The Ecology's Big Cake

After giving the money for purchasing computers to Fang Qiang, Lu Zhou first went to the Student Affairs Office.

Lu Zhou found the short-haired girl who had just received him and greeted her, "Good afternoon. I'm here to submit a recruitment notice."

The girl was surprised for a moment, then glanced back at Lu Zhou's application with some astonishment. "Senior, you're starting a business with such a big investment. It means you'll have to pay a salary of at least several thousand yuan per month for six interns."

Lu Zhou smiled and replied, "Starting a business requires manpower. Otherwise, how can it operate?"

The girl's eyes sparkled, and she said, "Then, senior, can I give it a try?"

"Of course. Come for an interview this Wednesday and give it a try."

"Okay, thank you, senior."

Immediately, Lu Zhou left the Student Affairs Office.

In fact, he didn't have high expectations for the recruitment notice. After all, the interview was scheduled for the day after tomorrow, which was a tight timeline.

The recruitment of the four programming interns would depend on Fang Qiang. Lu Zhou called him and asked him to spread the news among the classes in the Computer Science Department when he returned in the evening.

Since the workplace was in the school and the internship salary was around two to three thousand yuan per month, it should be quite attractive to sophomore and junior students in Zhuyuan.

As for the remaining two marketing interns, that would be up to fate.

Next, Lu Zhou called Song Wenhui to explain that he would visit him shortly. Then he rode his bicycle and headed to Huiteng.

Upon arriving at Huiteng, Lu Zhou explained the situation to the receptionist and made his way to Song Wenhui's office.

Song Wenhui was working in his office, and when he saw Lu Zhou, he smiled and said, "You, kid, are really active. The dean called me this morning and mentioned you."

Lu Zhou chuckled and replied, "Then I really need Brother Song to guide me more. I'm here to rent ten servers from Huiteng. Can you give me a discount?"

Song Wenhui was slightly surprised. "Renting ten servers is no small matter. Are you so confident, youngster?"

A smile tugged at the corner of Lu Zhou's mouth as he said, "The future trend of the mobile internet is quite obvious. It will be easy to surpass Nokia in the next year or two, whether it's Android or Apple. The fundamental reason lies in the ecosystem of the operating systems. The crucial factors are the acceptance and survival of developers. The mobile internet advertising I plan to do will integrate SDKs for Android developers to help them find monetization channels in the early stages. This is an important part of promoting the entire Android ecosystem. When developers have a source of income, the entire Android application market can thrive."

Song Wenhui interrupted Lu Zhou for a moment and asked, "If what you said is true, and this is a part of the entire Android ecosystem, then won't others compete with you? How can you ensure a higher market share?"

Lu Zhou continued, "In fact, this is related to China's internet environment. Rumors of Google's withdrawal from the Chinese market have been circulating for a while now, and most people in the industry are aware of it. It's primarily a regulatory issue, followed by localization problems. Both factors make it impossible for them to survive in China. Therefore, the next step for mobile internet advertising is to become a distributor, thereby controlling a portion of the market's distribution channels."

Song Wenhui crossed his hands and pondered for a moment before murmuring,

"Indeed. According to what you're saying, the market size in the future will be huge. Even if you capture 30% of the market, you will still need hundreds of servers."

Lu Zhou couldn't help but feel frustrated. It's not just enough; the future distributor will first be controlled by mobile phone manufacturers, followed by the three major application markets. A 30% market share is enormous.

Song Wenhui collected his thoughts and said, "You have a thorough understanding of this. You also used the terms 'ecosystem' and 'closed loop' quite vividly."

Lu Zhou felt a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry for borrowing your famous quote, Mr. Jobs. Thank you, Brother Song."

Song Wenhui then showed an expression of cherishing talent and said, "Lu, regarding the servers, that's not a problem. Huiteng has plenty of servers. If you're renting instead of buying, is there a financial difficulty?"

Lu Zhou couldn't help but feel secretly delighted. Finally, the moment he had been waiting for had arrived. All those lofty words he had said earlier were just to set the stage for what was about to come.

However, he didn't reveal his excitement. Instead, he frowned slightly and pretended to remain calm. "Senior, it should be enough for the short term. The server and manpower expenses are not small, but we can manage to support the normal operation of the product."

