On the top floor of Korea Comet Capital Building, in the chairman’s office.
"Hello, is this President Zhang Junfeng? I am Ma Yun from Longguo Alibaba Company. I have an important matter to ask you..."
Hearing a string of fluent English coming from the phone, Zhang Junfeng was stunned for a while before he came to his senses. Why did Ma Yun suddenly call him? Could it be that something went wrong at Alibaba? "It's me, Zhang Junfeng! What's the problem with Mr. Ma?"
"That's right. According to the current situation, Amazon's development strategy has been proven to have huge drawbacks. Alibaba's subsequent development focus also needs to be adjusted..."
After listening to Ma Yun's narration for a long time, Zhang Junfeng finally understood the cause and effect. The main reason was that Amazon, which was used as a reference, performed too badly during this Internet crisis.
The company's profitability has obvious shortcomings. In addition, many projects that have invested large amounts of money have failed to generate good investment returns, increasing the company's financial burden.
Alibaba naturally tried to avoid such a wrong decision. However, no one had a specific idea on how to proceed in the future and what would be the right path.
Zhang Junfeng did not rush to answer, but quickly recalled in his mind the projects and development directions that Alibaba had promoted in its previous life.
Two minutes later, Zhang Junfeng managed to sort out the main things that Alibaba had done in its previous life in recent times. For example, in 2001, Alibaba launched the "Longguo Supplier" service, and began to recommend Longguo's excellent export companies and products to the world. At the same time, it launched the "Ali Recommended Buyer" service, and formed an alliance with international purchasing groups such as Walmart, General Electric, Markant and Sobond to jointly conduct cross-border procurement online.
In 2002, Alibaba launched the "TrustPass" service.
In 2003, Alibaba made the Japanese market its top priority. In July 2003, Alibaba and Softbank invested 56 million US dollars to launch Taobao, a free personal trading website, to compete with eBay.
…
In general, during this period, Alibaba continued to expand the market share and influence of its e-commerce platform, but progress in China was slow, so it simply shifted its focus to overseas.
The reason for doing so is that the current computer penetration rate in Longguo is still relatively low, far from the exaggerated level of more than 1 billion Internet users in the future. This also means that the current development ceiling of Longguo's Internet companies is destined to not reach the level of developed countries with a high computer penetration rate such as the United States.
As for the subsequent development of various high-tech products, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and other products and concepts, each of them is an extremely expensive project. If a huge amount of money is not invested in the early stage, it is impossible to achieve any results. Moreover, this kind of technical breakthrough and innovation does not conform to the current situation. It is very likely that it will be a thankless task to spend so much money on this now, so it is better to wait a few years before making a decision.
…
When Zhang Junfeng suggested that Alibaba could consider developing overseas markets while taking into account the domestic market, Ma Yun's eyes lit up.
This proposal completely exceeded the Alibaba team's conception and opened up a new path for development. Their previous thinking was very limited. They subconsciously focused on the market in Longguo and forgot that there were many countries and regions with more developed economies besides Longguo.
Far away there are the United States, France, New York, South Korea, and Hans in America and Europe, and closer ones are Japan and Singapore in Asia. All of them are countries that can be developed and establish overseas trade.
…
"Haha, now I understand what President Zhang means, 'Listening to one word from you is better than reading for ten years'!" Ma Yun laughed, and his previous confusion became clear at this moment.
"I'm not as good as Mr. Ma said. I'm just relatively familiar with those countries. If you have any follow-up questions, you can discuss them with me at any time."
“I am also very curious about whether Alibaba, which started from the e-commerce field, can surpass Amazon in the future and create a new Internet legend under the leadership of Mr. Ma’s team!”
"Does Chairman Zhang have such high expectations for our Alibaba? Then I can only work hard to see if I can make Chairman Zhang's wish come true!" When Ma Yun heard Zhang Junfeng mention that he hoped the company would surpass Amazon in the future, he was in a good mood and joked with him.
