The world is in trouble

Chapter 135 I'm Coming to Conquer You

During this period of rest, Lin Xiao entered into a long period of thinking.

Which path should I take when starting a business next?

Taking October 2002 as the starting point, there are three paths to becoming a giant.

These three paths can also span the PC era and the mobile Internet era.

The first path is the e-commerce path.

To put it bluntly, it is Taobao.

The second way is still e-commerce, that is, JD.com.

The third way is Facebook. (Facebook is currently the world's largest social networking giant, with a market value several times that of Tencent)
And after thinking it over, he found that the first and second paths were almost impossible for him.

First of all, Alibaba has been in business for several years, the foundation has been laid, and the team has been built.

JD.com has been established for several years, but it has not yet transformed into an e-commerce company.

The most important thing is that the success of every enterprise has a strong personal attribute and personal color.

Alibaba has a strong Ma Yun temperament.

Jingdong has a strong Dong Ge temperament.

Their individuals and businesses completely complement each other.

To be honest, what these two people can do, Lin Xiao may not be able to do.

The levels involved are too complex.

Lin Xiao is much more pure, he even has a strong sense of idealism.

The most important thing is that he has an obsession in his heart.

He wants to do something that others have failed to do in their previous life.

It is also the only industry that can export the Internet and establish Internet power in surrounding countries.

After much deliberation, in the end, only Facebook was the right choice, because Facebook has a successful track record and can be copied in a certain path.

“Our next project is called Facebook!”

“That’s social networking on the web.”

"In the next few decades, social networking will be the most powerful industry, and social networking will generate everything."

Feng Xian raised his hand: "Boss, the king of the social field has been born, and that is QQ."

Lin Xiao said: "Yes, but it is a software social network, not a web social network."

Cheng Hai raised his hand: "There are also social networking websites on the web, such as Chen Yizhou's DUDU website and Sohu's chinaren."

At present, the leader in the social networking category is chinaren, which has tens of millions of registered users and hundreds of millions to nearly 100 million daily page views.

Lin Xiao: "Chen Yizhou's Dudu.com is purely for the purpose of making money from mobile SPs. It is leaning hard towards the mobile phone text messaging side, trying to take a chance on a trend that is bound to pass soon. It is totally not worth it and is destined to have no future."

However, Chen Yizhou is an elite from MIT and the originator of social networking sites. After the rise of Facebook in the United States, he immediately acquired Xiaonei.com and merged it into Renren.com, becoming the number one in domestic web-based social networking.

Lin Xiao continued, "At present, Chianren is backed by Sohu and is so powerful that it is almost unshakable. But I said that it is completely in the public domain and lacks private display. Moreover, the product genes have been difficult to change since the moment it was born, and it is destined to have no future."

“We have two core Facebook genes.”

"First, personal presentation."

“Second, socializing with semi-acquaintances.”

"What is the core of personal display? Showing off, flaunting, pretending to be cool, and being a bootlicker!"

"Li Zhongtian, for example, if you bought a mobile phone or got a beautiful girlfriend, how can you let as many idiots know as quickly as possible?"

Li Zhongtian thought for a while and said, "On QQ, send a message to everyone."

Lin Xiao said: "Yes, this is the fastest way to show off. But it's different on Facebook. You can just take a photo of your new phone and a photo of you kissing your girlfriend, and then post it on your personal Facebook updates. All your friends will know instantly."

"It can achieve the greatest effect of showing off in the shortest time."

"This is the so-called personal display, and QQ currently does not have this function."

It was not until 2005 that QQ developed this feature and named it QQ Space.

"Pretending to be cool, showing off, flirting with men and girls are the core needs of young people, and our Facebook is to meet this core need."

“Second, socializing with semi-acquaintances.”

"This is extremely important, because you will only feel good if you show off to people you know. The girl or guy you want to hook up with is a so-called semi-acquaintance."

“Social networking among acquaintances can build a strong moat, because once the social network is built, it is almost impossible for other new products to replace it.”

"Semi-acquaintance social networking gives everyone space to explore and strive to turn semi-acquaintances into acquaintances."

This is really too important.

In history, Renren and Kaixin were both too eager for quick success and instant benefits.

Before the social gene among acquaintances was established, they were impatient to open up registration to the entire network, turning the entire website into a stranger social network with extremely poor stickiness and no moat could be established at all.

"So our goal at Facebook is not to expand rapidly. We must not be like Chinaren, which gained tens of millions of users in a short period of time, burned more than 10 million US dollars, and finally sold to Sohu because its capital chain could not sustain it."

