Top of the big era

The technology industry is everything in Silicon Valley. Over time, this region will become a large common group and fall into the dilemma of group thinking.

Uniformity is easy to become complacent, while diversification can lead to greater innovation. Because creativity often does not come from the industry, but inspiration from other fields.

Silicon Valley's industrial structure is too single.

New York is different. It is the center of finance, advertising, media, fashion and many other industries. It has rich and diverse art and cultural venues, convenient transportation, restaurants, cafes, theaters, bars everywhere...

In Silicon Valley, as long as you show up at a cocktail party in a suit and tie, everyone will know that you are a practitioner in the technology industry; but it is different in New York. Even if you have achieved some success in the industry, no one will know what you do. , this is the charm of diversity.

This provides people with a "spectator's perspective" to observe the world calmly, rather than "not knowing the true face of Mount Lu, just because I am in this mountain."

This is especially true in the gaming industry.

Zhou Buqi's foresight only knows a few well-known games, such as "Plants vs. Zombies", "Angry Birds", "Minecraft", "Fruit Ninja"... none of them are from Silicon Valley, and even They come from small places like Finland, Sweden, and Australia.

The whole world is learning from Silicon Valley and building various industrial parks. Many local leaders follow the example of a cat and act like a tiger, and whatever they think comes out. London, Hamburg, and Paris are all building "mini Silicon Valleys" in an attempt to compete with Silicon Valley giants. How can a copycat version beat the original version?

In the past few years since Zhou Buqi has been operating in Silicon Valley, he has increasingly felt the shortcomings of the Silicon Valley model.

Coupled with a certain amount of foresight, it is enough to make the most correct judgment.

In the past, the Internet industry was Copy_to_China, which was to see what good projects there were in foreign countries, and then copy them to China to make money; in the future Internet industry, it was Copy_from_China, to see what good projects there were in China, and then copy them to start businesses abroad.

Just like the e-commerce field.

After the emergence of Pinduoduo in China, they relied on the "cut with a knife" style of attack, rushing and beating all the way, and beat Alibaba into a mess, which was like a business miracle.

Later, many imitated products appeared abroad, and some did quite well. For example, wish has hundreds of millions of users.

But the good times didn't last long.

Because the "genuine" is gone.

Pinduoduo has launched an overseas version, and the first market it targets is the hardest nut to crack - the US market.

It also played the notorious "cut with one knife" style of play in China, and then made Americans stupid and crazy. They were obsessed with it and couldn't extricate themselves. It basically swept the entire low-end market and then moved towards it. Amazon's main position launched a charge.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon.

Domestic young people born in the 80s and 90s have grown up. Entrepreneurs of this generation are much more powerful than the older generation. They have all received the best education, have studied abroad, and are well versed in both China and the West. When competing, It is easier to learn from each other’s strong points to compensate for weaknesses; the domestic market is saturated, and in order to create greater profits, one can only focus on overseas markets; as the domestic regulatory and business environment becomes more and more urgent, it will be easier to do business abroad...

However, this is not the main factor.

The fundamental reason is the decline of Silicon Valley itself.

The geographically unified industrial structure of Silicon Valley is equivalent to everyone being in the same well, and all the frogs at the bottom see the same sky. The resulting group thinking will not be conducive to industrial innovation.

Later, they also discovered that within a few years, more and more technology companies would move out of Silicon Valley.

A ruthless person like Musk simply moved his headquarters out of Silicon Valley.

Other large companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Twitter, and LinkedIn have adopted a dual-headquarters system and began to focus on New York, hoping to use New York, a diverse and rich city, to reshape the entire business. The industrial capabilities and innovative thinking of the industry.

However, it is only 2011, and the people in Silicon Valley are still smugly immersed in the joy of another era of Silicon Valley technology wave, and are not aware of the structural risks of this industry.

Zhou Buqi now has the opportunity to set up in New York, so he must seize it!

There are also four major factors.

First, in order to attract technology companies to invest and develop here, New York has provided excellent economic development subsidies and tax incentives.

At present, Silicon Valley companies have branches in New York. They are actually very small offices and only employ a very small number of employees. Most of them are marketing and sales personnel, who use them to get closer to customers in New York.

This is obviously not enough.

The New York City government hopes to have real technological talents settle here. High-paid technological talents can bring vigorous development to the surrounding catering, real estate, transportation, entertainment and other industries.

New York universities can produce 4,500 computer science students every year. Losing so many talents to the West Coast is a huge loss to the technology industry on the East Coast.

So this time the New York City government made great determination.

Develop the technology industry in New York and make money!

Second, the streaming media company Spotify.

With the support of Ziweixing International, Spotify is developing very fast. The small country of Sweden cannot meet the needs of the global development of this product, and even the United Kingdom is not enough.

