What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 262: Secret Observation (5k)

"Mr. Yu, your WeChat account is really popular."

Sitting in the conference room, it was hard for Zhang Suyang not to sigh at the tremendous changes that had taken place at WeChat.

There were only three people at the meeting today, so Yu Xing personally poured tea for the two shareholders. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "It was just glitz, and I don't know when it was blown away by the penguin rain and wind."

Xu Xin has been receiving calls from colleagues asking about the company these past two days. Seeing the lively scene here again today, he was somewhat proud of himself for decisively obtaining the WeChat shares. He smiled and said, "When will Zhou Hongyi's money be given to him?"

Yu Xing was at a loss: "What money?"

Xu Xin was confused by his natural confusion: "Didn't you say yesterday that Zhou Hongyi would give you money on credit for promotion?"

Yu Xing let out a long "Oh" and said thoughtfully: "You mean the money? Well, well, let's keep it on credit first. We don't have the money and he's not in a hurry."

Xu Xin and Zhang Suyang's eyes met unconsciously. Why did it feel like... mature businessmen discussing payment cycles?
"Compared to money, Mr. Zhou definitely wants to see our success more." Yu Xing sat down and stretched out his hand to operate on his notebook. "So, now we need to discuss a very serious issue, how to achieve success?"

Without pausing, he continued to elaborate: "How many users do we need to achieve before Penguin launches a competing product to be successful?"

This question obviously has a second half: “after Penguin launches competing products.”

However, Zhang Suyang and Xu Xin were both alone in the office, without any support from the team. For a moment, they looked at each other, and neither could give a particularly specific answer to Mr. Yu's question.

Raising money, investing money, and making rough judgments all fall within the scope of business, as does truly grasping the company and its products... Of course they can talk about it, but they are not willing to talk nonsense at such a moment, lest they really make Mr. Yu make a wrong judgment, which would then be the end of him.

Yu Xing took a few sips of tea, but not only did he not wait for the next words, he didn't even wait for a single word.

He put the cup on the table in astonishment and raised his voice slightly: "Go ahead."

Xu Xin listened to the sound of the teacup hitting the table and the impatient voice of Yu, and suddenly felt a little itchy in her heart: "Hey, how many users does WeChat have today?"

Yu Xing gave the answer: "371 million."

The two shareholders were excited when they heard such an understated number!
Zhang Suyang stood up and confirmed: "How much is it?"

Yu Xing repeated: "371 million."

"This has greatly exceeded expectations!" Zhang Suyang exclaimed, "Taking advantage of the 3Q war to attract traffic is indeed the best choice!"

The investment by IDG and Capital Today was brought forward. According to the original pace, WeChat would try to break through 10 million users at the end of October and then start financing. But now, only on the 300th, it has far exceeded the planned target.

Xu Xin smiled and said: "In this case, it is very likely that there will be 500 million users by the end of this month. If Penguin is slower and develops new competing products to compete with it, WeChat may be able to reach 1000 million users first, which should be the best result."

"The growth in the past few days is stimulated by public opinion, the diversion of Bai Xiaosheng and the increase in the scale of our publicity. The effects of the first two will definitely gradually decline, but as our user scale grows, the effect of user fission will gradually increase due to the effect of free text messages." Yu Xing has been studying these issues as part of his overtime work in the evenings these days. Now he can talk about it without any data. "We made estimates when the number of users was 50, 100 million, and 200 million. It is very good if this fission effect can be maintained at 30%."

He looked at the two shareholders who were listening attentively, and changed the subject: "Software such as instant messaging will form a social chain. As the total number of users increases, it will definitely produce a siphon effect at a certain point. Originally, I optimistically thought that the number might be around 2000 million."

The siphon effect, or the Matthew effect, makes the strong become stronger and the weak become weaker.

Xu Xin looked at the unconscious solemnity on Yu Xing's face and asked, "What about now?"

Yu Xing took a deep breath and hesitated for a moment before answering: "Now..."

He pointed to the seats, turned on the projector, and said, "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Xu, please take a seat. The development of WeChat requires everyone to brainstorm, and not just us. We should also listen to the opinions and ideas of ordinary users."

