America: My Time

Chapter 708 Internet Cafe Alliance
Chapter 698 Internet Cafe Alliance

John's games may not be profitable, but they have had a significant impact on the personal computer industry and undoubtedly on the internet. Originally, the internet was only found in universities and financial institutions, but now it can be found in internet cafes. Who would have thought that John had made another grand move, thinking of things that others had not considered?

Stopping the expansion of internet cafes? That's impossible. Those guys in Japan wouldn't dare do that. It's normal business practice, and it's also accelerating the development of the internet. It's just that this time, the expansion of internet cafes is mainly based on leasing, with almost no one owning their own real estate. This has relieved many people, at least John doesn't want to get involved in Japanese real estate again.

John's demand for Nvidia is to accelerate the development of next-generation chips. While ASUS is speeding up its PC production, John understands that once Nvidia completes its chip development and the Pentium era arrives, these PCs will become obsolete. Not only is Nvidia accelerating its pace, but Seagate is too. The reason is simple: the more sophisticated the game, the more storage space it requires. Therefore, to promote online gaming and accelerate the development of the internet, more powerful hard drives are needed.

At this time, John also asked Japan and South Korea for larger memory chips. Meanwhile, Bell Labs had been developing the dual-channel DDR2 memory that John proposed. Bell Labs had never given up on investing in memory chips, but had never made a profit. Now, they finally saw hope.

Many people only see Bell Labs' rapid research and development in communications and wafers, but they don't realize that Bell Labs has been working on memory chip research all along. It just hasn't been applied to practical applications or participated in the memory chip competition. Everything is waiting for an opportunity. After all, if it comes to a price war, Bell Labs is not at an advantage.

"What did you say? That little fox John even used the server for his game?" As John's plan continued to advance, many people were shocked. To promote the game, he even used the server. This was truly a case of one move affecting the whole body. This plan was simply too crazy.

“Yes, the servers for Dream World have all been activated. We’ve already confirmed this in the US, and it’s not just one server. Many people can’t believe it.” Jimmy answered readily in response to his boss’s questioning.

"Jimmy, do you think John's game can make money? He's investing so much. I really don't understand what he's trying to do. If it's just to promote the internet, there's no need to do this. This is just crazy."

"I don't know, but it seems difficult to make money right now. After all, the capital investment is too large. Not to mention servers, just the personal computers alone are a huge investment, at least tens of thousands of personal computers. And that's an understatement. If his internet cafes continue to expand, it will be more than tens of thousands. This is why many people think that John's games are just to promote the internet, and are just preparations for Nvidia and ASUS. So both the internet cafes and the games are under ASUS."

"This is insane! I don't even know what to say. Only this guy would dare to make such a crazy investment. But now that you mention it, I understand John's plan a bit better. Is he trying to promote the development of the internet or accelerate ASUS's market share in personal computers? Do you think no one would be tempted if his internet cafes could make money? Just like the arcade games back then, naturally many people would jump on the bandwagon. And their first choice would naturally be ASUS personal computers. If these internet cafes explode in popularity, then ASUS personal computers will have a monopoly. Now I finally understand why John is going to great lengths to push Nvidia to develop chips. It's all for this moment. Look at their current speed in chip development, and look at Intel and other manufacturers. It's a generational gap. If they continue to release new chips this year, then no one can stop Nvidia anymore. They no longer need to care about gaming chips."

"However, John isn't without its flaws. Memory chips are their biggest problem. Currently, the memory chip market is still dominated by Japan and South Korea. Although Intel is doing relatively well, its market share is far behind. Even if they acquire Japanese technology, they don't have the capability to compete with them and are at a disadvantage in price wars. If it weren't for Game World, they probably wouldn't have achieved anything in this area. Although they dethroned Game World from its dominant position, they revived Intel. It's hard to say whether they gained or lost!"

