Chapter 374 Investing in ByteDance, Li Zhenzhen Reorganizes the Peninsula Forces

Zhang Ming, a native of Longyan, Fujian Province, graduated from Nankai University and is the founder of Toutiao and ByteDance. Currently, Toutiao can be said to be a unique presence in the news market.

Chen Xing still has an impression of this future Internet tycoon.

"I have long admired Mr. Chen's name."

Zhang Ming took the initiative to extend his hand to show his kindness.

Since it was Rebus who acted as the intermediary to introduce Zhang Ming, even if he didn't know Zhang Ming's identity, as a friend of a friend, Chen Xing would still give him face, smiled and shook hands with him and said, "Mr. Zhang, it's a pleasure to meet you. Please sit down, please."

As the three of them sat down, Rebus on the side of the sofa looked at Chen Xing and said with a hint of ridicule: "Zhang Ming, I have known him for a long time. He is very hard-working and motivated. To be honest, this is him The first time he asked me to introduce him to someone, he went to Northeast China to find me in person, which shows how much he wants to get to know you, Mr. Chen. "

Since Zhang Ming was present, he still addressed Chen Xing as the boss of the company.

After Rebus opened his mouth, Zhang Ming rubbed his hands nervously, looking a little uneasy, and continued: "The main reason is that the name Chen Xing is really well-known in the current Longguo science and technology innovation circle, which makes people... Can’t help but make friends.”

"Just kidding, I sincerely admire Mr. Zhang for being selected into Forbes at the age of thirty and starting his own business several times."

Chen Xing smiled calmly.

He didn't mean the slightest bit of flattery in his words. Zhang Ming's entrepreneurial trajectory can be said to be a template that all entrepreneurs need to learn from. His entrepreneurial process was much more bumpy than Rebus's.

Although he was from the same 985 school, he did not perform too well during his school years. Unlike Rebus, he was already praised for being able to write code into poetry.

After graduation, the road to entrepreneurship was even more bumpy. A collaborative office software developed with great effort was announced to have stopped operating at a loss in less than half a year.

Later, seeing that it was difficult to grab tickets, we developed a software specifically for ticket grabbing. It was initially smooth sailing, but due to the expansion of our business, we took too big a step, and it was declared bankrupt within two years.

After being disheartened, he went to work at Microsoft, and then came back. He happened to catch up with the real estate trend, which allowed him to save enough capital, get in touch with the top entrepreneurial circles, and get to know his idol Rebus.

Rebus is very optimistic about Zhang Ming, who is also self-made and has no family background, and is willing to make friends with ambitious people.

As expected, Zhang Ming, who had accumulated wealth, not only founded Bytedance and completed three rounds of financing, but also launched Toutiao, seizing a large share of the news market.

Hearing Chen Xing's story, Zhang Ming's eyes flashed with surprise, and he asked puzzledly: "Mr. Chen, have you ever understood me?"

"certainly."

Chen Xing picked up the teapot that had been brewed, poured tea for Rebus and Zhang Ming respectively, poured another cup for himself, and continued:

"We are all born in the 1980s, and I can count them all with my eyes closed at the number of Dragon Country entrepreneurs at this age who have been selected into the Forbes list."

"correct."

Picking up the tea cup, he changed the subject and said, "What short video project did Mr. Lei just talk about? Can you answer it for me?"

Now he is throwing ideas and asking questions with answers.

The moment he asked the question, as expected, Zhang Ming seemed to have found a common topic, and his voice rose a bit.

"That's right, Mr. Chen. Now that the Internet is gradually emerging, users' demand for mobile entertainment is also getting higher and higher."

“Like games, there are Honor of Kings and Fantasy Westward Journey, novels include Douluo Dalu and Perfect World, and videos also include various variety shows.”

After a half-second pause, he took a breath and continued: "But I found that whether it is a game, a novel, a variety show video, or a movie, it takes too long to obtain happiness."

"For example, I only have ten minutes. If I play a game, it will definitely not be enough to last me through it. Reading a novel will not be enough to get me into that kind of reading state. The same is true for movies, so I was wondering if I could put it in The fragmented time in users’ daily life can be consumed in a shorter and more intuitive way.”

"You have to know that it takes ten minutes for one person, and there are hundreds of millions of Internet users in Longguo. Even if we take 100 million, it will take ten minutes for one person, and one billion people will equal one billion minutes. In my opinion, this is a huge and untapped blue ocean market. "

"That's right."

As soon as Zhang Ming finished speaking, Rebus echoed: "I also think this market has great potential. It seems to be called short video, right?"

"Yes, short video."

Zhang Ming nodded.

