69novels Chapter 157 Marboni is exhausted, and MaJack admits to being blind.
Chapter 157 Marboni is exhausted, and MaJack admits to being blind.
Chapter 157 Marboni is exhausted, and Majad admits to being blind (6k)
At this time, Penguin had not yet created the later famous Penguin Industry Win-Win Fund.
The investment and M&A department, which Liu Chiping built from scratch, has not yet been separated from the group system. To put it bluntly, it is just an execution department and does not have much say.
The most prominent characteristic of Tencent right now is that it prioritizes self-developed technologies and uses investment as a secondary strategy. It wants to do everything itself, believing that what others do is not as good as what it does. Investment is only a backup plan when there is absolutely no other way.
Moreover, its investment decisions are actually business-driven: the business departments first put forward their needs, and the investment department is responsible for execution and financial oversight.
The investment is primarily focused on consolidating the core gaming business and establishing a defensive strategy, with financial returns being a secondary consideration.
So when he heard Liu Chiping say, "The investment department has compiled an investment plan," Ma Boni, who was leaning back in his chair rubbing his temples, visibly paused, his face full of surprise.
As far as he could remember, no one in the social, gaming, or e-commerce departments had mentioned investing in any new products recently.
Marponni didn't open his eyes immediately. He rubbed his throbbing temples a few more times and pressed his fingertips against his brow to relieve fatigue before slowly lifting his eyelids.
He was truly exhausted. Recently, Tencent had piled up a mountain of problems, and he had to make the final decision on every single one of them.
The new round of battle strategy with 360, the battle between Tencent Weibo and Xinlang Weibo, the acquisition of NetEase, the decision to invest in 7 South Korean game companies, the Q1 earnings conference call —
"Momo?" Marponni frowned slightly. "Who made this investment request? I don't recall it."
"Pony, it wasn't the business department that suggested it; it was our investment department that came up with it on its own initiative." Liu Chiping leaned forward slightly.
After a slight hesitation, Ma Boni reached out and took the investment proposal handed to him by Liu Chiping.
Ma Boni had heard of the product name [Momo] before; he had seen it a few times in news headlines when browsing the news.
But he was too busy with work to pay attention to it, and just thought it was a small company trying to ride the wave of popularity. He didn't take it seriously at all, let alone download it and use it.
In his eyes, it was just a trivial trinket that wouldn't make much of a splash.
"Pony, Momo is the hottest stranger social networking app on mobile devices recently. It focuses on LBS positioning, which allows users to find people nearby to chat with. Young people are all playing it now."
Liu Chiping was afraid he wouldn't understand, so she specially explained it in the simplest terms.
"Oh, another social networking product for strangers," Marponni exclaimed in realization.
A few days ago, Zhang Xiaolong came to report to Ma Boni, saying that he wanted to create a "message in a bottle" feature in QQ Mail, focusing on social interaction with strangers in order to increase QQ Mail's daily active users. Ma Boni rejected him three times in a row, citing that the style didn't match.
It wasn't until the fourth time, when Zhang Xiaolong came to his door and pestered him relentlessly, that Ma Boni, who was getting annoyed by his constant harassment, finally agreed to let him be a pilot student to see the results.
I just sent one message in a bottle away, will another one come along?
Thinking this, Marponni felt a chill run down his spine again and quickly began flipping through the investment report.
He quickly skimmed through the product features, LBS logic, information about the young product team, and industry leaders, glancing over each section before moving on.
But when he turned to the page on [Momo Core Data], his hand suddenly stopped turning the page, and his eyes instantly became serious:
Launched in March, it surpassed 2 million users in early April and is now approaching 4 million—proving that the product is growing rapidly.
With 120 million daily active users (DAU) and a DAU/MAU ratio exceeding 40%, the product boasts extremely high user stickiness.
The main user group is young people aged 18-30 in first- and second-tier cities—this is the most valuable group on the Internet, representing future growth potential.
Marponni stared at the data for a full half minute before flipping back to the front and re-examining the founding team's information.
