Back to the prime of life

Chapter 184 Greatly Exceeds Expectations
Lu Changge was actually unaware of the early development of WhatsApp.

So, the 'Prophet' cheat that he used very well in China was quite ineffective on Chatter.

This also brought another impact: he had to carefully consider every memory he had about WhatsApp.

To be honest, I only glimpsed these things while reading the news, and they mainly included the following items.

First, WhatsApp was founded in 2009, so it was already in use and not very useful at this point. Chatter had already started much earlier.

Second, WhatsApp was eventually acquired by Facebook for a whopping $190 billion.

Because the price was so high, and it was even the largest internet merger and acquisition deal in a certain period of time, the news spread all over the world.

But this thing is still useless for actual operations.

The only useful thing left was that acquisition report. Lu Changge remembered that when WhatsApp was acquired, it only had 50 employees and thousands of servers.

The news that such a small number of people could create $190 billion in value was so shocking that it left a deep impression on Lu Changge.

Apart from that, he knew very little about this foreign software.

There's nothing we can do about it. We have to live within our means. With only this information, he can only deduce things from it.

Therefore, when holding conference calls, Lu Changge paid special attention to the word "efficiency." Since someone could do it, it meant that it was technically feasible.

After reporting their achievements, Shen Mo and Chi Yongsheng went on to discuss the difficulties they were currently facing.

In PulseGo's conference room, Lu Changge, Zhou Shuang, and others were listening.

Shen Mo said, "...We did not expect the product's cold start to be so successful. In retrospect, in addition to the existing market demand, I think we did at least two things right during the product development phase."

First, they reacted very quickly. While there are similar apps on the market, none are as extreme as those offering only text and image chat. Moreover, they face the same problem as QQ: simply copying the original PC software to a smartphone doesn't provide a good user experience.

"Secondly, most of our competitors' products are extremely complex in terms of functions and have a lot of various advertisements. From the perspective of software iteration, they are more bloated. Also, they take up more memory."

Lu Changge understood, and he wrote the words "user experience" on his notebook.

The concept of simplicity and perfection is not just about visually pleasing images. From a business perspective, it also means reduced costs because the 'tasks' to be handled are much simpler.

As for the issue of taking up more memory... that is indeed a problem. We can't forget that early smartphones were prone to lag and data charges could be painful just because we can install any software and use any data we want on our phones later on.

"I think Mr. Lu's initial approach to designing and developing this software was very correct, and since it was correct, we should stick to it. So the company will continue to adhere to the principles of rapid iteration and simplicity. Of course, we also face many problems and have a lot of work to do."

Lu Changge spoke up at this moment, "Let me interject. The two points you just summarized are very accurate. In fact, they can be summarized by the four words 'user experience,' which is also one of my core ideas. I know many companies talk a lot about user experience, user-centric thinking, and service slogans like 'treating users as gods.' But it's easier said than done. For example, for the sake of user experience, can we resist the temptation of advertising revenue?"

The next challenge Shen Mo will discuss will definitely include financial pressure, given the influx of so many users.

But how many people, when faced with this kind of pressure, can still refuse advertising revenue?

It's fair to say the proportion is very low, and even if people understand this principle, they might not necessarily choose to refuse.

Lu Changge has not yet expressed his opinion, only saying, "You continue."

"Okay. Next, I'll talk about the difficulties we need to address. The first one is the version issue. I know that everyone in our company is very optimistic about the future of smartphones, but currently, neither iOS nor Android has a high market position. A large number of our potential users are concentrated on BlackBerry and Symbian systems. Here's the question: is the company really committed to not developing other versions?"

This issue is worth discussing.

Shen Mo said, "I think we should let go of this obsession and compromise for now. There are two reasons. First, the cost of this kind of development investment is not high. Second, if Apple users find that they cannot communicate with their friends who use BlackBerry or Nokia, they may abandon our software. Instant messaging is essentially still communication, and communication is easily abandoned if it does not form a network and ecosystem."

Chi Yongsheng added, "In fact, we have already started developing a version that is compatible with both systems, as we believe it is necessary."

Lu Changge didn't immediately reject the idea; prophecy shouldn't be abused, and the immediate realities are sometimes more important. Shen Mo and Chi Yongsheng hadn't done anything wrong either; they themselves had a high degree of autonomy in business decision-making, after all, they were closer to the 'front lines'.

