"These bastards at Goldman Sachs are useless; we have to figure this out ourselves!" Many executives spoke up at the Google high-level meeting.
"Alas, I understand everyone is very dissatisfied with this situation, but Goldman Sachs is our major shareholder, and by entrusting us with the PT project, they are also promoting the further development of our skeletal structure. The crux of the problem now is, if we cannot cooperate with Wanbaoge, then by what means should we launch our Google PT!"
"Apple has already launched its comprehensive promotion and pre-sales, but we are still unable to release any information publicly. It's baffling, as our devices are almost arriving on the same day; it shouldn't be like this today!" exclaimed Larry Page, the founder of Google.
"Boss, since online sales are not an option, I believe we can only resort to the old ways. Why don't we cooperate with large mobile phone distributors and let them help us sell our phones!" someone suggested.
"Mr. Carse, I recall telling all of you in the last meeting that it's not that we don't want to cooperate with large mobile phone distributors, but rather that we simply cannot find any large distributors willing to work with us at the moment!"
"This is because established mobile phone companies like Nokia and Motorola have jointly issued a ban across the industry. Any large mobile phone distributor that dares to cooperate with us or Apple will have their cooperation agreements with all other mobile phone brands canceled!"
"Therefore, while our promotion is going well, the market is still dominated by traditional mobile phones. None of these large distributors have the guts to defy the ban from Nokia and Motorola, so not a single nationwide large mobile phone distributor dares to proactively cooperate with us."
"Without the cooperation of distributors of this caliber, we cannot possibly roll out all the PTs to the offline market in a short period! Unless we can secure funds and, like Apple, establish our own Apple stores in every city across the country, we simply cannot break into the offline market!" stated an executive in charge of marketing.
"If that's the case, are we only left with online sales? But the situation with online sales has been made abundantly clear. Wanbaoge's delivery service is atrocious. If we cooperate with Wanbaoge, it would be like throwing money and equipment into the water; it's simply not feasible!"
"Then, can we change our approach? Instead of going through Wanbaoge's traditional e-commerce business, we could utilize their newly developed supermarket partnership program and sell Google phones directly in all supermarkets through them."
"I've investigated their supermarket fresh food business. Since they use the supermarkets' own logistics, we don't have to worry about being mentally broken by those two disgusting courier companies. We can directly sell the phones in supermarkets. Furthermore, through Wanbaoge's distribution system, we can also achieve nationwide phone delivery!" suggested an executive who seemed to be well-versed in e-commerce.
"Heh, Mr. Biklek, may I ask when you conducted this investigation, and have you personally experienced Wanbaoge's fresh food delivery service?" the same executive who had spoken earlier retorted.
"Uh, well, the investigation was conducted about six months ago. So, I haven't personally experienced it, but our investigators have made over a hundred purchases with no issues!" Biklek quickly replied.
"Oh, six months ago, Wanbaoge's fresh food delivery was still barely acceptable, as they still had some semblance of dignity when they launched their business. But you have no idea how terrible this fresh food delivery has become in the past six months."
"Although Wanbaoge's website advertises delivery within 5 hours of placing an order, over 70% of orders are delivered after 5 hours, with some even taking three days or being outright lost orders!"
"And even for the products that are delivered, they are almost always items nearing expiry, having long lost the freshness that fresh produce should have. Most critically, the items they deliver are often short in weight, or some items are missing altogether, requiring a second delivery to supplement them!"
"However, it's considered fortunate if you actually receive your order at all. Many times, you never see your order from beginning to end, and you can only wait for their call to proactively help you cancel the order and process a refund."
"Furthermore, regional non-delivery situations are frequent. For example, in my community, there are half a month out of every month where delivery is unavailable. And starting three months ago, Wanbaoge has successively sued three supermarkets, accusing them of breaching their contracts and refusing to fulfill the agreed-upon services."
"There are also instances of supermarkets directly suing Wanbaoge, and so on. In short, out of the dozen or so large supermarket chains that Wanbaoge cooperates with, there are hardly any that maintain a good relationship with their outsourced partners. Various scandals erupt between the two parties almost daily."
