Life 1984

If Li Yunhai was not a reborn person, he would really be attracted by Wang Zhifeng's grand speech, and might even make an investment decision on impulse.

But in his impression, this Wang Zhifeng did not have much success in later life.

As for the website that Wang Zhifeng mentioned, Li Yunhai had no memory of it.

From this we can see that Wang Zhifeng did not achieve any outstanding results in later generations.

Of course, there is also a possibility, that is, Wang Zhifeng does have the ability, but because he failed to attract investment, his plan had to die in the 1990s.

The 1990s was an era when talented people emerged in large numbers!
Two or three years later, Baidu and Google were established, and the domestic portal websites and search engines entered a period of fierce competition.

There has never been a shortage of talented people in the country.

But these talented young people may not necessarily be able to find venture capital.

Having an idea and starting a business are two different concepts.

It's easy to write a program yourself and play with it.

But if you want to make it a reality and allow tens of millions of netizens to access it at the same time, you need a lot of money to achieve it.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, most Chinese people did not know what the Internet was.

The international line bandwidth from my country to the United States is only 2M.

By 1997, there were only 30 computers in my country connected to the Internet!

There are only 62 Internet users and a pitiful 1500 Internet sites.

At this time, the international export bandwidth is only 25.408M.

In such an environment, the wealthy people in the country do not understand the Internet.

Because most of the rich people are traditional businessmen who made their fortunes through industry and business.

There are many wealthy people in Hong Kong who still think that the Internet is unreliable even 30 years later. They would rather invest in industry and real estate than in the Internet industry.

People who have ideas, knowledge and vision are often young people.

They have just graduated from school or returned from studying abroad, and are full of joy and longing for the virtual online world.

However, when they returned to China to start their own businesses with their dreams in mind, they discovered how cruel the reality was.

He traveled all over the country but couldn't find an investor who understood him.

The venture capitalists of this era are all overseas.

Even when Ma Yun founded Alibaba, he could only seek foreign investment.

In 1996, a young man named Zhang Chaoyang returned to China to start a business.

He is a talented student. He graduated from the Department of Physics of National Tsing Hua University in 1986 and won the Tsung-Dao Lee Scholarship to study in the United States in the same year. After receiving his doctorate from MIT in 1993, he continued his postdoctoral research at MIT.

Zhang Chaoyang later founded the famous Sohu.com.

And his road to financing was also very bumpy!
If it weren't for the noble person in my destiny, there might not have been any Sohu.

Like Zhang Chaoyang, Wang Zhifeng is also looking for investment everywhere.

During the conversation, Wang Zhifeng told Li Yunhai about his financing experience.

Financing was very complicated during that period. Wang Zhifeng talked to many foreign venture capital companies and had to work very hard to convince a venture capitalist, Robert.

However, Robert was not optimistic about my country's Internet economy. He felt that the investment risk was too high and he did not dare to invest alone, so he asked Zhang Chaoyang to find two more investors.

If three people invest together, Robert is willing to invest.

Wang Zhifeng finally found another investor, Pang Di.

Ponti was very rich, but he asked Wang Zhifeng to go to London to attend a pioneer forum and let Wang Zhifeng go there to talk to them.

In fact, Ponti wanted to let Wang Zhifeng see the reactions of his colleagues while he was speaking. These people are all big names in the computer industry, and he wanted them to evaluate Wang Zhifeng's project.

So Wang Zhifeng flew from New York to London without stopping. He had a very hard time during that time. He missed the plane, his passport expired, and there were a lot of things that went wrong. He was crazy. When he arrived in London, Ponti had already gone to Thailand, but he let his son listen to Wang Zhifeng's speech.

In the end, Ponti decided to invest only $2.

This amount of money is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for Wang Zhifeng's project.

Later, Wang Zhifeng found the father of an American classmate. This man was very rich, but he was not optimistic about my country's Internet project and felt that the project had no development prospects.

At that time, many of our country's policies were just beginning to thaw.

It is understandable that foreign investors have no understanding of our country at all.

Wang Zhifeng wants to invite these foreign venture capitalists to visit China.

But this is also fraught with difficulties.

Inviting a professor from the United States was a very important event. We had to invite Ponti and others to visit China in the name of the Ministry of Electronics. In order to invite Ponti to visit China, several formal meetings were held.

