Chapter 380 Fans of God X

Richard, who comes from a business family, is one of the people who let go and do it. He and his good friend John are both computer science graduates from Stanford University. In their last year at school, they happened to catch up with the establishment of the GIT Stanford mirror.

So, the two engineering geeks became loyal fans of GIT. In order to browse quickly, they even learned some Chinese, at least to understand the common computer-related vocabulary.

Both of them are enthusiastic people. During their school years, they were attracted by the newly released Hollywood movie Terminator 2 and became very interested in three-dimensional multimedia. Then they found that GIT actually had a set of three-dimensional modeling software products with a very complete operation interface.

There are also very useful rendering, mapping, image processing, audio processing products, video processing, synthesis, cutouts, and editing. It is simply a product collection.

But these products are all in Chinese, and the manuals are also, either in Chinese or there is no manual at all. In addition, the projects are independent of each other. If you want to connect these things, the various complex file formats are enough to stop laymen.

The two immediately became interested in this, and contacted several classmates and friends to work together on integration.

They first used the tools provided in the development language environment to build a work platform, and then used a powerful intermediate content management product as a transfer, allowing users to use the mouse to drag and drop between multiple products.

It was a very simple idea, but it cleverly allowed laymen to use these different products to start their own work.

They did not choose to open source this creative product, but chose another path, which was a similar path that someone had already done, that is, to select the required stable version, then package and test them, and finally form a stable product that can be sold to the outside world and provide after-sales service.

For this reason, the two obtained the first business investment from their families, started their own company, and officially went on the market. The two of them threw aside the graduation defense that they were supposed to attend, and directly dropped out of school to start a business.

Dropping out of school to start a business is really not a new thing in the United States. It even formed a trend in the 1980s and 1990s, which even affected China. Shuimu University has had many people drop out of school to start a business in recent years.

The founder of Oracle once publicly mocked those graduates at the Stanford graduation ceremony, saying that the reason why I am so successful is because I dropped out early, and you have no chance.

It’s okay for those from the United States, but for those in China, it’s simply too much. If he fails in his business, he can go back to the United States University at any time to finish his studies. Didn’t you see O’Neal playing basketball and studying for a master’s degree?

As for those in China, if you drop out, you really drop out. Unless you take the exam again, there is no way back. What are you studying for?

John parked the car and looked at the "UniMov" nameplate hanging on the door of the two-story building rented by Richard and himself. He felt a little emotional. Now this small building is not enough.

Of course, this place will not last long. They are already looking for a new office location. The main reason for retaining the environment here is to facilitate financing.

Investors in the United States have a very positive view on start-up companies working in places like garages and pizza boxes thrown everywhere. The chaotic environment is even a plus point, which shows that these entrepreneurs are not spending money indiscriminately and are focusing on technology.

The two's business is booming. The sales of tens of thousands of software licenses and various services have made them millionaires at a young age, adding two more entrepreneurial pioneers to Silicon Valley.

Although they only have a dozen people and work in a private house, their growth rate is extraordinary.

In just a few months, they have gone from two people fighting alone to a star company with more than a dozen people and monthly sales exceeding one million. This is a mythical existence in the nearby entrepreneurial circle.

This is Los Altos, the place closest to Stanford. It is the center of young people's entrepreneurship. Apple was founded in a garage here.

There is a joke that there is an investor squatting on every tree here, staring at the startups below. Once they find clues, they will flock to it.

Famous universities such as Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley provide a steady stream of fresh blood for this area, including entrepreneurial pioneers and smart brains from all over the world to support them to go further.

Richard and John are also looking for investment. Their weakness is that their products are based on open source products. Whether this business model will be accepted is uncertain for investors, and investors are still considering various issues.

After all, the time is too short. They are the earliest pioneers, and they may even be the first to seek investment. Although several companies have expressed interest in them, no one has invested real money yet.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that they have marketing and have begun to make profits. Profitable companies are not so urgent for investment. Unless they need to expand rapidly, introducing investment will not necessarily bring good results.

This is not the Internet era. When people are desperately burning money, investors are still quite cautious.

Until the establishment of Yahoo this year, it took only two years from venture capital to listing. The mythical deeds inspired countless investors, which triggered the largest wave of investment boom before the end of the century.

Richard, who pays more attention to technology, went to China with two engineers, Kedon and Leo, a few days ago, hoping to increase support for them, at least the bugs they fixed can enter the stable version sequence faster.

Although they can also package themselves for users to use first, it is better to enter the official stable version to ensure later maintenance. If you always work alone, you will have to go your separate ways later, because it is easy to cause conflicts between your work and others.

These commercial companies that make their own distributions are actually important contributors to open source products, because they can always get first-hand feedback and can fix defects in the code in time.

If their contribution is high enough, they may become the code controller, that is, the person who can determine the distribution. Of course, Richard and John's company is still far from this level.

So, Richard took the team to China in a hurry, half for negotiation and the other half for pilgrimage. Not to mention him, in the technology world of the ugly country, there are definitely many geeks who want to see the great god X.W.

John, who is more business-oriented among the two, is looking after the house in the Ugly Country. Their company's business will not stop and wait for people, and they are very busy every day.

Richard needs a visa to go to China, but he only needs to wait for a month. The procedure is not complicated, and there are very few Ugly Chinese coming to China these days, so there is almost no need to queue up.

There are also agency companies that can help with various procedures. China is a mysterious and terrifying existence in the minds of Ugly Chinese, so there are many Chinese who act as agents, and there are naturally many companies that handle visas.

Richard applied for a tourist visa, and all three of them did. One of the engineers, Leo, is a Chinese from Lijiapo and can serve as a translator.

