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Chapter 147 Swept
"Who is the genius of the Internet in this era? Bloom Song gave the answer. Bruno Song defined the new Internet industry, instant messaging and social networking, which will be the telegraph and telephone of the Internet industry!"

The first to tout ICQ was actually the veteran media "Computer Magazine" in the technology industry. On the cover of the magazine the next day, the big characters ICQ was directly used as the cover, and the emergence of ICQ was comparable to the invention of the telegraph and the telephone.

"There is no doubt that this is one of the most influential Internet products in 1996 and the next five or even ten years!"

The New York Observer directly listed ICQ released on New Year's Eve as the top ten Internet products in 1996, which just entered the new year, and the praise was beyond words.

What really attracted the attention of the entire technology industry, as well as countless Internet technology fans, was Kevin Kelly's comments on the "Wired" magazine website.

As the most influential and influential media in the Internet industry today, the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine's comments naturally need not be questioned.

"The emergence of ICQ will be the most memorable event in the history of the Internet industry. It broke through the shackles of time, geography, and transportation, and truly connected the Internet and human beings together. In ten years, perhaps the Internet It will turn the blue planet under our feet into a global village, and the instant messaging represented by ICQ will become the telephone line of this information earth!"

This comment published by Kevin Kelly on the website made ICQ stand on the cusp of the storm.

The next day, the various media who participated in the press conference last night almost all praised ICQ, and there was almost no end to praise for ICQ. Since the advent of the Netscape browser, the technology industry has seldom had such a lot. The media is blowing up the scene of a certain Internet product.

Under the hype of many media, many users began to call the San Jose and Houston TV stations that broadcast the ICQ press conference, and asked these two major TV stations to rebroadcast the ICQ press conference. The number of people watching made NBC and other big TV stations also start broadcasting clips of the ICQ press conference in news reports.

ICQ, which has just been launched for one night, has not yet become popular among users, but its popularity has skyrocketed in the media. This is not common in the media that always like to play after the fact, which company is popular and which company is touting. !
On the other hand, ICQ is even more active. In addition to double-clicking the company to invest in promotional resources for ICQ without money, ICQ has placed advertisements all the way to TV stations, newspapers, outdoor advertisements, and many other places where Internet companies have never advertised.

Even in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and other American cities where office and business buildings gather, ICQ banners were pulled up, and ICQ was also labeled on the big screen in Times Square!
In addition to these traditional promotion methods, ICQ has also continued to create momentum for breaking the circle. ICQ established the NFT Foundation and issued the first batch of 1 NFT rare avatars, mainly in punk style, and the types are pixel characters, aliens, and apes. Wait for several categories, and launch special NFT avatars and pictures for partners.

ICQ took the lead in launching three NFT pictures, namely the Mona Lisa, the Texas Gray Wolf and the Giant Panda three NFT pictures and the ICQ account avatar, and then ICQ and the NFT Foundation jointly announced that the three NFT pictures were separately It was given to the Louvre in France, the Dezhou Museum and the Panda House in Sichuan Zoo.

What does it mean to raise one's worth by being popular? ICQ's trick is just like this. By launching these NFT pictures, the NFT pictures have an artistic quality.

Then NFT linked up with American Hollywood stars and various football stars. The first thing that broke the news was that a movie fan bought the NFT of Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore from ICQ for $9.8. Pictures for collection!

Drew Barrymore, who is just 21 years old this year, has already been famous for a long time, and has starred in many film and television dramas such as "Alien ET" and "Desperate Flowers".

"This is so crazy to me, yes, when ICQ contacted me, saying that someone wanted to buy my NFT pictures on the ICQ platform for collection, I couldn't believe it was true, but it happened, this I will donate the money!"

Drew Barrymore, who was interviewed by the media, had a surprised expression on his face. Of course, this could not have happened for no reason. ICQ contacted Drew Barrymore Economic Company and jointly produced the news.

ICQ uses the help of Drew Barrymore to publicize. Drew Barrymore took the opportunity to increase the popularity, and the effect is of course remarkable. The means are not superb, but it is indeed topical, and Drew Barrymore has also become the first to open the ICQ space A Hollywood actress in the community, ICQ promises to promote her...

After Drew Barrymore, NFT avatars and pictures suddenly became noisy, and big news came out constantly. The NFT avatar of NBA star Michael Jordan was fired at a high price of 280 million dollars. Governor Schwarzenegger The NFT avatar was sold for $241 million, and Schwarzenegger also announced that he would donate the money.

