I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 628 Financing Secured with a Single Phone Call

"reason?"

"They said they had some financial problems, so they were preparing to withdraw from this round of financing."

"How much did Sina Weibo invest this time?" Fang Qingye asked as they walked.

"1.3."

Fang Qingye snorted coldly: "Sina Weibo, a prestigious company with an annual revenue of 3.3 million US dollars, can't even come up with 1.3 million RMB? What a joke!"

“Yes, we suspect it’s related to the lawsuit filed against us by Huacheng Daily. We’re worried that if we lose the case, ByteDance’s operations will be affected. After all, if Huacheng Daily wins, it will create a domino effect, and the Toutiao brand will be finished!” Zhang Yimin said anxiously.

He didn't say the last sentence.

If Toutiao (Today's Headlines) is gone, then ByteDance is gone too!
ByteDance doesn't have Douyin (TikTok) short videos now; it relies on Toutiao (Today's Headlines) and other text-based content such as Neihan Duanzi (Intriguing Jokes).

As they talked, they entered the elevator and arrived at the chairman's office on the third floor.

Although Fang Qingye doesn't work here, he still has his own office space.

The heating inside is very strong; it seems it was turned on a while ago.

Fang Qingye had just sat down and hadn't even taken a sip of tea when her phone rang. She saw that it was Shen Nanpeng calling, so she answered it without thinking.

"Chairman Fang, have you arrived in Yanjing?" Shen Nanpeng asked on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, it's the ByteDance shareholders' meeting, Mr. Shen, aren't you coming?" Fang Qingye asked.

"I've been a bit busy lately, so our company's Vice President Liu is coming over."

"Oh"

"Chairman Fang, how are you handling the lawsuit between ByteDance and Huacheng Daily?" Shen Nanpeng asked, changing the subject.

"This is also the problem I came to Yanjing to solve, President Shen. Are you worried?" Fang Qingye asked with a smile.

"It would be a lie to say I'm not worried. The outcome of this lawsuit will affect ByteDance's future development potential. I hope Chairman Fang will proceed with caution."

"Your Sequoia China won't withdraw from this round of financing, will it?" Fang Qingye asked casually.

On the other end of the phone, Shen Nanpeng laughed heartily after hearing the news: "That won't happen. But if we fail this time, I think it will be much more difficult for ByteDance to raise funds again later."

"Thanks for the reminder, goodbye!" Fang Qingye said and hung up the phone.

Fang Qingye was watching on speakerphone, so Zhang Yimin, who was sitting next to her, could hear the conversation very clearly.

"What should we do?" Zhang Yimin seemed somewhat at a loss. "Should we hold the shareholders' meeting?"

Zhang Yimin is not considering the lawsuit for the time being; her priority is financing!

Sina Weibo suddenly launched this round of financing, failing to achieve its original plan of 15 billion RMB.

"Why aren't you opening it?" Fang Qingye asked in return.

"The shareholders were all notified to come to Yanjing. Did they really trick them into making a trip in this freezing weather?"

"But."

"Don't worry." Fang Qingye picked up her phone from the table, dialed a number, and quickly connected.

"Mr. Zhu, I am Fang Qingye."

"When we were at my nursery a while ago, you mentioned you were interested in ByteDance and wanted to invest. There's still some funding available in this round of financing. Mr. Zhu, would you be willing to invest?"

"The reason is this: Sina Weibo temporarily withdrew." Fang Qingye briefly explained the whole story.

"I will handle the lawsuit with Huacheng Daily properly, and it will not affect ByteDance's future development."

"Okay, thank you. I'll treat you to dinner once I'm done with my business."

"You're too kind. I should be the one treating you."

"Okay, I'll contact you then. Goodbye."

Fang Qingye hung up the phone and saw Zhang Yimin looking at him expectantly. He smiled and said, "It's all settled. Someone wants to invest 1.3 million." Zhang Yimin immediately perked up: "Which organization?"

China International Capital Corporation (CICC)

"CICC?!"

Zhang Yimin was stunned. She hadn't expected to contact the renowned CICC!
It's a national-level event.

