You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 511

Facebook headquarters building, conference room.

Zhang Pingyi said amiably, "Mr. Chen, it's not too late to regret now. I will still send you to the plane."

"No, no, no, I must cooperate." Chen Yuanzong quickly expressed his opinion, "It is my honor to work for President Qin!"

Zhang Pingyi laughed, "Boss Chen, have you really thought it over?"

"I've thought about it, I've thought about it completely!" Chen Yuanzong patted his chest and said, "This is a rare opportunity to make a fortune, I will never miss it!"

What else is there to consider? Now that things have come to this, he can only cooperate with Facebook.

After a lot of trouble, he was set up by a lawyer in the United States and not only paid tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, but the lawyer also put pressure on him and forced him to listen to the lawyer, otherwise he would demand $100 million in compensation.

Pete Huang also arrogantly put forward two solutions, black and white. The white solution is to go to court and wait for the verdict on compensation, and the black solution is to find a few gang brothers to talk to him about how to compensate the money.

In the foreign country of the United States, he can only rely on Facebook for protection.

And he didn't want to break up with Facebook at the beginning, otherwise why would he come to the United States?

He just wanted to bargain, but now that things have gotten to this point, he will be kicked out if he doesn't sign.

Zhang Pingyi brought Niu Jie here to threaten you. Don't think that you can't get by without me. We have a backup plan.

Things had come to this point, and Chen Yuanzong had no other choice.

Chris, the director of operations at Facebook, appeared in the conference room again and asked, "Can we sign the agreement today?"

Chen Yuanzong showed a smile that was uglier than crying, "Okay, okay."

"Where is your lawyer? Does he have any other opinions?" Chris smiled meaningfully, his eyes wandering around the conference room, as if looking for the tough lawyer.

"I have fired the lawyer." Chen Yuanzong really didn't want to bring up this topic. "Let's sign now."

"Are you sure you don't need a lawyer?" Chris continued to ask.

"No need!" Chen Yuanzong was speechless, because it makes no difference whether you have a lawyer or not.

He now has a traumatic impression of the word "lawyer" and is afraid of being cheated again.

Besides, he has already figured out the Facebook agreement and there is no big problem. It is no different from other people's contracts and those unreasonable and unfair terms cannot be changed even if he wants to.

It’s similar to the user manual of an Internet product. If you want to use it, you have to click to agree. If you don’t agree, you can’t use it.

Chen Yuanzong picked up a pen, signed his name on both the Chinese and English versions of the agreement, and then stamped the company seal.

There was warm applause in the conference room, and photographers held up their cameras to record this moment.

Chen Yuanzong took the wine glass handed over by his assistant, put on a stiff smile, and echoed, "Cheers."

I don’t know if it’s a psychological effect, but the champagne tastes a bit bitter and a bit sweet. Chen Yuanzong immediately thought it was a good sign.

After all the hardship comes happiness.

After the agreement was signed, the two parties began the formal process docking, and soon the test version of Texas Hold'em was launched.

On the first day of the beta version launch, Facebook imported 100,000 users to test their reaction to this new product.

The result was very encouraging, with nearly half of the users playing the game for half an hour, and one-third of the users playing for more than an hour.

Fred was very excited by this data, as it showed that users highly recognized the board and card games launched by Facebook.

As long as we continue to promote the site step by step, with the huge number of Facebook users, we will be able to accumulate millions of users in a short period of time and reach tens of millions of users in a year.

If Facebook can really achieve tens of millions of users in the U.S. market, its valuation can increase by tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars.

You should know that in 2003, in the United States alone, the number of Texas Hold'em users reached million, and online poker revenue exceeded billion US dollars.

Just taking one-fifth or even just one-tenth of the market would be an astonishing income.

Fred immediately informed Qin Shaoyan of the situation and said optimistically: "Facebook will invest more resources in online chess and card games in the future, and strive to achieve the goal of tens of millions next year."

"Now other shareholders have received the news and are constantly sending me emails, wanting to know more internal data."

"John, you know, those shareholders actually doubted our data and thought that our board games could not be so successful."

"I'm going to give these guys a serious shock tomorrow. I can't wait to see my face when they congratulate me."

Ever since Qin Shaoyan began selling his shares and faded out of Facebook's core decision-making circle, many shareholders began to question Fred.

