Chapter 891: Merging Forces

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

With the support of Tencent’s traffic and funds, these companies developed rapidly and had great influence in the country.

It included companies from Juduoduo, JD.Com, Shi Ning, Douyu, Huya, and Yuewen.

The third force was Alibaba, which occupied the other half of the country’s internet with Alibaba at the center. These companies were different from Tencent. As the parent company for Taobao and Alipay, Ali’s root attribute was finance. Therefore, when they met these companies, their usual tactic would be to buy, buy, and buy some more.

After buying them over, they would operate them on their own.

Even though this led to the decline of many companies after they were taken over because they were not suitable for Ali’s management style, the companies that remained had full control. They were different from the loose alliance that Tencent had.

Therefore, most of the companies in the department were “direct subordinates”, such as Ali Cloud, Youku, UC, and so on.

The last force could not be counted as a force because they were not a collective entity, but a general term. That was the technology company that took the lead. In the early stages of development, these technology companies did not have outstanding revenue because they needed to invest too much money. However, after their long-term research and development, with more and more new technological products, their revenue was slowly rising.

Theoretically, Xiao Peng, Future, Vivo and Oppo belonged to this category. Su Yang’s Jiadian Group belonged to this category as well.

However, the companies of this organization did not have much contact with each other. They were all fighting alone, so the influence they had could not be compared to the other three organizations.

Initially, Zhao Licheng had a preliminary plan for the future development of Jiadian Group, which was to be the leader of the fourth force. Then, he would consolidate these technology companies and form a loose alliance similar to Tencent.

This was the same as when Jiadian Group invested in Future and Xiao Peng in the past.

After listening to Zhao Licheng’s explanation, Su Yang pondered for a while and asked, “So, you’re saying that as the leaders of our own forces, there’s no need for us to meddle in the affairs of Tencent’s?”

Zhao Licheng shook his head. “No. I feel that we can actually work together with Tencent.”

Su Yang replied, “Oh? Tell me your reason.”

Zhao Licheng replied, “That’s because from the terms Mr. Ma has given us, he doesn’t want to recruit us. He just wants to form an alliance.”

“In fact, in this alliance, he has even lowered his position. This means that even if both parties cooperate, he will be on the weaker side.

Su Yang nodded silently.

‘Zhao Licheng is right. After all, according to Mr. Ma’s plans, it would be Jiadian Group that holds Tencent’s shares, not Tencent. This way, the initiative would be in the hands of Jiadian Group.’

Zhao Licheng said, “In that case, collaborating with Tencent will not affect our further integration of these technology companies. Instead, we could use Tencent’s influence in the country to further consolidate our position in the country.”

“After all, Tencent is a big company in China. Him taking the initiative to be a small company is raising our status in the domestic capital industry. This is actually a good thing when it comes to uniting various technology companies.

“If these three factions extend a hand to us at the same time, my inclination would also be towards Tencent. After all, there are more things that we can cooperate with, and we are more compatible.”

After Su Yang heard this, he pondered for a while and nodded silently. “You’re right.”

After saying that, he continued, “Then, will there be any drawbacks in accepting Tencent’s shares?”

Zhao Licheng nodded. “Definitely.”

“Actually, ever since you massacred Japan, both Wang Wanda and Ali’s Old Master Ma have expressed their goodwill to Jiadian Group. They obviously want to form an alliance with us or further cooperate with us.

“Now that we’re leaning toward Tencent, the two families’ attitude toward us will not be so ambiguous anymore. In fact, Ali might even consider us as enemies.”

Hearing what Zhao Licheng said, Little Deeny, who had been attending the meeting but did not say anything, said angrily, “If they are enemies, then so be it. We don’t think much of them.”

Su Yang looked at Little Deeny curiously. He did not understand why Little Deeny, who had always behaved appropriately in front of him, was so hostile toward Ali.

When he saw Su Yang looking over, Little Deeny said, “Master, although your focus is not on the country now, I have been paying attention to all the big companies in the country. Therefore, I have collected all kinds of information about Ali.

“Then, I discovered a shocking secret.”

Su Yang blinked. “A shocking secret? Is Ali related to Yang Mi?”

Little Deeny was speechless

“Master, you’re so lame! That wasn’t funny at all!”

“Haha.” Su Yang laughed awkwardly. His sense of humor was really bad.

Little Deeny explained, “Master, do you know what Ali’s main business is?”

Su Yang replied, “What else could it be other than Taobao?”

Little Deeny shook her head. “It’s not Taobao. In my investigation, I found out that the real money maker is Alipay, which is the derivation of Ant Group.”

Su Yang repeated the name.

Little Deeny nodded. “Yes, Ant Group. This company is controlled by Old Master Ma, and the main business is Alipay.”

“However, Alipay is not just a simple tool. It is one of the most important financial software in the country. Amongst them, Old Master Ma has created two loan tools, “Jieba”, and “Huaba”.

“These loans, by lending to young people, earn high interest. I calculated according to the interest provided, and the annual interest rate was as high as 20%.”

Su Yang was shocked. “20%? That’s already considered to be a loan shark’s rate, right?”

Little Deeny nodded. “Yes. Not only that, according to my investigation, Ant Group is also suspected of high-leveraged loans.

“Their entire company doesn’t have much money, only a few billion USD. Theoretically, they could only lend a few billion USD, but after they released a few billion USD loan, they packed it up and turned it into debt securities. They went to the second-tier market to collect cash, then took the cash back to lend again.

“According to my investigation with Wei Lin, this level-one loan shark used 35 rounds at the most. It used more than a hundred times the leverage.”

When Su Yang heard this, he gasped.

He could not help but ask, “Just tell me the conclusion. These numbers are too scary.”

