Back To 1995: Chapter 206 Even pot end

  Chapter 206 Lian Guoduan

  The office building where ICQ is located has basically been contracted by ICQ. When it has not built its own headquarters or moved to the American Investment Foundation building, it will basically always work in this building.

  When Song Yang entered, he saw that countless people were busy with phone calls one after another, just like what Song Yang saw when he went to the Netscape office building for the first time. After going online, the scale of ICQ personnel is also expanding rapidly.

The entire ICQ is completely different from when it was launched at the beginning of the year. There is only one technical development department with less than a hundred developers. Offices such as administration, finance, personnel, operations, advertising business, and customer service have all been built. ICQ’s The number of personnel has also snowballed over 500 people. In today's Silicon Valley, it is not considered a small scale. This number of personnel is a little more than that of Yahoo today, second only to Netscape, AOL, etc. listed companies.

When Song Yang saw Irene, Irene was wearing a white suit, wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, and looked like a strong professional woman. She was listening to the report of her subordinates. When she saw Song Yang, her face was also straight The color is white, without the slightest shadow of the little wild cat on the bed.

  Irene glanced at Song Yang who was looking at her with great interest, and couldn't help giving Song Yang a blank look. Seeing the look on Song Yang's face, she didn't know that Song Yang must have thought of something good.

Song Yang sat down and listened to Irene having a meeting with the heads of several departments. Several other people also noticed Song Yang's arrival, but Song Yang didn't make a sound, just pulled up a chair and sat in the back , picked up a newspaper and read it, and several people continued to report to Irene.

   "Currently ICQ has two major businesses. The first major business is mainly the main business of instant messaging, and the second major business is the ICQ community."

A young executive reported to Irene Hui, from top to bottom of the entire ICQ, except for the finance and legal departments, the rest are relatively young, the youngest is the one sitting in the conference room at the moment The founder of ICQ and other Silicon Valley Internet companies are actually similar. After all, the Internet industry has only been around for a long time.

   "ICQ's share in the instant messaging industry is about to exceed 50%. ICQ community space is also the most popular and active social product among Internet users in the Internet industry!"

The market personnel said, "However, Microsoft, AOL, Netscape, Yahoo and other companies are also developing instant messaging products similar to ICQ, and several small Internet companies have begun to contact us, wanting to get ICQ from ICQ. to patent licensing."

Hearing this, Song Yang raised his head slightly and looked over. This is a sound test. Microsoft, AOL and other companies have at least a green face, and they are afraid that ICQ will sue for infringement, so they dare not directly cover the appearance of ICQ's products. With the design, at least you have to make it yourself.

But those small companies in Silicon Valley didn't care at all. They just copied ICQ's design, at most changing the color and product name, and then came to ask ICQ for a patent authorization. They didn't expect to get the authorization. At worst, if they lose in a lawsuit, they will definitely lose.

But if you don’t lose, then you can make a lot of money. Relying on the counterfeit ICQ, you may be able to develop a large number of users and traffic. If you can finally get the support of a venture capital company, you will finally make a fortune and sell the product. , Just slap your **** and leave.

  There are countless small companies like Silicon Valley, but most of them make a little money and then disappear slowly, failing to make a fortune. Occasionally, there are a few lucky ones who can make a lot of money and even succeed in transformation.

  Following the trend is not just one place, it is used all over the world, but in some places, the play is a bit too outrageous, the copycat forced the death of the original owner...

"Don't pay attention to those companies, let the legal department directly warn these companies, if necessary, directly initiate a lawsuit, and contact the double-click company and the IAB advertising association. All companies with ICQ, double-click company, and the IAB advertising association are prohibited. Advertisements are placed on the website of these copycat ICQ!"

  Irene said very strongly that she has never been soft-hearted or regressed when dealing with these companies. These companies are like dog skin plasters. Once they are stained, they cannot be removed.

  Lawsuits may be delayed for a long time, maybe even a copycat company goes bankrupt and the lawsuit is not over yet.

But this does not mean that ICQ has no way to deal with these dog-skin plasters. Double-click, which holds the right to place advertisements on the Internet in America, wears the same trousers as ICQ, and does not place advertisements on those small websites, and also prohibits Microsoft, which cooperates with ICQ and Double-click IE browser, Yahoo, WPP Group, and other advertising funders put advertisements on these small websites, and within half a year, they were finished by themselves.

   "Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo must keep an eye on them, and pay attention to their online social products at any time. In addition, they must pay attention to whether they use ICQ's patents and technologies, and they must not let go of any of them!"

