Old money can't catch young people?
No one is always young, but there are always people who are young. In addition to giving people the feeling of "always young, always tearful", this sentence actually implies another meaning, those who were once "young", when they meet really young people, often can not find a common language.
The same applies in the world of investment.
This week, Sequoia Capital changed the official introduction of "Helping adventurous people build great companies, from ideas to IPOs" to "We help bold people build legendary DAOs, from ideas to token airdrops." Let's rush together!"
However, Sequoia's efforts seem to be a bit "awkward" in the cryptocurrency circle, and the phrase "gm" is like watching old artists at the Spring Festival Gala say Internet buzzwords.
Sequoia Capital changes Twitter Profile | Image Network
The embarrassment is not only Sequoia, as early as 2018, The Zhen Fund Xu Xiaoping shouted out "All in Blockchain" that was ridiculed by people in the currency circle at that time, and the "ferry ticket" of traditional Internet practitioners and investment circles entering the currency circle - the "3 o'clock sleepless blockchain" group has long become another paragraph.
As the world's top VC, sequoia venture capital circle still has its right to speak, but the blockchain and cryptocurrency field and the game industry are very similar, not the authority but the circle layer, one person recognizes another person or institution, not to see the other party's financial resources, but what the past interaction history in the Ethereum wallet is.
This probably explains why top VCs like Sequoia, who invested in Binance, Huobi and Bitmain around 2017, ended up having an embarrassing court encounter with Binance over investment valuation (IDG wants to continue investing). In 2018, as cryptocurrencies turned cold, Sequoia also suspended its investment in the blockchain space.
In 2021, as the market value of cryptocurrencies returns to its high point, Sequoia has also invested in FTX, CertiK, Polygon and other investments from new exchanges to security and public chains. However, compared to "native" investment institutions such as a16z and paradigm, which are deeply involved in the cryptocurrency field, the latter is obviously more open in the circle, and the depth, breadth and interaction with the project are not as good as.
A day after changing the profile, Sequoia changed the profile back to a time when cryptocurrency circles called it a "one-day restoration." Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, called the attempt a "Rorschach test." If this is the case, it is clear that Sequoia has a new understanding of how cryptocurrency practitioners view themselves.
Internet winter
The movie "A Generation of Grandmasters" tells that the fate of Wing Chun legend Ip Man turned with the Japanese invasion, and Wong Kar-wai, who has never taken a big scene, completed the explanation of the historical background with a family portrait photo, and the voiceover line is: "If life has four seasons, before the age of forty, my life is spring."
In a sense, this line is also very applicable to Chinese Internet companies - after the spring of more than twenty years, Internet companies have entered the autumn overnight.
This week, the media reported that Kuaishou laid off 30% of employees, and some employees broke the news that the company had begun to dissuade low-performance employees from the beginning of this month. The Surging News reported that Kuaishou plans to complete the transformation of the commercialization teams in the four places of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen by the end of the year, of which "some business lines will be cancelled". Kuaishou employees broke the news on the pulse that the scope of this layoff is not only grass-roots employees, but also non-technical executives over the age of 35 who also appear in the layoff list.
Prior to this, iQIYI just reported a 40% layoff news, but people understand the layoffs of iQIYI that have been losing money for many years to some extent, and in the case of poor revenue in the long video field, the layoffs are beyond reproach to ensure cash flow. After all, ByteDance of Nisshin Doujin has also repeatedly reported the news of the dismissal of the team and the cancellation of the business line in the second half of the year.
Platform-based Internet companies have encountered a "cold wave" that has not been seen for many years. Even Alibaba and Tencent, which have strong roots, have seen their stock prices fall all the way in this year's "bone-to-bone" environment.
In contrast, companies that have been investing in hard technology, such as CATL and BYD, have been red in stock prices this year. The United States has shown the same trend, with the stock prices of semiconductor and new car companies represented by AMD, Nvidia and Tesla soaring, while platform companies such as Facebook are mired in antitrust litigation and even need to "change their name" to protect themselves.
Mi Lei, founding partner and co-CEO of Zhongke Chuangxing, wrote in the article that everything that is conducive to making China a world science and technology power is encouraged by the state; anything that is not conducive to China becoming a world science and technology power is not encouraged by future national policies.
"All the resources around the construction of the world's science and technology power, this is a major theme and goal of China's development, think clearly about this logic, the next thirty years will never appear you are doing a thing, suddenly a policy document comes out, your industry is gone, as long as what is done is conducive to this matter, all the policies will be in your favor." 」
The economy represented by the Internet in the past is more about pursuing short-term benefits. Hard technologies such as optoelectronic chips, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, new materials, new energy, aerospace, and intelligent manufacturing all require long-term investment. Hard technology not only requires core technology, but also pursues different values and interests. In the past, these areas were not the focus of China's investment circles.
