Li Zekai, the son of Li Ka-shing, a prominent Hong Kong businessman, bought a small stake in Tencent in 1999 for $2.2 million. However, just two years later, in 2001, he gave his 20% stake in Tencent** to South Africa's MIH Group. In this transaction, Li Zekai obtained a return on investment of more than five times, and cashed out $12.6 million, which can be described as a lot of money. At the same time, IDG, another investment company, sensed the change in market direction and also chose to withdraw from its investment in Tencent, resulting in Tencent facing the crisis of breaking the capital chain. In this emergency, Tencent's founder, Pony Ma, had to travel with his partners to seek financing.
In that era of rapid development of the Internet, in addition to Tencent, the "China Entrepreneurship Network" founded by Zhang Lei also stood on the outlet. Zhang Lei's platform provided a new model of three-way docking for entrepreneurs and investors, which was quite innovative in the Chinese market at the time. As a result, the platform started to be profitable in just half a year.
However, with the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000, the "China Entrepreneurship Network" also failed. This failure made Zhang realize the importance of choosing the right new type of business. So, he formed his own team and named it "Hillhouse Capital". Soon after, Hillhouse Capital met Tencent, which was focusing on QQ at the time.
After in-depth market research, Zhang Lei found that QQ has a large user base, which allows him to see huge investment potential. So he personally traveled to Shenzhen to meet with Pony Ma and invested $20 million from Hillhouse Capital in Tencent. The cooperation between the two is very tacit, and then under Zhang Lei's suggestion, Tencent has also expanded more business areas, including **, online games, blogs, etc.
Facts have proved that Zhang Lei's investment vision is extremely unique. Soon after, his investment in Tencent brought a staggering return of at least 300 times, which also made Hillhouse Capital famous. In addition to Tencent, Hillhouse Capital has also invested in companies in many other fields, such as JD.com, Blue Moon, Didi, etc. In just 15 years, Hillhouse Capital's assets under management have reached an astonishing 500 billion. This proves once again that you can never make more money than you know.
In today's business environment, it's not that traditional industries no longer have vitality, but that those companies that stick to the traditional money-making mindset are being eliminated. Times are constantly advancing, and those who are unwilling to learn and innovate are eliminated. No matter what industry you are in, as long as you are willing to actively seek change, you can lead the company to ride the wind and waves and move forward bravely.
Therefore, entrepreneurs, you must understand that there is a common underlying logic behind all successful enterprises. Instead of trying to innovate, learn and replicate business models that have proven to be successful. Once you understand a success story, you can apply it to your own business to achieve significant profit growth.