The results haven’t come out yet.

To start a website, you need to pay for rent, servers, and workers' wages, which requires a large amount of capital.

If Wang Zhifeng fails to get investment, his website will have to cease operations next spring.

At that time, my country had not yet joined the WTO. There was nothing. Chinese people did not believe that the Internet could become a profitable industry. Only some experts, scholars, and international students paid attention to the Internet.

Wang Zhifeng and others can be said to have been trembling in their efforts to develop my country's electronic information industry.

Li Yunhai asked: "Mr. Wang, is the Ponti you are talking about the professor who wrote "Being Digital"? "

Wang Zhifeng nodded and said, "Yes, yes, that's him, Mr. Li, have you heard of his name?"

Li Yunhai smiled slightly and said, "I have read the book he wrote. It is very well written. This person is very talented."

Wang Zhifeng said: "That's right, that's why I went to him. If even he can't understand my ideas and can't support my business, then I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to find another investor in this world."

Li Yunhai thought, if he remembered correctly, this Pang Di seemed to have joined Zhang Chaoyang later?
The world is so wonderful!

In many things, the difference between failure and success may be just one step!
Perhaps it was because Wang Zhifeng's operation played a certain role that made Ponti develop a strong interest in my country's Internet industry?
That's why he invested in Zhang Chaoyang later, right?

Li Yunhai asked: "Mr. Wang, how much does your project cost?"

Wang Zhifeng said: "About 200 million US dollars! If it's less, it will be difficult to operate."

200 million dollars!
In our country in 1996, it was indeed a huge investment!

Even foreign venture capitalists would not rashly invest $200 million in a stranger.

Li Yunhai did not immediately agree to invest, but asked: "Can I see your website?"

"Of course! All I need is a computer with internet access." Wang Zhifeng said, "I can open our website and give Mr. Li a comprehensive introduction."

Li Yunhai said: "Let's go to my house. I have internet access at home."

After dinner, Wang Zhifeng followed Li Yunhai and others to Li Garden.

Li Yunhai turned on his computer and connected to the Internet. Wang Zhifeng opened his own website.

Li Yunhai was greatly disappointed when he saw it.

He shook his head and said, "Mr. Wang, your website is too primitive."

Wang Zhifeng scratched his forehead awkwardly.

Because there really wasn't much on his website, he just accessed a few ISI databases, collaborated with the "Fine Shopping Guide" and "Novel Monthly" on one content, and had a few links and the other one was cyberspace.

In fact, this cyberspace is the prototype of future portal websites.

The website that Li Yunhai visited in his later life was too high-end.

When you first see such a primitive website, it certainly seems low-end.

He asked, "Mr. Wang, have you ever read a book called "A Day in the Internet"? "

Wang Zhifeng said: "I have read it. It talks a lot about the Yahoo model and other models. I read the book fascinatedly and read it three times in a row."

Li Yunhai asked: "Is the traffic of your web pages high? In other words, how many page views are there?"

Wang Zhifeng said, "Not very high. I found that the webpages we worked so hard on for half a day still didn't have as much traffic as those few links. For example, the links to the monthly novel report and the boutique shopping guide."

Li Yunhai talked to him about online traffic analysis.

For a website to survive, it depends on huge traffic, and you have to have attractive content. Otherwise, even if you attract investment, your website will not survive.

Traffic and technology are two different concepts.

Wang Zhifeng has skills, but people with skills do not necessarily understand the market, and may not necessarily be able to create a website that people want to visit.

Li Yunhai said in a deep voice: "Mr. Wang, you still have a long way to go on the Internet. I will give you some time to give me a complete Internet business plan. If your plan satisfies me, I will consider investing."

Wang Zhifeng said: "Mr. Li, I wonder what your requirements are? I can design it according to your requirements."

Li Yunhai said: "No, you can't just do it according to my requirements. You have to satisfy the majority of netizens. You want to attract tens of thousands of netizens! Go back and make a plan first, and we will contact each other later."

Wang Zhifeng said awkwardly: "Mr. Li, are you really willing to invest in my website?"

Li Yunhai smiled and said, "It doesn't matter what I invest in or what I don't invest in. The question is whether you have something that attracts me."

Wang Zhifeng nodded and said, "I understand. I will go back and work on the design. I will definitely come up with a plan as soon as possible."

