Date: July 17, 2002.

Venue: Conference Room, 27/F, Capital Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong City.

Characters: Mingran Technology Co., Ltd. represented by Peng Chen, Liang Connie, regional general manager of Universal Music's digital business, Jeff Bronikowski, head of the copyright department, and several accompanying business negotiators.

Zhu Zhan acts as a Cantonese translator in the middle, and Universal Music has an English translator on the side, but the English major is Li Xin's profession, and he can also temporarily replace the role of translator.

The two sides sat down, and in order of priority, Liu Wei of the Ministry of Commerce took the lead in speaking: "Distinguished gentlemen and ladies, I am Liu Wei of the Commerce Department of Mingran Technology, and I will explain to you in detail the current situation and future development prospects of our company. ”

This time, everyone made full preparations. Liu Wei is also a person with rich business experience, after a few days of training, understand the situation of Mingran Technology Company and the current product functions, and after organizing the language, he will tell the situation of the Tian Lai Music Network currently prepared by Mingran Technology.

Liu Wei speaks Mandarin, but Liang Kangnie understands it, and she also understands English, so she listens and translates it to Jeff, the head of the copyright department.

"It is an inevitable situation that digital music replaces traditional physical records, and the occurrence of this inevitable situation must require an inevitable condition. And the emergence of MP3 is this inevitable condition. With the rapid development of technology, people no longer need to buy discs and cassette tapes for music enjoyment. You only need to buy such a small and exquisite MP3, download the songs into it, and you can listen to music anytime, anywhere, and it is not restricted by tapes and discs, and it can store as many songs as it has as much memory as it wants. Most of the MP3s on the market have a memory of about 128M, and the volume of a song is about 2-3M, and an MP3 can play close to fifty or sixty songs. ”

Liu Wei took out a purple MP3 from the bag she was carrying, the MP3 was small and exquisite, and the appearance was very exquisite. It is a more classic one imported from abroad, and the port city is a foreign trade port, MP3 has gradually become popular in the market, because there is no tariff, and the price is lower than that of the mainland.

Liang Connie and Jeff did not interrupt Liu Wei's narration, listening carefully while recording with a notebook.

Liu Wei continued: "Nowadays, MP3 download songs are downloaded on the Internet, and now the world is developing the Internet, and in the future, it can be said that which country's network is more advanced represents which country's national strength is more developed. The Internet is the embodiment of the country's comprehensive strength. The prosperity of the Internet must represent a variety of websites, music websites and music software, which are in line with the trend of the development of the times. The advent of MP3 also confirms that this trend is correct. Nowadays, almost all the songs circulating on the Internet are pirated music, and the songs are downloaded arbitrarily without paying a penny to the record company, which is regarded as an alternative pirated CD. ”

"Imagine Universal Music owns nearly a quarter of the world's music rights, and the original music doesn't sell well. And most people in the market will buy pirated copies, listen to pirated copies, every minute and every second, how much does Universal lose money? I'm sure those of you who have suffered a lot from piracy should be well aware of this. ”

"And our Ethereal Music website came into being to solve this problem. We provide customers with better quality services, more and more complete download business. In the field of digital music in the future, success will be given the highest priority. In the period when the mainland music market is about to prosper, we took the lead in occupying the MP3 paid download market, so the copyright in the hands of Universal Music is a golden rooster that lays eggs. Through our big data and huge customer base, we have to pay 5 cents for every song downloaded on our music website and software. Universal Music puts hundreds of thousands of songs into it, and the annual profit will be terrifying. ”

"Sounds very tempting."

Liang Kangnie smiled: "Where is your big data and huge customer base?" ”

"Trade secrets, but I can reveal them to my partners." Li Xinxin English replied directly: "Our parent company, Taomu Music, has signed a strategic agreement with the mobile terminal, and all people who hold mobile phones will become our customers in the future." ”

Liang Connie's face became solemn.

Her digital business segment is not actually the Internet. It's that era. Started the popular CRBT business. At that time, the executives of Universal Music also believed that digital music would indeed replace physical records in the future, which could not be refuted. It's just that they don't think that a mini music player with annual sales of only 50 tens of thousands can do such a big thing. In other words, MP3 is not yet entering the market in this era and is not valued by most people. So the top management of Universal Music didn't care about MP3s. What they really care about is their phones. They feel that the future digital market must be confirmed in mobile phones.

In a way, this consciousness is indeed a little bit ahead of its time. Because the digital market of the future is indeed on smartphones, but that is more than 10 years later, and in recent years, MP3 will be the king of the market, which will be the eternal law and trend of the market.

In her role as General Manager of the Digital Business Segment in the Asia Pacific region, it stands to reason that she should be promoting Universal Music's CRBT business throughout Asia. It's a pity that this digital department was only established this year, she belongs to the duck on the shelf, and she has only taken office not long ago, and she has not even managed the millions of people in Hong Kong City, how can she get the whole of Asia?

So when she heard that Mingran Technology had a strategic agreement with the mobile terminal in the mainland, she was already excited. Because if it can catch this line, it will play a great role in promoting the mainland market for Universal Music. Therefore, Liang Connie felt that this cooperation might be a try.

