Several people chatted in Xia Zekai's office for a while. After seeing that the time was almost up, Xia Zekai asked Jiang Ningning and Ren Ping to watch the three children in his office, and also asked the staff here to bring some food and drinks.
Come over and leave Geng Yuqin and Wu Jialei behind to protect them.
The couple, Shen Nanpeng and Zhou Hongyi went to the Jingyi Hotel near Yingdu Building together.
The distance is not very far, the straight line distance is only 300 meters.
The last Series B financing meeting of Toutiao was held in the business conference hall of this hotel.
Zhang Lidong led people to set up the scene one day in advance.
When Xia Zekai and the others came over, they saw Zhang Lidong moving from the entrance of Yingdu Building to the entrance of Jingyi Hotel and continuing to welcome guests. He was very busy.
"Xia Dong, Luo Dong."
"Mr. Shen, Mr. Zhou, please!"
Seeing Xia Zekai and the four of them, Zhang Lidong hurried over to say hello.
The four capital parties represented by these four representatives are all shareholders of Toutiao and are also his ‘boss’ in name. They dare not offend him.
"Lidong, where is Yiming?" Xia Zekai asked him.
Zhang Lidong pointed upward: "Director Zhang has already gone up. Director Xia, I will take you up."
"No, it's not like we don't know the place. We can just go up there ourselves. You can get busy." Xia Zekai was not so pretentious and asked Zhang Lidong to continue busy. The four of them followed the staff in.
Entering the business conference hall, there were already a lot of people here. At this moment, on the right side of the hall, Zhang Yiming was standing there talking. He was surrounded by a circle of capital investors who came here today.
After seeing Xia Zekai and his wife come in, Zhang Yiming came over directly, and also brought the capital parties who had just surrounded him over.
When he saw Shen Nanpeng and Zhou Hongyi behind him, he politely shouted: "Director Shen, Director Zhou."
"Yi Ming, let's start soon." Xia Zekai asked.
"Brother Xia, let's start when Lidong comes in later," Zhang Yiming said.
Xia Zekai nodded: "Okay."
At this moment, after seeing Xia Zekai, the eyes of other capital parties became brighter. Many people wanted to get close to Xia Zekai and have a chat.
There are rumors in the world that Xia Zekai is very likely to become the richest man in China this year. There is no statistical result yet, and it is not clear whether this statement is true or false, but the news has been blown out, which shows that the difference between him and Chairman Ma may be
It's not as big as imagined.
In addition, if Toutiao completes the C round of financing today, Xia Zekai's wealth may skyrocket. As a participant in this financing round, everyone is a little excited just thinking about it.
Even the media present from all over the world pointed their cameras at Xia Zekai, and some brave media reporters came directly to interview him with microphones.
"Hello, Mr. Xia, I am Xue Jing, a reporter from the Beijing Economic Channel. What do you think of this year's Forbes rich list?" The reporter came up and asked him.
Xia Zekai was still smiling. He didn't really want to discuss this issue. When the outside discussion was particularly heated, he felt it was more like igniting a fire.
But after thinking about it for a while, he still said: "JACK and I are very good friends. In fact, it doesn't matter which one of us takes the first place. But personally, I prefer that the old horse will be re-elected, and there may be other dark horses who can rise to the top in one step."
Na!"
"Mr. Xia, are you saying that it is unlikely that Chairman Ma will be re-elected? Who do you think this 'dark horse' will be?" Another reporter asked.
Xia Zekai glanced at her, looking for trouble.
He didn't even bother to pay attention to the reporter who just came over. He directly held his wife's hand and turned to walk to the other side.
Why is there no peace in the Internet world? Xia Zekai once thought that there are more "groups" who like to make trouble, and they have to find something for you to do if you have nothing to do.
But what Xia Zekai just said is also a fact. Whether Lao Ma can be re-elected as the Forbes richest person this year is really unknown.
The main reason is that Alibaba's shares have fallen a lot.
After it was listed last year, it had a brief period of glory, and its stock price almost exceeded 100. However, after last year's Double Eleven data broke the Internet, Alibaba's stock price also broke through a new high, reaching more than 120 US dollars.