"Now, over half of these dozen or so large supermarkets have severed ties with Wanbaoge, and the remaining half are hanging by a thread. In fact, Wanbaoge has already removed their fresh food business from their homepage, moving it to a very remote corner to prevent new users from falling into the fresh food business trap."
"Given such a fresh food business, cooperating with it would likely be no better than their online operations," stated the person in charge of marketing directly.
"How can this be? I've used Oriental Amazon's fresh food business, and I've never encountered such problems. Hasn't it always been smooth sailing?" this executive named Biklek muttered to himself, causing the entire conference room to burst into laughter.
"Please, don't compare Wanbaoge's fresh food business with Oriental Amazon's fresh food business. They are simply not on the same level. Heaven knows how Wanbaoge operates its fresh food business, yet they claim to defeat Oriental Amazon. I think they are not even worthy of carrying Oriental Amazon's shoes!" These executives sarcastically mocked Wanbaoge. If a Wanbaoge executive were present, they would likely exclaim, "These are indeed our nation's allies!"
"Then, is there no solution?" Biklek rubbed his temples in exasperation. "He truly can't think of any other sales channels to solve the problem."
"It's not that there's no solution!" The marketing supervisor, who had been the one to consistently challenge others, took a deep breath and looked at everyone. Then he said, "Everyone, we are all brothers who started this venture with the boss. I will say what I've wanted to say for a long time: the truth."
"That is, to solve our sales problems, we must go online. But not by cooperating with some damned Wanbaoge, but by directly cooperating with Oriental Amazon. This is the only way to save our PT devices!" the supervisor declared, and the entire conference room fell into silence.
At this point, almost everyone in the global business community knew that Goldman Sachs and Jiangnan Group had become sworn enemies. The two sides had previously fought tooth and nail, wishing they could have torn each other's brains out.
For instance, the PT business that everyone currently held was actually a business forcibly snatched from Jiangnan Group by Goldman Sachs. If you now proposed to cooperate with Oriental Amazon, which was under Jiangnan Group, it would be a miracle if Goldman Sachs agreed.
Therefore, the scene was filled with silence. Just as many were about to smooth things over with perfunctory remarks, Page, who had been silent all along, suddenly asked, "If we cooperate with Oriental Amazon, can it resolve our predicament? Moreover, I recall that Oriental Amazon only excels in its fresh food business, but for us, the online business is most important. Can their online sales bear the weight of Google PTs?"
"Absolutely no problem!" Upon hearing this, the marketing supervisor knew his boss was swayed and immediately continued, "Boss, the stereotype that Oriental Amazon only excels in its fresh food business should have ended three months ago."
"Because just three months ago, Oriental Amazon received a massive investment totaling $5 billion. Oriental Amazon is using these $5 billion to expand frantically across the globe. Overnight, they established logistics bases in almost all major cities in the United States, increasing their delivery points by 30,000 and hiring 60,000 couriers within a month."
"Two months ago, Oriental Express, under Oriental Amazon, achieved its goal of nationwide delivery. Currently, if you place an order on Oriental Amazon's official website, you can purchase goods online in any major city in the United States."
"Furthermore, according to Oriental Amazon's own claims, with another year, they will surpass FedEx and UPS in terms of delivery network coverage, becoming the courier company with the widest nationwide coverage!"
"As everyone knows, what kind of courier company is Oriental Express? Compared to Oriental Express, FedEx and UPS are like the difference between dog feces and hot dogs. Since our company was covered by Oriental Express's delivery service, we have stopped cooperating with UPS and FedEx, and have always used Oriental Express."
"Originally, we might only send two or three express packages a year, but with Oriental Express, we now send two or three packages a week. This is because Oriental Express not only delivers quickly but also guarantees that products will not be damaged or lost during transit. Otherwise, they will compensate at 10 times the product's price. However, to date, I have never received any compensation from Oriental Express because their deliveries have never had any errors. This is the best courier service I have ever seen."
"Moreover, Oriental Express's delivery prices are the same as those of FedEx and UPS. I honestly cannot think of anyone who would refuse Oriental Express. Therefore, if our Google PTs are delivered by Oriental Express, all the problems that have been troubling us will be instantly resolved, and we can immediately commence online sales," the marketing supervisor concluded his speech.