Chapter 1071 The Sucker from China? (Part 2)

Zhao Fusheng sighed inwardly. From the look on Tan Kaixuan's face, he knew that the guy must have thought of something.

But there was nothing he could do. Back then, when he asked him to join in, the guy flatly refused, insisting that the financial market was the shortcut to getting rich quick. Little did he know that after the millennium, the real way to get rich quick wasn't financial investments like stocks, futures, or forex, but putting money into the right internet companies.

For example, if someone had been lucky enough to buy ten million RMB worth of Tencent stock when it went public, even if they just left it in the market without doing anything,

ten years later, that money would have multiplied a hundred times.

That's right, ten million would have become one billion.

If Zhao Fusheng told anyone that now, he'd probably be taken for a madman, but facts are facts, even if Zhao Fusheng himself found it a bit amusing.

No one could have imagined how terrifyingly huge the e-commerce industry, which was not well-regarded at the time, would grow.

To be honest, if it weren't for his foreknowledge, Zhao Fusheng would never have imagined that the unremarkable short man from Hangzhou would one day create a behemoth with a market cap of trillions of RMB.

Similarly, he believed that no one but him knew what that baby-faced Harvard guy was actually working on.

"How many employees does Facebook have now?" Zhao Fusheng looked at Tan Kaixuan and asked with a smile.

Tan Kaixuan thought for a moment: "About five or six? All of them are Zuckerberg's roommates. You know, I'm not really interested in this."

He was telling the truth. If Zhao Fusheng hadn't specifically asked him to, Tan Kaixuan probably wouldn't have paid any attention to a website like Facebook.

After all, the internet industry in the US was relatively developed, and websites of this kind were as common as weeds. As far as Tan Kaixuan knew, several other sites were doing far better than Facebook.

Zhao Fusheng nodded, silently calculating the timeline in his head, and concluded that Facebook was still in its dorm-room phase.

In the development of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, with the support of Andrew McCollum and Eduardo Saverin, had founded the site in February of that year. By the end of the month, more than half of Harvard's undergraduates were registered users.

Then Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes joined to help promote the site, expanding it to MIT, Boston University, and Boston College. The expansion continued through May, covering all Ivy League schools and some others.

Now, Zuckerberg was probably facing a tough choice.

Should he stay at Harvard and run the site from his dorm, or drop out and start a real business?

In short, it was a multiple-choice question.

Of course, thanks to Zhao Fusheng's appearance, Zuckerberg wasn't short on money now.

With Zhao Fusheng's angel investment, Facebook was growing at an astonishing pace. Zhao Fusheng was really curious whether, in this life, Facebook would have a chance to break into the Chinese market.

……

……

"Stay at the farm. I'll take you around later," Tan Kaixuan said as he arranged for someone to help settle them in.

Zhao Fusheng smiled: "What, are you trying to play the gracious host?"

Tan Kaixuan laughed heartily: "Of course! You rarely go abroad, so I have to treat you well."

Zhao Fusheng shook his head: "Set up a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg. If possible, I want to see him as soon as possible."

Tan Kaixuan was taken aback: "In such a hurry?"

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Time is money, and to me, he is that."

Tan Kaixuan sensed a note of seriousness in Zhao Fusheng's words. Clearly, Zhao Fusheng wasn't joking; he really wanted to meet Zuckerberg.

"Alright, I'll have someone contact him right away," Tan Kaixuan said.

In fact, he never expected that after he passed the message to Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook would show up at the farm the very next afternoon, looking travel-worn.

"Are you Zhao?"

Zuckerberg said in somewhat stiff Chinese.

Apparently, because his angel investor was from China, he had even taken the trouble to learn Chinese, though his level seemed rather poor.

Zhao Fusheng burst out laughing and greeted Zuckerberg in English: "Hello, Zack. I think I should have come to Harvard to see you first."

"Yes, New York is not a place for people like us." Surprisingly, Zuckerberg was quite straightforward and seemed to agree wholeheartedly with Zhao Fusheng's remark.

