Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 340 The Factions of the New Era
Chen Xuebing and Wu Jiesi talked for more than an hour.

The conversation touched on Shenzhen's development and anxieties, and the comparisons between Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and Suzhou and Shenzhen.

Shenzhen has yet to surpass Guangzhou, and is even being closely chased by Suzhou.

Guangzhou's foreign trade advantages, Suzhou's Southern Jiangsu model, and Shenzhen's transformation from basic industries to science and technology innovation industries.

From how the three regions seized their respective opportunities and forged different paths after Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 92, to the series of actions taken by the People's Bank of China and the four major state-owned commercial banks (ICBC, ABC, BOC, and CCB) during that period.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) assumes the functions of the central bank; the Commercial Banking Law is implemented; the policy-oriented functions of the four major state-owned banks are replaced by the China Development Bank; local institutions are restructured; local savings offices undergo business reforms; Central Huijin injects capital to strip away the non-performing assets of the four major state-owned banks; and strategic investors are introduced to gradually list the banks on the stock exchange.
Wu Jiesi is practically a living dictionary.

The history of local development has always been Chen Xuebing's forte, but compared with Wu Jiesi's unique and insightful views, Chen Xuebing found himself to be nothing more than an outsider.

Moreover, he discovered that this person truly lived up to his name, possessing quick wit and intelligence.

When normal people chat, they usually talk about whatever comes to mind, and their thoughts are scattered.

Wu Jiesi's language logic during his discourse resembled that of an artificial intelligence. He first stated his opinion, then broke it down, explaining each reason one by one. Only at the end of the conversation did we realize that his speech revolved tightly around his opinion, and even the content of his discourse was in the exact same order as the opinion he initially presented. What was even more surprising was that the opinion he initially presented had a hierarchy of importance, which made it very convenient to develop step by step, as if he had prepared a speech in advance.

This kind of thinking is very suitable for making plans, and it can make up for Chen Xuebing's shortcomings.

Chen Xuebing knew he had a major weakness, which Ren Ying had told him long ago: his thinking was easily distracted by other things, and he would lose his sense of the original focus of the matter.

To put it another way, it's like acting on a whim.

Everyone was working with him on something important, with clear goals and division of labor, but he suddenly started doing something else, and his thinking was always hard to keep up with.

As time went on, Ren Ying changed her mind and realized that this was no longer a disadvantage, but rather a strength, because those "distractions" that could shift Chen Xuebing's focus of thought seemed to be the very reason for the group's rapid growth.

However, such a shift in focus still puts pressure on subordinates. After all, the work priorities are constantly changing, and it's difficult for those who take over his new ideas to judge how much effort to put in and how much energy to save for the next task.

Everyone can only ask Ren Ying.

Ren Ying is essentially just Chen Xuebing's notebook, often responsible for reminding him of details. If she were to think things through comprehensively, the pressure would be immense, especially since Ren Ying has limited life experience and is constantly learning herself.

Chen Xuebing hopes to have a think tank team that can comprehensively consider his various ideas and assign them to his subordinates in a rhythmic and orderly manner.

As president, Cai Zhijian failed to shoulder this heavy responsibility. He is a Hong Konger with his own way of thinking, and his understanding of things and his way of doing things are not on the same track as Chen Xuebing.

But this steward has done a very good job. He is composed and steady in his work, maintaining good relationships between the various companies while also helping him control his power.

The subsidiary's leadership also did a good job. If Kan Zhidong and Lu Weibing hadn't been busy with their own projects, constantly trying to save cash or use external funds to solve problems, the company would have already run into financial difficulties. While it wouldn't necessarily go bankrupt, a complete shutdown would be very likely.

He already had countless famous generals under his command, each of whom was highly capable in individual combat, but he couldn't control them as well as he could. He was always looking for someone who shared his thinking, could fully understand him, and could think more deeply than him in every aspect.

Or a group of people.

He wouldn't let someone like Wu Jiesi get away with it.

However, Wu Jiesi didn't mention it, and neither did he. He simply invited Wu Jiesi to stay for two days so that he could gather some companies related to Qidian Technology to attend the meeting, learn about the group's structure, and offer some professional advice.

This request is quite excessive. After all, he is the general manager of another company. What kind of advice should we give him?
But Wu Jiesi actually agreed, saying that he could take two days off in Shenzhen anyway.

With this agreement, Chen Xuebing already considered Wu Jiesi his woman.

However, Wu Jiesi still had some doubts, but he didn't voice them.

Isn't Singularity a subsidiary of GuAn?

What other "related companies" are there?
Two days later in the afternoon.

On the 57th floor of SEG Plaza, at the headquarters of Singularity, people arrived in waves and gradually entered the conference room to take their seats.

