547 Too Many Choices (1/2)
Chapter 547: Too Many Choices
Translator: _Min_Editor: Caron_
The company most hostile toward Future Technology's product launch was Penguin.
Some time ago, Penguin acquired Wanghai Lexiang Technology, but the Phantom helmet made their deepoon virtual reality equipment look like complete junk. The plan of bundling Penguin's social media platform and deepoon in order to achieve ”Virtual reality + Big Penguin Strategy” died in its infancy.
In other words, other than for nostalgia's sake, no one would play the outdated NDS once they had a smartphone.
The awkward situation they faced was the same idea.
If their deepoon never had any emotional impact on its users in the first place…
”Useless.” Ma Huateng gazed at the document on his desk and swore after holding back for so long.
Whether it was positive or negative news, the media all referred to Future Technology's dominance in the VR industry. Future Technology's growing influence made Penguin Cooperation feel a deep fear. When they realized that they couldn't learn from Future Technology's product, Boss Ma experienced a deep helplessness.
The ability they were most well-versed in was useless against their opponent.
The assistant stood beside the boss, pretending not to hear the boss's rant as he stared straight at a flower through the window to pass the time while praying the blame wouldn't spread to him.
Ma Huaheng inhaled several times and picked up the teacup beside his hand. The bitter tea made him calmer, whether it was due to its price or identity. This tea was a custom product either: (1) reserved for representative meetings or (2) gifted by a powerful person after the meeting.
When he thought about this, a curvature appeared on his face and his eyebrows were no longer furrowed.
At least from a policy point of view, Penguin wouldn't lose.
Seeing the boss calming down, the assistant felt relieved and finally reported important information to him.
”Boss, Xin's delegate will arrive in Shangjin tomorrow morning at ten. Jiang Chen will accompany the delegation—”
”I know. What's the message on that side?”
”The message from Shangjin is that they want us to keep in contact with Future Group.”
[Keep in contact?]
Ma Huateng furrowed his brows as this ambiguous message made him unclear of the directions. How should he keep in contact? What was the outcome the people at the top wanted to see? Regarding the era-defining technology, were they not tempted?
Seeing that the boss was silent, the assistant attempted to go on.
”Boss, do you need me to book a ticket?”
”Of course,” Ma Huateng said with an undertone. ”… Our primary focus is still on software; it was a mistake to enter the hardware market. Regardless, QQ must gain an advantage over the Phantom helmet. It isn't too late to partner up now.”
When the people at the top mentioned maintaining contact, he had to facilitate meetings for the partnership. Because of the uniqueness of Xin, Hua would do their best to win over their ally. Conversely, it would be the same for Xin as they would try to promote cooperation between Future Technology and Hua enterprises.
But his assistant didn't think nearly as far.
”Will Future Technology give up the market share on social media? They revealed their ambitions when they fought over market share with Future 1.0. If they internally bundle social media software in the helmet and use the compatibility issue to prevent us from entering the market, it'll be hard for us to win.”
In 2007, Microsoft's VISTA operating system didn't support QQ for a period of time and that truly scared Penguin. Fortunately, the problem was solved in subsequent updates but VISTA's penetration rate was low compared to XP and Windows 7 later on. But everyone knew that if Microsoft really wanted to take out QQ through the computability issue and used the bundling method to push MSN, then only death awaited for Penguin.
Of course, they would never do that.