Chapter 278: Jingdong Shangcheng, Top Ten Box Office, Will You Have a Little One When Old

After Yan Li and Boss Xiong reached an agreement, many matters at Tudou. com became much easier to handle.

As mentioned earlier, Yan Li and Boss Xiong together held the largest stake in Tudou. com, owning more shares than Wang Wei and his team combined.

Even though Wang Wei and the management team controlled the company and held significant initiative, at critical moments, they could never bypass the two major shareholders.

Of course, he could still make other small moves, but none escaped Yan Li's notice.

Besides the intelligence system, Tudou. com did have one senior executive who was on good terms with Yan Li.

Yan Li's original intention in cultivating this friendship was to provide cover for the system and create confusion.

But he hadn't expected to push too hard—the other party had genuinely been won over by Yan Li.

After all, Boss Yan's personal charisma and social skills were quite impressive.

Moreover, senior executives at internet companies often maintained ambiguous attitudes toward their bosses.

No one knew when they might switch jobs or start their own ventures, and they all needed support from boss-investors.

At present, the executive hadn't fully betrayed Wang Wei; he merely sought closeness with Yan Li, and the information he leaked was mostly internal Tudou. com matters related to Yan Li.

Thus, many of Wang Wei's small maneuvers were half-transparent to Yan Li, who could pre-emptively position himself or set traps in response as needed.

For instance, his long-anticipated Mr. Xu from Jin Xin Capital thought he'd hidden his intentions well, but on the third day of Yan Li's arrival in Shanghai, they met privately for dinner.

As for which side Mr. Xu chose to cooperate with, it was obvious.

Wang Wei held so few cards, while Yan Li held far more—and worse, Yan Li knew exactly what cards Wang Wei held and their true value.

Yan Li wasn't in a hurry to discuss Tudou. com with Mr. Xu; he first laid groundwork, then waited for Wang Wei to make his move.

Over that dinner, the topic they discussed most was Jingdong Shangcheng.

It was another high-quality internet project by Yanye Capital, aside from Tudou. com, currently developing well, and Jin Xin Capital seemed interested.

Yan Li had invested relatively little in this project before, holding limited shares; after the A-round, his stake was now around 10%.

Compared to Tudou. com's meteoric rise, Jingdong Shangcheng was still in expansion, and due to its mediocre type, scale, influence, and revenue model, its valuation hovered around $20–30 million, with some inflation.

This level of internet company wasn't bad, but it wasn't outstanding either.

The industry bubble was too large, especially now that financial markets were hot and capital extremely active, causing these internet companies to boast more and more wildly.

With twenty or thirty employees, a million-level user base and traffic, plus some buzzwords and packaging, they dared to claim valuations of hundreds of millions or even billions of RMB.

So at this stage, if you sifted through the entire internet industry, there weren't many internet companies valued at tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars, but there were certainly plenty.

Xu Xin was interested in Jingdong Shangcheng, and Yan Li was willing to make an introduction.

Yan Li had no other demands regarding this project—it was purely financial investment; with a big player joining to expand the pie, going public to cash out, was beneficial to him.

Besides Jingdong Shangcheng, they discussed a few other projects; all were in the investment circle, and though mutually wary, they still exchanged some information.

In fact, over the past few years, Yan Li hadn't achieved much in investment beyond Tudou. com and Jingdong Shangcheng, mainly due to lack of funds.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't that he lacked money, but that Yan Li was now being relatively cautious with his cash.

Because the stock market was booming, much of his cash was tied up in stock trading, and he also planned to burn money on cinema chains while still keeping an eye on Tudou. com and Weibo.

These funds were all accounted for; Yan Li needed to maintain sufficient ammunition—he couldn't spend money recklessly.

Investment was an industry of casting wide nets—you had to be willing to spend money and be prepared to lose it.

In short, Yan Li's identity as a entrepreneur outweighed that of an investor right now.

Of course, with current financial constraints, Yan Li was cautious; when funds became more plentiful, he would still invest.

Even now, if a promising project came along in its angel or A-round, and the investment amount and equity stake were acceptable, he was willing to support the entrepreneurial dream.

For example, in the first half of this year, Yanye Capital selected three projects—a mattress manufacturer, a travel agency, and a game company—with a planned investment of 11 million RMB.

Gaming and tourism were hot sectors, no need to elaborate; the mattress manufacturer had patented technological advantages.

A few million RMB wasn't much or little for Yan Li; holding onto it offered limited utility, so better to pick a few quality projects and invest—perhaps there'd be surprises.

Due to his business layout, Yan Li had few quality projects on hand, while Xu Xin, a professional investor, introduced him to several.

Whether they were truly high-quality was uncertain, but they all sounded promising.

