Chapter 857 Brain Storm
The word "website building" may be confusing at first, but its meaning is extremely clear when placed in a specific historical context.
In 1984, Tom Jennings, an American, developed FidoNet, a non-profit network built by people in their spare time, based on BBS. Everyone is an information provider and information sharer. By 1991, FidoNet was spread all over the world, with more than 12,000 stations chatting on computers through dial-up telephones.
China's CFido is a branch of FidoNet, and its Chinese name is Huiduo. In 1991, Roy set up the first station in mainland China, Great Wall, in Yanjing. The following year, the Great Wall station in Yanjing and the Hand in Hand station in Shantou formed the earliest BBS exchange system in China, and the prototype of Huiduo was born.
In the following years, CFido entered a period of rapid development in China, with the number of its sites and its influence increasing day by day.
The difficulty of building a website lies not only in the technology required, but also in the funds required.
At that time, most sites had a single line. When a user connected to the site through dial-up software to access the Internet, other users could only wait in front of their computers until the line was disconnected.
Since Huiduo.com itself is not a profit-making website, only some qualified webmasters will consider investing more funds, adding lines and improving user experience, thereby attracting more netizens to their websites.
The rapid development in China is naturally inseparable from the large number of webmasters who are obsessed with Internet technology and communication. Almost all of the early webmasters of Huiduo.com were among the first people in China to come into contact with the Internet at that time, and there were naturally many hidden dragons and crouching tigers among them.
In 1995, Ma Huateng invested 50,000 yuan to buy four telephones and eight computers, and built a four-line radio station called Ponysoft at home.
Qiu Bojun of Kingsoft Software is the stationmaster of the Zhuhai West Line, and Wang Juntao, who once served as the chairman of 8848, is the stationmaster of Lanbo Fuzhou Station.
Even Lei Jun, who met with Lin Weimin today, is the webmaster of BJ West Point.
Now it is 1997. There are already hundreds of Huiduo websites in China, and even the Webmaster Conference has been held twice.
Qu Xiaowei said he wanted to build a website, and Lin Weimin's comment on this was: eating shit is not as good as eating hot shit.
BBS was indeed popular in the past two years. Whether it was the institutional BBS of schools, governments and other organizations, or the commercial BBS in cooperation with the telecommunications department, or the BBS spontaneously established by netizens like Huiduo.com, they all began to appear in media reports and the number of users increased dramatically.
However, with the rapid growth of users, the originally niche and stable CFido was also impacted. The rich atmosphere of technical discussions and the online experience of mutual help eventually became a thing of the past under the impact of the gradually uneven quality of netizens.
1997 was the last glorious year for Huiduo.com. Although users' demand for BBS did not disappear, chat rooms had quietly emerged in Guangdong, where the reform atmosphere was the strongest. One of the most well-known websites was NetEase Chat Room, with a peak of over 50,000 people chatting online at the same time.
When early Internet users surfed the Internet, except for a small number of technology enthusiasts, most people's need was to chat online. Moreover, compared with the mechanical and lagging BBS, the immediacy of online chat rooms was more attractive to users.
Not to mention that ICQ has now appeared abroad.
"Why did you think of doing this?"
"I'm just chatting with people online. People told me that it would be a waste if I didn't do something with such good resources. Wouldn't it be great to create Huiduo.com?"
Lin Weimin shook his head and said, "Huiduo.com is not fashionable now. This BBS network that is connected point-to-point via telephone lines has great limitations and cannot make a profit. If you want to entertain yourself, there is no problem in creating one."
After understanding Lin Weimin's intention, Qu Xiaowei began to back out. He asked, "What do you think about setting up an online chat room?"
Lin Weimin joked: "Okay, you also know about chat rooms?"
"You look down on me, don't you? We are in the Internet business after all!"
Once an Internet cafe is opened, it's like flattering itself.
However, Lin Weimin did not criticize Qu Xiaowei. Nowadays, even people who sell computer accessories can say that they are in the computer business. It is nothing wrong for the owner of such a large Internet cafe chain to say that he is in the Internet business!
"Online chat rooms are more expensive than Huiduo.com. Are you sure you want to do it?" Lin Weimin asked.
Qu Xiaowei hesitated when he heard this, "Is it true that this thing can't make money?"
"If you stick with it for a few years, you might be able to earn it."
“How do you make money?”
Lin Weimin spread his hands and said, "Who knows?"
How to make money on the Internet? This is a difficult problem for Qu Xiaowei, not to mention for the whole world.
Apart from selling software and hardware, Internet practitioners have not yet explored a complete profit path for this emerging industry.
Take Nasdaq on the other side of the ocean as an example. There are many listed Internet companies, but their profit models are still in the exploration stage. Each one is burning money and their future seems bleak.
Lin Weimin had no intention of making himself all-knowing and all-powerful. Qu Xiaowei had already opened an Internet cafe under his guidance, so there was no need for him to help further.
Qu Xiaowei was struggling with this, and Lin Weimin asked, "Who gave you the idea to organize the forum?"
"There's a returnee who often comes to our internet cafe to surf the internet. That guy is pretty awesome. He graduated from Shuimu, studied abroad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, worked in a large foreign company for two years, and then used his teacher's money to come back and start an internet company."
Lin Weiming felt that this experience sounded familiar, "What's it called?"
