director of the millennium

Financing.

This is something Wu Yuan has been thinking about for a long time, but has never put it into action.

Originally, Guangying Kuaibo should have started raising funds two or three years ago, just like Youku, Tudou and other platforms. When the domestic video platform was in chaos and expanding wildly, it started raising funds and spending money to grab market share.

However, because Guangying Kuaibo had determined its overseas strategy and differentiated competition early on, and Wu Yuan had come up with a mature video platform operation method in advance, Guangying Kuaibo is not as short of money as several other video platforms that make almost no money and rely solely on losing money to grab market share.

In addition, Wu Yuan sold Guangshidai and invested most of the proceeds into Guangying Kuaibo, which helped the company survive the most critical period of overseas expansion.

Currently, Guangying Kuaibo has developed well in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries, becoming the leading online video platform in these countries (mainly because there is little competition and the Internet industries in these countries are not doing well). It has also entered a period of stable development and does not lose much in a year.

But as the saying goes, a single move affects the entire body. As the war among domestic video platforms has entered a fierce and long-term period of burning money, Guangying Era can no longer survive relying on Wu Yuan alone.

Once the domestic basic market is not grasped, the overseas market of Guangying Kuaibo will be affected to some extent, and the Chinese market with a scale of hundreds of millions cannot be given up!

Now, it’s time to start raising funds.

Chen Dewei was well prepared for this and was even very happy about it.

"Director Wu, the current operation status of Light and Shadow Era is absolutely excellent. Although we have not yet achieved profitability, we have tens of millions of users overseas, more than 3.5 million monthly users in China, and more than 2 million daily broadcasts on mobile terminals. This achievement is not inferior even to the current largest Youku!"

As early as 2011, Youku's total monthly user base exceeded 3 million, which means that 3 million accounts would log in to watch Youku videos at least once a month.

In 2013, with the promotion of mobile terminals, namely smartphones, Youku's mobile users and playback volume also increased dramatically. In April 2013, the daily playback volume on mobile terminals alone exceeded 4 million.

And this is just data from 2011 and 2013.

In May 2014, Alibaba made a strategic investment in Youku and held 5% of Youku Tudou's outstanding shares.

By 2015, Alibaba was planning to acquire the remaining shares of Youku in full, with the total amount expected to exceed US$45 billion.

In other words, Youku, with the above-mentioned scale, has a valuation of at least over 60 billion US dollars!
Considering that this is the complete Youku after the acquisition of Tudou, and that Youku's user base has continued to grow explosively in the past two years and the number of video views has also been climbing, this value is even a bit low.

Although Guangying Era cannot be compared with Youku, the user data currently counted by Chen Dewei is only at the level of 3.5 million monthly active users and 5 million daily playbacks (mobile and computer).

But don’t forget that as a whole, Guangying KuaiBo also has overseas markets!

If we only consider the domestic market, the valuation of Guangying Kuaibo is at most US$50 billion. It would be unreasonable to say it is higher.

But if we add in overseas markets, especially those in developed countries like Japan and South Korea, the valuation of Guangying Kuaibo will have to double.

Because although the number of overseas users cannot be compared with that of domestic users, which is often hundreds of millions, the payment rate of overseas users of Guangying Kuaibo is too high.

Currently, Guangying Kuaibo has only a few million paying users in China. Among the 3.5 million monthly active users, only a few million are willing to spend 10 yuan to become a member and enjoy ad-free service.

But among Guangying Kuaibo's overseas users, the total number of paying users exceeds 5 million, and the average monthly membership fee is US dollars!
Judging from the number of paying users, Guangying Kuaibo is definitely several times more than Youku. It can only be said that Youku suffered a loss by not going overseas.

Therefore, based on the business research and evaluation of major venture capital companies, the current valuation of Guangying Kuaibo is around US$120 billion to US$150 billion. The difference mainly lies in the quotations from different investment companies.

For example, Sequoia, which offered the highest bid, gave a valuation of US$146 billion, and the lowest bid came from a domestic investment company, which offered a valuation of US$120 billion.

Let me put it this way, as long as Guangying Kuaibo nods and agrees, the other party can immediately transfer money in exchange for shares!
As a high-quality video platform with influence throughout East Asia, Guangying Kuaibo is definitely one of the Internet companies that major investment companies most want to invest in!
Although Wu Yuan had not spoken before, Chen Dewei had been making preparations and had been talking with these investment companies. He had also witnessed their valuation of Guangying Kuaibo increase step by step from around US$40 billion to its current level.

"150 billion US dollars." Wu Yuan smacked his lips, a little surprised.

Even he himself didn't know that the current valuation of Guangying Kuaibo had reached this level.

"In other words, I am now a billionaire too?" Wu Yuan raised his eyebrows.

He didn't have any sense of reality. After all, stock prices were something you could only look at. If you really wanted to cash out, major investment companies would be very reluctant to help you.

If you sell your shares directly, this seemingly high valuation may collapse in an instant.

So in fact, stock price is the most virtual thing. You can see it but you can’t touch it.

Including this round of financing, although Wu Yuan put up shares, he could not keep the money raised in his pocket. He had to invest all of it into the development of the company.

If he wants to cash out, he has to negotiate the cash-out amount with these investment companies.

Thinking of this, Wu Yuan was a little eager to make a move, so he said to Chen Dewei: "How about this, the company's first round of financing will be set at 20 billion US dollars."

"Based on the overall valuation of $150 billion, that means we have to take out 13.3% of the shares."

"Fortunately, the number is not that large. We should be able to find two or three investment companies to take it all over."

"In addition, I have another request, which is that I need to be allowed to cash out $2 million. In fact, only $18 billion will be invested in the company's development. You also need to discuss this with the investment company clearly."

Wu Yuan crossed his legs and joked, "The company has started to raise funds, and the valuation is 150 billion US dollars. I have to enjoy myself. 2 million US dollars is not a lot. Just treat it as a reward for me as the founder of the company."

"When the time comes, I will also give you executives dividends in equal proportions."

People like Chen Dewei, Wang Xin who is in charge of technology, and his team all have original shares. Their shares combined account for 20% of the current total shares of Guangying Kuaibo. Otherwise, they would not work so diligently for the company.

If Wu Yuan now asks for cash out from the first round of financing, they should also get their share of the cash out amount.

Of course, after introducing new investment, everyone's shares will be diluted, but we can get money and the company can get new cash, so overall it is definitely not a loss! (End of this chapter)