Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1203 Money moves people’s hearts

When Mr. Zhang, the owner of Sohu, saw the rankings of the four major portal websites, he was somewhat dissatisfied with Sohu being ranked after China.com and Sina.

This ranking is crucial to Sohu's standing in the mainland internet industry.

Mr. Zhang admitted that he couldn't compete with China.com; the disparity was simply too great. With only 244 million daily user visits, Mr. Zhang didn't even have the intention to challenge China.com anymore.

However, Mr. Zhang did not acknowledge the merger of Sina and NetEase, which are also among the four major portal websites in mainland China. It is true that Sina merged with Huayuan.com, but what it gained were American users, not domestic users.

in the country, Sohu's user base is now no smaller than Sina's, so Mr. Zhang is naturally unwilling to accept that.

As for NetEase, there hasn't been much noise. This is related to Ding Lei's personality; he prefers to make a fortune quietly. Relying on the 163 free email strategy, the number of users has been soaring.

But before Mr. Zhang could voice his dissatisfaction, he saw the news from the Wall Street Journal that had been sent back to China, which left him speechless.

While Sohu was still dissatisfied with its ranking among the four major portal websites, many people, including Mr. Zhang, believed that Sohu was at least on par with China.com. Although its strength was far inferior to China.com, it was still at least a match for China.com.

However, the Wall Street Journal now predicts that China.com will become the face of Chinese concept stocks, and even the Asian internet, and estimates that China.com's valuation may surpass that of Feiyan Technology, which currently has a market value of tens of billions of US dollars!

What makes Sohu comparable to China.com? Can Sohu's current valuation exceed 10 billion US dollars?

Let alone tens of billions of dollars, even a one percent valuation would be difficult. If someone really offered one hundred million dollars, Lao Zhang would sell Sohu without batting an eye!

Although they are all among the four major Chinese portal websites, the gap between the other three and China.com is so large that it is simply alarming.

At this point, even Mr. Zhang felt somewhat embarrassed and began to praise Sohu as an internet company on par with China.com.

Similarly, when Sina and its parent company, Sitong Group, were having a meeting, Duan Yongji, Wang Zhidong, and others fell silent after seeing the news from China.com.

Duan Yongji was previously dissatisfied with China.com for stealing the limelight from Sina's merger, but now he has no complaints at all, because China.com seems to care about Sina at all.

In fact, the hype surrounding the four major portal websites was fueled by the Sitong Group, which aimed to elevate Sina's status through China.com.

But now, their status has risen, and the hype surrounding the four major portal websites has begun to circulate in Zhongguancun.

However, the gap between the four websites is too large, which makes Sina somewhat embarrassed, at least Sina itself can no longer claim that title.

At the same time, it also made Duan Yongji a little envious. The Wall Street Journal's estimate for China.com was that it would surpass Feiyan Technology, which is a valuation of tens of billions of dollars!

That's 80 billion RMB! That's more than the entire Sitong Group combined!
The key point is that this person owns two companies with valuations of tens of billions of dollars. More importantly, these two companies are not even his core business. He also owns the Shenzhou brand, which is even more profitable than these two!

These two companies alone have contributed so much to someone's net worth that Duan Yongji couldn't even imagine how many "leeks" (victims) he could fleece when he cashed out—and those were foreign "leeks" at that!
Is there any justice left? Is there any law left? Is the difference between people really that great?
At this moment, Duan Yongji couldn't help but think again: if Dongling High-Tech had accepted the investment from Sitong Group back then, what would Sitong be like today?
Looking at Duan Yongji's unpredictable expression, Wang Zhidong sighed inwardly. Even as he tried to cheer himself up, a thought inevitably arose in his mind: Could Sina really beat China.com like this?
Moreover, behind China.com are a group of fellow alumni such as Tianya. For a moment, Wang Zhidong couldn't help but wonder if Sina had been born from the Dongke Group, would China.com's status today have become Sina's?

But Wang Zhidong knew that this possibility would probably never come. Sina was part of the Sitong Group camp, and Duan Yongji would rather destroy Sina and kick him, the founder, out than allow Sina to switch sides!

Equally shocking were the tech companies large and small in Zhongguancun. A newly launched internet company was valued at over 10 billion by America's largest financial newspaper. Isn't that exciting enough?
When the news reached Zhongguancun, countless emerging internet companies were energized, all eager to become the next China.com.
As soon as this news came out, many internet companies in Zhongguancun were eager to join the Cyberport camp and replicate the experience of China.com!
After all, Cyberport has proven its capabilities by operating a website like China.com, which naturally makes other companies wonder if they can profit by following Cyberport.
……

"Up!"

"Cyberport's stock price has risen again!"

I wonder if Cyberport's share price will be able to return to HK$31 today!

Inside the trading floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, shouts rang out as many people stared at Cyberport's share price.

As soon as the market opened today, the stock price of Cyberport, the parent company of China.com, immediately soared and began to rise directly.

