Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3016 Decentralized Social Networking

JD.com went public smoothly. Zhou Buqi participated in the bell-ringing process but did not go on stage to share the joy of the bell with Liu Qiangdong and others.

For him, he's used to it.

Don't try to steal other people's limelight.

The capital market responded very well. After the stock was officially issued, the stock price continued to rise, and JD.com's market value soon exceeded US$350 billion.

This was a grand event for Liu Qiangdong, JD.com executives and other investors behind JD.com.

Everyone has a happy smile on their face.

This will be a milestone moment worth remembering in their lives and careers.

Zhou Buqi was different. He was in a very calm mood. Even before the lunch break, he said hello to Liu Qiangdong and left Nasdaq. He made an appointment with Sister Zhen Yu and Changyou CEO Don Mattrick to discuss a business deal.

In the online payment market, there are many competitors, and there is no doubt that PayPal has the highest market share.

Ranked second is Helo Pay, which is backed by Helo.

Ranked third is Square, which is headquartered in New York.

Zhou Buqi also has a connection with this company and has participated in its C round of financing.

However, the shares he obtained were very small. After dilution, Ziweixing International’s share is now only 8.5%, and his personal shareholding is only 0.4%.

Zhou Buqi was unable to participate in the Series D financing round initiated by Square last year.

Because that round was mainly strategic financing.

For example, one of the investment institutions is Starbucks. After Square accepted Starbucks, Square payment entered thousands of Starbucks stores, adding millions of users for Square within a year and generating more than 6000 million US dollars in revenue.

For some high-quality entrepreneurial projects, there is no shortage of investment.

If you want to participate in the investment, in addition to providing money, you also have to provide resources, just like Starbucks.

Now, Square is short of money again and is planning to launch a round E of financing. Zhou Buqi is determined to get involved. Finance is a huge market. Even if Square is only the third in the market, its annual transaction volume is tens of billions of dollars.

  In the era of mobile Internet, whoever can master the payment tools can directly face consumers at the consumption end!

And through payment tools, certain business guidance is carried out.

The problem is that Zhou Buqi has already controlled PayPal and Helo Payment, which makes Square a little reluctant and does not want competitors to participate too much. Fortunately, Zhou Buqi also has a trick, which is to bring Changyou directly.

In the online payment process, there is one hurdle that cannot be avoided, which is game payment.

Especially in the current mobile game market, driven by Changyou, the "free + in-app purchase" model is adopted. Players can play games for free, but if they want to play the game well and enjoy it, they must recharge the game.

This is a huge market.

This is a huge strategic attraction for payment tools.

Such an arrangement indeed attracted the interest of Square's founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, who expressed his willingness to accept an investment of no more than US$5000 million and dilute 3% of his shares in order to obtain Changyou's game payment channel resources.

This made Zhou Buqi feel a little embarrassed.

  Depend on!

I want to give you money and you still have to beg me?

Is this a deliberate act of revenge?

You know, Zhou Buqi and Jack Dorsey did have some minor frictions a few years ago. Jack Dorsey is one of the founders of Twitter. Later, Boss Zhou took action and gradually controlled Twitter as an investor, and also pushed for Twitter to be sold to Google.

This somewhat goes against Dorsey's original intention.

You know, Jack Dorsey is also a well-known geek in the American technology circle, not much worse than Musk. When he was young, he was also a hippie, with tattoos and nose rings, looking like a gangster. But he has great business achievements.

He not only founded the social giant Twitter, but also founded the payment giant Square, and at the same time manages two listed companies with a market value of tens of billions of dollars.

Not only that, later, because he saw some restrictions on Twitter and believed that Twitter's review mechanism seriously interfered with speech, resulting in the popularity of left-wing speech on Twitter and the banning of right-wing speech, he founded a third company, a decentralized social platform Bluesky.

In this life, Jack Dorsey has lost Twitter.

Managing just one company, Square, always made him feel that his work was not fulfilling enough and he wanted to do something else.

However, as the CEO of Square, if he wants to do another business part-time, he must obtain approval from the board of directors and the recognition of investors.

Jack Dorsey then put forward his own additional requirements, "Square can accept Changyou's investment, but I have one request, you need to agree to let me do a part-time job. If you don't agree, then I don't think there is any need for us to continue the discussion." "Really?"

Zhou Buqi smiled. There were not many people who dared to talk to him like this. This kid's style was really a bit like a hippie.

Jack Dorsey said: "I'm going to start a new entrepreneurial project!"

