It is now that Wall Street and Silicon Valley are becoming more and more interested in Xiao Qi's investment and are actively thinking about various ideas to seize the treasure.
But before that, another small acquisition by Xiao Qi was coming to an end.
Just in the past two days, Yammer Company suddenly announced that Mr. Xiao Qi had acquired all the shares of their company. From then on, Yammer became Xiao Qi's private property, and based on the future performance of the management, they could get up to 8% of the shares.
Share incentives.
What is yammer?
Many people who were attracted by the recent reports about Xiao Qi as the "King of Investment" quickly went to check Yammer's information.
Yammer is a social networking website, but it is generally not targeted at individuals, but rather targeted at user groups within the Fortune 500.
The top 500 companies open their own special area in Yammer and allow their employees to register with their corporate emails. Then a closed contact body is formed between these users. Everyone can communicate, work, and vote in a relatively closed environment.
Q&A and more.
Of course, Yammer is not unable to communicate with external people, but various procedures have been specially set up to ensure that internal information within the company will not be leaked.
The ability to set up various chat rooms and chat queues anytime and anywhere is also one of its advantages. Office supervisors do not need to go out. They only need a few clicks on the computer to allow a group of employees they want to convene to discuss matters online.
Because of the targeted user base, Yammer's scale is naturally small. Now their total number of enterprise users is only more than 1 million, but more than 90% of their users belong to the world's top 500 companies.
Since the ae wave was ok, social media in the world have grown more and more vigorously. There are not only 100 but also 70 or 80.
There are not many that stand out here. Anything that can leave an impression on people is good.
For example, Linkein, which Xiao Qi previously acquired, is a communication tool for white-collar workers and has online recruitment functions.
The tigger invested by Tang Mingxiang is aimed at students in high school and below.
Yammer is similarly targeted, targeting individual user subjects with companies as the main body.
Analysts immediately commented that Yammer is quite adequate in terms of features. But whether this strategy for large companies can withstand the test of the market, and whether their profit model can support the operation of the entire website, are all questions.
A question.
Of course, from now on, since Xiao Qi is the boss of Yammer, there is no need to worry about funds for the development of Yammer. With Xiao Qi's strength and character, there is absolutely no problem in burning money for three to five years.
It's like verifying the comments of experts.
On the second day of the acquisition, Yammer officially announced that Mr. Xiao Qi had invested US$200 million in the company.
From now on, yammer will expand the scale of the server and strive to develop a variety of running programs so that users can have a better user experience.
The management of Yammer is very satisfied, not only because they can obtain up to 36 million US dollars worth of shares, not only because the investment of 200 million US dollars allows them to do more things, but also because Xiao Qi...
As he promised, he only sends a team of lawyers and accountants to inspect it every year. The rest is still their own decision.
What entrepreneurs like most is that the boss invests more money, and it is best not to dictate anything and just let yourself flex your muscles.
But the real situation is that after the bosses acquire the company, whether they understand it or not, they basically kick the entrepreneurs away and find someone to run it themselves after they get familiar with the company or think they are familiar with the company.
Company or website.
The consequences of doing so are often that the company takes another path, some for the better, some for the worse, but most are undoubtedly the latter.
Fortunately, Xiao Qi is not such a person.
Among the many companies acquired by Xiao Qi, people have seen that basically all entrepreneurs are managing the company, and Xiao Qi rarely intervenes in specific operations. This attitude is also an important reason why some companies agree with Xiao Qi's acquisitions.
One of the reasons.
Just like Yammer now.
Now that their expectations have become a reality, they can start working with more enthusiasm.
No one said that after investing 450 million US dollars in this company, it would only be worth 450 million US dollars. Yammer is very ambitious and hopes to become the next 10 billion club.
I have to say that these people have very good ideas and are very ambitious in their careers.
However, such highly targeted social networking sites usually do not reach a wide audience, so their achievements are often limited and far from as high as such universal social networking sites.
This is also the reason why the highest market value of ae wave OK can exceed 200 billion US dollars in the future, but yammer can only be acquired by Microsoft for 1.2 billion US dollars in 2012.