Chen Xing took a leisurely sip of tea, put down the tea cup leisurely, and continued to guide deliberately:

"Ten minutes for 100 million people is still ten minutes in the final analysis. It cannot be added up as the number of people increases. What value can your short video create in these short ten minutes?"

"It can be superimposed."

Zhang Ming shook his head and retorted.

"Tell me."

Chen Xing showed some interest.

Rebus winked at Zhang Ming. He had been dealing with Chen Xing for so long, and he knew very well that he should pursue the victory at this time.

Being interested means that you have the idea of ​​​​investing. If the other party's performance is mediocre, even if you say nothing, it will have no effect.

Zhang Ming also seemed to understand what Rebus meant, and reorganized the language and said: "Our short videos can be pushed according to user preferences. From the user's perspective, it is ten minutes, and from our operator's perspective, it is one billion minutes, because it can push ten minutes Billions of minutes are consumed with different content.”

"For example, if someone likes to watch beauties, we push beauty videos to him; if someone likes to watch food, we push food to him; if someone likes scenery, we push scenery to him. The user usage time here is in a superposition state."

Leibs saw that Zhang Ming's words were a bit complicated, and he also stood up to smooth things over: "In fact, to put it bluntly, it is different content, pushed to different user groups. The more users, the more content, and the more time they use it cumulatively."

"How to make a profit?"

Chen Xing continued to guide the inquiry.

Business is basically for making money. Except for public welfare projects, no one wants to invest by themselves and end up lonely.

"For now, it should be advertising."

Zhang Ming responded quickly.

"What about in the future?"

"You can charge targeted fees."

"Have you considered making a live broadcast platform?"

"I have thought about this, but for now, it is still mainly short video creation. We must first increase the daily traffic of the software."

"Good idea." Chen Xing nodded slightly, and then asked: "Then you came here this time and called Mr. Lei. It should not be to attract investment, right?"

Holding Toutiao, Zhang Ming himself is not short of money.

In the eyes of ordinary people, he is already a successful entrepreneur. After all, at the young age of 32, he is in charge of a billion-dollar company.

For such top entrepreneurial talents, as long as they spread the word that they want to raise funds, many venture capital institutions are willing to give them money to start a business.

To put it bluntly, social wealth has always been gathering upward.

What does it mean?

In simple terms, the more people who are short of money, the less money they have, but the more people who are not short of money, the less they are short of money, and social wealth will automatically gather on the rich.

For example, Warren Buffett, the stock god, earned 90% of his wealth after the age of 60. Why did this happen?

The reason is very simple. He did not become rich before the age of 60 and did not complete the accumulation of wealth.

Another most intuitive example is that if you have 100 million yuan and deposit it in a bank with a deposit interest of 3%, you will wake up every day with 8219 Dragon Country Currency in your account.

A simple breakfast of 200 yuan pastries, then going to the gym to work out until noon, then spending 2,000 yuan on a high-end steak, and then spending 500 yuan on a simple meal at night, the total cost is less than 3,000 yuan. Even if you spend 5,000 yuan to invite your sister to open a table in the bar, after a happy day, a new day, 8,219 yuan has arrived in the account.

This is wealth accumulation, this is the automatic gathering of wealth.

The same is true for starting a business.

In the early stage, there is no money, and basically no one will invest.

But if you have succeeded, the people who want to invest in you can line up from Shenzhen to Jerusalem.

Now that Zhang Ming has successfully started a business, Chen Xing asserts that he is not here to attract investment, and he must have other intentions.

As expected, after Chen Xing asked "It shouldn't be about attracting investment", Zhang Ming nodded quickly and replied:

"It's indeed not about attracting investment. I heard that Mr. Chen and his team are working on big data. Short videos still have a high demand for this aspect. After all, there are content pushed to users, so I want to see if we can reach a cooperation."

"That's no problem. We can definitely cooperate, but what about the algorithm?" Chen Xing's eyes showed a hint of expectation.

The reason why Douyin short videos in the previous life became popular was largely due to the user algorithm.

It can accurately control the preferences of each user and push content that may be of interest, which is also one of the reasons why Douyin became popular.

In the previous life, the United States wanted to get the overseas version of Douyin, that is, the core algorithm of TikTok, many times, and even publicly wanted to force a purchase.

When Zhang Ming saw Chen Xing asking about the algorithm, he quickly took out a mobile hard drive and said, "The algorithm is written. This is the internal test version of the short video. How about I show it to you, Mr. Chen?"

"Okay."

Chen Xing nodded.

As the saying goes, do the whole thing. Although he knows the value of Douyin short videos in his heart, he will not show it.

