Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 443 A desperate battle!
Chen Dan's sudden visit was clearly on orders from Tencent's top management.

However, his arrival at this time seems to be completely ill-timed.

Cheng Yi is still conflicted about how to handle Tencent.

He now faces two choices: one is to completely eliminate Tencent, and the other is to bring Tencent under his control and combine QQ and Momo.

Cheng Yi values ​​these people from Tencent, after all, they are a team that has a history of success.

Moreover, Momo Group is currently lacking a technical team.

During this period, he allowed the campus network to develop unchecked, hoping to bring Tencent into the game.

He disliked protracted battles; once a business war dragged on, it would be a lose-lose situation for both sides. Therefore, he wanted to resolve the matter quickly and decisively.

The current problem for Tencent is a severe shortage of funds. Once they run out of money and use up all their tricks, their problem will be solved.

Soon, Cheng Yi rushed back to Momo Group from Handong University and warmly received Chen Dan.

Chen Dan has an ordinary appearance, the typical image of a science and engineering man.

Upon seeing Cheng Yi enter the VIP room, Chen Dan quickly stood up and said, "Hello, Mr. Cheng."

"President Chen, I've heard so much about you. Hello, hello." Cheng Yi quickly stepped forward and shook hands with Chen Dan, smiling, "Why didn't you let me know you were coming? I could have sent a car to pick you up."

Cheng Yi's reaction made Chen Dan feel flattered.

Chen Dan said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'm so sorry, I came in such a hurry that I didn't get a chance to contact your company beforehand."

"Mr. Chen, you're being too polite. We're all in the campus industry, so we're practically family," Cheng Yi said with a genuine smile.

Looking at Cheng Yi's innocent smile, Chen Dan always felt that this Cheng Yi was not quite the same as the one in the rumors.

According to rumors, Cheng Yi is a vindictive, cunning, and utterly shameless person.

Chen Dan couldn't sense any of these qualities in Cheng Yi. He only felt that Cheng Yi was a very pure person, without the rough and uncouth air of those internet tycoons.

It seems that outsiders have a lot of prejudice against Cheng Yi.

Chen Dan works in administration, and he is quite confident in his ability to judge people.

Whether a person is cunning or hypocritical, he can usually tell with a very good degree of accuracy just by taking a quick look.

He was certain that the admiration and excitement in Cheng Yi's eyes when he looked at him were not feigned.

Besides, Cheng Yi doesn't need to pretend.

He's the vice president of Momo Group, a company with assets worth tens of billions, and one of the three most powerful figures in the group.

Why be so eager to meet with such insignificant people from a small company like theirs?
This was the first time Chen Dan had been treated this way. The feeling of being so respected by a big shot was truly wonderful.

Cheng Yi said, "Mr. Chen, I've booked a hotel. Let's eat and chat."

"Isn't it unnecessary?" Chen Dan hadn't yet recovered from being flattered.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "President Chen, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Let's do as the Romans do. Come on, let me show you some of the famous dishes of Jingzhou City."

After saying that, Cheng Yi pulled Chen Dan outside the company building without further ado.

Seeing the license plate number of Cheng Yi's Audi sedan, Chen Dan's heart skipped a beat again.

This license plate must be worth at least several million, right?
It has to be said that Tencent is simply incomparable to Momo.

Cheng Yi invited Chen Dan into the car, and they soon arrived at the Handong Hotel.

Cheng Yi didn't invite anyone to this luncheon; it was just him and Chen Dan.

Because there were only two people, the dishes were extremely exquisite.

Cheng Yi poured Chen Dan a glass of red wine and said with a smile, "President Chen, you must have come here with some mission, right? Why don't we talk about business first?"

Chen Dan hesitated for a moment before speaking frankly: "To be honest, our group sent me here mainly to talk to President Cheng and see if we can cooperate to merge Xiaonei.com and Campus Network, and then conduct valuation and financing. We have reviewed Xiaonei.com's financial statements, and recently, the growth rate of Xiaonei.com has been very slow."

For some reason, facing Cheng Yi's sincere gaze, Chen Dan unconsciously told the truth.

After all, Cheng Yi's gaze towards him even held a hint of admiration.

That look in her eyes made Chen Dan unable to bring herself to do anything secretive.

"I see." Cheng Yi wasn't angry after hearing this. He clinked glasses with Chen Dan and laughed, "Most of these campus industries are like those that work eight days and rest four days. How can they be valued and raised funds? Oh, I think I understand now. It must be Shengda helping you raise funds, right?"

