Chapter 234: It's settled

Inside the old mansion on Quan'an Island, the elders of the Tang family were walking hurriedly. These people were all leading figures in their respective fields, but now they had gathered together for something of vital importance. In the end, they all gathered in the main hall of the old Tang family residence. Now Tang Jingsheng, the head of the Tang clan and the most prestigious clan association, was waiting for them in the upper seat, next to him was Tang Huiyin, who ranked second only to him.

Seeing that everyone was present, Tang Jingsheng nodded to Tang Huiyin, who then said to everyone, 'I believe you all know the purpose of today's gathering, which is about the restructuring of Jieke Company and its establishment as Soso Company.'

Everyone nodded in understanding, no one was surprised. After all, this was breaking news, even on the national news. Some media, in their pursuit of exclusivity and first-hand news, sources, they broke the usual practice of not publishing until the next day, and instead, they forced a new issue of the newspaper to be published directly yesterday at noon, or broadcast news, invite commentary, etc. The news was indeed exaggerated.

The new company received a $1.7 billion investment upon its establishment, and at the establishment ceremony, it was even announced that the shares of this huge investment would have no voting rights.

Such explosive news, unless it is news like the NBA Finals or the presidential election, no one can cover it up. Quan'an is not isolated from the outside world, so they all learned about this news in the first instance.

'So what do you think of this news?' Tang Huiyin asked again.

Faced with this question, everyone looked at each other, and in the end they all remained silent. After all, this matter was too important, and besides, they really didn't know what to say.

After looking around, Tang Jingsheng decided to speak up: 'It seems that you are all tired, so even in the face of such news, you have lost your judgment. But it's understandable, there have been so many recent events. I can feel the tension hanging over Quan'an like a blanket, like nothing we've ever experienced before.'

Everyone nodded in agreement with Tang Jingsheng's words. You have to understand that Quan'an is a sacred place for retirement after all the Tang family leaders step down. When they hand over their wealth they have always been very laid back. How could they have so many frequent meetings, even if they were to inherit the family business? At least not before this.

It was only after that guy Zhou Ming went to the island to help Tang Ran fight for the right to inherit that everything changed. He caused trouble every other day, and they they had to get together and discuss it. Eventually, they even went so far as to deprive the other heir of his inheritance. How could they not be nervous?

But this also shows Zhou Ming's formidable ability from another perspective. Even though his investment of tens of millions of dollars proves that he has another identity behind him, he is also very rich.

Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary people, it is only natural for a rich second generation to work hard to inherit their parents' wealth and continue to become rich, and that they deserve to make as much money as they can. However, in reality, the opposite is true. The more money you have, the more difficult it is to continue to multiply it through investment.

It's like that joke: Wang Sicong's father gave him 500 million, and he earned back 2 billion, a fourfold increase, while a random person who used the 5 yuan his father gave him to buy a pair of gloves went to the construction site to carry bricks and earned 100 yuan a day, a twentyfold increase.

Can these two concepts be compared? If they can be compared, then why is it that none of the lottery winners have become successful entrepreneurs or investors, but have instead ended up going bankrupt? This is the key to financial management and investment.

The people sitting here are all important figures in the Down family and kings of the investment world. They certainly know the difference, so everything Zhou Ming has done is extraordinary in their eyes. Even during this period, they have put themselves in Zhou Ming's shoes and thought about it. If they were in Zhou Ming's shoes, they would have been unable to make that decision in 8 or 9 cases out of 10. However, Zhou Ming not only made the decision, but also did an excellent job.

'From participating in the Fortel Technology Exhibition, using cooperation with Apple to win a $5 million order, to later investing in Toy Story and using the Internet for ultra-low-cost marketing, and now establishing the Soso company, his approach of doing one thing after another is nothing short of amazing. Tang Jingsheng counted one by one, 'And at the founding ceremony of Soso, he had Tang Yi, Tang Wan'er and Tang Lin invest in him, which also saved him a huge sum of money.'

Tang Jingsheng was talking, and the others kept nodding. After all, every major media outlet was scrambling to report on this miraculous event. It could be said that on the first day of the establishment of this Soso company, his name resounded throughout the United States. Perhaps many people did not know exactly what he did, but as long as they remembered the word Soso, the effect was achieved.

With this in mind, they all felt: 'Zhou Ming is really a business genius, and it seems that he has a constant stream of genius ideas in his head!'

If Ming Zhou were here, he would be embarrassed, because his ideas were basically based on the principle of taking what is useful and copying the very successful marketing strategies of other companies, relying on his own re-emerging memories.

'There's one more thing. I don't know if you've noticed,' Tang Huiyin interjected at this point, 'but at the founding ceremony of this Soso company, the investors were Tang Yiwan'er, Tang Lin, and the two of them. This may also represent other meanings.'

'I certainly noticed this, and that is the most direct reason why I asked you all to come here today.' Tang Jingsheng said to everyone, 'As heirs, I don't think Tang Yi, Tang Wan'er and Tang Lin could possibly not know the significance of their actions. They have already given up their claim to the inheritance, and Tang Ran, with the help of Zhou Ming, has also proven that she is strong enough.'

