Byte Slide's headquarters is in Beijing. Zuo Hao, the head of Phoenix Fund, came to visit in the morning of May 19.
Different bosses have different management styles and work and rest schedules. For example, Brother Dong from JD.com has breakfast with the senior executives at eight o'clock every morning and holds a morning meeting by the way. For example, Steve Jobs was accustomed to taking a day off on Sundays to invite senior executives out to play games and talk about things.
Zhang Yimin was able to spare an hour on Saturday morning, so Zuo Hao took the initiative to come over and visit. He recently took charge of the Phoenix Fund and worked very hard.
"Mr. Zuo, please sit down!" Zhang Yimin, wearing glasses and not tall, asked Zuo Hao to take a seat in the office reception area. The assistant brought in two cups of coffee.
He came from a technical background and went straight to the topic without exchanging pleasantries with Zuo Hao, "Mr. Zuo, I know your purpose. But we don't want to accept investment from Phoenix Group at the moment. In fact, we still have enough money to burn. We just received a $1 billion financing in April."
Zuo Hao did not expect to encounter setbacks at the beginning, so he smiled slightly and waited for Zhang Yimin's next words. After all, there is always a reason why Zhang Yimin is willing to see him.
Zhang Yimin took a sip of coffee and said seriously: "Mr. Zuo, I have great respect for Mr. Jing of your group. I have no intention of becoming an enemy of the Phoenix Group. Toutiao is first and foremost a news and information distribution platform. His social media and public opinion The platform attributes are relatively weak.”
He met Zuo Hao, the head of the Phoenix Fund, today and learned about the Phoenix Group. For example, he knew an inside story about the "Orange Takeaway" that has been making a lot of noise recently.
Meituan’s headquarters is also in Beijing. Although he is only 35 years old this year, he has worked in the Internet industry for many years. Before founding Toutiao in 2012, he worked at Kuxun and Jiujiu.com, and briefly joined Microsoft.
It's normal for him to know some inside information.
It is said that Phoenix Fund once visited Meituan and wanted to invest some money in Meituan to ensure that its Phoenix Pay can be used in Meituan’s App. But he was rejected by Meituan Wang Xin. Therefore, Phoenix Group immediately aggressively acquired Baidu Takeout and entered the field of takeout.
Therefore, although he did not want Phoenix's investment, he still met with Zuo Hao, the head of Phoenix Fund, to state his thoughts.
He has already broken up with Baidu and does not want to face the squeeze of another Internet giant. As for the friction with Tencent, it is still in the early stages. Tencent has invested in Kuaishou, the leading software in the short video field. But he has confidence in Douyin.
Zuo Hao's communication skills were pretty good. He smiled and said, "Mr. Zhang, I will convey your words to Mr. Jing. So, can we participate in Toutiao's next round of financing?"
Zhang Yimin hesitated for a moment and remained silent.
He had no way of knowing the specific reason why Wang Xin rejected Phoenix. But one thing is probably the same as his rejection of Phoenix at this time.
When a company reaches their level, with a valuation of about US$20 billion, there is really no shortage of investment institutions to be optimistic about it. When they take money now, they not only look at the attributes of the capital, whether they side with "Alibaba" or "Tencent", but also look at what the capital can bring to the company's development.
Phoenix started out as a "shared travel" company, and they simply cannot bring greater help to the company's development.
He was in awe of Jing Gao and did not want to offend Fenghuang, but this did not mean that he had to accept Fenghuang's invalid investment. What's more, Phoenix and Ali are still hostile!
Zuo Hao smiled, put down the coffee cup in his hand, and pressed: "Mr. Zhang, Toutiao occupies the largest market share of today's news platforms. Your Toutiao account is enough to grow to compete with the meager social media.
Although Mr. Jing only spent US$2.2 billion to acquire Sina last year, the meager market value was relatively high, exceeding US$10 billion. Even though the valuation of Twitter, the same foreign software, fell from more than 30 billion US dollars to only more than 10 billion US dollars.
Even though social media has been hit by short videos, it has not been optimistic for a long time. However, Mr. Zhang, you can’t deny that this is a good business! "
Who dares to say that a company with a market value of US$10 billion is not a good business? Does Toutiao really have no urge or need to expand in social media and public opinion platforms?
Not necessarily?
Zhang Yimin smiled bitterly in his heart. No one is a simple person! Zuo Hao still has two skills to take charge of the Phoenix Fund. The problem is very accurate.