"What's his name? Let me think, what was his name? Look at my brain, he told me once and I forgot it." Qu Xiaowei patted his head, and after a long while he still couldn't remember, "I can't remember it. He told me to call him Charles. Those who study abroad don't like to be called by their real names, so they like to give themselves foreign names for people to call them by."
As expected, he was the man who rejected the entire Chinese Internet. At this moment, Lin Weimin really had a feeling of watching the changing times. The Internet layout of Guowen Publishing House should also be stepped up.
"If you want to get to know him, I'll introduce him to you when I have the chance."
Hearing this, Lin Weimin's heart moved, "Okay, if you think about this, contact me later."
Qu Xiaowei was very happy to be able to help Lin Weimin, "No problem."
The next morning, Lin Weimin went to the office to attend a meeting, and it was already past ten o'clock when he returned to the Guowen Publishing House.
Zhao Xin came to his office and said that people from Kingsoft had arrived and the two sides had already discussed the software procurement.
Since the late 1980s, Guowen Publishing House has purchased a large number of computers. Now each editorial office and department has more than one computer, and the demand for software is still very large.
This time, Kingsoft received a total of 80 orders for WPS software, as well as nearly 100 orders for other small computer software such as entry-level software, with a total amount exceeding 200,000 yuan.
This number may not seem like much, but Kingsoft's WPS only sells a few thousand copies a year. One visit to Guowen Press is equivalent to their company's sales for several days, and this order comes without any effort. Where else can you find such a good thing?
"The person who came hasn't left yet. He said he wanted to see you." Zhao Xin said.
"Then let him come over." Lin Weimin said casually.
When he saw the person, his expression was slightly surprised, "Why are you here?"
Lei Jun smiled and said: "Guowen Press is a large company, and only when I, as the general manager, come here can we show our importance!"
He held Lin Weimin's hand and said, "Lin... President, thank you for supporting domestic software!"
Zhao Xin hadn't left yet, and Lei Jun paused when he called Lin Weimin.
"Your Kingsoft's WPS can be said to be the pride of domestic software. Guowen Press will certainly give more support if it has the ability." Lin Weimin said with a smile.
After Zhao Xin left, the two chatted for a while.
Lin Weimin said, "It just so happens that you are here today. I have something I want to ask you."
"You say."
"What do you think about our Chinese Literature Society building a website..."
When Lei Jun heard Lin Weimin say that he wanted to set up a website for the Guowen Publishing House, he didn't take it seriously at first.
In recent years, many units have followed the trend and set up websites, but most of them are just for show and have almost no function except burning money and keeping idle people.
But as he listened, he felt something was wrong.
According to Lin Weimin, the functions of the official website of Guowen Publishing House are so comprehensive that it is a bit scary. It combines multiple functions such as Guowen Publishing House information introduction + product promotion + reader exchange forum + book purchase, etc.
“I hope to make the functions of this website more comprehensive, not just for external display, but also to be practical and play a substantial role in the actual development of our national literary society.
But I am a layman in this area. Although I have a certain understanding of industrial development, I am a layman in the specific operation, so my words may not be very professional. Do you think the form I mentioned can be realized? "
After listening to Lin Weimin's words, Lei Jun thought quickly in his mind.
The ideas proposed by Lin Weimin are not difficult to implement. The real difficulty lies in the future operation of the website.
After all, no matter how good the hardware is, it will be useless if the software is not good.
After thinking for a moment, Lei Jun said: "It is not difficult to implement the functions you mentioned, but there are two problems that need to be solved. One is funding, and the other is future operations.
It doesn't cost much to build a website, but the reader exchange forum function you just mentioned must have enough servers and bandwidth to support it, which costs a lot of money. I think your vision for the website is very comprehensive, and future development will definitely require some professionals to maintain and operate it. These things are easier said than done. "
Lin Weimin nodded. "I have prepared for these. After all, the concept is a bit complicated. Just like the online shopping function I mentioned, it is not only necessary to put the book information online, but also to organize the information after the reader purchases, package and mail the products, and provide after-sales service. This is a whole set of things that need to be sorted out in a process."
Lei Jun smiled and said, "Your book selection reminds me of Amazon, which just went public in the United States this year. They are an online bookstore."
"We do learn from their ideas. However, the development of the Internet in our country is still relatively backward and cannot be compared with that of the United States."
Lei Jun thought for a moment and said, "I don't think you need to be too ambitious. You just talked about so many plans for the website, and they are all very comprehensive, but putting them together may not all be good. It would be better to develop the idea of the online bookstore separately, or put it together with the reader forum."
Following Lei Jun's train of thought, Lin Weimin nodded slightly. His advantage as a prophet was not omnipotent. Lei Jun was able to achieve such a high achievement in later life, and it was indeed due to his extraordinary qualities.
"You have a point..."
Lin Weimin has the advantage of foresight and Lei Jun has a keen sense of touch. When the two of them got together to brainstorm, their interest grew and their discussions became more and more practical.
We were so excited talking that we didn't even have time to eat lunch.
In the end, the two of them had envisioned almost every aspect of the future website development to perfection, and they were both very happy.
But somehow, Lei Jun seemed to have thought of something, the joy on his face faded, and he seemed to be hesitant to speak.
(End of this chapter)
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