At the end of the press conference, the application store and online payment functions of the Yigret portal were officially opened.
Simon's afternoon work schedule is mainly about e-commerce.
It’s just that Ystore’s current software and game content resources will eventually appear thin.
In order to promote the application of Ypay tools, Yigret also cooperated with Compaq to launch an online purchase discount.
This is why Compaq executives took the stage at the press conference to promote the 'Internet Computer' developed by it.
Users can obtain discounts of up to US$300 by applying for a special credit card or activating their Ypay account through point cards, and placing orders online to purchase several types of Compaq computers.
Of course, when ordering online, users still have to pick up the goods at an offline store.
In addition, AOL has also opened the Ypay payment channel, and users can directly pay the network fees of their AOL accounts online. Moreover, users can also get a certain degree of discount by doing this.
These two major additions to Ystore can greatly promote users' enthusiasm for using Ypay tools.
But it's still not enough.
As a result, Yigret decided to launch another e-commerce plan in advance. For this purpose, Ygritte has already registered a subsidiary brand - Amazon.
Because Ypay needs to coordinate supply, warehousing, logistics and other issues, it also needs a certain amount of testing time. The Amazon online mall did not release the two products at the same time, but plans to start operations in January next year.
Although Westeros has a strong advantage in audio and video entertainment.
However, this time the Amazon online mall will still focus on book sales in the early stages of development. This is a decision that Simon made carefully and with reference to a lot of information in his memory.
At present, e-commerce is still in the early stages of sowing seeds, not even a bud. Except for Simon, others have no cases of the same type that can be used as a reference for operation, so it is necessary to follow a steady development path.
Selling books through the Internet has great advantages over other products.
On the one hand, most of the current users who have access to the Internet belong to the middle and upper class social elites. These people have a higher level of education and are more inclined to buy books for daily reading, which gives them a consumption base.
On the other hand, online malls can also provide far more book types than physical bookstores. Even the largest physical bookstores often only provide tens of thousands of book types, but online malls can provide hundreds of thousands of books for users. choose.
Plans for Amazon's online store were discussed until five o'clock in the afternoon.
In a conference room at the Eaglet headquarters, other executives dispersed, and Simon finally called out Tim Berners-Lee, Jeff Bezos, and Carol Bartz.
Simon did not sit down at the conference table again, but leaned on the edge of the table and looked at the projection screen in the conference room and said to the three of them: "There are still some things to discuss with you. I'm afraid everyone will have to get off work a little later."
Even if they weren't stopped by Simon, it would be difficult for the three of them to get off work on time during this period.
The female assistant operated on the computer connected to the projector for a moment, and a tree diagram of Igret's current business products appeared on the screen.
Tim Berners-Lee and the three of them looked over together.
This tree diagram is different from the three people's daily ideas. Within Ygrit Company, if divided according to the 'hilltops' of Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz, the tree diagram is second. The level should be two branches.
In the tree diagram in front of you, the second level has three branches, namely network services, portals, and e-commerce.
Further down the three sub-branches, the portal website has more branches, including six items including email, news information, online games, online forums, search engines, and social blogs. The other two secondary branches also derive multiple sub-branches.
Seeing Simon suddenly showing them this tree diagram, the first thing that Tim Berners-Lee, Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz thought of was Simon's cool-tempered housekeeper Ally. Si Ferguson.
The development of the Ystore system has always been personally responsible for the development of the Ystore system.
Alice Ferguson has actually been in San Francisco in the past few days, and of course she attended today's press conference. However, this time, she did not go on stage to personally promote the project she was responsible for, but Jeff Bezos came forward.
I originally thought that Simon was going to officially push Alice Ferguson to the top, but what Simon asked was something else: "Tim, Jeff, and Carly, regarding the picture in front of you, if you are asked to give up, How will you choose a part of the business?"
After more than a year of rapid expansion, compared to most start-up Internet companies in the same industry, Yigrit can be described as a 'monster'.
Simon remembers that Yahoo had only 150 employees before and after it went public in 1995.
In comparison, the number of employees of Yigrit currently exceeds 2,300. Not only San Francisco, but also Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston, Chicago and other cities already have branches of Yigrit. In addition, Yigrit has Gretel has already begun to develop its presence in overseas markets such as the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia.
On the tree diagram on the projection screen, the three major branches and the sub-branches at the next level are all divided into specific project teams by Yigret's more than 2,000 employees.
Because of the ambition of the Yigrit team, these more than 2,300 people are still unable to meet the expansion needs of the Yigrit company, so the company has continued to absorb relevant talents.
Upon hearing Simon's question, the three of them were stunned for a moment.
Does Simon think the scale of Ygritte is too bloated
After thinking for a moment, Jeff Bezos took the lead and said: "Simon, I think all of Igret's businesses at this stage have great development prospects and do not need to be streamlined."
Simon also nodded directly and said: "Of course, in the short term, Yigrit will only continue to expand, because the Internet industry is a completely uncultivated wasteland, and we can plant whatever seeds we can think of on this land as we like. . However, you should know that if your energy is too dispersed, you often end up doing nothing well. So, I hope everyone will focus on it from now on."
After Simon finished speaking, he gestured towards the projection screen and said, "Think about it seriously."
After another moment of silence, Tim Berners-Lee spoke this time: "Simon, I think it will be difficult to abandon various businesses at this stage even in the future. Even if you want to divide them, it will not be easy. Just one thing, the company's The three major businesses are completely covered in one account system. Through the email account, users can use almost all services such as space rental, email, online games, online forums, online payment and application stores. At the same time, according to the company's marketing team Analysis and these services all have very good business prospects."
