"Newman, Goldman Sachs has always been your strongest supporter. Whether it was the acquisition of Quora or the listing of Riot Games, Goldman Sachs has participated in almost every major capital operation of yours.
I think there is a sufficient foundation of mutual trust between us. You understand what Goldman Sachs can bring to you, and Goldman Sachs also understands what an excellent partner you are. I think our past cooperation experience is enough to prove to both parties the importance of each other. and reliability. "
Goldman Sachs was eager to cooperate with Zhou Xin. In order to show sincerity, Henry Paulson, the president of Goldman Sachs, personally chatted with Zhou Xin. He still had three years to go before he left Washington to take office as America's 74th Secretary of the Treasury.
Zhou Xin nodded frequently after hearing this. In top institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch, everyone offered similar chips. There is indeed a basis for cooperation with Goldman Sachs, and the basis for cooperation is very important.
“I have been coming to Americen for a long time, and I have a lot of interactions with Wall Street practitioners because of my work. I have always heard about the close relationship between Goldman Sachs and Washington.
I heard that many Washington officials came from Goldman Sachs, and many officials went to work for Goldman Sachs after leaving their jobs. The two sides formed a close cooperative relationship. This close cooperative relationship was why I chose Goldman Sachs when NewPay accepted external financing.
Because Goldman Sachs can bring first-hand news from Washington to NewPay immediately, from the Treasury Department to the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission, Goldman Sachs’ participation can always help us avoid wrong choices. Zhou Xin said.
The higher you go, the more you realize how wide the influence of Goldman Sachs is. Bill Gates' advice to Zhou Xin was also to give priority to Goldman Sachs.
“Compared with Goldman Sachs, both JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are too biased towards the Elephant Party between the Donkey and the Elephant, and it is difficult for their scope of influence to break through the limitations between the two parties.
But Goldman Sachs is different. Whoever controls Washington must rely on Goldman Sachs. "This is the exact words of Bill Gates when he explained.
Paulson laughed: "Yes, there are many Goldman Sachs people who have served as Treasury secretaries in Washington, from Sidney Weinberg to Henry Fowler to Robert Rubin."
Henry Fowler worked at Goldman Sachs for more than thirty years. After leaving Goldman Sachs, he single-handedly led the establishment of the Bretton Woods system when he served as Amerikan's finance minister. That famous saying came from his mouth:
"The planets revolve around the sun, and the currencies of various countries revolve around the US dollar."
Paulson continued: "Newman, the biggest advantage of choosing Goldman Sachs is that Goldman Sachs has a wide enough network of contacts in Washington. We not only have enough contacts in finance and commercial and trade-related departments, but we also have broad enough contacts in other fields. .
Goldman Sachs can help you do what you want to do, help you think of what you didn't think of, and help you do what you didn't think of but what you need.
For example, they have been lobbying in Washington, believing that NewPay has monopolized the offline electronic payment market with QR codes. They have lobbied a large number of lawmakers, hoping to force NewPay to open up its QR code patent.
Goldman Sachs blocked the matter easily. "
This series of complex clauses might have been confusing to others, but Zhou Xin still accurately captured the meaning of his words.
Goldman Sachs refuted the statement with two points: electronic payment does not have a monopoly and occupies a large market; offline payment is not only through QR codes, but can also be achieved through NFC technology.
In fact, Zhou Xin wanted to ask if Goldman Sachs could help him open up the restrictions on the Wassenaar Agreement. It didn't take much. He only needed to open up the restrictions on integrated circuits in the Wassenaar Agreement.
Zhou Xin was still wondering if this request would be too sensitive.
"I know the strength of Goldman Sachs very well, and I want to hear Goldman Sachs' valuation of Matrix." Zhou Xin changed the topic.
Paulson said: “We estimate that Matrix’s annual revenue should be around US$7 billion and its profit should be around US$2 billion. Based on a PE of 20 times, that would be a valuation of US$40 billion.
We believe this valuation is relatively reasonable.
Considering that the smartphone market is in a period of rapid growth, and Matrix does have certain advantages in the field of smartphones, we can still increase the price appropriately.
