Chapter 555: Who is the Monopoly?
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
Inside the conference room, all eyes once again zoomed onto Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen sensed the discontent in Li Yanhong’s eyes and immediately understood his intention.
Not only industry leaders and officials were inside the conference room, but the reporters with cameras were also all waiting for him to speak. If he backed down now, it would make Future Technology look inferior compared to Baidu.
As the President of Future Group, Jiang Chen would not allow such an event to occur. Although he didn’t prepare a script about the Future of the Internet, after a short deliberation, he still stood up with a smile.
Because he didn’t know the most appropriate introduction, Jiang Chen cleared his throat first and organized his thoughts in his head.
When they heard the two light coughs, the bosses of the tech companies he couldn’t distinguish and even the two Ma bosses took out their notebooks.
Jiang Chen saw this scene as he facepalmed in his mind.
[Is this necessary? I just coughed.]
“Then, since Mr. Li invited me to talk, I will say a few things.”
“I will talk only about one point about the future of the Internet,” with a pause, Jiang Chen raised one finger, “innovation.”
The sound of notes shuffling filled the conference room which made Jiang Chen proud but embarrassed at the same time. What made him proud was that the once unreachable tech giants were all listening to his opinion like students. What made him embarrassed was that the point he was going to deliver was made up on the spot.
“From P2P to O2O, Internet has penetrated every field of our lives. On the surface, it is the shift of societal norms, but ultimately, its birth originates from innovation. And what’s the motive behind innovation?”
Jiang Chen scanned the tech giants around the table with a curvature appearing on his mouth when he saw how they were all concentrating on him. He then raised a second finger.
“It is technology.”
“The birth of any new technology meant the birth of a new market. Such as the technology of Future 1.0 where the increased hardware efficiency enabled the creation of apps with high hardware demand. For example, the virtual reality technology that will open the door to the virtual world. I’m not here to brag about Future Technology’s technical advancement but simply illustrating a fact. It is undeniable that there are other factors important for a company. But what I want to say is what determined Future Technology and to an extend Future Group’s current market position is neither marketing means nor business relationships, it is technology…”
Jiang Chen just wanted to say a few words, but since he started to talk, fifteen minutes passed in a blink of an eye. Jiang Chen didn’t explain any difficult concepts but only focused on how Future Technology grew from a company with an initial capital of half a million to a money printing machine valued over hundreds of billions by Wall Street in such a short period of time.
Perhaps Jiang Chen’s words inspired the audience, or perhaps humans naturally lacked immunity to success stories.
The audience was drawn to and intoxicated by the speech.
When his speech ended, the room was blown away by thunderous applause!
Jiang Chen sat down and smiled at Li Yanhong. However, what surprised Jiang Chen was he didn’t see any disappoint on his face, but rather a grin that resembled his success?
The applauses gradually stopped, and Li Yanhong stood up again and looked at Jiang Chen with a smile.
“Remarkable speech. I personally agree with your perspective,” Boss Li paused, and then looked at the media around the conference room and continued to display his standard smile, “Technology is the stairs to human advancement, and because of technology, our future can be better. As the President of an Internet company, I think the spirit of the Internet is sharing. Then Mr. Jiang Chen, are you willing to make open the virtual reality technology to Han enterprises with the belief of sharing and improving together, so your home country can become a major tech power in the world?”
The atmosphere in the conference room instantly quieted down.
Minister Pan Feng looked at Li Yanhong, surprised, but the tech leaders and reporters all looked at Jiang Chen, hopeful. Ma Huateng nonchalantly peered at Jiang Chen and Li Yanhong without saying a word. He didn’t know the motive behind Baidu’s move.
At the focus of thousands of eyes, Jiang Chen slowly said.
“With all respect due, Mr. Lee calls using the generosity of other people as sharing?”
Li Yanhong clearly took a moment to process as he didn’t expect Jiang Chen would say this, but he soon reacted, “Of course not, you must have misinterpreted what I meant. I’m talking about you registering your patent. Exchanging protection with making the technology available, and charging a patent fee to companies that use the technology. Therefore, it not only ensures the interest of your company, but it also benefits Han tech companies by allowing them to enter the virtual reality market fairly. What’s stopping you?”
The two speeches slapped two accusations on Jiang Chen. One was generosity, one was patriotism. If refused, that meant he would have to accept the two accusations. The two were completely unrelated but connected together by nonexistent logic. It was similar to the common phrases on the web “If you’re so rich, why don’t you go donate?”, “If you don’t agree, you’re not Han.” The two sentences were extremely similar.
If you have the technology that leads the world, why don’t you share with us?
“I refuse.”
