When he said that he didn't want to do a search engine, Li Mu didn't lie to Robin.
If he was reborn eight to ten years earlier, he would definitely find a way to do a search engine. This thing was a super necessity for the Internet. In a sense, this thing was even more irreplaceable than instant messaging. Eight to ten years ago, Google wasn't even born yet, let alone Baidu.
But now, Google had formed a monopoly in the world, and Baidu had a considerable influence in Hua Xia. What was the point of doing a search engine at this time?
What's more, the search engine was really a field that required very high technical strength. Now that he had started, he still had a long way to go to catch up. The ideal situation was to suppress Baidu and become the number one in the country. But to go against Google's old business in the world, Li Mu couldn't think of anything else other than hehe.
Based on such a market environment, Li Mu really didn't plan to do a search engine business himself. However, if there was a chance to plant a flag, he was still very happy.
Now, the possibility of going to Google to plant a flag was not high. Even if it was possible, the cost would be frighteningly high. Therefore, Li Mu felt that it was better to plant a flag in Baidu. The Easy Listening website didn't mean much to him, but it meant a lot to Baidu.
Moreover, Baidu's current valuation wasn't high, and its premium rate wasn't high. If the Easy Listening website could get a good exchange offer, he was completely willing to sell it and exchange it for Baidu's shares.
The question was, how many shares was Baidu willing to exchange for the Easy Listening website?
In Li Mu's view, if it was less than 10%, there was no need to talk about it. But he wouldn't agree even if it was 10%. The ideal exchange price should be between 15% to 20%.
Baidu wasn't the same Baidu after it went public, and it wasn't the same Baidu that Google launched into the Hua Xia market.
The Easy Listening website wasn't a simple music audio-visual website. It had huge traffic, a strong reputation, and user loyalty. It was also seamlessly connected to Tieba and Taobao. Most importantly, it had legal authorization from various record companies.
For those record companies, there were too many pirated music online, and they couldn't fight against it. Coincidentally, Li Mu could help them create stars on YY and Taobao, help them increase their influence, and help them sell albums and derivatives. In other words, Li Mu was now the super boss of the entire entertainment industry. Therefore, everyone had also licensed his Easy Listening website. Although this license didn't have much practical value, because it was legitimate, so the brand value was much higher, and it completely eliminated all legal risks.
With Easy Listening Network's current size, although exchanging 20% of Baidu's shares was a bit of a scam, it was not considered f * cked up. After all, online music was popular at the moment. However, if one looked at the long term, even exchanging 10% would be a huge gain.
In order to maximize the benefits, Li Mu painted a big picture for Robin.
He said, "In the future, I will embed it into YY123 and place it in the most prominent position as the only default search engine for YY123. This way, YY123 will be able to bring a lot of traffic to Baidu."
"In addition, YY123's current short news section has a lot of traffic. We are now all related links to YY123. When the time comes, I can make the default link. I will give you the traffic first, and then you will give the traffic back to me. In this way, it will also increase a huge traffic entrance for you."
Robin didn't understand and asked Li Mu, "Li Zong, what do you mean by you give me the traffic and I will give it back to you?"
Li Mu smiled and said, "For example, in the news section of YY123's home page, there is a news title called 'Baidu Successfully Acquires Easy Listening Website'. Under normal circumstances, when users click on this link, they will go directly to the specific news page of YY website. However, if we cooperate, I will let users click on this link and go to the page of 'Baidu Successfully Acquires Easy Listening Website'. Then, you will feed back a lot of search results to the users and let them click on it. When the time comes, you will use technical means to push the YY website's link to the top few. When the users click on the search results on the page, they will return to YY website. However, because they will jump to Baidu in the middle, it will naturally increase a lot of traffic for you."
Robin cried. Although this was a trick that he would use too much in the future, when Li Mu suddenly brought it up in advance, he felt as if a whole new world had been opened to him after listening to it.
Li Mu looked at his dumbfounded expression and said with a smile, "This kind of operation is very normal and easy to achieve. For you, there are no disadvantages. For us, the user experience will be affected by the addition of an intermediate link, but the impact is not big and is still within an acceptable range."
Search engine traffic was originally a very complicated industry, and there were countless gray areas in it. The method that Li Mu mentioned was not a gray area at all.
Robin began to feel a little excited. In this era, Baidu was not the master of traffic, but Li Mu was. His YY was the product with the highest number of registered users, daily users, and monthly users in the country. If he could get some traffic from Li Mu, it would be of great help to Baidu's overall business report. Whether it could go public in the future and how much its market value would be depended on the performance presented to investors and brokers.
