HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 226 [226] Good things come in pairs, Qi Yuan becomes Tencent's largest shareholder

Before the Wuliangye advertisement went live, Qi Yuan asked Chen Kaige, Fan Xiaopang, Li Bingbing and others to buy Wuliangye stock with him.

Unfortunately, few people listened to him.

Between May and July of last year, Wuliangye's stock price experienced a pullback of over 40%, with the largest pullback reaching 56.67%.

The financial crisis has had a significant impact on the domestic stock market.

Fan Xiaopang and Li Bingbing said they must be crazy to buy stocks.

They work hard all year to earn so little money, and they haven't even saved enough to buy a house. What if they lose it all?
They're not like Qi Yuan, who earns millions from a single endorsement.

Since no one else is following suit, then the immense wealth can only come to Qi Yuan himself.

His endorsement fee was 12 million. After paying the initial fee, he was left with less than 900,000. He then added a few hundred thousand more to round it up and invested 10 million to heavily invest in Wuliangye stock.

At the end of 2000, Wuliangye's stock was worth about 18.5 yuan per share. Twenty years later, it rose to 2800 yuan per share, more than a hundred times.

Qi Yuan bought it at the beginning of the year, so it didn't cost 18.5 yuan at all.

Qi Yuan doesn't need to wait twenty years. He can make a fortune in two or three years or even three to five years by making a move, easily reaping ten times or even dozens of times the return.

Things unfolded as Qi Yuan had predicted.

Wuliangye's advertisements went live on CCTV, sparking a Wuliangye craze in the market, with shops in many places selling out.

Wuliangye's stock price immediately surged, and Qi Yuan, who had invested ten million yuan in the stock, made a fortune.

The leaders of Wuliangye were all smiles when they saw the stock market's response and the calls from distributors across the country urging them to deliver goods.

It was worth the huge investment they made to bring Qi Yuan in as their spokesperson; they had a premonition that this year would be a year of soaring sales and stock price for Wuliangye.

Upon returning to Northeast China, Li Bingbing heard from Ren Quan about the soaring stock price of Wuliangye. She was so angry that she slapped her thigh, lamenting how much of a missed opportunity she had missed.

If she enters now, her initial capital won't be enough.

Li Bingbing noticed that Ren Quan was laughing non-stop on the other end of the phone, so she quickly asked, "Quanzi, you didn't secretly buy Wuliangye stock, did you?"

Ren Quan said modestly, "It's alright. I bought two or three hundred thousand worth, and I've made about two or three hundred thousand in profit."

Ren Quan's business acumen and vision far surpass Li Bingbing's.

They are all from Northeast China, and they always go back to the Northeast together.

At the time, Li Bingbing complained to Ren Quan that Qi Yuan had suggested she buy stocks.

What was said in jest was taken seriously by the listener. Ren Quan was thinking that Wuliangye had won the CCTV advertising bid this year and had spent a lot of money to hire Qi Yuan, Chen Hong, and Chen Kaige to shoot commercials, so the stock price was bound to rise.

So he invested all his savings in the stock market and had a blast; the money came in a hundred times faster than making movies.

Ren Quan was in a great mood: "Hey buddy, I told you last time I wanted to open a restaurant in Shanghai, and now I don't need to borrow money from you anymore. The stock will definitely rise again. After the New Year, I'll sell half of my stocks, and that should be enough start-up capital for the restaurant."

"..."

Li Bingbing's thighs were red from slapping.

If she had listened to Qi Yuan's advice and invested all her savings in stocks, she would definitely have been able to buy a house in Beijing and settle down after the New Year.

Wait a minute... Quanzi said he bought two or three hundred thousand worth and made about two or three hundred thousand in profit.

It seems Qi Yuan used all his endorsement fees to buy stocks. How much did he make? Did he earn more than a dozen apartments in Chaoyang District?

……

Having made a fortune, Qi Yuan returned to his hometown of Guangzhou in high spirits the day before the Lunar New Year.

The little pony came all the way from Shenzhen to meet Qi Yuan.

"Mr. Qi, we've burned through all the money, we're all so worried."

The little pony looked melancholy and somewhat haggard. After Qi Yuan became the spokesperson for QQ, QQ's user base surged, and the company no longer had to worry about user numbers and activity.

However, Little Pony's team failed to find a profitable model for QQ, and the company continued to operate at a loss.

In January of this year, the number of registered QQ users exceeded ten million, more than double the number in the same period of its predecessor.

The lack of a profitable business model, coupled with a large user base, means high operating costs.

To ensure a good user experience, the cost of renting servers for a month is a significant expense.

Logically speaking, with such a large user base, QQ should attract investors.

However, the impact of the financial crisis was too great. Movies that were once hailed as making more money than flour are now losing investors, let alone a company that has not found a profitable business model.

Even if there are investors interested in Tencent, they are basically in a wait-and-see state.

Investors are typically more inclined to add to existing successes than to offer help in times of need.

The year 2000 was the darkest hour for Team Pony, but also a pivotal year in their rise to glory.

In the first half of the year, the little pony almost burned through its underwear, and at its most difficult time, it even considered selling QQ for a pittance.

In the second half of the year, Tencent and China Mobile launched the "Mobile Dream Network" service, which achieved profitability for the first time, and Tencent began to take off.

The foal now cannot foresee what will happen in the second half of the year.

All the little pony knew was that the investors who had previously invested in Tencent had withdrawn their funds, and his world had collapsed.

He was mentally prepared that if Qi Yuan didn't invest in Tencent, he would discuss with Qi Yuan selling QQ.

Qi Yuan perked up upon hearing this.

It seems the little pony wants him to become Tencent's largest shareholder.

The Spring Festival brought him two good things, and the start of the new century was a perfect beginning for him.

"Xiao Ma, hang in there a little longer. What are you selling? They've withdrawn their investment, I still have money."

Qi Yuan knew how glorious Tencent would be in the future; now was the eve of dawn.

Qi Yuan hopes to increase investment so that the foal can burn for another year and a half.

In the second half of the year, let's see if the little pony can find a way to make a profit like it did in its previous life. If it can't, Qi Yuan can subtly hint at it.

In short, it shouldn't be too difficult for Tencent to achieve profitability this year. With its large user base, it can easily monetize its user base once it finds the right approach.

"If only you had money, let me tell you... I'll tell you, our QQ has great potential. Not being profitable is only temporary. We have a detailed future plan..."

The little pony wasn't very eloquent, but he talked for half an hour straight in order to persuade Qi Yuan, a big star and shareholder, to invest money.

Selling QQ at a low price was a last resort; if there were any other way, who would be willing to sell it so cheaply?

Qi Yuan listened patiently to the little pony's pie-in-the-sky promise, and then asked, "How much money do you want?"

Two million... dollars.

The foal was a little guilty.

Qi Yuan finally understood why the little pony was kicked out when it went to find Lian Xiang and Wang Yi.

Two million US dollars! At the current exchange rate, one US dollar is equal to more than eight RMB, so the foal would cost 1600 to 1700 million RMB.

Who could stand that? There aren't many investors and companies in China that can afford to invest that much money, let alone invest such a large sum in a company that has no hope of making a profit.

Fearing that Qi Yuan would kick him out of the house, Xiao Maju quickly added, "I've discussed it with the other founders, and we'll put up 30% of our shares in exchange for this financing. If you agree to invest this money, Mr. Qi, you'll become our company's largest shareholder."

(End of this chapter)