Li Yanhong was stunned, so were the presidents at the conference and the reporters on the side. Although they didn’t believe Jiang Chen would give up his technology with just a few words, they didn’t expect Jiang Chen to outright reject without using any words to subtly express the idea.
“This is a monopoly; unjust usage of market dominance to hinder technical advancement. Are you sure you want to do that?” Li Yanhong said.
Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughing.
“Monopoly? Unjust usage of market dominance? Are you really the right person to say this? Mr. Li.”
“Why can’t I say this?” A hint of infuriation flashed across Li Yanhong’s eyes but his expression was still normal, “Do you not allow people to speak if you did something wrong—”
“The buying and selling for forums, manipulating search rankings, publishing fake medial ads, violating publishing rights, censoring searches because a site owner criticized you on Weibo… Is this what you refer to as maintaining market order? Haha, I won’t say anything else. Please tell me, Mr. Li. The same thing, do you dare to do it in your own country? Mr. Li with a green card, do you dare to answer my question?”
Jiang Chen stared straight into Li Yanhong’s eyes as he stated word by word.
The scandals were suddenly brought onto the table, Li Yanhong who had control of the situation suddenly looked mortified.
“Please watch your usage of words. If there is an inaccuracy in reporting, you will have to take responsibility!”
“Then please provide facts to rebuttal me.”
“There is no need for a rebuttal! All the activities of our company are legal. We are currently not in any major lawsuits!” Li Yanhong skipped through the green card point. He had been carefully hiding this, although it was not a secret in the industry, it was still bad if it caught the public’s attention.
Jiang Chen suddenly started laughing again, but his laughter this time was more cheerful.
“What are you laughing at!” Li Yanhong’s face turned red as he said in embarrassment.
“This has to do with another joke, but it would be inappropriate to say, so I won’t speak more.” Jiang Chen nodded at Pan Feng, the latter looked away, and then he gazed at Li Yanhong again, “All Future Technology’s technologies are independently researched and developed. Our technologies are considered corporate secrets and are within the boundary of law. The monopoly you’re referring to, I want to ask, what’s your definition of a monopoly, is Baidu considered a monopoly?”
“The definition of a monopoly? Mr. Jiang with such a big company should learn some law. The definition of a monopoly is dependent on the size of the market. And us, we are definitely not a monopoly. There is more than one company doing search engine. I can do it, and you definitely can do it. I didn’t use my market position to prevent anyone from doing so. We just use our strong user stickiness and use users’ trust to obtain our current day market position.” Mr. Li argued.
“Then did I use Future Technology’s market position to prevent you from designing, researching, and selling virtual reality products?” Jiang Chen asked with curiosity as his fingers crossed over his knee. “I know you have been acquiring controlling stakes in VR companies domestically, preparing to create both hardware and content, and then pushing out entertainment straight out of your brand with your own VR products. I know all of that, but because of your inferior technology, you’re are accusing us of creating a monopoly and disrupting the market. You depend on user’s stickiness, and we depend on technology and user experience, can you say you’re more righteous?”
“You!” Li Hongyan’s face was completely bloated as he couldn’t think of a rebuttal due to his lack of words.
“Monopoly is a concept that all major international companies are associated with. Some companies achieve monopoly through advanced technology, some companies achieve monopoly through the operating philosophy that ‘customer is God’, some use their unique and irreplaceable nature. Though regardless, they achieved a monopoly through market competition. Let’s not talk about me. Let’s talk about you. Mr. Li, do you dare to say that you achieved a monopoly through market competition with your conscience? Is Baidu’s monopoly really positive to the market?”
Li Hongyan’s face turned as red as a pig liver’s due to Jiang Chen’s words making him speechless without defense. Boss Ma wanted to help him out, but when he scanned the reporters on the side, he swallowed the words that came up to his throat.
Pan Feng who sat at the head of the table could no longer watch this as he awkwardly coughed.
“Please sit down, we’re here to seek cooperation and not search for divergence. Baidu wanting Future Technology to provide virtual reality technology is not wrong from their perspective. Future Technology refusing Baidu’s proposition is not wrong either. I hope the rest of the discussion can take place in a friendly atmosphere. Media, please don’t dwell on this topic.” Pan Feng scanned the reporters in the conference room with a stern look.
The previously lively atmosphere became awkward after being disrupted by their standoff.
Ma Huateng stood up, coughed, and prepared to play the role of the middleman, “Then, the forum will continue—”
“I just want to say one thing about virtual reality cooperation.” Jiang Chen stood up, interrupted Boss Ma, and looked expressionlessly at the livid Li Yanhong.”I welcome partners. For unreasonable people, please excuse yourself.”
Then, Jiang Chen turned around and left the room with no regard to the shocked tech giants and reporters.