1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 919 Industry Events
  In more than half a year, the editor-in-chief and president of the Chinese Literature Society have been replaced one after another. It is not an exaggeration to say that the change of government has brought about great changes.

But before Li Xin, the new president of the Chinese Literature Society, could take office, the group took the lead and issued two documents in a row.

One is a salary increase document that has been discussed for a long time. Starting next month after the document is issued, all employees of Guowen Group will receive a 30% increase.

As soon as the document was released, the Guowen Group was filled with joy.

Even when prices soared in the late [-]s, wages at the Chinese Literature Society had never increased so much!

Sure enough, compared with the bonuses and benefits at the end of the year, the general salary adjustment at the beginning of the year is the big one. After all, no matter how many bonuses and benefits are there, they are just floating money. Maybe one day the benefits will not be good and they will be cut off.

But the income of the employees suddenly increased by 30%. This is real income. I have never heard of any unit that cuts wages. How shameless!
  This is simply great news.

At the same time as the salary increase document was released, another document was also posted on the bulletin board. This was a document for Guowen Group to respond to the national call and participate in the trial implementation of enterprise annuities.

Since 97, China has clarified the concept of enterprise annuity in the Social Insurance Law, and began to carry out enterprise annuity pilot work in pilot enterprises.

As a pilot enterprise for the enterprise restructuring policy, Guowen Group naturally has to be brave enough to charge forward. It has made some achievements in the first year since its establishment last year, and now it must support the above work.

According to the document, after the enterprise annuity system is implemented in Guowen Group, Guowen Group will pay annuities for employees at the rate of 8% of their salary income. At the same time, 8% of their income will also be deducted from the employees’ monthly wages. The total of both parties Pay 16% of salary income.

Compared with the huge salary increase that everyone is celebrating, employees generally have no strong reaction to the annuity system.

Just after the salary increase, just deduct some annuity. Anyway, you can get money in the future. This is a pension in disguise, and the employer also provides a part of the money. Overall, it is still a good thing.

Two documents were issued at the beginning of the year, both of which adjusted employee salaries and benefits. This was good news for the employees of Guowen Group, and it also increased the personal prestige of Lin Weimin, the group leader.

However, some people are curious about why there has been no movement on the corporate annuity issue despite the widespread rumors about salary increases. This is undoubtedly a major blow to the intelligence capabilities of the Chinese Language and Literature Society.

This matter was of course related to Lin Weimin. He did not let anyone from the Chinese Literature Society interfere with the corporate annuity matter. And he didn't shy away from the salary increase for Chinese Literature Society employees. As expected, the news was leaked everywhere.

Facts have proved that confidentiality is out of the question at the Chinese Publishing House.

Two happy events at the beginning of the year gave Guowen Group a good start for its development this year, and the employees were very motivated.

After the Lantern Festival, as March approaches, the latest news comes from the other side of the ocean: the Federal Reserve Bank of America has once again implemented its interest rate hike policy.

This is the fifth time that the Fed has raised interest rates since June 1999. After the Federal Reserve raised interest rates this time, the benchmark interest rate has reached 6%.

In the past two years, affected by the Southeast Asian financial crisis and Russia's debt default, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal benchmark interest rate. In the following two years, the U.S. economy developed rapidly, especially the development of the Internet industry, which could no longer be described as rapid development. The atmosphere in Nasdaq and Silicon Valley had reached a crazy level at the end of 1999.

1999 was the craziest year in the history of the American Internet. Dozens of Internet companies went public. Some companies just added an e- in front of their company name or a .com after it, and then issued a business plan. Obtain sky-high investment from investors.

In such an atmosphere, many start-up companies in the United States have completely ignored the issue of profitability or subsequent development. They only adhere to one principle.

We are an Internet company. To develop rapidly, we must raise money and burn money. The faster the money is burned, the more the company will develop, and the positive feedback from the market will be greater. On the contrary, the more popular it becomes in the nearly crazy Nasdaq.

