Before Larry Page came to Li Mu, he had planned to invite Li Mu to invest in Google. Whether it was Li Mu's personal investment or Makino Technology's investment, it would be a great thing for Google's core management and the capital behind it.
Superficial cooperation comes and goes quickly. Just as in the history of the East and the West, marriages were used to enhance political stability. Cooperation between enterprises requires a strong bond. This bond is established on The foundations of business and favors are not solid enough. Business will change, favors will change, but the only thing that will not change is capital.
Google has also had close cooperation with Yahoo before. Both parties are mutually beneficial and can be regarded as a model of good partners. Without Yahoo's early use of traffic to feed Google, Google would never have achieved such a rapid development rate. Last year, Yahoo wanted to acquire Google, but Google was restless and increased the price all the way to $6 billion. Finally, Yahoo gave up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Now, Yahoo itself has set its sights on search engines. Although Yahoo has not announced it to the outside world, according to Google's understanding, Yahoo has now begun to develop search engines. Once it feels that it is ready, it will inevitably part ways with Google.
For Larry Page, even if Li Mu agrees to provide search traffic to Google today, this kind of cooperation is rootless and cannot bring a real sense of security to Google. The best solution is to let Li Mu take a stake, and then Sign a cooperation agreement.
Li Mu also saw Larry Page's urgent need for traffic. Yahoo was about to break up and wanted to go public next year. If he could get stable search traffic from his own hands at this time, it would have a huge impact on Google's capital operations. Help, it is very likely that because of its own traffic guarantee, Google will directly raise hundreds of millions more in IPO next year, and even the stock price will increase by a few percentage points.
Therefore, when Li Mu talked about being a shareholder of Baidu, what he was thinking about was a little bit like Larry Page. If you want traffic, let me invest in Google first.
As expected, Larry Page took the initiative and even proactively extended an invitation to Li Mu to become a shareholder.
So, Li Mu asked Larry Page, "Larry, does Google's board of directors have any preliminary intention? If I come with traffic, how much share will Google be willing to dilute to me?"
Li Mu will definitely despise Google if it is worth two points. Even if Google’s market value is hundreds of billions of dollars in the future, Li Mu will not despise it if it is two points.
Larry Page is also unambiguous. Both he and the Google board of directors are thinking about getting listed quickly and smoothly. No one dares to expect that he can expand to a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars in the future, so now in order to embrace Li Mu They also understand that they can't bear to let the child catch the wolf.
Immediately, Larry Page said to Li Mu seriously: "Mr. Li, if you can promise to open a search portal for Google on YY and YY.com and keep it unchanged for five years, we are willing to dilute five points. These five points , we will give you a valuation of US$6 billion.”
After that, Larry Page added: "Google's current valuation is around US$10 billion."
Li Mu smiled slightly and said, "Larry, open a search portal for Google and keep it unchanged for five years. If it were you, would you agree?"
Larry Page looked at Li Mu with evasive eyes. After a moment, he pretended to be confident and said: "I will agree, because this is an additional benefit for me."
Li Mu shook his head, and after a moment, he stared into Larry Page's eyes and said very seriously: "Larry, if I open a search entrance for Google in my most important product and keep it for five years, then you will get the money from me." What you get is not only five years of traffic guarantee, but also five years of security guarantee! If I promise you, then Makino Technology will not be able to get involved in search engines in the next five years. After all, my most important product has your entrance. If I search again at this time, wouldn’t I be ruining my own job?”
Larry Page didn't know how to answer for a while. Li Mu was right. If he agreed to this condition, the most valuable thing would not be that he provided traffic to Google for five consecutive years, but that he would not be able to work on search engines for five years. In wartime, this is the equivalent of a five-year non-aggression pact, which is of inestimable value.
After thinking for a moment, Larry Page said seriously: "Mr. Li, if you have any objection to this time, we can discuss it again. It is not impossible to shorten it appropriately. If it is four and a half years, you..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Mu stretched out his hand to interrupt him and said very seriously: "Larry, my objection is not about the length of time, but about how much extra compensation you are willing to pay for this time window. You have to understand a little more, in my opinion, for your request, you must pay me protection money!"
Although using protection fees to describe it seems very street culture, it is very appropriate. Google naturally knows that it is impossible for Li Mu to sign a competition agreement that clearly states that Makino Technology does not make a search engine, so they want to use this kind of restraint to make Li Mu think There is no way to do it, or it is difficult to start, but Li Mu is not a vegetarian. Google sells a few points of shares at a low price, which is not attractive enough to Li Mu. This is not because the richer he is, the bigger his appetite will be. But it's too little and he doesn't like it at all.
