My 1999

"He is indeed only nineteen years old, but his self-discipline has exceeded his age. Otherwise, it would be impossible to achieve such amazing achievements in such a short period of time." Li Yanhong sighed.

"It seems you admire him very much?"

Li Yanhong did not deny it.

"He deserves my respect."

Glancing at him, Xiong Xiaoge said: "You just heard it, 120 million US dollars. Even if the people from Kleiner Perkins and I agree to help you, Baidu will not be able to come up with so much money."

"This is Baidu's only opportunity to enter independent search, and I will never miss it." Li Yanhong said firmly.

"Must we enter independent search?"

"Definitely. Now I understand that the last time Hongmeng made a deal with us, it actually tricked us. If they didn't compromise and give up the enterprise market, Baidu would definitely enter the independent search engine and fight them to the end.

With our technical strength, we may not lose to them. "

A flash of regret flashed in Li Yanhong's eyes.

A step behind means a step behind.

Bing Search has completely occupied most of the domestic independent search engine market through major top platforms, and has initially established its own moat.

After Li Yanhong understood it, she regretted that she had not been aware of Bing Ying's conspiracy.

It's a pity that I made a big mistake and regretted it too late.

But the sale of the website made him aware of an opportunity.

It's also the only chance.

Seeing him like this, Xiong Xiaoge couldn't help but sigh.

To be honest, he is not optimistic about Baidu's strategy, but he has no choice but to be on board. For the sake of maintaining and increasing the value of IDG investment, he has to help Baidu.

"Xu Liang is a smart man. He will not sell the entire website to you."

Li Yanhong smiled and said, "If you don't try it, how will you know?"

Having said that, this time he asked Xiong Xiaoge to be the intermediary to invite Xu Liang to meet, which was just a superficial test.

The key is to clarify the other party's conditions and bottom line and communicate them to the partners behind them.

As for telling IDG everything about his plan, he's not that stupid.

Investment banks are just profit-seeking bastards. If they really got his trump card, they might immediately use it to claim credit from Hongmeng in order to get a share of the investment.

He saw this kind of thing a lot when he was in Silicon Valley.

Naturally, one must be on guard.

Xiong Xiaoge looked at Li Yanhong. He was a sophisticated and sophisticated man, and he guessed that Li Yanhong had a back-up plan. However, he understood Li Yanhong's character. If the other party didn't tell her now, he wouldn't tell her even if he asked.

"Forget it, let's see what means you have." Xiong Xiaoge thought to himself.

——

The ideal building in Beijing.

"Mr. Xu, we're here."

"Lao Liang, just pick me up in two hours."

"OK."

After handing over the driver, Xu Liang opened the door and walked out.

Looking at the modern office building in front of me.

"If I remember correctly, Baidu also moved here from Peking University Ziyuan Hotel, right?"

Secretary Lu Hui nodded quickly.

They moved last December.

"It seems they are doing well in the enterprise market."

"If we hadn't given up on the corporate market, Baidu wouldn't have been able to develop so fast." Lu Hui said with some reluctance in her tone.

Xu Liang smiled. There were many people in the company who had the same idea as her.

But they never thought that it was precisely because they gave up the corporate market and devoted themselves to developing independent search engines.

Bing was able to reach nearly 60% share in just one year, completely establishing its head advantage and establishing its own moat system.

Even if Baidu becomes the leader in the enterprise search market and turns losses into profits, there will be no way back.

"Come on, let's go in."

All the way to the twentieth floor.

When the elevator door opens, you will see the Sina logo.

After exiting the elevator, four tall and beautiful ladies in cheongsam stood against the wall.

Seeing him come in, a young lady with an oval face hurriedly came over to greet him.

"Sir, are you here to attend the Sina Shareholders Meeting?"

"yes."

"What is the company you represent...?"

"Hongmeng Technology Company."

After seeing the name of Hongmeng Technology Company on the list, the young lady handed over a list and pointed to the line of Hongmeng Technology Company.

"Could you please write your name and position at the back?"

Xu Liang nodded and returned it after writing it.

Seeing the word "president", the young lady showed a hint of surprise on her face.

Unexpectedly, the other party has already become the president of a large company at such a young age.

"Can I go in?" Xu Liang said.

"Of course, please come this way."

The young lady led the way and quickly took him to a relatively spacious conference room.

In the middle of the conference room is a large oval table with more than ten chairs placed around the round table.

Each chair corresponds to a nameplate.

Take Xu Liang to the nameplate of Hongmeng Company.

"Sir, you sit here. Your assistant can sit on the chair behind."

There are many chairs placed against the walls around the conference room.

"Thanks."

The young lady smiled slightly and left.

Xu Liang sat down on the chair.

The people around who came in advance looked over in unison, with curiosity and surprise in their eyes.

After more than a year of development, Hongmeng Company is only well-known in the Internet and gaming industries. Some investment institutions are also aware of them, but in the business world, they are still unknown.

But even so, being able to participate in Sina's shareholders' meeting itself represents strength.

But he is so young, which makes people curious.

However, since everyone is here for a meeting, it will be easy to start immediately, and it is not easy to start a conversation.

Xu Liang looked around.

