Because in the future, overseas social software will have no way to enter the Xiaguo market.
Among domestic social software, the most influential one is Xinlang Weibo.
If technology companies want to develop, it is not enough to rely on the continuous accumulation of science and technology. What is more important is to have the right to speak.
Being able to control the right to speak can sometimes have the effect of making a big difference.
It's like the United States can provoke wars in other countries by just talking, and it can reap the benefits of arms and energy.
Changtian Technology actively controls the right to speak in public opinion, which is also a kind of protection for Changtian Technology itself.
According to the current technology of Changtian Technology, it is completely possible to reproduce social software that is more advanced than Weibo.
But Chen Xiao did not do this for two reasons.
The first one is that the success of Weibo is not due to technology, but to the corresponding historical background.
For example, Penguin also copied Xinlang's Weibo, but after running it for a few years, it finally got into a bottleneck due to the small number of users and the hollow content, so it had to shut down.
The second is that professional matters should be left to professional people.
The focus of Changtian Technology is still on scientific research.
For content similar to Xinlang Weibo, you can just spend money to acquire or invest in it and leave it to professionals to do it. You don’t need to spend too much energy on your own.
The current senior management of Xinlang Weibo also cannot see clearly about their future.
I don't know if this model can be successful.
Twitter can achieve great success in the United States only if there is a certain cultural and social background.
When Xinlang started Weibo, it basically transplanted the corresponding functions of Twitter to China, and made improvements based on some habits of domestic users.
Judging from the current short period of one year, the results are pretty good, and the number of users is also growing rapidly. But what will the future development be like? Weibo's senior executives are really unsure.
And this is also the time when Xinlang Weibo is most short of funds.
The funds are mainly used for two aspects.
On the one hand, it is to improve the core technology of Weibo, optimize the algorithm, and expand the server.
The words optimization algorithm sound simple, but the time, energy and especially money spent are immeasurable.
After experiencing the bubble in the early 2000s, the global Internet has once again entered a rapid development lane.
In fact, the price of excellent Internet talents is not cheap at all. The annual salary of an ordinary algorithm engineer in Xinlang is millions.
But an algorithm engineer is just a small screw to the entire Xinlang optimization algorithm project.
It can be seen from this that how much energy and money will be spent on heart waves.
The second aspect is that Xinlang needs to advertise on the entire network and promote its new product Xinlang Weibo on all platforms and the entire Internet.
Ultimately, Xinlang Weibo is just an online platform.
The platform is just an intermediate media platform. What is really needed is the content in the platform, and the content in the platform is created one by one by countless users.
If it is just a platform without users, no matter how advanced the platform is, there will be no market and it will not be able to bring profits to Xinlang.
Therefore, Xinlang advertises on various Internet portals and popular applications to inform everyone that there is now something called Xinlang Weibo on the market.
Here everyone can receive the latest things, the most fashionable news, and hidden things in the entertainment industry.
In order to enrich the content, Xinlang also spent a lot of money to invite professional writers or well-known figures from previously well-known forums, blogs, and post bars to join Xinlang Weibo. In order to attract these writers to switch positions, Weibo also spent a lot of money.
of funds.
Some celebrities even directly use cash to invite people on Weibo. If they are willing to stay on Weibo, they can get rewards ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions. This is also a big expense.
After all this hard work, after one year of operation of Weibo, although the number of users was growing, the performance was very poor, with monthly losses, quarterly losses, and yearly losses.
Whether a product is successful does not depend on whether it is useful, but whether it makes money.
If Weibo cannot make money, then it is definitely a negative equity for Xinlang.
But after finally developing a product like Weibo, it would be a huge loss for Xinlang to give it up now.
Therefore, after weighing the balance, Weibo is preparing to raise funds. Even if it sacrifices some equity, it still needs to obtain enough funds to maintain the funds needed for Weibo's development in the next 3 to 5 years.
If it fails at that time, then Xinlang will be willing to admit defeat.
But Xinlang Weibo is indeed a new thing, and when he initiated financing, the capital community was not optimistic about it.
There are two reasons for not being optimistic about it. One is that there are already social spaces such as Tieba forums and even chat groups in China. Many functions of Weibo are similar to the topics of Tieba and forums. The overlap in functions makes capital think that the development prospects of Weibo are not the same.
