Chapter 527: Don

I believe China's future troubles will be health issues and happiness issues; my investments in films, sports, and medicine aim to address the fact that today's water, air, and food safety will inevitably cause health problems in every household a decade from now.

Fortunately, whether good or bad, it's all Jack Ma talking—everyone else lacks vision, only he has vision; everyone in the room wore blank expressions, too lazy to listen to his blabbering.

Listening to him blab is just listening to him show off, to hear him brag—what help for others? It's all nonsense; who did he help?

He merely shifted the share that originally belonged to brick-and-mortar stores onto the internet; without Taobao, small vendors could still get by just fine.

Fang Hong also wore a blank expression—what's this nonsense about water being clear and sky being blue? He hasn't done a single thing to prove it.

All he knows is that traffic is getting more expensive, competing with vegetable vendors for business, and even setting up a Damo Academy as a research institute still requires self-sufficiency in profits and losses.

He even wants to consolidate the entertainment industry and control the media.

When he gets into healthcare, he goes for capital manipulation instead of relying on actual technological methods.

The Ali Health he later launched was essentially just a middleman platform connecting users with doctors—not changing anything through technology.

In short, he's building platforms; these big bosses love nothing more than building platforms, not truly developing technology.

Even Elon Musk knows to develop a Brain-Computer Interface; Alibaba has no cutting-edge technology.

The host said: "Alibaba doesn't just solve people's material needs—when you put money into Alipay, you earn interest; when you buy things here, I handle logistics; and spiritually, I bring you joy, managing your future health."

"Let me interrupt—this is actually the true purpose of corporations growing large and earning profits: to improve and help others."

"You have so much money, you can't use it all—like Apple, with all that money, what do you even do with it? I'm not as young as the Principal, always thinking about who's watching what, doing this, doing that—ah."

As Jack Ma spoke, he looked utterly bored; the audience burst into laughter.

"Just focus on doing one thing well, running one good company—that's the main thing; doing too many things only confuses you."

"Let me interject a moment!"

As Jack Ma spoke, Li Yanhong also wanted to show off; he said: "Having too much money is a burden; having too many opportunities is also a burden—I have far too many opportunities; I can't do them all, so I must give some up."

"Your pains are so special—one says having too much money is a burden, the other says having too many opportunities is a burden."

Fang Hong couldn't take it anymore; as Jack Ma spoke, he kept targeting him—he had to push back.

Even Li Yanhong had to join in the showboating.

Ordinary people struggle to earn money, begging for an opportunity they can't get, sinking into confusion—yet these two act as if money and opportunities just fell from the sky.

This is the difference in levels, in thinking and cognition—they couldn't possibly care how ordinary people think.

The audience's eyes and cameras turned toward Fang Hong.

"Your visions are grand, your cognition is high, you're eloquent—but actually doing things is a completely different matter; those who truly do things aren't necessarily good at talking."

But those who are good at talking? They're definitely con artists."

"Hahaha!"

The audience erupted in laughter—the Principal had just taken down both Jack Ma and Li Yanhong.

Lei Bus beside him smiled faintly with narrowed eyes, looking almost clueless—it was the Principal who delivered the blow, and in just a few words, exposed Jack Ma's true nature as a big-time con artist.

Other big bosses in the room wore half-smiles or serious expressions; Zhang Chaoyang still looked as grim as ever.

Fang Hong continued: "You have so much money—just donate it. Can you donate to poverty alleviation? Do you know millions in our country still live in extreme poverty—do these people need help?"

I don't know what Jack Ma is worried about.

Li Yanhong says having too many opportunities is a burden—can you first fix your Search? Don't flood it with so much garbage medical information—millions search for medical knowledge every day; do you know how many lives this could kill?"

Fang Hong spoke with indignation, mainly addressing Li Yanhong: "I believe a corporation must have conscience—it cannot lose its conscience."

This made Li Yanhong's handsome face turn pale.

His Search does indeed use bidding rankings—the higher the bid, the higher the placement, especially in healthcare.

I don't know if this helped Wei Zexi—but I hope it did, that old Li might tone it down, that Wei might see his speech.

The audience fell silent; Jack Ma showed no expression—he had just insulted someone, and the other hadn't replied; now it was only right for the other to speak.

"You all talk about heaven and earth, humanity and society—but when it comes to actually doing something, I bet no one will donate a single cent, no one will fulfill their duty." Fang Hong's words were sharply critical, effectively condemning the entire group.

Some emotionally driven people thought he spoke well; some felt nothing; most remained silent.

"I think the Principal's words are biased, colored by personal emotion; ecosystem building is meant to help those in greater need—just like the poor you mentioned—we've been doing this all along, never stopping."

Jack Ma sat calmly, legs crossed, leaning sideways, and began speaking grandly again:

"Perhaps we aren't as good as others imagine; previously, people said we were terrible—but we weren't that bad. We're just a company fifteen years old; we're not worried about ourselves, but whether we can make people better ten years from now."

"We don't aim to grow big and strong—we aim to fulfill social responsibility, so rest assured, we will never be like Chang'e Technology, doing nothing."

This remark unconsciously assumed Alibaba had social responsibility, unlike Chang'e Technology, which had none. Chang'e Technology's current image indeed showed no such action or responsibility.

