Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 416 Mutual Thanks
Back in the private room, the atmosphere was completely different.

Bao Peirong, a person who was born with the ability to socialize, naturally wouldn't let the atmosphere become awkward. After saying a few words of welcome, he casually mentioned the enthusiastic scene when Tencent went public in Hong Kong, where investors lined up outside banks and securities firms to get subscription forms. The atmosphere immediately became lively.

When the two returned, Miss Bao whispered to Wu Guangzheng, "President Chen is a nice person," seemingly praising Chen Xuebing for breaking with social distancing and listening to the phone call with Wu Guangzheng.

The voices were neither too loud nor too soft, like private conversations, yet Chen Xuebing, sitting just one seat away, overheard them. He couldn't tell how much of it was genuine and how much was insincere, but it clearly expressed that the Bao family appreciated such an honest collaborator.

Chen Xuebing nodded slightly and said nothing more, letting Wu Guangzheng and his wife chat with everyone about the changes in Hong Kong society and the current state of the Internet.

Mr. Wu is indeed an official, but he doesn't have the air of one. He also did his homework before coming, taking care of everyone's feelings and speaking in a very pleasant manner.

After being bombarded with criticism all morning, everyone finally started to feel more at home.

I had something to do in the afternoon, so although there was no alcohol to accompany the meal, some soft drinks with a wine-like taste were served. We raised our glasses and chatted, which didn't affect our conversation.

When the meal was in full swing, the first person to raise a glass to Mr. Chen was Mr. Ding.

"Mr. Chen, I am a technician. NetEase initially started by providing internet community services. To be precise, we started with technology-driven internet application services. Our self-developed distributed architecture solved the problems of high concurrency and massive storage. We are pioneers in unlimited capacity, multi-domain support, and anti-spam technology. I will not mince words and say that we have ushered in the era of free Chinese email for everyone."

"Since entering the gaming industry, we have made many breakthroughs in game engines, distributed server clusters, and anti-cheat technology."

"Today I discovered that your Singularity and our NetEase have very similar development philosophies; we are both focused on advancing the underlying technologies of the industry."

"The Kirin phone and the Kunlun system are both excellent. The system is free and open source, which is a great innovation in mobile internet. The netizens in the technical community are very excited. I heard that you also plan to connect the public internet connection between the mainland and Hong Kong. You are doing something even bigger. I can feel that a new era is being led by you."

"To our shared ideals, I raise a glass to you, to our shared corporate spirit."

Mr. Ding is good at praising people; he finds the right angle to approach them.

The mention of Kunlun Open Source suggests that it was essentially giving Chen Xuebing a free pass.

Chen Xuebing wasn't moved much by these words. He knew Ding Pangzi very well; Ding was a little more ambitious than Little Ma, but only to a limited extent.

Objectively speaking, among those present today, perhaps only Jack Ma's words are somewhat credible.

In his previous life, he had been investing in stocks for many years. His judgment of a company was not based on the attitudes of netizens and public opinion, but rather on its financial statements.

Alibaba is a hardcore technology company that led the big data era. Before 2020, it made great strides, taking the first step in expanding into overseas markets. Later, it did not slacken its R&D investment in cutting-edge fields such as cloud computing, distributed databases, and AI big models. Its hardcore index ranks after Huawei.

The future belongs to data models. In fact, it could be said that data analysis saved the semiconductor industry, turning it from a sunset industry into a sunrise industry. Without the demand for advanced computing power like GPUs, given the needs of mobile phones and computers, there would be little point in further developing semiconductors beyond the 3-5 nanometer level in terms of return on investment.

In this field, Chen Xuebing has yet to see any allies, while Alibaba's first-mover advantage in data research and development is invaluable. This is a key reason why he ultimately gave up on directly entering the e-commerce field and chose to cooperate with Alibaba. As long as Alipay's step is contained and its development direction is guided slightly, without delaying its development in the key years of China's booming technology, Alibaba should have a place on the world's cutting-edge technology list.

However, from a profit-making perspective, NetEase has its strengths.

This topic is also a good extension of today's trip.

"Hehe, let's not talk about dreams." Chen Xuebing stood up with his cup in hand and said, "There are no substantial technological breakthroughs in the interconnection of public internet between the two places, only some breakthroughs in the policy field. Of course, this is a great opportunity for everyone. The enterprise data whitelist can solve the problem of real-time data entry for a group of companies. In order to create this opportunity, we need to build a large data analysis station in Qianhai to replace the GFW review. To be honest, it will take a long time to implement, at least two years, but you have to apply in advance. Everyone should understand the policy. There are no legal regulations for data leaving the country. It is a case-by-case discussion. It is also possible that subsequent policy tightening will lead to no new opportunities. In addition, Mr. Wu's space here is also limited. I am not sure whether the second phase of the project can be launched."