New York is the music center of the world.

Spotify's nominal headquarters may remain in Stockholm, Sweden. But the actual headquarters must be opened in New York. This is the capital of music, so it can be more convenient to conduct business.

Third, Purple Star Global has completed the acquisition of EMI Records. All processes and procedures have been completed. EMI Records has officially become part of Purple Star Global Group.

The next thing to do is to solve the stubborn problems that EMI Records has had in the past few years, such as bloated personnel, low efficiency, complicated workplace politics, factional competition among British and American management, etc.

EMI Records has two main businesses.

One is the music business and the other is the distribution business.

The music business is in London and the distribution business is in New York. This pattern of "British and American confrontation" and "two powers competing for hegemony" has made EMI's internal affairs very chaotic.

Zhou Buqi's solution was straightforward.

No one should argue!

Give me a break!

Split it directly!

Split out the distribution business of EMI Records and then integrate it into the distribution business department of Ziweixing Global to become a sub-department of music distribution.

There are also many songs and soundtracks in Hollywood movies, and the distribution work will be unified by this distribution department.

EMI Records and several of its music studios are dedicated to making good music.

Four, take a swim.

Zhou Buqi is going to be the chairman himself, and he must plan the game industry carefully.

In the past, he wanted to "cultivate" Lao Zhang.

But Lao Zhang is not very good at it.

Then just do it yourself!

Changyou’s domestic business is actually not too difficult. Although the current CEO Wang Fang has made a big mistake and turned management into a cultivator, this is all trivial and can be easily solved.

The real difficulty is the development of Changyou's game business in the global market.

If you want to do well in the global market, you must have a unified operations center. New York, where reality is like a game, is the best choice.

And more importantly, it's close to Wall Street.

There are the largest number of financiers here.

Zhou Buqi has always been obsessed with the combination of "games + finance". If Lao Zhang is not willing to do it, then he will go into battle himself.

Obviously, Lao Zhang gradually realized this.

Zhou Buqi has properly handled Changyou's affairs, and the layout of New York will not happen overnight. He plans to go to the UK first, talk to the people at Spotify, and go to a Manchester United game by the way.

Very important.

This is the League Cup final.

It was held at Wembley Stadium, and the two sides were in the classic "double red club", Manchester United VS Liverpool!

Liverpool have not won a championship for 6 years. They have just changed their owners and have a new atmosphere. Ferguson regarded Liverpool as his mortal enemy all his life, and of course he would not allow this to happen. He called Zhou Buqi specifically and said that he hoped he could come to witness Manchester United win the championship!

The League Cup is a tasteless event in the UK, and the final is usually held in February.

For many powerful teams, they do not attach much importance to this event and will carry out large-scale rotations to allow the team to have more physical strength and energy to cope with league and Champions League games.

It is more about sending the second team and young players to participate in the League Cup.

Because of the lack of attention, Manchester United has not won the League Cup since Zhou Buqi took over. This year is different. A few years after Zhou Buqi took charge of Manchester United, the thickness of the team's lineup has been greatly strengthened.

The substitute lineup is enough to get through all the way to the finals.

On February 28th, the "Double Red Club" will be staged. Zhou Buqi will go to London to watch football. He may have a chance to win his first League Cup trophy after taking over Manchester United.

However, the night before leaving, Zhang Chaoyang talked to him about Changyou's plan to set up an overseas headquarters in New York.

"You arranged Changyou in New York. Are you targeting Wall Street? Do you want to get involved in finance?"

Zhang Chaoyang had some vague guesses.

Zhou Buqi smiled half-heartedly, "What do you mean by this? The end of technology is finance."

Zhang Chaoyang gritted his teeth and said: "Looking at your expression, I must have guessed it right! You want to build your 'game + finance' plan, right? Well, blockchain finance!"

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "Yes, I have this idea. If I just make some online games, web games, mobile games, etc. to make money, it would be too easy for me and not challenging. If I want to do it, I will do something Something that changes the world.”

"Games still want to change the world?"

"It may not be possible. The game itself is a virtual world. Have you never seen a science fiction movie? The future must be a combination of the virtual world and the real world. Today's games are all virtual, and future games may not be able to be related to reality."

Zhang Chaoyang was a little dizzy, "Is it blockchain? Is it reliable?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Bitcoin, haven't you paid attention? There seem to be three Bitcoin trading platforms now, and the largest one was developed by Ziweixing."

Zhang Chaoyang said: "One dollar can buy 10 Bitcoins, what's the value? If it's connected to the game, it's better to have built-in advertising in the game."

Zhou Buqi said: "Don't worry, take your time and watch, you will know later. Besides, even if you fail, you won't lose much money. I will make back the little money you lose ten times or a hundred times. Okay? It’s just a game, it’s not difficult for me!”