430 Decisions (2/2)

A 3% rise for a mega-corporation like Microsoft was substantial.

Satia closed his eyes.

”Establish a subsidiary to operate the HoleLens project and immediately release the announcement for HoloLens2.”

The assistant's eyes widened and he stared at Satia in disbelief.

”But HoloLens was just introduced… Could it be-”

Satia glanced at his assistant without saying a word.

He knew what the assistant wanted to say. Establish a shell, make an announcement, create a subsidiary first then an IPO and find the next buyer.

But virtual reality had a bright future, so why would he do that?

”The board won't agree,” the assistant carefully cautioned him.

”Don't overthink. I'm preparing just in case.” Satia stood up. ”I'll go explain to the board. I have to also ask Gate's opinion.”

Then Satia left the office and the shocked assistant.

With the document in his hand, the assistant stood still for a long time.

He didn't understand - with Microsoft's power, why would they need to prepare just in case?

In the office building of 361 Corporation:

”Godly Land? Virtual reality MMORPG? Interesting.”

Zhou Hongwei scanned the webpage on the screen, feeling intrigued.

”Boss you don't seem to be worried?” Zhang Jiefeng, beside his desk, said with a wry smile.

”What's there to worry about?” Zhou Hongwei glared at him and sank into his chair. ”Is this something to be worried about? Future's about to update to Future 2.0, yet there's nothing from the team assigned to crack the software. What a bunch of useless tools.”

Zhou Hongwei felt angry when he thought about it.

Although 361 and Future Technology had project partnerships, Zhou Hongwei never stopped the process to crack Future 1.0.

But just some time ago, he ultimately gave up on the cracking of Future 1.0 and dissolved the project team. He knew he wasn't the only company that made that choice. Future 1.0 encryption was as hard as a turtle's shell and left him nowhere to take a bite.

He remembered that at the beginning of the year, he went to his friend at the Bureau of Patents, wishing to obtain some information from Future Technology's patent. But his old friend helplessly stated that the people from the Bureau of Patents spent countless time to convince Future Technology to submit specific technicalities and the benefits of patents, but Future Technology's CEO was firm.

No need.

It certainly looked down on the countless programmers who spent their time cracking Future 1.0.

But then, Future Technology threw out a smokescreen on virtual reality. Zhou Hongwei couldn't help but a curse: [can't you fu*king slow down on releasing the technology? We haven't even cracked the first one and now you throw out another one. With steps so big, aren't you afraid of pulling your balls?]

”Boss?” Zhang Jianfeng looked at the color changing on the boss's face as he questioned.

Zhou Hongwei took a deep breath and snapped back to the present.

”I want to hear your thoughts.”

Zhang Jianfeng nodded. He was clearly prepared as he immediately began to explain.

”There are two routes in front of us - one is to purchase virtual reality technology companies and see if we can cut a slice of the pie from the virtual reality hype created by Future Technology. Two is to give up on this opportunity since there's still plenty of room for growth in the PC and mobile market. If everyone decides to pursue virtual reality, that's the perfect opportunity for us to expand our market share in PC and mobile devices.”

Zhou Hongwei closed his eyes and thought for a long time.

After a while, he sighed.

”I prefer the second choice.”

Zhang Jiefeng felt relived too.

”I also think so too.”

Future Technology's massive advertisement campaign was meant to hype up the virtual reality MMORPG and see if they could stretch their balls, but if 361 followed the same massive steps, they would definitely stretch their balls.

It was better to play it safe.

Even if virtual reality was as magical as it was advertised to be, it could not replace the phone. Compared to the BAT giants (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), 361 had quite a discrepancy in terms of resources. Even if Zhou Hongwei wanted to compete with them, their chance of winning was not high. Cash was one thing, technology was another, and 361 had no advantage in either.

What they should do now was to not follow blindly but instead, use this opportunity and consolidate the mobile market while all the capital flooded to virtual reality. 361 search was already shaking the market penetration of Baidu search. If they spent more effort on it and let the big thugs battle with Future Technology, they would definitely win on this battlefield.

Due to Lingyu Technology's incident, 361 and Future Technology were still in a honeymoon phase.

Zhou Hongwei let out a sigh.

To be honest, he wasn't willing to make this choice, but he had no other options.

What he didn't know was, just after a few months, he would feel glad about the decision he made.