Chapter 179： Big flicker

On the side of the banquet hall, in a corner where no one pays attention, Yang Cheng held a red wine glass and shook it gently, listening to the self-report of Charlie, an entrepreneur from Silicon Valley. No, Charlie Chievo should not be called an entrepreneur now. , The value of the company he is managing at the time of the B round of financing has exceeded 500 million US dollars, and the valuation of the C round of financing is not less than 900 million, a brand-new unicorn company is rising like the morning sun.

The two chatted here for a while, most of the time Yang Cheng asked questions, and Charlie Chievo replied that what they were talking about was nothing more than the experience of Quora's rise.

"Charlie, as you said Quora's Series C financing led by Tiger Fund is about to start. Why at this time, you traveled all the way to New York to participate in this cocktail party that has no practical meaning to you?" Yang Cheng sighed. Mouth the red wine, continue his questioning.

"The Tiger Fund has too many shares, and it is about to approach the total number of shares held by the management. This is not what we want to see. So I came here alone this time to introduce a shareholder who can compete with the Tiger Fund. Of course, the premise It is this new shareholder who must stand 100% unconditionally on the management side." Charlie Chievo blurted out without thinking. It is obvious that he has written many times about this issue.

Yang Cheng nodded and expressed his understanding. Ari had encountered similar problems back then. Two ambitious foreign companies, Yahoo and Softbank, tried more than once to challenge the position of Jack Ma and its partners, but they were eventually caught by Jack Ma. A strategist with a big picture of the overall situation turned the risk to a breeze and completed the control of the board of directors.

The management and shareholders are natural enemies, especially listed companies. When meeting with investors, the management often likes to say, “We work for shareholders.” This seems to be self-humility, but it is true. It shows the essence of the relationship between management and shareholders.

"How did you and William meet?" Yang Cheng turned around and suddenly changed a question that had nothing to do with the company.

Charlie has been a code farmer for decades and has not yet fully adapted to the change of his new identity. The rhythm of the conversation has been mastered by Yang Cheng from the beginning. At this moment, he heard Yang Cheng’s problem before he had time to think about it, so he said, " He doesn't know him. I was talking to an investor. He suddenly introduced himself and said that he was a director of Hearst Group and wanted to invest in or acquire Quora. This is a idiot."

Speaking of this, Charlie still had an aggrieved expression, apparently he hadn't forgotten the arrogance that William had shown before.

"Then the purpose of your trip hasn't been achieved yet?" Yang Cheng wouldn't take the opportunity to ridicule and taunt her behind her back. If possible, he would say it in person, and he wanted to witness William's angry and helpless expression with his own eyes.

"No, not yet, but William is right in saying that Quora has not found the right profit model. I think I should change my direction and not look for investors who can compete with Tiger Fund, but can actually help the company. At least it will make it easier for the new and old shareholders to reach an agreement.” Charlie was still watching Yang Cheng talking, but he lowered his eyes while talking and started talking to himself.

Yang Cheng didn’t bother, but after he lost his voice, he chuckled, “Actually, you know that Quora’s profit model is naturally limited. Advertising, paid questioning, and brand activity commissions are at this stage. Before the emerging technological revolution, Quora can only tell the story of the infinite Fudge Investment Bank to give you money for blood transfusion. Of course, your expenditure is not as large as the average Internet company, and you don't even need that many employees.

But this is not a long-term solution. Unless you never go public, a unique and innovative profit model that can make your statements beautiful is a must and is inevitable.

However, for those who can come up with this model, God may not have created it yet! "

After a pause, I saw Charlie sinking into contemplation following his words, and then said, "Or, let go of the self-esteem of entrepreneurs and become a puzzle for other large companies to perfect the industrial chain. Is it to become one of the components to keep Quora alive? Or just sit back and watch yourself. The enterprise you build loses vitality a little bit, until the last trace of potential is exhausted and dissipated in the dust? The choice is yours."

Yang Cheng did not leave Charlie breathing time to think, forcibly instilling his own ideas into his brain, "More importantly, Quora is not without competitors, and you do not have difficult and unbreakable technologies for core competitiveness. Internet giants Companies, social networking sites, and vertical Q&A sites have already besieged Quora in the market."

To be honest, from the perspective of industrial evolution, social Q&A is not a new field. People have always had the habit of seeking answers on the Internet.

In the beginning, people would use portals to obtain information, but this kind of pertinence was too low. After the emergence of search engines, people could search for information based on questions, and the quality of the answers obtained would vary.

After the emergence of social question and answer sites, the answers came from the collection of knowledge and experience of experts who have the most say in those questions. People no longer need to search for answers from hundreds of links, just simply type in the questions. Get the highest-rated answer.