…
In an office of the senior management of Yuetian Group, Xin Dongbing, who was sitting in a wheelchair, looked at the somewhat fearful investment analyst in front of him and asked again to confirm, "Are you sure that once this Jeju Island tourism project is completed and promoted, it will bring in a high income of no less than one billion US dollars per year?"
"...Yes, President Xin. According to the preliminary estimate based on the information we have collected, although the initial investment of 3-4 billion US dollars for the construction of related supporting facilities is relatively expensive, the subsequent benefits will definitely be considerable. In less than five years, all costs will be recovered, and every subsequent year will be a net profit. From an investment perspective, this project is indeed a good project!"
The investment analyst wiped the sweat off his face nervously, looked at Shin Dong-byung nervously, and waited anxiously for the other party's next reaction.
Although the temperature in the office was a little low, he was still a little scared facing this bad-tempered former vice president of the group.
No wonder he was so nervous. The colleague who was called over to ask about the situation on Jeju Island hesitated for a long time and couldn't explain clearly, but was beaten up by Shin Dongbing! Fortunately, after hearing what he said, Shin Dongbing rarely made things difficult for him. He showed a cold smile on his face, "Well done, you can leave after leaving the analysis report!"
Seeing that Shin Dong-byung did not make things difficult for him, the investment analyst immediately nodded and bowed, then quickly left the office.
The investment analyst, who was already extremely nervous, staggered as he stepped out of the office door. He held onto the aisle in the corridor with one hand and took a few deep breaths. Just as he had completely calmed down his nervousness, he fled.
…
Shin Dong-byung picked up the analysis data of the Jeju Island tourism development project and signaled to the assistant beside him to organize the data and send it to Peter Fuld of Lehman Brothers in the United States.
He contacted Park Yeon-bo and asked him to propose to Mr. Dae-jong to advance the preliminary bidding for the Jeju Island tourism project, and they would take action.
"President Shin, are you kidding? This project will definitely cost a lot of money. Even the Blue House cannot mobilize so much money."
"…If Yuetian Group cannot come up with enough funds to provide advance payment, then won't this project be taken over by Comet Capital, and Zhang Junfeng will get it for nothing?" Park Yeon-bok was a little confused by Shin Dong-bing's abrupt request.
In his opinion, there are only a handful of domestic companies with strong financial resources, and Zhang Junfeng of Comet Capital, as the proposer of this project, must have planned it in advance. If they are not well prepared, I am afraid that the other party will succeed!
Seeing that Park Yeon-bo was still trying to stop him, Shin Dong-bing said impatiently, "You don't have to worry about this. Since I dare to say this, I am naturally very sure. You just need to follow my orders!"
Hearing what Shin Dong-byung said, Park Yeon-bo had no choice but to agree with dissatisfaction.
…
A few days later, a new eye-catching news came from the Blue House. That is, Mr. Dae Jong planned to develop a tourism project in Jeju Island. However, due to funding problems, he planned to invite domestic and foreign companies to undertake related projects in the future. After completion, the funds spent on construction will be paid by the Blue House officially year by year as principal and a certain amount of interest.
Of course, there is a second way of cooperation, which is to invest in shares. The company completes the construction, and when the subsequent Jeju Island tourism project starts to make a profit, it can get a certain share of the profits according to the previous investment.
Many business leaders who got the news were eager to try and get more information. In the eyes of many people, since this Jeju Island tourism project is officially promoted, it must be guaranteed in every aspect.
However, Zhang Junfeng, the initiator of the Jeju Island tourism project, seemed particularly calm and seemed not to be interested in the project.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
"It is really in line with Mr. Da Zhong's style to let enterprises undertake large-scale engineering projects like the Hyundai Group did in the past! However, the enterprise responsible for the advance payment of construction this time may fall into a trap!"
This somewhat unusual scene puzzled Wu Xiuying, who also attended the meeting at the Blue House. "Boss, didn't you take the initiative to propose this Jeju Island tourism project? Why are you so pessimistic now? Is there any problem here?"