People who can't hide their facial emotions often can't achieve much, because opponents only need to observe facial expressions to know what you are thinking, which is a taboo at the negotiation table.

Zhang Ming also came prepared. He directly picked up the briefcase on the ground and took out the laptop inside.

After turning on the computer, he inserted the mobile hard drive and then downloaded and installed the internal test Douyin.

"At present, for the internal test version, we have produced a total of 500 short videos for internal algorithm testing. Mr. Chen can like or watch them according to your interests, or even forward and comment, and we will see the results."

"Okay."

Chen Xing took the mouse.

Although it is an internal test version, the pages that should be there are basically all there.

The first video pushed was a foreign beauty in a bikini, with three-dimensional features and fair skin. In the video, she was dancing on the beach, and the proud breasts jumped up and down with the dance steps.

Is Chen Xing interested?

As a man, he is definitely interested.

But because Lei Jun and Zhang Ming were present, he was embarrassed to click the "like" button.

Before he knew it, the 15-second video clip had ended and was automatically played for the second time. Chen Xing slid his mouse to switch videos.

The second video was about eating, but Chen Xing was not interested in big eaters.

He swiped away in less than three seconds.

The third video was about scenery, shot at Wugong Mountain in western Jiangxi, which was like a fairyland above the sea of ​​clouds.

Unconsciously, Chen Xing watched it twice, and the algorithm gradually understood the user's preferences, and the video showed accurate push content.

The number of food videos has decreased, while the number of landscape videos and beauty videos has increased.

Zhang Ming saw this and explained: "Our algorithm is to draw user portraits based on the length of stay, likes, reposts, and comments. For example, Mr. Chen likes landscape videos and beauty videos. If you continue to scroll down, the algorithm will automatically push related videos."

"When the algorithm is improved in the later stage, we can also push beauty types, such as loli, queen, and young woman. The same is true for landscapes, grasslands, mountains, and snow. As long as the user stays longer and likes, comments, and reposts more, his portrait will be clearer and the pushed video will be more accurate."

"Very good."

Chen Xing let go of the hand holding the mouse.

No wonder ByteDance can become bigger and stronger. Their algorithm is so powerful that they even think of subdivided fields.

"You can invest in this project." Chen Xing finished speaking and quickly added: "But I have two conditions."

"What conditions?"

Zhang Ming was delighted and asked quickly.

If it can get the support of Longxing Group and rely on a large user base, wouldn't Douyin short video easily win hundreds of millions of users?

It is precisely because Chen Xing has big data and a large number of mobile phone users that he is willing to lower his posture and come to the door to seek cooperation.

"The first condition is that my Longxing Group must invest in ByteDance, with a shareholding of no less than 30%, and can sign a non-interference agreement in the company's operations, and you can independently control the company's business direction."

"The second condition is to develop an overseas version."

After saying the conditions, without waiting for Zhang Ming to respond, Chen Xing said again: "In return, my Longxing Group will invest 1 billion as the start-up capital for short videos, and install the APP on the factory motherboard of the mobile phone, and promote it in the platform application store."

Now Zhang Ming needs Chen Xing's users, and Chen Xing also needs an application ecosystem.

Why are mobile phones fun?

It's because of the wide variety of applications.

For example, Weibo can be used to eat melons, chase stars and get news information, and Taowu.com and Wang Dong can be used for shopping.

There are also King of Glory and Fantasy Westward Journey, where you can experience the pleasure of games. As for Penguin Music and iQiyi, there is no need to say more, they are all entertainment methods.

In summary, it is not the mobile phone that is fun, but the applications in the mobile phone.

Longxing Group currently has a large number of mobile phone users. Investing in building an application ecosystem is actually giving back to mobile phones.

"Ahem."

Lei Jun coughed twice.

He saw Zhang Ming hesitating, and quickly acted as a lobbyist and said: "Investing 30% means that Mr. Chen thinks highly of your ByteDance. Entering the Longxing ecosystem chain is something that many companies want but cannot get. The most important thing is..."

After a half-second pause, Lei Jun continued: "Longxing Group has already opened up the markets of Mao Xiong, Japan and South Korea. In the future, mobile phone users will be all over the world. Moreover, it will invest 1 billion yuan. Mr. Zhang must think clearly."

His words are very clear, indicating that if software applications want to develop, they must be inseparable from the mobile device platform.

Now that Longxing Group has such a large platform in front of them, they still hesitate, which is more or less a bit ignorant.

Even though the market value of Longxing Group is still in the hundreds of billions, who in the industry regards it as a regular enterprise?

It is no exaggeration to say that a market value of trillions is an underestimation of Longxing Group!

"Okay."

Zhang Ming finally gave in.