Among them, the one that caught Yan Li's attention most was Jingdong Shangcheng—he'd seen the name in future intelligence, and though details were scarce, he sensed it wasn't a small company.

Yet, future intelligence contained too many fragmented pieces of information; aside from those he felt useful, Yan Li had neither time nor capacity to verify each one.

Even regarding Jingdong Shangcheng, though he knew the name, Yan Li hadn't researched it much; only after Xu Xin's introduction did he gain a clearer understanding.

"Self-built warehousing and logistics? This Mr. Liu has real guts!"

Yan Li was surprised; he wasn't especially familiar with e-commerce, but he had some exposure and understanding.

The brilliance of Jingdong's move wasn't hard to grasp—it had been proposed long ago by others.

But as always, knowing doesn't mean you can do it!

Everyone knew e-commerce had many advantages with its own logistics, but the key was spending money.

Where would the funds come from? How would this expenditure be offset? Would the market accept such a model?

Building a nationwide e-commerce warehousing and logistics network required enormous investment; if anything went wrong, the company might be dragged down to death.

Mr. Liu had guts, and Mr. Xu had guts too—it was almost a gamble.

But according to future intelligence, both men had won.

Yan Li couldn't help asking how much Xu Xin planned to invest; the latter didn't give a direct answer, only saying that this was early-stage investment, and tens of millions of dollars could secure decent equity returns.

"..."

Yan Li hesitated—this investment wasn't small, but if Jingdong succeeded, it would be extremely worthwhile.

Of course, this was only one round of investment; Jingdong's model would inevitably burn cash relentlessly.

Even if earlier financing secured a certain equity stake, to avoid being kicked out or suffering severe dilution later, he'd have to follow up with more investment.

By then, the amount wouldn't be just tens of millions of dollars.

Considering Yan Li's current financial situation, Jingdong wasn't a great investment target, but his silence and hesitation stemmed from thinking about something else.

Whether it was Tudou. com or Weibo, to grow these companies, one thing couldn't be avoided: how to become profitable.

If a company isn't profitable, going public is just talk—even if it lists by selling dreams, its stock won't perform well.

Tudou was better off; its profit points were obvious, it was just a question of how much profit.

How a social platform like Weibo could become profitable was a tough problem.

Hmm, it wasn't that hard—it was just two words: advertising.

Weibo's high user base, high traffic, and high daily active users made it a holy land for advertising.

According to future intelligence, Sina Weibo would eventually partner with Alibaba, integrate Alibaba's e-commerce ads, and finally achieve profitability, reviving the entire project.

Besides Weibo, many aspects of Tudou could also connect with e-commerce.

Put plainly, Weibo and Tudou were both traffic pools; traffic pools and e-commerce ads complemented each other—one helped drive traffic and advertise, the other turned its advantages into revenue.

But Alibaba's business style, its reputation as the "Roundup of the Industry," and the proposed cooperation model gave Yan Li some reservations.

The emergence of JD. com, however, gave Yan Li a glimpse of new possibilities.

If Yan Li were a shareholder of JD. com, he could push JD to cooperate with Tudou and Weibo, achieving mutual benefit.

Alibaba could still cooperate, but with JD as a counterbalance, Yan Li could gain more initiative.

This logic mirrored Wang Wei's strategy: when one partner grew too powerful, bring in a new one to shift the balance.

Of course, the precondition was not getting swallowed by a united front.

With his intelligence system, Yan Li was fairly confident in this regard—aside from everything else, his information was always top-notch.

Yan Li's mind turned over possibilities, but he didn't make a decision yet—too many factors were involved, too complex to settle quickly.

Besides, it was unclear what JD's side thought—maybe they were the only ones excited.

So in the end, Yan Li merely said he was quite interested in JD's CEO Liu, and if Xu Xin was convenient, he'd appreciate an introduction to start a conversation.

Xu Xin was very straightforward—why had she brought up JD to Yan Li in the first place, if not because Today Capital couldn't swallow the project alone?

Yan Li had money, fame, and connections; in her view, he was an excellent partner, and if he joined JD, it would greatly benefit its development and fundraising.

…

After settling matters in Shanghai, Yan Li stayed two more days before Yang Rong chased him away.

She had to—otherwise Wang Ou would finish his work and rush to Shanghai.

If those two got together, they'd never let her live in peace!

Right now, Yang Rong didn't even know what to do—she just kept avoiding being in the same room as both Wang Ou and Yan Li.

Yan Li was busy, and seeing how resistant she was, he didn't push her hard.

Wang Ou was full of schemes, but he didn't have much free time either; Yang Rong was filming and often in Shanghai, so their schedules barely avoided overlap.

