For security and privacy reasons, Simon doesn't plan to show the girls' lives for long. A week after the live broadcast of London Villa Girls started, the Igret portal issued a notice on March 8, stating that the live broadcast would end on March 31 and last for one month.
Simon initially planned to livestream for only two weeks.
Taking into account the promotion effect of this phenomenal video live broadcast on AOL, Yigrit and the entire computer and Internet software and hardware industry, the live broadcast time was extended to one month. A month later, the girls' public popularity has cooled down, and Ygritte has completed detailed testing and data collection of the live broadcast technology.
At the end of February and the beginning of March, following the turmoil caused by the London girls, many companies in the Westeros system successively released a series of financial report data, or the financial report for the whole year of 1993 based on the calendar year, or It is the single-quarter financial report for the last natural quarter of 1993.
Daenerys Entertainment Group, which is promoting its IPO plan, and the three giants of the Internet industry, Cisco, AOL and Igrit, have undoubtedly become the four most watched companies in the Westeros system. The financial reports of the four companies The cycles happen to be calculated in terms of natural years.
Cisco was the first to announce its financial results.
On February 25, Cisco released its 1993 annual financial report through the Igret portal.
With the rapid growth of the Internet industry on a global scale, Cisco also completed the extensive global layout of its products in 1993.
Even in order to avoid being affected by factors such as monopoly accusations and overseas country protection policies, Cisco's market share in the global router and switch field dropped from more than 95% when it was first launched three years ago to about 75% in 1993.
However, this new technology company that exploded rapidly with the rise of the World Wide Web still achieved a revenue growth of 135% in 1993, with annual revenue increasing from US$2.63 billion in 1992 to US$6.19 billion in 1993.
In order to consider technology research and development and market development in the early stage, Cisco's net profit margin was maintained within 10% in 1991 and 1992. With the completion of the global market layout, the company's net profit margin in 1993 also increased to more than 10%, reaching 12.6%, and the net profit for the year was US$779 million.
Compared with the net profit of US$252 million in 1992, the net profit in 1993 increased by as much as 207% year-on-year.
In fact, the net profit margin of 12.6% is still seriously low compared to the comprehensive cost of Cisco products. Everyone inside and outside Cisco knows that if it pursues profits as much as possible, the company can easily achieve a net profit margin of more than 20%, but regardless of Simon himself Neither Cisco's management nor the majority of external shareholders lack long-term vision, so they understand that Cisco needs to focus on expansion at this time, rather than impatiently pursuing profits.
The capital market was affected by Cisco's full-year revenue growth of 135% and equally astonishing profit figures. On the day the financial report was released, Cisco's stock price rose by 3.6%, with a closing market value of US$57.6 billion, surpassing food and tobacco giant Philip Morris. Second to the old industrial giant General Electric Group with a market value of US$79.1 billion that day, it became the second highest market value company in North America.
After a series of large and small corporate mergers and acquisitions and management equity incentives, Westeros' shareholding ratio in Cisco was reduced to 46.3% in early 1994. Based on the market value of US$57.6 billion on February 25, Simon's Cisco stock holdings were worth US$26.7 billion, which alone exceeded any other rich man on the Forbes rich list.
On February 28, the last day of February, AOL released its 1993 financial report following Cisco.
AOL has also launched a global expansion plan. However, unlike Cisco, an Internet equipment manufacturer with relatively low overseas thresholds, AOL's overseas expansion, which focuses on the telecommunications field, is relatively slow and basically takes the form of joint ventures. Therefore, its business focus remains the same. Native to North America.
As of December 31, 1993, AOL's total number of users in the United States reached 32.61 million, a year-on-year user growth of 88%, lower than 125% in 1992. This was mainly due to the gradual decline in Internet penetration in AOL's original operating areas. due to the increase. Although there is still great potential for subsequent user growth, due to factors such as infrastructure and economic conditions, residents' access to the Internet has begun to slow down.
Even so, more than 30 million users account for 71% of the total number of World Wide Web users in the United States, far exceeding any other Internet service provider in the United States at this stage.
Relying on such a large user base, AOL achieved a total annual revenue of US$9.15 billion in 1993. Compared with the revenue of US$3.87 billion in 1992, the growth rate reached 136%. This data exceeded most analysts on Wall Street. expectations.
However, due to the huge investment in basic equipment and ADSL network upgrades, AOL's losses in 1993 were as high as US$769 million, a year-on-year loss increase of 194%.
AOL's losses had long been expected, and the capital market did not react too strongly.
You know, after America Online issued US$1.2 billion in corporate bonds last year, its total debt amount is still only US$2.6 billion. Compared with the company's huge market value of more than US$50 billion, the corporate debt ratio is less than 5%, which is far lower than that of the same period. other companies in the industry.
As AOL is about to compete fiercely with local operators in areas such as the Great Lakes and the southern United States beyond the east and west coasts, it is expected that losses in 1994 will expand and may even exceed US$1 billion.
Simon was aware of this expectation last year, and the capital markets were well aware of it.
