Bill Gates was shocked by Zhou Xin's ambitions: "Why?

You've had so much success in the internet space, why would you want to go into a field like consumer electronics, which is completely new to you personally?

If the world of the Internet is an empty space that can occupy an entire market by discovering new needs, then the world of consumer electronics is full of knights.

They have planted their banners in every land, and if they want to make a difference in this land, they need to face off against these knights.

To put it simply, I think there's a big challenge, it's a very mature market, and it's very difficult for you to achieve breakthroughs through product innovation.

This is not conducive to playing to your strengths. ”

As soon as Bill Gates's voice fell, Zhou Xin realized the other party's double standard: "Microsoft is also very successful in operating systems.

You're not still in the web portal, you're in the email space.

At the same time, Microsoft is also making its own video game console and wants to enter the hardware field. The video game console sector is also full of businesses large and small.

Sega, Nintendo, Sony, etc., Microsoft's superiority and experience in the field of operating systems compared to them does not help video game consoles at all.

Gamers won't buy a Microsoft video game console just because your operating system is smooth.

But Microsoft still has to enter this space. ”

Bill Gates: "Well, that's not right.

It's too big for you to do, and the console space that Microsoft has entered is a very niche field.

The format we want to do is also more certain, unlike the handheld computers that are popular on the neon side, Microsoft wants to make home video game consoles.

The main thing is that it can be used by the family as a unit, and more attention is paid to the social attributes of the game itself. ”

Bill Gates is also not afraid of Zhou Xin copying their ideas.

This is the difference in countries, resulting in different positioning of enterprises, and the high price of neon housing is comparable to that of later generations of China.

As a result, the living room of most neon families is very small, and the handheld is also for office workers, who can take it out to play on the way to the subway.

The Ameriken people, except for big cities such as New York and Los Angeles, have fewer people on the subway and large residential space, so living room games are more in line with their needs.

Zhou Xin: "It's really a good idea, and it has achieved a certain degree of differentiation from neon game manufacturers. ”

Sega, Nintendo, and Sony have also made changes to the Ameriken market, but their changes are limited in adaptation.

It's hard to compete directly with the Xbox, which is built specifically for the living room, in this segment.

Bill Gates: "Okay, back to Quora, what's your psychological price?" ”

Zhou Xin looked very confident: "I don't have the final say on this price, I will contact Yahoo and Microsoft at the same time, and whoever gives the highest price will sell Quora to whom."

For the same price, I would give preference to Microsoft. ”

Bill Gates: "Newman, you're too cunning.

This is forcing us to bid with Yahoo, forcing us to compete with Yahoo for the head of the bloody bloodstream. ”

"This is forcing us to fight to the death with Microsoft!" The same conversation took place in the Yahoo office building.

Kevin was particularly angry because he was in charge of Yahoo Q&A, which was no longer worth anything after the acquisition of Quora.

"I think we have to, and it is necessary, to acquire Quora.

Quora is the second-most visited website in the United States and one of the top 10 websites in the world.

What's more, Quora is flooded with a lot of quality content and excellent users, which is unmatched by other online communities.

With Microsoft acquiring Quora, MSN could form a direct threat to Yahoo, which is absolutely unacceptable to us. ”

Yang Zhiyuan is a co-founder of Yahoo, but he is not responsible for the specific operation of the company, he is a member of the board of directors.

After Zhou Xin told Bill Gates and Yang Zhiyuan about Quora's intention to sell it, Yang Zhiyuan quickly held a meeting of all executives within Yahoo.

Zhou Xin's sale of Quora is for sale, and he intends to sell nearly 90 percent of his shares.

Yahoo was similarly suspicious when they found out, but from their internal investigation and external inquiries, there was nothing wrong with Quora.

It's still thriving in Silicon Valley, Americacan, and the world.

Kevin said: "I agree with you, we should buy Quora and we can buy Quora, but this matter shouldn't be completely led by Newman.

We can't do what he says. ”

Tim Brady, vice president of Yahoo and Kevin's second-highest ranking executive after the loss, interrupted, "No, Quora is unique.

We did a lot of internal research internally, and our team of product managers did three rounds of successful analysis of Quora alone.

The executive team here was involved in the final presentation, and it was clear to all of us that Quora's success would be almost impossible to replicate.

And Quora's difficulty and success are Newman's biggest reliance. ”

After Quora came out, Yahoo did an internal analysis, and Yahoo did a round of more detailed analysis before going to Yahoo Q&A.