When I saw "[Founder is straightforward, 21 years old, a student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University]" and "[Core team members are all university students]", I couldn't help but chuckle, my tone tinged with amusement.
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"The stuff that a few college students made managed to catch the trend and become popular so quickly, so there's actually some skill involved, it's not just complete nonsense."
Liu Chiping's heart tightened as she realized that Ma Boni didn't understand Momo's value. She quickly added, "Pony, Momo's success certainly benefited from the mobile internet boom, but it wasn't just about riding the wave. It truly tapped into the untapped market of stranger-based social networking, and its product experience is very solid. Otherwise, Sequoia Capital wouldn't have invested real money in it."
wheel."
Upon hearing the name [Sequoia Capital], Marponni raised an eyebrow slightly, but only very slightly.
"Moreover, its LBS model is perfectly suited to the trends of the mobile internet era."
Liu Chiping followed up, saying, "At the webmaster conference a few days ago, Kai-Fu Lee spent a lot of time talking about mobile internet and even praised the Momo app, saying it is [the future of mobile social networking]."
Marponni finally shifted slightly, adjusting to a more comfortable position, but still leaning back against the chair.
He casually asked, "Even Kai-Fu Lee endorsed this Momo app?"
"Yes." Liu Chiping nodded quickly. "He not only praised it to the skies at the conference, but also said that he regretted not investing in Momo in the Series A round. He then invested $200 million in another LBS social project."
Liu Chiping stepped forward and continued to explain: "The LBS model is now extremely popular, and capital and giants are all pouring into it."
Liu Chiping did not include the names of these companies that imitated or followed the Momo model in the investment report.
Because apart from [Weiju] which has just shown signs of emerging, most of the other products are still in their early stages, and writing about them now would actually be less persuasive to Maboni.
But since the conversation had reached this point, Liu Chiping, while looking at her phone, began to detail to Ma Boni, counting on her fingers: "Besides the projects invested in by Kai-Fu Lee that I just mentioned, Xu Xiaoping, Jinshajiang Capital, Matrix Partners China, and some other investors have also jumped in. NetEase, Xinlang, Shanda Games, and Renren are also internally incubating related products—"
Regardless of whether there was any concrete information or not, Liu Chiping exaggerated and presented it, then looked at Ma Boni.
"Shanda Networks has nothing to do with this industry, so why is it getting involved?" Marponni frowned.
Liu Chiping was just waiting for this sentence, and immediately replied: "This proves that LBS really hits the nail on the head. It is a unique feature of mobile devices in the future, and it is a huge untapped market. If we don't take advantage of it, someone else will."
His tone was somewhat urgent as he continued to urge, "Pony, the untapped market of stranger social networking, coupled with the mobile platform, presents Tencent with an excellent opportunity to strategically position itself in the mobile internet arena!"
Seeing that Ma Boni still hadn't made a statement, Liu Chiping gritted her teeth and added fuel to the fire: "Pony, I have some inside information. I heard that 360 might also get involved."
He didn't say "death," but used the word "possibly," implying that he could either attack or retreat.
Marponney sat up straight for the first time, then looked at the chief strategist in front of him with a playful expression, but still didn't say anything, and sank back into the sofa.
Seeing this, Liu Chiping knew that her previous attempt to provoke him had failed, so she continued, "Pony, you've been saying lately that we want to gradually go international. The LBS model was started by Foursquare, which is currently very popular in the United States and its valuation has exceeded 1 million US dollars."
"We definitely have a successful counterpart in China, and currently, it's most likely Momo. Moreover, Momo cleverly adds social features to Foursquare, making it an enhanced version of Foursquare."
"Pony, look at this assessment I had the investment department do. Momo's current valuation is about $3000 to $4000 million. I estimate that we can acquire it for $3000 million, and the cost is controllable."
Among the reasons Liu Chiping gave for persuading him were "strategic positioning" and "defensive acquisition," which Marboni listened to attentively and considered.
But when Liu Chiping mentioned that acquiring Momo would cost $3000 million, Marponni immediately interrupted, "Martin, if we don't acquire it and instead develop it ourselves, how quickly can we launch it?"
