Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

363: Chapter 363 Dual Ecosystem PatternOn November 20th, the sky was a dull grey, like a massive curtain draped over the city.

In the meeting room of the Spark Consumer Electronics headquarters, however, the atmosphere was a hundred times more intense than the weather outside. Over three hundred employees were squeezed in front of a giant screen; some were standing, some were sitting, and some simply sat on the floor. The clock on the wall pointed to two in the afternoon, but no one cared about the time. The walls were covered with Xingchen flags, and every face wore an irrepressible excitement—the kind of excitement that comes from being about to witness history.

On the large screen was a live broadcast page showing IDC global mobile phone sales data. The numbers were still fluctuating, but everyone held their breath.

Time passed minute by minute.

When the numbers finally froze, deafening cheers erupted in the meeting room.

2019 Q3 Global Smartphone Sales TOP 5

Huawei: 68.8 million units (+28%)

Huaxing: 52.1 million units (+312%)

Xiaomi: 41.2 million units (+22%)

Apple: 39.8 million units (-12%)

Samsung: 72.2 million units (-8%)

The name Huaxing was prominently ranked second.

Some people jumped up, some hugged each other, and some took off their glasses to wipe away tears. Cheers, whistles, and applause blended together, nearly lifting the ceiling. A young female engineer squatted on the ground, covered her face, and began to cry—when she first joined Xingchen three years ago, the company only had a few hundred people; who could have imagined today?

Zhang Yang stood at the back of the crowd, not joining the revelry.

Today, he wore a simple black T-shirt, hands in his pockets, quietly watching the numbers on the screen. There wasn’t much expression on his face, but there was an unspeakable complexity in his eyes—gratification, emotion, and a hint of relief.

Beside him, his assistant’s voice trembled with excitement: ”President Zhang, we only used two years! We reached global number two in just two years!”

Zhang Yang shook his head.

”Two years? No. It took twenty years—the technology accumulated by China over twenty years, which we turned into products in two years.”

He turned and walked toward his office.

Behind him, the cheers continued.

The Xingchen Developer Conference was held at the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center. This massive venue could accommodate twenty thousand people; currently, the eight thousand seats in the main hall were completely filled, with thousands more standing in the aisles. Developers from more than fifty countries around the world, speaking different languages and wearing various styles of clothing, all had their gazes focused on the same place—the giant circular screen in the center of the stage.

On the massive circular screen, the Xingchen logo slowly rotated, and blue and white light bathed the entire venue.

Zhang Yang took the stage once again.

The gazes of eight thousand developers focused on him simultaneously. He walked to the center of the stage as the spotlight shone down from above, casting a long shadow behind him.

”Xingchen OS 2.0 is officially released today.”

The large screen displayed the data: Xingchen OS 2.0

Install Base: 500 million units

Developer Revenue Share: 10 billion rmb

New Features: Distributed Soft Bus, Cross-device Collaboration, Nebula AI Engine

Thunderous applause broke out below the stage.

Li Ming sat in the back row. At thirty-five, he was the Technical Director of a startup in Shenzhen, wearing thick glasses and a plaid shirt, with a worn-out backpack slung over his shoulder. He held a notebook, rapidly recording every piece of data on the screen—this data was crucial for his company’s technology stack selection next year.

A colleague next to him leaned in and asked in a low voice, ”Old Li, are you going to the Huawei conference tomorrow?”

Li Ming didn’t look up: ”Yes. And I’m going to Xiaomi’s the day after too.”

The colleague gave a bitter smile: ”Three systems, three sets of code. It’s going to kill us.”

Li Ming finally looked up and sighed: ”There’s no choice; they’re all alive, so we have to adapt to all of them. If we don’t cover an ecosystem, the users will leave.”

November 24th, Dongguan.

The Huawei Developer Conference was held at Songshan Lake in Dongguan. The venue was slightly smaller than Xingchen’s, but there were still over five thousand people. Huawei logos could be seen everywhere, and the red background was particularly striking. The campus was filled with vehicles from all over the country, as developers arrived from every direction.

Yu Chengdong stood on the stage. The fifty-year-old Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO was dressed in a dark suit, his voice booming: ”Hongmeng 2.0 install base has surpassed 300 million. Huawei’s goal is—the Internet of Everything.”

Below the stage, Li Ming sat in the front row, taking notes diligently. He hadn’t slept well for three consecutive days and had dark circles under his eyes, but his pen didn’t dare stop for a moment.

A colleague beside him whispered, ”Hongmeng’s distributed capability is indeed strong, but its ecosystem still isn’t as good as Xingchen’s.”

Li Ming nodded: ”Xingchen has a chip advantage and better system optimization. Huawei has the hardware advantage and seamless integration across all scenarios. Each has its own merits.”