Little Deeny paused, then said, “The ones that we could find out had loans of nearly a trillion USD with very little capital.”

Before Su Yang could reply, Zhao Licheng screamed, “He must be crazy! He’s causing a domestic mortgage crisis! Doesn’t he know how the financial system collapsed back then?

“Does he want the economy to collapse like America did?!”

Little Deeny shrugged. “I suspect that he learned it exactly because he knew about it. After all, even if the subprime crisis breaks out, it will not be affected much. After all, it is the last stage of subprime mortgages, and they have already earned a lot of money.

“He might even be able to obtain high-quality assets like those tycoons in Japan that weren’t affected by the economic crisis.”

Su Yang fell silent when he heard this.

After a while, Su Yang said, “I’ll talk to Jiang Yan about this and see if the country can resolve it. Otherwise, this will always be a ticking time bomb hanging over the heads of the country’s citizens.”

With Little Deeny and Zhao Licheng’s analysis, Su Yang was determined to cooperate with Tencent.

The next day, he personally went to Mr. Ma’s hotel and gave him an accurate answer. Ever since then, Tencent, as one of the major forces in the country, had officially collaborated with Su Yang.

The next day, when Tencent made an announcement at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that they were going to send 30 million units of shares to Jiadian Group, the internet exploded.

This was a collaboration between the two largest companies in the country, and it represented a great significance. Not to mention those companies and tycoons who had been paying attention to Tencent and Jiadian Group, even the relevant departments in the country were paying attention to this matter.

After all, Tencent had a huge share of the internet market in the country, and Jiadian Group was the top technology company in the country. The alliance between these two companies was too dangerous.

However, the collaboration between the two companies was legal and there were no other problems. Both parties were leading companies that followed the country’s footsteps, so after some research, the relevant departments did not make any comments.

Compared to the country, the business world’s response to this matter was much greater. The businesses between Tencent and Jiadian were all stirred up, and they were full of motivation. On the other hand, Ali and the major organizations all felt like a storm was brewing.

After all, Tencent already had a major portion of possession over the social market, while Jiadian Group was the country’s number one technology company. Now that these two companies had joined forces, it was a nightmare for other companies.

No matter what, this was a good thing for those who were close to Tencent and Jiadian Group. This announcement reflected the stock price and caused Tencent’s market value to soar.

If it were not for the fact that the company was not listed, the stock price of the company would have soared.

After all, from the content of the announcement, it was clear that the alliance this time was mainly led by Jidian Group.

Just as Zhao Licheng had said, Tencent had taken the initiative to “play a smaller role”, which had boosted Jiadian Group’s reputation.

It was not until this collaboration that many people suddenly realized that Jiadian Group had unknowingly grown into a giant corporation. They even had the upper hand in their cooperation with Tencent.

However, no matter what outsiders thought, this collaboration was just a test for Su Yang and Mr. Ma.

Previously, Nindentou’s incident could at most be considered as a stepping stone for the two of them. Now that Jiadian Group controlled part of Tencent, it could be considered their first deep cooperation.

After the shares were finalized, Tencent and Jiadian Group made a transfer and announcement regarding the shares of TTK and Snap. From then on, these two companies were removed from Tencent’s business and transferred to Jiadian Group.

Su Yang assigned Zhao Licheng full responsibility for the consolidation. Zhao Licheng even made several trips to Korea and America to connect with the two companies.

Tencent had already exchanged greetings with these two companies and had also gone through negotiations. Thus, the process of contacting them was very smooth without any problems.

This might also have something to do with Su Yang’s current fame in the world. After all, Su Yang’s name as the “Japanese assassin” was extremely famous in the Imperial Capital.

After the collaboration was settled, Su Yang did not stop his plan. Zhao Licheng and he went to Korea under the pretext of communicating with TTK.

Actually, Su Yang wasn’t unfamiliar with Korea. After all, Korea’s celebrities have been very famous in the country for the past few years. Every day, he would be able to see those little Korean celebrities jumping around in TV programs. This caused everyone to pay attention to Korea’s news.

Su Yang had his own plans for Korea as well. But generally speaking, he wouldn’t be as rough as he was with Japan. Firstly, Korea wasn’t like Japan, which had a feud with China. Secondly, Korea’s geographical location was too special. Su Yang wanted to control it, not destroy it.

Therefore, before Su Yang arrived in Korea, he called the Clown Sea Serpent, Little Deeny, and Zhao Licheng to come up with a detailed plan. That was how he started his trip to Korea.

In Su Yang’s opinion, it was not a difficult task to deal with Korea. He estimated that he could be done within two to three months.

After all, he did not have that much time to waste on a small country. The elections for America were about to officially begin. As someone who knew about the results earlier on, Su Yang had investigated the person who could be elected.

Hmm… generally speaking, he is not a normal person. Furthermore, he was inclined towards the right. An extremely conservative nationalist, once he was elected, he will definitely go through endless torment.

This was not a good thing in the short term for China and Jiadian Group because it would increase the pressure on the outside world. Many things needed to be adjusted.

As the challenger of the world’s overlord, in the long run, this kind of external pressure would provide motivation, and the nationalist tendencies would cause the other party to give up many benefits to the outside world, so it was actually a good thing.

Hence, all in all, Su Yang had to take advantage of the fact that this fella was not in charge of America to develop and prepare for war.

According to America’s procedures, the election would usually end in mid-November, so Su Yang still had three months…

That was the last chance for Su Yang to develop.

When they arrived in Korea and got off the plane. TTK’s representative was already waiting at the airport exit.

With Little Deeny as the “linguist”, Su Yang greeted him in Korean. Then, they got into the car that had been prepared beforehand.

Su Yang brought along Zhao Licheng, Little Deeny, and the Clown Sea Serpent for his trip to Korea that time…