You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 378: Going public to make money is the only way out
"Showing You the World" brought huge popularity and traffic to Qvod.com, with the number of registered users increasing by two million in a short period of time.

This self-made reality show has achieved unprecedented success, and some people call it the "Zhengda Variety Show" of the Internet age.

Of course, this is also related to the lack of high-quality content.

As long as the content is well-made and carefully produced, it is extremely easy to get attention on the Internet during this period.

Faced with huge traffic, other video websites have also begun planning to create some self-made content.

However, the website does not do it itself, but spends a little money to find a few wild directors to do it.

Anyway, the video website has just defrauded a wave of money from investors, so it has enough confidence to compete with QVOD.

Even if we can’t compete, we can’t let Qvod get too far behind, otherwise the website will become worthless.

Before the popularity of "Showing the World" has passed, other competitors of video websites have encountered a second wave of blows.

That's "Super Girl".

The second "Super Girl" became the national talent show in 2005 and was the biggest traffic topic of the entire year.

Everyone else wanted to take advantage of this popularity, but no one expected that Qvod.com would secretly snatch the online broadcasting rights for the national finals of "Super Girl".

On the night of the finals, the Qvod server was nearly forced to crash by the huge traffic, which scared Kou Hongfei so much that he broke out in a sweat.

Fortunately, he managed to get through it safely in the end, which made Kou Hongfei very grateful.

Fortunately, Qvod has a generous boss who allowed Qvod to prepare twice as many servers as originally planned.

Qin Shaoyan said that it doesn’t matter if you spend more money, but you must never let the website go down because of insufficient spending.

It was thanks to Mr. Qin's strong support that they had enough redundancy to carry the huge traffic. Otherwise, according to their original plan, the server would definitely be overwhelmed.

The "Super Girl" finals started at 8:30 pm and lasted until after 10 pm. The tense nerves of everyone at Qvod finally relaxed.

In an instant, fatigue washed over everyone, almost making them collapse.

It was very tiring to concentrate intensely for a long time, but I finally got through it and the result was satisfactory.

Qin Shaoyan stood up from his chair, jumped up, stood on the table, and said condescendingly with the microphone in his hand: "The data has just come out. The number of people online on the Qvod client tonight has exceeded 208 million. We have set a new record."

There was an immediate applause from the audience and everyone smiled.

"We have achieved great success tonight." Qin Shaoyan said passionately, "This success not only belongs to Qvod, it also belongs to each and every one of you, every employee who has contributed to Qvod!"

"Everyone knows me. I am not good at expressing myself, so I won't say much to thank you."

"Client project team employees will receive three months' salary as a bonus this quarter, and other employees will receive an extra month's salary."

The entire company was suddenly silent for a moment, and then after half a second, it suddenly broke into even louder cheers and applause.

"Long live President Qin!" Someone shouted, and everyone else immediately followed suit.

The shouts of “Long live President Qin!” echoed throughout the office building on this floor, deafening.

Qin Shaoyan smiled and replied, "Long live the hard-working employees!"

Then he jumped off the table and walked towards the reception room amid the applause of the employees.

Xiong Xiaoge looked at the lively scene and sighed, "Boss Qin is really generous."

"It doesn't make sense to want the horse to run without giving it grass." Qin Shaoyan said calmly, "It's not true that a big reward will bring brave men. A big reward will bring not only brave men but also capable people."

"Brothers, you followed me to start a business just for the money."

"It just so happens that I don't like money and have no interest in it, so what's wrong with me giving a little more to my brothers?"

"Right, Mr. Xiong?"

Xiong Xiaoge was stunned and felt that what Qin Shaoyan said was not right.

Why are you asking me to do this when you are giving money to your employees?
That’s not right. Qvod has not been profitable yet.

"You're pretending to be generous with my money." Xiong Xiaoge said sarcastically after he realized what was going on.

Qin Shaoyan was quite shocked. "What do you mean take your money?"

"Boss Xiong, the money you invested is for Qvod.com. Once you invest in Qvod.com, it belongs to Qvod.com. I am the major shareholder of Qvod.com, so after rounding off, this money is mine. How can it be yours?"

God damn rounding!

Xiong Xiaoge was so angry that he laughed, "If I hadn't invested money in Qvod, where would Qvod get the money?"

"Boss Xiong, let's sort this out." Qin Shao said seriously, "The money you invested in Qvod was not given directly, but in exchange for Qvod's equity, right?"

"The shares originally belong to me. I took out a portion of my shares to exchange for the money in your hand. It's a transaction, so the money is still mine, right!"

"No matter what, this money is still mine."

"..." Xiong Xiaoge gave a thumbs up, "Boss Qin is indeed not good at speaking."