After all, Facebook was created by Qin Shaoyan. The early product design and marketing promotion, as well as the subsequent improvements and revenue development were all handled by Qin Shaoyan.

Now that the biggest contributor and the mastermind behind the incident is revealed to be running away, the biggest question becomes whether Fred can take on the role of the second generation.

Most shareholders don’t care who is in charge of Facebook. They only care whether this person can lead them to keep winning.

Fred, who has been subjected to much criticism, was very angry, but now he can finally make a comeback with the help of "Texas Hold'em".

Qin Shaoyan was also very happy about the victory of the first battle of "Texas Hold'em", but he still said very carefully: "The main strategic positioning of online chess and card games at present is to attract users. Don't be anxious about making profits, otherwise you may fail."

"After all, the tycoons of the traditional gaming industry are still very powerful, and Bush is still president, so we have to be extra careful."

"OK, OK." Fred said with a smile, "I'll pay attention. It's just over a year. I can wait, and the shareholders can wait too."

Republican President George W. Bush will not leave office until January 2009, so Facebook needs to keep a low profile as much as possible to avoid triggering the Gambling Prohibition Act.

What Facebook needs to do is to accumulate a large number of users first, and then wait until the Democratic president comes to power, and then test the bottom line of the bill little by little.

Moreover, as long as there are a large number of users, this is a huge fortune.

What the capital market wants to hear is a story about making money, regardless of whether the story is risky or not, as long as it can make money.

Qin Shaoyan began to discuss with Fred how to formulate the next operation strategy for the chess and card game. "We need to give users some benefits first. The current game chips cannot be exchanged for money directly, but we can exchange them for something else."

"For example, some hotel coupons, supermarket discount coupons, air tickets, discounts on tourist attractions, some simple small gifts, and the decoration theme of the Facebook homepage."

Fred hesitated. "Does a virtual gift count?"

"Why not?" Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "Penguin's chat software has an additional function called QQ Space. They can make a lot of money by selling decorative skins."

"Facebook's homepage can also be imitated, it promotes individuality."

Fred said excitedly, “We can also organize an online poker tournament and give bonuses to the top few users.”

In short, Facebook should not make money, or even lose money to accumulate users, and snatch users from other online poker platforms. As for making money, we will talk about it later.

……

Chen Yuanzong was also very excited about the successful start of "Texas Hold'em".

I have been wandering around the world since I graduated from high school. I started my own business ten years ago. It has been a bumpy road and I have experienced many ups and downs in the world.

Unexpectedly, my luck would turn around this year.

I got hold of a big guy and he was able to take me to the sky.

In the past, I was secretly playing chess and card games in a certain place, but now I am openly playing chess and card games in the United States. It's like heaven and earth and heaven and earth are the two sides of the same coin.

Oh my, it’s good to be recruited. Chen Yuanzong feels that he can brag about it for a long time when he goes back home during the Chinese New Year.

Facebook is indeed an international social networking site. It has a large number of users. It can get 100,000 registered users a day and 500,000 users in a week.

Looking at myself, the small chess and card game I developed has only had tens of thousands of players over the years, and I wouldn't dare to develop more than that.

Moreover, Facebook is very wealthy and has invested heavily in chess and card games. The server alone cost one million US dollars.

They were even more generous in marketing and promotion, spending millions and millions of dollars, which made Chen Yuanzong feel distressed.

Americans are so fucking rich. If you don't feel bad about the money, just give it to me.

Chen Yuanzong's technical team stayed in the United States for almost a month, fixing all the bugs, big and small. The game has become very stable, and they are now preparing to return to China.

In order to see off its partners, Facebook organized a buffet dinner and invited the operations department and Chen Yuanzong's team to attend, both to put the event into practice and to allow everyone to relax.

Chen Yuanzong was in a good mood, holding champagne and toasting with people everywhere. Finally, he found the operations director Chris, and the two had a very happy chat about the prospects of "Online Texas Hold'em".

Chris was also very happy. If the Texas Hold'em project was successful, he would not only get a large bonus and achieve financial freedom, but he would also be able to directly enter the company's senior management. So he started to praise Chen Yuanzong a lot.

