Rebirth: I Want to Surf

Yao Yuan did not intend to meet Zuckerberg when he came to the United States this time.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Haitao's broken reminder revealed the news, and due to social etiquette, he had to come to visit. It's nothing serious, just chatting.

The social game concept proposed by Yao Yuan did help Facebook break through the bottleneck, but they did not pay enough attention to "FarmVille" - farms are popular in China, but not in the United States.

After staying for about half an hour, he said goodbye and left.

As soon as the front foot left, an Asian man ran to Zuckerberg's office. This person was Gideon Yu, who was in charge of Facebook's financing matters.

"Mark, you gotta meet that Russian!"

"what happen?"

"I don't understand what he's thinking. I've been in this business for many years, and this is the first time I've seen such, such..."

Gideon Yu organized his language and spit out an adjective: "A kind investor is like giving us money on purpose."

In this year's financial crisis, many Internet products cannot find their parents, and Facebook is no exception.

The Russian was Yuri Milner.

I don't know where to get a large amount of money, I came here to talk about investment in person, and I made a condition that no one can refuse:

"200 million US dollars to buy 2% of the shares, no preferred shares, no board seats, all voting rights are given to the CEO!"

The purpose of investing in institutions is to make money, but in order to achieve this purpose, investors usually set various restrictions on the company to reduce their own risks.

Milner's plan is tantamount to completely giving up the initiative. I just give you money, and I don't want any power.

"..."

Zuckerberg was taken aback when he heard it. Although it was disgraceful to accept Russian investment, they gave too much.

"Send him here, I need to talk to him."

"OK!"

...

Another hour or so passed.

Milner, who was severely bald, walked out of the small building happily. He knew that no one could refuse his offer. He is very optimistic about the potential of Facebook. With this money, he can survive the financial crisis and launch a global strategy.

Once it is rolled out all over the world, users will skyrocket.

He came to his car and was about to open the door when he heard a voice behind him: "Good afternoon, sir!"

Um?

Milner turned around and unexpectedly saw an Asian greeting him, saying, "Hi, what's the matter?"

"I'm Mark's partner, today is a coincidence..."

The other party handed over an English version of the business card and said with a smile: "We mainly provide some content on social games. "Parking Space" and "Friends Buying and Selling" are all our works. If you have time, you may wish to chat."

Milner's eyes lit up when he heard about social games. Everyone knew the benefits of games on Facebook.

He took the business card, passed one of his own by the way, and said with a smile: "I just want to stay for a few days, find a time?"

"Find a time."

"Okay, I still have something to do, I look forward to our next meeting."

Milner drove away, pleasantly surprised by this extra gain. He now has a large amount of money in his hand, and he is not afraid to spend it, but he is afraid that he has no place to spend it.

Social gaming is definitely a great growth area.

"Okay, let's withdraw too!"

Yao Yuan waved his hand and left the small building's parking lot. And he looked down at the business card in his hand, and couldn't help smiling: "It really is this guy."

Yuri Milner was originally a researcher of particle physics at the National Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, he went to the United States to study, changed careers and entered the financial world, and met the Russian oligarch Khodorkovsky-later this buddy was brought in by the Communist Party.

With such little accumulation, Milner founded his own investment company DST.

This person is very legendary. For example, the sources of DST’s funds include Russian oligarchs, the Russian government, and American financial circles...and then went to the United States.

Now he is not well-known. It was after investing in Facebook that he became popular, followed by Twitter, Groupon and so on.

His style is to throw money, don't want any power, just give you a super high valuation, and then send you money.

After 2010, he entered the Chinese market and invested in JD.com (US$500 million, 8.8% stake), Ali, Xiaomi (US$500 million, 7% stake), Didi, etc., and achieved outstanding results. He has a good friendship with Lei Jun.

If you talk about conspiracy theory, the composition of DST is very complicated, but Yao Yuan doesn't care about these, he only knows that this guy is very rich! Very rich!

…………

That night, the hotel.

Yao Yuan sat on the sofa, drinking tea and listening to the newspaper.

Well, listen to the newspaper.

His English level can be used for daily communication, but reading English newspapers is a little bit reluctant, but fortunately he brought a team with him, and his English is squishy.

"Universal is trying to sell Logue Pictures for $150 million!"

"Paramount decided to cut production to 20 films a year and lay off 25 people; Disney's plan to build a theme park in Florida has also been shelved; JPMorgan Chase has suspended funding for DreamWorks; Playboy stopped DVD distribution last week, Started to do online distribution with all our strength.”

""Harry Potter 6" has been postponed to next summer; 62-year-old Stallone has moved to India to make money... The Chinese market is extremely popular, and Britney Spears plans to hold a concert in China!"

"Boss Yao?"

"Gone?"

"I've finished reading, that's all the news."

Yao Yuan nodded.

The financial crisis has also had an impact on Hollywood, but it is generally controllable.

Hollywood makes blockbuster movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Do you think the company pays for it? How is it possible, either investment by financial institutions or loans from banks.

Wait for the movie to make money, and then pay back the money.

What to do if it hits the street, you have to go into debt, for example, MGM, the loan amount from the bank this year has reached 3.7 billion US dollars, and the annual interest is as high as 300 million.

Therefore, the financial crisis affects blockbuster films. Hollywood has no money to make them now. Medium-budget ones need to be more cautious. Small-budget ones don’t matter. The production companies hope to make big gains with small ones.

In order to save money and ease financial pressure, the Big Eight in Hollywood are looking for money, or want to sell their subsidiaries.

This is what Yao Yuan is eyeing.

The four pillars of American hegemony: military, financial, technological, and cultural.

The core of cultural output is Hollywood, and it is a film with the theme of the United States in the guise of a commercial film. It has successfully convinced many people that the United States is the beacon of civilization and the light of universal values.

We always say that the country strictly guards against the media and ideology. In fact, the United States is the same.

Yao Yuan wants to come in now, first of all, the Bada don't even think about it, he doesn't have enough capital. The secondary ones are Lionsgate, New Line, Miramax, etc., which are also very difficult.

The second level is relativity, peak, legend, etc. If the investment is a minority shareholder, they will welcome it with a raised hand. If you want to control the power, you can buy it at a high price.

Just like Wanda's acquisition of Legendary Pictures for US$3.5 billion, the biggest achievement is to hold out the Big Sweet Universe.

These are unrealistic goals. Fortunately, the industrial structure of Hollywood is clear, and there is another level below it: the subsidiaries of the eight major subsidiaries, such as Dimens, Mobao, and Logue.

Although they are at the bottom of the power structure, they are also at the top of the entire film industry.

These companies generally shoot and distribute low-cost movies, mainly bloody violence, pornography, horror thrillers, and action. Although sparrows are small, they have all kinds of internal organs and have their own production departments and distribution channels.

Yao Yuan also chose Dimen, Mubao, and Luoge, and ordered the team to start contacting.

(no more...)