I really didn’t want to be a warm man when I was reborn

On November 5th, with the intervention of the upper management, the 3q war that lasted for nearly a year finally subsided temporarily.

360 offlined “KouKou Bodyguard” and issued an open letter stating that it was willing to put aside the dispute.

On the 10th, 360 announced that QQ and 360 have resumed compatibility.

On the 21st, Penguin also issued a letter of apology to the public.

Penguin and 360 have finally made peace with each other.

Without the restraint of 360, Penguin immediately turned its attention to Qudong Group.

On November 8, Qudong Group disclosed Quchao data to the public for the first time.

In the 18 days since its launch, the number of users of Quchao has reached more than 24 million.

Tao Guang was secretive before to avoid irritating Penguin prematurely, but now that WeChat is about to go online, there is no need to hide it anymore.

Penguin's response was faster than Li Zhe expected, and WeChat was built in just half a month.

As soon as this data was announced, it caused a shock in the industry, and the media also reported it one after another.

In 18 days, there were more than 24 million users. This speed is amazing.

Currently, there are only over 100 million smartphone users in China, which means that in just over two weeks, Qudiao captured 20 to 30% of the market.

However, as soon as Qudiao’s prospects seem to be excellent, not many capitals have taken the initiative to contact Qudong Group. Even if a few capitals have offered to take shares, the valuations given are very low.

Ten years later, there is a saying that in order to judge whether a project has investment value, you must first see whether BAT will undertake the project.

The same is true now. Although Qudiao has a considerable early advantage, there is a huge gap in strength between giants like Qudong Group and Penguin.

It’s hard to say how likely QuChat is to win. Once the QuChat project fails, all investment will be in vain.

Capital is like this, it will always be the icing on the cake and will never provide help in times of need.

Li Zhe didn't care about this. Now they are unwilling to place a bet. When Qudiao develops in the future and they rush to invest again, they will lose a lot of money.

Besides, he is not short of funds now.

On November 12, Penguin officially released WeChat. This version of WeChat has basically the same functions as QuChat. It can send text messages and pictures, voice messages of no more than 60 seconds, and a circle of friends.

However, thanks to the synchronization of KouKou and a strong publicity campaign, WeChat had nearly 3 million users in just one day after its launch.

Penguin has also formed offline and online promotion teams, but due to the rush, the promotion team is far from interesting and mature, experienced and efficient.

Just two hours after WeChat went online, Qudong Group released Quchao version 2.0.

This version of QuChat adds location-based services "Nearby People", "Drifting Bottle" and "Shake", allowing users to connect with nearby strangers.

For QuChat version 2.0, the number of new users per day has increased from more than half a million to nearly one million.

The most important thing about instant messaging software is its social function.

Just like the first group of people who chatted all night long just to "make friends."

"People Nearby", "Drifting Bottle" and "Shake It Up" were social (y) communication (p) artifacts when they first came out.

"Learning from Goose"... No, Penguin reacted very quickly. Only five days later, WeChat version 2.0 was released, which also added functions like "People Nearby", "Drift Bottle" and "Shake".

At this time, Qudong Group also announced that Quchao’s new recruitment reward has increased to 50 Qucoins (5 yuan) per person, and those who have reached 2,000 Qucoins can apply for cash withdrawal.

And users’ Qucoins can be traded with each other.

In other words, as long as you attract a new user, you can earn 5 yuan, and you can realize it if you reach 200 yuan. If you don't meet the withdrawal requirement of 200 yuan, you can also sell the fun coins to others.

As soon as this strategy came out, Qudong Group made it clear that it wanted to compete with Penguin Company to see who could burn more money.

Qudong Group is Li Zhe's one-stop shop, but a listed company like Penguin must consider the opinions of investors and shareholders. It's not like Ma Ma can spend huge amounts of money on promotion with just one sentence.

If huge amounts of money are to be spent, high-level officials must hold meetings to discuss it.

What Qudong Group and Penguin are competing for is time.

Under the temptation of high new recruit rewards, the number of new users in Quchao every day was more than one million, and it did not drop until a week later.

On December 10, 51 days after its launch, Quchao’s number of users exceeded 50 million, with an average of nearly one million new users every day, accounting for less than half of the market share. It can be said to have created a promotion miracle.

The price is to burn three to four billion in funds.

At this time, the number of WeChat users was less than 20 million, more than 16 million to be precise.

After WeChat exploded in the early stage, its subsequent development has been sluggish.

The main reason is that the market has been occupied by Quchao first. After users get used to Quchao, they are not willing to change.

