MMB Chapter 172 ByteDance's $5 Million Valuation
Chapter 172 ByteDance's $5 Million Valuation
Liu Jinshi's arrival was just a minor incident for Wu Tao, who was usually busy with work.
With two major shareholders, Toutiao no longer needs to worry about underhanded tactics, whether domestically or internationally.
In the days that followed, Toutiao entered a period of good development, with ample funding and strong backing.
Today's Headlines users quickly surpassed 100 million.
Then came 110 million, 120 million, until the number of registered users worldwide exceeded 300 million, at which point the growth rate slowed down.
Internet companies are truly remarkable; less than a year after their founding, they already have 300 million users, and Toutiao has quickly become a unicorn company favored by major institutions.
Like Google and Facebook, Wu Tao, the 29-year-old Chinese founder, has become a hot entrepreneurial star around the world.
The main reason is that Wu Tao's experience is so legendary that it makes countless people believe once again that a genius's talent can be quickly monetized.
Divorced at 28, then quickly resigned from his job, and then attracted a black angel investment company with his creativity, becoming a billionaire in less than a year—these experiences demonstrate Wu Tao's awesomeness.
Not to mention that Toutiao's current valuation is no longer just over a billion yuan, because the company needs to launch another large-scale financing round.
This time, Wu Tao directly extended inspection invitations to major investment banks around the world, and on that day, more than a hundred investment banks came to Toutiao.
The major investment banks had long coveted the Toutiao project, but they hadn't had the opportunity before.
Now that there's an opportunity, we definitely have to seize it, so Jiangcheng Airport welcomed many well-known investment bank representatives from home and abroad.
Several domestic giants have also entered the market. As of now, Toutiao has exceeded 320 million users.
Wu Tao stated that Toutiao is currently valued at five billion US dollars, and surprisingly no one in the audience raised any objections.
An internet company that was founded less than a year ago was valued at five billion US dollars.
The main reason is that Wu Tao is too familiar with Toutiao's history of success, which is how it directly earns millions of US dollars a month through Google revenue, paid content, and targeted push notifications.
Even with only a few million US dollars in profit, Toutiao has already demonstrated enormous potential to investment institutions.
They can exaggerate the profits of internet companies that don't even make a profit into myths, let alone companies like Toutiao that are actually profitable.
Therefore, no one would question that Toutiao is valued at five billion US dollars.
Currently, Wu Tao owns 10% of Toutiao's shares, Black Angel Investment Company owns 60% of Toutiao's shares, and Goldman Sachs and Zhongxun each own 15% of Toutiao's shares.
This time, the plan is to give 20% of the shares to new shareholders, and Wu Tao did not sell any more shares this time.
This is the second time that Toutiao has introduced new shareholders, and there will be a third in the future, after which it will go public.
Wu Tao is not short of money now, so he doesn't want to sell his shares at a low price, since he can only hold 10% of the shares on the surface.
Julie, the president of Black Angel Investment Company, had already communicated with Wu Tao beforehand. Therefore, this time it's Black Angel Investment Company transferring 20% of its shares.
This time, four new shareholders were brought in directly. It is unnecessary to go into details about which family they represent. Black Angel Investment Company has once again received a billion US dollars in equity transfer fees.
Now, Black Angel Investment Company's equity has become 40%, plus Wu Tao's 10%, making it exactly half.
Then everyone invested in Toutiao again, this time for 200 million US dollars.
Wu Tao needed to invest 20 million US dollars to acquire 10% of the equity. Instead of using his savings, he had Black Angel Investment Company provide the funds.
On the surface, it appears to be a private loan agreement, but in reality, it's a money laundering scheme by Wu Tao. His aim is to prevent his own savings from decreasing, since he has little access to the money from Black Angel Investment Company to spend.
Black Angel Investment Company originally had $490 million, and invested $60 million in Toutiao.
With the remaining $430 million, $200 million was received from the 20% stake sold last time, and then another $180 million was invested in Toutiao.
This means the cash became $450 million. This time, they received another $1 billion. After deducting the $80 million needed for investment and adding the $20 million borrowed by Wu Tao, the total is $100 million.
Black Angels Investment Company now has a staggering $1.35 billion in cash.
Wu Tao directly approved President Julie's request to take 350 million US dollars to Nasdaq for a trial run.
President Julie is an excellent financial investment expert; we can't let her become a puppet at Black Angel Investment Company.
President Julie was also very happy to receive Wu Tao's authorization, which meant that she could finally dominate the stock market.
President Julie chose to join the newly established Black Angels Investment Company because she knew that the company had ample funds.
After the company was established, the boss only allowed her to invest in one project: Toutiao. And so far, the investment has been very successful; Black Angel Investment Company's capital has doubled entirely because of this investment in Toutiao.
President Julie is thirty-five years old this year, and she is also a beautiful woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and big waves. Naturally, she would be attracted to Wu Tao, a young and handsome Chinese boss.
The boss is not only rich, but the creation of Toutiao (Today's Headlines) further proves how outstanding Wu Tao's abilities are.
President Julie is currently single. After comparing several excellent suitors, she realized that Wu Tao was the best.
Unfortunately, Wu Tao has no plans to have anything happen between him and Julie right now, mainly because he doesn't have the time.
President Julie resides in the United States, while Wu Tao lives in Jiangcheng. The two usually communicate via email. Furthermore, Wu Tao is not lacking in women, and Zhang Luoyu is completely infatuated with him.
Wu Tao devoted most of his free time to Zhang Luoyu. Although he had bought a house, he still habitually stayed at Zhang Luoyu's house.
In the past few days, Liu Jinshi has been visiting Wu Tao at Toutiao's company every few days, each time bringing either a lovingly prepared breakfast or lunch.
Liu Jinshi also realized that her brother-in-law Wu Tao's feelings for her had changed, from familial affection to romantic love.
Eyes don't lie; Liu Jinshi hadn't seen that kind of burning passion from her brother-in-law before.
Wu Tao didn't want to lose his composure, but the girl was so beautiful, and she was always around him. Plus, with his current superhuman stamina, Zhang Luoyu definitely couldn't satisfy him.
Liu Jinshi hesitated. To be honest, she had always considered Wu Tao as an older brother. They hadn't had any other thoughts about their occasional close interactions, but now that she knew Wu Tao's feelings, Liu Jinshi felt a little scared.
What Liu Jinshi feared wasn't anything else, but rather that she herself was actually feeling a little attracted to him. If it were the original Wu Tao, Liu Jinshi might have been able to refuse.
Liu Jinshi's resistance to Wu Tao plummeted. She didn't know why; only after returning this time did she realize Wu Tao was completely different from before.
Although his face is still the same, his speech, demeanor, and skin are all evolving towards the most perfect man.