"Alright, let's give it a try first."

"Okay. Another issue is the cost of the server."

At this point, Chi Yongsheng added, "Changge, you talked to me about costs last time. I've recently done some research, and besides the minimalist product philosophy itself, there are also some technical ways to reduce costs."

One is to develop a backend server using the Erlang language. Its lightweight process model is suitable for real-time communication scenarios and supports high-concurrency message processing.

Another aspect is low-bandwidth optimization, which has been ongoing since the beginning of development. We've been doing everything we can to compress text and image sizes, and we've also launched a new offline message queue mechanism to ensure that messages aren't lost in weak network environments..."

In terms of product development, the prophet is actually very useful.

Simply put, Lu Changge is a natural-born product manager. While others are still exploring whether a feature is needed and the direction of iteration and optimization,
He can now tell the technical staff clearly from the very beginning: I want this feature or I want to avoid this or that problem.

For example, Lu Changge was unaware that the first version of WhatsApp, launched in February 2009, was not a pure instant messaging software. Its function was similar to a status update tool, allowing users to set a status like 'I'm at the gym' and push notifications to friends.

A few months after the system went live, they discovered that users were spontaneously using the status bar as an instant messaging tool, realizing that the need for communication far outweighed the need for status sharing.

So in June, with version 2.0, WhatsApp completely transformed into an instant messaging application.

This is the benefit that so-called 'excellent product managers' bring to them. Chatter directly ignored this exploration process, and it was probably because of the precise understanding of the needs that this cold start far exceeded expectations.

After all, no matter how clearly you explain user needs, if you don't actually create a product to put them into practice, those user needs will always remain vague.

"...The unexpected growth in user numbers has caused our server costs to skyrocket. Although Mr. Chi has tried to reduce bandwidth consumption by optimizing routing algorithms and reducing redundant data transmission, our monthly server rental costs have increased from $5 in the first month to $4. Moreover, we expect that our user base will exceed one million in six months at most, at which point our server rental costs will likely reach $50 to $100 million."

Lu Changge frowned. Chatter's account balance was estimated to be below $80, including upcoming expenses such as hiring Tai Ge for advertising. Therefore, without prior preparation, the cash flow could easily dry up.

He simply hadn't anticipated that this difficulty would arise from his exceptional product management skills and the product's precise understanding of user needs...

To make matters worse, it's only February 2009, and the impact of the financial crisis on the global economy is still deepening. Many venture capital firms are too busy with the events of the previous day to think about the future.

Lu Changge said, "In solutions to cost pressures, technical means must be given a prominent position. For example, Erlang, which we just talked about, can handle millions of concurrent connections on a single server compared to traditional languages."

Zhou Shuang then joined the discussion, "Have you considered the lightweight process model of the BEAM virtual machine? This could also improve single-machine concurrency capabilities."

Shen Mo replied, "That is certainly one of the solutions; we are currently studying it."

"We need to control the urge to hire more people." Lu Changge still remembered the matter of 50 employees, and also that hiring a full-time technical staff member in Silicon Valley is actually very expensive.

Later, a significant portion of the so-called R&D investment in many companies' financial reports was used to pay salaries to technical personnel.

"What about financing?" Shen Mo still wanted to ask.

During today's conference call, she wanted to convey the idea that the product's expansion speed was far exceeding expectations, and that the matter of hiring Taylor Swift to do a small advertisement had not yet been implemented, but only the agreement and contract stage had been completed.

Lu Changge did indeed receive this message: "If anyone contacts you regarding financing, then go ahead and negotiate."

Shen Mo said, "At this point in time, given the market atmosphere, we're unlikely to see many people proactively seeking us out."

“I know, I’ll be keeping an eye on this in China too.” Lu Changge reassured them: “My other company in China has recently become well-known, and venture capitalists have already contacted me. If they’re willing to invest in me, it means they recognize me as a person, so investing in my other companies won’t be a problem either. Mr. Shen, don’t worry, as long as the product is good, we won’t lack money.”

That's certainly inspiring. It sounds like the path to success for a product: first, promotion; then, financing; then, rapid development; and finally, going public and ringing the bell...

Shen Mo only had one question: "What do you mean you have another company? How many companies have you actually started?"

(End of this chapter)