Huayu: King of Kung Fu

Chapter 94: A Big Winner

Lin Hu got the number and changed his online name to "Tiger Roar".

This is the name of his film and television company, and also a very common online name in the early days of the Internet.

Other examples of male usernames like "Chasing the Wind," "Lone Wolf," and "Swordsman" are full of pretentious (and childish) vibes.

Gao Yuanyuan also chose a number she liked, and after thinking for a long time, she gave herself a screen name: "Full Moon in Autumn".

.

Well, girls these days all have an artistic heart and like to give themselves an artistic (and sometimes cringeworthy) username.

Similar to these are misty rain, tears of an icy heart, and a gentle breeze entering a dream —

Lin Hu added Gao Yuanyuan's 0ICQ number to his computer and sent her a message.

Gao Yuanyuan then saw a male penguin avatar flashing on 0ICQ and beeping.

She clicked on Lin Hu's profile picture, and a dialog box appeared.

Tiger Roar said to her, "Hey, beautiful!"

The full moon and clear autumn sky seemed quite amusing, so I typed a reply: "Hi, handsome!"

Tiger Roar: "Are a lot of people adding you right now?"

Full Moon in Clear Autumn: "What do you mean?"

Tiger Roar: "With such a poetic name and a blue-haired girl's profile picture, won't your account get bombarded with friend requests?"

Full Moon in the Clear Autumn: "Huh?"

Gao Yuanyuan had just replied with a single word when suddenly her 0ICQ was flooded with messages. When she opened it, she saw that several people were adding her as a friend.

Gao Yuanyuan found it very interesting and accepted all the messages. The people then started chatting with her, and she hurriedly replied to their messages.

One netizen immediately complimented her username: "Hello, your name is very poetic!"

Full Moon in Clear Autumn: "Thank you, your name is very—interesting!"

A netizen sent a smiley face and humorously commented, "I chose this username because I just started using the internet: Just Arrived!"

"But you call it the anus!"

The netizen realized he had accidentally typed the wrong username and fell silent instantly!

While Gao Yuanyuan was awkwardly chatting with those netizens, Lin Hu and Ma Hua got down to business.

Mahua's company was established a little over a year ago, and 0ICQ has been online for ten months, with over 100 million registered users.

With a surge in users and servers constantly burning through cash, but no way to monetize, the founding team had to keep using their own money to cover the costs.

When the five of them started the company, the initial capital was 50 yuan. Later, they added more capital out of their own pockets, bringing the total to 100 million yuan, which exhausted their savings.

Now, their company only has 1 yuan left in its accounts, and they can't even pay salaries.

0ICQ is a knock-off; the original is the Israeli ICQ. The other party sent a lawyer's letter accusing them of infringement, but Mahua has no money to respond to the lawsuit.

Today, the five founders are in dire straits and have reached a dead end.

After their meeting, they decided to sell the entire company as a package deal, with a bottom line of 300 million.

Three million doesn't seem like much, but when he tried to sell it to everyone he went around, he was met with rejection everywhere.

In Shenzhen, their landlord, SEG Group, stated that these were just a bunch of accounts with no physical assets and were worthless.

Guangdong Telecom stated: Nobody in the world knows how this software makes money.

Local paging companies even came to the office to inventory the desks, chairs, and computers, valuing them as fixed assets, and didn't think those million accounts had any value.

Mahua went to those internet bigwigs again, and the result was—

Lei Jun, CEO of Kingsoft, received the message and said he was too busy to meet Mahua FunAge.

Ding Sanshi, from the pig farm, said, "I could find any two people and they could make this thing in a month. The technical threshold is too low."

Zhang Chaoyang of Saohu is willing to invest 60 yuan, which he considers an astronomical price!

In a later interview, Ma Hua said that he had once planned to sell it for 60 yuan, but felt that it was his hard work and couldn't bear to part with it.

No one in the world realizes the value of 100 million users; even Mahua itself probably doesn't realize it.

If Lin Hu, as a transmigrator, doesn't act now, he'll have wasted his time traveling!

"I don't understand the internet, but I think one million users are very valuable!"

"I serialized my novel online, and many people followed it. Later, when my movie 'Ong-Bak' was released, I wondered if I could promote my movie among my readers?"

"I posted some behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes from filming my movie online, and many netizens replied, saying they would definitely go see 'Ong-Bak'!"

"When 'Ong-Bak' was released, I received a lot of messages saying they went to see it!"

"They also posted a lot of film reviews and posts online to help promote it, saying that 'Ong-Bak' is a good movie and urging netizens to go see it!"

"I didn't spend a penny; I just posted something online, and it had such a huge publicity effect—something traditional media couldn't do!"

"At that moment, I realized the significance of the internet. Perhaps in the near future, the world we live in will be completely changed by the internet!"

"Your 0ICQ has amassed 100 million users in just ten months, and there will be even more in the future—"

"I believe this is a gold mine; we just haven't found the way to mine it yet!"

"In the West, there's a type of investment called angel investing. People invest in projects they deem meaningful. I'm here because I want to be your angel investor!"

Lin Hu delivered a speech, even using his own experience of promoting movies online, which excited all five members of Mahua FunAge.

Then negotiations began.

After abandoning the idea of ​​selling the company, Mahua started looking for venture capital all over the world.

They created a 20-page business plan, but—it included everything except how to make a profit.

Because they don't know how to make a profit either!

Ma Hua stated that his company is valued at $550 million, and he is willing to give up 40% of his shares in exchange for a $220 million investment!

Lin Hu asked, "Why is your company worth so much money?"

Mahua said, "Because we calculated that we need 220 million yuan to maintain operations, we can only give up 40% of the shares because we don't want to lose control. Based on this, the valuation is 550 million yuan."

Lin Hu readily agreed, "I understand. You've been very honest. I'll invest this money!"

However, he couldn't give it all at once, so Lin Hu signed a betting agreement with Ma Hua.

The two parties agreed that an initial payment of US$110 million would be made, and the remaining US$1000 million would be paid out after one year, provided that the number of registered users reached 110 million.

Ten thousand US dollars.

If this is not achieved, the final payment will be void, but the equity will remain unchanged.

After discussing it, the five members of Mahua FunAge decided that with the current user growth rate, reaching the goal of 1000 million users wouldn't be too difficult, so they nodded in agreement.

Subsequently, both parties hired lawyers and signed a contract, with Lin Hu acquiring a 40% stake in Penguin for an investment of US$220 million.

This bargain hunt was a great success!

PS: After checking the information, this negotiation process is basically written according to the actual situation revealed by all parties in the original timeline. Lin Hu just launched the negotiation a few months earlier and picked up a loophole!

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