Rebirth 2003: Dominate the Tech World

Lu Qi nodded and said, “Sun Zhiyuan, tell the president about Jianbao.com.”

Sun Zhiyuan nodded and said, “President, partners, as of yesterday, September 23, the number of registered users of Jianbao.com has exceeded 18.5 million, and it is expected to exceed 20 million by the end of this month. The platform currently has more than 250,000 sellers. We have no rivals in domestic e-commerce platforms, especially in the C2C field. Moreover, according to my reliable internal information, the number of users of our former old rival eBay has dropped to 6.5 million, which is not at the same level as us.”

Ye Yunzhou checked last night and found that the number of Internet users in Xiaguo is about 75 million, and the number of users of Jianbao.com is equivalent to one-fourth of the Internet users in Daxia.

Sun Zhiyuan paused and continued: “In addition to the Yanjing headquarters, we also have six branches in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chang’an, Fengtian, Lincheng, and Jinling. We plan to set up another branch this year, the Rongcheng branch.”

After Sun Zhiyuan finished his report, he quietly waited for Ye Yunzhou’s instructions.

Seeing that Ye Yunzhou didn’t speak, he continued: “At present, our Jianbao.com has built a strong community of buyers and sellers, and enhanced user experience and established word-of-mouth through forums, evaluation systems and interactive tools. This system makes our Jianbao.com shopping experience completely beat the current shopping websites, including eBay, Amazon, etc.”

Ye Yunzhou was busy with military training at school during this period and had not shopped on Jianbao.com. After hearing Sun Zhiyuan’s introduction, he directly opened the shopping interface of Jianbao.com on the spot and tried it on the spot.

After trying it for a few minutes, Ye Yunzhou gave a high evaluation of this system. Because this system has begun to approach the shopping scene of e-commerce platforms ten years later, you know, it’s 2003 now.

If we can integrate logistics tracks and other things into the platform now, there will be no big difference from shopping in ten or twenty years. Oh, there is another difference, that is, there are no smart phones now, and we cannot shop directly on mobile phones.

“At present, the goal of Jianbao.com is to attract more buyers to register and let more sellers sell goods on our platform. Now we have 70 to 80 million netizens in Xiaguo. When more than half of them become our users, we will be successful.” After Ye Yunzhou finished speaking, everyone was thinking quietly.

In fact, if we only consider online shopping users, Jianbao.com has definitely exceeded 50% of the market share.

However, in this era, online shopping is not mainstream. Although there are many netizens, many of them are just online entertainment, playing games, surfing, and many people are still used to buying things offline.

Seeing that everyone was listening carefully, Ye Yunzhou continued: “Next, we will communicate with logistics companies to integrate the logistics tracking function into our Jianbao.com. Sun Zhiyuan, you have to personally monitor this matter. This will greatly improve the experience of online shopping.”

Sun Zhiyuan nodded and wrote down Ye Yunzhou’s request.

Logistics tracking has actually been around for a long time. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the rise of e-commerce, some large express delivery companies began to introduce basic package tracking functions. Initially, these functions were limited to telephone inquiries or the need to log in to a specific website and manually enter the tracking number to obtain the status of the package.

Ye Yunzhou wanted to be the first to try it out. He wanted to be the first to integrate logistics tracking functions on Jiebao.com, allowing users to check the status of packages directly from their accounts. In this way, Jiebao.com has one more advantage over other platforms.

Ye Yunzhou signaled Lu Qi to continue.

Lu Qi nodded, looked at Gu Xiaoou, and signaled her to start: “President, partners, I have good news to tell you. Cambrian has now achieved positive cash flow.”

Gu Xiaoou finished speaking and paused.

Ye Yunzhou took the lead in applauding. You know, it is very difficult for a company with e-commerce as its core to achieve profitability. Amazon took seven years from 1994 to the end of 2001 to achieve profitability. It took JD.com more than a decade to achieve profitability. It is conceivable that Cambrian has created such a great miracle.

After everyone finished applauding, Gu Xiaoou continued: “At present, there is about 140 million cash flow in our Cambrian account. We have paid 50 million to the Lincheng Data Center. We will probably have to spend hundreds of millions of funds in the next few months. However, we have calculated with the data model that we will probably have a profit of tens of millions in October, and the profit will increase significantly afterwards.”

