The progress of cooperation negotiations between Igret and the New York Times Group, the company's response plan to a series of recent lawsuits, the IE browser free plan, the buyout-to-subscription plan for the basic tool software of the World Wide Web, and the development of key start-ups supported by the venture capital department Overview blah blah blah.
Although he did not go to San Francisco, Simon stayed in the study room of the villa all day Saturday to discuss various matters with the Silicon Valley side.
Simon has always tried to avoid becoming a micromanager, but as the scale of Yigrit's company grows larger, more and more things require his personal participation in decisions. It’s not that I don’t trust the management, but that the Internet, as an absolutely emerging industry, has no precedents to compare with. Once it goes in the wrong direction in the early stages of development, it will be even more difficult to reverse it.
For example, this cooperation with the New York Times Group.
Both Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz, who is not in charge of the online portal department, said that they should refuse to join the New York Times Group's content resources in the news and information field where the company can already provide content to users independently. They believe that Doing so may lead to the shunting of Igret's media voice in the Internet field to the New York Times Group.
To a large extent, the two of them were right to think so.
Introducing the news content of the New York Times Group, and even guiding traffic to the other party's professional news website, will inevitably lead to many users leaving the Yigrit portal in search of more professional news information. On the surface, this is very unfavorable to the Igret Portal’s control over the direction of Internet media.
However, if he refuses to cooperate, can Yigrit really hold on to this position for a long time
Not to mention anything else, just comparing the employee size of the news and information team, the approximately 500 employees in the news and information department of Igret Portal are not even one-third of the 1,600 employees of the New York Times.
The lagging behind of print media groups in the Internet field is not due to their lack of ability to produce content. The key lies in the fact that traditional media must protect their own vested interests.
Once the power of print media is completely relaxed and marches towards digitalization, the Yigrit Portal will simply not be able to compete with traditional media with strong foundations in terms of news information.
Of course, unless facing a critical moment of life and death, print media is unlikely to completely switch to digital for a long time to come. However, even if it is only a partial effort, if the Yigrit Portal refuses to cooperate with it, it will only push a large amount of content resources from traditional paper media to its competitors, which may even cause the competitors to become bigger in the end.
The most important point is that Simon has repeatedly emphasized from the beginning of Yigrit's development that the portal is not the core of Yigrit.
In the field of online business, there are only three things that Yigret needs to protect at all costs: search engines, social networks, and e-commerce.
The previous executives may not have understood that as the Internet continues to become more popular and users become more proficient in surfing the Internet, the rapid growth of the search engine business is completely visible to the naked eye. After all, after becoming familiar with the Internet, users will become more and more inclined to bypass the recommendations of portal websites and directly look for content they are interested in.
As for social networks.
When everyone is concentrated in one social circle, it is basically impossible to change to another online social environment, so it is difficult for latecomers to shake a social network that has formed a sufficient scale.
Only by mastering search engines and social networks can we truly master the content interface of the Internet in the future.
At that time, through these two invisible networks, users can only see what Igret wants users to see. No matter how professional and rich your news content is, if it cannot appear in search engines and social networks, or is deliberately hidden in the most inconspicuous corner, then everything will be in vain.
This is the truly indestructible right to speak!
Relatively speaking, portal websites are much easier to copy.
If in the Internet 1.0 era, where portals are still crucial, Yigrit pushes a large amount of content resources to its competitors, it is likely to bring opportunities for transformation to the other parties, leading to Yigrit's foundation in the Internet 2.0 model. It was caught up or even overtaken before it was even deeply rooted.
On the contrary, liberalizing the acceptance of content resources will also form a Matthew effect in which the strong will become stronger to a large extent.
Not only that, the digital content of traditional media seems to have gained more influence in this process, but many paper media want to get traffic from the Yigrit Portal, whether actively or passively, they must follow the Yigrit Portal. Act according to the rules.
It is very simple to say that content that favors the Westeros system will be more likely to be recommended, and articles that attack the Westeros system will definitely be suppressed. This potential influence will be further transmitted to traditional print media platforms. As long as one newspaper When cooperating with the Igrit Portal, even if you just want to publish an article about the Westeros system on a paper media platform, you must consider whether this will affect the cooperative relationship between the two parties in the Internet field.
