Lin Fan's flirtatious glances were all shown to the blind man, and Wang Wei never answered the question.
This made Lin Fan a little irritable. After a little analysis, he guessed that the other party might have misunderstood his arrival.
"We have invested in a social network called Youyoumi in China. Have you heard of it?"
Wang Wei nodded, "I've heard that, the domestic media reported at the time that Youyoumi had received millions of dollars in angel round investment."
Lin Fan smiled lightly, start-up companies all have the same virtue, they like to announce that a million US dollars in financing will turn into millions of US dollars;
Multi-million dollar investments like to be announced as nearly tens of millions of dollars;
Sometimes the unit of US dollars is converted into RMB.
For one purpose, it makes the financing amount appear larger and has better publicity and momentum-building effects.
Lin Fan said: "As peers of Facebook, we dare to invest in them. Do you know why?"
Wang Wei shook his head. He was also very puzzled. Isn't Youyoumi afraid that core secrets will be leaked to potential competitors?
For a mere million-dollar investment, how could it be done like this?
Lin Fan explained, "This is because we have reached some agreements with them."
Wang Wei became interested and asked: "What agreement?"
"Facebook will not enter the Chinese market in the next few years and will not form a competitive relationship with Youyoumi.
This is because outside of China, there are six continental markets including North America, Europe, and Asia.
Conquering developed regions and countries first is our highest priority goal.
If Facebook enters China in a few years, Youyoumi should also grow.
By then, Facebook will not be able to threaten Youyoumi. It is highly likely that we will sit down and talk, and cooperation will be better than competition."
Lin Fan paused and continued: "In addition to Facebook and YouTube, I also have a company called Lin Capital, which covers venture capital funds.
This fund has invested in startups such as LinkedIn, Tesla, Ganji.com, and Frame Media.”
Wang Wei was surprised and said: "Are you still doing venture capital?"
"Yes, I think this is a very interesting thing. Discover companies with potential, invest in them, and help them grow. Let's ring the bell together."
Lin Fan knew that Wang Wei might be worried that Tudou would be controlled by YouTube if he accepted his investment.
This is also the disadvantage of starting a business and investing at the same time, and the identity positioning is questionable.
If he were an entrepreneur himself, he would probably have to carefully consider investment from his peers.
Lin Fan guessed right, Wang Wei probably did have concerns in this regard.
Shortly after YouTube was launched last year, Wang Wei noticed such a website. Before starting his own business, he also studied YouTube specifically.
Lin Fan suddenly came to visit today. He thought that his plagiarism plan was known to the real owner and came to ask for an explanation. He was shocked.
In his previous life, Wang Wei founded Tudou.com, which was inspired by the photo social networking site flickr.
He thought about converting pictures into videos so that users could share their own videos on the website as easily and quickly as sharing photos.
In this life, the early emergence of oil pipelines allowed Wang Wei to see clearer models and more mature ideas.
This saved him a lot of thinking, but it also gave him a psychological baggage, feeling that he had plagiarized YouTube.
He understood what Lin Fan meant. He wanted to use Lin Capital to invest in them, rather than using Facebook or YouTube as the investment entity.
But even so, some things still cannot be avoided. Lin Fan is a shareholder of two companies, Lin Capital and Oil Pipe.
There is no essential difference between accepting oil pipeline investment and accepting investment from Lam Capital.
He has always been wary, even afraid, of oil pipelines.
Wang Wei made up his mind that for the sake of safety, it would be better not to accept investment from Lin Capital, so he expressed his intention tactfully.
"Actually, I have worked for several years and saved some savings. Our website has not yet been launched, so we are not in a hurry to raise funds for the time being."
Lin Fan frowned, are you so vigilant? Your ex-wife took advantage of you?
He did not easily give up the idea of investing in Tudou because of Wang Wei's polite refusal. He simply made it clear: "Youtube will not enter the Chinese market in the future!"
Wang Wei didn’t quite believe it and said with a smile: “Now that Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, and eaby are all entering the Chinese market, YouTube will just give up on the Chinese market?