"Mr. Zuo, let me be blunt. Phoenix cannot bring more help to Byte Slide. Phoenix's main business is shared travel. If you really want to invest in Byte Slide, you need to pay a high premium. This I'm afraid it may not be accepted by you. In addition, your relationship with Ali is very bad, which is something I have to consider. So..."
Zuo Hao understood, stood up and shook hands with Zhang Yimin, "Mr. Zhang, thank you for taking the time to meet. Thank you!"
Zhang Yimin nodded and sent Zuo Hao out. At the end of the day, I shook my head and sighed in my heart. He didn't know how Igao would react. However, when faced with the idea of Phoenix becoming a shareholder, he must make his attitude clear!
That is: rejection.
…
…
Zuo Hao walked out of Byte Slide's headquarters, feeling equally filled with emotion. Mr. An talked with him and asked to come and contact Byte Slide to discuss whether it was possible. He got the final results today.
Hi!
But at the same time, he could clearly feel the respect that Byte Sliding had for him and the Phoenix Group, and even a little bit of fear. This is probably something his "rival" Han Wenguang didn't have when he went to Meituan to negotiate not long ago when he was in charge of Phoenix Fund, right?
It is said that Wang Xin rejected him very lightly at that time.
The Phoenix Group today is different from the past. After streamlining its structure and splitting its businesses, Phoenix Group has become a giant in the Internet industry based on Mr. Jing’s talk released by the President’s Office!
His experience today is a reflection of the Internet giant's reputation.
Next he has to get busy investing in Pinduoduo.
…
…
Zuo Hao reported the contact situation to An Zhiwen. When Jing Gao received a call from An Zhiwen, he was drinking and chatting with Tan Qin and Wang Yuke in a private room of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on the Bund in Shanghai.
Wang Yu is the boss of "Shengshi" and operates Shengshi nightclub, KTV and clubs under his name. He may seem inconspicuous, and his business is a little off-the-beaten-path, but his net worth is four to five billion.
The reason for this little drink was that An Yi got into a fight with a kid from the Yao family in Beijing at the Shengshi Club in Beijing, and the manager of the club got offended.
With Tan Qin's "mediation", Wang Yuke fired the manager and went to Beijing to apologize to Jinggao in person and treat him to dinner. It was a time of drinking and talking.
Jing Gao came to Magic City this time mainly to treat Tan Qin to dinner. Tan Qin helped him "mediate" in this way, allowing him to earn a lot of face. Of course he wants to reciprocate. It also means making friends.
Jing Gao met Tan Qin last year. Tan Qin was very influential in Shanghai and the surrounding areas, and had a wide network of friends. His late fathers were active in politics. The Chuxia Group he founded is valued at about 40 to 50 billion.
He holds a financial salon every Wednesday in his villa, which is regarded by some in the industry as a benchmark for investment.
That's what human interaction is like. After being in contact with each other for a period of time, when the heat is up, the relationship will naturally deepen.
Tan Qin called Wang Yuke over and brought two beauties to warm up the scene. If two men are drinking and not talking about business, how long can they talk? It is still interesting to have a beautiful woman to accompany and warm up the scene. It doesn't mean drinking flower wine, just normal communication.
In their position, what kind of woman has never seen someone so anxious that they would touch her while drinking? If you have any ideas, you can chat privately!
Wang Yuke's business is a little off-the-beaten-path, and he has a lot of beautiful women in his hands. He is also very reliable. Tan Qin was willing to support him on such an occasion.
That’s right, it’s “support”.
With Jing Gao's identity, status, and power, Wang Yu might be able to climb onto his path, and the road would be broadened! For example, if Wang Yuke's "Shengshi Entertainment" wants to enter the nightclub market in Jinling, I guess Jing Gao can just say hello.
Both beauties are in their prime. One has a slender figure, a timid and charming temperament, and is about twenty-four or five years old. When Wang Yuke introduced her, she said with a smile that she was an oiran in the social circle of Shanghai. One is petite, fresh and sweet, nineteen years old, studying at a prestigious university. She has fair skin and wears tight-fitting black leggings. Her legs are perky and there is no gap between her beautiful legs. You can tell it's the beginning at first glance.
The dining room of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel is luxuriously decorated and has excellent sight lines. You can see the night view of the Huangpu River, as well as the landscape near the river, with bright lights.
