Chapter 2069: Venture Capital Investment

Tokyo, SoftBank headquarters.

"I think the Internet has returned to its golden age," said the short Masayoshi Son, wearing a shirt, to a group of men and women in formal suits sitting upright around the conference table.

In front of his own people, he was not as smiling and majestic as he was in front of Feng Yiping, and his tone of voice was unquestionably overbearing.

"Take China as an example. Although 81 mainland Chinese companies landed in overseas capital markets last year, the most outstanding performance among them was still the 7 Internet companies,"

"From the perspective of the United States, we must admit that Google, which went public last year, will create a series of records,"

"One of them is the fastest growing and largest developing country in the world, and the other is the most developed country in the world. The consistent outstanding performance of Internet companies in these two countries fully illustrates this point,"

Some people in the room exchanged glances, as if in such a hot Internet tide, there was no such thing as our country with the second strongest economic strength in the world and the world's leading electronics and automobile industries?

In the entire RB, except for Yahoo RB, where the president is also the president, there is no Internet company worth mentioning.

This is really a pity.

Masayoshi Son also feels very sorry. In the United States, he did not invest in Google. Of course, it was also because he could not afford to invest. Then this search company soared to the sky in an unstoppable posture.

In China, he did not invest in Baidu because he hoped that Yahoo China could develop as well as Yahoo RB. But now, everyone can see that unless Jerry Yang is personally responsible for Yahoo China, otherwise, after experiencing the large-scale resignation of the existing management team with excellent capabilities, Yahoo China is probably ruined.

Can Jerry Yang be personally responsible for Yahoo China? Obviously unrealistic, so Yahoo China has completely lost hope.

Even if he acquires Yahoo China, it will be useless. People who are familiar with him actually know that Masayoshi Son has a good vision, but he is a person with very average ability to do things.

And this bad situation of Yahoo China will definitely add points to Baidu's IPO. If nothing unexpected happens, Baidu's listing in the United States this time will also be a huge success.

That is, whether in the United States or in China, whether in the current largest search market or in the future largest search market, he and his SoftBank seem to have missed the best opportunity perfectly.

Of course, there is no need to mention such words in front of his subordinates. In Japan, there is no habit of superiors to take the initiative to review.

"The success of Facebook and YouTube has clearly pointed out the direction of our future investment. Social and online video are the focus of our next investment,"

"President," someone immediately added, "e-commerce..."

Masayoshi Son glanced at this blind guy. How could I not know this? The guy quickly lowered his head.

"By investing in Taobao, we have successfully practiced in the field of e-commerce,"

This is not what he said.

Although he had to withdraw before Taobao and Forex merged, the $20 million invested at the beginning rolled over and easily turned into nearly 60 million.

In this sense, this investment is naturally a success.

"The popularity of social networks means that in this era, we are more eager to communicate and exchange with others than ever before. This actually indicates that another field will also have great achievements, that is, the field of mobile communications, so 3G technology is also the focus of our investment,"

"... I decided to increase the funds of 650 million US dollars to our branch in China to support the investment in the above fields,"

The US market is relatively mature. This maturity is not only in the various fields of the Internet, but more importantly, the venture capital in the United States has been very mature.

It is not easy for SoftBank to grab the cake from the guys on Sand Hill Road.

In China, venture capital has just started, Sequoia China is not very mature, and the only IDG is too petty.

IDG mainly invests in small one-time capital, and the project amount is generally 5 million or 10 million US dollars, and some projects are even only 220,000 US dollars.

His SoftBank is different. As long as it is a project he is interested in, it is impossible to invest tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars at a time.

For example, Alibaba originally expected to make a large additional investment in the next round of financing, but who knew that not only did it not have this opportunity, but it also had to withdraw from previous investments.

In short, relatively speaking, for SoftBank, in the field of the Internet, China has more opportunities, or in other words, more opportunities to successfully invest in China than the United States.

"In terms of specific implementation, in addition to other work that needs to be done, we have to find a way to subscribe to as many Baidu shares as possible. Of course, this can be done directly with the other party,"

Masayoshi Son believes that at this time, SoftBank has shown interest in Baidu shares, and Baidu will be very happy. This news will definitely bring great benefits to their future roadshows.

"Understood," someone stood up and took responsibility for this matter, "We will contact the other party directly, and we will also contact the institutions that hold their shares to explore the possibility of share transfer,"

"Well," Masayoshi Son nodded, "As for me, I will personally contact Feng Yiping to ensure that we will jointly operate Facebook and YouTube with him in our country, and strive to create a company as successful as Yahoo RB,"

This can be regarded as a tactful explanation for his withdrawal from Ali.

He indeed thinks so. Taobao may achieve success in China, but the problem is that Taobao's model simply does not work in Japan.

Therefore, he believes that quitting Alibaba in exchange for the opportunity to co-operate Facebook and YouTube with Feng Yiping at RB will be a very cost-effective investment.

…………

The news that SoftBank China announced an investment increase of US$650 million quickly aroused a huge response. Venture capital investors with the largest market share, such as IDG, felt tremendous pressure, while the majority of entrepreneurs were very excited. It seems that if there is It is not impossible for a good idea to fly onto a branch and become a phoenix overnight.

SoftBank's large investment in China has also given local venture capital investors, such as Lenovo Investments, more confidence. It seems that we have caught up with the Internet's spring again.

Feng Yiping, who heard this question, also held a video conference in the capital.

Including Jin Ling and others, they all believe that now is a good time to increase investment in start-up companies.

"I personally think that from an overall perspective, domestic venture capital currently has a tendency of oversupply. There are sufficient funds, but there are too few startup companies worth investing in,"

"Everyone who knows a little bit about it will know that in the past, venture capital investors would sit in the office and wait for entrepreneurs to come to their door. Now they will actually take the initiative to go out and inspect startup companies. So I think they are competing to invest in some startup companies at this time. , it’s relatively not that cost-effective,”

"Yiping, we must consider our social impact," Jin Ling said immediately.

As one of the most well-known companies in China, supporting new startups naturally reflects the company's social responsibility.

"In addition, we believe that from Mr. Feng's perspective, the projects we invest in will be very successful and will not be uneconomical,"

Zhou Xingyu's words were unanimously praised by everyone.

But it's really what he said. As long as Feng Yiping nods to the project, it will certainly be worthwhile.

"Okay, okay," Feng Yiping raised his hand, "Although I think there are many other feasible ways to reflect our sense of social responsibility and improve users' favor towards us, it's really not a good idea to rush to invest in start-up companies. A smart thing to do, but let’s also increase our VC capital,”

"The Public Relations Department informed the public that we have also increased our investment by US$500 million to the company's investment funds,"

No one objected to the amount he proposed. Since SoftBank has increased its investment by 650 million, we need at least 700 million. The executives of Jiaqiang are relatively practical and will not go out of their way to compete for such limelight.

Besides, this is actually mainly for publicity, as long as it ensures that when investment is needed, so much money will be available.

When there are no good projects to invest in, it is naturally impossible for so much money to lie in the account and sleep in vain.

"I think there is something else that needs to be done. Well," he thought for a moment, Wu Qian, "notify Tsinghua University that I agree to give a speech at the school."