Zhao Fusheng's smile widened. He felt that he and this guy would definitely have some good memories together.

After briefly introducing everyone to each other, Zhao Fusheng and Zuckerberg walked out of the farm together.

This was Zhao Fusheng's request; he wanted to talk to Zuckerberg alone.

"Zack, are you surprised that I came to the US?" Zhao Fusheng said to Zuckerberg, getting straight to the point.

"Yes, I'm very surprised, especially after receiving Tan's call," Zuckerberg said to Zhao Fusheng. "You know, I've been having some trouble lately."

Zhao Fusheng smiled: "Let's not talk about trouble first. Honestly, I'm curious—what made you create Facebook?"

"It was nothing. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and was drinking in my dorm. You know, I was drunk, even though it wasn't the weekend. I was in a bad mood. I was looking at the photo album of the whole apartment on my desktop, and some people's pictures were just terrible. Then my roommate..." Zuckerberg thought for a moment and said a name.

"Billy Olsen, yeah, it was him. He came up with the idea of putting those people's pictures next to farm animals and having everyone vote on who was hotter."

Zhao Fusheng whistled and laughed: "I have to say, Mr. Olsen's idea was pretty good."

"No, no, no. Of course I wouldn't put pictures of farm animals up there," Zuckerberg shook his head and smiled at Zhao Fusheng. "I thought the hot-or-not idea was really great. It made the whole thing feel like a Turing machine. You know what a Turing machine is, right?"

The last question was clearly directed at Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng shrugged: "Of course. Don't forget, I also founded a virtual community."

"OK! As long as you understand," Zuckerberg said.

A Turing machine, also called a Turing computer, is an abstract computing model proposed by mathematician Alan Turing. It abstracts the process of mathematical calculations done with pen and paper, replacing it with a virtual machine.

A Turing machine is an abstract machine with an infinitely long tape divided into squares, each of a different color. A machine head moves back and forth along the tape. The machine head has a set of internal states and some fixed programs. At each moment, the machine head reads a square from the tape, then consults the program table based on its current state, outputs information to the tape square, changes its internal state, and then moves.

"You know, I thought the idea was brilliant! Because it was more subtle than a site that rated hotness with numbers. Of course, we didn't have enough photos at the time, so I used a little trick," Zuckerberg said with a smug grin.

Zhao Fusheng knew he was referring to the time he hacked into the computer terminals of various Harvard dorms to steal people's photos.

Then Zuckerberg went on to tell the whole story of how he founded Facebook.

From start to finish, Zhao Fusheng listened quietly, like a listener.

Often, the best way to get close to someone is to let them do the talking.

If you want to befriend someone, the key is to make them enjoy the conversation. Listening is an excellent social skill, and mastering it is a weapon that never fails in social situations.

"My CFO tells me it's time to start making Facebook profitable," Zuckerberg said, looking at Zhao Fusheng. "What do you think I should do?"

Zhao Fusheng smiled: "I want to know what you think."

"Me?" Zuckerberg thought for a moment and shrugged at Zhao Fusheng. "Honestly, I don't know what this is yet. I don't know what it can be. I don't know what it will be. I only know that it's cool, and it's a priceless treasure I won't give up..."

"Then don't think about that for now," Zhao Fusheng suddenly said.

"What?"

Zuckerberg was startled, clearly not understanding what Zhao Fusheng meant.

Zhao Fusheng shrugged: "I'm quite wealthy now and can support Facebook's investments. If that million dollars runs out, I can put in more."

"You?" Zuckerberg was stunned. He never expected Zhao Fusheng to say such a thing.

"I previously invested in an internet tech company that went public on NASDAQ. I sold all my shares for about a hundred million dollars," Zhao Fusheng said calmly. "If you're willing, I can invest fifteen million dollars in you."

"What?" Zuckerberg was completely dumbfounded. He never imagined Zhao Fusheng would be willing to give him so much money. Was this guy crazy?

Zhao Fusheng looked at Zuckerberg calmly, his expression quite composed. He was curious to see what choice this legendary figure would make next.