Larry Page hesitated for a moment and said, "Mr. Li, if that's the case, we can lower the valuation appropriately as compensation. What do you think?"
Li Mu shook his head slightly and said: "Larry, Makino Technology is the one with the largest traffic among the global Internet companies, and no one has as many users as us, let alone as many users as loyal as us. Theoretically speaking, Makino Technology It is much easier to make any Internet products and models than other companies, so you can see that the two simple games we made can bring huge profits that surpass all online games in the world; we made online music and it was destroyed in a few days Apple iTunes.”
When Li Mu said this, he paused deliberately and said to Larry Page: "If one day Makino Technology decides to build a search engine, how long do you think it will take for us to catch up with Google? Just like we caught up with Apple in the music field."
Larry Page felt that Li Mu's question made him a little embarrassed, but he still said firmly: "Mr. Li, the search engine is actually a product model that has very strong technical requirements. It must not only have a strong technical foundation. , there are also multiple sets of very precise logical algorithms, and then based on the algorithms, we can cater to users and advertisers. This set of things can almost be regarded as the highest technical threshold in the current Internet industry."
Li Mu smiled and asked him: "Do you think we don't have the technical strength to build a search engine?"
Larry Page hurriedly explained: "I just think that if Makino Technology invests a lot of technical costs in search engines, it will have a great impact on its own business development. To use an old saying in China, it is picked up. If sesame loses watermelon, it can’t be scratched.”
Li Mu said: "You're wrong Larry, if I build a search engine, I don't need to invest a lot of technical costs in redevelopment. I just need to take over Baidu's technology. Although I am not Baidu's major shareholder, I can tell you that if I want Baidu’s full set of technologies, I can definitely get it, and I can get it in minutes.”
Larry Page looked surprised, but in his heart he was filled with disbelief.
Baidu is also a technology-based company. For technology-based companies, technology is the most important asset and support. It is absolutely impossible to authorize it to others. What Li Mu said is simply a fantasy, unless he fully acquires Baidu. , otherwise such a thing would not be possible.
Li Mu saw that Larry Page didn't believe in him. He smiled playfully, looked at Larry Page, and said, "Larry, whether you believe it or not, what I want to tell you is that as long as I make a promise to Robin now, he will Open up the full set of technologies to me, and I will promise that Makino Technology will not touch the Chinese search engine market and continue to guide it in China. Robin will book the earliest air ticket to fly over from the United States and sign a contract with me. Do you believe it? "
WTF…
Larry Page looked horrified.
And in his heart, he completely believed what Li Mu said. If Li Mu really reached such a carve-up agreement with Baidu, then Baidu would definitely agree, because for Baidu, they simply have no ability to enter the overseas market.
At this time, Li Mu sighed: "One of the great advantages of Robin is that he can see the reality clearly. He knows that Baidu has no ability to develop foreign markets now, and will not have the ability to compete with Google in overseas markets in the future. Not only that, Even in the domestic market, Baidu has to worry about Google's invasion, and even more worried that giants like Makino Technology will one day take away his job. If I promise not to compete with him in the Chinese market, he will be satisfied and fully develop the domestic market. At the same time, He will never covet overseas markets. In that way, he and I can work closely together. He uses Baidu's technology to develop the Chinese market, and I use Baidu's technology to develop markets outside of China. We do not interfere with or conflict with each other. , and can even improve each other and make progress."
At this point, Li Mu's expression suddenly became playful. He looked at Larry Page, preparing to give him a high-level threat, and said with a smile: "Larry, you may think that Baidu's search engine technology is worse than Google's." But you also have to know that for most users, the product with the highest comprehensive score of convenience and practicality is the most popular.”
"Don't think that McDonald's doesn't sell pizza because it can't make pizza well, and don't think that even if McDonald's sells pizza, it can't sell the best-tasting pizza franchise. In fact, the real situation is that as long as McDonald's pizza is not unpalatable, they will It will soon take away a large chunk of the market from specialty pizza shops;”
"If he happens to be able to learn the full set of techniques for making delicious pizza from another professional pizza shop, then the market space he can occupy will be even greater!"
"In this competition, Makino Technology is McDonald's, and the search engine is pizza. As for Google, it is said to be the pizza store with the best craftsmanship, but fortunately, the gap between the second-ranked company and you is not big!"
(End of chapter)