Cheng Yi pointed out Shengda, and Chen Dan's expression became somewhat unnatural as she said, "It's an investment bank in Zhonghai City. They're very interested in campus networks."

"If they were really interested in this industry, they should have come to our school's intranet to talk to us first, right?" Cheng Yi chuckled, took a sip of red wine, and smiled, "Perhaps, let me guess the purpose of your trip?"

After finishing his red wine, Cheng Yi looked directly at Chen Dan.

Meeting Cheng Yi's gaze, Chen Dan said, "President Cheng, please tell me."

"If I'm not mistaken, you've come here to show off to me, right?" Cheng Yi laughed. "After all, your market share has surpassed ours. Taking the initiative to visit us is also to demonstrate your Tencent Group's confidence in this battle. I reckon when you go back this time, all the major newspapers will publish news about Tencent Group executives visiting Momo and Xiaonei.com, right?"

"Even if the content of the conversation is not explicitly stated, many people will be able to visualize the specific scenes in their minds."

“That’s the idea.” Chen Dan nodded slowly and said, “But the reason I came here this time is indeed to talk to President Cheng about the alliance. This Xiaonei.com is practically your personal company. If we really start burning money to compete, even if Momo Group invests in you, we still have to go through the normal procedures, right? But if Momo Group invests in you, your shares will be diluted to a large extent.”

“Our conditions are very simple. If we join forces, the valuation will definitely reach 30 to 50 billion. Once we get the valuation, we will start the first round of financing,” Chen Dan said. “The way the internet works is to keep raising funds and keep making the pie bigger. The era of starting a business by investing your own money is over.”

Chen Dan spoke casually, as if she were telling a story.

He took a piece of paper from his briefcase and said, "This is the financial data proof from the investment bank led by Shengda Group, we..."

"It doesn't matter what it is." Cheng Yi smiled at Chen Dan and said, "President Chen, do you know why I invited you to dinner?"

"?" Chen Dan didn't understand what Cheng Yi meant.

Cheng Yi smiled and said, "I'm treating you to dinner because I consider you my future colleague."

"What did you say?" Chen Dan wondered if she had misheard.

He originally wanted to tell Cheng Yi about the strength of the Zhonghai Consortium, and then plant a seed in Cheng Yi's mind to sell the already loss-making Xiaonei.com for a good price.

When two tigers fight, one will surely be injured. If two campus social networking websites continue to exist on a university campus, it will be difficult for either of them to meet the requirements of capital.

Cheng Yi held up two fingers and said confidently, "I think highly of you, so I'll be frank with you. Your campus network will definitely go bankrupt within two months. If you choose to make the tough decision to abandon the campus network, Tencent will still have a glimmer of hope. But if you stubbornly cling to the campus network, Tencent will be finished." This time, Cheng Yi chose to play his hand outright.

After all, this hand is a winning hand no matter how it's played. So why not use a mix of truth and falsehood to keep Tencent guessing?

Before coming, Chen Dan did a lot of research. He analyzed everything from Renren.com's financial reports to Tencent's financial reports and Shengda's financial reports. He even carefully analyzed the drawbacks of the campus industry, all to warn Cheng Yi to know how to make choices.

But now, before he could even put his skills to use, Cheng Yi had already opted for an open-book exam, letting them choose first.

Since Cheng Yi had already said so much, Chen Dan couldn't say anything more.

After a dull and unappetizing meal, Chen Dan made an excuse to leave Jingzhou City.

This time, Cheng Yi truly left him with an unforgettable and profound impression.

"Did he really say that?" After hearing Chen Dan's retelling, Ma Huateng was not angry. He sat silently on the sofa with his brows furrowed.

This is troublesome.

That's the vice president of Momo Group. If he could say those things, he must have something to rely on.

He sent Chen Dan to investigate, but the answer he received was something he couldn't bear.

The only option now is to contact Shengda as soon as possible.

On the third day after Chen Dan returned to Shenxia City, Renren.com finally made its move.

Momo's virtual item trading website has launched a new service: QQ item top-up.

You can enjoy a 50% discount when purchasing QQ items on the Momo Virtual Items Trading Website.

A QQ Show item that costs 10 Q coins can be had for only 5 yuan on Momo's virtual item trading website.

The service had only been available for a few days when the popularity of Momo's virtual item trading website began to surge.

