Chapter 129: Musical.ly

Words : 1614 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

The next day, the hot search terms no longer featured Lu Liang's presence; instead, names like Song, Zhang, and Li topped the list. The entertainment industry kept churning out explosive news. It had only been one night, but betting against Tesla seemed like last century's news. Approaching noon, Lu Liang finally sauntered into the company, perusing the short video startup proposals selected by Wen Chao. Although he wasn't clear on Lu Liang's investment preferences, he could still assess how complete a proposal was. Those impulsive ideas, coming from founders who couldn't even clarify their own equity shares, were immediately filtered out by him. "Musical.ly?" Lu Liang saw a proposal from Yang Zhenyuan, the Deputy Director of Search Architecture at ByteDance. The proposer plainly stated this was a product that borrowed from the music short video social app Musical.ly and aimed to localize it. Users could quickly create 15-second MVs by pairing their own filmed videos with music from the music library or choose popular trending songs to produce music videos through lip-syncing and body movements. Having carefully read the proposal, Lu Liang picked up the desk phone and dialed: "Secretary Wen, get the information on Musical.ly." "Douyin, record the beauty of life." That phrase resonated deeply with him. The once vague concept in his mind suddenly seemed to take a tangible shape. While waiting for Wen Chao to gather information on the company, Lu Liang also switched regions and downloaded the app from the Apple Store. Blondes and brunettes with blue eyes, shaking their chests and hips, were edging the boundaries, paired with appropriate BGM tunes. Fifteen-second short videos flashed by, one after another, getting more addictive with each view. "The system algorithms don't seem all that great." Lu Liang had been trying hard to like and show his appreciation for the sweetheart content from the United States, but the platform's big data algorithms seemed to forget, and black men and women kept popping up. "Ethiopian women are this attractive?" While scrolling, Lu Liang suddenly realized that he didn't dislike African Americans; it was just those with thick lips and flat noses he wasn't fond of. Ethiopian girls looked good—they bore a resemblance to Eurasians with dark skin, and they exuded an exotic charm. "Old Meng once said black girls have particularly smooth skin? I wonder if that's true or not?" Lu Liang thought while stroking his chin. Two hours later, Wen Chao knocked and entered, presenting a simple investigative report on Musical.ly. The app had launched in the North American market in April of the previous year and had quickly gained popularity among North American teenagers. The average daily active users had surpassed 4 million last quarter, and in early August, they had raised 14 million US Dollars. In that round of funding, the valuation had reached 70 million US Dollars. "What about the profit model?" asked Lu Liang. Wen Chao answered, "Mr. Lu, such apps primarily rely on advertising for profit. According to Musical.ly, they expect a loss of 5.4 million US Dollars every quarter." "Are they still exploring ways to profit?" Lu Liang thought for a long time before deciding to meet with Yang Zhenyuan in person to chat and hear his opinions. Upon receiving Wen Chao's call, Yang Zhenyuan arrived from Beijing to Modu that afternoon, reaching the New International Building. Lu Liang invited Yang Zhenyuan to the reception room, "Mr. Yang, I'd like to hear your future plan for Douyin." Yang Zhen, 38 years old, looked like any other ordinary engineer amongst the masses—nothing about him stood out. But Lu Liang didn't judge him by his appearance because he had reviewed Yang Zhenyuan's profile and knew him to be a man of extreme decisiveness. Ofo had its financing round in late August. At that time, Lu Liang had made a trip to Beijing to visit ByteDance and perhaps also fish for opportunities. Three days after his visit, Yang Zhenyuan submitted his resignation to Byte, and by mid-September, he had officially left. Just one day later, he established Douyin Limited Company and had since been preparing his startup proposal. "Traffic is king; in the future, Douyin could be Meituan, could be Taobao, or even WeChat." Yang Zhenyuan was extremely confident when he suddenly asked, "Mr. Lu, have you ever noticed the trends in the evolution of entertainment?" Lu Liang shook his head, "I haven't paid much attention to that. I'd love to hear more about it." Yang Zhenyuan said, "Initially, because network data was expensive, people could only use text to communicate. With the rise of 3G technology, text turned into images, like the meme community Neihan