As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 295 Summit Dialogue
It is no exaggeration to describe today as the information age, as communication technology can cover most parts of the world.

In 2020, the Wuzhen Summit was held via remote video conference.

But why has technology become more advanced in recent years? The brain-computer connection VR developed by Ke Chuang Biotechnology, Tencent, and Dami has realized people's primary fantasy about the metaverse.

In today's technologically advanced world, do we still need to communicate through offline exhibitions?
This is because there are differences between online and offline communication, and offline communication between people is more warm.

The Global Internet Conference held in China every year is not only a summit for exchanges, but also a summit for project signings.

Of course, it is pure dream to want to sign a contract for a large project within three days. It must be a long process of communication and negotiation before deciding to cooperate.

The time and place of the signing of the cooperation agreement were just set at the Global Internet Conference.

In recent years, the total investment amount signed at the Wuzhen Summit has exceeded 50 billion RMB. Naturally, it was discussed in advance and then deliberately arranged to sign the contracts in Wuzhen during these few days.

However, the exchanges between companies at the Wuzhen Summit can create cooperation intentions.

It is difficult to communicate face to face with top investors such as Neil Shen, Zhang Lei and Guo Yihong in other situations.

But it is possible at the Wuzhen Summit.

Maybe someone you meet randomly around you is an angel investor.

Many investors value people more than projects.

Take the Luckin Coffee project for example. If the actual founder behind the scenes was not Lu Zhengyao, it would have been impossible for it to receive such favor from capital.

Lu Zhengyao is the founder of UCAR, which was listed in Hong Kong in 14.

Luckin’s Series A investment was entirely obtained through connections, while the angel round investment came from Joy Capital and Lu Zhengyao himself.

Behind Yueyue Capital is Liu Erhai, who participated in the angel investment in China Auto Rental when Liu Erhai was still leading TMT and innovative consumer investments at Legend Capital.

Little-known fact: Legend Capital’s predecessor was Lenovo Capital. Lu Zhengyao’s first entrepreneurial project was the United Automobile Club, and after its failure, he switched to CAR Rental.

Lenovo’s capital has always been loyal to Lu Zhengyao, or to the car rental industry.

First there was CAR Inc. and then there was Didi Taxi. Coincidentally, before CAR Inc. went public, Liu Qing officially joined Didi.

This is another story line and I won’t go into details here.

If Luckin's angel round of investment was attracted by relying on Lu Zhengyao's connections, the A round also mainly relied on Lu Zhengyao's connections.

The A round of financing was mainly from Hillhouse Capital, Joy Capital and Legend Capital.

Among them, the name Hillhouse Capital may sound a little unfamiliar. Similarly, when China Auto Rental wanted to be listed on the Nasdaq, its cash flow was in jeopardy after the failure.

Lu Zhengyao found Li Hui, and Li Hui transferred 200 million yuan to Lu Zhengyao without saying a word. It was the largest single equity investment ever received by the domestic car rental industry at that time.

Later, Luckin Coffee received investments from a series of top investment institutions including CICC and BlackRock Capital.

If Lu Zhengyao had not used his connections to attract initial investment, the Luckin Coffee project would never have been successful if someone else had done it.

Especially after Luckin Coffee was exposed for financial fraud, its major shareholders, Hillhouse Capital and Joy Capital, not only did not pursue the matter, but instead increased its financing by 2.5 million Euros.

He even promised that if there is a need in the future, he could invest another 1.5 million euros.

Judging from this project, it is obvious that people are more important than projects. If it were not for Lu Zhengyao, this project would not have been able to survive to this day.

Of course, Lu Zhengyao and Li Hui later fell out, and Li Hui kicked Lu Zhengyao and his team out of Luckin's board of directors.

Hillhouse Capital became the actual controller of Luckin Coffee, and Lu Zhengyao started a new round of entrepreneurship.

That’s another story.

In equity investment, in the early stages of a project, people are more important than the project. After the project is established, the project itself is more important than people.

Zhu Xiaohu was originally a consultant at McKinsey, and later joined GSR Ventures and became an investor. He has invested in projects such as Ele.me, Didi, and OFO.

