February 22nd.
After a few days of warm-up, "Face to Face with the Bigwigs" was officially released on PP Video at 7pm.
Many users who had not downloaded PP Video before also began to download it today.
When Li Dong arrived at the office in the morning, Liu Hong rushed over to report the good news. "General Manager Li, our video downloads have increased by more than 8 million in the past two days. The total number of installations is approaching the 100 million mark! Your popularity is indeed unparalleled. This is much more cost-effective than hiring celebrities to do publicity. "
In 2009, the number of netizens in Hua Xia was about 300 million. Online video users accounted for about 80%, which was a total of 240 million users.
With 100 million installations of PP Video, it was obviously not to be underestimated.
The number of installations did not mean everything. It was normal to uninstall and install it again.
For online video, the more important data was not this, but the number of people covered.
The so-called number of people covered was the number of users who visited the website independently within a certain period.
According to the monthly statistics of the number of people covered in January 2009, the total market exceeded the 150 million mark.
Among them, Youku and Tudou were the current industry leaders. Both of them were around 80 million. Of course, there were overlapping users.
Otherwise, the total number of visitors from these two companies alone would exceed 160 million.
Far away, in the past year or so, despite continuous promotion and the popularity of several variety shows, PP and Weibo were attracting traffic, the final monthly number of people covered was only around 50 million, much lower than those two companies.
Of course, this was the statistics for January.
In fact, PP Video was growing every month. According to normal statistics, it was very likely to exceed the 55 million mark in February.
But now, there was probably no need to wait until the end of the month. At the end of the month, it was very likely to reach the 60 million mark.
When Liu Hong said this, Li Dong could not help but laugh. "That's right. Keep up the good work, get rid of those two companies, and reach the top!"
Of course, Li Dong did not take it too seriously.
To be honest, video websites were burning money at this time. Whether it was Youku or Tudou, they were operating at a loss.
So far away, they did not lose money.
So far away, they had this foundation. Bandwidth, servers, data centers …
So far away, these hardware were already there. The investment was not big, and it was not just for the video website.
And at this time, copyright fees were burning even more money.
In 2009, piracy was rampant. Piracy of domestic products was fine, but piracy of foreign products was troublesome.
All the major video websites were buying the copyright at a high price.
Especially after the sh * t stirrer LeTV was established, it raised the copyright price and started a price war, dragging the few big video websites to complain incessantly.
Speaking of LeShi, the head of the sect, Old Merchant, and Li Dong were quite similar.
This fellow also sued without saying a word!
In any case, he bought almost all the exclusive copyrights. If any domestic website pirated, he would immediately start suing. In the past two years, there were almost no video websites in the industry that did not get sued.
Far away was an exception, of course.
On one hand, Far away's legal team was strong, and LeTV could not compete with Far Away.
On the other hand, Far Away had always insisted on the original version. Moreover, Far Away was more independent in managing, investing and creating their own shows.
After The Voice and Where Are We Going, Dad were released online, they also spurred the development of variety shows Far away and became the trendsetter.
As for the TV series, East Star Entertainment had also invested in quite a few of them, and all of them were only making profits without any losses.
Far Away's cost of buying the copyright was much lower than other websites. Together with the infrastructure costs, it was also much lower. Therefore, for the current video website, Far Away was probably the only one that could maintain its operations.
The other websites had been burning money, and from the looks of it, no one knew when it would end.
Therefore, Li Dong was not too concerned about whether the video business could become number one or not.
The video business was just one aspect of the industry's richness. It was not everything. Reaching the top of a single industry would not bring much benefit to Far Away.
After Liu Hong finished reporting the good news, Li Dong interrupted, "Don't worry too much about this. Once the interview is done, the matter will be over.
As for the reactions of the outside world, we don't need to dwell on it.
Let's talk about the financing for Weibo. After the Series B financing, Weibo continued to grow. The international version developed especially quickly, and the domestic version also gained a large number of users.
Now, the registered users, including the international version, have reached 400 million users.
Of course, this is not important. The key is that our monthly unique visitors have reached 170 million. That is the key!
Now, let me say that we are the world's largest social media site. I think there will be no problem. "
Why did Li Dong dare to say this?!
Because Hua Xia had a lot of users!
