Chapter 1396 The Emergence of ICQ and QQ!

After Wang Shi and Yang Ming met.

Wang Shi found that he was still a lot of green in the business world, and he was indeed incomparable to Mr. Yang's series of successes in Hong Kong business.

When Wang Shi left Hong Kong and returned to Wanke's headquarters in Pengcheng, he immediately announced that a series of subsidiaries would be disposed of, either by selling them or directly disposed of.

These subsidiaries basically did not make money, but had high costs.

He announced that these subsidiaries would be disposed of, and then he would concentrate on the real estate industry. In other words, from this moment on, Wanke's focus would be on the real estate industry.

Wang Shi's series of actions immediately won the support of large and small shareholders, and Zhang Guoqing of Junan Securities knew that he had lost, and lost badly.

Soon.

Time entered April.

Time came to April 6, 1994.

Wednesday.

Yang Ming came to the Hong Kong Science Park.

Because there are new results here today.

It is related to instant messaging software.

In the early 1990s, Yang Ming proposed to develop his own instant messaging software.

In fact, he thought of the historical QQ, and the predecessor of QQ was an imitation of Israel's ICQ.

Historically, in 1996, three Israelis, Weisger, Wadi and Goldfinger, got together and decided to develop a software that enables people to communicate quickly and directly on the Internet.

They named the new software ICQ, which means "I SEEK YOU".

ICQ supports chatting, sending messages, transferring files and other functions on the Internet.

They founded Mirabilis to provide Internet instant messaging services to registered users.

The number of users of ICQ grew rapidly. Six months later, ICQ announced that it had become the instant messaging software with the largest number of users in the world at that time.

In the seventh month, ICQ's official users reached 1 million.

AOL acquired it for US$407 million, and its number of users exceeded 10 million at this time.

After AOL purchased ICQ, it launched more functional versions such as 99a, 99B, and 2000, but at the same time inserted advertisements in ICQ.

The built-in search function made the software bloated, and the unpopular advertising column, as well as the launch of software such as MSN Messenger and SkyPE, led to a downward trend in the number of people using ICQ. Later, Mirabilis launched a simplified version of ICQ lite, which only contained the most basic functions of ICQ.

Historically, OICQ, an Internet-based instant messaging network tool independently developed by Tangxun of Mahuateng in February 1999. In October 1999, just as OICQ was sweeping the domestic instant messaging market, a lawyer's letter was sent to Tangxun, which had just been established for three years.

ICQ's parent company AOL sued Tencent for infringement and demanded that OICQ change its name. Mahuateng was quick-witted and changed OICQ to QQ.

However, it was pointed out that the infringement was committed, and in November 2000, Tangxun launched the QQ2000 version, and OICQ was officially renamed QQ.

In addition to the name change, the logo of Tangxun QQ has not changed, and it has always been a little penguin. Because the little penguin in the logo is very cute and attractive and is very popular with girls. In English, it is cute. Because cute and Q are homophones, the little penguin is also a good name for QQ.

At this time, the three people from Israel naturally had not yet developed ICQ.

However, here in Xiangjiang Science and Technology City, the technology company under the Empire Group has successfully developed ICQ, which is this instant messaging software.

This instant messaging software has been tested internally and can be used internally, but it has not been announced to the public yet.

When Yang Ming came over, he saw the current ICQ for the first time. He felt that it was more like QQ that would appear more than ten years later. It may be because after Yang Ming told about the QQ he saw in his previous life, these programmers designed it according to what Yang Ming said.

"Boss, you are really a genius. I didn't expect that the instant messaging software you came up with is really very convenient. As long as you have a computer and the Internet, you can communicate instantly. It is more convenient than mobile phone text messages. The most important thing is that it doesn't cost money, it's free."

However, they couldn't figure out that a free instant messaging system would be equivalent to revolutionizing their own lives.

After all, the telecommunications companies in Hong Kong are now owned by Yang Ming and Empire Group.

Yang Ming looked at them and said, "In the future, traffic is money, and it is a continuous flow of money, and traffic is customers."

Yang Ming has explained this sentence to many people. Those who don't understand, of course, know what it is.

Those who don't understand may still not understand.

