Xun Mi is in his early thirties, graduated from Stanford University, and has worked in two social application companies, Faapchat.
At this time, he was sitting on the sofa in the luxurious office on the top floor of Ruixiang Building chatting with Zhang Yida.
He said with excitement: "Mr. Zhang, after our research and development and continuous testing during this period, Gaomeng APP has basically met the conditions you requested for a revised version and re-launch."
Zhang Yida nodded, "Tell me, what functions have been added?"
"Compared to the past, its functions have undergone earth-shaking changes."
Xun Mi chuckled, "The previous Gaomeng APP was just a promotion and distribution software. Although the registered users were all college students, it did not have any social functions.
Now, we have added real-time chat, as well as text, picture, video sharing and other social functions.
In addition, we have added many tools and functions on this basis, such as course schedule reminders, recording class notes, score inquiries, etc.”
Zhang Yida frowned as he listened, "What the hell is this? Don't make it look like you're doing it."
"These functions sound very ordinary! WeChat and Weibo have these functions, why do students use ours?"
Xun Mi smiled and said: "Although Mr. Zhang, WeChat, and Weibo have these functions, they are still very different from us."
"Then tell me, what's the difference?"
Xun Mi explained: "First of all, are WeChat friends very messy? Students' parents, teachers, and various elders are all on it.
When posting to Moments, I often feel awkward and have to set up who can see it. It’s quite troublesome!
It will be different if college students use our Gaomeng APP. Our Gaomeng APP will set thresholds to verify Xuexin.com information. Non-campus college students and graduated college students cannot authenticate.
Most of those who can pass the certification should be college students. Everyone is of the same age, so there is no need to worry about posting various news updates.
In addition, Weibo’s current traffic and attention are on various big Vs and entertainment circles, and it has completely become a news publishing platform.
When ordinary people post on Weibo, no one will follow you at all! The effect is not as good as WeChat Moments.”
Zhang Yida interrupted, "Wait a minute, do you want to make a real-name social networking product or a stranger social networking product?"
"Half strangers, I don't mean pure strangers like Momo, nor real-name mode like WeChat."
Zhang Yida asked again: "Do you mean that real-name authentication is not required? Or do you mean that after real-name authentication, you can choose to hide it yourself?"
"In the latter, we give the user the right to choose. In fact, after the user uploads the Xuexin.com information, we have already collected his real-name information.
As for whether he is willing to make it public, that is their business!"
Xun Mi paused for a moment and then continued: "We also plan to try the LBS social solution, where strangers connect to each other through geographical location to realize information transfer and social interaction.
Mr. Zhang, think about it, you are a college student, you are wandering in school, and suddenly you pass by a group of beautiful women, and then the location reminder on your phone lights up, showing that the distance is less than 10 meters.
Isn’t this interesting? Is this fate? Maybe, there will be a story next.”
Zhang Yida was a little suspicious, "The trick you mentioned has been used by people around WeChat and Momo, and it feels very ordinary!
I think if we want to have accurate social networking, we should divide it according to interests and hobbies!"
He really didn’t have any social networking talents. He paid a high price to poach Xun Mi from the very popular social software company Snapchat in the United States.
Salabu is a photo-sharing app that “burns after reading” and is very popular among young people in the United States.
With the app, users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to their friends list on the app.
The most important function is that all photos have a lifespan of 1 to 10 seconds. After the user takes photos and sends them to friends, these photos will be automatically destroyed on time according to the time preset by the user.
Furthermore, the user will also be notified if the recipient attempts to take a screenshot during this period.
"Hey, Xun Mi, do you think there is any hope of replicating a salad cloth in China?"
Xun Mi shook his head repeatedly, "It's impossible, let's not talk about Penguin's reaction. In terms of national conditions and culture, people in our country will not like to send photos that are automatically deleted in a few seconds.
Although some people are very open-minded, most Chinese people are still very conservative.
In fact, Ahri also secretly tried it.
At that time, the development of the "Laihuang" project did not meet expectations, so it was renamed "Diandian Chong" in a low-key manner. The main focus was on young people's social networking that would disappear after reading, and it was completely reduced to a niche product."
Xun Mi added: "Mr. Zhang, I understand your uneasiness. Because I actually don't have much confidence in the campus social track.
For campus social networking, there is only one campus network, and most others are unknown.
This is because at that time, we had the right time, right place, and the right people.
The Penguin is far from as strong as it is now, the location is right and Facebook has not taken China by storm, and Renhe Huang Xin is a very good entrepreneur."
Zhang Yida nodded and sighed: "Yes! No one dares to say that they are 100% sure before trying it."
“We also analyzed almost all the mainstream social software on the Chinese market, including WeChat, Weibo, etc., including some of their specific functional designs and details.
The final conclusion is to focus on campus and serve students.
It is almost impossible to target the entire social market. Being able to gain a foothold in the college student market is considered a victory."
Although Xun Mi's words were a bit pessimistic and unambitious, Zhang Yida felt that they were very practical.
There are not just one or two people who want to challenge the status of Penguin King, but 99% of the corpses are completely cold. Only Momo has a small market, and it is because he plays well on the sidelines.
