Volume 4 Crazy Growth 2017 Chapter 861 Acceleration
Yang Luyu’s main character is a person who listens to advice. It is obvious that he does not want to be a fool, but he is determined to be Emperor Liu.
After all, it would be fine if it happened once or twice, but Zhou Dongsheng, the military advisor, is so powerful. Every time he comes up with a brilliant plan, it works wonders. Who can withstand this?
As for the company's market value, it has naturally continued to rise with the accumulation of recruitment and development. As the founder and helmsman of the company, Yang Luyu is undoubtedly the most direct beneficiary.
Since the entry of strategic investor Zhou Dongsheng , not only has Wenxue Network undergone earth-shaking changes, but it has also begun its own crazy expansion.
At the same time, Yang Luyu's wealth grew crazily. He enjoyed the thrill of catching the express train of the times and easily reached the threshold of becoming a billionaire.
Although this is only paper wealth, most entrepreneurs will not cash out their shares easily, so it is obviously not so easy to live a "luxurious and extravagant" life of the rich.
After all, for entrepreneurs, it doesn’t matter if they live a “poor” life before they succeed.
Especially now that the entire company is in a stage of rapid growth, before it goes public, the price of the shares held in hand changes every day, and potential stocks like this with high growth potential are even more unsalable.
If you really encounter any difficulties, you can also solve the urgent problems through methods such as pledging equity.
Moreover, the US$360 million raised in the previous round of Series B financing has already been mostly spent. After all, the short video industry today is undoubtedly at a critical moment to grab the cake and divide the market.
Before the industry has reached a final conclusion, every entrepreneur in the short video track is undoubtedly doing everything possible to raise funds, seize scale and development, compete for traffic, and transform funds into important bargaining chips in the industry.
As for the huge losses on the books, it is naturally inevitable. After all, you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb. In the current fierce competition where every inch of land counts, whoever loses momentum first may be left far behind by the competitors.
Once the industry ends its high-growth incremental stage and the Matthew effect is formed, it will be wishful thinking to want to make up for the gap, no matter how high the price is.
Now, as Meipai gradually falls behind, Kuaishou still sits firmly at the top of the industry, with Toutiao Short Video eyeing it covetously. If it wants to consolidate its hard-earned territory, it is undoubtedly imperative to start the next round of financing.
After all, food and supplies must be prepared before troops move out. Without sufficient funds, it is like a gun without bullets. Before you even compete with others, you will already be discouraged.
In the last round of financing, Wenxue Network's valuation exceeded 4 billion US dollars. Now, after such a long period of accumulation and sedimentation, both the daily active users and the number of users have increased exponentially.
Therefore, there is naturally the confidence to start a new round of financing, and it is foreseeable that the valuation in the new round of financing will inevitably increase significantly.
It would be a good opportunity to take advantage of this opportunity to give the overseas platform a makeover.
After all, Yang Luyu had already realized the importance of a name after changing the name to Douyin, and Yang Luyu only read Zhou Dongsheng's suggestion a few times casually, and he had already realized the advantage of being more concise and catchy.
In comparison, musical.ly is indeed slightly inferior. For a moment, Yang Luyu couldn't help but be convinced. Could it be that Zhou Dongsheng is really a naming genius?
"What a great name! I have to say that Jay Chou is really good at naming. I might as well let you name my child in the future, and I'll also recognize you as my godfather..."
Yang Luyu joked along with the topic.
Zhou Dongsheng shrugged his shoulders indifferently after hearing this. "That's easy. The boy will be named Yang Dingtian, and the girl will be named Yang Lidi..."
Yang Luyu almost couldn't breathe, and he coughed repeatedly because of the choking. He said with a smile: "You are so upright, right? You are amazing. When the child grows up, I'm afraid he will fight with you as his godfather..."
After making a few jokes, Yang Luyu also revealed his intention to start the next round of financing to Zhou Dongsheng, the strategic investor .
Zhou Dongsheng was already accustomed to what he heard. With the solid foundation he had laid before, the next step was nothing more than to continue fighting to support the war through financing.
