Restart life

Chapter 152 0149 [I Have Many Plans] (Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader BRL)

Lin Dongliang was accompanied by a woman named He Fang, who was not yet thirty years old and was the investment manager he had brought with him.

In this situation, either this woman is incredibly capable, or she has powerful connections.

For example, if the parents have extensive resources, they can send their daughter to study at a prestigious foreign university, intern at an investment institution while she is still in school, and then return to China to participate in investment projects after graduation.

"This is Mr. Lin Dongliang, Partner of IDG China, and this is Ms. He Fang, Investment Manager of IDG China."

Wang Kai introduced the two parties: "Mr. Lin, Ms. He, these two are Chen Guiliang and Guo Feng, the founders of ByteDance."

The four people shook hands and greeted each other.

"Let's go in and take a look," Wang Kai suggested.

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "Please."

The employees had already received the news and were all working diligently, even those who didn't have anything to do were busy doing other things.

Chen Guiliang spent more than ten minutes giving a general introduction to his company.

Following the Series A investment process strictly, today's meeting was an initial contact. If IDG confirms their investment intention, the next step will be to sign a confidentiality agreement, and Chen Guiliang will provide them with detailed information and data.

Then came the initial due diligence, with IDG sending a team to verify the company data provided by Chen Guiliang.

Next came the formal negotiations between the two sides.

Then, a detailed due diligence was conducted to comprehensively examine legal, financial, and business risks.

Finally, the investment agreement is negotiated and closed, the contract is signed, and the capital injection is completed.

However, at this time, the investment partners often do not follow these procedures when investing in projects in China, and seem rather arbitrary.

For example, with MSN last time, at Chen Guiliang's request, he directly stated the investment amount.

"Can I go next door and take a look?" Lin Dongliang asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "Please."

After visiting Game Science again, the woman named He Fang couldn't help but ask, "Has Game Science already become profitable?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Yes."

"How much profit do you make each month from the game 'Three Kingdoms Kill'?" He Fang asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "I'll tell you once you sign the confidentiality agreement."

He Fang then asked, "Why not merge the two companies into one?"

“Game Science focuses on games, while ByteDance handles other businesses,” Chen Guiliang said.

He Fang asked, "Does this mean that ByteDance will not enter the gaming business?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Not necessarily. If ByteDance gets enough funding, I might also acquire a game company."

He Fang stopped talking.

Lin Dongliang said, "Let's find a room to talk."

Wang Kai quickly replied, "There is a reception room on the second floor."

The group then went up to the second floor.

Wang Kai asked everyone about their preferences and had coffee and hot tea brought over.

Lin Dongliang asked, "Mr. Chen, what are your long-term plans for ByteDance and Xiaonei?"

Chen Guiliang said, "We are building a campus social ecosystem around Renren.com, and we will expand it to outside the campus in the future."

“But there are many similar websites. What differentiates you from them?” Lin Dongliang asked.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Mr. Lin, are you referring to the related services of MSN and QQ? QQ Zone, which was in its initial beta testing phase, is a general social networking service, while Renren.com is a real-name, targeted social networking service. As for similar services, I've also encountered two others. One is 5Q Campus Network, which has already been severely damaged. The other is Zhanzuo.com, which is currently making a lot of noise, but its user activity is very low."

He Fang interjected, "What about Sohu Alumni Directory?"

“That’s a product from the last era, I don’t bother talking about it,” Chen Guiliang said, as if realizing he had misspoke. “I’m very sorry, I forgot that IDG is also a shareholder of Sohu.”

Lin Dongliang asked, "Mr. Chen, what is your valuation of Renren.com? Just give me a rough estimate, so I can use it as a reference."

Chen Guiliang countered, "Last year you invested $200 million in Fenbei.com, and I wonder how many shares you acquired. According to standard investment plans, you should have around 20%. Surely Xiaonei.com's valuation isn't lower than Fenbei.com's?"

Lin Dongliang laughed and said, "That's not necessarily true. Fenbei.com's profitability far exceeds that of Xiaonei.com."

“As far as I know, the profitability of legitimate music platforms has always been a concern,” Chen Guiliang asked. “How does Fenbei.com make a profit? Does it rely on copyright infringement? China is ultimately a society governed by the rule of law. Although the relevant laws are not perfect yet, the loopholes will definitely be plugged in less than two years.”

Lin Dongliang smiled, acknowledging this viewpoint, and then turned to Guo Feng to ask, "What would Mr. Guo like to say?"

Guo Feng said, "I'm in charge of the technology."

"What are your thoughts on the technology aspect?" Lin Dongliang asked.

Guo Feng remained uncooperative: "No comment."

After chatting for a while, the conversation ended.

Wang Kai saw them downstairs and then recommended two other projects he had on hand, suggesting that IDG might want to give them a serious consideration.

Lin Dongliang readily agreed, deliberately making it seem as if he hadn't come for Chen Guiliang's sake.

The initial contact before financing might only take ten minutes or so, or it might drag on for a week or two. After taking a stroll around Peking University Science Park, Lin Dongliang politely declined Wang Kai's invitation to dinner: "I have to go to Tsinghua University this afternoon; I have a few projects to look at there too."

Wang Kai could only watch helplessly.

After all, Lin Dongliang did his undergraduate and master's degrees at Tsinghua University.

After leaving Peking University Science Park, the two chose to walk.

As they walked, Lin Dongliang asked, "What do you think?"