However, Yang Ming knows that it was too easy for QQ in history to make money. In addition to membership and skins, there are also games, advertisements, etc. that are very profitable.

Especially games, when games were introduced, they immediately made a lot of money that many companies couldn't make.

Because the traffic of QQ in history was really too large, basically every computer and every mobile phone would install it.

At this time, Yang Ming looked at the instant messaging system developed by his company, and he found it was really good, and there was not much difference from QQ after 2000.

"Very good, just as I imagined."

At this time, Yang Ming planned to divide ICQ into two parts.

Some are foreign and some are domestic.

Overseas, ICQ is the main one, while domestically, it is changed to QQ.

Of course, domestic QQ will then be an independent company, equal to ICQ.

Historically, ICQ companies did not develop and even missed the opportunity to develop instant messaging. Although they were the first to become popular, they were quickly defeated by other companies.

QQ has always been the dominant player in China, and no instant messaging software has ever been able to surpass it.

Even if WeChat appeared later, WeChat was actually developed on the basis of QQ.

"ICQ company will be divided into two parts. One part will be based in Xiangjiang as the parent company, but it will establish branches in various countries, focusing on Japan, M country, and European countries. The other part will be domestic, and will establish a parent company in Pengcheng. The main market is China. Moreover, these two companies are independent in terms of finance, legal person, etc. As for you, you can go to the domestic company in Pengcheng or stay in the ICQ company.”

They couldn't figure out why the boss divided things like that, but they knew there must be a reason why the boss divided things like that.

Although Xiangjiang now has Internet genes, its population is still small. Even though it now has a population of nearly 10 million, it is still far behind.

There are more than one billion people in the country, while other overseas countries have large populations.

In other words, they feel that the boss’s division may be to distinguish the domestic market from the foreign market.

Now separate the two parts.

Yang Ming left two people in charge.

Both of these people are responsible for the development of ICQ.

One is General Manager Cage, a typical white man from Country Y, but he has worked for the Empire Group for many years.

One is deputy general manager Lin Sheng. He is a native of Xiangjiang, but he returned from studying abroad.

"Cage, you continue to serve as the general manager of ICQ's parent company, but what you have to do next is to expand overseas markets as much as possible in addition to country Z. The key markets are Japan, country M, and European countries. In addition, other countries cannot ignore it.”

"Yes, boss."

"In the early stage, you will definitely have to burn money. But you don't have to worry. When the download volume of ICQ becomes higher and higher, then this is traffic and money. When it breaks through 10 million, 100 million downloads, and even more and more If there are more, ICQ will become more and more important.”

You can imagine that with billions of people in the world, if more and more people are using ICQ, an instant messaging software, you can imagine the horror it will bring.

Of course, you absolutely cannot think about making money in the early stage.

Historically, ICQ failed because of this. Moreover, too many advertisements were inserted from the beginning, resulting in bloat. Then customers will definitely uninstall it, and there will even be a new instant messaging system to replace this software.

Therefore, in the early stage, the main focus is to obtain download users, and only when the downloads are almost complete, do you think about making money.

So it’s important to burn money up front.

As for whether to raise funds at that time, Yang Ming thinks it’s clear.

As for domestic and foreign countries, it is different.

Historically, Mahua Teng and his friends from Tangxun were able to use QQ to monopolize the domestic instant messaging software. Of course, they had their own reasons.

However, in fact, Mahuateng almost couldn't survive in history and almost sold Tangxun, but it survived after finally successfully raising funds.

In other words, Mahuateng is still very powerful.

His success is not only due to luck, but also due to his good personal ability.

And when Yang Ming saw Li Zairong of the Samhung Group in Goryeo, why did he think of Mahua Vine when he saw him?

In addition to the fact that the two of them look similar, Yang Ming remembers this person deeply because of the success of Mahua Vine in history.

Now after Yang Ming and Cage finished talking, he said to Lin Sheng on the side: "There are various reasons why I separate the domestic market from the foreign market. Of course, the domestic population of more than one billion now also With the gradual development, there are more and more personal computers and even Internet cafes, and the number of domestic QQ downloads will be higher and higher. Therefore, I will let you be the person in charge of domestic QQ, but you must not underestimate the domestic QQ. Talents, when you arrive in Pengcheng, you must localize and domesticize, so that QQ can develop in the country. In addition, Pengcheng is still one of the most dynamic experimental areas in the country, where There are a lot of talents, so you don’t need to bring anyone to Pengcheng this time, you can recruit a group of new talents in Pengcheng and other places.”

