At the beginning of the new year, at the same time that the two acquisitions were finalized, the Westeros system began to officially exert its efforts in the Internet field.
After careful preliminary preparations, AOL launched the Internet free trial plan on January 1, 1991.
As long as they are users of Bell Pacific, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX telecom operators on the east and west coasts of the United States, they can install and access the World Wide Web platform for free by making an appointment, and get a three-hour daily free trial for one month.
As of December 31, 1990, the number of end users of AOL was fixed at 820,000, and the number of Internet users accessing the World Wide Web platform in North America reached 1.16 million.
The AOL team predicted the growth rate of the number of World Wide Web users in the past few months and launched the free trial plan. In the next three months, AOL will have an average of at least 1 million free trial users per month.
Based on a combined trial budget of $100 per user in terms of access devices and web browsing, AOL will invest an average of $100 million per month in this effort, not counting AOL's investment in human resources and infrastructure to support the increase in the number of users. investments, etc.
After all calculations, the three-month free trial plan will cost AOL at least US$400 million.
In comparison, in 1990, AOL's annual revenue was only over 100 million.
Therefore, the most critical aspect of this risky and radical business plan is actually the issue of funding.
Simon agreed to IPO plans for AOL and Cisco last year. However, due to the continued downturn in the U.S. stock market due to the outbreak of the war in the Gulf region in the second half of last year, the IPO plans of both companies continued to be delayed. This free trial can be described as AOL's last ditch effort before its IPO.
Other small shareholders holding 25% of AOL's shares were unwilling to have their shares diluted by Westeros Corporation again, and Simon did not force it. The funding this time was obtained in the form of a loan from Citibank through relationships with Westeros Corporation.
After the three-month free trial plan, AOL will officially launch its IPO regardless of the results of the plan implementation and the macroeconomic environment.
Other shareholders and management of AOL are under great pressure, but Simon is full of confidence in this plan and the trend of the US economy.
One million trial users in a single month and 3 million in three months are actually very conservative figures.
You know, in the year 1990 that just passed, the total personal computer shipments of IBM, Apple, Commodity and other mainstream PC manufacturers exceeded 20 million units, of which the IBM series compatible computer shipments alone reached 16.8 million units. At the same time, the number of global PC users successfully exceeded 100 million units in 1990.
As the most developed economy in the world, the United States accounts for more than 50% of both PC shipments and ownership.
Although personal computers in this era were mainly used for office work, and office PCs accounted for a large part, such a huge personal computer user base, coupled with the fact that the user areas operated by AOL were located in the most economically developed states on the east and west coasts of the United States, the three The number of trial users in one month is 3 million, which is definitely not a lot.
If 20% to 30% of the 3 million expected trial users can be converted into formal users, AOL's free trial plan will be considered a success.
After the first quarter, as long as user growth meets expectations, AOL can at least ensure full-year revenue of US$500 million. As the number of users increases in the subsequent three quarters, the actual revenue figures will definitely be higher. Compared with last year's performance growth of more than 500%, this development speed is enough for AOL to obtain an excellent IPO valuation.
After the IPO, AOL can continue to raise funds from the public market more flexibly by issuing securities or issuing additional shares.
On the other hand, Yigrit has also begun to exert efforts in the content field.
Just one week after Peter Butler officially joined Eaglet after the New Year, he personally went to the Middle East to provide comprehensive coverage of the war in the Gulf region.
At the same time, Igret also launched the "Everyone is a Novelist" prize-winning creative activity in the column blog section.
Online novels, a literary genre that has become familiar to people later, actually appeared earlier than many people imagined. Just like online games, Quantum Online, the predecessor of AOL, operated an 'online novel solitaire' service as early as the 1980s.
After all, creativity is never in short supply.
However, the "Everyone is a Novelist" activity carried out by Yigrit actually still favors traditional literary creation, and the period is also three months.
Registered users of the Yigret portal can participate in this event and create online creations after applying to the blog operation team. The subject matter is limited to novels, but there are no restrictions on genres, including science fiction, horror, suspense, etc. The rule is to submit an update at least once a week, and the final winner will be selected by users of the Ygrit website through online voting.
The event will ultimately select one first prize winner with a bonus of US$500,000, 10 second prize winners with a bonus of US$100,000, and 100 third prize winners with a bonus of US$10,000. At the same time, the works created by these users are also expected to be physically published and adapted into film and television series by Daenerys Entertainment.