Giving up 30% of the equity in exchange for the dual support of Longxing Group's funds and technology, as well as the promotion of the mobile device platform, all these are worth it.

Although he may have to transfer part of the equity and cannot achieve absolute control, Chen Xing also said that he can sign an agreement not to interfere with the company's operations, which is equivalent to sealing this part of the equity and only using it for company business dividends.

Seeing Zhang Ming's relenting, Lei Bush, as the middleman, smiled and raised his teacup and said, "Then we will use tea instead of wine to celebrate Mr. Chen's investment in ByteDance."

"You're so polite."

Chen Xing smiled.

Although Zhang Ming is not the youngest, the company's market value is the lowest. He also understands his position and took the lead in raising his glass and said, "Mr. Chen, Mr. Lei, then I'll drink first."

"Drink."

"You can't raise fish."

The three drank it all in one gulp.

Tea is a child's play for one or two cups.

After the few people pursued the sense of ceremony, they asked the lawyers of both parties to draft the contract to confirm the details of the terms and the responsibilities of both parties.

Looking at Zhang Ming who was studying the contract terms carefully, Chen Xing was already very happy. The future richest man in Longguo came to him personally, so how could he not invest?

Moreover, the most important thing is that Douyin and TikTok will be really popular in the future.

Let's talk about Douyin first. It is not only popular among men, women, young and old, but also has a staggering daily active users of 800 million according to data in 2024.

What's the concept?

1.4 billion people, 800 million of them use Douyin every day.

Chen Xing will definitely not let go of such a large application APP.

As for the overseas version of Douyin TikTok, it is even more of a giant. It also makes 60% of netizens in the United States use TikTok every day, and 40% have downloaded or have downloaded TikTok. This is an application that is more popular than YouTube. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is "electronic opium".

Longxing Group and ByteDance join hands to expand overseas markets. It is definitely a win-win situation. The two are complementary.

...

When Chen Xing and Zhang Ming signed the contract, Li Zhenzhen, who was far away in Seoul, came to the branch building of Longxing Group.

This is a 22-story office building located in the central business district. To rent it, you need not only connections but also a lot of money.

However!

This is the Peninsula!

Where Li Zhenzhen has been working hard.

Don't think that she has worked so hard for Hanxing Group for so long that she has not secretly cultivated her power. She has already left a way out.

This office building is the retreat she left for herself in case she fails to seize power.

Now that she has returned on behalf of Longxing Group, this office building has also been transformed into the Peninsula branch of Longxing Group by her order.

Top floor office.

Li Zhenzhen stood in front of the French window, directly opposite Hanxing Group.

She picked up her mobile phone, made a call, and said a few simple words, and "chaos" appeared inside Hanxing Group.

One executive after another resigned, and the executives of the human resources department were directly confused.

What's going on?

What happened?

Dozens of executives resigned in one day?

Who is digging into the corners of Hanxing Group and is desperate?

You must know that in the Peninsula, chaebols and politicians are the sky, and chaebols are above politicians, belonging to the role of behind-the-scenes BOSS.

If you offend a politician, you may end up in jail, but if you offend a chaebol, you will definitely lose your job and starve to death.

Why is this so?

Because here, 99% of the jobs are provided by chaebols.

For the remaining 1%, it is still unclear whether you can get a job in the national system. Even if you get in, your immediate boss may be a talent trained by the chaebol.

It is precisely because of the monopoly of jobs that the chaebol can control the people of the peninsula.

At the same time.

Li Jae-yong has received the news.

"Shit!!!"

He cursed angrily, stopped the car, and then quickly shifted gears and turned around, rushing directly in the opposite direction to the central business district.

Originally, he wanted to find a respected senior in the family to lobby, let them be the middleman, persuade Li Zhenzhen, let her not be an enemy of him, which would destroy the Hanxing Group.

But Li Jae-yong never expected that Li Zhenzhen's revenge would come so quickly.

As soon as he returned to the peninsula, he caused a large number of executives in the Hanxing Group to resign, and they were executives in the mobile phone business and chip end.

Without these executives, how can such a big company continue to operate?

The most outrageous thing is that not only executives, but also grassroots employees are leaving, and there are also many chip engineers.

In Li Jae-yong's view, Li Zhenzhen returned to the Peninsula this time not to run Longxing Group, but to seek revenge on him.

The CEOs of Peninsula chaebols such as LG Group, SK Hynix, and Lotte Group have all received the news, and everyone has a look of watching the show.

If Li Zhenzhen and Li Jae-yong start to fight, maybe Hanxing Group will be unable to recover and the market share will be redistributed.

"Squeak--"

The car braked directly.

