Chapter 247 The Deal Is Done
Seeing that Larry Page's heart was already wavering, Lu Yiming struck while the iron was hot and said, "Mr. Page, you know that I am not the richest man in Xia Country. Let alone other things, the city under your feet alone is controlled by a group of old money. They are financially strong and powerful, and they control the economic lifeline of the entire city. Their every move can affect the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. They are the real uncrowned kings."
"But in my opinion, they are already old, and their thoughts and vision are stuck in the old times. But we are different. We are young and we have dreams, so the future belongs to us, and these antiques are destined to be trampled under our feet. Google does not need old money that is about to die. Only I will stand firmly on your side."
Lu Yiming's various " visions " and criticisms of "old things" all touched Larry Page's heart.
Larry Page extended his hand and said with emotion: "Well, Mr. Lu, I have to admit that you have successfully convinced me. I even urgently want you to be Google's chief strategy officer."
In the conversation just now, Lu Yiming had completely impressed Larry Page with his "foresight".
At least the future described by Lu Yiming was very much to Larry Page's liking, because he knew that only by walking on the right path, hard work and struggle would be meaningful, and he and Sergey Brin were both technical geniuses and not good at strategic analysis.
If Google wants to become a great company, it cannot be without a strategist with great vision.
"Also, our bet..."
In fact, at this point, it doesn’t matter whether there is a bet or not.
Larry Page is a mathematical genius and of course he has a shrewd mind. He also knows that as long as he rejects Lu Yiming now, he can just take the five million dollars and leave, making a fortune for free.
But Larry Page is not a person who only thinks about interests. His true wisdom lies in foresight and ambition.
A mere five million dollars wasn't worth selling his moral integrity for.
Moreover, through a long conversation before, Larry Page believed that Lu Yiming's "foresight" of the future was exactly what he needed and was indispensable for Google to become great.
Five million dollars is good, but it is so insignificant in the face of greater interests.
Compared with Lu Yiming's money, Larry Page needs the Asian youth in front of him to point the direction for Google's future. After all, it is easy to get thousands of soldiers, but it is difficult to get a general.
Lu Yiming naturally saw what Larry Page was thinking, but he still smiled and said, "A bet is a bet. I said I can help Google find a way to make a profit, and I will definitely be able to do it."
Seeing Lu Yiming's confidence, Larry Page immediately asked humbly, "So, how do you plan to make Google profitable?"
He had thought about this problem for a long time before coming here, but he still couldn't find a direction.
This is not just a dilemma faced by Google, but a common problem faced by almost all Internet companies in the current market environment.
No one is born to serve others, and there is no business that does not exist to make money.
However, everyone knows that the Internet is a gold mine, but until now no one has been able to successfully dig gold from it.
This is inevitably frustrating.
Lu Yiming didn't keep the audience in suspense and directly expressed his idea: "It's actually very simple. You can use the advantages of the search engine itself to do bidding ranking."
“Pay-per-click ranking?”
When Larry Page heard these four words, he was suddenly struck by lightning and had an epiphany.
What is paid ranking?
The function of a search engine is very simple. It displays the results of a user's search in the search bar in the result area below. According to current logic, the most matching results will appear at the top, and then the results will be displayed in descending order according to relevance.
For example, if you enter one plus one in the search bar, the first result will definitely be two.
Then, the related search results below are three minus one, one times two, etc. The lower the relevance, the lower the ranking.
From the perspective of later generations, this is simply too pure and selfless.
There’s nothing capitalist about this.
But the bidding ranking proposed by Lu Yiming is completely different.
After the paid ranking, when searching for keywords, whoever pays will be ranked first in the relevant search results, and whoever pays more will be ranked higher.
This is actually equivalent to a hidden advertisement.
The essence of advertising is to implant the information that the merchant wants to convey into the user's mind and change the customer's perception.
Compared with traditional TV advertising, search engines are more accurate and direct. For many users, they don’t even know that they are watching advertisements. They think it is reliable information that they have actively collected.
Why did Baidu become so successful in bidding ranking and make so much money?
Because of this bidding ranking, it is a huge profit for Baidu and the buyers who pay.
The basic feature of paid ranking is pay-per-click. Promotional information appears at the front of the search results. If it is not clicked by the user, no promotion fee is charged. Payment is based on the effect, and the cost is relatively low.
Not only that, the bidding content appears on the search results page, which is highly relevant to the user's search content, increasing the degree of promotion positioning. The bidding results appear at the front of the search results, which is easy to attract users' attention and clicks, so the effect is more significant.
The most important thing is that it works quickly: after recharging, you can set the keyword price and enter immediately. Moreover, you can set countless keywords for promotion in the background, and control the number yourself without any restrictions, so that customers in need can fully enjoy the happiness of being a krypton gold boss.
As long as the client is willing and the money is enough, the content you want to present can come first.
The promotion effect of search engine natural search result ranking is limited, especially for websites with poor natural ranking. The use of bidding ranking can well make up for this disadvantage and increase the number of potential customers.
For search engines, this is their home turf. They can control the click price and promotion fee, and can conduct statistical analysis on user clicks, so they have everything under control.
The key point of bidding is bidding. For the same keyword search ranking, the one with the highest bid wins.
Just like the revenue from auctions, for websites, the profits from paid rankings will be unlimited!
In the original time and space , Google was the first company to release the "paid ranking" monster, but the United States Department of Justice did not allow it to be played this way, so Baidu later learned it and "developed it further."
When Lu Yiming put forward this idea at this time, it was equivalent to using Google's creativity to get a wave of Google stocks for free. It was really like Venusaur's mother opening the door for Venusaur, so clever.