With one share, Lao Ma's wealth has further increased, and the net worths of Xia Zekai, Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo have also increased a lot.
However, after Double Eleven, and this year's economic downturn hit, people's wages and incomes have become unstable, money in their hands has become tight, and their spending power has also decreased, so much so that the transaction data of major platforms under the Alibaba Group have declined.
There was an obvious decline, which also led to a sharp decline in Alibaba's stock price just after it broke through a record high.
As of now, the price is only 85 US dollars per share, which is lower than the 96 US dollars when it was listed. Based on this price, Lao Ma's net worth has shrunk a lot.
But other people's net worth has not stopped growing, and some people's net worth has even skyrocketed due to different industries and different development conditions.
This is what Xia Zekai said just now. He said it very rationally, but these reporters don't think so. There are always people who want to provoke other people's nerves, which annoys him!
Luo Xiyun also knew what was going on. When reporters came around to interview them, she glared.
Not to mention, when Luo Xiyun gets angry, others can't figure out her temper, and they really don't dare to stand around her.
After all, everyone knows these days that ‘women are not easy to mess with’.
On the other hand, Shen Nanpeng and Zhou Hongyi, who were walking behind Xia Zekai, heard what Xia Zekai said. They agreed with most of Xia Zekai's views, but there was one point they disagreed with.
What other dark horses did Xia Zekai mention? They felt that Xia Zekai was the biggest dark horse, without exception!
The female reporter who was ignored by Xia Zekai was very angry, but on the surface she did not dare to speak out or even say another word.
About twenty minutes passed, and Zhang Lidong, who was greeting guests at the entrance of Jingyi Hotel, came up after finishing his work.
He walked to Zhang Yiming, reported to him, and then walked onto the stage.
At this time, everyone else also fell silent, and most of the people present looked at Zhang Lidong on the stage.
"Dear guests, elite friends from the financial and business circles, good morning, everyone. My name is Zhang Lidong. I am very happy to welcome all my friends today."
"The earth is rejuvenating and everything is renewed. At this beautiful moment when spring is about to usher in the warmth of flowers and full of spring spirit, Beijing Toutiao Technology Co., Ltd. also welcomes all friends to have sincere exchanges and discussions to jointly make suggestions for the next development of Toutiao.
Offer suggestions.”
"Next, let us welcome Chairman Zhang to the stage with the warmest applause to share today's results of Toutiao!"
After Zhang Lidong finished speaking, amidst applause, he walked off the other side of the stage, and Zhang Yiming followed him onto the stage.
"Good morning everyone, I am Zhang Yiming!"
A simple introduction was followed by even warmer applause.
Zhang Yiming smiled and looked a little shy at first glance. He waited for the applause to stop before he continued: "On this special day, I am very happy to stand here and share with you the achievements of Toutiao in the past year.
Over the past many years, we have achieved brilliant results.”
"Today's Toutiao completed its Series B financing on October 20, 2012. Our company raised US$452 million. So far, one year and four months have passed."
Zhang Yiming talked eloquently on the stage, and the more he spoke, the more confident he became. He said: "Last time, I said that Toutiao's cumulative downloads exceeded 100 million, and its DAU (daily active users) exceeded 30 million.
But what I want to tell you today is..."
As he said this, the big screen behind him started to light up. Not long after, a PPT with the words 'Today's Toutiao Future Development and Strategy' was opened. The projected light passed through Zhang Yiming and was projected on the big screen behind him.
On the screen, the dazzling light made Zhang Yiming subconsciously raise his hand to block it.
After adapting to this wave of light, Zhang Yiming didn't care. He pointed back at the content projected on the big screen APP and said: "After these 16 months of development, as of today, the total number of users of our Toutiao has exceeded six.
billion, our latest DAU (daily active users) statistics show 140 million, and we surpassed Tencent News with a single user usage time of 78.1 minutes. In the current usage time statistics of various APPs, we are second only to Tencent
QQ!”