Facebook could not enter the domestic market and could not be promoted. They did not have the support of Hua Xia, a country with a huge population.
In January 2009, Facebook only had 140 million monthly unique visitors.
Of course, they were not weak in the US. They had close to 70 million monthly unique visitors, surpassing their competitor, MySpace, which had 58 million.
Far Away, Weibo was not as competitive in the US. It only had about 20 million monthly unique visitors.
Far Away's main support came from China.
Hua Xia was a country with a huge population. It had a lot of users, reaching 300 million. Currently, it was the world's largest.
Of course, the statistics of different organizations were different. Some organizations in the US reported that Huaxia was still number one. But no matter what, it was a fact that the number of users in Hua Xia had increased.
Even if it was the same as the US, losing Hua Xia's market would mean losing all of Facebook's global market.
Far Away's Weibo users were naturally much easier to surpass Huaxia.
Of course, Far Away still lost according to the ratio of registered users and active users.
But if Li Dong insisted that they were the world's largest social media site, Facebook could not refute it. Far Away was at least better in terms of data.
As for Hua Xia's data, it was more than 60%, which was not within Li Dong's consideration.
Li Dong then said, "Since we're the world's largest, our Series C funding shouldn't be lower than Facebook's …"
Liu Hong's face turned green. Sir, are you serious?
Not lower than Huaxia?
In 2007, Huaxia's Series C funding was valued at 15 billion dollars!
That was the peak. In fact, due to the environment in 2008, it was not that high, but it was still 10 billion dollars.
Now that Li Dong said it wasn't lower than Huaxia's, didn't that mean that his Series C funding target was more than 10 billion dollars?
Was that possible?!
Liu Hong forced a smile and said, "General Manager Li, isn't that too high? After the Series B funding, we're only valued at 3.12 billion dollars. As for the Series C, our target is to raise 500 million dollars, which will be worth 5 billion dollars. "
In other words, before the funding, Far Away's Weibo was valued at 4.5 billion dollars.
In Liu Hong's eyes, this was in line with the market environment, and it was quite a high valuation.
In less than half a year, it had gone from less than 3.2 billion dollars to 4.5 billion dollars, which was already a shocking increase.
Of course, changes like this often happened in the internet industry. It wasn't just one company that could increase by more than a billion dollars in half a year.
But no matter what, he couldn't let the price continue to rise by several times.
According to Li Dong, there was no way to continue with the financing.
Ten billion dollars!
It was impossible before or after the funding.
Of course, if Li Dong didn't mind his shares being diluted by more than half, there was still hope.
But would Li Dong agree?
According to Liu Hong's understanding of him, Li Dong wouldn't let his shares be diluted too much.
In other words, the funding wouldn't be too large.
Even if they raised one billion dollars, Weibo would have to be worth at least nine billion dollars before the funding to meet Li Dong's expectations.
That was true for Facebook, but it dominated the global market. If Hua Xia was excluded, Far Away's global market was only half of Facebook's.
Sometimes, half of the difference was more than half of the depreciation.
Of course, Hua Xia's market was also very important, and there was no reason to exclude her. All in all, Far Away's Weibo could be worth more than 50% of Facebook's.
It was almost impossible for it to be of equal value.
Hearing that, Li Dong raised an eyebrow. "Five billion dollars? Are you kidding me? "
Then, Li Dong said, "This is our last round of funding. After that, we'll choose to go public. It'll be a money-making deal.
Don't use Series B as a reference.
Also, our market share has been increasing recently, especially in the Hua Xia market. That's a real monopoly.
The world's largest social media site isn't just bragging. It's the truth.
Fine, I admit that I can't compare to them in America. I'm not even in the top three, but are Americans that valuable?
I'm not asking for much. It's not a problem to estimate it to be more than six billion dollars before the funding.
One billion dollars this time, seven billion dollars after the funding.
I currently own 40% of the shares, which will be more than 34% after dilution. After we go public, we'll dilute some more and maintain it at more than 30%. That's just right.
You're telling me that it's only five billion dollars after the funding? Do you really think we're worthless? "
Liu Hong was exhausted. I really can't do that at six billion dollars before the funding.
Also, Weibo's current valuation was 4.5 billion dollars. Far Away didn't do it alone, but many other institutions.
