#数字资产市场动态 Meta's multi-billion dollar acquisition of Manus: from product launch to inclusion by giants, it took only 9 months

On the surface, the good news from heaven actually reflects a very cold-blooded business logic.

The timeline is interesting: Manus took 9 months from the launch of the product in March to its acquisition in December. In the crazy rhythm of AI entrepreneurship, this speed is already extreme.

Founder Xiao Hong is interesting - Jiangxi background, born in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in the early years in the field of public account typesetting tools and enterprise WeChat CRM, he is a pragmatic product person in his bones, not the kind of technical idealist who came out of the ivory tower.

There are also many controversial voices: a bunch of people say that Manus is a "shell application", and the underlying model is not trained by itself, but more of an integration at the application level. It does sound a bit false.

But there is no way to justify the numbers in front of you - in 8 months, the annualized revenue has reached the level of $125 million, the subscription system has been supported, the global user distribution has taken shape, and the cash flow is self-hematopoiesis. To put it bluntly, it's really making money.

The turning point came in July. Manus made a big move: moving the company from China to Singapore, laying off employees and retaining only the core team. This move seems radical, but in fact it is basically a preliminary clearance for being acquired by European and American technology giants.

From Meta's point of view, the logic is clear: infrastructure has spent a lot of money, and AI models are available, but the most painful point is the lack of an application-layer product that can continue to generate cash flow. Manus happens to be ready-made: the revenue model runs through, the subscription system is sound, and the user base is global. Instead of continuing to bet on an app from scratch, it's easier to buy an off-the-shelf one.

Not to mention for early investors - institutions such as Sequoia China, Tencent, and Zhen Fund, the return multiple in this account is comfortable enough.

This incident has only one enlightenment for Web3 and the technology entrepreneurship circle, and it is the most realistic: in the current environment, if an entrepreneur has the ambition of a global acquisition, "moving the company overseas" has changed from an option to a basically feasible only way.

It's ugly, but that's the rules of the game right now.