fictionpage Chapter 223: The Counterattack Begins
Chapter 223: The Counterattack Begins
Chapter 223: The Counterattack Begins
The Sodo neighborhood in Seattle is home to Amazon's headquarters.
Since making a decisive bet on the internet and accurately identifying the golden track of e-commerce, Bezos's career has been like a rocket, going smoothly all the way with almost no major obstacles.
Looking back, after much deliberation, he chose books as the entry point for Amazon, and with only $300,000 in start-up capital, he embarked on his entrepreneurial journey in his own garage.
It was from such an inconspicuous beginning that, in less than three years, he successfully propelled Amazon to an IPO, making it the world's largest bookstore.
As the company soared, his net worth also rose, successfully breaking the billionaire mark and joining the ranks of America's emerging wealthy elite.
Such achievements gave Bezos the illusion that he was the chosen one, as if the whole world was paving the way for his success.
Of course, it would be even better if that bastard weren't around.
Whenever he was in high spirits, there was always a figure like a thorn stuck in his heart, making it difficult for him to feel completely at ease.
Ernst, that Hollywood playboy.
Bezos had seen Ernst's resume and didn't need to do any special investigation, because too many media outlets were like flies attracted to honey, relentlessly praising Ernst and sucking his sores.
Great entrepreneurs, internet upstarts, media tycoons, genius writers, and so on—a mountain of glamorous titles piled up.
But Bezos sees this as nothing more than the media shamelessly pandering to Ernst in an attempt to grab attention.
Even Ernst's past philandering and drug use were embellished by the media into an inspirational image of youthful promiscuity and reformation. Bezos found this distortion of the truth utterly absurd and morally bankrupt.
What infuriated him most was that some media outlets actually compared him to Ernst, even calling him the second Ernst.
Every time Bezos hears this title, he gets so angry that he trembles and longs to find a place to vent his anger and calm down.
Ernst's appearance at Amazon's IPO party further fueled Bezos's anger.
His appearance attracted the attention of almost everyone present, stealing the limelight that should have belonged to him.
But that wasn't the worst part; Ernst actually dared to openly poach his employees.
Bezos was furious whenever he thought about the scene at the party that day.
Ernst completely ignored his presence, chatting happily with Cassio as if no one else was around. The way they were so intimate still disgusted him when he thought about it.
Bezos sees this blatant poaching as a naked provocation, showing that they don't respect him as the founder of Amazon at all.
"Since you, Ernst, don't give me face, then I don't need to be polite either."
Bezos secretly vowed to make Cassio pay the price for betrayal, and also to teach Ernst a lesson so he would know he was not someone to be trifled with.
He wanted everyone to understand that getting involved with Ernst would never end well.
Bezos felt a strange sense of pleasure whenever he recalled Cassio's forlorn figure as he left Amazon.
You think you're so great? But what can you do to me?
Two months have passed, and Ernst has made no move whatsoever, like a cowardly turtle hiding in its shell, not daring to utter a sound.
However, Amazon is showing great momentum, with its user base growing daily and its stock price rising steadily along with its performance, presenting a thriving picture.
Whenever Bezos thinks about these things, it's like choosing Liu Yifei as a concubine; he feels so comfortable from head to toe, and his whole body feels light and airy.
Just as Bezos was basking in this self-satisfied pleasure and was about to reach the climax of his life, a sudden, urgent door-opening sound broke the silence of the office.
Bezos was startled by the sudden commotion, his body involuntarily trembling, his good mood instantly ruined.
"Couldn't you have knocked first?" Bezos jumped up from his seat and roared at the person at the door, his face full of anger and dissatisfaction, the pleasure he had just felt vanished without a trace.
The people standing at the door were taken aback by Bezos's sudden outburst of rage, clearly not expecting their boss to react so strongly.
Then, recalling the shiver he'd seen Bezos when he entered, his eyes narrowed involuntarily, and his gaze unconsciously fell on Bezos's pants.
Upon seeing that his pants were intact, Martial muttered to himself, "Isn't the boss being a bit too sensitive? Did he even skip the step of taking off his pants?"
Bezos didn't notice Martial's unusual behavior. After calming his agitated emotions slightly, he suppressed his anger and asked, "Martial, what's got you in such a panic that you barged in without even knocking?"
He was the person Bezos carefully selected to succeed Cassio after Cassio's departure.
"Oh," Martial finally snapped out of his daze, the anxiety from being interrupted by Bezos returning to his face. He quickly said, "Jeff, something terrible has happened. Our Amazon servers are running out of storage space, it's a very urgent situation."
Upon hearing this, Bezos breathed a sigh of relief; he had thought it was some enormous disaster.