After all, this money-burning war in the short video industry will definitely not be inferior in scale to the battle among thousands of live broadcast platforms. It may even set a new record and break the record of money-burning losses in the Internet industry.
Starting from the war among thousands of groups in the early days of the Internet, Meituan fought its way out of it, but also handed in a report card with a loss of more than 20 billion yuan, and for a time it was the leader among the competition.
However, there are always talented people in every generation, and each of them leads the trend for hundreds of years. In the ever-changing Internet industry, this record naturally could not be maintained for long and was surpassed by the up-and-coming Didi.
Amid the chaos in the taxi industry, Didi has carved out a niche for itself through crazy financing and crazy subsidies, firmly occupying the leading position in the taxi industry, but it has also suffered a loss of more than 40 billion yuan.
However, the losses are only temporary. With the establishment of the leading position in the industry, it is not difficult to turn losses into profits. All it takes is to cut the meat with a blunt knife and slowly earn it back from the users.
After all, the wool still comes from the sheep.
As for the short video industry, it is naturally even better. Whether it is Kuaishou or Douyin, their current industry status is almost entirely achieved by investing real money.
Although money is not everything, without money, nothing can be done.
"It is indeed time to raise another round of financing. I happen to have some spare money on hand. In addition, this time [Muziqi] can cheer for Douyin, which can not only boost its momentum, but also provide some support for this round of financing..."
Zhou Dongsheng touched his chin and wholeheartedly agreed with Yang Luyu's proposal.
"Okay, I feel relieved with Jay Chou's words. After all, Jay Chou is the undisputed pillar of support..." Yang Luyu continued to flatter as usual.
But this time Zhou Dongsheng was not impressed anymore. "Alright, alright, we are both in the same boat. I can't escape even if you brag. I might as well save my energy and think about how to fool the next passengers to get on board..."
Zhou Dongsheng scolded with a smile.
"That's wrong. These are all my sincere words. Moreover, as long as Jay Chou is here, what we need to worry about is obviously not that no one will get on the ship, but that there are too many people who want to get on the ship. How to make a choice among them..."
At this point, Yang Luyu couldn't help but reveal a hint of confidence in his tone. After all, with the current scale of Douyin short videos, he does have the confidence.
To date, the number of users of Douyin short video has already exceeded 300 million, although it is still slightly lower than Kuaishou's 500 million users.
However, in terms of user stickiness and activity, it has already quietly accomplished the feat of catching up with the competition by relying on its more superior product mechanism and positioning!
Among them, the number of daily active users has taken the lead in entering the "100 million daily active users club". With a slightly lower number of users, it has achieved the achievement of taking the lead in the short video industry. This value is undoubtedly real.
After all, Kuaishou has started to transform and develop short videos since 2014. After three years of accumulation, it is natural that it has a better number of users.
In contrast, Douyin, as a rising star , was able to achieve the short video industry milestone of hundreds of millions of daily active users in a shorter time and with fewer users, which is undoubtedly an amazing achievement.
This extremely valuable data is enough to prove to a certain extent that the Douyin short video model is more popular among users, and users are more willing to spend time and energy on Douyin short videos.
This is enough to show that Douyin is more popular in terms of mechanism and product positioning.
As the saying goes, he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world. With Douyin's current growth rate, it is only a matter of time before it surpasses Kuaishou to become the industry leader!
All of this is undoubtedly perfect for painting a rosy picture for investors. Just such a grand blueprint with unlimited future prospects is enough to make most investment institutions burst into tears and flock to it.
Who could resist such a sexy prospect?
"Okay, then I'll wait and see." Zhou Dongsheng said with great satisfaction, feeling a sense of accomplishment like a pig that has been raised with great difficulty and finally learned to dig up cabbages.
Obviously, the Douyin short video, which has already become a well-established platform, is already capable of standing on its own and does not require too much interference from an outsider like me.
At most, it would be icing on the cake from time to time, and for the rest, as long as nothing unexpected happens, it would be enough for me to just sit back and enjoy the results.
So, after Yang Luyu patted his chest and made a promise to Zhou Dongsheng, which was just short of issuing a military order, he hung up the phone.
Subsequently, the news about Wenxue Network seeking a new round of financing spread like wildfire, quickly swept the investment market, and attracted the attention of many investment institutions.
