Recently, Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) announced today that its network gaming subsidiary Changyou (NASDAQ: CYOU) entered into a share acquisition agreement with Dolphin browser developer MoboTap. In accordance with the agreement, Changyou will acquire 51% of the equity stake in Banna Information Corp. on a fully diluted basis with a cash consideration of 91 million U.S. dollars.
Subsequently, dolphin browser CEO Yang Yongzhi published an internal mail that the reason why investors choose to swim, because the opportunity to swim overseas judgments and overseas market development strategy and the company's view is very consistent; swim on the dolphin brand, Product and team highly recognized; Changyou and dolphin cooperation in their very clear positioning, are willing to support the independent development of dolphins and existing development strategy; Changyou have a strong cash flow, are also willing to support the development of dolphins; Changyou in commercial aspects Ability to make up for the shortcomings of the dolphins; Finally, Changyou has a complete set of overseas strategy and layout. All of this will help dolphins accelerate their growth in overseas markets. (100 Xiao)
The following is the dolphin CEO Yang Yongzhi mail content:
Hi Dolphin dreams supporters,
Life is a process of continuous choice, and the process of dolphin dreaming is also a process of constant choice.
Entrepreneurial choice
Four years ago I embraced passion and dreams, resigned from Microsoft, and left Beijing to start a business in Wuhan. This passion is the passion for mobile Internet, the dream is to create an international company. At the beginning, I did not even know what to do. Microsoft colleagues and the boss said that you are not too risky. However, I firmly believe that starting a business is a practical process rather than an accurate calculation on paper. At that time coincided with the financial crisis, trough admission, there will be more than the back of the first mover advantage. As long as the general direction of the right, slowly into the opportunity to look into, through hard work can always find the feeling. The fact is that when other people realize that the mobile Internet is a gold mine, we have more than one year of hard work in it and the difference of one year has given us enormous advantages.
The choice of direction
When I bought HTCG1, the first Andorid phone, complaining about the Android platform, especially when I saw the default browser so frustrated, I realized it was a chance. So, we decided to make a browser, one of our hundreds of apps. A few months later, the browser was not the most downloaded among our hundreds of apps, but we saw her tremendous potential and decided to make the browser a major product and a long-term focus for the company. We insist on the practice of truth, choose to do a typhoon mouth products, make an entry-type products to achieve our value.
Strategic choice
When we entered the market, China's Android market is still very early stages, even in the United States Android is also questioned. We simply think that if we can make some innovations in the U.S. market to achieve some results, it will affect other markets around the world. The choice of this market directly determines our brand and product quality, thus affecting the company's management and human resources strategy and other aspects. Practice has proved that the choice of starting from the US market established the brand advantage of dolphins, laid a good foundation for our international strategy, which greatly helped us to enter other markets such as Japan and South Korea. To date, in developed country markets, there are local users, local brands, local partners and ecosystems, and only the dolphins have become the benchmark for Chinese companies to explore overseas.
The choice of path
After we financed in 2011, the company entered a new fast lane. Under the temptation of China's huge market and the support of investors, we resolutely entered this market full of imagination and story. In this process we felt the complexities of the Chinese market, appreciated the toughness and strength of our competitors, and realized the importance of maintaining a constant focus on products and users. The role played by the Chinese team as an experimental field has not only accumulated rich experience in entering the markets of emerging market countries, but more importantly helped us to establish a correct product concept and establish a suitable product culture.
3G portal market, Cheetah market, more and more companies began to enter overseas markets, overseas markets have finally begun to heat up, which proves once again our correctness of the original judgments and choices. At the same time, the mobile Internet has entered a new phase in which the emerging market is rapidly emerging and becoming a major driver of the growth of the mobile Internet. This is a new round of opportunities that we can and should grasp. Today, smartphones are growing rapidly in South America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, just like the Chinese market two to three years ago, but are 4-5 times as large as the Chinese market.
We have a judge, the future global mobile Internet is dual, developed countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea will be the United States and the world market, but emerging markets will be the stage for Chinese companies. Because their market environment is very similar to that of the Chinese market a few years ago, most of their smartphones come from Shenzhen, China. Many Chinese game companies have been very successful there. At the same time, Chinese companies have comparable product technology capabilities to US companies, and Chinese companies have experienced fierce competition in the local market, doing better localization, survivability and combat effectiveness.
At present, we have laid a good foundation in the markets of developed countries. Dolphins have very good brand and reputation. In the more than two years of experience in the Chinese market, although the twists and turns, but in the long term this choice is very valuable. After the Chinese market after training more experienced team, fighting more, and we have accumulated a good partnership in China. Dolphins enter the emerging markets, have the advantage of diving, with mature products and well-trained team, good times and people.
All is ready except for the opportunity! The only thing we need is more ample ammunition.
Dolphin choose to swim
I started to contact investors again in the second half of last year, many of them domestic Internet giants and a lot of financial investors. Internet giant is the sun or black hole? Giant looks more like a black hole for now. Few people who are purely financial investors have enough depth and foresight to gain insight into markets and opportunities. Our ideal investors should be able to understand and highly agree with our philosophy, recognize our team, are willing to continue to give support. Based on these considerations, we have finally chosen to swim among a number of investors.
Swim to determine the opportunities in overseas markets and overseas market development strategy and our view is very consistent; swim to dolphin brand, product and team highly recognized; Changyou and dolphins cooperation in their very clear positioning, willing to support the independent development of dolphins And has an existing development strategy; Changyou has a strong cash flow, is also willing to support the development of dolphins; Changyou in the commercial capacity for all to see, will greatly make up for our shortcomings; Finally, Changyou a complete set of overseas strategy and layout. All of this will help us to accelerate our growth in overseas markets.
After selection
In the beginning of the year, we set the development goal of the dolphins in the next 2-3 years: to further consolidate our position in developed countries and become the largest third-party mobile browser in developed countries' markets; to vigorously expand emerging markets and strive for the top market position. After the current round of financing, the Company will continue to maintain its independent development, maintain the established strategic direction and continue to step up its efforts in international market development. We further clarify our expectation that in 2016, the MAU will reach 100 million The company entered a new phase to lay a solid foundation.