"What about the storage servers?" Huang He continued to ask.
The storage servers were the main part of this bidding, with a procurement volume of 1.5 billion US dollars.
After all, for an internet company, there would certainly be many computing power demands, but their greatest need was actually for storing data, storing user data.
For a massive internet company like Yahoo, the stored user data was even more astronomical.
At this moment, Yahoo was at its most glorious time. From its founding in 1994 to the present, Yahoo had almost passed its 10th year.
In these 10 years, Yahoo had developed into the world's largest internet company and the world's number one portal website.
Currently, Yahoo's business spanned 26 major countries worldwide, and in these 26 major countries, Yahoo had secured the top spot for domestic portal websites in 25 of them.
The only country it had not secured was likely China.
In fact, Yahoo China had once held the number one position in China. It was only later that three students, Sina, Sohu, and Tencent, had carved up the portal website market, and Yahoo's market share was consequently completely carved up. This was Yahoo's first failure in China.
So, although many Chinese people did not know much about Yahoo and thought of Yahoo as just a company they had vaguely heard of, in 2003, it was the overlord of the entire internet era.
The future Google was still trembling under Yahoo's mighty power, especially when in 2004, Yahoo announced its intention to develop its own search engine and cancel its cooperation with Google. As a result, Google, which had just gone public, immediately saw its stock price fall by nearly 80%, and its market share lost more than half. At that time, Google was almost directly bankrupted because of this.
If Yahoo's search engine had not been so terrible, perhaps Google would not exist in this world.
In addition to Yahoo's most glorious main business of being a portal website, at this time, Yahoo was also involved in more than 10 different businesses such as online music, instant messaging, email, online news, website proxy operations, and ad networks.
And all these businesses required storing large amounts of user data, which in turn caused Yahoo's storage servers to continuously increase.
In fact, as early as 2002, Yahoo had spent 1 billion US dollars to purchase a batch of storage servers. Now, just over a year later, these servers were all full, and they needed to purchase another 1.5 billion US dollars worth of servers.
However, these were minor amounts for Yahoo. At this time, Yahoo's market value was as high as 125 billion US dollars, and a mere 1.5 billion US dollars was indeed a negligible amount for it.
From this, one can see how glorious Yahoo was at this time.
Getting back to the point, when hearing Huang He inquire about storage servers, Ni Guangnan did not refuse outright. Instead, he nodded and said, "There are no problems with the storage servers. We have fully met their technical specifications, and even surpassed their technical specifications by a lot!"
"Is that so!" Upon hearing this, Huang He's face immediately lit up with a smile. It seemed that this 1.5 billion US dollars might be falling into his pocket.
Don't forget, Huang He still owed the bank a 1 billion US dollar loan, and the first installment of 240 million US dollars was due in October of this year.
Although Jiangnan Group had over 100 million US dollars in its accounts, and by not spending wildly in the coming months and saving diligently, they could gather the first installment of 240 million US dollars.
However, this would cause many aspects of Jiangnan Group's development to fall behind. If they could win the Yahoo order, then there would be no need to worry about this 240 million US dollars. According to the tender documents,
As soon as the bidding was successful, Yahoo would immediately pay a deposit of 200 million US dollars, and then pay the remaining balance in installments according to the delivery time and progress.
At this time, Yahoo was wealthy and powerful, and there had never been any reports of it defaulting on payments. Therefore, as long as the contract was signed, there would be no worries about the debt this year.
"It's a pity, we can't do this bid!" Seeing Huang He fantasizing with a happy expression, Elder Ni shook his head.
"Why can't we do it? Didn't you say our technology could meet the requirements of the tender documents?" Huang He was stunned for a moment and then asked.
"Partly due to this reason. Although we can meet the technical indicators in the tender documents, there are still some requirements that cannot be matched. This is mainly because our storage servers are made with graphene particles. This is a material advantage, and there is no real technical advantage! We do not have those new technologies required by the tender documents. They are all old technologies, but we have met many of the required indicators!" Elder Ni said.
"This is fine. As long as the corresponding indicators are met, and the price is cheap enough, I think Yahoo will not refuse!" Huang He said.
"No, I think there will still be problems!" Ni Guangnan shook his head.
