Chapter 58 It must be him!

Frank Arnesen drove to Canary Wharf in London.

Canary Wharf is a famous yacht marina in London. Roman Abramovich's world-famous yacht, the Eclipse, is always parked along the coast of Canary Wharf when it is not out to sea.

Walking on the dock, you can see the Eclipse, which is particularly dazzling white in the sunlight.

It is 168 meters long and 21.5 meters wide, which is considered a giant in Canary Wharf.

Not only that, this is also a yacht with amazing defensive capabilities, equipped with an anti-missile system developed in Germany, two helicopters on standby, twenty jet skis, and so on.

Whenever he saw this yacht, Arnesen couldn't help but want to curse.

Rich people are so damn happy!

But now, the closer he got to the Eclipse, the more uneasy he felt.

He knew exactly why Abramovich had called him to Canary Wharf.

He messed up something very important!

Going up the spiral staircase to the deck, Abramovich was sitting on the deck, opposite him was Chelsea's head coach Ancelotti, which was somewhat unexpected for Arnesen.

"Boss." Arnesen stepped forward.

Abramovich nodded, pointed to the seat opposite him, and motioned him to sit anywhere, but he stared at his phone.

Ding Dong~Ding Dong! Within less than three or four seconds, two messages came through the phone.

After reading the news, Abramovich couldn't help laughing.

This made Frank Arnesen and Ancelotti, who were sitting next to them, very strange.

What are you watching? It's so funny?

Abramovich handed over the phone and said, "Take a look."

Ancelotti was the closest and immediately moved over, while Arnesen also wanted to lean over, but when he saw Ancelotti had gotten there first, he immediately pulled his head back.

As the technical director, he does not get along well with all the head coaches of the team. Previously, he got along well with Mourinho. After Mourinho left, Grant was a little better, but whether it was Scolari or Ancelotti, he had a very bad relationship with him.

It turned out that Abramovich was following Southampton's press conference on the WeChat platform.

"Hello, Neymar, I am Rodolfo, a reporter from the Brazilian daily. I want to ask you, why did you choose Southampton, which is at a lower level, between Chelsea and Southampton?"

There is nothing funny about this question. What is really funny is the expression below.

A cute cartoon picture of Neymar took up half of the phone screen. He was squatting on the ground, grabbing his hair with an exaggerated, distressed and embarrassed expression.

Even though Ancelotti was prepared, he couldn't help but smile when he saw this expression.

There was another ding-dong sound, and soon Neymar's reply came.

Ancelotti pushed the phone back to Abramovich, who picked it up and took a look.

Neymar replied: "Joining Southampton is a decision made by my family and I after careful consideration. I am eager to play for a European team, but joining a giant like Chelsea is too risky, so I decided to play for a low-level team like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and other predecessors to adapt to the European football style."

"Another very important reason is that, during my many contacts, I deeply felt Southampton's ambition and strength. The team introduced Ibrahimovic this summer, and they told me that they will continue to introduce more stars. I believe we will soon return to the Premier League and enter the European arena."

"I'm still young, only 18 years old. In two years, I'll adapt to European football and the team will return to the Premier League. That's when the best Neymar will be here!"

"As for Chelsea, I never had any contact with them."

Then there was another cute expression that took up nearly half of the screen, a cartoon picture of Neymar with an exaggeratedly large tongue sticking out.

Although it was to put down Chelsea, Abramovich couldn't hate them. Instead, he thought it was very cute and likable.

"Take a look." Abramovich pushed the phone in front of Arnesen.

Arnesen took the phone, held it up and scrolled through it, feeling a little panicked.

He was indeed a bit careless about Neymar's transfer, because he felt that this was just another rookie who was overhyped in Brazil and was not worth spending so much money.

So he offered 20 million euros, but Santos offered a whopping 35 million euros.

There is no way Arnesen would agree to such a deal, that's too crazy, and 35 million euros is impossible. Neymar's breach of contract clause is only 30 million euros. Who would be stupid enough to spend 35 million euros to introduce Neymar?

"Southampton directly used the penalty clause to buy out Neymar's contract." This is the news that Arnesen received.

Abramovich nodded calmly, "I know."

He took the phone that Arnesen handed over again, but he didn't continue looking at it. He just turned off the screen and put it on the table.

"I just want to know why we lost to a League One team?"

The last sentence shows the anger in Abramovich's heart.

Even though he tried to suppress it, everyone could tell that he was holding back his anger.

It was he who called out Neymar, and Ancelotti himself expressed his desire to bring him in, but in the end he transferred to other teams.