Zhang Suyang and Xu Xin didn't know why Mr. Yu abruptly changed the topic in the middle of a conversation, but they didn't raise any objections.

Yu Xing pointed at the projector and played the first picture: "This is a conversation between a group of ordinary users. It is quite inspiring."

The two WeChat shareholders looked at the picture, which showed the dialog box of the WeChat software, but their names were blacked out.

Ordinary User A: Do you think the WeChat company valuation of 1 million US dollars is too much?

Ordinary User B: It's a bit of a premium, but for the outside world it's a door to mobile Internet IM, so it's not that much. For us, to develop such software, we have the talent and technology, and even its users, who are most admired by the media, are the least scarce for us. Therefore, the $1 million is not worth it to us. We can quickly make products that surpass it with the $1 million we invest.

Xu Xin looked up at the projected picture and suddenly woke up halfway through reciting it in her mind. She turned her head and asked, "Isn't this Pony?!"

Zhang Suyang didn't ask, this was almost certainly the Pony Ma who had registered on WeChat that Xu Xin had mentioned in the group before, and Yu Xing, who always claimed to protect user information, had really found him...

"We just need to listen to the opinions of users and see whether what they say is right or wrong. It doesn't matter if he is a chairman or a president," Yu Xing emphasized. "We need to see whether what he says makes sense."

The two shareholders looked at the blacked-out names in silence, not wanting to expose this weak attempt to cover up the truth.

Zhang Suyang suddenly asked: "Is there a WeChat chat group established by ordinary users?"

Yu Xing shook his head regretfully: "I really don't have that."

Xu Xin watched the conversation between A and B twice again, and then said: "They are very confident in themselves."

Yu Xing nodded: "Yes, just like the confidence of the secondary market in Penguin."

This is the confidence of the top management of the giant, and they are not easily affected by competing products.

Soon, the following pictures revealed the concerns at the top of the giant.

B: What worries and alarms me now is that the emergence of WeChat seems to indicate that the world is changing, and the problems within our company are preventing us from noticing the changes in the world. All the situations that have occurred in the past year have proved that the biggest problem lies within us.

A: Yes.

Seeing this, Xu Xin commented: "This B is just an ordinary president, and A is the ordinary chairman."

It is completely confirmed that this is a conversation between ordinary chairman Pony Ma and ordinary president Liu Chih-Ping.

Yu Xing did not comment.

Ordinary CEO: Take Penguin Weibo for example, why can't we compete with Sina? In addition to Sina's correct use of its first-mover advantage, there are also big problems with our own process for handling this business. Seven departments worked together to develop Penguin Weibo, and each department had its own ideas and starting points. Meetings had to be held from time to time to coordinate. How could we compete with Sina Weibo, which was already leading the market?
Zhang Suyang was shocked and said, "Penguin Weibo is run by seven departments together? This... is a bit abnormal."

Yu Xing shook his head: "I don't know, it's what he said."

Since ordinary CEOs say so, it is likely to be true.

Moreover, the ordinary president seemed to take this opportunity to express his feelings. Several consecutive pictures explained the internal process problems of Penguin, which was then extended to Penguin's organizational structure and then talked about the company's strategy.

Ordinary president: The problems we are facing now are more caused by internal factors than external factors. Threats like WeChat only arise because we have big problems internally. As long as we solve the internal problems, the external threats will naturally be eliminated.

Ordinary CEO: Pony, don't you feel sad that Penguin has developed to this day and has become what it is now? We must improve this situation, reorganize our structure, upgrade our strategy, and listen to more opinions from the outside world.

The two users finally revealed their names.

Yu Xingfang stopped here and added water to the three people's tea cups first, then said: "They have systematically reflected on the war between Computerworld and 3Q and our emergence. Pony agreed to Liu Chih-ping's request to make changes to the organizational structure."

He quickly played the pictures, wanting to just skim through this part.

However, Zhang Suyang and Xu Xin simultaneously stopped Mr. Yu's actions, wanting to carefully observe how the two people who hold the highest power among the giants reflect on the recent turmoil they have encountered.

Yu Xing understood their curiosity and watched it many times himself.

He drank his tea slowly, thinking about how to talk half-seriously about WeChat's growth expectations.

