I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 113: One wave comes after another

Shen Tu's mentality was similar to that of someone who was just giving up. He did whatever the boss told him to do. Work was supposed to start on the seventh day of the first lunar month, but he started playing StarCraft on the eighth day.

After all, even though he had just gotten divorced, he was still a 27-year-old young man.

As the boss, Zhang Da'an wouldn't give Shen Tu "electrotherapy" for such a small matter. Shen Tu did a great job, fixing up the lousy "ZA" website in just one day.

The network administrators we hired before were all convinced of his abilities.

To be fair, these "lousy gamers" really respect technology. If you're skilled, using the 8-key keystrokes is perfectly acceptable.

So before the Lantern Festival, Zhang Da'an made a special trip to the new office address of "Zhang'an Media", which was just across the street from the old long-distance bus station, next to the telecommunications building.

It was only after Qiu Jianmin's persistent persuasion that Zhang Da'an finally agreed to take over the business.

Installment payments not only generate revenue for the city but also help the telecommunications company achieve some sales targets.

The reason is that Shazhou City somehow acquired some server equipment, intending to provide server rental services. However, the problem is... the dot-com bubble has only just burst.

Internet entrepreneurship?
Even a dog wouldn't do that.

As for the legendary "cloud service," it will take another five years before it even begins to take shape; it simply doesn't exist now.

The Pentium III processor... awesome!

Moreover, the once-booming news portals will all be shut down soon, and they won't make much money; it's far better to make games.

It was the "gamers" who first saved the fragile internet; these days, whether it's a video website, a music website, or a literature website, none of them make money.

On the contrary, the physical publishing industry is booming. "Zhang An Media" and "Zhang An Culture" currently have a very profitable business: selling "success literature" books.

They also sell online, but there aren't many good payment methods, mainly relying on the postal system, so there's no such thing as an "online shopping economy," since they don't even have an "internet economy" at all.

So far, Zhang Da'an hasn't even earned three million from online advertising, but that's still better than 99.9% of people nationwide who rely on daily page views to rake in advertising revenue.

Another issue is that bandwidth costs are outrageously expensive. But even at these high prices, it's still considered a "core asset" these days. A decent website would cost at least 30,000 to 50,000 yuan a month.

To reach the initial scale of a "pig farm," you'd need at least 100,000 yuan a month, and that's with policy support from Beijing.

There are also some fees that need to be paid in US dollars. Other places don't accept these fees. Over a year, it can cost as much as $100,000 or $80,000, and if it's even higher, it can go up to $200,000.

So unless you're incredibly wealthy or have a silver tongue to sway investors, these days the cost-effectiveness is far less than flying a plane in the Middle East and making a splash for the world on September 11th this year.

Shorting the US dollar index in advance is better than starting a website, isn't it?
Therefore, on the eleventh day of the first lunar month, Shen Tu said to Zhang Da'an: Coach, give me three million, and I'll help you build an awesome website.

Zhang Da'an told him to eat more strawberry-filled glutinous rice balls.

After all, this guy really dares to think big.

However, a decent official website was indeed needed, so Zhang Da'an asked Shen Tu to recruit on his blog and forums. It wasn't that he didn't want to recruit programmers from better universities, but the problem was that they were simply unwilling to come.

The most cost-effective recruitment model is to wait until the students from the 2004, 2006, and 2009 cohorts graduate from university in a few years; recruiting them will be a breeze then.

We've known each other for a long time. If you call me "Brother An," I'll send you to a prestigious university, and then you can come stay with me and have all your food and lodging provided. Sounds reasonable, right?

"Brother An" is nineteen years old this year, he can wait.

Theoretically speaking, "Angel" is the soulmate of thousands of people during their adolescence.

"Wait, did you hire me a programmer or a tank?"

"Boss, don't worry about the names yet. This 'Sherman Lighter' and this 'Maus Land Cruiser' are pretty cheap. They'll come if you pay them two thousand a month. I told them that their working hours are not fixed. They can play a couple of games after finishing their work. I also took pictures of the computer room. They are very willing to come to work here. They can bring their own blankets and instant noodles at night."

"..."

Divine gold.

