Thankfully, the vast Russian Federation still managed to provide a few design proposals that were worth considering. Mavi wasn't completely disappointed.
"Let's go with these three sets," Mavi said. "Have the firms design more detailed proposals with more highlights as soon as possible for my final review. Oh, and speaking of which, for the construction team for the Olympic venues, let's use the suppliers from Project Aster 1. Our Russian construction companies are... questionable."
Mavi picked three relatively satisfactory designs out of the 24 proposals. He planned to have the firms flesh out their design concepts further before making his final decision.
As for the actual construction teams on site, based on his memories from his previous life, Mavi absolutely would not use Russian construction companies! They were guaranteed to be shoddy work!
Take the Russian World Cup, for instance. A stadium with a capacity of 45,000 people actually suffered a collapse after a heavy rain. There was a landslide on the slope near the stadium, creating a huge pit. Mud covered the sidewalks and pathways, making the scene utterly chaotic. In the end, the construction company blamed it on the "once-in-a-hundred-years heavy rain," calling it an act of nature...
As for the Russian Olympics, the engineering was so bad that the athletes were practically speechless. For example, in the Olympic Village rooms, some had private bathrooms, while others had one shared between two rooms. In one bathroom, there were two toilets right next to each other, with no even a simple curtain in between! You'd turn a faucet, and the handle would just fall off. There were no drying racks in the bathrooms, nowhere to hang washed clothes.
These kinds of infuriating renovations became a global joke – it was truly "very Russian." So, Mavi was determined not to use Russian construction teams. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he daren't. They could take a perfectly good design and mess it up in a way that makes you cringe, truly incomparable to the builders of Project Aster 1.
"Understood, Young Master," Butler Ivan replied, taking his leave.
Sitting on the sofa, Mavi continued his life as a rich young master, occasionally playing with his three big pets at home. He'd have fun with them on the lawn and slopes.
Winnie the polar bear was now an adult, almost two years old. When she playfully swatted at him, even the well-built Mavi felt a bit of effort resisting. Looking at this polar bear who still thought she was a baby, Mavi suddenly felt how quickly time had flown... In the blink of an eye, it had almost been two years since his rebirth.
However, comfortable living is always short-lived. Soon, Mavi received news from the United States.
"Chairman Mavi, this is John. Just a few days ago, two of the top three video websites in the US suddenly announced they've merged! And they've also rolled out some measures specifically targeting our V-Chat Video. They're poaching many of our streamers with high pay and benefits. They're even competing with us everywhere in terms of driving traffic."
John called Mavi anxiously via video. He was in the conference room discussing countermeasures with the V-Chat executives.
John was the CEO of V-Chat Video, and he could usually handle unexpected incidents calmly. But this time, the merger of two major video sites to target V-Chat was a tough one. And the other side had kept their plans very secret, with news only leaking out recently. They started targeting V-Chat immediately after merging.
Clearly, they wanted to push him out of the number one position in the industry. Based on the current trend, this was indeed possible. After all, the video industry was highly homogenized; there were only so many basic elements. If you couldn't come up with new tricks, you could only expand your strength by snatching resources from competitors.
"What are the names of those two video websites?" To be honest, Mavi hadn't paid much attention to other video sites. He had never engaged in malicious competition or resource抢夺 (snatching). The reason V-Chat could rise so strongly was purely by attracting traffic with interesting content.
"One is called Break Video, and the other is Show Time Video. Both are free video websites offering video playback, online games, and more, and they're very popular. Before this, we were like well water and river water – we didn't interfere with each other," John said in the video call, with all the V-Chat executives looking at Mavi hopefully.
Originally, the strength of the three video sites was pretty evenly matched, with V-Chat Video just slightly ahead of Break Video and Show Time Video. Now, the two close followers suddenly announced a merger. This directly surpassed Mavi's V-Chat and created a significant gap.
"Okay, I understand. I will figure out how to handle this problem," Mavi said. For the highly homogenized video website industry, Mavi felt it was necessary to make the next adjustment.
"Yes, Chairman Mavi. We'll await your news," CEO John said. Although he didn't know what Mavi's new idea would be, having worked with Mavi for nearly two years, he had witnessed many miracles happen.
Three days later, Mavi arrived in Silicon Valley by private jet. That's where his Google company and V-Chat Video, two major internet companies, were located.
As Mavi's luxurious armored convoy grandly pulled up to the front of the V-Chat company in Silicon Valley, CEO John, who had already received the news, and the V-Chat executives were all eagerly awaiting his arrival.
"Chairman Mavi, you're here!" Before the car door was even fully opened, CEO John, with his team, rushed forward to greet him attentively. Their attitude was very respectful.
"Okay, let's go inside and talk." Before coming to the US, Mavi had already reviewed the relevant performance data after the Break Video and Show Time Video merger. They were significantly ahead of his V-Chat Video. Both daily traffic and total registered members were far ahead.
More critically, the two companies were poaching V-Chat's talent, signing away popular video streamers and vigorously developing the so-called "influencer effect."
"Alright, Chairman Mavi, the conference rooms are all ready!" CEO John knew his big boss had deep pockets. To surpass Break Video and Show Time Video, the currently safest method was to throw money at it. Use the same strategy to poach the streamers back from the two companies.
If the price went up, the other parties would have to think carefully about their own pockets before trying to poach people again. If they could hold on for a while and prevent performance from declining, and then wait until the company went public, all the hardship would pay off, and every effort would be worth it.
However, this was just a common method that executives would think of. Malicious competition and poaching would only drive up the value of those streamers and increase their income. In the end, the websites would inevitably lose money, because some of these so-called "influencers" weren't really worth that kind of money.
After Mavi took his seat in the conference room, CEO John opened the PPT projection and analyzed the company's current situation for Mavi using data.
(End of Chapter)