Chapter 179

On the side of the banquet hall, in a corner where no one is paying attention, Yang Cheng gently shook his red wine glass, listening seriously to Charlie, an entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, who said, no, Charlie Cheever should not be called an entrepreneur now , the company he is in charge of has a valuation of more than 500 million US dollars in the B round of financing, and is seeking a C round of financing with a valuation of no less than 900 million. A brand new unicorn company is rising like the morning sun.

The two chatted here for a while. Most of the time, Yang Cheng asked questions, and Charlie Chievo answered, and what they were talking about was nothing more than the experience of the rise of Quora.

"Charlie, as you said, Quora's C round of financing led by Tiger Fund is about to start, why at this time, you traveled all the way to New York to attend this reception that has no practical significance for you?" Yang Cheng sipped. Lipstick wine, continue his question.

"Tiger Fund holds too many shares, and it is about to approach the total number of shares held by the management. This is not what we want to see, so I came alone this time to introduce a shareholder who can compete with Tiger Fund. Of course, the premise is It is the new shareholder who must stand on the side of the management 100% unconditionally." Charlie Chievo blurted out without thinking, and it was obvious that he did not know how many times he had typed out this issue.

Yang Cheng nodded to express his understanding. Ahri had encountered similar problems back then. Yahoo and Softbank, two ambitious foreign companies, tried to challenge the position of Jack Ma and his partners more than once, but they were eventually defeated by Jack Ma. The strategist with a great overall view saved the day and completed the control of the board of directors.

Management and shareholders are natural enemies, especially for listed companies. When meeting with investors, the management often likes to say, "We work for shareholders." This seems to be self-effacing, but it is true. It reveals the essence of the relationship between management and shareholders.

"How did you and William meet?" Yang Cheng changed the topic, and suddenly changed to a question that had nothing to do with the company.

Charlie has been a code farmer for decades, and has not yet fully adapted to the change of his new identity. The rhythm of the conversation has been mastered by Yang Cheng from the very beginning. He doesn’t know him, I was talking to an investor, he suddenly introduced himself, saying that he is a director of the Hearst Group and wants to invest in or acquire Quora, this is a dream.”

Speaking of this, Charlie still had an aggrieved expression, obviously not forgetting the arrogance William showed before.

"Then your purpose of this trip has not been achieved yet?" Yang Cheng would not take the opportunity to sarcasm behind his back. If he could, he would say it face to face, and he wanted to witness William's angry and helpless expression with his own eyes.

"No, not yet, but what William said is right. Quora still hasn't found the right profit model. I think I should change my direction and not look for investors who can compete with Tiger Fund, but can actually help the company. At least it will be easier for the new and old shareholders to reach an agreement." Charlie was still watching Yang Cheng speak, but he lowered his eyes and started talking to himself.

Yang Cheng didn't bother, but after he lost his voice, he chuckled and said, "Actually, you also know that Quora's profit model is naturally limited. Advertising, paid questions, and commissions for brand activities are at this stage. Before the advent of the emerging technology revolution, quora can only tell stories about the infinitely fooling investment banks to give you money and blood transfusions. Of course, your expenditure is not as large as that of ordinary Internet companies, and you don’t even need so many employees.

But this is not a long-term solution. Unless you never go public, a unique and innovative profit model that can make your reports look beautiful is necessary and inevitable.

However, the person who can come up with this model may not have been created by God! "

After a pause, Charlie fell into deep thought following his words, and continued, "Or, let go of the entrepreneur's self-esteem and become a puzzle for other large companies to complete the industrial chain, or become one of the components to keep Quora alive? Or just sit and watch yourself do it yourself. The created enterprise loses vitality a little bit,

Until the last trace of potential is exhausted and dissipated in the dust? The choice is yours. "

Yang Cheng didn't give Charlie time to breathe and think, and forcibly instilled his own ideas into his brain, "More importantly, Quora is not without competitors, and you don't have difficult and unbreakable technology as your core competitiveness. Internet giants Corporations, social networking sites, and vertical question-and-answer sites have already cornered quora in the market."

To be honest, from the perspective of industry evolution, social Q&A is not a brand new field, and people have always had the habit of seeking answers on the Internet.

At the beginning, people would use portal websites to obtain information, but this kind of pertinence is too low. After the emergence of search engines, people can search for information based on questions, and the quality of the answers obtained in this way is uneven.

After the emergence of social question-and-answer websites, the answers come from the collection of knowledge and experience of experts who have the most say in those questions. People no longer need to search for answers from hundreds of links, but simply enter the question Get the highest rated answer.

