After the launch event ended, the backstage lounge was already packed with people.
Liu Yutong had just been escorted into the lounge through a side entrance by Yuncheng, Blue Butterfly, and the others when a group of industry heavyweights closed in around her as if they had planned it.
Lei Yun was the first to speak.
The man who would one day build the Dami empire wore an expression of genuine admiration.
“Chairwoman Liu, today’s launch event really opened my eyes. Especially that trade-in offer at the end—one thousand yuan for any old phone. That was a ruthless move. I’m already feeling sorry for Apple.”
Liu Yutong smiled. “You’re too kind, Mr. Lei. When your Dami 1 launches, I’ll personally attend the event and lend my support.”
Lei Yun’s eyes lit up. “Then it’s a promise!”
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Lei Yun tactfully stepped aside.
Next came Ma Yunyun, Li Yanhong, Ding Sanshi, and several others, each taking turns to offer their congratulations. One piece of polite small talk followed another, and Liu Yutong handled them all with ease, a smile never leaving her face.
It wasn’t until a somewhat gaunt figure squeezed his way forward that she raised an eyebrow.
Pony Ma.
The head of Big Goose and the undisputed ruler of China’s internet-based social networking sector. Yet there wasn’t the slightest trace of a smile on his face. If anything, he looked rather anxious.
“Chairwoman Liu, congratulations. The launch was a great success.” Pony Ma extended his hand.
Liu Yutong shook it, then looked at him with an amused, knowing smile. “Mr. Ma, I recall that you usually dislike attending events like this. What brings you here today?”
The corner of Pony Ma’s mouth twitched.
Why do you think I came?
The Wanlong Association had invited everyone in the internet industry—everyone except him.
This ticket had only been obtained after he swallowed his pride and went through several layers of connections.
Fortunately, he had come.
If he hadn’t, he might not even have known what had killed him.
But there was no way he could say that to her face. All he could do was give an awkward laugh.
“Chairwoman Liu, you’re joking. I simply wanted to see how far a homegrown Chinese smartphone brand could go. I have to say, the Longyao S1 is truly impressive. Both its specifications and its price are far beyond what I expected.”
Then he changed the subject and brought up WeChat.
“Chairwoman Liu, I’d like to know about your WeChat…”
Liu Yutong pretended not to understand. “What about WeChat?”
Pony Ma said, “Chairwoman Liu, let’s be frank. Big Goose has been deeply involved in instant messaging for many years, and you should be well aware of QQ’s user base. WeChat has entered the market with voice messaging and mobile contact synchronization as its core features. It’s directly targeting our core business. This is no longer a simple matter of competition.”
“To be honest, I thought I was only coming to watch a smartphone launch today. I never expected the Wanlong Association to quietly develop something like this. I have to admit, it’s rather alarming.”
He was speaking from the heart.
QQ was unquestionably the dominant force in Chinese social networking, but its foundation was on the PC. In 2010, the mobile version of QQ offered a truly miserable experience: a bloated interface, sluggish response times, and excessive battery consumption. Most fatal of all, its account system depended on a string of numerical QQ IDs.
WeChat, by contrast, linked directly to users’ mobile contact lists. That single step was practically a dimensional strike.
What truly sent a chill down Pony Ma’s spine was WeChat’s voice-messaging feature.
At the launch event, he had personally watched Yu Xin demonstrate a voice message sent across the ocean. At that moment, only one thought had flashed through his mind:
Once this thing gained traction, QQ’s mobile platform would be finished.
Looking at Pony Ma’s grim expression, Liu Yutong suddenly laughed.
“Mr. Ma, I remember congratulating you when Big Goose Weibo launched last year.”
“Now that the Wanlong Association has launched WeChat, shouldn’t you congratulate me as well?”
Pony Ma: “…”
Can I say that I regret creating Weibo?
When Big Goose Weibo had burst onto the scene the previous year, it had been obvious that it was targeting Weibo.
