Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2963 The Hardest Question

Zhou Buqi has a deep connection with Reddit.

In addition, the domestic "secret circle" is about to die due to policy restrictions, and the emotional projection of domestic friends on the product requires an alternative overseas. Acquiring Reddit is indeed a good choice.

If nothing else, at least this is an accumulation of data!

There are a lot of "conversations" between users on Reddit. These real discussions between humans are tools for training large artificial intelligence models.

A large part of the training data relied on by ChatGPT, a well-known AI product in the past, actually came from Reddit. Because it was used privately, it was even accused by Reddit. As a result, other generative models have to pay to use Reddit's data.

Like Google's big model, it pays Reddit between $6000 million and $1 million a year to use the data in Reddit.

Don't make this money too easily.

Selling user data is actually prohibited.

Many products, such as Helo, Facebook, iPhone, YouTube, etc., require users to reach an agreement when registering, requiring users to allow the platform to use their data. If you do not agree, you will not be able to register an account.

But even so, these data can only be used by yourself.

Cannot be sold.

However, Reddit is an exception.

Because this is an anonymous forum.

All users are anonymous, there is no "user", and naturally there is no user privacy. Since user privacy will not be violated, the data in Reddit can of course be used and sold at will.

This is so important.

It will play a crucial role in training large generative AI models in the future.

It doesn’t matter whether the product itself makes money or not. When opportunities come in the future, you can make a lot of money just by relying on the anonymous data on the sales platform.

This is also an important supplement to Ziweixing International’s own core strategy on artificial intelligence.

Therefore, Zhou Buqi attached great importance to the acquisition of Reddit and asked, "What is the offer price?"

Lu Qi smiled and said, "Their offer is $2.2 million. I think it can be kept between $1.5 million and $1.8 million."

Zhou Buqi said: "That's it. Right now, Ziweixing International's valuation is only 1800 billion US dollars. When it comes to the IPO in three or four months, the final valuation will definitely exceed 2000 billion US dollars. After the listing, if the stock price rises a few more times, it won't be difficult to hit 2500 billion US dollars. They won't suffer any loss!"

Lu Qi smiled and said, "Yes, that's what I mean. Price shouldn't be an obstacle. Reddit is a bit turbulent right now because of disagreements on the product. The previous CEO was fired by the board of directors. Now the interim CEO is taking over."

"Product differences?" Zhou Buqi was very concerned about products, which was also his area of ​​expertise. "What differences?"

Lu Qi said: "Reddit was acquired by a media company before, but it never took off. So it was spun off. After the spin-off, it still couldn't find a way to make a profit, so the CEO wanted to change the product idea. The anonymous model makes it difficult to have accurate advertising, which will lead to lower advertising conversion rates and lower revenue."

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was a little surprised. "What kind of thinking is this? The attribute of anonymous community is Reddit's greatest competitive advantage. For the sake of commercial interests, give up the core positioning of the product?"

Lu Qi smiled and said, "Yes, that's what I said. This led to a debate within Reddit. Some people thought that Reddit should transform, while others thought that it should stick to the anonymous community model. Later, a strong man appeared on the board of directors. He stood up and drove away the CEO who had been there for many years, saying that he would stick to the anonymous route and that he would use his connections to find a round B financing for Reddit."

"Is this possible? The board of directors believes it?"

Zhou Buqi was surprised.

Who is this person?

  I feel like I'm like Boss Ma!

What a good fool!

Reddit is developing very badly now. It has been spending more than it earns for many years, and profits are nowhere in sight. There is also internal unrest... At this time, he can still stand up and brazenly say that he can complete the second round of financing for Reddit?

  What a big mouth you have!

Lu Qi smiled and said, "I believe it. The board of directors and management are very supportive of him. He has become the interim CEO. I am quite familiar with him. This guy... to be honest, he has great charisma. His life experience is also amazing. He was a young genius. He won the grand prize of the National Computer Programming Contest at the age of 12. Then, when he was in middle school, he announced a shocking news to everyone - he likes men and came out publicly more than ten years ago when he was only 16 years old. Later, he went to Stanford University smoothly, but dropped out halfway and participated in entrepreneurship."

Zhou Buqi had met too many legendary figures, so he didn't think this was an exaggeration. "Starting a business? What kind of company?"

"Loopt, a product that can share user locations." Lu Qi knew that Boss Zhou had never heard of it. "This product was not very successful. He sold the company for $4300 million last year. He personally received $1000 million, which makes him a successful person. This year, he became the president of YC Investments and joined the board of directors of Reddit as an investor. You know what happened next. He quickly took action to drive the CEO away, and now he has contacted us."

“YC invests…”

The box of Zhou Buqi’s memory was opened immediately.

He remembered.

