Chapter 1231 The Angry Strong Woman

The eBay headquarters in San Jose, Silicon Valley, can be said to be the most undistinguished among the high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. Of course, we can also say that it is the most plain headquarters.

The only bright spot on the ordinary and plain brick building is the bright primary color letters of the eBay logo on the wall.

The entire headquarters, with the embellishment of those four letters, finally seems to be somewhat lively, but it is still dull overall, just like the eBay queen at this time.

The president, Ms. Meg Whitman, who is praised by the American business community as "having a charming smile like Shirley Temple", is now a little unable to smile.

She is very angry now.

If Feng Yiping is in Silicon Valley now, she will definitely call immediately, "What/are/you doing?"

Like our Miss Dong, these American businesswomen, such as Ms. Whitman, who is about to be elected as the "Most Powerful Business Woman" in 2004 by Fortune magazine, are always prone to anger.

Although they are famous for their charming smiles to the outside world, they may also make a fuss about the lack of warm applause for the welcome, just like Miss Dong.

Of course, we have to understand that the reason why strong women become strong women and why they are irritable is not only due to physiological factors, such as menopause, but also due to social pressure.

When they just started their careers, when they were running towards the goal of being strong women, in order to stand out from the workplace full of men, they had to be tougher than men.

At the beginning, they did this to cover up. After covering up for more than ten years, it became an instinct and one of their most distinctive characteristics.

Like Ms. Dong, Whitman is also the biggest contributor to eBay.

This is also a strange woman who has been very interested in business since she was a child.

When she was studying at Princeton, disco was popular. Young people who were full of energy and had nowhere to vent were obsessed with dance steps such as the moonwalk. Few college students would read the Wall Street Journal at that time.

But she enjoyed it and had newspapers delivered to her dormitory every day.

This made other students feel incredible, which strongly explained her enthusiasm for business and the ambition of this girl with a charming smile.

If you don't have any ideas, just read VOGUE, go to one party after another with your male classmates, and find a good man to marry in the future. Who has the patience to read the professional and boring China Street Journal every day?

In the late 1970s, the young Whitman was admitted to Harvard Business School. Her class later became a veritable star class, including Chao Xiaolan, the first Chinese American minister at that time.

After graduating from Harvard MBA, she worked as a consultant for Procter & Gamble, Disney, and Bain. Before being poached by eBay to become the president of the company, she was in charge of Hasbro.

Oh, by the way, after resigning from eBay, she became the helmsman of another well-known IT company, the CEO of HP.

After joining eBay, Whitman, who had never been involved in the Internet field before, performed brilliantly. In just half a year, she successfully led eBay to go public. After that, various mergers and acquisitions continued, including the acquisition of PayPal founded by Musk.

At the same time, under her leadership, eBay began to expand globally, entering Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, South Korea, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, and Singapore..., and of course, China.

Conquering cities all over the world.

It can be said that it was under her leadership that eBay became the world's leading e-commerce company.

With such brilliant performance, Whitman at this time, like Miss Dong later, had a bad temper.

It was so hard to force Alibaba into a corner in China, why did you Feng Yiping jump out at this time and interfere with my good things?

Don't you know that I have said that Taobao can only exist for 18 months?

Looking at the boss with a bad face, the secretary who was cautious in his words and deeds notified the executives including the operations director to come to the meeting.

…………

"There are new changes in our arrangements in China now," Whitman's first words to his subordinates were, "The young Feng took over all the Alibaba shares held by Goldman Sachs. They have now become the second largest institutional investor in Alibaba. The feedback from eBay is that Gain Capital and Alibaba have officially reached a strategic cooperation."

Knowing this news, her subordinates were not calm.

Although eBay's main competitors are in the United States, namely Amazon and Yahoo Auctions, what worries them most is actually Alibaba, which is growing stronger recently.

The main reason is very simple. They are most aware of the iron rule that users are king.

In front of China's huge population base, the tens of millions or hundreds of millions of users that these companies are proud of are not a joke, but there is really nothing to be proud of.

Alibaba does not need to be busy all over the world like them. As long as it works hard in mainland China, it can easily have more than 100 million users.

With the increasing economic strength of China, as China's basic conditions, such as the improvement of network construction and the increasing ownership rate of PCs, it is foreseeable that it will not be difficult for Alibaba to have more than 200 million or more users.

Especially when they insist on charging for services, but Alibaba insists on providing services for free.

So as long as Alibaba does not fall, they will not be able to sleep well, even if Alibaba's revenue is only a few tenths of theirs.

The most advantageous way for them is to strive to expand their market share in China on the one hand, and at the same time, do everything they can to suppress Alibaba and its new Taobao, and do everything they can to squeeze their living space, and finally leave them with no way out.

"More than just financial investors?" asked the operations director, who felt the pressure suddenly increased.

"The strategic cooperation relationship was clearly disclosed to the public," Whitman said, "Goldman Sachs' transfer of shares is such a big thing, why didn't we hear any news before?" She asked while knocking on the table.

The heads of the marketing and public relations departments lowered their heads in shame. The investment structure of the competitors they paid the most attention to had changed. They actually didn't know it until now. It was indeed their dereliction of duty.

"It is said that Feng and Paulson of Goldman Sachs have a good personal relationship," someone still said.

It should be said that his sentence also touched on the truth.

Who knew that Goldman Sachs and Forex would just casually finalize such a thing in a few words?

"Don't always make excuses for your negligence and oversight," Whitman choked back.

"Maybe Feng and his company don't know the interests involved?" Another subordinate said tentatively.

"Look at Feng's recent actions. Do you think he is the kind of person who speaks and acts without thinking?" Whitman said unhappily, "Before investing in a company, he won't investigate the basic situation of the company? Won't he know the main challenges facing the company?"

"I think Feng and his company are still not ruled out. Although they are aware of the competition between us and Alibaba, they are not clear about how fierce this competition is. We all know that Jack is a very persuasive person," said the operations director.

Whitman thought about it. She also knew the Chinese opponent's skills in talking. "It is indeed possible that this possibility cannot be ruled out."

"Then should we contact Feng's company in Silicon Valley and explain the current situation clearly? I think that after knowing the details, Feng should make the right choice,"

"We have cooperation with Coin Star, and we can let Merbak of Coin Star pass on the message," someone suggested.

"No," Whitman shook her head, "It's useless to say more. They have officially announced the news of the strategic cooperation to the outside world. Do you think Ali or Feng will take back such a promise?"

Ali will not do that, and as for Feng, even if he was deceived, he has already said it, and it is impossible for him to take it back because of a few words from his side.

They know that their company does not have such a great influence on the richest man in mainland China.

"This is not the way we express our opinions," Whitman said proudly.

Feng Yiping will not give in because of what they relayed, and she also does not want to express her opinions in such a weak and roundabout way.

The question is, how to do it?

Feng Yiping has a closer relationship with Amazon, and he is also a major shareholder and executive of Google. In the promotion of eBay, Google is the most important channel. If you want to deal with Feng Yiping, wouldn't it be very likely to push Feng Yiping and his NEXTDOOR, Coin Star, and Google to Amazon completely?

"I think we should do this," Whitman said.

PS: Happy weekend everyone!