QQ's user base is no less than that of Legend of Mir, especially after QQ added QQ Games Hall, which further secured its place in the gaming field. With the advantage of its large user base, they have even gone toe-to-toe with Lianzhong Games.

In order to crush Lianzhong Games as quickly as possible, they specifically opened a somewhat illegal function: the function of exchanging game beans for QQ coins.

Players who win game beans in the QQ Games lobby can choose to exchange them for Q coins, and then convert the Q coins into cash through a third-party website.

It was this method that caused the number of users of QQ Games Hall to surge.

However, this move by Renren.com effectively impacted the businesses of three companies: QQ Games Hall, Shengda Game Equipment Trading Network, and QQ Campus Network.

The devaluation of Q coins by half not only blocked the official channels for selling Q coins from Tencent, but also greatly damaged the interests of QQ Games Hall players.

Suddenly, the crowd was excited.

“I knew they would use this tactic. How naive.” Chen Tianqiao sat in his executive chair, threw the documents in his hand onto the desk, and laughed. “They overlooked the core of currency wars: with enough funds, all devalued currencies can be saved.”

Chen Tianqiao took out paper and pen and wrote an order himself. He handed the order to his secretary and said, "First, notify the board of directors, then have the finance department allocate funds to stabilize the price of Q coins as quickly as possible."

"Yes."

Once Shengda entered the market, the price of Q coins, which were originally 50 cents each, quickly rose, and the price of loose coins in the market returned to 85 cents each.

With the price of Q coins stabilizing, Tencent has finally weathered the crisis.

With Shengda backing it up, Tencent no longer had any reservations and increased its promotional efforts on campuses.

They keep giving away QQ coins by recruiting new users, giving away QQ coins by completing tasks, and giving away QQ coins by playing QQ Farm.

Meanwhile, Renren.com keeps using points to buy back Q coins, which are then sold through Momo Virtual Item Trading Network.

Finally, Shengda sent people to buy up all the Q coins to stabilize their price.

Gradually, the staff of Renren.com removed the Momo virtual item trading website from their contacts and directly contacted the staff of Shengda, with both parties conducting transactions face-to-face.

After the two parties had been trading for half a month, an absurd idea popped into Chen Tianqiao's mind.

Could it be that Ma Huateng and Cheng Yi conspired to swindle money from Shengda?

However, seeing the campus network's market share gradually increase, Chen Tianqiao abandoned this absurd idea.

After all, he didn't spend all that money for nothing; every penny he transferred was converted into shares.

Since helping Tencent maintain the price of Q coins, Shengda has invested a total of 230 million yuan, which has also given them a 21% stake in QQ Campus Network.

QQ Campus Network has a market share of 62%. According to the valuation standards of the capital market, QQ Campus Network targets 10 million college students with high-quality spending power. Assuming that each college student spends 100 yuan per month, that would generate 600 million yuan in revenue per month.

College students are all naive and innocent; it's too easy to get money out of their pockets.

If user engagement is achieved, QQ Campus Network will be a cash cow.

As for the nightmare of having four months of vacation every year, that's acceptable; it just means a few months less income.

At this time, Ma Huateng also began to suspect that Shengda was colluding with Xiaonei.com to steal their QQ Campus Network shares.

The fact that Shengda and Momo's staff met to trade Q coins had already spread throughout the internet industry.

After careful consideration, Ma Huateng decided to abandon the market rescue plan and let Shengda continue investing. Shengda would soon become a major shareholder of QQ Campus Network.

Besides, it doesn't matter if the price of Q coins drops. Once we capture the campus market, the Q coin market will naturally recover.

The best course of action now is to go all out to completely squeeze out the campus network market.

During this period, QQ Campus Network did not only conduct on-the-ground promotions. They also launched QQ Points and partnered with supermarkets in various universities to offer various discount services, attempting to replace Momo Points' position in universities as much as possible.

In an effort to challenge Momo's advantage of offering free internet access with points, they partnered with the National Internet Cafe Federation to launch a QQ points-based internet access program in many internet cafes near universities.

However, their method was much more primitive. Since they did not have the Momo membership system, they could only allow users to redeem one-hour and three-hour internet access coupons on QQ Campus Network. After redeeming, they would receive a card number, which they would then record and redeem at a designated internet cafe.

After the verification is completed, Tencent will settle accounts with these internet cafes.

This process is complicated, but since it's free, people are generally quite tolerant of things that are free.

Many discerning people can see that this time, the penguin is really going all out.

Because they chose the most difficult path.

The last stand!
(End of this chapter)