kvmb Chapter 224 Using Public Office for Private Gain
Chapter 224 Using Public Office for Private Gain
Chapter 224 Using Public Office for Private Gain
The air conditioner in the office hissed and whirred, but it did nothing to dispel Bezos's anxiety.
He stared at the server data reports on the table, his brows furrowed deeply. Sure enough, a phone call completely confirmed his earlier suspicions.
The mastermind behind all of this was the guy he hated so much.
He glanced sideways at Martial, who was standing to the side; the Amazon technical director was sweating profusely.
Bezos took a deep breath and spat out a few words through gritted teeth, each word sharp with icy edge: "It's Ernst, that utterly shameless bastard."
After hearing this, Martial seemed to be frozen in place for a full three seconds, his mouth opened but he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.
He knew better than anyone that within Amazon, the name Ernst was taboo, even more sensitive than discussing the boss's hairline.
Throughout Amazon, everyone knows that Bezos has a deep-seated hatred for that leader of the internet industry.
Bezos has belittled Ernst in front of hundreds of employees at the company on more than one occasion, his words filled with disdain, as if Ernst were chewing gum stuck to his expensive suit that he could never get rid of no matter how hard he tried.
Although no one knows what deep-seated hatred exists between the two, an unwritten rule has become a consensus among employees: never mention Ernst in front of Bezos.
"That shameless guy actually signed a letter of intent for procurement worth over $500 million with IBM and Seagate." Bezos slammed his hand on the table, making the coffee cup on it jump.
He got angrier and angrier as he spoke, his voice rising eight octaves. "And the condition is that these two companies have to ship to Amazon on time. It's obvious that they're deliberately trying to trip us up."
Martial stood aside, his mind racing. He knew all too well what the $500 million deal meant to IBM and Seagate—it was like throwing a piece of juicy meat to a hungry lion.
Faced with such temptation, these two hardware giants probably wouldn't hesitate for even half a second. They might even be so shaky when signing the contract that they're afraid Ernst will change his mind if they write too slowly.
Although Amazon is a rising star in the internet industry, it has a rapid development momentum and is advancing all the way.
However, it depends on who you compare it to. Compared to Ernst's industry, it's not even in the same league as hardware manufacturers.
Google goes without saying; it's the undisputed leader in the search engine market, and now even its Google business is thriving.
And then there's YueDong Games, which recently completed its financing round and whose games are incredibly popular.
Not to mention the recently rising PayPal, which is moving faster than a rabbit in the online payment field and has gained a large number of users in a short period of time.
Compared to these companies, Amazon's current user base and equipment purchases are like a toddler just learning to walk—it's still far behind.
"If, as you fear, there really is a storage problem, what will be the consequences?" Bezos's voice suddenly deepened, his eyes sharply fixed on Martial.
Martial's heart tightened, and he replied seriously, "The most direct impact is that it may cause business to stop or functions to fail."
"The storage system is like Amazon's data warehouse, containing all user information, product data, and transaction records. Once the storage capacity is exhausted, or the system crashes due to overload, the first to be affected are the businesses that rely on data reading and writing."
He paused, swallowed, and continued, "At that time, users may not even be able to place orders on our website, new data will not be generated, and users who have bought things before will not be able to check their order history."
"Even more serious is the possibility that the login system might malfunction, preventing users from accessing the website. There's also the possibility that the system might overload and accidentally delete core data, which would result in significant losses."
At this point, Martial's expression turned grim. He glanced at Bezos and saw that his boss's face was so dark it could drip water, but he still forced himself to say, "If the situation gets any worse and causes physical bad sectors or logical errors, resulting in the corruption of the entire user-related data, then that data will be basically unrecoverable."
"At that time, users will definitely sue us. We will not only have to pay huge fines, but also face public pressure, and Amazon's reputation will be completely ruined."
"However, in the long run, the most frightening thing is the large-scale loss of users, which would directly affect Amazon's entire business system."
.
Martial then changed the subject, trying to ease the tense atmosphere: "However, there's no need to worry too much about that for now. As long as IBM and Seagate can deliver the hard drives on time and replenish the storage capacity, there won't be any long-term impact."
But Bezos knows better than anyone that now is not the time to consider the long-term consequences.
His top priority is to do everything in his power to prevent the terrible scenarios Martial described from happening.
If Amazon were to experience a business shutdown or data loss, even for just a week, its eager competitors would not miss the opportunity. They would swarm in like sharks smelling blood, trying to steal Amazon's users and market share.
In the e-commerce sector, Amazon is no longer the sole dominant player; its competitors have long been eager to enter the fray.
Since Amazon went public, Barnes & Noble and Borders, the two largest brick-and-mortar bookstore chains in the United States, have been working like crazy, launching their own online shopping websites within just two months, clearly aiming to steal business from Amazon.
It's true that the internet industry has a siphon effect, and because quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, Amazon, with its huge user base and scale effect, can compress costs to a very low level. Sometimes, in order to seize the market, it can even sell books at a loss.
Barnes & Noble and Borders cannot do this; they have the burden of physical stores, and their costs are much higher than Amazon's, so they simply cannot operate at a loss like Amazon.
But if Amazon itself has a problem, then the situation is completely different.
This is similar to how people usually think Amazon's books are cheap and are willing to buy them there, but if Amazon's website suddenly becomes inaccessible, or if some books are no longer displayed due to data issues, consumers won't tolerate it.
