Rebirth in 1985

Chapter 934: The Magical Use of QQ Level

In people's eyes, Lu Shaohua is a strong person, and the fact is that Lu Shaohua is indeed very strong, but sometimes, Lu Shaohua has to let go of his strength and occasionally give in a small step. Just like Phoenix Tencent, Lu Shaohua gave in a small step and only held 80% of Phoenix Tencent's shares.

Back then, when Lu Shaohua approached Ma Huateng to develop QQ, he originally thought that QQ would just be able to stand out in China like it did in its previous life. However, what Lu Shaohua never expected was that four companies, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, and Apple, would come knocking on his door.

Microsoft even used their instant messaging software to frame Phoenix Group, allowing Lu Shaohua to see through it and then publicize it. Microsoft's instant messaging software was completely ruined, which gave Phoenix Tencent a chance to come to the fore.

There is no need to say much about what happened next. Phoenix Tencent developed at an extremely fast speed, and its momentum was unstoppable. It quickly established a firm foothold in various parts of the world and later occupied a huge share of the global market.

It has been three or four years since Phoenix Tencent was launched. During these three or four years, the number of registered users has increased from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, millions, and to billions today. It is simply a miracle.

More registered users means more users. When the number reaches a certain level, Lu Shaohua asked Ma Huateng to join the membership system. Membership is ten RMB per month. In other countries, the pricing is different. For example, in the United States, membership is 2 US dollars per month, in the UK it is 1 pound, and in Europe it is 1.5 euros.

Don't underestimate the fact that it only costs a little money. In Europe, there are so many rich people that buying a membership is a piece of cake for them. Therefore, almost any user who has the slightest need will become a member, and once activated, it will be a yearly subscription, with dozens of dollars paid all at once.

One user earns dozens of dollars a year, which doesn't seem like much, but when it is added up and more people open accounts, it becomes a terrifying number. For example, Phoenix Tencent's annual revenue has reached a terrifying number, and the market is growing again and again, and has already exceeded the 10 billion US dollar mark.

Ma Huateng could never have imagined that he had only accepted Lu Shaohua's invitation with a try-it attitude, but in the blink of an eye, just a few years later, he would have billions of dollars around him.

It is no exaggeration to say that he became rich overnight, but Ma Huateng knew that all this was given to him by Lu Shaohua. Oh, no, to be honest, those tens of billions of dollars were given to him for free by Lu Shaohua.

Therefore, Ma Huateng cares about everything about Phoenix Tencent, and does his best to do everything, hoping to satisfy Lu Shaohua. Of course, if Lu Shaohua has any instructions, as long as there are no disadvantages, Ma Huateng will accept them without even considering it.

However, it seems that none of the suggestions Lu Shaohua has given to Phoenix Tencent so far have disadvantages, and some only have benefits. This makes Ma Huateng more convinced of Lu Shaohua.

Maybe it was because Ma Huateng trusted Lu Shaohua, or maybe it was because Ma Huateng felt that Lu Shaohua gave him tens of billions of dollars for free and he should be grateful. So, when he heard that Lu Shaohua was coming, he almost didn't even have lunch and just waited in the office. At the same time, he notified the employees outside that if they found Lu Shaohua arriving, they should notify him immediately so that he could go to greet him.

Lu Shaohua naturally had no idea that the atmosphere inside Phoenix Tencent was tense. He was just eating lunch leisurely, slowly and without any hurry. It was not until one o'clock in the afternoon that Lu Shaohua took Lu Shaopeng to the floor where Phoenix Tencent was located.

Yes, Lu Shaopeng was also on the inspection with Lu Shaohua this time. Originally, Lu Shaopeng had nothing to do, but in order to let Lu Shaopeng adapt to the working atmosphere of Phoenix Group first, Lu Shaohua still brought Lu Shaopeng along. While letting Lu Shaopeng adapt to the atmosphere first, it also allowed Lu Shaopeng to broaden his horizons.

Phoenix Tencent is located on the 18th floor of the Phoenix Building in Shenzhen. It occupies a good location and the floor number is also auspicious. When Lu Shaohua stepped into the door of the 18th floor, it was bustling inside.

Don't get me wrong, it's not noisy, it's just lively, because right at the entrance is the business office lobby of Phoenix Tencent, where there are people working 24 hours a day, and every office is full of employees.

The reason for the bustle was entirely due to the atmosphere of the office. Less than three seconds after Lu Shaohua stepped into the door, he heard at least ten phone calls ringing, which showed how busy the employees were.

Lu Shaohua nodded secretly, very satisfied with the atmosphere. After glancing around, Lu Shaohua walked inside and began his real inspection journey.

