In the afternoon, the collective meetings ceased, and discussions were held in groups. Jiangnan Group had set up over 200 separate meeting rooms within the exhibition center, allowing representatives to discuss amongst themselves according to their relationships.
It was also perfectly fine to ponder alone, or even to hold discussions at the hotel rather than within the exhibition center.
In essence, Jiangnan Group had distributed a prepared draft of the China Electronic Technology Development Alliance, spanning over 120 pages, to every attending representative. The representatives were given half a day to familiarize themselves with the draft alliance proposal, identify any points they were dissatisfied with or felt could be modified, and then collectively propose these changes for discussion and amendment during the following day's meeting.
Some were indifferent to this, glancing briefly at the draft and, finding it largely aligned with what Huang He had said, dismissed it as having little to discuss.
Others, however, earnestly gathered to conduct a thorough study of the draft.
For instance, Chen Yongming, Lei Jun, Liu Qiangdong, and Chai Jin, who had invited himself, convened in a meeting room to begin their discussion.
"I believe the sections on patents and technology pricing are rather vague," Chen Yongming remarked, scrutinizing the pricing regulations. "It only states that prices will not exceed the cost of similar international technologies and will be set by the alliance's pricing committee. However, it doesn't specify the concrete pricing rules. Should we perhaps establish more comprehensive pricing rules? Otherwise, if an exorbitant price is set later, we might not be able to afford it!"
Chen Yongming held few technical patents himself and would undoubtedly need to purchase various technologies and products from the alliance. Therefore, he was particularly sensitive to pricing, wishing it were set at zero.
"The draft actually addresses this," Lei Jun interjected. "It states that specific pricing schemes will be drafted and formulated by the pricing committee after its establishment. Now is not the time to devise pricing strategies, so your concern is futile! What I'm more concerned about is this: the technology fees do not require a lump-sum patent purchase payment but are instead allocated to individual units sold. If this is the case, then if a product's sales volume is extremely low, won't the company selling the patent earn very little?"
"I think this rule is quite good; it can reduce our production costs!" Chen Yongming said with a smile.
"But it's too disadvantageous for those who research technology!" Lei Jun, still involved in the software industry, believed he would likely be engaged in research and development in the future, making this rule quite unfavorable for him.
"That's just the reality of the market. If your technology and patents are valuable, you don't need to fear low sales. But if they don't align with commercial interests, they're garbage!"
"Globally, over 10 million various technology patents are born each year, but only less than 200,000 are profitable, a proportion less than 2%. If you can't create something the market needs, you deserve to earn no money. There's no reason for us salespeople to foot the bill!"
"Hmph! Useful technologies and patents are built upon layers of useless technologies and patents. You can only obtain those 2% of technology patents by investing in the 'bones' of the 98%. People nowadays are short-sighted and simply don't understand these matters," Chai Jin said with resentment.
"It seems, Mr. Xiao Xuanfeng, that your technologies and patents are currently among that 98%!" Liu Qiangdong, who had long been annoyed by Chai Jin, remarked. This meeting was attended by the latter, who had shamelessly invited himself.
"That's right!" Chai Jin readily admitted. "But my 2% will come soon. As long as I'm given another 2 million... no, another 1 million to continue my experiments, I definitely will!"
"Heh heh!" Liu Qiangdong let out a dry chuckle. While he didn't voice his sarcasm, the laughter was all the more cutting.
Disregarding Liu Qiangdong, Chai Jin hesitated for a moment before asking Lei Jun, "Mr. Lei, do you think I qualify for the alliance investment clause mentioned in this article?"
Alliance investment was a rather important clause in the alliance draft and a highly attractive one within the organization.
According to this clause, if an enterprise possessed a valuable patent in a semi-finished state, it could apply for alliance investment, with the alliance's funds investing in the technology.
The benefit of alliance investment was that the funds invested by the alliance did not need to be repaid, nor did the alliance contend for control of the technology or interfere with its research; it was essentially a free contribution.
However, once the technology was developed, the alliance would possess permanent usage rights. The technology could not be transferred or licensed to enterprises or individuals outside the alliance. All revenue generated by the technology within the alliance would have 50% perpetually extracted by the alliance to replenish the alliance's funding pool for future investment in other technologies.
Furthermore, according to the alliance draft's requirements, for all technologies, products, and everything else traded through the alliance, the alliance could extract 0.5% to be stored in the alliance's fund.
Even though this proportion was small, if the entire alliance truly became operational, even 0.5% could potentially generate over 100 million yuan in annual revenue.
Clearly, Chai Jin had set his sights on the alliance investment as a source of funding.
"This... I can only say there's hope..." Lei Jun said with a wry smile, finding Chai Jin's aspirations somewhat fantastical.
According to the draft, to apply for this funding support, one must first have a guarantor from an enterprise or individual with assets exceeding ten million yuan. If the alliance discovered that these investments were squandered and not channeled into actual scientific research—in other words, a scam—then the guarantors would be held responsible for compensating the losses.