They don't care if you're a new internet whiz or not; they'll just turn around and buy from Barnes & Noble or Broadway's online stores. After all, the need to read books won't disappear just because your website has problems.
At that time, the users Amazon expects to gain, as well as the users who need to buy books now, will be lost like flowing water. Once the website returns to normal, it will be difficult to win back the users.
He would never give his opponent such an opportunity; the cost would be too high.
"Contact other hard drive manufacturers immediately. No matter how much it costs, Amazon's website absolutely cannot have any problems," Bezos said, standing up abruptly with a firm tone.
This is the bottom line, and he knows all too well how important it is. If it is crossed, Amazon's years of hard work could be ruined.
As for Ernst, the one who started all this, Bezos turned to look out the window. The Seattle sky was gray, just like his mood at that moment.
If Ernst were standing in front of him right now, he would want to rush up to him, pluck out all his hair, and throw him into an Amazon warehouse so he could experience the joy of packing ten thousand packages.
He had a good plan. Since IBM and Seagate were deliberately delaying shipments by taking advantage of the time difference, he would buy a batch of hard drives from other manufacturers as a backup. This way, even if those two companies dragged their feet, Amazon would have enough storage capacity to cope.
But Ernst wouldn't give him that chance; how could he possibly let him recover?
At Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley, the entire campus was brightly lit. Even at 7 p.m., the office buildings were still bustling with activity as employees worked overtime, the sound of keyboards clicking echoing everywhere.
Hamilton James stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of Ernst's office, watching the bustling scene below. He couldn't help but shake his head, then turned to Ernst, who was sitting on the sofa, and teased, "You're really ruthless, coming up with such a way to mess with Amazon. Bezos must be furious by now."
Ernst sat on the soft sofa, casually fiddling with a cigar in his hands, a sly smile playing on his lips.
Hearing Hamilton's teasing, he shrugged indifferently and said in a relaxed tone, "The business world is like a battlefield. Not only do you need a grand strategic layout, but sometimes you also need some underhanded tricks."
Hamilton smiled helplessly, walked over and sat down next to Ernst, a headache on his face. "But you're using Google's money to satisfy your personal desires. If those Wall Street institutions find out, they'll definitely have something to say."
He inwardly groaned, because he knew those Wall Street shareholders all too well. If they had any complaints, they would never go directly to Ernst, because they didn't want to offend him easily.
So they'll just target him, the COO, and he'll be bombarded with a barrage of questioning calls and emails.
"If you have any complaints, you'd better keep them to yourself." Ernst looked up, his eyes sharp, his tone domineering.
"Shouldn't I be providing employee benefits?"
Hamilton was speechless, and could only roll his eyes helplessly.
He knew in his heart that Ernst was telling the truth, and that even if the shareholders on Wall Street had objections, they could only keep quiet.
There's nothing I can do except complain to him.
Since Google launched AdWords and Google Chrome, it has become the highest-grossing internet company, with unlimited potential for growth.
In terms of browser market share, Google has dealt a severe blow to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The former browser giants are now just junior partners in front of Google.
No one expected that Microsoft and Netscape would join forces to take drastic measures against Google, attempting to curb Google's development by cutting off browser partnerships facilitated by Google Search.
But the result?
In less than a week, Google launched its own browser and quickly opened up the market, successfully turning the tide of the battle.
Previously, the browser market was dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape, with the two companies fighting tooth and nail.
The browser market has now become a situation of one dominant player and two strong contenders.
Google Chrome has become a market leader thanks to its powerful performance and simple design.
If we only look at the North American market, Google Chrome's advantage might not be so obvious.
According to the latest market research data, Google Chrome ranks first with a market share of 39.2%, followed by Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape with market shares of 28.4% and 24.9% respectively. The three companies share more than 90% of the market share, and they seem to be evenly matched.
However, if we look to overseas markets, the gap becomes much larger.
In the European market, Google Chrome, with its localized services and efficient search capabilities, has captured a dominant market share of 60.4%.
In the Asian market, Google Chrome is even more unstoppable, almost dominating the entire market with a market share of over 70%, far ahead of Microsoft IE and Netscape.
Google Chrome's success is due to a variety of reasons.
The simple page design is loved by users. There are no unnecessary plugins or plugins. It opens quickly and is easy to use.
Secondly, Google's search engine's high efficiency and rich search terms bring a lot of traffic to browsers. Users who are used to Google search are naturally willing to use the corresponding browser.
However, the main reason is Google's advanced marketing strategy.
While other internet companies viewed markets outside North America as uncharted territory, Google had already begun operations in Europe,
Google has invested heavily in advertising across Asia and other regions, from subway ads to television ads, making the Google brand deeply ingrained in people's minds.
Even those Wall Street financial institutions that invested in Google during its second round of funding, at a valuation of $80 billion, are now making a fortune.
Google's valuation skyrocketed.
In this situation, even if they knew Ernst was using company money to settle personal scores, they could only pretend not to know.
After all, who would turn down money?
If someone really had a problem and wanted to argue with Ernst, Ernst would probably just retort: You have a problem? Fine, sell your Google stock, there are plenty of people willing to buy it.
Indeed, Google's future looks bright, and only a fool would sell their stock at this time.
Therefore, Wall Street shareholders could only swallow their dissatisfaction and vent their frustrations to Hamilton, but dared not do anything to Ernst.
Hamilton watched Ernst leisurely puffing on his cigar, looking completely confident, and thought helplessly: Oh well, this is the kind of money I make.
(Something came up, so only two chapters today)