Chapter 132: Baidu Changes Its Surname to Lin
Lin Lang shook Li Yanhong’s hand and said, “Then I wish us a happy cooperation in advance!”
Li Yanhong said somewhat excitedly, “Thank you, Chairman Lin, for your appreciation!”
“I can’t repay the kindness of your recognition. I will devote myself to the development of the Baidu Search Engine and prove with my strength that Chairman Lin’s vision is not wrong!”
Chu Yiren, standing by, said in surprise, “No way, A Lang?”
Lin Lang looked at the stunning Chu Yiren, then asked, “What’s wrong, my dear?”
Li Yanhong was secretly shocked after hearing this. He didn’t expect that Lin Lang, the financial backer who acquired Baidu through venture capital, was actually the boyfriend of Chu Yiren, the billionaire female magnate.
Chu Yiren elegantly held a red wine glass, her willow-like brows slightly furrowed as she replied, “You haven’t even done market research or actual inspection of Baidu Company, and you’re already prepared to invest fifty million to acquire 65% of Baidu Company’s shares. This kind of foolishly rich venture capital method is too casual, isn’t it?”
Lin Lang replied proudly after hearing this, “Don’t worry, my dear!”
“I’m very good at judging people. Mr. Li is a technology-oriented talent. By investing in Mr. Li to help him realize his ideal of starting Baidu, I am a hero appreciating another hero.”
Li Yanhong felt a warmth in his heart after hearing this and said with great respect, “Thank you, Mr. Lin, for thinking so highly of me! I will definitely live up to Chairman Lin’s expectations and make Baidu the pride of Chinese search engines as soon as possible!”
Chu Yiren smiled affectionately and said, “My dear, since you’ve made up your mind, then go ahead and acquire Baidu through venture capital as you wish.”
Lin Lang said, “Mr. Li, let me formally introduce you. This is Chu Yiren, Chairman of Chu Group, and also my girlfriend.”
Li Yanhong quickly greeted respectfully, “I’ve long admired Chairman Chu’s reputation! Long admired, long admired!”
Chu Yiren politely replied, “Nice to meet you!”
Li Yanhong chatted, “I really didn’t expect that our Chairman Lin and Chairman Chu are in a romantic relationship. You are truly a match made in heaven!”
Chu Yiren smiled with a slight curl of her lips.
Lin Lang patted Li Yanhong’s shoulder and said with great admiration, “Mr. Li will continue to serve as Baidu’s CEO. The company’s operating rights and the development rights of the Baidu Search Engine will all still be decided by you.”
“Thank you, Chairman Lin, for your trust. I will do my best!” Li Yanhong smiled from ear to ear.
Lin Lang continued, “I will only hold the title of Chairman as Baidu’s largest shareholder, and also serve as the Technical Guidance Director of Baidu’s Development Department, providing some innovative guidance with reasonable suggestions for the company’s development direction and software development.”
Li Yanhong exclaimed in surprise after hearing this, “Chairman Lin, you also understand software development?”
Lin Lang replied with his catchphrase, “I am not talented, but I know a little bit about everything. Although it’s just a little, it’s enough to provide some functional innovation guidance for the development of the Baidu Search Engine.”
Li Yanhong replied with a smile, “With Chairman Lin’s talent, Baidu couldn’t ask for more!”
Lin Lang looked at Chu Yiren and said, “My dear, let me borrow your Chu Group’s legal team to draft a commercial contract for the venture capital acquisition of Baidu.”
Chu Yiren replied “Okay!” after hearing this.
Immediately after, Chu Yiren took out her phone from her limited edition Hermes handbag and made a call.
Lin Lang said to Li Yanhong, “Mr. Li, let’s move to the conference room at Chumen Hotel to discuss the details of drafting the investment agreement.”
“Okay, Chairman Lin!” Li Yanhong was beaming.
With the professional legal team from Chu Group stepping in to draft the contract for the investment acquisition of Baidu and guiding Lin Lang and Li Yanhong in signing the agreement, everything proceeded very smoothly.