Secondly, the project needed to be reviewed and researched by the alliance's expert panel, confirming its research value and feasibility, before investment could be made.
Simultaneously, every transaction had to be audited by an accounting firm designated by the alliance, with over a dozen detailed regulations to constrain and standardize the process. Lei Jun doubted anyone would be willing to invest in Chai Jin's project.
"Actually, this would be more suitable for you: the alliance's technology market!" Chen Yongming remarked from the side. "The alliance will establish a technology market where all technologies, whether successfully researched or not, or requiring funding investment like yours, can be listed for sale or to seek investment. If your technology truly has investment potential, you can fully attract alliance members to invest. This would simplify the review process compared to the alliance's funding, making it more suitable for enterprises like yours!"
"Hmph, if any enterprise had been willing to invest in me earlier, I wouldn't be here..." Chai Jin's face displayed a look of despair, much to Liu Qiangdong's satisfaction.
Several hours later.
"I've compiled a total of 12 suggestions. What about you all?" Lei Jun asked proudly, waving his notebook.
"I have 23!" Liu Qiangdong replied.
"I only have 1!" Chen Yongming said.
"I have no comments!" Chai Jin had been lost in thought, essentially having stopped reading the draft after realizing obtaining investment was unlikely.
"Oh, why didn't Mr. Duan come?" Lei Jun asked curiously.
"He was very angry and likely won't attend the meeting anymore," Chen Yongming said with a wry smile, which was also the reason he had been somewhat uneasy. At the end of the morning session, Duan Yongping had hinted to him to also skip this so-called meeting. However, after much deliberation, Chen Yongming decided to attend the discussion, feeling he absolutely could not miss this opportunity.
"Don't worry, refusing to attend this meeting might be Mr. Duan's biggest mistake in his life!" Liu Qiangdong suddenly stated.
"Why do you say that?"
"You'll understand when you see. Once the alliance is established, it will immediately sweep up over 80% of the various resources, technologies, and connections in the electronics industry. Any enterprise excluded from the alliance will find it impossible to develop within China's electronics sector, as the alliance's resources and technologies will not be made available to them!" Liu Qiangdong declared. "Those abandoned outside the alliance are destined for a dead end!"
Lei Jun and Chen Yongming remained silent, but they suddenly felt that the history of the entire electronics industry was about to turn a new page on this day.
The next day, the full-scale meeting commenced once more, and Huang He reappeared. At the outset, he directly stated, "After yesterday afternoon's discussions, we have collected a total of 15,874 opinions. By consolidating similar opinions, the final count is 574. After removing unreasonable opinions, we are left with 98 distinct viewpoints."
A wave of expressions shifted across the faces of the bosses seated below.
Consolidating fifteen thousand opinions into five hundred was already quite astonishing. Then, with a simple statement of removing unreasonable opinions, over 480, nearly 80%, were cut, leaving only 98. This was truly autocratic.
Shouldn't those 480-plus "unreasonable" opinions that were discarded be presented for discussion? Shouldn't the assembly decide on them, rather than have you single-handedly dismiss them with a mere declaration of unreasonableness?
Many in the audience felt a surge of anger. They had been quite satisfied with the meeting initially. Although Huang He had played mind games with handshakes, the news that he was shaking hands based on whether people wore Hanfu had made those who received a single handshake less indignant.
This was because Huang He wasn't looking down on them personally but was making a business decision to promote Hanfu. It wasn't a matter of personal contempt, which made people feel much better.
However, now they unequivocally felt uncomfortable, sensing Huang He's dominance and his strong control over the alliance.
"Once this alliance is established, it will likely become Huang He's one-man show," many mused inwardly, and several who had intended to join the alliance began to waver in their resolve.
Huang He, seemingly unconcerned, proceeded with the meeting as planned. The 98 reasonable opinions, reviewed by Huang He, were distributed to everyone. Then, Huang He announced, "You may all judge these 98 opinions and choose whether they are reasonable or not. If more than half deem an opinion reasonable, it will be further discussed in the meeting, and a revised outcome will be determined. If more than half deem it unreasonable, it will not be discussed further, and the original rules will remain unchanged."
Lei Jun quickly reviewed the opinion sheet and was pleasantly surprised to find that 8 of his 12 suggestions were listed, while the 4 that were rejected, upon reflection, seemed to overlap with his other 8, likely having been merged.
Lei Jun naturally marked all 8 of his opinions. He then checked with Liu Qiangdong and discovered that although his 23 opinions were numerous, only 7 ultimately remained, one less than Lei Jun.
After half an hour, everyone finished their review, and the voting slips were collected. It was then announced that 47 items required revision, and the meeting subsequently focused on reviewing and debating these 47 items, continuing until the evening. The second day's meeting thus concluded.