With a total prize pool of 2.5 million US dollars, as well as publishing and film and television adaptation opportunities, the event has attracted strong attention from Ygrit users as soon as it was announced.
After all, most ordinary people actually have some creative dreams, but it is difficult to implement them due to various constraints.
This online activity of Yigrit not only provides a platform with a very low threshold, but also provides huge bonuses that are enough to stimulate user enthusiasm.
For Ygritte, such an event can not only achieve the purpose of user-generated content that Simon has always emphasized, but also enhance the interactivity of Ygritte's social network. Moreover, through title sponsorships from companies such as IBM, Igret has further developed its own advertising business, which can be said to have served multiple purposes with one stone.
For this event, the Yigrit team specially developed a voting system, which is similar to the like function that was later common on the Internet. Only users registered with the email address of the Yigrit portal can vote. Moreover, in order to avoid the phenomenon of multiple vests cheating on votes, voting users also need to bind their AOL accounts and can only cast one vote per day.
On the Hollywood side, the acquisition agreement was successfully reached with MCA, and the first box office week after the New Year passed quickly.
From January 4th to January 10th, "Home Alone" opened its third week. Because it entered the working day, compared with the decline during the New Year's Day week, the box office dropped by 34% this week, collecting another 31.28 million US dollars.
The single-week box office dropped from US$47.99 million to US$31.28 million. Although the drop was deep, it was actually very rare. Many blockbuster films in this era may not necessarily exceed US$30 million in box office in their first week, which is enough to show the phenomenal blockbuster characteristics of "Home Alone".
In three weeks, the total North American box office of "Home Alone" reached US$111.9 million, easily ranking among the top ten in the North American box office list in 1990.
However, such excellent box office momentum has to face the shadow of the approaching war.
The January 15 ultimatum issued by the United Nations for Iraq is getting closer and closer, but Saddam has shown no sign of withdrawing his troops from Kuwait. It is worth mentioning that the US government's "tough attitude" has also played a role in Very crucial role.
Several conditional withdrawal proposals put forward by Iraq were all rejected by the US government.
On January 12, the U.S. Senate formally approved the "Act Authorizing the Use of Military Force against Iraq."
Dark clouds over the city.
At the same time, in the month before the war, the U.S. stock market continued to fall by 6% under the shadow of the war. The Dow Jones index once fell back to less than 300 points, which was worse than before the 1987 stock market crash.
After completing the settlement at the end of 1990, Cersei Capital quickly re-raised a $3 billion hedge fund and will maintain the same size in the future.
Simon has previously transferred more than 8 billion US dollars of cash back to China. However, with the continuous accumulation of gains in the second half of last year, the funds belonging to Simon in the Cersei Fund Management Company account still reached 700 million US dollars. The Johnston family is also in the hedge fund. $500 million retained.
Before the war broke out, when most investors were generally pessimistic about the prospects of the Gulf War, the team at Cersei Fund Management Company began to bet again on the crude oil futures market and the North American stock index futures market.
The crude oil futures market has experienced the impact of the Kuwait War last year and has not recovered yet, and can only barely establish a few positions.
The main betting target this time is S&P 500 futures.
In Simon's memory, under the one-sided destruction of the multinational forces led by the United States in the Gulf War, the S&P 500 index rose by more than 20% within a month after the outbreak of the war.
Moreover, due to the pessimism about the prospect of war, most speculators in the actively traded S&P 500 index futures market tend to go short, which makes it very easy for the team of Cersei Fund Management to establish in just a few weeks The total value of long positions exceeds 10 billion US dollars.
Although I don’t expect Cersei Capital’s hedge fund to send too much money to the Westeros system in the next few years. However, this time, because Simon's prediction of the war situation is different from most people's predictions, in the next few months, as long as everything follows the historical trajectory, Cersei Capital will still be able to make very generous gains.
Throughout 1991, Cersei Fund Management Company was able to easily and far surpass similar hedge funds on Wall Street in terms of profitability.
Not seeking to create miracles, but seeking to surpass peers, this is Simon’s performance requirement for Cersei Capital after it enters formal operation. This matter is actually not easy for other fund companies on Wall Street, but for Cersei Capital, relying on Simon's prophetic advantage and its excellent operation team, it is not difficult to do this.
Time will not stop for the oppressive atmosphere of war.
