What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 512 Take it easy
The news that Silicon Carbon Group has completed its Series C financing has sparked considerable discussion both within and outside the industry.

Outside the industry, the discussion mainly revolves around the fact that Mr. Yu's projects seem to have gained recognition again, while within the industry, the question is why Mr. Yu's silicon carbon group deserves such a $40 billion valuation.

Without selling a single car, how can it reach $40 billion?

Domestically, there's Yutong Bus, China's largest bus manufacturer, with a market capitalization of $40 billion. Internationally, there's Peugeot Citroën, a century-old company. Others, like Geely, have been manufacturing cars for many years, but their current market value is less than $40 billion.

Therefore, industry insiders are inevitably indignant and even more eager to see what kind of cars the Silicon Carbon Group can actually make.

Because of the spread of this news, Yu Xing also saw updates from his peers on other people's WeChat Moments, stating bluntly that the silicon carbon group was a bubble and that there was absolutely no possibility of six-seater models taking off in the market.

Yu Xing was not angry about the commotion, or rather, he didn't care at all.

However, it is true that the $9 million raised in this round of financing was indeed beyond expectations.

The $40 billion valuation in the Series C round represents a staggering 260% increase compared to the $15 billion valuation in the Series B round, a truly substantial rise.

In this round of sales, Silicon Carbon Group sold 22.5% of its shares. The European consortium acquired 8.75%, Matrix Partners acquired 1.75%, FountainVest Partners acquired 1.5%, Zhejiang Industrial Investment acquired 0.75%, Shanghai State-owned Assets acquired 1%, IDG and Today Capital each held 6.853% of the shares before the sale, and Qiming Venture Partners held 3.575%.

Currently, the largest holding institution is Red Falcon Capital with 14.358%, Yu Xing's personal holding has shrunk to 45.059%, and unknown internet friends still hold 3.294%.

In addition, the company's option pool is 6.258%.

As one of the unnoticed institutional shareholders, Tencent naturally received detailed information about this round of financing and was asked if it was interested in continuing to invest, but quickly gave a negative response.

However, after seeing the final investment results, Liu Chiping couldn't help but call Tang Kui, the boss of FountainVest Partners.

He asked his friend, puzzled, "Mr. Tang, why...why did you invest in the silicon carbon group in Lingang?"

“Carbon Silicon Group is also a carbon silicon company,” Tang Kui joked. “When I got to Lingang, I saw that there were two carbon silicon companies there, both of which were pretty good, but Douyin wouldn’t invest in them. I saw the cars that President Yu made, and they seemed pretty good. So when there was an opportunity to invest, I invested in them.”

FountainVest Partners' $6000 million investment, while not particularly significant in Silicon Carbon Group's Series C funding round, is still an important investment decision for the firm itself.

Liu Chiping knew that this matter would not be as simple as Tang Kui made it out to be.

After much deliberation, he realized that President Tang was not someone who could be easily swayed, and thus became deeply curious: "Do the cars manufactured by the Silicon Carbon Group really have a future?"

"I think that based on the current performance, it has exceeded my expectations." Tang Kui's answer was very serious this time. "This first car may not be successful, but I think that following Yu Xing's approach to car manufacturing, we will eventually succeed. This time, we are also following the national policy."

Domestic support for new energy vehicles was also an important factor in FountainVest Partners' decision; where there are policies, there is room for trial and error.

Liu Chiping sighed unconsciously: "You have a very high opinion of President Yu?"

Tang Kui had never been in contact with Yu Xing before. This trip to Lingang was really driven by Tencent. She never expected that she would end up making this investment.

He pondered for a moment and gave a four-word evaluation: "Well-deserved reputation."

I had heard about Mr. Yu's achievements before, but after actually getting to know him, it's hard to give a comprehensive assessment of his business empire in Lingang. However, this is my impression after communicating with him.

Liu Chiping felt a mix of emotions. After ending the call with President Tang, he thought about the matter for a while and then chuckled to himself, thinking that he should ask President Yu to thank him next time he saw him.

Regardless of how the Silicon Carbon Group progresses, it has little to do with Tencent. He only hopes that the Silicon Carbon Group will be busier, ideally completely consuming Yu Xing's energy. If, as President Tang says, President Yu can indeed build good cars, then let him completely immerse himself in the business of good cars, allowing him to contribute more to the domestic new energy industry.

The next day, Liu Chiping continued to pay attention to news about the Silicon Carbon Group, but a piece of news from a competitor made him frown.

Alibaba's short video app "Leyin" announced a major partnership with Weibo, and the product format will be expanded from music short videos to full-content short videos.

Weibo is undoubtedly one of the most active online platforms, boasting extremely high traffic.

But... what about Weibo's "Miaopai"?
Tencent had previously conducted a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape of short videos and did not believe that Weibo and Alibaba had a high probability of joining forces. However, with the further confirmation of this news, looking back, the alliance between the two companies, with Alibaba being a shareholder of Weibo, does not seem so surprising anymore.

More importantly, "Leyin" quickly switched to "Douyin"...

Many people within Tencent, including Liu Chiping, and those working on Weishi, have mixed feelings.

Alibaba has been closely following Tencent's WeChat for several years, and while apps like "Leyin" and "Weishi" have reproduced the Murong Fu-style tactics that have angered people, people have become somewhat accustomed to them.

However, while "Weishi" remained unchanged, "Leyin" changed its approach first.

I was frustrated when I was learning at Alibaba.

I'm even more annoyed that I'm not learning from Alibaba anymore!

Despite the fact that Douyin is facing a rival like Murong Fu, Weishi is not happy at all.

A topic that had been suppressed resurfaced in the meeting room of Weishi.

—Does Weishi need to be a full-video platform like Douyin?
And if Weishi does this, how will Weichao's Moments feature and resources be allocated?
Liu Chiping chaired the meeting and listened to the ideas.

A colleague raised a question: "Alibaba also has WeChat, and WeChat Moments has a short video function. How can it directly drive the changes in 'Music'? They should have similar concerns."

Another colleague said quietly, "Alibaba's mentality is probably different. They may feel that WeChat is just something they picked up, so they might as well do it regardless of the conflicts. They just do it first and think about the consequences later."

The people in the conference room suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

Liu Chiping frowned, considering the competitive dynamics in the market, and proposed a point in time for observation: "There are still two months until the end of the year. We will then evaluate the next step based on the performance of 'Weishi'. With Douyin paving the way for us and Leyin venturing into the new waters of music short videos, we can make a more composed judgment on the situation."

He is patient with the relaunch of "Weishi", but the cooperation between Alibaba and Weibo, as well as the operation of short videos in Lingang, are all important factors that can affect his judgment, and he simply cannot help but change accordingly.

However, Liu Chiping thought he was quite calm, but when he returned to his office a little late, he heard his colleagues muttering and complaining.

"If you're going to learn, just learn it. Why wait until the end of the year? You'll still learn it eventually anyway. Just give up now. What's the point of pretending?"

Liu Chiping pretended not to hear and returned to his office with a natural demeanor.

He sat down to work on two documents, then took out his phone to experience the latest version of "Leyin" (a music app), and compared it with "Douyin" (TikTok). After playing around with it for half an hour, he suddenly looked somewhat bewildered and covered his face with his hands.

I'm not a good product manager, I'm not a good product manager...

(End of this chapter)