Reborn in 1999: Starting as a black marketeer

Wang Feiyang only knew that AOL had sued Tencent, which led to Tencent changing its name, but he didn't expect it to happen so early.

However, it wasn't a big problem, so he simply suggested:

"We can't take this lightly, as it might affect the valuation that venture capitalists give to our company."

I think we should nip this in the bud as soon as possible. They say OICQ copied ICQ, so let's just change the name, for example, to...QQ!

This name is actually easier to remember and spread.

Also, let's change our app icon. The current penguin is too skinny and not cute at all. Make it a bit chubby; that endearing, clumsy look will attract more young users!

You know what, when Mr. Ma heard it, he thought it was pretty reliable!

He gave a thumbs-up and praised, "Feiyang, you're really smart! If we change it as you suggested, it'll turn a bad thing into a good thing. I'll go back and discuss it with the others, and we'll change it as soon as possible. We'll also send a letter to AOL on behalf of the company, trying to reach a settlement with them. After all, we've already made such a big concession by changing the name and logo, so I doubt they'll go all out against us."

"Haha, I was just offering suggestions. The actual implementation will depend on you guys, Mr. Ma. Thank you for your hard work," Wang Feiyang said modestly.

After the meal, Mr. Ma felt as if they had known each other for a long time!

He couldn't imagine why Wang Feiyang had so many wonderful ideas in his head, and why he seemed to have a lot of ideas about the Internet, and why what he said was so inspiring to him.

The most important question is how QQ will make money after the name change!

This is practically a global problem. The best way the global internet industry has found to monetize traffic so far is through Google...

Early Yahoo, later major portal websites, and even ICQ acquired by AOL, all these websites or software have a huge user base, which is internet traffic. And it seems that the only way for them to monetize this traffic is to create Google.

For those websites, it's fine; there are plenty of places to display "GG" (male/female) content, so they make a fortune. But for chat software like ICQ and QQ, it's troublesome because there aren't many places to display "GG" in the chat box.

Moreover, once GG is implemented, it greatly affects the user experience.

When the topic came up, Wang Feiyang casually mentioned that since chat software is not suitable for making money, why not find another way to monetize it?

Mr. Ma didn't pay much attention and casually asked where would be a better place to start.

Wang Feiyang mentioned that there seems to be a very popular online game in China this year, called something like "Ultima Online," developed by the major game company EA, and it's very popular globally. Although it hasn't been officially introduced to China, many private servers have been opened there.

These online games have a very high payment rate. If our company were to distribute a few similar overseas online games and then drive QQ users to them, wouldn't we save a lot of game promotion and marketing costs?

In this way, although QQ itself doesn't make money, it can become a huge internet traffic portal. Once users enter through this portal, they can be guided to various online games or other profitable projects...

Even two or three years from now, these words will almost become common knowledge. By then, everyone will know that online games are the best way to monetize traffic. Even Tencent itself has started to distribute online games and regards the game department as the company's core profit-generating department.

But at the end of 99, these words were like a thunderbolt, cutting through the fog like lightning, making Mr. Ma's eyes light up!

He excitedly grabbed Wang Feiyang's hand, his lips trembling as he asked, "Feiyang... how did you come up with this?!"

Wang Feiyang seemed a bit confused, wondering why Mr. Ma was so agitated.

"Huh? I saw someone playing a private server of Ultima Online while I was at an internet cafe, so I watched for a while and thought it was pretty interesting. Later, I looked into it online and found out that the game is actually very popular. I figured since it's an online game and you can't pirate it, the paying user rate must be 100%, making it perfect for monetizing traffic!"

"Online games...yes, that's what we need to do! We need to channel the traffic attracted by messaging apps into game projects to monetize them..." Mr. Ma muttered to himself, clearly having been quite shocked.

Wang Feiyang knew when to stop and didn't add anything more.

After all, he wasn't involved in the internet industry in his previous life. He's just relying on his vision and knowledge that are more than twenty years ahead of his time to inspire Mr. Ma's thinking.

When it comes to actual operations, how could someone like Wang Feiyang, who is a "half-baked" individual, compare to how Jack Ma led Tencent to grow into the largest internet giant in the country?

Mr. Ma was full of praise for Wang Feiyang.

"Feiyang, you have a really sharp mind. You solved a major problem that has been troubling industry professionals for a long time with just one sentence. Our company will benefit greatly from this in the future!"

At least I know which direction the company should take in the future, and it also helps with OICQ...

Oh, from now on it will be called QQ. I have full confidence in the QQ software. This is our company's moat!

Even if the software itself cannot make money for the company, as long as it can attract huge traffic, the company will be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort in operating any other projects in the future!

For this reason alone, Feiyang, you are a great contributor to the company.

"When the company grows bigger in the future, we'll learn from those big companies and set up positions like CEO, CTO, and CFO. Then Feiyang, you can become the Chief Strategy Officer, haha..."

Wang Feiyang was stunned. He remembered that Tencent really did have a Chief Strategy Officer position in his previous life, which was apparently held by Jack Ma himself...

…………

After spending two days in Shenzhen, all the formalities were completed, and the company also made a record of the change of company equity with the industrial and commercial department and obtained a capital contribution certificate with the company seal.

Mr. Ma also personally helped him open an OICQ number (10006) in the background, which only contains the friends of the company's other five founders. He also specifically instructed Wang Feiyang that this number should be used mainly for office work and should not be made public as much as possible.

Wang Feiyang, of course, didn't forget to ask for two more desirable phone numbers. Unfortunately, 88888 had already been given away by Boss Ma, so he chose 66666 and 77777, planning to use one himself and give the other away in the future.

Fortunately, he had only added Su Ying and Song Yi as friends on that account he created, so changing accounts is still easy now. If he had more friends on the account later, it would be much more troublesome to change accounts.

On the way to the airport, Mr. Ma was still a little reluctant to part with Wang Feiyang, and said, "After you graduate from university, come and work for the company. The company is too small now, and you also have to go to study, so you can't come to work. But in a few years, I believe our company will definitely grow big, and then it won't be a waste of your time."

Wang Feiyang could only vaguely say, "Let's talk about it later..."