Reinventing the Millennium

As soon as the Lantern Festival is over, everything moves forward.

Overall, Fang Zhuo is quite satisfied with this year.

It’s the Chinese New Year. I received a big red envelope from Pony, met my happy relatives, made new progress on the social platform, and made a breakthrough in the key progress of the ice core manufacturing process. Except for the fact that there is no new news about mobile phones, everything is good.

On the morning of March 5, Fang Zhuo arrived at Hang Lung 23.

He sat in his office and took a few sips of tea before he began arranging for the media to silence Ice Core. The "Semiconductor Technology" manuscripts that had appeared on the Internet were withdrawn from the official website and blog, and the complimentary words that had not yet been published in this bimonthly magazine were not used. On the page again.

In addition, industry media and various mainstream media have also asked people to say hello. The wafer fabs in the three regions of Bingxin will not accept interviews and do not need to carry out relevant reports.

It is impossible to hide the news that ice core has completed 65nm trial production and related future production capacity in the industry, but public opinion should be as low-key as possible and not make such a big noise.

Compared with the high profile that social platforms and Yike Mobile can have, Bingxin is better off doing things quietly.

With this in mind, Fang Zhuo decided to contact the Yike President Office to contact his fellow portal colleagues. Many short and long reports have been reprinted by everyone.

Everything else was easy to say, except that Penguin, who had just had a quarrel with him, was non-committal.

Fang Zhuo knew about the antagonism between them, so the administrator came to contact him, and Penguin soon became cocoa.

Near noon, just as he was about to make a call to Silicon Valley, IDG President Xiong Xiaoge called in.

"Mr. Xiong, please speak." Fang Zhuo was very polite.

"About Weibo Company's financing, what are the articles of association?" Xiong Xiaoge heard that Mr. Fang was so polite and didn't know why. She always felt that he was blaming her.

"This is led by Sina. Wang Yan will handle it after Weibo's activities for this month are completed." Fang Zhuo replied.

Weibo has arranged many activities for March, this and that, which can be summed up as "new year activities".

At present, Weibo Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sina, and it also uses the name "Sina Weibo" to attract traffic, but the domain name is weibo.com.

Xiong Xiaoge didn't want to hear any clichés on the phone. He asked directly: "What's the size of the first round of financing? I want to hear what you mean."

Fang Zhuoyan said concisely and concisely: "All in."

"All in?" Xiong Xiaoge hesitated for a few seconds.

"Just invest whatever you took from Penguin in the first round. There is no need to divide it into multiple rounds. There is no need to pay more for the time being. It's all given by Penguin anyway." Fang Zhuo expressed his meaning calmly.

Xiong Xiaoge wants to invest, and this is the way he invests...

Fang Zhuo waited for three seconds, but did not hear Lao Xiong's voice, and continued: "To be honest, Lao Xiong, who from Goldman Sachs called me two days ago? He asked about the financing earlier than you. Well, I thought that Lao Xiong is the number one investor in the country, so I have to take the lead no matter what."

Xiong Xiaoge was not reluctant to invest, but he just felt such a competitive signal: "Mr. Fang, do you think Weibo still needs a lot of subsequent financing? Doesn't Penguin still have a dating network? Will it turn its guns?"

"Whether it will happen or not, I don't know, but Zhang Chaoyang complained to me last week, saying that he had done something to support the enemy." Fang Zhuo paused, "I said, Sina and Sohu are brotherly units, so we can have Healthy competition, I guess Sohu may look at the development of platforms like Weibo before deciding whether to enter the market."

"What's the threshold for building such a social platform? Sohu can do it, NetEase can do it, all it takes is spending money."

"Obviously IDG was the first to come in contact with such a project. Do you want to regret it in the future because you invested less money and failed?"

"Old Xiong, let me put it this way, let's make an outline of 1.55 billion first. Whether you can succeed in the future depends on your courage."

Competition in social networks is quite expensive.

The time, resources, and funds in the early stage are very critical, and it will be much better after such a period of time.

This is what Fang Zhuo said years ago, "Seize the window of time, increase resources, and spend a lot of money to work hard."

You don't just say it casually, you really have to do it.

Xiong Xiaoge once again clearly felt Mr. Fang’s determination: “It is Mr. Fang, the richest man in the Mainland, who can give me determination. In this way, when I talk to IDG partners about investment again, I will tell them exactly what you said. .”

"The richest man in the mainland is all supported by his friends. Without the support of the country's number one investor, I wouldn't be where I am now." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.

