Chapter 324 CCTV Interview and Gathering of Bigwigs in the Capital World
Gu Tongye, the CCTV reporter who came to interview Li Xiaofan, is from the CCTV Americas Central Reporter Station. The Americas Center Reporter Station is mainly responsible for news reports in the Americas centered on the United States.
Gu Tongye is based in New York and graduated from the International Journalism Department of the Foreign Languages Department of Beijing Broadcasting Institute. He is currently mainly responsible for financial reporting.
After the U.S. stock market opened in the morning, he watched on TV NBC's interviews with Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and Filo, as well as news reports with early investors Sequoia Capital Moritz and Li Xiaofan.
What surprised Gu Tongye was that Li Xiaofan, the founder of Singapore Yifan Holdings, who worked with Sequoia Capital to explore the value of Yahoo and was the first to invest in Yahoo projects with Sequoia Capital, was actually a young man from mainland China.
With the inherent professional sensitivity of journalists, Gu Tongye keenly felt that this was a very interesting news clue that was worthy of in-depth exploration. So he finally contacted Yahoo's public relations director Alice after some inquiries through his contacts in the media.
In Times Square, where major media often take photos, Li Xiaofan and Gu Tongye got to know each other after exchanging business cards.
After listening to Li Xiaofan's brief introduction, Gu Tongye was still full of questions and curiosity.
What makes Gu Tongye most curious is that a young man like Li Xiaofan, who has no formal university education in China, went to work in a Singapore electronics factory for about a year. He should have very few resources. How could he be so successful in starting a business? Why is he so optimistic about the Internet industry, especially the Yahoo project? How could he join the venture capital industry, an emerging industry that was barely heard of in China at the time, and dare to invest in an Internet project like Yahoo...
Although Gu Tongye had questions in his mind, he was too embarrassed to ask more questions since it was his first time meeting him.
After Gu Tongye gave Li Xiaofan some instructions for the interview, he asked the accompanying cameraman to start a test shoot with them.
His interview with Li Xiaofan started with the bustling Manhattan urban district outdoors in Times Square, and the Yahoo stock displayed on the NASDAQ big screen as the background.
He opened with:
"The Internet and venture capital may be two relatively unfamiliar terms to many people in our country. However, nowadays in Silicon Valley and Wall Street in the United States, the Internet and venture capital are becoming two increasingly popular terms. At present, In the United States, on Wall Street, a wave of venture capital Internet industry is rising! "
"Today, a large number of high-tech projects in Silicon Valley, represented by the Internet industry, are booming after receiving venture capital. Recently, more and more such high-tech Internet projects have been successfully listed on Nasdaq in the United States. Like last year's Netscape browser, Internet companies such as Lycos and Excite that went public this year have been enthusiastically welcomed by Wall Street investors since their listing. In Silicon Valley in the United States, a large number of billionaires have been created here!”
After finishing his opening remarks, Gu Tongye invited Li Xiaofan in front of the camera, standing next to him, and introduced: "Just last year, a young man from Mingzhou, mainland China, quit his job at an electronics factory in Singapore and founded a... own venture capital firm.”
"At the beginning of last year, this restless young man came to the United States and, together with the famous American Sequoia Capital, took the lead and invested in the Yahoo Internet search engine project founded by Mr. Yang Zhiyuan from Taiwan, our country's treasure island. This morning, Yahoo The company was successfully listed on NASDAQ in the United States. As soon as the market opened, Yahoo's market value exceeded the US$1 billion mark. Now it has exceeded US$1.8 billion and is heading towards US$2 billion! Yahoo's listing triggered a wave of excitement on Wall Street in the United States and The global capital market is paying attention and enthusiastically! ”
"Now, we have invited this young man from Mingzhou, our country, who successfully invested in Yahoo in the early days in Times Square in New York at the headquarters of the Nasdaq exchange. He is Mr. Li Xiaofan next to me. Mr. Li Xiaofan, through early risk Investing in Yahoo projects has resulted in huge returns and accumulated wealth of hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, let’s ask Mr. Li Xiaofan to introduce his investment story..."
After being interviewed by major American media this morning, Li Xiaofan already had a lot of experience. And with the increase in his huge wealth and worth, he has become more confident. At this time, Li Xiaofan appeared in front of the camera very calmly.