Amazon has been in a phase of rapid growth recently, with its user base and data volume surging. The need to expand server storage was to be expected and was not a sudden crisis.
"Didn't we previously estimate that, at the current rate of development, the server storage space could last for another month? How come it's suddenly not enough now?" Bezos asked in confusion.
Then, his face suddenly lit up with joy. Could it be that Amazon's traffic had increased significantly again, which was why the server storage was being consumed so quickly?
If that's true, that would be fantastic news!
Martial explained, "Jeff, based on our previous growth trajectory, we can indeed hold on for another month."
"But the problem lies in the last two days. Amazon's traffic suddenly surged without warning, far exceeding our expectations. If this trend continues, our server storage space probably won't even last ten days."
Despite the urgency of the situation, Bezos remained calm and composed. "Then you should contact IBM and Seagate immediately and ask them to deliver a batch of hard drives to us ahead of schedule. We will upgrade the server storage immediately."
In today's global hard drive market, American manufacturers occupy an absolute dominant position thanks to their advanced technology and mature production systems.
Among the many American hard drive manufacturers, IBM and Seagate are undoubtedly industry giants, accounting for 47% of the global hard drive market alone.
Not to mention that in addition to them, there are other powerful manufacturers such as Quantum and Western Digital that also occupy an important position in the hard drive market.
It can be said that in terms of global hard drive market share, American manufacturers account for more than three-quarters of the total, while the remaining less than one-quarter market share is divided among Japanese and Korean manufacturers such as Foxconn, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Samsung.
For large companies like Amazon, especially large enterprises headquartered in the United States, there are usually only two preferred hard drive providers: IBM and Seagate.
These two companies produce hard drives that are the most stable, and for internet companies, the stability of server hard drives is directly related to user experience and the company's normal operation, so its importance is self-evident.
Upon hearing Bezos's arrangement, Martial looked troubled. After hesitating for a moment, he finally spoke up, "Jeff, but that's the problem."
"I had already contacted IBM and Seagate in advance, but they both made it clear that they could not provide us with hard drives at this time, not even a small number."
Upon hearing this news, Bezos frowned instantly, his tone tinged with dissatisfaction and doubt. "What do you mean by not being able to provide hard drives? We signed a supply contract with them before, and according to the contract, they are obligated to provide us with the hard drives we need on time."
Martial realized that his previous statement was not clear enough and had caused Bezos to misunderstand, so he quickly explained again, "I didn't say that they were not fulfilling the contract. They said that they would deliver the hard drives on time according to the number agreed in the contract before the contract expires, but as of now, they don't have a single extra hard drive to supply us in advance, even if we are willing to pay extra fees."
Something was off; Bezos sensed that something was amiss.
Hard drives are not created all at once; they are produced piece by piece.
From the moment Amazon placed its orders with IBM and Seagate, according to normal business procedures, these two companies should have rationally allocated their production capacity based on Amazon's order requirements and calculated how much additional capacity they needed each day to complete Amazon's contract order on time.
In other words, some of the hard drives ordered by Amazon should have already been produced during this period.
According to industry practice, manufacturers usually deliver a batch of goods to customers in advance at this time to alleviate their urgent needs and accelerate the recovery of funds.
But now IBM and Seagate are telling Amazon that there isn't a single spare hard drive, which clearly indicates a major problem.
"What's the reason? What's the reason they gave?" Bezos pressed.
"Such practices, which are compliant in contract but clearly violate conventional practices in actual operation, cannot simply be excused without any justification, can they?"
Martial's expression became even more awkward. He hesitated for a moment, but finally told the truth, "The two companies gave the exact same reason: that the company's production capacity is very tight right now. The orders from other customers that we had previously received have not yet been completed, and our Amazon orders have not yet been scheduled, so we cannot supply goods in advance."
"What the hell? Do you think I'm a three-year-old? You dare to try and fool me with this ridiculous excuse?" Bezos could no longer remain calm and cursed, his anger spreading throughout the office.
Could you find a more plausible reason? Everyone knows that IBM just released a new hard drive this year that uses giant magnetoresistive head technology. This hard drive has a capacity of 16GB and its performance has been significantly improved.
To meet market demand, IBM added two new production lines to manufacture this new hard drive.
IBM's current production capacity is only at about 70% to 80% of its maximum capacity, and there is still a lot of room for production. You are telling me now that there is insufficient capacity?
"Someone's trying to get me." The thought flashed through Bezos's mind like lightning.
For some reason, the image of the man who had almost made him ejaculate suddenly appeared in his mind.
Was Ernst behind all of this? Was he retaliating for driving Cassio away?
He picked up the phone on his desk and quickly dialed a number, wanting to find out the truth.