The biggest project he missed was ByteDance. He had the opportunity to invest in ByteDance that year, but after talking with Zhang Yiming, Zhu Xiaohu gave up.

In his own words, he could not feel any aggressiveness from Zhang Yiming.

This is early thinking, people are more important than projects.

Shen Nanpeng and the Sequoia Capital behind him reduced their holdings in Meituan and increased their holdings in Shein. It should be noted that Shein's market value was 1000 billion US dollars during the F round of investment.

This is why when a project reaches its later stages of development, the project becomes more important than people.

By the way, Shen Nanpeng also rejected Zhang Yiming back then.

Therefore, the significance of offline summits lies in this, which is to provide entrepreneurs with a channel to meet investors offline.

If the investors you know are optimistic about you and your project, you may receive angel investment or life-saving funds.

If Lu Zhengyao had not received 200 million yuan in financing from Li Hui, UCAR would never have been able to return to the Hong Kong stock market for listing.

Of course, maybe Lenovo will save him.

State-owned enterprises will be subject to many constraints when making equity investments, while private capital has an inherent initiative in angel rounds and early financing.

Back then, Kechuang Bio was able to obtain Series B financing from Bocom Capital because its business model and business path were so clear.

"Zheng Li couldn't tell that you weren't nervous at all and performed well.

I was prepared for you to be nervous." Li Miaomiao joked after Zheng Li finished his opening speech.

At this point, the work in Geneva has been completed, so Zheng Li can focus his main energy on Wuzhen.

Now that he has cancelled the AI's takeover, Zheng Li replied: "Why should I be nervous about reading from a script?"

Li Miaomiao: “Then why do you speak via remote video at every annual meeting?

Since you won’t be nervous, you might as well come directly to the annual meeting.

I thought you had social phobia, that’s why you never came to the annual meeting.”

Zheng Li replied: "Because it is not necessary. The annual meeting is supposed to be a relaxing occasion. If I were there, you would feel uncomfortable."

Li Miaomiao said helplessly: "Well, you are the boss, you can do whatever you want."

"What you said just now was very good, and the audience's response was also very enthusiastic. I heard Ma Huateng next to me saying that you are pragmatic."

"You can go back and take a rest now. There will be a conversation this afternoon between you and Musk."

At the beginning of his business, Zheng Li was hailed as China's Iron Man by overseas media. Later, as Ke Chuang Bio's influence grew, similar statements were rarely mentioned again.

But both sides are still regarded as the most dazzling entrepreneurs in China and America of this era.

It is rare for both of them to attend the Wuzhen Summit this time.

Therefore, after soliciting opinions from both parties in the afternoon of the first day, the organizer planned to hold a summit dialogue.

Taking into account that in case the atmosphere is very tense, a softener will be needed to calm the atmosphere at that time, so the organizer specially invited a well-known Chinese female host to host the event.

No host can refuse a conversation of this level.

“Dear guests, friends, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome to the Internet Leaders Summit Dialogue of the World Internet Conference.

I am the host of this event**.

I am very happy that we are gathered here today. Everyone here should have felt the same way about the changes that the Internet has brought to our lives.

In recent years, the industrial Internet has developed at an astonishing speed, and more and more Internet companies have penetrated into the manufacturing industry to empower our manufacturing industry.

China and even the world are undergoing a transformation towards industrial intelligence.

First of all, please allow me to introduce to you the guests of this Internet Leaders Summit Dialogue, Mr. Zheng Li, Chairman of Kechuang Biotechnology, and Mr. Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

We sincerely welcome these two outstanding entrepreneurs.

I also hope that during the conversation later, the two of you can express your opinions and fully exchange your views on the Industrial Internet.

In the process of communication, sparks of wisdom are generated.”

A similar leadership summit was held before, but that was in 14.

That leadership summit was attended by Ali Ma, Robin Li, Zhang Chaoyang, Dong Zi and Lei Jun.

On the American side, they are the chairmen of Qualcomm, Thomson Reuters, and LinkedIn, as well as the vice president of Apple.

It is obvious from the conversations of that session that Robin Li was the least sensitive to mobile Internet.

Zhang Chaoyang was more sensitive than him. At that time, Sohu's mobile news app was already using a news push mechanism similar to Toutiao.

