NOVEL WEB Chapter 177: A New King is About to be Born
"Old Yang, what do you think of my judgement?"
"Very strong, badass, and impressive!"
After a few beers, Yang Zhenyuan had completely let loose, his face showing admiration, he gave a thumbs up.
Anyone, including himself, could question Lu Liang's character, but no one would question his judgement.
Yang Zhenyuan was a talent, and Lu Liang didn't want him to fall from grace, speaking earnestly, "Don't be too resistant to Byte; the philosophy of Douyin combined with the technology of Byte, it's definitely not just one plus one, it could be one times ten, or even one times a hundred."
"You might not quite believe me, but one thing is absolutely true, both I and Zhang Yiming hope that you will continue with Douyin."
"Maybe in less than two years, at most a year, or even half a year, you will definitely be glad about the choice you make today."
Yang Zhenyuan was silent for a long time, then he took another bottle of beer from the ice bucket and drank more than half of it, "I'll try to convince myself."
Lu Liang smiled slightly and said nothing more, patting Yang Zhenyuan on the shoulder, "Mr. Zhang will bring people over at noon tomorrow, you should get a good night's rest tonight."
He wrapped himself in a bathrobe, stepped out of the business pool, mingled with the employees of Douyin, and even joined their card game.
"Short one player? Count me in, and let's not bet too high, ten or twenty is fine," Lu Liang joined the mahjong table with a smile on his face.
Seeing this scene, Yang Zhenyuan could only force a smile, he actually had no choice but to trust Lu Liang.
They played until late into the night, and though the limit was ten thousand per person, the final tally for the 46 people was less than 250,000 yuan. Excluding Lu Liang's expenses, each person spent less than five thousand on average.
The next day at noon, Lu Liang and Zhang Yiming arrived at Douyin.
Zhang Yiming looked at the office area with nostalgia in his eyes, "Byte was like this when it first started, I still remember eating instant noodles for over three months."
Lu Liang glanced at him and teased, "Isn't ByteDance Mr. Zhang's fifth entrepreneurial project? How could conditions have been so tough back then?"
Zhang Yiming suddenly fell silent, smacking his lips, not sure how to continue the conversation; he just wanted to express the difficult feelings of entrepreneurship.
The two entered the company, and it was extremely awkward for new and old owners to meet - not just for Yang Zhenyuan, many former Byte, now Douyin employees felt the same.
They were puzzled, not knowing why Zhang Yiming suddenly appeared, walking with Lu Liang, and also receiving enthusiastic hospitality from Yang Zhenyuan.
"Mr. Lu, Mr. Zhang, this way please," Yang Zhenyuan forced himself to appear calm; he was the most embarrassed one.
Seven months after resigning from Byte, and after being passed around, Zhang Yiming had become his boss again.
"Zhenyuan, don't be too formal. Business is like this, with constant changes and, after all, it's not your fault."
Zhang Yiming wore a smile, suddenly glancing at Lu Liang, it was obvious who was mainly to blame.
Lu Liang's smile lingered on his lips, seemingly indifferent, fiddling with a lighter in his hand while waiting for Shen Peng and Zhu Hu to arrive.
This collaboration was the merge of Watermelon and Douyin; Watermelon was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Byte.
For the Watermelon side, just Zhang Yiming's presence would suffice, but for Douyin, they needed to wait for Yang Zhenyuan, Tianxing, Redwood, and Golden Sand River to gather.
Soon after, Shen Peng and Zhu Hu rushed over, with a third-party assessment report of both companies.
Douyin was valued at 90 million US dollars; Watermelon was valued at 200 million US dollars, with a size 2.22 times that of Douyin.
After merging into Watermelon Douyin, Watermelon owned 69% of the new company's equity, and Douyin owned 31%.
Douyin's 31% equity was redistributed according to Yang Zhenyuan's 36%, Tianxing's 34%, Golden Sand River's 16%, and Redwood's 14%.
Eventually, Yang Zhenyuan owned 11.16% of the new company, Tianxing held 10.54%, Golden Sand River had 4.96%, and Redwood had 4.34%.
"Now we've finally shaken hands and made peace, it's a win-win situation," Zhu Hu said with a smile, clapping his hands in approval.
The merger of Douyin and Watermelon was surely a case of one plus one being greater than two, with a minimum combined valuation of 350 million US dollars.
Golden Sand River had made two investments totaling 4.32 million US dollars, obtaining equity valued at 17.36 million US dollars.
A fourfold return, which although not worth mentioning compared to Lu Liang's past achievements, was better than nothing.
Yang Zhenyuan managed a strained smile on his face; seven months ago, his investment of 3 million turned into 39.06 million US dollars.
An 83-fold increase, with the technology backed by Byte, and the finances supported by Tianxing, Redwood, and Golden Sand River.
This was definitely a company with boundless prospects, and that was the only consolation he could give himself.
After redistributing the equity, Zhang Yiming exercised his right of absolute control for the first time, calling a shareholders' meeting.
Taking full control of Douyin's technology department, Douyin's original employees would only be responsible for routine maintenance and operations.
Without major decisions being implemented, they would retain as much independence as possible, placing great trust in Yang Zhenyuan.