Duanzi. It emerged at that time as a combination of text and image-based entertainment." "Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 4G licenses last year, a large number of 4G phones have emerged this year. Data isn't as expensive as before, and entertainment isn't restricted to images anymore. Thus, Kuai Shou, a short video platform, was born." "Last quarter, Kuai Shou had 20 million daily active users, but it has a fatal weakness: a strong regional barrier." "Even though it sits at the top of the short video industry, its installation rate in the southern market doesn't even reach 5% of the mobile phone market." "At present, the short video app market in the south is still a blank space, and I firmly believe that Douyin can fill this gap." Yang Zhenyuan spoke incessantly; he had worked as a search structure engineer at Baidu and ByteDance, respectively. The idea of starting a business had always been there, but he had been hesitant to make up his mind until that day Lu Liang visited ByteDance. Learning how highly Lu valued the short video application market, the heart that had been silent for so many years started beating again. In that moment, Yang Zhenyuan's passion for entrepreneurship surged to unprecedented levels, as if there was music dancing in his mind. He was distracted all day. By chance, he glanced at, A research report on Musical.ly. Dancing, shaking, music, sound jump? Douyin! When he thought of this name, Yang Zhenyuan suddenly became obsessed; an instant vision of the brand logo materialized. Therefore, he decided to resign. Even though Zhang Yiming kept trying to talk to him, it couldn't change his determination to start a business. With a smile at the corner of his mouth, Lu Liang asked, "Mr. Yang, didn't Mr. Zhang express any desire to support your idea?" Yang Zhenyuan nodded, "But I've already left ByteDance." Zhang Yiming had indeed mentioned wanting to invest in Douyin, but Yang didn't want Douyin, still in its infancy, to be labeled as a ByteDance product. seaʀᴄh thё NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He hoped to receive venture capital investment, and it just so happened that Lu Liang had an excellent reputation; to date, there was no talk of him meddling in company operations. Ofo, Mobike, Panda, and even Xia Luo, it was said, were all about investing money and overseeing the flow of funds, without interfering in anything else. One could say he was the dream angel investor for countless entrepreneurs—a true angel and investor. Lu Liang smiled lightly, looking at the equity distribution plan. The registered capital was 5 million, with Yang Zhenyuan contributing 2 million, Zhou Xiaoyan contributing 1 million, and a funding gap of 2 million remaining. Seeing Lu's puzzled look, Yang Zhenyuan explained, "Mr. Lu, Zhou Xiaoyan is my wife. She won't hold any position; she's just helping me to hold some equity." The more formal the enterprise, the more it avoids mixing personal affairs with public business. Having a husband-and-wife team is a big taboo. He had worked at Baidu for eight years and at ByteDance for three years, you could say he witnessed the development of the internet in China. He had achieved financial independence a long time ago. He offered Lu Liang a 40% share because he hoped to gain his support. After all, his personal assets, even including fixed assets like his house and car, totaled at most 40 million. When the company develops to a certain scale, it must introduce other capital institutions such as Redwood, Ali, Tencent, and Goldman Sachs. Some are amenable, like Tencent's investment, which is mostly a hands-off approach, but others are more assertive, like Ali's investment, which wants to control everything. Yang Zhenyuan needed someone who could balance them out. Tianxing Investment was his best choice, even though its scale wasn't even comparable to a single hair of these two giants. But Tianxing had Lu Liang, as well as Tianxing Assets. But Tencent and Ali might not have such leverage. With the rise and fall, there was still some strength to compete. Lu Liang pondered, gradually revealing a smile, "Mr. Yang, I look forward to the day when Douyin implements its grand blueprint." Even without a sound prediction, he had decided to invest, because Yang Zhenyuan's venture was all because of him. Past events had proven that the more he interfered, the further things deviated. Douyin was a company that came out of nowhere; it could flop, or it could become a unicorn. 2 million was invested, Lu didn't want a repeat of Mobike's fundraising stories—a company with great potential. But due to a lack of strength at the time, Mobike could only follow behind Redwood, picking up the scraps.

Chapter 129: Musical.ly

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