Volume 3: Taking Roots 2016 Chapter 741: No Longer Amon of Wu
It has been almost a year since we parted at the dinner in Wuzhen.
At that time, Zhou Dongsheng participated in it as a junior, and because of Ding Sanshi's face, most of the big guys naturally exchanged contact information with Zhou Dongsheng out of courtesy.
Despite this, Zhou Dongsheng is very sensible and will not rashly disturb these Internet giants unless it is necessary.
After all, you shouldn't try to fit into different circles. Zhou Dongsheng, who has lived two lives, has a deep understanding of this. Forcing someone to get close will only lead to a bad outcome.
Especially for Zhou Dongsheng now, taking advantage of the situation has become a thing of the past!
Zhou Dongsheng is now a well-known figure. Although his power cannot be compared with that of Tengda and the like, it is already a size that cannot be underestimated.
Compared with companies that have only achieved success in a single field, Dongsheng Group now has the rudiments of its own system.
Once a certain scale is reached, there will even be a chance to complete a logically self-contained ecological closed loop. If this step can be reached, it means that Zhou Dongsheng can completely get rid of the constraints of being "controlled by others"!
This is often a necessary condition for industry giants, and the current Dongsheng Group has already shown a trend of developing in this direction.
For Xiao Ma Ge, who stands at the top of the industry and has a very broad vision, he naturally saw this possibility and became interested in getting to know this young man better.
That's why I made this call. What investment could be more attractive than seizing a target that may become a future giant?
Even Tengda, which is already a giant, would never be able to resist such temptation.
After seeing the caller ID, Zhou Dongsheng's mind was in a thousand twists and turns, as if he had plunged into the long river of time and saw the thousands of possibilities behind this call...
"What a rare visitor! I never thought that one day I would receive a call from Brother Ma... After all, Brother Ma is a well-deserved idol for our generation. Who didn't grow up with Tengda..."
Although Zhou Dongsheng's inner thoughts were full of twists and turns, it did not prevent him from talking nonsense without changing his expression. After all, for Zhou Dongsheng, this was already a basic skill that he had mastered.
The way he called out "Brother Ma" was extremely skillful. After all, he and Ding Sanshi were close brothers, so there was no reason for him to be estranged from his "fellow villager" Brother Ma, right?
Although there is a big age gap, if I call him Uncle Ma... let's not talk about whether Brother Ma agrees or not, we still have to ask Ding Sanshi if he is willing...
After all, all that’s missing is a backup.
On the other end of the phone, Xiao Ma Ge couldn't help but laugh. He didn't expect that Zhou Dongsheng had already spoken before he even opened his mouth.
As for the title of Brother Ma, it sounds quite new. Even though Brother Ma has been in a high position for a long time, he has naturally heard of the many nicknames for himself circulating in the community.
But there are not many people who can really call him that to his face, and Zhou Dongsheng is obviously not in this category.
"You are quite humorous, but compared to you, our generation is indeed old, and it's almost time for us to retire." Xiao Ma Ge said in a relaxed tone.
"How could that be possible? At Ma's age, he can still lead the trend for decades. After all, our country now advocates delaying retirement..." Zhou Dongsheng said calmly.
"Oh, you are well-informed. It has been more than a year since we last met in Wuzhen. I should have called you a long time ago, but there are just too many things. I hope you won't blame me, Dongsheng..."
Xiao Ma Ge's tone was calm, as if he was really caring about his junior. Although he knew it was just a polite remark, Zhou Dongsheng was still overjoyed, and felt relaxed all over as if he had eaten a ginseng fruit.
After all, the weight of these words coming from different people is different.
"No, no, what you said is really embarrassing. I should have visited you first, but I am not familiar with Pengcheng. I just went there once to invest in a small business..."
Although Zhou Dongsheng was secretly happy, he still acted as if he was flattered.
Brother Xiao Ma couldn't help but feel moved. "If I have time to come to Pengcheng, I will definitely do my best to be a good host. Even if I don't have the face of Lao Ding, we are still fellow villagers..."
"Besides, Dongsheng, you are now successful in your career. If you want to join the Chaoshan Chamber of Commerce, I can also introduce you..."
Xiao Ma Ge's tone was still calm, but his attitude was a little heated, which made Zhou Dongsheng feel alarmed.
