Back to the prime of life

Chapter 214 Famous Sword
Li Ming also has a computer science background, so he can understand what Lu Changge is looking at, but the technical details are indeed something he has never encountered before.

He knew about what was happening upstairs in the Innovation Building, but the kind of mentally and physically demanding work that Hui Chuankun did was really not to his liking, so he wasn't interested.

When he arrived in Beijing, the hotel had already been booked. After taking a shower, he lay in bed and stayed up all night until he was satisfied.

But Lu Changge could only force himself to go to bed early, because he got up at 6 a.m. the next day.

"...Last month, Apple introduced a huge benefit for us in iOS 3.0—the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). In other words, Apple phones now allow third-party applications to push messages in the background. As an instant messaging software, we judged at the time that this was a major window of opportunity for us."

From then on, chatter users could receive messages without keeping the application open, achieving 'instant delivery' for the first time in an internet application. Due to limited funding, we were initially forced to combine a distributed, lightweight Erlang architecture with the low-power characteristics of APNs, which worked perfectly. Each message notification required only about 3KB of data traffic and could still operate stably in a 2G network environment. This point is even more crucial.

Currently, SMS services in the global market suffer from high costs and low efficiency. In the United States, the average cost per SMS is $0.99, and this cost increases further for international SMS. Moreover, SMS cannot send pictures or voice messages. In other words, chatter multiplies functionality at a much lower cost.

In addition, I will also report on the situation of our competitors. Currently, there are three main software providers that offer similar services to ours. One is BlackBerry's BBM, but it is only available to BlackBerry users and costs 98 yuan per month. This is aimed at a niche group of users with strong privacy needs and awareness, and does not pose a disruptive threat to us.

The second is Skype, a software that provides free voice calls on PCs. It actually launched in 2003 and has been doing very well, but the problem is that it relies on hardware like PCs. So it's not that they threaten us, but rather that we challenge them, because when mobile phones can communicate instantly, nobody wants to use a computer.

The third issue we've noticed is the emergence of imitators, which is a recent development. A WhatsApp-like instant messaging software has appeared in Silicon Valley. Its 1.0 version frequently crashed, but the 2.0 version released in June was much more stable after optimization. Of course, it started later and faces the same challenging funding environment as us, and hasn't introduced more competitive features, so it doesn't pose a threat at the moment.

Overall, our analysis suggests that with this Apple system update and global smartphone shipments exceeding 150 million units annually, Chatter's user base will experience an epic surge. In fact, events over the past month have already validated our predictions. The user base in this month has doubled compared to the previous six months, and I'm even confident that Chatter might be an app with 5 million users in just one or two weeks.

Based on this assessment, we will certainly encounter some significant challenges. From a technical perspective, we need to combine the advantages of the Erlang architecture—such as "uninterrupted operation with millions of users online"—with the trust advantage of end-to-end encryption—which allows users to discuss confidential information freely within the application. These two core elements are arguably the lifeblood of the chatter; if either one fails, it's all over. Therefore, today we propose an Erlang node self-healing + dynamic encrypted tunnel solution. Next, we will share and discuss this technical aspect…”

This entire length of background information was presented by Chi Yongsheng.

This is a routine part of every conference call, since Lu Changge is not in the United States and cannot keep track of the situation there at all times.

Like today, he heard a message on WhatsApp. Although the person on the other end of the phone was very confident, he was actually a copycat, so he was naturally a little nervous. Therefore, he decided to tell them to be careful later.

Based on what Chi Yongsheng himself said, Chatter has overcome the difficulties of the early cold start stage. The free model plus the multiplier feature will definitely create a word-of-mouth effect and make more and more people rely on it.

In this sense, his concern about WhatsApp seems somewhat unnecessary, because once social software reaches a certain scale, the rate of expansion is so fast that even if the company itself wanted to stop it, it would be impossible.

For example, if someone knows that it is free and easy to use, they will actively ask their friends and family to join the network so that they can communicate.

There's a theory about "six people knowing the whole world," and this network link is extremely complex and vast. To interrupt this process, the software would have to crash, which is something chatters try to avoid, and that's why we're discussing technical solutions today.

Thinking of this, Lu Changge felt a surge of excitement.

He even saw images of chatter spreading around the world in 2010 and 2011.

As for the technology itself, he wasn't interested in the vision, so he talked less and listened more. Moreover, technology wasn't a problem for his role to solve; he had more important tasks.

About fifty minutes later, Shen Mo interjected, “To cope with the rapid expansion of the user base and avoid extreme situations such as lag or even crashes, technical measures are of course the priority. However, even the most skilled cook cannot cook without rice, and there are always limits to the pursuit of maximizing potential. Therefore, expanding the server scale is a necessary measure. We encountered a funding shortage in February of this year, and after persisting for half a year, we simply cannot continue. Therefore, I suggest raising funds. If necessary, I can return to China or invite President Lu to the United States.”

Zhou Shuang had previously told Lu Changge that Shen Mo had begun injecting a small amount of capital into the company under the guise of a loan in order to support Chatter's development.

Of course, this is also because of the poor financing environment. This poorness doesn't mean that it's impossible to get financing, but rather that you'll be pressured to lower your price during negotiations, so everyone wants to hold on a little longer.

"Let me say a few words. First, I agree with your assessment of the user growth trend; I even think you're being conservative, because probably no one can imagine how fast smartphones will become widespread. Given this, fundraising is inevitable. My other company recently completed a funding round, and I had a strong feeling that investors are completely different from one another. Although they all have money, their resources are different. Mr. Shen, you don't need to go back to China; I'll go instead. People in China have money, but there are very few investment institutions in the US that can help us solve our problems. It's a resource issue..."

It just so happens that Lu Changge also needs to go to the United States soon, so he can send Xu Qiuxue there.

"Okay, what's the specific time?"

"We'll discuss it after we've finalized the decision. By the way, what are your thoughts on charging enterprise users?"

Chi Yongsheng replied, "The development work is underway, but we feel that this amount of money may not be enough to cover our expenses."

Lu Changge thought to himself that of course it couldn't cover everything, but instant messaging software can't be charged. If you charge for it, another free one will appear.

Therefore, the ultimate fate of this kind of software is to be sold to a large enterprise, because only a large enterprise can unleash its true power, just like a famous sword in the hands of a master.

However, this famous sword is too expensive; without billions of US dollars, one is not even qualified to draw it.

(End of this chapter)