Therefore, the huge losses in AOL's financial report data on the day it was released still did not affect the rise in stock prices. At the close of trading on the afternoon of February 28, the stock price rose by 2.7% throughout the day, with a total market value of US$56.2 billion, which also exceeded Philip Morris. Second only to Cisco, which has a market capitalization of US$59.1 billion after its stock price continued to rise that day, it ranks third in the market capitalization list of American companies.
Also due to various equity operations, Westeros' shareholding ratio in AOL dropped slightly to 65.5%. The value of Simon's AOL shares reached US$36.8 billion on February 28.
Just one weekend later, the value of Simon's Cisco shares increased from US$26.7 billion on February 25 to US$27.3 billion on February 28. In three days, the book profit reached US$600 million, which was more than what he had spent in the past year. The personal expenditure of around US$500 million on real estate, women, etc. is even higher.
Simon's personal expenses do not actually need to be obtained by reducing his stock holdings.
Next, for Yigret, which has not been listed for the time being and has no IPO plan in the short term, Simon actually does not want to announce the financial report of this Internet company. Just like last year's nearly 400% growth, even after the explosion in 1992 Growth then began to slow, but only relatively speaking.
Ygritte's specific financial report data is still very eye-catching.
Moreover, the media that pay close attention to new technology companies are also paying the most attention to this last one among the three Internet companies affiliated to the Westeros system: Cisco, AOL, and Igrit. In order to avoid the media from endlessly exploring and concocting all kinds of exaggerated stories After careful consideration of the fictitious data, Igret released a relatively simplified financial report on March 7.
In 1993, Yigret relied on a series of popular Internet businesses such as software sales, YWS services, e-commerce, online advertising, and software stores to earn a total revenue of US$5.41 billion, with a year-on-year revenue growth rate of 179%. The annual net The loss was US$393 million, a year-on-year increase of 182%.
Although the full-year revenue growth rate of 179% was far lower than the 394% in 1992, it also exceeded Cisco and AOL.
The loss of US$393 million is completely within the tolerable range compared to Yigret's revenue growth. For people familiar with the more detailed financial report data, Eagle's cash flow situation is healthier than that of AOL and Cisco. According to the current rate of capital consumption, it was only last year that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley paid more attention to buy Eagle. The US$1.5 billion paid for 10% of the company's shares is enough to sustain the company's operations for at least another two years.
Therefore, the current debt ratio of Igret, an Internet company whose revenue volume can already be included in the list of the top 500 American companies, is still 'zero'!
Anyone with a little experience in the business world understands how rare this 'zero' is.
Today's Igret is almost equivalent to the complex of new technology companies such as Netscape, Yahoo, Amazon, and Google in Simon's memory. The overall revenue of 5.41 billion US dollars is already usable compared to the company's establishment years. To describe it as terrifying. However, if you break down the businesses, several of them have the potential to grow into a corporate giant on their own.
The outside world can only guess at the specific revenue of Yigret's various businesses. Simon has already obtained very specific data before the financial report is released.
Of the total revenue of US$5.41 billion, the annual turnover of Amazon's online mall increased from US$620 million in 1992 to US$1.36 billion in 1993, an annual growth rate of 119%.
The YWS division headed by Carol Butts was re-subdivided last year.
Basic tool software of the World Wide Web such as Ygritte Dreamweaver, Ygritte Fireworks and Ygritte Flash were reclassified as specialized software departments. As the demand for basic tool software from Internet companies around the world increased rapidly, Ygritte's basic software sales increased from It surged from US$280 million in 1992 to US$810 million in 1993, an annual growth rate of 188%.
It still did not directly promote it as a cloud computing service but continued to insist that the revenue of Ygritte Web Service (Ygritte Web Service), the independent YWS department after the split, also increased significantly due to the substantial increase in market demand, and the annual revenue reached 790 million. Dollar.
The reason why the revenue of this part of cloud computing business, which is more core than basic software, cannot exceed that of the software department is mainly because Igret does not want to expose the huge scale and cost advantages of its cloud computing technology prematurely. When service providers compete, they only offer slightly lower prices. Therefore, they do not currently have a very attractive price advantage for users. Therefore, many Internet start-ups prefer to purchase their own servers to build websites.
The dot-com bubble will eventually burst.
Due to the broad market demand, many technology companies, including IBM and other established computer manufacturers, have begun to get involved in the most basic data center services and have invested heavily in building traditional large-scale server data centers.
It is conceivable that once the Internet bubble bursts, Internet companies will cut costs or even go bankrupt, which will inevitably lead to a serious excess of data center resources and a sharp increase in competition pressure from service providers. By then, the elasticity and low-cost advantages of Yigret's cloud computing services will It will be revealed, and the technological accumulation will be deeper and more mature.
IBM and other manufacturers have actually noticed Igret's cloud computing technology and have seen its huge cost advantages.
However, in order to protect their own hardware and service businesses, established manufacturers are actually not keen on following up on this technology, and even instinctively resist when Igret keeps a low profile and does not press forward step by step. After all, the rise of cloud computing will inevitably lead to an impact on the hardware sales of traditional server manufacturers, which is precisely the core business of many established technology companies such as IBM.