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi could be said to be the most famous entrepreneur in the world. No one had achieved more in entrepreneurship than him. Hearing this, he couldn't help but become curious, "Start a business? What kind of entrepreneurial project are you going to start?"

Jack Dorsey glanced at him, as if to keep it secret.

Zhou Buqi frowned, a little unhappy, "I came all the way here, and this is your attitude?"

After all, Boss Zhou still has face and status, so Jack Dorsey compromised, "I want to make a new social product. Current social products... whether it's Twitter, Facebook, or Helo's Moments or Ucgram, all have very strict censorship when publishing content."

"Inspection?" Zhou Buqi was slightly startled. "No? A lot?"

Compared with domestic social products, this level of content censorship abroad is simply not worth mentioning.

Jack Dorsey said exaggeratedly: "Isn't this enough? If someone posts some violent or large-scale pictures on Ucgram, the account may be banned."

Zhou Buqi said: "Some content is indeed not suitable for publication on public platforms."

Jack Dorsey said: "This is restricting speech! Freedom of speech is the freedom to allow others to say something that violates secular views."

"What you said makes sense." Zhou Buqi nodded. "However, public platforms should still take into account the views of the majority of mainstream users. There are still many underage users on mainstream social platforms such as Helo, Ucgram, Twitter, and Facebook, and the platforms are helpful in protecting them. There are also some religious people who have their own cultural traditions and do not want to see content that does not conform to their values."

Jack Dorsey said: "You are right, so different groups of people should be classified differently. We cannot restrict some people from expressing their opinions just because some people cannot or do not want to watch."

Zhou Buqi did not quite agree with his statement.

  What he said certainly makes sense, but it is too complicated to implement. The social platform is a public platform, which is equivalent to a public place. Just because everyone has the freedom to poop and pee, it doesn't mean that people can poop and pee in public places, right?

There is no perfect product.

The design rules of products can only take into account the interests of the majority.

Jack Dorsey is full of confidence, "This situation must be resolved!"

Zhou Buqi looked at him curiously, "Do you have a solution?"

"Yes!" Jack Dorsey said a very fashionable concept at the moment, "Decentralization is the general trend!"

"Decentralized?" Zhou Buqi laughed. "Isn't it a blockchain media platform?"

Jack Dorsey smiled and said: "It's not blockchain for now, but it can be decentralized thinking. The current mainstream social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Ucgram, etc. are all centralized mechanisms, which requires the platform to employ a large number of reviewers to supervise the content. What I want to do is a decentralized social product, where users can post content at will, but whether the content they post will be seen by others is not certain."

"It can be published, but no one will see it?" Zhou Buqi is also familiar with this strategy. WeChat Moments uses this mechanism. "It's just hidden on purpose!"

Jack Dorsey said: "It's not hidden, it's not visible to those who don't want to see it, but visible to those who want to see it."

“It’s not easy, is it?”

“It’s easy and allows users to choose what they want to see.”

"Um……"

"Today's social platforms are all controlled by recommendation algorithms. The content that users see is recommended to them by the platform's algorithms. This is too centralized, and users are easily controlled by the platform." Jack Dorsey said excitedly, and it seems that he can't sit still and wants to start a new entrepreneurial project again. "Decentralization means that users can make their own algorithms. They only see the content they want to see, not the content selected for them by the platform."

Zhou Buqi realized the complexity of the matter and said, "This may not be easy."

Jack Dorsey said: "I believe that the future world must be a decentralized world, and every individual can become the center of this world. I believe that the current popularity of Bitcoin and the trend of blockchain are also this trend. Last year's Prism Gate really shocked everyone in the Internet! The centralized Internet is so dangerous! I believe that no one likes to be monitored and controlled by the US government! I want to try to make a decentralized social product first."

Zhou Buqi doesn’t quite approve of his product, but he approves of his decentralized concept. “It’s still too difficult to completely replace the centralized world. However, I believe that a large part of the market will be dominated by decentralized products.”

"Hmm?" Jack Dorsey raised his eyebrows, understanding the meaning behind it. "Are you interested?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Sure, I will invest in your new entrepreneurial project. I can also speak for you on Square's board of directors and approve your part-time entrepreneurial venture. To be honest, I don't think your decentralized entrepreneurial project will succeed, but at least it's a good attempt."

"I see..." Jack Dorsey hesitated and sighed. "This time, Square's E round of financing plans to raise $1.5 million to $2 million. Next, we want to try to acquire a food ordering company. If you really value Square, I can give you up to half of the investment share."

Zhou Buqi didn't expect that he would actually compromise, and said without hesitation: "Okay, I'll do as you say!"