Hearing Wu Xiuying say this, Zhang Junfeng's mouth curled up, revealing a bright smile of success.
According to what Zhang Junfeng said before, if the Jeju Island project is well developed and managed in the future, it is indeed a good project. The problem is that the funds paid in advance for the Jeju Island tourism project are definitely not a small amount, and it is even a big pit for many companies.
If you are not careful, you may end up like Hyundai Group, where the project may not be profitable, and the company may be on the verge of collapse before it makes any money! After all, the financial storm that swept across Asia and even caused Korea to declare bankruptcy has passed for some time, but the economic conditions of these companies have not fully recovered. Once the capital chain is tight, they may face a serious financial crisis.
From another perspective, although Jeju Island has abundant resources, in order to ensure that the natural landscape is not destroyed, it is necessary to transport a large amount of machinery and construction materials from other land cities in Goryeo to the island. This also means that the development and construction of Jeju Island cannot be separated from the link of sea transportation.
Both the raw materials needed for construction and the large-scale machinery and equipment needed for construction need to be transported to Jeju Island by sea. As a result, the Galaxy Group, which owns Hanjin Shipping, the largest maritime transportation company in Korea, naturally became a stable beneficiary of this project.
As for the matter of providing funds for the development of Jeju Island tourism projects, let those guys who are blinded by interests fight for it! ...
Just when many large Goryeo companies were eager to reap the benefits of Jeju Island's tourism projects, Kingsoft Software Company in the capital of Dragon Kingdom welcomed a special guest.
Looking at Li Yanhong, who is of similar age to him but looks rather restrained, Lei Jun feels somewhat emotional. He did not expect that in addition to those like-minded netizens who often hang out on the forum, there are also like-minded peers even far away abroad.
However, Li Yanhong and his Qiandu Company seemed to have bad luck, especially when Lei Jun and Qiu Bojun learned that this guy returned to China every year to investigate the development trends of the Internet industry before opening the Qiandu Company.
At the end of last year, I decided to return to China to start a business. I thought I would use all my savings to start a company at the beginning of this year, so that I could catch up with the Internet industry and reap the benefits.
He never expected that within less than three months, he would be hit by the outbreak of the Internet economic crisis, which completely "buried" this cautious guy alive!
If you think about it carefully, this guy's misery is probably comparable to Ding Lei, the founder of NetEase, who rushed to go public at the end of last year. However, Ding Lei has the support of Comet Capital, a major shareholder, so he got new capital injection and got through this hurdle safely. As for Li Yanhong, it's hard to say~!
…
Li Yanhong couldn't help but sigh with emotion, and said helplessly, "Boss Lei, Boss Qiu, to be honest with you, the current Internet industry continues to be sluggish, and it's a question whether we can hold on until next year~!"
"Have you tried to apply for a bank loan to get some cash flow?" Qiu Bojun asked curiously. In his opinion, the initial investment of Qiandu Company was mainly in the company's site rental, equipment purchase, and staff salaries. The actual product research and development did not involve much investment.
"Our company's finance department contacted the bank, but when they heard we were an Internet company, they didn't want to take any risks."
Li Yanhong smiled bitterly, "…This time, in addition to discussing the future trends of the Internet with you two, I also wanted to try my luck. I wanted to ask you if you have any channels or connections that can help me get financing or loans?"
Hearing Li Yanhong mention financing and loans, Qiu Bojun glanced at Lei Jun at the side with some hesitation. The working capital of their Kingsoft Software Company mainly benefited from the capital injection of Comet Capital, the major shareholder.
But is it really appropriate for an "outsider" like Li Yanhong to rashly invest in such "trade secrets"?
Seeing Qiu Bojun's inquiring eyes, Lei Jun also understood. He naturally understood his old friend's concerns, but after the conversation just now, he felt that Li Yanhong was indeed a talent. It would be a pity if he really failed. (End of this chapter)