Back to 1995

Chapter 319

ICQ is in a state of loss. Both Silicon Valley venture capital and Wall Street institutions are equally aware of this, but they are all staring at ICQ.

No matter whether it is a loss or not, ICQ, which has set off the Internet instant messaging industry and established itself, has tens of millions of users, is now the most eye-catching cub in the Internet industry.

In the current Internet industry, whether to lose money or not is something that needs to be worried about in the future. Now Silicon Valley and Wall Street are most concerned about traffic and users. Which website has the most visits and users, then whoever is the darling of the Internet, Yahoo is like this .

And ICQ is also the best among them, with 3000 to [-] million users and a frighteningly high number of daily active users. The ICQ community has become a new platform for countless young users to showcase themselves.

Even if it is losing a little money now, countless venture capitalists and institutions are staring at ICQ, waiting for it to start financing. Even if ICQ loses money, it can get it back after it goes public. Yahoo has proved this point...

"Currently ICQ's debt has exceeded 3.1 million US dollars. It is estimated that by the end of the year, ICQ's losses and debts will reach more than [-] million US dollars. In order to cope with the possible competition, ICQ needs to raise more than [-] to [-] million US dollars. !" Irene said to Song Yang.

Acquiring Xueleshan and Blizzard, and playing a series of tricks, ICQ spent hundreds of millions of dollars, Song Yang and the American Investment Foundation, of course, it is impossible to pay ICQ all in cash, basically from the bank borrowed.

With the current hot Internet market, the bank is not worried about ICQ not paying back the money. Song Yang's current signboard is quite resounding.

What's more, those banks on Wall Street wish ICQ could borrow more money so that they can't pay it back. In this way, ICQ can be justified and reorganized. After it is listed, it may earn more than several times. Therefore, for ICQ's loans, The bank is responding to every request now, and like a snowball, it has directly rolled into a debt of several hundred million dollars.

When Song Yang heard what Irene said, he naturally understood what she meant. Wesley and other executives also looked at Song Yang. The financing for ICQ was just a gimmick. As long as the news is released, there must be a venture capital company , rushing to invest, these debts are actually not very stressful.

In fact, Irene was asking Song Yang, when ICQ will be listed. Once financing starts, with the current Internet industry, it will definitely be listed within one or two years, and venture capital companies cannot wait. In ten or eight years, even if it is Amazon, it is true that it has lost for more than ten years, but it is also a loss after it goes public. If it dared not to go public, Bezos would have been bombarded by people from Silicon Valley and Wall Street. up.

Seeing the meeting room, everyone including Irene looked at Song Yang eagerly. Song Yang understood that Wall Street and Silicon Valley were probably waiting for news from him.

"We can start financing for ICQ," Song Yang thought for a while, and finally said under the expectation of Irene, Wesley and others, "Let ICQ go public by the end of next year at the latest!"

Listed in the most frenetic period of the Internet in America, with the size and scale of ICQ, it must be crazily touted. It is impossible to be as tepid as double-clicking. When the Internet bubble bursts, let alone the stock price has increased by a hundred times. , Dozens of times are considered conservative, but it is estimated that in the next ten years, this crop of leeks will be harvested...

In addition, Song Yang also needs to consider that Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, etc. will enter the instant messaging industry, and the competition will become more and more fierce. At the latest in the next two years, ICQ will be sent to Nasdaq, otherwise it will be delayed. It's too late to change.

Hearing that Song Yang agreed to let ICQ start financing and proposed a listing plan, all the senior executives sitting in Irene's office couldn't help showing excited expressions on their faces, and Irene and Wesley were no exception.

People who enter the Internet industry now, why not fame and fortune, get rich overnight, and realize the freedom of wealth, otherwise, who would want to enter this industry!
"ICQ has been updated to version 4.0. Technically, ICQ is definitely ahead of its peers!"

Like other websites, since ICQ went online, it has been updating the version continuously. The versions, large and small, have been updated more than a dozen times. There are not many new functions, but a lot of bugs have been fixed. At least you don’t have to worry about crashes when using As long as it works, as long as it can be used, it is considered qualified at this time.

Wesley, who is in charge of technology and has the title of "Father of Instant Messaging" in Silicon Valley, said at this time, "Now there are other Internet companies that are tentatively contacting ICQ and want to get ICQ's technology authorization! "

There are many Internet companies that want to enter the instant messaging industry, including the previous forum websites, ClassMates, Open Diary and other websites, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Netscape, etc., are also secretly preparing for their own instant messaging software.

But again, ICQ has too many patents in its hands, including more than 2 patents in the fields of instant messaging and social networking, such as emoticons, fonts, screenshots, P200P online transmission, groups, etc.

To put it bluntly, just like when Nokia fell, Nokia fell, but with thousands of mobile phone patents in hand, Apple, Samsung and other mobile phone brands still pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Nokia every year For the patent licensing fee of Meidao, if you have nothing to do, you can sue Apple and other companies and get a sum of compensation.

The current ICQ can also achieve this step. Even if ICQ loses its dominance in the social networking industry in the future, it can still rely on patents to let other peers pay ICQ tolls!
Companies such as Microsoft and Netscape are tentatively trying to obtain patent authorization from ICQ and redevelop without ICQ. It is really too difficult.

However, this situation cannot continue forever. If you want to rely on patents to keep other competitors out of the door, it is not realistic in the current Internet industry. Yes, Microsoft is a master of this game.

Even, ClassMates and Open Diary have already started to imitate some functions of ICQ before they got the patent authorization, which is actually a sign.

"Try to hold back the instant messaging products of Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL. Some patents can be licensed to other companies. We have to hold off until after ICQ goes public!"

Song Yang said to Wesley and others that this is to use patents to harvest the leeks of companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo, and to use patents to hold back the development of instant messaging products of these companies and let ICQ go public in advance.

In the Internet industry, the [-]/[-] rule is also prevalent. Once ICQ has an advantage, the rest of MSN, Yahoo Messenger, AIM and other things, it is not impossible to catch up with ICQ, but it is by no means so easy. It is impossible to call ICQ in the end. Bai Gong.

(End of this chapter)