The Best Entertainment Era

Walking in Netflix's new office building, it's not difficult for Ronan to find that the office environment is much better than before, which also proves that the only way to improve the office environment is to spend money.

In the open office area, dozens of employees in the technical department are busy.

With the new office environment and energetic employees, the company has a thriving atmosphere.

Eric Meyer, Netflix's vice president and director of technology, who was with Ronan, said at this time: Everything new on the site is designed by them.

Ronan has already experienced it himself, and said: It's very good, better than I expected.

Eric Meyer said with a smile: The main reason is that the ideas and goals you put forward for us are very clear. We have a clear framework and goals, and it will be easier to do specific work.

Luo Nan walked and said: The current functions are quite good. New problems and new ideas may be discovered during use. You must optimize in time. We must ensure that we are always in the leading position in new industries.

Eric Meyer is full of confidence: We started early, and we will definitely lead by one step, step by step.

Ronan has been staying in San Francisco for the past few days, carefully experiencing Netflix’s social and sharing functions. Although there are many flaws, especially the inability to compare with the social software that he has used before, under the ideas he provided, the technical department The finished design is generally very good, and it can be said that it is much more powerful than Twitter and Facebook when they first appeared.

More importantly, the user feedback received by Netflix shows that the satisfaction rate of the new features is as high as 99.3%.

This is not easy for Netflix, which has nearly 8 million users.

If forums and chat rooms have ushered in the era of online social networking, what Netflix has to do is to use simpler, more powerful, faster and more convenient functions to push online social networking into a new era.

Ronan can provide some ideas, but the specific design work needs to be done by Netflix's technical staff.

These programmers can be said to be one of the most dynamic professions.

In fact, many people in the outside world are very envious of the programmers in Silicon Valley.

At present, the income of programmers in Silicon Valley is very considerable, which can be described as a typical high-paying industry, and the working environment is simple, there is not much complicated social interaction, everything depends on strength.

In recent years, as all walks of life are promoting Internetization, they don’t have to worry about their jobs in the future; compared with monopoly industries and old-fashioned industries, the promotion channels are smoother, and the opportunities are relatively fairer.

After a round in the tech department, Ronan and Eric Meyer walked into Mark Randolph's office.

Today, Netflix has more than 300 employees, and its average monthly operating income is gradually approaching 40 million US dollars. It can be said that the business is busy.

You guys are here at the right time. Mark Randolph said in a great mood, I just got a piece of statistics here. Since Netflix Shared went online for a week, our average daily shipments have increased compared to last week. 25%, the number of registered users increased by 52% compared with the first week, and the sharing business and the rental business obviously have a positive interaction.

Ronan nodded slightly: Many movie fans are often curious about what movies other people like, and the sharing function just caters to their needs.

There was a stage when he often went to the website. Many people liked to share their own book lists, and others were also happy to find suitable ones through other people's subscription book lists.

The function proposed by Ronan was borrowed from the website at that time.

Eric Meyer said: It's just a preliminary function now, and we will optimize it in the future, such as launching user-shared recommendation list and so on.

Mark Randolph nodded slightly: These are all conducive to expanding our Internet rental business. He added: There is one more thing that cannot be ignored. The increase in the number of new registered users comes from the way users call friends Connecting with each other, many real-life friend groups, under the call of seeking individuals, registered users on our website, and then formed a circle of friends that connects reality and the Internet.

Ronan thought for a while and said, I will let the group increase the promotion of Netflix's sharing business. A point attracted by the promotion is very likely to expand into a side.

Eric Meyer is a typical technical manager who doesn't know much about publicity and didn't express any opinions.

Mark Randolph thought for a while, and said: The way of publicity should be novel, and it should be in line with the nature of the Internet and social sharing.

It makes sense. Ronan didn't have a good idea for a while, and said, I will let the propaganda department come up with a few more plans, and then synthesize your opinions.

Newly added customers also need to convert as many paid rental users of Netflix as possible. Although the streaming media business is limited by common computer hardware and bandwidth and many other conditions, it has not yet been opened, and Netflix also needs to refine and accumulate the latest Sharing business, but if more people can become paid rental users of Netflix, as long as there is excellent content in the future, they will naturally pay for Netflix's streaming media business.

