In Li Mu's eyes, Mark Zuckerberg was like a bug.
It was not only because he was the youngest billionaire in the world, but also because of his superb vision and ability in his entrepreneurial career.
Most people who started a business would not be able to create a 100 billion dollar Internet giant like Facebook. The key was that until 2013, Mark Zuckerberg's shareholding in Facebook was still around 30%. Compared to the Chinese Internet giants in their 40s and 50s, he was much stronger. Therefore, he was able to surpass all the founders of Chinese Internet companies in terms of personal assets. This was also why he was so awesome.
Countless people who had been reborn in novels would not miss the chance to hug Mark Zuckerberg's thigh. They would do so in all sorts of strange ways. Some people went to the other side of the ocean to invest in Facebook when it was first established, and some people even went to the United States to look for him and befriend him before Facebook was established. However, Li Mu did not think that way.
First of all, if he waited for Facebook to be established and then went to the United States to invest in Mark Zuckerberg, it would be illogical. There were so many Internet companies in the United States, and so many companies and projects were born every day in Silicon Valley. Why would a person from Hua Xia go all the way to find a Harvard student and take the initiative to invest in him? Even Mark Zuckerberg would be shocked by this.
Moreover, it was not easy for a person from Hua Xia to invest in an American startup, especially when it involved the issue of corporatization. It would be troublesome to invest directly, and the other party might not be willing to accept it. The most important thing was to have a perfectly registered company in the United States with all the necessary procedures, and to put millions of dollars in the account. If there was a good project, he could directly sign the contract with the investor in the name of the company. This was much more convenient and formal.
It was not appropriate to invest rashly, and it was not safe to invest in an early stage. Mark Zuckerberg was first a student at Harvard University, then he had the idea of starting a business at school, and became an entrepreneur. He went from a student to an entrepreneur who gave birth to the idea of Facebook. This was the established route that history had long planned. If Zhang Heng did not intervene in advance, Mark Zuckerberg, who was far away on the other side of the ocean, would definitely follow his original rhythm. He would definitely establish Facemash in 2003, and the idea of Facebook would definitely be born at the end of 2003, and he would start to implement it in 2004.
Then, the most crucial part had finally arrived.
Since Li Mu did not interfere with Mark Zuckerberg's plans, Mark Zuckerberg must have tried to buy the Facebook domain at the beginning of his business. Back then, the owner of the domain offered tens of thousands of USD, and Mark Zuckerberg was scared off when he was still a poor student. If Li Mu had this domain, Mark Zuckerberg would have tried to buy the domain at the end of 2003 or early 2004. Li Mu's ultimate goal was not to sell the domain to him at the end of 2003, but to directly invest in him.
Li Mu thought about the timeline of Facebook's development.
In February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook was launched. It started from Harvard and gradually spread to other universities. At that time, he was just an ordinary student. He treated Facebook as a small entrepreneurial project after school.
In September 2004, Mark Zuckerberg received the first angel investment from PayPal founder Peter Thiel. At that time, Facebook had already shown its extraordinary ability to expand.
Li Mu could not help but imagine a scene in his mind.
On a certain day in 2003, Mark Zuckerberg, who was absent-minded in a classroom at Harvard University, finally thought of the idea of Facebook when he bit the end of his 58th pencil. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was a great idea. So, he endured until the end of class, rushed to his dorm, turned on his computer, and prepared to register the Facebook domain name. He didn't know if the domain had already been registered, but he was secretly hoping that the domain name was still in the waiting state.
When he filled in the top-level domain name in the domain query box, he was distressed to find out, "F * ck! I can't believe someone else got ahead of me with such a genius idea. It seems like I'm not the first person to think of Facebook. Someone who was hoarding domain names in a dictionary came up with this idea.
Then, he could not wait to see what the hell was going on.
After he opened it, he finally heaved a sigh of relief because there was nothing on the page. There was only one sentence: "This domain name is available for sale." Then, there was a MSN for contact.
"So it's a ghost who is accumulating domain names."
At this time, Mark Zuckerberg heaved a sigh of relief. He would not immediately think of registering The Facebook. He would think, "This kind of domain name shouldn't be able to sell for a lot, right? A few thousand dollars is the most I can sell it for. If I haggle, I might be able to get it cheaper. He definitely won't be like me, able to combine the concept of a high-end social networking site for college students with the weird phrase Facebook! "
Then, Mark Zuckerberg added the MSN.