Therefore, introducing content from the New York Times Group, or even cooperating with more other print media companies, will not affect the Internet media influence of Yigrit Company, but will instead increase its voice.
In addition to content cooperation, the New York Times Group also proposed to invest in Broadcast, an online radio website invested by Igret, and obtain a patent license for online video live broadcast technology.
Simon agreed to them all.
The online radio website Broadcast in my memory is a typical example of the most failed company in the Internet 1.0 era. Yahoo spent billions of dollars to acquire this website in a stock exchange model, and ended up with a mess.
Now that similar projects have been launched, Simon doesn't want to repeat the same mistakes.
Therefore, during the project planning process, Simon adopted more of the remembered 'Himalaya Network' model. In addition to introducing traditional radio resources, the new Broadcast focused more on the development of online film review content such as personal radio stations, audio books, online music, and educational courses. .
Compared with the immediacy of traditional radio stations, the Broadcast invested by Igret will save a large number of fixed audio resources.
Simon even considers that when iPlayer is launched next year, Broadcast can directly serve as the content cooperation platform for this hardware player.
It is not realistic to lobby major record companies to provide music resources to the Internet in the short term. However, in addition to music, Broadcast provides a wealth of audio books, educational courses and other types of audio resources, which can also promote the promotion of iPlayer digital music players.
Since this Broadcast is no longer that Broadcast, Simon is actually a little reluctant to share this website with the New York Times Group.
Only after considering that the large amount of print media content owned by the New York Times Group could be converted into audio resources, Simon agreed, but he only agreed to give the other party a maximum of 15% of the shares, and offered a price of US$30 million. The Broadcast website was therefore valued at US$200 million.
In comparison, when the project was launched last year, Igret only spent US$10 million to acquire 80% of the equity of the Broadcast website. Of course, the value of the additional advertising resources and traffic imported by Yigrit is not comparable to a mere US$10 million.
In addition, online video live broadcast technology is mainly due to the recent London Girls live broadcast that made the public aware of the possibility of the Internet replacing the television industry.
Traditional print media has always hoped to enter the television industry, but has been unable to do so due to the long-term restrictions of the 'cross-media ownership ban'. The New York Times Group has seen the possibility of directly crossing the television platform into Internet video media, so it wants to take advantage of the pit in advance.
Except for this demonstration live broadcast, Yigrit has no plans to create a dedicated video website or live broadcast website in the short term. It will only open a small number of test *** like the trailer of the movie section of Yigrit Portal.
At this stage, most users' network bandwidth and hardware devices are not sufficient to watch online videos, and video websites consume too much storage and bandwidth. Setting up a professional website will neither provide users with the best video experience, nor cost too much. very expensive. So if The New York Times Group wants it, take it.
I personally made the decision to cooperate with the New York Times Group, and the other free plans for the IE browser and the purchase-to-subscription plan for the basic tools of the World Wide Web were also completely confirmed during today's discussion.
Regarding the free plan of IE browser, after completing the communication with pre-installed hardware manufacturers and telecom operators, IE will probably officially announce it as free before May.
Another plan to shift the sales model of basic World Wide Web tool software from buyouts to subscriptions was proposed by Carol Bartz. In fact, this matter was discussed just after the birth of several basic software. At that time, Simon preferred to buy it all at once. The decision was mainly due to the software sales environment at the time. After all, Microsoft's Windows and Oracle's database software were both one-time buyouts.
A few years later, Carol Bartz brought up the matter again, expressing her hope to switch from buyouts to subscriptions, so as to obtain more permanent and stable income. On the other hand, it was also out of considerations such as promoting the latest technology of the World Wide Web as soon as possible.
The Internet has entered an explosive period, and the update speed of World Wide Web technology can be said to be fast.