“Before you build a strong social moat and a social gene among semi-acquaintances, you must never open up registration to the entire network and you must never expand blindly.”

“So our Facebook page was initially promoted only in universities in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing, and other key cities.”

“Only teachers and students from these universities are allowed to register, and within this closed circle, semi-acquaintance genes are constructed.”

"All the universities in Shanghai combined have hundreds of thousands of teachers and students, and several major cities have more than one million university students. As long as we have hundreds of thousands of people registering, it will be enough. Next, we will start to promote it to universities across the country."

"When almost all the teachers and students from universities across the country have registered, there will be more than 10 million registered users."

“At that time, the social gene of semi-acquaintances will be established, and then we can wait for the opportunity to open up registration to the whole network.”

Xia Xi raised her hand: "If we don't succeed, Chinaren will stand in front of us and become a mountain that we can't cross."

“And if we’re very successful, that means costs are exploding.”

"China burned through more than 99 million U.S. dollars in a short period of time, and that was in ."

"And all the money we have now, added together, is less than 10 million U.S. dollars."

"The Chinaren Alumni Directory is a public domain and lacks private display space. This is its fatal drawback. Just as you said, it cannot meet the core needs of showing off."

"But once our Facebook meets this core demand, it means that a large number of photos will be created every day, which requires a large number of servers and a large amount of bandwidth, which means that our costs will be much higher than Chinaren."

"We basically won't have enough money to burn."

This is why Lin Xiao weighed the pros and cons again and again before. The situations in China and the United States are different.

Facebook started out by relying on huge amounts of financing, and later became a giant by relying on advertising revenue.

However, the gap between the unit prices of advertisements in China and the United States is too large, but the costs of broadband and servers are almost the same.

So once Facebook’s user base really explodes, relying solely on advertising may not be enough.

In this way, it is possible to imitate the American FACEBOOK without completely plagiarizing it.

Lin Xiao said: "Facebook can have an extremely bright future, and social networking will give birth to everything. But for a long time, it will require a huge amount of money to feed. So our main line is to do Facebook, but we need to open up two new fronts to assist it and provide it with two major sources of income."

"The first line is Lightning Entertainment."

“Of course, in the next few years, mobile SP will still be the money-making outlet.

"But this thing can only make money for three or four years at most. It's not worth the fuss anymore."

"In recent years, the biggest source of income for mobile SPs is Cailing downloads."

"Unlike what we imagined, those classic songs may not be popular on Mobile Cailing."

"The works that can really become popular in Cailing are all grassroots works that are very down-to-earth, and they will give birth to many Internet hits."

"Our next goal for Lightning Entertainment is to try to incubate more hit songs on the Internet, and then make money without doing anything for a few years."

Yang Chengang made 100 or 200 million yuan with the song "Mouse Loves Rice".

"Another point is that after Facebook completes the establishment of the semi-acquaintance gene in the future, it will open up registration to the entire network, and it will need a hot spot!"

"And what was the breaking point? A large number of celebrities and stars joined Facebook."

"This is a very short process, and it may determine life or death in a few months!"

The reason why Sina Weibo was able to defeat QQ Weibo and Sohu Weibo at that time was that it gained authority by attracting a large number of celebrities to its platform in a very short period of time.

The moment Facebook achieved its dominance was also the moment when a large number of celebrities joined.

"The arrival of a large number of celebrities, especially stars, is the moment of rebirth for Facebook in the future, and also the moment that determines life and death."

"Because there are many eyes on us, once we succeed, there will definitely be two or three competitors."

“Therefore, Lightning Entertainment will become an indispensable part of our future traffic hegemony system.”

"Then Lightning Entertainment has two strategic goals."

"First, we earn money from Mobile Cailing by using the copyrights of a large number of popular online songs. We don't do mobile SP ourselves, but we let a large number of SPs help us make money. They release the copyrights of our songs, and give us a share of the profits from every download."

"Second, we need to gain a certain voice in the entertainment industry. This way, when we open up registration on Facebook to the entire network in the future, we can ensure that a large number of celebrities will give us face and not only register on our Facebook, but also update a large amount of dynamic content and achieve regular registration."

"It's fair to say that our Facebook will burn a lot of money."

"In the past few years, we needed a huge amount of money, which might have been provided by Lightning Entertainment's copyright of the divine songs."

"But this money can only be earned for three years at most."

“After three years, we will need to open up a whole new cash flow. This will be a permanent cash flow, the largest cash flow in the next few decades.”

"That is the second auxiliary line we want to develop, and also the main line for making money in the future: games!"

This is also a Chinese characteristic. Tencent and NetEase both rely on games.

