Restart life

Chapter 456 0446 [Snatching meat from Tencent's mouth]

The game "Oracle Era" plans to expand its closed beta test in early May, inviting 500 to 1000 players to participate.

It will switch to closed beta testing with data wipe in mid-June.

If there are no major problems, it will switch to open beta testing in late July, at which point in-app purchases will be available.

After returning from the game testing lab, Chen Guiliang convened a ByteDance board meeting two days later to discuss the issuance of new shares.

Why issue new shares? Of course, it's to raise money for acquisitions.

One of the acquisition plans has already been launched. Not through Xiyi Investment Company, but directly by ByteDance as the acquirer.

Discuz!
This is the world's largest community website building system, where users can build websites using Discuz!

Its users are located all over the world.

In his previous life, Chen Guiliang was a complete tech novice and had never even heard of Discuz!. He had no idea that Tencent relied on Discuz! to build the powerful WeChat ecosystem.

Not only WeChat, but almost all of Tencent's products have benefited from Discuz during its transition from a closed to an open ecosystem!
At that time in China, Discuz! had a market share of 70%, and more than 100 million websites were built using it.

Two months ago, Guo Feng said to Chen Guiliang, "You're investing in companies everywhere, why don't you just acquire Discuz!?"

Chen Guiliang was completely baffled: "What is Discuz!?"

Guo Feng couldn't help but roll his eyes: "Our school's intranet was originally built using Discuz!."

……

Dai Zhikang is 29 years old this year. Discuz! was founded when he was 20 years old.

A native of Northeast China, graduated from Harbin Engineering University.

His primary job is as CEO, and his side hustle is venture capital. Since he doesn't have much capital, he mainly focuses on angel investing.

“Mr. Dai, we have already paid a significant premium. After Tencent acquires your company, you can continue to serve as CEO,” said a man in his forties.

Dai Zhikang said, "I'll think about it some more."

The middle-aged man said a few more words before Dai Zhikang dismissed him.

To be honest, Discuz! isn't very profitable because it's open source, and anyone can use it for free. Only a few commercial software programs charge fees.

If it were so profitable, a bunch of big companies would have already come to acquire it.

Even venture capital firms are rarely interested in Discuz!, and the company, which has been established for nearly 10 years, has only completed two rounds of financing.

Aside from the company team, the only shareholders are Sequoia Capital, Morningside Ventures, and Google.

Dai Zhikang owns more than 50% of the shares.

But this year is quite unusual. First, ByteDance sent people over, and now Tencent has sent people over as well.

selling?

Dai Zhikang was somewhat reluctant to part with it; it was his career and his youth.

But he was also tempted; running Discuz! was too tiring, and he couldn't earn much in a year. If he sold it directly, he could cash out over 100 million RMB.

A billionaire!
Dai Zhikang called his two friends over.

He founded the company by himself, and other members joined gradually two or three years later.

One of them, Li Guode, was in charge of technology.

One of them, Li Mingshun, was in charge of operations.

Dai Zhikang cut to the chase: "ByteDance and Tencent both want to acquire us outright. I'm planning to sell. What are your thoughts?"

Li Guode was somewhat bewildered: "I don't have any particular thoughts, but it's really tiring. I often want to take a break, but I've never had the chance."

Li Mingshun said, "It's good that we sold. We're not commercial enough, so it's difficult for us to go public. If we continue, this is the best we can do."

Seeing that his two partners did not object, Dai Zhikang asked again, "Sell it to Tencent or ByteDance? They both guaranteed to continue open source after the acquisition."

"It's definitely ByteDance!"

Li Guode and Li Mingshun answered almost simultaneously.

They burst into laughter as soon as he finished speaking.

Li Guode said, "Who doesn't know that Tencent is greedy? What's the use of promises? Even if they're written into the contract, it's useless. After they fully acquire it, who knows when they'll start large-scale commercialization? At that time, the three of us will definitely be cursed to death by website owners and programmers all over the world!"

“Exactly,” Li Mingshun chimed in. “When I was in operations, I was always hesitant to go too commercial. If there was even the slightest mistake, Discuz would be finished! Compared to Tencent, ByteDance is more trustworthy. Chen Guiliang even made the mobile operating system completely open source; he’s the same kind of person as us. Selling the company to him is definitely more reassuring than selling it to Tencent.”

This year is Tencent's worst year in terms of reputation...

Representatives from Sequoia Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, and Google were invited by Dai Zhikang to a meeting.

“ByteDance and Tencent must have contacted you privately, right?” Dai Zhikang asked.

Zhou Kui, a representative of Sequoia Capital, said, "The two companies' offers were not much different, with only a few cents per share."

Morningside's representative, Liu Qin, said, "You decide. Morningside is a minority shareholder and didn't invest much initially. Whoever has the lead-ahead right will have the final say."

Google's representative, Mi Qiong, said, "We can talk about it further and let the two companies compete."

From the founders to venture capital firms, everyone was willing to sell their shares.

Because Discuz! is indeed difficult to launch – its commercialization level is too low.

For venture capital firms, they can sell to anyone, but founders have more to consider.

If the world's largest open-source website building system were sold to Tencent, and Tencent were to make Discuz! a closed-source platform, the founders would be condemned by website owners and programmers worldwide.

Dai Zhikang was willing to earn less himself in order to sell the company to Chen Guiliang.

Of course, this is on the premise that the prices cannot differ too much.

After the meeting, Dai Zhikang called Chen Guiliang the next day: "President Chen, let's meet up."

It was easy for the two to meet, as they were both in the capital.

Chen Guiliang chose a private restaurant that Zhang Chaoyang had taken him to twice before. The food was alright, and it wasn't far from Zhongguancun.