To be honest, because the user growth in one day was equivalent to that in a whole month, he was indeed optimistic and began to think whether he could really defeat Penguin head-on. However, after witnessing the communication between Pony and Liu Chih-Ping from a distance, this optimism disappeared.

Competition is still an all-consuming competition, but expectations in one’s mind need to be constantly revised.

Zhang Suyang woke up from the inexplicable excitement of spying on the changes in Penguin's decision-making, and thought of the issue he had discussed with Mr. Yu before, and asked cleverly: "Did Pony and Mr. Liu talk about the competition with WeChat?"

Yu Xing nodded and said, "It was only mentioned briefly. They were mainly talking about internal issues of Penguin." He searched on his notebook and found that the two men last discussed the competition with WeChat.

Pony: The competition from WeChat still needs to be taken seriously.

Martin Lau: WeChat fills the gap in mobile Internet's communication with acquaintances, which is a different positioning from QQ, so we cannot compete with QQ. We can launch a competing product in about 20 days, which is enough time. According to experience, such software requires at least 5000 million to 1 million users to completely consolidate its position. It is impossible for WeChat to reach such a node in such a short time, which gives us room to catch up.

Zhang Suyang and Xu Xin both frowned.

Yu Xing did not stop, knowing that they could directly remember the judgment of "5000 million-1 million", and continued to show the complete conversation between the two people.

A considerable part of it is still reflection, and finally there are some concrete actions.

Liu Chih-Ping proposed to improve the company's brand image and wanted to invite users, industry experts and even people from multiple dimensions such as news, politics and law outside of Penguin to discuss the problems encountered by Penguin.

The last picture freezes on their discussion of who to invite.

Liu Chih-Ping: Can we invite Yu Xing? Where is Zhou Hongyi?
Pony: Yu Xing can be considered, but Zhou Hongyi doesn’t.

Liu Chih-Ping: Why?
Pony: Zhou Hongyi is so mean.

Martin Lau: Okay.

There were no new pictures, but there was no sound in the conference room for a long time.

After a while, Xu Xin asked, "Mr. Yu, can I have a copy?"

Yu Xing flatly refused: "No."

Zhang Suyang commented: "Boss Zhou is much more annoying than you."

However, even though he said this, there was no smile on his face.

Zhang Suyang never expected to see the conversation between the two today, and their conversation actually revealed a lot of information. Judging from the current close relationship, they have firm confidence that Penguin will defeat WeChat.

How firm is it?

He was so determined that he didn't care even if the information might be noticed by Yu Xing.

Both of them believe that internal factors are the decisive factor in the problems Penguin is facing now, and external factors including the threat from WeChat are secondary.

Xu Xin had the same feeling: "Pony and Liu Chih-Ping mainly discussed strategy. If Penguin's structure really changed, it would be suitable for a business case discussion. So, they are not afraid of us seeing what their confidence is..."

Zhang Suyang asked: "Mr. Yu, do you think the 5000 million to 1 million yuan mentioned by Liu Chih-Ping is of reference value?"

"Yes." Yu Xing said simply, "I originally thought that 5000 to million would be enough to create a good advantage, but now it seems that even if WeChat gets million, it can't be said to be able to defeat Penguin. But... we don't need to defeat it. If we can hold on, we will be successful."

If the stalemate can be maintained, what changes will occur?
That change might be much more complicated.

Zhang Suyang and Xu Xin were both silently thinking about the possibilities of the future.

Yu Xing waited for them to think about it for a while before saying, "The heat of public opinion will fade away. Bai Xiaosheng's user traffic is only 340 million. The previous idea that Penguin would make a mistake and use QQ to fight back can be extinguished. Liu Chih-ping has no intention of making a mistake at all, and Pony Ma is consistent with him. Moreover, their development time is faster than I thought, maybe only 20 days."

今天是10月9号，20天之后是10月29号。

Maybe not even until November.

According to some media reports, the emergence of WeChat was like jumping out of a stone. Now looking at Penguin’s response, it is likely to be an extremely targeted and sweeping response.

A giant that is certain to never make mistakes!
It is watching WeChat and is about to pounce on it with all its might!

