Twenty days after Yahoo acquired Alibaba, Zhou Hongyi chose to leave. Some might ask, given Zhou Hongyi's competence, did Yahoo go mad? This is related to Zhou Hongyi's character. Jerry Yang understood his work but not him as a person, and couldn't trust him, leading to a series of subsequent disputes. At its worst, Zhou Hongyi's Qihoo 360 even bound a domain name: fuckyahoo., and even used 360 antivirus software to disable its own product, Yahoo Assistant. This shows the depth of Zhou Hongyi's resentment towards Yahoo and Jerry Yang, but this action wasn't the direct cause of Yahoo's decline. However, the two years after Zhou Hongyi's departure had the most profound impact on Yahoo, because those two years were the golden age of the Chinese internet. In 2005, those who remember might recall that it was a time of flourishing internet development, and Yahoo China, barring unforeseen circumstances, had a promising future. If more money had been invested in Zhou Hongyi's search engine, perhaps Baidu wouldn't exist. As for Lu Yun, he was a tragic figure for Yahoo. Yahoo gave Yahoo China to Alibaba as a bargaining chip, in exchange for a 40% stake in Alibaba. In reality, Yahoo acquired Alibaba, but Lu Yun was clever and knew the Chinese public opinion, so he said that Alibaba acquired Yahoo.

After acquiring Yahoo! China, Lu Yun surprisingly ventured into search, something Yahoo! never expected. They had just lost Zhou Hongyi, who was obsessed with search, and now Lu Yun had taken a liking to it. Lu Yun's passion for search likely stemmed from his observation of Baidu's pay-per-click advertising model launched in 2001, which proved successful by 2005. Seeing the opportunity, Lu Yun drastically chopped off Yahoo! China, eliminating its profitable wireless and brand businesses, causing their staff to defect to Zhou Hongyi. Not content with just cutting operations, Lu Yun completely redesigned Yahoo! China's portal, transforming the homepage into a search box.

The portal was Jerry Yang's pride and joy. After Lu Yun revamped Yahoo! China, he went to the United States to claim credit, but instead of getting credit, he was humiliated by Jerry Yang.

Under Jerry Yang's orders, Lu Yun had no choice but to revert the homepage back to its original state. Moreover, Yahoo! China changed it again a year later. Such frequent changes to its core elements were hardly the behavior of a large corporation. Yahoo! China was left bewildered and disorganized by Alibaba's interference, reflecting Alibaba's strategic confusion regarding Yahoo! China at the time. Although Yahoo! China had already begun its decline before that, Alibaba's missteps with Yahoo! China remain a stain on its development history, but more importantly, they are regrettable.

However, what Lu Yun explored during that process, something similar to Baidu's paid search ranking, was still very useful for later business.

The various advertising search services on Taobao follow the same model as Baidu's paid search ranking, bringing Alibaba numerous business opportunities and profits.

Even so, Lu Yun was still too audacious. Zhou Hongyi, at least, wouldn't dare touch the portal when developing search. Lu Yun not only made numerous cuts but even changed the portal itself. How could Yang Zhiyuan agree to that? After all, Yahoo was a major shareholder with decision-making power. Alibaba's audacity is commendable, but even if the path is correct, you're still bound by others and they might not allow you to follow it. In this situation, finding an alternative path is the best option. Now, Yahoo's core assets have been acquired at a low price. I wonder what Lu Yun and Zhou Hongyi are thinking.

In the same year, Yahoo also wanted to acquire Google. Google offered Yahoo $1 billion, but Yahoo, being stingy, took too long to consider it. By the time they finally agreed, Google backed out.

Google later offered another $3 billion, which, considering Google's growth potential, was practically a steal. But Yahoo once again firmly rejected the offer.

After missing two opportunities to acquire promising companies, Yahoo has a third chance: Facebook.

In 2006, Yahoo was willing to spend $1 billion to acquire Facebook, and everything was going smoothly until Yahoo decided to self-destruct, thinking:

Why did Zuckerberg agree so quickly? Could there be something wrong with their company? We need to negotiate a lower price!

They then lowered the acquisition price to $750 million, which would be great for anyone! Zuckerberg was so angry that he tore up the acquisition offer in public, and Yahoo once again squandered the opportunity on its own merits.