"And this 'Number Four is me' and 'Number Three is pure trash,' we used to sell antivirus software together in Bao'an."

"What about the ones who work on viruses?"

“That was the earliest founder and boss of the company. He was arrested and sentenced to more than three years in prison.”

"No...didn't you tell me before that if you weren't caught, you were fine?"

"Yes, we didn't get caught. We were just responsible for developing the removal tools. The people making the viruses got arrested, and I'm not good at managing the company, so we didn't sell many antivirus software. But antivirus software isn't selling well anywhere, so everyone's counting on releasing viruses and removal tools soon."

"..."

Your line of work is quite particular about controlling the killing and burial, that's good.

Shen Tu is indeed an honest person.

Compared to Shen Tu, many media outlets were unhappy that the "Spring Festival Offensive" hadn't caused Coach Zhang a single hair, and they really didn't expect that Zhang Da'an wouldn't even respond.

Even the representatives of "glass shards" in China are busy traveling and checking off tourist attractions in cities like Shanghai and Beijing; they don't have the leisure time for that.

Serious public relations is still a long way off; this kind of media offensive is something that seasoned veterans have seen it all.

A group of people obsessed with journalism are planning to put Zhang Da'an through some serious training. It's the Lunar New Year, and you're actually enjoying your holiday.

Is this okay?
They can't stand seeing a dog barking at the sun.

Beijing TV produced two programs, and two more were collaborations with other media outlets, with the main goal of strictly controlling the appearance of pornography, gambling, and drugs in video games.

The insidious part is that it integrated all games with "electronic" in their names into one platform.

Whether it's a "virtual pet" or a "slot machine," it's still "electronic." Isn't that right?

Directors, screenwriters, and actors who were interviewed during the Chinese New Year period have once again come forward to call for creating a good learning and living environment for children.

Meanwhile, multiple departments are trying to influence the situation, since everyone is responding to the policy and strictly controlling the harm of video games. You, Zhang Da'an, as a "veteran of two dynasties"... ptooey, a two-time champion, are actually aiding and abetting evil, and are even flirting with foreign game capital, doing some kind of joint production of the "Ango Cup".

Zhang Da'an thought to himself, "I've only built two 'machine gunners,' and you're telling me I can build an aircraft carrier now?"
The whole operation was designed to force Zhang Da'an to respond again, and then start a second round of "verbal battle".

If we don't respond, the situation won't escalate.

If they don't upgrade, won't they become clowns?
The issue isn't gaining traction among the general public, nor is it gaining traction with official channels; it's just a case of someone having too much time on their hands and keeping stirring things up.

Firewood is free, isn't it?
In Zhang Da'an's view, this group of people was not even as good as Shen Tu's "tanks" by a single track.

That's a bit too vulgar.

Privately, our attitude towards Jiangkou Province was the same: "Young man surnamed Zhang, you need to humble yourself and pay some advertising fees every year, and we'll consider this matter closed."

Zhang Da'an was very familiar with this routine; he had encountered it countless times before his rebirth, so he didn't care what anyone said. Do whatever you want.

Place the play...start it!!

Anyway, I don't make money from video games, so why would I be the one in a hurry?
As for using negative public opinion surrounding video games to force "Zhang An Education" to shut down...

No, Zhang Da'an himself couldn't even shut down the business, but the media outlets thought they could get it done with just words. In Jiangkou Province, the rectification notice was treated like toilet paper.

This is not a matter of one dimension.

If Zhang Da'an takes out more loans this year, his net worth will definitely reach 1 billion yuan.

If the debt is low, then I guess we'll have to wait.

That's how the province estimated it anyway.

"Zhang'an Education" has become the only local leading enterprise and star enterprise in the education industry. The award it won last year can be received in Jiangning City at the end of January.

Offending one or two TV stations is no big deal.

On the contrary, when Jiangning City heard that the "ZA" official website had been attacked and Zhang Da'an had been subjected to a barrage of insults, they offered to help.

There's only one condition: this "Zhang An Media"... could it expand its business in Jiangning City?

In the history of China's internet development, Jiangning City has had its share of star companies, but unfortunately, they all ended up failing miserably.

