Like other start-up Internet companies, capital and technology are Tencent's biggest problems. "The first is the lack of funds, and the funds can't keep up with the software." 1February, 1999, Tencent developed the first "Chinese-style" ICQ, namely Tencent "QQ", which was welcomed by users and the number of registered people increased to tens of thousands in a short time. As the number of people increases, it is necessary to continuously expand the server. At that time, the server hosting fee of one or two thousand yuan was unbearable for the company. "We can only use other people's servers everywhere. At first, it was just an ordinary PC, put it in a computer room with broadband conditions, and then secretly put the program on someone else's server to run. "

"At that time, I thought I couldn't afford it, so I sold it," Ma said with a happy smile. "But we had trouble selling QQ. I talked to many ICP (content providers) and they all asked for an exclusive buyout. " This makes the horse who originally wanted to use QQ software to sell more companies to make money hesitate. The most hanging thing was the negotiation with Shenzhen Telecom Data Bureau at that time. The other side is prepared to pay 600,000 yuan, and Ma insists on selling 1 10,000 yuan. It is always impossible to talk about it and you have to fail.

The software can't be sold, but the number of users is growing rapidly, and the investment needed to operate QQ is increasing. Ma Hua Teng had to go around to raise money. Looking for a bank, the bank said that it had never heard of mortgage loans according to the number of registered users; When negotiating with domestic investors, the other party is most concerned about how many computers Tencent has and other fixed assets. 1999 In the second half of the year, the Internet became "feverish" from the United States to China. Inspired by the overseas financing of old netizens, Ma took a business plan with six versions and more than 20 pages and began to look for foreign venture capital. Finally, he met IDG and PCG Digital Company. "They gave QQ 400 million dollars, accounting for 20% of the company's shares respectively. When QQ developed to 1 10,000 users, the money was not used up. "