Chapter 3016 Decentralized Social Networking

JD.com went public smoothly. Zhou Buqi participated in the process of ringing the bell, but did not go on stage to share the joy of ringing the bell with Liu Qiangdong and others.

For him, he was used to it.

Stop trying to steal other people's limelight.

The capital market responded very well. After the stock was officially issued, the stock price continued to rise, and JD.com's market value soon exceeded US$35 billion.

For Liu Qiangdong, JD.com executives and other investors behind JD.com, it was a big event.

Everyone has a happy smile on their face.

This will be a milestone moment worth remembering in their lives and careers.

Zhou Buqi was different. He was in a calm mood. Before the market closed for lunch, he said hello to Liu Qiangdong and left Nasdaq. I made an appointment with Senior Sister Zhen Yu and Don Mattrick, CEO of Changyou, to discuss a business together.

In the online payment market, there are now many heroes, and PayPal has the highest market share. There is no doubt about this.

Ranked second is Helo payment backed by Helo.

Ranking third is Square, headquartered in New York.

Zhou Buqi also has a relationship with this company and has participated in the C round of financing.

However, the share obtained was very small. After dilution, Ziweixing International's share is now only 8.5%, and his personal shareholding is only 0.4%.

Zhou Buqi failed to participate in the D round of financing launched by Square last year.

Because that round was mainly strategic financing.

For example, one investment institution is Starbucks. After Square accepted Starbucks, Square Payment entered thousands of Starbucks stores, adding millions of users to Square within a year and creating more than 60 million US dollars in revenue.

For some high-quality entrepreneurial projects, there is no shortage of investment.

If you want to participate in investment, in addition to providing money, you must also provide resources, just like Starbucks.

Now, Square is short of money again and is launching an E-round of financing, and Zhou Buqi is willing to participate no matter what. Finance is a huge market. Even if Square is only third in the market, its annual transaction volume is tens of billions of dollars.

In the era of mobile Internet, whoever can master payment tools can directly face consumers at the consumer end!

And provide certain business guidance through payment tools.

The trouble is that Zhou Buqi now controls PayPal and Helo payments, which makes Square a bit exclusive and does not want competitors to get too involved. Fortunately, Zhou Buqi also had a trick up his sleeve, and brought Changyou along directly.

In the online payment process, there is a level that cannot be bypassed, which is game payment.

Especially the current mobile game market, driven by Changyou, adopts the "free + in-app purchase" model. Players can play the game for free, but if they want to have fun and enjoy the game, they must recharge the game.

This is a huge market.

This is a huge strategic attraction for payment instruments.

This arrangement indeed attracted the interest of Square founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. He expressed his willingness to accept an investment of no more than 50 million US dollars and dilute 3% of the shares to obtain Changyou's game payment channel resources.

This made Zhou Buqi a little embarrassed.

Depend on!

I want to give you money, but I still have to beg you?

Is this intentional revenge?

You know, Zhou Buqi and Jack Dorsey did have some minor frictions in the past few years. Jack Dorsey was one of the founders of Twitter. Later, Boss Zhou stepped in and gradually took control of Twitter as an employer, and also promoted the sale of Twitter to Google.

This is somewhat contrary to Dorsey's original intention.

You know, Jack Dorsey is also a famous geek in the American technology circle, not much worse than Musk. He was also a hippie when he was young. He had tattoos and a nose ring, and he looked like a gangster. But the business success is great.

He not only founded the social giant Twitter, but also founded the payment giant Square, while managing two listed companies with a market value of tens of billions of dollars.

Not only that, but later he saw some restrictions on Twitter and believed that Twitter’s review mechanism seriously interfered with speech, causing left-wing comments to become popular on Twitter and right-wing comments to be banned, so he founded a third company. A decentralized social platform Bluesky.

In this life, Jack Dorsey has lost Twitter.

Only managing a company like Square always made him feel that his work was not enough and he wanted to do something more.

However, as the CEO of Square, if he wants to start a part-time business, he must get the approval of the board of directors and the approval of the capital investors.

Jack Dorsey put forward his own additional requirements, "Square can accept Changyou's investment, but I have a requirement, you need to agree to me doing a part-time job. If you don't agree, then I don't think we can continue talking. It’s necessary.”

"Yeah?"

Zhou Buqi laughed. There weren't many people who dared to talk to him like this. This guy's style was really a bit of a hippie.

Jack Dorsey said: "I'm going to start a new entrepreneurial project!"

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi can be said to be the most famous entrepreneur in the world. No one has made greater achievements in entrepreneurship than him. Hearing this, he couldn't help but become curious, "Entrepreneurship? What entrepreneurial project do you want to start?"

