New York 2006

Chapter 239 Stealing food and WeChat

"After Logic announced the release of his second album "18" in February, many singers in the recording industry advanced or postponed the release of their albums."

"According to statistics from this reporter, more than 30 singers, big and small, have switched careers, the more famous ones include Lily Allen, U2, Flo Rida, Kelly Clarkson and Eminem."

Luo Ji secretly sat alone in Holi Games' office, watching the news.

This kind of news is very common in the film industry and the record industry. Jumping is a normal business behavior. Few major media will report it. It is reported by some tabloids.

This news was a bit far-fetched, and the tabloids were looking for trouble to make comparisons, but Luo Ji read it with relish.

"Hahaha, this is my deterrent!"

Luo Ji smiled all over his face, experiencing this feeling of "crushing others" alone.

Bang bang bang!
There was a knock on the door, and Luo Ji immediately put away his smile and sat upright: "Come in!"

The person who walked in was the company's CEO Yang Jian: "Loigc, the development of "Happy Farm" has reached an advanced stage and the basic functions have been completed. Do you want to experience it and give you some guidance?"

"Row!"

"The file has been sent to your mailbox. You can use Flash to run the trial."

Due to Luo Ji's compulsory order, "Happy Farm" developed by Huaguo was fully acquired by Holi Game Company at the end of last year for 1800 million US dollars.

Luo Ji was keeping a close eye on the food-stealing game!He had a hunch that this game would take the entire company a step further!
Therefore, during this period of time, the best development team of Holi Company joined the development team of "Stealing Vegetable Game". They had the source code of "Happy Farm" and worked all night long. Luo Ji was very satisfied with the efficiency!
Luo Ji tried it out and commented.

"Not bad. Compared with the original version, the game adds the player's own character image and the graphics are richer."

"I didn't expect this. There are actually broccoli, lettuce, and cabbage seeds."

"The cultivated land area also needs gold coins to purchase, not bad!"

"There are also various breeds of dogs, which are very good! Americans like to keep dogs very much, and they should be willing to spend money on such virtual pets."

After 10 minutes, all the features of the game, large and small, have been experienced.

He said with satisfaction: "I don't find anything that needs improvement. The game is already very mature. The richer graphics and gameplay will definitely extend the life of the game. By the way, how did you guys manage to turn the game into a game in such a short time?" Do you do it so maturely?"

CEO Yang Jian smiled slightly: "We took reference from classic farm games of the last century such as "Ranch Story"."

Luo Ji couldn't help but praise: "Not bad, not bad! Then arrange to put it on the shelves as soon as possible. By the way, have you decided on the English name?"

"FarmVille!"

…………

In the afternoon, Luo Ji and Yang Jian walked to a building not far from Holi Company without notifying anyone. Inside this building was a secret project that had been developed since last year.

Mobile Internet communication software, WeChat!
WeChat company, Luo Ji invests 70%, Holi Game Company invests 20%, and Yang Jian invests 10%.A total of 2000 million yuan was used to start new Internet companies.

The reason why Holi Company and Yang Jian were introduced is because this company will borrow the global servers of Holi Game Company.This saves companies from having to invest too much money up front.

This simple instant messaging software will definitely not make money in the short term.

Luo Ji's original purpose of making this software was to compete with Facebook and Tencent. He hoped to continue the social game strategy in the mobile Internet era!

Make WeChat the Tencent or Facebook of the emerging field of mobile Internet.

Luo Ji's goal is to become the one who sets the rules and has a monopoly!Instead of continuing to be a third-party developer!
The development of instant messaging software is not that simple. It took a team of more than ten people to develop for three months before the mobile APP was initially completed.

The person in charge of the WeChat project complained: "Boss, if we learn from QQ or Skype, the development of the entire APP should be easy. In fact, we already have this function. But the introduction of phone number contacts has greatly increased our The workload, development will take some time.”

Luo Ji looked at him speechlessly: "What's so rare about this? Isn't it just adding permission to read the phone's address book in the software?"

"But reading the user's mobile phone address book without the user's consent will involve legal issues."

Hearing this, Luo Ji became a little angry. He tried his best to suppress his anger and calm down, not wanting to leave any basis for the other party to accuse him in the future.

