Chapter 144: Cheng Wei also has a gigolo
The lecture and forum were arranged in a large auditorium, which was divided into two floors. The upper floor was dotted with faculty and staff who were watching and joining in the fun, while the hundreds of seats on the lower floor were occupied by students and leaders.

On the wall of the rostrum hung a red banner with the words "Warm Welcome" in Chinese aesthetic style. A male student who looked like a student union cadre was standing on the stage, controlling the situation with ease and introducing the heavyweight guest Mr. Jim Goetz who was present today in English.

In the center of the front row, a vice president of the School of Finance said with a reserved smile, "Mr. Goetz, the students really hope to learn investment wisdom from you. If you don't mind, please feel free to speak freely later."

"Of course, this is exactly why I am here. I am happy to share some effective experiences with people." Jim, who has no idea how many campus activities he has to attend a year, handles it with ease.

"That's great. And Mr. Xie, we wanted to hear the wonderful story of the WhatsApp acquisition, but he was always very humble and said it was just an ordinary project."

The vice president tilted his head to look at Xie Jingxing and joked, "It's rare for Mr. Gotz to be here as a party involved today. I must seize this opportunity to test your bottom line."

“In fact, I think the story about Jim’s early investment in WhatsApp is more interesting.” Xie Jingxing cooperated.

There was widespread public opinion about Taihe's malicious acquisition of Meituan. At this time, there was no need for him to show off and cause trouble for the leaders of Jiaotong University.

On the contrary, Jim Goetz said that nowadays, overseas students have naturally superior academic qualifications, and it is really not easy for financial giants from Europe and the United States to come to China for exchanges.

Sometimes universities need to seize opportunities to add luster to themselves. The so-called foundation of a prestigious university is accumulated through details like these.

The vice-president was well-versed in social matters. Seeing that Xie Jingxing was trying to be low-key, he returned the favor and started talking more about him.

The two parties have maintained a harmonious relationship since the start of their cooperation. The "quantitative trading" model developed by the Financial Research Institute has received good feedback and the second version is being adjusted. It is expected to be officially delivered to the quantitative trading team of Grapefruit Capital at the beginning of next year and put into the market for experimental operations.

The 'Grapefruit-Jiaotong University' entrepreneurial seed fund, which he is in charge of, is even more convenient. It has successfully invested in two projects just over a month after its establishment.

An entrepreneurship training camp will be established in the first half of next year. Xie Jingxing will serve as an entrepreneurship mentor and teach the students seriously.

In the final analysis, before the famous universities cooperate with social enterprises, they are noble literati, and the money-conscious businessmen cannot afford to approach them; after the cooperation, when it comes to the big and small matters involving financial resources, the noble literati instantly turn into beggars.

There are not many social enterprise partners as reliable as Grapefruit Capital. Xie Jingxing himself was busy making investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but he actually remembered to use his personal connections to bring Jim Goetz to Jiaotong University for a presentation.

Therefore, the school has no grudge against the negative public opinions about him. The vice president just praised Xiao Xie for being a decent person at the executive meeting a few days ago, and said that the rumors were not credible...

"Okay, let us welcome Mr. Jim Goetz and Mr. Xie again. Please come to the stage now."

Xie Jingxing and the other two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then the male student on the stage hosted the warm-up and ended the performance.

Xie Jingxing and Jim looked at each other, turned around and waved to their classmates, and applause broke out at the right time.

"As far as I know, Mr. Goetz is not only visiting our Jiaotong University for the first time, but this is also your first time visiting China. Do you have any special feelings about this?"

As soon as the two of them walked onto the stage, the male host put the microphone in his hands.

"It feels great. I have been following the development of China's economy for a long time and I can clearly feel that your country is rising rapidly."

Jim nodded slightly exaggeratedly: "The facts prove my judgment. Just before we came here, Xie took me to have breakfast. We could see sanitation workers leaving work, white-collar workers going to work, elderly people doing morning exercises, and students reading."

"In my opinion, this is a stable social order under the condition of healthy economic development, and a stable social order will further promote healthy economic development."

He looked at Xie Jing Xing and smiled: "Congratulations, you have entered a wonderful upward cycle."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a burst of applause from the audience. This tycoon from Sequoia in the United States was in stark contrast to the mainstream view in China that was pessimistic about the economy and advocated the theory of collapse.

As expected, all the domestic experts and professors are either malicious or fake, and only the foreign bigwigs can be objective and truthful.

Some students thought so and were eager to stand up and ask questions.

"So Mr. Goetz, do you think that this favorable upward cycle has, in some way, affected Chinese companies' expansion into the international market?"