Jack Dorsey glanced at him, as if to keep it a secret.

Zhou Buqi frowned, a little unhappy, "I came here specially, and this is your attitude?"

After all, Boss Zhou still has face and status. Jack Dorsey made a compromise, "I hope to make a new social product, the current social product... whether it is Twitter, Facebook, or Helo's Moments , Ucgram, have very strict censorship when publishing content.”

"Censorship?" Zhou Buqi was slightly startled, "No, right? A lot?"

Compared with domestic social products, this content review abroad is simply not worth mentioning.

Jack Dorsey exaggeratedly said: "Isn't this enough? If someone posts some violent or large-scale pictures on Ucgram, their account may be banned."

Zhou Buqi said: "Some content is indeed not suitable for publishing on public platforms."

Jack Dorsey said: "This is restricting speech! Freedom of speech lies in the freedom to allow others to say some illegal secular opinions."

"What you say makes sense." Zhou Buqi nodded, "However, public platforms should still take into account the views of most mainstream users. In mainstream social platforms such as Helo, Ucgram, Twitter, and Facebook, there are also There are many underage child users, and the platform is beneficial to protect them. There are also some religious people who have their own cultural traditions and do not want to see content that is not in line with their values.”

Jack Dorsey said: "You are right, so different groups of people should have different classifications. Just because some people cannot or are unwilling to watch, we cannot restrict some people from expressing their opinions."

Zhou Buqi didn't quite agree with his statement.

What he said certainly makes sense, but it is too complicated to implement. The social platform is a public platform, which is equivalent to a public place. Just because everyone has the freedom to poop and pee, it doesn’t mean that people can poop and pee in public places, right?

There is no perfect product.

In the design rules of products, we can only take care of the vast majority of interests.

Jack Dorsey was full of confidence, "This situation must be resolved!"

Zhou Buqi looked at him curiously, "Do you have a solution?"

"Yes!" Jack Dorsey said a very fashionable concept at the moment, "Decentralization is the general trend!"

"Decentralized?" Zhou Buqi was a little amused, "It won't be a blockchain media platform, right?"

Jack Dorsey smiled and said: "It is not a blockchain for the time being, but it can be decentralized thinking. Today's mainstream social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Ucgram are all centralized mechanisms, which requires the platform to develop a A large number of reviewers are responsible for content supervision. What I want to do is a decentralized social product. Users can post content at will, but it is not certain whether the content they post will be seen by others. "

"It can be published, but no one will see it?" Zhou Buqi is also familiar with this strategy. WeChat Moments uses this mechanism, "It's just hidden on purpose!"

Jack Dorsey said: "It's not hiding. It won't be seen by people who don't want to see it, but it can be seen by people who want to see it."

"Isn't it easy?"

“Easy and allows users to choose what they want to see.”

"Um……"

"Today's social platforms are all controlled by recommendation algorithms. The content users see is recommended to them by the platform's algorithm. This is too centralized, and users can easily be controlled by the platform." Jack Dorsey He said it very excitedly. It seems that he can't sit still anymore and wants to start a new entrepreneurial project again. "Decentralization means letting users formulate algorithms for themselves. They only see the content they want to see, not the content they want to see." Content that the platform chooses for them.”

Zhou Buqi realized the complexity of this matter, "I'm afraid it won't be easy."

Jack Dorsey said: "I believe that the future world must be a decentralized world, and every different individual can become the center of this world. With the current popularity of Bitcoin and the trend of blockchain, I believe it will also This is the trend. Last year’s Prism Gate really shocked everyone on the Internet! The centralized Internet is so dangerous! I believe no one likes to be monitored and controlled by the US government. I want to try it first! A decentralized social product.”

Zhou Buqi doesn’t quite approve of his product, but he approves of his decentralization concept. “It’s still too difficult to completely replace the centralized world. However, I believe that a large part of the market will be dominated by decentralized solutions. Product-led.”

"Huh?" Jack Dorsey raised his eyebrows and heard something about it, "Are you interested?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Okay, I will invest in your new entrepreneurial project. I can also say a word to Square's board of directors and approve you to start a part-time business. To be honest, I don't think you can do this." Centralized entrepreneurial projects can be successful, but at least they are a good attempt.”

"Is that so..." Jack Dorsey hesitated and sighed, "This time Square's E round of financing, the planned financing scale is 150 million to 200 million US dollars. Next, we want to try to acquire a food ordering company. If you really value Square, I can give you up to half of the investment share."

Zhou Buqi didn't expect him to compromise, and said without hesitation: "Okay, let's do as you say!"