"Chen, do you know that the future revenue of Texas Hold'em will be at least 2 billion US dollars per year? Our goal is to reach 5 billion US dollars. This is a great goal, but it is very easy for me."

The more Chen Yuanzong listened, the more excited he became. His hands began to tremble. Two billion US dollars, or at least.

If calculated according to this figure, his company can take 20%, which is million US dollars.

This is just the annual income!
Although a portion of it has to be given to Liu Yuanrui and taxes have to be paid, he will still have $200 million left in his hands.

Developed! Developed!
Chen Yuanzong could no longer control his thoughts and began to imagine how he would spend his money.

First go back and build a big ancestral hall, buy dozens of big villas, support a few big stars, and then get American citizenship.

By the way, we have to teach that Peter Huang a lesson!

After some imagination, Chen Yuanzong couldn't help but ask, "When do you plan to open recharge?"

Chris burped and said casually, "Well, the boss said we should wait and see."

"How long will it take?" Chen Yuanzong asked.

"Who knows? We may have to wait at least a year and a half." Chris said casually.

"I have to wait a year!" Chen Yuanzong was shocked. "Why does it take so long?"

Chris chuckled, "It's only one or two years. That's how it works with projects. Facebook has not made a profit in four years since 2003, and its IPO has been pushed back to three years from now."

"Facebook's current strategy is to accumulate users. Once there are more users, the rest of the things will be much easier."

"It's no big deal. Be patient, man. Once Texas Hold'em starts making money, you'll have more than you can spend in your lifetime."

Chen Yuanzong's mood suddenly became not so good. If Facebook didn't plan to start collecting money for two years, then he would also be left starving for two years?

What if it’s three or five years instead of two years?

I am different from Chris. He can wait patiently while getting a high salary. The success or failure of the project does not affect his ability to make money.

But I can't do that.

Chen Yuanzong felt that the champagne in his hand no longer smelled good. He could not hear what was said next and began to become absent-minded.

Chen Yuanzong waited until the end of the party and returned to the hotel with a frown on his face. He then pulled up the half-drunk CTO and chief programmer Fang Ziwei.

Fang Ziwei had drunk a little too much and asked drunkenly, "Boss, why are you looking for me so late at night?"

"Let me ask you a technical question." Chen Yuanzong said seriously.

"Ask me anything, there's nothing I don't understand." Fang Ziwei boasted shamelessly, "My skills may not be first-rate internationally, but they are definitely top-notch in China."

"Isn't Facebook importing users to Texas Hold'em?" Chen Yuanzong asked seriously, "Do you have a way to transfer these users to another website?"

Fang Ziwei nodded dizzily, "Sure, this is not difficult..."

"Hmm, boss?!" Fang Ziwei suddenly shuddered, and was so frightened that he stuttered, "Old boss? What do you want to do?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm just asking you whether you can do it or not?" Chen Yuanzong asked.

Fang Ziwei wondered if Chen Yuanzong had drunk too much, why did he ask this question? He thought for a long time before saying, "Technically, there is no problem, but doing this..."

"Don't worry about the rest, as long as you can do it." Chen Yuanzong had a plan in mind and waved his hand, "Okay, go back to sleep."

Chen Yuanzong could sleep peacefully, but Fang Ziwei couldn't. He thought about it over and over again and always felt that something was wrong with Boss Chen.

Fortunately, Chen Yuanzong never mentioned this matter again until he returned to China, which made Fang Ziwei feel relieved.

Two days later, Chen Yuanzong and Liu Yuanrui boarded the plane back to China under the escort of Facebook security.

Then Chen Yuanzong couldn't wait to discuss with Liu Yuanrui, "Brother Liu, Facebook is too overbearing. I have invested most of my fortune in Texas Hold'em, but they don't tell me when I can make money."

"That Director Chris said let's wait, maybe two years, maybe three to five years. How am I going to eat if I don't make any money?"

Hearing this, Liu Yuanrui was a little unsure, "They keep spending so much money on promotion, it's impossible for them to keep losing money in business, they have to make money."

"The question is when can we make money?" Chen Yuanzong said with a bitter face, "If we don't make money for three to five years, their big family can hold on, but I can't. We have to think of other ways."

Liu Yuanrui hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "I will go to ask Mr. Qin about this matter when I get back, don't worry."

(End of this chapter)