Although it has not yet won the first place, after these data were exposed, it still caused a sensation on the scene.
Many people were particularly surprised.
They knew that Toutiao had developed rapidly this year, but they did not expect that Toutiao would develop so fast now!
Its total user base has exceeded 600 million, and its daily active users have reached 140 million. This is no joke.
There may be a certain amount of moisture in this statistical data, but according to their understanding of Zhang Yiming, this moisture is not too great.
Because of this, the power of Toutiao is even more evident.
Up to now, Tencent QQ is the overlord of application APPs. It claims to have a user base of more than one billion and the number of daily active users of 300 to 400 million every day. It can really be said that it dominates the market.
Returning to Toutiao, Zhang Yiming introduced the product content of Toutiao again.
Including Toutiao's newly developed Toutiao Account and Huoshan Video, etc., all aimed at retaining more user groups.
The ultimate goal is to make Toutiao more valuable!
In addition to this, they are also ready to continue developing more valuable content items.
As Zhang Yiming explained the content one by one, the PPT on the big screen behind him flashed new content page by page, allowing the people present to understand what he said more intuitively.
When Zhang Yiming was discussing on the stage, the discussion of the people off the stage did not stop. It is true that Toutiao's performance is so good that no one present can ignore it.
Everyone who came here today wanted to get a piece of the cake for themselves, but after hearing Zhang Yiming announce these figures, they realized that the valuation of Toutiao might need to be raised a little higher.
"How much is more appropriate?" This is a question lingering in the minds of everyone present.
If the quotation is low, it will definitely not work. Let alone getting a quota, it is very likely that you will not be able to apply for it by then.
But once the quotation is high, a lot of money will be thrown out, which will inevitably affect their other plans. They must think about this issue carefully.
"The valuation in the last round was US$2.26 billion. At this pace, this round will not break through tens of billions directly?" Many people present realized this.
Zhang Yiming spoke intermittently on the stage for more than half an hour, during which there was also a question and answer session.
The main reason is that the capital side under the stage conducted more detailed consultation on what Zhang Yiming just said.
"Zekai, what are you thinking about?" Luo Xiyun glanced at her husband and realized that her husband had not spoken much.
Xia Zekai shook his head and said, "I'm thinking about a question."
"What's the problem?" Luo Xiyun was quite curious.
Xia Zekai said directly: "I just heard Yiming say that Toutiao is currently studying volcano videos. I always feel that he overlooked something."
"What?" Luo Xiyun became more and more confused as he listened.
Xia Zekai shook his head: "It's okay, wife, how much are you going to quote this time?"
"I haven't thought about it yet. I'll take another look." Luo Xiyun said.
In today's situation, it would be useless if the price was low, and it would be bad if the price was high. She was very embarrassed.
Kaiyun Investment is bound to follow this wave of investment, but not necessarily in the next round.
Xia Zekai himself did not want to follow the investment. Not only him, but also Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo gave up.
So much so that Liang Rubo didn't come over today.
But what makes Xia Zekai even more curious is that in this round of financing, even Wang Qiong from Haina Asia gave up participating in the investment. This is really a rare thing.
Although this will affect their shareholding ratio, the pool of Toutiao is getting bigger and bigger, and there is more water in it. The share allocated to them will not decrease. On the contrary, it will increase as the capacity pool increases.
,more and more.
At this time, everyone else is thinking about how much it would be more appropriate to quote later.
I don't know when, Zhou Hongyi and Shen Nanpeng also left Xia Zekai, and went to discuss with their team members and re-calculate.
After Zhang Yiming came off the stage and Zhang Lidong came back on the stage, he directly announced the rules and quotation methods for the next financing.
The quotation method is very simple, no different from the previous Series B financing, using a secret bidding method, and the one with the highest quotation will be qualified for the second round.
But unlike previous years, the results of the first round of quotations will be balanced with the prices of the second round of quotations.
In other words, if you simply quote a high price in the first round and fish in troubled waters to get tickets for the second round, it will be in vain. The quotations from the two rounds will be calculated as a whole.
This is because they are plugging leaks, and everyone is making progress!
