You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 453

Zhang Pingyi couldn't remember how many times he had to rush to do work. If he met a boss like Qin Shaoyan who made up stories at random, he would have no chance of survival without some strength.

That afternoon, Zhang Pingyi called the campus network CTO Wang Jun and assembled several technical backbones to study this new social 2.0 product, "Weibo".

If it was just a demonstration product, it wouldn't be that difficult, but when these people discuss together, they will inevitably have divergent thoughts.

So several people soon got into a heated technical debate in the conference room, trying to prove to others that their ideas were correct.

It was not until ten o'clock in the evening when Qin Shaoyan was about to get off work that he passed by the conference room and found that the lights were still on. He went in and found that Zhang Pingyi and others were still in the meeting.

"Hey, you haven't finished yet?" Qin Shaoyan asked curiously.

Everyone suddenly stopped arguing, looked at Qin Shaoyan together, and then suddenly started talking at once.

"Boss Qin, I have another question!"

"Boss Qin, there is something I don't understand."

"Boss Qin, I think some parts of what you said are not clear."

Before Qin Shaoyan could react, he was dragged into the house by the crowd and then pressed on a chair to be tortured.

"What are you doing?" Qin Shaoyan was a little terrified, "I'm going to get off work!"

"We won't leave work until we figure this out today." No one was willing to let this guy go.

Qin Shaoyan had no choice but to pull up the whiteboard again, pick up a pen and start drawing a diagram on it, explaining the entire product logic and operation methods of Weibo again.

At half past twelve in the evening, Qin Shaoyan returned home tired.

At this time, the light was still on in the second bedroom. Mingyue came out immediately after hearing the sound of the door opening.

While reaching out to take off Qin Shaoyan's coat and hanging it up, he asked, "Are you hungry? Can I get you something to eat?"

"No need, just pour me a glass of water." Qin Shaoyan collapsed on the sofa, stretched comfortably, and asked casually, "Why haven't you slept yet?"

"I have some unfinished work. I'll hurry up and revise it." Mingyue handed over the cup of water. "I can't sleep until you come back."

"You don't have to wait for me. I don't know when I will finish working overtime. I might even work all night." Qin Shaoyan sighed.

Mingyue was a little curious, "Doesn't your company make a lot of money? Why are you still so busy?"

"The company is going to be listed in the United States this year, and there is a lot of preliminary preparation work to be done." Qin Shaoyan let out a sigh of relief.

Mingyue continued to ask: "After the listing is completed, it should be easier?"

"Huh?" Qin Shaoyan was startled, then smiled bitterly, "I'm afraid I'll have to be busy for a while. In order to maintain the stock price, I have to keep trying."

"Oh." Mingyue nodded, not quite understanding. "Actually, I don't understand why so many bosses want to list their companies. It's understandable if a company doesn't make money, but why would a company want to list even if it's making a lot of money?"

"Of course it's to make more money." Qin Shaoyan explained, "On the surface, the company is issuing stocks to raise funds from the stock market and use these funds to continue to develop the company."

"In fact, these are all excuses. Their purpose is to continuously push up the company's stock price and make the company's stock more and more valuable."

"Then what?" Mingyue asked puzzledly.

"Then we have to find a way to legally turn the money we get from the stock market into our own." Qin Shaoyan explained, "There are many ways and the process is very complicated, but the purpose is the same, to make money."

"Isn't the money from the stock market used to develop the company?" Mingyue became more and more confused as she listened, "How did it become yours?"

"The purpose of starting a company is to make money, isn't it? Raise funds in the stock market, then develop the company and make more money. This is the normal logic." Qin Shaoyan smiled slightly, "But this is so troublesome. Developing a company may not necessarily continue to make money. It would be more pleasant and convenient to make money directly from the stock market."

"I told shareholders that I took the money to continue my business, but in fact it went into my own pocket after a few rounds of transactions."

"Ah?" Mingyue was very shocked. "Isn't this just a scam?"

"How can market matters be called cheating?" Qin Shaoyan corrected immediately, "The company uses funds to invest, and there will be gains and losses, which is normal."

"Besides, do you think the stockholders don't know? Many of them know it very well."

"Then why are they still willing to be fooled into buying stocks?" Mingyue found it difficult to understand.

"Because they want to use the stocks to cheat others and make a fortune." Qin Shaoyan sneered, "It's just like passing the parcel, from one person to another. As long as the value continues to appreciate during the process, everyone in the middle chain thinks they have made a profit."