Not very good.
The more important reason is that just in May of this year, that is, in May 2010, Penguin also launched the Weibo function.
Penguin's Weibo relies on QQ. QQ users can open a Weibo account with just one click and participate in the big world of Weibo.
QQ, like Suichai, is the chat software with the largest user base in Xia Guo.
Capital believes that Penguin Weibo will pose a major threat to the new Weibo. Penguin and Xinlang Weibo, it is not clear who will survive in the end. It is currently open at 55.
In the eyes of many capital and analysts, because QQ has so many built-in users, its chances of winning are better than that of Xinlang Weibo.
Capital likes risks because risks and opportunities coexist, but capital never does things with low probability.
Everyone knows that under the competition from Penguin Weibo, Xinlang Weibo may not be able to survive.
Based on this conclusion, it is certainly difficult for Xinlang Weibo to raise capital in the capital market.
Even those who are interested in investing will wait a year or two for the overall market environment to be clear before talking about investing.
At this time, Changtian Technology appeared.
Yanjing, Xinlang Weibo headquarters.
The CEO came here and was worried about funds.
The mid-year financial statements have been released.
Weibo's financial data is so ugly that there is no way to show it.
Therefore, in the report announced to the outside world, it only mentioned that the number of Weibo users is close to 100 million, without mentioning any financial data.
Xinlang headquarters has given Weibo a death order.
If there is no way to raise the required funds this quarter.
Then the Weibo team will only face the end of disbandment.
"Mr. Jia, we have consulted Goldman Sachs, Morgan, Sequoia Capital, etc. and sent them detailed situation reports, but the other party is not very willing to participate."
"Sequoia Capital's reply is that the current domestic Weibo market is not very clear. The number of users of Penguin Weibo has exceeded 100 million. The number of users is almost the same as ours, but there are much more active users. They are not willing to invest in Xinlang Weibo.
.”
Mr. Jia also had a severe headache at this time.
We have indeed encountered serious funding difficulties.
It is impossible to always let Xinlang's headquarters give him blood transfusions. No matter how a company without hematopoietic function transfuses blood, the outcome can only be one word - death.
Mr. Jia couldn't help but take out a cigarette, lit it and took a deep breath.
This time Xinlang Weibo is seeking financing, and is preparing to give up 10% to 15% of its shares, hoping to seek funding of 200 million to 300 million U.S. dollars. From the current point of view, this condition is definitely not attractive in any way.
Mr. Jia endured it again and said: "Contact Goldman Sachs and Sequoia Capital. We are prepared to give up about 15% of our shares. What we need is 200 million US dollars."
The vice president in charge of financing said: "It's not about how many shares we give up, but the other party is not interested in our Xinlang Weibo project at all."
"We are not unique, nor do we have any bright spots."
"The reply from Goldman Sachs even made us a little embarrassed. He said that we would copy Twitter from the United States to Xia China just to obtain a large amount of funds. This is absolutely impossible."
The vice president said: "The domestic Internet situation is still unclear at present, and Goldman Sachs is very cautious."
Google's withdrawal from the Xiaguo market in March this year caused an uproar in the entire Internet industry.
The United States is also negotiating urgently with relevant departments of Xia State, hoping that Xia State can open the Internet.
If the negotiations are successful and Xia Guo really opens up the Internet, Google will definitely come back.
As Google re-enters the Xiaguo market, many mobile Internet companies in the United States will also enter the Xiaguo market, including Twitter.
If Twitter enters the Xiaguo market, Xinlang Weibo and Penguin Weibo will be vulnerable based on Twitter’s excellent financial algorithm, terrifying users and rich content.
Under such circumstances, only fools are willing to invest money in Xinlang Weibo.
After hearing the assistant's analysis, Jia Lai sighed deeply. In fact, he also analyzed it in this way. It was just that people were forced to a dead end and had no choice but to say some fantasy words.
He immediately summoned the senior management and held a meeting to discuss the solution.
The atmosphere of the meeting was very tense, and everyone was making suggestions for the future of an emerging product.
At this time, the assistant trotted into the conference room with some excitement and nervousness. In his excitement, the assistant even forgot the basic etiquette and walked directly in without knocking.
