Conquering a market, part 3 - the WTO column

later also at Chinabiz, part 1 and part two are here)

It was already many months after once upon a time the brothers Micro, Yahoo and Google had entered the woods of the Middle Kingdom to find new ways to please the dragons in the woods and start their forestry business.

Micro had the biggest operation in the woods, although he was still far away from making money. Yahoo had last year sold his business to Jack Ma, the chieftain of a gang called Alibaba, hoping Ma could do the business better. And Google had now firmly decided to go into the bonsai-business, employing up to eight hundred little dragons.

The three brothers did not like each other and were trying to compete with each other, they did not seem to get anywhere. So at one of their family gatherings, where they tried to avoid to talk about business, they decided to get the forestry industry together. Together they could put a bit more pressure on the major dragons, they thought. “But we need to get Baidu also in,” said Google. Yahoo and Micro nodded. Baidu was their biggest competitor in the woods, a dragon himself, and surprisingly enough able to generate a small profit. “When the four of us get together, the market will boom,” enthused Yahoo.

So, where should we get together, wondered Micro. “Anywhere apart from Hangzhou,” said Yahoo. Yahoo has just paid last year one billion US dollar to Chieftain Ma in return for actually very little and he certainly did not want to have a home game for Ma again.

So, unfortunately, when the three brothers got together in Nanjing, Baidu did not show up. The three brothers kept a brave face towards the other guests. “We were just too late in inviting them,” said Micro. From afar the Baidu-dragon spat smoke. “This is not the way we do business in China,” he said.

Who had come – they had to invite him – was chieftain Ma, who cheerfully jelled that he would only speak Chinese, a language the three brothers still had not mastered. “You have to get used to that in the woods of the Middle Kingdom.” While the dragons stamped their feed enthusiastically and caused a minor earthquake, the three brothers hardly had a clue what was going to happen.

First, Ma acknowledged that he had spent already 750 million US dollar of the money he got from Yahoo. “Look at it from the bight side,” he said to Yahoo. “There is still 250 million US dollar to spend.” Then he looked at Micro and Google. “It is now about time you start to teach us how to cut our woods,” he said. “If you do not hand over your technology, there is absolute now way you are going to get anyway.”

That evening Google threw a dance party. Since none of the larger dragons had bothered to make an appearance, only a few smaller dragons tried to find the food in the darkened hall. Dragons come to parties for two reasons, for the food, wine and of course to talk business. Talking is one of their favorite activities, since they are pretty social beings. But at the Google Dance party the unfamiliar music was so loud, so the little dragon quietly left the room and had their own talking-party in a more silent place.

“Only peanuts and beer,” snored one of the dragons. “What a party. They really have to learn how to do business here.”

In the dance hall, also Yahoo, Micro and Google looked at each other. Slowly they started to realize that they had a long, long way to go.

Fons Tuinstra