The software version purchased by many users may have fallen behind in just one year. Timely updates will undoubtedly require additional expensive expenses. Without updates, many new World Wide Web technologies will not be available. From the perspective of Yigrit, a software developer, constantly promoting users to purchase new versions of software is undoubtedly the best choice to maximize profits, but no one is stupid, and doing so is too easy to attract hatred.
As a result, pirated versions of the Ygritte series basic tool software are now rampant.
Many small start-up companies quietly turn to piracy after purchasing a set of genuine software because they are unwilling to pay for subsequent updates. Even if Yigrit officials pursue the case, they can still make up for the loss with the old genuine software, which unknowingly brings great losses to Yigrit.
Therefore, switching from buyouts to subscriptions can not only ensure that users can use the latest software at any time, but also avoid one-time expensive expenditures. The current Internet speed can basically support online real-time updates of software. For Igret, this may lead to a significant decline in short-term sales of the software department, but it will bring more lasting long-term stable income. At the same time, it can also solve the piracy problem to the greatest extent through subscriber registration.
Until five o'clock in the afternoon, when Janet came to the study, Simon was still discussing the upcoming "Happy Farm" with the head of Ygritte's online game department.
After just nodding with Simon, Janet dismissed Girl A, who was sorting out a thick stack of information, and picked up a copy. This was a document from a website called 33list suing the Igret Company Advertising Alliance. Litigation materials for suspected monopoly of the plan.
Just looking at the name 33list, Janet couldn't help but curl her lips.
Obviously they are following the trend of 58list.
I threw it away and picked up another one. It was an IE browser plug-in development studio suing Yigrit Company for blocking the homepage change plug-in developed by it.
Tsk.
Change IE homepage.
Such an anti-human plug-in, I just want to go to heaven!
I threw it away again, rummaged several times, and finally saw a relatively "reliable" lawsuit. An Internet user in New York State who is a lawyer questioned the precise advertising push of Yigrit Company for allegedly infringing on his personal privacy. Therefore, A class action lawsuit has been launched with a number of other users.
After selecting this information, Janet leaned on the sofa in the reception area and read it with gusto.
Simon continued to discuss with the people in San Francisco for more than ten minutes. Finally, he turned off the call screen on his desk and turned to the computer screen next to him to review the general information about "Happy Farm" that will be officially launched next Friday.
The "Happy Farm" social game project was launched in mid-January. The development cycle of this simple game in my memory was only two weeks. Simon initially generously gave the development team a month.
But after Simon gave a rough plan, the game development team who moved to the Alabama farm obviously let themselves go.
The development team needs to be encouraged to maintain a strong interest in their own projects and generate a lot of ideas. In addition, Simon is very satisfied with the new solution given by the team, so he simply lets them play freely. In order to support the game, the total number of people on a small team at a farm in Alabama unknowingly more than doubled during the development process.
Of course, Simon also gave a deadline to launch the game before Easter.
After two months, the new "Happy Farm" was finally completed.
Compared with the simple web page Flas*** that only has a planting and stealing system in my memory, probably because I am used to relatively complex stand-alone games, the development team from EA has added additional home upgrades to this small game in the past two months. System, beast attack settings, pet development system and other settings, the interaction between different players has also been greatly increased. Not only can they steal vegetables and take care of each other's fields, but they can also help friends drive away beasts that attack the farm, help upgrade houses and even go to the farm. Stranger farm adventure hunting.
Simon also specially provided some suggestions for the home upgrade system based on the "Journey 2" game he played in his memory. The most important point is that the higher the level of the house, the more beautiful it must be. For this reason, the development team asked him for the Dumei Point Manor Shell Villa. The image is licensed and intended as one of the templates for up to 12th level houses.
Simon did not agree to this request, but the team also collected many beautiful patterns.
In the final game, all settings perfectly form a complete mini-ecosystem.
The output of farmland can be sold not only to buy seeds, but also to exchange for home building materials, which can be used to continuously upgrade more beautiful homes and other kennels, fences and other facilities.
Drive away wild beasts to obtain food rations for various types of pets.
Pets also have a simple attribute system. The more outstanding the pet, the stronger its ability to protect the farm. Pets between friends can also be bred and traded with each other.
