Chapter 1303 The Emperor's Art

Li Mu didn't lie to Robin when he said he didn't want to be a search engine.

If I was reborn ten or eight years earlier, the search engine must find a way to do it. This thing is a super rigid need of the Internet. In a sense, this thing is even more irreplaceable than instant messaging. Ten or eight years Before, Google was not born, let alone Baidu.

But now, Google has formed a monopoly in the world, and Baidu has a considerable climate in China. At this time, what is the point of doing a search engine by itself?

What's more, the search engine is really a field that requires very high technical strength. It is starting now, and there is a long way to go to catch up. The most ideal situation is to suppress Baidu and become the number one in China, but I want to compete with Google all over the world. Li Mu has no other ideas except hehe.

Based on such a market environment, Li Mu really does not intend to engage in the search engine business by himself, but if there is an opportunity to plant a flag, he is still very happy.

Now it is unlikely to go to Google to plant a flag, even if it is possible, the cost is probably too high to scare people, so Li Mu thinks, it is better to plant a flag in Baidu, Yiting.com is really meaningless to him , but for Baidu, it is of great significance.

Moreover, Baidu's current valuation is not high, and its own premium ratio is not high. If Yiting.com can get a good replacement offer, I am completely willing to sell it and then exchange for Baidu shares.

The question is, how many shares is Baidu willing to pay to replace Yiting.com?

In Li Mu's view, if the rate is less than 10%, the negotiation can be avoided directly, but he himself will not agree to 10%, and the ideal replacement price should be between 15% and 20%.

Baidu is not the Baidu after its listing, let alone the Baidu that Google launched in the Chinese market and his family dominates.

Yiting.com is not a simple music audio-visual website. It has huge traffic, strong word-of-mouth and user stickiness. It also seamlessly connects with Tieba and Taobao. The most important thing is that it has genuine authorization from various record companies. .

For those record companies, there are too many pirated music on the Internet, and they can’t get it at all, and Li Mu happens to be able to help them create stars on YY and Taobao, help them increase their influence, and help them sell albums and peripheral derivatives, in other words In other words, Li Mu is now a super boss in the entire entertainment industry, so everyone has authorized the genuine version to his Yiting.com. Although this authorization is not of much actual value, but because the name is justified, the brand value is high. Less, and completely eliminate all legal risks.

With the current size of Yiting.com, replacing 20% ​​of Baidu's shares is a bit tricky, but it's not a big deal. After all, online music is booming right now, but if you look at the long-term, even if you replace 10%, it's still a big profit.

In order to maximize the benefits, Li Mu drew a big cake for Robin.

He said: "In the future, I will embed Baidu search into YY123, and put it in the most prominent position as the only default search engine of YY123. In this way, YY123 can bring huge traffic to Baidu."

"Besides, YY123's current short news section has a lot of traffic. All the links on my door are related to YY.com. At that time, I can be the default link of Baidu search, and first pass the traffic to the website. You, and then you give the traffic back to me, in this case, it also adds a huge traffic entrance for you."

Robin didn't understand, and asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, what do you mean you give me the traffic once, and I will return it to you later?"

Li Mu said with a smile: "For example, in YY123's homepage newsletter, there is a news headline titled 'Baidu successfully acquired Yiting.com'. Under normal circumstances, when users click this link, they will directly enter the specific news of YY.com However, if we cooperate, I will allow users to click on this link to enter the Baidu search page of 'Baidu successfully acquired Yiting.com' by default.

Then you feed back a lot of search results to users, and let users click spontaneously. At that time, you will use technical means to put the links of YY.com at the top of the list. When users click on the search results on the Baidu search page, they will return to YY.com. But because of the jump to Baidu in the middle, it will naturally increase a lot of traffic for you. "

Robin cried. Although this was a tactic he would use badly in the future, Li Mu suddenly took it out ahead of time. After listening to it, he felt like he had opened up a new world.

Seeing his stunned look, Li Mu said with a smile: "This kind of operation is normal and easy to implement. It is beneficial to you and has no disadvantages. For us, the user experience will be affected by the addition of an intermediate link, but The impact is not too big, and it is still within the acceptable range."

Search engine traffic is a very deep industry, and there are countless gray areas in it. The method Li Mu mentioned is not a gray method at all.

Robin has already started to feel a little bit excited. In this day and age, Baidu is not the traffic master, but Li Mu is. His YY is the product with the highest number of registered users, daily active users, and monthly active users in the country. If he can get some traffic from Li Mu , It will be of great help to Baidu's overall business report. Whether it can be listed in the future and the market value will depend on the performance presented to the capital and securities companies.

