America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 125 Putting it on the market

Sitting across the conference table, Eric signaled to close the door and clear the place.

After the irrelevant personnel left, the projector was turned on and the curtain was slowly lowered.

Looking at the three generals he had recruited in front of him, Eric asked: "Which of you will come first? Let me see if my money is worth it."

Fitzheisenberg glanced at the two people next to him and connected the plug to the device he brought first.

"Boss, let me go first. Facebook's development difficulty is relatively low, and its current level of completion is higher."

As he spoke, he clicked on an icon on the projection, and an interface immediately popped up on the screen.

This interface gave Eric the feeling of being a simple version of the personal home page of those big websites in later generations.

An avatar plus a few lines of introduction, followed by some pictures, is somewhat similar to the prototype of a circle of friends.

"Boss, this is the result of our recent work. Now please let me introduce it to you."

"Through the idea you proposed, my team and I realized that this is actually a social network based on an acquaintance system, and its root is still the lamp structure."

"According to your description, our team has completed the construction of the required internal algorithms and operating systems during this period, and has first built an internal area network. Let me demonstrate it to you."

Knowing that Eric was not a professional, Heisenberg did not chatter too much about technology and just clicked the mouse to reach the login page.

The words "Welcome to Facebook!" immediately popped up in the center of the screen. In the upper left corner was a person's avatar, and below the avatar were two blank lines for entering account numbers and passwords.

"Fitz, what does this avatar mean? The logo you designed for Facebook?"

Heisenberg opened his eyes and shook his head: "No, it's Hejal, the illustration artist in our team. She felt that the interface was too monotonous, so she wanted to add some embellishments."

"I see, what type of registration is supported now with this password?"

"Currently, it only supports email addresses. All email addresses in the United States are acceptable, regardless of whether you use Google, Yahoo, or others."

"Well, can I have a cell phone number?"

"What?"

"Can I register a mobile phone number?"

Heisenberg was stunned for a moment. To be precise, everyone looked at Eric blankly.

"Sorry boss, do you mean to use your mobile phone number to register a Facebook account?" Heisenberg asked confirmingly.

Eric nodded: "Yes, from a technical point of view, is it possible to use a mobile phone number instead of an email address?"

The reason why this question is raised is naturally based on the soul of a Chinese person. Living in the later generations, whoever downloads a new software cannot just download a mobile phone number and get it done with a text message.

Email is too troublesome. Eric remembers that in the early days, email was used to register for domestic websites, such as Taobao, Alipay, etc.

But I don’t know since when, it seems that email has been gradually eliminated, and mobile phone numbers have become a new and more convenient way.

Heisenberg hesitated for a moment: "Boss, I don't know this question, and I can't answer you, but it doesn't sound reasonable to register an account with a mobile phone number."

"Why? Isn't it more convenient to register by sending a text message on your mobile phone?" Eric asked.

"Well, first of all, many people don't have mobile phones. Not only the elderly and children, but even many middle-aged people don't have them. There are also many people who use old-fashioned mobile phones that can only make calls and send text messages."

"As far as I know, in big cities like New York or San Francisco, although the penetration rate of new mobile phones is relatively high, if they are placed in the third and fourth tiers, or in states with less developed economies, such as Missouri, a considerable number of people will not use or use them. Can’t afford a cell phone.”

"The mobile phone number registration model sounds very novel and seems very convenient, but the premise is that you still have to open the web page and click on the registration option before the background will send you a text message."

"Since you have to log in to the web, why not use a more direct mailbox? The transmission rate of SMS is slow, but it is not as fast as the mailbox."

Heisenberg briefly explained his views, and Eric probably understood where the pain point was.

After all, this is 2003, and there are still several years before the rise of smart phones. Without the support of smart phones, even if many software releases mobile versions, there will not be much functionality left.

If you want to have a complete user experience, PC is the only choice.

And even if smart phones are developed in advance, the mobile Internet still cannot be completed.

Because the current signal is still 2G, it often takes half a day to refresh a webpage picture. Traffic charges are also a big problem, and ordinary people cannot afford it.

