There is a joke circulating on the Internet in later generations. It tells the story of an old woman who went to the vegetable market to buy tomatoes and picked three. After the stall owner weighed them, he said: "One and a half pounds, three and a half yuan."
The old lady said, "I'm just making soup. I don't need so much." After saying that, she removed the largest one. The stall owner quickly looked at the scale again: "One catty, two liang, three yuan."
As a result, just when everyone thought that the old lady was going to be cheated by the profiteers, the old lady calmly took out 70 cents, picked up the biggest tomato that had just been removed, and turned away.
Three three-and-a-half dollars, after removing one, the remaining two three-yuan, three dollars and seven minus three dollars, the seven cents lost, there is nothing wrong with it, and the stall owner can only suffer the loss of his own dumbness.
Although it is a joke, it well reflects the game between corporate financing and venture capital.
Today's Makino Technology is like those tomatoes, except that some are big and some are small, some are green and some are red.
YY is definitely the biggest, reddest, and best among several tomatoes, so it must also be the most delicious. Tieba may be neither big nor small, neither green nor red, but "Happy Farm" is probably the one that is both green and small. .
Although there is revenue, it is of little significance compared to real client games. Venture capital is looking at YY’s comprehensive potential in the field of instant messaging and future online social fields, so in the face of this big framework, "Happy" Farm” is really nothing.
Li Mu also guessed the value judgment of venture capital, so he wanted to open it up first and then talk to the venture capital. It doesn't matter if the venture capital really doesn't like Tieba and Happy Farm. The less optimistic it is, the more beneficial it will be to him. For example, Sequoia , a valuation of 13 billion was given to Makino Technology. If a valuation of 12 billion was given to YY, Li Mu would laugh out of his dreams.
Because Li Mu knew in his heart that Tieba’s product scale and future ecological chain development prospects would have a valuation of at least tens or even tens of billions. If Weibo is hatched in a few years, the valuation would start at least tens of billions of dollars. .
As for "Happy Farm", Li Mu really doesn't expect it to make much money, because its core mission is not to make money, but to build a fortress for YY's overseas development. However, in addition, "Happy Farm" has a special Attributes.
Not surprisingly, it must be its first client game, which is also the first product of the future game division. However, the game division is still in a state of not having a single game. If they are also brought in for financing, Venture capital will not give them a high valuation at all. At most, they will only give a valuation to a team, plus a platform bonus. However, Li Mu knows very well that the client game business will be the top priority of Internet revenue in the future. , if you talk to capital about this basket of tomatoes at an extremely low price, you will really suffer a big loss.
What Li Mu wants to do is to optimize and upgrade the old lady's method. As a seller, first find out the price of each tomato in the eyes of the buyer, and then take out the one that the other party doesn't like. Don't you? ? It just so happens that I don’t really want to sell it, so I’ll take it out and let’s talk about the rest.
Others at Makino Technology also understand Li Mu’s thoughts, and naturally have no objection to the split and financing. However, everyone is more concerned that once Makino Technology is split into two or three companies, and one of the companies receives capital financing, in the future How to use money smoothly for the overall operations of the three companies
If "Happy Farm" is split off, then when YY globalizes in the future, a large part of the capital invested in Makino Technology will be used to promote "Happy Farm", and capital will definitely go crazy.
Li Mu felt that this was not a problem at all, and said to everyone with a nonchalant expression: "The reason why you are worried that the capital side will object to us using the money on other companies that have nothing to do with them is that you treat capital too much as human beings." "The premise for us to ask for capital is that capital cannot interfere with our decision-making and operations. If we cannot do this, we will not agree to the best financing conditions."
After that, Li Mu added: "We are a mature large-scale Internet company, not a start-up. Venture capital does not need to worry about our product model, profit margin and development prospects. In this case, they are rushing to invest in us. The purpose is nothing more than to want our shares. After getting the shares, he will contribute when we need him; when we don’t need him, he will shut up and keep his distance, and just be a silent shareholder."
Kong Lingyu said in agreement: "I think this is also the case. Even if we use venture capital money to promote "Happy Farm" overseas in the future, the real benefit will be YY in the end. After all, once our YY develops in overseas markets, YY's valuation will The space is limitless.”
Ding Zhenglin asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, if we split up, what is your psychological valuation of our sectors?"
Li Mu thought for a while and said: "YY is 15 billion, Tieba is 5 billion, and Happy Farm is 2 billion."
Several people were shocked by Li Mu. After calculation, Li Mu's expected valuation of Makino Technology was 22 billion! Even if it is 7 billion higher than SoftBank, which currently offers the highest price...
Lin Qingya was the first to see through Li Mu's intention and said with a smile: "Mr. Li, I think you just want to take out Tieba and Happy Farm and directly increase YY's valuation to 15 billion. Financing?"
Li Mu laughed and snapped his fingers: "Qingya, you understand me best."
