Chapter 860 The boy is still young
Facts have proved that Han Shanping's vision is very accurate.
In its fourth week of release, Hero grossed 47.4 million yuan at the box office, a drop of more than 60% from the previous week's 81.3 million yuan. This shows that piracy does have a real impact on the box office.
But overall, this number is acceptable. After all, it is the fourth week of its release, and it still has a box office of over 40 million, which is an incredible record.
After four weeks of release, the total box office of "Hero" has reached 274.6 million yuan. There is still half a month before the release of "Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World". It should not be difficult for "Hero" to get a box office of 30 million.
The box office of 300 million is just around the corner.
In early August, Qu Xiaowei called Lin Weimin and said that Charles had gone to Feiyue Internet Cafe again. He grabbed Charles and said he wanted to introduce a friend to him, and then called Lin Weimin without caring whether Charles was willing or not.
Charles went to Feiyue to surf the Internet after get off work. Lin Weimin had just finished dinner and had nothing to do, so he answered his call and went to Feiyue Internet Cafe.
When he entered the Internet cafe, Qu Xiaowei was chatting with a young man who was dressed fashionably and had his legs crossed.
As soon as he saw Lin Weimin coming, he immediately stood up and introduced him to Lin Weimin enthusiastically: "This is Charles, his name is Zhang Chaoyang, he is a top student of Shuimu University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and now he has opened an Internet company in Yanjing."
"Charles, you should know this person, right? Lin Weimin, a great writer."
Zhang Chaoyang, who was chatting casually, stood up immediately when he saw Lin Weimin's face.
"Hello, Teacher Lin, I am Zhang Chaoyang." He extended his hand to Lin Weimin with a slightly respectful attitude.
Zhang Chaoyang really didn't expect that the person that Qu Xiaowei, the Internet cafe owner, wanted to introduce to him today was actually Lin Weimin.
He graduated from the Department of Physics of Mizuki University in 1986, and in the same year he received a scholarship from the CUSPEA program to study abroad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.
Zhang Chaoyang stayed in the United States for nine years, and these nine years happened to be the period when Lin Weimin went from obscurity to being a powerful figure in the United States.
Over the years, Lin Weimin's reputation among overseas students, especially those in the United States, has undergone a huge leap from being attacked to being worshipped.
Today, he has become the pride of China among overseas Chinese, including international students. Whenever they are stuck for a topic to talk to foreigners, mentioning the name "Lin Weimin" always produces unexpected results.
In the eyes of these overseas students, Lin Weimin's image has long gone beyond that of a "Chinese writer" and it would be more appropriate to call him a world-class writer.
"Hello, hello." Lin Weimin looked relaxed. He shook hands with Zhang Chaoyang and sat down. "I'll call you Chaoyang!"
"As you please, whatever comes to your mind."
Zhang Chaoyang's attitude was very humble, which surprised Qu Xiaowei who was standing next to him. He thought this guy was always casual when talking to everyone.
With Qu Xiaowei as the middleman, after a brief greeting, Zhang Chaoyang began to have a pleasant chat with Lin Weimin, mainly Zhang Chaoyang introducing his own experience.
He went abroad to study on a scholarship in 1986. After obtaining his Ph.D. from MIT at the end of 1993, he stayed at MIT for a period of postdoctoral research.
During this period, Zhang Chaoyang met the Mason father and son who wanted to invest in power plants in China, and through them he met Gary Mueller who was studying at Harvard Business School.
Gary Mueller founded an Internet company, ISI, and successfully obtained financing. In 1995, he was invited by Gary Mueller to become the chief representative of ISI in China.
In 1996, Zhang Chaoyang came up with the idea of starting a business. After some efforts, he obtained an angel investment of 225,000 US dollars from Professor Negroponte and Professor Edward Robert of MIT Sloan School of Management.
For this angel investment of 225,000 US dollars, Zhang Chaoyang paid 30% of the shares of the company that had not yet been established. At that time, it was quite impressive for a company that had not yet been established to get a valuation of 750,000 US dollars.
Many Internet entrepreneurs in China today don’t even know the concept of venture capital, but Zhang Chaoyang has already obtained the first venture capital in his life, and his entrepreneurial journey has been smoother than that of most people.