In front of the CCTV camera, he talked about his personal understanding of the current global Internet industry and the development of high-tech industry venture capital in Silicon Valley.
From Singapore to Silicon Valley in the Bay Area, from the computer room of the National University of Singapore School of Computing to the campus of Stanford University, from Netscape browser, Lycos, Excite to Yahoo search engine, from Sequoia Capital to SoftBank Group...
Li Xiaofan briefly introduced the story of how he discovered Yahoo and invested in Yahoo projects with Sequoia Capital...
"Director Li, that's great. You spoke very well. I passed this afternoon's shooting in one go!"
After Li Xiaofan calmly finished telling the story of his investment in Yahoo, Gu Tongye gave a thumbs up and praised.
"Director Li, thank you for taking the time to accept our interview this afternoon. We will edit your interview and send it back to China for review. If it can be broadcast, I will try to notify you as soon as possible!"
"It doesn't matter, thank you for your hard work. Goodbye!"
After the CCTV interview, it was already a little after 4pm, and the US stock trading had ended.
Li Xiaofan looked at the NASDAQ stock quote screen on the square. The closing price of Yahoo stock on the first day was US dollars, which was also the highest price today!
US dollars multiplied by 2.96 million shares = US dollars, which was 12 million US dollars more than the US dollars he saw in the Waldorf Hotel room just now.
To be honest, Li Xiaofan felt dizzy at the moment. Although he was surprised to see these numbers, his nerves seemed a little numb, and he felt that they were just a bunch of numbers...
At around 5pm, when Li Xiaofan returned to the Waldorf Hotel, Lin Jianwei from the Singapore Straits Times US correspondent station had been waiting for him in the lobby for a long time.
It was already 6pm after the interview with Lin Jianwei.
Today's dinner was arranged at the top MASA restaurant in New York. Masayoshi Son booked all 30 seats of this restaurant in advance.
MASA is one of the top ten most expensive restaurants in the world. The average per capita consumption is $1,300. Tonight, the price offered by SoftBank Group's Mr. Sun is $3,000 per person, and this price does not include the famous wine he brought with him.
Don't be fooled by the high price of this restaurant. You can make all kinds of requests to the chef as you like. In Masa Restaurant, customers have no right to make any requests. Everything can only be done according to the instructions of the owner, Masa Takayama.
Masa Restaurant has no menu. What customers eat depends on the preferences and interest of the owner, Masa Takayama. To a certain extent, it is purely his personal impromptu food performance.
However, the owner Masa Takayama has a notebook in which he records the reactions of every customer after tasting the food.
Masa Takayama knows all the taste preferences of every customer. The next time the customer comes again, even if he still has no right to speak, Masa Takayama will never let you down, and often gives customers unexpected surprises...
So the success of Masa Restaurant is not accidental. It is expensive for a reason and worth the money.
This restaurant is located on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center in New York.
When Li Xiaofan brought Tang Xinyi, who was wearing an evening gown, into the Masa restaurant, Jerry Yang, his fiancée Akiko Yamazaki, Masayoshi Son and others were already inside.
Akiko Yamazaki is a Costa Rican girl of Japanese descent, beautiful and intellectual, who studied in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Stanford University in the United States and is an alumnus of Jerry Yang. In 1992, Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang met while working in Kyoto, Japan. In their previous life, they got married in 1997, the second year after Yahoo went public.
At the listing ceremony in the morning, everyone just greeted each other hastily and had not had a good chat. Tonight is the best opportunity for everyone to get to know each other and have a deep chat.
Li Xiaofan brought Tang Xinyi to Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki. When the two couples were halfway through their conversation, Moritz came in with his boss and introduced:
"Good evening, everyone. Let me introduce you to Mr. Don Valentine, the founder and chairman of our Sequoia Capital!"
Jerry Yang, Li Xiaofan, Masayoshi Son and others came forward to exchange business cards with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital and got to know each other. While they were chatting, Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley also came in with a tall middle-aged man.
She smiled and introduced to Jerry Yang and others at the scene: "Everyone, please allow me to solemnly introduce you to Mr. John Mack, the CEO of our Morgan Stanley!"
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