Chapter 440: Set your sights on me
After not seeing each other for a while, Nazha burst into unprecedented enthusiasm when she returned home and expressed her longing with practical actions.
However, the best way to describe her is to be a weakling with a strong addiction to sex.
After an intense exercise, on the big bed in the bedroom, Nazha hugged Gu Wei's waist and buried her head in his arms, like an ostrich in danger.
Gu Wei placed his hand on her smooth and beautiful back and gently stroked it.
"No, I'm too tired. I need to sleep. I have work tomorrow."
Naza didn't look up, panting slightly and speaking softly.
Gu Wei smiled, bent down and kissed her hair, then turned sideways and hugged Nazha.
"Go to sleep."
Then he closed his eyes too.
The next morning, Gu Wei left Nazha's house and went to the company to handle some work. Then he took a car to the headquarters of ByteDance in Beijing.
It has been more than three years since Gu Wei invested in ByteDance in 2013. In June 2014, ByteDance raised another Series C round of funding, led by Weibo and Sequoia Capital, with a financing of US$100 million and a valuation of US$500 million.
During these three years, ByteDance has developed steadily and the number of users of Toutiao has increased, but it has gradually reached a bottleneck.
[Neihan Duanzi] was often asked to rectify its content by relevant departments. Therefore, under the demand of the entire company for innovation and change, in September this year, [ByteDance] launched a new music short video software [Tik Tok].
This is not the first time that Gu Wei has come to ByteDance's headquarters. As a major shareholder, he has occasionally visited the company in recent years to talk with Zhang Yiming and others about the company's current situation and understand ByteDance's development status and the difficulties it faces.
Although he doesn't understand technology, he can always give Zhang some more pertinent advice with a long-term vision.
After arriving at Byte, Zhang Yiming came out to greet him personally and took Gu Weixian on a tour around the place.
Compared with other companies, emerging Internet companies like ByteDance basically change every once in a while. The company size and valuation are expanding rapidly like blowing up a balloon. Gu Wei last came more than half a year ago, and there have been great changes since then.
"This is our newly established [TikTok] project department. Since the product was incubated based on [Neihan Duanzi], we recruited some key personnel from there, plus some newly recruited employees."
Gu Wei nodded after listening to Zhang Yiming's introduction.
"Wow~ a big star!
Why did Gu Wei come to our company? Did our company invite him to be the spokesperson?
The boss personally accompanies you?
Gu Wei is indeed very handsome, even more handsome in person than on TV."
Their arrival was naturally noticed by the employees who were working. Everyone looked in Gu Wei's direction and whispered.
"Don't be surprised. Mr. Gu is a major shareholder of our company. He basically comes every once in a while. You'll understand after you've been working here for a while."
The old employee next to him explained.
"What, he is a shareholder of our company?"
"Yes, although I don't know how much he owns, I guess he's not a small shareholder. He's always accompanied by Mr. Zhang himself."
"Wow!
This is too incredible!
Big stars also invest in Internet companies?
Our company is now valued at tens of billions of dollars. Gu Wei is not only handsome, but also a big star and an investment genius?
The domineering CEO has become a reality, how cool is that!
“.”
Gu Wei and the other man ignored everyone's discussion, took a few glances and left the work area.
A moment later, in the president's office.
"The company is currently in talks for a Series D round of financing, with Sequoia Capital and CCB International as the lead investors. However, negotiations are still ongoing and there are some disagreements regarding valuation."
Zhang Yiming made tea while introducing everything to Gu Wei.
"The current valuation given by the two companies is US$9 billion, and our own offer is US$11 billion."
Gu Wei took the teacup handed to him with both hands, blew on it, and took a sip.
"I also downloaded the TikTok app you just mentioned. I think it's a pretty good one."
Zhang Yiming smiled.
"The company has now reached a bottleneck in the news field, and we developed [TikTok] to see if we can find a new path.
However, competition in the short video field is also fierce.
At present, Kuaishou is the absolute leader, and Meipai and Miaopai, which also have a large number of users, should not be underestimated.
Xiaokaxiu, which was launched last year, has relied on the traffic from Miaopai, a fellow company, and the hype from Sina Weibo. In just over two months since its launch, it has attracted more than 15 million users and topped the AppStore China free download list.
It is considered a rising star in the short video field.
If our [TikTok] wants to catch up with these, it still has a long way to go.”
As soon as Zhang Yiming mentioned Xiaokaxiu Gu Wei, he knew what he meant.
Gu Wei has a good relationship with Zhao Liying, so he knew that Xiaokaxiu became popular quickly after it was launched, which was closely related to her Weibo celebrity promotion strategy.
At that time, Zhao Liying was invited to serve as the nominal vice president of Xiaokaxiu, and Jia Nailiang was the CCO. At the same time, many celebrities such as Wang Luodan and Jiang Xin were invited to promote Xiaokaxiu.