Analysts, investors, entrepreneurs, venture capital, and banks were all caught up in this frenzy, and everyone thought they were making a lot of money.

So in this environment, the Federal Reserve began to choose to raise interest rates in the middle of last year to eliminate the bubble.

Although several consecutive interest rate hikes have brought some short-term fluctuations to the market, the Nasdaq index has continued to rise, which has further fueled the market's madness and made everyone more convinced of the success of the Nasdaq bull market. The foundation is solid and solid, and it is not afraid of any impact from interest rate hikes.

Take Sohu as an example. Since Sohu's stock lifting period came in November, many shareholders have been cashing out to make profits. Most shareholders have recovered their costs and cashed out a certain amount of profits before stopping.

Only Guowen Group was the craziest. Within three months, it continuously reduced its holdings in Sohu by more than 10%.

If you include the shares sold by other shareholders, the Sohu shares circulating in the secondary market at this time have exceeded 30% of the company's total share capital.

According to common sense, Sohu's stock price should have plummeted long ago, after all, there are so many stocks circulating in the market.

But the reality is that after a brief downward adjustment, Sohu's stock price continued to surge along with the broader market.

During the period after New Year's Day, the stock price rose instead of falling. As of late February, it had reached a high price of about 2 meters.

This figure has increased nearly three times compared to Sohu's issue price, but among all the companies listed in 3, it can only be regarded as an average performance.

At the end of the month, Zhang Chaoyang asked Lin Weimin to go out for coffee.

Recently, Zhang Chaoyang has been in high spirits. The company's stock price has been rising all the way. The market value has exceeded 90 billion US dollars and is about to exceed [-] billion US dollars. Sohu has now become a giant in China's Internet industry. Recently, many newspapers have called him "China's "The Godfather of Internet Entrepreneurship" made Zhang Chaoyang unable to help but feel elated.

"Teacher Lin, does the group plan to liquidate Sohu's stocks?"

When they met, Zhang Chaoyang asked this as the first sentence, but his tone was not as worried and anxious as at the end of last year. This was of course the confidence given to him by Sohu's recent stock price.

"It's not a matter of clearing the position. The main reason is that Sohu's current stock price is performing too well."

Zhang Chaoyang asked again: "Then the group is not optimistic about Sohu's subsequent development?"

Don't you have any idea? Can you believe that a company with an annual revenue of several million dollars, a company that has not yet made a profit, is worth tens of billions of dollars?
  Of course, you can't say that, you have to pay attention to some skills.

"It's not that I'm not optimistic about Sohu's development, but Nasdaq's current momentum is a bit too crazy. Don't tell me that you haven't cashed out." Hearing this, Zhang Chaoyang couldn't help but smiled proudly, "I couldn't help it, so I borrowed [-] million. come out."

The "one hundred million" he mentioned was of course not RMB, but rice knives.

"The current market is indeed a bit frothy, but I think this is still the underlying driving force supported by the development potential of technology stocks, so it's not a big problem."

Lin Weimin admired Zhang Chaoyang's blind confidence. Of course, if he hadn't known the general trend, he probably wouldn't have been any better than Zhang Chaoyang.

"You still have to be vigilant and don't be too careless. In addition, don't pay too much attention to things like stock prices. Stock prices are just the icing on the cake. The most important thing is that Sohu can continue to develop upwards." Lin Weimin said.

Zhang Chaoyang nodded, "You are right."

He asked again: "I heard that the higher-ups are planning to transfer the management rights of the Internet recently?"

Lin Weimin joked: "The information is quite good."

"Don't I have to ask you for advice! Is this really happening?"

Lin Weimin said patiently: "I have this idea. The higher-ups have also realized that the Internet actually has strong media attributes. Most of the cadres of the Ministry of Information Industry are people who came from the traditional communications field and are not sensitive enough to the Internet and public opinion propaganda. The management of the Internet should be transferred to the State Council."

