Top of the big era

This strategic committee was held at the temporary headquarters of Ziweixing in the United States. Seven people from China attended the meeting.

There are mainly two topics, one is cloud computing and the other is casual games.

Needless to say, cloud computing is the core business that Ziweixing values ​​most at present, and it is a major business that fundamentally transforms the PC Internet and the mobile Internet.

Now, there are still many entrepreneurs who have not touched the threshold of mobile Internet, so there are not too many emerging startups.

When the time comes, new companies will spring up like mushrooms after a rain!

Many small companies may only have three, five, or a dozen people, and they can start a business by developing a simple App on the iOS or Android system.

For such small companies, initial investment and technical accumulation are the most difficult.

Cloud computing can perfectly solve this problem!

Spending too much money on a server?

With cloud computing, you don’t need to buy anything in the future. You can just rent it directly from Ziweiyun.

Without technical accumulation, many middleware cannot be built, and even the operating environment of many open source programs is too complicated to set up. What should I do?

The same is true for purchasing cloud computing services!

Unless there are many high-end entrepreneurial projects, entrepreneurial companies need some particularly powerful technical experts. If you just make a very simple App, such as chat software, song software, information flow software, etc., the technical requirements for startups do not actually need to be that high. The modules have been organized on the cloud computing platform.

It's like laying out building blocks.

You don’t need to know what the internal structure of each building block looks like. You just need to have a little bit of hands-on ability to arrange the building blocks neatly, and then make a beautiful skin to package them.

"Newton said that he stood on the shoulders of giants. In the Internet field, Ziweixing will be this giant, and through Ziwei Cloud, an infrastructure platform, it will provide Internet companies around the world with shoulders to stand on!"

Zhou Buqi was talking eloquently, and some of the Ziweixing International executives present were excited because they were not familiar with his routines.

For executives at their level, in addition to making money, it is more important to do something meaningful.

After Boss Zhou’s explanation, the significance of cloud computing has become greater.

This year, Ziweixing will invest US$1 billion in a total of 20 small cloud data centers, 8 in the United States, 1 in South Korea, 1 in Japan, 1 in the United Arab Emirates, and 9 in Europe.

Each cloud data center invests US$50 million and has a scale of 20,000 servers.

Currently, there are 7 projects under construction and 13 projects are under negotiation.

Zhou Buqi said: "Speed! Speed! Speed! There seems to be a contradiction between speed and stability, but times have changed. Even if we bear some risks, we must increase the speed. Especially important, when talking with the local government When it comes to projects, you must be confident! Don’t be afraid and make bold promises! Get more land and reserve space for expansion in the second, third, fourth and fifth phases.”

The person in charge of Ziweiyun's international business is Paul Freightliner. He was previously the vice president of Microsoft's enterprise services business. He is not a technology oriented but a management oriented. He has rich experience in developing international markets.

He actually had some different opinions.

For example, eight small cloud data centers will be built in the United States, with a total investment of US$400 million. Might as well just invest in a medium-sized cloud data center with 160,000 servers.

The former needs to do 8 projects, while the latter only needs to do a single project. The management cost will be lower and the risk will be small.

If it fails, it will end well.

When you first start 8 projects, how many people will you need to recruit? How much management cost will it cost? Once the cloud computing strategy is wrong, the promised investment cannot be made, and the ship is turned around, then big problems will occur!

The layoffs alone will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Zhou Buqi disagreed, but was very happy.

Senior industry insiders like Paul Freightliner have this kind of thinking. It can be seen that Amazon, as well as technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, which will enter the cloud computing market in a big way next year, also think so.

This is the advantage of Ziweiyun!

Zhou Buqi is foresighted, he has a clearer understanding of the future trends, and he dares to make big bets! Others have to be cautious when doing such cutting-edge projects, but he dares to do it.

Many technology companies develop very slowly because they follow a safe path, with low risks and slow growth. The biggest reason Ziweixing can rise in just a few years is the stud mentality of Boss Zhou.

He dares to play big!

Also investing in cloud data centers in the United States, split a medium-sized cloud data center into eight small-scale cloud computing centers, which can be dispersed in several important large cities in the United States, such as New York, Boston, Washington, Seattle, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. This can greatly improve efficiency.

If we only invest in one medium-sized data center in Silicon Valley, all information transmission in the United States will be supported by this data center in Silicon Valley. With such a long transmission distance, the delay will be too high.

For developers, developing on a high-latency cloud computing platform is really painful.

This can become a major advantage of Ziwei Cloud, even one step ahead of Amazon Cloud.

Zhou Buqi was not polite at this time's strategic committee. He found a group of people from China to gain wider support.

No matter what these foreigners thought, they approved it immediately!

Next, there is the game business.

