Chapter 556 Key Issues

Remember in one second [End of the God Station] Mobile phone user input address: m.xinwanben.com

As a key project that Igreit has been quietly incubating, 58list has carefully considered all aspects. Perhaps it was because the consideration was too clear that the design plan of the first version of the homepage was directly killed by Simon.

Because it is too complicated.

Simon has a deep memory of the classified information websites in his memory. At first glance, it is densely packed, and a lot of redundant information rushes into the eye, making you do not know what to do at all.

The 58list team initially made a similar mistake.

In order to let users feel that their services are thoughtful and complete, the initial homepage plan has three screens.

Simon finally only gave the design space of one screen, and asked for a simple and simple, with the current mainstream dial-up network speed, it must be opened instantly without waiting.

This also means that the home page basically exists in full text.

And most of the non-mainstream classified information services have been cut off. In the short term, the focus is on three projects: real estate, work and second-hand. In fact, this basically covers more than 80% of the content of classified information advertisements on paper media platforms.

The finalized page, in addition to the website logo and search box, is succinctly divided into four parts, with real estate, work and second-hand services as the main services, and also provides a forum for customer communication.

As a company that pioneered the age of the World Wide Web, Igreit has no problems with technology.

If 58list wants to succeed, the key is to operate.

For Simon, a latecomer, he knows better than anyone the various problems such as false information, Internet fraud and so on that the classified directory website will encounter in the operation process.

Therefore, in the preparation process of 58list, the formation of the legal team has become the top priority of this subsidiary.

Americans often use lawyers to speak, and once they encounter fraud and other problems when seeking services on the 58list platform, they will definitely point the finger at Igret, who is rich and powerful.

The Internet classified information service has touched the foundation of the traditional paper media platform’s annual revenue of up to 20 billion US dollars. It is conceivable that as long as there is a dispute, the paper media will never be stingy and one-sidedly to stir up public opinion to the top, bringing Igrete to the forefront. .

It is almost a general trend that free Internet classified information services replace the paid services of paper media.

Simon believes that no one can stop this trend.

However, in this game of industry redistribution that will never be calm, forming a strong legal team in advance and formulating clear terms of rights and responsibilities can maintain the smooth development of 58list to the greatest extent.

After the last meeting before the launch of 58list, everyone dined in the restaurant at the headquarters of Ygrit at noon.

During this period, Igreit used the $1.5 billion in funding from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to invest in a number of startups in a row, but 58list is the only Igreit that is similar to facebook, google and amazon. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary, so it can be seen that the senior management attaches great importance to this project.

The CEO of 58list is Michael Novarek. He is 35 years old and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He used to work at Hewlett-Packard for five years.

After the founding of Igreit, Michael Novarek was hired as one of the company's first employees.

As a highly energetic technical gurus with a Ph.D., Michael Novarek has participated in the development of the e-mail and web forum projects of the Igrit portal.

Simon, Bezos, Tim Bonas-Lee and Michael Novarek sit at a table in the restaurant.

Everyone continued to discuss some issues about 58list’s business model. Aware of Michael Novarek’s smugness, Simon asked: “Mike, how much of the $20 billion traditional print media classified information advertising market do you think will be converted in 10 years’ time? For the revenue of the Internet industry?"

Michael Novarek said: "After 10 years, even if the full $20 billion output value cannot be converted due to the free nature of the Internet, I believe that there will still be an industry scale of about $5 billion. Moreover, cheap Operating costs will allow us to have very high profit margins, which are also unmatched by traditional paper media.”

Simon looked at Bezos and Lee and asked, "How many do you think there should be?"

Tim Berners-Lee said: "I think it should be $5 billion as well."

Jeff Bezos probably felt Simon's intention and said: "We are only developing classified information services similar to traditional paper media. With the development of the Internet industry, 58list will be able to provide more classified value-added services in the future. To expand the market further, $5 billion, that’s not a lot.”

Simon nodded slightly.

58list does not plan to pursue any profits in the short term, however, during this time, the Igreit team has also drawn up more than one sustainable potential business model.

As a classified information website that monopolized the North American market, the Craig Directory used to have a huge amount of traffic due to the founder's free operation concept, but its annual revenue was only a few hundred million dollars.

Of course, because after many years of development, there are only a few dozen employees, and the profit margin brought by the annual revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars in Craig's directory is also terrible, which has led to super Internet giants such as Yahoo, Google, and Facebook. Enter the classified information market.

Craig Directory's success, key

It's free and monopoly.

This time, Igreat started the layout ahead of schedule, and it is even easier to form a de facto monopoly in this market by relying on its own advantages.

However, it is very difficult to obtain a large amount of revenue from this.

After Simon and the other three finished expressing their opinions, they raised two fingers and said, "$200 million."

Even Bezos, who understands that Simon is pouring cold water on Michael Novarek, is a little surprised. If 58list can only achieve $200 million in revenue after 10 years, this business is not worth continuing at all.

Simon did not wait for the three to ask questions, and took the initiative to explain: "According to the current free operation model, 58list is similar to a public service platform, and will continue for a long time in the future. Fortunately, our operating costs are very low, If I completely put aside the identity of Igreit's subsidiary, I believe that operating such a full-text public service platform, even according to the scale of users covering the entire federation, actually only requires dozens of employees, including office space and server expenses. Wait, it won't cost more than $20 million a year."

All three of Jeff Bezos have considerable technical background, Simon said, and all three nodded in approval.

