The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 408 People in Textbooks
Although Kingsoft has Hong Kong shareholders, Liu Hua believes they can still be trusted. Besides, developing software isn't a core secret; the core secret is what's developed using that software.

Lei Jun found Qiu Bojun: "President Qiu, my master just called me."

"Professor Liu?" Qiu Bojun asked with great interest. "I have long admired Professor Liu. You must introduce me to him when you have time. I would like to visit him. The textbooks I used back then were all compiled by him."

"My master asked me, 'Are you interested in developing an industrial drafting software?'"

Qiu Bojun frowned: "Isn't there AutoCAD? I don't have the energy to be distracted by it right now."

“A large part of my master’s work involves highly classified information,” Lei Jun explained. “Like when I was still in school, he wouldn’t let me work on that database software; it was a military version.”

"Oh, I understand." Qiu Bojun nodded. "Sir, you are also a master in software. Why don't you make one yourself?"

“Master is probably too busy.” Lei Jun took out his mobile phone: “Look, the mobile phone has just been updated and the battery has been replaced with a lithium battery. Master’s interest is not in software, but in physical industry.”

Qiu Bojun nodded: "Since it is to serve the country, if I, Qiu Bojun, have the honor of participating, then I naturally cannot refuse. So, you tell Mr. Liu to find a time to visit me and understand the needs in detail."

The next day, Liu Hua received a call from Lei Jun: "Master, Mr. Qiu has agreed to visit you in person to discuss the software."

"Okay, you can come with him."

Although Qiu Bojun is a science and engineering student, he was very excited to meet the person he admired.

They bought many gifts from Guangzhou, all local specialties, and brought them to Liu Hua's courtyard house with bags and bags of them.

Upon knocking, Liu Feifei opened the door. Seeing Lei Jun, she happily said, "Little Lei, it's been so long since you've come to our house. Your master said you went to the south. Why did you go so far away?"

Lei Jun originally called Liu Feifei "Shipo" (a respectful term for a teacher or mentor), but Liu Feifei felt that Lei Jun made her sound old, so she asked Lei Jun to call her "Aunt Liu".

"Aunt Liu, is Master home?"

“At home, knowing you were coming today, he specifically asked me to buy some of your favorite dishes.”

Upon seeing Liu Hua, Qiu Bojun was a little excited. This was a person from the textbooks. People in textbooks are generally divided into two types: those who are written in textbooks and those who write textbooks.

It is certainly great to be written in textbooks, but the people who write textbooks are also very influential.

Let's get down to business. As soon as Liu Hua explained the requirements, Qiu Bojun agreed on the spot. As the top programmer in China, he was truly skilled, and these were not difficult tasks for him.

“Making this software successful will benefit you,” Liu Hua said with a smile. “In the future, you will definitely have to compete with foreign software companies. Foreigners are rich and powerful, and we don’t have the strength to compete with them. As long as you make this software successful, you will at least get official support.”

Because the operating system was Microsoft's, WPS was utterly defeated by Microsoft's Word system around 2000. Therefore, Liu Hua believes that with official support, WPS will definitely have a much better performance.

After finishing their business, Qiu Bojun began to talk to Liu Hua about the development trends of software and the internet.

This is Qiu Bojun, the number one internet figure in China and the creator of internet television in the country, yet he maintains a very humble attitude.

Liu Hua was naturally generous with his knowledge, sharing his understanding of the internet, its development, Web 2.0, and so on. Qiu Bojun benefited greatly from his explanation.

“For software like WPS, which you’re working on now, and Kingsoft Antivirus, the only way out in the future is to make it free,” Liu Hua said with a smile. “I’ve said this to Xiao Lei before, and I don’t know if he’s understood it. Let me say it to you again: in the future, software will basically only survive if it’s free. Whoever makes the first free antivirus software will immediately face bankruptcy.”

"Where is the profit point?" Qiu Bojun asked the probing question: "Mr. Liu, we are running a company. Although I am a programmer, I know that a company needs to make a profit, otherwise it cannot support so many people."

“Once the internet develops, you’ll find that people are wealth.” Liu Hua explained, “I’m not talking about you technicians, but users. When you have 100 million users, you don’t need to sell your product. You can just lie there and people will come to your door and give you money.”

There are probably fewer than 100,000 internet users now, so those who are chasing the internet economy now will undoubtedly be eliminated in the next wave.

Only those who have deeply considered the essence of the internet and understood the direction they should take in the future will ultimately survive.

Qiu Bojun and Lei Jun returned with a bellyful of questions; they still couldn't understand what Liu Hua had said.

On the plane, Qiu Bojun asked Lei Jun, "Do you understand what Mr. Liu said? After all, you've been thinking about it for many years."

Lei Jun shook his head: "After thinking about this for so many years, I'm still completely confused, but I noticed something my master said."

"That sentence?"

“Users are wealth, especially when you have 100 million users.” Lei Jun said with a smile, “So if my master is right, then according to his theory, our next step is to increase the number of our users. As long as we increase the number of users, we will be invincible in the future wave of the Internet.”

Qiu Bojun nodded: "If your master is right, then our next step is to accumulate users."

Lei Jun suddenly thought of a problem: "We are antivirus software, one installation per computer is enough. If there are no internet users, what's the point of accumulating users?"

"So our future goal is to have every computer that has just joined the Internet use our Kingsoft antivirus software." Qiu Bojun said thoughtfully, "You can't just rely on advertising. Think about whether you have any good ideas. I feel that you are more talented than me in management and business."

"Let's do on-the-ground promotion," Lei Jun said after thinking for a moment. "The number of installations is small now. If we can secure the digital plazas in those big cities and promise to give them a commission for each computer antivirus software installed, we should be able to attract a lot of new users."

“That makes sense.” Qiu Bojun clapped his hands. “When I get back, I’ll suggest to Mr. Zhang that you be appointed as general manager. It’s such a waste of your valuable talent to just have you as a programmer.”

(End of this chapter)