Chapter 123123. Launching on the Market

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

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

Looking at the three generals he had recruited, Eric asked, "Who will come first? Let me see if my money is worth it."

FitzHeisenberg glanced at the two people next to him and plugged in the equipment he brought with him.

"Boss, let me go first. Facebook's development is relatively easier and the current completion rate is higher."

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

This interface gave Eric the feeling that it was a crude version of the personal homepage on those big websites of later generations.

An avatar plus a few lines of introduction, with some pictures below, is somewhat similar to the prototype of the Circle of Friends.

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

"Through your idea, my team and I realized that this is actually a social network based on an acquaintance system, and its roots are still the architecture of LAMP."

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

Knowing that Eric was not a professional, Heisenberg did not dwell on the technical details and simply 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 the shadow of a person's head, and below the head were two blank lines for entering the account and password.

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

Heisenberg opened his eyes and shook his head. "No, it was Heigal, the illustrator artist on our team. She felt that the interface was too monotonous, so she wanted to add some embellishments."

"I see. So what types of registration does this password support now?"

"Currently, it only supports emails. All emails in the United States are supported, whether you use Google, Yahoo, or others."

"Well, is the cell phone number okay?"

"What?"

“Can I register with a mobile phone number?”

Heisenberg was stunned for a moment, or to be more precise, everyone was staring at Eric in a daze.

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

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 I raise this question is naturally based on the soul of a Chinese person. Living in the future, whoever downloads a new software can do so by sending a text message to a mobile phone number.

Email is too troublesome. Eric remembers that some early domestic websites still required email to register, such as Taobao and Alipay.

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

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

"Why? Wouldn't it be more convenient to register by sending a text message from 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, the penetration rate of new mobile phones is relatively high, but in third- and fourth-tier cities, or in less developed states like Missouri, a considerable number of people do not use or cannot afford mobile phones."

"The mode of registering with a mobile phone number sounds novel and seems to be very convenient, but the premise is that you still have to open the webpage and click the registration option before the background will send you a text message."

"Since you have to log in to the website, why not use the more direct email? The transmission rate of text messages is slow, and it is not as fast as email."

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

After all, it is 2003 now, and there are still several years before the rise of smartphones. Without the support of smartphones, even if many software programs release mobile versions, their functions will be castrated and there will not be many left.

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

Moreover, even if smartphones were developed in advance, the mobile Internet would still not be completed.

Because the current signal is still 2G, it often takes a long time to scroll through web pages and pictures, and data traffic charges are also a big problem, which ordinary people cannot afford.

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

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

Looking back over the past few decades, it is only Huawei that has broken the technological monopoly in the future, but that is based on decades of technological accumulation.

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

Unless the giant Qualcomm suddenly collapses, everything will come back to life!

"Fitz, keep going!"

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

He moved the mouse across the top toolbar: "Boss, this is the commonly used toolbar, which can be thought of as a tool panel in Word."

"First of all, this question mark is for answers to questions, mainly to help solve security and common problems with your account, as well as settings, such as changing your password."

"This exclamation mark represents a message reminder, such as someone sending you a private message, or a system message, or someone posting a dynamic comment to you."

"Then there is the all-important blank space, where you can add new friends."

As he spoke, Heisenberg clicked on the blank space, entered an email address, pressed Enter, and a new interface immediately popped up. It was an interface for another person, a bit like the QQ friend-adding interface.

"That's good, but I want to know what information can be retrieved besides email when adding friends?" Eric continued to ask.

"There are also Facebook accounts and nicknames. If you want to accurately locate someone, these are the only three ways you can do it."

"Can I search for keywords and ranges? For example, if I enter the three words "big eyes" and then the age range of 18 to 30, can I search for strangers who meet these conditions?"

What Eric was talking about was obviously the search function of the later Penguin. In addition, the drift bottle and other functions are also very good.

Although these two functions have been criticized for various issues, the Drift Bottle was permanently removed from the shelves because it was pornographic.

But don't forget that this is America. It would be a problem in China, but you don't have to worry about it here.

Even if it causes some social problems and lawsuits, it is nothing compared to the traffic and users that can be attracted. At worst, we can just sue. Isn't that what the legal team is for?

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

If you think about this function proposed by the other party, you will understand what the secret is. Such a search function will undoubtedly attract a large number of lonely men and women.

