Reborn Entrepreneurial Giant

Chapter 173 Twitter Refinancing

The stock price of Jumei stabilized, Qu Li came to the United States again, and Twitter opened a new round of financing. As one of the most important shareholders of Twitter, he was of course present.

What Qu Li brought to Twitter is not only funds, but also the pre-installation of Honor mobile phones, as well as advanced concepts, such as mobile priority, such as information flow, and this Olympic marketing, encouraging Twitter users to post texts at the Olympic site live streaming……

Doing large-scale marketing requires money, and Qu Li is willing to pay, but the original shareholders don't want to give up the dominant position, so B rotates the main investors. Because of his participation, Twitter has received more attention, and many venture capitalists, including Sequoia and KPGB, want to participate.

"Facebook is social networking with acquaintances, and Twitter is an improvement of blogging. It is a one-to-many form and is more like an information platform. Everyone can be a witness to history, and everyone can become a journalist..." Qu Li came to the Twitter headquarters to participate in the communication between management and venture capital, and clarified his views and the direction of development he hoped for.

"What is your position on Twitter?" a venture capitalist asked Qu Li

"Senior consultant, after all, it is difficult for me to have time to participate in the management of Twitter."

"I think this positioning is more suitable for Twitter, if..." Sequoia's Christian first expressed his opinion. Compared with the vague positioning of Twitter's management, Qu Li can explain things clearly and has a lot of room for imagination. This is the center of all kinds of news. Naturally, major companies need to participate in the publicity in person. Registering a business account and certification requires payment, of course.

"Will you participate in this financing?"

"It depends on the situation. I want to reduce my shareholding in Twitter to less than 15%, and to less than 10% before listing..." Qu Liru said to Twitter's management to dispel their concerns.

In the first round of financing last year, Twitter’s valuation was 30 million US dollars. How could the second round of financing exceed 100 million US dollars? This is because the market is not good, or it would be more than 200 million US dollars. Qu Li almost forgot about Twitter this time, or else he would have reminded them to start financing.

Before the advertising agreement with Facebook expired, Twitter was not in his plan, so after the first round of communication, he went to the fast-growing Shopee. Because the second major crisis has intensified, and Shopee has adjusted its own positioning, focusing on self-operated and white-label products, supplemented by brands, Amazon has also relaxed its suppression of Shopee.

The number of registered users of Shopee, which is extremely cost-effective, is expected to reach 10 million in August in North America. This extraordinary speed may only be brought to him by the faster-growing Facebook.

Facebook, Shopee and Li \u0026 Fung have formed a perfect closed loop, saving huge intermediate costs, including publicity fees.

"Now there are many group buying companies in the United States, but unfortunately none of them can surpass us." Brady is very proud. As a self-operated e-commerce company, their achievements are enough to make people proud.

Qu Li naturally wouldn't disappoint, standing in the middle of the office, he praised and encouraged him.

Shopee's employees are really hardworking. Let's do some calculations. Assuming that the unit price of a customer is 100 US dollars, and the monthly sales of 10 million need to send 100,000 express delivery, why do you need 30 to 50 logistics employees? Shopee has grown from scratch, and now there are less than 100 people including programmers, and it has to develop the international market. Can you not be busy?

Facebook UK has more than 10 million users. It is the largest social networking site in France. As long as Shopee needs it, Facebook can push advertisements to the local area, and the cost is low during the cooperation period. Do you think Shopee wants to occupy Europe, America, Japan, South Korea and other lucrative markets? Mature market?

Shopee may die due to out-of-control management during its rapid development, or may become a second-rate e-commerce company due to missing the best opportunity. Brady does not know how to choose, and Qu Li does not know how to choose. Clothing e-commerce has lost itself in the transformation from e-commerce platform to e-commerce platform.

"I don't think we should miss the opportunity..." Brady said cautiously: "The design idea of ​​Zhongtai is very good. Although the cooperation with Li \u0026 Fung and other traders increases the cost, it reduces the difficulty of supply chain management. If we strengthen it The company's process design can minimize the risk..."

"Should we hire a company like Accenture to help us with compliance and procedures?" The biggest drawback of multinational companies is corruption, and then the flexibility to make decisions based on the local market. Strict control loses flexibility, loose control, local Employees fill their own pockets and empty out the company. Human nature is interlinked, and the moral level of crooked nuts is not higher than that in China.

"It's okay. Companies like Accenture will talk about it. They don't understand Jumei's middle office. It's hard to know the advanced nature of Jumei's model. Compliance and process will allow them to do it..." Brady said It’s not surprising that Accenture doesn’t catch a cold. Big Internet companies have their own corporate cultures. Qu Li didn’t abandon the essence summed up by Bezos just because Amazon has it. Instead, he will take the initiative to learn.

For example, encouraging "successful failures", using technology to improve efficiency, daring to make big bets on things that are recognized, insisting on long-termism, innovation and simplification, and quick decision-making, etc. Of course, Jumei also has its own advantageous culture: integrity, learning, teamwork and patience...

Using corporate culture to promote the company's growth is somewhat similar to religion, because any rules and regulations are inferior to the precepts formulated by religion, which can be said to be brainwashing, but if these corporate cultures do not have the gene of goodness at the beginning, it is difficult to develop and grow.

Qu Li hesitated for a while between consulting companies and hiring someone to do compliance construction, and decided to hire someone. Although it costs money, it is more reassuring. After all, compliance construction is something that offends others, so let your own people do it , Maybe they will deliberately leave a few loopholes because of certain things, to exploit the loopholes for specific people. Consulting companies are a bit better. After they finish planning on Shopee, people from Jumei will come to review it in the future.

Shopee chose England as its second stop. The e-commerce online shopping retail market here has a higher proportion than that in the United States. Although Amazon has an advantage, Shopee relies on low-cost social e-commerce, and innovations such as group purchases and flash sales can open up the British market. of.

"You also need to pay attention to controlling the proportion of products manufactured by China Women. Shopee must not become synonymous with China Women's products..." Qu Li agreed with most of Brady's suggestions, but also put forward many requirements of his own. Although made in China is good, But also in moderation.

"Okay, I've been paying attention to this aspect..." Brady nodded. The production price of Chinese women is low and the profit is high, but populism is not uncommon in the United States. In the long run, Shopee should try to avoid unnecessary troubles.

In addition to developing the British market, logistics and distribution are more important. Shopee's model is the cooperation of domestic central warehouses, overseas transshipment warehouses and operation warehouses, and try to send packages to USPS and other important logistics nodes of express companies to save shipping costs.

After dealing with Shopee, Twitter has basically reached an agreement. The total share capital has increased from 15 million shares in the first round of financing by 5 million shares, the stock price has risen from $2 to $10, and Twitter's valuation has become $200 million. . Qu Li invested 5 million US dollars to buy 500,000 shares, holding a total of 3 million shares, which is exactly 15%.

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