Chapter 891: Hong Kong Side Story 5: 10 Years of Time, Shaanxi Tourists Come to Hong Kong

June 2004,

This was a very important thing for Penguin————going public in Hong Kong!

Since 1999, after receiving investment from Five-Star Group, Penguin had no worries about money, making bold moves and forging ahead.

QQ defeated various communication software along the way and topped the list as the national communication software hegemon.

As of now, 2004, the number of active registered QQ users reached 185 million, and the number of concurrent online accounts reached as high as 12.4 million.

In terms of revenue, Penguin's total revenue in 2004 reached 2.344 billion, and the net profit was 947 million.

The QQ game platform, which started trial operation in December 2002, had more than 1.2 million concurrent online users by June 2004, ranking first in the country.

This progress was about 40% faster than in the previous life.

Everything was because Five-Star Group had a very good reputation in the country.

Starting from 1998, every year they carried out educational poverty alleviation for a mainland province, and mainland companies in which Five-Star participated also really took out money to donate schools or promote projects such as medical care to the countryside.

Against this background,

Penguin prepared to be formally listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 16, 2004, with the stock code HK00700, becoming the first Chinese Internet enterprise listed on the Hong Kong main board.

……

On the other side,

Huaxing Technology Building, Wensan Road, Hangzhou,

The office area of Alibaba was busy.

In the open office space, the sound of employees typing on keyboards rose and fell, the whiteboard was filled with dense business plans, and the green radishes in the corner swayed gently in the air conditioning wind.

The scale of this office area was more than ten times larger than the office location of the Eighteen Arhats at the beginning.

Jack Ma's office,

In the innermost part of the office area, a piece of calligraphy "Ma Dao Cheng Gong" (Success upon arrival) hung on the wall, and below it was a sofa.

Jack Ma sat in front of the desk, with a weekly magazine in front of him.

The front page was printed with "Penguin Goes Public in Hong Kong, the First Internet Stock in the Mainland"!

It was expected.

Penguin's user base was there, and with Five-Star Group, a big investment spender, going public in Hong Kong was naturally a matter of course.

"We don't compete for the first in Hong Kong..."

"After all, our stage is not in Hong Kong, but in the United States..."

Jack Ma's gaze looked towards the skyline of Hangzhou City outside the window, the direction was the East; over there, thousands of miles away, was the United States.

"If Ali wants to do global business, it must stand in the world's top capital market. Only the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ can hold our ambition."

At present, Ali's financing progress was very stable, and it had completed the third round of financing.

In the round in 1999, Five-Star Group invested 3 million USD;

In 2002, Five-Star Group and SoftBank invested 100 million USD together.

At the end of 2003, Five-Star Group pulled in Fidelity Investments and Granite Global Ventures from the US, and invested another 100 million USD.

At present, Ali's funds were very abundant.

And B2B (Ali), in the first half of this year, the number of paid members on the platform had exceeded 200,000, among which overseas members accounted for nearly 30%, and many small and medium-sized enterprises sold products to the world through Ali.

Last year's total revenue was 859 million, and the net profit was 160 million, doubling from 2002.

And Taobao, online for one year, the number of daily active users had exceeded 500,000; although it was still burning money, the user growth rate was super fast.

For the future,

Jack Ma was full of confidence.

……

……

Hong Kong.

On the morning of June 16, 2004,

The sunshine fell on Victoria Harbour, shone into the curtains of the Shangri-La Hotel, and spilled into the executive suite.

Little Ma woke up and sat up from the bed quickly.

What came into view were the high-rise buildings in Central, Hong Kong, outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Boss, good morning!"

The assistant pushed the door open, in a suit, shrewd and capable, holding a document in his hand.

"Today is your big day."

"Yes, big day!"

Little Ma showed a happy smile.

Assistant: "Boss, now I will report today's itinerary to you."

"8:00, go to Five-Star Group to have the final communication on listing details with many shareholders and underwriting institutions."

"9:00, go to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to participate in the preparation ceremony before listing."

"9:30, ring the bell."

The symbolic link of ringing the bell for a company's listing usually took place at this opening moment, meaning the company formally stepped into the capital market and started a brand-new journey.