On January 15, the final deadline, Saddam Hussein still failed to implement the United Nations withdrawal agreement. The multinational forces led by the United States began to authorize the army for war, and Iraq's million-strong army was also ready to respond.
At two o'clock in the morning local time on January 17, countless fighter jets took off from US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and military airports in Saudi Arabia, swarming like swarms towards key military targets across Iraq that had been targeted in advance.
Many people originally thought that the Iraqi Air Force would fight back. However, the multinational forces showed an overwhelming advantage that completely disabled the Iraqi army's ability to resist.
Iraq's air defense system has almost no room to perform in the face of the United States' high-tech stealth bombers. The backward Scud missiles are also vulnerable to the latest precision-guided missiles of the United States. The Iraqi Air Force has not even made much response before it was defeated. Multinational force fighter planes firmly suppressed the attack.
In less than a day of intensive air strikes, the first phase of the multinational force's strategic objectives was quickly achieved. The air force bases and air defense facilities in Iraq were completely destroyed by the downpour of guided missiles, cluster bombs, and air bombs.
The devastation of this war shocked the whole world.
International crude oil market.
With the continuous feedback of war news, international crude oil prices continued to skyrocket on the eve of the war. After the outbreak of the war, they only lasted for two hours before beginning to plummet.
On January 16, the day before the war broke out, the international crude oil price was as high as 26 US dollars a barrel. A few hours after the war broke out, the international crude oil price fell to a low of 20 US dollars, basically reaching the level before the outbreak of the Kuwait war last year.
Affected by the haze of war, the North American film market experienced a significant decline one week before the war broke out.
After the box office of "Home Alone" dropped 34% in the third week of its opening, the drop reached 29% again in its fourth week from January 11 to January 17, with the single-week box office further falling to US$22.21 million. The cumulative box office in four weeks was US$142.11 million.
Because the war situation has exceeded most people's expectations, although many people are still attracted by the smoke of gunfire in the Gulf region, the North American film market has not cooled down further, but has begun to rebound in the new week.
Before the war broke out, the organizers of the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards had been hesitating whether to cancel the new awards ceremony originally scheduled for January 19. As the war situation finally became clear, the organizers of the Golden Globe Awards soon announced that the awards ceremony would be held as scheduled at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.
This year's Golden Globe Awards only have nominations for Best Picture in Drama and Comedy categories, and Daenerys Entertainment has three nominations, namely "Dances with Wolves" and "Intersection" for Best Picture in Drama. , nominated for Best Picture in the Musical Comedy category, "The Ghost Story".
In fact, in the original time and space, "Pretty Woman" and "Home Alone" were also nominated for Best Picture in the Musical Comedy category.
However, if Daenerys Entertainment alone accounts for half of the 10 Best Picture nominations at the Golden Globe Awards, it would seem too dazzling. After weighing, Daenerys Entertainment finally only submitted best picture nominations for three movies including "Dances with Wolves".
Among them, "Dances with Wolves" is the top priority and cannot be missed. For the other two films, depending on the attitude of the organizers of the Golden Globe Awards, whether they give them or not, the impact will not be too great.
As a result, all three films were nominated.
Fortunately, all three movies deserved their reputation, so they did not cause too much controversy. However, some media people have raised objections to the fact that "Home Alone" and "Pretty Woman" produced by Daenerys Entertainment were not nominated for the best picture in the musical comedy category.
After being busy for several months, two acquisitions were finalized, but Simon had no time to relax.
After the barbaric growth of the Westeros system in 1990, it has accumulated too many problems unknowingly. In order to avoid the accumulation of problems, Simon did not dare to slack off at all.
In addition, while continuing to delegate more power to the management of each company, Simon has become increasingly strict in its financial supervision of each company. According to tradition, this period at the beginning of the year is a time for financial reviews of various companies.
Although he has a heavy workload every day, on January 19, Simon still appeared on the red carpet outside the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in the evening with Janet, who was dressed up.
After all, not only were three films such as "Dances with Wolves" nominated for best picture, but Daenerys Entertainment's films such as "Pretty Woman," "Home Alone" and "Dangerous Days" were also nominated in other categories. There was also a lot of gain.
In addition to film awards, reality shows and TV series produced by Daenerys Entertainment have also received a large number of nominations in various types of television awards, and all have very strong potential to win awards.
Therefore, before the awards ceremony began, Daenerys Entertainment had already prepared a grand celebration party at Daenerys Studios in Malibu.