After feeling secretly happy, Zhou Dongsheng also came to his senses. Such a big shot not only took the initiative to call him, but also had such a nice attitude. It was simply... There must be something wrong when things are abnormal!
Is there a more typical situation than this?
Zhou Dongsheng didn't think that his current achievements were enough to convince this giant who stood at the top of the times, or even make the other party take the initiative to show goodwill...
It's not that she looks down on herself, it's Chunchun who looks down on Brother Xiao Ma.
Of course, I don’t mean to say that Brother Ding is not as good as Brother Ma (funny), but the attitudes of these two people towards life are indeed completely different.
At least Ding Sanshi is a well-known good guy in the circle, and as for Xiao Ma Ge... he is a typical example of making a fortune in silence.
"Of course, of course. When I go to Pengcheng someday, I will definitely pay you a visit first. If I have the chance, I hope to visit Tengda's headquarters. For people of my generation, this is a temple of pilgrimage!"
Zhou Dongsheng was already on high alert in his heart, but he still did not forget to brag. Then he changed the subject and took the initiative to speak.
"So if you need me for anything, just let me know. If I can help, I will do it without hesitation..."
Since others have given him enough face, Zhou Dongsheng would naturally not be stingy with these polite words. It's just a matter of upper lip touching lower lip anyway.
Xiao Ma Ge won’t take it seriously, and Zhou Dongsheng won’t be naive.
"Are you serious? What if I want a chance to invest in Dongsheng Group?"
After Xiao Ma Ge said this, Zhou Dongsheng realized that he was too careless. However, since things had come to this point, Zhou Dongsheng naturally would not be afraid and said it very straightforwardly.
"The fact that Dongsheng Group has caught the eye of Xiao Ma is the greatest affirmation of me. As long as the price is right, I don't think anyone will refuse Tengda's request to invest, right?"
Zhou Dongsheng said this . Xiao Ma Ge couldn't help but nod secretly after hearing it. It turned out that those who achieve great things must have their extraordinary qualities.
The ambiguous phrase "the price is right" also applies to Tenda.
After all, according to the market value, as long as Tenda can pay out trillions of dollars, it is not impossible to acquire it. As for the difficulty of the operation, compared with the trillions of dollars, it is not worth mentioning.
Such financial resources cannot be easily controlled even at the national level. After all, a country is so big that it has a lot of assets and cannot be controlled by individual will alone.
But when it comes to price, Xiao Ma Ge became a little curious and asked with interest.
"Then I wonder what your future expectations are for Dongsheng Group?"
Valuation is not only the investor's future expectations for the project, but also needs to be in line with the founder's psychological price. In the process of psychological game between the two parties, the final price is the final price.
As I said, it's nothing more than asking for a sky-high price and paying a low price.
And from this process of "asking for sky-high prices", we can also roughly get a glimpse of the ambitions and ideas of the person at the helm.
After all, only the person at the helm can have a clear understanding of his own business. As for investors, they tend to stand from a neutral perspective of the market.
"I'm not afraid of being laughed at by Brother Ma. Although Dongsheng Group is still in its infancy, I am very confident about the future of my business. If I have to put a price on it..."
"I think it's not too much to start with 10 billion, of course I'm talking about US dollars..."
Since Xiao Ma Ge asked the question sincerely, Zhou Dongsheng would not be polite. Wouldn't he take this opportunity to brag about it to the sky?
However, in the end, Zhou Dongsheng still gave a relatively conservative price. If Xiao Ma Ge really dared to agree to it, Zhou Dongsheng would definitely increase it.
After all, we are talking about a starting price of 10 billion, not the transaction price. When dealing with such a big man, you have to keep some reserves.
What if they suddenly have a brain storm and really insist on paying tens of billions of US dollars to acquire me?
Although this kind of thing is a bit unreasonable, they do have the ability to do so.
"Oh? Although it's a bit inflated, this price is very fair. After all, in the mind of every entrepreneur, their own business is priceless..."
Xiao Ma said approvingly that he didn't think the price was unreasonable at all and was even a little tempted, but this was just from a personal perspective.
If we look at it from the perspective of Tengda Investment, the scale of such an investment has reached the level of strategic investment, and it is necessary to hold a meeting within the group to make careful decisions.