Even companies like Sohu have relied on games for a long time.

And for a very long time, gaming has been the weakest link in the country.

After being imported with foreign gaming culture for a long time, Black Monkey was not born until 2024.

"And we are an original game with great reputation!"

“But it’s so difficult to cultivate a gaming company.”

"Within three years, we cannot expect our game company to make money. We will spend money to continuously nourish and cultivate it."

"Its only mission is to create a few classic mini-games to increase user stickiness and user activity for our Facebook."

"Three years later, when the financial resources of the mobile SP dry up, I hope it can really grow stronger, come up with a real money-making flagship product, start feeding back to the company, and become a real long-term source of income."

Lin Xiao has even conceived the future flagship product.

That is DNF, Dungeon Fighter. In the past life, this game was very popular on the Internet and brought huge profits to Tencent.

Moreover, compared with other games, it has a very good reputation, and the key is that this game is not particularly difficult to make.

"So, let me sort out the content of today's meeting."

"Three-year strategy!"

“One main thread, Facebook.”

“Two auxiliary lines, Lightning Entertainment and Lightning Games!”

"Remember?"

"Any objections?"

Everyone raised their hands, indicating that it was meaningless, and the vote was passed.

This has been the case since the beginning of the company, and Lin Xiao has absolute strategic guidance.

After the business actually starts, all management rights will be handed over to Xia Xi.

In fact, the three-year strategy set by Lin Xiao is indeed quite perfect.

"Then comes the second thing."

"In order to make our story more legendary, not only the establishment of Facebook, but also the establishment of Lightning Games must be carried out on the campus of Aurora University."

"The university scholar started a business and created a unicorn, which is more legendary and more story-telling."

"Especially for our Facebook, the initial founding users were all teachers and students from universities across the country."

"Moreover, universities are closed societies, which are very conducive to early internal dissemination and diffusion, and can gain the greatest traffic at the lowest cost."

"All of you will be working outside, and your work focus will be on Lightning Entertainment."

"Of course, it's too troublesome to build Lightning Entertainment from scratch. We don't have enough connections and time to waste."

"So I suggest that you directly acquire Gao Changhe's Changhe Entertainment Company and have him temporarily take charge of Lightning Entertainment."

"This matter still needs to be discussed by you, Xia Xi."

"Xia Xi, next you go find a suitable office building and register a series of companies we need."

"Feng Xian, Cheng Hai, have you found the game programmer I asked you to find?"

Feng Xian said: "We have found more than a dozen people, and they are all in negotiation."

Lin Xiao said: "Okay, then build the framework of Facebook in the shortest possible time. The content of this website is very simple and can be made in a few days."

It is indeed simple. It is more like a web page system than a website.

Most of the content is posted by users themselves.

In fact, Lin Xiao has completed the art design and main framework of the entire website in his spare time.

Cheng Hai and others can just improve it.

Zuckerberg got up early, and with just one or two people, he completed the construction of Facebook in the dormitory.

It can be said that Lin Xiao’s starting point is much better than Zuckerberg’s.

"Three-year strategic deployment is complete, everyone should do their own thing!"

"Wish us success!"

Everyone drank up the century egg and lean meat porridge in their bowl.

"Wish us success!"

"Long live the boss!"

........................

Xia Xi found Lin Xiao alone.

"Facebook has a good design gene and a bright future." Xia Xi said, "But it lacked explosive points in the early days."

"You need to promote it within the university. Most people don't see its great future and just think it's just an ordinary website."

"I know you want to start Facebook at Aurora University, become a startup star, and overshadow Liao Feng and Wu Lingxi."

"But the Facebook project was not legendary and exciting at the beginning."

Lin Xiao nodded: "I know, I agree."

The first thing that Zuckerberg did to promote Facebook was the school beauty contest, which created a huge wave of popularity.

Of course Lin Xiao could copy this.

But it's not enough.

Lin Xiao’s first entrepreneurial venture at Aurora University cannot be Facebook.

It's a lightning game instead!

Lin Xiao asked: "What do you think of the current domestic stand-alone games?"

Xia Xi: "All horses are silent, there is no hope. Blood Lion has ruined the entire domestic single-player game industry."

This is almost true. "Blood Lion" really ruined the expectations of all domestic game fans. Although there are actually some good works after that, such as "Ao Shi San Guo" and the like, but... for a long time in the future, domestic stand-alone games will be in an absolute dark zone.

Currently, online games have become very popular. "Legend" has become a big hit, and "Miracle" is about to create a myth.

Not to mention "World of Warcraft" which will enter China in two or three years.