Carol Butts also said at this time: "Even if we really can't take care of everything, we are confident that we can do the best in most services."
"Okay, I'll tell you the result of my choice directly, and you can think about it seriously in private," Simon straightened up from the edge of the conference table and took two steps forward, looking at the projection screen in front of him and said, "I remember I said it before, Igret should be positioned as a technology company, and should never be a media company that produces content. Because with the expected user scale of the Internet industry, no one can satisfy everyone with differentiated content with the power of one company. need."
The three of them all nodded slightly. They all remembered what Simon said in that memo, and they thought it was very reasonable.
However, due to the most eye-catching relationship with the portal website, many media now position Yigret as an Internet media company, and the concept of Internet media is gradually being hyped.
Simon knew what the three of them were thinking, and said: "The Igret portal is just a guide website that guides users to obtain content in the early stages of industry development. Once users become familiar with the Internet, they will no longer rely on the portal website, and will even resist the recommendation of the portal website. Give them fixed content, so what we should do is to establish a corresponding platform and let others produce the content that users need on this platform. We obtain corresponding service fees through platform channels. YWS can provide a space platform for enterprise users ; Online payment can provide a payment platform for the entire Internet e-commerce transactions; search engines can provide a content retrieval platform for Internet sites that are beginning to explode; online shopping malls can provide a trading platform for physical items such as books, clothing, daily necessities, and electronic products; Social blogs can provide Internet users with a platform to express themselves. Therefore, these five major items are the areas we should focus on."
The three of them waited for Simon to finish speaking, then looked at the tree diagram in front of them again, and found that if Simon followed Simon's thinking, many of Yigret's current businesses would be marginalized or even abandoned.
For example, the news information that supports the largest part of the traffic of the Yigrit portal.
For example, there are very active online forums.
Even the e-mail service that is very popular among users is owned by Igret.
Moments later, Jeff Bezos asked, "Simon, where's the App Store?"
“The app store will be integrated into the physical mall in the future, and because of the 30% commission ratio of the app store, although we have an advantage now, there will definitely be competitors of the same type in the future, and large software or game manufacturers may also be more They tend to sell products on their own official website to avoid our commission. The physical mall is different. Few brands build an online mall to sell their own products, and most merchants are unlikely to have this kind of strength. The integrated sales platform we provide from payment to logistics has a strong moat advantage."
"The payment system is a big problem," Carol Butts said: "Simon, ordinary software or game manufacturers are also unable to support a payment system. They must look for a universal payment tool, and our Ypay can just do that. By doing that, we can also use that advantage to force them to move to the app store.”
Simon shook his head and said: "Doing this will only lead to the emergence of the second payment tool. You must know the AIM alliance that Apple, IBM and Motorola just established recently."
Tim Berners-Lee said: "Simon, weren't you not optimistic about the AIM Alliance at the lunch reception?"
"Of course I'm not optimistic about it, but that doesn't mean that our future competitors will lack prospects like the AIM Alliance."
Jeff Bezos looked at the tree diagram on the projection screen again for a moment and said: "Simon, what should we do next?"
Simon glanced at Bezos with admiration, and admired the executive's pragmatic attitude, and said: "Focus, since we have decided to use these services as the focus of the future development of Yigrit Company, we must focus on it. And , I can explain one thing now, because Yigrit is involved in too many Internet businesses, this company will need to be split up in the future, whether proactively or forcedly. In this case, I prefer to take the initiative to split it up in a step-by-step manner. point."
When Tim Berners-Lee heard this, he couldn't help but glance at Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz.
If Yigrit wants to split up, it must first dismantle the two departments they are responsible for.
The business that the two are responsible for is also the easiest part of Igret to split because it targets different customer groups.
Simon also smiled and followed Li's gaze and said, "Yes, the first step is to complete the separation of basic services and network services. This will be done before the IPO of Yigret."
The three of them were a little surprised. Carol Butts subconsciously said: "Before the IPO?"
"Yes," Simon nodded and added: "But don't worry, your contract will not change unless you are willing. Even after Ygrit is split, according to the original agreement, you can get two companies should be rewarded with equity."
With the continuous expansion of Yigrit, especially after Cisco and AOL went public one after another and exceeded the market value of tens of billions of dollars, the three of them also had a strong premonition that the five-year forecast that Simon had redrawn for them last year The reward agreement that can bring them 5% of Igret's equity each may mean a very huge wealth in the future.
Just based on the size of Cisco and AOL, a 5% stake would be US$500 million.
In this era, there are not many people in the world who can become billionaires as executives.
Moreover, all three of them believe that Yigrit’s potential is likely to be more than tens of billions of dollars.
Simon is more aware of the development prospects of Yigrit. With only 5% of the equity of Yigrit, it will be easy for the three of them to become billionaires at the peak of the new technology wave in the future.
Of course, Simon is happy to see this happen.
As the Westeros system continues to develop and grow, Simon is now even inclined to create a large group of billionaires and tens of billions with his own hands.
In fact, the treatment of its employees in the entire Westeros system should be far better than that of other companies in the same industry.
Doing so can not only cultivate a sense of superiority and cohesion among employees of the Westeros system, but the superior treatment can also increase the execution ability of the Westeros corporate team, and ultimately create a powerful super business empire.
The three of them continued to discuss for nearly an hour, and Simon finally said: "Jenny will leave a piece of information for you later. I hope that from now on, everyone will make adjustments within Ygrit according to the plan I just mentioned. This paragraph If you have any ideas, you can always communicate with me by phone or email.”