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Chapter 285 0282 [A Series of Good News]

"ByteDance is uniquely positioned to capture..."

“Mr. Chen, ‘uniquely’ isn’t pronounced ‘U-niche’, and the stress shouldn’t be on the first syllable. It should be pronounced like this…”

Chen Guiliang is intensively studying English, especially practicing his spoken English.

Even if he were at his peak, when he had just passed the CET-4 (College English Test Band 4) in his previous life, his listening and speaking skills would still be terrible. He had the typical small-town youth's "mute English."

There's no other way; Chen Guiliang has to personally attend next year's IPO roadshow.

While it's possible to have a translator throughout the presentation, if the founder can't communicate even in basic English, the pitch will leave a rather poor impression, especially for the founder of an internet company!

Chen Guiliang still has seven or eight months to practice.

At that point, he will be able to have regular conversations.

As for complex financial issues and technical jargon, this English can be left to other members of the team.

The English teacher currently assigned to Chen Guiliang is one of the graduate students brought by Professor Wu to assist with the IPO preparations. These graduate students have all signed confidentiality agreements, prohibiting them from disclosing any information before the IPO.

One hour of instruction per day was provided by Chen Guiliang's private English tutor; the remaining time was for Chen Guiliang to practice on his own.

After today's class, the graduate student said, "Mr. Chen's sense of language is actually excellent. Those problematic parts, after being corrected once or twice, he won't repeat them. You just haven't practiced enough before; you probably never speak. Also, you need to improve your vocabulary..."

"Thank you for your help, Senior Brother Yuan." Chen Guiliang smiled and shook hands.

The graduate student said, "It's no trouble at all, I'd be honored."

Chen Guiliang now attends even fewer classes, and he rarely even goes back to his dormitory. Instead, he has moved into the house he just bought.

There wasn't enough furniture or appliances, but that didn't matter. Chen Guiliang only provided a computer and internet access. He bought some bedding and moved in.

When I get home in the evening, my main activities are listening to the tape recorder and practicing my spoken English in front of the mirror.

While I'm at it, I'll also be memorizing English vocabulary.

Even when I fall asleep, I fall asleep to the sound of English being read aloud on a tape recorder.

This level of dedication is as if I've returned to my senior year of high school.

It was quite fulfilling.

Chen Guiliang sometimes likes to procrastinate and do things half-heartedly. But once he decides to do something, he will definitely devote himself to doing it well.

He also enjoys using VPNs to access American portal websites and looks up unfamiliar words in English-Chinese dictionaries. This learning method is much more effective than simply memorizing vocabulary.

"what?"

Chen Guiliang suddenly picked up an English-Chinese dictionary and started looking up words on English portal websites.

He inadvertently saw the breaking news that had just gone viral: Google had acquired YouTube for a staggering $16.5 billion!

Chen Guiliang quickly picked up the phone and called Wang Wei.

"Mr. Chen, it's so late. Are you still busy?" Wang Wei subtly expressed his dissatisfaction; at this hour, he was being intimate with his girlfriend.

Chen Guiliang said, "Google has acquired YouTube."

Wang Wei said, "If we can acquire it, then so be it. Such transactions are normal. If we can sell it for a high price, it will be good news for Tudou.com."

"Guess how much the acquisition price will be?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Wang Wei thought for a moment and boldly estimated, "10 billion US dollars?"

“16.5 billion!” Chen Guiliang said.

"How many?"

Wang Wei, no longer caring about his girlfriend, jumped up from the bed.

YouTube raised funds six months ago, and its post-money valuation was just shy of $500 million. Six months later, it was sold for a staggering $16.5 billion.

Even with Wang Wei's imagination at its limit, he could only double the valuation from six months ago.

Chen Guiliang said, "It is indeed US$16.5 billion."

Wang Wei asked, "Where did you get this information from?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm browsing American portal websites, and there's some big news that just went live. Tudou.com is now the largest website of its kind in China, so we can't afford to give in at all during the next round of financing. By the way, ByteDance is also going to make an additional investment."

"No problem, haha, hahaha." Wang Wei laughed as he spoke.

With YouTube being acquired for a record-breaking price, Tudou.com will naturally benefit and become a focus of capital investment.

Although Tudou.com was a money-losing company and negatively impacted ByteDance's SEC scrutiny, it was definitely a boon for its IPO fundraising, especially with YouTube's involvement.

For underwriters, they might even place more emphasis on Tudou.com. This is because, no matter how much money "The Emperor's Reign" makes, it remains largely unfamiliar to American investors.

American underwriters could easily point to Tudou.com and call it "the Chinese version of YouTube," thereby raising ByteDance's IPO pricing range by a few dollars.

During his roadshow, Chen Guiliang could also boast wildly about Tudou.com. Accountants could also revalue ByteDance's stake in Tudou.com at fair value, causing ByteDance's net assets to surge.

Chen Guiliang chatted with Wang Wei for a while, then called Lu Zhihui, the person in charge of his company's listing.

Lu Zhihui immediately said, "President Chen, it's getting late, so I was planning to report to you tomorrow. There's some major good news from the US: Google has acquired YouTube for a record-breaking $16.5 billion!"

