Larry Page's mood was getting better these days.
For him, the worst day was the first day he flew from the United States to Hua Xia. Not only was he exhausted that day, but he was also frightened by Li Mu's threats.
However, ever since Google compromised, accepted Li Mu's request to acquire Muye & Baidu, and reached an agreement with Li Mu, Larry Page's mood had been rising like the temperature in Beijing.
Google was getting more and more popular in the capital market, which was the key to Larry Page's rising mood. What made him even more excited was the importance Li Mu attached to this cooperation.
Li Mu invited so many elites in the Internet and capital fields to make the cooperation between Google and Makino Technology a global hot topic. This positive attitude made the capital market realize that Li Mu really wanted to cooperate with Google fully and deeply. With his endorsement for Google, it was a great support for Google's valuation.
At this time, Larry Page was chatting with a few Silicon Valley friends. Li Mu brought Mark Zuckerberg to them. When the Silicon Valley elites saw Li Mu, they greeted Li Mu enthusiastically. Larry Page turned his head and saw Li Mu. He immediately turned around and said with a smile, "Hello, Li Zong."
Li Mu nodded in response, then said to them, "I'm here to introduce you to a friend, Mark Zuckerberg. He is now studying at Harvard University."
Mark Zuckerberg hurriedly waved at them and said shyly, "Hi, everyone. My name is Mark Zuckerberg. You can call me Mark."
"Hi, Mark." Larry Page and the others warmly shook hands with him and introduced themselves.
However, the few of them were somewhat puzzled. Logically speaking, Li Mu was the most influential and valuable person in the company today. Even Larry Page, who was worth more than a billion dollars, was obviously not on the same level as him. However, Mark Zuckerberg, who looked to be in his early twenties, was so valued by Li Mu that Li Mu even personally introduced him to everyone.
Li Mu saw the astonishment in their eyes. He smiled and said to them, "Mark Zuckerberg is my partner. He has a startup project, and I invested in it."
As soon as they heard that Mark Zuckerberg had received Li Mu's investment, everyone immediately looked at him in a new light. Logically speaking, it was difficult for a small venture capital fund to move a college student's entrepreneurial project, but he had directly received the investment of a top boss in the Internet industry. What was so special about this kid?
Larry Page was also shocked and asked curiously, "Mark, what is the name of the project you are working on now? Can you introduce it to us? "
Mark Zuckerberg said, "Hello, Mr. Page. The project I am working on now is called Facebook. It is a Web-based social product."
"Oh! It's Facebook! " Larry Page said, "I used Facebook, and the experience was very good. Some time ago, a college classmate of mine told me about this product. I used it to find a girl I had a crush on in college."
The others also nodded. As the elites of Silicon Valley, they paid close attention to every product that was born on the Internet. Although Facebook was founded in Harvard, which was thousands of kilometers away from Silicon Valley, it was still a project with more than six million USD of angel investment from Li Mu. With the help of the funds, Facebook was already a little famous among the college students. Silicon Valley naturally paid attention to this product.
However, the few people present, including Larry Page, did not think that Facebook was a project with a lot of potential. To them, it was just a social product for college students to make friends with. It had a small audience. With the rise of YY, the world's Internet industry paid more attention to client-side products, and they recognized client-side products more than web products. Therefore, they did not pay much attention to Facebook.
Li Mu said to Larry Page, "Facebook may become a part of the YY ecosystem in the future, so we need Google to guide it in the search engine. When you return to Silicon Valley, you can help us arrange it."
When Larry Page heard that Li Mu wanted to integrate Facebook into the YY ecosystem, he understood why Li Mu wanted to invest in this project. Many big companies would spread small entrepreneurial projects on a large scale, like sowing seeds. They would first let them develop outside, and if they developed well, they would be taken back to the company to be nurtured. If they did not, they would be left to fend for themselves.
The reason why they did not nurture the projects within the system from the beginning was mainly because they did not have enough energy. For a company like Teng Xun, there were at least three-digit projects outside. If they were all placed within the system, Teng Xun would not have enough energy and resources to take care of them all. If they were to invest in three-digit projects in one go, no matter how high their milk output was, they would be dragged down. Instead of that, it was better to do a preliminary screening, give each project some money, and then let them fight on their own. If they were successful, they would be nurtured, and if they were not successful, they would be left to fend for themselves.
Speaking of which, this kind of investment method was similar to the legend of the Tibetan Mastiff. First, let God help do a preliminary screening.
However. Larry Page did not expect that Li Mu did not tell him the truth.
Facebook was very important to Li Mu in the future, but he did not plan to absorb Facebook into Makino Technology. This was because of his opinion: no matter how big the pie was, it was not as big as the pot that made it.
