Thanksgiving is approaching, and the media enthusiasm brought about by the exclusive interview with The New York Times does not mean to cool down at all.
With so much attention, if Eric stays in East Hampton for Thanksgiving, the media's attention is likely to shift to women and children. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Eric took the woman and children and flew to Maryland with the Chris family.
At the end of November, there is still no snow around Frederick County, Maryland, and the gentle hills and plains have long lost the vitality of summer. However, looking around, the rough and vast scene of high sky, broad clouds and withered vegetation can make people who have lived in the city feel a special sense of relaxation.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, a group of people, big and small, finally came out of the forest more than ten kilometers west of Jeffrey's Farm. Several hounds were still running wildly around, barking a few times from time to time, obviously unsatisfied.
Jeffrey, who was getting older and stronger, carried a wild deer himself, which was the result of everyone's busy day.
Today is Thanksgiving, and the women are already preparing Thanksgiving dinner on the farm. Enjoying that everyone came to accompany him to celebrate the festival, Jeffrey decided early in the morning that he must add a roast venison for dinner, so he came to hunt.
Originally, I only planned to bring Chris and Eric, the two nephews, but when I heard that Grandpa Jeffrey was going to hunt, Emma was the first to shout to follow, and Kevin also looked hopeful. Hawaii is obviously not I might be interested in this kind of thing, but in order to avoid the 'horrible Aunt Drew', the little girl also followed, so the hunting that was originally intended to be out for an hour or two was a lively toss for a day, and it was more like a outing.
Joanna and Virginia were very reluctant at first, worried about the safety of the little ones, but after Eric nodded, the two women had to agree, but they still let the twins follow to take care of the three little ones, women always Can be more careful.
The three little guys kept up, and Jeffrey naturally allowed everything. He even wanted to bring his little grandson to "see the world" together, but it was a pity that Emily refused to do so. Daniel, who was only one year old, had just learned to walk at this time.
At this time, Jeffrey walked in the front with the wild deer on his back, surrounded by Kevin, Emma and the three little ones from Hawaii, and the twins looked after them carefully.
Eric and Chris were at the end with a few shotguns on their backs. Because the three little guys were there, the shotguns were useless all day. The unlucky wild deer was completely the result of a few hunting dogs. He brought a shotgun with him, but he was only worried about encountering ferocious beasts such as black bears.
Looking at the group of people in front of him, Eric's eyes finally fell on the twins in simple and tough clothes.
The two tall and slender girls had light-colored blond hair tied into ponytails, and occasionally a section of their snow-white necks could be seen.
For some reason, Eric always felt that the temperament of the twins fit very well with the cold and desolate surroundings at this time. Thinking about it carefully, this is probably because the two women are from Russia, which is always cold.
After loading the wild deer on the off-road vehicle, Jeffrey drove it himself. The twins carried the three little guys into the back row, and the car started and rushed to the farm.
Eric and Chris followed behind in another off-road vehicle, and the hounds didn't need human attention at all. Even if they couldn't keep up with the speed of the car, they could run back to the farm along the path.
Turning the steering wheel and speeding up the car a little, Chris glanced at Eric in the co-pilot and said with a smile: "This kind of life is actually not bad, right?"
"Yes," Eric nodded, and said, "However, we can only experience it once in a while. It is impossible for us to enjoy this kind of life for a long time like Jeffrey. The last time I went to New Zealand, you know, the scenery there It’s beautiful, but there’s still a saying over there that if you live in New Zealand for a week, it’s heaven, but if you live in New Zealand for a year, it’s hell. It’s true in many places.”
Chris nodded, chatted for a while, and the topic turned to work unknowingly: "Ian and the others have complained to me more than once in private, and they have achieved an annual profit of 3 billion U.S. dollars in five years, which has given them a lot of money. A lot of pressure."
Eric shook his head and smiled: "It's obvious that their understanding has gone wrong, or they didn't read the interview carefully. What I mean is that it only takes five years for Yahoo to match its current market value, and it didn't say that it would take five years. Annual profit of 3 billion US dollars. That's what Judith Miller said. In fact, as long as Yahoo can continue to maintain its current high growth rate, the market will accept a price-earnings ratio of less than 100 times. Many investors There’s really no lack of long-term vision.”
Chris nodded slightly, and said again: "Then how long do you think it will actually take for Yahoo to achieve its annual profit target of three billion dollars?"
"I really don't know about this," Eric shook his head and said, "However, it doesn't take too long. Yahoo's annual revenue this year has been able to reach more than 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. The revenue of the previous two years The growth rate is far more than 100 % , so in the next few years , as long as yahoo 's annual revenue growth rate remains above 100 % , in five years , theoretically yahoo 's revenue should reach about 50 billion US dollars , according to 20 % profit margin, by then, Yahoo’s annual profit should be $10 billion.”
"10 billion U.S. dollars, is this unlikely? According to last year's Forbes data, there is no federal enterprise with an annual profit of 10 billion U.S. dollars."
Eric smiled and said, "It's unlikely."
In fact, the reason why Yahoo was able to achieve a revenue figure of more than US$1.6 billion this year is that, on the one hand, it is because in the face of the upcoming IPO situation, in order to make Yahoo’s financial report more attractive, the affiliated companies of the Firefly system are within the scope of regulations. Appropriate benefit delivery was made.
On the other hand, the turbulent waves of new technologies have caused the entire industry to spend money like crazy. In order to promote its own website, the advertising orders and quotes received by Yahoo Portal and Yahoo Advertising Alliance have significantly increased compared to last year.
If history does not change much, this good situation will continue next year.