In Yang Ming's opinion, Pengcheng is still a very dynamic city.

And it is unmatched by other cities.

Therefore, he still left QQ's headquarters in Pengcheng.

In addition to having Lin Sheng as the person in charge, he hopes that other talents will be recruited locally in Pengcheng, which will make it easier for the company to develop.

Yang Ming talked a lot with the two of them.

When Yang Ming leaves here.

He Chaoluo and others were still surprised.

They didn't expect that their boss would actually let people develop such an instant messaging system.

I'm afraid that as long as you have a computer with you and an Internet connection, you really don't need to send text messages on your mobile phone, or even make a phone call.

Of course, at home, it may be more convenient to use this instant messaging directly because you can leave messages at any time.

Some people don't like to make phone calls by nature, but they still have to contact them. The emergence of instant messaging can undoubtedly solve many problems for them.

And this instant messaging system can not only solve problems at work, but also solve problems in life, and it is very useful.

. . .

April 10, 1994.

Sunday.

The newly established ICQ company held a press conference in the Xiangjiang Science Park and announced this instant messaging software.

During the press conference, ICQ General Manager Cage personally announced that this instant messaging software will bring convenience to people's work and life.

The most important thing is that now instant messaging, as long as there is an Internet and a computer, it is free.

This news spread quickly and shocked many people.

After Cage announced the news, he immediately established branches in various countries around the world. In addition to recruiting various talents, he also carried out advertising.

Let many people know about this new instant messaging software.

In addition.

Lin Sheng only took a few people and passed the opposite Pengcheng.

In a building in Pengcheng, he rented a floor.

Then he established QQ company.

In addition, he also recruited various talents from outside, including computer programming, computer design and other talents.

Because this company is invested by Empire Group, it is still very popular in Pengcheng.

And there are really many people who come to apply for the job.

Lin Sheng spent about a week to personally recruit 50 talents of various types.

Then QQ Company was officially established. QQ Company looks very similar to ICQ in all aspects, but in fact, there are still some differences.

Including functions and other aspects.

Moreover, China mainly uses simplified Chinese characters, while foreign countries are either English or other foreign languages. The design of this software is also different in all aspects.

Moreover, Yang Ming has long proposed that the logo of QQ should be replaced by a little penguin.

So that Huaqiangbei in Pengcheng, Tianhe Science and Technology City in Yangcheng, Zhangqiao Science and Technology Park in Shencheng, and Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park in Yanjing can all see the logos and advertisements of QQ and the little penguin.

In addition.

There is another advertisement.

There is ICQ abroad.

There is QQ in China.

Instant messaging is convenient for you and me.

When QQ was established in China, the number of downloads exceeded 500,000 that month.

Basically, it is mainly installed on home personal computers.

In addition, some people also installed it in Internet cafes.

By May, more and more people knew about the emergence of QQ, especially middle school students and college students, who really liked this instant messaging app.

For these people, mobile phones are still luxury goods and may not be able to afford them.

However, computers are affordable for some people, but most people may still not be able to afford them. Because of the emergence of Internet cafes, some college students can save food expenses and still spend money in Internet cafes.

It is very luxurious to surf the Internet now.

However, surfing the Internet can really bring a lot of new things.

Like the emergence of this instant messaging software QQ.

The most important thing is that many people heard that it is still easy to apply for a QQ number now, and they heard that the numbers of QQ numbers will become longer and longer in the future. Naturally, it is more convenient to apply early, just like those mobile phone numbers.

So in May, more college students and middle school students tried to apply for a QQ of their own. Even if they can't use it now, they think they will definitely use it in the future.

When the number of ICQ users abroad downloads more and more, the number of QQ users in China also increases.

Of course, with the emergence of ICQ and QQ, instant messaging software has once again triggered the development of global Internet instant messaging, and other companies have also begun to study it.

However, many companies know that it is difficult to surpass the Empire Group in this regard.

In addition to following the trend, their investment in various aspects of funds cannot be compared with the Empire Group. (End of this chapter)