Therefore, he hoped that Facebook could thrive outside of the Makino Technology ecosystem. He did not want to be restricted by Makino Technology. This way, he would have the opportunity to have a super product of the same level as YY in the future.
Larry Page asked Li Mu, "Li Zong, how do we direct traffic to Facebook?"
Li Mu said, "Get the technical team to manually intervene with the keywords of all the universities in the world. I hope that when users search for the name of any university in the world on Google, Facebook's search results will be in the top three."
Larry Page nodded and readily agreed. He said, "No problem, I'll write an email to make the arrangements after I go back tonight."
Li Mu was very satisfied with Larry Page's attitude and efficiency. He said, "Facebook will become a highly vertical project of Makino Technology in the future among the college students, so we need accurate traffic from the college students. No one can do this better than search engines, so I'll leave it to you."
Larry Page hurriedly said, "Li Zong, you don't have to be so polite. Makino Technology is about to become a shareholder of Google. Not only Makino Technology, but all the companies you invest in will become Google's strategic partners. Contributing to strategic partners is what we should do."
One of the Silicon Valley elites said to Mark Zuckerberg, "Hey, Mark, which city is your company located in?"
Mark Zuckerberg hurriedly replied, "The company is in Cambridge, and our office space is next to Harvard."
That person smiled and said, "You should move the company to Silicon Valley. This is the core of the Internet. If you're in Silicon Valley, you'll be surrounded by resources. The East Coast is too far, and it lacks sufficient resources."
Mark Zuckerberg nodded and said, "The East Coast does lack relevant resources, but I'm still studying, so I can't move the company to the West Coast for the time being."
Larry Page asked him, "Mark, are you planning to take a break from school or drop out?"
Mark Zuckerberg scratched his head and said, "I'm still hesitating. I'll see how the company develops next. If it develops quickly, then I'll take a break from school."
Larry Page said seriously, "To be honest, if it's a part-time startup, it's not difficult for the company to achieve small-scale success, but it's very difficult to achieve large-scale success. It's the same for athletes. American college students often have good basketball, baseball, and football players, but if they don't become professional athletes and participate in professional leagues, they will never reach a higher level. You're a relatively good college basketball player among college students, but Silicon Valley is the NBA. If you want to be the next Jordan, you need to join the NBA as soon as possible. You can make up for your studies in the future, but if you waste your golden years as an athlete, it would be a real pity."
Mark Zuckerberg's bashful smile suddenly became serious. He had indeed considered taking a break from school to focus on Facebook, but he was still hesitant. Larry Page's words enlightened him. He suddenly understood that if he wanted to make Facebook better and bigger, he had to temporarily give up his studies and put all his energy into starting a business.
Li Mu didn't say anything, but for him, he also hoped that Mark Zuckerberg could leave school as soon as possible and focus all his energy on starting a business. As Larry Page said, the golden years of an athlete were important, and the golden years of a startup were equally precious. However, the golden years of an athlete were youth, while the golden years of a startup were opportunities.
The decade from 2000 to 2010 was really the perfect era for the growth and development of Internet giants. Later on, those big shots who relied on the Internet alone to earn a net worth of more than 10 billion USD all got rich during this period without exception. Those who entered the Internet after 2010, even if they grew to become big shots, were still a level lower than the giants of this period.
Take Hua Xia's Internet industry for example. Boss Ma, Boss Ma, and Robin all started in this perfect era. There was also Jingdong's Liu Shixiong, NetEase's Ding Lei, and Sohu's Zhang Chaoyang all started in this perfect era.
In his previous life, Lei Jianguo stepped on the tail end of this perfect era and founded Xiaomi in 2010. He finally grasped the last opportunity to become a giant and earned himself a net worth of 10 billion USD. Otherwise, with just Jinshan's small business, Lei Jianguo's net worth would only be a few billion RMB at most.
It was the same for Meituan's Wang Xing. Before Meituan, his entrepreneurial journey was bumpy, but he also stepped on the tail end of 2010 to found Meituan. He survived the Hundred Team War that year and became a true giant.
For Mark Zuckerberg, the early stage of Facebook was social networking. The golden period that he could grab was even shorter. If Facebook did not rise before the arrival of the mobile Internet era, then it would really not rise. Counting with his fingers, his current window was less than five years.
If he persevered through university, the window might have passed. When the arrival of the mobile Internet era arrived, it would be a fool's dream if he wanted to create an awesome web product again!
Mark Zuckerberg was conflicted. He subconsciously turned his head to look at Li Mu, hoping that Li Mu could give him some advice. However, the moment he looked at Li Mu, he suddenly understood!
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