Even if you agree, other investors won’t agree!”
Lin Fan shrugged, no one believed him if he told the truth.
In fact, it is normal to be misunderstood by the other party.
Nowadays, American Internet giants have not been beaten by the iron fist of socialism, and they are all vying for territory in the Chinese market.
He said that directly abandoning the Chinese market does not conform to the current logic.
In a few years, he won't need to explain too much and everyone will understand.
Lin Fan smiled, changed his tone and said, "It's hard to say about the future, but at least we won't consider entering the Chinese market in the next three years.
Just like Facebook, there are more valuable regions and countries waiting for YouTube to occupy.
Facebook and YouTube have not yet reached their growth ceiling, and there are too many markets for us to choose from."
Wang Wei nodded and said nothing.
Seeing the other party's reaction, Lin Fan probably still doubted himself, so he quickly thought about countermeasures in his mind.
Zhang Chenguang sat beside him like a sculpture, motionless.
For a moment, no one spoke, and the atmosphere in the whole room began to become awkward.
After a short period of silence, Lin Fan broke the awkwardness and asked: "Your website should be online soon, right?"
"Yes, if it's quick, it will be online by the end of the month."
There is nothing to hide, Wang Wei explained it generously.
Lin Fan remembered that Tudou.com was only launched in April in his previous life. It seems that due to the early appearance of the oil pipeline, Tudou.com also launched two months in advance.
He continued to ask: "What about after it goes online? Have you considered how to grow? And the horrific consumption of bandwidth resources?"
Wang smiled and said: "I have worked in foreign capital for several years, and I know some investment institutions. As for growth, we can only take our time and move forward through trial and error."
Lin Fan knew that what the other party said was true. This person was not a grassroots entrepreneur. He had a resume from a famous school and a famous company.
Johns Hopkins University’s master’s degree in computer science is ranked among the top ten in the world, ranked second in the world, second only to Harvard’s MBA from INSEAD, and is the CEO of Bertelsmann Group China, one of the world’s top 500 companies.
Bertelsmann is a century-old German company, mainly engaged in media business such as television, radio, magazines, and book publishing.
Its business volume in China is very small, and the famous Bertelsmann China Investment Fund has not yet been established.
Therefore, the value of this Chinese CEO is not very high, but it is not much lower. There is absolutely no problem if you get in touch with some investment institutions and become familiar with him.
It was precisely because he had good connections and resources that Wang Wei dared to reject Lin Fan without thinking.
He also knew that Tudou.com would need a lot of money in the future, but without Lin Capital, they would not be unable to raise funds for Tudou.com.
Lin Fan felt a little dizzy and couldn't eat the fat in his mouth. The taste was unpleasant.
"You know ab stocks, right?"
Wang Wei nodded, "I have studied and worked in the United States for eight years and know a little bit about it."
"Tudou.com might as well use an AB-share structure. We don't want voting rights, but how about giving them to you?"
Wei was a little hesitant. If an AB-share structure was used and Lin Capital entrusted all the voting rights to him, some threats could be reduced.
But that wasn't enough, he asked again: "Where are the director seats?"
"Board seats can also be given up as a purely financial investment."
Lin Fan thought that since he had given up his voting rights, holding a board seat would be of no use and he would not be able to have a significant influence on Tudou's operations and governance.
Just give it all up and prove yourself to be a harmless good friend.
Wang Wei felt a lot more relieved now. It seemed that the other party really didn't intend to play any dirty tricks.
“What valuation is Lam Capital willing to give Tudou?”
Lin Fan pointed his finger and said, "With a pre-money valuation of one million US dollars, we can invest you half a million US dollars."
Wang Wei shook his head and laughed, "Mr. Lin, I founded Tudou.com and invested one million yuan in it.
At the same time, I also provided intangible assets such as creativity and team. Your valuation is indeed too low, too low to be accepted."
"It has increased more than eight times, which is quite a lot."