Originally, MP3 and Tieba were Baidu's way, but Li Mu quietly snatched them away. As a result, Baidu fell into the embarrassing situation of a single business model and no breakthrough.

Li Mu knew very well in his heart that after tonight, Baidu's road would be cut off a lot by him, that is, keyword bidding, counterfeit and shoddy, theft and fraud, medical fraud, etc. Everything started from this business model. However, at the charity night tonight, if Li Mu formally builds an industry alliance and allows the industry to accept its own rules of the game under his influence, then Baidu’s path in the future will basically be nothing. It is broken, at least, these evil keyword bidding roads must be broken, otherwise it will become the object of scolding by the whole people, and the object of isolation and closure of the whole network.

From this point of view, the future development of Baidu is really worrying. In the past life, if you did everything, you would inevitably go downhill. In this life, you can’t do many things. It is estimated that it will be difficult to become a domestic first-line Internet company.

If Baidu is willing to acquire Yiting.com and become a shareholder of Baidu, then I can regard Baidu as a partner in the ecosystem and give some support.

After thinking about it, Robin said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, I will definitely discuss this matter with the board of directors after I go back."

Li Mu nodded: "Okay, let's do some research. By the way, if you want, besides acquiring Yiting.com, I can personally invest in you."

Robin was taken aback, looked at Li Mu in surprise and said, "President Li, do you want to vote for Baidu?"

Li Mu smiled slightly: "I still trust Robin in your ability, and I am more optimistic about the search engine market."

Speaking of this, Li Mu deliberately wanted to give Robin some negative interference, and deliberately said: "Google's current momentum is too strong. You have not been established for a long time, and your foundation is unstable. Your business model is single and your product line is also very single. If you don't build flood control dams , Once Google fully develops the domestic market, you will not be able to handle it.”

Robin's heart sank suddenly.

Li Mu is right. This was not the time when Baidu went smoothly in his previous life. The overall development quickly fell into the shackles of the model, and it was difficult to find a breakthrough point. In this case, Baidu is like a baby who just knows how to crawl. If the 18-year-old strong boy from the neighbor's house rushed into the house to steal things, not only would he not be able to resist, but he might even be kicked to death. Deep in his heart, the crisis was always there.

However, if Li Mu, a young man who is much stronger than the strong boy next door, if he can help Baidu, then it is impossible for Google to kill Baidu, and it is even very likely to return home in defeat.

Allowing Li Mu to become a shareholder of Baidu and become a strategic shareholder is tantamount to building a powerful flood control dam for Baidu, which can even withstand the impact of a tsunami.

In the process of development, many start-up companies will introduce capital shareholders and strategic shareholders. Capital shareholders, as the name suggests, provide financial support for the company, so that the company has ammunition to continue fighting; strategic shareholders, generally speaking, have more important strategic significance.

Leader Lei became a well-known angel investor after founding Xiaomi. Many new entrepreneurs want to invest in him. It’s not that his money is better than other people’s money, but Leader Lei has a very large ecological resource. If he buys shares, it is equivalent to getting an admission ticket to ecological resources. Therefore, finding a way to get Master Lei to invest in shares is more for strategy than money.

And Li Mu's ecological resources are much greater than that of Master Lei.

In fact, Li Mu also really wants to seize the opportunity of Baidu. By investing in Baidu, he will be able to tie Baidu to his side. Not only does it have strong strategic significance, but the investment significance is also very large. Now he has invested tens of millions. It could be worth billions in a few years.

If Yiting.com can take 15-20% of Baidu's shares, and then personally invest in more shares, and account for more than 25% of Baidu's shares, it can support Baidu like a godson, but at the same time, it must also guard against Baidu's defection, so if In the future, if search engines such as Sogou and 360 become popular, I will definitely invest in shares in advance, and then export more resources to Baidu's competitors to check and balance Baidu, and use this to ensure my influence on the search engine industry.

This trick is very harmful, but it is also very effective. It seems that why the ancient emperors allowed eunuchs to interfere in politics, to a large extent, it was to curb the strength of civil and military officials. If the strength of each other can check and balance each other, it can be ensured that if one party wants to rebel, the other party will not agree, and must resist desperately for their own wealth and life. In this way, the emperor's throne will not be reversed by the people around him. However, as for the impact of this kind of internal friction on the country and the country, it is not important in the face of the stability of the throne.

Li Mu is like an ancient emperor. He hopes to turn Baidu into his courtier. If he is obedient and obedient, everything will be fine. Checks and balances make his life worse than death.