My rebirth is different

Chapter 644

50 billion dollars?
This figure may be regarded as an astronomical figure in the eyes of many people.

But to be honest, the number is smaller than Sun Zhengyi expected before coming!

Before coming, he was ready to be slaughtered by Yu Wenfei. If Yu Wenfei's asking price was not too outrageous, he would agree to it.

Because there is only one WeChat!
There is only one Yu Wenfei!
And VCs, the whole world is...

Besides, as Yu Wenfei said, he is not short of money!

Holding tens of billions of money in his hand, and the rising momentum of WeChat is so fierce, Yu Wenfei's previous style is not a "great kind person".

The two have dealt with each other several times, Facebook raised funds twice, and Facebook games raised funds. It can be said that Softbank was brutally slaughtered by Yu Wenfei, and of course Sun Zhengyi was slaughtered willingly.

Every time Yu Wenfei negotiates, whether it is financing or acquisition, the asking price and bidding price are reasonable. When financing, he will not let the venture capitalists make any cheap money, and when buying, he will not let the acquired party suffer any big losses.

But this time, for the valuation of WeChat, Yu Wenfei only called for 50 billion US dollars, which is a bit low, not like Yu Wenfei's style.

"President Fei, are you sure it's 50 billion US dollars?" Sun Zhengyi asked in disbelief.

Yu Wenfei knew what Sun Zhengyi was thinking, smiled, and explained: "Mr. Sun, it is indeed the price, but I want to make a statement first. The WeChat project requires a long-term and large investment, but it will be expensive in a short period of time. Do you have the confidence and determination to see nothing in return?"

Sun Zhengyi replied without hesitation: "I have confidence in you! Since you said that WeChat will become a passport in the Internet world, then I have enough patience to wait until that day."

He has this character. After he has his eyes on someone, he is really willing to invest.

And in many cases, the investments he leads seem irrational to outsiders and even peers!

But perhaps it is because of this that Softbank was able to be said to have dominated the development of the Internet industry around the world behind the scenes during that period of time.

However, Xiao He has succeeded and Xiao He has failed. Sun Zhengyi's "excessive" self-confidence and investment have also planted serious hidden dangers for Softbank in the future.

………………

WeChat's valuation of US$50 billion is not much in Sun Zhengyi's eyes, and it is even underestimated.

But not everyone is Masayoshi Son, and not every investment bank has such a strong capital flow as Softbank, or in other words, not everyone trusts Yu Wenfei unconditionally like Masayoshi Son!

Citigroup has disputed that valuation.

"Sorry, although WeChat's performance is outstanding, after our evaluation, we think its value is not that high.

In the field of global network instant messaging, ICQ is currently the most powerful, followed by MSN, and in mainland China, QQ is the leader.But we can see that no matter which one of these three software, the valuation has not reached the height of 50 billion US dollars!

Why is the valuation of this kind of software with strong user stickiness and even monopoly generally not high?A very simple reason is that so far, no online instant messaging company has figured out a stable and powerful monetization model.

ICQ doesn't, MSN doesn't, and QQ doesn't either.

and so……

We are optimistic about the development of WeChat, but not its profitability.

If the valuation does not exceed 20 billion US dollars, we will follow suit, but now 50 billion, the risk is too high, we exit. "

At the shareholders' internal meeting, the representative of Citigroup said solemnly that these remarks were the result of many discussions by Citigroup's investment banking department.

This also represents the views of the investment banking industry on the Internet instant messaging industry.

…………

From an investment point of view, Citigroup's conclusion is not wrong, because whether it is ICQ, MSN or QQ, they have been around for many years.

The most "old" ICQ was launched in [-], and it has been seven years so far.

But look at what its traffic monetization model is, it is nothing more than advertising.

However, the window of the chat software is so large, and there are too many advertisements, which have a great impact on the user experience.Therefore, although ICQ is still the leader in the global network communication industry, its user reputation is not good, which also allows MSN to take advantage of it and steal many of its users.

The MSN software is "very clean", the user experience is good, and there are no advertisements.

But behind this is Microsoft's huge investment day after day and year after year to support it!

That was Microsoft, which was the richest company in the world at the time, and another company might not be able to support it.

As for QQ on the mainland side, there is no "thigh" to hug behind, so they can only do everything possible to make a profit. Registered users are charged, the chat window is full of advertisements, and you have to pay for changing your avatar...

In short, they tried every means to keep the company from losing a lot of money.

Yuwenfei’s WeChat obviously takes the path of MSN, giving users the best user experience, keeping the software pure and free of any advertisements.

But in this way, it means that for a long time, not only can WeChat not earn a penny, but it also has to subsidize a large amount of money every year!
Citigroup does not want to do this business.

Their main business is banking. Of course, they are very rigorous when considering issues, and they will only invest if they can ensure the return on investment.

They are not optimistic about the WeChat project.

When Sun Zhengyi invests, he will consider the development trend of the Internet industry, consider the overall layout, and even invest heavily because he values ​​​​a certain entrepreneur, and then consider the benefits.

But Citigroup is different. They only look at the income and reject all "fancy" ideals or feelings...

Seeing that Citigroup didn't want to participate in this project, Yu Wenfei naturally wouldn't force it.

…………

"We don't have a problem, just use the valuation of 50 billion U.S. dollars, and we will take as much as you want, Mr. Fei!"

Of course, Modu International Venture Capital did not hesitate, and agreed to invest. After all, Yu Wenfei is now a banner of the Internet industry in Modu, so how could they not support it.

There is no problem with Jiaotong University Venture Capital, but they can't spend too much money, so they still want to be a minority shareholder.

…………

WeChat used to be just a project team, and there was no formal establishment of a company under the banner of Star Technology.

At that time, Yuwenfei was a shareholder, so it didn't matter if the form was simpler, but now several shareholders will enter the market immediately, and the company must become formal.

Yu Wenfei discussed with Masayoshi Sun, President Wang of Modu International Venture Capital, and Director Wang of Jiaotong University Venture Capital, and decided to set up a separate company on WeChat.

The company's share capital is tentatively set at 3000 million. Yu Wenfei took out 7000 million shares and transferred them to new shareholders this time, and he exclusively owned [-] million shares.

(End of this chapter)