This was the first time that Yu Dong and Steven Case had such face-to-face communication. A few years ago, they probably would not have imagined that they would be sitting together for breakfast like today, and it was still in Atlanta. Under such an opportunity
.
In fact, Yu Dong doesn’t know much about Steven Case. Although AOL is very large, Yu Dong has never regarded AOL as an opponent, nor has he seriously studied Steven Case.
people.
In such an era of rapid Internet development, unless AOL emerges with a warrior who can revive AOL, AOL will only slowly decline. The combination with Time Warner will only make their decline faster. They
They want to use the Internet to combine with traditional media, but in this model, traditional media will only overwhelm them.
And Steven Case is obviously not the kind of warrior who has the perseverance to break his wrist and be reborn. It's not that he lacks courage, but he lacks the foresight of the Internet era. It can be said that his predictions about the Internet are completely wrong, so he
It brought AOL into the pit of traditional media.
Yu Dong smiled and asked, "Mr. Case, are you coming to Atlanta this time to participate in the telecommunications show?"
"I came to the telecommunications equipment show just for a drop-in." Steven Case smiled and continued, "The main purpose of my coming to Atlanta is to see you."
Yu Dong held the milk and said nothing, waiting for Steven Case's next words.
Steven Keys did not say his purpose of meeting Yu Dong, but instead began to change the subject: "When did you get in touch with...or become obsessed with the Internet? I have studied your and Jimmy's resumes, and you two seem to be
You have no relevant experience...except for your identity as a science fiction writer."
Before Yi Yidong could answer, he added, "I studied political science at Williams College, but after graduation I became a salesperson. At first I wanted to go to an advertising or media company, and I sent in a lot of resumes.
These included Time Inc.'s cable TV and home theater offerings, but none were successful."
"Later, I spent a lot of effort to go to Procter & Gamble and became a brand manager, but it was a failed experience. For two years, my career did not develop at all. Then I went to Pizza Hut and sold pizza there.
I became obsessed with computers when I was young, and in 1982, exactly twenty years ago, I spent several thousand dollars to buy a KayPro home computer."
Yu Dong smiled and said, "You came into contact with computers earlier than most people. At that time, I was still in junior high school, and most Chinese people didn't even have televisions at home, let alone computers."
Steven Case nodded, "Even in the United States, many people didn't know what a computer was at that time. Then things went smoothly. I first joined Control Video Company as a marketing consultant, and then the company closed down.
We started a new business and established Quantum Company, which later became AOL. In the following ten years, we developed well."
Although Steven Case said it in an understatement, Du Dong knew the hardships involved. It is not an easy task to develop a small company from scratch to the scale of America Online.
In just one year, AOL's market capitalization reached more than US$1,600, its annual revenue reached US$5 billion, and its profits reached US$800 million.
When he said this, Steven Case laughed again, "When I see you now, I think of myself back then. When AOL was listed in New York, I was about the same age as you are now, but then
At that time, AOL was far from the scale of Deep Space Corporation, and the company only had more than 100 people. Now it has grown a hundred times."
Yu Dong said with a smile, "Jimmy deserves the greatest credit for the success of deep space. I spend most of my time in China and rarely interfere with the company's affairs."
"Really?" Steven Case asked with interest, "Do you mean to say that the acquisition of companies like Amazon, Pets, and Paypal was all Jimmy's decision alone? And the functions of Deep Space Tribe, too?
Were they all developed by him?"
Yu Dong said with a smile, "I may have made some trivial suggestions."
"Trivial..." Steven Case shook his head, "Although I know you are being modest, such words are very uncomfortable. It is your trivial suggestions that have completely lost our chat room, community and icq.
Competitiveness. It is your trivial proposals that allow you to dominate the Internet industry."
"Our development has a lot of luck. Your company's cooperation with Time Warner deserves more attention. Perhaps your combination will be the ultimate answer to the Internet."
Steven Case waved his hand, "YU, let's not say this kind of thing anymore. The real answer should be in your hands."
Hearing this, Yu Dong was startled, but he still said calmly, "Mr. Case, stop joking."
"I have been observing you for a long time. Although I don't understand technology, I have an advantage, that is, I am good at learning. I have watched every step you take, including your previous operations on pets."
Yu Dong stared at Steven Case seriously. The man in front of him was about forty years old, slightly chubby, and dressed more casually than at the autograph signing yesterday. He was completely intimidating when walking on the road.
Think of him as the boss of a billion-dollar company.
They chatted face to face for a while, but Yu Dong still didn't know what Steven Keys wanted. His attitude didn't seem like he came as an opponent. If he didn't come as an opponent, he would be asking for help.
Looking for cooperation?
Yu Dong thought about this seriously last night. Of course Deep Space Company and AOL have many places where they can cooperate, but the question is why Steven Case wants to cooperate with them, and even if he wants to cooperate, why not
Jimmy, instead of going all the way to Atlanta to find him?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! There is only one thing that is certain, there must be a special reason why Steven Keys behaved so strangely.
After drinking the milk and wiping his mouth, Yu Dong was no longer going to talk in circles with Steven Keys. He said directly, "Mr. Keys, why did you come to me this time? You also know
, I’m very busy today. After breakfast, I’m going to attend a telecommunications equipment exhibition. I’ll be leaving in fifteen minutes at most.”
Steven Case smiled and said: "Fifteen minutes is enough. We will leave together in a while. Actually, I came to you this time because I have a question to ask you."