"How was the preparation last night?" Little Ma asked while washing up.

"Everything is ready; the prospectus and promotional materials have all been distributed. At the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, our display area is decorated very brightly, and the QQ penguin logo is particularly eye-catching," Li Yue reported quickly.

There was a question,

Why didn't Penguin choose to go public in the US?

Actually, there were many considerations behind this.

The US capital market, especially NASDAQ, although seen as the "cradle of the global Internet," and Chinese Internet companies like Sina, Sohu, and NetEase had all landed in the capital market there before, Penguin's business model couldn't find a comparable benchmark enterprise in North America.

All instant messaging tools in the US, from ICQ to Yahoo Messenger, and then to MSN, were not independent companies, and none had found a profit model.

Americans held the concept that all Internet innovations should be launched first in Silicon Valley or Route 128 in Boston, and other places were just responses to American-style innovations, so they might not be willing to pay for Penguin, this unique Chinese story.

In addition, Hong Kong and Shenzhen were close, and investors in Hong Kong had a natural sense of closeness to Penguin.

There was also a crucial point: shortly after Penguin was founded, it promised options to early core employees. Little Ma hoped to complete the purchase at a lower price before listing. This practice would be seen as "inappropriate behavior that reduces company profit" in the US capital market, but it was widely recognized in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong's rules were more favorable to employees.

Combining these factors, Little Ma finally decided to choose to go public in Hong Kong.

He finished washing up, changed into a crisp suit, finished breakfast, left the hotel, and got into the car.

Arrived at the International Finance Centre.

That's right, Five-Star Group moved its office.

Starting from 1999, Five-Star Group, Boss Li Ji, and New World invested together to build the International Finance Centre (Phase II) in Hong Kong, 420 meters high, 46 meters higher than the 374 meters of Central Plaza.

So Central Plaza became the second highest.

(Image: Hong Kong International Finance Centre building)

Then,

Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu naturally wanted the highest building.

So, Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu moved Five-Star Group, moving to the top floor of the Finance Centre.

In his previous life, the top floor of the International Finance Centre was the office of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, bought for 3.7 billion HKD, but this time it was occupied by Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu.

Five-Star Group occupied the top 10 floors.

(Central Plaza: "…………" Pfft, scumbag!)

Then going down, there were the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asia-Pacific Office of the Bank for International Settlements, Blackstone Group, Standard Chartered Bank and Standard Chartered Securities, Hillhouse Capital, China Ping An Asset Management, Minsheng Bank, UBS Hong Kong Head Office, BNP Paribas...

In short, this building was currently the absolute center of Hong Kong.

On the top floor, Little Ma met Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu.

"Mr. Guan!"

"Congratulations, Little Ma... after today, Penguin will open a brand-new chapter."

"Thanks to the support of Mr. Guan and Five-Star Group over the years; without you, there would be no Penguin today," Little Ma responded sincerely.

Next,

Representatives of many underwriting structures came.

Next was the meeting.

9:00

The black Chevrolet arrived at the Stock Exchange.

Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu and Little Ma got out of the car and walked side by side towards the main entrance of the Stock Exchange.

9:29, preparing to ring the bell.

(Image: Couldn't find Penguin ringing the bell, found Xiaomi ringing the bell)

Because Five-Star Group had shares, Penguin's listing attracted the attention of many citizens.

At the beginning of the month, the media had already started reporting one after another, and the citizens' attention was also high.

Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu didn't stop this attention, because Penguin's stock price growth in his previous life belonged to that kind of top-tier bull stock; in 21 years of listing, it appreciated 717 times.

In this life, with the blessing of Five-Star Group, I'm afraid this 717 times will be advanced.

If citizens held Penguin's stock, what they earned would definitely not be little.

Therefore, Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu wouldn't stop it.

And this time ringing the bell, because Director Director Director Guan Zu Zu attended, it also attracted all the Hong Kong media to come, causing the scene of ringing the bell to be crowded, people's heads surging, and all kinds of cameras were set up.

"Countdown..."

"14 seconds..."

"13 seconds..."

As the countdown reached 0...

9:30,

Little Ma held the bell hammer tightly and rang the copper gong forcefully. ===== CHAPTER 892 =====