Chapter 2965: Embracing Us Is Embracing the Future

As soon as Feng Yiping went out, several people came over with wine glasses. They were from Disney and Fox.

His company, whether it is with Disney or Fox, is both fighting and cooperating. However, these large companies are all impeccably organized. The film and television base that Feng Yiping spent a huge amount of money to build will be put into use. Of course they will send representatives to express their congratulations.

I believe that in addition to congratulations, they also have the purpose of inspecting this film and television base.

Disney and Fox all have more or less objections to Feng Yiping and his company, but they have no objection to making money.

If Feng Yiping's film and television base has complete facilities and first-class standards, they will not rule out filming in this film and television base. China's low cost is not just in manufacturing.

"Feng, do you really think that in ten years, China's box office market will surpass that of the United States?" Disney CEO, Iger's right-hand man who once suffered losses under Feng Yiping, and the person in charge of Disneyland business, also contributed to Tang Shide (Thomas Staggs), who had won the first Disneyland project in China, asked impatiently.

The Fox representative next to him was obviously very concerned about this issue.

The representatives sent by Fox this time are very interesting. They sent Hulu CEO Jason Kilar. This is not only a direct competitor of Netflix, because Hulu is a company jointly formed by Fox, Disney, Comcast, etc. Send Kilar over and seem to be saying that they will be consistent with Disney.

Feng Yiping guessed that this was Murdoch's euphemistic expression that they might stand with Disney at some point in the future.

Feng Yiping felt that he should take the time to chat with him.

How can I be blamed for the tragic ending of your MySpace?

But he was very indifferent to Murdoch Sr.'s very tactful opinion, because he knew that Marvel would definitely be the most successful studio in Hollywood.

As for Netflix, which is supported by social networking sites and YouTube, why should it worry about competition from Hulu and others?

"You can ask your Chinese colleagues to see how many screens have been added to our second- and third-tier cities in the past two years and how many more will be added next. Then you should have an intuitive understanding of this issue,"

As the core business districts of first-tier cities become increasingly mature and cinema construction becomes increasingly saturated, domestic cinema investment has gradually begun to flow to second- and third-tier cities, and the city level of cinema construction is gradually sinking to open up a broader market.

“The new theaters in second- and third-tier cities account for at least half of the total number of new ones. These second- and third-tier cities have a population of more than one million, have developed economies, and residents have certain spending power. At the same time, the investment in theaters in these second- and third-tier cities The cost is relatively reasonable and the market potential is relatively large,”

"These cities will become our new force for rapid box office growth in the future,"

"Besides, everyone should be aware that a situation has arisen where Hollywood films will have a higher box office in China than in the United States."

"Although this illustrates many issues, including the fact that our country's audiences are more welcoming and tolerant of Hollywood productions, I think there will be more and more cases like this in the future,"

"So," he patted the two men on the shoulders, "it's time to think about how to embrace and cater to the Chinese audience,"

…………

The atmosphere in the lounge that he had just left was not very good.

Except for people like Feng Yiping, who for some reasons no longer like the fireworks of the world, anyone who has been to Hong Kong after the handover will know about the Octopus.

The Octopus, which was launched in September of that year, was no different from the bus cards in various mainland cities at the beginning. However, at the beginning, it was mainly used to pay for subway and Kowloon-Canton Railway fares.

Later, it gradually spread to buses and ferries.

Now, it has been accepted by many chain retailers. Many convenience stores, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, cinemas, etc. in Hong Kong are equipped with Octopus readers and writers, allowing users to pay with Octopus.

At present, Octopus has integrated transportation, catering, shopping, services, access control and other functions. It has covered more than 20,000 retail establishments of more than 10,000 service providers in Hong Kong, meeting almost all the payment needs of citizens for daily consumption.

Let’s put it this way, in Hong Kong, starting from children over three years old, almost everyone holds several Octopus cards. In order to facilitate travel, tourists who go to Hong Kong for sightseeing and shopping usually buy or rent Octopus cards.

According to statistics, the circulation of Octopus cards is currently close to 30 million.

