Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 367 Circles
Are you a scumbag?

It must be counted, Ma Liang never denied this.

But if you want to compare it with the person in front of you who is famous in the history of scumbags, his stuff is not enough at all.

Wang, the founder of Tudou.com, joined Hughes Satellite Company of the United States in 1996, while working while studying for a master's degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.

In 1999, he was sent back to the branch of Hughes Satellite Company in BJ by the headquarters to be responsible for the launch of new products in the Asia-Pacific market.

In 2001, he resigned from the position of Hughes Satellite Company and officially joined Bertelsmann Group. At the same time, he served as the director of corporate development of the group and the executive president of Bertelsmann Online Greater China.

During his work, Wang also obtained an MBA degree from INSEAD.

Although his family background is average, but with his hard work after studying abroad, he can be considered to have made his own way.

In 2005, Wang once again resigned from the hot golden collar position, started a business with several like-minded friends, and led the team to launch the Tudou online video platform.

The platform logo is an orange icon with a mask as a totem.

When Tudou was founded, YouTube had only been launched for a few days. It can be said that Wang was indeed at the forefront of the global venture capital circle.

Relying on the network foundation laid by the executives of foreign companies before, the first two rounds of financing of Tudou.com went very smoothly.

In December 2005, Tudou received $12 in the first round of venture capital from IDG.

In May 2006, Tudou received US$5 million in the second round of venture capital, investors including IDG, GGV Capital, and JAFCO Asia.

The two rounds of investment are led by the giants in front of us.

Zhang Suyang, Huang Peihua, and Li Yongjin, the experiences of these big guys are more impressive than the last, even with a touch of legend.

Not to mention Xu Xin, the queen of venture capital, who has been blown away in the venture capital circle.

Even the so-called ordinary-born Wang, an entrepreneur who could be sent abroad by his parents to study abroad in the 90s, has a family background that surpasses 99% of Chinese people.

From the financing of Tudou, you can see what is called a special circle.

As the saying goes, lions don't play with dogs!

People who are not in the same circle can't play together at all.

If you have a net worth of 50, then you can only play with people of similar net worth.You control hundreds of millions, so the circle around you is naturally not ordinary.

For tonight's dinner, maybe Ma Liang and Lin Fengyun are pure grassroots.

As for Chai Daguan, although they made their fortune very early, they have always been doing traditional business, which is not interesting compared with other capital circles.

If he really doesn't care, why would he, Boss Chai, play private equity? Isn't he overwhelmed and wants to squeeze into a higher circle.

Having said that, this is enough to show Chai Jin's sensitivity and shrewdness.

In the windy era, if these native bosses don't work hard, they will soon withdraw from the stage of history.

With the advent of the capital era, the top circles in China will also be reshuffled.

Capital players like Xu Xin, Zhang Suyang, and Huang Peihua will be the trendsetters in the next ten years.

Talented people come out from generation to generation, and some elites in the venture capital and capital circles, relying on their profound background, quickly left behind Chai Jin and other local bosses who got rich purely from the dividends of reform and opening up.

Especially top elites such as Xu Xin, Huang Peihua, Li Yongjin, Zhang Lei, Shen Nanpeng, etc., relying on their circle advantages, they have been smoother since then.

A random move can determine the rise and fall of a certain industry in China.

The advantages of the circle layer, like a snowball, its influence and utility will accumulate more and more over time.

It's like playing private equity. It's much easier for Xu Xin to raise funds than Chai Jin.

The same is true for starting a business. Take a look at Tudou’s startup, which raised nearly tens of millions of dollars in minutes, which is still a small amount.

Look at Li Yongjin, who just invested 5000 million US dollars in PPG shirts.

The founding team of PPG is luxurious. CEO Li Liang, CFO Wang Yanfeng, and CMO Zhao Yisong are all overseas returnees, and all of them are entrepreneurs from the elite circle.

Even Li Yongjin himself was quickly tricked into taking the COO position of PPG.

It was supposed to be a perfect PY transaction, condescending to work in a start-up company, while getting a high salary, while mixing some shares, trying to be like Alibaba's Accountant Cai, flourishing.

Unexpectedly, Li Yongjin made a wrong calculation and let himself fall into the quagmire, and never recovered.

The founder Li Liang not only made various financial frauds, but also refused to delegate power, which led to PPG's poor performance and frequent negative news.

Li Yong couldn't compete with Li Liang, so he could only watch the PPG shirt project fall.

In the end, not only was he held accountable by the board of directors of JAFCO Asia, but he also withdrew from the capital circle, and he was no longer a high-ranking investor.

After quitting, he had no choice but to join the board of directors of Tudou.com, hoping to rely on Wang to stand up.

But if one is really unlucky, the tragedy will happen one after another. Li Yongjin did not expect to be tricked by the founder again.