This problem can only be solved when there is a big breakthrough in global information technology, which will be the era of mobile Internet.

This industry undoubtedly belongs to the blue ocean, but unfortunately Qualcomm has already occupied most of the road. It is almost impossible for outsiders to squeeze in.

Looking at the past few decades, only Huawei will break the technology monopoly in the future, but that is only accomplished based on decades of technology accumulation.

For MGM, getting involved in this area was simply out of the question.

Unless the behemoth Qualcomm suddenly collapses, everything will be destroyed!

"Fitz, keep going!"

Heisenberg entered his account password, and after clicking to enter, the screen immediately jumped to his personal homepage.

He moved his mouse across the top toolbar: "Boss, this is a common toolbar, which can be understood as the tool section of Word."

"First of all, this question mark is a question answer, mainly to help solve the security and common problems of the account, as well as settings, such as changing passwords.

"This exclamation mark represents a message reminder, such as someone sending you a private message, or system information, including dynamic comments someone posted to you."

"Then the most important blank space is where you can add new friends."

As he spoke, Heisenberg clicked on the blank space, entered an email address, clicked Enter, and a new interface immediately popped up, an interface belonging to another person, somewhat similar to adding friends on QQ.

"Good job, but I want to know about the function of adding friends. What information can be retrieved besides email?" Eric continued to ask.

"There are also Facebook accounts and nicknames. If you want to accurately locate, these are the only three things you can do at the moment."

"Can I search for keywords and ranges? For example, if I enter the word "big eyes" and then enter the age range of 18 to 30 years old, can I search for strangers who meet this condition? "

What Eric is talking about is obviously the search function of later generations of Penguins, and other functions such as drift bottles are also very good.

Although these two functions have been criticized due to various problems, the drift bottle has also been permanently removed from the shelves due to pornography.

But don’t forget that this is the United States. It is a problem in China, so there is no need to worry about it here.

Even if it will cause some social problems and lawsuits, it is nothing compared to the traffic and users it can attract. At worst, it will be a lawsuit. Isn’t that what the team of lawyers are for?

Fitzheisenberg was stunned again, thinking about this problem rapidly in his mind, and then looked at his little boss with some surprise.

The function proposed by the other party, after a little thought, you will understand what the secret is. Such a search function will undoubtedly attract a large number of lonely men and women.

"Sorry, now we can only retrieve email addresses, accounts and nicknames. The function you mentioned, boss, needs to be rewritten with a new algorithm, but it's interesting just thinking about it. We will improve it as soon as possible."

"Okay, you continue."

For more than an hour, Heisenberg introduced the functions of Facebook in detail.

At present, it can only be regarded as a prototype. The main function is still focused on dynamic sharing and comments, which is roughly equivalent to WeChat's circle of friends.

In addition, it also provides a simple chat function, to be precise, it is sending private messages.

However, although it is simple, it is already unique to scorpions.

In 2003, let alone WeChat, there was no Moments.

Not to mention WeChat, and even QQ Space, no one has even come up with an idea.

However, it is limited to the basic functions of the circle of friends, such as sharing, liking, blocking, viewing visitors and other more advanced functions, which have not yet been implemented.

These functions that may seem ordinary 20 years later can cause a huge sensation today if you take out any one of them.

Eric will slowly add it in, and eventually build the software into a super social network that combines the advantages of Facebook, WeChat, Penguin and other major programs.

"Fitz, I am very satisfied with the finished product in a short time. You have done a good job. Can Facebook be put on the market now?"

Heisenberg nodded: "Our internal area network has been tested for a month. In terms of functionality, I can ensure that it meets the standards, there will be no bugs, and a smooth user experience can be guaranteed."

"The issue that needs to be considered when putting it on the market is how to promote it. In addition, data storage on the server is also very important. The former is related to whether our efforts can bear fruit, and the latter is to ensure the maturity of the fruit."

"This is not only a problem that Facebook has to face, but it is also a problem that Lionheart and YouTube will face after they enter the market."

