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The Qualcomm matter is not over yet.

Next, there needs to be some cooperation from the EU.

It would be best for all parties to work together.

If Qualcomm is left to fend for itself, it will be defeated quickly.

However, now that the topic has been brought to the confrontation between the European Union and American technology giants, Zhou Buqi naturally will not let it go, and said with some displeasure: "Ziweixing has always been developing the European market in a very friendly manner. You may It can be seen that we are more restrained than many companies in the United States. But I heard that you are organizing an investigation team to investigate Helo? "

Karel smiled and said: "That's true. However, we are not targeting Ziweixing, but... we hope to seek some opportunities for cooperation."

"cooperate?"

Zhou Buqi replied, waiting for the other party's explanation.

At this time, Ansip, another vice president who is responsible for the digital market, spoke up. He smiled and said: "You may also know that the EU recently intends to promote the unification of the European digital market and carry out reforms in policy, law and other aspects, so as to Reduce the operating costs of enterprises in the European market.”

The EU is different from China and the United States.

The European Union, as an economy, is composed of many countries.

Different countries have different cultures, different languages, not only that.

There are obvious differences among EU member states in terms of contract law, tax law, consumer protection law and copyright law, etc., which hinders online trade between EU countries. Many companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises and startups, need to face complex VAT regulations and dispute resolution processes.

This virtually creates difficulties and increases costs for business operations.

Small and medium-sized enterprises cannot play at all.

Ansip was a bit dogmatic and said according to the script: "Currently, only 15% of EU consumers choose to obtain goods and services from EU countries through cross-border online shopping, and only 7% of EU small and medium-sized enterprises carry out cross-border sales. Although the EU's potential consumer group reaches 500 million people, but with 28 different laws, the room for growth for European small and medium-sized companies is limited.”

After a pause, he continued reading like a manuscript: "In order to solve this series of problems, the European Commission proposed to unify the VAT management of commodity sales activities within the EU and significantly modify the existing rules of the telecommunications industry. Revise and harmonize the copyright laws and online content management of EU countries to create a good digital network service environment. This strategy creates a level playing field for enterprises in the unified market and enables European small and medium-sized enterprises to operate cross-border. At the same time, ensure that digital technology becomes an important driving force for European economic growth.”

Zhou Buqi was not interested in such a high-sounding statement, "But, what does this have to do with investigating Helo? Shouldn't you be investigating Qualcomm now?"

"No, no, this is not of the same nature." Ansip immediately explained, "The investigation of Helo is more of a research. In fact, in our plan, we are not only investigating Helo, but also Microsoft's Skype. Because When opening up the European digital market, there will be a lot of obstacles related to user privacy protection. As instant messaging, Helo and Skype can have the closest contact with users. We want to know what methods you use to protect user privacy. What strategies have been adopted.”

Zhou Buqi glanced at Tang Binchen, who was sitting aside and didn't say much.

It's relatively clear.

Instead of investigating Helo alone, there is another Microsoft product, Skype.

Zhou Buqi asked: "Data privacy does need to be taken seriously. In this regard, no one can do better than Ziweixing. From the day we developed the European market, we have established data centers in Europe and have also formed a A complete system to protect user privacy. Of course we can help if you need it. However, I heard that the Helo investigation is not just about user privacy, right?

Ansip nodded and said in a deep voice: "Indeed, there is another controversial topic surrounding operators. Instant messaging products like Helo and Skype use Internet services to bypass telecom operators. This It caused huge losses to the operators.”

"This is the result of market competition."

Zhou Buqi will not back down from this point.

Ansip said: "As far as I know, many Internet services provided by Helo have huge operating costs. Is this a fact?"

"indeed."

“How much is Helo’s annual operating cost in the European market?”

"At least 500 million euros."

Zhou Buqi had already learned about the situation on the way here.

Helo has 100 million daily active users in Europe and is the most popular Internet product here.

This also means that it will bring huge operating costs to Ziweixing International.

The cost is roughly divided into three parts: server depreciation cost, labor cost, broadband electricity bill and other costs.

Ansip frowned slightly, "With such a large cost investment, the services provided by Helo are free. What's the point of doing this? If it is ultra-low-price competition, it will be suspected of dumping and price monopoly. It will be harmful to "The existing economic structure in the market is causing serious damage."

This is the truth.

Zhou Buqi indeed thought so.

This is Helo's competitiveness.

Helo, an instant messaging product that bypasses operators, mainly bypasses the voice call and video call functions. Plus a picture transfer between users. These functions will generate a huge amount of data, require huge server load and broadband load, and the electricity bill alone will be tens of millions of euros.

That would be great!

The operating costs are too high, which means that if some emerging Internet startups appear in the market and provide services similar to Helo, even if they develop some interesting and novel features, it will be difficult for them to get ahead.

Because I can’t afford it!

It's too expensive.

In the early stages of the product, there was no profitability and all we had to do was burn money.

Those small and medium-sized enterprises can only be powerless and cannot provide users with so many high-quality services for free.

Products like Helo, WeChat, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook will continue to thrive.

For example, in the previous life, Snapchat was a very rare start-up company that emerged under the pressure of Facebook. Its functions were very limited and could only send some pictures or videos of a few seconds, and it was destroyed after reading... Therefore, it will burn after reading. This is not only the creativity of the product, but also the relief at the operational level.

After it is "burned", the huge bandwidth and server load will be released. In this way, the operational pressure will be reduced a lot.

You can save more money.

But even so, Snapchat has not been able to generate profits for more than ten years.

Helo is to provide many high-quality services for free. In traditional industries, it is suspected of being a dumping monopoly. That is, I produce a product and sell it in large quantities in the market at a price lower than cost. In this way, I kill all my competitors.

Wait until all competitors are dead, then slowly raise prices to dominate the market.

Many of the so-called Internet business models are transformed from traditional business fields.

Put on the cloak of an Internet.

He became taller.

It can scare people.

Zhou Buqi said: "The meaning of the Internet is point-to-point. This has nothing to do with dumping or bypassing operators. This is determined by the nature of the Internet itself. As an Internet company with dreams and pursuits, it is to provide users with the best Excellent service.”

Ansip said: "But this will cause the operator industry to be robbed and cause damage to the industrial structure."

"I don't think this is sabotage." Zhou Buqi also had his own reasons. "I know that many companies will act inappropriately when competing in the market. Some are monopolies, some are vicious dumping, and some are industry smear. Such behavior is indeed It should be severely restricted, as this will cause great damage to the industry. However, there is another model, which is to replace the old with the new and replace the backward with the advanced.”

"Even industrial upgrading, if done too quickly, will cause serious damage to existing industries."

Ansip's look is typical of European thinking.

Every day I dream of resting on my laurels.

This is still the big leader of the European Union.

Being suppressed by the United States for a long time and being caught up by China and South Korea is really not surprising at all.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Indeed, instant messaging products have blossomed everywhere in a short period of time, which has had a great impact on the traditional operator industry. However, we cannot ignore the theme of this era. This is the era of technology. All over the world It’s all like this, whether it’s China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, or Canada. If Europe restricts instant messaging products in order to protect backward operator models, the European technology industry will only get worse. ”

Ansip nodded, "I have no intention of helping operators to restrict instant messaging products, but operators are constantly exerting pressure and must take action to understand some situations first."

Zhou Buqi settled for the next best thing, "It's actually easy for me to say that I will definitely cooperate with your work actively. But the technology giants in the United States will definitely not agree. The operators are already products of the previous era." I think we should aim at Qualcomm in the short term to scare the monkeys and create a demonstration effect.”