Because Wang is a pure scumbag. He obviously has a wife, but when he was struggling to start a business, he cheated on him and raised a beautiful TV anchor outside.

It's fine for you to play, but you also showed your true feelings, so you insist on divorcing your original partner.

Divorce is not a big deal, and the assets are secretly transferred.He is obviously a billionaire, but when he divorced, he even sent his ex-wife away for 10 yuan.

Ma Liang couldn't do it even if he was beaten to death by a pure scumbag.

In the previous life, because of Wang's stupid operation, he planted the biggest landmine for Tudou, and made all investors miserable.

Tudou.com, which was originally far ahead, has a smooth journey with the support of various capitals.

Seeing that it is about to go public on Nasdaq and become the first stock of Huaxia Online Video Site, all stakeholders are waiting to sit in line and share the results.

Fortunately, just before Tudou went public, Wang's ex-wife filed a lawsuit against him.

As a result, the assets were frozen and the listing was blocked.

Everyone was dumbfounded, and the entire venture capital circle was completely shattered by his stupid operation.

You must know that Tudou.com was one of the Chinese Internet video sharing sites at that time. It said it was the first and no one said it was the second.

The market share can be described as a dominant company, and the limelight is immeasurable.

Moreover, taking advantage of the bonus period of the era of the wind, if Tudou is the first to be listed on NASDAQ in the United States, after obtaining a huge amount of capital, there is no doubt that it will be able to call the wind and rain.

Either attack Youku, which is gradually going hand in hand with Tudou, or directly acquire Youku.

In the end, everything was ruined in the hands of Wang, a scumbag, and he watched helplessly as the title of the first online video in Huaxia was snatched away by Youku.

Because Tudou delayed its IPO for half a year, its competitor Youku seized this opportunity and successfully went to the United States in December of the same year, taking the first step to go public.

When Tudou.com went public half a year later, its stock price performance ran counter to that of Youku.com, completely losing the chance of a comeback.

On the contrary, Youku backhandedly acquired Tudou by virtue of its capital strength.

Even though Tudou.com was acquired in the end, and the investors recovered some losses, none of them didn't feel hatred and pity.

Obviously everyone chose the right track, and the project is developing very well, but because of Wang's scumbag operation, not only caused huge losses to all the investment bosses, but also became the laughing stock of the venture capital circle.

The worst thing is Li Yongjin, who was originally a high-ranking investor, but was forced into a dog twice by the founder.

From then on, there was no chance to stand up again, and I missed the capital circle.

However, although they can't play with capital, they still have their circle and network resources.

Without the life of investing, Li Yongjin had no choice but to start his own business, playing with the taxi-hailing software [Bumblebee] on the back of the wind.

Later [Bumblebee] was acquired by Didi, which really made investment institutions a lot of money.

Since then, he has continued to work hard and played the O20 project of Aiwujiwu, which is also very popular.

Although this project was not implemented in the end, it was enough to see Li Yongjin's awesomeness, and once again explained what is called a circle.

From its establishment to its closure, Aiwujiwu has raised a total of 3.5 million US dollars in financing.

Investors include not only well-known investment institutions such as GGV, Morningside Ventures, Shunwei Capital, and Gaorong Capital, but also capital predators such as Temasek and Hillhouse Capital.

In the beginning, even small investment institutions couldn't participate, but it doesn't mean that you can play with the big guys if you have money.

This is the power of the circle, and it once again shows that there are many entrepreneurial projects, and it is not something that cats and dogs can vote for.

They have arranged everything in one go, and it's not your turn to pick up the leaks.

Just like the Tudou.com at the moment, Wang, a heavenly entrepreneur, has been personally involved by the capital tycoon since the angel round.

People in the game are also playing with people from the same circle, and they don't bring outsiders at all.

If Xu Xin hadn't founded Capital Today, Chai Daguan had become a small LP, and Ma Liang wouldn't have had the chance to join him in today's game.

Listening to the introduction of the Queen of Venture Capital, Zhang Suyang, Huang Peihua, and Li Yongjin did not seem too enthusiastic, they just greeted mechanically, except when they looked at Ma Liang, they stayed for a little longer for two seconds.

After all, as a capital tycoon, Twitter news is still very concerned.

It's just that the three of them leaned against the big tree to enjoy the shade, so they didn't pay attention to Ma Liang and Chai Daguan at all.

Because whether it is IDG, GGV Capital, or JAFCO Asia (JAFCO Asia), they are not comparable to today's newly established capital, and they are all large US dollar funds.

Even Wang, an entrepreneur of the Heaven School, only glanced at Ma Liang and Ma Liang for a while, without even saying hello.

The circle of elites is full of arrogance, just like the Tianlongren in the anime One Piece.

(End of this chapter)