50 billion US dollars, this is Goldman Sachs’ psychological price. "
At US$50 billion, this valuation is already twice that of Apple. Apple has survived the crisis of ruptured capital flows and has become the world's top consumer electronics company with its iPod, with a market value of only US$20 billion.
Zhou Xin has been in Silicon Valley for many years, so he knows that this price is relatively reasonable. After all, no one knew that smartphones could develop so fast. The PE of 25 times already includes the name Newman.
When Microsoft went public, its PE was around 17. At that time, Microsoft's position in the operating system was similar to Matrix's current position in the smartphone field. Both were emerging, but there were still a lot of competitors.
Zhou Xin said: "The price is no problem. I plan to use 20% of the shares to raise funds this time. It is no problem for Goldman Sachs to participate, but I will choose several more financial institutions.
I have a question, that is, whether Goldman Sachs can help me lift some of the Wassenaar Agreement restrictions on integrated circuits. "
Zhou Xin still couldn't hold back and expressed his request to lift restrictions on the chip field.
The Wassenaar Agreement is an agreement led by America and participated by a large number of developed countries. Of course, there are also underdeveloped countries such as the northern countries.
The leader is naturally American, and the specific jurisdiction falls on American’s Ministry of Commerce.
Goldman Sachs has extensive connections and deep interests in all financial and business-related departments in Washington. Zhou Xin believes that even if Goldman Sachs cannot do it, it knows who to find to do it.
In order to avoid misunderstanding, Zhou Xin continued: "Mphone2 requires the most advanced chip production technology, and China's most advanced chip production technology is two generations behind the technology used in Mphone2.
We can only place chip manufacturers in Lion City, Wanwan, Korea or even America, which greatly increases the cost of Mphone2.
If we can directly produce the chips required for Mphone2 in China, Mphone's profit margin will not be 20%, but 35%. "
The reason for looking for a high-sounding one is very simple. Zhou Xin felt that this was not enough. He continued: "Companies in the traditional chip field such as Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments have built factories locally, but they are all restricted by the Wassenaar Agreement. Maximize your strengths.”
Paulson was noncommittal about Zhou Xin's remarks.
"Newman, I completely understand what you mean, but there is a problem, that is, Goldman Sachs can convince the Department of Commerce, but it cannot convince other parties involved in the Wassenaar Agreement.
At least for Goryeo and Neon, they are unacceptable.
Goldman Sachs can give it a try, but it cannot give any guarantee. You know, this job is not easy to do. No other institution can do it except Goldman Sachs. "
Zhou Xin did not expect that Goldman Sachs would agree. Originally, this was just a supplement. If he agreed, it would be best. If he didn't, it didn't matter.
After the launch of Mphone2, Matrix reached financing agreements with three top financial institutions before the second quarter, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
At this point, Matrix and the old moneymen of Amerikan have carried out in-depth interest bundling, and in this form, the first Mphone Developer Conference after the release of Mphone2 was ushered in.
Since the first Mphone Developer Conference, every developer conference has been a grand event for small and medium-sized enterprises in Silicon Valley. Everyone wants to learn about the latest developments of Mphone and the entire industry from the Mphone Developer Conference.
In three months, Mphone2 has achieved what Mphone1 achieved in a full year, with global sales exceeding 5 million units. This figure shocked everyone.
You must know that the price of Matrix is US$749, not US$349. Other mobile phone manufacturers cannot sell 500,000 units of smartphones priced below US$500.
Mphone2 can sell 5 million units in a quarter.
“Smartphone sales exceeding 5 million units is an extremely terrifying achievement.
Although the global mobile phone market basically sells more than 40 million units every month, the stock market and the incremental market are two different things.
Matrix is the pioneer and leader in the field of smartphones. Looking at it now, it seems that we have no rivals for the time being.
In just one quarter, sales exceeded five million units, and this was despite the high price.
This achievement also fully proves the necessity of smartphones. It not only has entertainment attributes, but also application attributes, which give smartphones corresponding attributes.
Just like when personal PCs were born, the functions of personal PCs depended on software, and the functions of smartphones also depended on applications.
The future development of Mphone2 and even smart phones will depend on every developer present. "
Zhou Xin presided over this developer conference. In addition to many companies in Silicon Valley, there were also media reporters.