If it is completely used as a free public service platform and does not pursue commercial operation, 58list really only needs dozens of employees and the same small other expenses.

Moreover, doing so also ensures that 58list has a monopoly on classified information services with almost no competition.

After monopolizing the market and ensuring proper commercialization on the basis of free services, $200 million a year would be very easy.

However, the revenue of about 200 million US dollars will probably be a limit.

The fixed cost of $20 million is exchanged for the annual revenue of $200 million. At that time, the small life of the platform will be very nourishing, but there will be no further breakthroughs.

Seeing that the three of them were lost in thought, Simon stopped talking and picked up the cutlery to continue his lunch.

After a while, Simon's lunch was almost eaten, and Michael Novarek smiled bitterly: "If we kill a $20 billion industry, but only exchange for a new market of $200 million, will it be a failure? Some?"

Simon put down the tableware and said: "From the public's point of view, it is actually equivalent to saving them 20 billion US dollars a year, and many people have to thank us."

Jeff Bezos said: "Print media groups will want to kill us."

Simon said: "Every technological change means that many industries are eliminated. When the steam loom just appeared, traditional workers rushed into factories and smashed the machines, but they could never save their jobs. On the contrary, those who followed the trend and started mechanization The people in the textile factories made a fortune. The steam revolution, the electrical revolution, every time. Now, we are at the beginning of a new information revolution. Those who follow the trend will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. inevitable."

Tim Berners-Lee couldn't help saying, "The beginning of a great era."

"Yeah," Simon smiled, pointed to a few of himself, and to the others in the restaurant, and said, "We created a big era ourselves."

Jeff Bezos and Tim Berners-Lee heard the words, and their expressions were a little more high-spirited.

Michael Novarek was also a little excited in his heart, but remembering what Simon just said, he said, "I still care more about my project."

Simon retracted the topic he just diverted and said, "Actually, the industry scale of 20 billion US dollars is still there. What I just said is only the worst result. How much it can be transformed depends on the results of your work. However, Mike, I need to remind you one more point, 58list can continue to try to explore various business models, but never care about making money, users should be the first. All services of 58list must follow the principle of user first. If Our platform services can make users feel value for money, and they will naturally take out their wallets. On the contrary, if everyone thinks that this is a platform where scammers are rampant, false information is rampant, and only know how to charge but cannot provide equivalent services, even if Using your own advantages to monopolize the entire industry, you will only get a small piece of cake that has shrunk significantly compared to the potential market that could have been larger.”

We all know the truth, it is always easier to understand.

For classified information services, all Simon can do is to remind the 58list team as much as possible not to go in the wrong direction.

Moreover, compared to Igreit's huge layout in other fields, this part of the business is not the core after all. If Michael Novarek messes up, Simon will decisively adjust this subsidiary into a free public service platform, It is regarded as a public welfare behavior of Igreit Company.

After that day's meeting, 58list quietly went live on Wednesday, August 11th.

The threat of this service to traditional paper media is too obvious. Therefore, the Igreit portal did not give any publicity. This actually avoided the direct outbreak of user needs to a large extent, and gave the 58list team a relatively full exploration. space.

However, as a classified information service platform with the same city model as the core, if it is done by other start-ups, it may only choose one or two cities to conduct business. 58list has strong technical support from Igrete. The capital cities of the fifty U.S. states, as well as some other populous metropolitan areas.

Although it has not been widely promoted, as a service interface application on the front page of the Igret portal, which is parallel to facebook, google and amazon, and

In addition, you can log in directly through Igrete’s mailbox, and the service is completely free. In just a few days, the 58list website has flooded with a large number of users. In just three days after its opening, various sectors of housing rental and sales, employee recruitment, The number of posts on second-hand transactions, etc. exceeded 1 million.

According to factors such as circulation and other factors, the fees for classified information advertisements on newspaper platforms are also different, ranging from tens to hundreds of dollars.

58list surpassed 1 million posts in just three days. If the newspaper platform’s charging standards are used, it is equivalent to a potential loss of 50 million to 100 million US dollars to the print media industry.

In recent years, many people have not believed that the rise of the Internet industry will bring too much impact on traditional media. With the launch of 58list, everyone finally felt a real threat.

Even if most of the print media platforms instinctively show an evasive attitude towards the popularity of 58list after its launch, and even the Igreit portal itself keeps a low profile with the mentality of quietly entering the village, the launch of this online service will inevitably cause some people's attention.

A financial talk show on cnn channel even devoted a special feature to 58list on the following Monday, detailing the popularity of the online service and the potential threat to traditional paper media.

So, the news naturally began to spread.

In addition, the interface of 58list is placed on the homepage of the Igreit portal, which is necessary after the IE browser is opened. It is also very convenient to use. Some users who were not interested in it also clicked into it quietly.

More professional real estate or recruitment information is not necessarily available in a short time, so the second-hand market has become the target of most users' attempts.

The second-hand trade in the United States is very developed. Whether it is car furniture or toy pets, as long as you want it, there are people who sell it and some people buy it. What's more, this platform is not like a newspaper. You don't need to spend a penny. Some things that you don't need for a long time at home can be placed on the spot. If you can sell them for tens of dollars, why not do it?

In order to expand business, many service platforms in Simon's memory are always used to concealing the potential risks of related services from users.

58list didn't do that.

Before users post, the first thing to read is the website terms and anti-fraud statements carefully formulated by 58list's legal team to remind users of the potential risks of trading on the platform, and only after users click the agree button, they can continue to post.

Even so, scams happen quickly.

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