The main reason for finding a Chinese person is that there is too much information on GIT to be translated into English in time. Many of the latest updates and comments are hastily written in Chinese and posted.

Now, there is even a group of engineers on GIT who know Chinese and programming, but their level is not that high. They specialize in translation work and get a lot of contribution points.

Therefore, when Richard and John were setting up their team, they specifically recruited engineers who knew Chinese. They made money by doing this, and they waited for others to translate everything. It was really a waste of time.

Their company already had some influence in the market, but if they wanted to continue to expand the global market rapidly, they needed to invest, build a technical team, build a research and development team, and most importantly, build a service team.

They had long understood that the service team was the key to making money with open source products. How to quickly solve user problems and how to communicate with a group of non-professionals was the key to success.

After entering the company, John threw off his coat. The climate in California was not very cold. In winter, he just needed to wear a thicker coat. The room was air-conditioned and very warm.

Just as he sat down at his desk, he didn't even have time to get up to pour a cup of coffee, and the phone on the table rang.

"John, do you know that I met X yesterday? Do you know who he is?" A transatlantic call was launched between China and the Ugly Country. On the other end of the phone was Richard, who had just gotten drunk in Wang Xu's bar yesterday.

"X.W?" John was confused. Obviously, he didn't get any useful information from Richard's incoherent words.

"Yes, it's him. Do you know who he is? By the way, he got engaged yesterday. Do you know who his fiancée is?" Richard spoke like a machine gun. Obviously, he hadn't recovered from yesterday's excitement.

"Isn't he X.W?" John was even more confused. Although he also admired X.W, he had never seen Richard lose his composure like this before. He was probably crazy.

"Haha, you don't know, he is the mysterious X in the music industry, the producer of the rock music we listen to all day. Haha, the two mysterious Xs are actually the same person. Listen to me, yesterday..."

Well, gossip is universal all over the world, whether in China or the Ugly Country.

As a geek, Richard regards X.W as an idol. As a fan, he also regards the mysterious producer X as an idol.

When he found out that the two mysterious Xs were the same person, he was so shocked and excited that he almost immediately rushed to Wang Xu and Wang Fei to take out the CD and ask for their autographs.

Yes, he was really a fan of the two. Even the CD he carried with him was the Kingdee with rock style that Wang Fei and Wang Xu collaborated on, produced by the Imperial Capital Recording Studio.

This singer is not very popular in the Ugly Country. Although her records do sell well and her MTV songs are requested a lot, who can blame her for being Asian?

They both noticed that this Chinese singer group was recommended by Leo, the Lijiapo man. The Lijiapo man's understanding of Wang Fei is not comparable to that of the two Ugly Country white people.

Leo has long been a fan of Wang Fei and has been listening to Wang Fei's Chinese songs. When Wang Fei landed in the Ugly Country and released an English album, he was ecstatic.

Leo almost immediately bought the latest version, and even later released the Kingdee high-resolution version for audiophiles, and he supported it all the way.

Engineering students in the Ugly Country are generally quite introverted and seldom promote their hobbies to others. It was only when John and others asked him what he was listening to that he recommended it. Unexpectedly, he promoted two fans for his idol in such a simple way.

Likewise, Leo had not expected that he would actually meet his music idol on this technology pilgrimage to China. Two idols merged into one. There was no more wonderful experience than this.

Three people went together, and two of them were die-hard fans, carrying CDs with them. The third person was embarrassed when signing. Although Keden had heard Wang Fei's songs, he was not so obsessed with them, and he did not carry CDs with him.

Fortunately, Wang Fei was generous and took out a CD of her own to sign and gave it to him. She also gave Richard and Leo a copy of her first album, which was also a Kingdee, re-recorded version of the Imperial Capital Recording Studio, and also signed by both of them.

There are still very few fans who carry their own CDs everywhere. You really have to cherish them.

Richard and Leo laughed and scolded Keden for making too much money, getting a CD for nothing, which made Keden even more embarrassed.

However, Keden was really prepared to come for an autograph. He originally planned to ask Wang Xu for an autograph because he brought a book. That's right, the English version of "The Matrix" written by Wang Xu was officially launched before the New Year.

Many students and geeks who are interested in GIT have bought this book. This book is the English version that Wang Xu has corrected and translated by a professional translator.

This version not only fixes some bugs in the online GIT version, but also makes the text more localized due to the introduction of professional translation. Coupled with some hand-drawn illustrations by Wang Xu, it is worth the money.

The Chinese version is serialized in the magazine "Science Fiction World". It has more than 100,000 words and has to be serialized for several issues. Anyway, it has not been completed yet. On the contrary, the English version is directly published.

This book has been on the bestseller list as soon as it was released in the United States. It sold 100,000 copies in just one month. If it was not released at the end of the year, it would be possible to compete for the annual bestseller.

A science fiction novel that can have such a first-month sales volume naturally has great potential. Now the publisher in the United States is preparing more publicity, and since Wang Xu has already started the production of the movie, there will be some joint publicity methods with New Line.

I just didn't expect that Keaton would come with the novel to sign. This was the first time Wang Xu signed this book. Well, the hundreds of signed copies that the publisher wanted to go to didn't count. They were used by the publisher as a gimmick and were also to be put on the market for sale.

Who told Wang Xu to say at the beginning that he didn't have time to go to the signing event for the ugly Chinese version, so he had to use this method.

"Listen to me, I'm not calling you in a hurry for this, I suddenly had an idea, what do you think about selling some shares to X.W?"

——

(See you tomorrow, wish me more success in writing)