From this point of view, the association that has recently been pushed to the forefront of public opinion, the "trade and industry technology" route set at the earliest is not wrong, but in the current era when technology is more valued, it is inevitable to become a satirical target for people to "hate iron is not steel".
As Rao Yi said, if you want to walk in the forefront of the world, you must have original work supported by science and technology. "It's hard to imagine that we can get to the forefront simply through business model changes or the techniques of distribution methods."
The signal is clear, the definition of what a good company is, has changed.
World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee founded Inrupt and completed a Series A funding round of $30 million
According to TechCrunch, Tim Berners-Lee's startup, Inrupt, raised about $30 million in a Series A funding round.
Inrupt was founded by World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee and technologist John Bruce, which is trying to "reinvent the internet" by building a platform that lets users control their own data. The Intupt team also includes cryptography expert Bruce Schneier.
Inrupt's platform allows users to store their personal data in PODs (Personal Online Data Stores). These PODs can work with decentralized applications and can be detached when the user prefers. Inrupt believes it is trying to mimic the core infrastructure of companies like Visa credit card processing and Verisign and commercialize DNS standards.
Inrupt's customers include governments and enterprises. The startup has signed contracts with the governments of Sweden, Argentina and the Basque Country. The company generated revenue of $225,000 last year and $200,000 in September. (Source: 36Kr)
27 U.S. states have detected cases of Infection with the Omiljun strain and several businesses have delayed returning to office
As of the 10th, 27 states in the United States have found infected with the Omikejong strain. As the new strain spreads, several large companies have recently delayed the return of employees to the office. The New York Times tracking data on the 10th showed that as of that day, a total of 27 states in the United States had found people infected with the Omikejong strain.
The Associated Press reported that this fall, Delta Poison forced many large U.S. companies to postpone the return of employees to the office until early next year. Recently, with the spread of the Olmikerron strain, many companies are adjusting their plans to return employees to the office.
Last week, Chris Lacau, Google's vice president of security, said in an email to full-time employees that none of Google's offices in the U.S. would adopt a hybrid work model as originally planned on Jan. 10. The company will wait until 2022 to re-evaluate when U.S. offices can safely return to a "stable, long-term working environment." Google says it has safely opened more than 90 percent of its U.S. offices in recent weeks, and nearly 40 percent of its U.S. employees have returned to work.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta said on the 7th that it will fully reopen its US office at the end of January next year, but allows employees to postpone the return date to June. (Source: China News Network)
100,000 kWh of electricity Storage China's first giant city "Charging Treasure" is about to enter the network
The first phase of the National Demonstration Project of Dalian Liquid Flow Battery Energy Storage and Peak Shaving Power Station is currently undergoing final equipment commissioning and is expected to be completed by the end of December. After the first phase is put into operation, it will be able to store 100,000 degrees of electrical energy.
It is said that it is a giant "charging treasure" of the city, which is both visual and accurate, and in an emergency, it can provide more than 4 hours of electricity for important departments and units in the city.
It is understood that the "charging treasure" is located in the core area of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, the flow energy storage peaking power station, which is the country's first national demonstration project for chemical energy storage approved by the National Energy Administration, with a total investment scale of 3.8 billion yuan and an area of 50,000 square meters.
According to a person from the State Grid Dalian Power Supply Company, the maximum electricity load in Dalian is expected to reach 5.8 million kilowatts this winter, a historical peak. After the peak shaving power station is put into operation, it can charge the electric energy at the trough of electricity consumption, output electrical energy when the electricity is tight, effectively adjust the peak and valley electricity consumption, and ensure the safety of power grid operation. (Source: Fast Technology)
The digital yuan contract tax payment business took the lead in Hainan
On December 9, Hainan Province's digital yuan contract tax payment business was launched, and several enterprise representatives experienced the digital yuan contract tax payment business on the spot.
At present, the business has been piloted in 7 cities and counties such as Haikou, Danzhou and Qionghai. As of the morning of December 9, Hainan Province has successfully signed 27 tripartite agreements on digital yuan wallets and successfully paid 9 payments.
It is understood that since the beginning of this year, the Hainan Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, in coordination with the Haikou Central Branch of the Chinese Min bank, has taken the opportunity of piloting the digital yuan to start from the government revenue side, explore and innovate to reconstruct the electronic tax payment business process to support the digital yuan withholding of taxes, and realize the digital yuan contract tax payment service within two months. (Source: CCTV News)
Head image source: Douban Movie