Thanks to the guidance of many celebrities, the newly launched short video APP Xiaokaxiu became popular in a short period of time.
He smiled and looked at the other person.
"It seems that you have set your sights on me."
Zhang Yiming felt that his thoughts were seen through by him and smiled embarrassedly.
"I have no choice. Now is a critical period for the company's financing. These investors are all about data. If the company doesn't take advantage of a big star shareholder like you, it would be a waste.
[Toutiao] and [Neihan Duanzi] have both been around for quite some time and it is difficult for them to improve in a short period of time. Only [TikTok] has been online for just over a month and has huge potential.
Besides, our valuation is high this time, and we’ve raised a lot of money, so your shares will be even more valuable.”
"Okay, I'm your partner, not your employee, so don't paint me a rosy picture.
Just tell me what to do."
Zhang Yiming was very happy to hear what Gu Wei said and began to tell him his thoughts.
In fact, it is very simple. Gu Wei himself is the most popular star in the domestic entertainment industry. The fact that he is a top star by a huge margin is no joke. Not counting passers-by, his own fans alone are enough to make [Tik Tok] popular.
So he just needs to join Douyin himself, and then place advertisements on various platforms to promote the product.
All Gu Wei needs to do is shoot a short video and upload it to his account every once in a while. It’s very simple.
To be honest, with Gu Wei's current popularity in China, there are many people who are jealous of his traffic.
Since Wang Sicong met Gu Wei, he has invited him to live broadcast on Panda TV more than once, claiming that he would do it as long as Gu Wei agreed to any conditions. This is because he values Gu Wei's super high popularity and huge fan base.
If he could do a live broadcast, his fans would give out gifts and bring huge traffic to the platform.
Gu Wei was not someone who needed that little bit of money. Besides, he knew that the final outcome of Panda TV was not very good, and he did not want to cut the leeks of fans in this way, so he never agreed.
However, it doesn’t matter for an app like [TikTok] that’s owned by the company. TikTok will become popular sooner or later anyway. If you use your own traffic to give it a boost in the early stages, it will surely develop faster and better.
And as Zhang Yiming said, he is a major shareholder of ByteDance, and the company's valuation is directly related to his own interests. Of course, the higher the better.
After listening to Zhang Yiming's plan, Gu Wei thought about it.
"I also own two film and television companies, which have signed quite a few artists, including top stars like Yang Mi, Zhang Tianai, and Nazha, as well as other lesser-known celebrities. They can also be signed to divert traffic to [TikTok]."
"Very good!"
Zhang Yiming clapped his hands. He didn't expect there would be such a surprise: buy a big and get a small free.
“It’s not that I want to make money, I can make decisions for my artists, but the fees still have to be based on market prices.
They can’t suffer losses because of me as their boss.”
"Don't worry, we at ByteDance are not short of money, and we will soon receive another $1 billion in financing."
Zhang Yiming waved his hand and said proudly.
Gu Wei nodded, thought for a moment, and then asked hesitantly:
"I downloaded [TikTok] and played it a few times. From what I understand, this app is a music short video app with many novel ways to play. It comes with special effects, filters, beauty features, scene switching, and other functions. It's easy to use and is very suitable for the general public.
Ordinary people can also get everyone's attention by shooting videos and sharing their lives. I think this is the key to the future success of [TikTok].
Although celebrities like me can bring in a lot of traffic and the data will definitely look very good, the celebrity-centric model will make it difficult for ordinary users to gain attention. An APP that relies solely on celebrities will not be able to last long."
Gu Wei knows that the future success of [Tik Tok] will not depend on any celebrity, but on tens of millions of ordinary short video shooters. The large number of video producers has given birth to countless novel short videos, coupled with [ByteDance]'s unique algorithm mechanism, which is the key to [Tik Tok] having the last laugh in the short video track.
He doesn't want TikTok to go astray just because he can easily bring in traffic.
Zhang Yiming was a little surprised when he heard what Gu Wei said, and then he waved his hand indifferently.
"I'm surprised you can see the essence of this app so clearly. I told you before that if you weren't a celebrity, you would definitely be the best product manager in the company."
Gu Wei rolled his eyes at him after hearing this.
I'm a big star and a major shareholder. You want me to come and work for you as a product manager. What are you thinking about?
Zhang Yiming continued:
“You have reason to be concerned, but that won’t happen.
The underlying logic of [TikTok] determines that this will not be a celebrity-centered APP. All celebrities can do is to divert traffic, and once the traffic comes in, it will naturally be digested in this market.
Users who download the APP after following celebrities will gradually be attracted to other videos besides watching celebrities. After a period of time, even if their favorite celebrity is no longer on our platform, I believe this user will be retained.
Our various trendy designs and unique algorithms are the key.”
After hearing what Zhang Yiming said, Gu Wei nodded with relief.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
