China Entertainment 1997.

Chapter 98 Investing in Penguin QQ

Shenzhen, SEG Technology Park

The penguin's first office is here. It is said that the little brother borrowed a friend's dance studio and turned it into an office.

In fact, this is not bad. It is also a formal office location. When Jack Ma first started to lead the Eighteen Arhats to conquer the world, the office location was crowded into his own residential building.

In Penguin's conference room, Cao Xuan met Brother Ma and the other four founders.

Brother Ma, who was born in 71, is still less than thirty this year, and he is gentle, but it may be that he is too worried during this time, and the dark circles under his eyes cannot be concealed.

Just a few simple greetings, Cao Xuan's purpose has been made clear before, and everyone is straight to the point.

"Mr. Cao, this is our plan."

The COO of Pony Ma and Penguin, Zeng Liqing, took out the revised financing plan and looked at Cao Xuan and the middle-aged man with glasses expectantly.

Up to now, the two of them are still a little confused.

In the past, Penguin's financing was basically run by Xiao Ma and Zeng Liqing. At this time, the two of them had no financing channels at all. They asked several middlemen to help, but they did not get any positive feedback.

Seeing that the company's funds are running out, Brother Ma desperately wants to sell Penguin.

As a result, things turned around. Just when Brother Ma was in despair, news came from the middleman that an investment company had taken a fancy to QQ and was going to come to the company to negotiate.

What surprised them even more was that the boss behind the [Sunshine Ventures] who wanted to invest in their penguins was Cao Xuan, a popular domestic star.

But it doesn't matter who's money is.

Penguin is going crazy now. As long as he invests money, let alone a star, he doesn't care about a [-]rd-level movie.

Not to mention that the investment of big stars like Cao Xuan is definitely a great thing for Penguin.

Never underestimate the benefits of celebrity to a business.

Especially in this era of underdeveloped information dissemination, ordinary people do not know much about many things, nor do they understand the cost-effectiveness.

If you want them to pay, it depends on whether your brand is famous.

How to quickly generate fame, the most direct way to smash advertisements and find celebrity endorsements.

Many companies even take the initiative to cooperate with celebrities, celebrities take shares, and companies make money under the banner of celebrities. This is nothing new at the moment.

The representative example is Liu Xiaoqing, who once became one of the top ten female entrepreneurs of the year, but if she hadn't fallen behind, she might have successfully transformed into the business world.

Penguin has no profit point for the time being, but if Cao Xuan joins and is willing to drive Penguin with his own fame, it will definitely greatly increase the exposure and user base of QQ.

Based on this alone, Brother Xiao Ma is willing to let Cao Xuan become a shareholder.

However, the most important thing for Penguin now is not to borrow Cao Xuan's fame, but to need enough real money to support the next step of development.

Without money, even if Cao Xuan joins to bring more users to QQ, the result will only accelerate the demise of Penguin.

So, Brother Ma and the others are most concerned about a word now.

money!
In other words, how much money Cao Xuan is willing to pay.

.........

Cao Xuan flipped through the more than 20-page planning book in his hand. The content was not complicated and was roughly divided into five parts.

①Introduce the origin and various aspects of QQ.

② Advocate the future prospects of QQ.

Since it is advocacy, the words are inevitably exaggerated. If people in the industry see it, they may laugh at the wishful thinking of Xiao Ma and others.

But in the eyes of Cao Xuan, who knows the future, this plan is simply too conservative.

The little brother is still tender, he has to look at the Jack Ma in Hangzhou for drawing cakes and bragging.

③ ICQ, which proposed QQ's "learning", was sold to AOL for US$2.87 million not long ago, adding more pounds to QQ.

This is also an important basis for Xiao Ma's financing. After all, the original version sold so much money, how can the Chinese version be worth a few.

④ What is the financing money mainly used for, buying servers, bandwidth and continuous development of QQ software.

⑤ Profit model.

This is actually what investors value the most, but Xiao Ma and the others wrote very vaguely, only writing advertising fees and membership fees.