"Then everyone wants to be in the middle of the chain, and they all feel that they are not the last one to take over."

"..." Mingyue felt that she was not suitable to listen to these things, "Is there no one to care?"

"The stock market is risky, so you need to be cautious when entering the market." Qin Shaoyan chuckled, "I've already warned you, but you still want to go in. What else can I say?"

"Besides, this is a market economy. If you are not happy, don't play."

"Once all the stockholders have been slaughtered by the stock market, the stock market will also be gone. Hayek's big hand will adjust itself. Why should we worry about it?"

"Oh." Mingyue nodded and suddenly asked, "So your going to the United States to go public this time was actually to defraud Americans of their money?"

"Ahem, it's different." Qin Shaoyan almost spit out the tea in his mouth, "I am a serious businessman. I made money from the US stock market because I really want to develop my company! I am different from them."

"Wow, you are awesome." Mingyue clapped her hands in cooperation, showing an admiring look. "So, Mr. Qin, how do you plan to develop the company after you get the money?"

"Of course, we will make the campus network bigger and stronger and become the number one social platform in China." Qin Shaoyan said enthusiastically, "Then we will use the traffic advantage of the social platform to penetrate the entertainment industry, continue to make games, and then find a way to make chat software."

"Then just wait..."

"What are you waiting for?" Mingyue asked.

"When the mobile Internet comes..." Qin Shaoyan said with emotion while looking at the ceiling, "By then, there will probably be no BAT..."

"But before that, I need to relax."

"What do you want to relax?" Mingyue asked cooperatively.

"I've worked so hard for so many years, can't I just enjoy myself?" Qin Shaoyan said with emotion, "I used to think that now that I have money, I can do whatever I want, I don't have to go to work, and I can sleep as late as I want."

"Now that I have money, I not only have to go to work, but I also have to work overtime."

"I've decided that after the campus network goes public, I'll buy myself a building and splurge." "I'll make a groundbreaking online game and give it to everyone for free. I'm not trying to make money, I'm just having fun."

"By then, it will be the money of American stockholders that will be spent."

Mingyue smiled and listened quietly to Qin Shaoyan's constant talking, and suddenly asked: "Are you a little nervous?"

Qin Shaoyan was stunned and subconsciously wanted to deny it, but finally sighed, "After all, it's the first time. I was still in college a few years ago, and now I have to take a company public."

"Hey, you should come with me to America this time."

"Okay." Mingyue nodded with a smile.

……

Qin Shaoyan attached great importance to this trip to the United States and not only brought his girlfriend along.

His right-hand men were all present, including important partner Zhang Pingyi, general manager of operations Zhou Yuan, several old employees from the early days of the campus network, and Edward Damon, head of the public relations department.

In terms of legal affairs, there is Qin Shaoyan’s favorite law firm - Junde Xinheng. This time, the law firm can be said to have mobilized all its forces, from the director Dong Songting to the senior partners.

Junde Xinheng has also been doing well in the past two years. Relying on working for Qin Shaoyan, the entire law firm has developed rapidly.

From a small law firm with less than ten people at the beginning to now earning tens of millions a year, it all started when Qin Shaoyan asked them to work on credit.

In order to ensure Mr. Qin's listing plan, Dong Songting called Zhang Yuan, the famous lawyer he had worked with last time, over.

Zhang Yuan handled all the legal issues related to the establishment of TNB for Qin Shaoyan, allowing Qin Shaoyan to invest in Facebook smoothly.

Moreover, he was previously an assistant to the famous lawyer Liu Gang, who designed the famous VIE structure that enabled Sina to successfully go public in the United States.

Zhang Yuan participated in the entire process and was very experienced in this kind of thing.

The investment institutions also had a complete lineup. From IDG, Xiong Xiaoge brought Zhou Dao and a few of his confidants, Zheng Nan from China Sequoia brought a few managing directors, and Xu Xin from Today Capital was also present in person.

These people are backbone elites and are very familiar with the listing process and business.

Xiong Xiaoge fiddled with his phone, typed a few words and sent the message. Then Zhou Dao said, "It's sent, Mr. Xiong."

"Well, let me take a look." Xiong Xiaoge leaned close to the laptop screen and saw that his account had posted a new blog post on the Weibo page. The content was the same as what he had sent in the text message.

"Not bad, not bad." Xiong Xiaoge was very satisfied. "Boss Qin, your technical strength is very strong. You have produced a finished product in such a short time."

