Do girls’ minds really change this quickly?
This thought flashed through his mind, but Xie Qian patiently asked her, “What industry do you want to invest in? Like my mum, putting money into a literature website, or planning to partner with her to start a cultural company?”
Both of these were things Wen Ying would be interested in.
Xie Qian’s guess was not unreasonable.
In the past, Wen Ying might have chosen one of them.
Now, however, Wen Ying shook her head, “I don’t want either. I agree with Aunt Zou that online literature will be the trend in the future, but since Aunt Zou has already invested, I don’t need to.”
The same reasoning applied to the cultural company. Zou Weijun was about to set up a new company, and Wen Ying did not need to force her way in.
Wen Ying had already become a shareholder in Tianjiao and signed her agency contract with Yuan Fenghui. Their cooperation was currently very pleasant, and Wen Ying had no intention of going independent.
More importantly, the profits from literature websites and cultural companies were limited. They could support Wen Ying’s writing career, but they could not enable her to achieve explosive wealth growth.
Originally, Wen Ying did not have a strong desire for wealth.
During Xie Qian’s car accident, Wen Ying could not help at all.
Why?
Because her strength was still insufficient!
Writing was Wen Ying’s dream. When investing, she wanted to switch to a different track.
This track was not in buying properties for appreciation.
When a crisis arrived, what difference did it make to have ten or a hundred properties? Speculating in real estate would ultimately only make one a nouveau riche without social influence.
Wen Ying thought that if she invested in a promising industry and successfully became a shareholder in a major company, by the time those four additional clauses protecting Xie Qian and Zou Weijun expired at the end of 2019, she would not lack bargaining chips.
Thirty or forty million in 2007 was a huge sum. If used well, Wen Ying felt it was not impossible for her to become a major capitalist.
Xie Qian asked which industry Wen Ying wanted to invest in.
Wen Ying did indeed have a plan, “Something in mobile internet. I’m not talking about portal sites or search platforms… like the existing e-commerce platforms where people browse not to read content but to buy goods. Of course, I’m also interested in platforms focused on social networking, like blogs.”
Ma Baba’s e-commerce platform had long been established.
When they were short of funds during startup, Wen Ying had not yet been reborn.
Later, when they needed financing, plenty of capital was willing to invest. How could it be Wen Ying’s turn, a small player like her?
Now that Wen Ying finally had thirty or forty million, she had the confidence to invest in related fields.
The era of smartphones was coming soon!
Xie Qian looked at Wen Ying for a long while, making her feel uneasy, “What’s wrong? Is there a problem with what I said?”
The corners of Xie Qian’s lips softened unusually, “No problem at all. I just wanted to sigh that some things seem to have been arranged by heaven long ago… Do you still remember Yan Yuchuan?”
Wen Ying nodded, “Of course I remember. Sister Xie Tang’s ex-boyfriend. Why, has he come looking for Sister Xie Tang again?”
When Xie Tang and Yan Yuchuan broke up, both Wen Ying and Xie Qian were present.
Xie Tang had intended to use her own emotional experience to remind the two young ones, hoping Xie Qian would treat relationships more cautiously and not repeat the mistakes she and Yan Yuchuan made.
Wen Ying liked Xie Tang a lot and had a good impression of Yan Yuchuan.
When Xie Qian suddenly mentioned him, Wen Ying assumed Yan Yuchuan had come looking for Xie Tang again.
The two had been broken up for quite some time. Xie Tang had chosen to pursue graduate studies, while Yan Yuchuan had started working after his undergraduate degree.
Could Yan Yuchuan have had some extraordinary encounter at work, closing the gap with the Xie family in a short time?
That was almost impossible!
The Xie family was the result of three generations’ efforts and decades of accumulation.
If Yan Yuchuan were that capable, Wen Ying, as a reborn person, would truly kneel before him. After kneeling, she would ask if he needed a lackey so she could cling to his coattails.
Xie Qian shook his head, “It’s not about romance. Even if Yan Yuchuan can’t forget Tang Jie, with her personality she won’t go back to old flames. Past emotions won’t hold her back; she’s already striding forward boldly. What I want to talk about is Yan Yuchuan’s later development. Breaking up with Tang Jie did affect him significantly, causing him to abandon a stable job and start a business with a few friends.”
Xie Qian mentioned encountering Yan Yuchuan and his partners “seeking investment” at President Ran’s banquet.
At the time, Xie Qian had given Yan Yuchuan Gong Sheng’s business card, betting on whether Yan Yuchuan could put aside his pride to contact Gong Sheng.
If Yan Yuchuan could do so, Xie Qian felt his entrepreneurship had some chance of success. If he refused Xie Qian’s kindness out of arrogance, Xie Qian would not chase after him to offer money.
Later, Yan Yuchuan did contact Gong Sheng.
It happened that Xie Qian’s land demolition had left him with no shortage of funds. Gong Sheng thought Yan Yuchuan’s project had potential, so Xie Qian instructed Gong Sheng to invest some money in Yan Yuchuan’s side.