For stealing food, the game also adds trap tools. Once the thief is caught, he needs to pay a ransom to escape.
Regarding the house upgrade system, if the player does not spend a penny and works hard every day to 'farm', it will take at least one year to reach the full level 12.
Of course, if you use the 'fertilizer props' to produce output regardless of cost, because there are time limits for upgrading components such as houses, kennels, fences, etc., and props cannot be used to shorten it, it will also take at least one week to reach the full level. Moreover, if you really do this, the money required to purchase fertilizer props in the entire process will reach 2 million US dollars, which is completely the cost of a real villa in reality.
All kinds of things.
The combined playability has increased more than ten times compared to the simple mini-games in Simon's memory.
In addition, 'fertilizer props' are still set as the final source of income for this mini-game.
According to the theory that if you want to take something, you must give it first, the game has a sign-in system. Sign in every day to get a bag of fertilizer props that can only be bought with money. If you continue to sign in, you will get additional rewards.
Of course, the increase in playability will inevitably lead to this small game becoming more complex.
Players who want to try this game need to download an installation package of about 15M, which is about the same size as the current IE software itself.
Fortunately, this process does not need to be completed overnight. After the user enters the game interface and clicks the download permission, the download can be completed quietly within 10 minutes according to the basic network speed of AOL ADSL network 256K, and no special installation is required.
10 minutes is by no means a long time.
After the user completes the simple novice guidance process in the early stage and harvests a few crops, the game has been downloaded and installed without even realizing it.
In order to support the promotion of the new Flash technology, Ygritte's IE software team specially optimized the Ygritte Flash Player software for this small game, and plans to use the Ygritte Flash Player software once it is accepted by users, even if it is not too successful. Develop a more independent Flas*** support kernel.
This plan was sent from the head of the IE department to Simon, and everyone agreed with it.
Just like the Ygritte Flash Player software that focuses more on video support, adding a game kernel that is more suitable for running web games can further strengthen the technical barriers of the Ygritte IE browser software.
Even if browser technology is forced to be licensed out in the future due to federal antitrust restrictions, other software manufacturers will not be able to achieve the same powerful functions as IE in the short term.
Simon's personal opinion on this matter is that the game core must not slow down the overall running speed of the IE software. The user's software experience must always be given top priority. If he cannot do this, he will not hesitate to cancel the project in the future. . The IE browser software is the core of the company's core at this stage, and this proposal has also been unanimously recognized by Bezos and other core executives.
After reading the information on "Happy Farm", Simon wrote some of the ideas he had just had in an email and sent them to San Francisco, and finally turned off the computer.
After getting up and stretching his body, he saw Janet leaning on the sofa not far away, looking through information. Simon walked around the desk and walked to the reception area. He reached behind the sofa and held the woman's face, kissed her, and asked, "Where are you?" What are you looking at?”
Janet tilted her head back, shook a piece of litigation information in her hand, but threw it away casually, tilted her face and rubbed it affectionately in Simon's palm.
Simon felt Janet's dependence and said after a moment: "How about you and Janet go to Australia to live for a while?"
"I'm not going, I want to stay here with you," Janet immediately refused, and then said, "Or should we go together?"
Simon could only refuse: "You know, I've been a little busy recently."
"Well," Janet said, grabbing Simon's big hand and pulling it towards her, making eye contact with the man: "Little boy, are you afraid?"
Simon couldn't help but lowered his head and pecked the woman on the lips, and said, "I'm afraid, I'm worried that I won't be able to protect you."
After saying this, the couple became a little silent.
In the incident last week, Janet did not react as sensitively as the female assistant on the surface. However, the woman has completely let go of Cersei Capital these days and helps Simon deal with the recent public opinion faced by the Westeros family. Stress and various other things.
Obviously, the woman's inner reaction to that incident was not an understatement either.
Simon knew better that Janet had many similarities with himself, and neither of them had much fear of death.
But now they both have a bond.
Even if you don't care about yourself, you are even willing to make a big fuss with the world, but you don't want the people around you to get hurt because of it.