Since they are reborn, they must be supported by the school beauties.

Chapter 201 Optimal Solution of IDG
This revamp of Renren.com gave Tencent the impression that it was well-funded.

But what they didn't know was that the underlying architecture of the campus network was to use P2P as much as possible, which meant allowing users to transmit data directly to each other as much as possible.

Given that most internet companies are tightening their belts to survive, a well-funded campus network like Renren poses a significant threat to Tencent.

Compared to many internet companies, Tencent was among the first to become profitable.

Since its value-added paid services began, its profit model has gradually become clear.

However, at this stage, Tencent was just at the point where it could be self-sufficient. If its revenue increased further, it would make money; if its costs increased further, it would lose money.

For them, one of the biggest costs right now is servers and bandwidth.

The reason they dare to launch video chat and QQ Show services next year is mainly because they raised another round of funding from MIH this year. The whole team is focused on one goal: to roll up their sleeves and move forward in 2003, and strive to go public in 2004.

To their surprise, a newly established campus network had already demonstrated a diversified product ecosystem before they could.

For a time, the Tencent team also had some doubts about themselves, wondering whether suspending the development of QQ Show was the right or wrong decision.

The alumni network they were focusing on developing would be online soon, but now Renren.com has undergone product iteration and launched a product that they haven't even been able to implement yet.

So, will the alumni website continue to be developed and launched as planned, or will the product plan be adjusted and further developed?
The entire team was at a loss at that moment.

Continue development and launch; it should be ready by next week.

However, it has no advantage over the school's intranet.

The redevelopment and relaunch will likely be delayed by at least another month.

In that month, Renren.com's dominance has likely been solidified, and even if it launches new products, it may not be able to shake its user base.

Finally, the boss made the final decision during the conference call: "Never mind that, the alumni website must go live next week! Only by going live will we have a chance to win."

Their product manager came up with an idea. He said on the phone, "After the alumni website goes live, I suggest we launch a promotional campaign as soon as possible to quickly guide all QQ users to the alumni website and complete their registration, activation, and information filling."

The boss asked him, "What specific ideas do you have?"

The product manager said, "I think we can send a message through QQ to inform all users who register for the alumni network that they can get a one-month QQ membership as long as they complete the registration and information. In the next version of QQ, we can also iterate and add an entry point for the alumni network."

The boss said, "Giving away memberships is indeed a good idea. As long as there are real benefits, users will definitely come. Even if they only want a one-month membership, they will definitely register for the alumni network. As long as they register, we don't have to worry about them not using it!"

Then, the boss continued with great enthusiasm, "Let's give them a one-month membership first to get them to register. After they register, we'll give them another one-month membership so they can start playing. They can earn points by adding friends, uploading photos, and posting statuses. Once they accumulate a certain number of points, they can redeem more memberships!"

The operations manager said with some concern, "Our main revenue comes from advertising and memberships. If we give away too much membership time, it will inevitably affect our revenue in the fourth quarter of this year. If, as you just said, we give away one month for registration and continue to give away more for using the service, it will be November soon. If we give away two months, no one will pay to become a member in the next two months."

The boss said calmly, "If sacrificing two months' worth of membership revenue can help build up the alumni network, then it's absolutely worth it. If we can defeat Renren.com, then giving away six months' worth of memberships is no problem. Anyway, we have the funds now and can handle it!"

The fact that the internet industry is not limited by geographical boundaries means that every internet company wants to dominate the market, and Tencent is no exception.

Its strategic goal is to become the dominant player in the domestic social networking field. Although Xiaonei.com did not develop a client and did not use instant messaging as its selling point, its extensibility in the social networking field is in no way inferior to QQ. This is the core reason why Tencent wants to imitate, surpass, or even replace it.

In the boss's eyes, acquiring Xiaonei.com is definitely the company's top priority for development. Because acquiring it will not only eliminate a competitor, but also allow him to take over everything the competitor has, making his alumni network a powerful tool for QQ.

From 2000 until the emergence of WeChat, Tencent's main development direction was to continuously upgrade QQ.

Based on QQ, products such as QQ Mail, QQ Music, QQ Games, QQ Zone, QQ Alumni, and Tencent.com have been developed, continuously enhancing QQ's status and irreplaceability.
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That evening, the many new features of Renren.com received unanimous praise from users.

Member visitor records are very popular with both men and women, and the campus show is something everyone enjoys immensely.

The song that has garnered the most attention is actually "You Exist in My Song".

In the fishpond, everyone was discussing this song and searching for its origin.

