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Two days before Wen Ming got the news of the Sifang merger, Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley, USA.

As a young man who has been compared to Bill Gates by the media, Mark Zuckerberg is conceited a lot of the time, especially when it comes to work.

"Why buy Instagram?"

Mark Zuckerberg was very puzzled by this, and he raised questions about this motion.

"The number of registered users of ins is only over 10 million, which is not even a fraction of ours. The creation time of ins is only more than one month, and the creation time of our facebook has been more than five years. Can any of you tell me that it can affect us What threat does it pose?"

The question Mark Zuckerberg asked was normal. It was already the beginning of July 2009. Facebook had nearly 400 million global users, and the number of monthly visits in the United States alone had reached 100 million. The number of global visiting users has also reached 300 million.

Compared with ins, which has only more than 10 million registered users, Facebook is undoubtedly a giant.

The person in charge of Facebook's operation department said blankly: "Boss, you need to pay attention to a problem. Our active users are only 70%, and most of them still use computers to access our Facebook."

"The data I got about ins shows that although their registered users are only 12 million at present, the number of active users accounts for 93% of them. Among them, more than 85% of users use mobile clients to access ins."

The comparison of these two data made Mark Zuckerberg pay attention to the ins product for the first time. Before that, he did not pay too much attention to ins. He only knew that this product was also developed and promoted by a Harvard student. Moreover, this Harvard student had similar experience to him. He was also a computer major and was currently on leave from Harvard.

Of course, Mark Zuckerberg handled the withdrawal procedure.

The person in charge of the operation department continued: "We have done research on the usage habits of Facebook users before, combined with the current development speed of smartphones, we are sure that in the future, whether it is Facebook or other social networking sites, users who use smartphones to access The number will completely exceed the number of users who use computers to access."

"That is to say, whoever can allow users to access their own social software on smartphones will be able to occupy the social software market."

Mark Zuckerberg is a genius, otherwise it would be impossible to create a product like Facebook, the fifth most valuable brand in the world in the future.

Under the explanation of his employees, Mark Zuckerberg quickly realized the reasons for this acquisition.

But he was still a little confused and asked: "The key to the problem is that ins is just a tool-type social software. Its purpose is to beautify photos and share photos. As far as I know, users of this software mainly choose websites for sharing photos , is our Facebook.”

Mark Zuckerberg has also used ins. For this new product, it is naturally impossible for him to miss it. But it is precisely because he has used this software that he ignores other aspects because of the instrumentality of this software.

The person in charge of the planning department said: "What if they also built a website similar to ours? Relying on the usage habits of mobile phone users, they have already started to build online virtual communities. Photos are shared in the online virtual community of ins, not our Facebook, nor other similar social networking sites."

"If I were the person in charge of Apple's development planning department, then I would definitely find a way to transform the online virtual community into a real social networking site."

The market is limited, especially in the market of social networking sites and software. Most users are only accustomed to using one social software. Which social software has a better user experience?

Then which social software they will switch to.

The most critical issue is the network of contacts accumulated by users on social software.

The person in charge of the planning department continued: "Ins already has a friend recommendation function, that is to say, they will soon be able to transfer the user's circle of friends on our Facebook to their software. If in the future we If we can’t beat them to occupy the social software market in the smartphone software market, then they will spy on our computer-side social networking site market based on the mobile phone software market.”

No company or product is impossible to fail. Mark Zuckerberg suddenly thought of the opponents he defeated after he created Facebook.

For example, Myspace, a social networking site founded in 2003, was once a direct competitor of Facebook. At the beginning, Myspace did not pay enough attention to Facebook, because Facebook started late and the user groups involved were also college students.

But after that?

Myspace has become the second largest social network in the world, while Facebook is the number one.

Don't underestimate the difference between the first and the second. In 2006, Myspace was acquired by News Corporation for US$530 million. In the same year, Google offered Facebook an offer of US$2.3 billion, but Mark Zuckerberg did not sell it.

As for now, Facebook's valuation has exceeded 10 billion U.S. dollars, while Myspace's valuation is only 1 billion U.S. dollars. This is the gap between the first and the second. It is not an exaggeration to say that the winner takes all.

After some discussion, Mark Zuckerberg finally felt the seriousness of the problem.

In the early stage of enterprise development, it is natural to use products to defeat competitors, but in the later stage, when the products have reached the extreme, it is necessary to use funds to acquire competitors, kill them in the cradle, and even be able to be successful because of this. profit.

Facebook's development model has been fixed. It is a social networking site. Unlike hardware manufacturers, it is only a social networking site even if it plays out. Therefore, later Facebook continued to invest in other industries in order to increase the market value of its own company and increase its revenue.

"How much is Apple worth?"

Mark Zuckerberg, who asked this question, has decided to acquire ins, but it is not limited to ins, he also wants to acquire the junior who created ins. Also a computer science student at Harvard University, Wen Ming was originally Mark Zuckerberg's junior.

The person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said: "Unfortunately, we cannot acquire Apple, because the ins product no longer belongs to Apple."

After some introductions, the relationship between Apple, Teresa Roy, and ins was clarified by Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg's news would not have been so backward. It was all because of the rapid development of ins, including its last financing speed, which far exceeded the financing speed of normal companies. Of course, it also exceeded the speed of many companies. The amount of the first financing.

"US$470 million?" Mark Zuckerberg frowned and said, "I think if we want to acquire ins, it must be more than that much money."

Someone replied: "Actually, we made a preliminary estimate. The current valuation of ins should be around 750 million US dollars. But if we don't acquire it at this time, with its current development speed, we will soon need put more money into it.”

Facebook acquired ins because ins was a threat to it. Only ins with more than 10 million users can still pose a threat. Then after a few months, the number of ins users will become more?

The greater the threat, the greater the price you have to pay if you want to acquire it.

Mark Zuckerberg asked: "What do you guys think?"

The person in charge of the investment department said: "Equity replacement, and some cash."

Mark Zuckerberg asked again: "But the cash on our books should not be much, and we still need to develop."

"We don't have money, but there are many rich people who want to invest in our company. For example, Li Jiacheng from Huaxia still has a part of the priority financing right in his hands."