Previously, when Hong Kong City was battling with the hedge funds that were shorting Soros, Cyberport took the lead and shouldered the responsibility of boosting Hong Kong stocks. On the day of the pricing of Hong Kong index futures, its share price hit a record high, driving the entire Hang Seng Index up.

At that time, Cyberport's share price reached HK$31, and its market capitalization exceeded HK$3700 billion, making it the second largest company by market capitalization in Hong Kong after HSBC.

Following the retreat of international hedge funds, Cyberport's share price also began to decline, with its market capitalization hovering around HK$350 billion. However, today, influenced by China.com, Cyberport's stock was met with large buy orders as soon as the market opened, clearly indicating that many institutions are optimistic about Cyberport's future.

"Lu Zai, do you think we should buy Cyberport stock? Everyone's saying Cyberport's stock price is going to skyrocket!"

"Yeah, Lu Zai, you have the best eye for things here. If we had followed your advice and bought Cyberport properties before, we would all be rich today!"

Inside the trading hall, Lu Dongliang, watching the Cyberport stock price fluctuate, was surrounded by several seasoned retail investors—no, amateur stock analysts—who bombarded him with questions.

Before Lu Dongliang, when the outside world was pessimistic about Hong Kong stocks and was selling off Hang Seng Index stocks such as Cyberport, Lu Dongliang bought Cyberport stocks at the bottom.

In that battle, Cyberport defeated Soros's short selling, and Lu Dongliang also made a huge profit of HK$3.45 million in a single day, making his net worth over HK$10 million!
To date, Lu Dongliang has cashed out some of his profits, but regardless of the rise or fall of Cyberport's share price, he still holds Cyberport shares worth about five million Hong Kong dollars.

Looking at the gazes of the people around him, Lü Dongliang said, "I just stumbled upon this by chance; I can't claim to have given any guidance!"

"If you're optimistic about Cyberport's stock, I think it's never too late to buy in!"

"If you're not optimistic about Cyberport's prospects and can't hold onto its shares, then never enter the market!"

After saying that, Lü Dongliang ignored the reactions of the people around him and walked out of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Nobody knows what will happen to Cyberport's stock price in the future.

But Lu Dongliang is clearly optimistic about Cyberport's future, or rather, he is betting on Li Dashan, the real major shareholder of Cyberport!
Unlike the old-established wealthy families in Hong Kong, Lü Dongliang had specifically studied Li Dashan, and even made a special trip to Hanxi inland to conduct research in Pingyang, his old home.

This investigation solidified Lü Dongliang's belief. Although he was reluctant to admit it, after seeing Dongling High-Tech's position in Pingyang, Lü Dongliang clearly felt that Li Dashan's boldness far surpassed that of some wealthy families in the port city.

More importantly, many wealthy families in Hong Kong have never regarded Hong Kong as their final resting place. Although they have made a lot of money in Hong Kong, their performance last year clearly shows that they will not weather the storm with Hong Kong.

Can you really trust the stocks of wealthy people who don't bet on Hong Kong at crucial moments and are ready to run away at the slightest sign of trouble?
Conversely, Li Dashan, an outsider, stood with Hong Kong City Telecom last year. It should be noted that Li Dongling risked losing his Cyberport shares and the more than 10 billion US dollars he spent to acquire Hong Kong City Telecom in order to support Hong Kong City Telecom.

Based on this alone, Lü Dongliang believed that Li Dashan's Cyberport was much more reliable than those wealthy families who could run away at any time. At least he didn't have to worry about the day he would wake up to find that the major shareholder of the stocks he bought had suddenly run away, and his stocks had become worthless.

Cyberport already has a strong foothold in Hong Kong's telecommunications market and has also acquired Peregrine, Hong Kong's largest securities firm. Now, the first phase of the Cyberport Global Technology Centre Industrial Park is nearing completion.

If news breaks that China.com is controlled by the Hong Kong Future Industry Fund, then the entire Cyberport will take off.

In any case, Lü Dongliang was prepared to hold onto his Cyberport shares without selling them.

After Lü Dongliang left, the reactions of the surrounding veteran investors to his words varied.

I'm hesitant because I feel that Cyberport's stock price is still too high, and with such a high market capitalization, I don't know if it can hold up, so I want to wait and see.

But a few people, remembering Lu Dongliang's words, gritted their teeth and decided to take out their savings to buy more Cyberport shares and try their luck again!
……

The launch of China.com has caused quite a stir in the technology and investment industries in mainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Wall Street.

Stocks such as Cyberport, which are associated with China.com, saw their share prices soar.

On the second day, China.com continued its strong performance from the first day. Although user traffic decreased, yesterday's sensational headlines and various promotions attracted a large number of casual users, but not all of these casual users stayed with China.com.

Therefore, today's data is actually the true user data of China.com.

"This morning, user visits exceeded 45, but page views increased by 24%. Today, we estimate that China.com will have around two million user visits throughout the day!"

After arriving at the China.com office building, Li Dongling heard Wei Fang report the data from China.com.

(End of this chapter)