Another self-developed product—Liu Chiping felt a chill run down her spine.
The reason he didn't bring this up in front of Ren Yuxin and Zhang Zhidong was because he was afraid they would bring up self-developed technology at the slightest disagreement.
But when it came to Maponi, they still had to develop it themselves.
Back then, Lao Peng said he would invest in Dianping, and the team internally said they would develop their own technology, but it didn't happen in the end. Now Dianping's valuation is even higher.
Back then, they said they would invest in third-party e-commerce platforms, but internally the team said they would develop their own. As a result, none of Paipai.com, QQ Mall, or QQ Shopping were successful.
They said they wanted to invest in Kingsoft, but the team insisted on developing QQ Doctor themselves, and they still lost to 360, didn't they? It's still uncertain how effective this QQ PC Manager will be.
If we have to develop everything ourselves, we'll never get anything done!
But Liu Chiping only dared to think this in her heart; she didn't dare to say it aloud.
He thought for a moment before speaking: "I've looked into it. If the development resources are sufficient, it can be launched within three months. Technology isn't the problem, and the product can be copied. But users' minds are already occupied by Momo. When users think of [people nearby], the first thing that comes to mind is still Momo."
Liu Chiping was worried that Ma Boni really wanted to do it himself, so she had to bring up the reason of [cost and opportunity window].
He didn't give Pony time to think, and quickly started counting on his fingers as he continued, "Pony, we need to seize the window of opportunity."
""
"First, Momo currently has 400 million users, which isn't an insurmountable size yet. By the time our self-developed product launches in three months, Momo will already have over 1000 million users. Will we then become a competitor like Weibo in Xinlang?"
In order to facilitate this investment/acquisition, Liu Chiping intentionally or unintentionally rubbed salt into Ma Boni's wounds.
At this time, Xinlang Weibo, which had a first-mover advantage, already had more than 5000 million users.
Meanwhile, Tencent's own Weibo is still burning through cash to catch up. It was thought that it could catch up quickly by leveraging QQ's social network, but things didn't go as planned, and the gap between Tencent and Weibo is widening.
Liu Chiping raised her second finger and continued to persuade: "Secondly, the Momo team is still very grassroots. The founder, Geng Zhi, is only 21 years old. The average age of the team is very young, so they may be more willing to accept being acquired by our giant."
"Third, we currently have sufficient funds for the acquisition. If we wait three or four months and it grows into a towering tree, even if we pay twice as much, no one will sell it."
After talking for a while, Liu Chiping suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, "Pony, have you ever used the Momo app?"
Marponney: "No."
Liu Chiping was embarrassed.
He quickly took out his phone again, opened Momo, walked to Ma Boni's seat, gripped the phone tightly, and showed Ma Boni the various pages he was using.
When Liu Chiping tried Momo, all her chat partners were pretty young girls with cute profile pictures.
His intention was simply to show the phone to Maponi briefly so he could get a general idea of the Momo app; he didn't intend to hand the phone over directly.
But after looking at the Momo app, Ma Boni's eyes lit up. As a well-known product manager, how could he not try it out?
So he reached out, used a little force, and naturally took the phone from Liu Chiping's tightly gripped hand, and began to experience it himself.
Liu Chiping could only awkwardly watch as her boss used his own phone to try out Momo.
"The user experience is alright, and the functions aren't too complicated, but how can such a simple thing have 400 million users?" Marbonni wondered.
"Yes, mainly because young people love playing this game," Liu Chiping quickly added. "To capture the youth is to capture the future."
Marponni suddenly noticed something strange and asked in confusion, "Hey Martin, why is this [People Nearby] list all girls? Are only girls on Momo?"
"Uh—maybe—" Liu Chiping suddenly slapped her forehead, pretending to have a sudden realization, "I remember now! In order to fully experience the functions of Momo, I specifically turned on the [Only see girls] switch."
As she spoke, Liu Chiping quickly took her phone and turned off the "Only show girls" option.
At this point, some male users reappeared in the list of strangers.