In August last year, Zhang Chaoyang, who had obtained venture capital, officially established Aitexin Company in China. Aitexin Company is the predecessor of Sohu.
Zhang Chaoyang talked about his experience of studying abroad and then returning to China to start a business. Qu Xiaowei praised him: "In recent years, many students have gone abroad, but few have returned. Just for this reason, you are better than most people."
Zhang Chaoyang said embarrassedly: "I'm not that noble. The main reason I returned to China was that during my time in the laboratory, I had a lot of experimental data that needed to be calculated by computer, which allowed me to get in touch with the Internet. When I returned to China the year before last, I saw that China was lagging behind in this regard. Lagging behind is also an opportunity."
Lin Weimin nodded and said, "Chaoyang, what you said is very insightful. No wonder you returned to China to start an Internet company. Your company should be doing well now, right?"
When talking about the company's development, Zhang Chaoyang frowned.
It has been a year since Atexin was founded. After a year of exploration, Zhang Chaoyang has found the future path, but he is now facing a dilemma.
Atexin has no money!
In one year, Zhang Chaoyang spent all the 225,000 US dollars of angel investment. He is not the kind of entrepreneur who spends every penny wisely. He spent the money happily before, but now he is also painful to be broke. Recently, he is having a headache about financing.
He contacted several venture capital firms in the United States. At that time, venture capital was a new thing in China and no one touched it at all.
The venture capital institutions in the United States are very shrewd. Although Aitexin, a Chinese Internet company, has only been established for a year, it has no achievements worth boasting about, and no one is interested in Aitexin at all.
In the past six months, Zhang Chaoyang has been worried about the company's second round of financing. Recently, the situation has become more urgent because the money in the company's account is almost gone.
Lin Weimin's words made Zhang Chaoyang feel a little embarrassed. He had intentionally or unintentionally praised himself during the conversation just now, but it became a little awkward when they talked about the company's development.
After hesitating for a while, he said, "To be honest, the company's development has not been going well recently..."
Having let go of his pride, Zhang Chaoyang felt relieved and told the company about the difficulties it was facing.
After returning to China to establish the company, Zhang Chaoyang rented an office in the Everbright Building. The company's server is shared with ISI. He now also helps manage ISI's China business.
In February this year, Atexin launched the Atexin China Industrial and Commercial Network. They are now planning to launch a search column on the Industrial and Commercial Network, which is actually a large-scale classified query search engine, basically equivalent to a low-profile version of Yahoo.
The product is there, but the problem is how to make a profit.
This is not only a problem that troubles Zhang Chaoyang, but also a problem that troubles many Internet entrepreneurs around the world.
After listening to Zhang Chaoyang's words, Lin Weimin was silent. Zhang Chaoyang laughed at himself and said, "Well, let's talk about my own affairs. Teacher Lin, it is fate that I can meet you today. I don't know..."
Qu Xiaowei had specially pulled Zhang Chaoyang to wait for Lin Weimin today. There had to be a reason to invite someone. Lin Weimin said casually, "The Internet wave in China is booming nowadays, and our Guowen Society is also very interested in this emerging industry. It just so happened that Xiaowei said he knew a top student who had returned from studying abroad, so I thought of asking for advice."
After Lin Weimin finished speaking, a light flashed in Zhang Chaoyang's eyes, "Teacher Lin, is your company going to build a website?"
Lin Weimin pretended to hesitate, shook his head and said, "I haven't really thought about it yet. I just have this idea now. As you know, we are a public institution. We don't have any experience or accumulation in terms of Internet talents or technology."
"Not bad, not bad. This is an unfamiliar industry for you. If you invest rashly, the risk is huge. You should be cautious. Among the Internet companies in the world, the US is doing the best, but most companies are still in the stage of burning money."
At this point, Zhang Chaoyang showed some hesitation on his face. After struggling for a moment, he said: "In fact, I think if you want to enter the Internet industry, you can start with investment."
Seeing a questioning look on Lin Weimin's face, Zhang Chaoyang made up his mind. It would be too hasty. Guowenshe was a wealthy company. Now they wanted to enter the Internet field. Maybe they would be willing to give him the money.
"Teacher Lin, I just said that my company is short of money. What Guowenshe lacks now is projects, and I happen to have some. This is a win-win deal."
