Restart life

Chapter 283 0280 [Publication Manager]

Within a few days, Shuimu Zhouping published thirty or forty articles on HaiNei.com, all of which were old articles he had previously published on other websites.

Chen Guiliang took some time to read a few articles.

Well, in terms of content quality, it's hard to describe.

This person's so-called "correct values" simply mean always siding with the masses. It has a strong populist flavor. Later, he chose the right path and completely made a living off patriotism.

Chen Guiliang saw the essay he wrote during this year's college entrance examination, which began by saying that there are many paths in life, and going to university is just one of them. This statement is certainly correct.

But he went on to say that the college entrance exam is one of the worst possible paths. Going to university doesn't help one in most jobs. He also said that surveys show that 90% of Chinese university graduates end up in jobs unrelated to their major…

Chen Guiliang seriously doubted whether this person had ever attended university.

Disappointed.

However, he is quite popular among netizens, and his HaiNei.com account has been very active since he arrived.

During the National Day holiday.

Thanks to Huang Xinyuan's connections and recommendations from China Mobile and China Unicom, downloads of the ringtone "Wait a Minute" surged. ByteDance's profitability in the second half of the year is promising.

Game Science has also started recruiting a Java team to develop mobile games. Aside from one or two core members who need to be poached from other companies, the rest are mostly students from universities in Beijing, especially third- and fourth-year students from Tsinghua and Peking Universities.

After repeated discussions and arguments, venture capital firms such as Carlyle, IDJ, and DJF recommended a talent to help with the IPO.

Before this person arrived in Beijing, Chen Guiliang had a special talk with Chang Zhongxiang, the CFO of ByteDance.

Chang Zhongxiang built ByteDance's financial system from scratch, so we need to reassure him and give him peace of mind to avoid any internal strife during the IPO process.

Because the person in charge of the IPO is often parachuted in as the company's CFO.

"Old Chang's here, come and sit down." Chen Guiliang said with a big smile.

Showing courtesy for nothing is either cheating or stealing.

Chang Zhongxiang felt a chill run down his spine, and sat down in a daze, asking, "What's up, boss?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Isn't the company planning to go public? Several major venture capital firms have been arguing for a month, but now they've reached an agreement and will jointly recommend a talent to us."

Chang Zhongxiang had some understanding of IPOs, but he had only participated in some aspects before and was not familiar with the entire process. He smiled wryly and said, "Is this a way of changing my job?"

Chen Guiliang reassured him, “You will continue as CFO. After this person arrives, I will appoint him as the ‘person in charge of listing.’ But you should also know that there are many problems with dual leadership. So before the listing is successful, he will have absolute control, and your team must fully cooperate. If he encounters any difficulties, he can report directly to me and the board of directors.”

"I understand. No matter what your emotions are, you can't make a scene at a time like this." Chang Zhongxiang breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he wasn't reassigned. This meant the boss still trusted and valued him.

Chang Zhongxiang has stock options and he also hopes that the company will go public soon.

ByteDance is currently in a situation that fully meets the basic requirements for listing in the United States.

Two years ago, when Kongzhong went public in the United States, it had only 137 employees and had just turned a profit. However, its revenue was larger than ByteDance's.

More than 80% of its revenue comes from China Mobile's mobile internet platform, and the prospectus warned of over-reliance on a single partner. Despite this, it still successfully completed its IPO and went public.

Currently, Xiaonei.com and HaiNei.com are industry leaders. HaiNei.com's WAP website revenue is rising rapidly. Kaixin Marketplace has been left unattended, but it has a large and active user base and generates net profit every month.

……

The guy recommended by the venture capitalists is named Lü Zhihui. He graduated from Fudan University in 1986 with a bachelor's degree and went to the United States to pursue his master's and doctoral degrees. He has worked at several investment banks and currently works for Goldman Sachs.

He was in charge of the entire process of a state-owned enterprise's IPO in the US, and also participated in the IPOs of six Chinese IT companies in the US.

Hiring this kind of person is very expensive.

The signing bonus alone would be $20 to compensate for his losses from leaving Goldman Sachs. The base annual salary negotiated was $40, higher than the salaries of all ByteDance executives.

There are also periodic bonuses.

The amount of reward for passing SEC review, the amount of reward for successful listing, and the amount of reward for stock price increase exceeding the benchmark within six months of listing.

Because such talent is scarce at the time, he should also be given a small amount of restricted stock or options. If the stock price increases by more than a certain percentage within a year of listing, he should be granted an additional small amount of equity.

On the day Lü Zhihui arrived, Chen Guiliang and all the senior executives gave him a warm welcome.

Everyone had lunch at a high-end restaurant, and during the meal, the executives gave a brief overview of the basic situation.

After listening, Lü Zhihui already had a plan: "The most urgent task is to register a company overseas, such as in the Cayman Islands. Xiaonei.com and HaiNei.com must hold an ICP license, and foreign capital is strictly prohibited from holding such a license directly. In addition, the UGC content of the two websites falls under the category of Internet publishing services, and foreign investment requires special approval from the Ministry of Truth. If we don't register an offshore company in the Cayman Islands to give ourselves a shell, ByteDance will never be able to list in the United States."

"Understood." Chen Guiliang nodded.

Sina, Sohu, and Baidu all operate this way; otherwise, the Chinese government wouldn't approve it, and the US would also consider it risky.

This requires setting up a VIE structure, preparing legal documents, and coordinating with law firms in both China and the United States.

Next came the financial audit. Lü Zhihui was very satisfied with the financial internal control system built by Chang Zhongxiang; it could be used directly without any adjustments. This saved Lü Zhihui a lot of time and energy. As for discussing underwriting with investment banks, that was too early; they needed to get the VIE structure and financial audit sorted out first.

