Zhu Yue ultimately did not sell Fox Mail and Zhang Xiaolong. After all, Fox Mail still held the second largest market share in the country, and the gap with the first-place NetEase Mail was not insurmountable. If it could surge, it was entirely possible for it to become the domestic number one.
Moreover, if in one year someone was willing to pay an extra 8 million yuan for Fox Mail, it meant that Fox Mail’s inherent value was still there. If he held on for a few more years, perhaps it would be worth 30 million, 40 million?
Thus, Lin Haiquan and his party, who had arrived in haste, departed just as quickly. However, at that time, Lin Haiquan could never have imagined that years later, one of the proudest moments at industry gatherings would be that he was the first to recognize the market value of "00" and Jiangnan, and that he had been so close to acquiring "00." This would elicit admiring glances from listeners.
At this moment, Lin Haiquan was harboring immense dissatisfaction. He felt that his departure from Wenzhou had been extremely humiliating, instilling in him a desperate urge to retaliate against Huang He.
"Xiaolong, do you know anyone from Tengda?" Lin Haiquan suddenly asked Zhang Xiaolong in the taxi on their way back.
"I know their head of technology, who is also one of the founders, Zhang Zhidong. But why do you want to contact them?" Zhang Xiaolong countered.
"It's nothing. I just feel that the people at Tengda are too slow in their senses. They haven't even noticed such an obvious competitor. I need to give them a hand!" Lin Haiquan said with a smile.
"Mr. Lin, perhaps we should refrain from doing something that harms others without benefiting ourselves!" Zhang Xiaolong said with some resistance.
"It's not entirely without benefit. We can use this to build a good relationship with Tengda and lay the foundation for future cooperation. We don't deign to cooperate with mere '00'; if we cooperate, it will be with market leaders like Tengda!" As Lin Haiquan spoke, he jotted down Zhang Zhidong's phone number from Zhang Xiaolong.
***
"Hello? Who is this?" Zhang Zhidong answered. Although it was an unfamiliar number, it was his private number, which not many people knew. Only those Zhang Zhidong deemed worthy of association would have it, so he didn't choose to reject the call.
"Hello, Mr. Zhang. I am Lin Haiquan, the General Manager of Boda Company. I met you with President Zhang of Fox Mail some time ago, and we had a long chat!" Lin Haiquan said with a smile. Zhang Zhidong then recalled that he had indeed chatted with Zhang Xiaolong.
Brother Ma had always wanted to develop an email service, so he had tasked Zhang Zhidong, his Chief Technology Officer, with continuously monitoring email-related matters, accumulating relevant technology and talent. Therefore, the previous conversation with Zhang Xiaolong had been initiated by Zhang Zhidong himself. However, Zhang Zhidong didn't remember if there was a third person present during their conversation.
Could his memory be hazy?
Thinking of Zhang Xiaolong, Zhang Zhidong couldn't help but recall their last meeting, when they had discussed whether mobile phones could possess PC platform characteristics. This was truly a talented individual, at least much stronger than himself.
"Mr. Zhang, are you listening?" Lin Haiquan asked, as Zhang Zhidong remained silent for a long time.
"Yes, I am. Excuse me, I worked late last night. What can I do for you, Mr. Lin?" Zhang Zhidong asked.
"It's like this, have your company noticed a new challenger in the market recently called '00'?"
"'00'? What is that?" Zhang Zhidong instinctively asked.
"What? You've never heard of '00'?" Lin Haiquan exclaimed. "In fact, our Boda Company has just completed some investigation into '00.' We found that '00' currently has at least 500,000 registered users. How could your company be unaware of such a significant competitor?"
"500,000? Is that a lot?" Zhang Zhidong scratched his head. He remembered that Tengda had just surpassed 30 million registered users a month ago. Compared to that figure, 500,000 seemed rather insignificant.
"This..." Lin Haiquan was also momentarily speechless. Then he said, "Mr. Zhang, your company must not let down its guard against this enterprise. This company's recently launched '00' Random Bottle feature is very impressive and has attracted a large number of users. If your company allows them to continue developing like this, even the foundation of QQ might be shaken!"
"Alright, thank you for the reminder, Mr. Lin. I understand!" Zhang Zhidong hung up the phone. He thought about it and felt that it might be overstepping his authority to directly inform Brother Ma about this matter. So, he called the market department and mentioned the issue of '00,' asking them how they viewed this '00.'
"We are already aware of the situation with '00.' Their '00' Random Bottle is indeed quite powerful. We are also conducting a detailed investigation. The weekly market report next week will include relevant information!" the market department replied. Zhang Zhidong didn't say anything further.
As Tengda grew larger, its power structure and system became increasingly independent. As the Chief Technology Officer, Zhang Zhidong had no interest in interfering with the market department's affairs.
Since the market department had already stated that they were aware of it, it was no longer Zhang Zhidong's concern.
Lin Haiquan had expected to see Tengda's response and counterattack within two or three days after his call. To his great disappointment, after waiting for five days, Tengda still seemed unaware of the situation with '00,' allowing them to grow unchecked without any response.
"Is this Brother Ma so slow?" Lin Haiquan grumbled angrily.
In reality, it wasn't Brother Ma's fault, as he had indeed waited five days before seeing the market department's weekly market report.
Nor was it the market department's fault, as the market report was submitted once a week, and they had completed their task on time. Furthermore, they had highlighted the threat of '00' in the report.
But the problem was that after reviewing the report, Brother Ma only read the first half concerning foreign products. As for the latter half, Brother Ma habitually skimmed through it and abandoned it because he had more important matters to attend to.
With Brother Ma showing no reaction, the entire Tengda continued to ignore the existence of '00' as if this competitor simply didn't exist. Even Huang He, after waiting for more than half a month and finding Tengda still silent, couldn't help but murmur, "Why isn't Tengda coming after me!"
It wasn't until September 1, 2001, when the arduous day of school starting arrived for all students, that our Brother Ma was engrossed in playing games.
Don't misunderstand, our Brother Ma wasn't slacking off. On the contrary, he was working diligently because the game he was playing was "Legend." In just half a year, this game had reached a point where all online players were driven to frenzy. It had even allowed a little-known company like Shanda to become China's most profitable online company in just half a year. This filled Brother Ma with envy and jealousy, especially since QQ was still continuously losing money, and the entire QQ team couldn't find a way to generate profit.
This was also the most crucial task Brother Ma had been planning for recently. Although QQ had an astonishing market share, it also consumed an astonishing amount of funds, and QQ still hadn't found a way to achieve profitability.
Gaming had become the area Brother Ma valued the most.
"I need to arrange for someone to go to Korea and see if we can get a game similar to 'Legend'!" Brother Ma quickly came up with a solution. Since he couldn't defeat the opponent, he would join them and turn their market into his own. This was Brother Ma's usual method, and it worked very well.
"Brother-in-law, have you opened a farm? Can you come and steal some vegetables for me?" Suddenly, Brother Ma's QQ notification popped up. He looked down and saw it was a message from his sister-in-law.
But what was stealing vegetables? He had no idea!
Brother Ma had one advantage: he wasn't ashamed to ask. So, he very sincerely asked, "What is stealing vegetables? Is it the latest game?"
"It's '00' Farm. Isn't that a product of your company?"
" '00' Farm? Wait a moment!" Brother Ma said to his sister-in-law. That day, his sister-in-law never received a reply from Brother Ma. It was said that that day, no one in Tengda's management team returned home before sunrise the next day.