After listening to Lu Yiming's idea, Larry Page also thought that this was a brilliant idea that perfectly solved the problem of Google Search's inability to make a profit.
Although there are not many Internet users now, those who can afford computers these days are either business elites or engineers, and there are basically few poor people.
In the eyes of capitalists, these people are extremely high-quality "customers".
There must be many companies willing to pay for them, and even Larry Page has thought about how to create a few successful cases.
As long as you see immediate results, are you still afraid that advertisers won’t come to you waving checks and actively seek cooperation?
The other party, Lu Yiming’s secret book, had already been given, so the next thing to discuss was naturally the issue of investing.
"Okay, let's talk about the most important issue. I plan to use these five million dollars to buy 20% of Google's shares..."
Before Lu Yiming finished speaking, Larry Page shook his head like a rattle: "Impossible, Mr. Lu."
As it involves his own future interests, Lu Yiming naturally becomes fussy: "This price is equivalent to a 25-fold premium, are you still not satisfied?"
There is an old saying in the Xia Kingdom: If you have enough food and clothes to wear, you won't be poor all your life.
Although Larry Page is not from Xia, he also understands similar principles. Therefore, even when facing future partners, he still argues: "Mr. Lu, I admit that your future plan has impressed me, and the bidding ranking you proposed is indeed a way to create profits. However, bidding ranking has natural disadvantages. It is an overdraft of future credit!"
Of course Lu Yiming knew the drawbacks of paid ranking, so he spoke so lightly about it, not afraid at all that Larry Page would take the secret and walk away.
"This is just a small suggestion from me. I have countless ways to make profits, and there is always one that suits you. Mr. Page, are you sure you want to refuse me?"
Larry Page said, "You're asking for too much."
Twenty percent of the shares, based on the stock price twenty-four years later, are worth three hundred billion U.S. dollars.
Larry Page is Jewish!
Jews are famous for their business skills!
Larry Page knew that the Internet would definitely change the world, and he also knew that his Google was absolutely groundbreaking. It was the golden goose that would lay eggs in the future. How could he possibly agree to this when Lu Yiming wanted to take away 20% in one go?
"Then I want 15 percent."
"Five percent at most, no more!"
"No, at least 10 percent! I like round numbers, how about rounding it up?"
"What kind of integer is 10 percent? Why don't we both compromise and say 7.5 percent? Mr. Lu, we don't need to talk about anything beyond that."
"Well, you are a very shrewd businessman."
"the same as you."
The two of them went back and forth, testing each other, and finally agreed that Lu Yiming would bid 5 million US dollars to acquire 7.5% of Google's shares.
Lu Yiming is cunning and sly, and Larry Page is no less so. After all, the man in front of him is the one who can make a fool of Wall Street investors in the future.
Although when we talk about dreams, everyone is toasting and drinking, brothers are all over the world and neighbors are close at hand.
But once money is involved, both Lu Yiming and Larry Page have clear minds.
In this world, even brothers have to settle accounts clearly and distinctly, otherwise cooperation will be a joke.
Although the shares he got were not many, Lu Yiming was actually satisfied.
Based on the closing price on May 17, 2022, this 7.5% stake is worth more than 114 billion US dollars, which is truly a huge profit.
Lu Yiming gladly accepted this result . He asked the waiter for a bottle of champagne and two glasses, and poured wine for himself and Larry Page.
“It’s a pleasure to work with you. Let’s toast to our dreams.”
"That's right, this is a toast to our dreams."
The two of them clinked glasses and the atmosphere was quite lively.
The students next to them were already numb to Lu Yiming's English. Lu Yiming had talked so much with Larry Page, but they could only understand a few limited words. It was not until this time that they realized that their so-called English level was not up to par at all.
This makes them feel very frustrated.
You know, they were selected through layers of competitions, and they are considered outstanding academic masters among the students in the province.
After the discussion, Lu Yiming arranged a hotel room for Larry Page and asked Future Capital's legal team to draft a contract for the acquisition of Google shares.
Over the next two days, the two sides continued to negotiate and communicate. Lu Yiming wrote all the imaginable future operations of the United States into the contract. Some of the clauses were incredible even to Larry Page.
When sending Larry Page away, Lin Yuzhen was very puzzled and asked, "Why are you so nice to this foreigner? Is he rich? He doesn't look like that, with jeans and a white shirt. Nana doesn't look like a rich man. Hey, what did you talk about?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "What we talked about is a commercial secret. As for whether he is poor or not... well, he is very poor. At least in my opinion, he is still very poor now. But as the saying goes, a young man is poor after 30 years. His potential is unlimited. In the near future, his wealth will surpass any local tycoon in Hong Kong."
"So amazing? More than you?" Lin Yuzhen really couldn't think of any other young man in the world who was more "cunning" and more capable of making money than Lu Yiming. Angel investment, a way of creating wealth, was a little beyond her understanding.
Lu Yiming grinned slightly and said nonchalantly, "Of course it's impossible for him to have more than me, but with my help, he will have a place on the world's rich list. His company may be more famous than Bill Gates' Microsoft in the future, and their products will have more users than Microsoft's users."
"Tsk, you're out of breath again when I say you're fat. You'll die if you don't brag for a day." Lin Yuzhen curled her lips and simply ignored Lu Yiming and ran to play with others.
Lu Yiming felt a little melancholy.
Why is it that no one believes the truth these days?
The Android system developed by Google in the future will have billions of users around the world. Even smartphones costing only one hundred yuan will be equipped with the Android system. How can that be compared to Microsoft's "even the plague will die"?
