When Li Mu came to the United States, he performed a series of combination punches.
The most direct result of this set of punches is the sharp increase in the number of users of "Paradise Town" in the United States.
Driven by two tens of millions of dollars in bonus events, "Paradise Town" simply couldn't stop as if it had wings, making the entire Microsoft MSN division tremble with fear.
MSN currently has four core business segments: MSN Portal, MSN Network Access, MSN-Messenger and MSN-Hotmail.
Among them, MSN-Messenger is the MSN software used for instant messaging. In addition, MSN portal and MSN mailbox are also important business sectors of MSN, with over 100 million users.
Among them, the one who fears YY the most is naturally MSN-Messenger, an instant messaging software that has the same positioning as YY, but its overall level is several generations behind.
In their eyes, "Paradise Town" is like the launcher of YY's nuclear bomb. Every time it has more users, the angle of the launcher becomes more vertical. Once the angle enters the ideal launch state of 90 degrees vertical, The YY nuclear bomb will be ruthlessly released by Li Mu.
It is clear to everyone at Microsoft that once YY uses "Paradise Town" to achieve a perfect debut in front of netizens across the United States, MSN will suffer disaster.
Today's MSN has been left behind by YY for several generations at the product level. Although it has quietly developed the latest version and copied many of YY's unique features in the latest version, it still lacks Li Mu's vision for the future of the Internet. In-depth understanding, so even if a new version is developed, the overall version is still much weaker than YY.
It is also easy to understand. For a long time, domestic automobile manufacturers have had a huge gap in strength compared with automobile manufacturers in developed countries. Even though there are so many successful overseas models for reference, domestic automobiles still have poor performance in engines, chassis, and transmissions. There is a gap between automobiles in developed countries and other aspects such as box, which is an objective fact of technological gap.
Although Microsoft is strong overall, it is not a universal company in the Internet industry. MSN has always been a bad product in Li Mu's eyes in his previous life, which shows that Microsoft does not really have the genes to be a social communication software.
Therefore, even if Microsoft wants to imitate Li Mu in this life, it should not have this gene, or it still does not have this gene. This is a flaw that it cannot make up for.
Behind many of YY's user-friendly functions, there are Makino Technology's own technical patent barriers, such as how to solve users' chat history roaming, offline files, how to support group chats, how to solve the sending, receiving and storage logic of group messages, and how to develop more advanced Streaming media transmission technology, and implementing nesting within the software, etc., are all problems that Microsoft MSN needs to solve one by one.
In addition, Microsoft cannot compete with Makino Technology in terms of design aesthetics and interface friendliness.
Design aesthetics requires long-term precipitation to form its own set of things. It is difficult to form its own style simply by imitating and plagiarizing. This is very clearly confirmed in the automobile industry.
In the next dozen years, even if domestically produced cars have so many successful overseas models as references, it will still be difficult to produce a few truly original and beautiful models. The reason is insufficient design aesthetics.
Of course, it goes without saying that a series of products that are 100% copied by Zhongti's measuring tape department, but Zhongti can do such a thing, but Microsoft certainly cannot.
Because of this, the latest version that MSN is developing internally is still more than an era behind YY in terms of design aesthetics.
And this new version of MSN, which is still more than an era behind YY, has not yet completed development. Several functions have not yet found effective solutions. According to the plan, this product will have to wait at least two more months before it can be tested. Then it will be released after the test is correct.
But now, MSN team leaders can't wait.
Once "Paradise Town" starts to divert traffic to YY, the first one will be MSN-Messenger. It can be predicted that by that time, almost all "Paradise Town" players will give up MSN and switch to YY as soon as possible. embrace.
In addition, there is MSN mailbox. YY itself integrates the mailbox function, and the user experience is much better than MSN-Messenger and MSN mailbox. If the user gives up MSN-Messenger and chooses YY, it is certain that Users will definitely give up their MSN mailboxes.
The only good thing is that the YY portal has not launched an English version yet, otherwise even the MSN portal will be impacted by YY.
Therefore, in the eyes of the MSN team, YY is the number one enemy of MSN at the moment. In order to prevent YY from suddenly using "Paradise Town" to invade the entire US market, Luis May, the head of the MSN business unit and one of the vice presidents of the Microsoft Group, ·Member held an emergency meeting and decided to launch the new version of MSN in advance, and requested that the sooner the better.
Louis May's request made everyone feel inexplicably nervous.