After finishing speaking, Li Mu added: "Tieba has traffic and users, but currently there is no good way to monetize it except advertising, so I believe that the capital itself is not very optimistic about Tieba; the game model of "Happy Farm" is relatively soft , it cannot compare to games like Miracle and Legend in terms of intensity, and the game itself is free, so the profit margin is naturally not as good as paid games. Similarly, capital will definitely not be very optimistic about it. And we sell shares for financing, to put it bluntly It’s just like selling something, if the buyer doesn’t approve of something and the price is low, then why should we sell it?”
Ding Zhenglin nodded: "Then I will have further discussions with Sequoia and SoftBank based on YY's valuation of 15 billion."
"Okay." Li Mu said: "If the negotiation is successful, we will separate the Tieba and register a separate Makino Culture; separate "Happy Farm" and the game development team, register a separate Makino Interactive Entertainment. The company’s share structure is a complete copy of our current share structure, and the shareholders and shareholding ratios remain unchanged. However, after the split, the two companies will operate independently and raise funds independently in the future.”
"In this way, in the future, we will be able to advance and attack, and retreat and defend. If we attack, we will find a way to make the two separated companies listed independently; if we defend, we can also use Makino Technology to use capital The operation is to merge these two split companies back. In this way, it will not only enhance the strength of the entire Makino Technology, but also prevent the venture capital investors in the C round of financing from taking advantage. When the time comes, these two companies that do not have their shares will be merged in. They have to pay extra, either by diluting some of their shares or taking out money to make up the difference.”
Li Mu's offensive and defensive plan has been approved by everyone. Everyone also understands that the Tieba and game business are not valuable in the eyes of outsiders, but in the eyes of their own people, the development potential is very great.
At present, the core team of Makino Technology does not know Li Mu’s future plans for Weibo. They only know that Tieba’s next incubation task is blogging, and the blog is already under development and will be developed soon.
Although some people have tried blogging as a product before, they have not been able to build blogs because they do not have enough traffic, a strong platform appeal, and well-known self-media entities. However, there are a large number of high-quality blogs in Tieba now. Content, as well as a large number of star resources, once converted into blogs, can create a large number of self-media that attracts much attention. It can be said that Tieba has cultivated absolutely fertile soil for blogs. As long as the blog comes out, it will definitely It will be on fire, and it will be a big fire.
In fact, in Li Mu's view, both blogs and Weibo products face a huge problem in the development process: they are popular but not popular. To put it bluntly, they do not have a good monetization model, and they have large traffic and fame. , I just don’t know how to make money.
For a portal website with an average of more than one million unique visitors per day, if it only relies on selling advertising, its annual revenue of 10 million would be great, such as Hao123 before its acquisition; but if it is a portal website with more than one million unique visitors from the Japanese army, The annual revenue of e-commerce websites can easily reach tens of billions. The real difference between the two is the method of monetization.
But this is not a problem for Li Mu, because Li Mu has prepared an excellent monetization channel for blogs and future Weibo - Taobao.
After the development of Weibo in later generations, it began to develop in the direction of new media e-commerce. If it were not for the emergence of WeChat Moments, tens of millions of "micro-business armies" would definitely have taken root on Weibo.
Li Mu does not want to create an "army of micro-business", but new media e-commerce is a very effective development direction. Once the blog becomes popular, it will definitely gather a large number of users. He will find a way to guide these users to Taobao for consumption, which will be the future monetization of the blog. Top priority.
In other words, Li Mu has basically decided that all future blog advertising will be given to Taobao. The monetization method of e-commerce is direct and has a high conversion rate, which is much more effective than other Internet advertising.
Moreover, the blog itself is a new type of self-media. A small number of users here create high-quality content, and a large number of people pay attention to and digest the high-quality content. In this case, the blog can guide a group of people who are good at creating content or influential people. , try content e-commerce directly.
For example, let a well-known makeup artist open a blog, explain makeup, and recommend cosmetics and makeup tools from Taobao partner companies. While her audience is learning, they can directly develop a desire to buy the products she recommends through her guidance, and The link included in the blog can directly allow these fans to jump to Taobao to complete the purchase;
For example: Let a well-known fashion magazine open a blog and regularly recommend clothing matching from various cooperative companies. Users who are interested in a certain piece of clothing can also purchase it directly on Taobao with a click;
Taobao store owners can promote products on their blogs, and well-known bloggers can also open stores on Taobao. In short, if these two links are completely connected, the resources at both ends can be interconnected and transformed into each other, promote each other, and develop together.
This is the awesome thing about the big ecology. When Sina was tinkering with blogs and Weibo in the previous life, they didn’t have Taobao to monetize them, but now, both blogs and Taobao belong to Li Mu...
Damn it, it’s so late... Chapter 3 should be very late, everyone should try to go to bed as early as possible, but don’t forget to vote for your monthly vote before going to bed...
(End of chapter)