Even if you download WeChat to play with it, it will be uninstalled soon.

Quchao is always organizing activities. You can use Quchao to recharge phone bills, book tickets, redeem memberships, and get discounts with Qucoins, and its subsidies far exceed those of WeChat.

At this time, anyone with a discerning eye could see that Quchao had established a firm foothold.

Even if Penguin still has a chance to get back on its feet, it will have to pay a huge price and engage in a long-term battle for users with Qudong Group.

On December 17, Penguin optimized the QQ mobile version and added new functions such as voice messages and friend updates.

In fact, as early as 2003, Penguin launched the mobile version of QQ (Mobile QQ). Because most of the mobile phones at that time were feature phones and Symbian system, the interface of the entire software was relatively simple and could only meet the most basic online requirements. Chat needs.

Penguin imitated the functions of WeChat and optimized the mobile version of KuaKou in advance. On the one hand, it can attack QuChat via both KuaKou and WeChat. On the other hand, it also prepared a backup plan for the failure of WeChat.

Even if the WeChat project really fails, Penguin can still turn around and focus on running the KouKou mobile version and compete with Qudiao again.

Kuokou has a huge user base of 800 million people, and it is still unclear who will win and who will lose.

This is also Penguin's background as a veteran instant messaging industry leader. Even if it loses one or two games, it can regroup and fight again.

However, as an emerging challenger, Qudong Group cannot lose a game. If it loses, it will be eliminated.

Seeing that Quchao has withstood the competition from WeChat and is expected to succeed, everyone at Qudong Group is happy.

If the Fun Chat project is really successful, the options in everyone’s hands can be cashed out.

By then, even ordinary employees can get hundreds of thousands.

Executives can become millionaires, multi-millionaires and even billionaires.

Once when Li Zhe was visiting his employees, Yang Function asked him if he could redeem more options.

In fact, it is not just Yang Function, many people have this idea.

A lot of capital has also come to the door, wanting to add icing on the cake.

However, Li Zhe was not as optimistic as the employees.

Fun chat is just about winning a game first, and the outcome is still unknown until the end.

The next two years will be the key to the development of Qudiao, especially from 2012 onwards, smartphone shipments will explode. If Qudiao cannot capture enough new users by then, it may be caught up or even overtaken by WeChat. .

Moreover, even if Qudiao defeats WeChat, Penguin still has a mobile version of KuoKou, so it can still compete with Qudiao.

It is impossible for Quliao to monopolize the instant messaging market like KuaiKou.

It just broke Penguin's dominance of the instant messaging industry.

At that time, it is likely that a long-term competition pattern between Quchao and Kuakou mobile versions will be formed.

The KuoKou mobile version actually has great development potential, but after the emergence of WeChat, Penguin relaxed its operation of the KuoKou mobile version.

Therefore, even if the WeChat project fails, Penguin's development potential will only be weakened and will not really decline.

Back in early November.

In the president's office, Li Zhe was being interviewed by Shanghai TV.

Twice on the rich list, with a net worth of more than 20 billion, becoming the youngest billionaire in the world, and openly challenging giants like Penguin, which made Li Zhe the target of media pursuit.

Recently, the media have been coming to interview him every day. At most, more than a dozen media came in one day.

But Li Zhe didn't have so much time to deal with the media. He basically declined all the interviews he could, and only selectively accepted interviews from a few major media.

He just accepted an interview with Fortune magazine yesterday, and today Shanghai TV station came again.

Qudong Group has a good relationship with the local Shanghai TV station, and the Shanghai TV station has interviewed Li Zhe many times, so there is really no way to shirk it.

This time the Shanghai TV station came here to give him a more detailed special report.

The Shanghai TV station attached great importance to this interview. A deputy station director personally led the team, and a group of more than a dozen people came. They not only wanted to interview Li Zhe, but also had an in-depth understanding of the entire Qudong Group and shot a lot of material.

The person responsible for interviewing Li Zhe was Yang Yue, a senior reporter from the TV station who had interviewed him once before, and there were two new reporters, a man and a woman, as her assistants.

The female reporter among them is Xiao Yu, the intern who came with Yang Yue last time. She is a very beautiful girl.

More than a year has passed, and she has officially joined the job as a trainee reporter. She can become a regular reporter after the assessment period.

The interview lasted for a long time, and Yang Yue and Li Zhe talked a lot.

Starting from what happened when Li Zhe was a child, we have been chatting until he recently appeared on the Forbes rich list and posted interesting chats.

Regarding Yang Yue's question, Li Zhe answered very modestly and didn't say anything pretentious such as a small goal of 100 million. Spending money is more difficult than making money. I have no interest in money. I am blind.