He closed his notebook and glanced at the time.

”I have to catch a flight tonight for the Xiaomi conference in Beijing tomorrow.”

The colleague looked at him sympathetically: ”Take care of yourself.”

November 25th, Beijing.

The Xiaomi Developer Conference was held at the National Convention Center. The venue was smaller than the previous two, but there were still over three thousand people. President Lei stood on stage; the fifty-year-old Xiaomi founder was dressed in his signature black T-shirt and jeans, as casual as ever: ”Pengpai 2.0 install base has reached 200 million. The number of devices connected to Xiaomi’s AIoT platform has surpassed 500 million.”

Below the stage, Li Ming was already exhausted.

He leaned back in his chair with his notebook spread across his lap, barely managing to record the key data. After running through three cities and three conferences in three days, his head was about to explode. His eyes were sore and his shoulders were stiff, but he didn’t dare sleep—if he missed any important information, his company’s product roadmap for next year might go astray.

A colleague handed him a bottle of water: ”Old Li, are you okay?”

Li Ming smiled bitterly: ”I’m alright. But next time there’s a triple-header like this, I’ll have to hire an assistant.”

The colleague laughed: ”Don’t worry, there will probably be quadruple or quintuple-headers in the future.”

Li Ming glared at him: ”Don’t curse me.”

November 28th, Mountain View, California.

The Google headquarters was a massive glass building located in the heart of Mountain View, just a few kilometers from Stanford University. At this moment, in the top-floor meeting room, the atmosphere was so heavy it was as if it could drip like water. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the California sunshine was as bright as ever, but everyone in the meeting room could not feel any warmth.

Android President Hiroshi Lockheimer stood before the large screen; the forty-five-year-old Indian-American executive had a solemn expression. Behind him was a trend chart of global Android market share—a slowly declining curve that had dropped from eighty-five percent to sixty percent.

CEO Sundar Pichai sat in the main seat; the fifty-year-old Google chief had his hands crossed on the table, expressionless. His tie was tied meticulously and his suit was sharp, but there was an unmistakable exhaustion in his eyes.

Lockheimer spoke, his voice low: ”Huawei has stopped using GMS, Huaxing has its own OS, and Xiaomi is also pushing Pengpai. Android’s global share has dropped from eighty-five percent to sixty percent.”

He pressed a remote, and the screen switched: Global App Store Daily Active Users (November 2019)

Apple App Store: 520 million

Xingchen App Store: 310 million

Google Play: 280 million

Pichai’s expression changed.

Lockheimer continued: ”The daily active users of the Xingchen Store have already surpassed Google Play, making it global number two. Furthermore, their growth rate is three hundred percent, while ours is only five percent. At this rate, by this time next year, Xingchen will surpass Apple.”

Low murmurs of discussion filled the meeting room.

Pichai finally spoke, his voice raspy: ”What about the developers?”

Lockheimer brought up another chart: ”Eighty percent of top-tier developers are listing their applications on the Xingchen Store simultaneously. Because Xingchen’s revenue share cut is low, only fifteen percent, users have a high willingness to pay. Our cut is thirty percent, and Apple’s is also thirty percent.”

He paused: ”Moreover, Xingchen’s payment system directly bypassed us by using their own Xingchen Chain. Users pay with xingchen coin, so we don’t even get a chance to take a commission.”

The meeting room fell into a dead silence.

Pichai was silent for a long time.

Then he said, ”What we lost wasn’t the market, but the ecosystem.”

No one replied.

Outside the window, the California sunshine was still bright, but everyone in the meeting room felt a chill.

Zhang Yang stood by the window of his office, looking at the night view of Shenzhen Bay. In the distance, the lights of the Ping An Finance Center were strikingly clear in the night sky, traffic flowed like a tapestry across the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, and the entire city was brightly lit.

His phone rang.

It was a WeChat message from Li Ming.

”President Zhang, I’ve run through three conferences in three days. I’m exhausted, but it was worth it. Xingchen OS is truly powerful; our company has decided to completely migrate to the Xingchen ecosystem next year.”

Zhang Yang looked at the message and smiled.

He replied: ”Thank you for your hard work. We will increase the revenue share by another fifty percent next year. Let’s get even more developers to join us.”

Putting down his phone, he looked at the lights outside the window.

Three ecosystems, three sets of code. Developers are indeed tired. But this is competition. Whoever can make developers more money and whoever can provide a better user experience will be the one to survive until the end.

Outside the window, a plane was landing, its tail lights flickering in the night sky.

He wondered if the person sitting on it was the next developer coming to seek a partnership, or a competitor coming to learn from our experience.