Lin Fan said with a smile, as long as the other party is willing to talk, it will be easy.
As for the price, you can adjust it slowly.
"It requires a pre-money valuation of at least five million US dollars. If it is lower than this figure, we will not consider it."
Lin Fan smiled, "I have also started a business, and I understand the thoughts of entrepreneurs, who want to complete financing at a high valuation.
But we have to start from the actual situation. When Facebook’s angel round was valued at US$5 million, the website was already online and had gained 100,000 Ivy League student users, proving that its growth model was feasible.
To put it bluntly, what does Tudou.com have? One office, five employees including you?
Creativity, only the first person to eat the crab can have a creative premium.
You see, new video websites are being born every day around the world.
LeTV, have you heard of it? It’s earlier than you, and it was registered in Beijing in November last year.”
Wang Wei was a little surprised, even questioning, "You said there are other video websites established in China?"
"certainly!"
Lin Fan shrugged and asked, "You don't know?"
Wang Wei said nothing.
What Lin Fan told him had a big impact on him.
He always thought that Tudou.com was the first to do so in China, but he didn't expect that someone would come ahead of them.
"Have you seen them?"
Wang Wei suddenly thought of something and asked.
Lin Fan shook his head, "Not yet. If you can't reach an agreement, I will go find them next."
Wang Wei wondered, "Why come to us first instead of them? After all, they were established earlier than us."
"I think you have a better chance of success."
Lin Fan was telling lies with open eyes. The main reason why he didn't join LeTV was because he didn't want to get involved in that mess. Boss Jia's network of connections was too deep. He had little arms and legs, so let it go.
It is necessary to remove chestnuts from the fire.
Wang Wei laughed. To be honest, he wasn't too sure about Tudou's success. He didn't expect Lin Fan to be so optimistic about him.
"Let's do this. I'll make some concessions and lower the valuation a bit, to four million US dollars."
Lin Fan shook his head, "The earlier we raise money, the better Tudou will be able to take the lead and gain some head start.
I won’t hide it from you, Facebook will raise a round of B round of financing this year, and the scale will exceed everyone’s imagination.
At that time, the value of video websites will be further highlighted.
Once the news spreads back to China, Tudou's competitors will spring up like mushrooms after a rain.
By that time, Tudou.com is still developing slowly and will inevitably fall into endless bitter struggles and waste golden development opportunities.
Don’t think I’m being alarmist, just look at the domestic social network market and you’ll know.
At that time, Rao Lei had been putting off returning to China to start a business in order to get a degree.
If he had returned to China half a year earlier, Youyoumi would definitely have achieved more than what he has achieved today.
The Internet is a winner-takes-all model, with one step ahead and one step ahead, leading resources concentrated on top projects.
If we get into a hard fight, the outcome will be unpredictable."
Wang Wei frowned, thinking carefully about Lin Fan's words.
Lin Fan sighed in his heart. This brother had too much of an artist's temperament, a bit of a Buddhist spirit, and a bit of indecisiveness. He lacked a wolfish nature.
After Tudou.com was launched in April, it spent more than half a year in contact with idg. It only completed an angel round of financing of US$500,000 at the end of the year, wasting precious time to distance itself from its competitors.
This caused Youku to launch a year later and surpassed Tudou.
In addition, Tudou.com completed five rounds of financing. By the time it went public, Wang Wei only held less than 13% of the company's shares.
Youku has completed six rounds of financing, and Gu Yong will still hold more than 40% of the shares.
Of course, this is also due to the fact that Gu Yongjiang has more experience in the Internet and financial industry and is more famous in the domestic Internet circle.
But it must be mentioned that during the first round of financing of Tudou, idg took away one-third of the equity at a cost of US$500,000.
Lin Fan felt that he was very generous. In February, he offered conditions that were on par with idg. Idg would have to wait until the end of the year to offer such conditions.
Because the YouTubers in this life are more famous and have more brilliant achievements than those in the previous life at the same time, it is normal for the valuation of domestic video websites to rise.