Therefore, stand-alone games will be a forbidden zone for entrepreneurship for many years to come.

Lin Xiao said: "Aurora University has already started applying for support for university scholar entrepreneurship projects."

"If I say I want to start a business in college and make domestic stand-alone games, is there any gimmick?"

Xia Xi said: "That would be quite a gimmick and would attract a lot of attention, because everyone would think you would fail and everyone would be waiting for you to make a fool of yourself."

Lin Xiao: "If I come up with a classic and very good stand-alone game a few months later, can it become a hit in all universities? And attract huge attention?"

Xia Xi said: "Yes, university is a very closed society. Once a good and eye-catching work appears, it can quickly become popular."

"The key is, can we make such a game? Single-player games are extremely sluggish right now, and we can indeed recruit very good game programmers. But... it's too difficult to make a hit."

Lin Xiao said: "We will make a classic game that is very fun, small in size, and easy to become a hit."

“We will only do the first 20 levels. Once it is fully promoted and has attracted attention and become popular in many universities, we will open the last 30 levels.”

“All registered Facebook users can play this game for free.”

"And the game itself has casual and social attributes."

"Immediately afterwards, we held a vigorous campus beauty and campus hunk selection event, pushing the popularity of Facebook to a climax in a short period of time."

Xia Xi said: "I understand. It is to use the extremely dark and sluggish environment of domestic stand-alone games to create gimmicks and contrast. Relying on the social attributes of this game, it will directly make Facebook popular, giving us a higher starting point."

Lin Xiao said: "Yes!"

Xia Xi said: "The key is that this game must be very, very amazing, and not difficult to produce. It must also have strong topicality and social attributes. It would be best if it could trigger a campus craze, go viral, and allow people to cosplay or hold flash mob events."

There is indeed such a small game that perfectly meets all the above characteristics.

That's Plants vs. Zombies.

Let it be the starting point of lightning games, let it trigger topics and social attributes, and introduce Facebook.

It couldn't be more perfect!

Once it is really made, it will be really popular in the special space of university.

It may even amaze countless people and make Facebook a hot topic with a high starting point.

Xia Xi said: "For this game, we will hire the best game programmers in the country at high salaries to produce it."

"But, nominally, it would be best if you completed the game on the campus of Aurora University, so that it would have a legendary and story-like quality."

Lin Xiao said: "Of course, I have even thought of the target candidate, the Aurora University Computer Game Club."

Xu Desheng who wants to be Lin Xiao's brother-in-law, Ning Yuanzhi, a genius senior sister who can't tell the difference between male and female, and Zhang Yuting, a weirdo who doesn't know whether he is ugly or handsome.

They are all old friends.

You deserve to be famous, Senior Sister Yuanzhi, I can't hug you for nothing.

I am here to save you, I am here to recruit you.

........................

The computer game club is currently a fringe club at Aurora University and has completely declined.

Not to mention compared with the radio and television club, even compared with niche clubs like the ballet club, it is deserted.

In fact, it is not niche at all.

But the key point is that this club charges a fee, and it is not low.

Because it has relatively high operating costs, a relatively large office with several high-configuration computers.

In addition, you should also purchase a large number of genuine games regularly.

There are also many game figures and so on.

At this time, the six core members of the computer game club were in a meeting.

"Another group of members have withdrawn from the association, and currently most of the membership fees cannot be collected."

“But the operating costs of the society not only cannot be reduced, but will increase instead.”

"Senior Sister Yuanzhi, the entire club is supported by the six of us spending money. We do this completely out of love."

"Are we really not going to accept Liao Feng's sponsorship? Without his money, we won't be able to upgrade our computers, update our equipment, and even less launch any war activities."

Ning Yuanzhi, who couldn't tell whether he was a man or a woman, hesitated for a long time and shook his head, saying, "No, if we accept his sponsorship, we will completely lose our autonomy. He is too controlling and has already controlled many clubs in the school."

Zhang Yuting sighed, "But if we don't have any more money, it will be hard for us to survive. It's too difficult to rely solely on the few of us to do this for love."

At this time, Lin Xiao appeared: "Senior Sister Yuan Zhi, I'm coming in."

Xu Desheng was pleasantly surprised and said, "Brother-in-law... Lin Xiao, why are you here? Are you here to give me your sister's QQ number?"

Ning Yuanzhi was surprised. It had only been three months since they last met, but this junior Lin Xiao seemed to have become more handsome again.

"Junior Lin Xiao, are you here to join our computer game club?"

........................

Note: The second update is here. Today, I will update 12,000 words. Do you have any monthly tickets for me? Thank you!

(End of this chapter)