After divorce, I can hear the voice of the future

Chapter 130 Musical.ly
The next day, Lu Liang was no longer on the hot search list, and was replaced by Song, Zhang, Li and others.

There are all kinds of explosive news in the entertainment industry, although it only happened overnight, but shorting Tesla seems to be news from last century.

It was almost noon when Lu Liang slowly came to the company and looked through the short video business plan selected by Wen Chao.

Although he didn't know Lu Liang's investment preferences, he could still judge how complete a business plan was.

Those founders who came up with ideas on the spur of the moment and didn't even understand the division of equity were directly filtered out by him.

“Musical.ly?”

Lu Liang saw a business plan from Yang Zhenyuan, deputy director of ByteDance's search architecture engineering department.

The other party bluntly stated that this is a localized product that draws on the music short video social software Musical.ly.

Users can quickly create a 15-second MV by combining their own videos with music from the music library, or choose their favorite popular songs and make music videos through lip syncing and body movements.

Lu Liang read the business plan carefully, picked up the landline and dialed: "Secretary Wen, pull up the information of Musical.ly."

“TikTok, record your beautiful life.”

This sentence is so touching.

Before this, the vague concept in my mind suddenly seemed to take on a concrete shape.

While Wen Chao was investigating the company's information, Lu Liang also switched regions and downloaded the software from the Apple Store.

Blonde-haired and blue-eyed beauties of all ages shook their breasts and twisted their waists, trying their best to touch the edge, accompanied by appropriate BGM.

The 15-second short video is fleeting, and then it jumps to the next part, making people gradually addicted.

"It seems that the system algorithm is not very good."

Lu Liang has tried very hard to like American Sweetheart, saying that he likes to watch this kind of content. But the platform's big data seems to be unable to remember, and the figure of Nige Nimei always appears.

“Is the Ethiopian girl so pretty?”

As Lu Liang was brushing his brush, he suddenly realized that it wasn't that he disliked black people, he just didn't like those with thick lips and upturned noses.

Ethiopian girls are very pretty. At first glance, they look like dark-skinned Eurasians with an exotic look.

"Old Meng said that black girls have very smooth skin? I don't know if it's true or false?" Lu Liang touched his chin and thought.

Two hours later, Wen Chao knocked on the door and took out a simple version of the investigation report on Musical.ly.

The application entered the North American market in April last year and was well received by North American teenage users as soon as it was launched.

Last quarter, the average daily active users exceeded 400 million. In early August, it received a $1400 million financing, and its valuation in this round of financing reached $7000 million.

"What about the profit model?" Lu Liang asked.

Wen Chao replied: "Mr. Lu, this type of application mainly relies on advertising for profit. According to the information disclosed by Musical.ly, it is expected to lose 540 million US dollars per quarter."

“Are you still trying to figure out how to make a profit?”

Lu Liang thought for a long time and decided to meet with Yang Zhenyuan, have a face-to-face chat and listen to his opinion.

After receiving Wen Chao’s call, Yang Zhenyuan came to Shanghai from Beijing that afternoon and arrived at the New International Building.

Lu Liang met with Yang Zhenyuan in the reception room: "Mr. Yang, I want to hear about your plans for the future of TikTok."

Yang Zhen, 38 years old, looks like an ordinary engineer in a large factory, ordinary and without any outstanding features.

But Lu Liang did not judge a person by his appearance, because he had read Yang Zhenyuan's information and learned that he was an extremely decisive person.

In late August, ofo raised funds.

At that time, Lu Liang went to Beijing to visit ByteDance and go fishing.

On the third day after his visit, Yang Zhenyuan submitted his resignation to ByteDance and officially left in mid-September.

Just one day later, he established Douyin Co., Ltd. and has been preparing his business plan ever since.

“Traffic is king. The future of Douyin can be Meituan, Taobao, or even WeChat.”

Yang Zhenyuan was extremely confident and suddenly asked, "Mr. Lu, have you ever noticed the evolution trend of entertainment?"

Lu Liang shook his head: "I haven't paid much attention to it. I'd like to hear more about it." Yang Zhenyuan said: "In the beginning, because data traffic was expensive, people could only communicate with text. With the rise of 3G technology, text became pictures, just like Neihan Duanzi, which came into being at that time. It is an entertainment community that combines text and pictures."

"Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 4G licenses last year, a large number of 4G mobile phones have come into being this year. Data traffic is not as expensive as before, and people are no longer satisfied with just pictures for entertainment. Kuaishou short videos have come into being."

"Last quarter, Kuaishou had 2000 million daily active users, but it has a fatal weakness: it has extremely strong regional barriers."

"Although it is firmly in the leading position in short video, its market installation rate in the south is less than 5% of the mobile phone market."

"Currently, there is still a blank market for short video applications in the south, and I firmly believe that Douyin can fill this gap."

Yang Zhenyuan talked incessantly about how he had worked as a search architecture engineer at Baidu and ByteDance.

I had always had the idea of ​​starting a business, but I just couldn't make up my mind until the day Lu Liang visited ByteDance.

When I learned that he was extremely optimistic about the market for short video applications, my heart, which had been silent for many years, couldn't help but beat again.

At that moment, Yang Zhenyuan's entrepreneurial enthusiasm reached an unprecedented high, and it seemed as if music was beating in his head.

I was absent-minded all day long.

A casual glance,
Saw the survey report of Musical.ly.

Jumping, shaking, music, skipping sound?
Tik Tok!

When thinking of this name, Yang Zhenyuan suddenly became obsessed. In an instant, even the brand logo had a concrete image.

So he decided to resign. Even though Zhang Yiming kept talking to him, he couldn't change his mind about starting a business.

Lu Liang smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Zhang, have you never expressed your support for your idea?"

Yang Zhenyuan nodded: "But I have left Byte."

Zhang Yiming did say that he wanted to invest in Douyin, but he did not want the infancy of Douyin to be labeled by ByteDance.

He hoped to receive venture capital investment. Fortunately, Lu Liang had a very good reputation and he had never been heard to have interfered in the operation of the company.

Ofo, Mobike, Panda, and even Charlotte are said to be only responsible for investing money and supervising the flow of funds, and do not care about anything else.

It can be said that he is the angel investor in the dreams of countless entrepreneurs, and is also a true angel investor.

Lu Liang smiled indifferently and looked at the equity distribution plan. The registered capital was 500 million, Yang Zhenyuan contributed 200 million, Zhou Xiaoyan contributed 100 million, and there was still a funding gap of 200 million.

Seeing Lu Liang's puzzled expression, Yang Zhenyuan explained: "Mr. Lu, Zhou Xiaoyan is my wife. She will not hold any position. She is just holding a portion of the shares on my behalf."

The more formal the company, the more taboo it is to mix personal affairs with official business, and husband-and-wife teaming is the biggest taboo among all.

He worked at Baidu for eight years and at ByteDance for three years, and can be said to have witnessed the development of the domestic Internet.

He had achieved financial freedom a long time ago, and the reason he gave Lu Liang 40% of the shares was to get his support.

After all, his personal assets, even including his house and car, are only 40 million at most.

When a company develops to a certain level, it must introduce other capital institutions, such as Sequoia, Ali, Penguin, Goldman Sachs, etc.

Among them, there are easy-going ones like Penguin Investment, which basically implements a laissez-faire strategy, but there are also strong ones like Ali Investment, which wants to control everything.

Yang Zhenyuan needed someone to check and balance them, and Tianxing Investment was his best choice, although its scale was not even a fraction of that of the other two.

But Tianxing has Lu Liang and Tianxing assets, but Penguin and Ali do not necessarily have two horses.

As one grows stronger, the other declines, so they still have the strength to fight each other.

Lu Liang pondered, then gradually smiled: "Mr. Yang, I look forward to the day when Douyin implements its grand blueprint."

Even if there was no voice prediction, he decided to invest, because Yang Zhenyuan's entrepreneurship was all because of him.

Everything in the past has proven that the more he intervenes, the more the results deviate. TikTok is a company that was created out of nothing. It may fail or become a unicorn.

200 million is invested,

Lu Liang does not want the Mobike financing experience to be repeated, as it is clearly a company with great potential.

However, due to the lack of strength at that time, he could only follow behind Sequoia and eat the leftovers.

(End of this chapter)