Back to 1995

Chapter 607
From the moment Netscape went public, getting rich overnight is no longer a stranger in the Internet industry. In other industries, you can’t make a dollar that you can’t earn in a lifetime. In the Internet industry, only one day is enough!

Relying on the Internet industry, young people who have become rich overnight and have skyrocketed in value have emerged one after another. The wind of the Internet has blown to the world, and countless young people and geniuses have poured into this industry, wanting to touch their own in this industry. gold nuggets.

The Internet has produced many wealth myths, but the listing of ICQ this time has shocked the nerves of countless people. ICQ went public with a sensational valuation of nearly 300 billion US dollars, which has surpassed countless established companies in traditional industries.

Those companies in traditional industries have worked so hard for so many years, but they still have to wait in line to go public. The listed price-earnings ratio is more than ten times, which is considered overestimated. Going to outer space, it is still touted as having potential...

For traditional companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, when ICQ began to raise $18 billion, large companies in traditional industries such as banking, insurance, automobiles, real estate, and electrical appliances fell silent for a while. It is a representative of established companies, and they are all brands that have survived for dozens or hundreds of years. The market value has slowly risen to tens of billions of dollars, but ICQ, how long it took from its establishment to its listing, was 280 billion dollars when it was listed. market value!
When Netscape went public that year, the outside world exclaimed that it took only one minute for Netscape to go public, surpassing the market value of General Dynamics, which had been established for 1 years, and the listing of ICQ was directly listed at ten times the market value of General Dynamics.

After seeing the news about ICQ, I don’t know if the traditional industry has been broken. Many people’s values ​​have been impacted. The old ideas in the past are not applicable to ICQ.

The entire Silicon Valley and the Internet are discussing how much Song Yang's worth will soar after ICQ goes public, and how many billionaires will be born.

Countless practitioners in the Internet industry are celebrating each other. If ICQ is successfully listed, it is equivalent to raising the ceiling of the Internet by a large margin. Netscape has not really become a giant, while ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, etc. seem to be on the verge of becoming a giant. It proves that the Internet industry can also produce giants!
"Mark, ClassMates should be listed too!"

Those who are most stimulated are those who are also colleagues of instant messaging and social networking sites. They are the group of people who are really stimulated.

In United Online, the company that developed the ClassMates alumni website, investors are talking excitedly to ClassMates CEO Mark Goldstein.

Ever since ICQ emerged, social networking sites have become a new Internet industry, and a large number of websites have emerged. Of course, Silicon Valley's venture capitalists are throwing money into this industry everywhere.

For example, ClassMates has received tens of millions of dollars in venture capital investment as soon as it was established. Now ClassMates is also one of the "Top Ten" social networking sites in America.

Of course, the ranking of the "Top Ten Social Networking Sites" is also extremely watery. For example, ICQ never promises that it is one of the so-called Top Ten Social Networking Sites, and directly declares that ICQ represents the Internet social networking industry.

Because the gap between these top ten social networking sites is too obvious. For example, the global users of ICQ are almost reaching 1000 million users, while the users of ClassMates are less than [-] million. They have just been opened in Germany, Sweden, and Austria. , France and other places, because the users in the English-speaking area are almost robbed by ICQ, ClassMates can only find another way to develop users in non-English-speaking areas.

In the face of investors' chatter, Mark Goldstein was very calm, "Now is not the time!"

"The ClassMates website is now profitable. This is the only one among all social networking sites, including ICQ, that can do it. ClassMates does not need to go public to make money!"

Mark Goldstein said confidently that unlike ICQ, which is free, ClassMates is registered with a real name and charges a fee. User registration must be with a real name and you have to pay.

"ClassMates is going to be the 'real' dating site, make it a part of life, so it can become the number one social networking site, it's not time to go public..."

Mark Goldstein also has his own set of theories. The Silicon Valley venture capitalists who listened to him sighed and itch at Mark Goldstein, but there was nothing he could do. The attribute of the ClassMates website is to record old classmates on campus. It's related, without this point, it is nothing, and it is destined to not be able to play like ICQ.

But looking at ICQ, it is about to start going public to make money, but Mark Goldstein is still slow here. He wants to build a "hundred-year-old" social networking site, which makes the people in the venture capital company feel anxious.