Li Jae-yong's face was gloomy, and he walked directly to the Peninsula Branch Building of Longxing Group, and met many Hanxing Group employees who had just resigned.

"Chairman... President."

"Chairman..."

The resigned employees bowed their heads.

They still have respect for Li Jae-yong.

Li Zaiyong didn't even look at them. He asked the floor where Li Zhenzhen's office was located, went straight to the elevator, and pressed the button for the top floor. No one in the company dared to stop him.

They didn't dare to interfere too much in the fight between the Li brothers and sisters.

The reason why they changed jobs was not only because they were promoted by Li Zhenzhen, but also because they saw the development prospects of Longxing Group.

Hanxing Group has reached a bottleneck, but Longxing Group, a multinational giant, has far from fully developed its potential.

The most important thing is that Li Zhenzhen is still in charge of the Peninsula Branch.

In public and private, they all chose to respond to Li Zhenzhen's call, resigned and came to the Peninsula Branch of Longxing Group, intending to get a "original stock" to improve their status in the company.

Perhaps many people don't know the importance of job hopping, they only know to work hard and do it recklessly.

In fact, job hopping is a learning. Many employees who can get high salaries do not get them through seniority, but by job hopping.

To put it bluntly.

It's just riding a donkey to find a horse.

For example, if you work at Penguin, you can apply for the same position at Wangyi in your spare time, and you can write your experience of working at Penguin in your resume.

Generally speaking, every time you successfully change jobs, your salary will increase by 15%, which is also a means of providing salary.

Penguin jumped to Wangyi, Wangyi jumped to Baidu, Baidu jumped to Alibaba, and employees who have the conditions all increased their salaries in this way.

"Ding——"

The elevator arrived at the top floor.

Li Jae-yong walked out of the elevator with a gloomy face, and went along the corridor to find Li Zhenzhen's office one by one.

After a while.

He came to the door of the president's office.

It seemed that Li Jae-yong was expected to come, and the office door was not closed. Li Zhenzhen was sitting in the office area, drinking coffee leisurely.

"Are you really going to destroy Hanxing Group?"

Li Jae-yong walked into the office.

Li Zhenzhen blew on the coffee to dissipate the surface heat, then took a sip slowly and responded: "Normal business competition, what's the point of talking about whether it will be destroyed or not?"

"That's right."

Before Li Jae-yong could speak, Li Zhenzhen continued: "According to my father's will, the hotel business of Hanxing Group is mine. I will send someone to take over again within three days."

"Okay, okay!"

Li Jae-yong gritted his teeth.

At this time, he had reached the edge of losing control. He had calculated everything, but he never expected that Li Zhenzhen would come back with the help of Longxing Group, nor did he expect Chen Xing to entrust her with an important task.

"Don't just keep saying yes." Li Zhenzhen held a stirring spoon and stirred the coffee carelessly, saying in a calm tone: "You and Wall Street embezzled my money, and it's time to spit it out."

The voice fell.

She met Li Jae-yong's eyes directly.

The two looked at each other, and they both wanted to kill each other.

Li Jae-yong felt guilty, retracted his gaze and said coldly: "Don't talk nonsense without evidence, and don't think you will win. On the peninsula, Hanxing Group is the sky of the mobile phone market. With me here, you can't get in."

"Really?" Li Zhenzhen showed a playful smile and teased: "Then wait and see, and see who will kill whom first."

Li Jae-yong looked at the smile on Li Zhenzhen's lips, clenched his fists, and trembled all over, but he was helpless.

He wanted to find someone to get rid of this woman, but he also knew that Li Zhenzhen could call on so many Hanxing executives to resign, and there must be her spies in the group. If he made any move, the other party might know it at the first time.

Now she represents Longxing Group, and Longxing Group represents Longguo. The multiple overlapping identities make Li Jae-yong dare not act rashly.

"Stinky bitch!"

He cursed secretly and left the office.

Li Zhenzhen looked at Li Jae-yong who was incompetent and furious, and could not do anything to her, and said calmly: "Goodbye."

When Li Jae-yong's back disappeared completely, she put down the coffee cup.

Challenging the chaebol in Peninsula, if it were the president of other multinational groups, it is estimated that the relatives would go to the Han River to fish out the body the next day. Fortunately, Li Zhenzhen was born in a chaebol and had considerable power in Peninsula. In addition, as the CEO of Longxing Group, she dared to challenge Li Jae-yong publicly.

Now that Li Jae-yong wants to play, there is no reason for her not to accompany him. Besides, this time Li Zhenzhen returned to Peninsula to take back what belongs to her. If possible, she even wants to take over the entire Hanxing Group!