Chapter 678 Portrait of the American Spirit

The influence of "Celestial Dynasty" in the cultural and political fields has continued to ferment, which has further aroused the interest of the broader people and has further brought more amazing momentum to the sales of the novel.

The special account of "Harvest" has done a limited-edition operation. After the publication of the three volumes of "Celestial Chronicles", the special account is almost difficult to find.

Not to mention the single-books published by the Humanities Society. Under the dual adverse effects of magazine publication and pirated copies, orders from bookstores across the country have been continuously, and the machines in the Yanjing Xinhua Printing Factory, which is in charge of the printing business of the Humanities Society, are almost printing and smoking.

The busyness of the workshop makes people feel ashamed to return to the glorious 1980s when literature is in its glory.

In May, Lin Chaoyang stayed at home and focused on the creation of the last volume of the new book.

In the evening that day, as soon as he came out of the study, he saw Tao Xiwen walking into the yard.

Except for family dinners during holidays, Tao Xiwen rarely appears in Xiaoliubukou Hutong. When he saw him coming, Lin Chaoyang asked the kitchen to cook two more dishes.

"What wind blows you, a busy man today?" Lin Chaoyang asked jokingly.

Tao Xiwen smiled without saying a word and handed over a red invitation.

"You're going to get married? It's too early for you to give it to me."

Lin Chaoyang looked a little surprised. He took the invitation and looked at the time, and found that the wedding was scheduled for the 11th.

"In addition to sending you an invitation, I actually have something else to ask you for advice."

"What's up?"

"What do you think about the current situation in Nasdaq?"

Lin Chaoyang pondered for a moment, "Sit and watch."

Upon hearing this, Tao Xiwenran, he realized that Lin Chaoyang was joking and a bitter smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Don't beat me!" He begged.

Lin Chaoyang's expression became serious, "Why should you worry about it when the news is coming soon and it's not time to go public?"

"It's always going to go public."

Tao Xiwen showed a look of worry on his face, on the one hand, for the current international Internet situation, and on the other hand, for the development prospects of QQ.

In the past few years, the Internet economy has become the hottest investment concept in the global capital market, especially the United States.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was only 500 points in April 1991, and by July 1998 it crossed the 2,000 point mark.

After that, a wave of happy market suddenly emerged. By March 9, 2000, the Nasdaq Index had exceeded 5,000 points, and the US capital market was full of joy, and the market prosperity pushed people's enthusiasm for the Internet to the forthcoming.

Many people have no idea about this wave of market, so it is more intuitive to give an example.

When Yahoo went public in 1997, its market value was US$500 million, and by 1998, it reached US$3 billion. By January 2000, Yahoo's market value was US$93.7 billion.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Internet economy is more efficient than the money printing machine.

The popularity of the Internet economy in the US capital market has also driven market conditions in countries around the world, including China.

Since May last year, a wave of Chinese stock market suddenly appeared and the market was criticized. In less than two months, the Shanghai Composite Index rushed from the original 1,100 points to 1,700 points, with an increase of more than 50%. This is the famous "5.19 market" before the millennium.

In such a colorful market environment, one of the few Internet in China that has made a name for itself has also been favored by international capital, including Sina, Sohu, NetEase and other companies that have successfully raised a lot of funds.

Sina has now been listed on the Nasdaq in the United States, and it is rumored that Sohu and NetEase are also preparing for listing in full swing.

During this period, Jixun actually attracted the attention of several international capitals, but Tao Xiwen never accepted any investment.

The main reason is that several investment institutions have not valued Jixun at high prices, which is only 10 million yuan higher than the second round of financing.

You should know that in the past six months, the number of registered users of QQ has exceeded 2 million, almost doubled.

The highest number of online users also exceeded 100,000.

Both the user scale and stickiness are far superior to similar software, occupying most of the real-time communication field in China.

Under such circumstances, the valuation increased by only 10 million, and Tao Xiwen was naturally dissatisfied.

Another secondary reason Tao Xiwen is not keen on external investment is that he has nearly 1% stake in Asia Pacific News.

These shares passed the ban last year.

Tao Xiwen sold most of the stocks one after another. When he sold the stocks, it was just when Nasdaq was rushing to 5,000 points. The market value of Asia Pacific News once exceeded US$24 billion.

He also gained nearly US$140 million in profits, which were converted into RMB by more than 1.1 billion. If he followed the standards of Hurun Rich List last year, his wealth would be enough to be in the top 10 mainland rich people.

And the most rare thing is that his wealth is almost all cash, which is much more than many paper rich people.

The popularity of the Internet economy has allowed Tao Xiwen to gain billions of dollars at the age of 27. This is of course a celebration. But just as the whole world was immersed in the hot wave of the Internet economy, no one expected that the collapse of the Internet economy would sweep the international market with lightning speed.

