Sunnyvale has been dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry since the time of apple orchards. It was only in the 60s, when the famous aircraft manufacturer Lockheed moved its headquarters here, that the transformation towards industry began.

In the 90s, Silicon Valley began to promote the Internet. Even the land with Sunnyvale is starting to get in demand.

Many discerning investors, in the name of high technology, have begun to buy land from apple plantation owners to build factories and office buildings.

After Yahoo went public, it also spent more than 20 million yuan to buy a large piece of land here to build an office building.

And not far from it, there is a new commercial office building. The mp3 website landed here.

At the moment, the employees of the website are at their desks

"Dongdong" taps on the keyboard. Just listen carefully and you'll notice that these keyboard tapping movements are very messy.

If you look closely, you will know that they are not seriously typing at all. From time to time, my eyes were aimed at the office at the end of the aisle, and I was trying to type on the keyboard, but I was just pretending to be busy.

"Nick~ Do you think this financing was successful?" It's been five months since the mp3 website went live. As they upload more and more music resources, the daily activity of mp3 websites has exceeded 10,000.

Follow the company's development process. It's also time for a second round of funding. Yet mp3 sites because they are unique

Many investors are very concerned about the "user" upload mechanism, believing that it has a very large copyright risk.

So even after two rounds of negotiations, the valuation is still not high.

"We have to succeed, and if we don't succeed, we will run out of money to rent a server." Nick Murray looked at his watch, and the delivery person hadn't arrived yet.

As a technical director, he knows better than anyone that the current pressure on the web server is under. A large number of MP3 data files, online playback capabilities, and a self-uploading service open to users.

Their servers are not being tested at any turn. The reason why they only live 10,000 a day in five months is not that they can't do more.

It's that their servers don't support more people access. Put a lot of hundreds of thousands of dollars in other industries, put it on the Internet, and it's just the beginning.

The need for a server for mp3 websites is beyond all of them. If they don't get financing as soon as possible, they can declare bankruptcy in less than a week.

This is also the reason why all employees of the company today are not in working condition.

"Gentlemen, the issue of MP3 music copyright, I have already explained, this is all the user's spontaneous behavior, as long as the new Internet law comes into effect, our website can perfectly circumvent the issue of authority." Michael Robertson looked at the few investors present, and could only move out of the Internet law that was still being discussed in Congress again.

"Michael, you said that the law has not yet come into effect, and we need to take huge risks if we invest. So we value your website at five million, which is a reasonable number for all of us. ”

"And so far, you don't see any direction for profit. This is going to be put a few years ago, let alone investment, I don't think I will look at it. So you should be thankful to Yahoo for getting us here. "The intentions of investors are very strong, and copyright and profit expectations are the issues they are most concerned about.

If these problems cannot be solved, the valuation of MP3 websites is destined to fail.

"Gentlemen, unlike Yahoo, we have our own profit model, and it will be proven very quickly. When the time comes, you will know that we are the first Internet company to truly combine offline and online. Michael Robertson couldn't accept their offer and could only try to refute it to prove himself.

"The player called mp3? A Chinese gadget, do you really think it can become a profit point for the website? I don't think it's a good idea to put a profit point on it. You might as well learn from Yahoo, build traffic, and sell ads. "Several investors have seen the next stage of the development direction of the mp3 website in the previous project book.

In addition to increasing the size of the server to expand the size of the website, they will also import a playback device called MP3 from Huaguo and sell it on the website.

It is used as a profit point for the website. Such a device, which had never been heard of before, made several investors feel very unreliable.

Especially this product is also from China. If he says that this product comes from the book, maybe they will take a look at it and evaluate it, but it is from Huaguo?

What is that? Do they have technology?

"Gentlemen, let's put aside the playback equipment for a moment. I hate to admit it, but the current situation is that our website has a huge amount of music in mp3 format. ”

"And this will be the risk that we will encounter in the future, but it is also the wealth in our hands now."

"Unlike Yahoo, which has to make money slowly through advertising, we just need to turn this wealth into money that can fall into our hands."

"And this new mp3 player is a device that can take online mp3 files to listen to offline, and it is also a tool for us to complete the cash-out from the Internet."

"We have a lot of mp3 music, and if we give users a convenient music device, I don't think they won't be impressed." Michael Robertson refused to pass up this opportunity.

"Dongdong, Dongdong!" However, just as the two sides entered a stalemate again, Nick Murray knocked on the door and walked in, panting.

"boss~, the latest MP3 sample sent by Huaguo has arrived." Nick Murray, who was holding the cardboard box, had joy on his face that couldn't be hidden.