The male host felt the atmosphere of the scene and responded improvisationally, skipping the irrelevant small question-and-answer interactions on the question cards prepared in advance, saving time and getting straight to the point of the day.

He slowed down his speech and continued, "For example, we can see classic cases like Tencent joining forces with multiple parties to acquire WhatsApp. What do you think of this as a project participant?"

The vice president frowned unconsciously while sitting in the audience. Xie Jingxing stood beside him silently, playing with the microphone with a smile on his face, looking quite interested.

"I think whether an economy can successfully integrate into the international financial market is definitely related to its own macroeconomics, just like the WhatsApp acquisition case you mentioned, which was a deal worth $235 billion."

Jim helplessly gave his opinion: "Tencent paid a large part of the cost. Without the support of the Chinese Internet market, this project would obviously be an unbearable burden for Tencent."

"Apart from funding, have you encountered any problems in the process of promoting this project?" the male host asked again.

Jim pretended to think for a few seconds and reminded, "I think you should let Xie answer this question. No one knows this project better than him. Before he opens his mouth, anything I say will seem like a distortion of the facts."

The male host was stunned for a moment, then quickly came to his senses and looked at Xie Jingxing, who had not said a word yet: "Mr. Xie has previously publicly expressed his views on the WhatsApp acquisition from multiple angles. Today, why don't you focus on sharing which problems you encountered in this project are the most troubling to you."

"When I took a flight for more than ten hours to San Francisco, in order to get closer to Jim, I deliberately drove a sports car to meet him. That part of the journey bothered me the most. I felt like my waist was broken." Xie Jingxing told the joke nonsensically.

There was a good-natured laugh from the audience, and Jim immediately picked up the microphone and added: "He acted very relaxed at the time, like a car enthusiast talking about various car brands."

"Actually, I don't like driving at all!" Xie Jingxing took over and emphasized.

The two of them started chatting with each other and laughing. The male host stood aside with a smile on his face and couldn't get a word in.

There is nothing wrong with the main topic of today's lecture being 'cross-border mergers and acquisitions and the WhatsApp acquisition case', but it is problematic from the perspective of China's macroeconomics, as it can easily involve political factors at the national level.

It was impossible for Jim to comment on this extremely complex merger and acquisition case from a macro perspective, and Xie Jingxing, the host present, kept asking him questions. Some questions were not something a college student was qualified to ask, and everyone felt very embarrassed.

After making a few jokes and trying to avoid the topic as naturally as possible, Xie Jingxing offered an excuse: "Why don't you all ask questions?"

"Please take a seat over here, both of you."

The male host quickly spoke up to take over the initiative. Someone backstage brought two chairs, and the staff below the stage passed the microphone to the students.

"Hello, Mr. Xie. Mr. Jim Goetz just mentioned that China's economy has entered an upward cycle. What do you think?" The first student couldn't wait to hear more positive comments. But Xie Jingxing didn't want to say more. He just smiled and replied simply: "The data speaks for itself. This year, my country's economy is stable and improving."

"Does this mean that specifically in the Internet industry, there will be more projects like the WhatsApp acquisition next year, and more and more domestic companies will go global?" the first student asked unsatisfactorily.

Xie Jing Xing felt very annoyed: "I believe this is the case."

Jim is right, the domestic economy has indeed entered an upward cycle, but the reason a cycle is a cycle is that it will end one day.

But he doesn't need to care about what the domestic economy relies on for support. It is enough to know that the country currently has a rapidly growing market where big money can be made.

So he was invited to come to China this time. Hundreds of billions of US dollars of venture capital funds are also planning to enter the country. In this situation, talking about how to go global is somewhat black humor.

Xie Jingxing only brought Jim to Jiaotong University for a lecture as an excuse. He wanted to bring American redwoods into China, and the result of the test during breakfast was not very ideal...

"Mr. Xie, there's a very popular saying on the Internet these days. The author uses you as an example and says that your peers are abandoning you. What do you think of this saying?"

During the free question-and-answer session, Xie Jingxing was very popular. When the microphone was passed to the second female student, she continued to ask him questions.

He was prepared to reply without hesitation: "Jack Ma founded Alibaba at the age of 34, and I might have retired at the age of 34. This doesn't prove anything. Each of us has our own time zone."

"Mr. Xie, I'm a senior majoring in finance and will graduate next year. Can you give me some career advice?"

"Come to Grapefruit for an interview. We are recruiting interns next year."

"Mr. Xie, when do you think the subsidy competition in the online car-hailing industry will end?"

"After people all over the country have used Didi's '13 yuan discount on first order' subsidy coupons."