After all, in the past three years, the short video track has experienced Tencent's failure, the rise of live streaming platforms and the rise of the internet celebrity economy, and many other changes.
The short video track has also leapt from a niche track to a popular track today, taking the lead in the mobile Internet era and has been sought after and supported by many capitals. The industry's financing scale exceeds 10 billion yuan, and the market size has leapt to a 100 billion-level market, which is huge in size.
The three-year period has arrived, and short videos, which were once ignored by the giant Tencent, have now become a popular track that even Tencent is rushing to enter.
At the same time, the business model of the short video industry has become mature, and its huge potential has gradually formed a consensus that is obvious to all.
Otherwise, ByteDance, an Internet startup with a valuation of over 10 billion US dollars, would not choose to bet on this track, and would not hesitate to spend 1 billion in real money to subsidize short videos.
It also fully mobilized Toutiao’s resources to irrigate the market, attempting to turn the tide and open up a brand new traffic channel for Toutiao.
However, this traffic channel, which was supposed to be unobstructed, has already encountered a pre-existing obstacle, which has become an insurmountable mountain for Toutiao.
The script that had always been successful is naturally difficult to work again. Even with 1 billion in subsidies, it is still difficult to move forward. Even with the traffic from Toutiao, Toutiao short videos can only rely on the moat of Toutiao's own system to occupy a corner with difficulty.
Even though Toutiao has a technical algorithm that it is proud of, no matter how unique the algorithm is, it still needs to grow step by step, especially it needs to be fed with massive amounts of data to meet its needs for continuous iteration and improvement...
No matter how amazing Toutiao's technical algorithms are, they cannot violate objective laws, including the computing power limitations brought by hardware equipment.
The iterative process of an algorithm may be like climbing a mountain. You can only climb up steadily step by step. As for the advantage of the algorithm, it is reflected in the speed of climbing.
It's like the gap between professional mountaineers and mountain climbing enthusiasts. Although people's physical fitness cannot be generalized, in the final analysis, it is impossible to break the limits of the human body.
Even in a state of extreme anger, it is impossible to blow up an aircraft carrier with one punch (funny)...
However, Toutiao is still in its growth stage, and its algorithms and data centers are obviously incomparable. It is impossible to ignore the objective gap and go against the trend.
Of course, if the algorithms in Toutiao’s hands are powerful enough to evolve into artificial intelligence, that would be a different matter. This epoch-making technology would be enough to ignore all gaps and crush Internet companies around the world.
It will lead all of humanity into a new era and become another industrial revolution recorded in human history.
Of course, until Zhou Dongsheng was reborn, he had not witnessed the birth of this historic moment. Even if he, a butterfly, flapped his wings and created sparks, it would be impossible for him to produce such a big change and directly rewrite human history.
Therefore, no matter how powerful Toutiao is, it will be impossible for Toutiao short videos to make up the gap with Douyin in a short time.
What's more, algorithms may be divided into different levels, but as the cornerstone of the Internet, algorithms are naturally the indispensable foundation for every Internet company.
Who doesn’t have their own unique skills? After establishing a strategic partnership with Pinxixi, the two companies worked together to deepen the algorithm system, which is enough to make up for the shortcomings in the algorithm to a certain extent.
After all, Pinxixi’s recommendation algorithm is equally impressive.
Under normal circumstances, this kind of unique skill would naturally be kept secret, but with Zhou Dongsheng as a bridge, the two companies were able to exchange technology.
In addition, the two companies belong to different tracks and have no direct conflict of interest, which led them to choose to join forces.
Three incompetent generals are still better than Zhuge Liang. Can 1+1 be less than 2?
As one thing grows, the other shrinks, so the valuation of Douyin short video in the new round of financing will naturally rise as well. It is very likely to come from behind and break the financing record of the short video industry!
Before this, this record was naturally held by Kuaishou, which firmly sat at the top of the industry.
Not long ago, Kuaishou completed a single round of financing of over US$500 million, and its valuation exceeded US$5 billion, making it the number one in the industry.
But this first place, in front of today's TikTok, is obviously in jeopardy...