At the beginning, he had the Reddit domain name. The United States wanted to acquire it, and the remittance was from YC Investment, which gave him $15.

YC invested in Reddit's angel round and A round, and is the company's most important investor.

Therefore, when the YC investment representative had a product disagreement with their CEO on the board of directors of Reddit, it was easy to drive him out and then take over as interim CEO. Lu Qi has always maintained a good relationship with YC investment.

So he was well aware of the situation.

This acquisition of Reddit can also be pushed forward smoothly and quickly.

It is worth mentioning that in his previous life, Lu Qi returned to China and joined Baidu, but he failed to fundamentally change Baidu's structure. Later, he left Baidu and joined YC Investment.

Seeing that he didn't care much, Lu Qi said seriously, "Really, this guy is really good. I've met him a few times and he left a deep impression on me. He's very young, he seems to be the same age as you, only about 20 years old. He'll be here soon, you can meet him. I guarantee that you will have a lot in common with him."

"Okay, let's meet then." Zhou Buqi smiled, "By the way, has Shen Xiangyang looked for you?"

"Uh..." Lu Qi knew what he was talking about, "The big model project?"

"Correct."

"I told you, it's difficult!"

Lu Qi shook his head with a complicated expression.

Zhou Buqi asked: "There are more than 20 vice presidents in the company, and hundreds of middle managers. Why can't we find a suitable person to lead the generative large model project?"

Lu Qi said with difficulty: "This is the most difficult proposition in management science, and it is true for any company."

Zhou Buqi had never heard of it. "What is the most difficult question?"

Lu Qi said: "In fact, the strategies and logic of management are all the same. If you can manage the sales department well, you can manage the marketing department well; if you can manage the finance department well, you can manage the human resources department well; if you can manage the product department well, you can manage the design department well. Management is mainly about assigning tasks and getting results. You don't need strong professional ability. Assign tasks to professionals, mobilize their enthusiasm, coordinate the relationship between the team, and everyone works together to get a result. However, there is an exception."

Zhou Buqi took a deep breath and immediately understood what he meant, "Technical Department!"

Lu Qi said, "Yes, among all types of employees in all departments, technical talents are the most difficult to manage. Managers of the technical department can be transferred to other departments to manage personnel, sales, finance, products, etc. Xu Liangjie also has a technical background, and he is doing a good job as the chief human resources officer. However, if managers from other departments want to be transferred to the technical department for management, it is almost impossible."

Since the Industrial Revolution, technological development has become the core of all industries.

Science and technology have driven modernization.

This also leads to many engineers who master technology being very conceited and arrogant from the inside out. Technology is their biggest confidence, and compared with employees in other departments, they can be more assertive.

In Ziweixing, Zhou Buqi was often teased and mocked by technical personnel.

Not to mention him, even Apple's founder, Steve Jobs, suffered such humiliation.

But there is nothing we can do.

Everyone has to coax the technical engineers like they are coaxing children. Many top technical masters are freaks, with as weird personalities as they can be... This is actually the norm in the scientific community.

The reason why many people can become the brightest stars in the field of science and technology is that science and technology are all they care about in their lives. When many scientists are engaged in research, they can ignore all external things, even their own lives.

People who don't care about anything are of course the most difficult to manage.

In other words, the higher the technical difficulty and the more advanced the scientific and technological project is in the industry, the more difficult it is to manage.

  It’s so hard to find a suitable person to be responsible for generative large models!

Those vice presidents, senior vice presidents and so on are simply not qualified.

Even Lu Qi, as the president of Ziweixing International, did not think he could lead those cutting-edge artificial intelligence experts. If the leadership is not good, the project can actually be promoted, but in this way, it will be a waste of money, and everyone will just eat and wait for death, just like many state-owned enterprise projects that have become zombie projects.

Zhou Buqi sighed and felt a little distressed, "This is troublesome. Shen Xiangyang wants me to come forward and take charge of this project personally."

Lu Qi hesitated for a moment and said frankly: "Actually, I think so too."

"Depend on!"

"Just look at Apple. iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad... these epoch-making products were all created by Steve Jobs himself. Only epoch-making entrepreneurs can create epoch-making products. If this generative big model is really developed, it will definitely be epoch-making, perhaps even more significant than the iPhone!"

"Your argument is exactly the same as Shen Xiangyang's."

Zhou Buqi felt a little helpless.

Lu Qi smiled and said, "But this is the fact. Apple, led by Cook, has performed well in the market, and its stock price has been rising. But many people still don't think highly of him. Why? Because he is not an epoch-making entrepreneur. Under his leadership, Apple will never produce epoch-making products like those produced when Jobs was alive."

"talk later!"

Zhou Buqi waved his hand.

A little annoying!