This made Jia Lai very unhappy. After all, the entire conference room was currently suffering from a headache and had to think of ways to save even a dime.
Someone said angrily: "What are you doing in such a hurry? Don't you know how to knock on the door?"
The assistant didn't even have time to say sorry, but quickly handed the printed information to Jia Jia: "Mr. Jia, this is a letter from Changtian Technology."
When I heard that it was a letter from Changtian Technology, my first reaction was that it was a lawyer’s letter from Changtian Technology, asking Weibo to delete some negative news involving Changtian Technology.
After all, during this period, the war between Xinyan Media and Changtian Technology was in full swing, and Xinlang Weibo also took advantage of this topic to earn a lot of traffic and many new users.
Weibo doesn't care who is right or wrong, because it is just a platform. Of course, if there are phenomenal topics, that is of course the best.
"Just give the lawyer's letter to the legal department. They are handling it there, so there is no need to give it to me." Mr. Jia was still very unhappy. He thought there was something important.
After all, Xinlang is engaged in media, while Changtian Technology is engaged in technology, and there is almost no intersection between the two parties.
If there is an intersection, it is the 11181 website, a subsidiary of Changtian Technology. The 11181 website has a cooperative relationship with Xinlang. In the 11181 navigation website, the second link is the official link of Xinlang.
Unexpectedly, the assistant quickly handed the information to Mr. Jia and said: "Mr. Jia, this is not a lawyer's letter, but a cooperation agreement."
"I briefly read the content, and it seems that Changtian Technology is willing to invest in our Xinlang Weibo."
"What!" I was shocked after hearing the news.
It is not easy to provide help in times of need, but it is not difficult to add icing on the cake.
Xinlang Weibo is currently in dire straits and needs someone to send some charcoal.
He looked at the document printed by his assistant. In fact, he didn't have any expectations in his heart.
He thought that Changtian Technology's so-called cooperation was nothing more than paying some advertising fees and asking Xinlang to delete the posts.
After all, Weibo is currently looking for hundreds of millions of dollars in financing, which translates into more than 1 billion yuan in RMB.
Searching the entire country, is there any company that can take such a big risk and invest more than one billion RMB in Weibo?
But after reading the contents of the report, Jia Lai became more and more anxious and excited.
Changtian Technology does not want to give Xinlang Weibo some advertising fees so that Weibo will delete posts, but it hopes to invest real money in cash to buy Weibo stocks.
In the report, Changtian Technology hopes that Weibo can send a detailed financing plan to the other party, and expresses that Changtian Technology can meet the current funds needed by Weibo.
This made Mr. Jia very excited. He immediately showed the report to the company's senior management and said to his assistant: "Immediately send a copy of our financing plan to Changtian Technology. Remember to have both electronic and paper copies.
Delivery, the sooner the better.”
For other companies in Xia Guo, more than one billion RMB is a huge amount of money, but for Changtian Technology, it is a small amount of money.
Not to mention Changtian Technology's other products, it sells more than this number of chips every year.
Soon after Weibo sent the financing plan to Changtian Technology, Changtian Technology re-formulated its own cooperation plan.
The plan was very direct, without any sloppiness. He told Xinlang Weibo that Changtian Technology was willing to invest 200 million US dollars, but it wanted to acquire 25% of Xinlang Weibo's shares.
Such a reply from Changtian Technology surprised Jia Lai.
In order to attract investment from Goldman Sachs or Sequoia Capital, Weibo sent a team to the United States to negotiate in detail with the other party. The back and forth, including the negotiation time, lasted three months.
Three months later, there has been no progress. Changtian Technology only sent two emails back and forth, and the other party confirmed that it would invest 200 million yuan.
Courage, what is courage, this is courage!
The RMB 200 million completely met Xinlang Weibo’s financing needs, but the 25% stake caused Jia Lai some heartache.
Finally, Jia Lai decided to lead the team to Changzezhou and Changtian Technology for detailed discussions.
In order to create a good negotiation atmosphere, Weibo deleted all negative news about Changtian Technology, but left a lot of news and discussions that were unfavorable to Xinyan Media.
While the national media's attention is focused on the "prosperity" history of Hu Ming, the editor-in-chief of Xinyan Media, Jia Lai and his team have quietly arrived in Changzezhou.