Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 398 Damn Zhang Chao!
On July 2008, 7, the iPhone 11G was officially launched one month after its release.

As the second generation iPhone, the hardware upgrade is not just the addition of a 3G chip, but also an upgraded processor with doubled performance and a new camera that can shoot videos.

But these are not much better than the Nokia N96 of that year, and some aspects - such as the camera function - are simply weak.

What made this generation of Apple phones a qualitative leap forward was that the new version of the system designed for it came with an AppStore. From then on, people could download non-system applications in an extremely simple way.

This is also the feature that Jobs highlighted at the press conference. However, almost all technology media believe that this is not enough to shake the Nokia empire.

No matter what kind of application it is, Nokia can use its market influence to quickly reach an agreement with the developer or developer, then add it to its own Symbian system, and then quickly roll it out with its size advantage.

Compared with the powerful N series, the iPhone is still as weak as a child. But this does not prevent it from attracting a lot of attention and expectations. After all, this is a product released by Apple. Even if it is just a "toy", it is still enough to attract attention.

In Los Angeles, USA, digital enthusiast Craven was the first to rush into the Apple store and buy this "toy" after waiting in line all night.

The media who had been waiting outside the venue rushed over and began to surround Craven, hoping that he would show off his newly bought mobile phone.

Craven was not at all nervous. He took out his newly activated iPhone 3G and began to show it off. Under the lens of the media camera, he opened the App Store and said, "This is the feature I'm most looking forward to, but there were too many people lining up just now, so I haven't had time to experience it yet..."

As he spoke, he slid his finger across the interface: "To be honest, I still don't know which app I should download... There are so many apps, there are actually 500 apps, it's unbelievable..."

At this time, he swiped to the game page, and a colorful picture caught his attention: a green watermelon was cut in the middle, and red juice was bursting out from the middle.

Out of curiosity, Craven clicked on the picture. Since he was still in front of the Apple store, with the help of WIFI, the detailed page was quickly displayed:
Fruit KungFu.

"Kung Fu Fruit? Priced at $0.99?" Craven clicked the download button out of curiosity and paid the fee with the credit card he had just linked.

In less than a minute, the game was downloaded. He couldn't wait to open it. According to the game interface and instructions, he turned the screen sideways and started playing quickly.

Various fruits keep popping up from the bottom of the screen, including watermelon, banana, apple, pineapple, pear..., and users only need to use the iPhone's touch screen mechanism to turn their fingers into blades, swipe across the screen when the time is right, and cut the fruit.

Depending on the timing of the cut, scores are continuously given on the screen - if the cut is perfect, the phone will vibrate, giving the user strong positive feedback.

As scores accumulate and proficiency increases, the number of fruits increases from one to multiple, with bombs mixed in. Users must accurately avoid the bombs and cut the fruits. At the same time, the screen will display combos based on the number of fruits cut with one knife.

Craven initially thought it was a traditional mobile game on Nokia phones that needed to be controlled with a keyboard, so he planned to show it off and leave. Unexpectedly, Fruit KungFu fully utilized the multi-touch function of the iPhone, and the cuts were smooth and silky, making people unable to stop.

The media interviewing the game were also stunned. This was a way of playing the game that they had never seen before, and it completely overturned everyone's understanding of mobile games.

In the past, mobile games were just simplified versions of computer games, except that they were controlled using mobile phone keyboards instead of computer keyboards.

And this "Kung Fu Fruit" tells people that in the touch screen era, the game mechanism can be completely different.

Craven was so engrossed that he forgot that his phone screen was still in the camera of the reporter and he enjoyed cutting the fruit to his heart's content.

The reporters surrounding him were also staring at the screen intently, their eyes sparking with anger, wishing they could snatch the phone away and operate it themselves.

After a few minutes, as Kraven's proficiency continued to improve, his score record also set new highs. Finally, after he made a perfect cut, the game screen displayed:
Congratulations on setting a new record, now you can -

1. Choose a new weapon.

2. Show off to your friends.

Kraven clicked on the first item first, and a new interface appeared, with two weapons for him to choose from -

1. Tai Chi Sword: One of the most commonly used swords in China, it can draw a graceful arc in the air and leave behind a lethal "sword energy" to continue cutting the fruit behind.