The investment and acquisition agreement stipulated that the investor (Party A), Lin Lang, needed to transfer 50 million chinese yuan to the account of Kyoto Baidu Online News Technology Co., Ltd. within 3 working days after the contract signing.
Previously, Lin Lang had paid off the 55.2 million chinese yuan for the acquisition of Penguin Company in two installments from the 79.7 million chinese yuan in his futures account. Now, the balance in his futures account is 24.5 million chinese yuan.
The three buildings of Binjiang Haoge Real Estate received a bank mortgage loan of 30 million chinese yuan.
Lin Lang’s funds for the venture capital acquisition of Baidu were just enough.
Of course, Lin Lang had three days to use his principal of 54.5 million to trade futures in the futures market, easily earning one or two hundred million with short-term operations, thanks to the omnipotent prompt system.
After the venture capital acquisition contract was signed.
Li Yanhong proactively shook Lin Lang’s hand and said respectfully, “From now on, Baidu’s development will entirely depend on Chairman Lin’s strong support!”
Lin Lang clasped Li Yanhong’s hand and replied courteously, “From now on, the important task of Baidu’s development and promotion will entirely be entrusted to Mr. Li!”
Li Yanhong said very excitedly, “It’s my duty, please rest assured, Chairman Lin! I will go all out to successfully develop the Baidu Search Engine, devote myself to work, and let Chairman Lin receive investment returns as soon as possible.”
Immediately after, Lin Lang thanked the staff of Chu Group’s legal department.
After the Chumen Hotel conference room was cleared, only Lin Lang and Li Yanhong remained.
Lin Lang said profoundly, “Mr. Li, please sit. Let’s talk about Baidu’s startup now. I’ll help you open up your Ren and Du meridians and enlighten you.”
Li Yanhong respectfully lit a cigarette for Lin Lang while smiling obsequiously, “Chairman Lin, you’re so humorous. What profound insights do you have that I can listen to attentively?!”
Lin Lang took a puff of his cigarette and replied, “Then let’s start discussing some business plans for Baidu’s startup, as well as functional innovation guidance for the Baidu Search Engine.”
“Mr. Li, first, tell me, to what extent has your technical team currently developed and applied the Baidu Search Engine?”
Li Yanhong replied truthfully, “Because the search portals in China are firmly controlled by the three major portals, Sina, NetEase, and Sohu, when Baidu was established, we didn’t create a search engine directly facing users like Google. Instead, we chose to provide search technology for portal websites.”
“Currently, Baidu has only been established for half a year and has already become China’s number one website search technology service provider.”
“However, just when I thought Baidu had found its footing, the internet bubble burst this year, countless internet companies went bankrupt and closed down, and websites like Sina, NetEase, and Sohu were also forced to cut expenses and successively terminated their cooperation with Baidu.”
“Currently, our Baidu customers have almost completely disappeared, and we are also on the verge of collapsing in this internet bubble.”
“That’s why I had to cut off my arm to survive, selling 65% of Baidu’s shares in exchange for Chairman Lin’s 50 million venture capital financing, preparing to transform Baidu into an independent search engine website directly facing end-users.”
Lin Lang exhaled smoke and said, “This is called ‘no breaking, no establishing; breaking before establishing; and extreme sorrow turns to joy’.”
“Although Google was established a year earlier than our Baidu and has become the preferred search engine for domestic netizens, the market share that Baidu can seize is still very large.”
“To put it bluntly, whoever controls the search portal controls the PC era. Mr. Li, do you agree with my point of view?”
Lin Lang was ten years younger than Li Yanhong, but in terms of swagger, he completely outclassed the older Li Yanhong.
“Agreed.” Li Yanhong nodded.
Lin Lang continued, “Currently, our only competitor for Baidu is Google, but the Google created by Americans is very arrogant. They think China is a small market and completely misunderstand the search needs of Chinese users.”