"Alright, let's go to the conference room and have a meeting first. Let's call Liang Rubo and Wang Yu over." Fang Qingye said, standing up.

ByteDance's top executives quickly gathered in the conference room.

CEO Zhang Yimin, COO Liang Rubo, CFO Wang Yu, CTO Hong Dingkun, CPO (Chief Product Officer) Zhang Nan.

"I have some good news to share with everyone." It was Zhang Yimin who said: "Chairman Fang has covered the 1.3 million yuan shortfall in Sina Weibo's exit financing, and CICC has decided to invest."

This is wonderful news!
Everyone wore a happy expression.

The boss is truly amazing; he found a royal flush right off the bat!

China International Capital Corporation (CICC).

Nowadays, it's not enough for organizations to just have money; they also need to bring in traffic and resources!
“Rubo, CICC will contact you later,” Fang Qingye said. “Let’s get down to business, which is how to deal with the lawsuits filed by the Huacheng Daily and the Beijing News.”

"Before I talk about that, let me mention something else." Fang Qingye looked at everyone: "I met a friend in the government department recently, and he told me that the country is currently drafting guiding documents on how to balance the interests between traditional media and emerging media!"

Fang Qingye briefly recounted Director Zhou's words, concluding, "Therefore, our copyright dispute with the *Huacheng Daily* is related to the future of ByteDance and even the entire industry! We must resolve this properly!"

Zhang Yimin was stunned when she heard this.

This puts even more pressure on us.

He felt a heavy weight on his heart.

"I believe technology is innocent!" Someone spoke up, breaking the silence in the meeting room. Hong Dingkun, the company's chief technology officer, was responsible for algorithm optimization, supporting Toutiao's personalized distribution system.

A Tsinghua University computer science graduate, a typical STEM guy, wearing a plaid shirt and black-rimmed glasses, he seemed a little agitated.

"We simply use web crawlers to obtain publicly available data and then use neural network NLP models to summarize and reorganize the information. I don't believe this is plagiarism!"

“But Dingkun, you can say that to us, but in court, the judge doesn’t care what algorithm you use. He only looks at the result, and what he sees is the whole article about original content without authorization!” Liang Rubo said.

“I think Hong Dingkun has a point. We can’t look at modern technology with old eyes. More importantly, this content is distributed to readers for free,” Zhang Nan said.

"But."

Fang Qingye remained silent. It seemed that this kind of argument had happened more than once or twice, and neither of them could convince the other.

"Let me share my thoughts," Zhang Yi said finally. "I've discussed it with my colleagues in the legal department and consulted with well-known lawyers in Beijing. Based on the current evidence, our chances of winning are no more than 30%."

"Therefore, going to court is not very meaningful."

"What's your opinion?" Fang Qingye asked.

"My suggestion is that if the lawsuit is hopeless, we should simply shut down Toutiao and transform into tool-type products, such as algorithm development and training platforms similar to Google Colab, or automated machine learning tools like DataRobot, or even algorithm deployment and inference optimization tools like ONNX Runtime, etc."

"Algorithms are ByteDance's strength. If we can stay ahead in the technology field, it is also a good way out."

Everyone understood what Zhang Yimin meant.

It's like ByteDance used to run restaurants, but now it's closed down and no longer offers a variety of delicious foods. Instead, it offers various ways to cook food!
this.
"I object!" said Wang Yu.

"According to your logic, you're turning ByteDance, a content-producing company, into a pure technology company. Just like you mentioned, algorithm development and training platforms, algorithm deployment and inference optimization, etc. But these areas are already monopolized by large foreign companies like Google and DataRobot. How can our products stand out? I dare say that if we transform like this, the company will never have another round of financing!"

"What do these investors see in ByteDance? They see in our unique content distribution model! If you don't do it, someone else will!"

Wang Yu's words silenced everyone.

Yes
ByteDance's original algorithm is indeed very impressive, but in terms of value creation and profit, it is precisely the advertising revenue generated by that content that matters!
If a company retreats from the front lines and relies solely on selling technology, can it truly generate substantial profits?
At least not now.

Everyone turned their attention to Fang Qingye, who hadn't said a word.

(End of this chapter)