The initial joy that Zhang Suyang and Xu Xin felt when they heard that WeChat had 371 million followers has completely disappeared, and has been replaced by tremendous pressure in the face of the Penguin.

This kind of pressure was anticipated before investment or even project incubation. However, when we really start to face it, especially now that the investment has already been made, it is almost materialized.

Zhang Suyang was thinking hard, and suddenly noticed that Mr. Yu's expression was still calm.

He asked, "Boss Yu, your meeting today was sweet at first but bitter later. It put me under a lot of pressure. Is there any good news?"

Yu Xing nodded and said, "Yes!"

Then, he looked at the two investors and congratulated them, “The good news is that Penguin’s dollar is not more expensive than your dollar.”

The two were silent, and it didn't seem so good.

Yu Xing took out his phone and said, "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Xu, we are small in size and have known our disadvantages and advantages from the beginning. When Penguin's competitors appear, we will need to beat the slow with the fast and use version upgrades to compete in the market."

Xu Xin said slowly: "I heard Liu Jiankai mention your three major strategies, built-in, spending money and version upgrade, right?"

"Yes, this is a pre-determined competitive strategy," said Yu Xing. "We will add voice functions to our next software version, which will provide both free text messages and free calls to a certain extent. This will definitely have a better market effect and may lead to a higher user fission rate."

Zhang Suyang did not express his opinion immediately. After a while, he suddenly said, "Mr. Yu, I think you should not be impatient. If we really cannot compete this time, we have a chance to recover the loss. After all, Penguin came to discuss the acquisition right away. Even if it is someone like Liu Chih-ping, I don't think he would have thought that the number of WeChat users would increase from 200 million to nearly 400 million in just a few days. This is a misjudgment on his part."

Yu Xing was immediately furious when he heard this: "Boss Zhang, what do you mean by this? Do you want me to sell the company?"

Zhang Suyang remained silent.

Yu Xing pointed at Zhang Suyang's nose and asked, "Is IDG afraid before the battle?!"

Seeing that Mr. Yu's expression had changed again, Xu Xin persuaded him, "Mr. Yu, Mr. Zhang is just helping everyone to consider a way out."

"If IDG and Capital Today are afraid of a fight, then they shouldn't have invested in the first place. They have a chance to change their minds today and ask me to sell the company? Ha." Yu Xing walked to the door of the conference room, pushed it open, and shouted outside, "Sequoia, where are the people from Sequoia? Call them! Call them!"

"Oh, here I am, here I am!" Qi Weilun, the vice president of Sequoia, heard Mr. Yu's call and ran over to him, "Hey, Mr. Yu, I'm here."

Zhang Suyang sighed and answered for Mr. Yu: "It's okay, it's okay, Mr. Qi, you can go back."

Qi Weilun naturally knew Zhang Suyang, and said indifferently: "What do you mean it's okay? It was obviously President Yu who called me."

"Boss Yu asked you to raise the price. Go ahead. It's okay." Zhang Suyang looked at Yu Xing very soberly and reiterated his position, "Boss Yu, we can talk."

Yu Xing nodded and said to Hongshan: "Thank you very much, go ahead."

Qi Weilun was dissatisfied: "Mr. Yu, what do you mean? Hey, if IDG and Capital Today don't have the courage and funds, I will definitely support the development of WeChat. It takes courage to compete with Penguin!"

Hu Xubo of Qiming Venture Partners trotted over a beat slower and said anxiously, "Mr. Yu, I'm still here!"

Yu Xing patted Hu Xubo on the shoulder and smiled apologetically at Sequoia: "I'm sorry, Mr. Qi, if WeChat needs funding, Sequoia will still be interested. It will be ranked second, and Qiming will still be the first."

He reached out and closed the conference room door.

Qi Weilun felt a little helpless, but he could only laugh at himself: "I'm second."

Hu Xubo didn't wander around aimlessly this time. His colleagues over there were chatting and discussing in groups of three or four. He decided to stay here and wait for the situation.

Qi Weilun suddenly glared at Hu Xubo: "It's OK for me to be ranked second, but why should Qiming be ranked first?"

Hu Xubo glared back: "Because I sold myself to WeChat as the vice president!"

Qi Weilun muttered: "I can also be a vice president... or a director..."

(End of this chapter)