Maboni nodded, picked up the phone again, and then looked at Liu Chiping: "How's the chat? Can I try it out?"
"Hmm—Pony, you—do as you please."
After receiving authorization, Ma Boni chatted briefly with a few girls and tried out the phone before handing it back to Liu Chiping.
After a long silence, he got up and walked to the window, looking outside, several thoughts began to flash through his mind.
People nearby, location-based services (LBS), and a smooth chat experience —
The Momo app is a product with simple functions, but it is indeed quite interesting. From the perspective of product experience, I would give it a 7 out of 10.
However, compared to the behemoth that Penguin QQ has nearly 2 million daily active users, it is still far behind.
Therefore, he was not very optimistic about Momo's value to Tencent.
However, he knew this chief strategy officer from Goldman Sachs all too well.
Liu Chiping never makes proposals without a clear purpose; the projects he chooses are indeed based on his own logic.
Mobile internet + stranger social networking: could this really be a huge market trend?
The problem is, we're going to launch another attack on 360 tomorrow.
In order to seize the super-bottom entry point on the PC platform and control the gateway to PC traffic, the battle with 360 will inevitably be a life-or-death struggle.
Nobody knows whether that crazy Zhou Hongyi, driven to madness, will resort to desperate measures.
Moreover, the battle on Weibo continues.
The growth of its two cash cows, CrossFire and Dungeon Fighter Online, has slowed down, its self-developed games are still climbing, the Korean investment has just been finalized, and it has just acquired NetEase Games in its entirety—all of these require a lot of effort.
If Momo is acquired, who will manage it? How will it be integrated with existing business lines?
Which team should take over?
Xiong Minghua? But he's focusing on the big battle against 360.
Zhang Xiaolong? But he's working on the reconstruction of QQ Mail.
No one's answering!
Let the founding team of Momo operate independently? That's impossible!
Marponni turned around and returned to his seat.
"Martin, I've taken everything you've said to heart. We might be able to invest in Momo, or even acquire it, but I can't give you an answer right now."
Liu Chiping looked at Ma Boni, waiting for him to continue.
Ma Boni looked up at Liu Chiping, pursed his lips slightly, and continued, "It's not that I don't value it. It's just that we have too many battles on our hands right now. The war with 360, the war with Xinlang Weibo, the war with NetEase and Shanda Games—each front requires our energy. If we open another front, we can't manage it all."
He paused, then continued, "But I agree with you that the stranger-based social networking sector has value. How about this: you have the investment department continue to monitor and maintain contact, but don't rush to make an offer. Wait until—"
He thought for a moment and said, "We'll reassess after the 3Q War is over."
Liu Chiping: "Pony, if we wait until then, Momo might already have 800 million or 1000 million users!"
"Then 1000 million. 1000 million is still within a controllable range."
He stood up and walked over to Liu Chiping: "Martin, after so many years in product development, I've learned one thing: some battles must be fought at the right time. Now, the 3Q War is that right time. The others can wait."
Liu Chiping felt a chill run through her again, but not completely.
Following Zhang Xiaolong's example, he didn't give up and continued, "What if Ma Jieke made the first move then?"
Shanghai, Alipay headquarters.
Ma Jieke, who had just finished a meeting with his team, was having tea with Yu Feng, the head of Yunfeng Fund.
Ma Jieke and Yu Feng met in the first CEO class at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Later, while boating on West Lake, they proposed to jointly establish a private equity fund.
Subsequently, more than a dozen top entrepreneurs, including Shi Yuzhu, Liu Yonghao, Jiang Nanchun, and Xu Hang, joined in. Finally, last month, Yunfeng Capital was officially established.
Wang Yusuo, the founder of an energy company, once exclaimed at the fund's launch event: "Ma Jieke + Yu Feng > Soros!"
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Yunfeng Capital is currently in a phase where it has money but no projects, and its head manager, Yu Feng, is actively looking for projects.
"Teacher Ma, I heard that Alibaba's Taobao Jianghu is not performing as well as expected?" Yu Feng took a sip of tea and asked with a smile.