"Boss, your office is so luxurious! Can you rent me a whole floor too?" Li Xueling started yelling as soon as he came in.

Chen Xuebing flipped through a document without looking up: "We just raised $1000 million, why are you pretending to be poor?"

"Brother, our voice platform is launching, and the number of users is increasing every day. We need to open servers! We also need to support more than 600 people. We're burning through cash every day. Where are we going to find the money to rent an office? I'm already thinking about raising a second round of funding!"

When Qidian moved out of Henggang Building, all the office leases that had not yet expired were given to Li Xueling for free. After YY Inc. raised funds in September, it expanded its servers, invested in its subsidiary Guangzhou Huaduo Network Technology Co., Ltd., and launched YY Voice, which had been under development for a year.

Li Xueling used Duowan Games website to attract traffic, and within two months, the number of registered users exceeded ten million, reaching a record of 20 people online at the same time.

In addition, Duowan Games has over 20 million registered users and over 100,000 registered guilds.

This is the company with the most users among Chen Xuebing's current internet investments, and it is also the most likely to go public.

"Don't worry, Mr. Lei and I will arrange the Series B funding for you," Chen Xuebing said calmly.

"Brother, JD.com doesn't even have as many users as we do! You've already arranged for the Series C funding, you can't be biased!"

Li Xueling is now completely focused on Chen Xuebing.

What's the point of relying on Lei Jun?

Lei Jun is complaining about being broke every day!
Chen Xuebing finally looked up, smiling, "Try to swindle Boss Lei; he definitely still has money."

Lei Jun's original company, Joyo.com, was sold to Amazon for $7500 million. Although there were partners involved, Amazon still received a large portion of the profits.

How much has been spent so far?

He invested 400 million RMB in YY, 500 million RMB in UC, and 500 million USD in JD.com.

Other scattered investments, all added together, amounted to less than ten million US dollars.

He also receives a share of the profits from Kingsoft.

Lei Jun is now more cautious with his spending, simply because the prospects for Kingsoft's IPO are uncertain, and he doesn't want to miss out on his future investment opportunities.

The man who had the protagonist's script was now keeping an eye on him, and had even called him recently to ask if the stock market trend could continue and if he had any good stock recommendations.

Everyone is envious of the profits from the Long March project; even CEO Lei has started learning how to trade stocks.

Chen Xuebing has been paying less attention to the stock market lately, focusing more of his energy on the primary investment market.

Long March Capital was not present at the meeting today; instead, his other investment arm, Shunwei Capital, appeared on his conference table for the first time.

The new head of Shunwei Capital was recruited by Lei Jun; his name is Zhang Fan.

One of the founders of Sequoia China, and a teammate of Neil Shen.

A Stanford graduate, he served as a director of the global fund at DFJ, where he led investments in Kongzhong and Focus Media, and participated in investments in Baidu.

Lei Jun went to great lengths to persuade him, eventually bringing up Chen Xuebing's name and offering him a 10% share of the profits and a three million yuan annual salary.

In other words, he would receive 10% of the profits from any project he invested in and managed after joining the company, whether it was Lei Jun's or Chen Xuebing's.

Lei was very generous with the share distribution, giving the management team a 5% commission and demanding an additional 10% for each new manager, which made Chen Xuebing feel quite pained. Fortunately, he had already divided up the projects Zhang Fan had worked on before joining the company, so he didn't want to say anything. However, after joining the company, Zhang Fan quickly identified more than a dozen investment targets, and brought them all with him when he met the boss for the first time today.

He actually discovered some familiar and interesting things.

He carefully reviewed the business plans (BPs) of more than a dozen companies before picking up a pen to mark up the list.

"Let's talk about Yang Bo from Douban, Yang Xin from PPTV, Li Xiang from Autohome, and Yang Haoyong from Ganji.com when we have time."

Zhang Fan scrutinized him carefully, trying to understand the investment tycoon's way of thinking.

"These are all companies founded in 05. Aren't you considering others?"

“And this, Storm Player,” Chen Xuebing said after a deliberate hesitation. “Our Kunlun system needs in-depth research and development of mobile playback software. Ask them if they can accept providing long-term technical guidance and authorization to Kunlun, becoming a permanent partner. If so, I’ll invest $100 million in them.”

Baofeng stands out among these investment cases.

It's not about investing in the founders, but in someone who wants to acquire them.

Founded in 03, Baofeng Player is not well-known. According to available information, it has only filed a patent for one media expert engine, which is characterized by its ability to decode more than 400 video formats.

A man named Feng Xin is prepared to spend 1200 million yuan to acquire them, and the deal has already been reached.

Feng Xin came from Kingsoft and knew Lei Jun, so his investment ideas naturally entered Shunwei Capital's database.