When Zhang Chaoyang said this, Qu Xiaowei interrupted and said, "Chaoyang, you are being a little unkind. Just now you said that your company didn't even make a sound when it lost money. Aren't you dragging Weimin into the fire pit?"
Zhang Chaoyang was afraid that Lin Weimin would misunderstand him, so he quickly explained: "Teacher Lin, our company is indeed not profitable yet, but I think the route we are taking now is correct. It is definitely the most likely to be profitable, and it has huge potential in the future."
Lin Weimin was still hesitating. Zhang Chaoyang, who was at a loss for words, looked at Lin Weimin with a calm expression, feeling nervous and uneasy.
After a long time, Lin Weimin sighed, "Chaoyang, you really make it difficult for me!"
Hearing this, Zhang Chaoyang's heart skipped a beat. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to be rejected.
"Our Guowen Press wants to enter the Internet to help promote the development of our own industry. Can investing in your website achieve this effect?"
Zhang Chaoyang's heart sank. He struggled and said, "Teacher Lin, if our classified search engine is released, I can help Guowenshe build a website for free. Our search engine can direct traffic to your website."
Lin Weimin chuckled and said, "To invest in your company, I need at least one million yuan. With that money, wouldn't it be better if I directly advertise the website?"
Hearing this, Zhang Chaoyang showed a bit of dejection on his face. How could he not know the loophole in his words just now? But he didn't want to give up this last straw.
After failing to persuade Lin Weimin, he felt frustrated. He leaned against the back of the sofa, not daring to look at Lin Weimin's eyes.
"but……"
When Lin Weimin uttered two words, Zhang Chaoyang, who was originally discouraged, raised his head and a glimmer of hope flashed across his face.
"I'm quite interested in the search engine you mentioned. I remember there was a company called Yahoo in the US that was engaged in search engines, right? And it's even listed on the stock market?"
Zhang Chaoyang nodded repeatedly as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw and said, "That's right. Teacher Lin, our search engine is following the path of Yahoo. Yahoo has been listed for two years and now has a market value of more than 1 billion US dollars..."
Seeing a faint smile on Lin Weimin's face, Zhang Chaoyang seemed to have seen through his little thoughts, so he changed the subject and said, "But our search engine is still relatively rudimentary."
Lin Weimin nodded, as if he was satisfied with his truthfulness. Zhang Chaoyang felt relieved for some reason.
"That being said, it does have some potential."
When Zhang Chaoyang heard this, he felt an irrepressible joy in his heart. There is a way!
"How about this, tomorrow I will bring a technician to your place for inspection. If it is suitable, we can invest at our discretion." Lin Weimin said.
Zhang Chaoyang was overjoyed when he heard this. He crossed the coffee table and shook Lin Weimin's hand, "Thank you, thank you Teacher Lin."
Lin Weimin smiled easily and said kindly: "The Internet is a high-tech industry. If we can cooperate with your company, it will also be a suitable entry point for our Guowen Press."
"That's right, it's a win-win result."
The two chatted for a few more sentences, and Zhang Chaoyang left Feiyue Internet Cafe with some gratitude. He was looking forward to Lin Weimin's inspection tomorrow.
Looking at Zhang Chaoyang's leaving back, Qu Xiaowei shook his head silently.
The young man is still young. From the moment he entered the door to the moment he left, he was completely controlled by the old fox Lin Weimin.
"Hey, Weimin, is it true that you just told Chaoyang that Yahoo is worth 1 billion US dollars?" Qu Xiaowei asked.
Although he runs a chain of Internet cafes, he doesn't even understand English and knows no more about the development of the Internet on the other side of the ocean than ordinary people.
"It's just the market value. That company doesn't make more than a few million dollars a year."
"Do you really think I don't understand? What does it matter how much money the company makes? It's enough that the stock is valuable. Can you still buy the company's stock now?"
"Yes, but it has dropped by 5m dollars recently, so I can't make any money."
"Huh?" Qu Xiaowei noticed the loophole in Lin Weimin's words and looked at him suspiciously.
Knowing that he had let the cat out of the bag, Lin Weimin laughed and said, "Well, it's fine, I'll leave first!"
Qu Xiaowei looked at his back and muttered: They say this guy has investments in the United States, it seems to be true, he is really tight-lipped!
(End of this chapter)
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