2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 875 "All in!"

The Microsoft campus in Redmond.

When 55-year-old Lu Qi met this rising young entrepreneur for the first time, he smiled and carefully looked him over.

This is in his office. We originally planned to meet at the coffee shop downstairs, which would have been more relaxed, but considering the number of people coming and going, it would have caused too much disruption.

"President Tan is in great shape."

Tan Jincheng is neither tall nor short, about 178 cm with shoes on. His years of management experience have given him a unique temperament.

With a well-proportioned figure and a handsome face that has lost its youthful naiveté, he is even more charming than before, now that he has just turned 30.

Before Tan Jincheng rose to prominence, Li Yanhong, Tan Jincheng's current competitor, was often referred to as the most handsome entrepreneur. However, now that there is a younger and more handsome one, there is no longer any room for debate.

"President Lu's thoughts are somewhat different from mine."

While Lu Qi was sizing up Tan Jincheng, he was also observing this big shot. He was thin, wore glasses, but had a very good mental state and looked refined.

In Silicon Valley's Chinese community, there's a saying: "Entering Silicon Valley, my heart races; a used car, constantly on the go; in my early thirties, my hair is already quite gray."

Compared to the plight of most people, Lu Qi is a legend. His presence and appointments at globally renowned companies such as IBM, Yahoo, and Microsoft are big news in the internet circles of both countries.

He is the highest-ranking Chinese executive among American tech giants. Ballmer praised him as a rare genius in the industry, the driving force behind Microsoft's Bing search engine, and he owns more than 20 patents.

Each of his departures has been a blow to tech companies, including Yahoo and Microsoft.

However, compared to those internet moguls who have gone viral, he is a rather 'unusual' figure. Lu Qi rarely gives interviews and seldom appears in public meetings.

To describe him in one sentence, it would be that although he is no longer active in the martial arts world, his legend lives on everywhere.

Lu Qi smiled and gestured for Tan Jincheng to sit down and talk: "What are the differences?"

"You are thinner than I expected, but you are in great spirits and look very young."

Lu Qi maintained a smile throughout: "Your good mental state is probably related to the fact that you don't have any work scheduled recently. As for being thin, it's probably related to your constitution?"

Lu Qi's term ends at the end of this month. He joined Microsoft in 2008 and made significant contributions to the company over the past eight years. There has been much speculation in the internet circles of both countries about where he will go next.

"That's really great. A body that doesn't get fat is something many people envy."

That's what Lu Qi said, but his constitution is probably related to his experiences when he was young. Born in Shanghai, Lu Qi didn't have a good life during that special era.

In that era of complex environment and scarcity of resources, for a long time he studied hard just to find a job that would allow him to have enough to eat.

How could someone grow up to be fat in such an environment?

The two chatted casually, talking about trivial matters. Lu Qi knew the purpose of Tan Jincheng's visit, but he had not yet made a decision. In addition to Baidu's invitation to join, companies such as Tencent and Uber had also extended offers to him.

In addition, Lu Qi also considered becoming an independent investor and returning to China to do some investment.

Regardless, Lu Qi's next destination will definitely be in China. At 55 years old, it's time for him to consider returning to China to settle down.

The two sat down and chatted for a while before getting down to business. Lu Qi found that this young man had a deep understanding of the Internet. Although he didn't understand the technology and his explanations of some technical terms were somewhat ambiguous, his understanding of application scenarios was still very profound.

His understanding of AI and employment is particularly valuable.

"AI is likely to exacerbate job displacement, such as in text editing and graphics processing, which could lead to discrimination or social injustice. However, technological innovation can also bring many benefits."

"For example, the intelligent driving and driverless driving that we are currently working on."

Advanced intelligent driving systems include core functions such as highway driving assistance, city navigation assistance, and intelligent parking, while basic assistance functions include adaptive cruise control, lane centering, forward collision warning, and automatic emergency braking.

These tasks all require the assistance of artificial intelligence and are worthy of in-depth research.

"Developing artificial intelligence is a future trend, but how to balance social ethics is also a matter worth studying."

Lu Qi clearly did not expect that Tan Jincheng would talk at length about artificial intelligence technology and its impact on the future when they met. In everyone's mind, Tan Jincheng was the weakest competitor to Lu Qi.

Even Lu Qi didn't know what Tan Jincheng's invitation meant, or where he was placed.

Wei Lai? Orange Technology? If it's really an invitation on behalf of the former, it seems a bit absurd, while the latter is suitable, but doesn't seem a bit too small?
"I didn't expect that Mr. Tan's understanding of artificial intelligence has reached this level, and he has even considered its impact on society."

"Haha, we are a major employer, so we probably have to consider this aspect more. While pursuing technological revolution, we must first ensure that our employees have food to eat."

