It had been some time since He Zhengcheng arrived in Silicon Valley, and he had learned a lot from Yahoo and eBay. These two companies never had an engineering culture from the start; they merely borrowed the internet's facade, still operating like traditional businesses.
Of course, we cannot say that an engineering culture is the future of the internet. Amazon's Bezos and Alibaba's Ma Xiaoyun also lacked technical backgrounds, yet they managed to balance technology and business well, forging their own suitable development paths.
Should he invest in successful companies or profitable ones? He Zhengcheng was somewhat hesitant on this point. His ideal state was to grow with a company, but how many such companies were there?
He remembered many company names, but many of their founders had not yet started their businesses or completed their initial accumulation of capital.
At this point, he either shouldn't invest, or he should invest in companies destined to fail. For example, Webvan, an internet fresh food delivery company.
The concept of e-commerce became increasingly popular due to the sharp rise in Amazon and eBay's stock prices. KPCB, which had long been interested in this field, took a liking to Webvan, a company He Zhengcheng had already learned about.
This company was founded in December 1996. Two months after its establishment, venture capital followed, with the first investment in 1997. After two years of research and development, the first warehousing system was fully launched. One month after its launch, it began accepting its first orders, truly making its first close contact with users.
Oh, Webvan's warehousing system hasn't launched yet; it might have to wait until May or June next year. So they are short on cash now. KPCB wants to invest but is very worried, so they pulled Shanhai Capital to co-invest.
"After you join, how long will it take for this company to go public? You know, with their business model, it's impossible to succeed without massive financial support. I believe no venture capitalist would want to take that risk," He Zhengcheng hesitated, asking Harrington Rupert of KPCB.
"I don't know, but I'm willing to find a way to push for this company's IPO as soon as conditions are right," Harrington Rupert replied.
"For such an asset-heavy internet company, both its upside and downside are astonishing. What do you think of its founders?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"Very passionate, rational, and they know what they're doing," Harrington Rupert said.
"In that case, if KPCB wants to invest, we'll follow, but we'll only invest at most one-third of your capital," He Zhengcheng stated.
"Great, it's a deal!" Harrington Rupert stood up excitedly.
"It's a deal!" He Zhengcheng confirmed.
The O2O of this era is truly something to look forward to. Hmm, it might be a bit unkind to call it O2O. This company's goal is to provide users with all sorts of products, including books, food, and even electronic devices, and deliver them to the consumers' doorsteps.
These are the things Amazon and JD.com would do later. It's just that this person got the order mixed up, first investing in logistics and warehousing, then establishing an e-commerce website. Then, relying on excellent service, he aimed to ignite the market.
Unfortunately, a few years later, the company's founder, Louis Borders, failed. Before the market education process was complete, Webvan collapsed, ultimately leading to Amazon's unique dominance... During this period, more than ten e-commerce companies went bankrupt, especially asset-heavy e-commerce companies like Webvan. Because of this lesson, eBay never invested in building logistics support services.
Another KPCB partner approached He Zhengcheng to invest in Pets.com, the online pet e-commerce company.
Haha, he could only tell him to get lost. If he didn't understand such obvious business logic, what kind of investing was he doing? Selling pets online, not to mention the numerous difficulties, whether the pets would die during transit, and how big this market truly was—was it really worth investing in?
Silicon Valley truly had many oddities, with all sorts of inexplicable companies constantly appearing, continuously refreshing He Zhengcheng's worldview. He suddenly realized that the music download software Shi Hongwen and his team were developing wasn't really that outrageous; those who wanted to create online video streaming were the true heroes.
Video websites, He Zhengcheng felt a pang of anxiety just thinking about how much money they would burn. Of course, there were also those doing live video streaming, those wanting to create internet banks, and so on, all making people feel a headache.
So, when he saw Shi Hongwen and the others' music download software, he maintained a pleasant attitude. Their music software was called Music Player. The name was simple, and its functions were also simple.
This is a piece of software that allows you to download desired MP3 files from the network. While downloading music, it also turns your machine into a server, providing downloads for other users.
In this network, Music Player itself does not provide MP3 file downloads; it actually provides a "directory" of MP3 files for the entire Napster network. You can think of it as a simplified music version of Kuaibo.
Music Player also boasts powerful search capabilities, automatically searching for and categorizing MP3 music information from online users for others to query. As long as you know the name of your favorite song or artist, you can directly enjoy music with music lovers worldwide.
You can also choose the directory of music files you want to share with others online, and you can chat with people who like the same style of music, discuss in forums, and exchange ideas.
Its functionality might not be inferior to NetEase Cloud, but in fact, this was a product of that era, specifically the software called Napster that would appear a few months later. It's just that the user interface and UI design were more aligned with He Zhengcheng's aesthetic, using professional art design.
"How's the promotion going? How's the user growth rate?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"It's alright. It's only a small-scale promotion right now, so not many people know about it," Shi Hongwen replied.
"There aren't many songs on your software!" He Zhengcheng observed.
"Not many people are sharing music yet," Shi Hongwen said.
"Has no one actively shared a large amount of music?" He Zhengcheng inquired.
"Where would you find such people? Network bandwidth costs money, PCs cost money. Sharing too much would affect one's own operational experience," Shi Hongwen explained.
"Have you never thought about sponsoring certain individuals to let them contribute to the vast number of internet users?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"You… I understand!" Shi Hongwen exclaimed.
"Good, it's enough that you know. It's best not to let too many people know!" He Zhengcheng advised.
"But we're short on cash. When will the next investment arrive?" Shi Hongwen asked.
"Are you sure you want to establish a company? Doing so carries legal risks!" He Zhengcheng warned.
"You're overthinking it. The internet itself advocates sharing, and there's also the safe harbor principle. What we're doing isn't illegal!" Shi Hongwen argued.
"Then let's go register the company, divide the shares, and then find venture capitalists!" He Zhengcheng proposed.
"Aren't you a venture capitalist?" Shi Hongwen asked.
"My small frame can't handle your troubles. We need the support of big names," He Zhengcheng said. He wouldn't naively believe that a good idea, a good concept, or a good product alone guarantees success; the law could teach you a lesson in minutes.
"Oh, right, Google seems to be planning to raise funds," Shi Hongwen mentioned.
"Really? That's fantastic!" This time, He Zhengcheng smiled genuinely, his efforts during this period finally paying off.