"Mphone1 is the only smartphone in the world with sales exceeding 10 million units. Now it seems that Mphone2 is the second model. In private, friends often ask me, what is the success of Mphone2?
I think it’s technology. The application of a large number of cutting-edge technologies brings an extraordinary experience.
After Matrix integrates technology, the experience of using Mphone2 has been improved to the extreme.
This is a victory for the product, but also a victory for the technology. "
After a short period of bragging, there was a painting. The purpose of the painting was to increase the enthusiasm of Internet companies and let them contribute to the improvement of the MOS ecosystem.
"At the same time, I would like to report some data to you. Currently, the background shows that more than 2,000 companies around the world have developed applications for Mphone.
If individual developers are included, the number is 10,000. More than 10,000 companies or individuals have registered MOS developer accounts to help develop applications for Mphone.
Half of these companies have joined the Mphone family in the past six months.
There are more than 1,000 companies that have made cash withdrawals from our backend system, more than 500 companies with cash withdrawals of more than 100,000 US dollars, more than 100 companies with cash withdrawals of more than 1 million US dollars, and more than 10 million companies with cash withdrawals. There are 17.
Among them, the game with the most astonishing growth rate is Flamingo Game. Relying on the legendary performance of "Legend of Heroes", its revenue exceeded US$50 million within three months of its launch.
This is an astonishing number. The purpose of saying these numbers is to tell everyone that Mphone has unlimited potential and the benefits that everyone can obtain through the Mphone platform are unlimited.
In the past, we would have thought that games could only be played as stand-alone games and relied on buyouts to make money. The number of users determined the upper limit of income.
For example, if my game is priced at US$5, and there are only 15 million Mphone users in total, then the number of users who are willing to pay is only 5 million at most, so my upper limit is US$25 million.
The emergence of "Legend of Heroes" tells everyone that the game not only has a buyout model, but the built-in payment method can break the upper limit you think.
Similarly, in addition to games, other service software can also adopt a similar approach. If you are confident enough in your application, you do not need to set up a buyout, and you can set up a monthly charging model.
Everyone knows that I created Quora and launched the monthly subscription model of Quora Gold Selection. Similarly, why can’t applications on iPhone adopt this model?
In the past, users' experience of using Quora on Mphone1 was not good with half a screen. Except for the explosive growth in the number of background downloads when Quora first entered the Mphone platform, subsequent growth has been slow.
However, after entering Mphone2, the number of users of the mobile version of Quora has obviously increased rapidly, and the number and amount of people paying for Quora through the Mphone platform have also increased rapidly.
The number of people subscribing to Quora’s Golden Choice via Mphone is also increasing rapidly.
For developers, it is important to think carefully about which is more beneficial between ongoing payment and one-time buyout.
In my opinion, even if it is a one-time buyout, the upper limit of fees can be increased by opening up different permissions.
After entering the Mphone2 just now, the profit ceiling in the MOS ecosystem has qualitatively leapt forward, and developers will have more potential users and greater possibilities. "
Because the Flamingo game is not on the market, the outside world does not know the sales situation of "Legend of Heroes". They can only get a glimpse of it from the fact that it has always been at the top of the paid list of the Mphone App Store.
This time Zhou Xin talked about it as a typical case at the developer conference, which satisfied everyone's curiosity. Everyone knows that "Legend of Heroes" makes money, but how much money does it make? 50 million a quarter, or only 50 million a year. That's $200 million.
All developers are excited, and the benefits are too high.
Take Blizzard's Warcraft 3 as an example. It was sold on Riot Games for US$79.9, and sales in the first week were 5 million units, which is US$400 million in revenue. This number will continue to decline in the future, and is finally estimated at US$800 million. about.
But the problem is that compared with Warcraft 3, the development difficulty of "Legend of Heroes" is much lower, and the payment model of "Legend of Heroes" is sustainable. The subsequent annual revenue of US$200 million in the first year will not be as high as Buyout games have experienced a cliff-like decline.
Zhou Xin said: "We have almost covered the business aspect, and now comes the technical aspect. There are also many differences between Mphone2 and Mphone1."
(End of chapter)