Were those investment banks stupid?
Didn't they know that the higher the value, the better?
But why did they only offer 4.5 billion dollars? That was because Weibo was indeed worth that much at the moment.
Even though Li Dong boasted that it was number one in the world, had four hundred million users, and was on equal footing with Europe and America, that was just empty talk.
Series C would raise five billion dollars after the funding.
Since there weren't any social media sites yet, Weibo could only be considered as an internet company.
Based on the price-earnings ratio and other data, Weibo's market value might reach ten billion dollars after it went public, or slightly higher.
Of course, that didn't rule out a sharp rise or fall.
According to Li Dong, Weibo's market value would be fifteen billion dollars after it went public.
Everyone thought he was joking at the annual meeting.
But that was exactly what he was planning to do!
With a bitter expression, Liu Hong said after a long while, "Then I'll go back and make a new plan. I'll also have to discuss it with the investment banks. What do you think?"
Li Dong nodded and said, "Let's do that. Actually, if I didn't have to buy back some of the shares, I would've prepared ten billion dollars. But I still want to buy back some of the shares before it goes public, so the valuation can't be too high. Otherwise, it won't be worth it if others take advantage of it. "
Liu Hong smiled bitterly. So I have to thank you for considering that. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to continue financing with such a valuation.
The 15 billion USD had officially surpassed the 100 billion mark.
Could Weibo really create such a huge value?
Of course, it was also true that the internet industry depended on whether one could brag or not.
If what you boasted was reasonable and could move the investors and make them feel that it was worth it, then there would be no problem.
But if it wasn't, it was useless no matter what.
Far away, it was hard to say if Weibo could move the investors.
Other people's money didn't grow on trees. Once this bubble burst, it would plummet, and the major institutions would have to think it through.
He had come to report the good news, but in the end, Liu Hong left gloomily.
Of course, it was his business to be worried.
As time passed, "Face to Face with the Bigwigs" was about to be released.
Some clips were released on the PP video.
…
"If you want to talk about who is the most annoying in the industry, I'll talk about the people I know. I won't talk about those I don't know. You'll definitely think that I'm talking about idiots, but I'm not! "
"The most annoying person is Tencent's Ma Huateng!"
"I almost forgot. There's also Ali's Ma Yun, the God of Wealth!"
"Then, Mr. Li, do you mind talking about your fiancée?"
"There's nothing to talk about. I'll just make do."
"Whether it's the internet industry or logistics … Looking back, it's actually in the top ten, top five, or even first place …"
Many people almost cursed out loud when they saw the clips!
Damn PP video!
Why did you want to cover up the name of the person?
Who does Li Dong hate?
Also, who's the God of Wealth?
It looks like there will be a lot of news this time.
The netizens started guessing. Someone said confidently, "I bet that the person Li Dong hates the most is Ma Yun!"
"I bet it's Longhua's Hsu Shengzhe."
"I'm guessing that the God of Wealth is Hsu Shengzhe."
"Do you guys think there's any more news? Will Cannon Bro be shooting fireworks this time? "
"Nonsense. Is he still Cannon Bro if he doesn't shoot fireworks? I highly suspect that what's being released now is just child's play. The real kicker is yet to come. "
"That makes sense. Cannon Bro's interview is still the most interesting."
"…"
Everyone was talking about it. Many people were waiting for the show to officially start.
…
At the same time, Li Yanhong, who was far away in Beijing, saw the clip and mumbled, "This bastard, don't tell me he's talking about me?"
He vaguely remembered that Li Dong had called him that before.
Of course, Li Yanhong was just saying that. It was fine as long as he did not scold him.
As for who Li Dong was going to shoot at, he felt that it was definitely not him.
It was possible that Ma Yun and Ma Huateng were involved. It was also possible that a few big names in the physical retail industry were involved.
In any case, no matter who it was, he would just sit on the bench and watch the show.
Li Yanhong was glad that his and Li Dong's businesses did not overlap much. Otherwise, he would not be able to stand this blabbermouth.
Li Yanhong felt that it was not him. Many people thought so too.
This included Suning's Zhang Jindong. Old Zhang did not expect Li Dong to scold him. He was still waiting to watch the show.
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