On the other hand, as for the cloud computing business, established companies are unwilling to follow closely, and even if start-ups see the broad prospects of this technology, because of the technical attributes of cloud computing business, the larger the scale, the more obvious the advantages, and small companies are also reluctant to follow suit. There is simply not enough strength to compete with Ygritte.
Therefore, Ygriet YWS in the future will be like Amazon AWS in Simon’s memory, a dominant one.
Just like Kodak, which refused to move closer to the digital age in order to protect its own interests in film cameras and eventually went bankrupt, the same principle applies. If you cannot eliminate yourself, you will only be eliminated by others.
Including the US$120 million in revenue from other businesses such as email technology licensing, Carol Bartz is responsible for the Internet basic software and service business mainly for corporate users, which has accumulated US$1.72 billion in revenue, a year-on-year revenue increase of 295%.
Simon has always attached great importance to the advertising business. Relying on the Yigrit advertising alliance plan launched last year and the sharp increase in advertising demand caused by the Internet explosion, Yigrit's four portals, social networks, search engines and advertising alliances have The total online advertising revenue of the large advertising business segment in the past year also reached US$1.15 billion.
Although there is still a huge gap compared to the annual advertising industry value of the traditional U.S. print media industry of up to 40 billion U.S. dollars, the annual revenue growth of 313%, once exposed, will definitely make the operators of the traditional media industry even more vulnerable. .
The revenue growth rate of 313% is also the best among Yigret's huge business matrix.
In addition, the sales revenue of the IE browser, which has always been listed separately, has brought a total of US$310 million to Yigrit Corporation globally in the past year, relying on pre-installation by hardware manufacturers, operator channels and Ystore store sales. The year-on-year increase was 33%. Not only is this growth rate the lowest among all businesses under Igret, but the share of IE browser software revenue in Igret's total annual revenue has also dropped sharply from 12% last year to 5%. .
The slowdown in the sales of IE browser software is mainly due to the openness of the Internet, which has led to the proliferation of pirated IE browsers. Some PC manufacturers who refuse to pay for pre-installation and many small Internet service operators in the United States and abroad simply do so on their own or instigate privately in order to save budgets. Users actively use pirated IE software.
In this regard, the management of Igret focuses on keeping a close eye on large PC manufacturers such as HP and Compaq and ISP giants such as AOL, and at the same time, blocks discovered online pirated software resources as much as possible.
Even so, the full-year revenue of US$310 million actually benefited to a large extent from the US$10 pricing strategy that Simon insisted on.
In the past, the original Netscape browser sold for as high as $50. This was actually one of the important reasons why Netscape browser lost to Microsoft IE. Even without the emergence of IE, the high pricing of Netscape browsers and the open nature of the Internet would inevitably lead users to prefer pirated or free browser software.
Now, Igret's price of $10 for the IE browser is basically within the range easily accepted by most users. Even overseas users who need to consider exchange rate factors will not feel too much of a burden.
Tim Berners-Lee and other management are still very optimistic about the revenue brought by IE, but Simon saw the gradual marginalization of IE browser in the total revenue of Ygrit and saw the promotion of this software for free. feasibility, and formally submitted the proposal to Ygret management for discussion after the financial report was released.
The IE browser software is free. At this stage, the most critical role is not only to promote the World Wide Web, but also to maximize the initiative in antitrust investigations that may be encountered in the future.
At present, many competitors and professional media have realized the irrationality of IE browser's fixed homepage of the Igret portal, and have proposed that users who have spent money to purchase this software should have the freedom to set the homepage at will.
As long as IE is free, similar excuses no longer apply.
Just like the Android operating system in my memory, Yigrit invested heavily in the development of the IE browser and gave users free trials. Naturally, it can get some compensation in other aspects.
In fact, although Android is free in name, this mobile operating system brings tens of billions of dollars in potential revenue to Google every year, and even allows Google to successfully complete the transition from PC to mobile, which is even more crucial. . In an era when those with mobile phones dominate the world, another search engine giant on the other side of the ocean has gradually fallen out of the ranks of the top Internet giants due to frequent failures in the transition from PC to mobile.
Simon's free IE browser software plan is only free for downloading from the official website and pre-installed by hardware manufacturers and telecommunications companies. Even if it no longer charges the price of about US$10, Igret can still charge through the authorized service fee. There are other reasons to charge a certain fee, so the free plan will not completely eliminate this part of the revenue, and will even increase as the PC and Internet industries continue to explode.
Finally, the total revenue of software game stores and online payment tools such as Ystore, Steam and Ypay was US$870 million, a year-on-year increase of 141%.
In this part of the business, except for the online payment tool Ypay, which is very important and cannot be missed, the rest are just carried out by Simon to enrich Internet content resources, so he did not spend too much energy on it, and it can even be used as a bargaining chip to actively give up when necessary.
In addition, the revenue data of a series of Internet companies supported by Yigrit's emerging venture capital department are not included in Yigrit's overall revenue because the shareholding ratio is generally less than 50%. In fact, these start-up companies do not have much revenue for the time being, and the venture capital department itself is also in a pure cash-burning stage.