Back to 1995

Chapter 318 Cutting the Leeks

Since the beginning of this year, Song Yang seems not to be active in the Internet industry, at least not as active as Yahoo, AOL and other peers. He only launched ICQ at the beginning of the year, let Double-Click go public in the middle of the year, and did nothing else after that.

Instead, it was Song Yang's actions in other industries that attracted media attention, which was quite eye-catching.

When Song Yang came to the ICQ office building, he saw that the entire office building was full of people, and now the entire building has basically been leased by ICQ.

Compared with a few months ago, in just over half a year, the scale of ICQ has soared to more than 800 people. This is the combined scale of ICQ, Xueleshan Games, and PayPal payment platform. The speed of expansion can be described as quite amazing .

Of course, other Internet companies are not much different. Even Netscape, because of its rapid development and too many recruits, has even begun to appear bloated!

This is unimaginable in traditional industries, but in the Internet industry, it seems to be a matter of course, because the Internet industry, the treatment given is too high, attracting wave after wave influx of talents.

Now there are no less talents entering the Internet industry to make money than those entering Wall Street investment banks. There are countless people who want to become the next Song Yang, Mark Anderson, and Yang Zhiyuan.

"Boss!"

As soon as Song Yang entered the ICQ office building, he ran into Evan Spiegel. After seeing Song Yang, Evan Spiegel immediately stepped forward and said.

From entering ICQ as an intern to recommending himself to Song Yang, the past six months have been the biggest changes for Evan Spiegel.

Song Yang glanced at Evan Spiegel, and saw that his complexion was a little darker. Obviously, during this period of time, he had been running outside in the wind and sun.

"I heard from Irene, Evan, you have done a good job during this time!"

Hearing Song Yang's words, Evan Spiegel showed a smile on his face. He is now the assistant manager of the ICQ marketing department, responsible for promoting ICQ to overseas markets, and helping Irene to deal with some things.

Evan Spiegel has done a good job. Although he is not experienced enough, he is quick-witted and thick-skinned. The ICQ management has a good impression of Evan Spiegel. After a while, it will almost make him Evan Spiegel was in charge of some operations and left him alone.

In other industries, people of Evan Spiegel's age don't have an internship period of three to five years, so they don't want to gain a foothold in the industry, but in the Internet industry, they have no experience in everything and need to explore. Sometimes vision and brain are more important than experience. Of course, after a few years, when the routines of the Internet are basically figured out, these will no longer exist.

"Boss, this is what I should do!"

Evan Spiegel patted his chest and said to Song Yang that in the past six months, Evan felt that he had changed fast enough, from a small intern to the management of ICQ, and he might even become an executive.

Take a look at the status of Internet companies such as Double-click and Yahoo after they go public. When ICQ goes public in the future, Evan Spiegel is likely to get a share reward. According to ICQ’s market conditions, as long as there is no such unlucky thing as Double-click , it is very likely that ICQ's equity rewards will allow Evan Spiegel to achieve wealth freedom!

Evan Spiegel, who was born at Stanford University, is naturally not in a bad family. His parents are both lawyers, but once ICQ is listed, Evan Spiegel may get the wealth that his parents can only get in half a lifetime.

However, compared with Song Yang, Evan Spiegel felt that this was nothing at all. Bill Gates was so handsome back then, and he made countless people enter the software industry. Evan Spiegel did not see it. But Song Yang, Evan Spiegel saw it with his own eyes.

"Boss, I have already contacted the business department of the Atlanta Olympics. If there is no accident, ICQ will appear on the field of the Atlanta Olympics!"

Evan Spiegel said to Song Yang that the promotion of ICQ with the help of this year's Atlanta Olympic Games was a long-established plan.

Relying on this Olympic Games, ICQ will be promoted to the global market, and some advertisements and endorsements will be made to make ICQ a global-level Internet product!

Song Yang listened to Evan Spiegel's words and nodded, "I hope to see ICQ in the televised Olympic Games as soon as possible!"

When entering Irene's office, Song Yang glanced back at Evan Spiegel. With Evan Spiegel's age and ability, plus the attributes of a party, with Irene, Wesley, Guy The relationship between Luo and others is not bad, and even Gleick has a good impression of Evan. In the future, Evan Spiegel is likely to enter the ranks of executives of ICQ and even the North American Global Investment Fund.

When Song Yang opened the door and entered, Irene was lowering her head to process the documents. It was still the same as before. Irene was dressed very old-fashioned, with black-rimmed glasses and an old-fashioned suit.

