After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future-Chapter 327 - 326: Acquaintances Meet with Extra Excitement

Under the guidance of an assistant, Lu Liang followed Little Wang to private room number 4 in the restaurant.

"Mr. Lu, Mr. Wang, welcome to New York."

Cruick greeted them with a beaming smile, briskly stepping forward to first embrace Lu Liang and then hug Little Wang.

This visit was for Panda’s listing review, where Little Wang should have been the main character, but he had grown accustomed to the fact that whenever Lu Liang was present, he could only ever be that inconspicuous leaf.

"Cruick, who is this?"

There were four people in the room, including Cruick. The other three were representatives from the commercial institutions.

Lu Liang had met them during Panda’s Series D funding round.

One of them, however, a man in his forties dressed in a suit, slightly balding and bearing a striking resemblance to Jason Statham, was unfamiliar.

The look in his eyes was also peculiar, a mix of excitement, resentment, and helplessness. Such complex emotions, Lu Liang had only previously seen in women.

"Mr. Lu, this is Kamon Wilson, the head of JPMorgan’s investment department."

Wilson was supposed to meet Lu Liang at a banquet later that evening, but with more than six hours to go, he couldn’t resist the urge to meet him earlier—the man who had captivated his dreams.

"Mr. Lu, hello."

Wilson, struggling to contain his excitement, approached Lu Liang and extended his right hand. He had been promoted, from being the leader of a group to the head of the entire investment department.

All of this had something to do with Lu Liang.

Since Jobs passed away and Apple took over from Microsoft to become the flagbearer of the United States’ global tech cultural outreach,

countless financial institutions on Wall Street had been looking for who would succeed Apple as the next icon of American technology.

Wilson had bet everything on Tesla, and with Tesla’s market value breaking through a hundred billion US dollars, gaining an influx of resources, his position at JPMorgan Chase had risen accordingly.

The fast breach by Tesla into a hundred billion market value was also closely connected with Lu Liang, partly due to his shareholding position last year, and partly because he not only refrained from selling his shares when the lock-up period ended but also quietly bought several hundred thousand more.

These actions had single-handedly helped push Tesla past the hundred billion mark.

"Wilson, hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you."

Lu Liang’s smile grew even wider as he suddenly understood the origin of that complex look.

If he were to be defeated by the same person three times and subsequently had to join them, his own expression would probably be even more interesting than Wilson’s.

"Mr. Lu, we have prepared a grand banquet for you tonight," Wilson said as he briefly regained his composure, briefly introducing the guests who might attend that evening.

Blackstone, Vanguard, BlackRock, Muddy Water Fund, and even the head of Quantum Fund would be there. Since it was hosted at a merchant’s hotel, he might also come to have a look.

"They are all old friends now," Lu Liang said with a smile, his own excitement small but palpable, all these unmet old friends—he anticipated that tonight’s banquet would be quite eventful.

Meanwhile, Little Wang was conversing with Cruick and representatives from a few other commercial institutions. The second attempt at listing review was likely to go through smoothly.

The exchange’s listing auditors generally agreed that live commerce falls under advertising revenue and constitutes a legitimate income for a company.

The first listing review had failed precisely because the income from live commerce was unclear.

Upon hearing this, Little Wang’s gaze was complex as he subconsciously looked toward Lu Liang, who was cheerfully talking with Wilson.

He truly saw it clearly now; whether the review passed or the revenue was clear, all was nonsense—as long as Lu Liang appeared, it would be approved.

"Mr. Lu, do you hold Panda’s platform in high regard?" Wilson suddenly asked.

"Of course, it’s a company with enormous potential."

In public, Lu Liang obviously could not let down Little Wang, asserting his optimism and sharing related information.

"Live commerce might struggle on platforms like YouTube, but in the East Country, there is a natural market for it."

"For one, the nation’s regulation is not yet in place, and secondly, with a vast population, there’s an inherent blind following of celebrities and stars."

"That’s what you call a brand effect!"

"Take an internet celebrity with millions of followers as an example; there must be at least thousands or tens of thousands of die-hard fans."

"And they could also sign an agreement with the manufacturer for the lowest price on the whole network. The so-called lowest price is just superficially the lowest. It means that no platform or person can sell at a higher price than the livestreaming host, creating the illusion of the lowest price on the net,"

"Let’s say an item costs 10 US dollars, Wilson, how much commission do you think the platform can take?"

Lu Liang suddenly asked. Wilson thought about it and tentatively guessed, "10%? That should already be quite high, right?"