We need to clarify what everyone is doing in Hong Kong and what kind of opportunities they have. This is also the basis for his cooperation with Peter Woo.

Internet entrepreneurs are taking this issue seriously, and they all nodded in agreement.

Upon hearing this, Wu Guangzheng's eyes lit up.

Is there a second phase?

That means you can earn another long-term rental contract REIT?

He raised his glass with a smile and stood up: "Regarding this issue, we have reached an agreement with Mr. Chen. We will waive the rent for the first two years and reduce it by 30% in the third year. Everyone can send people over in advance to set up their companies. Once Mr. Chen's technology is implemented, we can start operations. The Cyberport site is excellent. It will be difficult to find such a quiet and scenic place for office buildings in the future. Everyone can go and take a look later."

Adjacent to the luxury residential area of ​​Bel-Air Bay, it is indeed a rare place of quiet and beauty, but also a rare place that is not popular.

If there's a second phase of cooperation, he'll really have to put in a lot of effort to find such a less-known office building.

Those present didn't really care about the land plot; the key issue was the privileges.

"Mr. Chen, are you sure this channel has been fully approved? Can the data latency be reduced to 50ms?" Ding Lei asked.

At 50ms, when a Hong Kong player presses a skill button, the game responds in about 0.05 seconds, which is a basically smooth timeframe.

Within 120-150ms, you'll feel a noticeable lag and delay in skill release.

Given the current latency of over 300ms on the US channel, that's basically a lethal dose.

Actually, the Chinese version of the game also occasionally experiences this delay, and players have developed some habits of predictive actions. However, it's just an occasional delay, and all that's gained is a "Damn it!" from the players.

If the base latency reaches this level, then players won't just be saying "fuck," they'll be saying "fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck," and then "fuck you, I'm not playing anymore."

"Yes, the approval is in. This meeting was a pilot group meeting. However, I can't guarantee the network speed right now. Our technology will definitely continue to upgrade. At least we've solved the biggest routing delay issue. What we need to do now is optimize the protocol layer and solve the problem of disconnection caused by TLS handshake interference. This is the biggest problem for game operation. Once this is solved, it should be usable. Upgrading the scanning speed of cross-border data packet content features can optimize the user experience. It's possible to achieve 30ms. However, the sending of chat content is a key area of ​​review. The technical solution cannot circumvent the review mechanism. There will definitely still be second-level delays and even the possibility of packet loss for several years. So even if the technical problems are solved, Hong Kong players will still need to set up a separate server to avoid data pollution. However, mainland players can enter the Hong Kong server to communicate with Hong Kong players, which is also a new attraction for mainland players."

Chen Xuebing knew that operating the game's Hong Kong server was difficult, so he tried to focus on its advantages.

Ding Lei nodded slowly. This shouldn't be a big problem for the regional operation of the "Journey to the West" series. Moreover, Hong Kong's internet is connected to the world, and this game is certainly attractive to Chinese players in other countries. Once the Hong Kong server of "Journey to the West" is launched, it will definitely ignite player participation in mainland China as well.

Others also obtained the data they needed from this explanation.

Games can be operated, so other issues are not a big problem. The key issue is the necessity of setting up an office locally.

If it's only for legal compliance, you can outsource the data business to a local law firm. The fees should be lower, around a few hundred thousand a year.

If customer service and other needs are to be considered, a small office of about a dozen people needs to be set up, and lawyers can be arranged to respond and handle compliance issues at the same time.

If you want to do localized operations and events, as well as local business liaison, a small office won't do; you'll need at least a few dozen people.

Businesses like Taobao are extremely complex, requiring at least several hundred people and an entire floor of office space to operate.

"Mr. Chen, your Weibo account wouldn't have gotten in through this channel, would it?" Zhang Chaoyang suddenly asked.

Such a channel is feasible for portal websites. The information published in the news and advertisements has already been reviewed. All that is needed is to add some reprints of Hong Kong news and create some local differentiated sections. There is no need to deploy local servers, which can be regarded as a lightweight attempt.

For Tencent, QQ's login via this means little significance, but it opens up new possibilities for the gaming business.

But it's very unfriendly to Weibo.

The free speech of Hong Kong netizens is all subject to strict censorship, and opening it through this channel is simply a hindrance.

Chen Xuebing smiled.

How could Weibo have the same version in mainland China and Hong Kong?

If the trending topics list is synchronized with the mainland, then given the large number of internet users in Hong Kong, they will basically not see any localized trending news.

A local version is required.