Xie Jingxing changed his previous positive and upright image in public speeches, and gave substantive responses to each question in a concise manner, but what was coming could not be avoided.

The quick question and answer session lasted for about ten minutes before Jim Goetz finally got his chance to be asked a question. Before the microphone had even warmed up in his hand, the next question was asked to Xie Jingxing.

A thin, handsome man in his early thirties asked in a gentle tone, "Mr. Xie, is Taihe Capital's acquisition of Meituan's equity out of commercial competition or financial investment?"

"Taihe has given up investing in Meituan, so there is no such thing as commercial competition." Xie Jingxing replied without hesitation, and waited for the challenge.

The handsome middle-aged man unexpectedly nodded and smiled to express his gratitude, raised the microphone high, put it down gently, and passed it to the next student.

Xie Jingxing couldn't help but look at him a few more times, and continued to deal with various questions with doubts in his heart.

The popularity of soft articles that sell career anxiety reflects the current social context from a certain perspective. Even a university like Jiaotong University, which has an overall pragmatic temperament, is deeply trapped in grand narratives and cannot extricate itself.

Macroeconomics, embracing the international market, and the industry's money-burning war...

It seemed as if every student present had a dream of starting a business, as if they were cut from the same cloth as the male host. One senior even gave Xie Jingxing advice on how the online car-hailing industry could burn money and avoid legal risks.

The lecture lasted more than two hours and opened Jim's eyes. The first thing he said after it was: "Maybe, I mean maybe, my expectations for the development of China's Internet industry are not comprehensive enough."

"There is no doubt that no matter what specific track Sequoia wants to invest in, high-intensity money-burning competition is inevitable." Xie Jingxing simply made it clear.

Jim curled his lips: "Do you know what they say about you?"

"What do you mean?" Xie Jingxing was confused.

"Silicon Valley, your LPs, when they know you use their money to invest in Dianping."

Jim laughed for no apparent reason: "Mark Mellon complained that you are an arms dealer. The US dollar is the weapon, Dianping is the buyer, and the Chinese group buying market is the battlefield."

"It's an honor to be named that. It will be much easier for Grapefruit Silicon Valley office to raise funds next time." Xie Jingxing was satisfied with himself.

Jim did not comment, hesitated for a moment and changed the subject: "Okay, arms dealer, there is a big buyer in Silicon Valley who is in urgent need of weapons."

Xie Jingxing's expression instantly calmed down, and he looked around the campus, observing the students from afar.

"Don't be nervous. It's an open secret. I've only heard that the Saudi sovereign fund plans to invest $15 billion in Uber. It's a special investment." Jim said in a relaxed tone, as if he was enjoying a good show.

Xie Jingxing was silent for a long time: "Uber China?"

"Man, I'm a little worried about your deep involvement in the operations of the invested companies. I don't know if you will still have the energy to deal with the high-intensity competition in the food delivery industry after Uber enters China," Jim told him frankly.

Xie Jingxing did not comment. Wang Xing kept his word and launched Meituan Taxi in Beijing within ten days. Cheng Wei then announced that Didi would launch a pilot food delivery business in Beijing next month.

This is purely a personal grudge between the two of them, and it is obvious that no one can accomplish it.

As the market leader, it is barely understandable that Wang Xing is making trouble to counter the hostile takeover of Taihe and disgust Cheng Wei at the same time.

But Didi is deeply involved in a money-burning war. Why does the latter have the leisure to take advantage of the situation and make trouble?
The answer is rather outrageous. After completing the share restructuring, Liu Qing sought a new round of financing for Didi at the rate of almost one investor a day.

Russia's top venture capital firm DST, Singapore's sovereign fund Temasek, US dollar fund GGV Jiyuan Capital, Tencent Strategic Investment, and Grapefruit Capital.

Liu Qing is not satisfied with such an absolutely luxurious all-star investor lineup. She wants to find two more companies to make up the seven dragon balls and raise $7 million in the new round of financing!
In short, as long as this round of financing can be 100% realized, the gap between Didi and Kuaidi will be completely widened, and Shenzhou Travel, which has been counterattacked in the car rental business, will never be able to turn around and reach the top...

After going through many twists and turns, Cheng Wei finally got a job making a living.

Xie Jingxing benefited indirectly, at least before Uber officially entered China, he had enough energy to keep a close eye on Wang Xing and strike hard.

In his opinion, when Uber enters the domestic market, the food delivery industry will probably enter a short-term truce and stability phase.

He can then turn around and focus his financial attention on supporting Cheng Wei and Kalanick.

(End of this chapter)