He Fang said, "This person is developing ByteDance and Game Science separately, and he keeps promoting ByteDance but doesn't talk much about Game Science. It's obvious that he doesn't want to raise funds for the time being because Three Kingdoms Kill is profitable. I'm afraid that if there are any good game projects in the future, he will let Game Science do them. This means that it will be difficult for ByteDance to make money from games, and without games, the only remaining way to make money is through wireless value-added services."

Lin Dongliang listened attentively as she finished speaking: "I'm asking you, what do you think of these two people?"

He Fang recalled carefully and commented:

"Guo Feng is a typical technical talent, so there's no need to worry about him too much."

"Chen Guiliang is extremely arrogant and confident, and his thinking is very agile. Before coming to Beijing, I collected public information about him. He is extremely good at self-promotion!"

"The author of 'Wolf Totem' has no conflict of interest with him. Just because he wants to ride on the popularity of 'Wolf Totem,' he is attacking the book and the author relentlessly. Now, more and more people are joining the attack, 'Wolf Totem' has become infamous, its sales have continued to decline, and many bookstores have removed 'Wolf Totem' from their bestseller sections. His own 'Those Things of the Ming Dynasty' has actually seen a surge in sales as a result."

"And 5Q Campus Network didn't expose any information about its parent company at all. I don't know how they found out about it, seized on the fact that the other party was making malware, and launched an online army to cripple the opponent in just two days."

"Only three days after the launch of the 'seat-saving website,' Chen Guiliang launched an event on the school's intranet, which completely suppressed the website's massive publicity campaign."

"This person is extremely ruthless, and his attacks are incredibly precise and swift!"

Lin Dongliang laughed and said, "So, he's worth our investment. Just like the founder of Fenbei.com, he's shameless enough to do things, and shamelessness is also a remarkable strength."

IDG's investment in Fenbei.com was very successful. Even if it goes bankrupt and goes out of business one day, it can still acquire the copyrights to a bunch of online songs like "Mice Love Rice" through deception and fraud.

With these copyrighted resources, there's always a company willing to acquire Fenbei.com. As an investor, IDG can receive returns before the founding shareholders, meaning they can make a profit even if the company is sold at a low price.

"So, shall we vote?" He Fang asked.

She is very young, having joined IDG less than six months ago, and this trip is purely to gain experience.

Lin Dongliang said, "You take charge of handling the initial procedures, and I'll take over when it comes to the negotiation stage."

"Thank you, Mr. Lin." He Fang knew that Lin Dongliang was giving her a chance to grow.

……

Outside the ByteDance office.

Ao Yanzhen pulled Chen Guiliang to the stairwell and asked impatiently, "Is IDG really willing to invest?"

“It should be true,” Chen Guiliang said. “He spent two days negotiating with the two projects next door, but only stayed for an hour with us. It’s too obvious; he’s targeting us.”

Ao Yanchen finally came to her senses: "They're deliberately putting us down."

Guo Feng laughed and said, "You're only just realizing that?"

"Fine, fine. You're all smarter, okay?" Ao Yanchen said irritably.

Guo Feng asked, "If we negotiate, how much should we give them? I'm afraid they'll think 10% is too little."

Chen Guiliang said, "Our bottom line is 15%, and we just need enough funds to last us a year and a half. Let's hold off on signing any agreements for now; I want to wait for Facebook to complete its second round of financing."

Ao Yanchen asked, "What if Facebook's funding is delayed until the end of the year? Are we going to have to delay as well? As the number of users increases, the operating costs of Xiaonei.com are getting higher and higher. We can't keep relying on Three Kingdoms Kill to fund our operations, can we?"

"The royalties for the first quarter of 'Those Things of the Ming Dynasty' should be settled soon, which should last us a while longer," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Guo Feng suggested: "In the future, when we provide funding to Renren.com, we can treat it as a loan and repay you after we raise funds."

“Sure,” Chen Guiliang said. “I estimate that Facebook’s second round of financing will be completed soon. Its last round of investment was more than half a year ago. How can those American investors wait? I’ll make a call.”

Ao Yanchen and Guo Feng left together.

Chen Guiliang dialed Tao Chenggang's number: "Brother Gang, how's the game coming along?"

"We've already made a semi-finished product, but there are still many bugs, and we're still debugging various functions," Tao Chenggang said.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Are there still enough funds?"

Tao Chenggang said, "We can hold on for another two or three months."

"Have you contacted Starcom?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tao Chenggang said, "I've looked for her, but I haven't seen Wu Ying in person yet. She's never at the company; she's always flying around the world. Who knows when she'll be back in Hangzhou? I'll have to wait patiently."

“If you need money, once I receive the royalties from ‘Those Things of the Ming Dynasty,’ I will invest a sum of money in my personal capacity,” Chen Guiliang said. “After a while, once my company receives venture capital, I will invest in you in the company’s name.”

"Really?" Tao Chenggang was overjoyed.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Your game is sure to make money and help you through this difficult time. It's only right and proper for me to help."

“Then I’ll wait for you to invest your money.” Tao Chenggang was naturally willing.

After all, it's hard to guarantee success when seeking investment from others.

After hanging up the phone, Tao Chenggang felt pleased, but then his expression turned strange: This kid, when he was in his senior year of high school, absolutely refused to cooperate with me, even when offered shares for free. Did he already know this day would come?

Damn, you're a prophet, aren't you?

(End of this chapter)