Opposite him is Huacheng Investment of the United States, Singapore Innovation Technology on the left, and Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd. of Japan on the right.

In addition, there are Goldman Sachs, one of the five major investment banks, the world's computer giant Dell, Wanwan anti-virus software company 'Trend Technology', Singapore Economic Development Board, Bank of America Ross Corporation, Ivanhoe International Group, PCCW, and Sina Major shareholder 'Sitong Lifang'.

Of course, these are actually only Sina shareholders who hold relatively large shares. There are dozens of other shareholders holding less than 1% of the shares.

Sina's equity is very dispersed, with the total number of shareholders reaching more than one hundred.

Obviously, those who held too few shares did not attend the shareholders' meeting.

In addition, except for SoftBank, which sold its shares to Hongmeng, the others are basically the same companies that originally invested in Sina.

When Sina went public on April 17, 2000, the Nasdaq crisis had already broken out. After the six-month stock ban ended, Sina's stock price had fallen by half of the average shareholding cost.

In other words, they are all trapped.

Unless they are willing to cut their positions and exit, they will have to accompany Sina to continue struggling in the Nasdaq crisis.

'Da da'.

Following the sound of footsteps, six people walked in one after another.

The one at the front is a young man wearing a black suit, with a big nose, thick lips, and glasses, who looks a little honest.

It was Wang Zhidong whom I had met once.

A tragic entrepreneur who will be kicked out of Sina in a few months.

His experience served as a great warning to Chinese Internet entrepreneurs, so much so that the AB-share model became popular in the Chinese venture capital industry in order to firmly grasp the management rights of the enterprise.

After Wang Zhidong, Jiang Fengnian, chairman of Sina, came in.

Duan Yongji, co-chairman of Sina and president of Stone Group.

Sina Director Chief Operating Officer Mao Daolin, Director Davis, Director Wang Yan.

Currently, there are only five of them on Sina's board of directors. Later, after acquiring Sunshine Culture Network Television Holdings Co., Ltd., it became seven.

Later, two more outside directors were added, bringing the number to nine.

As the CEO and president of Sina, Wang Zhidong is not a member of the board of directors, but he is indeed the top leader of the company and sits at the top without hesitation.

Looking around at everyone, most of them are old faces.

But when I saw Xu Liang, I subconsciously stayed for a while.

Without it.

Among the directors and shareholder representatives who are in their 30s and above, and even most of them in their 40s and 50s, Xu Liang, who is less than 20 years old, still looks... young.

It's hard not to notice.

After nodding towards him, Wang Zhidong looked back.

"Welcome all shareholders to visit Ideal Building and participate in Sina Corporation's 2001 General Meeting of Shareholders."

Wow….

After polite applause.

"Now, Mao Daolin, Chief Operating Officer of Sina Company, will introduce to you the development status of Sina in 2000 and its financial report."

Mao Daolin picked up the manuscript in his hand.

"Dear shareholder representatives, as of January 18, 2001, Sina has more than 17 million registered users worldwide, and the average monthly page views have increased to 84 million.

An increase of 167% compared to last year.

It is a great honor that because of Sina's extensive global reach and in-depth understanding of the local market, it was selected as the only Internet partner of the Chinese Sports Delegation and its official website for the 27th Olympic Games last year.

The extensive influence of the Olympic Games has continued to consolidate and strengthen Sina's position as the world's number one Chinese portal. "

After a pause to allow everyone time to digest, Mao Daolin continued.

"Thanks to the company's continuous development, Sina generated net revenue of US$24.2 million in 2000, an increase of 514% from the net revenue of US$4.7 million in 1999.

Including amortized non-cash expenses such as compensation related to intangible assets and stock options, the company had a net loss of US$43.35 million in fiscal year 2000.

The pro forma net loss per share was reduced to US$0.15, which was US$0.07 less than the market estimate of US$0.22 per share.

In other words, Sina's development is much better than market expectations.

In addition, judging from Sina's operations in the four quarters of 2000, the company's revenue growth was much greater than its debt growth.

The company's debt ratio decreased by an average of 18% in the four quarters.

Therefore, we have every reason to believe that in one to two years at most, Sina.com can turn losses into profits and create good returns for shareholders.

Finally, Sina currently holds $98 million in cash and short-term investments, and our financial position remains healthy... "

Under Mao Daolin's explanation, everyone had a basic understanding of Sina's current finances.

In particular, Xu Liang found from Sina's financial reports that their debt ratio was indeed decreasing, and advertising revenue increased by more than 200% every quarter.

The business is indeed excellent.

But judging from the expressions of other shareholders at the scene, it seems that they are not very satisfied with Sina's financial performance.

The reason is not hard to guess.

It can be seen from Sina's financial statements that it will take at least a year or two for them to turn a profit.

This time is too long and the efficiency of fund utilization is too low.

Moreover, it is still unknown whether China's economy can continue to develop for such a long time without encountering major problems.

After all, these days, the theory of China's collapse is popular in the United States, and voices are heard in Washington to curb China's development. What happened in Europe is proof.

Therefore, what they want is to get out of trouble as soon as possible, make a fortune and leave, rather than accompany Sina to grow old slowly.