Chapter 693 - There’s No Need To Earn Money Through Underhanded Methods
Chapter 693: There’s No Need To Earn Money Through Underhanded Methods
“Furthermore, you can also distribute your shares to prevent any one investor from holding too many percent which would affect your control of the company.”
Huang Zheng nodded and added, “Yes, you’re right. On top of that, if there are more investors involved, they would also be able to bring different kinds of support to the company. For example, some investors can bring official support, some investors can bring in traffic, some investors can help the company merge with other companies and so on.”
Su Yang nodded his head silently. All of those were within his guesses.
Huang Zheng’s considerations were reasonable. However, Su Yang understood Huang Zheng’s character, who was domineering, confident and determined. Hence, Su Yang knew that he would not be able to dissuade Huang Zheng if he went along with whatever he said.
‘In order to face an opponent like him, the best way would be for me to refute him directly during the initial phase. After that, I’ll slowly sow a “seed” which would make him inclined towards me.’
Hence, Su Yang turned on his [Verbal Cannon] ability and looked at Huang Zheng. He said directly, “Mr. Huang, what we’ve just talked about are the merits of having many investors. However, there are also many weaknesses in doing so as well.
“For example, if there are multiple investors, the company would be steered into different interests, which will affect the company’s development.
“Apart from that, if there are multiple investors, the equity would become too complicated and it would become very easy for the investors to think that the company has enough profits. When that happens, there would come the time when they would want to sell their shares.
“On top of that… When the company becomes bigger, many investors will definitely arrange for their own people to enter the company, be it a directorial position or the finance department. At the end of the day, they might come to hold too much power in their hands.”
At that point, Su Yang asked bluntly, “Also, Mr. Huang, do you have a clear understanding of what your company’s development is going to be like?”
Huang Zheng said without any emotion on his face, “Of course. My company’s target is to become like Taobao. What I want to do is a comprehensive e-commerce platform. The main thing I want to do in the early stages is to have a low-end e-commerce. I want to cash out the stagnant products of all the small companies and small workshops in the country so that these companies can earn money. At the same time, I can also allow people who are more sensitive to prices to buy goods of decent quality at a low price.
“This way, we can help the smaller companies survive, while consumers gain profit from it as well.”
Su Yang nodded and said bluntly, “I agree with your development plan. But, here comes the question. What would your company require during its development?”
When he saw that Huang Zheng was about to explain, Su Yang did not give him a chance to do so. Instead, he said directly, “Based on your train of thought, you only need three things to support how your company is planning to operate… Money, money, money again!
“This is because in order to operate the way you want to, it has to be done on a grand scale. So, aside from money, nothing else is necessary!
“Traffic can be bought with money, users can be subsidized with money and salespeople in the lower-end market can also be recruited with money!”
At that point, Su Yang pointed at herself and said, “And the person who has that amount of money… Would be me.”
Huang Zheng looked at Su Yang and remained silent for a while. However, there was a thoughtful look in his eyes.
Su Yang said, “That’s why I said that it’s absolutely useless for you to consider the additional values that other investors would bring you. That’s because they will always be an additional requirement and not a necessity.
“If you think I’m being unreasonable and you don’t think that your company needs money. Instead, you think that all problems can be simplified into “being resolved through money”. Then… Allow me to be more specific.
“Other than subsidizing bilateral users, what your company needs the most is traffic. If you have cheap or even free traffic, your company would be able to develop rapidly.
“However, would those who are purely investing in you with capital be able to bring you more traffic?”
Then, Su Yang said firmly, “No!
“The core of your software is “to match a consumer’s needs” and to “bring sales” to your seller while providing the “lowest prices” to the buyer. Therefore, this is why you need real money and users instead of something superficial.
“Many funders like to use policies, their reputation and rewards to increase their value.
“However, that’s because they’re not willing to pay you enough, so they need to use other stuff to fill in that gap.”
Su Yang said earnestly, “As for your company, I can honestly say that if you plan to lower the price and increase your sales volume, your reputation would not be high and you won’t be receiving many awards.
“But… You don’t have to be bothered about that.
“Many people have criticized Alibaba and Tencent, but the users could not stop them from becoming the most successful company in the country, or even the world.”
Huang Zheng said with a smile, “However, there are also many people who have criticized Baidu, which ended up with them being unable to withstand that amount of criticism.”
Perhaps it was because Su Yang had [Verbal Cannon] activated, his mind was extremely active. Without any hesitation, he said, “Baidu has merely received their just retribution for all the bad things they’ve done.
“How many mistakes have they committed, how many bad things have they done? Their chairman even has the nerve to say that he isn’t short of money and he has enough money to spend for several lifetimes, so there is no need for him to use underhanded methods to earn money.
“To be honest, I believe what the chairman said. I believe that based on his character, he hadn’t done all those bad things for money, but purely because he was wicked.
“So, it’s only right for the wicked to be punished, how their company is deteriorating by the day isn’t without reason.”
At this point, Su Yang changed the topic. “Although your company’s management style is very down-to-earth, you aren’t doing anything immoral as well, so you don’t have to worry.”
