Eric smiled slightly when he heard Chris's question, picked up a pen and drew a simple schematic diagram of the Long Tail theory on the clipboard, and said in a firm tone: "Of course it is meaningful, and it is of great significance. Everyone knows that Hollywood exists. Do you own a lot of B-movie companies?"
Although I don't know why Eric suddenly mentioned this, the few people present still nodded, and at the same time looked curiously at the simple schematic diagram that Eric drew on the clipboard.
Eric drew a schematic diagram of the long-tail theory that companies such as Google, Amazon, and Netflix relied on in the original time and space, and said: "Take some B-level movies in Hollywood as an example. The income structure of B-level movies is like this picture. We can call it the 'long tail graph'. The head of this graph represents the box office revenue of a B-grade film that is fortunate enough to land in theaters. This part of the income occupies most of the area of the long tail graph. For B-grade movies worth millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, if they can be screened in theaters, they can almost earn a fortune. But most B-grade movies are difficult to get the qualifications for theater releases, so ordinary people often You may think that B-movie companies will be very difficult to survive, but this is not the case, many B-movie companies live very well, and the rules for their survival are like this diagram.”
Eric said, using a pen to cut vertically with a dotted line at the head with the largest area of the long tail map, draw a cross, and then continue to quickly cut out a piece of area with a vertical line on the tail area, and explain while marking Dao: "As shown in the picture, even if they can't get the biggest income from the 'head', they can still get the same income as the head through the distribution of video tapes, the income from cable TV broadcasting rights, and the sales of copyrights in the vast overseas market. The income is comparable. Moreover, as long as there are enough channels, the income from copyright sales in overseas markets is very rich. Think about it, a B-level movie with a cost of 2 million US dollars can recover a large part of the cost in the United States. But in the vast overseas market, even if it is a package sale of full copyright, the UK sells for 200,000 US dollars, France sells for 150,000 US dollars, and then Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal... After Europe, there is an equally vast Asian market. There are even some relatively rich Latin American countries and African countries. The sum of these sporadic incomes is enough for a small company to make a lot of money." Speaking of this, Eric put the pen in his hand on the On one side, looking at the few people present, he said, "So, what do you see?"
Chris looked thoughtful. Tina Brown, who knows more about Hollywood, retorted: "Eric, I think that apart from the seven major Hollywood film companies, there are very few small B-movie companies that have the kind of extensive channels you mentioned. This ideal state of affairs does not seem to exist."
"But it is a fact that the production companies of famous b-movie producers such as Roger Corman are living very well in Hollywood through the distribution method I mentioned, isn't it?" Eric said with a smile: " Moreover, I am just using such an idealized example to demonstrate Yahoo's future profit model."
As an outstanding financial graduate, Chris understood it faster than the others, and said, "Eric, I think I know what you want to express. What you mean. If a 'product 'The sales channels are large enough, so even if the profits brought by these channels are very insignificant, but accumulated, it will still become an amazing data. "
"Bingo," Eric raised his right hand and tried to snap his fingers, but failed. He lowered his arm amidst the chuckles of several people, and said, "Considering the current network environment, the entire network space already has tens of Thousands of websites of different sizes, if we can develop a set of advertising distribution technology that is easy to operate and recognized by customers, and pull 100,000 websites with good traffic to join the Yahoo Advertising Alliance, on average, each website can only use advertising every month. Bring us a negligible income of 10 US dollars, then Yahoo can earn 1 million US dollars a month in total, although this 1 million is still far from enough to cover Yahoo’s current annual operating expenses. But in recent years, Internet users and The growth rate of the number of websites is astonishing, if the number of websites in the Yahoo Advertising Network can increase tenfold or a hundredfold in the next few years, then our revenue will also increase geometrically.”
Tina Brown asked again: "Eric, if I built a website and successfully developed it to a certain scale, I would definitely not join the Yahoo Advertising Alliance and choose to operate alone. It seems that I can get more income?"