The Asian business is easy to talk about. Tang Binchen has already started to do it, but there is still nothing in the United States. Zhou Buqi requested that Ziweixing International allocate a budget of US$500 million to acquire 3-5 game studios and build up Ziweixing International's game business group through mergers and acquisitions.

But the problem came again, lack of money!

…

End of the meeting.

Zhou Buqi, Zhang Yiming, Xu Liangjie, Guo Pengfei and other people went to Lu Qi's office and mainly discussed financial issues.

At the time of the spin-off, Ziweixing International received a total of US$3 billion in funding.

But there is a lot of financial pressure right now.

This year's operating expenses, research and development expenses, infrastructure expenses, and personnel recruitment expenses, this kind of non-business expenses alone will exceed 300 million US dollars.

Invest $1 billion in cloud computing.

Invested US$500 million in Ziweixing Global.

Spend another $500 million to acquire 3-5 game studios...

In other words, when the board of directors meets next year, Ziweixing International may only have US$500 million to US$600 million left on its books.

"Do you want to go public?"

Xu Liangjie's suggestion made many people's hearts beat.

Zhou Buqi was stunned for a moment and looked around everyone, "Are you short of money?"

Xu Liangjie smiled, "That's not the case."

Zhou Buqi suggested: "If the market is not good, don't rush to go public if you are not short of money, right?"

Zhang Yiming expressed his support, "Now is not a good time to go public. We have invested so much in cloud computing, but the market may not understand it. Even if it goes public, it will definitely be seriously underestimated by the capital market. It is better to wait a few more years and delay gratification." Give the market enough time to understand Ziweixing’s business structure.”

Lu Qi nodded, "Let's wait a few more years. Helo's user base has not yet reached scale. Once it reaches scale and forms a certain airborne attack on the SMS business, the market will understand the epoch-making significance of the mobile Internet." ."

Zhou Buqi is not very good at going public.

He is not short of money.

But many senior executives of Ziweixing only own a valuable stock, but it is like a false bubble that may turn into money or burst immediately.

It is still necessary to promote the company's listing in order to convert the stock into actual value. Even if it cannot be cashed out in the short term, at least there is hope of cashing out.

Fortunately, everyone understands the overall situation.

Zhou Buqi said: "There is no rush to go public. Let's wait for another two or three years."

"What should we do with the money? Go to venture capital for financing?" Guo Pengfei frowned slightly, "As I said just now, the capital market may not be able to understand our business, especially the cloud computing business where we invest heavily."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "This is the advantage of splitting. This is the United States, and the financial market is very developed. It is not like domestic banks and pawn shops, which require physical mortgages."

Guo Pengfei raised his eyebrows, "Are you going to get a loan?"

Zhou Buqi said: "How about issuing bonds? Issuing corporate bonds of US$2 billion or US$3 billion."

Lu Qidao: "I think it is okay. There are generally two ways of financing for large companies, one is equity financing and the other is bond financing. For emerging businesses that are not understood by the market, bond financing is more in line with the company's interests. Amazon has been issuing corporate debt for the past seven or eight years.”

"Amazon?"

"right."

"Is it for Amazon Cloud?"

"right."

"I didn't expect that they would go ahead."

Zhou Buqi has not done any market research, but only listened to a suggestion from Senior Sister Zhen Yu. Unexpectedly, by chance, Amazon has always done this.

Lu Qi said: "However, bond issuance is very complicated and needs to be done by professionals. We need to find a financial expert to be the CFO to start the bond business. We cannot issue billions of dollars in one breath. This is too risky. If it gets too big, it may not be sold. This year we will issue two to three billion U.S. dollars first, and next year we will issue another seven to eight billion U.S. dollars, and the interest must be repaid on time. Slowly accumulate market credibility and recognition."

Zhou Buqi said: "Okay, let me go find it! I'll ask SoftBank for help!"

SoftBank is best at this kind of thing, and they also have a large number of management talents in the financial field. Masayoshi Son is definitely willing to send a direct descendant to Ziweixing International as chief financial officer.

Zhou Buqi saves trouble, Ziweixing International loses a headhunting fee, and Sun Zhengyi is also happy.

Kill multiple birds with one stone.

"What about the game business?" Lu Qi was helpless about this matter, "I have no interest in games. It would be difficult for me to lead a business without passion."

"It doesn't matter, leave the Asian business to Tang Binchen. I will take the lead in the European and American markets!"

Zhou Buqi would do his part in this kind of thing.

He doesn't really like playing games.

He is a football fan, music fan and movie fan, but not a game fan.

However, he still heard about some famous games. For example, a game that Secretary Ning Lu mentioned when she arrived - "Minecraft".

And "Plants vs. Zombies", a computer casual game that has been selling well all over the United States just 2 months after it was launched.