When Yang Yue asked him why he could achieve so much at such a young age.

Li Zhe attributes his success more to the development of the country, the opportunities given by the times, and a little bit of luck.

He also emphasized that he is not a giant of the times, but this era has made him what he is.

The stronger a person is, the more humble and cautious he must be.

Not to mention that Li Zhe is still so young.

It’s impossible for Jack Ma, Richard Liu, and Boss Wang not to understand this truth.

But if you are too complacent, you will inevitably become a little drifting.

During a break during the interview, the beautiful trainee reporter named Xiao Yu came to Li Zhe with a notebook.

"Mr. Li, can you sign your name for me?" She looked at Li Zhe with admiration in her eyes.

Now Li Zhe has become the entrepreneurial idol of many young people.

Many people on the Internet call him the Bill Gates of China.

Both started their own businesses in college, both started from scratch, and both achieved amazing achievements at a young age.

Bill Gates’ inspirational stories are very popular right now.

Many people in China really think that Bill Gates is "self-made" and regard him as an idol for learning.

Little did he know that his family was actually very wealthy. His grandfather was once the president of the National Bank, and his mother was a director of the banking system. She was also good friends with an executive from IBM.

They are basically second-generation entrepreneurs.

Just like Xiao Ma from the "ordinary family", the "ordinary family" could afford a computer in 1984.

The vast majority of successful people have backgrounds.

"Of course." Li Zhe took the book from Xiao Yu and signed it.

After Xiao Yu got the signature, he did not leave immediately, showing that he was hesitant to speak.

"Why, is there anything else?" Li Zhe asked with a smile.

"Mr. Li, can we have a fun chat?"

This request is a bit excessive. A person of Li Zhe's level will not easily give others his contact information.

However, Li Zhe readily agreed without hesitation, "Yes."

TV reporters like Xiao Yu still have some friendship value.

Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with her being pretty.

When Xiao Yu heard this, his pretty face showed joy, and he quickly took out his mobile phone and exchanged interesting chats with Li Zhe.

Yang Yue, who was sitting not far away, felt a little emotional watching this scene.

When she came to interview Li Zhe last year, he was just a budding young entrepreneur. Who would have thought that in just a year or two, he would become the youngest business tycoon, someone she looked up to? This change was so fast!

By the time the interview ended, it was already past 6 p.m.

Li Zhe did not work overtime tonight. After the interview team left, he took Yu Xiangzi and left the company surrounded by five or six bodyguards.

After the exposure greatly increased, Li Zhe increased the security forces around him. Not only did he transfer Shen Baoshan back from the group's security department, he served as his security assistant and was fully responsible for his security work.

We also recruited a few new real masters.

One is a master of Bajiquan, and the other is a retired soldier of the special forces.

There is also a beautiful bodyguard who studied in a martial arts school since childhood and served as a soldier.

Among them, the Bajiquan master is Li Zhe's personal bodyguard and has to take bullets for him at critical moments.

In addition, Li Zhe also ordered a bulletproof extended version of the Maybach, worth 16 million.

In fact, the country, especially the mainland, can be said to be one of the regions with the best security in the world.

Things like the frequent kidnappings of rich people in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s are almost impossible to happen.

Until 2021, Li Zhe had never heard of any of the top richest people in the country being kidnapped.

However, safety issues must be nipped in the bud and no one can take advantage of them.

…

Bentley Arnage RL came to Huangpu and stopped in front of a restaurant called Dexing Hall.

Dexing Hotel is a time-honored hotel with a history of more than 100 years. It was founded in the ninth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty.

This restaurant is the most authentic Benbang cuisine (Shanghai cuisine) restaurant in Shanghai, which originates from Suxi cuisine in Jiangsu Province.

After getting off the car, Li Zhe took Yu Xiangzi and the bodyguards into the Dexing Pavilion and went up to the private room on the third floor, which was the private room.

Shen Baoshan and Zhou Chao were all standing guard outside the box. Li Zhe only took Yu Xiangzi and the newly recruited beautiful bodyguard Shu Mei in.

Seeing Li Zhe and Yu Xiangzi walking in, a middle-aged man in his 50s in the box immediately stood up and greeted them enthusiastically.

"Mr. Li, I am Yu Zhenmin, welcome to your honor."

Li Zhe took a look at the other person. He had short hair, a medium build, and a pair of rimless glasses. He had a gentle and humble smile on his face, which made him feel very approachable.

However, there was a shrewdness unique to businessmen in his eyes.