What really caused a sensation was that Microsoft bought the NFT Microsoft LOGO and the window image of the operating system at a sky-high price of 600 million US dollars, so as to prevent Microsoft's NFT image from falling into the hands of others.

Microsoft is basically showing favor to ICQ and Song Yang. This is also the first company to start buying NFT's own pictures. Afterwards, Yahoo, AOL and many other big companies also began to sell, often at sky-high prices. It was dazzling to watch.

These are of course true and false, but not all of them are games made by ICQ. There are really those kind of prodigals, no, it is the big players who play the game of collecting NFT.

Like Nicolas Cage, who always likes to hunt novelty, on the day when the NFT avatar was launched, he spent 82 dollars to buy three NFT avatars, including a very rare alien avatar. NFT avatar, in the future ICQ and NFT Foundation will not put it in again. If Nicolas Cage can keep it, maybe he can make a lot of money with this avatar in the future, even if he goes bankrupt. Quite a few points.

Except for Nicolas Cage, the gang of rappers who always like to show off their wealth and publicity are also generous this time. One of the famous rappers even spent a sky-high price of 200 million U.S. dollars to let ICQ and NFT The foundation made a distinctive NFT avatar for itself, and ICQ naturally had no reason to reject it.

On the same day, a big player who really played collection made the NFT avatar completely broken. A second-generation big collector from the Boston consortium collected nearly a hundred NFT avatars with funds of more than ten million dollars. The avatar has completely pushed the public opinion to a climax!
No one expected that after ICQ went online, NFT avatars would be the first to become popular. Various celebrities, local tyrants, and collectibles would fight each other, which made NFT avatars quickly become a symbol of identity and status. ICQ's NFT avatars, it seems With the value linked to real assets, when it is profitable, it will naturally attract more people to flock to it!

ICQ office building, since last night's press conference, Song Yang has been staying here, watching ICQ to prevent any situation.

At the moment, ICQ's technical department is busy, and Willis, whose eyes are bloodshot, is full of excitement at the moment, and keeps directing to the people in the technical department, "Open another server for backup, and the backup server must be ready!"

"Boss, now is the real-time data of registered users of ICQ!"

Song Yang looked at the number of ICQ users in his hand, and couldn't help showing surprise. If this data is released outside, it may immediately cause a sensation in the Internet industry.

"Everyone has worked hard today, keep an eye on it, and deal with ICQ online issues well, and everyone will get their due bonuses this month!"

Hearing Song Yang's words, the staff on the entire ICQ office floor was excited. They knew that this month's bonus and salary might be doubled.

Kevin Kelly, who came to ICQ for an exclusive interview with Wired magazine staff, saw ICQ's restless scene, smiled and said to Song Yang, "It seems that the situation of ICQ should be good?!"

Song Yang handed the report on the number of ICQ user registrations to Kevin Kelly. This data will definitely be found by outside data companies in the near future, so naturally there is nothing to keep secret.

Seeing the data in his hands, Kevin Kelly couldn't help but widen his eyes. Even though he had expected it, seeing the number of user registrations on the first day of ICQ's launch still made Kevin Kelly breathe a sigh of relief.

When Wired magazine conducted an exclusive interview with ICQ, all major Internet technology companies were also waiting for third-party statistics companies. For the statistics produced by ICQ, Netscape is no exception.

Netscape headquarters is a bit dull at the moment. Facing Microsoft's pressing force, although Netscape seems to be able to withstand it, it is already on the decline, especially when Microsoft continues to poach Netscape's allies and use various means. , Netscape's situation is already quite bad.

And now, ICQ has appeared again, attracting more attention from the Internet industry. What Netscape is most worried about now is that once ICQ becomes popular and the ICQ space community is established, Netscape may be replaced by the Internet industry. marginalized.

"Yeah, I have already registered for ICQ, our classmates and friends we know have joined the established ICQ group chat, I even added a distant relative of mine as an ICQ friend, he is in London!
Using ICQ to chat on the Internet is a completely different feeling from reality, it allows people to see the other side that has never been shown..."

At the Netscape headquarters, Anderson and Jim Clark watched a reporter interview with a university on the TV. Seeing this interview, which was clearly biased towards ICQ, Anderson snorted.

At this time, Baxter, the president of Netscape, came in from the outside, but seeing Baxter's face, Anderson and Jim Clark both had a bad feeling in their hearts.

"Nielsen Statistics released the first-day data of ICQ's launch, and the number of registered users now exceeds 7000..."

(End of this chapter)