"I was just about to let you know," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Lu Zhihui exclaimed with delight, "The ancients spoke of the right time, the right place, and the right people. We've encountered the right time, which will definitely greatly accelerate the progress of our IPO financing! Many times, when you tell a Chinese story, those Americans don't understand. When we're doing our roadshow, we only need to focus on two points: ByteDance is comparable to Facebook, and Tudou is comparable to YouTube. If we focus on these two points, they'll like to listen and understand."

“I completely agree with your point of view,” Chen Guiliang said.

The two continued their pleasant conversation for a few more minutes, agreeing to discuss the details when they met tomorrow.

……

The following day, investors from several major venture capital firms that hold shares in ByteDance called to congratulate them and discuss the series of changes that would result.

The investors are all optimistic about Tudou.com and are discussing how to increase their investment. Those who didn't invest before also want to join in this time.

Furthermore, everyone supports ByteDance's increased investment in Tudou.com, working together to make ByteDance's IPO smoother.

Major Chinese portals, IT and financial newspapers also reported on Google's record-breaking acquisition of YouTube, which directly propelled UGC video websites like Tudou.com into the mainstream.

Breaking out of the circle means that it attracts nationwide attention.

One venture capital firm after another began to proactively contact Wang Wei.

Also contacted were the founders of video websites such as 56.com, 6rooms.com, and Ku6.com.

Youku, still in its trial operation phase and not yet officially launched, has suddenly become a hot commodity. Although the website doesn't have any impressive statistics, its founder was formerly the CEO of Sohu.

Currently, all UGC video websites in China have taken steps toward a new round of financing.

It's absolutely insane, even more insane than the crazy investment frenzy at the beginning of the year!
A few days later, Chen Guiliang convened another board meeting, the main topic of which was to finalize the VIE structure. Incidentally, let's also talk about Tudou.com.

Amidst the cheerful atmosphere, Chen Guiliang said to everyone, "Zhubajie.com was featured on CCTV's 'News Broadcast' last night. CCTV focused on promoting the crowdsourcing model, saying it's a new internet development model proposed by the Chinese themselves. Zhubajie.com was the only one used as an example."

The board members were all somewhat confused.

They knew about crowdsourcing platforms and that venture capital firms had invested in them, but they hadn't really paid much attention to ZBJ.com. Even though ByteDance informed the board members when it invested in ZBJ.com, no one really took it seriously.

Because so far, all crowdsourcing websites have been small-scale operations.

This website model seems appealing, but it heavily relies on the founder's operational skills and network. If you have that ability and those connections, why not create a crowdsourcing website instead of any other type of website?

Chen Guiliang continued, "After the 'News Broadcast' report, the crowdsourcing model will inevitably become well-known to the public, and the number of venture capital firms investing in this industry will increase. ZBJ.com will also become the leader among crowdsourcing websites. By the way, ZBJ.com has already received a project worth 30 yuan. Its revenue in the next year is very likely to exceed that of most emerging Internet companies."

The board members looked at each other, both delighted and bewildered.

Why does Chen Guiliang always seem to have all the good things happen to him?

Investing in a game company resulted in the game "The Emperor's Reign" generating huge profits.

Investing in video websites resulted in Tudou becoming the industry leader, but it also faced a record-breaking acquisition offer from an American competitor.

Investing in crowdsourcing websites has led to encountering ZBJ.com's online news broadcast...

Could this young man in front of me be a once-in-a-century investment genius?
After the meeting, Lü Zhihui lamented to Chen Guiliang, "I previously led a state-owned enterprise's IPO in the US and participated in the IPOs of several Chinese IT companies. The IPO preparation process for most Chinese companies can only be described as a complete mess. There are countless frustrating things that happened..."

Lu Zhihui scrutinized Chen Guiliang and said, "This ByteDance IPO was the easiest one for me. And it was particularly mysterious, with one piece of good news after another, as if an invisible force was providing assistance."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Perhaps I'm just lucky."

“I believe it’s because President Chen has a good eye,” Lu Zhihui said sincerely. “Once is luck, twice is luck, but three times is definitely due to ability.”

In the afternoon, Ao Yanzhen also learned about the news broadcast on Zhubajie.com.

Ao Yanchen asked in confusion, "You just casually went to Shancheng and found someone like this to give you angel investment? I'm a local from Shancheng, how come I don't remember this Zhu Mingyao at all?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "It's Xie Yang's good eye. He said the crowdsourcing model has potential. So I just searched online and chose ZBJ.com, which was still a personal website at the time."

Xie Yang scratched his head: "I was just saying, I haven't paid attention to the crowdsourcing model for a long time."

Chen Guiliang joked, "So, you're my lucky charm."

Xie Yang thought to himself: Could I really be a lucky charm? But I've never found any money in my life.

Chen Guiliang smiled and said nothing more, then went back to his office to practice his English.

ByteDance has launched the Zhihu project team and is currently deploying core developers and recruiting some more employees.

The mobile game department at Game Science is almost fully established, and some employees were recruited during the National Day holiday.

Everything is going from good to good!

(Platinum chapter added to celebrate.)
(End of this chapter)