Braised sea cucumber with scallions, chicken with dates and chestnuts, fish fillets with fermented grains, sanbai (three whites) with fermented grains, and diced chicken with soy sauce—hearty dishes kept coming one after another.

Even Nong Qingying, who grew up in Casino, 1997, thoroughly enjoyed the authentic Shandong cuisine tonight.

Coming to the capital city was like a vacation for her. She was already in a good mood, and now she was drinking red wine with everyone. Su Yehao bought the only bottle of Chateau Margaux in the restaurant for 16,600 yuan.

After deciding to spend over ten million during the day to buy three treasures from Rong Bao Zhai, he didn't care much about the cost of food and drinks.

What surprised the waiter was that even though he bought a bottle of red wine for over ten thousand yuan, clearly showing he didn't lack money, he didn't order Moutai or Wuliangye for the baijiu, instead choosing Fenjiu that cost only a few dozen yuan a bottle.

Speaking of Fenjiu, Su Yehao had only heard of it but never tasted it.

The main reason he didn't choose Moutai was that it was a bit too strong for him. He happened to see Fenjiu at the restaurant, so he decided to try a different flavor.

Of course, no one at the table was surprised. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Besides, no one would think Su Yehao was being stingy.

Even Mr. Zhang from SouHu, whom he was meeting for the first time, knew about Su Yehao's wealth. At least in this capital city, it wouldn't be easy to find someone richer than him.

Several bottles of wine were quickly emptied.

One of Lei Bu Si's young technicians had already gone to lie down next to him. Fortunately, tomorrow was Saturday, so he could rest for two days.

No one forced Su Yehao to drink. He was only sipping a little. At this moment, he looked up at Mr. Zhang from SouHu and said,

"Come on, Mr. Zhang, try the wild duck soup. Everyone here today is family. The number of internet users in the mainland market is growing relatively fast. The market is big enough for three companies to share. We can communicate more in the future and strive to identify our respective strengths, keeping the fat in our own pot."

Currently, SouHu couldn't compare to the wealthy tAt. Even Yinhai's portal website was one step ahead.

With the major shareholder Nong Qingying present, Mr. Zhang had already discerned the relationship between her and Su Yehao. Hearing this, he raised his glass and said with a smile,

"Among the Chinese in the United States, apart from Mr. Yang of Yahoo, Mr. Su, your company is probably the largest. Now that we've met, we should work together and cooperate. In the future, we'll have to rely on Mr. Su and Mr. Chu. You guys eat the meat, and I'll just have some soup."

Hearing the word "soup," Su Yehao was slightly taken aback, wondering if his gesture of offering Mr. Zhang wild duck soup had caused a misunderstanding.

The thought flashed through his mind, but Su Yehao didn't ask. He simply said, "I've met Jerry Yang of Yahoo. We had dinner together in Silicon Valley last time. Being able to grow a business to such a scale is definitely not just luck. He's quite an amazing person. Actually, there's also Nvidia, which makes graphics cards. The boss is also Chinese. The company has been developing rapidly recently, and his net worth is constantly rising."

"...I know this company, but that's considered the semiconductor industry. Just talking about the internet, you're still the most impressive," Mr. Zhang said with a smile.

Everyone present was older than Su Yehao.

It was indeed a bit embarrassing for a group of people in their thirties and forties to flatter a young man in his twenties. There was a slight hint of awkwardness in their voices.

Chatting about the internet at home and abroad, as well as the development prospects of portal websites, the atmosphere at the dinner was quite pleasant.

Su Yehao drank a little too much and bluntly stated that what determines the future development ceiling of an internet company is still finding the right core direction. Relying solely on portal websites is not enough.

tAt and tot are two separate businesses. Both instant messaging and search engine services have bright prospects.

As for Yinhai, in addition to the office software WPS and the developing portal website, it has also found a position similar to Weibo, attempting to develop a brand-new social networking site.

As for SouHu, it hasn't even done a good job with its portal website, and its hastily developed search engine is being completely outclassed by tot.

Listening to everyone's casual conversation, Mr. Zhang seemed to grasp some inspiration and began to ponder how SouHu should develop its core business in the future, which was nothing more than games, news, social networking, and so on.

In this era, mainland internet companies are often doing charity work. There are too few ways to make money, and they are always investing money to subsidize users, allowing them to freeload.

When asked about the future, Mr. Zhang, Chu Jun, Lei Bu Si, and the others couldn't say for sure. Currently, they were all busy learning the development models from the United States. Even if they learned the products, the market scale was vastly different. For example, even tAt only earned over 100,000 RMB from stationery manufacturers who were willing to place internet advertisements.

Chu Jun took a sip of wine and ate some food to alleviate the effects of the alcohol. He usually liked to drink, and he was in a good mood at the moment. He suddenly asked,

"Mr. Su, do you think we can be like the United States in the future? Their internet users account for one-fifth of the total population. I heard that the annual advertising market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. They've already entered a virtuous cycle."

After hearing this, Mr. Zhang sighed and said, "Yeah, we're spending money like water every day. When will it end?"

Faced with their questions, Su Yehao smiled and said, "I'm afraid we won't see hope in three to five years. Internet companies in the United States have only really exploded in popularity in recent years. Before, the famous ones were Microsoft and Oracle, which were related to office communication."

"So we just keep holding on?" Chu Jun continued to ask.

Su Yehao nodded and said, "Yes, so whoever has more money has the chance to laugh last. Before the market develops, what else can we do besides hold on? Trying to get money out of users' pockets will only annoy them, so how to make money is very important. We must make them willing to pay. You should learn more about the online game market. The short-term opportunity should be in games and advertising."

Mr. Zhang also felt the same way and deeply agreed with the suggestion of entering the game field. He raised his glass and said,

"I can't help but envy you, Mr. Su, for taking your business to the United States. A few years ago, I felt that the internet would definitely be popular. My classmates at MIT talked about it all day long. Unfortunately, the American market is already relatively complete. Without money or connections, it's hard to find development opportunities, so I returned to China to make my fortune."

"To put it figuratively, we are currently pioneering, so it's okay to work a little harder. We'll always see returns in the future."

Su Yehao could understand the confusion of mainland internet practitioners. The ceiling was too low.

With a population of over one billion, there were only a million internet users in total, and this number was even "watered down." There were only two or three hundred thousand computers in the entire country, many of which couldn't even connect to the internet. Many ordinary families had just escaped poverty, so why would they spend a high price to buy a computer and burn money on internet access all day long?

Calling it pioneering was reasonable.

Even Su Yehao, who was full of expectations for the future mainland market, couldn't bear it and turned his attention to overseas markets first.

Chu Jun, Mr. Zhang, and others who were developing in the mainland couldn't help but feel that the market was small, making it impossible to unleash their full potential. Frustration was inevitable.

In the short term, there was no better way than to slowly endure it.

Mr. Zhang's intention was to get on Su Yehao's line to see if he could get some funding to develop in the United States, but Su Yehao didn't seem to understand.

Since they had just met today, it wasn't convenient to be too familiar, so he simply continued to drink in silence...