However, by combining this channel with the US data center channel, Weibo can simultaneously release the Hong Kong version, the international version, and the mainland version in Hong Kong. The mainland version can only be viewed and not commented on, which is equivalent to a clean information window. The cost of synchronization is very low. The other two versions can be used freely, allowing Hong Kong users to enjoy three versions of Weibo information at the same time. They can switch to whichever version they want to see with one click.

The Hong Kong version of Weibo might just be the most popular one.

However, he won't say any of this.

"Hehe, I'm not really clear about the Weibo thing, but I'll look into it when I get back. If anyone wants to cooperate with Qidian, we can talk about it."

These words made Zhang Chaoyang chuckle: "Cooperating with Qidian will only lead to our own downfall?"

Chen Xuebing shook his head and smiled faintly: "The mainland internet user base is huge; it's not a matter of one or the other. Besides, there are many different business models. Sohu has already started incubating its video business, hasn't it? Qidian's mobile phones and Kunlun, including UC Browser which Lei Jun and I invested in, can handle a lot of content. Weibo will also generate a lot of real-time news in the future; don't people want to repost it? Even if it's fair competition in the Weibo model, we welcome it, and we can even have some mutual channel cooperation. But if we insist on competing in an absolutely exclusive way, and Qidian is forced to defend itself, everyone might lose many future possibilities." He knew perfectly well what these people were whispering about all morning.

Banning Weibo is impossible; they'll find out when Weibo's advertising campaign is in full swing.

However, if various methods are employed, such as the thuggish rejections of previous years, everyone will eventually have a period of exhaustion in dealing with them.

He gave everyone a warning, telling them they'd better not use those detrimental tactics that would kill a thousand enemies but also harm eight hundred of their own.

He originally came to persuade one or two people before they were caught off guard, hoping to gain some online traffic and expand his first-mover advantage. But now it seems that they have even discovered and invested in "Fanfou," showing a level of importance that he had not expected. If he wanted to win by surprise, it would be impossible not to start a fight. So he had to adjust his strategy in time and limit the way and scope of the fight.

Chen Xuebing's abilities were on full display before everyone, and everyone was actually quite hesitant.

Psychological games involve not only "the happy ones backing down," but also "those who can't afford to lose backing down."

They went to great lengths to kill Weibo, and the other party may only suffer minor damage, but if Chen Xuebing turns around and destroys them, they will be truly dead.

That's an asymmetric attack capability.

The cost of fiercely confronting the singularity far outweighs the potential benefits.

The silence that followed was so profound that even Cao Guowei was pondering whether Sina had any other business avenues to explore.

When Ma saw that everyone was silent, he started to panic a little.

"Ahem." He pushed up his glasses. "Mr. Chen, regarding QQ and Starlink, is this also your thinking? Is there any room for harmony in our competition?"

Chen Xuebing was prepared for this question and immediately retorted, "Are Xinglian and QQ absolute competitors? Or are they Fetion? We focus on mobile communication, replacing the voice call and SMS market. You're targeting young people's social networking, while we focus on work-related and lifestyle connections, targeting the adult market. Our simple model won't appeal to children, and we don't make games. What's the problem with them not being able to coexist? The SDK tools are right there; they're not stopping you from developing the Kunlun version, are they? How can they not coexist?"

President Chen frantically threw out smoke bombs.

Tencent is a true nemesis.

If QQ completely rejects Kunlun, it will be very detrimental to the Kunlun system.

Bringing them in to fight can actually tie their hands and feet, allowing you to gradually convert their users.

"But... our QQ has been around for eight years, and our users have grown up too. We have a lot of users in their 30s and 40s." Ma Huateng felt something was amiss.

“Mr. Ma, your thinking is a bit dangerous.” Chen Xuebing narrowed his eyes. “You mean you want to monopolize the entire internet communications market? Our software is helping operators open up middle-aged and elderly customers, increase mobile data usage, and recoup the costs of 3G development. Even China Mobile’s own Fetion has to compete fairly with Starlink. If you think QQ deserves a monopoly, you might end up getting the short end of the stick.”

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant," Little Ma quickly denied.

His idea was to create a "simplified version of mobile QQ" that was exactly the same as Starlink.

However, Chen Xuebing's words made him hesitate, because the QQ that young people liked was so flashy and complicated.

The aesthetic preferences of young people and middle-aged and elderly people, especially those in commercialized groups, are indeed different.

How about making two software programs? To cover both?

In this context, saying that seems a bit excessive.