2. Eight-cut Knife: A dual-wield weapon from southern China, swift and agile. You can now use two fingers to cut the target in the air, and a red track will appear when cutting.

The reporters watching the scene started to cheer him on. Some asked him to choose Tai Chi Sword, while others asked him to choose Eight Cut Knife.

Kraven hesitated for a moment, and finally chose the Eight Cutting Swords - it was so comfortable to use with one hand, let alone with two hands?
After making the selection, everyone discovered that this interface was a store window within the game. In addition to the Tai Chi Sword and Eight-Cut Knife that had already been unlocked, there were more than twenty small boxes with question marks. No idea what magical weapons they were. They definitely needed to achieve higher scores to unlock them.

After exiting the weapon selection interface, Kraven clicked "Show off to your friends" again.

Then the game generated a poster image for him that included "results", "regional/world rankings", and "weapons used", and provided a link:
You can share pictures in your circle of friends on the new social APP "WeMessage".

Craven clicked the link doubtfully, and his phone immediately jumped from the game interface to the AppStore interface, and then automatically entered the download interface of "WeMessage".

Craven was delighted when he saw it. Wasn't this the Weibo app he had been using? The icon was the same, and the company that produced it was also the same. It must be the version of Weibo that was specially launched for iPhones.

He clicked the download button without hesitation, and the App was soon installed on his phone. He clicked it and logged in directly with his Weibo account. The interface was very neat, and a prompt popped up:
Do you want to import your Weibo friends?

Kraven clicked "yes", and instantly hundreds of contacts appeared in his friend list.

At this time, "WeMessage" guided him to share the picture he had just taken to the "Circle of Friends" in the App.

……

"This young man Zhang Chao has no moral principles! He is trying to cheat! He is trying to attack us by surprise!"

In the building of Shenzhen Penguin Company, the person in charge of QQ business was holding the latest iPhone 3G in his hand. After playing "Fruit KungFu" twice and trying out "WeMessage", he almost yelled this sentence out uncontrollably.

Just in the past month or two, they were still discussing whether the idea of ​​"microblogging" in Zhang Chao's novels could become the future development direction of QQ. It's only been a few days, and "Chaoxi Culture" has launched its own social software?
Since the iPhone has not yet officially entered the Chinese market, the Chinese name of "WeMessage" is still uncertain. However, based on feedback on the Internet, it is likely to be called "WeChat".

QQ, as Penguin's core business, immediately felt unprecedented pressure.

The QQ team was not unprepared for the "Tide Culture" to enter the instant messaging software field with the help of "Weibo". On the contrary, they held many discussions internally and finally came to the conclusion that:
As a company that focuses on the agency and development of literature and cultural products, "Chaoxi Culture" uses "Weibo" more as a platform for publicity. It is almost impossible for them to successfully cross over to instant messaging software; on the contrary, if they do so, it will drag down the development of their other businesses.

Because in China, QQ dominates the instant messaging software as a social tool, and a pattern has been formed in which Fetion, UC Chat and others each have their own functions. Not to mention latecomers, even MSN, which started earlier and is backed by the giant Microsoft, can only be defeated.

The reason is simple. Once this type of software has formed a solid user base, the cost of switching platforms is extremely high - everyone will always tend to use only one, or at most two, instant messaging software.

Therefore, if you want to tap into this market, the amount of investment is secondary. The key lies in how to convince users to give up their original habits and switch to a new chat platform.

As long as the reason is strong enough and really works, money will flood into the new platform and there will be no funding problems at all - history has proven this countless times.

How did QQ stand out in the fierce competition among chat software at the beginning of the century? More convenient registration method (no need to bind an email address), stranger social networking (you can search and add friends at will), support for multi-person chat (MSN requires plug-ins), support for breakpoint resuming, and can directly display pictures...

These chat software features that seem commonplace today were almost all first developed or integrated by QQ.