"Sorry, we can only search for email addresses, accounts and nicknames now. Boss, the function you mentioned requires a new algorithm to be rewritten, but it's very interesting just thinking about it. We will improve it as soon as possible."

"Okay, go ahead."

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

At present, it can only be regarded as a prototype, and its main functions are still focused on sharing and commenting on dynamics, which is roughly equivalent to WeChat’s Moments.

It also provides a simple chat function, or more precisely, a private message function.

However, although it is simple, it is unique among scorpion shits.

In 2003, let alone Moments, even WeChat hadn’t appeared yet.

Not to mention WeChat, even QQ Space has not had any creative ideas yet.

However, it is limited to the basic functions of the Moments. More advanced functions such as sharing, liking, blocking, and viewing visitors have not yet been implemented.

These functions may seem very common 20 years later, but any one of them can cause a huge sensation today.

Eric will gradually add to it and eventually turn the software into a super social network that combines the advantages of major programs such as Facebook, WeChat, and Penguin.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

"Fitz, I'm very satisfied that you were able to produce the finished product in such a short time. You did a great job. Can Facebook be put on the market now?"

Heisenberg nodded. "We have been testing our internal LAN for a month. I can ensure that it meets the functional standards and will not have any bugs. It can ensure a smooth user experience."

"The issue to consider when launching the product on the market is how to promote it. Another important aspect is the data storage of the server. The former is related to whether our efforts can bear fruit, while the latter is to ensure the maturity of the fruit."

"This is not just a problem Facebook has to face, but it's also a problem Lionheart and YouTube will face once they enter the market."

Howard Hughes and Robert Mirren nodded in agreement.

Eric smiled. He had of course thought about this question many times before. After much deliberation, he decided that it was safest to follow Zuckerberg's old path.

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

It took Zuckerberg only a few months to take over all the colleges and universities in the United States, and I will only be faster than him.

"I have already thought of a solution for the promotion problem. I have decided to adopt a combination of offline and online methods. Online is the same old way, buying advertisements, a lot of them, to increase exposure."

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

"4,000 universities across the United States, two months, within two months I will have Facebook take them down."

"Then, based on these college students, we will encourage their parents and siblings to join in. High school students and young people under 30 years old are our second-stage targets."

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

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

He asked, "Boss, what model do you use 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 adopt a hard promotion model, spend money to hire a group of college students to become the first batch of users, and then let these college students promote Facebook in their respective schools."

"But there is a prerequisite for employment, that is, the men must be handsome and the women must be beautiful and sexy."

"Just think about it. You only need to create an account to become friends with the handsome guys and pretty girls in school. You can keep up with their dynamics at any time. It is even possible that you can develop into a boyfriend-girlfriend or secret lover in the future. This will be very tempting."

"Yes!"

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

Everyone's eyes instantly fell on him, and the little fat boy immediately became listless again, returning to his timid look from before.

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

"Danny McHale, the boss."

"Okay Danny, let me ask you a question. If you had an opportunity like this, would you join Facebook?"

"Of course, why not? First of all, you can see your goddess anytime and anywhere, and then you can 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 chase you instead."

There was a burst of laughter in the conference room.

To put it bluntly, this strategy is still a dirty trick, but dirty tricks are often the most effective, and everyone has to admit that.

After talking about the issue of promotion, the next thing is data storage.

Heisenberg continued, "Boss, for Facebook, the most important data right now is pictures, and a picture may only be a few dozen 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 an outsider, he also understands how terrible it is when a server crashes.

For example, he used to be a player who played the game with poisonous milk powder. When the anniversary celebration came, it was difficult for him to go online and hang up, and he couldn't log in at all.

The players were extremely disgusted, so the poisonous milk powder was also called the offline city.

Moreover, according to Eric's superficial understanding, Internet companies that have grown to a certain scale all have their own data storage centers.

Many people build not just one, but several backups for fear of accidental data clearing.

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

Eric nodded. "What you said makes sense, but it's still conservative. Tens of millions of people are nothing. Our goal is to have hundreds of millions of people accessing 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 quite expensive."

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

Heisenberg smiled. As a developer, he knew very well that Facebook would not be able to make a profit in a short time.

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

(End of this chapter)