Yes, just a few million. For Xie Qian, who had received demolition compensation at the time, it was truly a small amount.
This small amount in Xie Qian’s eyes helped Yan Yuchuan through the initial stage of entrepreneurship.
Midway, Gong Sheng added another five million.
To date, Xie Qian had invested ten million in Yan Yuchuan’s venture.
Returns?
Naturally, there were none.
Yan Yuchuan’s project burned money too quickly!
The ten million Xie Qian invested was not enough. They raised more from elsewhere and were barely holding on.
But they could not hold on much longer. Recently, Yan Yuchuan had approached Gong Sheng for the third time.
Gong Sheng thought the project had promise but was intimidated by the rate at which it burned cash.
To not invest would mean the previous ten million was wasted. Internet startups were all about burning investors’ money. A successful investment could yield massive returns; an unsuccessful one meant losing the principal entirely.
So Gong Sheng could not decide alone; it required Xie Qian’s decision on whether to invest more.
Xie Qian had just reviewed the materials from Yan Yuchuan’s side these past few days and had not yet replied when Wen Ying suddenly said she wanted to invest in related fields. What a coincidence!
“The project has good prospects, but profitability… honestly, I don’t understand when they might turn a profit. But in internet businesses, profitability isn’t always necessary. Their model is to burn money and keep burning. If they can survive until a successful IPO, the investors win!”
Xie Qian’s words left Wen Ying in a daze.
“Wait, what did you say Yan Yuchuan and his team are doing?”
“Promoting local small and medium enterprises. Large companies can advertise directly on portals and search engines, but SMEs lack that strength, yet they need promotion. Yan Yuchuan’s team believes this area is still a blue ocean. They want to bridge SMEs and consumers, pushing SME products to consumers while offering real discounts… Yan Yuchuan’s team calls this model ‘group buying’.”
The so-called SMEs were more accurately merchants.
Xie Qian had carefully reviewed the materials from Yan Yuchuan’s team. Restaurants, cake shops, flower shops, laundries, these were closely related to daily life. For the same standard meal, eating directly at the restaurant costs 100 yuan. If through their platform one could get an 8.5-fold “group buy discount”, few consumers could resist the temptation, right?
In the process, the restaurant would not lose out.
Dropping from 100 yuan to 85 yuan seems like losing 15 yuan, but with promotion, if original ten tables of customers increase to twenty… no, even to fifteen, the lost profit would be recovered.
The promoting merchants would not lose, consumers would not lose. The ones losing would, of course, be Yan Yuchuan’s team building the platform.
Platform maintenance and merchant promotion all burned money!
In internet businesses, nothing could escape “users”. Building a product meant competing for users.
Total registered users, daily active users, future target users, every metric was crucial!
Even a poor product with enough users could attract investment.
Of course, if the product remained poor without improvement, current users would be snatched by similar competitors.
Xie Qian explained in great detail to Wen Ying. Everything in Yan Yuchuan’s materials he mentioned, and the risks hidden beneath the bright prospects that were not in the materials, Xie Qian made sure to clarify for Wen Ying.
“This isn’t like property speculation, and it’s not even quite like stock trading. No matter if property prices rise or fall, the house is in your hands and has residential value. The same with stocks; as long as you don’t use heavy leverage, if they fall, you might not lose everything. But this internet startup is either massive returns or total loss. After all, far too many companies die halfway!”
Xie Qian’s mind, who knew how it had grown.
The difference between people was just so vast.
From the moment Xie Qian mentioned “group buy discounts”, Wen Ying was already stunned.
This was even earlier than the founding of “that certain group” in her memory!!
Yan Yuchuan’s team entering this field so early, if they succeeded… Wen Ying desperately tried to recall the market value of “that certain group” in 2019. Hm, she could not remember.
But she did recall that in 2018, when it first listed, its market value approached 400 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Let alone being a major shareholder in such a company, the major shareholders were originally led by other internet giants. That company had burned through many rounds of financing to survive until listing and profitability.
Wen Ying was not greedy. For a company like that, even holding 1% of shares at listing would be 4 billion Hong Kong dollars!
Turning a 40 million investment into 4 billion in ten years was impossible through property or stocks. One had to spot a super unicorn like that and invest!
If the person Xie Qian mentioned running this project was called “Wang X”, Wen Ying would not hesitate and would rush to become an angel investor. But Yan Yuchuan’s team not only lacked the “Boss Wang” from her memory, but did not even have anyone surnamed Wang. Wen Ying immediately hesitated. Should she take the risk to create history, or wait conservatively to participate in it?
Seeing Wen Ying silent for a long time, Xie Qian was not displeased. On the contrary, he was secretly pleased.
Why did he like Wen Ying?
Besides her unique wonderful qualities and their irreplaceable beautiful memories, it was also because Wen Ying was always very cautious before making major decisions.
This was where the hamster matched him best!
“Don’t rush to decide. I plan to find time to visit Yan Yuchuan’s office. If you’re interested in investing, you can come with me.”