However, this life is different. Xiao Qi's strong support for Yammer will definitely bring Yammer to a higher level.
I dare not say that it can really reach a market value of 10 billion US dollars, but the hope of exceeding 3 billion US dollars is not small.
If this goal can be achieved and stable profit development can be achieved every year, it will be enough for Xiao Qi.
After all, not every company you invest in must be as profitable as AE Wave OK. A profit rate of about five times is already a good investment.
Compared with Yammer's success, Xiao Qi has also made good progress in Square's mobile phone credit card reader company.
The biggest secret of square is that the mobile phone card swipe is a little smaller than a matchbox. Just plug it into the headphone jack of your phone, and your phone is in the Internet function, you can connect to the Internet, and then use your credit card to
Just swipe the square card slot to complete the task of swiping the card to pay.
Then there is the second condition, that is, you must find a bank that is willing to connect with your Square card swiper, preferably a big bank, so that you can successfully swipe your credit card with the Square card swiper, which is convenient and fast.
If the bank's qualifications and level are not enough, then merchants and users who use Square card swiping machines will have some doubts in their minds.
But this problem is not a problem for Xiao Qi.
Everyone knows that Xiao Qi has a big die-hard ally in the United States, Citibank.
The two parties have a very friendly and sincere history of cooperation. Citibank is also Xiao Qi's largest deposit bank, so as long as it is Xiao Qi's company, it is easy for the square card swiper to obtain high authorization from Citibank.
As long as there is Citibank's endorsement, buyers and sellers who use Square card readers can naturally rest assured that their funds are safe.
However, don’t just look at Citibank helping Xiao Qi. When the number of Square card swiping users increases, and the amount of consumption through Square card swiping machines reaches 10 billion, 20 billion, and 50 billion US dollars every day, then how big will Citibank be?
A fortune is really conceivable.
The development of this square card reader is actually not that difficult. As long as you do a good job on the confidential algorithm and key, you can achieve safe, convenient and fast payment.
Some users from China find it strange when Americans are struggling to get the Square card swiping machine. Why is it so complicated? Can't they just apply for a card swiping POS machine directly with UnionPay? It only costs one or two thousand yuan.
Hey, if there is an event or something, it can be even cheaper.
This is where the national conditions of China and the United States are different.
It is extremely difficult for merchants in the United States to apply for a POS machine from a banking institution. Not only is the procedure very complicated, but the cost is also very expensive. A POS machine alone costs close to 1,000 US dollars.
Especially small and medium-sized sellers, such as the owner of a coffee shop, or a small family fast food restaurant, these usually apply for a POS machine at a very high cost, and then the credit card company sets their card swiping fees very high, almost
It is about 3.5%-5%, which is much lower than the 1%-1.5% discount given to super large merchants such as Wal-Mart.
But you have to use a POS machine, because Americans' habit of paying with credit cards has been deeply ingrained in their bones. Unless you are tipping, you generally cannot see cash.
Those who use cash on a large scale are generally Chinese.
With the existence of Square card swiping device, all small shop owners can use a Square card swiping device, which allows you to pay by swiping your card conveniently and quickly. Even a burger and Coke set meal of only 2 US dollars can be swiped, anyway.
The square card swiper only charges a fixed swipe fee of 15 cents and a 2.75% processing fee.
Anyway, when using Square card swiping device, the handling fee is much lower than that of ordinary POS machines and card swiping fees. In addition, it is convenient, fast and safe. Once the Square card swiping device was launched in the previous life, it immediately took the share of mobile payments.
With the increase in magnitude, the amount of card transactions has doubled continuously, and the annual transaction volume has easily exceeded 10 billion US dollars.
Precisely because the engineering team saw the broad prospects of the square card swipe device, they completed the rough design in just 2 months without Xiao Qi's urging. It is estimated that the market test can be carried out on a small scale in June at most.
If it officially starts operation, Square card swiping device will dominate the mobile payment market in the United States, which is just around the corner! (To be continued...) i1292