Restart life

Chapter 199, Page 0196: [Interview with "Internet Weekly"]

There are many ginkgo trees on the Peking University campus, which turn the ground golden in autumn.

Chen Guiliang rode his bicycle through the alternating light and shadow under the trees, occasionally ringing his broken bell to remind passersby to give way.

Li Yong, a reporter from Internet Weekly, stood inside the south gate of Peking University waiting.

He was visibly taken aback when he saw someone ride up and stop: "Are you General Manager Chen?"

"Is this reporter Li?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Li Yong nodded: "Yes."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Should we find a coffee shop, or choose a scenic spot on campus?"

"Either is fine, I'll go with whatever you prefer," Li Yong said with a smile.

"Get in the car." Chen Guiliang patted the back seat.

Li Yong hopped on the bicycle: "It's been so many years since I've ridden a bicycle. I never expected that when I did, it would be to ride with President Chen."

"Then I'm honored." Chen Guiliang laughed and pedaled his bicycle, carrying the reporter for several hundred meters, before turning into a corner of Yannan Garden.

The area is lush with vegetation, quiet and peaceful, and there are old buildings from the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China nearby.

"Meow~~"

An old cat was sunbathing on the flower bed. Hearing the noise, it opened its eyes and then lazily meowed at the human with its eyes half-closed.

Internet Weekly is an authoritative magazine under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and it will also be holding its annual Internet Gala next month.

Since the other party took the initiative to arrange an interview, Chen Guiliang had to give them face.

Li Yong pulled out an invitation: "Next month, on the 1st, is the Second China Internet Development Forum and the 2005 China Top 100 Commercial Websites Award Ceremony. The electronic invitation has been sent to your company via email. Since I'm here to interview General Manager Chen, I might as well bring the paper invitation as well."

"Thank you for your trouble, Reporter Li." Chen Guiliang accepted the invitation.

Li Yong laughed and said, "The list of the top 100 Chinese commercial websites has already been released. Mr. Chen, aren't you going to ask if your website is on the list?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm already very satisfied to be able to participate in the ceremony, and I'm even happier to be selected as one of the top 100. (From Renren.com?)"

“Not bad.” Li Yong nodded.

As the number of users on Renren.com increases, its operating costs are also rising rapidly.

For just the school's intranet website, the server, bandwidth, and hosting fees in October had already soared to 1.7 million yuan! And that doesn't even include other costs.

Furthermore, the rapid growth of Kaixin001's user base has caused ByteDance's operating costs to skyrocket. The venture capital funding the company has secured can only sustain it for a maximum of six more months.

"The Emperor's Reign" is in a period of development and expansion, and there is not much money available to distribute as dividends to shareholders this year.

ByteDance is barely holding on.

Li Yong shared some good news, then reminded him, "Professor He from your university has recommended you as a candidate for the '2005 China New Economy Person of the Year' award, which will be presented early next year. Online voting is currently underway, and Mr. Chen, you're currently ranked 87th. You could do some promotion and campaigning."

Professor He is a professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management and a judge for this year's "New Economy Person of the Year" award. He can recommend three candidates.

Chen Guiliang took his class in his freshman year.

The so-called "new economy figures" are naturally distinguished from traditional entrepreneurs.

To be honest, not many netizens actually went to vote.

Moreover, netizens had never heard of over 90% of the candidates. They hadn't even heard of the names of the candidates' companies!
If Chen Guiliang simply wrote an article and shouted a few words using his Renren and Kaixin accounts, he could probably rank in the top ten in terms of votes.

The organizers naturally need to guard against this situation, so public voting only accounts for 40% of the weight. Even if you are in the top five in online votes, you could still be eliminated in the end.

Li Yong chatted with Chen Guiliang for a few minutes, then took out his notebook and recorder to begin the interview: "I'd like to ask a few questions this time. The first one is about the Happy Market."

"Oh?" Chen Guiliang was slightly surprised.

Li Yong said, "According to statistics from relevant departments, the market size of classified ads in China is currently between 100 billion and 300 billion yuan. It is predicted that it may exceed 500 billion yuan in three years. The data of Kaixin Marketplace is growing very rapidly. How did you come up with the idea of ​​entering this field?"

Chen Guiliang seriously doubted the authenticity of this data.