The number of users is one of the keys to Netflix's urgent development. Before leaving, Ronan said to Mark Randolph: We will operate Netflix's financing and listing in the future, which is an important condition for attracting investment.

Mark Randolph said: Our target for this year has been adjusted to 12 million registered users. In addition, we are preparing for overseas business, and Netflix's European branch will be online as soon as early next year.

Ronan nodded slightly and said: Mark, Netflix's strategic goals cannot be shaken. You can think about it. If we have more than 20 million users, it will have an important impact on the discovery of the entire film and television industry, and the group company will also do its best. To cooperate with you, Shahai Entertainment produced TV series such as Grey's Anatomy, as well as some films that do not rely on special effects, which can be released through Netflix's future streaming business.

Mark Randolph knew that Ronan and Shahai Entertainment were planning programs for Netflix's future online streaming business, and said: When Netflix was first established, the goal was to change the film and television rental industry. Now we have the opportunity to change the entire film and television production and distribution industry. Why not make it happen? I can't wait to see the day.

Ronan smiled and said, I'm also waiting for this day to come.

In order to increase the number of Netflix users significantly, publicity and promotion are essential. Although over the past year, all movies and related activities launched by Relativity Entertainment will have Netflix promotion advertisements, but this It's just a conventional publicity method. Now that Netflix is ​​launching a social sharing business, it needs a new promotional hotspot.

Netflix’s business in North America is developing smoothly, and the next one will expand to Europe, even Australia and more countries and regions with open markets. This publicity hotspot must also form a certain international influence, thereby driving Netflix’s global business .

In addition, Ronan also mentioned the application on smartphones to Mark Randolph and Eric Meyer.

For Silicon Valley, smart phones are not a new product. The earliest prototypes of smart phones were born as early as the 1990s. At present, many handheld business computers, in some respects, also have certain functions of smart phones.

BlackBerry has also been established for several years. At present, its main mobile phone has many functions such as email, mobile phone, text message, Internet fax, web browsing and other wireless information services.

In addition, many mobile phone manufacturers are entering the smart phone industry, such as Motorola, which publicly announced in early 2003 to vigorously develop the smart phone business.

Of course, it was Steve Jobs and Apple's kidney machine that really pushed the smartphone business to a climax.

I have to say that Steve Jobs is really a marketing master.

Ronan also took advantage of his status as a shareholder of Apple to make a special trip to Apple, which is also located in Silicon Valley. Although he did not meet Steve Jobs, he also heard some new news.

This is of course no secret news, after all, Apple's development of smartphones is also semi-public.

The first generation of Kidney Machine has already had an initial plan. Ronan can’t remember when the first generation of Kidney Machine was launched, but he once bought a parallel machine of Kidney Machine 4, which was in 2010.

Calculating according to the annual replacement rhythm of the kidney machine, the first generation of the kidney machine should be released in 2007, and it will not exceed 2006 at the earliest.

Ronan also has a timetable. No later than 2005, Netflix's APP will fully enter the smartphone application market, or even earlier.

Netflix has a first-mover advantage, as well as users attracted by virtue of its superior film resources. The social sharing business has a very high starting point from the very beginning.

Even though not every user among the nearly 8 million users will use the sharing function, the sharing business will have millions of active users from the very beginning.

How long did it take for Facebook to reach such a scale?

When a company with a solid foundation, a huge platform, and full of innovative energy wants to develop new businesses, its natural advantages are definitely not comparable to those who start from scratch.

Ronan had been waiting to meet Steve Jobs, only to hear that Steve Jobs had gone to India for a retreat.

Steve Jobs has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It is said that many relatives and friends advised him to undergo surgery, but Steve Jobs himself believed in the meditation therapy in India and even invited a psychic.

Pancreatic cancer is known as the king of cancer, and no one can guarantee how long Steve Jobs will live.

Ordinary people can only wait to die if they get this disease.

But Steve Jobs, who was once seriously ill, still pushed the kidney machine to its peak.

Ronan also hoped that Steve Jobs would wait for a few more years. Anyway, he still holds a considerable amount of Apple stock.

The era of intelligence will soon begin.