Lu Liang scoffed disdainfully, revealing a startling fact, "10%? The minimum is 20%, and if it’s not a necessity, the commission could be more than 50%."

Prior to this, he hadn’t paid much attention to how well Panda’s livestreaming sales were doing, only occasionally hearing about it at home from Li Manli, who mentioned it seemed very profitable.

For this reason, on the flight here, Lu Liang reviewed Panda’s internal material and crammed a lot of relevant information.

In the past six months, Panda’s livestreaming sales volume had been somewhat exaggerated, reaching as much as 5.8 billion.

The commission had skyrocketed from 10% before, and something called a "slotting fee" had been introduced.

Taking a color contact lens product Li Manli had promoted as an example, just the slotting fee alone was 200,000. The cost was two yuan, but they sold it for 19.9 yuan.

The commission was an astonishing 90%. After splitting it with the platform, she still received 45%.

Panda was relatively conscientious. They managed product quality control strictly as they were preparing to go public and were afraid of negative publicity.

As for the two platforms, Douhu and Tencent, since their merger had failed, Tencent didn’t want to support both of them, letting them compete in the market. Whichever survived would receive their support.

Thereby, situations were born where livestreaming brands became popular, hosts kicked out the merchants to private label the products themselves, or brands passed off inferior goods as high-quality ones.

They did everything possible to inflate their performance figures.

Listening to all this, Wilson was taken aback and couldn’t help asking, "Doesn’t your country’s Market Supervision Administration regulate this?"

With a smile on his face, Little Wang took over the conversation: "Mr. Wilson, the market in our country is still developing, and relevant regulations have not yet been established. It’s just like Ali’s Taobao was in the early days—rampant with fake goods—did anyone say anything then?"

Wilson was speechless. Even coming from the land of the free, he felt that the East Country’s market was a little too free.

He thought of Pinduoduo, said to be the second Taobao. Recently, they were also getting ready to file their paperwork, planning to list on NASDAQ next year.

Lu Liang paused and then smiled, "But chaos only exists in the early stages. Mid-term brings regulation, and the late phase is stern."

Wilson nodded. He had a profound understanding of this, as the United States’ market was in the late phase.

After conversing for about an hour, Cruick and Wilson excused themselves, as they had official business to handle in the afternoon and arranged to meet again at the dinner in the evening.

Lu Liang and Little Wang prepared to go back upstairs to rest. Having journeyed for 12 hours, although on a private plane, they were a bit tired and planned to rest for a few hours to be fresh for the dinner.

Especially Lu Liang, who felt the evening’s event was specifically in his honor.

They had just left the private room when they were greeted by a blonde beauty who was over one meter eighty. She smiled and said, "Mr. Lu, are you satisfied with our hotel?"

Ivan Kushner, with her father reaching the pinnacle of power, had risen alongside him, becoming an unofficial advisor to the White House.

At the same time, she also served as the vice president of New York Businessman Real Estate Group and the CEO of Ivan Jewellery Group.

Foreigners liked to use their names for their brands, and in recent years, this trend had also caught on in China.

It was still questionable whether Li Xiang’s Ideal could maintain this practice, after all, Li Xiang, Ideal—that name held some significance. But He Xiaopeng had certainly learned this trick.

Lu Liang was momentarily taken aback, and then, with a broad smile, replied, "Miss Ivan, hello, we very much enjoy your hotel’s cuisine and decor."

With a height of 180 cm and wearing high heels, she stood a whole head taller than him. Her figure and skin were well-maintained; it was hard to imagine she was the mother of three.

"Mr. Lu, my father will be here tonight, and he would like to meet with you then," Ivan said softly.

At 32 years old, Lu Liang was four years her junior, with a Chinese face—yet he had become a distinguished figure on Wall Street.

Before, it would have been hard to imagine such a thing happening. Lu Liang, like her father, was a legend. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

So when she heard that Lu Liang was staying at her family’s hotel and planning to hold a dinner there, she canceled all her appointments to meet him.

Buffett’s funds were only yielding an annual return of 20%, Vanguard was barely 25%, but Lu Liang’s fund could reach more than 50%.

With Brexit and her father’s election—such low-probability events—Lu Liang had accurately predicted and profited from them; he was worth getting to know.

"The honor is all mine," Lu Liang said, his smile unfaltering. He had already heard from Old Ma that businesspeople were very interested in him.

He was known as "Mr. 82 Percent", a nickname that had spread widely after businesspeople started mentioning it.