Eric pointed to the cross mark at the head of the long-tail image on the clipboard, and said: "The focus of the operation of the Yahoo Advertising Alliance is not on these websites at the head of the 'long-tail'. What we want to get is the same 'Heads' generate profits comparable in size to tails."
Tina Brown smiled a little embarrassedly, but she ignored the rules that Eric just finished talking about.
Eric didn't mind, and continued: "Besides, the $100 million plan I mentioned to you to fund the development of a large number of small and medium-sized websites can actually be classified as part of the Yahoo Advertising Alliance. Anyone who wants to get angel investment from Yahoo All websites of the fund must join the Yahoo Advertising Alliance. It is still in the initial stage of the Internet industry. I think there are not many investors for small and medium-sized websites. We can take this opportunity to bring in websites with more development potential. In the Yahoo Advertising Alliance, if Yahoo’s huge portal website channel effect is used for promotion, then, at least in the next few years, most of the most powerful websites on the Internet will come from the Yahoo Advertising Alliance. Even if these websites choose to leave in the future, I think Yahoo has grown enough to get rid of other monetization channels."
The so-called other profit channels are, of course, search engine services.
Yahoo currently has the initial functions of a search engine, but due to the limitation of the scale of the Internet industry, it has not exploded enough potential. The main reason why Yahoo failed in the original time and space is that it blindly believed in the unshakable status of portal websites and ignored the development potential of search engines. Otherwise, with the huge resources Yahoo had at that time, it would be absolutely impossible for Google to replace it. But now, of course Eric would not make such a mistake.
This small high-level meeting was held until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. After Eric finished talking about Yahoo's two major future development plans, Chris, Ian Grenier, Tina Brown and others also spoke freely and published Some suggestions of my own. At the end of the meeting, Eric and Chris left the Yahoo headquarters together, but the four of Ian Grenier remained in the conference room discussing enthusiastically.
After attending Nokia's board meeting from Finland, Chris came back to Boston just after returning home. He was already very tired. When I got back to the hotel, I couldn't wait to get into the room to catch up on sleep.
After holding today's meeting, Eric doesn't have much to do in Boston. Some details of Yahoo's next development process can be discussed with everyone via email. If the meeting with John Chambers and Steve Case goes well tomorrow, Eric can return to Los Angeles. compared to Chris. At this time, Eric still maintained a slightly excited state during the meeting, without the slightest sense of fatigue after participating in the meeting for a whole day.
There is no sign of the hot summer in Boston in May, and the eyes in the afternoon are warm and warm. After sending Chris back to his room to rest, Eric changed into a casual casual outfit. Go downstairs and out of the hotel.
It has been a week since I came to Boston. Except for the party where all the employees of the company were invited, Eric’s activities these days have been confined between the Cambridge Hotel on Massachusetts Avenue and the Yahoo headquarters a few hundred meters away. After finishing everything and still having some time in the afternoon, Eric plans to walk around. This is his little habit after he arrives in every city. What's more, less than two kilometers to the west along the West Avenue that intersects with Massachusetts Avenue not far from the hotel, and across the Charles River is the famous Harvard Business School, although Eric has no previous life. The admiration of the business school of political and business celebrities. But he was still very curious.
Eric had just walked out of the hotel when Carter Moen appeared in good time and asked, "Boss, do you need a car?"
Because he has been relatively neglected to take care of his personal image recently, Eric has grown a faint stubble on his jaw at this time, adding a bit of mature temperament to his whole person. He took out light-colored sunglasses from his pocket and put them on, coupled with his casual attire at this time, Eric believes that apart from very familiar relatives and friends, not many people can easily recognize him: "I will go to the other side of the river for a walk, just No more cars."
Carter Moen nodded. Seeing Eric walking towards a street ahead in a leisurely manner like the common young students on this street, he followed up with another companion from a distance.
Turn into West Avenue, although the name seems to be a commercial street, but it is just a two-lane asphalt road. On both sides of the road are mostly red brick houses that trigger some of Eric's obsessive-compulsive disorder. Boston's brownstone culture is very popular. Moreover, these red brick buildings that look a bit shabby are usually middle-class and middle-class with a good income. Only the rich can afford to live, and the low- and middle-income people still can only live in cheap wooden houses.