After Yahoo Q&A was launched, they did a more in-depth analysis after failing in the area of the Q&A community.

The analysis conclusion is that Quora is the first knowledge question and answer community, and at the same time, it adopted the strategy of only opening to university professors and students in the early stage to accumulate original high-quality content, and set a high threshold for subsequent opening to maintain the quality of content.

The high threshold registration and Quora's paid Q&A have further driven the enthusiasm of users, and the continuous accumulation of high-quality content has formed a snowball effect.

Later, other Internet companies want to replicate the success of Quora, firstly, they will not attract initial users, and secondly, users will not accept the high threshold set by other companies.

Instead of taking your high-threshold exam or other qualifications, I should take Quora's qualifying exam.

Therefore, the final conclusion of the internal report is that Quora's success cannot be replicated.

This is also the limitation of the times, and it is possible to replicate it after the advent of the mobile Internet era.

Kevin didn't speak for a moment, and Alexander Vick, another executive, head of the product division, said, "We have to buy Quora."

Jerry was right when he said that once acquired by Microsoft, MSN could pose a real threat to us.

What's more, with the acquisition of Quora, we will be the number one in the Internet services space.

No company can threaten us anytime soon. ”

Timothy Courg, the president of Yahoo, said, "Let's negotiate a price, and then Jerry, you have a good relationship with Newman, you go talk to him." ”

"$15 billion, in January this year, @Home bought Excite for $6.7 billion, and Excite is only the sixth-ranked portal.

We talked to Excite at the end of last year, and we were willing to pay $5.5 billion to $6 billion.

At that time, we were also competing with Microsoft.

Quora is the second-ranked website and the only one in the top 10 that is not a portal.

I value Quora at $10 billion, but considering that it is competing with Microsoft, Microsoft's interest in Quora is definitely much greater than Excite, so I put a 50% premium. ”

Before the dot-com bubble burst, the valuations of Internet companies as a whole were crazy.

Between 1998 and 1999, venture capital investment in Silicon Valley companies increased from $3.2 billion to $6.1 billion, an increase of more than 90 percent.

In 1999, Ameriliken had 457 IPOs, the vast majority of which were high-tech start-ups, and about 100 were directly related to the Internet.

"I think $15 billion is about the same valuation, and once the news of our merger with Quora comes out, Yahoo's share price will rise by at least 50 percent, which is not a lot of money."

"It's rare to have an opportunity in the future for a company as successful as Quora to be sold by the founders themselves, which seems to have never happened in Silicon Valley before.

Like Excite, it was because Excite's development hit a bottleneck, and their founder team couldn't break through this bottleneck, so they chose to sell.

Compared to Excite, Quora is much stronger in terms of potential and current strength.

If Newman is willing to wait until Quora goes public, Quora has a market capitalization of at least $20 billion.

We have acquired a $20 billion company with a market capitalization of $15 billion."

Extreme is also a portal, most famously for refusing to buy Google, a new search engine developed by two Stanford students for less than $1 million.

Yang Zhiyuan got up and propped his hands on the table: "15 billion is not enough, Microsoft is richer than us, and they will offer a higher price."

If Microsoft didn't compete with us at this price, I don't think there would be a problem to buy Quora.

But once we encounter Microsoft and our competition, this price is absolutely impossible to exceed the price given by Microsoft. ”

Zhou Xin didn't put his eggs in only these two baskets, he chose to release the news through Jerrell.

He believes that it's definitely not just Microsoft and Yahoo that are interested in Quora.

Jerrell is a vice president at Goldman Sachs, responsible for the IPO of Riot Games.

When the news broke that Quora was going to be sold, almost all the big guys were talking about it.

The news quickly spread throughout Silicon Valley from the bigwig level.

"Why did Quora sell it? Is Newman crazy? ”

"Won't Quora without Newman be the same as before?"

"I just want to know if the damn threshold exam can be canceled after Newman sells Quora."

"Let's guess who the buyer will be? Yahoo, Microsoft, or Ameriken Online? ”

The above is a discussion on this matter on major online forums, and everyone expressed their incomprehension that Zhou Xin was going to sell Quora.

"What do you think of Newman's sale of Quora?"

"Thank you, if this is true, I expect it to be the biggest Internet acquisition in the 90s of the 20th century.

Quora is valued at at least $10 billion, which is only going to be higher given the direct competition between Microsoft and Yahoo.

But who are the real players at the table in this game, you only need to look at the financial reports of these Internet listed companies in 1999. ”

Today it's more than 6k, generally diligent.

(End of chapter)