"We are not in a hurry to invest, this year is mainly to accumulate strength, that is, to go more and see more, and accumulate more projects.

I always had a hunch that the bubble of the entire Internet was too big and would burst sooner or later. Whether it is a U.S. stock market or a domestic Internet company, their value is limited, but the price is very high.

This is an irrational phenomenon, but the Internet itself is valuable, it will subvert traditional industries in various fields, what we need to do is to find those Internet companies that can subvert traditional industries, and then invest in them.

When the bubble bursts, we're ready to shoot. ”

Before Wu Shiqiang returned to China, Zhou Xin had a strategic conversation with him about what to do after returning to China.

Zhou Xin didn't tell Wu Shiqiang directly, you help me find Jack Ma and Pony Ma, anyway, it's over if you don't have the brains to invest in their companies.

The goose factory and Ahri are there, and they will not run away, and Zhou Xin is not in a hurry to invest in them.

He plans to let Wu Shiqiang rely on himself first to discover the Internet companies that he thinks have potential.

1999 can be said to be the first year of venture capital in China, and from this year, overseas capital began to land in China on a large scale.

Perhaps it was because these overseas capitals got the news in advance that China would eventually join the WTO, or perhaps it was because China's economic development had reached a certain stage.

IDG, Sequoia Capital, Morningside Capital, Temasek, SoftBank China, these well-known venture capital institutions in China's Internet industry in later generations, all entered China in 1999.

It was also in this year that after Wu Shiqiang returned to Huaguo, he rented two offices in the International Trade Center in Yanjing, and then obtained the company's license through connections, and Xinxing Investment was officially established in Huaguo.

At that time, China Zun, Kingkey 100, and Financial Street Center, which were famous financial office buildings in later generations, either did not start construction, or only had a plan.

A large part of the reason why Yanjing was chosen over Shenhai was that most of the Internet companies were concentrated in Zhongguancun at that time, and there were very few Internet companies in Shenhai.

Lujiazui is famous, but Shenhai's Internet industry is really lackluster.

After Wu Shiqiang returned to China, he went to Shenhai twice and sent Zhou Xin an investigation report on his two relatively large Internet companies in Shenhai.

Shenhai Jade Bird and Huasheng Computer.

Zhou Xin only replied to him: "These are Internet companies on the ToB side, and they don't have much investment value." ”

Then after thinking about it, I replied to a second email:

"In 1999, the Internet companies on the ToB side were dead end in China, not because they were not technically good, but because they had no demand. In this era, most private enterprises, even state-owned enterprises, do not have this demand, let alone the awareness of engaging in informatization.

They don't realize that the Internet can be a productivity booster, or even productivity itself.

At present, when considering investing in Internet companies, we only need to consider the enterprises on the ToC side, the number of users, the growth rate of users and the user retention rate are the three things we are most concerned about, as for whether they can make money, it is not important. ”

Wu Shiqiang's current dilemma is that good Internet companies can't take his turn, and companies like Sohu and Sina, which already have a certain reputation, won't give him a chance to talk at all.

Even if Wu Shiqiang is behind Zhou Xin, the problem is that Zhou Xin has been active in Silicon Valley, and he only has fame and no influence in China.

And when it comes to business negotiations, Wu Shiqiang will definitely ask a lot of sharp questions.

You must know that at present, even if it is a listed company on NASDAQ, many of their key data will not be disclosed.

For example, CDNow, these NASDAQ-listed online shopping companies, they have not announced how many users they have, only claiming that their sales are growing rapidly.

As for the month-on-month comparison, there is no such thing.

Even listed companies don't need to publish these data, and when Wu Shiqiang chatted with Huaguo Internet companies, he had to ask the other party to give him the specific number of users, and the results of the comparison of specific data compared with the same period last year.

Originally, there was no shortage of people to invest in the slightly better Internet companies, and these Internet companies were naturally not interested in investment institutions such as emerging capital.

This refers to Lianzhong Games, Bao Yueqiao graduated from Yan University with a bachelor's degree, and then went to the University of California, Berkeley to earn a master's degree in computer science.

Similar to Zhou Xin's background experience, as the founder of Lianzhong Games, I heard that behind Xinxing Capital is his direct apprentice Zhou Xin, and Zhou Xin has been very successful in Silicon Valley.

Naturally, I don't mind meeting Wu Shiqiang and talking about investment.

Lianzhong Games is also short of money, and it costs money to expand in all aspects.

As a result, after chatting, Bao Yueqiao privately complained about Wu Shiqiang, saying that the other party didn't understand the Internet at all and always cared about some trivial issues.

After chatting about Bao Yueqiao's invitation to Wu Shiqiang, he declined all kinds of politely, you must know that Bao Yueqiao had just received financing from IDG and Sequoia Capital at that time, and he felt that meeting Wu Shiqiang was to give the other party.

As a result, Wu Shiqiang's questions to him did not give him face at all.

Wu Shiqiang also wrote an investigation report to Zhou Xin about Lianzhong Games, and many of the data in it were vague words such as unknown, estimate, and guess.

Zhou Xin also replied to an email: "Lianzhong Games can consider investment, and the valuation depends on the price offered by the other party."

The game itself is certainly valuable, but the model will be eliminated by the times, we invest in the game, we only need to earn a wave of dividends from its future listing, not the pursuit of long-term holding. ”

Zhou Xin did not explain more to him why the mode of Lianzhong Games was eliminated.

Because there is no way to explain it now, could it be that the user stickiness of the product model of online game websites is absolutely not as good as the user stickiness of the instant messaging model? After QQ enters this market, will Lianzhong Games be defeated?

In January 1999, China Business Times announced the top ten websites in China, Sina, 163 E-mail, Sohu, NetEase, etc.

These sites are all portals and are judged on the number of visits, content and aesthetics.

The media is such an evaluation system, and the same is true for investment institutions.

This is too unfriendly for Wu Shiqiang, who attaches importance to the number of users and the stickiness of users.

stayed by Zhou Xin's side for three months to half a year, counting the beginning of knowing Zhou Xin, it would have been almost a year.

Having witnessed the magic of Riot's electronic community and NewPay, Wu Shiqiang did not summarize the word user stickiness, but he believes that user stickiness is crucial to Internet companies.

This is related to the growth of this Internet company.

After returning to Yanjing, Wu Shiqiang, who had not been working smoothly, was very depressed, which was different from what he thought.