Intelligent manufacturing is a broad topic, and Tan Jincheng's companies are also responding to the Made in China 2025 plan by actively promoting the transformation and construction of intelligent factories.

However, in addition to this, he also needs to consider the balance between intelligent manufacturing and the existing employment relationship. It is not possible to say that a certain workshop is full of robots and the entire factory has very few people.

This situation might be understandable in a big city, but it's clearly unacceptable in a small county like his hometown. Bringing people here to solve employment issues is a very important part of the process.

Furthermore, it's not very realistic for businesses to consider this from a cost perspective, as robots aren't necessarily cheaper than human labor.

"That's true. No matter how advanced the technology is, it must first serve people and be considered from a human perspective."

Lu Qi largely agreed with Tan Jincheng's point of view: if technology really takes away ordinary people's jobs, that would be a very serious problem.

After saying that, Lu Qi looked at Tan Jincheng with his deep eyes: "So, Mr. Tan wants to invite me to help you with the work related to artificial intelligence? Orange Technology? Wei Lai?"

"And Mr. Tan, how do you plan to persuade me?"

Going straight for the kill, quick and decisive – this is Tan Jincheng's favorite style.

"Among all our competitors, we have the worst external conditions. Furthermore, let me make one point clear first: my invitation to Mr. Lu to join us is definitely not to go to Weilai. I want to make that clear first."

"But that's just how it is from the outside. I don't think our conditions are the worst."

Lu Qi smiled and gestured for Tan Jincheng to continue. Just as rumored, this young man was extremely confident.

If we're talking about which company to join, Lu Qi actually prefers Baidu. First of all, Baidu currently has the most problems among the BAT companies. Their search bidding ranking has been plagued with issues, creating a series of social problems.

Isn't this a ready-made challenge for a troubled internet giant?

In addition, he had known Li Yanhong for a long time, and the two had a good personal relationship and often kept in touch. This young man in front of him was meeting him for the first time.

"I'd like to invite Mr. Lu to join us. We're planning to put you in charge of our artificial intelligence project. Since the project is primarily internet-based, your role will definitely be with Orange Technology. I should clarify that first."

"Mr. Lu, your position is Vice President and CEO of Orange Technology."

Lu Qi nodded without speaking; the position was not much different from what he had imagined.

"Now let me tell you about my specific plans."

Tan Jincheng has always kept his physical businesses, internet businesses, and investment projects separate. The advantages of this approach are obvious, but the drawbacks have gradually become apparent over the past ten years.

Large companies like Baidu are rife with internal factions. While there are no signs of this in Tan Jincheng's business yet, the separation of the three major business segments is no different. Over time, significant problems will arise in coordinating the three segments.

This was especially true after Sun Tongyu left, and Cheng Hao, who came from a technical background but had limited abilities, became the CEO of Orange Technology.

His wife, Gu Qingqing, is responsible for the family's investments and asset management, as well as managing TiMi Studio. TiMi Studio's growth has entered a fast track, and the ongoing King of Glory professional league has brought great prestige to the game studio.

Gu Qingqing's name has been frequently mentioned in the media recently, which has led to a series of questions about whether there will be changes in the management of Orange Technology.

Among current e-commerce website CEOs, Cheng Hao is indeed the least capable. During his tenure, Orange Technology has not made any innovations and has basically continued the policies formulated by Sun Tongyu during his tenure.

With the rapid rise of Pinduoduo, Orange Products' third-place market share title is in jeopardy, which has caused some dissatisfaction among investors. Fortunately, Tan Jincheng doesn't care, as he never intended for Orange Technology to develop too quickly in the first place.

However, if Orange Technology is going to develop artificial intelligence, improve intelligent driving, or even challenge whether autonomous driving will become the model envisioned by Tan Jincheng, then this approach is clearly not feasible.

"My understanding is that the core of artificial intelligence should be large mathematical models and data, which involves a lot of data computing power, and I don't think we lack these."

"Our Orange Products Club has nearly 3 million registered users and nearly 6000 million active users throughout the year. We firmly hold the third position in the apparel B2C market share, and the retention rate is quite high."

"Our Honor of Kings has over 100 million registered users, and we also have over 10 million two-wheeled electric vehicle users and millions of four-wheeled car users."

The best hardware platform for artificial intelligence is naturally the mobile phone. Although the number of mobile phone users in Tan Jincheng's hands is negligible, he has still taken a different approach in terms of intelligent hardware platforms.

The combined data system of two-wheeled electric vehicles and car users is also enormous, surpassing even the BAT giants. Like Tan Jincheng, they also lack the necessary hardware infrastructure. "Furthermore, Mr. Lu may not have noticed, but I have another powerful weapon in my hand."