Walking a few hundred meters along West Avenue, Eric saw an ATM next to a supermarket. Realizing that he didn't have any money with him and that he might need it later, he walked over and took out his credit card to withdraw a few hundred dollars.
Walking out of the ATM hall, I saw a girl in a light blue coat holding two full convenience bags walking towards a red Ford on the side of the street, carefully reaching out to open the trunk, Eric walked over to say hello: " Ma'am, do you need help?"
"Thank you, you are such a caring person," the girl smiled and stepped aside, Eric stretched out his hand to help the other party open the trunk, nodded to the other party, and continued to walk forward.
The girl carefully put away the daily necessities in the convenience bag, closed the trunk, looked up and noticed Eric walking forward, and then remembered the feeling of deja vu when she noticed Eric's side face just now. , but this is where the feeling comes from and I have no clue. In the end, I can only regard this feeling as a common psychological déjà vu.
However, even though he wears sunglasses, he is still a handsome guy.
After thinking about it for a while, the girl quickly scolded herself mentally for being a nympho. Just as she was about to get in the car and leave, she remembered that her roommate asked her to bring some things that she had just forgotten to buy, so she had to go back to the supermarket again.
Walking out of the supermarket again, the girl threw a bag of things in her hand on the back seat of the car, got into the Ford, and when she took out the key, she unconsciously glanced in front of her eyes, and the figure was still in sight. There was some inexplicable throbbing, the girl drove up and came to Eric's side to slow down the speed, pressed the window and summoned up courage and said to Eric: "I'm going to the soldier factory in front, do you want a ride?"
Eric, who was standing on the curb, leaned slightly, waved to the girl sitting in the driver's seat of the Ford, and said with a smile, "Thank you, I'll be there when I cross the river."
The girl in front of him seemed to be the same age as him, with long, smooth, light brown hair, and a delicate fair face with light makeup, with an obvious bookish look on her body. Eric himself would not refuse to have such an affair in a different place, but if he got into the car of this beautiful woman, Carter and Moen who followed him on foot would definitely be thrown off. Mr. Bodyguard once told him that for the sake of personal safety, he should not do anything beyond their expectations.
I thought that after refusing, the girl would leave, but the other party smiled and said to Eric: "Don't you know that the soldier factory is just across the river?"
Eric froze for a moment, and shook his head honestly. He simply looked at the map and determined the location of Harvard Business School, but he really didn't know where the soldier factory was mentioned by the girl: "I'm from Los Angeles, just I want to go to Harvard Business School."
"Are you going to apply for business school? Maybe I can show you around." The girl looked at Eric with eyes full of eyes, and said, still keeping the speed down, "Introduce me, my name is Melanie."
Eric was not interested in making up a pseudonym at random, nor did he take the initiative to introduce himself. Listening to the girl's accent, he smiled and changed the subject at will: "You are not from Georgia, are you?"
"Oh," Melanie asked in surprise, "how did you guess that?"
"Is there anyone in your family who likes to read Gone with the Wind?" Eric asked casually again.
"Yeah, my dad. My name comes from Melanie Hamilton in "Gone with the Wind". I didn't expect you to be able to guess it based on this. It's great."
"Of course I can't guess this based on your name," Eric said with a smile: "The most important thing is that I can hear your Georgia accent. I have a... friend who is from Georgia."
In fact, the topic of "Gone with the Wind" was indeed guessed by Eric, but the others are not blind, because among the women around him, Julia grew up in Georgia, and Eric felt that the woman in front of him named Melanie's Girl is very similar to Julia in some pronunciation habits. After being reborn for a long time, Eric can easily distinguish the various accents from all over the United States and from all races.
"Hehe," Melanie patted the steering wheel lightly, and said with a smile, "I see, you are imitating the joke between Conan Doyle and the coachman." (To be continued.)