Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 1035 - 917: Central Business District

Chapter 1035: Chapter 917: Central Business District

After communicating with Sergei, the two came to an agreement, so at the shareholders’ representative meeting, other shareholders would not likely raise any objections.

Wang Ye’s plan received unanimous support.

There were no issues with the communication and negotiation on the Tencent side, as Facebook and Tencent were not competitors but rather complemented each other.

Both were involved in social networking; one offered "one-to-one" private social interactions, and the other "one-to-many" public social interactions.

In China, Facebook did not have any real competitors at that time—platforms like Weibo had not yet emerged.

There were only a few websites that had "learned and imitated" Facebook, among which the most successful one was called Renren Network.

Now, the "official" Facebook was about to enter China, in collaboration with Tencent. It had also pulled in Zhang Xiaoxi’s asset management company and Yukos China Company for investment.

With people, money, and technology all in place, it would be difficult not to succeed!

Moreover, as per Wang Ye’s requirement, the company in China would operate independently, named "Facebook Technology Co., Ltd. of China." Besides a marketing and operations team transferred from Tencent, all other personnel were recruited after the new company was established, unrelated to Tencent.

......

The situation was similar with the North American branch of Facebook Inc. Wang Ye had pulled in Google, Amazon, and Citibank to establish a new company.

This company was actually the real core subsidiary of Facebook!

After all, the English Internet had a wider coverage, and given the dominance of the United States, Internet companies in North America faced no targeting or resistance in most countries worldwide and could freely develop their businesses.

If Facebook goes public in the future, it’s estimated that the valuation would mainly depend on the development of the North American branch...

Similarly, with marketing and operations teams from Google and Amazon and funding from Citibank, North American Facebook’s framework was established.

It is evident that whether it was Facebook in China or North America, the new partners brought in were not strangers.

They were either companies already controlled by Wang Ye or companies with which past dealings had been made.

After such operations, the benefits still remained within the circle...

......

After addressing the overseas development issues of Facebook, Sergei proposed a new problem.

That was, since overseas businesses no longer required Moscow company’s funding, there was still a huge sum of money sitting in the company’s account, which could not be used in the short term, yet it would be wasteful to let it just sit there.

He was referring to the one billion US dollars Facebook Inc had secured during its second round of financing, which was indeed a huge sum. The plan at the time was to use it for expanding into overseas markets.

But now that both new overseas companies were operating independently and had fresh investments, this money was no longer needed.

In the Russian Internet, the development of Facebook had reached a bottleneck.

There were only so many Internet users, and no matter how much promotion was done, the number of users could not possibly exceed the number of Internet users, right?

Moreover, at this stage in Facebook’s development, there was no longer a need for advertising—the brand was already well-known throughout the Russian Internet!

In the face of Sergei’s "happy problem," Wang Ye couldn’t help but laugh. The problem was too easy to solve.

At any time, earning money is not simple, but if you want to spend money, there are always a myriad of ways to spend it...

And his latest plan was exactly what could solve Sergei’s "problem."

So Wang Ye said with a smile,

"This is simple. Didn’t you say that with the expansion of the company and the increase in employees, the current office space is no longer sufficient?

Just use this money to build a headquarters building. If there’s extra space, you can rent it out.

Investing in commercial real estate may seem to have lower returns, but its advantage is stability. Furthermore, with the country’s economic development, the value of property can grow rapidly. In a few years, this might turn out to be a pretty good investment."

Truthfully, for most companies, setting aside a large sum of money to construct a so-called flagship building is usually not a great choice.

There have been numerous negative examples, with companies’ cash flows breaking due to building headquarters, which even led to bankruptcy and closure.

However, from another perspective, for a company that has grown to a certain scale, especially when it has ample funds, negotiating with the government for a piece of land at a low cost to build a building can be a good choice.

Sergei was somewhat tempted. He had already considered this, but previously with the overseas market expansion requiring significant investment, he had not dared to engage in the construction of headquarters buildings.

Now that the overseas market no longer required funding from the Moscow company, it indeed might be time to consider a headquarters building.

Firstly, it would solve the space issue for the office, and secondly, it would "show off" the company’s strength!

Do not underestimate the intangible influence this sort of thing can have—it’s quite necessary.

If the company could own its building in the heart of Moscow city center, this would not only prove the company’s strength but would also enhance employee engagement and sense of belonging to the company!

......

"Since it’s your proposal, I, as a minority shareholder, certainly have no objection, and the company indeed needs its building.

Why don’t I speak to City Hall later to ask for a piece of land to build on?"