Everyone could hear that the background music was just an incomplete snippet, so the first question everyone was discussing was, where can we hear the full version?

The second question is, who is the original singer of this song?

The third question is, why have I never heard of such a beautiful song before?

The fourth question is, this song can't be found anywhere online, so where did Renren find it? Could it be that he owns it exclusively? Seeing that everyone was so interested in this song, Chen Cheng posted a message on the official account.

In his statement, he clarified that the copyright of this song belongs exclusively to Xiaonei.com, and also stated that the full version of the song cannot be released for the time being to prevent piracy.

In addition, he stated in his statement that more exclusive background music from Renren.com will be released in the future, so please stay tuned.

I immediately called Liu Shiyu and told her, "Teacher Liu, the song you sang has become a hit!"

Liu Shiyu had been paying attention to Renren.com. After the song was released, she saw that many people were discussing it. She even went to the forums of several music academies and found that everyone had a high opinion of the song. Both the song and the singing were impeccable, which made her feel excited.

She made no attempt to hide her joy, laughing as she said, "It's mainly because your song is so good; anyone who sings it will make it a hit."

"That's not how it works."

Chen Cheng laughed and said, "No matter how good a song is, it still needs a good singer to perform it. I plan to release two more songs on the first of next month, one is 'The Best Arrangement' and the other is 'Say Goodbye When You Want', how about that?"

Liu Shiyu smiled and said, "No problem. I've contacted my classmates. The instrumental tracks for 'Say Goodbye When It' and 'Decent' will be ready tomorrow."
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Li Dong, who works at IDG, has been keeping a close eye on Renren.com since he left Jiangcheng.

When he saw Renren.com begin public testing of its membership and Renren Show features, he realized something: Chen Cheng's Renren.com was about to start generating a stable cash flow.

Cash flow is extremely important for a startup.

Investing in such a company is like investing in an oil extraction company.

Before oil is extracted, all investments are fraught with uncertainty.

But once the black oil begins to gush from the ground, the company's prospects will change dramatically.

Renren.com has over three million registered users. If 10% of them are members, that would be 300,000 people.

With 300,000 employees, the monthly cash flow would be 3 million.

Even if only 5% of people become members, that would still amount to 1.5 million per month.

This doesn't even include the school's internal showcase.

He calculated that to put together a complete and attractive outfit for the school's fashion show, it would probably cost between fifteen and twenty yuan.

However, the virtual products purchased with this money only have a six-month validity period.

Therefore, Campus Show will be another source of income that can continuously generate value.

Once this cash flow stabilizes, Xiaonei.com's valuation will inevitably increase exponentially.

Given that the valuation of Xiaonei.com was definitely beyond his control, he planned to submit the project to his boss first thing tomorrow morning so that his boss could talk to Chen Cheng and try to complete the first investment as soon as possible.

On Monday morning, Li Dong arrived at the company and attended the Monday morning meeting as usual.

During the morning meeting, he said to his boss and other team members, "I would like to report to you on an investment target that I am personally following, a social networking site called Xiaonei.com."

The average age of the members of Li Dong's team is nearly thirty, belonging to the older user group that Renren.com has not yet penetrated much.

When he mentioned Renren.com, the other team members were still clueless, waiting for Li Dong to explain what made Renren.com different.

Unexpectedly, after hearing about Xiaonei.com, the team leader immediately said, "I've already taken a look at this website. I also talked to Mr. Ma from Tencent yesterday. I think that at this stage, we shouldn't consider whether to invest in this website. For us, the best scenario is not to invest in Tencent and then invest in Xiaonei.com, but to invest in a Tencent that already has Xiaonei.com."

Li Dong asked instinctively, "Boss, do you mean you want to facilitate Tencent's acquisition of Xiaonei.com?"

"No."

The team leader waved his hand and casually said, "Acquiring Xiaonei.com is not very meaningful because Xiaonei.com doesn't have any core technology. Its architecture is actually quite simple. It's just an ordinary web page product. With Tencent's R&D capabilities, it would only take them ten days to replicate it. We currently hold 7.2% of Tencent's shares, so we should bet our money on Tencent."

“If we invest in Xiaonei.com now, we will not only have to set aside extra money for Xiaonei.com, but it may also affect Tencent’s valuation.”

"But if Tencent can create its own Xiaonei.com and then kill the current Xiaonei.com, we won't need to invest a single penny, which would be equivalent to owning an additional 7.2% of Xiaonei.com's shares. This would be the optimal solution for us."

(End of this chapter)