 |
« July 2005 | Main | September 2005 »
Hey! we're about to start our trip to Tibet. It must be very exciting! No matter what happen in the past two weeks, we're still heading forward! No regret! Before the trip, we all change our hairstyle ~ yeah! Skin head! Let's turn to a new chapter!
This week definitely the hardest but most exciting week for me in China. Lots of thing are happened quickly. It's just like a TV series ~ 24. Every minutes somethings are going to happen on you. You really couldn't stand stood still.
From monday, the press release the rumor that Yahoo! pay 1billion for 40% stake in Alibaba. It's really shocked to me at the first beginning. We all puzzle what's going to happen in next. What's the future for the ecommerce in China? Lots of question come from my mind...
On Wednesday, i got the confirmation from management that the deal is real. We're going to prepare something internally. All HR hiring and PR news are being stopped.
The official announcement had been made on Thursday. Before the press release, i meet with Dan R. (COO of yahoo) and Jack Ma (CEO of Alibaba) in the management meeting. He uncovered all stories behind the scene. Finally i knew what will be happened. At that time, my mind is quite stable and get used to this fast changing world. I kept saying to myself that i need to be professional, keep calm. Otherwise my team will be in chaos, i need to keep them stable and it's my responsibility. I really felt being a manager is very hard at that moment. After the press conference, they held the all-hands meeting in yahoo china and 1pai to message all employees to stay in the new company. My first impression to Jack Ma is that he's quite talkative and presentable. That's the element for every successful CEO, right? I think some of employees get touched with his speech and may plan to stay. To me, i still haven't decided...^_^"
On Friday, i have recieved a letter from yahoo headquarter. It's really another surprise to me that i recived a nomination for the 2005 Yahoo! Super Star Award worldwide. I can't imagine that i am being a candidate for this award. I need to thanks those peoples who nominate me and give me a chance to grow (especially Jonathan Sun and Fiona). I don't expect to get anything from this award but that's already a very good recognization for my previous job. Thanks all of you!
Back to the real works again, we will have to setup the transition team within 1pai to handle the integration with taobao. I am being a technical representive in the team. That's lots of work in the weekend too. Although i still have lots of works to do, i spent a whole afternoon to discuss with teamates one by one and knew what they felt and worried. Someone is afraid of losing the job and some worried about the salary...etc. All i can do is give them a positive prospection and cheer them. Some of my friends said that i am not suitable for the manager because i am too cared about the employees. I admitted that it's true that i don't want to fire any peoples under me because i think they're really good employees. Otherwise he can't be my teamates at the first beginning...but things going to happened is really out of my control... i don't know what to say.
That's really enough for this week. Two years ago, i start to write up the proposal for setting up 1pai here. Today yahoo sold 1pai to Alibaba. That's really tough time. From another angle, i really learn a lot from setting up company and being acquired.
There're two news headline that really shock me this weekend. One is "Yahoo pay 1 billion for 35% of alibaba"; another is "baidu up 354% in the first day of IPO". Why there're so many crazy stuff in beijing?
Let's take a look on the PE of baidu.com! (PE=1,099)!! I am not joking - it's the real number i calculated based on the 2005Q1 revenue from baidu and the new market cap today. The normal PE ratio for all China stock in NASDAQ is below 100. What make baidu so popular? I am not sure ... may be the effects of two hot topics that came together (i.e. search + China)? But don't forget two rivials are coming (Google and Yahoo)...
For the second headlines, that should impact me directly. As i am working in the Y!CN ecommerce sector, Alibaba is one of my major competitor. Suddenly it changed to my partner?! Really can't believe that... but that's the truth. (1 billion US Dollars = 80億 RMB). That can change all the things we established last year. How will that impact my job? (partnership, affiliate, integration) I don't know yet... but there must be sth that will be changed soon.
Nobody know what will happen if these three words come together
(China + Search + Ecommerce = ?) May be after my tibet trip :> I wil know more ...
Baidu.com slays the Street
Beijing's Baidu.com Inc., the little search engine that could, exploded onto the Nasdaq on Friday, Aug. 5. The $108 million initial public offering wasn't as big as Google Inc.'s and Baidu's revenue isn't anywhere near that of its Mountain View, Calif., Web rival. Baidu's not even the top search engine in China. But its initial public offering generated just about as much buzz as Google's did. Which probably accounted for its stock leaping 354% to close at $122.54 in first-day trading on Friday. Baidu, which was up more than 363% at one point in midday trading priced 4 million American Depositary Shares at $27 apiece, well above an already increased range of $23 to $25.
Yahoo in talks to pay $1B for China's alibaba
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Yahoo Inc., the Sunnyvale, Calif., online media company, is in advanced talks to buy about 35% of Alibaba.com, China's biggest homegrown e-commerce company, for almost $1 billion, sources close to the negotiations told Forbes.com. The deal would be the biggest investment by a foreign company in China's Internet industry, the Forbes online unit reported. Alibaba operates Taobao.com, an online auction site, and Alibaba.com, an online trading site. The deal poses a challenge to eBay Inc., the San Jose, Calif., online auction site, Forbes.com reported.
