Chapter 82: Jiang Hao's Nobel Prize runner-up and Pinduoduo's preparation for listing In the restaurant, Zhou Tao respectfully took a bite of steak with a knife and fork. Previously, the arrogant Zhou Tao used to eat the steak directly with chopsticks. After taking a bite of steak, Zhou Tao said to Jiang Hao with a hint of anxiety: "Brother, a new board meeting is about to begin." When the Nobel Prize was selected last year, Jiang Hao's name was already on the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Economics. Although Jiang Hao is just a runner-up, this also shows that the bigwigs behind Pinduoduo are already working on Jiang Hao's Nobel Prize. Jiang Hao's winning of the Nobel Prize in Economics is closely related to Pinduoduo's listing: the moment when Pinduoduo's founder won the Nobel Prize was the moment when the bell for Pinduoduo's listing rang. The bigwigs behind Pinduoduo are preparing to use this to push up Pinduoduo's stock price again. So when the bigwigs of Pinduoduo started working on Jiang Hao's Nobel Prize, it also meant that they were working on Pinduoduo's listing. Pinduoduo’s new year’s shareholders’ meeting is about to begin. This year's "spoils division meeting" was the last and most critical meeting before Pinduoduo's listing. Zhou Tao was very nervous and anxious about this meeting.
The equity of the three founders, Jiang Hao, Zhou Tao and Sha Feiyang, has been diluted in successive rounds of financing. Although an agreement on "operating agency" rights was signed when accepting the financing, Zhou Tao's position as CEO will not be greatly affected. However, Zhou Tao is already a little overwhelmed when it comes to the company's strategic development issues. Because Pinduoduo is so huge, many institutions predict that its market value after listing will directly surpass Apple and become the world's largest company. The fact that Zhou Tao has been able to control Pinduoduo until today is a testament to his ability. However, once Pinduoduo completes its listing, various stakeholders will begin a "white-hot" struggle, and Zhou Tao is really powerless to do anything about it. Therefore, Zhou Tao is really anxious about the upcoming Pinduoduo board meeting. Facing Zhou Tao's anxiety, Jiang Hao also smiled bitterly. The current Pinduoduo is completely different from the Pinduoduo that Jiang Hao knew in his previous life: Pinduoduo now has a series of Wall Street capitals including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JJ Capital, Vanguard Fund, BlackRock Investment, etc. A series of large multinational companies including CICC, Tata, Sixin, Softbank, Tencent, Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Walmart, etc. Before Pinduoduo went public, the interests of all shareholders were the same: work hard to push up Pinduoduo's stock price and make money from the listing. So now Pinduoduo will only expand wildly without any obvious problems, but in fact there are undercurrents surging behind the scenes. The "Shandong Normal University Group" and the "Yan Da Group" that originally controlled Pinduoduo have even twisted into a common "domestic faction" under external pressure. They are jointly dealing with the "foreign faction" with a huge system covering the middle and lower classes. It's not just CEO Zhou Tao who is a little overwhelmed. Jiang Hao is also a little overwhelmed with Pinduoduo. Especially since Jiang Hao has always positioned Pinduoduo as a "profit", he has not invested more energy in Pinduoduo at all. But for Jiang Hao, once Pinduoduo completes its IPO, Pinduoduo will no longer be important to him. Because at that time, after everyone has achieved common interests, the competition within Pinduoduo will no longer be competition between shareholders or individuals, but will rise to the level of competition in international relations. Now the number of civil servants and public institutions in China is increasing significantly every year, because a large number of elites from relevant departments have quietly "resigned" from the system and joined Pinduoduo. Therefore, the biggest problem for Jiang Hao about Pinduoduo is how to cash out as much money as possible from Pinduoduo's listing, rather than how to control it. At the beginning, facing Pinduoduo, Jiang Hao never dared to think that it would be successful. Jiang Hao just thought that since he had the investment, it would be nice to be the boss and make some money. But unexpectedly, Pinduoduo really became a success. Even if Pinduoduo became a success, Jiang Hao's plan had always been to make money.