Irene, who was processing the documents, felt someone coming in and thought it was an assistant. Just as she was about to speak, her black-rimmed glasses were taken off, which made Irene exclaim involuntarily, and was then picked up by Song Yang.

"This is the office..."

Irene still wanted to talk, but Song Yang had already picked her up, and then the two of them were printed together. Song Yang looked at Irene in his arms, "No one will come in!"

After the shower, Irene, who was curled up in Song Yang's arms like a little wild cat, got up from Song Yang, picked up the lady's suit that had fallen on the ground, gave Song Yang a blank look and said, "I thought you were going to Hollywood, come with me." Your butter cake."

Seeing Irene's rare expression, Song Yang couldn't help but smile, held Irene in his arms again, took out a jade chain brought back from Yanjing Panjiayuan, put it on Irene's hand, and looked at her Said, "Here's something I need to deal with!"

Pushing away Song Yang's mischievous hand, he put on the lady's suit that fell on the ground, and restored to the image of a professional strong woman in the media. Then he pressed the phone on the table to connect to the female assistant outside, and let ICQ's several An executive came to her office for a meeting.

Wesley and several ICQ executives, including Ken Williams and his wife, John Carmack and others, also participated in the meeting by phone, and Evan Spiegel also joined in.

"ICQ has now occupied the instant messaging market in English-speaking regions such as America, Canada, and England. The Japanese, Russian, and French versions in cooperation with Softbank, Yeadex, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and other companies will also be launched soon. The entire ICQ Global market users will soon reach 3000 million, and daily active users will exceed 750 million!"

The person in charge of the marketing department said to Song Yang, Irene and other ICQ executives in an excited tone that ICQ is undoubtedly creating a myth in the Internet industry.

There must be moisture in this, but ICQ can already boast to the outside world, and has become the Internet product with the most users in the world. Now the number of Internet users in the world is only 6000 to [-] million, and ICQ has already occupied the Internet market in name, more than half of the users up.

There must be some moisture, probably not too small. Now that the Internet access fee is so expensive, it is impossible for everyone to surf the Internet every day. In addition, you can register for an account repeatedly, and the moisture inside is even greater.

But Silicon Valley likes to hear this, and Wall Street likes it. ICQ is pulling Internet products to a new height. It turns out that a website can have tens of millions of users. The example of ICQ is the first, which means that the Internet There is so much potential in other companies too, there is no such thing as a... bubble.

"I think ICQ might become the world's first Internet company with more than [-] million users in the future!"

Evan Spiegel, who was sitting in the corner, said something, which caused a burst of laughter from the rest of the office.

This statement is somewhat flattering, but it is not all bragging. Some Wall Street institutions have estimated that according to the current growth rate of Internet users, in three years, the number of users in America will exceed [-] million, while the global Internet users The scale will exceed [-] million!
So Evan Spiegel didn't seem to be bragging when he said this, but when Song Yang heard this, he just said it noncommittally, and didn't say much.

"How is ICQ's revenue now? What's happening with other Internet companies in instant messaging?" Song Yang asked the executives in Irene's office.

As soon as Song Yang mentioned revenue, the office was silent for a while, and the eyes of all the executives couldn't help but cast their gazes on Irene.

Today's ICQ, Netscape, Lycos and other companies seem to be very prosperous, with tens of millions of users at every turn, but whether they can make money and what kind of life they live, I am afraid that only each company knows clearly.

"ICQ's revenue last month was still at a loss. The current loss is more than 950 million US dollars, which is mainly used for promotion, server costs, and investment in games and other businesses!"

Irene said that under the infinite prosperity of the Internet, it was the first huge loss. For example, the market value of Yahoo has more than doubled since its listing, but the first performance after the listing was released. Relying on Internet advertising, the revenue is It skyrocketed to 5000 million dollars, but once the accounts were settled, it was still a loss of 600 million dollars. This is the result of Wall Street not looking into it and investors turning a blind eye, otherwise it will be a loss More.

This is considered good for Yahoo, and other Internet companies are losing money in fancy ways. Among the Internet companies listed today, only Netscape and Double-click have maintained the last position in the Internet industry in America, and they can still maintain profitability. Not much money.

ICQ also started to lose money, and it lost more month by month. The users continued to grow, but the revenue could not be raised. Coupled with the huge investment in portal websites and the game industry, ICQ's revenue It is also losing money in the name of water.

"In my opinion, ICQ needs a new round of financing!"

At the end, Irene finally spoke to Song Yang.

(End of this chapter)