Tang Jingsheng paused for a moment before finally saying, 'So I think this battle over the inheritance can be brought to an end. What do you think?'

In the face of this question, everyone nodded in unison. Although they secretly hoped that their own better-connected heirs would take over, they were convinced of the abilities of that Zhou Ming.

The current situation is reasonable. Tang Jingsheng said, 'Since no one has any objections, let's start the voting.'

Following Tang Jingsheng's words, the voting began, and the final result was no surprise at all: it was unanimously passed that Tang Ran would succeed Tang Jingsheng as the head of the Tang family. After the meeting, Tang Jingsheng personally called Tang Ran to tell her the result.

At this moment, Zhou Ming and Tang Ran were at the Sunflower Restaurant in Palo Alto, together with the three Tang family heirs, Tang Lin, Tang Yi and Tang Wan'er, and the general manager, Cheng Qian.

After putting down the phone, Tang Ran announced that the clan association had made a decision to recognise her as the successor to the family. Tang Lin, Tang Yi and Tang Wan'er immediately congratulated her and said that in the future, if they wanted to take out loans for investment, they would have to go to Tang Ran, and that she would be the queen of this super bank.

However, Zhou Ming said, 'Although the clan meeting has already recognised her, according to the rules of the Tang family, control of the Tang Bank will not be handed over to her just yet. the clan association will still need to observe for a period of time, giving Tang Ran a trial period of consolidation, and she will not be able to truly control Tang Bank until after re-confirmation. I don't think it's too late to congratulate you then.'

Listening to Zhou Ming's words, they all laughed: 'We are a little too impatient, but that was just a formality, and with your strength, the real inheritance is just a matter of time.'

'Let's talk about that later, we're here to discuss the problems of Soso today.' Zhou Ming said, 'Although the word Soso has been spread to the greatest extent in the United States through reports in various media, many people will at least have heard of the name, even if they don't know what Soso does. It can be said that our first phase of publicity work has been completed.'

Speaking of Zhou Ming changed the subject and continued, 'However, we still cannot let our guard down. After all, no matter how popular it is, it does not change the fact that we are breaking new ground, so our next task is even more important.'

'But But Vice President Zhou, we've been back and thought about it for a long time, and we still don't understand how we can make a profit from this kind of search engine if we don't charge users for the service,' said Cheng Qian.

As for this question, Zhou Ming looked at the three Tang family heirs again and saw that they were all looking curious; in fact, not only these people, but also other bbs or search sites on the Internet other bbs or search sites on the internet are also operating at a loss. The reason for this is that they have not yet found a truly suitable profit model, and can only take things one step at a time, hanging on by a thread with the support of venture capital.

This makes Zhou Ming could not help but sigh: it seems that the limitations of the times are ultimately the most fatal. In later generations, everyone knows the profit model of Douban, but now it has become an insurmountable problem that even business geniuses can't figure out.

So Zhou Ming held up two fingers and said, 'Let's determine the future profit model of Soso today. I've been thinking about it for the past few days, and there are mainly two possibilities. The first is... and the second is keywords.'

Zhou Ming words were like a morning bell and evening drum, which suddenly made everyone understand, but they still couldn't figure it out. Cheng Qian still asked Zhou Ming, 'I can understand that it is done on the pages of the website, but how do keywords make a profit?'

With Cheng Qian's question, Tang Lin, Tang Yi and Tang Wan'er all pricked up their ears, waiting to hear the answer.

However, to this question, Zhou Ming was not in a hurry to answer. Instead, he asked Cheng Qian a question in return: 'You are the general operations manager of Soso, and I believe you have also used the search engine. What do you think?'

'It really is very useful. No matter what I want to find, as long as I enter some search terms, I can easily find it,' Cheng Qian answered honestly, but there was still a look of confusion on his face.

'So do you know how this kind of search engine works?' Zhou Ming asked again.

Cheng Qian felt even more at a loss, but he still answered honestly: 'Of course I know. It is a technology that arranges and displays the results by collecting and collating all the information on the Internet.'

'Then in what way or according to what criteria is this information arranged? Why is some listed higher than others?' Zhou Ming asked again.

'Of of course, it's based on the amount of traffic to the website...'

Cheng Qian subconsciously wanted to answer, but he suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence because he had obviously thought of the key point.

'Vice President Zhou, are you saying that we can pay the merchant to rank this way?' Cheng Qian asked uncertainly.

'No Yes, we can make a profit through this method of keyword bidding. Put simply, whoever pays more will be ranked higher. You can imagine that this will be our main source of income for a long time to come.' Zhou Ming added at the end, 'Of course, in order to maintain our own profitability, we will not sell any key word buyouts.'

Zhou Ming's words shocked everyone like a heavy bomb. They all wondered what kind of genius could come up with such a profitable method. In an instant they felt that the other Internet companies they had invested in, even the big companies that had gone public, were weak in the face of Zhou Ming, and their intelligence was infinitely inferior to Zhou Ming's.