Extraordinary Genius

Paul Allen left the next day with an excuse of not feeling well. Microsoft will send someone over in the future, and Paul swore he will never set foot into China in his life.

There were rumors that Paul Allen ate three people’s portion of breakfast and attracted stares from many people. This is too disgraceful for a super tycoon. Maybe the Americans had never tried dough sticks and rice congee.

Kirilenko and the Fu brothers went to Macau, while Feng Yu flew to Beijing. Sun Lijie told Feng Yu that one of the names on the watchlist had approached him for investment. But they could not agree on the shares proportion and investment amount.

If Feng Yu had not given Sun Lijie the name list, the latter would surely try to lower the price. But now, Sun Lijie is afraid that he will push the other party to other venture investors.

Feng Yu asked who this person is, and after he heard the name, he immediately tells Sun Lijie to wait for him in Beijing. He wants to speak to this Xiao Ma in person.

This Xiao Ma is another legend, with the same surname as the founder Alibaba. But this Xiao Ma is also a lot older than Feng Yu.

Feng Yu had seen the product from Xiao Ma’s company at the internet café. It’s a type of instant messaging software, and Feng Yu had registered an account. At this time, his account number is still 6-digits.

The account number is 6-digits is because the number of people using this software still has not reached over a million. In the future, the number of users will exceed 10 million.

Upon arrival in Beijing, Feng Yu asked Sun Lijie about the other party’s demands. To be honest, Xiao Ma had wanted for high investment, but the shares he offered is too little. He also does not want Tai Hua Investment to interfere with his company’s operation.

On the same afternoon, Xiao Ma arrived at Tai Hua Investment again. He heard that the legendary tycoon, Feng Yu, is going to speak to him.

When both men met, they were impressed by the other party’s age. Xiao Ma is in his late twenties and is much younger than the pictures Feng Yu saw on the internet in his previous life.

“Manager Ma, I am Feng Yu.”

“Nice to meet you, Manager Feng.” Although Xiao Ma’s tone is respectful towards Feng Yu, he also showed his self-confidence.

“Manager Ma, I heard your company is doing an internet paging platform, right?”

“Not only that. We are also doing short information messages broadcast, IP phones, and online instant messaging software.” Xiao Ma added.

“What do you think about the pager business? How many more years can it carry on?” Feng Yu asked with a smile.

“Your companies had stopped their pager production and switched to mobile phones. Do you still need to ask?”

“Oh? You seem to know a lot about my companies.”

“Not really, but I am in this industry, and I need to monitor and understand the trend by watching the top companies closely.” Xiao Ma replied proudly.

“Then, are you going to develop the pager business after you get the investment?”

“Of course not. We will be focusing on instant messaging software and mobile phone’s SMS. We think the online instant messaging software has high potential because the PCs are developing very fast, and there are more and more PC users. An online game, Legend of Mir, was launched this year and made more people buy PCs. As the number of PC users increases and the internet becomes more developed, the internet will become an essential part of our lives.”

Feng Yu raised his brows. Xiao Ma’s prediction of the future is very accurate. No wonder he can be so successful in Feng Yu’s previous life. In Feng Yu’s precious life, Tencent had been expanding and had never suffered any setbacks.

Of course, the core of Tencent is still this instant messaging software.

“Then how are you going to make profits from your company’s products?” Feng Yu asked.

“We cannot make any profits current, as we are still in the expanding phase. We need to increase the users and need a lot of investments for advertising in the Internet Café, PC shopping malls, etc. We still need to compete with ICQ and other software. So, we are not charging the users now. Still, we will introduce some upgraded services for a fee in the future, and we will get back several times of our investment.”

Feng Yu knew Xiao Ma and his team still have not thought of how to make profits out of this software. But they could tell the potential and knew they need to gain more users now.

With so many users, what’s there to worry about making profits?

“What are your upgraded services?” Feng Yu asked in detail.

“For example, advertisements, searches, etc. All these can bring profits for the company. Most importantly, we will have a significant group of users, and the value of this is priceless.”

“Have you thought about your company’s future direction?”

“Now, we will focus on this messaging software, QQ, and try all other possibilities. As long as we have enough users, we will surely make money. So, we must develop QQ first and increase the users.”

Feng Yu smiles. “I am interested in your company. But advertising in Internet cafés and PC shopping malls are not enough. I have a way to increase the number of users by folds. But if your software is not good enough, then all the users will disappear very soon.”

“Manager Feng, what is this idea?”

“I am also a shareholder of Lenovo Group, and I can ask them to pre-install QQ into their PCs. This way, everyone that bought Lenovo’s PCs will be a potential new user of your software. They might be curious and registered an account, and it is up to you all on how to retain them.”

“That’s terrific. This way, the number of users will increase rapidly, and we currently have over 460,000 users. We might exceed over 1 million users this year!”

“Do you know about Legend of Mir?” Feng Yu asked.

“Yes. Many people, including me, from my company, are playing this game. I heard you are the one who had invested and developed this game.” Xiao Ma replied.

“There are over 9 million registered players in China now, and it is still increasing. What if I advertise about QQ on the login page of the game?”

“That’s great. These online players are the ones who use the internet more and are our targeted segment.”

“We also have shares in Sina, NetEase, Sohu, etc. and we can advertise for your company’s product, or even provide a download link.”

“Look, it is much easier for me to market your product for you and have a higher chance of succeeding. I can even get NetEase or my other companies to develop a similar instant messaging software with my funds and people. Even if your product was launched one year earlier than mine, I could overtake you easily.”

Xiao Ma’s face turns pale. If Feng Yu gets his three internet companies to develop an instant messaging software, Feng Yu will be in a more advantageous position.

“However, I would still want to invest in your company. But we need to negotiate on the terms. I will inject funds into your company in exchange for voting shares. But I will not interfere with how you manage the company, and even provide lots of assistance to your company. No one else in China can do this except for me.”

Xiao Ma was deep in thoughts. He had founded this company, and now, he has to let someone else be the major shareholder?!

Translator’s notes:

Ma Huateng