Octopus is also very willing to invest in publicity. Octopus advertisements starring well-known celebrities can be seen on TV and other media everywhere, and cooperative merchants often launch various preferential activities. Therefore, at present, Octopus can be said to be a monopoly in the payment field. The average daily number of transactions exceeds 10 million and the amount is close to HK$200 million.

In the Mainland, through strong local promotion, it has already won many offline stores. It can be said that in the newly emerging field of fast payment, Lao Ma, who also has a monopoly, has always wanted Alipay to become a mainstream payment in Hong Kong. method, but after analysis, even if a large amount of money is invested, it will be difficult to shake Octopus's monopoly position.

It is even very possible that after investing a lot of money, there will be little effect.

So, the question becomes what to do when you can’t compete with your competitors?

The answer is also obvious, mergers and acquisitions!

If it can be acquired as a whole, then it can be acquired as a whole. If it cannot be acquired as a whole, then at least it must be a shareholding.

Then we will transform it and gradually guide everyone to throw away their cards and get used to using Alipay on their mobile phones.

Considering that the shareholders of Octopus are companies in the transportation industry, mainly the Hong Kong Metro, an overall acquisition is obviously unrealistic, and a shareholding is the most realistic option.

For such an action, it is best to have a good opportunity. After thinking about it, there is no better opportunity than when the film and television base is put into use, and they may take the initiative to ask for it.

As for why you can guess that they will come to your door?

This really has no technical content. The film and television industry has always been Hong Kong's most important industry and their most important business card.

As we all know, in recent years, Hong Kong's film and television industry has been far worse than before. Precisely in this regard, Feng Yiping has many platforms and resources, and has prospered both internationally and in the Chinese film and television industry. How could you not take the opportunity to ask for cooperation?

Feng Yiping and others were sure that this was the best opportunity to invest in Octopus, but for the three people who came to seek help, this was unexpected.

Therefore, as soon as Lao Ma started talking, the Director of the Economic Development Bureau immediately said, "Mr. Ma, we believe that your fast payment solution is a very advanced solution, but Octopus itself is also an advanced and mature payment solution. plan,"

"Using the Octopus system as a template, we have successfully established electronic payment systems for some foreign and mainland cities,"

Speaking of this, including the other two, it is inevitable that they are a little proud. They are indeed at the forefront in terms of electronic payment.

Lao Ma just looked at them with a smile and said nothing.

In the past, yes, Octopus was indeed a very modern payment method, but now, mobile payment solutions represented by Alipay are obviously more advanced and more in line with the development of the times.

When they analyzed the difficulty of promoting Alipay in Hong Kong, their pride in this aspect was also a major factor hindering promotion.

It is the Octopus and other advanced technologies, as well as many other factors, that supported their former pride in front of us.

Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that some people, including the three people opposite, may find it difficult to accept that we will be more advanced in this regard.

But in such a meeting, it was obviously not easy to say such things to them, so Lao Ma only made a please continue gesture.

"Hong Kong is a free market and we cannot interfere with the company's operations through administrative means,"

"At the same time, we must respect the rights of all users and cannot change their payment methods through coercion,"

Lao Ma nodded, "Octopus is of course a very mature payment system, but if I remember correctly, although Octopus's largest shareholder is the MTR Corporation, the Hong Kong government is its real major shareholder, right?"

"We all know that the Hong Kong government holds 75% of the shares of the MTR Corporation,"

Otherwise, why don't we go find Octopus instead of talking about this issue with you?

"We have also done some analysis on the origin of Octopus being widely adopted by citizens, but we just don't know if it is right or not," Lao Ma looked at them with a smile.

"We found that the reason why Octopus has successfully attracted many users once it was launched is not because of the consumers' choice,"

The director's face suddenly turned ugly.

"Because after the launch, the MTR and Kowloon-Canton Railway have mandated that all stored-value tickets held by users must be replaced with Octopus, otherwise the stored-value tickets will become invalid."