"Lao An, wait a minute." Jing Gao stood up with the phone and said apologetically to Tan Qin: "Mr. Tan, I'm going out to take a call." He walked to the corridor outside the restaurant and listened to An Zhiwen sliding the byte over there. After describing the situation again, I couldn't help but feel happy, "Lao An, I think this person's ideas are a bit childish!"
An Zhiwen laughed and said, "Mr. Jing, I respect you very much." He joked with Jing Gao.
In the "war" between Internet giants, where are the factors of warmth and personal subjective will? There is no such thing as "surrender and lose half". In this forest, winner takes all.
Since Byte Slide has the largest news client software in terms of domestic market share: Toutiao. And it has entered the field of social media and has substantial competition with Weibo. So, can Zhang Yimin stop the Phoenix Group from squeezing his living space by saying he respects Jing Gao?
Similarly, when Toutiao becomes more than a meager amount, will he show mercy to Weibo? Do you really think that a US$10 billion business is not a piece of fat?
Therefore, Byte Slip will either accept investment, with some constraints attached. For example, when Tencent invested in the short video software "Kuaishou", Kuaishou promised not to engage in social networking. Or accept war. This is an ironclad rule of business.
Jing Gao smiled and said: "Okay. I won't say anymore. Let Weibo enter the news field. Strive to provide users with high-quality news. We can also study the algorithm model of byte sliding. Baidu does not have this user base. We don’t have this flaw.”
Baidu’s traffic on mobile phones has been robbed by Toutiao. If Baidu and Toutiao start a war, they have to enter the news field. But does Baidu have an App with very high user stickiness? No!
A killer application is not so easy to cultivate. Therefore, there is a high probability that Baidu will not be able to suppress Toutiao!
However, the meager basic user base is very large. It is currently booming, surpassing the highest market value in history and reaching more than 11 billion US dollars. It has surpassed Twitter, which was the benchmark in the past.
Since Jing Gao pays attention to this area, of course he has read relevant information and analysis. This is what the Taichu Think Tank under his name does. The assistants summarized the reports and various collected information and submitted a piece of information full of useful information to him.
Currently, social media like Weibo and Twitter are facing a huge dilemma: their prospects are bleak. Twitter is facing competition from Facebook in the social field, and its product Instagram has defeated Twitter.
Weibo is currently developing well and taking off for the second time, but all analysis reports point out that it is facing competition in the short video field.
This business model is easy to understand. Social media such as Weibo and Twitter retain users. If the number of daily active users is high, there will be advertisers to advertise, and social media revenue will skyrocket.
If users all play short videos, the revenue from social media such as Weibo and Twitter will plummet.
Twitter is still in civil unrest and has no future plans. After the acquisition by Phoenix Group, Weibo continued the strategy set by the previous management team, moving from social media platforms to vertical subdivisions and deepening content development.
Its subdivisions are: food, e-commerce, education, variety shows, regional bloggers, sports, humor, emotions, and TV series.
In fact, to sum it up, three words can be used to evaluate the meager strategy: entertainment!
The current internal strategy of Weibo is to continue its entertainment strategy and incubate its own short video business.
Their news service is actually provided by Sina’s mobile app. If meibo gets involved in the field of journalism, it will actually be conflicting. It’s hard to talk about it in the board of directors and the team. But Jing Gao has no such worries. He has long since completed his controlling stake in Sina and became a major shareholder.
If you are not convinced, hold it in and stop talking!
He is not concerned about the survival of the portal, which has a market capitalization of less than $5 billion. Sina App accounts for a very low proportion of news clients. If Sina and Weibo compete, they will compete! This is not a bad thing.
Clearly, the meager is where the battle is. It will be an important starting point for Phoenix Group to hit the number one position on the Internet.
"Okay, Mr. Jing."
Jing Gao hung up the phone and returned to the private room in the restaurant.
Jing Gao didn't know that he had made a good move unintentionally. The value of being a news client actually far exceeds that of a meager social platform with Twitter’s current business model.
Toutiao completed Series F financing on October 20, 2018. The valuation given by Capital is US$75 billion.
After the civil unrest ended, Twitter immediately transformed, weakening the nature of its social platform and focusing on providing news to users. Their tab in the Apple Store changed from "Social" to "News." At the close of trading on September 6, 2019, Twitter’s market value returned to its peak!
From the current market value of US$11 billion in 2017, it has tripled to US$35.029 billion.
The market value of Weibo, which will focus on entertainment in the future, was only US$10.028 billion on December 28, 2020.