Song Wenhui had a playful expression in his heart. This young fellow still lacked some sophistication. I could see that slight frown on his face,"Have you considered getting some investment? Brother Song can contribute some funds. We are both students of Yixian University, and we can discuss things."

Lu Zhou saw that the fish had taken the bait and confidently sat in the fishing boat. "Alright. I will rely on Senior's support in the future. May I know how Senior plans to invest?"

Naturally, Song Wenhui had to probe further. "Hehe, well, it depends on how much you're willing to offer, Lu."

"At most 5%."

"You're quite shrewd, kid. One hundred and fifty thousand yuan for 5% is acceptable. Consider it as Senior supporting the venture of a junior."

Lu Zhou smiled calmly and didn't show any surprise. "To be honest, I also have a small business on hand. I earn two to three hundred thousand yuan per month without any problem. After the new company is established, I will have to invest money into it every month until the company operates normally. One hundred and fifty thousand yuan is too low."

Song Wenhui couldn't judge the truth of what Lu Zhou said and asked, "Oh, then what price do you have in mind?"

Lu Zhou slowly said, "Five hundred thousand yuan, for 5%!"

Song Wenhui was stunned for a moment as he calculated in his mind. So, Lu Zhou was directly valuing his company at millions of yuan. He shook his head and didn't say anything. Only a fool would accept this price.

Lu Zhou remained composed. The fish had already taken the bait, and whether it wanted to come ashore or not was beyond Song Wenhui's control.

"Senior, don't rush to a conclusion. Let me propose another option."

"Alright. Go ahead."

"For this investment, Menggu can accept Huite's contribution in the form of server resources. Menggu is currently lacking servers, and even if Senior gives me money, I will still have to spend it on servers. On the other hand, Huite has plenty of machines. I used to work at Huite, and I know that they have at least a 10% idle rate for their servers. Instead of leaving them idle, why not utilize them as Menggu's investment? It's a win-win situation."

In fact, Lu Zhou's estimation of a 10% idle rate was relatively conservative. Huite's servers had an idle rate of close to 20%-30% per year.

Due to the cost of server rentals, it was more cost-effective to buy a server after a year of renting. Most large enterprises chose to purchase, while only small companies or temporary business increases would opt for server rentals.

The reason why Huite continued to invest in purchasing servers despite the high idle rate was because Song Wenhui had a positive outlook on cloud computing and wanted to lay the groundwork early.

Idle resources were not a problem for now, but they might become an issue in the future.

Upon hearing Lu Zhou's proposal, Song Wenhui began to understand his intention. "Not bad, it sounds quite attractive. Five hundred thousand yuan for ten servers in a year

. Huite can afford that."

Lu Zhou nodded. "I'm grateful for Senior's support. 5% equity for ten servers in a year."

Even if Song Wenhui didn't fully comprehend it, his experience in the business world would be wasted if he couldn't see through Lu Zhou's intentions. Lu Zhou initially mentioned the need for ten servers and eventually circled back to accepting ten servers as an investment. It was clear that he was setting a trap for him.

He shook his head. "You kid, you're deliberately trying to trick me, aren't you? Fine, it won't cause me any loss. I'll inform the company's legal department, and you can come and sign the contract tomorrow."

Lu Zhou chuckled and quickly said, "No, it's not that. This matter can be considered as both trickery and not. It's a mutual agreement between both sides. I need server resources, and you can easily spare them with Huite. All it will cost Huite is the increase in electricity and bandwidth expenses."

As for the reason behind Lu Zhou's actions, it was simple—money was meant to be spent.

Last week, he earned a total of 100,000 yuan from his Weibo followers' transactions. He gave 30,000 yuan to Fang Qiang, spent 10,000 yuan to register the company, and used 50,000 yuan to purchase office computers. After a week, he was left with only 10,000 yuan, which, combined with his previous savings, amounted to just around 20,000 yuan.

He needed to save enough money from future Weibo earnings to repay the loan at home, so he could only turn to Song Wenhui for help.

Although the monthly cost of servers was currently only around 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, as the company developed in the future and grew in scale, server expenses would become a bottomless pit.

If they needed to set up a large number of servers in the future, Huite already had data centers in various locations, and they had long-term cooperative relationships with telecommunications companies and suppliers. It would be much more convenient for Lu Zhou to use Huite's resources than to spend his own money.

So, bringing Huite on board would only bring benefits and no drawbacks, and the sooner, the better.