At this time, Li Mu, who had waited for Mark Zuckerberg for two years, went online with a sinister smile.
Mark Zuckerberg said on MSN, "Hello, sir, I want to buy the domain name Facebook from you."
"Oh? How much are you willing to pay? "
"I think, for this kind of domain name, five hundred dollars should be a good offer."
Li Mu sent him a laughing emoji. "I'm sorry, I'm actually not very inclined to sell this domain name. I'm more inclined to use it to make a social network. I'll start from university, and I've already started preparing. I'm going to spend a few million US dollars to play around."
"What the f * ck!!!"
Think about it. What would Mark Zuckerberg think when he heard his idea being mentioned by someone who owned the domain name Facebook?
It's over. This person is ahead of me in everything. Most importantly, this person is rich and is willing to invest a few million dollars to test the waters.
There is a big difference between a rich person starting a business and a poor person starting a business.
If starting a business is compared to starting a large car rental company, then what the rich do is to buy a bunch of cars and then build an operation team.
What the poor do is: First find the cheapest way to save up cars, then try to save up one or two cars. Needless to say, the process of saving up is very tiring. Various parts are purchased, and if they can't afford them, they have to DIY them, then mix them, and do various tests.
After this series of work is done, they finally prove that they can save up one or two cars. At this time, if there is an investor that recognizes the cars they saved up, they will invest a sum of money to let them save up another batch of cars. This is the legendary angel round of investment.
After getting an angel round of investment and saving up to a certain amount, it is still far from enough to run a real large car rental company. Then, they find someone to invest a second time, and this is Series A financing.
It is not easy to get Series A financing and barely save up enough. Then, they start to build a better operation team …
This is almost half a century slower than the rich people. It is like a tortoise and a rabbit racing. If the rabbit does not make a big mistake, the tortoise will never be able to catch up to it.
Although the analogy is not very appropriate, the whole Internet business is like this. When Jack Ma founded Alibaba, there was a vacuum in the domestic market. If someone directly took out tens of millions to do the same thing as him, he might have failed from the start.
At this time, Mark Zuckerberg is 80% discouraged. He does not know what to do. He might need a few days to think about it, but it is more likely that he will give up the idea of starting a business.
Just when he is at a loss, Li Mu suddenly asked him, "Oh right, can you tell me, what do you intend to do with this domain name?"
"Me?" Mark Zuckerberg said self-deprecatingly, "I also want to start a social network, but now, I think I need to think about it."
Li Mu suddenly said generously, "I can't believe we both thought of the same thing. This is really fate. In fact, if we have the chance, we can sit down and talk about this idea that you and I have in common. If we have the same idea, I can give you the domain name and invest a sum of money in you. You can help me complete this plan. After all, I'm really too busy, and I want to split myself to do other things. If I leave it to someone else, I'm afraid that they won't understand my plan."
"Really?" Mark Zuckerberg cannot imagine that someone would be willing to invest in a nobody like him. But the other party's reason is very good. You can think of the same thing as me. This proves that your thinking is very similar to mine. If you are capable, I can rest assured investing in you.
Li Mu said with a smile, "Of course it's true. But I have something to do recently. I have to go to Cambridge, Massachusetts. I wonder where you are now? When I come back from Cambridge, we can arrange a place to meet. At that time, I can ask my assistant to book a round-trip ticket for you. "
Mark Zuckerberg was actually at Harvard University, and Harvard University was in Cambridge. The reason why Li Mu said this was to make the fish more determined to take the bait.
Therefore, it could be imagined that when he heard this sentence, he would probably believe in fate like the Chinese, and he would go crazy with excitement …
"Oh my god, sir, I am in Cambridge! Actually, I am still a student at Harvard! If you come to Cambridge, can we find time to meet? "
"My God, this is really the miracle of the Creator! How can there be so many coincidences and coincidences between us? This was really too much of a coincidence! No matter what, I must meet you. Then wait for my news. I will contact you when I arrive in Cambridge. "
"This is really God's will. Then I will wait for you in Cambridge!"
"Okay, wait for me, young man!"
This was Li Mu's complete idea. To sum it up, it could be called: Setting up the domain name, playing the role of fate.
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