including portals, search, e-commerce, online games, and online travel. It felt like in the blink of an eye, the Internet quickly spread its branches to many industries.”

"It's so diverse and full of life."

"This is a great era for the development of China's Internet, and it is also the best opportunity for everyone here to realize their personal values ​​and ideals."

"China's Internet needs to be developed and explored, but it must strive to grow based on local conditions."

Fang Zhuo paused for a moment when he said this, and obviously noticed that the faces of some people in the audience became more focused because of his words.

Um?

What happened just now?

An idea flashed through Fang Zhuo's mind, and he continued without thinking about it: "I have talked about our Internet development on many occasions before, saying that there is a more basic logic behind this dazzling array."

"Take Taobao and Dangdang as examples. What is the most basic thing about selling goods, books, and commodities?"

"It relies on the Internet to connect people and goods."

"What about people?"

"Tencent is engaged in social activities using the Internet."

“What about people and information?”

"Portals provide information content, BBS provide information content, and search engines like Baidu play a great role and value as a bridge between the two."

“People, goods, people, information.”

“The closer the Internet companies that extend from these are to the infrastructure, the more value they can create.”

"Just now, Mr. Ma asked me what I think of e-commerce after investing in Dangdang."

"I'm looking at it optimistically."

"Who knows best what goods and information people in China need, and how they want to deal with others?"

"One of our own."

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "Only our local down-to-earth people can know how to run their own business. I am extremely convinced of this. Any company that wants to surpass our local companies and cheat on the rules will be punished by arrogance. "

"I'm in a hurry today, so I'm just going to talk briefly."

"The location chosen for this year's development conference is very good. The weather in Lin'an in May makes it feel like everyone is ushering in the Internet summer together."

“In the spring, the grass grows and the orioles fly, and in the summer, the scenery is full of wonders and beauty.”

Fang Zhuo put the microphone back in place and finally said: "I hope that the summer of China Internet can be longer and longer. I believe that China's market with a population of more than one billion will shake the world."

"Thank you everyone. This time you come here to inspect more of our business environment in Lin'an. It is absolutely first-class."

Fang Zhuo said something more with a smile, waved and walked off the stage.

Whitman, the CEO of a giant with a market capitalization of US$70 billion, has enough qualifications to be condescending. Her previous speech was like a dark cloud that more or less filled the hearts of many guests.

But Mr. Fang, who said "Spring is here", stood on the stage, as enthusiastic, confident and optimistic as ever, almost shining next month's summer sunshine into the venue in advance.

From the opening to now, the warmest applause goes to the most confident people.

Fang Zhuo was sitting in his seat, listening to the long-lasting applause. He couldn't help turning his head and asked Ding Lei next to him: "Everyone has such a big reaction? Were you bullied just now? Mr. Ding, are you here?" Go up and talk?"

NetEase's stock price performance in the past two years has been quite impressive, and its current market value is higher than Sina.

Ding Lei said with a smile: "No, I'm stupid, I can't tell you what you are like, Mr. Fang."

He felt that even if he went on stage with Mr. Fang's manuscript just now, it would be difficult to replicate his wanton and confident posture.

When did this start?

Ding Lei thinks it started with the open letter from Sina CEO that was circulated in the industry.

Fang Zhuo looked at Ma Huateng, who pointed to his lips, feeling ashamed.

At this time, Sohu's Zhang Chaoyang also turned his head and said, "Is Mr. Fang going to enter e-commerce to compete for fame?"

Fang Zhuo smiled: "I just think this kind of summer will be more interesting. It doesn't matter whether we end or not."

It doesn't matter whether he plays or not. The first interesting point is that Sina is talking about Sohu's NBA contract due this year.