Lu Qi pondered for a moment, his eyes twitching slightly: "Is President Tan referring to Ding Ding?"

"That's right, it's Ding Ding!"

Dingding, which developed independently, is often easily overlooked. After so many years of development and technological accumulation, Dingding has also made significant breakthroughs in the mobile Internet era.

Dingding has attracted a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises with its features such as enterprise address book and free calls, and has achieved a major breakthrough this year.

Over the course of several years, Dingding has grown to include over 500 million enterprise organizations and over 1 million registered users.

An app that leans towards both office work and social interaction has already surpassed 100 million registered users, which means it has the capital to survive. Although its development has been slow and has taken many years, Dingding has finally grown up.

According to the latest list of unicorn companies released by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dingding's overall valuation is US$15.5 billion, which is about RMB 100 billion. This is the official valuation.

With internet users, smart devices, and social apps, Tan Jincheng's invisible ecosystem has already taken shape!

What's missing now is a strong figure to connect these three elements!
Lu Qi, this bigwig, is the ideal person in Tan Jincheng's mind, and the specific way to achieve this is through artificial intelligence. By vigorously developing artificial intelligence, the data of the three companies and some other affiliated companies will be aggregated to promote the development of various businesses.

At the same time, it also makes it easier for Tan Jincheng to control the various systems.

"I've noticed Dingding; it's an excellent software. Mr. Tan, do you mean to integrate Dingding into Orange Technology?"

If that's the case, it would have a significant impact on Orange Technology and even the entire internet ecosystem.

"It's possible, and it's not possible. It depends on what you choose, Mr. Lu."

"Oh? That's an interesting point. Mr. Tan, could you elaborate on what happened?"

"Actually, I have two options. If Mr. Lu can join Orange Technology as CEO, and you feel it's necessary to acquire Dingding, then I have no problem with that. Even acquiring Gaode Maps is no problem."

"Interesting, interesting. As for Orange Technology's strategy, hasn't Mr. Tan always adhered to the mindset of 'small but beautiful'? If that's the case, then it has nothing to do with 'small but beautiful'."

"By the way, all the internet companies in China are lending money, but only you, Mr. Tan, have withstood the pressure and not done it. I admire you for that."

Historically, there seem to be few projects that are more profitable than lending. In today's world, where unrealistic concepts disguised as internet finance are rampant, it is truly remarkable that this young man has managed to stick to his principles and refuse to touch such a business that involves lending with little or no capital.

"Times change. When a company develops to a certain stage, I will not stop it if it needs to make changes."

While there are advantages to separating each business segment, the disadvantages are also obvious: each entity operates independently, resulting in loose organization and a continued separation between the physical and internet industries. Tan Jincheng still insists on this point, but the internet industry does indeed need some consolidation.

"Tell me about the other arrangement."

"The other arrangement is simpler, but it requires Mr. Lu to condescend to serve as Dingding's CEO."

For Lu Qi, going from a world-class internet giant like Microsoft to the CEO of Dingding is indeed a condescension, as Dingding is not even a publicly listed company and its business is relatively simple.

The advantage is that the existing system doesn't need major changes, but the disadvantage is that Lu Qi's work becomes much more difficult, and other company executives may not be willing to cooperate.

We're all high-ranking officials, even if you're a big shot, we're not in the same system, so why should you boss me around?

Therefore, Tan Jincheng's idea is that if Lu Qi is willing to come, he still prefers to integrate the businesses of Orange Technology, Dingding, Gaode Maps, and even TiMi Studio under the overall internet framework.

This is a huge project and a great challenge. Cheng Hao is not up to the task; he doesn't have the energy. As for Gu Qingqing, although she has the energy, she can only manage the overall project. After the integration is complete, a strong leader is still needed to manage it.

Lu Qi is the most suitable candidate at present.

"Isn't it more challenging to integrate Orange Technology, Gaode Maps, Dingding, and my gaming business than to restructure Baidu?"

Lu Qi, 55, is neither lacking in fame nor fortune. He has seen the world's highest peaks and experienced the hardships of life. Normally, at this age, most overseas returnees would choose to start an investment company and settle down in China to retire.

However, considering his past life's trajectory, he joined Baidu less than four months after leaving Microsoft, which clearly shows that Lu Qi's pursuit of his career is still very passionate.

Indeed, this is true. Whether at Yahoo or Microsoft, Lu Qi has always been known as a workaholic. At his most extreme, he could work 20 hours a day, making him a true Silicon Valley fanatic.

"It is indeed very challenging."

