Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 412 The Development of Douyin and TikTok's Overseas Challenges

"Dingle bell! Dingle bell!"

The urgent ringing of the bell shattered the tranquility of the room.

"Brother Xiu, turn off the alarm clock."

"Um……"

Chen Xiu wanted to say that it was a phone ringing, not an alarm clock, but when he saw Meng Ziyi's tightly closed eyes, he felt there was no need to explain.

With one hand and one foot "bound," he could only turn sideways to reach his phone, but fortunately, his hand was long enough.

Looking at the incoming call information displayed on the screen, Chen Xiu's previously indifferent expression suddenly turned serious.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Zhang Yiming said there's been a problem with TikTok, he'll be there in about 15 minutes, how long will it take you?"

"20 minutes."

"OK, I've prepared your coffee."

Su Xiao hung up the phone cleanly and decisively, and Chen Xiu began to manually untie Meng Ziyi from his restraints.

Feeling her hands and feet being pried open, the silly beauty kept her eyes closed and leaned closer, asking, "Hmm? You're getting up?"

"I have to go to the company. You can go back to sleep."

After patting Meng Ziyi on the shoulder, Chen Xiu got out of bed and went straight to the dressing room to get dressed. Without even washing her face, she rushed downstairs.

After he left, Meng Ziyi sat up from the bed with a pout. The sunlight reflected off the wooden floor and shone on her slender, white neck, creating a halo around her disheveled hair.

After thinking seriously for a moment with his eyes closed, Meng Ziyi suddenly clapped his hands and said, "Reba is back on set, and Xiaotian went to film yesterday too. It's okay, go back to sleep!"

After saying that, he pulled up the covers, rolled over to Chen Xiu's bed, and went back to sleep with his pillow under his head.

……

When Chen Xiu arrived at Douyin, she saw Su Xiao, who was standing facing the floor-to-ceiling window with only her fair and jade-like profile visible, wearing square glasses and exuding a cold and aloof air, and Zhang Yiming, who was sitting on the sofa with a worried look on his face.

The two of them breathed a slight sigh of relief when they saw Chen Xiu coming over.

Chen Xiu glanced at the coffee on the coffee table, picked it up, and asked, "What's the situation now?"

"What happened last night, which was early morning in the US, was that Facebook officially took action against TikTok."

Su Xiao explained as she walked over to the sofa.

After sitting down next to Chen Xiu, she continued, "Mark Zuckerberg publicly questioned TikTok's data security and content moderation issues, while also emphasizing the risks hidden by TikTok's Chinese-owned background."

"In addition to public questioning, Facebook has also launched a standalone app called Lasso, whose interface, functions, and 15-second short video recording features are all the same as TikTok."

After taking a sip of coffee, Chen Xiu first glanced at Su Xiao, then turned her gaze to Zhang Yiming.

"Another Weishi incident, except this time Zuckerberg is less shameless and has chosen to personally take the lead."

"Zhu Jun is issuing a statement."

Zhang Yiming took over the conversation, but his worried expression remained unchanged: "He felt that the effect would not be very good. Zuckerberg came prepared this time, planning to first create pressure with competitors and public opinion, and then carry out the acquisition. TikTok's financial size is also not comparable to Facebook's."

"Is he planning to burn money to deal with this?"

Chen Xiu's doubts were tinged with a barely perceptible hint of dissatisfaction.

Douyin has already provided a perfect answer to the Weishi incident at the beginning of this year in terms of how to deal with it.

Even though TikTok's situation is different from Douyin's, and the overseas market is more complex, it shouldn't have to come to the point of burning money to compete.

As of October, Douyin's domestic advertising revenue reached 45 billion yuan, and live streaming rewards reached 12 billion yuan. The total revenue for the year is expected to reach 85 billion yuan, a 240% increase compared to 25 billion yuan last year.

With such a track record, Chen Xiu, Zhang Yiming, and Su Xiao never considered competing with Weishi by burning money.

In contrast, TikTok's revenue this year was only 50 billion as of last month, and its net profit is currently negative. How can it compete with global internet giants who are burning money?
Zhang Yiming also sensed Chen Xiu's dissatisfaction and explained, "Zhu Jun is inexperienced after all. When he was managing Musical.ly, he accepted all the acquisition requests from Facebook and TikTok."

"It's unrealistic to expect him to lead the team to confront Zuckerberg head-on... I'm in charge of TikTok's management, even though I'm overseeing it from above. I was still working late last night holding meetings with them."

Seeing the dark circles under Zhang Yiming's eyes, Chen Xiu picked up her coffee and took another sip.

When Douyin was founded, the reason why ByteDance was brought in to help with music copyright and official resources was not only because Zhang Yiming could solve these issues, but also because as the business grew, someone would be needed to help manage it.

Su Xiao is in charge of the company's internal operations and domestic business, but Zhang Yiming handles many official-related matters. This time, with the unexpected situation at TikTok, he also needs to coordinate and stabilize the situation.

Chen Xiu still has time to go to the movies because Zhang Yiming is helping her carry the burden...

"So, how did you handle it?"

Chen Xiu looked at Zhang Yiming, wanting to know how he would handle the situation.