At the time, Pony Ma had slammed his hand on the table during an internal meeting and declared that they would take half of Weibo’s users within three months. He had even confidently greeted Liu Yutong in person.
Her response had indeed been remarkably magnanimous. She had even said, “Competition is welcome. Let’s work together to grow the market.”
Her gracious attitude had led him to believe, for a time, that he had found a rare kindred spirit. He had even been touched for quite a while.
Only now did he finally understand.
That woman had been holding back a devastating counterattack all along, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
“Chairwoman Liu, you’re joking. Weibo is Weibo, and WeChat is WeChat. They can’t be lumped together.”
“Mr. Ma, we’ve known each other for quite some time. Just say what you really came here to say.”
That was exactly what Pony Ma had been waiting to hear.
“Chairwoman Liu, I personally welcome your entry into social networking. But I want to point out that although this field may look lively, it’s extremely difficult to do well. The cost of migrating user relationship networks, the scalability of the technical architecture, the stability of server clusters, the concurrent processing of massive volumes of messages… There are simply too many pitfalls. WeChat may look impressive right now, but once its user base reaches a certain scale, one problem after another will emerge.”
“What I’m saying is, rather than burning through money and fighting each other to the death, why don’t we cooperate? Big Goose’s cloud services, CDN nodes, and anti-spam systems are already in place, and they’re the most mature in the country. If WeChat connects to Big Goose’s infrastructure, its costs could be cut by at least half, while its stability would be guaranteed.”
After listening to him, Liu Yutong nodded seriously.
Pony Ma wasn’t trying to bluff her. Social networking products did have extremely high technical barriers, and Big Goose’s accumulated expertise in that area was unquestionably in a league of its own domestically.
However, she had no intention of accepting his proposal.
“I know everything you’ve mentioned, Mr. Ma, and I agree with you.”
“As for cooperation, I think I’ll seriously consider your proposal on the day WeChat’s user base surpasses QQ’s.”
The day it surpassed QQ?
Pony Ma nearly choked.
QQ currently had close to one billion registered users and roughly five hundred million monthly active users. It was, without question, the social networking empire of China’s internet.
WeChat, meanwhile, was a new product that had been in internal testing for less than half a year. Its official version had only just launched alongside the Longyao S1, and it probably had no more than a million registered users at most.
Between a few million users and one billion lay an insurmountable gulf.
But Pony Ma didn’t dare take that gamble.
After all, based on what he currently knew about Liu Yutong, not a single thing this woman had done seemed to have failed.
A hundred-percent success rate in entrepreneurship was terrifying enough.
Since she dared to say that WeChat would surpass QQ, she might truly have the confidence to make it happen.
Pony Ma remained silent for a long time. In the end, he sighed and made his position clear.
“Chairwoman Liu, in that case, we’ll have to meet in the market.”
“We’ll see who’s stronger on the battlefield. But we can still be friends.” Liu Yutong smiled and extended her hand.
The two shook hands, and Pony Ma hurriedly turned and left.
The moment he was gone, several other people eagerly crowded around.
Leading them was Ji Zhe of Qixing Capital, followed by Chu Hai of AEG Capital.
Both men were renowned figures in the domestic investment circle and among the earliest investors to place their bets on projects under the Wanlonghui Group.
When they first met Liu Yutong in Pearl City, she had persuaded each of them to invest a sum of money in exchange for partial stakes in several projects, including Huangquan Internet Café, Wanhui Youxuan, and Weibo.
Although neither of them held a particularly large stake in any one company, they had been both astonished and delighted to discover that every one of those investments had turned out to be a success. Even the Longxin Semiconductor project—the one that had burned through the most money and taken the longest to mature—had finally gotten on track and begun generating its own cash flow.
Based on current market valuations, the money they had invested back then had increased by at least several times, perhaps even more than tenfold.
But that was also where the problem lay.
Their investments had appreciated, but they had never been able to cash out their shares.