After getting the definite answer, Zhang Chaoyang looked worried: "We have another mother-in-law, and we have to pay homage to the mountain gate."

"Sohu is now the face of China's Internet, so there is nothing to worry about."

"It's nothing. As you know, I don't like dealing with the government."

"At this stage, this kind of work is unavoidable. Just cooperate actively. You will definitely benefit from it in the future."

Zhang Chaoyang smiled and said: "Then we need more help from the group. You must not clear out all the stocks."

Without Sohu's shares in the hands of Guowen Group, it will have nothing to do with Sohu in the future. It is impossible to ask Lin Weimin for help like now.

"Don't worry, we won't liquidate our positions. The amount of our shares depends on the stock price, but our support for Sohu remains the same."

After hearing Lin Weimin's assurance, Zhang Chaoyang felt a little more at ease.

At this time, Lin Weimin said: "I have an idea. I wonder if Sohu is interested in participating?"

"what idea?"

"I want to hold an Internet conference to build a platform for domestic Internet companies to communicate and cooperate and promote better development of China's Internet industry."

After hearing this, Zhang Chaoyang's eyes brightened, he stood up excitedly, clapped his hands and said, "This is a good idea!"

He was pacing back and forth excitedly, muttering: "The Internet Conference brings together many domestic Internet industries. This is a rare opportunity. If done well, it will be a grand event for the Internet industry."

As he spoke, he suddenly raised his head and said, "Teacher Lin, do you plan to do this in the name of Guowen Group?"

Lin Weimin smiled and said: "Sohu is now an Internet giant. It can't do it without you. Of course, we have to find you to co-organize it."

Zhang Chaoyang waved his hand, "Don't make fun of me. If the group wants to hold such an event, we at Sohu will definitely support it with all our strength. However, isn't the strength of just the two of us too weak?"

"The State Council Office and the Ministry of Rites will also participate. In addition, I plan to invite the founders of several Internet companies in Silicon Valley."

Zhang Chaoyang was not surprised at all that the Internet Conference would be attended by the State Council Office and the Ministry of Rites. Teacher Lin would take action, and the standards would definitely not be low.

But when he heard the second half of the sentence, his eyes flashed with uncontrollable excitement, "Who do you want to invite?"

"Bill Gates, Jerry Yang, Jeff Bezos and Jim Clark."

After reading these names, Lin Weimin muttered again: "Jim Clark and Bill Gates are sworn enemies and can create some topics and gimmicks for the conference."

Zhang Chaoyang didn't care about any gimmicks. His eyes became brighter and brighter as he listened. These four names corresponded to the Silicon Valley giants Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, and Netscape. Every name Lin Weimin mentioned was a Silicon Valley giant or a first-tier technology company. The founder is an unattainable figure for practitioners in China's Internet industry.

When he thought that these people would appear at the Internet Conference, he couldn't help but tremble with excitement.

"Teacher Lin, please tell us how we, Sohu, need to cooperate. We will definitely cooperate with the group to make this conference a beautiful one and make it go down in the history of China's Internet development." Zhang Chaoyang said excitedly.

The smile on Lin Weimin's face was calm, "Don't get excited yet. This is just an idea at the moment. I plan to hold this Internet conference on May Day..."

Lin Weimin then communicated with Zhang Chaoyang some specific ideas for the Internet Conference. After talking for more than an hour, Zhang Chaoyang was completely attracted by the Internet Conference and wished that everything could be implemented now.

"Then let's probably do this for now. Later, I'll ask the people in the group to come up with a plan. You can also think about it again and see if there are any good ideas. We can learn from each other's strengths." Lin Weimin said.

Zhang Chaoyang nodded solemnly, a sense of mission to participate in the historical wave surged in his heart, and he also had a premonition.

The Internet Conference will surely become a major event in China's Internet industry in the future.

(End of this chapter)