“Since campus networks and Kaixin.com are both online community services, buying and selling transactions are one of them,” Chen Guiliang said.

Li Yong asked, "Some industry peers are very dissatisfied with Happy Market's free model. Do you think the free model can last?"

Chen Guiliang said, "It's alright. Happy Market turned a profit last month."

Well, a profit of over 3000 yuan is still considered a profit.

At that time, there were hundreds or even thousands of classified advertising websites in China. Most of them were local websites, focusing on the market of one or a few provinces.

The largest one at present is Koubei.com, whose founder is a former Alibaba employee.

The second largest is Bigou.com, whose founder used to be a blogger, and his blog has been acquired by BlogChina.

When Chen Guiliang entered this field, portal websites such as Sina, NetEase, and Sohu also flocked in.

But only Chen Guiliang persisted in using the "free model" by relying on Renren.com and Kaixin.com.

Li Yong said, "The originator of classifieds websites is Craigslist in the United States. It seems that in China, only Kaixin Market is following Craigslist's path, while other websites are adapting to local conditions. Aren't you worried about it not adapting well to the local environment?"

“Happy Market made a profit last month.” Chen Guiliang spoke with facts.

Li Yong asked, "How much profit did you make?"

"Trade secret." Of course, Chen Guiliang wouldn't say it was only a little over 3000 yuan.

Since the creation of Happy Market, it has cost hundreds of thousands of yuan, and who knows when it will be able to recoup its costs.

Li Yong asked a few more questions about classified ads, then turned to Weibo: "Whether it's Renren, Kaixin, or Kaixin Marketplace, these are all existing models in the US. But Weibo seems to be a product invented by Mr. Chen?"

"Due to technological limitations, it's not yet fully mature," Chen Guiliang said.

Li Yong said, "Mr. Chen is too modest. Do you think the Weibo model can be widely adopted?"

Chen Guiliang shook his head: "We'll have to wait until 3G communication technology and high-performance mobile phones become more widespread. As things stand, the market has only just begun to open a crack."

Li Yong asked, "Do you think Weibo will be a direction for Web 2.0?"

“Yes,” Chen Guiliang said.

Li Yong said, "An article in Time magazine last month said that industries such as software, telecommunications, media, entertainment, and marketing will be strongly impacted by Web 2.0 and will undergo tremendous changes. What are your thoughts on this?" Chen Guiliang said, "I completely agree. If Weibo grows large, it will impact the entertainment industry, and more entertainment companies and celebrities will pay attention to it. It may even change the traditional promotional methods of the entertainment industry."

After exchanging ideas for a few more minutes, Li Yong said, "Some scholars are already fantasizing about Web 3.0. What are your thoughts on this?"

“Just wild speculation,” Chen Guiliang laughed. “Web 2.0 is still immature, so 3.0 is pure imagination.”

"Do you know what web clipping is?" Li Yong asked.

Chen Guiliang nodded: "Xiaonei.com and Kaixin.com will soon launch web clipping features."

Web clipping is a new thing that emerged last year; it's basically an online bookmarking service with indexing capabilities. In Chen Guiliang's view, it's just a small function, yet it has spawned a large number of web clipping companies.

These kinds of web clipping companies either get acquired by large websites, transform into online communities, or simply go bankrupt out of passion. Focusing solely on web clipping is unlikely to attract venture capital.

But internet entrepreneurs always harbor illusions, believing that anything is possible.

The interview lasted about 40 minutes, after which Li Yong shook hands with Chen Guiliang. He declined Chen Guiliang's offer to take him on his bicycle, saying he wanted to wander around the Peking University campus and wait to interview Professor He from the Guanghua School of Management.

Chen Guiliang pushed his bicycle away, and before he even left Yannan Garden, he saw his new roommate Li Heng under a tree.

"A date?" Chen Guiliang asked casually.

Li Heng grinned and said, "Hehe."

"A real date," Chen Guiliang said. "Not bad, not bad, you're dating in your freshman year."

Li Heng said, "It's not exactly dating. I posted an ad on Happy Market looking for love, and I even included my Renren (校内网) homepage URL. I didn't expect a girl to actually respond, and we've been chatting online for half a month. We're meeting here today."

"Good luck." Chen Guiliang patted him on the shoulder.

Recently, it seems to have become a trend for students on Renren.com to post ads on Kaixin Marketplace seeking relationships.