Howard Hughes and Robert Mirren both nodded in agreement.

Eric smiled. Of course he had thought about this problem many times. After much deliberation, it was safest to follow Zuckerberg's old path.

That is to first promote it on university campuses, and then use college students to influence their families, and then radiate to the whole society.

Zuckerberg took over all the colleges and universities in the United States in just a few months, and he will only be faster than him.

"I have already thought about the countermeasures for the promotion problem and decided to use a combination of offline and online methods. Online is the same old way, buy ads, buy a lot of ads to increase exposure."

“However, online is auxiliary, and offline is our focus. The primary target is major universities, because college students can flexibly access the Internet, many of them also have their own laptops, and their willingness to socialize is also the most active.

"4,000 universities in the United States, two months, within two months I will let Facebook attack them."

"Then based on these college students, we will bring their parents and siblings to join. High school students and young people under the age of 30 are our second phase targets."

"The last step is for those over 30 years old. Although they are less willing to accept new things, when their families are involved, no one is immune to this game."

Seeing that his boss had obviously planned a mature promotion strategy, Heisenberg immediately put his ideas back in his stomach.

He asked: "Boss, what is the model for campus promotion? Do you cooperate directly with the school?"

Eric nodded: "This is one of them, but I guess most schools will not accept it. Schools have their own academic dignity."

"The method I am considering is to directly hire people to use the hard promotion model, spend money to hire a group of college students to become the first batch of users, and then have these college students promote Facebook in their respective schools."

"However, there must be a prerequisite for employment, that is, the man must be handsome and handsome, and the woman must be beautiful and sexy."

"Think about it, you only need to create an account to become friends with the handsome guys and girls in school, and you can keep track of his activities at any time. You may even develop a relationship between boyfriend and girlfriend or underground lovers in the future. This will be great. temptation."

"Yes!"

Before Eric finished speaking, a fat man in a plaid shirt and glasses behind Heisenberg shouted excitedly.

Everyone's eyes fell on him instantly, and the little fat man immediately became sluggish again, returning to his submissive look just now.

"What's your name?" Eric pointed at the other person.

"Danny McHale, boss."

"Okay Danny, let me ask you a question, if such an opportunity were presented to you, would you join Facebook?"

"Of course, why not? First of all, you can see your goddess anytime, anywhere, and then you can also get an interesting software. I can't wait to create an account."

"Well, very good, this is the answer I want. Also, be more confident Danny. When we succeed, those former goddesses will come after you."

The conference room suddenly burst into laughter.

To put it bluntly, this strategy still takes the third approach, but the inferior approach is often the most effective, and everyone has to admit this.

After talking about promotion, the next step is data storage.

Heisenberg continued: "Boss, for Facebook, the most important data at present is pictures, and a picture may only be tens of KB."

"But when tens of millions of people upload, access, and comment at the same time, the processing volume will reach a terrifying level. We must prepare for this in advance and build our own server group."

Although Eric is a layman, he also understands how terrible it is if the server crashes.

For example, he used to be a Poison Milk Powder player. When the anniversary came, it was difficult to log in and hang up, and he couldn't log in at all.

Players are so disgusted that poisonous milk powder is also called the offline city.

Moreover, according to Eric's rough understanding, Internet companies that have developed to a certain scale have built their own data storage centers.

Many not only create one, but keep several backups. The fear is that the data will be cleared accidentally.

Once it happens, it will definitely be a devastating blow, and this software can be withdrawn from the market directly.

Eric nodded: "What you said makes sense, but it is still conservative. Tens of millions of people are nothing. Our goal is for hundreds of millions of people to visit at the same time."

"Tell me, what is the best server on the market right now?"

"Currently it is the Blade Server, which was launched on the market in 2001, but it is relatively expensive."

"Money is not a problem. Once the $10 million is used up, I will continue to invest and do the best for me."

Heisenberg had a smile on his face. As a developer, he knew very well that Facebook would not be profitable in the short term.

Failure to make a profit means burning money, and a boss who is not short of money and willing to invest is undoubtedly everyone's favorite.