Li Yunhai said: "Read more books related to the Internet when you have time, you will gain more."

Wang Zhifeng said yes.

Li Yunhai's words gave Wang Zhifeng great encouragement.

Because Li Yunhai is a successful person!
His words are like the words of a sage to young entrepreneurs!

And Li Yunhai has funds.

If he was really willing to invest, even if it was just a little bit of money that slipped through his fingers, it would be enough for Wang Zhifeng to realize his dream.

After sending Wang Zhifeng away, Su Wan'er asked, "Yunhai, do you really want to help him?"

Li Yunhai smiled and said, "I can only give him an investment at most. Whether he can succeed or not depends on his own ability."

Su Wan'er asked, "Then why don't you just invest in him? Why do you want him to go back and write a business plan?"

Li Yunhai said, "I am deliberately making things difficult for him. Have you read Journey to the West? One must go through untold hardships to obtain the true scriptures. Otherwise, even if I give him the true scriptures, he will not cherish them. It is easy for me to give him 200 million US dollars now, but after he gets the money, he has no idea how to spend it or how to operate it. Two million may not even make a splash before he spends it all."

Su Wan'er asked, "Are you trying to sharpen him?"

Li Yunhai said: "He is a man with ideas, but his ideas are not mature enough! Even if what others tell him is correct, he cannot deeply understand it, so I need him to figure it out himself! Only what he figures out himself can truly belong to him."

Su Wan'er smiled and said, "It's late at night, we don't care about others, we should rest!"

Li Yunhai lifted her pretty face, kissed her deeply, and said, "You are so beautiful!"

Su Wan'er pouted: "Is this true? Are you trying to cheer me up?"

Li Yunhai hugged her waist and pushed her hard towards him.

Su Wan'er's light body was pressed tightly against Li Yunhai's arms.

Li Yunhai picked her up by the waist and walked into the bedroom.

Wang Zhifeng was encouraged by Li Yunhai.

After saying goodbye to Li Yunhai, Wang Zhifeng stayed in the office every day, lying on the desk writing business plans.

He has been thinking about the question raised by Li Yunhai: What is the model of the Internet?
Through a lot of reading and understanding, Wang Zhifeng finally determined that the so-called Internet model is the advertising model and the portal model.

In his final draft, he added the search model, and finally formed a complete business plan.

Day after day passed.

Wang Zhifeng worked hard day and night.

On a winter night, he finished the final version of the business plan overnight and worked until 7 o'clock in the morning.

He checked it one last time and then sent the final version to Li Yunhai's email.

When Wang Zhifeng pressed the Enter key with a "click", he started a new model that would be suitable for my country's Internet in the years to come!
The weather in winter is getting colder and colder.

After breakfast, Li Yunhai turned on his computer and received an email from Wang Zhifeng.

He read it carefully, then printed it out, held the manuscript in his hand, sat on the sofa, and read while drinking tea.

Su Wan'er held Xiao Min in her arms, sat next to him, and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Li Yunhai patted the manuscript in his hand and said with a smile: "The plan written by Wang Zhifeng."

Su Wan'er said: "Oh? What do you think?"

Li Yunhai smiled and said, "Very good! He needs to be pushed! Otherwise, he won't be able to realize his potential."

Su Wan'er asked: "Then will you invest in him?"

Li Yunhai hesitated for a moment and said, "The Chinese New Year is coming soon. Let's reply to him after the Chinese New Year!"

Su Wan'er smiled and asked, "Why?"

Li Yunhai said: "I want him to know that my investment is not so easy to obtain."

After that, he stood up and went to the computer and sent an email to Wang Zhifeng. The content was very brief:
"I have received the proposal, which is good overall, but the details need to be polished. You also need to figure out the Internet traffic password! I look forward to your second draft."

Wang Zhifeng was stunned when he received the reply email he had been waiting for.

The plan he had spent all his efforts on was rejected by Li Yunhai?
What is the Internet traffic password?
Wang Zhifeng grabbed his hair with both hands and thought hard in pain.

He looked up out the window, then cheered himself up, turned on the computer and started working!
The Chinese New Year is coming soon, but he can only work overtime in the office and cannot go home to spend time with his family!

Midwinter has arrived, can spring be far behind? (End of this chapter)