Whether it's the listed company Orange Technology, the unicorn companies Dingding and Gaode Maps, or even the near-unicorn company TiMi Studio, each of them is one of the leaders in their respective niche markets.

However, since it is based on artificial intelligence business, these can indeed be integrated together. Tan Jincheng's idea is not too far-fetched. Whether the integration can achieve better results is a huge challenge for managers.

It must be said that at this moment, Lu Qi was slightly tempted by Tan Jincheng's idea.

Seeing that Lu Qi didn't intend to continue, Tan Jincheng understood that Lu Qi's thoughts were stirred, but clearly not enough.

Sorry, handsome Li! Little Ma!
"As I understand it, Mr. Lu seems to prefer returning to China to settle down, right? Aside from being an independent investor, I think Mr. Lu would prefer to join a promising and challenging company?"

“How come you see?”

"My intuition tells me that Mr. Lu's ambition has not been extinguished. Although you are 55 years old, you look like you are in your early 40s, both physically and mentally. My intuition tells me that you have even higher aspirations for your career."

"This is just your intuition, Mr. Tan; it may not be correct."

"Regardless of whether it's right or wrong, I've always trusted myself. Based on this intuitive judgment, there are only a few truly competitive companies in China right now."

"Let me first talk about the advantages of a few big companies. The advantages of these internet giants are indeed very obvious. Tencent has a large user base, as well as a huge social and investment system, which we cannot compare with. If Mr. Lu goes there, he can get more quickly involved in the specific business."

According to media reports, Tencent invited Lu Qi to join the company, most likely to be responsible for artificial intelligence and mapping businesses, and the most likely position is co-president.

The most likely candidate for Uber is CTO (Chief Technology Officer), which is the position Cheng Hao held at Orange Technology.

As for Baidu, it's naturally the CEO; Tan Jincheng already knows this without needing any leaks.

"Baidu's strengths lie in its search field and Mr. Li's foresight in the market. I greatly admire Mr. Li's ability to foresee the market, and many of our businesses have been inspired by Baidu."

"These are things we don't have."

Lu Qi smiled, knowing that Tan Jincheng had more to say, and did not interrupt him.

"Let's talk about the disadvantages after discussing the advantages. First, let's talk about Tencent. My cooperation with Mr. Ma has been going on for a long time. We have a good personal relationship and are also good partners. I think I understand Tencent quite well."

"Well, Tencent is an excellent company, but their core business is not in artificial intelligence, not now, and not in the future. I have no doubt about their investment in artificial intelligence."

"But if we can't achieve the desired results within a certain period of time, then this investment may become the next Tencent Weibo, the next Weishi, the next Paipai.com. Mr. Ma will turn to invest in other companies, just like when they couldn't do e-commerce well and turned to invest in us, JD.com and Pinduoduo."

"Artificial intelligence is a long-term project, and it may not see good development for ten or even decades. Obviously, I don't believe Tencent will give you that much time."

Having said that, Lu Qi's smile faded considerably.

"Similarly, Baidu won't give you that much time. Look at Baidu's past investments and business operations, haven't they always been like this? Besides, would Baidu really cut their core business? If you really cut it, would Baidu still be the same Baidu?"

Lu Qi was startled. He had indeed imagined the scenarios he would encounter after joining several companies, especially Baidu. In his mind, if Li Yanhong could agree to his conditions, the first thing he would do upon taking office would be to cut the medical division that had aroused public anger.

Then came the rectification of paid search rankings, but he preferred to join Baidu.

"You've seen all sorts of ups and downs, so it's not appropriate for me to say these things. But even if Mr. Li respects you and delegates authority to you to the greatest extent possible, it's only temporary. You can see how many of those who started the business with Mr. Li are still around."

“I don’t deny Mr. Li’s talent, nor do I intend to discredit him. But the reason you left Microsoft was simply because of differing philosophies, right? Do you think Mr. Li will continue to support you in cutting back on this lucrative bidding business?”

Would the factions within Baidu agree to this?

At this moment, Lu Qi's smile vanished completely.

Tan Jincheng ignored him and did not give him a chance to ask further questions. Instead, he continued, "I am different. Those who started the business with me have all received great respect. I am only 30 years old, and I have enough time for you."

"I can give you ten years, Mr. Lu, and I can also delegate authority to the greatest extent possible. You'll know I'm not exaggerating once you learn a little about this."

"I can tell you something: if you agree to join us, we can go all in on artificial intelligence."

"Compared to BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), I have enough time and money to try and fail, and I also have enough patience for you, Mr. Lu, to realize your ideals. You can become Cai Congxin of Orange Technology, or you can become Liu Zhiping of Orange Technology."

"Come to Orange Technology, join us in taking on the challenges of a new era, and screw BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent)."

(End of this chapter)