"Mark, don't let ClassMates go public now, you'll regret it!"

The venture capitalists in Silicon Valley said to Mark Goldstein angrily, if you don't take advantage of the frenzy brought by ICQ and go public at this time, when the limelight passes, the day lily will probably be cold.

Several Silicon Valley venture capitalists slammed the door and left. They invested in Mark Goldstein to collect money. I have a terrible headache.

Not all social networking sites, like ClassMates, still want to wait for the opportunity. Many social networking sites, forums, and communities want to fish in troubled waters. Taking advantage of the upsurge of ICQ listings, they take the opportunity to "catch" NASDAQ!
The news that ICQ was listed at a sky-high valuation not only had an impact on the local technology industry in America, but also the global technology industry.

Behind this, there are also credits from investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan, and Merrill Lynch. If you want to take the opportunity to spread the popularity of ICQ, promote it to the world, and attract leeks from all over the world, no, it is the attention of investors!

ICQ’s listing this time is really too big. It’s a bit difficult for Wall Street’s investment institutions to get it off. Goldman Sachs is going to let investment institutions from all over the world take over, so they have to create momentum for ICQ and mobilize the media to create public opinion. , but Wall Street's forte.

Almost immediately, the news of ICQ was on the headlines of news all over the world, and the discussions about ICQ in major technology media were endless.

"ICQ, an Internet social networking company in America, announced its listing today. ICQ is the world's first instant messaging company. ICQ claims to have reached [-] million users, making it the world's largest social networking site company!

This ICQ is expected to issue 3000 million shares at an issue price of US$60, making it the largest fundraising in the history of global technology stocks. The market value of ICQ will exceed US$278 billion. The founder of ICQ is Song Yang, whose ancestral home is Yangcheng..."

The comprehensive channel of the Central Media News Station also reported the news of ICQ on the international news. Now the gathering place of the Internet in China, all the companies in Zhongguancun are watching the news on the TV.

In the news, the photo quoted was the photo of Song Yang when he came to Yanjing. In the photo, Song Yang was standing in front of Zhongguancun, looking into the distance, surrounded by a crowd of people. Just looking at the photo, he could feel a sense of high spirits a feeling of.

Watching the news on TV again, the whole Zhongguancun and the domestic Internet industry companies were a little dizzy for a while. I remember that when Song Yang came to China last time, Song Yang was still an "upstart" in Silicon Valley at that time, but "a little Wealth" only.

At that time, Double-click was just listed, and Song Yang also had a halo on his head. In the domestic Internet industry, he was also a big shot, but many people in the Internet and technology industry who went over the wall to watch foreign news in China still called Mark Anderson and Bill Bill Gates, think they are the big names in the technology industry.

But now, in less than two years, Song Yang has transformed into a real big man in the Internet industry. Netscape has fallen from the altar, but Song Yang's ICQ is about to ascend to the altar.

Domestic BBS forums are still one of the communication methods for domestic netizens. In the past two years, various BBS forums have begun to spring up like mushrooms.

The English version of ICQ has also appeared in China, but for some reason, ICQ has never set up a website and server in China in a fair manner, and has not handed over ICQ's domestic agency rights to Fang Yinghaiwei, a long-standing partner in China.

"After ICQ goes public, will Song Yang become the richest man in the Internet industry?"

"How much is Song Yang worth?"

"After ICQ goes public, Song Yang will own two NASDAQ-listed companies, Double-click and ICQ, and the rest will have unlisted companies such as America Telecom, Alcatel Mobile, and Xueleshan..."

"The idiot upstairs is dreaming that the market value of Microsoft is almost surpassing that of General Electric. Unless the market value of ICQ increases tenfold, Song Yang will never be able to surpass Bill Gates!"

On the BBS forum, Song Yang is also very noisy. The number of domestic Internet users has already exceeded one million. Users who enter BBS forums and chat rooms are also pouring in. However, good and bad people are mixed, and basically there are quarrels every day. , far worse than when Song Yang came to Yanjing, when people like Rebus, Ding Sanshi, and Boss Ma were all posted on the forum.

Now these characters have all entered the arena one after another, and Rebs re-entered Jinshan to help Jinshan and Microsoft fight again in the office software industry.

