Chapter 380: Cooperation

Chapter 380 -376: Cooperation

After spending a nice weekend with his wife, Tsinghua University once again welcomed its summer exam period.

The young couple had no choice but to shift their daily focus slightly toward their studies, spending more time on self-study each day. During this time, Zhou Lu finalized her visa and boarded a plane to America.

She went with immense determination, resolved to secure the broadcasting rights for the Apple conference no matter what.

A few days ago, Jiang Xia had been stunned for a moment when he first heard her work report. After thinking through the potential benefits, he couldn’t help but applaud her bold idea.

If D Station could establish a connection with Apple Inc. and become a partner, it would drastically accelerate D Station’s growth. Furthermore, it would allow the development department to create a D Station app compatible with the iOS system at the first opportunity, enabling them to be the first to capture the future mobile application market.

It had to be said that Zhou Lu’s market instincts were incredibly sharp. In the current climate where traffic is king, D Station would completely take off if they could just seize an opportunity like this.

This proved that making her the Chief Operating Officer of Dili Dili had been the right decision; her skills and talent were more than sufficient for the job.

To ensure this partnership succeeded, Jiang Xia gave her his full authorization and support.

“President Zhou, I’ll be waiting for your good news,” he said over the phone.

“Rest assured, President Jiang. I guarantee I’ll get it done.”

Jiang Xia chuckled and looked up at the blue sky and white clouds, as if he could already see Dili Dili becoming the largest video website in the country in the not-so-distant future.

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A week later, with only two days left until Apple Inc.’s developer conference at the Moscone West Convention Center, Zhou Lu, who was far away in San Francisco, suddenly called Jiang Xia.

“Good morning, President Jiang.”

Hearing the hint of a smile in her voice, Jiang Xia’s tone lifted slightly. “Calling me at this hour… does this mean you sealed the deal?”

“As expected, nothing gets past you, President Jiang.”

Zhou Lu stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of her five-star hotel room. As she thought back on the last few days of negotiations, she was filled with a joyful sense of relief.

There was nothing more exhilarating than successfully closing a deal.

Especially since this was Apple, a massive company currently worth over two hundred billion dollars. The sense of accomplishment was far greater than what she’d felt from signing animation deals in the past.

“The head of Apple Inc.’s business department has agreed to authorize D Station to do a real-time, live broadcast of the developer conference.”

Jiang Xia wasn’t surprised to hear this news.

The Eastern Great Nation currently had the world’s largest population, and its GDP was second only to Ying Jiang. Its market potential was enormous. D Station’s broadcast was essentially free promotion for Apple Inc., which would significantly boost its global influence. Any sane senior executive at Apple wouldn’t refuse a partnership like this.

In fact, without the Chinese market, Apple Inc. would never have grown so rapidly into the three-trillion-dollar behemoth it would one day become.

“Speaking of which, did Apple make any demands regarding this partnership?”

“None at all. When they heard that I planned to broadcast the conference live in our country simultaneously, they couldn’t hide their delight. It’s clear they’re very eager to break into our mobile phone market.”

Zhou Lu couldn’t help but laugh. “A few of the executives told me with great conviction that the future will absolutely be the age of smartphones, and that feature phones will become a thing of the past. That’s exactly what you told me before.”

“That’s absolutely right.” Jiang Xia’s thoughts drifted. ‘Even in the future, Apple’s phones will firmly hold the top spot for global sales, with the Chinese market accounting for nearly half of that share.’

‘Although domestically produced smartphones are always trying to catch up, it’s undeniable that a gap still exists.’

‘Hopefully, in this life, by introducing smartphones to the country so early, I can give domestic phone manufacturers and their related industries a head start, helping them avoid the fate of being sanctioned.’

“So, since you’re partners now, did they give you a phone or anything?” Jiang Xia asked with a smile.

“They did. More than one, in fact. But I signed a non-disclosure agreement with them. I’m prohibited from revealing any information about the new phone until it’s officially announced at the conference,” Zhou Lu said.

She toyed with the white phone in her hand. The front and back were made of glass, and a highly refined, alloy-forged stainless steel band wrapped around the casing. The body was extremely thin, with no physical buttons. It was a full-touchscreen device and felt incredible in her hand.

It also had a 5-megapixel HD camera and a gyroscope. She had only had the phone for less than two hours, but she had already fallen completely in love with this smartphone. She already wanted to toss out her Nokia.

The Apple 4 simply crushed it in every single way.

“So, how is it? How does it feel to use?”

“It’s just like you said, President Jiang. The Apple 4 feels like a revolutionary product. The future will definitely belong to smartphones.”

Zhou Lu let out a soft sigh. Only a few months had passed, yet the mobile phone industry had already undergone a world-shaking transformation.

She was suddenly grateful that she hadn’t stubbornly stayed at the TV station, just coasting and waiting for her career to die. The Apple 4 showed her a glimpse of the future, and she could foresee that in a few years, television stations were going to suffer a miserable decline.

“It seems this trip has broadened your horizons quite a bit, President Zhou,” Jiang Xia teased.

Zhou Lu blushed slightly. “President Jiang, not everyone has your kind of terrifyingly far-reaching vision.”

‘After all, he’s only a nineteen-year-old college freshman, yet he acts like he understands the world better than anyone, as if he’s some kind of prophet.’

“Alright, enough with the flattery. It should be a little after seven in the evening for you, right? Tell me the whole story of how this partnership came together,” Jiang Xia said with a laugh.

“Okay.”

Zhou Lu sat on the bed, toying with the Apple 4 in her hand. Her voice was soft as she began. “When I first arrived at Apple Inc., I tried to get a meeting with the senior executives in the business department. I ended up waiting for three straight days without seeing a single person.”

“I hate to admit it, but I was clearly being discriminated against.”

“Later, I decided to hold up a sign at the company’s entrance. It said I was from China, the COO of the bullet-comment video website Dili Dili, and that I wanted to talk to Apple’s executives about selling the Apple 4 in our country.”

“As it turned out, the head of the business department saw me and invited me to his office to discuss it in detail.”

“During our conversation, we had a thorough exchange of ideas. At first, they didn’t know what Dili Dili was. But after I explained that it was our country’s largest bullet-comment video website and youth culture community, the way they looked at me changed.”

“Then, I proposed that we wanted to acquire the authorization to broadcast the Apple conference live in our country. They thought it over for two days and then agreed to my request.”