Seeing Ding Sanshi's expression, Wang Wanting immediately guessed the reason and explained to him:
"Mr. Barron Cavendish is the boss of DS Capital. At the same time, he is also the hereditary Duke of Devonshire of England. His family has a history of more than 400 years."
In fact, before Ding Sanshi came here today, he only knew that DS Capital held 14.3% of the shares of Wangyi, and the boss of DS Capital was going to visit China, so he came to pick him up at the airport today to show his hospitality, but he never expected that the boss of DS Capital was actually a hereditary nobleman from England, and a duke! Even
though he didn't know much about the title system in England, Ding Sanshi knew that the duke was a very high-level noble. In the feudal era, the lords of those so-called duchies were dukes, which was simply too surprising.
But what he didn't know was that this was just the beginning of the surprising things he would encounter today.
Because next, the blond, blue-eyed, young and handsome duke in front of him spoke in fluent standard Mandarin:
"Hello, Mr. Ding, thank you for coming to pick us up today. I'm Barron."
"Duke Barron, your Chinese is really good!"
Well, there is a joke. In China, as long as a foreigner speaks good Chinese, when he opens his mouth, he will definitely encounter a situation where no matter what he says, he will not get a corresponding answer.
Because no matter what he says, people will often just say in surprise: Your Chinese is so good!
This is the situation Barron is facing now.
"Thank you for your compliment. I really like Chinese culture, so I learned Chinese."
In order to cope with today's situation, Ding Sanshi specially brought an interpreter with him today, but he didn't expect that the "foreigner" in front of him seemed to not need an interpreter at all.
"You are amazing. I can say that you are the most fluent and standard Chinese speaker I have ever seen. If I closed my eyes and listened, I would have thought that the person talking to me was a Chinese."
…
After welcoming Barron, Ding Sanshi invited them to get in the car and took them to the hotel to settle down.
"Duke Barron, you have never been to China before."
This time, Ding Sanshi brought two cars to pick them up. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a Mercedes-Benz sedan. Sitting behind him were Baron and his personal assistant Wang Wanting. As for the others, they all sat in the business car at the back.
Since Barron had said before that he was interested in Chinese culture and therefore learned Chinese, and his personal assistant was Chinese and so beautiful, Ding Sanshi inevitably misunderstood and did not neglect Wang Wanting.
At this time, a Mercedes-Benz car was speeding on the road. Seeing Barron looking at the scenery outside through the car window with great interest, Ding Sanshi asked this.
"Yes, this is my first time in China. Also, Mr. Ding, you can just call me Barron. You don't have to be so polite."
"Okay, Mr. Barron, I wonder how you feel about China now?"
"Although I just arrived here, I already feel at home here. I often tell others that maybe I was a Chinese in my previous life, because I like many Chinese things. In London, I specially invited a Chinese chef to cook authentic Chinese food for me. I think the future of the world lies in China. Just like what we see now, there are scenes of construction all the way. This kind of scene is hard to see in England now."
As a Chinese, no matter who you are, you will be very happy to hear a "foreigner", and a "foreigner" of considerable status, praising your country like this.
At this time, after hearing Barron's words, Ding Sanshi had a smile on his face.
"There is another point that I am very curious about, Mr. Barron. You know that our company encountered some difficulties before, which led to the poor performance of our stock. So why are you so optimistic about us and why did you buy so many NetEase shares?"
This is a question that Ding Sanshi has always been curious about. In fact, 2001 can be said to be the most difficult year for NetEase. Not only was its stock shorted and experienced a huge drop, but it was also investigated for financial matters by the SEC and its stock was suspended for a time.
It can be said that Wangyi was facing life and death at that time. Ding Sanshi once thought of selling Wangyi, but no one would take it over.
But even in this situation, there were still two people who bought a large amount of NetEase stock. One of them was Baron's DS Capital, and the other was Duan Yongping, the former boss of BBK.
"Because I like Chinese culture, I have also paid attention to some Chinese companies, especially Internet companies. Wangyi came into my sight at that time. I have studied your company and found that the sharp drop in your stock price at that time was not due to problems in the company's operations. Your company's financial situation at that time was still very healthy. Even your cash was included in the stock price, which was inverted with the Nasdaq stock price for a period of time. So I judged that this was a very good buying opportunity."
This was the first time that Barron told Wang Wanting why he bought NetEase Cloud Music's stock, which made her listen with great interest.
"In addition, after seeing that you entered the field of online games last year and performed well, I became more confident in holding your stocks. Mr. Ding, my investment in NetEase's stocks is not a short-term investment, but a long-term holding. I can say that I don't plan to sell it for at least ten years - unless there is a major mistake in your operation."
Ding Sanshi was also very surprised to hear what Barron said. He didn't expect that such a British aristocrat would be so confident in his own online art company.
Founded in 1997, NetEasy initially attracted a large number of users through China's first all-Chinese search engine, the first company to provide personal homepage services to users, and its 163 mailbox. Later, it was transformed into a portal website and was known as one of China's three major portals together with Zhalang and Sohu. For this reason, NetEasy completed its IPO in 2000 and was listed on NASDAQ.
But they were unlucky. After going public, the global Internet bubble burst. On the day of listing, the stock price fell below the issue price of US$15.82, which was called a "bloody listing" by the media.
A year later, NetEase was suspended for misreporting revenue, and its stock price fell to as low as $0.53. The company was on the verge of delisting, facing the biggest challenge since its founding. Many people believed that NetEase had reached the end. Under the leadership of Ding Lei, NetEase managed to survive in the cold winter.
After the suspension crisis, Ding Sanshi saw the future clearly at the bottom of the trough and began to focus on the new demands of netizens, vigorously developing SP business and online games.
Thanks to its painstaking focus and investment in the SMS business, Wangyi has become the first profitable portal in China this year.
In addition to these, NetEase also began to develop online game business at this time. It established an online game division last year and launched its first online game "Westward Journey Online" at the end of last year. However, due to serious bugs in the game, coupled with the lack of subsequent development and offline plug-ins, the game was destroyed as soon as it was released.
However, they did not give up on the Journey to the West IP. In June of this year, they once again launched "Westward Journey Online II" and started its public beta, becoming the first domestically produced online game to be successfully operated in China.
This game has delicate graphics, is fun and interesting, and has a harmonious social atmosphere. After its launch, it became popular in the streets and alleys and was deeply loved by players.
At this point, Wangyi has once again discovered a new profit growth point for China's Internet.
Baron knew that starting with this online game, NetEase Games' gaming business would begin to take off, and in the future the gaming business would become its main source of profit, supporting its increasingly high stock price.