Zhang Yiming didn't know how Lu Liang had persuaded Yang Zhenyuan, but now that Yang Zhenyuan had agreed, he would be responsible for the future.
Yang Zhenyuan was astonished, thinking of Lu Liang's words from the night before, which seemed to be no deception, but he wondered if it was just a soothing tactic.
After the meeting, Lu Liang found Zhang Yiming for a one-on-one chat, "Mr. Zhang, I'm very optimistic about Douyin and hope that Byte will pay more attention in the future."
"Rest assured, Mr. Lu, so do I."
Zhang Yiming looked serious, Byte held 69% of West Melon Douyin's equity, having achieved absolute control.
In his view, Yang Zhenyuan had simply gone out for a while and brought him a very good product and investors.
He would not look at Yang Zhenyuan and Douyin with any prejudice.
After ending the conversation with Lu Liang, Zhang Yiming had a private chat with Yang Zhenyuan where he made the same assurances.
A few days later, Douyin rolled out a version update, this time optimizing the algorithm and integrating the backend of Watermelon.
As soon as the news broke out, the whole internet was in an uproar.
"Isn't this way too fast?"
"Have Douyin and Watermelon merged?"
"Douyin as the main, Watermelon as auxiliary?"
"Has Zhang Yiming gone crazy?"
Netizens were discussing fervently, and those most worried were the video creators who had invested in social media.
The battle royale situation had lasted less than a month when it suddenly turned into a three-way stand-off.
They feared that past incidents had proven that the more chaotic the situation, the more advantageous it was for industry practitioners.
Like the great war of a thousand groups, one US Dollar lunches were common, and the ride-hailing wars had made one US Dollar rides nothing out of the ordinary.
Now, Meituan nearly monopolizes the food delivery market, and DiDi nearly monopolizes the ride-hailing market, with the price per order climbing sharply.
There's also the current fierce battle of shared bicycles.
Some overwhelmed competitors exited the market, while others quietly raised their prices, from riding for one hour for one US Dollar to a new price of thirty minutes for one US Dollar, without any notice.
Those beautiful days are gone, never to return.
Watermelon and Douyin made a joint statement, asserting that it was just normal business cooperation and their respective creative incentive projects would not interfere with each other.
Luo of Hammer Technology, with a belly full of grievances, updated his Weibo: "Lu Liang, are you playing around with Hammer?"
Hammer phone was already in a difficult position, hoping to make a comeback with the M1 phone, a close imitation of the Apple 6s.
However, due to the self-media era suddenly initiated by Lu Liang, their plans were completely disrupted.
Small companies are inherently less capable of weathering risks, adding insult to injury for families that were already not wealthy.
If it were beneficial to one at the expense of another, it would be acceptable since that's just business, but the key issue was that it did not significantly benefit one's own interests while harming others.
All the fuss only to end in a merger, it seemed that ultimately, Zhang Yiming's interests were maximized.
Luo was extremely aggrieved.
Once the news was released, it quickly shot to the top of trending searches, as he was the first entrepreneur to publicly criticize Lu Liang.
Before Lu Liang could respond, Little Wang stepped up to speak for him: "What else is there to play with besides Hammer? CrookedSmile.JPG"
"Mind your own business; without your daddy, what are you bragging about?"
Luo was really upset and suddenly went full throttle in his attacks.
Lu Liang, he dared only to grumble about, but Little Wang was fair game—the self-made generation could completely overpower the second-generation rich.
Just recently, after Little Wang mocked Lei Jun's poor English, claiming it embarrassed the nation, he had to hastily apologize and explain that same night.
In the eyes of the older generation, Little Wang was truly nothing more than a braggart.
The verbal battle escalated and threatened to spread across the entire internet.
Over the past year and more, Lu Liang had offended quite a number of people, but due to his strength and prestige, they had not dared to speak out.
Now that Wang Xiaocong dared to be the spokesperson, they might not dare to criticize Lu Liang, but who said they wouldn't dare to attack Little Wang?
Suddenly, Little Wang found himself under siege by a group of entrepreneurs, and the netizens enjoyed the drama, happily watching from the sidelines with popcorn in hand.
Just when the situation seemed to be spiraling out of control, a graph went viral that, like a flood, instantly doused the flames of conflict.
In the past 24 hours, Douyin topped the user stickiness ranking with an average daily active duration of 128 minutes.
If there were a hundred thousand daily active users, then their average viewing time would be over two hours.
This set of staggering data, particularly after those in the know learned that Douyin's duration was only 62 minutes last week.
To judge the success of an app, not only the number of daily active users matters, but user stickiness is also a crucial indicator.
The higher the stickiness, the more one can charge for advertising, and after the update, Douyin's numbers had doubled.
For a moment, the entire internet fell into a deathly silence.
Luo fell silent, no longer interested in clashing with Little Wang, as this clearly wasn't a simple addition problem.
This was all in just one day.
Such was the magnitude of change.
"I apologize, this is freaking awesome."
After updating his status, Luo went offline.
His way of thinking was too small; Lu Liang's vision, still so keen.
The philosophy of Douyin combined with Byte's technology was simply unbeatable; Kuai Shou was already in danger, a new king was about to be born.