“Jimmy, you're sorely mistaken if you think that way. How could that little fox John make such a basic mistake? Besides, you know his strategy. Do you think he'd let the Koreans and Japanese hold him by the throat? That's impossible. Bell Labs has always had the most advanced memory chip technology, but it's been abandoned due to production costs. He's waiting for the right opportunity. If that little fox John can complete the development of the next generation of memory chips first, everything will change. Those guys in Japan know it, the Koreans know it, even Intel knows it. It's precisely because they have this technology that no one can hold him by the throat with memory chips. Otherwise, they'd be forcing him into a trap, and nobody wants to see that happen!”

"John's plan has already begun. I wonder how those guys in Japan will react. If John's online games are successful, maybe they'll get involved too. Japan isn't weak in personal computer development." "That's true, but whether they can make the same level of investment as John, equip their servers with the same features, and whether their personal computers can even run John's games are all unknowns. I don't think John, that little fox, is unprepared. If they weren't willing to pay any price, they couldn't possibly seize this market, at least not in the short term. John has been fully prepared, while they're rushing into battle. What do you think their chances of success are?"

Morgan was right. John's plans started a long time ago and there were almost no problems in all aspects. If there was any shortcoming, it was only in memory chips. But this does not affect John's grand plan. After all, it's not that there is no technology, but that the timing is not right.

With the emergence of internet cafes and online games, the development of the internet has accelerated. At least those guys in Japan will continue to follow John's lead. However, this time they suddenly realized that it was not an easy thing. There were many things they couldn't control because ASUS controlled the source. They had also thought about participating in the internet cafe plan with their personal computers, but ASUS's games were not for individuals, but for internet cafes. Individuals would have to wait a while longer.

Every beginning started in Taiwan. As internet cafes opened in Taiwan, the US and Europe followed suit. The reason is simple: the internet is controlled by Global Online, so everything is not a problem. However, Japan is slower. Even Hong Kong has already started its layout, but Japan has not yet started.

Many people thought John would cooperate with Japan immediately, but they were wrong. John did not do so. Instead, he was making global plans. He also temporarily abandoned Japan in Asia and focused on Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea first. As for Japan, he put it aside for the time being and waited for the right opportunity. After all, John had a big plan for Japan.

This situation left the Japanese guys both happy and disappointed. They were happy that their game consoles wouldn't be affected, but disappointed that they couldn't find out about John's internet cafe layout immediately.

After a brief period of chaos, internet cafes and online games got back on track, with single-player and online games running simultaneously. This surprised many people, and things quickly returned to normal. Taiwan, as the first pilot city, saw its internet cafes become incredibly popular within days. Although the prices were a bit high, the enthusiasm of the people made up for it.

Although John paid a considerable price for promoting it, it was undeniably fun, especially the multiplayer online mode, which attracted many people. This was something that home game consoles couldn't compare to; the allure of the internet was incredibly strong.

At this point, Neon couldn't hold on any longer. The emergence of online games was indeed incredibly appealing, and although it seemed that these online games weren't making money yet, they had played a huge role in promoting ASUS's personal computers. Before long, without John even needing to set up an internet cafe himself, people were already joining.

The Internet Cafe Alliance emerged in Taiwan, then spread to Hong Kong, South Korea, the United States, and Europe. Huge orders suddenly appeared for ASUS. ASUS hadn't spent much on promotion initially, but now it expanded rapidly. What does it mean to be a monopoly? ASUS's personal computers are a perfect example. With the expansion of the Internet Cafe Alliance, ASUS's personal computer production lines were running in three shifts. One Internet Cafe Alliance directly put ASUS at the top of the personal computer market.

It wasn't that no one wanted to use other computer brands, but it simply didn't work. Their computers were too laggy to run games, far inferior to ASUS personal computers. After all, ASUS computers were specifically designed for gaming, boasting powerful graphics cards, memory, hard drives, and even a matching operating system and server. All of this was unmatched by other computers, so those guys' ideas were immediately shattered, and the only option was ASUS personal computers.

(End of this chapter)