“It’s great to meet Mr. Zheng. We have hoped to meet him many times before.

Two years ago, I wanted to arrange a meeting with Mr. Zheng through Tesla, but I never had the chance. "

Musk has always had a close relationship with China. Tesla's Shenhai Super Factory has an annual output of nearly one million units.

This is roughly the total amount of Tesla’s global deliveries in 2021.

Later, Tesla established another super factory in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Musk has also attended previous Wuzhen Summits.

At the World New Energy Vehicle Congress held in China, Mike also delivered a speech via remote video conference.

“It’s a rare opportunity to meet Mr. Zheng today, and I have a few questions I would like to ask you.

There is both competition and cooperation between my company and Mr. Zheng's company.

First of all, how do you see the future development of brain-computer interface technology? "

In fact, Musk has always been concerned about the fact that Ke Chuang Biotechnology is far ahead in brain-computer connection technology.

If Ke Chuang Biotechnology had not made brain-computer connection technology so mature, he could have hyped related concepts for many years.

Instead of him just hyping up some brain-computer connection technology, netizens would use Ke Chuang Biotechnology to suppress him.

For example, Musk publicly announced that he had uploaded his brain to the cloud and was talking to a virtual version of himself.

Netizens' comments are all, "If you are so talented, why haven't you figured out how to connect a brain to a mobile phone? My brain is still using Kechuang Bio's brain-computer connection technology to control my phone."

This happened in 2022, when Neuralink's brain-computer interface mobile phone was not yet available.

In fact, Musk's so-called uploading of the brain to the cloud is nothing more than uploading EEG signal data.

Then talk to the virtual version of yourself, and the technical content is not as high as the media exaggerates.

It's just an AI personality cultivated through natural language processing technology and deep learning, using Musk's public speeches.

Microsoft's XiaoIce is much more valuable than Musk's own virtual version.

It’s just that Musk is well versed in the art of hype and knows what the media and netizens like to see.

But with Zheng Li and Ke Chuang Bio, it will be unlikely for him to hype brain-computer connection technology again.

With benchmark companies, your hype will be subject to many restrictions.

Zheng Li replied: "Brain-computer connection technology is a tool for connecting humans and the world in the future.

At first, we connected to the world through computers, and later through mobile phones.

In the not-too-distant future, we will use brain-computer connection technology to directly connect the brain and everything in the world.

I think in the future the brain will be connected to a variety of devices and sensors in our offices, homes, and individuals.

Brain-computer connection devices are increasingly becoming a part of human beings and becoming your best assistant.

Various smart devices have been very popular over the years.

Whether it is VR or AR, there has been a lack of a key connection point before, which can meet one small application scenario after another and achieve a penetrating breakthrough.

For example, AR glasses. Previous AR glasses relied on eye capture technology to achieve control, which resulted in a high error rate in operation.

However, if we use Ke Chuang Bio's brain-computer connection technology, AR glasses will be much more convenient.

In the second half of this year, the brain-computer connected AR glasses that we are collaborating on with Apple, Huawei and Dami will be released.

Everyone can look forward to it.

Brain-computer connection technology will penetrate into more fields, not just consumer electronics.

Including the industrial VR that we cooperated with Huawei this year, the industrial VR that we cooperated with Dami will soon be launched at the Dami Automobile factory.

In the upcoming CNSA's second moon landing this year, the robot they will bring will also use our brain-computer connection technology.

Astronauts use brain-computer connection technology to directly use their brains to control robots, explore the moon and perform some basic work.

Brain-computer connection technology will become more and more popular in the future.

We have plans to release a mid-to-low-end brain-computer VR this year to lower the price of brain-computer VR.

Let more consumers enjoy the happiness brought by brain-computer connection technology.

At the same time, we will use brain-computer connection technology to deeply integrate with the manufacturing industry.

If any of the entrepreneurs here have good ideas, they can communicate with our relevant staff.”

Musk didn't even give the host a chance to speak. He just continued to ask:
"Mr. Zheng, I agree with you.

Neuralink, my brain-computer connection company, has always aimed to enable people to connect directly to machines.

I think we have room for cooperation in many areas.

The following questions may be a little abrupt.”

(End of this chapter)