The signing ceremony had already attracted the attention of the global media and the internet industry. When Li Mu announced Makino Technology's open platform strategy in his speech, the world's attention on Makino Technology once again rose to an unprecedented height.
After the signing ceremony, Makino Technology soon officially released the "Makino Technology Open Platform — Great Earth Project" and "Makino Technology's Crowd Creation Support — Seedling Project".
Makino Technology's definition of the Great Earth Project was to build the entire ecosystem of Makino Technology into a soil that could be shared by all industries. Like the earth, it could accommodate and cultivate various trees and crops.
Makino Technology's definition of the Seedling Project was to wholeheartedly cultivate innovative enterprises in the internet industry. Not only would they provide the perfect soil, fertilizer, and rainwater for the industry's new talents, but they would also protect their development.
Among them, the first phase of the Great Earth Project was to immediately open the YY Gaming Platform's mini-game access. All formally registered game companies with one or more original or exclusive copyrights could apply to become the gaming platform's CP, which was also the content provider. Once the application was successful, they could upload the game according to the YY Gaming Platform's requirements. The YY Gaming Platform's review team would review and score the game. Depending on the score, the game would receive different recommendation resources after it was released.
YY also opened the "self-media" access to YY website at the same time. Any adult individual, formal enterprise, or studio could apply for a self-media account on YY website and then freely create all kinds of information content that complied with laws and regulations. These content would be entered into YY website's information content library and promoted to different users according to YY website's independent algorithm. The owner of the self-media account could receive a share based on the number of views of the content and the number of advertisement clicks on the content page.
In addition to the gaming platform and YY network, YY space's decorative materials were also fully open to third-party designers. Individuals, legitimate enterprises, and studios could apply for registration and upload original decorative materials that met the platform's requirements. These materials would be sold in YY space's mall, and the sales proceeds would be split with the creators.
Opening three platforms in the first phase immediately showed the sincerity of Makino Technology to the outside world, especially the YY gaming platform. At present, the daily top-up flow had exceeded 70 million yuan worldwide, and it was still growing rapidly. The overseas market accounted for about 80% of that. With a revenue base of more than 20 billion yuan in a year, it would definitely attract game development teams from all over the world. By that time, the number of games on the YY platform would increase rapidly. As long as YY did a good job of screening and only selected excellent games to promote to users, the platform's appeal to users would rise to a new level in the future.
For a time, the whole world was amazed by the boldness of Makino Technology.
On the other hand, Li Mu valued the Seedling Plan even more. He decided to invest at least 5 billion yuan in projects in the internet industry every year. From the angel round to the later stages of financing, Makino Technology was willing to participate in every stage, as long as the project was good enough!
Take the team for example. A high-level team that had created a new industry model, plus the industry's number one platform, was only sold for 2 million US dollars. 5 billion yuan could be used to invest and acquire many such teams. Investing 5 billion yuan every year might seem like a huge expenditure, but in fact, it was very cost-effective. In less than two or three years, most of the internet companies in the country would either be directly owned or controlled by Makino Technology, or indirectly by funds controlled by Makino Technology.
Moreover, if Li Mu was willing to distribute the dividends from the investment, he could use these billions of yuan to cooperate with banks and other funds. With a little leverage, he could at least bring out 20 to 30 billion yuan.
The way for individuals and companies to apply for investment in the Seedling Plan was also very simple. The Seedling Plan had its own dedicated page on YY. After entering the page, one could directly apply for investment in the project. Makino Technology categorized the applications according to several key data. The main data was the applicant's valuation of the project and the amount of financing.
Internally, Makino Technology divided the projects into five grades: A\ B\ C\ D\ E. The lowest grade was for the investment amount of less than 500,000 yuan, or the total project valuation was less than 5 million yuan; the lowest grade was for the investment amount of 500,000 to 3 million yuan, or the total project valuation was between 5 million to 30 million yuan; the C grade was for the investment amount of 3 million to 10 million yuan, or the total project valuation was between 30 million to 100 million yuan; the B grade was for the investment amount of 10 million to 100 million yuan, or the total project valuation was between 100 million to 1 billion yuan; the A grade was for the investment amount of more than 100 million yuan, or the total project valuation was more than 1 billion yuan. If there was a conflict between the investment amount and the estimated amount, the investment amount would prevail.
According to these five grades, the projects that applied for investment could be filtered and categorized according to five different nets. Each grade corresponded to at least one investment team. Then, the entire Seedling Plan would set up an investment committee. No matter which grade of team's project, after the evaluation of the team, it would have to be reviewed by the investment committee. All the core executives of Makino Technology, including Li Mu, were members of the committee. In most cases, they would not participate in the review, but when it came to a major project, all of them might participate.