The agreements they had signed at the time clearly stated, in black and white, that the shares they held could not be transferred independently. Any transfer required Liu Yutong’s written consent.
In other words, if Liu Yutong did not give them the green light, they could forget about finding someone else to take over their shares.
That left only one ideal way to cash out: taking the companies public.
Once a company was listed, they could do whatever they wanted with their shares after the lock-up period ended, and they would also have something to report to their LPs.
Unfortunately, Liu Yutong’s attitude toward going public had always been impossible to read.
Wanhui Youxuan had met the listing requirements long ago. Weibo had exceeded its user-growth targets for two consecutive years, and its revenue was equally impressive. Yet every time they were filled with anticipation, thinking an IPO could finally be launched, Liu Yutong would casually say a few words and put a stop to it.
She had left them stuck in limbo, and it was driving them crazy.
What made matters worse was that, aside from their investments in Wanlonghui Group progressing smoothly, their other investment projects had been doing poorly over the past two years.
Some had been dragged down by industry-wide downturns, while others had suffered because of problems within their founding teams. Several projects had gone under just last year and this year, costing them a considerable amount of money. The pressure on their funds was becoming very real.
Chu Hai, in particular, was only the head of AEG Capital’s Longguo division, with the headquarters watching over him from above.
AEG Capital had run into some problems overseas as well. Although those issues had not yet affected the independent operations of the Longguo division, Chu Hai wanted to be prepared. He wanted more high-quality assets in his hands—assets that could be liquidated at any time.
“Chairwoman Liu, today’s product launch was a tremendous success. We’re extremely optimistic about the prospects of the Longyao S1.”
“That said, shouldn’t we also start considering taking Wanhui Youxuan and Weibo public? They’ve been operating for almost two years now, and all their metrics have reached the requirements for listing. If we wait any longer, we may miss the optimal window.”
“That’s right, Chairwoman Liu. Several of my LPs have been pressing me for answers and asking when Wanhui Youxuan will finally go public.”
Liu Yutong found it amusing to watch the two men sing the same tune.
Even so, she still had no intention of taking the companies public.
It wasn’t that she had anything against money. The truth was, Wanlonghui Group genuinely wasn’t short of cash right now.
The cash flow of its six major business divisions was extremely healthy. On top of that, the various investment funds under her control were all flush with capital. The group had plenty of money to use without going public.
More importantly, some of the things she was working on were highly sensitive. If the companies went public, they would inevitably have to disclose certain information. After weighing everything carefully, she had decided to hold off for now.
She would consider listing them once the timing was right.
“President Ji, President Chu, I’ve been considering the matter of going public all along, but the timing still isn’t quite right.”
“Please wait a little longer. Once WeChat reaches one hundred million users and Longxin begins mass-producing forty-five-nanometer chips, we can sit down and have a serious discussion about going public.”
Ji Zhe and Chu Hai exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing.
As expected.
She was brushing them off with another convenient excuse.
And this wasn’t the first time, either. Every time they brought up the subject, she simply stalled them.
“Chairwoman Liu, could you at least give us a rough timeline? Even if you told us to wait another two or three years, we’d have something to report to our LPs.”
Liu Yutong thought for a moment before saying, “How about this? Within the next five years, if the right opportunity comes along, I’ll consider launching an IPO.”
“However, if we still can’t go public within five years, don’t worry. At worst, I’ll buy back the shares you hold at market value. I guarantee you won’t lose money.”
Upon hearing this, Ji Zhe and Chu Hai let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.
Whatever else could be said, Liu Yutong had at least given them a promise.
“Fine. With your word, Chairwoman Liu, we can rest easy.”
“Then we’ll take our leave for now.”
Ji Zhe was just about to pull Chu Hai away when Liu Yutong called out to them.
“President Ji, President Chu, since you’re already here, don’t rush off. Let me tell you about another new project.”
The two men: ???
Again?
How many times had this happened now?
How many times?
How many?
Many times?
Times?
?