Originally, MP3 and Tieba were both paths for Baidu, but Li Mu quietly took them away. As a result, Baidu fell into the awkward position of having a single business model and being unable to make a breakthrough.
Li Mu knew very well that after tonight, Baidu's path would be cut off by him, and that would be the bidding for keywords that would be criticized and even cursed by countless people in the future. Counterfeiting, theft, fraud, medical fraud, and other filthy things were all born from this business model. However, at tonight's charity night, if Li Mu officially established an industry alliance and allowed this industry to accept his own rules of the game under his influence, then Baidu's path would basically be cut off in the future. At the very least, the bidding for these evil keywords would inevitably be cut off. Otherwise, it would become the target of public condemnation, isolation, and closure by the entire internet.
From this point of view, the future development of Baidu was indeed worrying. In his previous life, it was inevitable that he would go downhill if he did everything in his previous life. In this life, there were many things that he could not do. It was estimated that it would be difficult for him to become a first-tier domestic internet company.
If Baidu was willing to acquire Easy Listening and he became a shareholder of Baidu, then he could treat Baidu as a partner in the ecosystem and give some support.
After thinking about it, Robin said to Li Mu, "Li Zong, I will definitely discuss this matter with the board of directors when I go back."
Li Mu nodded, "Okay, you guys can study it. By the way, if you are willing, in addition to acquiring Easy Listening, I can also personally invest a sum of money in you."
Robin was stunned and looked at Li Mu in surprise, "Li Zong, you want to invest in Baidu?"
Li Mu smiled slightly, "I still have a lot of trust in your ability, Robin, and I am quite optimistic about the search engine market."
Speaking of this, Li Mu deliberately wanted to disturb Robin in a negative way. He deliberately said, "Google's momentum is too strong now. You guys have just been established, so your foundation is not stable. Your business model and product line are also very simple. If you don't build a dam against the flood, once Google goes all out to develop the domestic market, you guys won't be able to withstand it."
Robin's heart suddenly sank.
Li Mu was right. This was not the time when Baidu had everything going smoothly in his previous life. The overall development of the company quickly fell into the shackles of the model, and it was difficult to find a breakthrough point. In this case, Baidu was like a baby that had just learned to crawl. If the 18 years old strong boy next door rushed into the house to steal something, not only would he not be able to resist, he would also be very likely to be kicked to death. In the depths of his heart, there was always a sense of crisis.
However, Li Mu was a young man who was much more capable than the strong boy next door. If he could help Baidu, then it would be impossible for Google to destroy Baidu, and it might even return in failure.
Letting Li Mu invest in Baidu and become a strategic shareholder was equivalent to building a strong dam for Baidu, and it could even withstand the impact of a tsunami.
In the process of development, many start-up companies would bring in capital shareholders and strategic shareholders. As the name suggests, capital shareholders provide financial support for the company, so that the company has ammunition to continue to fight. Strategic shareholders, generally speaking, have more important strategic significance.
After Lei Jianguo founded Xiaomi, he became a well-known angel investor. Many start-up companies wanted to look for him to invest. It was not because his money was more valuable than other people's money, but because Lei Jianguo had a very large ecological resource. If he could invest in Baidu, it was equivalent to getting the ecological resource. Therefore, finding ways to let Lei Jianguo invest in Baidu was more for strategy than money.
And Li Mu's ecological resource was much larger than Lei Jianguo's.
In fact, Li Mu also wanted to seize the opportunity of Baidu and invest in Baidu. Then, he would be able to tie Baidu to his side. Not only would it have a strong strategic significance, but it would also have great investment significance. If he invested tens of millions now, it might be worth billions in a few years' time.
If Easy Listening could obtain 15-20% of Baidu's shares, and he would invest in Baidu, then he would have more than 25% of Baidu's shares. Then, he would be able to support Baidu like a godson. However, at the same time, he would have to guard against Baidu's defection. Therefore, if search engines like Sogou and 360 were to be established in the future, he would definitely invest in them in advance and then export more resources to Baidu's competitors to balance Baidu and use this to ensure his influence in the search engine industry.
This move was very damaging, but it was also very effective. It was just like why ancient emperors allowed eunuchs to interfere in politics. To a large extent, it was to curb the power of civil and military officials. The emperor pursued stability, so if the power of the eunuchs in the court and the power of the civil and military dojo could balance each other, it could ensure that if any party wanted to rebel, the other party would not agree. They would definitely resist to the death for their own lives. This way, the emperor's throne would not be taken away by the people around him. As for the impact of such internal friction on the country, it was not important in the face of stability.
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