Chapter 1179 Big Fish Eat Small Fish

"Tell me, what exactly is going on?"

After a long silence, Zhao Fusheng slowly spoke, asking Zheng Yao.

No matter what had happened, as the boss of Future Group, he had the right to know.

Zheng Yao sighed and began to explain to Zhao Fusheng.

Actually, the matter was not complicated. The advertising market in the northern region had once been mainly divided among three major advertising companies: Perfect Advertising, Future Advertising, and Oriental Advertising.

Incidentally, Zhao Fusheng had once dealt with a headhunter from Perfect Advertising, a woman named Wang Meiyu, who was Zheng Yao's college classmate.

Although that poaching attempt failed, with the rise of Future Advertising, these three companies had carved up 65% of the northern advertising market.

This was a terrifying figure, meaning the remaining advertising companies could only survive on the leftovers of these three.

The 35% market share seemed substantial, but the problem was that there were too many monks and too little gruel.

Even among these three major companies, competition was fierce.

Future Advertising had Zhao Fusheng as its gold-medal planner, but the other two companies were not far behind, having been established longer than Future Advertising.

In other words, even if they relied on their heritage, they were stronger than Future Advertising.

This was quite awkward.

Future Advertising's shallow heritage was a fact well known to everyone in the company. In reality, industry professionals knew that the reason Future Advertising had risen in just a few years was because of its boss, the gold-medal planner, who was so capable that he could always land big contracts like the Mercedes-Benz ad.

But the problem was that Zhao Fusheng was the company's big boss, not a dedicated advertising planner.

For instance, Future Advertising was now a subsidiary of Future Group, no longer the small private studio it once was. It handled numerous ad productions daily, and it couldn't rely on the boss for every big contract.

This was a very real issue. In fact, since the formal establishment of Future Group, Zhao Fusheng had stopped personally creating advertising plans.

The reasoning was simple: everyone knew Li Shimin was a valiant general, but how many times did he personally lead charges after becoming emperor?

When one's status and position change, what one can do naturally changes as well.

Since Zhao Fusheng had become the big boss, he couldn't frequently take the field for ad planning like before. If he did, what was the use of having so many people in the company?

This was different from writing scripts, which could be a hobby; doing ad planning personally would be going too far.

Thus, Zheng Yao tacitly accepted the advertising company's decision. Moreover, since the company had recruited several well-known industry planners, she was happy not to disturb Zhao Fusheng.

In fact, at the beginning, this approach caused no problems. Future Advertising's market had stabilized, with the foundation Zhao Fusheng had laid, and since Future Advertising had no intention of expanding, it coexisted peacefully with the other two companies.

But the problem was that sometimes trouble finds you even if you avoid it.

Just when Zheng Yao thought everything was fine, Perfect Advertising and Oriental Advertising were acquired.

And the acquirers were two unknown investment companies.

"Don't tell me those two investment companies have the same boss," Zhao Fusheng said, his face darkening as he asked.

Zheng Yao smiled bitterly and nodded: "Yes, and their boss is Baidu."

"Baidu?"

Zhao Fusheng's expression changed slightly, his brows furrowed tightly, but he didn't speak immediately.

Clearly, this news caught him quite off guard, completely unexpected.

Baidu was undoubtedly the company Zhao Fusheng had the least goodwill for in both his past and present lives. To be honest, although he was resistant to the word 'businessman,' in his eyes, even Chen Tianqiao, the tycoon who had fallen out with him, Ma Huateng, who loved to copy, and Ma Yun, who sold fakes, all had their merits.

After all, they were men of their time who had indeed achieved something.

Take Jack Ma, for example. You could say he liked to show off, that he started with Japanese capital, but don't forget, he was a party member.

At the very least, he promoted the country's economic development.

And Baidu?

As an internet company that prioritized profit above all, Baidu was arguably the most lacking in ethics or social responsibility in the entire internet industry.

In their eyes, as long as they could make money, nothing else mattered.

Thus came various free resources and the ads from the Putian system.

Zhao Fusheng didn't consider himself a good person, nor had he never done bad things, but he had no goodwill for a company like Baidu, which had no social responsibility, only cared about making money, and even disregarded others' lives, not sparing the hard-earned money of ordinary people.

So when Zhao Fusheng sold the navigation webpage to Baidu, he preferred to demand a high price rather than take their original shares.

Those who follow different paths cannot make plans together—that was Zhao Fusheng's principle.

But he never expected that Baidu would quietly enter the advertising industry.

If he remembered correctly, Baidu was supposed to go public in the next couple of years, right?

"After Baidu acquired Perfect Advertising and Oriental Advertising, the impact on us was huge. Originally a three-way split, it turned into one company dominating, and our days naturally became harder," Zheng Yao said to Zhao Fusheng with a bitter smile.

Zhao Fusheng nodded. Even without her saying it, he understood. Things had reached this point, and such a situation was not surprising.

In fact, it was like the Three Kingdoms period of Wei, Shu, and Wu. When the three powers stood firm, they attacked each other but were evenly matched. Even though Shu was weaker and Wei stronger, they had to be cautious because of Wu.

But once the alliance between Shu and Wu broke, the strongest, Wei, destroyed Shu, and then Wu.

The reason was simple: when the strongest emerged, the remaining sole opponent naturally had a hard time.

Similarly, originally Future Advertising and the other two companies shared the market in relative harmony. But once the other two merged into one, Future Advertising naturally became the target of everyone.

Thinking this, Zhao Fusheng's expression changed, and he said solemnly, "You mean Baidu is deliberately targeting us?"

That was the only answer. Otherwise, Zhao Fusheng couldn't think of any other reason why Future Advertising would face such difficulties.

Zheng Yao nodded: "They're clearly targeting us. To be honest, even if you hadn't asked, I was planning to tell you."

Hearing her words, Zhao Fusheng's expression darkened. He knew very well that he really needed to make a choice now.

Fight back or back down?

The answer was actually quite clear.