Zhang Yiming spread his hands and said bluntly, "We should remain unchanged in the face of all changes. TikTok already has a first-mover advantage, with over 7 million monthly active users overseas and more downloads than Facebook and Instagram. How could it possibly lose to Lasso, a app with pirated features?"

"Of course, announcements and statements still need to be issued. TikTok is a company registered in the Cayman Islands, and its controlling shareholder is Douyin Investment, but it is essentially an overseas company with data storage overseas. What danger could it possibly pose?"

“That’s right.” Chen Xiu smiled and nodded, thinking to himself: Any multinational company that wants to develop in a local area in the long term cannot take its data with it. The data of the Guozi family is stored in the Zheergen region.

"Then, I plan to accelerate TikTok's IPO plans..."

Chen Xiu and Su Xiao quickly looked over at Zhang Yiming.

Receiving the questioning look, Zhang Yiming pursed his lips and said, "This idea also needs to be discussed, which is why I came over and called you over as well."

"I agree!"

Chen Xiu gave a positive response, stating that TikTok's IPO in 19 was originally part of his plan.

Su Xiao adjusted her glasses and also offered her support.

"TikTok is still operating at a loss this year. The funds raised at the beginning of the year are expected to last until the second quarter of next year. If we launch an IPO, it will be more beneficial to the company's development."

Douyin has developed rapidly this year, expanding its staff in cities across China, including Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

With the addition of 8000 algorithm/audit engineers, the company's workforce has now surpassed 3, and its revenue is approaching 1000 billion yuan, making it the fourth largest internet company after BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent).

This performance has led overseas investors to generally favor TikTok, which has the same model but a faster growth rate.

As long as there are expectations for future development, even if the profit is temporarily unprofitable, capital will welcome TikTok to go public, because Pinduoduo and Meituan also went public while operating at a loss.

The three agreed on going public, exchanged glances, and began discussing the details.

Among these, the most crucial aspects are the amount of money raised before the IPO and the choice of listing location.

"Port City? Nasdaq?"

Zhang Yiming gave an answer that required either of two options.

Chen Xiu suggested a safer option: "I recommend going to Hong Kong. This year, both Xiaomi and Meituan went public using a dual-class share structure. We can follow suit."

“That is indeed better than Nasdaq,” Zhang Yiming said knowingly.

When the group was discussing the amount for the pre-IPO, the ideal amount to raise was very large, which meant that more shares would need to be given up.

If Meituan's model is adopted, the shares sold in the pre-IPO will be Class A shares with 1 vote per share, while our side will hold Class B shares with 10 votes per share. This can largely avoid the decline in management authority caused by share dilution.

Once the matter has been discussed and agreed upon, all that remains is to implement the plan.

However, before that, Chen Xiu also made a suggestion to Zhang Yiming.

“I think Zhu Jun’s own work ability is not enough to make him the CEO of a multinational company. We should find a suitable manager for TikTok.”

"really."

Zhang Yiming nodded slightly, pinched his chin, and pondered.

Su Xiao glanced at the composed Chen Xiu, her lips moving slightly, completely unconcerned about the matter.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yiming's eyes suddenly lit up, and he abruptly looked up at Chen Xiu.

"You don't already have someone suitable, are you, and you're only telling me this now?"

"Yes! The person I'm thinking of is someone you also know. Let's see if we can think of the same thing."

"Since you've put it that way, how could I not have thought of it? It's just..."

Zhang Yiming stopped, looking troubled, and hesitated, saying, "Lei Bus seems to value him a lot. If we poach him, will he hold a grudge against us?"

"Come on, Lei Jun himself has done plenty of poaching, and he poached an entire team at once!"

Chen Xiuyi retorted sternly, adding, "Besides, how can business be called poaching? It's called mutual cooperation and common progress. Ali even said that he exports talent to various industries every year!"

"..."*2
Zhang Yiming was speechless, feeling as if he was seeing Chen Xiu like this for the first time.

Su Xiao turned her face away, pursed her lips, and felt her abdomen tighten at Chen Xiu's serious and shameless appearance.

Seeing the two of them like this, Chen Xiu's face showed a rare look of sullenness as he explained, "If there are better options, of course we don't need to poach Zhou Shouzi."

"However, I couldn't find anyone else who was familiar with international capital, understood the operation of internet company listings, had management experience, and whom we were relatively familiar with and trusted."

"That's true."

Zhang Yiming nodded seriously, expressing his high recognition of Zhou Shouzi's abilities, and then his psychological burden regarding Lei Jun was quickly cleared away.

Having made their decision, Chen Xiu and Zhang Yiming didn't bother with any pretense about Lei Jun; they went straight to the topic of who would be the one to wield the hoe.

"Should you go dig, or should I?"

"You keep an eye on TikTok, I'll go!"

"Tsk, aren't you and Lei Jun on pretty good terms? Aren't you worried that if you poach his people, it'll be hard to face each other in the future?"

"Digging it up won't affect my relationship with him!"

Zhang Yiming stared at him speechlessly, thinking: How can you be so confident? I was already thinking about what to say when I swung the hoe, and you just went straight for it...

(End of this chapter)