Chen Guiliang asked, "What is the normal IPO cycle for Chinese IT companies listing in the United States?"

Lu Zhihui said, "It can take anywhere from 14 months to over 20 months. The main reason for the long delays is the transition between Chinese and American accounting standards. I have experience in this area and I certainly won't let that cause any delays."

Ao Yanchen couldn't help but ask, "How much capital is needed to go public?"

Lu Zhihui said, "Currently, the cost of listing for Chinese IT companies is between $10 million and $1000 million. It depends on the amount of funds raised, and the cost accounts for 2000% to 15% of the funds raised."

"Going public costs so much money?" Xie Yang exclaimed in shock.

Lü Zhihui knows that most senior executives of Chinese companies today know nothing about IPOs.

He explained in detail: "It's not all the money that the company has to pay. For example, when raising funds, we need to find top investment banks to underwrite, and they will charge 5% to 7% for underwriting fees. It depends on which investment bank. Goldman Sachs, where I used to work, charges the most fees, but it also has the highest success rate."

"There are also audit fees for the Big Four accounting firms, totaling between $150 million and $300 million. The more difficult the audit, the higher the fee. If you pay enough, you might even get approved for audits that shouldn't be approved."

"There are also IPO legal fees, which need to be paid to lawyers in both China and the United States. The fees are roughly between $200 million and $500 million."

Therefore, there is a shortage of talent responsible for IPOs. It requires coordinating with law firms in both China and the US, as well as the Big Four accounting firms. They also need to lead changes to the company's structure and financial system, and deal with the investment banks handling the fundraising…

In the following period, Chen Guiliang convened board meetings and invited investors from several institutions to attend.

Everyone worked together with one heart and one mind, all for the sake of a successful IPO.

Professor Wu, as an independent director of ByteDance, also treats ByteDance as his research topic. This time, he was unusually proactive, personally leading several graduate students to assist Lü Zhihui. He didn't care about compensation; his main concern was being able to participate.

The graduate students were even more excited. No matter what they do in the future, no matter whether ByteDance can successfully go public, this experience will be their job-seeking capital.

During his busy period, Chen Guiliang called Bian Guanyue over and took the opportunity to complete the property transfer with Liu Jianguo.

Liu Jianguo led them to the house and handed over the keys, saying, "It was just renovated two or three months ago, and I haven't lived there for a single day. But I have two other renovated apartments downstairs, so we'll be neighbors from now on."

At this point, Chen Guiliang felt that the Chinese-style decoration was a bit old-fashioned.

Stepping inside, the interior is predominantly coffee-colored, with walls accented by dark wood and stone. Extensive use of wood carvings, display shelves, and Chinese-style doors and windows is evident.

Suitable for middle-aged and elderly people who appreciate traditional culture.

When I went to the rooftop garden, wow, there was a rockery, a small bridge, a stream, and even a grape trellis.

I wonder if it's possible to swing like Ximen Qing under the grape trellis.

Bian Guanyue really liked the interior decoration and rooftop garden, and said to Chen Guiliang, "No need to redo it, it's fine as it is."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Xie Yang and the others bought houses in this community much earlier and are still busy with renovations. I didn't expect us to move in first."

"We also need to add some furniture and appliances, which need to match the decorating style. I'll slowly find suitable ones," Bian Guanyue said.

After seeing Liu Jianguo off, the two spent half a day playing in the house. Chen Guiliang then drove Bian Guanyue back home.

He called his parents again to ask if the house had been repaired.

Father Chen Xinghua said, “It’s all done, a three-story villa. Before, I thought I wouldn’t let money slip by, so I only built a row of small bungalows. Now, how can I hide it anymore? The village’s farm road has also started construction. You donated 30 yuan, and the town applied for another 20 yuan in funding for village road construction.”

"That's good," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Chen Xinghua added, "The village now has internet phone service, and installation and making calls are very cheap!"

"Voice over internet?" Chen Guiliang didn't understand.

Chen Xinghua described it this way: "The telecom company built a base station at the entrance of the village, and people in the neighboring villages can now install VoIP. The phones are exactly the same as landlines, and the cost is about the same as what you used to pay at a phone booth. The higher-ups said they wanted to implement a 'telephone access to every village,' and our town and village were the first in the county to do it as a demonstration project. Everyone said it was because of you that they built a base station at the entrance of our village as a demonstration project."

What internet phone? That's a wireless landline from a telecom company.

It involves telecommunications companies building base stations in rural areas, and farmers paying to install wireless landlines. They look exactly like traditional landlines, but they actually use the same principles as mobile phones, and the phone numbers are similar to mobile phone numbers.

Chen Guiliang's village was very backward; it had never had a telephone line until now, but now every village has telephone access.

The villagers are very happy. The village road is under construction, and the telecommunications company has installed a base station and telephone service. It will be much easier for them to communicate with the outside world in the future.

Chen Guiliang then asked about the changes in the village, and Chen Xinghua said whatever he wanted.

In particular, the abolition of agricultural tax has significantly reduced the burden. Primary and junior high school tuition fees have also been reduced by more than half, and the dropout rate among rural children is not as high as it was a few years ago.

The reduction in tuition fees is purely due to the booming real estate market, which has increased local government revenue. Schools no longer need to resort to arbitrary fees for "survival."

In the past, if they didn't charge arbitrary fees, the school would have almost gone bankrupt!
Chen Guiliang felt relieved after hearing this, as things were going well for his family and village, and his own situation was also thriving.

(End of this chapter)