However, Zhang Yida had no intention of challenging Penguin's status. With the relationship chain there, any efforts would be in vain.
In the past life, Duoshan, Chatbao, and Toilet MT released products on the same day and created various gimmicks.
The media also talked about "Three Heroes vs. Lu Bu", but Penguin collapsed before he could do anything.
All kinds of users who were acquired through burning money will disappear after the novelty period is over, and the retention rate will drop seriously.
Among the three mountains of BAT, the most difficult one is Penguin. This is also a conclusion that countless social entrepreneurs have tried with corpses.
"Let's do it first! It's best if it can stand up. If it doesn't stand up, you have to create some content."
Zhang Yida said, "This time DouShi will help Gaomeng hold a school beauty selection contest. The gimmick is created for you. Whether you can seize the opportunity or not is up to you."
Xun Mi frowned, "Mr. Zhang, that's why you let Dou Shi and Gao Meng get through it! Let Gao Meng provide content for Dou Shi!"
"That's right! College students have a lot of free time, and there are also many people who shoot TikTok and TikTok. This is a market that we cannot ignore.
Of course, Gaomeng itself also has millions of registered users from college students, which can be regarded as a good foundation for campus social networking.
With such a good foundation, it would be a pity not to work hard."
A trace of disappointment flashed in Xun Mi's eyes. Gao Meng's status in Mr. Zhang's mind was still too low.
If I can't get the Gaomeng project started, it will probably be abandoned soon.
"Mr. Zhang, I think if we want to socialize, it would be inappropriate to call us "Gaomeng"!
Today’s college students are basically born after 1995, so you need to have a cooler name to attract them.”
It was just a name change. Zhang Yida had no objection and nodded: "Okay, what do you want to change it to?"
"Cute school!"
…
Lu Qi spent more than half a month running around, and finally completed the integration of Pinduoduo and Douyin.
Among them, Pinduoduo is valued at US$9 billion and DouShi is valued at US$10 billion.
This valuation finally satisfied investors of both companies.
But there is also a gambling agreement. Pinduoduo must achieve a GMV of 100 billion yuan in the next year, and DouShi must achieve a revenue of 10 billion yuan in the next year.
If the bet is not completed, the valuations of the two companies need to be recalculated based on the actual completion status.
In this case, although Penguin has not invested in DouShi, it does not feel that its equity has been overly diluted, causing it to suffer losses;
Ruixiang Industrial Investment Fund and Huayi Capital also felt that they were not at a loss because Pinduoduo, which did not own any shares, also signed a gambling agreement.
After settling the two companies, Lu Qi began to integrate Huimin Travel Group.
"Mr. Lu, didn't Mr. Zhang say that Huimin Travel Group should be integrated into Zhonghe Group?
Why not integrate everything now, and only merge the part of the equity he holds?"
Wei Cheng, the investment representative of CITIC Industrial Investment Fund, looked dissatisfied.
He has been under a lot of pressure recently! Because CITIC invested US$300 million in Huimin Travel Group.
This investment was also due to the fact that he was given the ecstasy soup, thinking that after Huimin's trip, he would have a chance to have a romantic relationship with Didi.
But with the merger of Didi and Uber, he felt that his dream was about to be shattered.
What’s even more irritating is that Huimin Travel is still struggling with the aggregation of taxis and has no idea of launching its own taxi brand.
Hey, I'm on a pirate ship!
"Yes, Mr. Wei is right. Mr. Zhang can't go back on his word? It was agreed that all the equity interests of everyone will be merged into Zhonghe Group. Why is he the only one now?"
The speaker was an investment representative from SoftBank. Currently, apart from Zhang Yida and Blackshirt Capital, Penguin holds the largest shareholdings in Huimin Travel Group.
As the fourth largest shareholder, words are still very effective, and many small shareholders have spoken out to support SoftBank.
Lu Qi had already made a plan in his mind and was not surprised at all by this scene.
He said very calmly: "What Mr. Zhang means is that currently Pinduoduo, DouShi, and Huimin Travel are not profitable yet.
The three companies were bundled together, and the losses were too eye-catching, which was detrimental to subsequent financing and valuation.
What he means is that by making Zhonghe Group the largest shareholder of Huimin Travel, the rights and interests of all shareholders will remain unchanged.
Zhonghe Group will use its various resources to help Huimin Travel make profits as soon as possible."
"You can't just think about it! Does Mr. Zhang have any good ideas for making profits from Huimin's travel?"
Zhu Xiaohu from Jinsha River Venture Capital was a little wary. What did Zhang Yida mean?
Are you worried that Huimin Travel will drag down Zhonghe Group? Are you not confident in the future profitability of Huimin Travel?
Zhu Xiaohu thought of many things at once, and began to think about the way out.
They still have 4.38% of the shares in Jinsha River Ventures, which is worth US$262.8 million based on a valuation of 6 billion.
Compared with the US$50 million when buying shares, this investment has more than quintupled.
But these are all paper returns, and they will always be empty until they are safe.