"Mainly for this reason, those citizens who often take the subway and trains have no choice but to buy Octopus,"

He asked the director, "I don't know if what I said is right."

In fact, there is another reason.

Before the handover, Hong Kong issued new coins with the Bauhinia flower as the city flower from 1993 to 1997. With the issuance of the new Hong Kong dollar, the old Hong Kong dollar coins stopped being issued in 1995. From that time on, Hong Kong banks Only collect but not exchange, collect them centrally, and then melt them back in the furnace.

As time goes by, there are fewer and fewer old Hong Kong dollar coins. In 1997, many savvy citizens believed that old coins would appreciate in value, so many people chose to save old coins. Octopus does not use change. This is also It can be said that this is one of the reasons why it became very popular once it was launched.

The director wanted to say that Lao Ma was wrong, but Lao Ma was not someone they could deceive. "That's for the sake of the public. Compared with the original stored-value tickets, Octopus is a more advanced payment solution."

Lao Ma nodded, "I very much agree with this. Well, I think everyone should also know that Alipay will be a more advanced payment solution than Octopus."

On this point, the other party obviously has different views based on other than technology. Of course, they will definitely not say it clearly. They only said, "Citizens are already accustomed to using Octopus."

"Habits can be changed, right?" Lao Ma said, "It's like using Octopus instead of stored-value tickets."

"Mr. Ma, fast payment based on the Internet and mobile phones has developed rapidly in recent years, but it has also exposed many problems, such as the resulting leakage of privacy, which the people of Hong Kong are very concerned about. privacy……"

"Hahaha," Lao Ma couldn't help laughing this time. He knew that the other party would definitely mention this. "If I remember correctly, at the end of last year, Octopus admitted that it had been reselling user information to other companies since 2002. In 2006 alone, it sold the personal information of nearly 2 million customers to two insurance companies, making an illegal profit of 44 million Hong Kong dollars, right?"

The other party was speechless.

Because this is an ironclad fact.

"On the contrary, you should believe in our ethics. We didn't, don't, and will never actively sell user privacy for profit in the future!"

Lao Ma said so, and they had to express their position, "Of course, we believe this very much."

If they don't express their position at this time, doesn't it mean that they don't trust Feng Yiping and Feng Yiping's company?

What's more, Feng Yiping's company, which cares a lot about its image, is really trustworthy in this regard.

"As Mr. Feng said, we enter a certain market not to grab more market share or to subvert, but to build. We hope to invest in Octopus for this purpose,"

"We hope to invest in Octopus because we hope to bring more convenience to Hong Kong residents,"

This is certain, but Lao Ma's main purpose is of course the traffic that will be brought by it.

Traffic, that is what all Internet companies, even those that occupy a leading position, will always feel hungry for.

"As long as the cooperation can be achieved, we will immediately have an implementable plan, that is, we will join UnionPay to provide cross-regional fast payment services for Hong Kong users' consumption in the mainland,"

"In fact, we prefer to call such fast payment mobile payment," Lao Ma said.

"In the future, when Hong Kong residents come to the mainland to consume, they only need to open Alipay on their mobile phones and pay by scanning the QR code like mainland residents. Alipay will automatically convert the RMB amount paid into Hong Kong dollars and deduct the corresponding amount from the bank card account bound by the user in advance,"

"That is, for Hong Kong users, they do not need to exchange, they can use Hong Kong dollars to pay for their expenses in the mainland..."

"...Our payment solution based on mobile Internet has been tested by a large number of merchants and individual users, and is currently the most advanced and complete payment solution,"

"As for our advantages in mobile Internet, I think, I don't need to say it, everyone knows that in addition to having the most popular smartphone applications, one of the two major smartphone operating systems, Android, is also produced by our company..."

"...I think I can say this, embracing us is embracing advanced technology, so embracing us is embracing the future,"

The two people in the film and television industry did not speak, they all looked at the director of the Economic Development Bureau. Before the director spoke, Lao Ma stood up, "Maybe this is not the best way, but let it be, this is our condition,"

ps: I'm too lazy to divide it, so I merged two chapters into one.