Shockingly, a counterfeit factory has produced a 3-nanometer chip.

Chapter 73 African Internet Horse Racing

Lacus, Nigeria. Afro Chat Headquarters

Qi Di, the 28-year-old founder, was sitting in his well-decorated office. After all, he had started his own business, and regardless of whether he succeeded or not, he had to enjoy himself.

But he had no time to enjoy himself; he was staring at the huge map of African markets on the wall.

The map is densely covered with orange pins, each pin representing a city with over 10,000 users, while the occasional scattered red pins indicate that the city has surpassed 100,000 users.

Three months ago, these thumbtacks were concentrated in Nigeria, but now they have spread to Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia...

At that moment, the secretary pushed open the door and walked in, excitedly reporting to the leader: "Afro Chat has surpassed 500 million registered users."

Qidi didn't smile; instead, he became even more agitated.

Five million users may sound like a lot, but on the continent of Africa with a population of 12 billion, it's just a tiny fraction.

More importantly, he knew that when they received the investment last time, there was another document in Huang Tianya's office that listed more than thirty other African internet companies.

Social networking, payment, e-commerce, gaming, music...

Each of them has secured seed funding, and now they're all frantically expanding. The land in the African market is too barren to support so many businesses.

Based on his experience, at most two companies will remain in each track after six months, and only one company may survive after a year.

Raising Gu poison.

This is a blatant game of raising venomous insects. They use money to raise dozens of venomous insects at the same time, making them fight each other. No matter how many survive in the end, they will become the internet overlords of Africa, and they can reap the benefits.

His masterpiece, Afro Chat, is just one of dozens of tiny insects.

"Boss, in the past week, we've added 70 new users and have 220 million daily active users. In Nigeria, our market share has reached 38%, surpassing other social apps' African versions."

"What about the others?"

Qidi doesn't care about these data; he's more concerned about his competitors.

The secretary's expression instantly changed from happy to tense.

"Konnect (another social software invested by Huaxin) received 500 million in Series A funding last week and is currently offering massive subsidies in Kenya."

The slogan is to make internet access available to all Africans, and they give away 100MB of data just for registering. Currently, they have over 400 million users, and the gap with us is getting smaller and smaller.

Qidi's expression changed again.

The difference between 400 million and 500 million isn't significant. If Konnect continues to burn through cash, it will catch up quickly.

Moreover, Qidi knew that Konnect's founder had returned from Silicon Valley in the United States, and he was well-versed in the American internet entrepreneurship path, at least knowing better than him how to expand rapidly.

Of course, what he didn't expect was his real rival, AfriLink.

"Contact Mr. Huang."

After much deliberation, he made this decision. "I need to increase investment. In order to survive, the cash-burning war must begin."

…………

Guangzhou. Huaxin Investment Office.

Looking at Qidi in the video conference, Huang Tianya's face was full of professional congratulations: "Qidi, congratulations on surpassing 500 million users. Your execution is very strong, and I have high hopes for you."

"Thank you, Mr. Huang, but that's not enough."

As the founder, Qidi was not blinded by these false praises.

"I want to sell another 20% stake for $1000 million, bringing the post-financing valuation to $5000 million."

Huang Tianya didn't say anything, but looked at him with disdain.

That expression seemed to say, "Even a toad that wants to eat swan meat needs to be a toad. What do you have?"

"Three months ago, Afro Chat was valued at 1000 million Chinese yuan, and now you think it's worth 5000 million US dollars. This increase... I don't know where you get your confidence from."

"Because our value has already proven this data." Qi Di took out the data he had prepared. "500 million registered users, 220 million daily active users, and users spend an average of 87 minutes on the platform each day."

This data surpasses Facebook's performance in Africa. More importantly, 20% of our users are Transsion phone users, using TaiShan OS. Our apps and system are deeply integrated, creating a much stronger competitive advantage than Facebook's.

He spoke with great confidence, believing that Afro Chat was worth the price, but Huang Tianya accurately understood the unspoken meaning behind his words.

"Qidi, what are you worried about? Do you know how much these numbers are worth?" Huang Tianya asked directly.

"It's nothing."

After a long silence, Qi Di finally decided to be honest: "President Huang, Huaxin currently holds 50% of Afro Chat's shares. If you can acquire it again in this round of financing, your shareholding will reach 70%."

this……"

"I...I hope that in the next round of financing, we can bring in other strategic investors."

His last sentence completely exposed his ambition, but Huang Tianya laughed.

Checks and balances!

This African entrepreneur has already considered the issue of control after equity dilution. He doesn't want Huaxin to have a monopoly and wants to introduce other investors to provide checks and balances.

Although they supported and incubated it.

However, this choice actually made Huang Tianya think more highly of him.

He's a smart person.

"Sure," Huang Tianya readily agreed.

"However, this time, Afro Chat is not worth the price. The financial crisis has proven that the Internet is a bubble, and its ability to withstand risks is far inferior to that of the real economy."

Therefore, I can only offer $500 million for 20% of the shares.

If you agree, I'll have the staff there send the agreement to you.

Regarding your concerns, I can promise that Huaxing will co-invest up to 50% in the next round of financing.

"Thank you, Mr. Huang. I agree to this condition."

After hanging up the phone, Huang Tianya called his assistant over again: "Notify the founders of AfriLink to come and discuss financing as well. Give them $600 million, on the same terms."

AfriLink is another instant messaging company invested in by Huaxin Investment. It is currently ranked third in this field, with a total of 285 million registered users.

However, with a daily active user base of 220 million, it is the company that Huang Tianya is most optimistic about among these companies.

Upon hearing this, the assistant nodded slightly, then looked at him with a puzzled expression: "Mr. Huang, aren't you just making the three of them fight even more fiercely?"

"We need to let them fight." Huang Tianya took a piece of paper from the drawer and lightly crossed out the section on casting a wide net. The next line was about horse racing...