Feng Xin wanted to share the risks, so he asked Shunwei Capital if they could invest $100 million for a 49% stake, while he would invest around $400 million for a 51% stake and be responsible for management.

Chen Xuebing didn't understand Baofeng, but since they had already reached an agreement, it was probably the same script from his previous life.

Judging from Feng Xin's written plan, he wanted to make a universal media player.

Chen Xuebing knew that he had probably succeeded, but he didn't want to simply invest and make money; he also wanted some technical expertise.

Thinking of this, he looked up and saw that Hu Li had also arrived. He waved to her and said, "Hu Li, come and see!"

"Hey!" Hu Li stood up, straightened her suit, and came over with a smile.

iQiyi raised $50 in September, a joint investment from Lenovo and IDG, and backed by Chen Xuebing, an early major shareholder. Though small, it has big names in the industry. The fame it gained from that round far outweighed the actual funding, and it has gained some reputation in the industry. It is currently in talks for a second round of financing, aiming to raise $200 million, and quite a few institutions are showing interest.

Hu Li has also started to pay more attention to her image and has become much more composed.

But when she was with Chen Xuebing, she became mischievous again, raising her eyebrows at Chen Xuebing and asking, "Brother, what's the good news?"

"You invest $20, I invest $80, and we get priority cooperation rights for technology licensing."

Hu Li's face fell.

"I only have $50 on hand! And I need to buy servers!"

"To vote or not to vote?" Chen Xuebing asked again without changing his expression.

"Vote! Vote! Vote!" Hu Li's face showed her dissatisfaction at being bullied.

Chen Xuebing then waved his hand.

"Get lost, get lost. Once you've secured your Series B funding, I'll give you an extra $100 million in investment."

Hu Li immediately beamed: "Thank you, brother! I'm off! Should I roll sideways or vertically?"

Laughter erupted below.

Chen Xuebing rolled his eyes and handed the documents back to Zhang Fan.

"Also, ask 4399 if they can expand their business segments and develop self-operated web-based pay-to-play games. If it works out, I'll invest $100 million and take a 30% stake, just like they've suggested."

4399 is a website whose name is unworthy of its name.

The founder is Li Xingping, who designed hao123. hao123 was acquired by Baidu for 11.9 million yuan two years ago, and then hao123 was used to create well-known websites like 4399.

These days, 4399 is known to at least a third of the internet, if not the entire internet.

The catchy domain name alone should be worth a lot of money.

The founders, however, seem to only know how to offer free trials and generate revenue through advertising.

Given the website's popularity, if it had figured out a profitable business model or simply shifted to a gaming forum, it wouldn't have sold for such a low price.

Since Shunwei Capital now has a highly paid manager, why not give him something to do?

“Uh…” Zhang Fan hesitated for a moment, then opened the document and handed it to him. “This is Yuer.com. It was founded this year. It’s a vertical portal website for mothers and babies. They provide parenting information, have a pregnancy and parenting knowledge base, community interaction and growth record tools. I think it’s good. We can switch to a mother and baby e-commerce platform.”

Chen Xuebing had only glanced at their information before, but after hearing this, he took a closer look at their files.

Looking at their business plan, and taking a closer look, it seems to smell the scent of Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book).

“Good, go talk to them, but don’t focus on the e-commerce platform directly. Build their reputation first, get them to develop applications for the Kunlun system to enrich Kunlun’s business. In the early stages of this project, we can continue to provide free information and open a maternal and infant communication platform. Once they’ve done it well, I’ll help them figure out the pricing model.”

Zhang Fan's eyes brightened: "Smartphone application. I've heard Mr. Lei mention it and watched your press conference, but I haven't seen the product in person yet. Mr. Chen, may I take a look at your Kirin phone?"

Chen Xuebing smiled and waved his hand in front of him.

“Mobile phones are everywhere, but manufacturers are not so easy to find. Today, everyone here is from our Kunlun System Alliance.”

After saying that, he tapped the table with his pen and began to introduce each of the seated people.

"Mr. Lu from Singularity Technology."

"Mr. Liu from BOE."

"General Manager Fan of Spreadtrum Communications."

"Mr. Xu from Zhuhai Guanyu".

"These are all hardware components."

"And our software alliance, Mr. Qin from Alipay, Mr. Xu from JD.com, Mr. Li from YY Inc., Mr. He from UC Browser, Mr. Hu from iQiyi, and Mr. Xu from Fengyao Network."

“I am a major shareholder in all of these companies.”

Chen Xuebing's introduction had a touch of heroic spirit, and then he looked at Zhang Fan with a deep smile.

"This table isn't long enough. I think we can add another ten meters later. I'm counting on you to handle this."

(End of this chapter)