Ye Yunzhou nodded. The company began to make a profit. This is good news, which means that the company’s ability to resist risks has been greatly improved.It can produce blood by itself, and it will not need blood transfusions in the future.

……

“Okay, Lu Qi stay for a while, and the others can go and get busy first.”

Everyone nodded and left, leaving only Ye Yunzhou and Lu Qi in the conference room.

“I heard that many investors have come to our company recently?” Ye Yunzhou asked.

“Yes, a lot. Now in the entire Internet industry, Cambrian is the only company of such a large scale that has not introduced investment institutions.”

“Oh, which investors have come to us?”

“Well, Shen Peng from Sequoia Capital has come the most times, followed by Sun Ziyi from Japan’s SoftBank, and Goldman Sachs has sent a vice president here, and the head of IDG Capital’s Greater China region has also come twice.”

Ye Yunzhou was a little surprised. He didn’t expect that even Goldman Sachs would come. It seems that they are very optimistic about the development of Cambrian and want to get a piece of the pie.

“How much valuation did they give us?”

“Sequoia Capital and Softbank offered a relatively high price of 10.5 billion US dollars, IDG offered a valuation of 10 billion US dollars, Goldman Sachs offered 9.5 billion US dollars, and Carlyle Group also sent a general manager to make an offer, but they only offered 9 billion US dollars.”

Ye Yunzhou was still a little shocked after hearing this. He didn’t expect that a company that had only been established for a few months was worth so much money. However, he was relieved when he thought that eBay’s market value had exceeded 26 billion US dollars at its highest in the first half of this year. You must know that eBay’s market value does not include PayPal payments, while the valuation of Cambrian includes all its products.

“Dr. Lu, what do you think about the future of Cambrian’s introduction of capital?”

Ye Yunzhou wanted to ask Lu Qi’s opinion. After all, he has been in American technology companies for many years, and his understanding of these things is definitely much better than Ye Yunzhou’s.

“President, generally there are several references before introducing investment. The first is to understand the past investment performance of the investment institution, its reputation in the industry, and the professional experience and industry knowledge of its investment team.”

“It is also necessary to confirm whether the investment strategy of the investment institution matches the company’s development stage, business model and long-term goals.”

“At the same time, it is necessary to clarify how the investment of the investment institution will affect the company’s equity structure and the possible impact on the company’s decision-making control.”

“Of course, the investment institution’s expected exit method and time must be discussed to ensure coordination with the company’s development plan.”

“Also, it is necessary to reasonably value the company and carefully review the terms in the investment agreement, including but not limited to anti-dilution clauses, preferred liquidation rights, board seats, etc.”

“At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the investment institution has a clear understanding of the company’s business strategy and development direction, and can provide support and coordination.”

“Of course, it is also important to consider whether the culture of the investment institution is compatible with the company culture to avoid potential conflicts in future cooperation.”

“It is also necessary to understand the possible demands that the investment institution may make on the company ‘s financial reporting, operational supervision and other requirements to ensure that the company can meet them.

“Of course, I think the most important point is to examine the added value that investment institutions can bring to the company in addition to funds, such as industry resources, personal networks, strategic guidance, etc.

“If our company wants to become a world-class company, the United States and Europe are markets we must take over, so I would suggest introducing at least one American and one European investment institution, and these two investment institutions must have a certain ability to influence government decisions in the United States and Europe, so that if we encounter government pressure, they can provide support in this regard.

“Well, you and Xiaoou will handle the matter of contacting investment institutions. Since we are ready to consider expansion, then the introduction of investment institutions should also be put on the agenda. You just need to tell me about the contact situation regularly.

Ye Yunzhou thinks it is better to complete the A round of financing before expanding outward. With the current valuation of Cambrian, if the A round can release 10% of the shares, at least one billion US dollars can be raised. One billion US dollars in 2003 can still do a lot of things.

Of course, Ye Yunzhou is designing a dual-share structure to ensure that he can firmly control the company even if the equity is diluted in the future and avoid being swept out by these capitals.