"This is just a test version." Qin Shaoyan said modestly, "The official version still needs to be improved before it can be released. Zhang Pingyi will go back and prepare to reorganize the server architecture. Otherwise, with more users, the server will become unstable."

Xiong Xiaoge didn't understand the technical issues, but he did understand the product. "This thing is really convenient. You can post it by typing a few words on the web page. You don't even need a computer. You can post a blog with text messages on your mobile phone."

You can post blogs anytime and anywhere as long as there is an internet connection and signal. The content is short and the reading time is also short, so the social cost is greatly reduced and the desire to participate in the interaction is stronger.

This is much more interesting than blogs. Blogs are long and boring with little substance. Most of them are either whining or clickbait titles, which makes people feel annoyed after reading them.

Blogs are supported by celebrities. There are a lot of flattery under the blogs posted by those celebrities, and nothing can be discussed. Ordinary netizens have no sense of participation.

Zheng Nan from Sequoia also registered an account on a whim and interacted with Xiong Xiaoge. He felt that Weibo was indeed novel and convenient.

Especially in terms of convenience, the content of different users is directly placed on one page, and you can see it all at a glance.

It is not like forums, BBS and blogs, where you have to browse the title first and then click in to see the main text.

What people who use forums and BBS fear the most these days is, of course, clickbait.

Weibo solves this problem very well. The entire blog post can be up to 140 words long and all of them are put together so that they can be scanned at a glance, eliminating the phenomenon of clickbait, which is hated by netizens.

"Weibo is indeed convenient, but..." Zheng Nan changed the subject, "Weibo's format is prone to attracting competitors who imitate it."

"Of course there will be many, especially other big Internet companies and portals. At least Sina will definitely follow suit, as well as Penguin." Qin Shaoyan said without hesitation, "After all, Weibo is too easy to copy, but it is more difficult to operate well. It still depends on the specific operations."

Xiong Xiaoge interrupted and said, "You can trust Qin Shaoyan in terms of operation. This guy can always come up with something new for you."

Zheng Nan didn't bother about other competitors. After all, the original product hadn't been launched on the market yet. "When do you plan to release this?"

"By the end of the year or the beginning of 2007." Qin Shaoyan thought for a moment, "The next step for the campus network will have a more important expansion strategy, so we will promote it together then."

Zheng Nan perked up and started discussing with Xiong Xiaoge in a low voice.

Qin Shaoyan turned his head and looked at Mingyue who was reading a book beside him, "Are you used to flying?"

"Yeah, it's OK." Mingyue whispered, "It's my first time on a plane, I'm a little nervous."

"It's okay. I don't like flying either." Qin Shaoyan poked his head out curiously. "What are you looking at?"

"It's a magazine on the plane." Mingyue showed the cover to Qin Shaoyan. "Let me take a look at the financial information inside. It's quite interesting. Look at the New York Stock Exchange. The entire hall is full of traders, and they rely entirely on gestures and shouting."

It was indeed a very interesting scene, with traders in the noisy hall holding pens and notes in one hand and phones in the other, communicating with gestures and shouting.

Later, after the electronicization, the number of traders became fewer and fewer. By 2020, the number of traders was only one-tenth of the original number.

"This is the characteristic of the New York Stock Exchange," Qin Shaoyan explained. "They like to adopt the traditional professional market model, where brokers conduct transactions in the hall, communicate and negotiate face to face, and reach transactions through traditional methods such as gestures and shouting."

Mingyue was a little curious, "It will be very noisy then, right?"

"We're not going to the New York Stock Exchange this time. If you're interested, I can take you around." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile.

"Hey, aren't we going to ring the bell at the listing ceremony?" Mingyue was a little confused.

"We are going to Nasdaq, not the New York Stock Exchange." Qin Shaoyan explained, "There are three major stock exchanges in the United States, the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and the American Stock Exchange."

"The New York Stock Exchange has relatively strict financial requirements and listing standards for listed companies, such as market capitalization, profitability, stock price and number of shareholders. It is suitable for mature large companies and enterprises."

"Nasdaq's requirements are relatively low and it is extremely friendly to start-ups and growth companies. Its low threshold listing standards make it an ideal listing platform for small and medium-sized enterprises and technology start-ups. For example, Microsoft, Apple, and domestic companies such as Sina, NetEase, and Sohu are all listed on Nasdaq."

"Oh." Mingyue suddenly realized, "Nasdaq is more convenient for defrauding people, right?"

"..." Qin Shaoyan thought for a moment and said seriously, "You can't talk about an exchange with outstanding achievements and a long history like this."

(End of this chapter)