"Mr. Chen, I've long admired your name."

"Likewise. Please have a seat!"

The two shook hands warmly, and although it was their first meeting, they had a good impression of each other.

One is 25 years old, the other is 29, and they're both involved in open source; they have so much in common to talk about. They didn't even discuss the acquisition.

Chen Guiliang asked, "What do you plan to do with the company after selling it?"

Dai Zhikang thought for a moment and said, "I definitely won't be the CEO of Discuz! anymore. I've been doing this for almost ten years, and I'm exhausted both physically and mentally. I'll do venture capital in the future and do some other work on the side."

Chen Guiliang said, "You can choose any senior position at ByteDance, and I will try my best to accommodate you."

"We'll see. I just want to rest for a while. Maybe I can go on a trip first," Dai Zhikang said with a smile, envisioning a comfortable future.

Chen Guiliang said, "Running a company is indeed quite tiring, and I'd like to take a month or two off to have some fun. There are many interesting places in Sichuan Province, and I might even be your guide. As for your company, you can come back anytime to give me some guidance. We're both in Beijing anyway. I live in Phase III of Huaqing Jiayuan, what about you?"

“It’s not far, just two bus stops away,” Dai Zhikang said.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "That would be even more convenient. We can go out for a late-night snack together whenever we have free time."

The food was served quickly, and the two continued chatting.

After he had eaten his fill, Dai Zhikang said, "Tencent is also looking for me. I hold more than 50% of the shares, so I have the right to lead the sale. 3 million (RMB), I'll help you persuade the other shareholders. Less than that won't do, or they'll cause trouble."

“Okay,” Chen Guiliang readily agreed.

This price is a little pricey, but not by much.

Issuing new shares takes several months, and ByteDance can't wait that long. If they're short of funds for the acquisition, they can borrow from Youke; Youke certainly doesn't need the money.

We'll pay back the money after ByteDance issues its new shares.

"Happy cooperation!"

"Happy cooperation!"

The two smiled and shook hands, then walked out of the private restaurant together.

When Chen Guiliang attended the Global Mobile Internet Conference, Tencent already sensed something was wrong. Because they weren't going to talk to them anymore!
The acquisition of Discuz! was personally instructed by Pony Ma and is one of Tencent's most important strategic moves in the past two years.

Tencent's current social ecosystem is closed, revolving entirely around QQ. Even Tencent Weibo, which appears open, relies solely on QQ for user acquisition and conversion.

Acquiring Discuz! would be equivalent to connecting countless social networking sites.

"Why did the talks stop? Is it because the founder doesn't want to sell?" Pony Ma asked.

Liu Zhiping shook his head: "Someone must have tried to steal it."

Pony Ma couldn't understand: "Who would acquire Discuz! Huh? Could it be Baidu?"

For most large companies, acquiring Discuz! is pointless. They need a super-powerful flagship product to back them up.

Neither NetEase nor Sohu have any interest in acquiring this thing.

Little Ma felt that the guy who snatched his prize was a complete lunatic.

To put it simply, as the number of WeChat users increases in the future, Discuz!'s website customers will be able to leverage countless forums to develop models such as communities, e-commerce, and paid knowledge services.

This thing was an early testing ground and promotional channel for WeChat Pay!
By acquiring Discuz!, WeChat Pay can steadily grow in size.

In the future, countless forums can be transformed into WeChat mini-programs and WeChat official accounts. As long as there is profit to be made, former website owners are happy to become self-media creators.

Chen Guiliang and Dai Zhikang didn't intend to hold any signing ceremony, nor did they bother to invite reporters to cover the event.

They quietly signed the acquisition agreement.

Dai Zhikang actually sold the company to go on a trip, and posted a Weibo message during his trip: "Goodbye. Discuz! I hope you can grow along the way."

It didn't attract much attention at first, but it gradually spread more and more within small circles.

Countless IT company executives, website owners, and programmers flocked to Dai Zhikang's Weibo account after hearing the news. Some even registered ByteDance Weibo accounts specifically for this purpose.

The comments under this Weibo post were all "??????"

Chen Guiliang replied, "Take care, I will take good care of it."

Chen Guiliang's words immediately caused an uproar.

"Can anyone tell me what's going on?"

Are they gay?

"Does that mean Dai Zhikang sold Discuz! to Chen Guiliang?"

"Such a big thing, and there wasn't a single word about it?"

"Damn, my website is built with Discuz!. Is Chen Guiliang going to make it closed-source? What will the pricing be from now on?"

"Fortunately, it was sold to Chen Laozu. I really can't imagine if it had been sold to Tencent or Baidu."

"..."

This news instantly caused a sensation in the IT industry.

70% of Chinese websites are built using Discuz!, and the founder actually sold it.

Chen Guiliang posted another Weibo message: "Discuz! will not be closed-source. It was open before, it is open now, and it will be open in the future. I mean what I say and will never go back on my word."

"Damn it, you dare to shut down your source? I'll kill you!"

"Old Ancestor Chen is mighty! Come and receive your grandfather's bow!"

"Thank goodness, it was a false alarm."

"President Chen is still trustworthy. That scoundrel Sun always keeps his word."

"How much did Discuz! sell for? At least a billion, right?"

"You're overthinking it. It's not even worth 500 million."

"..."

Ma Huateng looked at the phone his assistant brought him and stared at the Weibo interface in silence for a long time.

It turns out the one who stole my things was this lunatic!

Reciprocity.

Last time, Tencent snatched Riot Games from them, so Chen Guiliang naturally wants to win this time too.

-

(Regarding the previous chapter of "Dream of the Three Kingdoms," it was indeed a mistake by Lao Wang; you can't bring attributes and equipment into the competitive mode.)
(End of this chapter)