They could have posted on the school's intranet or BBS, but they insisted on posting text ads on Kaixin Marketplace, which doesn't even have an image function.

Chen Guiliang rode his bike to the cafeteria for lunch, then returned to his dormitory for a nap.

Around noon, Li Heng returned to his dormitory, looking gloomy.

"What's wrong with you?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Li Heng sighed, "She's a sophomore, quite articulate, but... but her looks are very ordinary. Very ordinary. She was very enthusiastic towards me, which made me unsure how to refuse."

"Hahaha!" Chen Guiliang gloated.

This is a case of an online dating relationship going wrong in person.

Li Heng said dejectedly, "Don't laugh."

Jiang Junlai, who was playing the card game "Three Kingdoms Kill" on his computer, sternly criticized, "Li Heng, how can you judge a book by its cover? We should focus on inner beauty."

"Go away, stop making sarcastic remarks!" Li Heng was even more annoyed.

Jiang Junlai's phone, which was on the table, started vibrating. He picked it up and exclaimed excitedly, "Little Guo Xiang posted on Weibo! There's even a selfie. She just finished rehearsing and hasn't even eaten yet."

"What little Guo Xiang?" Li Heng asked.

Jiang Junlai said, "Yang Mi. I really liked her when I watched 'The Return of the Condor Heroes'. A couple of days ago, I was following celebrities on Kaixin.com and I accidentally discovered that Yang Mi was there too, and she even had a mobile Weibo account!"

"Is this person still a student?" Chen Guiliang said.

Jiang Junlai said, "She's a freshman at the Beijing Film Academy. She posts two or three Weibo posts every day, and her number of followers is growing very quickly."

Some students at Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Shanghai Theatre Academy are very sensitive to this kind of thing.

They already had accounts on Renren.com, and now they've also registered on Kaixin.com and activated the mobile Weibo function.

In the future, if a director comes to the school to cast actors, they can even say how many online fans they have.

After Chen Guiliang and Jiang Junlai finished a game of Three Kingdoms Kill, he said to him, "Log in to the official website of 'Zhengtu'."

Jiang Junlai searched for his official website on Baidu and clicked on it.

The closed beta test for "Zhengtu" was launched last night.

Sure enough, the official website homepage had a similar announcement of good news: "Warmly celebrate the successful closed beta of 'Zhengtu'! The number of online players exceeded 1 in ten minutes and 3 in three hours."

Money talks, and the websites are full of ads for "Zhengtu". It's even more popular than when "Quan Yu Tian Xia" was first launched.

Chen Guiliang added, "Search for comments on Journey to the West."

Jiang Junlai searched for a while and opened a few web pages.

"Why does 'Conquer Online' look so similar to 'The Emperor's Reign'? Who's imitating whom?"

"Isn't that obvious? 'The Reign of Power' was in closed beta earlier and is much more complete."

"I just chuckled. We watched 'The Emperor' be born from scratch. When Boss Tao sold his internet cafe to start his company, Shi Yuzhu hadn't even announced that he was making games yet."

"I think it's a coincidence. The development time of 'Zhengtu' was only slightly later than that of 'Quanyu Tianxia'."

"The game 'Conquer Online' doesn't even have dungeons. Damn it, there are so many players that it's impossible to get any monsters. And their methods are outrageous. They can even stack Divine Blessing and Double EXP cards, meaning paying players level up several times faster than free players! How are free players supposed to play?"

"I haven't even played it yet. How can they make it multiply by several times? At most, 'The Emperor' can only be multiplied by 50%."

"Haha, several times the upgrade experience? Even offline cheaters would shake their heads in disbelief."

"I guess rich people like it, right? Anyway, I don't spend money, and I don't want to be tortured in 'Conquer Online'."

"..."

The reputation of "Zhengtu" seems to be particularly bad.

But this doesn't mean "Zhengtu" will flop, because Shi Yuzhu will send a health product team to distribute the game to internet cafes all over the country.

Many of those internet cafe gamers only play games and don't browse any websites.

With effective promotion, "Zhengtu" is bound to become a hit, and its online player count may even surpass that of "Quan Yu Tian Xia".

Fortunately, "Zhengtu" is still only a work in progress, and many aspects are not yet fully developed.

-

(Thanks to the patron "Different Fireworks" for the generous donation.)
(End of this chapter)