Google is a giant that cannot be bypassed in the development of the Internet. From the search engine in the PC era to the operating system in the mobile Internet era, it is inseparable from Google.
Even at the beginning of the artificial intelligence era, Microsoft relied on ChatGPT to conquer cities and territories around the world. The industry recognized that the only giant that was most likely to come up with products of the same level or even surpass ChatGPT products was Google.
Even though Amazon’s public cloud business has a global market share of more than 40%, it has the world’s largest computing power.
Amazon is also a giant on the same level as Google, but people still only trust Google in the technology field.
This is the ingrained impression Google has left on people in the technology field.
Google's success is not just technical. They are also successful in the commercial field. The advertising model they invented has not become obsolete to this day.
Zhou Xin is very excited to invest in such a great company. In his mind, the top three companies in the Internet era are Google, Microsoft and Apple.
As for the before and after, this is a matter of benevolence and wisdom.
The commercial innovation of Chinese Internet companies is definitely no less than that of their foreign counterparts. The innovation at the product level is still breathtaking, but what follows is lackluster technology.
Giants led by BAT have invested a lot in research and development, but they have not seen any shocking results.
When ChatGPT became a global topic, the focus of the Chinese Internet was on whether the castration of Chinese corpus would affect the training of AI models.
This should not be a topic to discuss after ChatGPT has been developed. This should be a topic to discuss in the budding period of AI in 2016.
Back in California in early 1999, Google was still in Menlo Park, California, and had not yet moved to Palo Alto. Palo Alto had several other well-known start-up technology companies at the time.
Sergey Brin seemed much more introverted than Larry Page. He didn't get up but just sat on the sofa and said lightly: "Hello, welcome to Google."
Is Google short of money right now?
There is no shortage, they have already received initial funding, and a considerable part of this initial funding came from Amazon founder Bezos.
When Google first invested only 100,000 US dollars, it was obviously short of money. However, after receiving part of the investment from Bezos, and with Bezos's endorsement, more investors were willing to invest in Google.
By this time they had raised $1 million.
So Larry Page and Sergey Brin were willing to meet Zhou Xin. Money was only a secondary factor. The more important reason was that Zhou Xin's products made them feel cool enough.
In Silicon Valley's engineering culture, cool is important.
"Look, this is our first office computer, and the entire chassis is made of Lego..."
First, Larry Page took Zhou Xin and Wu Shiqiang for a brief visit to Google.
Wu Shiqiang had doubts about the whole process because he didn't understand search engines.
Simply put, Yahoo belongs to the first generation of search engines. It mainly stores various directories of various websites through manual classification, and then provides them to users to find websites.
This kind of search has an upper limit, and users can only search web pages, not content.
The second generation search engine is Google. Google uses keywords to search for corresponding web pages based on content.
Wu Shiqiang had no idea of the difference. After listening to Larry Page's brief introduction, he believed that the company's business had a high degree of overlap with Yahoo.
Since there is a high degree of overlap and there is already such a successful company in front of them - Yahoo, what is the point of their investment in Google?
Is it just because Yahoo copied content from Riot Games and the bosses want to invest in their competitor, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Wu Shiqiang thought to himself.
Then he felt that from his interactions with Zhou Xin in the past few days, he was very mature and would not have such thoughts.
Combined with what Zhou Xin said to him yesterday, Wu Shiqiang believed that this company must have its own unique value, which he failed to discover.
“Our technology in the search engine field is absolutely ahead of all other companies.
We can find what you're looking for more accurately than Yahoo.
I use Yahoo, and I need to enter riot games to find the official website and electronic community of Riot Games.
Using Google, I enter Angry Birds or SMS verification code, and these keywords can accurately locate your page. "Larry Page said it clearly.
He is a natural publicist and can accurately convey Google's advantages to investors. Otherwise, it would be difficult to attract big names like Bezos in the initial stage.
Amazon’s market value at this time is close to 30 billion US dollars, and its founder is no exaggeration to describe it as a big shot.
"I am willing to invest in you at a valuation of 10 million." Zhou Xin was very direct.
This price was the price he gave after consulting Goldman Sachs.
Because of Bezos, Wall Street investment institutions are also paying attention to Google, and their valuation is about US$10 million.
Of course, if June comes, Sequoia Capital and KPCB will participate in Google’s next round of financing at a valuation of US$25 million.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is Amerikan's largest venture fund, which is mainly responsible for the asset investment business of Americen's major universities.
Sergey Brin, who had been silent before, spoke up and asked: “When we were looking for investment before, investors would ask us one question, and that was how to achieve profitability.
The answer they hope we give is that Google is targeting Yahoo. Even if it cannot surpass Yahoo, it will eventually be listed on Nasdaq. "
In the minds of investors, not only the number one company can go public. If the market capacity is large enough, subsequent companies will also have the opportunity to go public.
Primary market investment and secondary market investment have completely different logics. In the secondary market, we should focus on the leader and the moat of the company.
There is no need for the primary market. In the primary market, choose a track with a large enough capacity. If the company you invest in can be listed, it is already a great success.
Zhou Xin thought for a while and then said: "It's not important.
In my mind, Google's profit model is actually very clear.
It's just that you haven't thought of it yet. "
Larry Page was instantly interested: "For example?"
This is not a secret to them, and they discovered it only a year too late by themselves.
So Zhou Xin answered directly: “Advertisement.
Yahoo can charge for advertising banners, and so can you.
Yahoo's search engine relies on manual labor, and their costs determine that it is very difficult for them to achieve profitability.
The larger the scale, the higher the labor costs.
And you use innovations in technical architecture to provide better search services at lower prices.
In the process of negotiating with advertising publishers, you will have more flexible bargaining space than Yahoo.
User experience will cause your users to catch up with Yahoo, and costs will determine that you have stronger sales capabilities. "