To give a vivid example, pancake fruit was just a traditional breakfast in the Beijing-Tianjin area at the beginning, but with the flow of social personnel, smart people brought this very local snack into their hometown and evolved it. From the original deep-fried dough sticks, to the crispy ham sausages in the Northeast, and now pancakes all over the country can be used for everything, only you can’t think of it, nothing can’t be done, then again, the ancients who invented dumplings thousands of years ago, can imagine Have dumplings and dumplings become one of the signs representing Chinese cuisine?

Society is progressing and technology is innovating, which has created new things, and the Internet is also changing from the "information" age to the "knowledge" age.

Yang Cheng didn't finish his sentence, "I want to emphasize vertical question-and-answer websites, and you must maintain the greatest vigilance against them. Your core competitiveness is the sharing of high-quality resources, but can it really cover all types of resources? No, right?

Although there is no technical obstacle for Quora to cover multiple industries, it will be difficult to operate in practice. As far as I know, there are many question-and-answer websites in various subdivisions, and many of them have a certain number of users. Compared with Quora, their positioning is clearer, they can attract more professionals, and it is easier to form word-of-mouth in the circle of that segmented field. Once the scale is formed, how do you compete with others for users? "

Yang Cheng’s dry mouth is naturally not that the Heart of Mary helped Quora to develop, but subtly instilled a concept in Charlie Chievo, that is, Quora can’t do it on its own, you have to find a like-minded giant to join forces, and take advantage of the platform built by Quora Only by cooperating with more powerful companies can we survive in the long run and realize the value of quora!

As Yang Cheng expected, Charlie was fooled by him, and asked stupidly, "Then what should I do?"

Yang Cheng was not in a hurry, and hurriedly said to come and join me, this is the same as **** love, after spending a lot of effort to fool the girl into the boat, are you willing to fail at the last moment?

Of course not, in order to relax the vigilance of the girl, you must do enough foreplay, so that the girl can't help but open her thighs naturally, and welcome you.

At this moment, Charlie is like a woman who has been stripped naked. Although she is aware of what is coming, she still shrinks into a ball and tightly protects her private parts with her hands. At this time, don't forcefully pull the woman's hands away. Instead, continue with your previous movement, slowly picking up the tempo.

"Have you ever used the Toutiao app?" Yang Cheng's evil smile rose, and Charlie looked at Charlie with fox-like sly eyes, his back was itchy.

"Uh~ I've used it, it's a very good app, especially its innovative embedded advertising mode, which opened my eyes." When the topic of professionalism was mentioned, Charlie became energetic again, with a look of admiration on his face Looking at Yang Cheng, he also knew that this genius idea came from the young man in front of him. This is no secret. Almost everyone who has used the Toutiao app knows that,

Ever since Yang Cheng exposed himself to the flashlight, rumors, true or false, were flying all over the sky, and he was no stranger to it.

He nodded and continued to seduce, "Don't you think Toutiao and Quora are very suitable? I have also used your product a few times. Quora's latest optimized search engine is very good. It is similar to Google's full-text search function and greatly improves the content. The search experience and the process are more convenient. If it can be embedded in the Toutiao app, what kind of scene will it be? Do you think Google will try to spend a huge amount of money to buy us and kill theirs? Potential opponent?"

News + search, it looks like a new version of Yahoo! The wonderful scene that the smart Charlie instantly conjures up Yang Cheng is unknown. He thinks that today’s words are enough, and it’s too late. He hasn’t forgotten to ask William to settle the score. There is a small charity auction as the finale tonight, which is almost a standard feature of every banquet. Rich people always like to use charity to dress up their peaceful and helpful appearance after extravagance.

Yang Cheng was afraid that William would not be interested in participating in the auction and leave early. If the grandson was allowed to run away like this, he would have trouble sleeping and eating for several days.

He said hello to Charlie, "Charlie, I still have something to do. Here is my business card. You are welcome to visit my company at any time. If you have any needs, just ask, and I will help you."

Handing the business card to Charlie, ignoring his scratching his head and wanting to keep it, he strode his long legs and turned around in the banquet hall.

"Where's the person? Where's the person?" He muttered while looking for someone.

Just when Yang Cheng was about to give up in frustration, he finally found William. He was chatting with some old men on the side of the temporary stage. At the same time, Bill Ackerman came to the stage. As the host of the reception, he naturally had to give a speech He expressed his gratitude to the guests who were present tonight, and then announced that he personally contributed a batch of stored wine as a lot to add to the fun of the auction.

As Bill Ackerman announced the start of the auction, Yang Cheng went to the service desk to get a number plate and returned to the front of the stage, showing a gratified and cruel smile.

Because, here comes the chance for revenge!