Jack Ma's tongue was truly formidable—he refuted Fang Hong's point that he could donate his money, admitting they weren't good enough, but asking for time.

At least he was doing something, while the Principal had done nothing—this made him far superior in rhetoric to Li Yanhong.

Li Yanhong could only endure Fang Hong's words, because what Fang Hong said was fact.

Fang Hong adjusted his posture, preparing to fully counter Jack Ma—he had let emotion get the better of him earlier, lowering himself.

"Chang'e Technology isn't as lofty as Alibaba; what we do is simple: we help more ordinary people earn extra income, giving more people choices."

No matter what you do, whether you have talent or not—whether you're a factory worker or a cleaning aunt—if you have a phone and are willing to record your life, you can earn income.

Even the unemployed can gain another option through this.

Currently, over 100,000 creators on Bilibili produce content and earn their rightful income—some earn a few thousand, others ten or twenty thousand; the amounts aren't large, but for ordinary people, it's extra wealth that eases their lives.

One beauty Up Master with 200,000 followers even achieved financial freedom through sponsored ads.

On Headline Account, if you can write about everyday life or short informational stories, you can earn money through views and reads.

Currently, over 2,400 Headline Accounts earn more than 5,000 yuan per month.

As Fang Hong spoke of Chang'e Technology's work, Zhang Yiming in the audience smiled faintly—his baby face looked almost cute when smiling.

Others listened quietly; they hadn't known this before.

"Of course, this is still far from enough—but we don't have all those flashy phrases about ecosystem building or future visions; we simply want ordinary people to hold a phone at home and earn money by recording their daily lives, increasing their income."

"Doing this is risk-free, requires no qualifications—just willingness, time, and effort; of course, we're also improving, using our information distribution advantage to channel more traffic to ordinary creators and reduce everyone's learning cost to the minimum," Fang Hong said.

"Letting more people earn money — that's a great idea, and I agree with it too. Our Ali is doing the same thing. Ali has seven million sellers, and these seven million sellers are essentially merchants. The merchants hire people, and the economic value created by the people they employ is incalculable." Jack Ma once again placed himself on a very high pedestal.

If you like talking numbers, then let's compare numbers. Seven million sellers is a crushing force against Chang'e Technology, and the people they employ are also a crushing force against Chang'e Technology.

You let individuals earn money; I let merchants earn money. Our levels aren't even the same.

Liu Qiangdong heard this and couldn't help but laugh, thinking this guy really could talk big — he'd blown it all the way up to the sky.

Seven million sellers? Having a hundred thousand would already be pretty good. The other six point nine million just registered a shop and never actually ran it. And even if they did run it, they didn't sell anything.

Each of those seven million shops has to generate at least ten thousand in sales every month, otherwise they can't make money.

Because the cost of goods and logistics all cost money. After deducting those, it's not even clear if there's enough to live on. That number is just terrifying.

But he didn't say anything either — this was the showdown between the Principal and Jack Ma.

He only heard Jack Ma say again: "I know your logic. Let's use an analogy — you earn money from games and then subsidize it into other people's hands, which is essentially moving money from one person's hands to another's.

How much of the fees generated in the middle you people take, I'm not clear on. But purely from the standpoint of social development, it creates no value or goods whatsoever. Not only does it not produce anything, games have also ruined a portion of people.

Letting more people earn money is also unwise, because once they earn money, they'll become dependent on your thing, and your thing isn't stable. What if one day your traffic rules change, or something happens? It'll ruin a portion of people too. Not everyone can keep up with your progress.

And your thing will also produce lazy people. I don't feel like doing anything today — I'll just write an article, shoot a video, and that's it, no need to do anything. If it's like that, then like I just said, if people don't progress, they'll lose their way of living and their skills."

The meaning of that last sentence was that doing too much of this kind of thing would make people unable to integrate into society.

Anyway, after all the back and forth, everything Fang Hong does is harming people — and harming them badly. He felt like his crimes were monstrous.

Jack Ma could always find an angle to take someone down.

"That's strange. I raise people's incomes and don't produce goods — don't those people still consume goods? You're in e-commerce. Don't the goods on your platform need people to buy them? Who buys them? Isn't it ordinary people with money in their pockets? Are you counting on rich people to buy? How many pounds of beef do they eat in a day? You don't even understand this basic economic logic?

I take money from some people's hands and move it to those who need it more — is that wrong too? When the money is in my hands, I think I can allocate it better than you people. When the money is with me, I think I can handle money better than the government.

If we're talking about harming people, I think Taobao is the most harmful. It kills off those small offline vendors, then lets those educated people play your e-commerce rules.

Those older people who can't figure it out — the little shops they run can only wait to die, because they can't adapt to your rules.

You just moved wealth that originally belonged offline to online. You yourself didn't create wealth — you just moved wealth into the hands of a few people."

That last line from Fang Hong could be said to deny the value and meaning of Taobao's existence.

It shouldn't have existed in the first place. Originally, money only circulated within a certain range. Everyone went to the small town to buy food, fun stuff, drinks, and daily necessities. That money didn't flow out, and could circulate within that range to the maximum extent, letting everyone earn money.

But e-commerce isn't like that. When people shop online through e-commerce, that money flows out and concentrates in the hands of a few people in big cities.

(End of chapter)