They've heard Michael say about the product, and if that's the case, it's absolutely fine to be a profit point for the site.

After all, who wouldn't like being able to store their favorite mp3 songs on their mobile devices at will.

Looking at the cardboard box in Nick Murray's hand, the investor subconsciously glanced at each other. In the case of everyone's concerns, several of them are willing to follow up and determine the investment, which shows that they are really optimistic about mp3 websites.

Today's biggest concern is, of course, copyright. But if the mp3 website can really start making a profit before it goes public, then in the face of capital, copyright is not a problem.

However, can the new music player made in China really work?

"Row!" Without looking at the investor, Michael Robertson picked up the utility knife next to him and opened the cardboard box on the table.

He is much clearer than the concerns of investors. The last time he went to deep-sea private equity to find a direction for this round of financing, they proposed this plan to him.

The mode of mp3 music + physical player, in other words, is completely the model of traditional equipment manufacturers.

After all, that's what Sony does. It was after that time that he saw the hope of making a profit for the website.

As for continuing to find deep-sea private equity investment, Michael Robertson has not thought about it, but he doesn't want to continue to take deep-sea private equity money as a last resort.

After all, he is currently the largest shareholder of MP3. A private equity firm taking 50% of the shares is already the biggest concession.

If they really let them own 70% of the shares, then it is estimated that the deep sea will not be willing. The reason why the investment progress has been delayed until now is that he is actually waiting for the new MP3 product to arrive.

He wants investors to see for themselves what the products that make their website profitable look like. As the cardboard box opened, several beautiful boxy boxes were taken out.

Just looking at the packaging, it gives people a feeling full of mysterious technology. All black crust packaging with a plastic protective film on the outside.

In the center of the box, there are three silver mp3 fonts full of technology. The palm-sized package spun around in Michael Robertson's hand.

"Gentlemen, since I can't convince you, I might as well let the product convince you." Without much nonsense, Michael Robertson directly tore open the outer plastic seal, and then separated the crust cardboard box up and down.

A player the size of a bank card, just lying quietly in a box. The same pure black body, with a two-finger-wide screen above and a circle of buttons below.

Looking at the player, which looked like a work of art in Michael Robertson's hand, several investors looked at each other silently.

Everyone saw the shock in each other's eyes, which seemed to be a little different from what they had guessed before.

Will this be made in China? It can't be a book, right?

"Since it's a player, let's try its sound together." Michael Robertson also saw the shock of investors, and he was also shocked when he first heard about the device in the deep sea.

But after watching the test demonstration video, he understood why Shenhai invested in him in the first place. It's not so much that they invested in the Internet in the first place, but rather that they want to open the MP3 market and sell their devices.

Michael Robertson didn't wait for them to answer, he took his notebook and looked for the data cable in the box.

In front of several investors, it was inserted into the player. After a while, he transferred a few pieces of music stored on the computer to the mp3 player.

As several people watched, he connected to the stereo on the side. As the power button was pressed, a two-finger-wide screen appeared, and a list of music appeared.

"If the mp3 website is a gathering place for users who like music, then this product can realize their dream of listening to music anytime and anywhere." With that, Michael Robertson pressed the play button.

"Bilibili~JustBilib~" Michael Jackson's singing voice came from the stereo. The sound quality is not particularly good, it is much worse than a CD, but it is much better than listening to it on a computer.

Especially when I saw the whole process of Michael's downloading songs. It also made them feel the value of this product to the website.

Every time you download a song, it's a visit. And it's hard demand access. As an investor, I certainly understand what a great innovation it is to be able to download your favorite songs anytime, anywhere.

The reason why they are willing to invest in MP3 websites is also because of the attractiveness of this to users. The Internet model has begun to take shape.

The competition between websites is click and retention. Music is an indelible form of entertainment in this era.

Users of mp3 websites come here just to listen to songs. But after all, you can't have a computer with you, but such a device can.

While making a profit by selling equipment, it also retains customers. No wonder Michael Robertson would say that they are truly an Internet company that combines offline and online.

"The device you're seeing now is custom-built by us, and we're pricing it $599. Based on our current user base, we can sell at least 100,000 units in a year. So gentlemen! Do you still think we can't make a profit? Just when several investors exchanged glances again, Michael Robertson once again released a killer feature.

That's not a lot of money for a groundbreaking new product. After a moment of silent calculation, several investors re-gave a valuation of the mp3 website together.

"Fifteen million!" ps: In the past few days, I have been reviewed, and I have been repeatedly revised, and I feel like I'm about to be confused.

Give me a chapter a day.