Huang Zheng burst into laughter because of Su Yang’s statement.
He did not know if it was because Su Yang’s words were to his liking, but he found Su Yang pleasing to the eye.
Coupled with the fact that what Su Yang had said previously made sense, it was the first time that Huang Zheng had started to waver about splitting his shares. Hence, he probed, “In that case, what price would you be able to offer then?”
When he heard Huang Zheng’s question, Su Yang knew that he was very close to succeeding. Hence, he said, “I’ll buy off all the 7.7% from Series A at 63 million yuan!”
Huang Zheng was stunned.
‘7.7% at 63 million yuan! That’s almost 10 million yuan higher than the price Gaorong Capital has offered. Plus, he would also be pushing Juduoduo’s valuation to 82 million yuan.’
At that thought, Huang Zheng started to hesitate.
‘Actually, I am aware that what my company lacks the most is money and traffic. It was also because of this that I had planned my company’s future development ahead of time. I’m going to rely on Tencent and challenge Taobao with their strength.
‘According to my plans, I’ll start off by creating a low-end e-commerce business, which could complement Jing Dong. Furthermore, I would have completely supplemented Tencent’s most important link in the entire domestic internet industry, which is a comprehensive e-commerce platform.
‘Tencent has a lot of traffic and money, which my company would be able to use to develop the new method that I’ve especially developed to sink five or six tier cities to obtain new users that have not been pulled away by Taobao yet.
‘So, as long as the company develops well and according to my plans, I would even be able to swallow Jingdong under the influence of Tencent and become a super large e-commerce platform that could integrate Jing dong and Juduoduo to compete against Alibaba.
‘Although my plan is a good one, but Tencent is, after all, one of the two giants in the country. In comparison, Juduoduo is still too small for Tencent to take seriously for the time being, so this is all just me letting my imaginations run wild.
‘I know that the most important thing in order to attract Tencent’s attention is to have the company develop continuously and consistently! Then, I would be able to exhibit the potential my company has in becoming a large e-commerce platform.
‘To do this, I require money, lots and lots of money.
‘The more money I have, the bigger the scale I could go to and the faster I would be able to attract Tencent’s attention. On top of that, I would also have more confidence and more leverage to negotiate with Tencent when the time comes.’
This was why Huang Zheng had hesitated when Su Yang had increased the price so much.
Hence, Huang Zheng lowered his head and thought for a while. Then, he raised his head and said, “Mr. Su, can I go out and make a phone call?”
Su Yang shook his head. “There’s no need for you to go through such trouble.
“The fact that I’m personally here today goes to show how sincere I am. So, now that I’ve brought you this news, I’ll give you enough time to talk to your other investors. I’m very confident in myself that the conditions I’ve just offered are the best.”
After that, Su Yang added, “Oh, by the way, I’ll also be giving you the voting rights from these shares. I’ll always support you in building your business empire, so I hope you can trust me.”
After being clear about everything that he wanted to say, Su Yang stood up and left Huang Zheng’s office.
Huang Zheng did not send Su Yang off. Instead, he fell into deep thought. Actually, he wanted to agree on the spot. However… Building a business was not child’s play, so he had to be careful and calculative, especially when it came to financing.
Therefore, in the end, Huang Zheng pulled his team and Gaorong Capital, as well as several other investment firms into the second round of negotiations.
However, for some reason, Huang Zheng was a little distracted during the negotiation. He felt that ever since Su Yang talked to him, Su Yang’s words had been lingering in his mind.
In his heart, he had already made Su Yang the first choice for this round’s financing…
Therefore, Huang Zheng did not make Su Yang wait any longer. On the afternoon of the third day, Huang Zheng called Su Yang and said that he agreed to Su Yang’s offer and was willing to accept Su Yang’s Series A funding.
Actually, it was not that there were no investors who were willing to match Su Yang’s price. However, Huang Zheng thought about it and felt that Su Yang was the best choice, thus explaining his final decision.
That day, Su Yang brought Tang Jing and Zhao Licheng to Hangzhou to sign an agreement with Huang Zheng.
Out of the 7.7% shares that Juduoduo had financed during its Series A, Su Tang invested 6.3 million yuan and took up 1% of the shares. The remaining 5.67 million yuan and 6.7% of the shares were invested and taken up by the headquarters of Jiadian Group.
After the agreement took effect, the two companies combined to hold 10.93% of Juduoduo’s shares (the ones from the previous round have been diluted). According to Little Deeny and Little Hus’s estimates, the shares will be listed on the market for more than 20 billion yuan in four years…
Hence, Su Yang’s dream of earning hundreds of billions of yuan was getting closer and closer…
Now that Juduoduo’s matter had come to an end, Su Yang had nothing to do. In just one more day, the [Cellphone Development Factory] and the [Satellite Launching Rocket Base] would be completed.
Now that he was free, Su Yang wanted to do something… Draw a card. No. Add some points.
Furthermore, Su Yang had an ulterior motive for adding points this time. ‘I want to increase my gaming str.. Pui pui pui! I want to make sure that this… Noob won’t get bullied anymore!’