August ended.

In September, he continued resting, taking Yin Liuli to Guangzhou to inspect the cement factory his father had just acquired, as well as the land he had spent 1.9 billion on. It barely counted as a trip.

It wasn't until October that Su Yehao set off, first visiting Nong Qingying in Tokyo, and then heading to Silicon Valley to personally handle some business matters.

With iCQ and tvt developing to a certain stage, how to find a stable monetization model had become a problem that had to be considered.

The fixed cost of more than ten million U.S. dollars per month, plus other large expenses from time to time, made Su Yehao feel a twinge of pain even with the money he had on hand. Judging from the user scale and market scale, there was indeed hope for a virtuous cycle, and that was Su Yehao's mission this time.

Time flies when you're busy.

In the blink of an eye, October also passed. Su Yehao stayed in Silicon Valley and celebrated an authentic Halloween with the little girl who had come to join him.

On Nong Qingying's side, the negotiations with Procter & Gamble went smoothly. This company didn't value SK-II very much. When they learned that someone wanted to acquire it, they offered 50 million U.S. dollars.

After several contacts, the price was negotiated down to 46 million U.S. dollars. After all, it was just an unremarkable "subsidiary," and the market was only concentrated in the mainland, so Procter & Gamble was quite forthcoming.

Su Yehao felt that this price was acceptable, so he agreed to the acquisition plan.

Among them, Nong Qingying would hold 25% of the shares, and the money would be considered a loan from him, to be repaid when she cashed out her Yahoo stock.

A mere forty million U.S. dollars was no pressure for Su Yehao.

The stock market on NASDAQ was going crazy. During the negotiation to acquire SK-II, the money earned from investments exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars, and the signs of a bubble were becoming more and more obvious.

However, Su Yehao had no plans to cash out for the time being, so the funds for the SK-II acquisition were still borrowed from the Bank of China.

In addition, he also borrowed 200 million Hong Kong dollars for subsequent expansion plans, with him providing the guarantee.

Nong Qingying couldn't spare the time and was still living in Japan. She had already begun to establish SK-II branches in Hong Kong and the mainland, and was building a marketing team.

According to Su Yehao's plan, once the number of counters reached a certain level, he would find beautiful female celebrities to promote the brand, starting with young people and using internet advertising. Basically, it would be "film and television + internet," targeting the next generation of female customers.

Following Su Yehao's suggestion, Nong Qingying took a special flight to Shanghai, planning to open the mainland flagship store on the first floor of Bund 18. She wasn't considering how to make a profit in the short term, focusing mainly on marketing the brand.

Fearing that Nong Qingying would feel pressured about revenue, Su Yehao made it very clear from the beginning, and also suggested that she go to South Korea and put more product placement in TV dramas.

In this era, foreign monks are better at chanting scriptures in the mainland market.

Now Hong Kong movies are popular, and next are South Korean TV dramas. Seemingly targeting the Hong Kong and South Korean markets, he was actually eyeing the mainland skin care market. Su Yehao felt that it might take three to five years to set things up before seeing a return on his investment.

Without realizing it, he had become a true super-rich man, with a total net worth of more than one billion U.S. dollars. Su Yehao's net worth was in a period of rapid growth, and he wasn't afraid of long-term investments.

In September and October, he not only made money from the stock market, but as the value of internet companies increased, the valuation agencies gave iCQ a new valuation of about 600 million U.S. dollars. tvt, which claimed to have 1.65 million users, also saw its valuation rise to about 200 million U.S. dollars.

The so-called "claimed" meant that monthly active users had exceeded one million, but weekly active users were only more than 800,000, an increase of nearly two times compared to the previous quarter.

Staying in Silicon Valley and remotely commanding.

Su Yehao also took down an apartment building near Kowloon City, all with loft designs, ranging in size from 25 square meters to 56 square meters, a total of more than 900 apartments, costing him more than 700 million Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, most of it was also a loan.

He only paid out of his own pocket for more than 100 million, helping to repay the developer's debts. After a little renovation, it could be used to run a hotel, and the design and renovation of the office building in Yau Tsim Mong had also begun.

These were the main events that had occurred in the past two months or so.

There were no major moves in the basic investment layout, only slight adjustments.

Although Su Yehao wasn't very clear about when the bubble in Silicon Valley would burst, with the "broadband" concept as a bonus right now, the market was booming, and only a fool would choose to cash out now.

Not only were valuations and stock prices rising all the way, but even housing prices in Silicon Valley were also rising rapidly. The house Su Yehao had just bought a few months ago had already appreciated by more than 2 million U.S. dollars, and demand was outstripping supply. Real estate agents often came to ask if anyone wanted to sell their house.

With continuous influx of capital, the rich people in Silicon Valley became even richer, and examples of sudden wealth were also common. Some people started a business for more than half a year and sold the company, cashing out more than 100 million U.S. dollars.

Others relied solely on a few patents to exchange for luxury cars, yachts, and villas, with a net worth of over 100 million U.S. dollars.

Similar phenomena were everywhere in Silicon Valley in this era, and even the air seemed to be filled with the fiery atmosphere of the gold rush era.

Take Yahoo as an example.

When Su Yehao first invested last year, the total market value was only a little over one billion U.S. dollars.

And now, Yahoo's total market value has exceeded 12 billion U.S. dollars. It is said that the board of directors is considering another stock split to increase the liquidity of the stock.

The famous Goldman Sachs helped a company connect with Su Yehao, and was even willing to offer a 20% premium on the stock price to acquire all of his Yahoo shares.

No need to ask.

Of course, Su Yehao refused. He just smiled and shook his head, replying, "I think Yahoo's market value has a chance to break 100 billion U.S. dollars."

If it was really worth that much money, Su Yehao's shareholding would be as high as more than 4 billion U.S. dollars.

It was hard to feel such an atmosphere living in Hong Kong.

Su Yehao had been living comfortably recently. Unfortunately, Nangong Tian accompanied him in Silicon Valley for only half a month before being called back to Casino, 1997 by a friend to be a bridesmaid.

...

November 16, 1998.

At San Jose Airport in Silicon Valley, after a Gulfstream private jet slowly landed, it was towed to the tarmac.

The cabin door opened, and Jiang Yu, wearing a backpack and a white baseball cap, walked out of the cabin.

After saying goodbye to the flight attendant in English, she stretched comfortably and walked towards the Mercedes-Benz sports car parked next to her. The person who came to pick her up was none other than Su Yehao.

Jiang Yu was a little reserved, and said at this moment: "What is this place? You are really so boring. I already said to go directly back to Hong Kong, but you actually arranged a plane to pick me up."

"You came to America, and didn't even say hello to me. I only found out from your tAt updates. As the host, of course I have to entertain you warmly. Is Wharton Business School fun?"

Su Yehao said with a smile. Being able to lure Jiang Yu over, and she hadn't refused, could be called a major victory in stages.

Jiang Yu was a sophomore in college. If she graduated smoothly next year, she could graduate early. She wanted to continue her studies, and she was interested in the famous Wharton Business School.

Seven of the world's top ten business schools are in the United States.

The Wharton Business School that Jiang Yu was interested in was far away in Pennsylvania, and Su Yehao used Stanford University's Business School to lure Jiang Yu over this time.

In the past two months, they had been chatting through tAt from time to time. Separated by a layer of internet, with some small ambiguities, their relationship had become closer again...