"Elder Ni, are you perhaps scared?" Huang He asked with a smile.
"Scared? I wish I could be scared, but they don't give us the chance to be scared!" Elder Ni snorted coldly, and also said helplessly, "Do you know? Yahoo did not even send us the tender documents. We don't even have the qualification to bid!"
"Uh..." Huang He was stunned.
Indeed, according to the bidding rules, his company should have received the tender documents first, and then submitted a bid according to the requirements of the tender documents. This is like wanting to take the college entrance examination; you first need to get a test admission ticket.
"Teacher, this is a natural thing. For the prestigious Yahoo to purchase servers, there are many top server manufacturers in America and Europe. How could they proactively send tender documents to our obscure company?" Huang He said with a wry smile.
Huang He was quite self-aware. Jiangnan Servers were actually only at a medium level in terms of technology. The only technology that could be called advanced was the technology for storage servers, and this was still due to the new materials developed by Tong He.
Purely in terms of technology, compared to the world's major server manufacturers, Jiangnan Servers were at most like a child who had just learned to speak. Yahoo would never proactively send tender documents to Jiangnan Servers.
"How about I find some American friends to help me try and get a set of tender documents!" Huang He muttered.
"Alas, I say, Xiao Huang, do you really want to bid?" Seeing Huang He like this, Ni Guangnan asked with great shock.
"Yes, what's the problem with that?" Huang He said as a matter of course.
"It's not a question of what the problem is, it's just that I think you are wasting time and energy!" Ni Guangnan sighed and said, "You don't understand the server industry too well, so you don't know how high the prejudice in this industry is."
"American companies like Yahoo will absolutely not even glance at us Jiangnan Servers, even if your products truly meet their data requirements, we have absolutely no reputation, and they would never procure our servers."
"This is no longer a technical issue, but a matter of brand and strength perception!"
"At present, we should focus on expanding the domestic market. Recently, we have reached sales agreements with several domestic network companies and have sold over 100 servers. This is a good start. Next, we should continue to focus on the domestic market. According to my estimates, in three years, our annual sales should exceed 3,000 servers, and we will also become one of the top 3 server manufacturers in the country. This is the development path suitable for us."
"Of course, I'm not saying we should give up on the foreign market. On the contrary, I also believe that going global is a path that Jiangnan Servers must take."
"But not now. We are too unknown now. We have nothing significant to show. Yahoo will absolutely not choose us."
"Only after three years, when we have a reputation both domestically and internationally, and our product technology has gradually improved, will we have the capital to attract their attention."
"If you go to America now, besides wasting money and energy, there will be no other gains!" Ni Guangnan said very bluntly. This was quite thorough.
Although Ni Guangnan's words sounded like he was dampening the morale of the enemy and raising the prestige of himself, he was indeed speaking the truth, and it was also a truth that hurt him greatly.
But the truth is the truth, Ni Guangnan believed that Huang He must accept such truths, otherwise, he would only suffer more pain.
Hearing Ni Guangnan's dissuasion, Huang He also fell into hesitation. He remained silent for more than ten minutes, clearly undergoing considerable internal struggle.
Finally, Huang He said, "Teacher, I admit that what you said is very correct, and it is all the truth. I should indeed give up on this bidding."
Huang He paused here and then continued, "But if we give up now because we feel our strength is insufficient, will we have to repeat this cycle next time?"
"If that's the case, then when can we prove to the world that we Jiangnan Servers truly have the strength to produce network servers that meet the needs of world-class companies?"
"Also, why must we give up? Why can't we try?"
"Yes, trying might indeed lead to failure, and it will cost me a lot of money and energy. But so what? At most, it will cause Huang He to lose a few hairs. But if it succeeds, then we can reach the world's server industry three years ahead of schedule, establishing our reputation and brand." Huang He said excitedly.
"This probability is too small..." Ni Guangnan hesitated for a moment and then said.
"No matter how small the probability is, there is still a chance of success. Just like our blind boxes, the probability of getting a deluxe version is less than 3‰, but there will always be lucky winners who get the deluxe version from the blind boxes."
"And according to our statistics, 50% of the lucky winners who got the deluxe version purchased less than 5 blind boxes at once."
"What if we succeed?"