Reborn multinational giant

Fang Zhe's words of affirmation made Zhang Yiming and his partners even more confident in today's Toutiao project.

Two hours later, when Fang Zhe and Fu Xinming left the Cui Gong Hotel, Fang Zhe's inner evaluation of Zhang Yiming had already risen several steps!

Although Fang Zhe knew that Zhang Yiming was able to create today’s headlines, Douyin and other popular products in his previous life, his own product capabilities and vision are naturally quite powerful, but this level of power is beyond Fang Zhe’s expectations. In Fu Xinming's words, such people are born entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs!

In this round of Bytedance financing, Zhongying Capital, as the exclusive investor, invested 2 million US dollars to win 10% of Bytedance’s shares at a valuation of 20 million U.S. dollars. This valuation is only for a product. For startups that are going to go online, it is already very high. Fang Zhe and Zhongying Capital are optimistic about Bytedance, which can be seen.

In fact, the big data mining methods used in today’s headlines have long been common in Huizhong and many companies under Huizhong, including various public news accounts on WeChat. The data recommendation algorithm used in it is far greater than Today's headlines are much more complicated and sophisticated.

But after Zhang Yiming founded Bytedance, Fang Zhe still chose to let Zhongying Capital invest in it, even if its business model competed and conflicted with WeChat's internal news and information services to a certain extent.

Standing at the current height of Fang Zhe, this is not about fighting each other with left and right hands, but trying to keep all variables within the controllable range. Even if Huizhong has hatched Toutiao and Douyin within Huizhong, it is difficult to protect Zhang Yiming. Excellent entrepreneurs will not adapt to the circumstances and come up with other excellent projects!

This strategy is somewhat similar to Tencent's horse racing mechanism, except that Tencent's horse racing mechanism is only within Tencent, and Fang Zhe regards the whole world as his own racecourse!

As an entrepreneurial project favored and invested by Zhongying Capital, it is not surprising that Toutiao received the attention of the entire industry as soon as it went online. This kind of attention also made Toutiao quickly spread and become popular throughout the network since its launch.

"What you care about is the headline!" In less than half a month, the slogan of today's headline spread on the Internet platforms of all sizes.

At the time when Toutiao became popular on the Internet, Fang Zhe, at the invitation of Mr. Xiaomi Lei, went to India with him, Lin Xiaobin and other senior executives of Xiaomi!

There is no doubt that the purpose of Xiaomi's top management flying to India this time is to open up the Indian market as the first step for Xiaomi to go international.

Needless to say, the reason why Xiaomi chose India as its first stop was mainly driven by Fang Zhe, the chief consultant of Xiaomi!

A few months ago, when the sales volume of the Redmi 1 mobile phone exceeded 10 million in less than two months after its release, Lei and Xiaomi executives finally realized that the domestic low-end mobile phone market has reached an unprecedented period of outbreak and prosperity.

Mr. Lei and many Xiaomi executives felt fortunate and fearful. If they did not make up their minds to enter the low-end mobile phone market last year, but drag it for another two or three years, I am afraid that this market has long been occupied by other mobile phone brands. They have lost tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of mobile phones in sales!

It is also because of this understanding and the sweetness in the domestic market that Mr. Lei began to plan with Fang Zhe and other Xiaomi executives to go to the international market. In Lei’s words: “Don’t go now, the market will be in two or three years. They are all occupied by others!"

And how to go to sea, where the first stop to go to sea, has become very important!

It has been less than three years since Xiaomi was founded, and there are no channels and sales chains overseas. If you want to go overseas, you can only copy the domestic online sales model, and rely on excellent products and cost-effectiveness to accumulate reputation and open sales!

Regarding this point, neither Fang Zhe, Lei, nor the other senior executives of Xiaomi have any objections, but in the first stop of the sea, from Fang Zhe to Lei, and then to other Xiaomi seniors, they have their own opinions. Each choice has its own reasons!

"Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia is the market closest to our country. Our domestic companies generally choose Southeast Asia as their first stop. So I think we should also choose Southeast Asia as our first stop. All aspects are very favorable!"

"I choose Russia. Russia has a population of over 100 million. The overall consumption level is not much different from ours in China, and there are no relatively large smartphone brands in Russia, which is just good for us to quickly open the market!"

"India, the population of India is similar to ours, and the market potential is very large!"

"India is too poor. I think that our first stop should be the Japanese market across the sea. Japan has a population of over 100 million, a well-developed electronics market, and a very high per capita consumption.

The trend of the Japanese mobile phone market is not much different from that of developed countries. As long as we can open the Japanese market and then enter the markets of developed countries such as Europe and America, it will be much easier!"

Amidst the arguing voices of executives, President Lei once again released a big move and invited Fang Zhe to speak. Fang Zhe’s authority and foresight are beyond doubt. President Lei believes that Fang Zhe’s answers and reasons will definitely convince the present. Most of the executives!

"I choose India!" Fang Zhe opened his mouth and gave his own answer. This answer was beyond the expectations of most Xiaomi executives present. Even Mr. Lei frowned, the first in his heart. The answer is Southeast Asia. He originally thought Fang Zhe would have the same view.

In the incomprehensible and eager gazes of the executives, Fang Zhe slowly stated his reasons:

First, India has a large enough population, which means that it has a very large consumption potential and market space, enough to support the rapid growth of Xiaomi in overseas markets for five to ten years, regardless of whether it is Russia, Japan or Thailand. The harder it is, and no country in Southeast Asia has such long-term growth potential!

Second, although Southeast Asia as a whole is a huge market that cannot be ignored, the entire Southeast Asian market includes too many countries, and each country is different in terms of markets, tariffs, and investment policies.

Even if we enter Southeast Asia, we still have to come from one country to another. This process takes several years to be normal, so our first stop is not suitable for Southeast Asia.

Third, everyone may think that India is poor, but that’s the overall average. For India, which has a population of more than one billion, its middle class is also very large, and it is still growing rapidly, precisely because the market is sufficient. Big, so we have to enter the exploration market earlier.

Fourth, our Xiaomi and Redmi brand mobile phones have taken the cost-effective route, which should be very attractive to India, where the consumption level is not high.

Last year, the sales of mobile phones in the Indian market exceeded 200 million, of which smartphones accounted for less than 20 million. So I judged that the Indian mobile phone market, like the domestic market, will usher in a rapid outbreak of smartphones, especially low-end smartphones. In the mobile phone market, our Redmi series of mobile phones have strong competitiveness in this regard.

Fifth, in the Indian mobile phone market, there is also no outstanding local brand. It is the same as the domestic market a year or two ago. South Korean brands such as Samsung and LG control the sales of smartphones. So in my opinion, entering the Indian market, It's nothing more than a copy of the domestic market!