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Extraordinary Genius
Chapter 1382 – Microsoft’s strategy
“Old Lei, how is it? Is our office software selling well these few days?” Feng Yu called Lei Jun and asked.
“It is selling well in the first three days, but something happened the day before yesterday. There is a sharp increase of pirated Microsoft users, and it affected our product sales.”
Huh? An increase of pirated Microsoft users? How is this possible? Microsoft’s latest version of Office is cracked so fast?
If the codes are cracked, they can only be used for a month without the activation code. Also, it will be recorded in the users’ Microsoft operating system, and the user must reinstall the operating system before they can use the pirated version again. This is too troublesome, and many people don’t know how to reinstall it.
WPS’s office software’s promotion price is only 69 RMB, and most people should be willing to buy it. Did someone crack Microsoft’s latest Office entirely?
“What happened? Do you know who had cracked their code? Can you hire this person secretly? This guy is a genius.”
The ones who can create computer viruses like trojan, etc., are all coding experts. They are valuable if they used their talents properly.
“Manager Feng, this incident is very weird. A software called Office’s activation code generator suddenly appeared in the market. It can generate the codes for the pirated version. The pirated version is the same as the original version with no limitations!”
“We traced this software. It appeared suddenly on the internet two days ago and was shared on all the major websites in China for free downloads within a short time. The first uploaded address is in an internet café.”
“It’s understandable for someone to upload this program from an internet café, but it was shared to multiple websites within two hours. This is very suspicious. Someone is purposely promoting it!”
Feng Yu also finds it suspicious after Lei Jun’s explanation. Why would one not try to make money after cracking Microsoft’s Office codes? Many people will be interested even if he is selling 10 RMB per download. He can also write a protection code for this program and limit the generator to generate three activation codes. This way, he can make more money.
This person can make a few hundred thousand easily.
Even if this person doesn’t want to profit from this program, he shares it with everyone on the internet. It seems he is targeting Microsoft, but why is Microsoft keeping quiet about it?
All companies will warn consumers that using pirated versions of their software is against the law and is infringing copyright. Microsoft’s Office sales are not as good as Kingsoft’s, but some people still buy them.
Even if Microsoft sold 100,000 copies, it is about 2 million USD with their selling price of 169 RMB per copy.
Furthermore, how can Microsoft’s sales be only 100,000 copies?
“Are you saying that this has something to do with Microsoft?” Feng Yu asked.
“Manager Feng, we are not making this up. Microsoft’s security protection is one of the best globally, and this activation code generator should be one of its cores. How can it be cracked so easily? The only possible explanation is one of the developers had cracked it and developed this activation code generator.”
“Also, Microsoft is ignoring this, and it’s obvious they are turning a blind eye to it. More users will download the pirated version and use the activation code.”
“Although our office software has some features better than Microsoft, the difference is not that great. The more complicated functions are better than them, but most people will not use these functions. We are already selling at a low price, but who is willing to buy it when there is a free version around?”
“But we don’t understand why this Microsoft staff has done this. He must have deep grudges with them for him to do this. Still, Microsoft should have reacted to this unless Microsoft is purposely allowing piracy to thrive. This can affect our product sales, but what’s there to benefit for them?”
Feng Yu thought for a while and replied. “Microsoft does have some benefits from this incident. First, they can sue those pirated version users, especially the companies and even governments. They can get a sum of compensation and increase their influence.”
“Secondly, they can increase their software users, and block our office software. We had put in considerable resources to promote and introduce our software. If users don’t buy our original software, we will not recover our cost and will suffer heavy losses.”
“Although Microsoft will also suffer losses by doing this, they can afford one to two billion USD of losses, and Lenovo Kingsoft cannot afford one to two billion RMB of losses.”
Feng Yu understood Microsoft’s motive. They are trying to create a lose-lose situation.
Microsoft wants to use its scale and resources to beat Lenovo Kingsoft. They want to make Lenovo Kingsoft suffer losses. Their PC operating system and other software development will be affected without the profits from the software sales.
“Old Lei, have we recovered our development cost?” Feng Yu asked.
“Our overseas market is not making any profits, and if we can’t sell it in our domestic market, we will suffer some losses. But we forecast we should get more than 500 million USD of profits from this software. Without this profit, our other software development plans will be affected.”
“Our PC operating system has reached a critical stage and requires a large fund. Our smartphone operating system is only used by Wind and Rain Mobile and Aiwa Mobile. We are not getting many profits from it. The Anti-virus market is too competitive, and we can only make some profits from enterprises’ security. The ordinary anti-virus is only breaking even.”
Lenovo Kingsoft’s development plans are all in a mess now.
But Microsoft had belittled Lenovo Kingsoft and Feng Yu. This is just a matter of who can afford to burn more money.
“I will be back tomorrow. Notify Old Liu, Old Qiu, and the rest for a meeting. We will declare war on Microsoft!”