Not long after Lu Shaohua stepped into the 18th floor, Ma Huateng, the person in charge of Phoenix Tencent, had already received the news and hurriedly walked out of the office at the deepest part of the floor, accompanied by two deputy general managers of Phoenix Tencent and the director of the public relations department.

The public relations department is in charge of external affairs, but what many people don’t know is that the public relations department actually has another responsibility, which is introductions, like a tour guide. Once company senior executives or important figures come to visit, the public relations department, in addition to receiving them, is also responsible for acting as a tour guide.

Lu Shaohua's identity was undoubtedly the most precious and high-ranking, so when he arrived, the director of the public relations department had to personally come out to receive him and explain the situation of Phoenix Tencent to Lu Shaohua.

"Hello, Chairman!"

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Everyone greeted Lu Shaohua one by one, with respect written all over their faces.

Lu Shaohua deserves their respect, because he is their boss. Lu Shaohua has obviously seen this kind of scene before, but he is not panicked. His face is calm, he nodded gently and said, "Let's talk about the general situation of Phoenix Tencent first."

"Yes." Ma Huateng nodded, with a charming smile on his face, and then introduced in a concise tone. "Now Phoenix Tencent's QQ chat software has spread all over the world. As long as there is an Internet, there is our QQ. Phoenix Tencent Information has also set up servers in almost every country and opened our information homepage website. Because QQ has the most users, the traffic of the information website is also high. Now in the information field, we are already number one."

"Also, we launched another important initiative some time ago, officially opening the Four Diamonds, which has been well received. The number of users who have activated the membership is increasing. According to conservative estimates, the number of users who have activated all the Four Diamonds is expected to exceed 2.3 million, and the number of users who have only activated the One Diamond is likely to exceed million. As for the Two Diamonds and Three Diamonds, the data will be different." Ma Huateng paused for a moment, and then continued. "In terms of membership, since it was launched relatively early, there are already a large number of regular users who have purchased it. In addition to new users, as of today, the number of users has reached more than million."

QQ chat software is free and does not seem to make money, but don't underestimate it. Once membership and four-diamond packages are available, the speed at which it makes money is no different from a money printing machine. Add to that the advertising revenue from the homepage, and the annual income is an astronomical figure.

"Yeah." Lu Shaohua nodded, indicating that he had heard it, and then asked calmly, "Did you encounter any difficulties?"

"Yes." Ma Huateng was very straightforward, his face immediately turned into a cloud of worry, and he said with some concern. "So far, we have opened the purchase of the four-diamond + membership service, and many users are just concerned about the appearance, and it has no fundamental use. If this continues, once the novelty wears off, the purchasing power of users will decrease."

As Ma Huateng said, users who purchase the Four Diamonds+ membership do so just for the looks, and it does not have much practicality. Once the novelty wears off, no one will buy it.

However, this problem may be a difficult problem for Ma Huateng, but it is not a big problem for Lu Shaohua who has seen Ma Huateng's methods in his previous life. Lu Shaohua immediately made a suggestion, saying, "We can start from the function. For example, QQ launched a level system, which calculates the level based on the online time, and those who purchase membership can accelerate the level upgrade. Those are practical!"

QQ levels, etc., in the previous life, that system was not launched until early 2002. When it was first launched, it only used time to count the levels, and members did not have the function of accelerating upgrades. It was not until 2009 that members had the function of accelerating upgrades.

Lu Shaohua allowed members to upgrade faster in advance. This not only allowed members to have more benefits, but also served as a sales promotion method. Lu Shaohua was sure that once the level system appeared and members could upgrade faster, more users would become members.

Ma Huateng had been listening quietly. When Lu Shaohua finished speaking, Ma Huateng thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up again, he looked at Lu Shaohua, his face full of surprise, and said, "I will start developing a level system right away."

"Yeah." Lu Shaohua smiled faintly and said, "As for the four diamonds, we can also work on this aspect. Anyway, we should make the four diamonds + membership not only good-looking, but also practical. In this way, the number of people who open it will not decrease, but increase."

Yes, in Lu Shaohua's memory, it seemed that QQ later created some kind of membership *** levels, such as ***1 and ***2. The speed of each level was different, which made many users desperately renew their memberships to get the *** level, just to make the QQ level upgrade faster.

However, users don't know that this is a means used by Ma Huateng to attract more regular users and make more money. Now that Lu Shaohua has promoted it and made it public, of course he has to make it public all at once, and then the money will come rolling in.

However, Lu Shaohua had already given his opinion, and he also believed that Ma Huateng would do all this well, so he didn't say much at the moment, waved his hand, and said, "Okay, let's start looking at the company."

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