   What makes Irene afraid is still opponents like Microsoft. Don’t look at Song Yang, he seems to be an ally with Microsoft now. Both sides wear a pair of pants, but when it’s time to do something, they don’t hesitate to stab the knife on both sides.

Once Microsoft, AOL, etc. launch other social products, the flames of war in the social industry will definitely ignite. To deal with these opponents, ICQ will never relent. Sue to death, and sue the whole world!

   We have to thank Netscape for this. If Netscape hadn’t dragged Microsoft down and sued Microsoft’s monopoly to the judiciary, commerce, trade commission and other departments, I’m afraid that Microsoft would have launched MSN and competed with ICQ.

Now seeing that the IE browser, relying on the bundled Microsoft system, is becoming more and more powerful. In the overseas market, it has already completed the overtake of Netscape. Only in the American market, it is still in a stalemate with Netscape. If it continues like this , Maybe it won't take a few years, or even a year or two, before Netscape will collapse.

On Song Yang's side, Double-Click and ICQ are secretly delivering ammunition to Netscape. In the new quarter, Double-Click even bought a small Internet advertising company, put on a vest, and used this company exclusively to place ads for Netscape. .

The stubborn Netscape said that it is not free, but it still lowered the fee, increased the intensity of advertising, and relied on advertising to make up for the loss of fees. In addition, the proud Jim Clark and Mark Anderson couldn't lose face and went to learn from IE. Once they did so, it meant that they really admitted defeat!

  "The portal business needs to be prepared as soon as possible. We have already fallen behind Yahoo, Lycos and other companies, so we can't delay any longer!"

With a serious face, Irene said to the group of executives that the executives who were stared at by Irene were still quite afraid of this "veteran" head who had followed Song Yang to establish Double-click, ICQ and other companies. .

   "Game business department, how is the preparation now?"

Irene attaches great importance to the "traffic monetization" business that Song Yang said. The establishment of a portal website is purely to follow the trend and go public. The game business is what Irene cares about. She has been busy these few days this matter.

A senior executive of the financial department at the bottom, upon hearing this, unconsciously glanced at Song Yang, and then at Irene. ICQ is obviously throwing money at the game industry. The financial department, no Knowing that this is the idea of ​​Irene alone, or the inspiration of the founder Song Yang, these are two completely different concepts.

"President Irene, the three game companies you asked us to pay attention to, Blizzard is currently in the hands of Xueleshan Games, but Blizzard is not cheap now. Blizzard has launched RPM racing, Lost Vikings in the past few years, and released on the Nintendo platform. The global sales volume of Warcraft has exceeded one million in every life game!"

Blizzard is doing pretty well right now. In today’s downturn in the game industry, although the owner has changed several times in a row, the three founders of Blizzard are still there. They are at their peak, and they continue to let Blizzard develop sensational games in the game industry. Products, but because of this, Blizzard is like a sweet potato. In recent years, it has been acquired continuously, and ICQ is not the only one eyeing Blizzard.

"In addition, Valve is just a small game studio that has just been established, less than half a year ago. It was established by Gabe Newell and Harrington, who just came out of Microsoft this year. This is a completely start-up game studio, Not even a game project has been created yet!"

The talking executive looked at Irene, full of surprise. He didn't know how the manager would fall in love with such a thing. Could it be that they were optimistic about each other just because they were from Microsoft? The accomplishments in the game industry are really hard to compliment.

  Irene didn't expect that V Agency is such a thing now, so she couldn't help but look towards Song Yang, who turned a blind eye to Irene's gaze.

   "Where's Star R?" Irene asked, frowning.

Speaking of this, the person in charge of investigating these game companies looked even weirder, "R Star Studio, it should be this, it is now just a partner of the newly established video media department under BMG, Sam Hauser and Dan Hauser are in charge, but BMG's game department has not achieved much, and it is far inferior to Blizzard."

  The person who spoke specially emphasized a sentence at the end, showing how bad the game department of BMG is.

Irene was also a little confused for a while. She didn't know that the game companies that Song Yang mentioned to her, except Blizzard, which was sold around, were more reliable. How could the other two be such a thing? Valve worked The studio has just been established, and Rock Star is not doing well. Even the two people in charge are both record players, and they just entered the game industry halfway.

   "If you want to buy Blizzard, I'm afraid it will not be so easy. Xue Leshan has not been in good condition in recent years, and I am afraid it will not be easy to sell Blizzard Studio!"

   "Then buy Xuele Mountain together!" A voice came from behind the conference room.

  (end of this chapter)