In 2000, a global event happened-

The US Internet bubble burst in 2000, triggering an unprecedented global economic crisis.

Although the cause of the Internet bubble is hard to describe, it is also very simple-

As an emerging industry born in the 1980s, the computer industry has very tenacious vitality. Many large American companies, such as Amazon, ebay and Google, have been building new mountains.

Kingsoft.

So many companies began to follow the trend, and countless Internet companies were born in the United States.

People don’t understand the Internet, but they can see the rapid rise in stock prices of these Internet companies. Moreover, the favorable policies of the United States at that time provided interest rate cuts and tax cuts for Internet companies. Under such circumstances, the bubble in the Internet industry quickly blew up.

By 2000, the overall price-to-earnings ratio of the Nasdaq Index had reached 200, which was more than twice the overall price-to-earnings ratio of the Nikkei 225 Index during the RB real estate bubble in 1991. It seems that everyone has forgotten the tragic phenomenon of the RB real estate bubble, or has chosen to ignore it. It doesn’t matter whether the company makes money or not, just the stock price rises.

Most companies did not invest money in the construction of technology and products like Amazon, Ebay or Google at that time, but only stayed in the money-burning model of advertising and new promotion, and occupied the market entirely by expensive advertising and mergers and acquisitions.

As funds are rapidly burned dry, the market growth rate is far from keeping up with the expansion of Internet companies, that is, Internet companies are growing very fast, but there are not enough people online. The number of Internet users is insufficient, these companies are full of stories, and the bubble is on the verge of bursting.

Just as Buffett said, when the tide recedes, we know who is swimming naked, and the darkest moment is coming.

In February 2000, Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan felt that the situation was wrong and felt that the bubble was a bit big. The central bank of the country could bear the price-to-earnings ratio of 200, so he began to crack down on investment enthusiasm and announced a significant rate hike, which increased to the level before 1995, increased the cost of capital flow and made people more cautious when investing.

On March 10, the Nasdaq reached its peak of 5048. On March 13, news that the RB economy entered a recession again caused a sell-off in the international market for technology stocks, and investors' concerns began to heat up.

Subsequently, people's panic was once ignited, and then a large number of selling behaviors occurred.

In April, the Nasdaq index fell by more than 25%.

...

It is now June 5, 2000.

Greenspan himself did not expect that his austerity policy would lead to the bursting of the bubble and eventually turn into an uncontrollable crisis.

This crisis swept through, not only the United States itself was affected, but also the entire world.

The penguin of Little Ma Ge can be described as the darkest moment.

First of all, IDG and Yingke, which invested in Penguin in 1999, were deeply affected by the financial crisis. Penguin showed no sign of making money except burning money, so both shareholders were thinking about how to help Penguin find its next home so that they could get out of it themselves.

IDG and Yingke each hold 20% of Penguin's shares, while Xiao Ma Ge's team accounts for the remaining 60%.

Brother Ma was waiting for Yingke to buy Penguin in full, but he didn't expect that what he was waiting for was a sentence from the second son of the Li family for sale.

He felt a little discouraged.

More importantly, Brother Ma himself doesn’t know where the road is.

Now is the Internet winter environment, and all Internet investors are trembling. Where can anyone be willing to invest money for them?

Brother Ma sat in the small office less than 40 square meters of Seg Technology Park, looking haggard.

To be honest, he had a one-day meeting with several other team members yesterday to discuss the future development direction of QQ.

But until 3 a.m., they still had no particularly good way to monetize.

In addition to being able to sell some special accounts and pay for registration, they could not imagine how QQ can make money with such a large number of communication software.

But for them, these are just drops to the bucket.

To be honest, everyone's confidence is a bit wider.

...

"May I ask, is this Penguin Company? Are the horses and vine horses always there?"

I had a meeting all night but got nothing. Except for the difficulties, I was still in trouble. A few people fell on the workstation and covered their heads and went to bed without paying attention to the few people appearing at the door.

Hearing the sound, Brother Ma raised his sleepy eyes and took a look.

Two women and one man stood at the door.

Since I was not wearing glasses, I could only barely identify a few blurry outlines.

He quickly grabbed the glasses on the table and put them on his face.

Handsome men and beautiful women.

Several of them are very young.

If it weren't for the entrance of their company, Xiao Ma would probably think these people were movie stars, but they were just passing by and filmed.

Cao Yang didn't expect that Penguin's office was such a small and broken place at the beginning.

It covers an area of ​​less than 40 square meters and is a simple front desk. You can see several cubes when entering the door.

There is a person lying in each lattice.

Cao Yang recognized Brother Ma at a glance.

Because he was so familiar with this face, he worked for Brother Ma for 10 years in his previous life. Every year when work started, he could still receive red envelopes outside his office and take photos with him.

But this face is much younger than the one he knows.

"Hello, Mr. Ma, I am the general manager of Bomi Game Company, my name is Caoyang." Caoyang took a step forward and handed his right hand to Brother Ma.

"Hold……"

Brother Ma stroked his greasy hair and his eyes became blurred.

It took a few seconds before he remembered.

At the end of last year, Bomi's boss also came.

But that face is much older and more mature than the young people today.

...

"Hello, Mr. Zhang Zhidong, right? Xu Chenhua, Mr. Xu, Zeng Liqi, Mr. Zeng, Chen Yitan, Mr. Chen."

Cao Yang held the hands of the five founders of Penguin one by one.

Several people had a little confused on their faces.

Because Penguin is just a small company and is still on the verge of bankruptcy, I didn't expect that Mr. Cao could remember everyone's name so clearly.

It's really flattered.

In addition, Cao Yang is very handsome, so everyone can't help but feel more favorable to him.

"This is my assistant Zhuang Yurou and partner Pei Siqing."

Cao Yang introduced the two ladies around him to several people.

However, when Pei Siqing was about to come forward to shake hands with them, Cao Yang gently pulled him back.

Cao Yang took a step forward and said to Brother Ma, "That's right. We came this time to talk about what my father didn't finish last time."

...
Chapter completed!