However, once the dot-com bubble bursts and the entire industry enters a years-long winter, it is uncertain whether Yahoo's short-term revenue figures will be able to maintain the current state, let alone continue its 100% revenue growth next year.
In Eric's memory, the ice age after the Internet bubble burst was actually not long, only about two or three years. With the rapid popularization of global broadband networks and the substantial increase in the number of Internet users year after year, the Internet industry began to recover rapidly around 2005.
However, even if the Internet industry enters a cold winter, the huge user base that continues to grow is in front of us. Yahoo will only make no fatal mistakes in the direction of development. Should be pretty much the same.
After pausing for a moment, Chris suddenly smiled again: "Actually, if you are not very familiar with your long-term plan for Yahoo, I can't help but think that your discussion about the importance of portals in the interview is very reasonable. In the next few days In 2009, many people will definitely develop according to your theory, but they just don’t know what the result will be.”
A few years ago, Eric and Chris formulated Yahoo's development strategy of "Mingxiu plank road secretly crossing Chencang" in private. On the surface, Yahoo will focus on the portal business and publicize the importance of the portal business.
However, in private, Eric is still most concerned about the two major businesses of search engines and social networks. In my memory, in addition to e-commerce, or an online game can also be added, in addition, these two major businesses in the Internet industry can bring very stable large-scale revenue.
"No one knows what will happen in the future. However, judging from the growth rate of Google search engine users in the past six months, the strategy I formulated is actually not wrong. No matter how large the portal website is, it is impossible to satisfy more than a few With the differentiated needs of hundreds of millions of users, the Internet content market in the future will definitely have a more refined trend. Automobile websites specialize in automobile information, and electronic websites specialize in electronic information. We only need to provide users with information that they can easily find tools for these contents.”
"However, Eric, have you ever thought about what to do with the huge registered user base that Yahoo has accumulated at this time if we turn to the search engine business in the future? Based on the calculation of 300 million Internet users worldwide in 2000, Yahoo is confident that the scale of registered users will If it grows to more than 200 million, in the future, this scale will definitely be even bigger? It would be a pity if it is simply discarded."
"Of course it is social networking," Eric said without hesitation: "Since we have enough development funds now, we don't have to wait a few years for the expansion of social networking business. It can completely compete with search engines." The development goes hand in hand.”
According to Eric's original plan, the development of social networks will not reach its peak until the advent of the mobile Internet era.
However, the rapid growth of Yahoo's blog business over the past few years has also allowed Eric to see some other possibilities.
After all, the market is made. In the past, the explosion of social networks was actually a stable business model formed after many years of development in the Internet industry.
But at this time, since it knew which way was right from the beginning, Yahoo could also develop a new social network model exclusive to the PC era.
What's more, as long as the tablet computer of Firefly Electronics is launched smoothly, according to Eric's plan, it is not too difficult for the social network to be mobile in advance.
After chatting like this, the two cars quickly returned to Jeffrey's farm.
Joanna and several women from Virginia greeted them together, and felt relieved when they saw the three little guys jumping around Jeffrey.
Just comparing the dirty looks of the three little guys and Eric's still meticulous clothes, Virginia still gave Eric a hard look with some complaints.
Jeffrey dragged the deer and planned to strip it himself, and Emma and Kevin followed excitedly.
However, Hawaii, who found Drew, came closely from her father, and the little girl didn't feel relieved until the girl followed Joanna and the others back to the villa to prepare dinner.
Over the years, Drew has become a deep shadow in Hawaii's heart. The poor little girl is extremely smart, but she just doesn't understand why Aunt Drew is so scary. They actually like to see themselves being bullied by Aunt Drew.
God, how could such illogical things happen in this world.
Everyone went to work separately, but Eric and Chris, the two idlers, had nothing to do. Eric simply picked up his precious daughter who was by his side, and walked with Chris to the fireplace in the living room of the villa and sat down. Continue the topic just now while warming up the fire.
Chris continued: "I think it's a pity that it's just a social network. A large number of people don't have much interest in online social networking."
"Interests are cultivated, and we can even further develop social networks into an indispensable tool in people's lives, just like search engines," Eric said, recalling the information in his memory, "Do you want to Think about it, if one day people can send party invitations through their circle of friends on social networks, and even become a trend, then if a person does not want to be excluded by the people around him, he must have a social account. As long as he has a social account, This person will definitely not only focus on practical functions such as invitation letters, they will definitely interact with people around hell involuntarily, which is determined by the deep-rooted group biological instinct of human beings, as long as they start interacting, Over time, there will inevitably be a dependence on social networks."
Chris listened carefully to Eric's words, nodded, and suddenly smiled again: "Internet party invitation letter, this is indeed a good notice, but you don't seem to have said it before, if you tell Ian this idea They, now they might have made it."
"You can discuss this with Ian and the others when you have time. You can even do some lucky draw promotion activities for party invitations. Hollywood can provide many party opportunities that movie fans dream of." Eric will want to gather around the fireplace The daughter who was studying something else embraced her and said, "However, although I have many wonderful ideas in my head, it is impossible for me to put too much energy on these trivial things. Yahoo now has more than 6,000 The scale of employees, these talents are the main body of providing various ideas. If I need to do everything, why spend money to hire so many people?"
"What you said is very reasonable, but on the other hand, even if Yahoo's ordinary employees and even lower management can come up with similar ideas and even make detailed project plans, none of your words can arouse Ian's attention. Pay attention to."
"This is also inevitable," Eric thought for a while, and said, "Well, I asked my assistant office to open a special channel to accept creative proposals from Yahoo employees. I spend a few hours a week on Here."