Ma Jie shook his head: "It's indeed not as good as expected. The high frequency and high stickiness of SNS are not reflected in Tao Jianghu. Moreover, the integration with Taobao's main shopping scene is not high, and the conversion rate is extremely low."
"Has Teacher Ma been paying attention to Momo lately?" Yu Feng asked. "There are quite a few people creating Taobao shopping interest groups on the Momo app, and there are many female users."
"Oh? Momo is related to Taobao?"
Like Ma Boni, Ma Jie had seen the name [Momo] in the news several times, but he had never learned about it or used it.
Yu Feng didn't say much. He took out his phone, opened Momo, and even found a few shopping interest groups, demonstrating them to Ma Jieke.
When Ma Jie saw this, he suddenly connected Momo with the young man he had met in Xu Xiaoping's office more than two months ago.
"How many users does Momo have right now?" Ma Jie asked curiously.
"They have never officially announced it," Yu Feng shook his head, "but some news reports say it's over four million, and some say it's over five million."
"Really?" Ma Jiek instinctively uttered a single word.
"I estimate at least 400 million, definitely. And according to insiders, their daily active users are very high, having already exceeded one million, and the ratio of male to female users is very even," Yu Feng said.
Ma Jieke's tail flared slightly, showing a hint of surprise.
He carefully recalled the business model that the young man had mentioned when he was in Xu Xiaoping's office.
Membership fees? Location-based gaming? Games?
He still didn't quite understand, so he asked, "How can it rise so quickly? What's the secret?"
"Free, understands human nature, great product."
Ma Jieke remained silent.
Next, Yu Feng gave Ma Jieke a detailed explanation of Momo's interest groups, message boards, chat groups, and other features.
"Isn't this exactly what Alibaba's Taobao Jianghu wanted to do? It's just that it's been moved from the computer to the mobile phone!" Ma Jie exclaimed.
He suddenly realized that the Momo he knew now was somewhat different from the one that Geng Zhi had told him about last time.
"That's right! But it's based on chatting with strangers, and it integrates the hottest LBS model to radiate outwards with these functions." Yu Feng excitedly imagined, "Momo may be more suitable for [social + e-commerce] than Tao Jianghu."
Ma Jieke was unsure and did not express his opinion, falling into deep thought.
Social media + e-commerce is his dream, and also his eternal pain.
Last month, they were still discussing internally whether to poach Yu Jun, the father of Baidu Tieba, and invest heavily in building Tao Jianghu.
Now, if Alibaba or Yunfeng Capital were to invest in Momo, perhaps—
"Teacher Ma, Teacher Ma, are you alright?" Yu Feng waved his hand in front of Ma Jieke's eyes when he saw that Ma Jieke hadn't spoken for a long time and had no expression on his face.
"I admit it, I'm blind," Ma Jieke suddenly said.
Yu Feng: "???"
Ten minutes later, in the CEO's office of Mingfan Technology in the Jiaotong University Science and Technology Innovation Park.
After Geng Zhi finished discussing the logic of the chat product with Ma Tongtong's team, he earnestly inquired with Li Dongping about the progress of the investment in Kik, Canada.
At this moment, the company secretary, Lü Siyu, knocked on the door and came in.
"Boss, someone from Yunfeng Capital named Yu Feng just called and said he wants to meet with you."
Geng Zhi hadn't fully recovered from the email he'd just read when he heard "[President Yu]." He immediately reacted, jolted, and asked, "President Yu? What does President Yu want to talk to me about?"
"He said he wanted to talk about investing in Momo."
Lu Siyu had never heard of Yunfeng Capital before, let alone Yu Feng. Seeing her boss's sudden agitation, she asked curiously, "Boss, is Mr. Yu very famous in the investment circle?"
"Yu Dazui is certainly famous, but not very famous yet."
After answering straightforwardly, his brows immediately furrowed: "Why would President Yu be interested in Momo? Even if the company wants to discuss investment, shouldn't it be Old Yu who's doing the talking?"
"Shall we meet?" Lu Siyu asked hesitantly.
"We absolutely must see him! Why should we miss this opportunity to be on equal footing with him!"