The two men entered the reception room one after the other. Secretary Xiao Chen ran in quickly, holding a tray with two cups of coffee and two cups of green tea on it, and placed them carefully in front of the two men.

Xiong Xiaoge picked up the coffee and took a sip, then put it down and began to sip the tea slowly.

"Hey, your tea is pretty good." Xiong Xiaoge teased, "This tea is not cheap."

"It was given by the coal boss. I don't know much about tea." Qin Shaoyan said indifferently, "I prefer fat otaku happy water and milk tea, or plain boiled water, which is good for health."

"What is Fat House Happy Water?" Xiong Xiaoge was stunned.

"It's Coke." Qin Shaoyan explained casually, "Boss Xiong, you've seen what happened today, right? Qvod.com is developing very fast overall, and now we need to discuss the next round of financing."

Xiong Xiaoge had expected Qin Shaoyan to bring up the matter of financing, so he smiled and put down his teacup, "Do you still insist on your valuation?"

"Of course, $900 million." Qin Shaoyan answered without hesitation, "I have carefully calculated this price."

"Let's not talk about whether your calculation method is reasonable or not." Xiong Xiaoge said slowly, "With a valuation of 10 million US dollars, even if you release % of the equity, it will cost million US dollars."

"No venture capital firm is willing to invest such a large sum of money. The risk is too great."

“With a valuation of this magnitude, you might as well just go public.”

Qin Shaoyan answered directly: "I just want to go public. The conditions are not ripe."

"If I could have gone public, I would have gone public a long time ago. Why bother haggling with you venture capitalists? It's not fun to be so hesitant about investing a little money."

Xiong Xiaoge was so angry that he laughed again, "Is that a small amount of money? Hundreds of millions of dollars in financing, the domestic Internet industry has never had such a large amount of financing!"

"You can get it if you vote." Qin Shaoyan replied.

"Qvod.com is not worth $900 million!" Xiong Xiaoge was too lazy to talk nonsense and directly retorted, "How dare you say that?"

"I'm thick-skinned!" Qin Shaoyan said righteously.

"..." Xiong Xiaoge was speechless after hearing this. "Qin Shaoyan, you are playing rogue to me, right? Do you want to talk or not?"

Qin Shaoyan smiled and said, "Just make a joke to ease the awkward atmosphere."

"Boss Xiong, if you say that Qvod is not worth $900 million, that's just being shameless."

"Don't deny it yet." Qin Shaoyan interrupted Xiong Xiaoge who was about to speak, "Do you believe that if I go to Microsoft, Bill Gates will be willing to spend $900 million to buy Qvod.com?"

"You can cash out quickly after reselling it. How long has Qvod been established? How many times the profit is this?"

"It's much better to quickly raise a large sum of money than to work hard and invest money to start a business, right, Mr. Xiong?"

"In fact, I have thought about it more than once. Why not just sell Qvod? Why bother with so much effort?" Xiong Xiaoge picked up the teacup again, frowning tightly.

Qin Shaoyan's words are not exaggerating. There is a real possibility that the United States will buy Qvod.com right now.

Nine hundred million dollars might be a stretch, but seventy or eighty million dollars is still acceptable.

Yiku.com was acquired by YouTube for $300 million and is preparing to enter the Chinese Internet market.

Although the $300 million is inflated, if a website of Yiku.com can be sold for $300 million, it is not excessive at all for a website of such high quality as Qvod to be sold for $600 to 700 million.

The valuation of video websites is so high now, and the market situation is so...

But why did the market become like this? This has a lot to do with Qin Shaoyan.

Xiong Xiaoge put down the teacup again and said expressionlessly, "Don't talk about selling the website. Qvod will definitely not be sold."

"Let's talk about the valuation of Qvod.com. Don't you want to go public? You told me before that you would go public in 07."

"Yes." Qin Shaoyan gave an affirmative answer, "This time is set and it will not change."

"If Campus Network had not planned to go public in 06, I would have definitely listed Qvod in the United States first, otherwise Qvod's subsequent funding would have been a problem."

Xiong Xiaoge felt sad when he talked about this, because the campus network website was going to be listed.

I have invested a lot of money in Qin Shaoyan, and I am finally going to see the return of my money.

Not only does IDG attach great importance to the campus network project, but Sequoia also regards the listing of Qvod as the most important thing.

After all, this is the first Internet project invested by Sequoia China, and it is also a project that is about to make a lot of money. It has special significance for Sequoia China.

IDG has also invested in Internet companies that have gone public, but campus networks are different from other Internet companies.

Because Qin Shaoyan promised to make the campus network profitable first and then go public.

Qin Shaoyan's current energy is all focused on the campus network, and he pays less attention to QVOD.com.