In terms of the essence of "social chat software", QQ around 2004 and WeChat in 2024 are no different.

Therefore, it is almost impossible to challenge QQ from the perspective of "function", not to mention that it had a terrifying scale of 2008 million total users and 8.9 million active accounts in 3.7.

The only way may be to invest a huge amount of money, accumulate users little by little through various publicity and promotional activities, and finally see if you can win some users from Penguin.

However, "WeMessage" completely overturned the QQ team's understanding of the development path of social chat software from the "gameplay" level.

First, Zhang Chao used two novels to trigger the imagination of millions of domestic literature lovers and onlookers about future life, and deeply "implanted" a software that had not been released at all into the minds of users.

Then, "Tide Culture" used a mobile game that was so novel and interesting that it was beyond everyone's imagination. Almost every user who bought an iPhone couldn't wait to download the game and share their achievements through "WeMessage".

"WeMessage" itself has more than 20 million registered users in China and the United States, which means that "WeMessage" does not need to invest any additional funds in publicity to win new users.

All this caught the Penguin QQ team off guard, and they felt like they were ambushed by Zhang Chao and "Tide Culture".

However, they did not dare to activate the Sharingan easily this time, because the other party's identity was too special and could not be treated as an ordinary business rival;

……

Overnight, news about both Fruit KungFu and WeMessage swept across the United States, and also shook the technology and digital circles on the other side of the ocean.

The download volume of both apps ranked first in their categories, far ahead of any other apps.

The first batch of users who bought iPhone 3G were almost crazy, swiping on the screen, cutting one fruit after another, and after setting new records, they shared the pictures to the "Friends Circle" of "WeMessage".

You should know that the content of "Friends Circle" will be synchronized to "Weibo".

Chinese users will not be able to use the new iPhone 3G for a while, and the older iPhones have not received updates to the new system - even if they were, they would not be able to support Chinese credit card payments.

So all they could do was watch American users show off their “Fruit KungFu” records.

Driven by such huge expectations, a miracle in the history of electronic digital products has emerged: the first generation of iPhone, which has been on the market for more than a year, has been hyped up to 5000 yuan per unit in the second-hand market, and those in good condition are even approaching 6000 yuan, which is higher than the original price when it was released.

The new iPhone 3G was even hyped up to tens of thousands of yuan, and there was still no demand. Hong Kong's major airlines no longer transported beef and seafood, but instead transported mobile phones.

If you can take out an iPhone 3G on the university campus at this time, open "Fruit KungFu", swipe twice, and then share it with "WeMessage", the effect will be comparable to a dunk over someone on the basketball court, and you will instantly have the first choice of spouse for four years of college.

The developer behind "Fruit KungFu" was also discovered by the media, and it turned out to be the game department of the American branch of "Tide Culture".

Now the logical relationship is clear.

However, when people marvel at the foresight of Zhang Chao and "Tidal Culture", they can't help but ask:
"Is Zhang Chao a devil?"

This even includes Zhang Chao’s loyal readers and his teachers.

Ten days ago, he used "selling a kidney to buy a cell phone" as a symbol of the materialistic and money-worshiping society more than a decade later in his film "Letter from an Unknown Woman", and now he has become the man behind the scenes?
No one would believe that Zhang Chao didn't know how popular the game "Fruit KungFu" would be after its release - so did he write this novel knowing this?

When you think about it, it's a bit creepy indeed.

Now the price of iPhone 3G has been hyped up to tens of thousands of yuan, and it has become the object of ardent pursuit by many young people who consider themselves "trendsetters". Has anyone already ended up on the operating table in a black clinic?

Even the Youth Daily, which has always been supportive of Zhang Chao, questioned this and published an article that made implicit criticism without naming him:

When Fantasy Becomes Reality: How to Choose Between Artistic Conscience and Commercial Value

This article caused a certain social response, but after all, it did not name anyone.

But a post by a user on Weibo was more direct and eye-catching, directly igniting the topic:
"Damn Zhang Chao!"

(End of this chapter)