Despite having so many universities, there is still no internet atmosphere.

It's not just the lack of an internet atmosphere; the cutting-edge technology vibe has never been highlighted either. A strange sense of "historical weight" has caused many industries to hinder each other.

Many new companies are incubated in the industry, but very few actually grow into successful businesses.

For some shrewd individuals in Jiangning City, a little bit of external force is needed to turn the situation around.

The Chengdong District has placed its bets on "Zhang An Health" and has begun officially promoting positive publicity for "Zhang An Health". The city initially hoped that the research and development of "Zhang An Health" would be moved to the city, but ultimately gave up due to the interference of the Chengdong District.

However, through "Zhang An Health", the existence of "Zhang An Media" and "Zhang An Culture" was still discovered.

Just like Shazhou City has vacant servers, Jiangning City is also selling emerging internet hardware services, offering discounts on bandwidth fees, but only if someone uses them.

There's a rather absurd situation where startups and small companies have to wait in line to buy or lease mid-range servers. They have virtually no say in negotiating hosting fees and bandwidth contracts, resulting in extremely high costs and a lack of support. Meanwhile, large companies don't need to connect with city-level agencies at all. If they don't have this need, they can simply set up their own internal network for communication, or at most buy storage. So, large companies don't need this kind of service.

Before the basic construction of communication networks has fully taken off, small companies are all "playing single-player games," even video websites are just burning money for fun. If you ask about any profit growth points... that's basically nonsense.

Zhang Da'an asked Shen Tu to put the antivirus software he had developed earlier on his website for free, to serve blog users and game forum users. This was purely a habit he had from before his rebirth.

There were people making free antivirus software in the past, but they were all small-scale operations or individual "geeks" developing their own software. The "Internet spirit" back then wasn't about openness and inclusiveness, but rather... sharing.

The basic principle of "leaving pictures but not seeds, so that thousands of people can penetrate your anus" also follows the original "Internet spirit," meaning that netizens who engage in erotic activities are still pure and passed down from generation to generation.

Relevant departments in Jiangning City immediately recognized the "goodwill" of "Zhang An Media".

Free antivirus software... Great, that's the kind of thing a truly philanthropist should do.

Then Jiangning City suddenly launched a publicity campaign, which Zhang Da'an didn't care about, but people in Beijing were furious. How could you give it away for free?
If you're making antivirus software free, how are you going to sell it?
You have no sense of martial ethics, no sense of the rules of the martial arts world.

Originally, Zhang Da'an thought it was nothing, but he underestimated the limitations of the times. If he were developing it as an individual, on a small scale, it wouldn't be a big problem.

The key point is that "Zhang An Education" behind "Zhang An Media" and other entities such as Shazhou City and Jiangning City are not simple. They are focusing on developing the antivirus software industry in several cities where the software industry is booming.

Suddenly you pop up offering something free—isn't that a violation of the principle of market fairness?
The "Spring Festival Offensive" launched by Beijing TV was originally aimed at video games to increase Zhang Da'an's intensity, but now... I've become a supporting character?!
How did I end up as a supporting character again?!
Last time, during that classic debate about educational fairness, I did a pretty good job, didn't I?

Everyone's vying for the spotlight, so the screen time has to be divided. Television screens are only so big, and newspaper pages are only so many small sections.

You have more, I have less; you have less, I have more. Who doesn't have a powerful backer?
Moreover, for the software industry, antivirus software is related to security business and is of paramount importance, occupying a very important position in the development of the country's emerging industries.

Suddenly, a company called "Zhang An Media" pops up, and it seems pretty impressive and powerful. Then they say they have an antivirus software that they're giving away for free. Who can resist that?
The newspaper layout was quite interesting. Financial and industry media mainly used headlines such as "How to Choose Antivirus Software on the Market" and "A Good Antivirus Software Will Protect Our Computers," implying that you get what you pay for, and free products are often more expensive.

Be wary of things that seem too good to be true.

There were even science popularization programs that tested various antivirus software on the spot, including "Xiaobai Antivirus" from "Zhang An Media".

The mascot is a little black dog named "Teacher Xiaobai"...

(End of this chapter)