Chapter 96 Exorbitant Demands

After a moment of thought, Zhou Xuan replied in his email: "This domain name is for sale, but the price is one million US dollars."

After sending the email, Zhou Xuan could easily imagine the expressions on the faces of Sohu's employees upon reading it. He guessed they must think whoever held this domain name was a complete lunatic to dare ask for a million dollars.

One had to bear in mind that Sohu’s founder, Charles Zhang, had spent months running around the United States and only managed to secure $2.2 million in financing for the company. For a domain holder to demand two million—why didn't he just drop dead!

Naturally, Zhou Xuan was making an exorbitant demand, knowing full well that Sohu would never agree. A million dollars in 1998 was no small sum; Sohu simply couldn't afford it. Furthermore, they would certainly feel that a single domain name wasn't worth that kind of money.

Yet in Zhou Xuan's eyes, the one million dollars wasn't the main point—what he truly hoped to acquire was Sohu's equity. When Sohu went public in 2000, even a 10% stake would be worth forty to fifty million US dollars. He could then cash out before the arrival of the dot-com winter, securing a massive amount of startup capital that would allow him to invest in other ventures.

Before the burst of the internet bubble in 2000, the most famous entities were the three major web portals. All of them had listed on NASDAQ and experienced the initial glory of the internet era. However, with the onset of the dot-com bubble, stock values plummeted to rock bottom, causing heavy losses for some investors. Zhou Xuan, however, had no such worries. Knowing the course of history, he could maximize his own interests to the fullest.

Beijing, Sohu Company.

When the employee opened Zhou Xuan's email and saw the one million dollar price tag, he almost burst into a string of curses, thinking the sender was stark raving mad.

Yet, would a madman understand domain name investment?

The answer was definitely no. Therefore, just as the employee was about to ignore Zhou Xuan altogether, he realized they had no other choice, because the other three domain variations—all of them—had been registered by someone named "xuanzi".

Could they use shouhu instead?

Crap, are you kidding me? If this employee dared to report such a suggestion upward, Charles Zhang would undoubtedly curse him for having the brain of a pig and fire him on the spot!

Shouhu (Guardian Fox)? Without even a fox left, what are you going to search for?

Or should Sohu change its name?

But Sohu had been established for over half a year already. Ha, was a name change even remotely possible at this stage?

And "Souhu" with a different tone character wasn't "Sohu" either.

Thinking of the task assigned to him by his supervisor—that he must secure this domain name for the budget of 100,000 yuan—the employee was left utterly speechless. Why on earth had this person named xuanzi registered the domain names in advance? And damn it, he had registered both sohu and souhu, completely locking down both the .com and .cn extensions.

One had to remember that back in January, just two months after changing their name from the previous iteration to Sohu, they were still using the sohoo domain.

Was Sohu supposed to register other domain extensions instead? Don't make him laugh. These days, .com was the mainstream extension; who would ever have the nerve to go public with anything else?

Faced with Zhou Xuan's outrageous demand while still needing to accomplish the boss's mission, the employee wrung his brain for a long time without coming up with any solution. In the end, he had no choice but to reply:

"Excuse me, do you have any idea how much one million US dollars is? You must know that the average salary in Beijing right now is less than 800 yuan, yet you're asking for a million dollars. Honestly, this price is far too high, and our company could never pay it.

If you are willing, our company is prepared to offer 100,000 yuan to purchase your domain name."

It was around noon when Zhou Xuan received Sohu's reply email. Reading the response, he couldn't help but smile. Just as he anticipated, Sohu had rejected his initial asking price.

This was well within Zhou Xuan's expectations. Although Sohu had secured $2.2 million in their second round of financing this April, four months had already passed, and they likely had less than $2 million left.

While the sohu domain was crucial, no company would spend half its capital to acquire a single domain name. Nevertheless, Zhou Xuan believed that 100,000 yuan certainly wasn't their ceiling, and this matter was still negotiable.

Furthermore, in August, Sohu was set to shift its strategy away from focusing entirely on search functionality, splitting half its efforts toward content and building a web portal. The web portal concept had already caught on in the United States, and Sohu had no choice but to follow suit; otherwise, how could they compete with the future top three portals?

Right now, Sohu's domain name no longer matched the company's image at all. It had to be changed to something that truly fit the enterprise. Otherwise, a mismatched domain that failed to roll off the tongue would inevitably lead to user attrition.

Just think of the rapid growth of JD and VIP in his previous life after switching to their corresponding domain names, and one would understand the immense impact a good domain name could carry.

Mindful of Sohu's urgent need for the domain, Zhou Xuan replied once more: "100,000 yuan is far too low, and I must decline. You should realize that the sohu domain is an absolute fit for your company's product—it is the most suitable domain for Sohu. On top of that, I am throwing in the full-pinyin souhu domain as a bonus. 100,000 is simply too low. If your company can offer 500,000 US dollars, or transact in equity, I would find that acceptable. You can reach me at my phone number 13*********, calls are welcome."

In the afternoon, upon seeing Zhou Xuan's reply, the employee couldn't help letting out a curse.

"He even wants equity, this is simply..."

Naturally, the employee placed a call to Zhou Xuan, politely stating that 500,000 US dollars and equity were completely out of the question. However, after reporting to his supervisor, he had pushed the offer up to 150,000 RMB. He hoped Zhou Xuan would agree to this quote—after all, that sum was enough to buy an apartment in Beijing, even one within the Second Ring Road.

Of course, Zhou Xuan had no intention of agreeing and explicitly refused over the phone. Yet he didn't completely close the door, mentioning only that the price was negotiable, but it certainly wouldn't be as low as 150,000.

Watching Zhou Xuan hang up the phone, the employee knew he could no longer negotiate any further and had no choice but to report the situation upward. Upon hearing the news, the supervisor furrowed his brows as well, feeling that Zhou Xuan was indeed making an exorbitant demand.

Consequently, the matter was escalated all the way to Charles Zhang, leaving the final decision in the hands of the boss.

Inside his office, Charles Zhang—energetic and somewhat flamboyant—felt a pang of regret upon hearing the news that the domain acquisition had hit a snag. He regretted not registering the domain a bit earlier at the beginning of the year. After all, Sohu had already emerged by the end of last year, and they had even changed their name around that time, yet they completely forgot to preemptively register the sohu domain.

"What a miscalculation. Who would have thought someone would already be registering domain names for investment purposes? And they targeted my Sohu, leaving our Sohu website truly stuck in limbo right now." Charles Zhang frowned deeply, racking his brain for a next step.

It wasn't that Charles Zhang failed to recognize the potential and value of a good domain name, but this Sohu domain derived its worth precisely because of his company. The preemptive registrant's demands felt utterly extortionate.

"Sohu, Sohu..." Charles Zhang muttered the word several times over, feeling more and more convinced that this domain name was tailor-made for Sohu. Without it, could Sohu possibly develop properly?

Zhang opened the email his subordinate had just forwarded to him and reviewed Zhou Xuan's counteroffers.

"First one million dollars, then half a million or equity. Could it be... the equity?" Charles Zhang seemed to perceive Zhou Xuan's ultimate objective, and a resolute look settled in his mind as if a decision had finally been made.

He picked up the phone and began dialing the number listed in the email.