Starting the second week of April, the Nasdaq index, which had been soaring for almost two years, suddenly took a sharp turn without warning, plunging 25.3% in one week, setting a record high in a single week since the United States.

Internet stock market crash is sweeping Nasdaq!

Realizing that this terrible reality is happening, huge panic effect spreads, investment institutions and retail investors compete to sell stocks, creating a stampede situation, and the Nasdaq index plummeted and there was no possibility of turning around.

Many leveraged investors are forced to close their positions, both institutions and individuals suffer heavy losses.

The media's voices of negative news about this stock market crash have further aggravated the pessimistic atmosphere in the outside world.

The situation was originally a big boom and the situation took a sharp turn. In addition to the stock market collapse, those wealthy investment institutions also became cautious.

Several investment institutions that had been following Jixun before have been no longer moving and pretending to be dead.

They didn't even suppress the valuation, but stopped investing directly, which shows the impact of this stock market crash on capital.

Faced with such a situation, Tao Xiwen couldn't help but worry.

With hundreds of millions of cash in his hand, he believed that even if I could endure the news, I could endure it.

The problem now is that even the "base camp" of the Internet economy in the United States has a crisis of confidence in this industry. If the Internet industry is really sluggish from now on, what can I do if I can survive?

With such questions and worries, Tao Xiwen found Lin Chaoyang and hoped to get guidance from Lin Chaoyang.

"What do you want me to say? When will the Nasdaq stock market crash pass? Or will Jixun be listed?"

Lin Chaoyang's rhetorical question made Tao Xiwen fall into silence. Of course he wanted to know this information, but he also understood that Lin Chaoyang is a human being or not, so how could he have such ability to not give a prophet?

"Do you think the Internet economy is really sustainable?"

After thinking for a long time, Tao Xiwen spoke.

His questions represent his voice, but in fact, his questions and worries are ultimately uncertain about the future prospects of this industry.

I don’t know the true face of Mount Lu because I am in this mountain.

Not to mention Tao Xiwen, a master student who studies computer science, even those economists and business tycoons, they are inevitably confused and panic in the face of the current situation.

"You don't need to ask me about this question, you should check it out."

"Look at it? What do you see?"

"Look at how those 'Internet stars' live in this stock market crash."

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, Tao Xiwen thought something. He was a smart person and naturally understood what Lin Chaoyang meant.

In this stock market crash, the stock prices of Internet giants such as American Online, Cisco, Yahoo, and Amazon all experienced a cliff-like decline.

Cisco alone lost more than $300 billion in market value, Yahoo fell from $93.7 billion to $42 billion, and Amazon fell from $22.8 billion to $8.5 billion.

In just less than a month, the Nasdaq index fell by 30% at its peak of 5132 points, and the market value of US$6.3 trillion evaporated, which even exceeded the GDP of all countries in the world except the United States.

The heavy loss of market value has caused many companies that have relied on blowing bubbles to collapse overnight, and there are many people who have gone bankrupt.

But Tao Xiwen also knows that those truly competitive companies in Silicon Valley are still alive.

"It is certain that there is a bubble in the Internet economy, and the arrival of the stock market crash may not be a bad thing. Squeezing out these bubbles and moisture can make the industry more solid."

While Tao Xiwen was silent and thinking, Lin Chaoyang spoke.

These words opened up Tao Xiwen's thinking. In fact, he was not unexpected about these things. He was just worried and confused. His heart was filled with uncertainty and panic, and he couldn't be sure of his own thoughts.

"Do you think the existence of QQ is valuable to netizens?" Lin Chaoyang asked him.

"Of course!" Tao Xiwen answered firmly.

Just in March, Jixun launched the QQ2000 version. In this version, Jixun used multiple levels of confidentiality options for the first time, enhanced personal information and confidential information functions, and launched QQ Information Communication and Jixun Browser and other services.

This means that QQ is quietly transforming from a purely instant messaging tool to an information portal and virtual community.

In addition, Jixun also cooperated with Pop Mart to design a series of cartoon images and expressions for QQ's fat penguin, which were widely praised by users and greatly increased user stickiness.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of users are active on the Jixun server.

The small chat window of QQ carries the joys, sorrows and life journeys of these users, how could it be worthless?

Since it is valuable, why should you be afraid of temporary storms?

Tao Xiwen realized the last sentence that Lin Chaoyang did not say, and the worry on his eyebrows gradually faded away, and replaced by a stronger self-confidence than before.

"I see!"

As the "entrepreneurship mentor" of his eldest nephew, Lin Chaoyang gained a lot of emotional value and asked about some details of Tao Xiwen's wedding.

Tao Xiwen does not pursue external vanity, so the wedding is to invite two families to have a meal.

"Zhou Mei agrees with your thoughts?"

"She thought so too. Her small shop has just opened, the business is pretty good, and she doesn't have the time and energy to plan those traditional Chinese festivals. It's good to be simple."
To be continued...