The person in charge of the development team stated: "The new version of MSN is still in the development process. Its early launch means that it must stop development immediately, remove all unfinished sections, and then package the completed parts for testing. , even if we complete the packaging today, testing will take several days to conduct."
Louis May asked: "How long does it take? Give me a clear time point!"
The leader of the development team frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "About five days."
Louis May nodded and said: "Five days can still wait, you should do as required as soon as possible."
The person in charge of the development team added: "We still have many features that have not yet been developed. If we launch it in such a hurry, our new version will not be much improved on the basis of the old version."
Louis May asked him: "What features have been developed now?"
"The only functions that have been developed at this stage are: custom grouping of friends, custom notes, and group chat. Other needs have not yet been resolved."
Louis May said categorically: "There is no choice. We must update our products before YY is fully launched. The current situation does not allow us to slowly build a product that is comparable to YY, but requires us to Before YY launches a full-scale attack, we will do everything we can to resist the impact of the other party. Therefore, even if only one new function is developed at this stage, it must be launched as soon as possible. Otherwise, once YY takes action first, we will be unable to resist. "
The current MSN-Messenger is like a fortification. Before the YY landing battle begins, what Microsoft has to do is to do its best to improve the defense capabilities of this fortification. Even if there are only a few more machine guns, it must be deployed as soon as possible, otherwise once YY After successfully logging in and completely destroying Microsoft's MSN defenses, it would be too late for MSN to upgrade.
The staff member responsible for the operation of MSN-Messenger smacked his lips and said: "There are only a few new features developed so far. We are still too weak in front of YY."
"There is nothing we can do if we are weak!" Louis May blurted out: "We don't have much time. Li Mu has invested so much money in "Paradise Town". The fundamental purpose is to push YY to the eyes of netizens across the United States. We must Upgrade the product as soon as possible, so that you still have a chance to retain some users!"
Speaking, Louis May added: "We are now moving forward in two directions. One is to upgrade the product as soon as possible, and the other is to continue to develop the product functions in depth, and the speed must be accelerated. We must now be like sending ammunition to the front line. , don’t collect all the guns, artillery and ammunition and send them there. Once the enemy starts a war, our front line may be overrun by the enemy before our guns, artillery and ammunition are delivered. We must adopt a rapid transportation strategy. , from now on, update the first version as soon as possible. After the first version is updated, once new features are developed, the second version will be updated immediately!”
…
After the "Paradise Town-Thanksgiving Global Competition" event was launched, capital's enthusiasm for Makino Technology increased even more, so much so that Makino Technology's Silicon Valley branch received a large number of venture capital company employees every day, but Makino Technology's official reception It was also very perfunctory. All the venture capital employees who came to the door could only drink a glass of water at Makino Technology. Their requests to meet with Li Mu or Lin Qingya were mercilessly rejected by the company administration.
Among them, Sequoia is the most urgent.
A few days ago, Sequoia learned from Larry Page that Li Mu would reopen the window for financing negotiations after the next steps of Makino Technology were completed. This time, the "Paradise Town-Thanksgiving Global Competition" allowed They thought that this was the "next move" mentioned by Li Mu, so they thought that Li Mu would soon open the window for financing negotiations. They have been frantically looking for opportunities to interview Li Mu in the past two days. Even Elon Musk They all became Sequoia's lobbyists, hoping to help Sequoia make an appointment with Li Mu.
However, Li Mu did not give Elon Musk any extra face. He just told Elon Musk that the opportunity for negotiation has not yet come.
This makes Sequoia even more nervous. The opportunity for negotiation has not come yet? Could it be that Li Mu has other actions behind him
Finally, as a last resort, Sequoia headquarters asked people from Sequoia China to directly contact Ding Zhenglin, who is in charge of capital operations at Makino Technology. Ding Zhenglin himself is from Sequoia, and he still has some old feelings, and asked him to make an appointment with Li Mu again, even if we don't talk about financing first. It's okay to just make an appointment to meet.
Ding Zhenglin didn't miss Sequoia's old relationship, and he coldly replied Sequoia China in four words: "We won't talk about it for the time being."
Li Mu's attitude is very straightforward: I won't talk to you about financing now, even if you ask the President of the United States to lobby.
Because Li Mu still has one last big weapon to use, he has made one move after another on "Paradise Town". Now, it is YY's turn to release the latest version.
At this moment, MSN's development department is fully preparing for the latest version of the update. Compared with the original plan, this version is just a castrated version. However, in the eyes of the MSN team, even if it is castrated The version is better than nothing. We can’t be suddenly caught off guard by Makino Technology...
(End of chapter)