The conflicted look on Pony Ma's face made Chen Xuebing smile: "Mr. Ma, our attitude has always been open and cooperative. I know what you're worried about. QQ wants to log in to Kunlun and wants to add new features like voice, video, and even one-click voice messaging to maximize the advantages of Kunlun phones. But you're afraid we'll sue you for plagiarism and force you to be taken down, right? You're overthinking it. Xinglian's positioning was different from yours from the beginning. We won't prevent others from using parts that don't involve patent protection, and we almost never resort to hegemonic means. Moreover, Tencent's gaming ecosystem can enrich Kunlun's business, which we welcome. Also, Kingsoft is preparing for its IPO soon, and I'm planning to introduce you to a new money-making business to strengthen our cooperation."

Ma Huateng was taken aback.

So open?
He did have this concern; if those Starlink features could be used on phones like the Kirin, the mobile version of QQ would definitely be even more powerful.

But if we use them, we're afraid that Qidian will find a reason to remove them from the platform.

Since it is an open-source system, QQ can naturally be developed, but he has doubts about whether it should be completely open, fearing that Qidian will force QQ to cut back on features.

As for other feature phones, and even Symbian systems, they developed one-button voice control, but it was not easy to use. Not only was it inconvenient to operate, but the voice also lacked a dedicated sound recording system, resulting in muffled sound.

The singularity must have been specifically designed.

This design might just be used on those Kunlun machines from Huaqiangbei, which would have a huge user base.

As long as Qidian is not banned, QQ can fully compete with other services offering similar functionalities.

So, Mr. Chen really isn't afraid of competition?
His brow relaxed slightly, and his extreme psychological resistance lessened somewhat. He then followed Chen Xuebing's lead and asked, "What kind of business?"

"You know Kingsoft's 'JX Online' series, right? I discussed it with Mr. Lei and we plan to have you invest $50 million in Seasun Entertainment to get the distribution rights for the entire PC version, including 'JX Online 3' which will be launched soon. This series is very profitable. As long as you help Kingsoft go public, you can operate this distribution right with 25% of the profits. The investment money can also be exited at the same value in the Kingsoft listed company after five years."

“Hiss, Swordsman Online.” Ma Huateng took a breath.

Fatty Ding couldn't hold back any longer: "JX Online? We can operate that too!"

Chen Xuebing shook his head: "Your 'Fantasy Westward Journey' accounts for more than 80% of the game's revenue. I'm worried that you won't be able to fully operate the game you're distributing. On the contrary, Tencent's games are currently mainly lightweight and lack a large flagship product. Your per-user spending is very high, but in terms of user base, your imagination is not big enough. Kingsoft gave up the distribution rights in order to go public and create hype. At present, only Tencent can cater to this concept."

The analysis is fair and objective, and was not biased due to Tencent's hostility.

Ma Huateng was somewhat pleased and also admired Chen Xuebing's attitude.

The other people's hostility towards President Chen also decreased by three points.

Wow, they can really collaborate!

That.
"Moreover, Tencent's lightweight gaming features are actually very suitable for early adoption on smartphones. Our Kirin chipset has a gyroscope sensor, which will make the gaming experience for racing and parkour games very unique. Once the price of gyroscopes comes down, I will also recommend that all Kunlun phones be equipped with them. Playing games on mobile phones will become a new trend, and paying will be faster than on computers. In the future, we will also develop a convenient login feature, making it very convenient to access QQ Games from your QQ account."

Chen Xuebing did his best to guide them.

Guide Tencent towards the direction of games.

As for QQ, he's not afraid to implement Starlink's communication functions.

The more complex the functions, the better.

What he feared was that Tencent would decisively carry out a complete self-revolution and develop an instant messaging application that was truly designed for mobile and free from the burdens of PCs.

Starlink needs its own unique brand to build a loyal user base and qualify it to compete head-on with QQ.

At this moment, Pony Ma was just the Pony Ma of 2007, before he had made investments in many fields. In the internet industry, gaming was the biggest pie he had ever seen.

This opportunity made him temporarily forget about the threat of a small user base; he only had two words on his mind: conversion.

User conversion, revenue conversion.

Tencent has had the most users over the years, but it's nowhere near as profitable as NetEase and Shanda!
Now that a flagship PC game with years of accumulated reputation has been delivered to their doorstep, Tencent's games have a new way out, and the disadvantage of lightweight design has become an advantage for mobile development.

This pancake is so oily, even if it were poisonous, he would still eat it!

"Great! Mr. Chen, Mr. Lei, let's talk later! If we reach an agreement, we will definitely give our all to developing 'JX Online'!"

As Mr. Ma raised his glass and stood up, the opposition completely collapsed.

Mr. Lei raised his glass to thank Mr. Chen for the gift that led to Kingsoft's listing.

Mr. Chen raised his glass to thank Mr. Lei for confining Tencent within its own self-imposed prison.

(End of this chapter)