When this Seedling Plan came out, the domestic Internet entrepreneurs seemed to have seen spring.
In this era, Hua Xia had just joined the WTO not long ago. The domestic capital had just begun to integrate with the international capital. However, this was like the convergence and integration of two ocean currents. It still needed time to push forward step by step. Therefore, at this stage, the capital operation mode of domestic enterprises was still very different from the international capital field. The most obvious one was that China had not cultivated large-scale venture capital institutions.
Without enough venture capital institutions, it was impossible to form a mature investment market. Take Silicon Valley and Zhongguancun as examples. If someone wanted to start a business in Silicon Valley, regardless of whether he could get financing or not, he could at least meet dozens of investment institutions and dozens of investors. Then, he could tell them his project plan bit by bit and try to convince them. However, in China, if an entrepreneur wanted to get financing, the number of investment institutions he could think of could be counted on one hand. There were almost no investors he could think of.
At present, the formal venture capital institutions in China were basically new funds with overseas capital. For example, Sequoia was one of them. There was no real angel investor in China other than Li Mu.
A qualified investor in the Internet industry had to meet the following conditions: First, be rich; Second, understand the Internet; Third, know how to not interfere with the operation; Fourth, be able to afford to lose.
At present, there were many rich people in China, but most of them fought their way out of the real economy. These people only met the first condition. If an Internet company took money from such people, it was very likely that the other party would interfere with the operation. Moreover, because the other party did not understand the Internet, they might not be able to wait for long-term returns. They might even vent their anger on the entrepreneur because they could not afford to lose.
In Li Mu's previous life, there was a colleague who went to start a business. In the end, he took an investment from a rich second-generation heir. After the other party gave him the money, he thought that he was the boss and interfered with the company's operation. He even overstepped his authority and set the company's strategy. In the end, the project failed. After the rich second-generation heir lost one or two million, he became angry and said that he would kill his colleague. In the end, his colleague could only escape from Beijing overnight and start over in Shenzhen.
In this economic environment, it was really difficult for an Internet person to get financing. This was also why the few Internet giants in the early stages of Hua Xia used overseas capital to raise funds.
However, it was not easy to get overseas capital. More than half of the entrepreneurs might not be able to get a visa to the United States. Even if they got one, they might not be able to afford a plane ticket to the United States. Wouldn't it be as difficult as ascending to the heavens for them to get investments in the United States?
Now, there was an investment institution that fully met these four conditions. Moreover, it was not from overseas but from China. Moreover, it had at least five billion yuan of investment every year. This was really too important. Even if a small fund met all four conditions, it would only have a total of one hundred million yuan. This one hundred million yuan would be gone after the investment. In order to ensure a rate of return, they would often invest in multiple projects and share the risks. In this case, the largest project they could participate in was only about ten million yuan. It was completely incomparable to Makino Technology.
When the Seedling Plan was launched, Li Mu was prepared to make it the first company he invested in. He looked for Li Ziwei and asked her, "At the signing ceremony last time, did the founder of that company leave his contact information with you?"
"Yes." Li Ziwei said, "We left each other's phone number, email, and YY."
Li Mu nodded and asked, "Did he send you a BP?"
Li Ziwei replied, "I told him about the BP. His previous BP was a little rushed. He had to prepare it again."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Contact him and tell him not to do BP anymore. Makino Technology is willing to invest 30 million yuan in Series A, accounting for 51% of their shares. Their founding team is allowed to cash out 10 million yuan of this 30 million yuan, but the condition is that all the team members who participate in the cash out must sign a three-year binding agreement and a three-year non-competition agreement with Makino Technology."
Three years of binding and three years of non-competition meant that first, this person had to work in the project invested in by Makino Technology for three years before leaving. If he left after three years, he had to accept the restrictions of a three-year non-competition agreement and could not engage in the same industry as his starting point.
This condition seemed harsh, but it was the greatest protection an investor could give to the project. That was because in Li Mu's eyes, everything was people-oriented. If the founding team of a product or platform left, the soul would be gone.
What's more, in order to make up for his harsh "lock in" agreement, Li Mu had given exceptionally generous capital conditions.
According to history, they would only be able to buy two million US dollars when they were sold next year, which was equivalent to about 17 million yuan. According to this calculation, the lowest price they could accept now was probably around 8 to 10 million yuan.
Now, Li Mu had directly invested 30 million yuan and held 49% of the shares. This way, the actual valuation he had given had reached 58.82 million yuan. Most importantly, he had allowed the founding team to cash out 10 million yuan, which could almost buy the entire Qidian.
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