"What we want to do is not just an instant messaging software, but a social networking software. On the mobile phone, the user's address book is the largest network of relationships. If we don't use it, how much cost will we need to invest?" Increase the number of users!"

The person in charge frowned and said: "But if you don't charge for simple communication software, how can the company make a profit? The more users there are, the greater the cost we will invest."

It was only at this moment that Luo Ji finally realized that the person in charge of the WeChat project was not encountering difficulties in development at all, but found that the company's prospects were very bleak.

Luo Ji didn't hide anything and asked directly: "Do you regret leaving Holi and coming to the new company?"

The person in charge said bluntly: "Well, everyone on the team is emotional now. No one can see the future."

It seems that more than three months of boring development have dampened the enthusiasm of these people!

Luo Ji thought about it carefully. Now Holi Game Company is booming. Last time it was valued at 5.5 million US dollars, and its employees' year-end bonuses are also quite large.

If these ten people had stayed at Holi, the options would have been a huge amount of income when the company went public in the future.

It is understandable that they regret it now, it was Luo Ji who failed to consider it.

Human energy is limited. Luo Ji has too many companies. He also has to take care of his studies, music and film career. He also likes to do everything himself.

With so many companies under management, it’s no surprise that something is always missing.

Is it time to delegate some power?

Luo Ji said, "Let's do this. We'll set a year-end bonus for Holi Company, and I'll approve it."

The person in charge immediately changed his face: "Thank you, boss!"

Luo Ji continued: "Don't worry, the company has promised to give you plenty of options and shares."

"Ah."

Having learned from his previous experience, Luo Ji learned wisely this time and only gave 5% of his stock to the founding team, while the remaining 5% will be used as options to reward employees who may join in the future.

Luo Ji continued: "Don't think that the company has no future. Think about Skype and QQ. These instant messaging software simply do not make money, but the software itself has value. Think about 2005, EBay purchased the company for 26 billion yuan. Get Skype. You will understand the value of our future software!”

The person in charge said: "Boss, I didn't question the future of the company, I just complained!"

"Yeah, okay. How's the discussion going with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile about the mobile phone verification code issue?"

"It went very smoothly. They knew it was your new business and agreed easily."

The person in charge introduced: "So they also developed a software specially for us. As long as a user registers the software with a mobile phone number, the user's mobile phone will send a request to these mobile operators. Then they will transmit the request to Here, the verification code we generate immediately will be sent to the registered mobile phone number through the operator."

"What about the fee?"

“It’s much cheaper than the text message charges for ordinary users.”

"it is good."

The verification code is mainly used during registration to verify whether the phone number is the user's own mobile phone number.This requires cooperation from the operator.

Everything seemed to be going well, Luo Ji and Yang Jian tried out the test version.They tried it out and evaluated it. "The software does not run very smoothly and needs to be optimized. If there are not enough staff, we will continue to recruit people."

"Yes, yes, the text transmission speed is very fast. I received the message sent by Yang Jian within three seconds."

"The interface doesn't look very beautiful. Let's hire a few art designers to optimize it. The software's logo must be concise and clear. Don't give others room for over-interpretation."

An icon suddenly appeared in Luo Ji's mind, a square green block with two little white people with only two eyes intertwined.

Luo Ji said expressionlessly: "Forget it, I'll design the logo! Find a piece of paper and I'll draw it!"

"Ok."

Luo Ji still has some painting skills, and this logo is very simple.

Luo Ji quickly drew it on a piece of paper and then explained: "The background of this logo is green, and the eyes of the two little people are white. You can ask the designer to optimize it and find the most comfortable one." Do you know the green color?"

"Ok."

Luo Ji looked at Yang Jian and the company leaders and said, "What do you think of this logo?"

"Okay! Very good!" The two of them gave thumbs up at the same time, flattering Luo Ji!
Several people discussed some technical details, and the discussion on the software came to an end.Luo Ji stretched and let out a big yawn.

Yang Jian saw this scene and said, "Logic, your time is very tight these days to promote your single, or you have to work in the future. Do you think it would be okay to discuss it through an online video conference? You don't have to run around."

"Okay, I didn't plan to come today. You said I came when the project reached a critical moment. I will leave the follow-up matters to you."

"Okay." The two said in unison.