Ding Sanshi also resigned from his previous unit to establish Netease, and is now tinkering with email software.

Ying Haiwei acted as an agent for Hotmail mailboxes from Song Yang very early on, but the mailboxes did not make much money. In addition to system upgrades, maintenance, server fees, etc., Ying Haiwei did not pay much attention to Hotmail mailboxes, and they popped up from time to time. some problems.

Now NetEase is engaged in 163 mailboxes, in addition to 126, Mailbox Master, 990, China China Net and a large number of emails. The email industry in China has also become a sea of ​​blood. Ying Haiwei has given up mailboxes. business plan.

Brother Xiao Ma, who has been hanging out in Yanjing for several years, is now back in Hangzhou and is gathering eighteen arhats. Especially after hearing the news that Amazon is going to go public, he is planning to make a big splash in the e-commerce industry.

Boss Ma of Pengcheng is now also in the sea. Taking advantage of the gap period when ICQ did not enter the country, Boss Ma launched ICQC software, which seems to be somewhat similar to ICQ, but ICQ does not seem to be troublesome to ICQC. Instead, the Wishing Star Foundation in China, representing Song Yang, expressed the intention to invest in ICQC, which surprised many other companies that imitated ICQ.

Those people who used to hang out on the BBS forum have now entered the Internet industry one after another, and some of them have become big figures, such as 8848 established by Lao Rong, which is already the largest e-commerce company in China. Boss Ma in Hangzhou is much more beautiful.

There is also Sohu, which has been invested by the Star Wish Foundation, and has the title of the largest portal website in China. Recently, it has begun to shout the slogan of going on the NASDAQ!

ICQ's listing news caused cheers in the building of Wishing Star Foundation in Yanjing. In this building, all companies invested by Wishing Star Foundation gathered, including 8848, Sohu, Chinabyte, billion Tangwang, etc. are all technology companies incubated by the Star Wish Foundation.

The Wishing Star Foundation represents Song Yang's investment in China. The higher Song Yang's social status, the more dollars he invests in the Wishing Star Foundation. These companies in the building live a better life. At this time How can you be unhappy.

Hearing the cheers in the building, Fang Qiuyu, the general manager of the Star Wish Foundation, also showed some smiles on his originally unattractive face.

Now the Star Wish Foundation is the largest venture capital and investment company in China. It has invested in more than 400 companies. In addition to Internet companies, it has also invested in Gree, Vanke, Luzhou Laojiao, etc. The company spent seven or eight billion dollars if not one billion.

But the money back was not much. Song Yang didn't care too much about it. Every quarter, he would invest a fortune in the Star Wish Foundation for Fang Qiuyu to invest, but Song Yang didn't care. Fang Qiuyu couldn't ignore it.

The Star Wish Foundation is targeting the North American Global Investment Foundation. The North American Global Investment Foundation also continues to invest, but it earns more, but the Star Wish Foundation keeps losing money. How can Fang Qiuyu not be Alexander.

Especially recently, there have been rumors about Ying Haiwei again. Ying Haiwei is a company heavily invested by the Star Wish Foundation, and has raised Ying Haiwei's valuation to US$[-] million. Operators, in order to expand the scale of Internet users, collectively lowered Internet access fees, which caused Ying Haiwei's income to plummet.

As a last resort, Zhang Shuxin announced that Ying Haiwei began to transform, but Ying Haiwei can do everything, such as telecommunications, instant messaging, forums, e-commerce, portal websites and even games, etc., but he is not the leader in these industries, especially this year. Industry leaders have emerged, such as Sohu and Sina in the portal website, 8848 in the e-commerce industry, etc., making Ying Haiwei's position very embarrassing.

Fang Qiuyu hoped that Ying Haiwei could go public, collect a sum of money, let the Star Wish Foundation get back its capital, and let Ying Haiwei have the capital to transform, but there are too many restrictions on listing in China, Ying Haiwei must go to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange , or go to Nasdaq, but it is not so easy, which makes Fang Qiuyu a headache.

Now Song Yang is busy with ICQ's listing, so Fang Qiuyu can breathe a sigh of relief. He is going to find an opportunity to send Sohu, 8848, etc. to Nasdaq...

(End of this chapter)