Of course.

Although she is one of the two main leaders. But she is the deputy, and the power of whether to cooperate or not is on Jeff, and he has to nod and agree.

Liang Connie looked at Jeff, but Jeff didn't speak, but continued to wait.

There was some silence.

Li Xin then continued to say to them: "Therefore, cooperating with our company is harmless for your company. Because our company only requires your company to provide copyright, and the most important and troublesome marketing work will be left to our company. The profits earned can also be shared. In addition, the copyright provided by your company will not be used for any other profit-making commercial activities in accordance with the legal contract, and will only be used for the paid service in which both parties participate. Imagine that in the future, hundreds of millions of listeners download music on our website, and each person has a few or dozens of songs, so how big will the profit be? We will also unite all record companies to form an anti-piracy alliance, and once there is any piracy on the Internet that is detrimental to our common interests, we will immediately counter it, and conduct litigation and rights protection in international courts, mainland courts, Hong Kong City courts and other places. Ensuring that our interests are not infringed upon, so for both sides, this is a win-win situation. ”

"I want to know, how much is this share?"

It wasn't Jeff who spoke, but a businessman who accompanied him, with his signature long hair of the era, and didn't look at all like a business elite from a big company.

Li Xin looked at Peng Chen, but Peng Chen looked at the businessman intently, and suddenly smiled: "You are Mr. Zheng Zhongji?" ”

Zheng Zhongji stroked his hair and said embarrassedly: "You recognize this?" ”

Zheng Zhongji is a native of Baodao and speaks Chinese.

Peng Chen smiled: "Don't look at me like this, in fact, I also chase stars." By the way, President Lin Ming of our company has prepared a gift for Mr. Zheng Zhongji, and asked me to hand it over to you if I meet Mr. Zheng around the world. ”

"The gift is free, let's talk about cooperation first."

"It doesn't hurt you to hear it."

Peng Chen took out his laptop, which was available as early as 1985, but it was not as thin as later generations, and it was still a bit bulky. After putting it on the desktop, Peng Chen turned on the computer, in fact, the computer was not turned off, it was in a dormant state, and it was soon opened, he opened a file and lightly tapped the space.

Soon, a Cantonese singing voice came out of the notebook.

"Why follow me, a scoundrel like me. I lived most of my life, and I still failed very much. But you don't change your mind when you die, laugh with me, even if it's bad, I can't bear it, and secretly make a blame......"

After listening to the song, Zheng Zhongji reminisced for a while, and after a long time, he said: "This song.... How much. ”

Peng Chen waved his hand and said: "This is a gift from our President Lin to Mr. Zheng, you can rest assured, no matter whether this cooperation is successful or not, it is a gift." Our Mr. Lin admires Mr. Zheng very much, saying that you are very talented, it is a pity to be buried, this song is given to you, you should make a friend. ”

Zheng Zhongji stared at him for a while, then suddenly slapped the table and said, "Okay, I made your friend Mr. Lin." ”

After that, he communicated with Jeff in English for a while, and Jeff shook his head.

Zheng Zhongji's expression was a little regretful.

Li Xin understood what they meant, Zheng Zhongji wanted to cooperate directly, but Jeff still wanted to hear the sincerity of their cooperation, how many accounts it was, this must be clarified. As well as some other cooperation contents, we need to understand them before we can draw conclusions.

Translating their conversation to Peng Chen, Peng Chen said: "Everyone listened to the development prospects and strength of our company, as well as the cooperation between the two sides. I'm going to talk about the relationship between us, first of all, with us, Universal Music will not lose 100% of its money. Why? Nothing to give, right? There is no product, no need to invest money, and there is no need for your company to invest any resources, it is completely an empty glove white wolf business. You may be worried that we are using copyright for commercial purposes, which is detrimental to your interests. Then it's very simple, the lawyer is here, sign the contract on the spot, and once this kind of thing happens, we will compensate your company 20 million! ”

"20 million? Renminbi? Jeff held up two fingers and looked at Peng Chen suspiciously.

Peng Chen said: "Hong Kong dollars." ”

Everyone looked at each other, and they could see the surprise in each other's eyes. In 2002, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the renminbi was 1 = 1.06, that is, 20 million Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 21.2 million yuan. Although the exchange rate is not much different, there is also a gap of 1.2 million yuan in the middle.

"Second, it doesn't matter if your company doesn't work with us. But through the first point, we found that if we cooperate, there is an opportunity to make profits together. If you don't cooperate, you will have no money to make, and I believe that no one in this world will be unable to live with money. Because you don't have anything to give, it's a no-brainer deal, and you're borrowing us a stove for a fire, and you don't need to pay for the coal that the furnace needs. And we will take this stove out to set up a stall to make a barbecue, and the money we earn will have to be distributed to you at home. You just have to sit at home all day and wait for the money, and an idiot won't do such a money-making business. ”

Jeff smiled and shook his head, "I still think this conversation is a waste of time. ”

Waste of time?

Yes, he's talking about a waste of time.

It is equivalent to a single word, which negates the meaning of the whole meeting.

Ming Ran was shocked, I don't know what this foreigner is thinking?