"Later this month, I will meet and chat with Wang Yan again." Xiong Xiaoge finally said.

Fang Zhuo was incompetent, Wang Yan was supposed to do this.

He ended the call with Lao Xiong, thought for a while, and called Wang Fengyi, who was also a candidate for the number one investor in the country.

This call is much simpler.

"Brother Wang, at the end of the month and the beginning of the month, Weibo will raise funds."

Wang Fengyi asked: "How to vote?"

Fang Zhuo still had the same opinion: "All in."

Wang Fengyi replied simply: "Okay."

Fang Zhuo was just about to say a few words before hanging up the phone, when the person on the other end suddenly hesitated.

"Wait a minute, Mr. Fang." Wang Fengyi said hesitantly.

Fang Zhuo was surprised: "Brother Wang, tell me."

"This money will be invested after Shenxin Technology has finished its first quarter performance report, right?" Wang Fengyi asked.

Fang Zhuo also agreed: "Okay."

In this way, the general situation of Weibo’s first round of financing has been basically finalized.

In fact, there are other investment friends calling to inquire about financing after Weibo went online these days, but these three companies have been cooperating for a long time, and only Series B will decide whether to introduce new investors based on the situation.

He originally wanted to have lunch with Su Wei on the 22nd floor, but the executive meeting downstairs was delayed, so Fang Zhuo had to eat some semiconductor information.

Before the meal was finished, Zheng Yingfeng, the person whom the electronics department contacted last time, called again.

Zheng Yingfeng only gave a brief notice last time, but this time it was a more detailed and even cumbersome discussion. The topic was one-what is needed for ice cores?

This person's position does not talk about policy, industry, or international competition. He just asks whether there are any concrete needs that can be implemented.

For example, after the production capacity of 65nm is formed, which domestic fields can place orders.

For example, can the universities that cooperate with ice core provide more efforts?

Zheng Yingfeng was very serious and even said without too much concealment that there was enough room in the price.

Fang Zhuo actually has no worries about filling the ice core production capacity. 65nm will be the first-line process this year and next year, and buyers are relatively easy to find. Moreover, an important reason why he skipped the 90nm process in the first place is that the cost of 65nm is almost the same as that of 90nm. It can also form a price advantage as the yield rate increases.

In other words, even if it is difficult to compete with the mature 65nm of Taiwanese and UMC, it can still take advantage of other manufacturers' 90nm share.

Process is justice!

The call lasted for a long time. Zheng Yingfeng had a good impression of Mr. Fang, who was able to deal with various situations easily. Fang Zhuo also felt that the young leader of the electronics department had a very down-to-earth style of work.

Before going to the United States, Fang Zhuo would go to the capital to report to his leaders in person, so he made an appointment with Zheng Yingfeng to further discuss the actual needs for ice cores.

At that time, we will see if the situation can be considered as a good friend.

Finally, before hanging up the phone, Zheng Yingfeng revealed the news that in addition to supporting enterprises, the current research is also taking the city's positioning and considerations as an issue. Everyone hopes that Bingxin can continue its efforts.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Su Wei, who had had a quick lunch, went upstairs to visit Boss Fang.

"President Fang, we plan to launch another warehousing center in the first half of the year to open up the connection to the southwest." Su Wei mentioned the content of today's meeting.

Fang Zhuo praised: "Good thing, Mr. Su has worked hard. He deserves to be the number one e-commerce president in the country."

Su Wei smiled: "Mr. Fang likes to praise people more and more now. Sun Tongyu will definitely not agree with this title."

"The development of Taobao is really good." Fang Zhuo also did not hesitate to praise his competitors. "It really stimulates the vitality of sellers and buyers."

"We also discussed a relatively sensitive topic today, whether Tesco is looking for opportunities to enter C2C." Su Wei became serious. Any e-commerce practitioner can see the prosperity of Taobao.

When Fang Zhuo heard this, he didn't hesitate and said with a smile: "C2C can be kept in mind for the time being and kill all the opponents in B2C first. If I get involved in C2C in the future, I hope to try it if there is enough traffic."

Dangdang in B2C is making great efforts to catch up. It may take more efforts to catch up, but the momentum is much stronger than before.

After a long period of integration between Joyo.com and Amazon China, after the Spring Festival this year, it finally became "JoyOmazon". The subsequent actions are worthy of more observation.

There are also offline rivals such as Suning and Gome, who are also ready to make moves.

But in general, Tesco has a pretty good competitive situation in the B2C track. You can do this well first and then consider competition in more directions.