If it was a top club like Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Manchester United, etc., it would be better, but it was a League One team, which was a slap in the face of Abramovich and Ancelotti.

What would people outside who don’t know about them say? How would they view them?

Everyone must be laughing that Chelsea actually lost to a League One team!

Arnesen remained silent. He couldn't explain anything. It was indeed his problem.

All I can say is that he was too careless and too self-righteous.

"I'm sorry!" Arnesen could only bow his head and apologize.

Apart from that, there was nothing he could do.

But the look he gave Ancelotti was full of anger and hostility.

It must be that damn Italian who told tales to the boss!

It must be him!

…………

…………

A corner of Mountain View, Silicon Valley, the headquarters of WhatsApp, on the second floor of a very ordinary office building.

Jan Kum stared blankly at the desk in front of him. There was a computer on it, an Apple phone in front of the computer keyboard, and a handwritten note pinned next to the phone.

"No ads! No games! No gimmicks!"

The author of the handwritten note was right in front of him: his partner, Brian Acton.

And at this moment, they both doubted for the first time whether the three "don'ts" on the note were correct.

Brian Acton rested his hands on the desk, supporting his forehead, looking extremely distressed.

"According to the latest news we received, the focus of their press conference was to develop their business in South America. In addition, along with this press conference, they also updated the WeChat version and launched a service called Mood Stamp."

Since the launch of WeChat, WhatsApp has been unlucky. First, it was free for a limited time, which resulted in the server crashing twice in a short period of time. Then it crashed again because there were too many users and the server could not bear the load. This happened three times in a row, which damaged their reputation a lot and caused them to lose a large number of users.

Today, WeChat has more users than WhatsApp, with over four million users on the way to five million.

WhatsApp, on the other hand, has remained at three million, and is even in danger of falling below that mark.

This made the two founders worried.

What further undermines their confidence is the creed on which they run the company.

Don't want a gimmick?

The competitors rely on gimmick marketing to surpass them!

"South America?" Jan Kum's face was extremely serious. He realized a problem.

"Is there a problem?" Brian Acton didn't understand for a moment.

Jan Kum wanted to say something, but his mind was in a mess. After more than a minute of organizing himself, he finally stood up.

"U.S. smartphone users usually use monthly subscriptions, which provide free calls, text messages and Internet traffic, so they are not very willing to save money on text messages."

Jan Kum's words completely awakened Brian Acton.

The monthly subscription system in the United States is a unique phenomenon. This monthly subscription system is rarely adopted in other countries and regions such as Europe, Asia, and South America. Therefore, they are very interested in the services promoted by WeChat and WhatsApp.

Because this can help them save a lot of money.

WeChat has already gained popularity in Europe, and now they are looking to expand into South America and Asia.

"This is a conscious act to seize the market!" Jan Kum could swear 100% that the opponent had planned it.

Brian Acton was also dumbfounded. Their limited-time free service was mostly aimed at users in the United States. The reason was simple: registering to use WhatsApp required SMS verification, and the SMS verification rate in the United States was the cheapest, at only two cents.

Did you know that if you ship overseas, such as to the Middle East, Asia, and South America, you will be charged 65 cents per item?

The more users they have abroad, the higher their operating costs will be.

In other words, SMS verification has become the rope that binds the rapid development of WhatsApp.

As for WeChat, they do not require SMS verification, so they can attract users anywhere in the world with impunity.

The only trouble is that they have to have good enough servers.

But in recent times, their server quality has been quite good.

"What should we do now?" Brian Acton asked weakly.

He discovered that the business model they previously thought was perfect was actually full of errors and omissions.

Moreover, they simply did not have the time to slow down, make careful adjustments, and fill in the gaps.

The rapid development of WeChat is forcing them to keep up quickly.

They first launched celebrity accounts, and now they are launching mood stamps. They may launch more services in the future, which will allow them to attract more and more users.

Once users have accumulated a certain amount of social relationships, they will no longer be willing to switch platforms easily.

In other words, these people will become hardcore users of WeChat!

Jan Kum doesn't know what to do?

Given their current situation, it is difficult to attract the interest of investors. Without investment, they will not have enough funds to compete with WeChat. They can only watch their competitors gradually widen the gap with them and leave them in the dust.

They worked hard for more than a year to build this company, but it was completely defeated in just one week!

At this moment, both of them were a little frustrated.

At this moment, the door of Jan Koum's office was knocked twice. When it opened, the panicked face of the employee was revealed. "Boss, our server crashed again!"

Jan Kum and Brian Acton looked as pale as death and were even more desperate!

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