The two offset each other, and Lin Fan felt that valuing Tudou at US$1 million was almost just right.
Furthermore, if Tudou gets financing earlier, it will be able to take off earlier, and it will no longer develop like a tortoise.
"How about you give us a valuation of US$3 million? Or, we can discuss it after Tudou goes online and see the results?"
Lin Fan had been treated to a Buddhist attitude by the other party. He knew that if he backed down today, the other party would definitely be able to contact him again in a few months.
"I wonder if you know the rise of the oil pipeline?"
Wang Wei nodded, "I know, in the early days, Facebook was used to attract traffic, and then through the video blogger competition, it quickly became famous, and in one fell swoop, YouTube was introduced to more people.
To be honest, I still admire your methods, your actions are so fast, it’s overwhelming!”
"It won't work if we don't go faster. If we go slower, we would be pressed to the ground by Google now."
"Survival should be the first priority. Otherwise, even if you hold 100% of the equity, you will still have nothing if Tudou.com is destroyed."
Lin Fan turned on the training mode to see if he could stimulate the opponent's backup hidden energy - wolf nature.
If such a Buddhist system can succeed, it means that it has caught up with a good era!
After Lin Fan offered to give up his voting rights and his board seat, Wang Wei felt relieved about Lin Capital's investment motives.
But the other party wanted to take away one-third of the equity at once, which made him unable to make up his mind.
Lin Fan almost knew what the other party was hesitating about.
Although Wang Wei in his previous life finally agreed to dilute one-third of his equity to idg, it was the result of seven or eight months of consideration.
And he had to convince the other party today, which was not easy.
Even though it was difficult, Lin Fan had no intention of giving up. He also had his own unique advantages.
"Let's do this. After Tudou.com is launched, I will design several marketing plans for you, so that Tudou.com will have more than 100,000 users in one month and one million users in three months."
"Are you serious?"
Lin Fan chuckled, "I have created so many successful marketing plans, how can I still lie to you?"
Wang Wei pondered for a moment, "The valuation I can give you is as low as two million US dollars at most."
Lin Fan didn't want to squeeze out toothpaste anymore. It didn't matter if he invested an additional half a million US dollars. As long as the development speed increased, it would be worth it.
And it has to be coordinated with your own marketing plan. How can you do it without spending money?
As for the lost double return rate, we can only make up for it from peers such as Youku, 56, Exciting, pptv, and pps.
"Okay, it's settled, let's sign the investment agreement first."
Wang Wei was stunned, "Ah, sign now?"
"I would venture to say that you need to change your lazy temperament. Your competitors will not slow down their pace just because of your kindness."
Wang Wei's face turned a little red, and he also knew that he had this problem.
But when someone pointed it out to his face, it was a bit embarrassing to lose face.
However, after all, he is also a person who has stayed overseas for nearly ten years, so he is not too disgusted with this straightforward way of talking.
He nodded, "Okay, then sign it today."
"Oh, one more thing, Lin Capital has a special clause..."
Wang Wei frowned, "Does this need to be approved by the board of directors? But you haven't joined the board of directors?"
"Oh, that's right. If you don't join the board of directors, you won't be able to participate in some of the company's decisions."
Lin Fan seemed to suddenly remember something, scratched his head and handed the problem to Wang Wei.
Tudou needs his successful experience, but it is worried that he will occupy the magpie's nest.
Wang Wei frowned and thought for a long time before slowly relaxing.
He took a deep breath, as if he had made a lot of determination, looked at Lin Fan seriously, and said:
"Well, you might as well join Tudou's board of directors. I hope your experience can better help Tudou.com.
Of course, I want to make it clear that Tudou is not a subsidiary of YouTube Video, and the control of the company must be in my hands."
Lin Fan smiled with satisfaction, "Of course, cooperation will lead to win-win results!"
After saying that, Lin Fan stood up, stretched out his hand to hold the other person's hand tightly, and shook it vigorously.
