The emergence of the ie graphical interface browser has definitely had a fatal impact on ordinary people's Internet habits. The previous web browser software had to go through complicated operations to connect to the Internet, and this shortcoming blocked most people from accessing the Internet. Beyond the ranks of surfers. The emergence of the IE browser equipped with the home page of the Yahoo portal site enables ordinary people not only to browse the corresponding Internet information according to their own preferences, but also to find interesting content in a more directional manner through the search engine function launched by Yahoo. This change greatly facilitates ordinary people who are almost completely ignorant of computer technology.
After a proper advertising campaign and word of mouth from users, 110,000 copies of the IE browser were sold in major North American cities in just one week after its release. Although IE did not limit the number of installations per floppy disk, The sales curve of the software has not shown any downward trend, and has been rising rapidly. Some merchants even raised the sales price by a large amount without authorization because of the hot sales of the software.
The hot sales of ie not only caused a wave of user application peaks in the online business of several mainstream communication companies in North America, but also caused a significant increase in the sales of personal computers of several major brands at the end of the year.
At the same time, both ordinary newspapers and professional computer magazines have paid keen attention to this "magical software" that suddenly appeared on the market. Moreover, more professional magazines such as "Communications of the Computer Society" or "Network Transactions" praised the IE software, and used a large space in the latest issue of the magazines to discuss IE and Yahoo a deeper analysis.
Eric, who was standing by the study window, hung up the mobile phone in his hand, and then walked back to the sofa in the reception area of the study and sat down. Chris pushed over a cup of coffee that he had made. He asked curiously, "From Los Angeles?"
Eric nodded: "Warner wanted me to attend the premiere of "The Bodyguard". I turned it down. I have been receiving similar calls these days, and Spielberg also asked Drew to call me two days ago Phone, to see if I can attend the premiere of Schindler's List."
Chris asked with a smile: "You always have to attend the premiere of the "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" co-operated with Columbia. Are you the screenwriter?"
"Let's talk," Eric took a sip of coffee.
Virginia's chuckle suddenly sounded from the desk behind him, and Eric turned his head to take a look. Virginia, Joanna, and Emily, who came to visit with Chris, gathered together on a computer screen Before whispering.
The industry's pursuit of ie is not very clear to Eric, but Virginia makes Eric feel this. Because of the convenience and practicality of ie and Yahoo, Virginia, who was not interested in computers at all in the past, has become obsessed with surfing the Internet these days. She spends hours a day in front of the computer screen, often dragging Together with Joanna, if it wasn't for the fact that the radiation from the computer screen is too serious these days, if you face the screen for a long time, a layer of oil will appear on your face, Virginia would like to hold the computer without moving it when she is awake.
Chris followed Eric's gaze, looked at the appearance of the three women, and smiled knowingly.
"It's been less than two weeks since the news came from ie headquarters. At present, the total installed capacity of ie software has exceeded 3 million units, and it is still growing rapidly. As long as there are no competitors It is estimated that within three months, IE will be able to cover all Internet users in North America and even Europe. The visit traffic of Yahoo's homepage is also skyrocketing at the same time, and the company is already expanding the server capacity of the website."
Eric patiently listened to what Chris said before asking: "These are all good news, is there anything else?"
"Of course," Chris said, "In the past few days, software and hardware giants such as Microsoft, Apple, IBM, and Oracle have all contacted me, hoping to buy IE and Yahoo. Among them, Apple offered 150 million dollars for the two companies. They obviously hope that the Apple computer operating system can monopolize the IE software. In addition, several major network service providers have also contacted me, and Steve Case from America Online plans to come over to talk to me in person tomorrow."
Eric's total investment in IE, Yahoo and Hotmail online mailbox service company this year is only about 30 million US dollars. If IE and Yahoo are sold to Apple, the highest bidder, the investment of 30 million US dollars can be doubled in a blink of an eye. Earn back five times. However, with the strong expansion momentum shown by IE and Yahoo, only a fool would sell the two companies. If it was other investors, after a period of operation, they would definitely choose to go public for financing and cash out, but before 1995, Eric doesn't think about it at all.
However, America Online is Eric's very important pawn in the layout of the Internet industry. Steve Case has become interested in the two companies, and Eric is not easy to ignore: "Steve Case's idea What is it?"
"He hopes to be able to merge IE and Yahoo, or at least to be able to acquire Yahoo," Chris said and looked at Eric. Based on what he knew about Eric, Chris felt that Eric would not let go of IE and Yahoo. Any one of them is given to AOL. However, after taking a stake in AOL at the beginning of the year, it has obtained investment from Firefly. This year, AOL has also developed very rapidly.
In Chris' view, handing over IE and Yahoo to AOL is also a good choice.
America Online has already begun to explore the online advertising business at this time. In September, Steve Case personally negotiated an online advertising order of US$1 million. Although for mainstream advertising carriers such as TV stations or print media, $1 million in advertising is nothing, not even worth the cost of launching a movie trailer at the Super Bowl, but for the Internet, which is still in its infancy, getting a $1 million advertising order is absolutely It is a breakthrough pioneering work, so we can also see Steve Case's excellent management ability.
Eric could also see some of his thoughts from Chris's expression, thought for a while and said, "Chris, do you know why I established three separate companies for browsers, portals and online mailboxes?"
Chris smiled and didn't answer. Signal Eric to continue.