To give an image example, the pancake fruit was originally just a traditional breakfast in the Beijing-Tianjin area, but with the flow of social people, smart people brought this kind of local snack into their hometown and evolved it. From the original fried dough sticks to the crispy ham sausage in the northeast, and now pancakes all over the country can be sandwiched, only you can't think of it, there is nothing impossible. Then again, the ancients who invented the dumplings thousands of years ago can imagine Has Baozi dumplings become one of the signatures of Chinese cuisine?

Society is progressing and technology is innovating, creating new things from the old, and the Internet is also changing from the age of'information' to the age of'knowledge'.

Yang Cheng's words are not over yet, "I want to put special emphasis on vertical Q&A websites. You have to be utmost vigilant against them. Your core competitiveness is the sharing of high-quality resources, but can you really cover all resources? Can't it?

Although Quora has no technical obstacles to cover multiple industries, it will be difficult to operate in practice. At present, as far as I know, there are many question and answer websites in various segments, and many of them have a certain user scale. Compared with Quora, their positioning is clearer, they can attract more professionals, and it is easier to form a reputation in the circle of that segment. Once they have formed a scale, how do you compete with others to grab users? "

Yang Cheng said that the dry mouth is naturally not the help of Virgin Mary to help Quora develop, but the subconsciously instilling a concept for Charlie Chievo, that is, Quora cannot do it on your own, you have to find a like-minded giant to unite and take advantage of the platform built by Quora. Only by teaming up with more powerful companies can we survive in the long run and realize the value of Quora!

As Yang Cheng expected, Charlie had been fooled by him, and asked stupidly, "Then what should I do?"

Yang Cheng was not in a hurry, so she rushed and said to surrender to me. This is the same thing as love. It took a lot of effort to flick the **** the boat. Would she be willing to fall short at the last minute?

Of course not, in order to relax the girl's vigilance, you must do the foreplay so that the girl can't help but naturally spread her legs and actively welcome your presence.

Charlie at this moment is like a woman who has been stripped of~light~light. Although she realizes what is coming, she still shrinks into a ball and protects her private parts with her hands tightly. Don't pull the woman's hands apart at this time. Instead, continue your previous actions and slowly speed up the rhythm.

"Have you used the Toutiao app?" Yang Cheng's evil smile rose, and Charlie's fox-like eyes looked uncomfortable, and his back was itchy.

"Uh~ I've used it, a great app, especially its innovative advertising embedded model, which opened my eyes." When he mentioned professional topics, Charlie became energetic again, with a look of admiration. Looking at Yang Cheng, he also knew that this genius idea came from the young man in front of him. This is not a secret. Almost everyone who has used Toutiao app knows that.

Since Yang Cheng exposed himself to the flash, there are real and false rumors flying all over the sky, he is not surprised.

Nodded and continued temptation, "Don't you think Toutiao and Quora match? I have used your product several times. Quora's newly optimized search engine is very good Similar to Google's full-text search The function greatly improves the experience of content search, and the process is more convenient. If it can be embedded in the Toutiao app, what kind of scene will it be like? Would you say Google will try to spend a huge price on us? In, kill their potential opponents?"

News + search, a new version of Yahoo! The wonderful scene that the smart Charlie instantly associates with Yang Cheng is not known. He thinks that today is too much to say, and he hasn't forgotten to find William to settle accounts. There is a small charity auction as the finale tonight. This is almost a standard feature of every banquet. Rich people always like to use charity to dress up their peaceful and helpful appearance after the extravagance.

Yang Cheng was afraid that William was not interested in participating in the auction and left early. If he let the grandson leave like this, he would have trouble sleeping and eating for several days.

I said hello to Charlie, "Charlie, I have something to deal with. This is my business card. You are welcome to visit my company at any time. If you have any needs, please feel free to help me."

Passing the business card to Charlie, regardless of his scratching of his head to keep him, he moved his long legs and turned around in the banquet hall.

"What about people? Where about people?" he muttered while looking for someone.

When Yang Cheng was annoyed and was about to give up, he finally found William. He was chatting with a few old men on the side of the temporary stage. At the same time, Bill Ackerman came on stage. As the host of the reception, he naturally wanted to give a speech. I expressed my gratitude to the guests who were here tonight, and then announced that he personally contributed a batch of stored wine as a lot of auctions to help the auction.

As Bill Ackerman announced the start of the auction, Yang Cheng went to the reception desk to receive a number plate and returned to the front of the stage, showing a gratified and cruel smile.

Because, the opportunity for revenge is here!