Upon returning to Jingcheng, Yan Li heard good news: Tong Dawei and Guan Yue were getting married.

It wasn't surprising to Yan Li—the reason was Guan Yue was pregnant.

As soon as the prenatal report came out, Tong Dawei's mother started pressuring him to marry—no need for Guan Yue to say a word.

Tong Dawei, who had just won Guan Yue back, dared not delay—he feared losing both wife and child—so he gritted his teeth and began planning the wedding.

This was good for Guan Yue, not bad for Tong Dawei, but Chengtian and Wang Jinghua couldn't help cursing.

"Struggle" was wildly popular, all metrics were excellent, and it was about to air on national TV—Tong Dawei's career was poised to reach a new level, and now he was getting married and becoming a father.

Look at Huang Xiaoming from Huayi—lots of rumors, but he never admits anything; his female fans go wild for him.

Deng Chao from Yi'an is dating, but dating and marrying with children are two different things.

And his girlfriend is the popular rising star Sun Li—they give each other exposure, and so far, it's more beneficial than harmful to his career.

Even Liu Huohua, who doesn't rely much on fans, is currently dating—and he's dating a foreign woman, bringing glory to the nation.

Tong Dawei's move put Chengtian on the defensive; they even considered replacing him, giving the title of Chengtian's top star to Xia Yu.

But before they could decide, Xia Yu was exposed for cheating—he was linked in rumors with Gao Yuanyuan.

Wang Jinghua hadn't yet figured out what to do about Tong Dawei—she rushed off to put out the fire with Xia Yu.

"Tsk. Another one down. None of these male artists are any good."

With Xia Yu's fall, it was time for the familiar scene: Yan Li standing on the moral high ground, pointing fingers.

Xia Yu and Yuan Quan's relationship, once held up as an industry couple, had been used by someone to imply something about Yan Li—now it was a slap in the face.

At moments like this, Yan Li felt utterly delighted inside.

Dong Xuan couldn't help rolling her eyes—last time with Tong Dawei, she'd at least left some room; now with someone else, Yan Li showed zero restraint in his glee.

She didn't care whether Xia Yu cheated or not, but she'd filed Gao Yuanyuan away in her mind.

Dong Xuan had already been suspicious of Gao Yuanyuan's shaky resume; even when Yang Xue tried to set her up, she'd ignored it—now her guard was even higher.

It wasn't the men stealing that worried her—it was running into professionals, especially beautiful ones. Their risk far exceeded that of fleeting flings.

Dong Xuan even considered warning Qin Lan and Fan Xiaopang—sure, they fought among themselves, but on this issue, their interests aligned.

Fan Xiaopang wasn't really a concern for Dong Xuan.

Though she hated to admit it, that sly fox had undeniable charm, sharp instincts, and a high social threshold—ordinary people found it nearly impossible to break through her defenses.

The real one to warn was Qin Lan.

That dumb girl loved forming cliques and didn't care who she befriended—even someone like Hu Siyan could become her confidante; someday she might mindlessly drag that Gao woman into the Teddy Sisters' circle.

Sometimes Dong Xuan couldn't help muttering: occasionally wanting to team up with them, one was too clever, too proud, too isolated; the other was too naive, too blunt, too hard to lead.

Of course, she wasn't the only one thinking that—the two of them also muttered about her behind her back.

Especially Fan Xiaopang—whenever Yan Li's intelligence system triggered psychological insights targeting Qin Lan or Dong Xuan, he dared not mention them, fearing someone might die.

"Did they say when their wedding is?"

Yan Li asked curiously—his friends were getting married one after another, and he'd already attended a few wedding banquets.

But couples like Tong Dawei and Guan Yue, whom he'd watched from dating to marriage, were rare—his attention on them was higher.

Dong Xuan wasn't sure: "They haven't set an exact date yet, but it'll definitely be summer, probably July."

The time is tight, but there's no help for it—if it's not tight, the belly will grow big; the two of them never planned a grand celebration, and since they already have money, one to two months of preparation is enough.

"You're definitely the maid of honor, but has Big Wei found a best man yet?"

No matter how many maids of honor Guan Yue has, Dong Xuan will certainly be among them, and she must be the chief maid of honor.

"He considered asking you, but he's not sure if you have the time."

Yan Li and Tong Dawei have a strong enough friendship, and with his status and position, having Yan Li as best man would be an honor; Tong Dawei naturally wanted to invite Yan Li.

But Yan Li's schedule is truly uncertain, and he also worries about stealing the groom's spotlight.

"I'll definitely make time to attend the wedding, but being best man is harder to say—I'll let them know, and I'll try my best to coordinate, but they should still prepare a backup."

"Understood."