Fang Zhuo and Su Wei discussed the situation of Tesco for a while, and then they checked Weibo together for a while.

The trend of worshiping the mountain head on Weibo is still alive, but more variants have emerged.

For example, "Fang Zhuo, I'm here, I want to marry you", "Mr. Fang, the house is sold and the fund is bought", "Come to see Mr. Fang from the friends network"...

Fang Zhuo didn't feel anything, but Su Wei was happy and felt a little bit of the joy of socializing with strangers.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Su Wei continued to deal with official business.

"When are you going to the capital?" She knew that Fang Zhuo was going to fly directly from the capital to New York.

"The initial date is the 18th. I don't know if there will be any changes." Fang Zhuo replied, "The mobile phone side has a very heavy task."

Yike's mobile phone needs someone to keep an eye on it. Yu Hong, who returned to China for vacation, returned to New York on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

"Then I'm looking forward to watching Mr. Fang's press conference from the video in June." Su Wei said with a smile, "After the press conference, you give me two working mobile phones. I want to try it with my own hands. It's worth it, Mr. Fang." What does the product you put your energy into actually look like?”

Fang Zhuo let out a breath, and before he knew it, it was more than three months before the press conference.

…

Early March.

The holidays for Bingxin employees are gradually coming to an end, and everyone is once again working towards the mass production goal.

The newly launched Weibo has shown good development momentum. The management team headed by Wang Xing extended its evil hand to a platform they are familiar with. This has received strong public backlash from Penguin.

It's too bullying. You Sina people don't have any bottom line in doing things?

However, Wang Xing remained silent on this and just continued to implement the strategy firmly.

Fang Zhuo stood aside and said nothing. After all, public opinion did not seem to show any sympathy for Penguin.

On March 16, just as he was preparing to fly to the capital in advance, new news suddenly appeared in the industry.

It’s not Sina and Penguin, it’s not Weibo and Dating.com, it’s Taobao and Paipai that are doing it!

First, a seller discovered that his store on Taobao had traffic and weight problems. Then he compared it with his peers and contacted Taobao. It was almost confirmed that this was the reason why he also opened a store on Paipai.com.

Soon, this happened more and more.

After groping and summarizing, everyone found that this was not a random move by Taobao. Most of the people who encountered this situation were sellers whose Taobao stores were better run than their Paipai stores.

In other words, it is easy for this type of seller to make a choice, and they will almost always choose Taobao, which has greater traffic and faster development.

This competitive approach caught Penguin off guard.

Because of the size gap, Penguin first released a mild statement - last year, we worked on eBay together, Ah Tao, have you forgotten?

Taobao's response is simple - I did it alone last year and it's nothing to do with you.

Along with the test of attitude, Taobao still unswervingly allowed sellers to make choices, and the latter did not surprise them. Some closed their Paipai.com stores, while others removed similar products from the shelves first.

This choice has not yet affected those sellers who are doing well on both sides, but the situation has become obvious and this scene will not be too far away.

Penguin escalated its public response and began to criticize its competitors' practices.

Taobao is not fazed at all, and even cited the previous example of competition between Dating.com and Friends.com, saying that Penguin should recognize commercial competition.

Later, some executives faced the media and still used this example, talking about users of Friends.com moving to Weibo.

“The natural flow of users on different platforms is like the free flow of merchants and sellers from Paipai.com to Taobao.”

"They recognize Taobao's prospects, it's that simple."

The competition between Taobao and Paipai has been quite overwhelming from the beginning. The latter is likely to be boiled in warm water and then die suddenly when faced with the loss of sellers.

Now, many people are speculating on Weibo, wondering whether Paipai.com can last for a year like Friends.com.

When Fang Zhuoren came to the capital and saw such a competitive scene, he felt it was too coke. This Taobao Paipai always had a sense of déjà vu as if Penguin had previously used its traffic advantage to defeat other competitors.

Just as practitioners and people were focusing on the dispute between the two companies in the e-commerce field, news from the United States made many Weibo netizens excited.

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Within one day, three U.S. subprime mortgage companies declared bankruptcy.

The impact of HSBC’s previous writedown of US$10.8 billion in related assets seems to have emerged.

Before everyone could @Mr. Fang, another more shocking news came. New Century Financial, the second largest subprime mortgage company in the United States, announced that it would lay off more than 50% of its employees.

There is even news that the company is not far away from filing for bankruptcy liquidation.

"Is this an impact? Is it the aftermath? Or is a storm brewing?"

“I don’t know why, but I suddenly became excited, @Fang Zhuo.”

"Lehman, are you okay?"