After reading the plan, before Cao Xuan said anything, the middle-aged man in glasses next to him couldn't help shaking his head, with an unstoppable disappointment on his face.

This person is Gu Yunkai, the general manager of [Sunshine Ventures] founded by Cao Xuan, an overseas elite who returned from the United States and has work experience in many investment banks.

The ability is not outstanding, otherwise, Cao Xuan would not be attracted to this small temple, but he is more experienced, stable and meticulous, and understands various investment management models at home and abroad.

Cao Xuan has golden fingers, and there is no shortage of investors with precise vision. He is an "unknown genius" in the investment world.

But Cao Xuan needs such an old fried dough stick who is proficient in the rules of the industry to help him guard, so as not to make people cheat, so he will invite Gu Yunkai [Jiaoyang Venture Capital] to be the general manager.

Seeing Gu Yunkai shaking his head in disappointment, Brother Xiao Ma and the others suddenly tightened their hearts.

Won't smash it again this time, will it?

However, they were slightly relieved that the main owner Cao Xuan did not comment on the plan. Instead, he chatted with Xiao Ma and a few people about QQ, and complained about a few functions of QQ that are not very easy to use today.

Only then did Brother Pony know that the big star Cao Xuan is also a user of their products, and looking at his eloquent manner, he is still a senior user.

This discovery made Brother Xiao Ma and others close to Cao Xuan a lot, and they also understood why Cao Xuan came to invest for no reason.

After chatting for a while, and the atmosphere at the scene was harmonious, Cao Xuan finally returned to the topic, straight to the point, and directly pinched seven inches——

How to solve the profit of QQ?

How did the founding team such as Xiao Ma guarantee the interests of him as an investor?
If investing, how to distinguish the company's right to speak?

The three questions made the conference room fall into silence, and also let Xiao Ma and the others understand that Cao Xuan was not on a whim, he had done some understanding.

This discovery made Brother Ma and others a little nervous, but also very excited.

Cao Xuan made preparations, which shows that he is really interested in investing. If he can persuade Cao Xuan, then Penguin will be saved.

Brother Xiao Ma discussed it with a few people, and finally revealed the truth to Cao Xuan.

They did not find a good direction for QQ's profit, but the prospect of QQ is indeed bright.

The plan also said that ICQ sold nearly 3 million US dollars. If Cao Xuan invested the money to build the user base and products, the influence would be expanded, and the next company would take over, and the profit would at least double.

As for the company's right to speak, the interests of shareholders must be given priority, but Brother Xiao Ma hopes that Cao Xuan will not participate in the management of the company. Brother Xiao Ma and others are very firm.

There are too many examples of the layman leading the expert and finally playing dead, so they don't want such a tragedy for the penguins.

Of course, Cao Xuan, a shareholder, should have many other rights, and even Brother Xiao Ma and others are willing to give up some rights in the board of directors, which is considered as compensation for his major shareholder.

In fact, Cao Xuan did not intend to compete with Xiao Ma and others for the management rights of the company, but the sense of existence should be brushed.

In addition, under Cao Xuan's suggestion, Gu Yunkai also fired up his firepower, questioning the claim of cashing out and taking over.

A very direct point, what if no one takes the order, QQ will directly smash it, so what is the profit.

In the face of Gu Yunkai's aggressiveness, Brother Xiao Ma and the others were not only not annoyed, but rather happy, because they realized that Cao Xuan really wanted to invest, otherwise they would not waste their words on these things.

If you're not interested, just go.

If you want to invest, you will be concerned about these issues. First, it is to judge and confirm the prospect, and second, it is also to bargain.

Brother Xiao Ma and others are not afraid of bargaining, but they are afraid that Cao Xuan will not be interested. As long as they are willing to invest, they can talk about everything else slowly.

Cao Xuan and his party stayed at Penguin for most of the day, and negotiated with Xiao Ma and others.

Although no substantial progress has been made, there are already signs of cooperation.

Brother Xiao Ma's spirit increased. As the host, he invited Cao Xuan to rub some seafood that night. It was a welcome to Cao Xuan, and it was also a celebration of the smooth first negotiation.

(End of this chapter)