It is undeniable that Dongsheng Group has such potential, but Tengda’s strategic investment is more about considering not only investment returns, but also the integration with its own business.
Or it could be the mutual constraints with competitors. For example, Tencent’s last strategic investment project, which cost no less than 1 billion US dollars, was called “Didi Chuxing”!
Another Internet giant that has the same strategic investor status as Tenda is Alibaba!
In addition, there is a third strategic investor, Apple Capital from overseas, which also participated in the capital round of investment with a price of US$1 billion, becoming the investor with the largest single investment in Didi Chuxing...
To date, Didi Chuxing has already completed financing of more than 10 billion US dollars, and its conservative valuation is no less than 40 billion US dollars.
Especially in this round of money-burning war, with the support of many capitals, the acquisition of Uber's Chinese business was completed, which means that it has completely occupied the Chinese market.
It has become a well-deserved giant in the shared travel field, and has also benefited many investors.
Only such a project can meet Tenda's requirements for strategic investment, and at the same time, it also satisfies Tenda's desire to further extend its reach into the travel field and improve the application scenarios of its WeChat payment.
Even so, Tengda continued to increase its investment during an investment cycle of three to four years, instead of spending US$1 billion right away like Apple to highlight its wealth.
Even Tengda's financial resources are a bit stretched compared to it. Even a trillion-dollar empire still has a gap.
To get back to the point, the current Dongsheng Group certainly cannot be compared with Didi Chuxing, which has already soared to fame.
But there is no doubt that Dongsheng Group has more diversified businesses and covers a wider range of areas, although the areas involved are all new things...
But it controls the upstream and downstream of the industry. If one day it can connect the upstream and downstream and form its own ecological closed loop, it may become the leader of the industry!
Such potential is no less than that of Didi Chuxing back then.
However, the current Dongsheng Group is obviously no longer a fledgling company, so the price of the admission ticket is naturally incomparable.
At the same time, if we look at it rationally, Dongsheng Investment, whose investment has already started to gain momentum, is definitely a deal where the risk outweighs the reward.
Therefore, although he felt a little excited inside, due to his strong rationality, Xiao Ma Ge still suppressed that excitement.
After all, Tenda was able to survive the Internet winter and has remained standing for more than a decade. As the helmsman, Pony Ma naturally cannot be an impulsive decision maker.
However, many times it is just a slight difference in thinking that will cause you to miss out on some projects, and beating your chest and stamping your feet afterwards will be of no avail.
Once you miss it, you miss it.
"That's true. After all, with seniors like Ma Ge as role models, newcomers like me should naturally follow your example, right? This is also one of the reasons why I have a special liking for game companies..."
Zhou Dongsheng naturally had no idea what Xiao Ma Ge was thinking, and he continued to talk without changing his expression. At the same time, he also found a reasonable explanation for his investment behavior.
Whether learning from Brother Ding or Brother Ma, the idea of taking the game company as the cornerstone is indeed correct.
Zhou Dongsheng couldn't help but give a thumbs up to his own cleverness. It was really reasonable.
Xiao Ma Ge chuckled, and just at this moment, his assistant pushed the door open and signaled to Xiao Ma Ge that the meeting was ready.
Xiao Ma Ge nodded. They were having a pleasant chat, but since they had something important to do, Xiao Ma Ge decided to stop there.
Then he said to the person on the other end of the phone: "It is really beneficial for us old antiques to chat with young people like you occasionally."
"No wonder Lao Ding likes to deal with you. I have a meeting to attend right now. See you at the Wuzhen Summit then."
"Okay, goodbye, Brother Ma." Zhou Dongsheng readily agreed, and the two sides hung up the phone without any further ado.
Although they had a pleasant conversation, Zhou Dongsheng was a little confused by the incoherent drama. What on earth did this Xiao Ma Ge mean?
Was he calling me to hit me? Or was he simply noticing me?
Zhou Dongsheng was a little confused, so he simply stopped thinking about it. He just had to deal with it as it came.
The current Zhou Dongsheng is no longer the same old man as Wu.
At the same time, Zhou Dongsheng had more expectations for the Wuzhen Summit, and even felt a little eager to make a move, as if he already had enough chips.
You can compete with these big guys on the same stage!
Zhou Dongsheng felt his heart pounding just thinking about it!
