Chapter 8 Time Flies to August

After John Chow's recommendation, Roger Cruyff was appointed as the interim CEO of TVT Network Company. He submitted a military order to Su Yehao, promising to exceed 700,000 weekly active users and 450,000 daily active users by the end of the year.

The reform measures included several aspects: first, linking bonuses and benefits to performance; second, moving to an open office environment; third, further expanding talent recruitment, opening up channels for recruiting from Stanford University; and fourth, after the product upgrade, a US$10 million advertising and marketing budget will be allocated, with a quarter of it being used for media public relations.

In addition, around the TVT instant messaging software, there were also attempts to acquire news websites, online forums, email services, and electronic games, striving to increase daily active users to three million next year, at the cost of at least US$60 million in budget.

Seeing that the newly recruited CEO was so aggressive, what reason did Su Yehao have to refuse?

Although it would cost a lot of money, as long as the money was spent wisely, there was no need to feel bad. If TVT's daily active users exceeded three million, the valuation would be at least US$1 billion.

It was different from the current half-dead ICQ. The cost of acquiring customers was decreasing, and a monetization direction was found, namely membership - virtual products - games - advertising. Although it has not been realized yet, it can sell the concept of "making money in the future" to investors.

After reading Roger Cruyff's report, and looking at the ICQ, which was drastically reformed by McKinsey Consulting, many executives recently contacted Su Yehao to express their loyalty and make suggestions, trying to prove their value.

Su Yehao realized that he was only suitable for helping to find the general direction and doing logistical work. If he really managed those companies, the result would probably be very bleak.

This was mainly because his own abilities did not match the increasingly large scale of the enterprise. Tinkering with small start-ups was okay, but managing thousands of people would be a clueless mess. He neither understood nor knew how to do it.

Seeing that his company suddenly became organized, he admitted that even if he came forward, it would be difficult to reorganize the company like this in such a short period of time.

Moreover, as a big boss, personally intervening would offend people easily and may backfire.

This further made Su Yehao believe that his idea of ​​fully controlling the enterprise by manipulating professional managers was correct... It was definitely not because he wanted to slack off openly that he thought so.

…

After the summer vacation, he continued to return to Hong Kong.

Living back in the mansion on Big Wave Bay Road was so comfortable. In the merged courtyard, the construction team was busy, and had already started laying the foundation for building a European-style small castle on the hill formed by digging a lake.

Money was spent like water every day, but fortunately, more money was earned back.

On the Nasdaq side, stock prices rose all the way. Cisco and Amazon chose to split their stocks, and even Yahoo, which had just split once at the beginning of the year, was considering "five shares for three shares" or continuing "one for one" to lower the stock price and further increase the liquidity of the stock.

With the increase in users and the decrease in costs, and attracting a large number of advertising customers, except for Amazon, which focuses on e-commerce business, the performance of many Internet companies has more than doubled compared with the same period in the first half of last year.

Cisco, in which Su Yehao heavily invested, also won a large number of orders, and its performance soared.

Under such circumstances, Su Yehao had enough fun in speculating in stocks. Then the financial reports for the first half of the year were continuously announced, and the third quarter had a good start. He earned more than 70 million U.S. dollars in the past week. A large amount of hot money poured into Nasdaq, pushing up stock prices.

It was too difficult to make money in other traditional industries. It was naturally very tempting to see a new round of opportunities and the myth of wealth spread all over the world.

Su Yehao really didn't have to worry about making money.

On August 6th.

Jiang Yu, who finally stood up straight as a woman, was wearing a newly bought swimsuit, cooling off in the swimming pool with Nangong Tian.

Su Yehao stood by the window of the study on the second floor, drinking his sugary soda, and talking about business with Master Jiang on the phone.

Master Jiang told him on the other end of the phone: "The mainland has a long summer vacation, and the people who come to Hong Kong for tourism are about to crowd the customs clearance port. The hotels know that the business is good, so they also play tricks and increase prices. The batch of tourists booked before can only continue to stay, and the profit is much less. I feel like my heart is bleeding.”

Doing independent travel business can only earn some handling fees and service fees.

The real money earner is group tours. After deducting the expenses of attracting customers from the mainland, the gross profit margin is about 20%, and accommodation accounts for the bulk of the expenses.

Su Yehao still had some impression of these data.

Continuing to stare at Jiang Yu, he suddenly felt that it was strange to watch his daughter while talking to Master Jiang, so he simply came to the desk and sat down, and said with a smile:

"Make a little less money, but you can still make it. Let's just treat it as an advertisement. Others increase prices temporarily, but we don't. This comparison shows that our company is more conscientious. Reputation is the most important thing in the tourism business."

After becoming the general manager of Honghao International Travel Company, Master Jiang was like a second spring, and he regained the passion of his youth all of a sudden. He has been around the company all day recently.

He waited for Su Yehao to finish, and then explained:

"What I mean is, should we add some more money and open a few more affordable hotels ourselves? Now Hong Kong's house prices are low, and many houses can't be sold. If we rent them back in bulk, there should be a market. No one realized that so many mainlanders would come to travel before, and the market was suddenly blown up. Even selling fish balls on the side of the road in Tsim Sha Tsui can earn 100,000 yuan a month!"

Hearing this, Su Yehao thought about it carefully and felt that there would be at least 20 years of tourism dividends, and investing in the hotel tourism industry was very stable.

Even if he didn't care much about this hard-earned money, who would dislike making too much? Anyway, he didn't have to worry about it himself, so he said: "With the company's strength, it shouldn't be able to borrow too much money, right? If I refinance, wouldn't I dilute all of your shares?"

Knowing him, Master Jiang couldn't say anything stupid like asking him for an interest-free loan. He only told him:

"I've calculated that if I borrow 15 million from the bank, I can probably add 500 to 700 more rooms. It's enough to live comfortably. 90% of the tourists just want to save money and use the money to buy things. The rest will come slowly."

"...Don't be slow, I'll look for suitable buildings in the next few days and buy them directly to open a few more hotels myself. Then we will cooperate and make money together, and strive to get it done before the winter vacation comes."

Su Yehao just felt that Hong Kong's house prices had bottomed out, and there was a high probability that they would rebound next.

Compared with the high point in the previous two years, Hong Kong's average house prices have fallen by about 60%, especially those old and dilapidated houses, which are simply unattended.

In addition, the bank contacted him from time to time, asking him if he wanted a loan. If he got a few office buildings back empty-handed, he could earn rent and appreciation of the property. It would also be very beneficial to the tourism company, as it could improve service quality and competitiveness.

It's a good thing to kill three birds with one stone, and by the way, he can spend some money to enjoy himself and satisfy his desire to consume.

When Master Jiang heard Su Yehao say that he would open a hotel himself, he immediately laughed and said: "That's good too. In this market, opening a hotel will definitely not lose money, and we have stable customers. We can earn back the money to buy the building in a few years, and the rest is profit. It's much better than giving the money to others to earn..."