Yu Dong nodded and said, "Mr. Case, if you have any questions, just ask them. As long as I can answer them, I will tell you everything I know."
"The question I want to ask is, do you think AOL should enter the broadband market now?"
Hearing this question, Yu Dong raised his eyebrows in surprise. He did not expect that Steven Case would come to ask him this question.
This is a question related to the future direction of the company. Is it really appropriate to ask an outsider? And this outsider is still a competitor.
Yu Dong couldn't understand Steven Case's brain circuit at all.
Seeing Yu Dong's expression, Steven Case said with a smile, "You should know our current situation. Broadband services are now coming fiercely. If we don't enter at this time, we are likely to miss the opportunity, but if we rashly
Entering it will greatly affect our dial-up service and put us in a deep hole."
Yu Dong pondered for a while and then said, "Mr. Case, why do you think you can get the answer from me?"
"Because I believe in your vision." Steven Case said very simply.
Yu Dong waved his hand, "I don't mean that, I mean, why do you think I will tell you the answer...even if I really have the answer here. Our two companies are competitors. Although there has never been much friction,
An opponent is an opponent, and as an opponent, I should now hope that you will go further and further down the wrong path, instead of helping you out of kindness."
Steven Case shook his head and said with a smile, "YU, you should also understand that there are no eternal rivals in this world. Our purpose is just to make money. As long as the conditions are sufficient, we can fight side by side."
Yu Dong also laughed, "Then I want to listen and give you the answer. What's in it for me?"
"I know that your company is planning to launch a video website. We at AOL-Time Warner can cooperate with your new website to provide you with content and traditional media interfaces."
Yu Dong smiled and said, "Mr. Case, do you think our new website will be short of content after it goes online?"
"You do not lack content, but do you think it is too little? With our support, your future journey will go smoothly. In addition, we will close our tribe, so that your deep space tribe will have one less competition.
opponent."
Yu Dong chuckled, "Your tribe was originally going to be closed down. I heard that there are no people in your tribe anymore. Some netizens call your tribe a ghost town."
AOL's tribe lagged far behind the Deep Space tribe from the beginning. They did not have their own technology, and the user experience of the two websites was very different.
As a search engine alone, Deep Space Tribe would instantly kill AOL's Tribe.
In order to attract users, the AOL tribe used many methods, spent a lot of manpower and material resources, and found many celebrities to endorse them, but the effect was very little, and the number of users of their tribe has never increased.
As the intensity of publicity has become smaller, the popularity of their tribe has become even lower, and there is basically no need to continue operating it, so Steven Case and the others are planning to close this website, which is nothing like Deep Space.
relation.
After being exposed, Steven Case was not embarrassed at all. He smiled and said, "If you want, I can also hand over all the user data in our tribe to you. I think there must be some in it."
Some are what you need. In addition, in addition to tribes, I can also sell icq to you at a low price. Maybe your dd has developed very well in the past two years and has surpassed icq, but the number of icq users is still very important to you.
Importantly, if icq can be directly integrated into Dongdong, it will completely confirm the dominance of Dongdong instant messaging software. As for the acquisition price, we spent more than 400 million US dollars to acquire it. You can add some more as you see.
That’s it, how about it?”
Yu Dong narrowed his eyes. Not to mention, Steven Case's proposal was quite tempting. It would definitely be a good thing for them if they could win icq.
If he can win icq, Yu Dong is not going to merge icq users into Dongdong, but is going to hand over icq to Ma Huateng. In this way, the function of the drift bottle can be directly grafted onto icq.
Go ahead and make it bigger and stronger.
In the future, icq will be specially used to add those messy functions, while Dongdong will try to keep it as simple as possible, and the two softwares will walk on two legs.
Steven Case saw that Yu Dong was a little moved, so he struck while the iron was hot and said: "If you have any difficulties with funds, we can provide you with interest-free installments. You will not be charged a dime of interest within three years, as long as you transfer it every month.
Just part of the account will be enough, so that there will be no pressure on your funds."
Yu Dong glanced at Steven Case, "We don't have any financial pressure."
Steven Case raised his eyebrows and said, "Really, I thought you were planning to acquire Huawei. It will cost a lot of money to acquire them, which is much more expensive than icq."
Yu Dong stopped talking to Steven Case about the acquisition of Huawei. He said back to icq, "We are quite interested in icq. As for the price, we may need to discuss it in detail."
Steven Case waved his hand and said, "YU, you can get icq if you want, but you have to help us solve the problem at hand."
Yu Dong noticed that Steven Case only asked him for answers at first, but now he asked him to solve problems. He squinted his eyes and tapped on the table with his finger. After a while, he said
, "If you want to solve your current problem, it will take more than a few words. You are now like a giant ship that has taken the wrong channel. The first question is that you need to find where the correct channel is, and then you need someone to help."
Straighten the boat and move into the correct channel."
Steven Case smiled and said, "The person who helps us straighten the ship, can it be you, or can it be Deep Space Company?"
Yu Dong nodded and said, "Yes, but an icq cannot satisfy me."
Steven Case was not surprised at all. He smiled and asked, "Whatever you want, just ask."
Yu Dong pointed to his feet and said, "What I want is on this land."
"In this land?" Steven Case frowned and asked with a puzzled look on his face, "What exactly do you want? Does it have anything to do with today's telecommunications equipment exhibition?"
Chapter completed!