Chapter 113 Long-term Investment

Seeing Ding Sanshi's expression, Wang Wanting immediately guessed the reason and explained to him:

"Mr. Barron Cavendish is the boss of DS Capital. He is also the hereditary Duke of Devonshire in England. His family has a history of more than 400 years."

In fact, before Ding Sanshi came here today, he only knew that DS Capital held 14.3% of NetEase's shares and that the boss of DS Capital was preparing to visit China, so he came to pick him up today as a courtesy to the landlord, but he had absolutely no idea Unexpectedly, the boss of DS Capital turned out to be a British hereditary noble and a duke!

Even though he didn't know much about the British title system, Ding Sanshi knew that a duke was a very high-ranking noble. In the feudal era, the so-called principalities had their lords as dukes. This was simply surprising.

But what he didn't know was that this was just the beginning of something that would surprise him today.

Because next, the blond, blue-eyed, young and handsome Duke in front of him spoke in fluent and standard Mandarin:

"Hello, Mr. Ding, thank you for coming to pick us up today. I am Barron."

"Ba...Duke Barron, your Chinese is so good!"

Well, there is a joke, that is, in China, as long as a foreigner speaks Chinese very well, when he speaks, he will definitely encounter a situation where no matter what he says, he will not get a corresponding answer.

Because no matter what he says, people often just say in surprise: Your Chinese is so good!

This is the situation Barron is facing now.

"Thank you for your compliment. I like Chinese culture very much, so I learned Chinese."

In order to cope with today's situation, Ding Sanshi specially brought a translator here today, but he did not expect that the "foreigner" in front of him seemed to need no translator at all.

"Then you are really amazing. It can be said that you are the most fluent and standard Chinese speaker I have ever seen. If I closed my eyes and listened, I would have thought that the person talking to me was a Chinese."

…

After welcoming Barron, Ding Sanshi invited them to get in the car and took them to the hotel to settle down first.

"Duke Barron, you have never been to China before."

This time, Ding Sanshi brought two cars to pick them up. At this time, he was sitting in the passenger seat of a Mercedes-Benz car. Sitting behind him were Barron and his personal assistant Wang Wanting. As for the others, they all sat in the passenger seat. In the commercial vehicle behind.

Since Barron said before that he was interested in Chinese culture, he learned Chinese, and his personal assistant was Chinese and so beautiful, so Ding Sanshi could not help but misunderstand, and he did not neglect Wang Wanting. .

At this time, the Mercedes-Benz car was speeding on the road. Seeing Barron looking at the scenery outside through the car window with great interest, Ding Sanshi asked.

"Yes, this is my first time in China. Besides, Mr. Ding, you can just call me Barron. No need to be so polite."

"Okay, Mr. Barron, I wonder how you feel about China now?"

"Although I have just arrived here, I already feel familiar with it. I often tell others that maybe I was a Chinese in my previous life because I like many Chinese things. In London, I specially invited a Chinese chef Cook authentic Chinese food for me. I think the future of the world lies in China. Just like what we see now, there are scenes of construction along the way. This kind of scene is difficult to see in England now."

As a Chinese, no matter who you are, you will be very happy to hear a "foreigner", and a "foreigner" of considerable status, praise your country so much.

At this time, Ding Sanshi had a smile on his face after hearing what Barron said.

"Another point I'm curious about, Mr. Barron, is that you know that our company encountered some difficulties before, which caused our stock performance to be very poor. So why are you so optimistic about us and bought so many NetArt stocks? Woolen cloth?"

This question has always been something that Ding Sanshi has been curious about. In fact, 2001 can be said to be the most difficult year for NetArt. Not only was the stock shorted and suffered a huge decline, but it was also investigated by the SEC in terms of finances, and the stock was suspended for a time.

It can be said that NetArt was facing life and death at that time. Ding Sanshi once had the idea of ​​selling NetArt, but no one would take over.

But under such circumstances, there were still two people who bought NetEase shares in large quantities. One of them was Barron's DS Capital, and the other was Duan Yongping, the former boss of BBK.

"Because I like Chinese culture, I have also paid attention to some Chinese companies, especially Internet companies. NetEase came into my sight at that time. I have studied your company and found that the plummeting of your stock price at that time was not due to the company. There were operational problems - your company's financial situation was still very healthy at that time, and your cash was even included in the stock price, which was inverted with the Nasdaq stock price for a period of time, so I judge that this is a very Good buying opportunity.”

This was the first time Barron told Wang Wanting why he bought NetEase shares, and she listened with interest.

"In addition, after seeing that you entered the field of online games last year and performed well, I have strengthened my confidence in holding your stocks. Mr. Ding, my investment in NetArt stocks will not be short-term. It is an investment that is intended to be held for the long term. It can be said that I am not planning to sell it for at least ten years - unless you really make a major mistake in your business."

Hearing Barron's words, Ding Sanshi was also very surprised. He didn't expect that such a British nobleman would be so confident in his NetArt company.

NetArt was founded in 1997. It initially attracted a large number of users through China's first all-Chinese search engine, the first to provide users with personal homepage services, and its 163 mailbox. Later, it turned into a portal website, and is also known as Zhalang and Sohu. As one of China's three major portals, NetEase completed its IPO in 2000 and was listed on Nasdaq.

It's just that they were unlucky. After going public, the global Internet bubble burst. On the day of listing, the stock price fell below the issue price of US$15.82, which was called a "bleeding listing" by the media.

A year later, NetEase was suspended from trading due to misreporting of revenue, and its stock price fell to as low as $0.53. The company was on the verge of delisting and faced the biggest challenge since its founding. Many people believe that NetEase has come to an end. Under the leadership of Ding Lei, NetArt has found a way to survive in the cold winter.

After the suspension crisis, Ding Sanshi saw the future clearly in the trough, began to focus on the new needs of netizens, and vigorously developed SP business and online games.

NetEase's painstaking focus and investment in SMS business has made NetEase the first profitable portal in China this year.

In addition to these, NetArt also began to develop online game business at this time. It established an online game division last year and launched its first online game "Westward Journey Online" at the end of last year. However, due to serious bugs in the game, Coupled with the lack of follow-up development and offline plug-ins and other factors, this game was destroyed just after it came out.

However, they did not give up the IP of Westward Journey. In June this year, they launched "Westward Journey Online II" again and started public testing, becoming the first domestically produced online game to be successfully operated in China.

This game has exquisite graphics, is fun and interesting, and has a harmonious social atmosphere. After its launch, it successfully became popular on the streets and was deeply loved by players.

At this point, NetEase has once again discovered a new profit growth point for China’s Internet.

And Barron knows that starting from this online game, NetArt's game business is about to take off, and in the future the game business will become its main source of profits, supporting its increasingly higher stock price.