However, after Pinduoduo became popular, Jiang Hao had a higher goal of making money - he could make more money by cashing out stocks. Therefore, Jiang Hao wanted to make money from Pinduoduo stocks, and then transfer the money to China to start his own serious business such as chips, mobile phones, and car manufacturing. In Jiang Hao's mind, Pinduoduo, which does not create any value at all, is not a serious business at all. Seeing Zhou Tao's gloomy face, Jiang Hao comforted him, "Don't think too much. Just hold on to your position as CEO and cooperate with the actions of the relevant domestic departments." "Don't worry, I promise that after Pinduoduo's IPO, you can stay in the CEO position for at least five years." "Five years is more than enough time for you to make money! And wasn't our initial positioning for Pinduoduo just to make money?" Jiang Hao reiterated to Zhou Tao their original intention for Pinduoduo. After saying that, Jiang Hao hurriedly smiled and reminded: "Remember to get my share too!" "Just five years?" Zhou Tao was always convinced by Jiang Hao's judgment, but he was a little unwilling to be the CEO for only another five years. Seeing Zhou Tao's dissatisfaction, Jiang Hao said, "You will only be 26 years old in five years! You are still very young! It won't affect anything else you do!" "Five years from now it will be 2020, and the good times will almost be over." "Because you know better than me how Pinduoduo has accomplished its international expansion!" "Pinduoduo's international expansion is entirely due to the common interests of the two bosses, who are jointly promoting it." "So if international relations change in the future, Pinduoduo will be the first to bear the brunt and face unprecedented impacts. At that time, it will be completely beyond our control." "So, what you need to do is to cash out your Pinduoduo shares as much as possible and make as much money as possible. If you want to retire, just retire directly. If you don't want to retire, I will help you do something else when you return to China." "Okay!" Zhou Tao nodded, then looked at Jiang Hao a little disappointed. This time, Zhou Tao’s frustration was not because of Pinduoduo, but because of Jiang Hao. Zhou Tao has been trying hard to get close to Jiang Hao. In this way, even if there was no Pinduoduo, following Jiang Hao, there might be other companies like "Pinxixi" and "Pindaodao" in the future. Unfortunately, Zhou Tao is no longer worthy. There are two women surrounding Jiang Hao: Jiang Yiran, this sister is a god, Zhou Tao gets chills down his spine whenever he sees her; Song Wan, the "campus belle" of Yenching University, is capable, clean, and has a good family background. At first glance, she is the future "queen", and she is not a character to be trifled with. Zhou Tao is not a woman, and this is a disadvantage that he cannot make up for through hard work. Give his sister to Jiang Hao? He did have this idea, but his sister was not worth giving away, and Jiang Yiran and Song Wan would be able to get rid of his sister without leaving any bones. Then, besides the women, there were also several top-level young masters such as Sha Feiyang and Huo Yaowen who surrounded Jiang Hao tightly. Other young masters who were not of a high enough level could not break through this barrier and contact Jiang Hao. Now Zhou Tao is just glad that he was admitted to Shanxi Normal University and can share a dormitory with Jiang Hao. Now Zhou Tao has clearly understood one thing: "Money" itself is really not important. What is important are ability, circle and the resources that can be leveraged. The resources that Jiang Hao could leverage were beyond Zhou Tao's imagination. "Eat, eat. I have something to do when I go back after dinner!" Looking at the lost Zhou Tao, Jiang Hao pointed at the plate, reminding him to hurry up and eat. Jiang Hao didn't know that he was so awesome in Zhou Tao's eyes. If he knew that Zhou Tao thought of him so awesome, Jiang Hao would be shocked. Jiang Hao just hurriedly urged Zhou Tao to eat, because tomorrow would be his secret defense, and Jiang Hao had to hurry back to review his report. Zhou Tao nodded. This "world's richest man" who had been hyped up as having "a chance to become the world's richest man" no longer had the qualifications to be Jiang Hao's younger brother. All he could do was to try his best to help Jiang Hao make money without any mistakes. (End of this chapter)