Eric didn't give a shit. Then said: "Because the computer and network information industry is very different from the film and television industry that has been developed for nearly a century. This is a new sunrise industry, and many aspects are still in its infancy. At this time, it hastily started to diversify. Integration is a very unwise move. Once the company has too many product categories, it will be difficult to concentrate on one business to the extreme. The development of computer and network technology is quite rapid. If you lag behind, it is likely to was left far behind by the opponent."
"So you hope that these three companies can operate separately. You even rejected the Yahoo team's suggestion to bind the IE homepage, just to hope that they can maintain their own status and maintain a vigorous aggressiveness?"
Seeing that Chris guessed his intentions, Eric said with a smile: "Yeah, my plan is to wait for these companies to achieve undisputed dominance in their respective fields before starting to expand horizontally. This is the safest way." development ideas, rather than spreading out the stalls at the beginning, and in the end, any business will be inferior to more focused competitors, which will eventually lead to overall failure.”
"Then what should I tell Steve Case when he comes over tomorrow?" Chris asked again.
"If you really want a reason, just tell him what I just said. Both IE and Yahoo can cooperate with AOL in some businesses at a deeper level. This is definitely a win-win situation, but the matter of mergers and acquisitions Certainly not."
The two were chatting, and there was another soft laugh behind them. Eric turned his head and said, "Hey, ladies, do you see something interesting and share it with us?"
"It's nothing, Vicky turned to a joke website," Emily said looking up.
Virginia also looked away from the screen, and said to Eric: "Eric, I found something."
"What?" Eric asked with a smile while leaning on the back of the sofa with a coffee in his hand.
Virginia pointed to the computer screen and said: "Although the information on these websites is varied and interesting, many of them are a little behind. We just saw a fashion website that introduces clothing brand information. Some of the information is even from what I read in magazines last year, and those news sites are very lagging."
Eric moved slightly in his heart, but continued to ask calmly on the surface: "Then what do you think should be done?"
Virginia wondered: "It's none of my business, they give out these old-fashioned information, I just don't read it in the future."
Emily, who was sitting next to Virginia, saw Eric's eyes flickering, and said, "Eric, you must have thought of something, right?"
"Yeah," Eric nodded, looked at Chris who was sitting diagonally across from him with a clear expression, and said, "Chris also figured it out."
Virginia tapped on the keyboard a few times, but looked at Eric and Chris: "Then say it, it's really boring to hide it."
Chris looked at Eric and said, "I think Yahoo can make its own content. I don't know if Eric thinks so."
Later, portal websites can be roughly divided into portal websites that provide search engine services and portal websites that provide news and information. Although the first type is more promising, the current scale of the Internet has not reached the level of developing large search engines. However, the search technology currently provided by Yahoo is sufficient, so it is undoubtedly a safer choice to go to a portal website that provides news and information services as its main business.
Eric nodded and said, "Almost, but there are so many content sections on Yahoo's main site, it's impossible to create all of them. You can choose a few aspects that Internet users are most interested in and try first."
"Is it..." Chris glanced at the few people sitting behind the desk, and lowered his voice slightly: "Is it possible to cooperate with traditional paper media, so that it should be more convenient to obtain content?"
Eric looked at Chris' sneaky look, and immediately thought that he was referring to News Corp. His relationship with Elizabeth was no secret to the few people present. Chris made such an expression, obviously I want Eric to go out in person.
News Corporation's business scope covers Australia, Europe and North America, covering almost the entire Western world. It has dozens of newspapers and magazines of various types and a large number of TV stations around the world. As far as Yahoo is concerned, it is not like a tiger with wings added, it is simply a tiger flying a plane.
But now, if nothing else is taken into account, it is impossible for News Corporation, which is as huge as a giant whale, to take a fancy to this little loach that has just made a splash on the Internet, and cooperation is even more out of the question.
Eric didn't immediately dismiss Chris's idea, saying: "I will take the time to talk to Mr. Murdoch, but I don't have much hope. Letting Yahoo set up its own content editing department is the right way, and Yahoo doesn't need to talk to Mr. Murdoch at the moment. To cooperate with a huge media group like News Corporation, it only needs to cooperate with some single newspapers and magazines in terms of content.”
"Then I'll let Yahoo's team come up with a plan as soon as possible when I go back," Chris nodded.
Eric thought for a while, and then said: "There is one more thing. Now that IE and Yahoo have been launched, now is the time. Regarding equity incentives, I plan to give up to 20% of each company's equity as rewards." , but the cashing time is 1995. Of course, these are definitely not unconditional gifts. To what extent and how much equity you can get, you need to negotiate with the management teams of the three companies. The main indicator is of course that the company has grown to 1995 The product market share, number of users, turnover, patent holdings, company valuation, etc. at the time of the year.”
It is very common for investors to issue equity incentives to the management team that has made great contributions to the company. This will not only keep the company team motivated, but also increase the cohesion of a company.
Although Chris thinks that Eric's 20% equity share is too generous, he also knows that this can stimulate the expansion enthusiasm of the teams of the three companies to the greatest extent, not to mention that Eric also said that it is up to 20%. Instead of just giving out 20%, if the teams of the three companies do not meet the expectations of the parent company, then it is certain to reduce the share of equity incentives. If they can keep the three companies in the leading position in the industry, they will pay 20% to keep it. The excellent team is also a very cost-effective thing.
With these in mind, Chris has already begun to ponder the specific contract details with the management of the three companies in his mind. (To be continued..)