So Qin Shaoyan wanted to finalize the financing of Qvod.com before the end of the year.

Xiong Xiaoge looked at Qin Shaoyan seriously and said, "I have no objection to Qvod going public in 07, but I still have a question for you to answer."

"Please speak." Qin Shaoyan also became serious.

"You just told me outside that Qvod has no future." Xiong Xiaoge frowned and said, "If it has no future, then why do you want a valuation of 900 million US dollars? You are contradicting yourself."

"I said that video websites have no money prospects." Qin Shaoyan corrected, "Prospects and money prospects are different, Mr. Xiong."

As he spoke, Qin Shaoyan dipped his coffee into the paper and wrote two words on the table.

Xiong Xiaoge took a look and suddenly understood something, "Are you saying that it's hard for video websites to make a profit?"

"Video websites are too expensive, and it's really hard to make a profit." Qin Shaoyan said seriously, "Boss Xiong, you are an investor, and we are also partners, so I'll be frank with you."

"I talked to you about this issue before Qvod was founded."

“It’s not that video websites can’t make money, but it’s impossible to do so in a short period of time.”

"If you want to make money, you have to go public. Otherwise, the advertising fees alone won't be enough to buy bandwidth."

"Nowadays, users have no copyright awareness, and it is impossible to attract users to pay by relying on genuine resources."

Xiong Xiaoge frowned and suddenly realized that Qin Shaoyan instigated Zhang Chaoyang to fight piracy, which was probably not just to strangle competitors.

What he wanted was to fight against competitors while purifying the Internet piracy situation, cultivating users' copyright awareness, and ultimately achieve the goal of paying for copyright.

However, this process cannot be accomplished in a short period of time.

Then going public is the only option right now.

Otherwise, with the speed at which Qvod is expanding, it will need more and more money to raise funds, and venture capital will not be able to afford it.

Too much money is involved and the risk is too great. Venture capitalists are also here to make money.

Wouldn’t it be nice for us to all join together to make money in the stock market?
After figuring this out, Xiong Xiaoge also roughly understood Qin Shaoyan's thinking.

It still needs to be listed.

In order to go public, we must first package Qvod as a high-quality product.

Of course this costs money.

At present, Qvod.com occupies the first place in the video website market, with an absolute overwhelming position in terms of the number of registered users, the number of online users, and the number of video playbacks.

Judging from the data alone, Qvod is of high quality.

After Qvod acquired PPlive, it was revamped into the Qvod client, which uses P2P technology to provide Internet TV services to users.

Similar products that use the same technology include PPS, which is a branch of the video website track.

This branch is developing rapidly and has attracted a large number of users in a short period of time.

For example, when PPlive was acquired, it had 80 users. After being promoted by Qvod, it grew to nearly three million users in a short period of time.

The growth curve looks quite promising. Xiong Xiaoge was also surprised when he saw the performance report of Qvod.com and even went out of his way to learn more about this new business launched by Qvod.com.

Qin Shaoyan is indeed good at data and performance, and he is extremely strategic and can always accurately identify new market trends.

Xiong Xiaoge didn’t know whether this new market direction was right or not, but he knew that whenever Qvod made any new moves, competitors from other video websites would always be the first to follow suit and pay tribute.

Qvod has become a benchmark for imitation in the entire industry, which is very telling.

Qin Shaoyan not only has a unique strategic vision, but also has considerable attainments in product design. Whether it is the campus network or Qvod network, user experience is always the top priority.

From page layout to art design, whether it is button design or recommendation mechanism, it is very comfortable and easy to use.

Another very important point is that Qin Shaoyan is strongly opposed to adding random advertisements on web pages.

There are very few advertisements on the campus network and Qvod, which is very different from other Internet products.

Of course, Xiong Xiaoge was also a little puzzled by this, as advertising business is currently the website's mainstream profit-making method.

During this period, before websites found a way to get users to pay, advertising was one of the safest and most reliable ways to earn revenue.

Both the campus network and Qvod were in a loss-making state, and Xiong Xiaoge couldn't understand the practice of strictly restricting advertising.

However, even though he didn't understand it, Xiong Xiaoge still supported Qin Shaoyan.

After all, this guy really understands the Internet.

Xiong Xiaoge thought about it and said seriously: "If you don't put ads on the webpage, you have to find a way to make money."

“The stock market likes to hear stories, but first you have to tell a good story.”

"The concept of a video website alone is no longer enough. If Qvod wants to go public, it needs to show its attitude to the market."

“That is, you guys are really actively looking for ways to be profitable.”

"Mr. Qin?" Xiong Xiaoge looked at Qin Shaoyan and said seriously.

Qin Shaoyan nodded, "Okay."

"They want to hear stories, so tell them a good story."

(End of this chapter)