Five billion dollars?

This number may be considered an astronomical number in the eyes of many people.

But to be honest, it was smaller than Son expected before he came!

Before coming, he was ready to be slaughtered by Yuwenfei, if Yuwenfei's asking price was not too outrageous, he would have to agree.

Because there is only one WeChat!

There is only one Yuwenfei!

And venture capital, the whole world is ......

Besides, just like Yu Wenfei said, he is not short of money!

With tens of billions of dollars in his hands, and the rising momentum of WeChat is so fierce, Yu Wenfei's previous style is not a "great good person".

The two have dealt with each other a few times, Facebook has financed twice, Facebook Games has financed, it can be said that SoftBank was slaughtered by Yuwenfei, and of course Son was willingly slaughtered.

Every time Yu Wenfei negotiates, whether it is financing or acquisition, the asking price and bid price are reasonable, and the venture capitalists will not make any cheap money when financing, and he will not let the acquired party suffer any big losses during the acquisition.

But this time, the valuation of WeChat, Yu Wenfei only shouted 5 billion US dollars, which is a bit low, not like Yu Wenfei's style.

"Mr. Fei, are you sure it's five billion dollars?" Son asked in disbelief.

Yu Wenfei knew what Sun Zhengyi was thinking, smiled, and explained: "Mr. Sun, it is indeed this price, but I want to state one thing first, the WeChat project is a long-term large investment, but you can't see any return in a short period of time, do you have the confidence and determination?"

Without hesitation, Son replied: "I have confidence in you! Since you said that WeChat will become a passport to the Internet world, then I have enough patience to wait for that day." ”

He is this character, after seeing someone, he is really willing to invest.

And many times, the investments he leads are irrational to outsiders and even peers!

But perhaps because of this, SoftBank was able to dominate the development of the world's Internet industry behind the scenes during that period of time.

However, success is also Xiao He, Xiao He defeats Xiao He, and Son's "excessive" self-confidence and investment have also laid serious hidden dangers for SoftBank in the future.

..................

WeChat's valuation of $5 billion is not much in Son's eyes, and it is even underestimated.

But not everyone is Masayoshi Son, and not every investment bank has a strong capital flow like SoftBank, or rather, not everyone has unconditional trust in Yu Wenfei like Masayoshi Son!

Citi disputed the valuation.

"Sorry, although WeChat's results are outstanding, we evaluate it and think it's not that valuable.

In the field of global network instant messaging, ICQ is currently the most powerful, followed by MSN, and on the mainland side, QQ is the leader. But we can see that none of these three software, no matter which one, have reached the height of five billion dollars!

Why is the valuation of this kind of software with strong user stickiness and even monopoly generally not high? A very simple reason is that so far, no network instant messaging company has explored a stable and powerful monetization model.

ICQ doesn't, MSN doesn't, and QQ doesn't.

So......

We are optimistic about the development of WeChat, but not about its profitability.

If it doesn't exceed a valuation of $2 billion, we will follow, but now that it is 5 billion, the risk is too great, and we will withdraw. ”

At the internal meeting of shareholders, the representative of Citi said with a solemn face that these words were the result of many discussions in Citi's investment banking department.

This also represents the investment banking community's view of the online instant messaging industry.

............

From an investment point of view, Citi's conclusion is not wrong, because whether it is ICQ, MSN or QQ, it has been around for many years.

The most "old" ICQ was launched in 96 years, and it has been seven years so far.

But look at what its traffic monetization model is, it's nothing more than advertising.

However, the window of chat software is so large, and there are many ads, which has too much impact on the user experience. Therefore, although ICQ is still the leader in the global network communication industry, the user reputation is not good, which also allows MSN to take advantage of the situation and rob it of many users.

MSN is a "clean" software, with a good user experience and no ads.

But behind this, it is supported by Microsoft's huge investment day after day, year after year!

It was Microsoft, which was the richest company in the world at the time, and it was really not possible to support it with a few companies.

As for QQ on the mainland side, there is no "thigh" behind it, so you can only do everything you can to make a profit, registered users have to charge, the chat window is full of advertisements, and you have to pay for changing your avatar......

In short, it is necessary to do everything possible to maintain the company from large losses.

Yuwenfei's way is to give users the best experience, keep the software pure, and there are no ads.

But in this way, it means that for a long time, WeChat not only earns less than a penny, but also has to make up a lot of money every year!

This is a business that Citi does not want to do.

Their main business is banking, and of course they are very careful when thinking about problems, and they will only invest if they ensure a return on investment.

They are not optimistic about the WeChat project.

When Son invests, he will consider the development trend of the Internet industry, the overall layout, and even invest heavily because he values a certain entrepreneur, and then consider the benefits.

But Citi is different, they only look at the benefits, and reject all "bells and whistles" ideals or feelings......

Seeing that Citi didn't want to participate in this project, Yu Wenfei naturally wouldn't be reluctant.

............

"We don't have a problem, just according to the valuation of five billion US dollars, we will take as much as you take!"

Of course, Modu International Venture Capital Company did not hesitate, and promised to invest, after all, Yuwenfei is now a banner of the Modu Internet industry, how could they not support it.

There is no problem with Jiaotong University Venture Capital, but it can't come up with too much money, and it still has to be a small shareholder.

............

WeChat used to be just a project team, and it was not a company that was established under Star Technology.

At that time, it was a shareholder of Yuwenfei, so it didn't matter if the form was simple, but now there are a few shareholders who will enter the market, and the company will also be formalized.

Yu Wenfei discussed with Masayoshi Son, Mr. Wang of Modu International Venture Capital, and Director Wang of Jiaotong University Venture Capital, and decided to set up a separate company on WeChat.

The company's share capital is tentatively set at 100 million, and Yu Wenfei took out 30 million shares to transfer to the new shareholders this time, and he monopolized 70 million shares.