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After a brief moment of astonishment, Zhou Buqi quickly figured out the reason.

Reed Hoffman is the founder and chairman of the board of directors of LinkedIn. He has great power, but he actively wants to hand over such an excellent Internet company with potential stocks... Isn't this giving away his biological son?

There must have been a huge risk.

LinkedIn is for business networking.

Now, Facebook has clearly entered this field. At the same time, Google has always made efforts in the social field and intends to develop in this direction, especially the product Google+. Recently, there are rumors that it is transforming into business social networking.

In fact, there is a more threatening existence-Ziweixing International.

Ziweixing International has not made any news of entering business and social networking, but this does not mean that the company does not have a tendency to develop in this direction. Especially now that Ziweixing International is about to IPO. Once successfully listed, it will be able to raise at least US$20 billion.

Now that you have so much money, what will you do next?

Business social networking must be an area that cannot be avoided.

LinkedIn is not an industry giant, but it is currently the number one in the business social field. A prerequisite for this is that no other IT giants have entered this sector. Once Facebook, Google, PurpleStar, Microsoft and other giants all enter the market, what will be the future of LinkedIn?

Reed Hoffman is looking for a way out.

Coincidentally, Boss Zhou is a member of LinkedIn's board of directors and one of its early investors. With such a connection, a merger between the two parties is the best solution.

Although Zhou Buqi is a director of LinkedIn, he has never participated in a single LinkedIn board meeting. Senior Sister Zhen Yu has always acted as his agent.

He has little sense of responsibility for LinkedIn.

Not much attention either.

This time Reed Hoffman's proposal was something he had never considered.

Seeing his surprise, Hoffman told the truth in a joking tone, "After merging LinkedIn, you no longer have to distract yourself from looking for opportunities in the field of business and social networking. As long as the transaction is completed, Ziweixing can be used overnight." to become the dominant player in the global business social market.”

Zhou Buqi said: "I really haven't thought about it. If I want to do business networking, the first step is to withdraw from LinkedIn's board of directors."

Hoffman said: "Even if you haven't thought about it now, what will happen in half a year or a year? When Ziweixing International is successfully listed, the capital market will also push you to open up a larger market and find more growth points. ”

Zhou Buqi didn't comment well on this.

Because he really lacks understanding of business social networking, because this market simply does not exist in China. Not only has he not experienced it in his previous life, but he has no relevant experience in this life. If he really does business and socializing, Big Boss Zhou will really not be able to help at all. Not only can he not provide advice on business, but he cannot point out the direction strategically.

This means that this must be a "out of control" project.

Whether you can succeed or not depends entirely on destiny.

This is no longer interesting.

After being listed and making money, Boss Zhou actually still has many areas to develop and expand, and he doesn't have to worry about finding new investment tracks. Recently, he has established two directions: online education and generative AI large models, and Yahoo search needs to be restarted...

Hoffman didn't know the inside story and didn't believe that a social giant like Ziweixing could let go of the huge market of business social networking. He said frankly: "Recently, there have been some strategic differences within LinkedIn. My opinions and those of the management Not very unified.”

"Because of the sale?"

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly.

Hoffman shook his head, "It's not a sale, it's just some thoughts I had after meeting you today. I haven't talked to anyone about it. The difference lies in LinkedIn's next development plan. My opinion is to focus on the US market and follow Google and Facebook are locked in a battle to ensure their leadership in the U.S. market and to limit the development of their business social products. They are planning to enter the Chinese market. "

"ah?"

Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth.

LinkedIn to develop in China?

This is a bit too absurd.

What age is this? A foreign Internet company still wants to develop in China. Do you have the competitiveness? Besides, there is no market for business social networking in China, so what’s the use of coming? At best, it's just a small business in a niche field, and it's impossible to make money.

Hoffman sighed, "I don't agree with this plan, but more people are looking forward to looking for opportunities in a huge market like China."

"They didn't agree with you?"

Zhou Buqi basically guessed what was going on.

Reed Hoffman was a little frustrated.

LinkedIn is the company he founded.

Now that it is listed, it is going against his will. The management directors and the CEO he appointed have stood together to oppose him.

In addition, Google and Facebook have recently stopped doing business social networking, forming a huge threat...

At this time, Zhou Buqi remembered something again. Senior Sister Zhen Yu had told him.

In June of this year, a big incident happened at LinkedIn.

LinkedIn was attacked by hackers, resulting in the leakage of 6.5 million passwords. At the same time, the passwords of 300,000 users were cracked, causing serious social impact. It is estimated that it was under this situation that Google and Facebook saw opportunities, and both launched their own business social products.

Under all circumstances, it’s not surprising that Hoffman wanted to quit.

Hoffman asked: "Do you think LinkedIn should go to China to develop?"

Zhou Buqi told the truth, "No, most of LinkedIn's functions require payment. Such product design is not in line with our country's Internet product usage habits. Moreover, the social attribute itself also has policy implications for foreign companies." limit."

Hoffman smiled self-deprecatingly, "Yes, but if you give this reason to LinkedIn's board of directors, they will think that you are worried that LinkedIn will be the first to seize the market. They just want to do business social networking in Ziweixing." When the time comes, hurry up and go to China to develop and occupy the business and social market.”

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "I won't resort to tricks on such a trivial matter, right?"

Hoffman shrugged and sighed: "Many people use their own standards to judge other people's choices, but they don't know that different people have different patterns and moral standards. The reason why you are better than them Success is not because you are better at conspiracy than they are, but because you have a bigger picture and higher moral standards.”

Zhou Buqi touched his nose and said modestly, "We are all the same, but our luck is slightly different."

"It's not just luck, it's also vision." Hoffman seemed confident, "I believe you can definitely see the value of LinkedIn. LinkedIn now has 200 million users, 13% of which are paid users. The proportion of paid users Although it is not many, it is growing rapidly, with paid users increasing by 33% year-on-year in the fourth quarter.”

Such data is kept confidential, but Zhou Buqi is a director and does not need to be kept confidential.

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Yeah, very impressive data."

Hoffman said: "Ziweixing International has many excellent social products, and I have paid attention to them all. However, your social products have a weakness. Your products are basically free and rely on advertising to generate revenue. In this way The business model is too simple, and it also hides huge risks. Just like Netflix and YouTube, I will approve of Netflix’s model more. Paid membership can be more loyal and more stable than “free + advertising”. The merger of MSI and LinkedIn will make your social business revenue more diversified and your revenue structure richer.”

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "This is really a big event, but all I can think about now is the IPO."

Hoffman smiled, "Of course, let me bring up an idea first, and we can all think about it. Anyway, in my opinion, merger is good for both of us. Maybe one day in the future, we will reach an agreement ”

LinkedIn is a large company, and it is a public company with a market value of nearly $10 billion.

For such a large company, even if the merger is real, it would be impossible to complete it before the IPO of Ziweixing International.

We still need to take a long-term approach.

Zhou Buqi planned to go back to discuss with the company executives.

One thing is for sure.

LinkedIn is a great company to acquire.

It would be a better company if we did not develop in China.