When the news that the China Trade Commission sued Microsoft for monopoly and demanded RMB 2.3 billion was reported, the Chinese Internet was abuzz.
"Am I reading that right? When did China become so powerful that we dared to sue Microsoft?"
"Hey, what's new about this? It's only been so long since CCTV sued those foreign companies, and you've forgotten it? Let me tell you, this generation's leaders are too tough!"
"I work in IT. Microsoft has been sued in many countries before, but we here in China have not said a word at all. Now we have finally taken action."
"You don't know, right? I'm a lawyer. We didn't have an anti-monopoly law at all in China before. Without the draft anti-monopoly law that was just passed a few days ago, there was no basis for suing others before. But now we can. "
"Hey, when you said that upstairs, do you mean that this antitrust law was created just to sue Microsoft?"
"Pfft~ That's so glorious for Microsoft. In order to sue him, our country even created a special law!"
"Anyway, I support the country. Being fined ten times or eight times a year is equivalent to generating income!"
"But that's Microsoft. Can we win? Moreover, Microsoft has just invested such a large amount of money in our country. Isn't this unkind? Besides, they are an American company."
"The traitor upstairs, identification completed!"
"What happened to the United States? What happened to Microsoft? Are we in China afraid of them? If not, just do it. I can go to the battlefield at any time!"
…
Feng Yu browsed the forum and found that there were too many posts on the Internet about accusing Microsoft. The vast majority of people expressed support, while some expressed indifference, and a very small number of people spoke for Microsoft.
These people may be employees of Microsoft, or they may deliberately make these remarks to attract attention, but their posts were quickly submerged.
Some political staff in China are also watching netizen discussions on the Internet. They feel much more relaxed when they see such support from netizens.
It seems that their previous worries were unnecessary. People with a little sense should understand that this move is very beneficial to China.
China is very happy, but Microsoft feels angry.
Just after the European Union was sentenced to lose the lawsuit, countries such as Japan and South Korea jumped out and began to sue Microsoft and refused to accept any out-of-court settlement.
They were thinking about how to deal with these two countries, when China jumped out and started suing them.
This was not over yet. Immediately afterwards, an organization called the Eastern European Business Alliance also appeared. On behalf of many Eastern European countries, they also filed monopoly accusations against Microsoft and demanded that it be ruled in accordance with the EU.
There are also some countries that had previously negotiated out of court and were ready to sign the agreement, but now they are not signing it and are demanding more and better conditions, otherwise they will continue to sue Microsoft.
They calculated that Microsoft could not take care of multiple regions and would inevitably compromise quickly in some places. Otherwise, if these countries and regions sued Microsoft at the same time, Microsoft would be overwhelmed and suffer a lot.
Microsoft has seen great results in bundling sales in the past few years. The market share of their bundled products has been rising steadily. Now, if they don't bundle them, there is no big problem.
But if they can continue to bundle, they can continue to expand their market share and ensure higher profits.
If bundling is no longer possible, many users will definitely choose products from other companies out of certain psychological reasons. Microsoft cannot guarantee that the products of other companies will not be useful. Those who dare to launch similar products have their own characteristics.
If they cannot bundle, they will not be able to continue to maintain their advantage. There is no telling when their market share will fall, and the losses will be huge.
So Microsoft would rather litigate and lose money than remove these bundles.
…
"China and Eastern Europe have also begun to accuse us of monopoly. How should we deal with this matter?" Bill Gates asked in a deep voice.
"Our sales in China and Eastern Europe are not very good, especially in China. How low was the price of our Windows system at the beginning? Even so, many of them must have installed pirated systems. Do they have the nerve to sue us?"
"There are people who use pirated copies, but that doesn't mean others can't sue us. But this reminds us, why can't we in turn sue China? If they use pirated copies, it's okay for us to claim compensation, right?" a director said.
"How to make a claim? How to determine whether others are using genuine or pirated copies? Will others obediently turn on the computer and let us test it?"
"We can add a system patch. Through this patch, we can automatically check whether the system is genuine or pirated. If it is pirated, we will give the other party a black screen, so that the other party has to buy the genuine version."
"Black screen? Is this a bit serious? This will make many potential customers feel bored with our brand. And if it delays some important things of the other party, they will in turn claim compensation from us. They can use the excuse that they don't know what they are doing. It's fake and we'll get into trouble again," someone retorted.
"No, we can first keep pop-up reminders to remind the other party that they are using pirated versions, and it can not only detect the system, but also detect whether our other Microsoft products are genuine. After an hour, we will give the black screen processing, and the black screen is not completely black. A black screen can be restored by debugging the monitor, etc. It will not affect the use, but it will be very troublesome."
"I agree with this approach," Ballmer said.
In this way, it will not only stimulate the other party to replace the genuine version, but also detect how many pirate users there are, so as to negotiate with China and strive for an out-of-court settlement. Otherwise, we will accuse you, the Chinese team, of insufficient intellectual property protection and harming the interests of Microsoft.
Bill Gates thought for a while and nodded: "This method is okay. How long will it take to do it?"
"It will be by the end of this year at the latest." Paul Allen raised his chin with a proud look on his face.
When you had no other solution, the technical department led by me came up with a solution, right? Hum, how can Microsoft do this without me
…
"Hey, did you see that a representative from Microsoft showed up? What did he say? They completely deny this accusation? How shameless!"
"Hey, you are saying that providing customers with better choices means that their products are the best? Damn, Microsoft's office software is not as useful as Lianxiang Yinshan. Why are you bragging!"
"Ah? Isn't that an exaggeration upstairs? Isn't it true that Yinshan's is better than Microsoft's? That's Microsoft, number one in the world. You're not deceiving people, are you?"
"What's the exaggeration? Bill Gates was once the richest man in the world, but now he has been squeezed out by Mr. Feng of China? Don't always look at things from the old perspective. China's science and technology is developing rapidly. Today is no longer the same! "
… (To be continued.)