Luo Ji looked at the two of them and said, "Is there any problem?"

Yang Jian said: "No more"

The person in charge of WeChat said: "Logic, I am still a little worried about legal issues. Is it okay to read users' mobile phone address books without their consent?"

Luo Ji said nonchalantly: "Don't we have a user agreement drawn up by a lawyer? Only users can register if they agree. You don't have to worry."

"It's a bit like the Overlord Clause!"

As a star, Luo Ji still didn't want to discuss these sensitive topics with him: "Yang Jian, tell me!"

Yang Jian explained: "The mobile Internet is now an emerging industry, the legal system is not yet complete, and the functions of smartphones are not perfect. Even if we want to ask users whether to let us read their address books, mobile phones do not have this function now. But you Don’t worry, we only obtain the address book to expand the number of users, not for committing crimes or anything like that!”

“What if we get a class action lawsuit from users?”

Yang Jian continued: "When something goes wrong, the best thing to do is to rectify it. Now the laws in the United States tend to protect the interests of Internet companies. This is how the Internet works, so don't worry too much. The Holi game is for the sake of users, and friends who are still reading the user's mailbox , sending spam everywhere, it’s been so long and now it’s okay.”

The person in charge said helplessly: "Okay, okay."

"Ha ha!"

Yang Jian smiled and said, "I didn't realize it. You're a 1.8-meter white man, how can you be so timid? Internet companies expanded wildly like this in the early days. What are you afraid of!"

"me……"

Luo Ji interrupted the discussion between the two: "Okay, stop talking about this. When will "Stealing Food" and WeChat be launched?"

"Within this week!" the two people said in unison.

…………

Luo Ji and CEO Yang Jian came to the parking lot. Luo Ji asked his bodyguard to take him to the Holi game headquarters, and the two started discussing in the car.

"Logic, how do you plan to operate WeChat?"

"Of course it is a global operation. With the help of Holi Games' global servers, a lot of costs can be saved in the early stage. This requires your cooperation. Remember to give WeChat a "more favorable" price!"

Yang Jian blinked at Luo Ji and said, "Don't worry, it will definitely be a "favor". If anyone on the board of directors asks, I will push them back."

This "relatively favorable" price is definitely a cabbage price, which will definitely harm the interests of other shareholders.

However, WeChat has no profit points in the early stage, so reducing the company's costs is the top priority, which is why Luo Ji recruited Yang Jian.

Public tools are used for private use. With the cooperation of Luo Ji, the major shareholder, CEO Yang Jian, and Holi owning 20% ​​of the shares, other shareholders have to suppress their opinions.

Capitalist’s careful calculation!
The two smiled at each other in tacit understanding, and Yang Jian continued: "If it is operated globally, should the name of the software be in English or in the local language?"

Luo Ji didn't consider this question: "What do you think?"

"Other countries can use English names, but in places like East Asia and Russia, I think we can use local languages."

Luo Ji asked in confusion: "Why?"

Yang Jian said with a smile: "Internet companies in the United States have always been unable to compete with local companies in these places. So by using local names, we can disguise ourselves as their local companies to some extent."

"Hahaha, if you can't beat me, then join, right?"

"Hahaha!"

Luo Ji thought for a while and said, "Okay! Then set up branches in these places, and introduce local capital when appropriate! Form an alliance of interests! Doesn't Holi have branches in these places? We can ask them to cooperate."

"Yeah." Yang Jian said, "Then have you thought of a name for the place?"

"Just translate directly."

"Let's talk?"

"Yeah." Luo Ji nodded.

The vehicle unknowingly drove to Holi's headquarters building.

"Logic, bye!"

"goodbye!"

CEO Yang Jian opened the car door and walked out, waving goodbye to Luo Ji.

This 23-year-old Chinese-American young man wearing glasses has become more and more confident as his status has improved, and he is full of high spirits with every move he makes!His original image of a nerd is completely gone.

Hum, has a much better image than Zuckerberg.

Watching his leaving figure, Luo Ji suddenly had an idea in his mind and stopped him: "Wait!"

Yang Jian turned around and asked in confusion: "What's wrong? Is there anything else?"

Luo Ji said in Mandarin: "The name of WeChat in China is WeChat!"

(End of this chapter)