“Google doesn’t even give a damn about the search needs of China’s billion-plus population base. It’s destined to be unsuited to the local conditions and will eventually withdraw from the Chinese market.”
Li Yanhong asked in surprise, “Chairman Lin, you actually predict that Google might withdraw from the Chinese market in the future?”
Lin Lang flicked the ash from his cigarette and confidently asserted, “It’s one hundred percent certain, and within ten years, Google will definitely withdraw from the Chinese market.”
Li Yanhong’s eyes lit up after hearing this, and he said, rubbing his hands together, “If Google really withdraws from the Chinese market, then Baidu’s chance to rise will come!”
Lin Lang said, “Mr. Li, don’t be too happy too soon. After all, when our Baidu creates an independent search engine website for end-users, we are taking a slice of Google’s pie.”
“You need to withstand the pressure, deeply cultivate, research, break through, and innovate in algorithms and search technology, constantly understand user needs, and fully engage in a desperate struggle with Google.”
Li Yanhong patted his chest and replied, “In terms of technology, I will absolutely not back down. Just do it!”
Lin Lang smiled after hearing this, “Mr. Li is a technology-oriented talent who returned from Silicon Valley. In terms of your ability, I absolutely trust you.”
Why did Lin Lang trust Li Yanhong so much?
Because Li Yanhong, facing the formidable enemy Google, launched the “Flash Plan” in a do-or-die battle. He personally led a technical team of only fifteen people to contend with Google’s eight-hundred-person R&D team and ultimately achieved a complete victory.
Li Yanhong took only nine months for Baidu to surpass Google in page response speed, content update frequency, and Chinese search experience.
Immediately after, Lin Lang said profoundly, “Mr. Li, now I’m going to start hitting the blackboard and highlighting the key points for you.”
“Chairman Lin, please speak your mind, I’m all ears.”
Lin Lang said, “All the search engines on the market right now, including Google and Yahoo, are garbage. The search engine services they are providing are merely web search engine network tools, and their functions are too limited.”
“Functions like image search and MP3 music search simply don’t exist on the search engines on the market.”
“Our Baidu, when launching an independent search engine website for end-users, must innovate in search functions to provide users with a better experience, completely crushing search engines like Google and Yahoo.”
Li Yanhong’s eyes lit up after hearing this, and he quickly asked, “Chairman Lin, how should Baidu innovate its search functions?”
Lin Lang replied ambitiously, “In addition to the regular web search function, our Baidu Search Engine must also launch categorized functions such as image search, news search, video search, and music search. Once launched, it will be a trump card opening, directly annihilating and killing other search engines.”
(These search functions proposed by Lin Lang had not yet been launched at that time.)
(Google only launched its image search function in 2001, and it wasn’t direct image searching as it is now, but rather displaying image search results.)
Li Yanhong slapped his thigh after hearing this, stood up from his chair with a jolt, and said with immense shock, “Chairman Lin, you truly enlightened a dreamer with just one sentence!”
“I’ve suddenly had an epiphany!”
“With Chairman Lin’s guidance, our Baidu Search Engine instantly has a research and development direction!”
“For the Baidu R&D team I lead, developing categorized functions like image search, news search, video search, and music search is actually not difficult.”
“The difficulty lies in the fact that we simply couldn’t conceive of launching such independent categorized search functions on traditional search engines.”
Lin Lang crossed his legs and exhaled smoke, saying, “As long as our Baidu Search Engine launches the aforementioned categorized functions when it officially goes online, it will gain the love and admiration of the vast number of netizens due to its far superior technology.”
“At that time, Baidu will crush search engines like Google and Yahoo, its registered users will soar, and it will seize the market share of Chinese search engines in one fell swoop.”
Li Yanhong, unable to hide his excitement, said with immense reverence, “Chairman Lin is indeed no ordinary person!”
“With Chairman Lin providing funding, effort, and guiding our Baidu, it’s only a matter of time before Baidu becomes the world’s number one Chinese search engine.”
“How did you come up with these groundbreaking ideas, Chairman Lin?”