Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

Chapter 138 Good News from North America

Across the ocean, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the campus of Harvard University.

As night fell, the area in front of the AlphaEpsilonPi Brotherhood's villa was already bustling with noise. The subwoofers were so loud they made the lawn tremble.

Shi Hongchao, dressed in a floral shirt and beige casual pants, stood on the steps of the villa, acting as the temporary commander-in-chief, with a half-smoked cigar in his hand.

"Move another keg of beer over to the table on the left!" Shi Hongchao waved to a few part-time Chinese students, then turned and shouted in fluent English to a group of hot cheerleaders, "Hey girls, smile sweeter! Tell these guys that once they register an account with their Harvard .edu email and add each other as friends, this keg of stout is theirs! Free!"

Several blonde and brown-haired girls wearing tight-fitting T-shirts with the blue and white Facebook logo immediately squeezed into a group of male college students with overflowing hormones, carrying plastic cups and swaying their hips.

"Hey hot chick, what's this website? You can get beer just by filling out a form?" A freckled white guy at the table stared at the girl's neckline and swallowed hard.

"Facebook. The Ivy League's exclusive real-name dating community." The girl pushed an iBook laptop with wireless internet access in front of him, giving him a flirty wink. "It has my real photo and class schedule on it. Register and add me as a friend, and this drink is on you tonight."

Without saying a word, the freckled young man grabbed the keyboard and typed in his Harvard email address and real name.

Page redirection.

There are no fancy pop-ups, no annoying errors. The minimalist blue and white UI is clean and refreshing.

The young man originally just wanted a beer, but when he clicked on the homepage, his eyes widened instantly.

"Oh my god! Isn't that Emily from the business school? She's up there too? Is she single?" The young man, forgetting even to take his beer, grabbed his roommate. "Look! Even those bastards from the fraternity next door are up there. They've even arranged a football game for tomorrow in the group chat!"

"Really? I'll register too!"

In less than half an hour, a long line formed in front of several computers on the first floor of the villa.

Beer barrels emptied one after another, but what truly drove these Ivy League elites crazy was no longer the free alcohol, but a blue and white webpage that offered a clear view of the entire Harvard social circle.

Shi Hongchao's phone vibrated in his pocket. He walked to a relatively quiet lawn and pressed the answer button.

"Shi, what exactly did you do?" Shirley's rapid American English came through the phone, with the background noise of rapid keyboard typing.

"Just like the boss said, serve beer and show off the hot girls." Shi Hongchao blew out a smoke ring and replied cheerfully, "What, did someone call the police to arrest me for illegal assembly? I've already prepared the bail."

"No police were called. But Harvard's server nodes are almost full." Shirley's tone revealed undisguised shock. "Backend data shows that in the past two hours, Harvard's real registered users have exceeded four thousand. These people not only didn't log off after registering, but they stayed online for an average of more than forty minutes! They're frantically uploading photos, adding friends, and creating course groups! I've already asked Qingheng to adjust the load."

"This is called viral spread, you know?" Shi Hongchao flicked his cigarette ash, looking at the many college students in the villa shouting at their screens. "Our boss really understands human nature. These American lads, they usually seem pretty aloof, but once they see the real information of hot girls from their school, they're more obsessed than anyone else. Being able to see information, posts, and photos of sexy girls, nothing else is as effective as this stuff."

Shirley was silent for two seconds on the phone.

"I take back what I said about this being like selling cheap pizza." Shirley's voice became serious and excited. "Shirley, replicate your beer tactics at Yale and Princeton. I'll approve the budget immediately, and I'll be there tomorrow. At this rate, it won't take a hundred days, at most a month, no, maybe not even that, before the wolves of Wall Street smell us and come knocking on our door with their checkbooks."

"Alright, just you wait and see." Shi Hongchao hung up the phone, tossed his cigar into the trash can, and turned back into the revelry. "Girls, tomorrow we're going to Yale and we'll buy out all the beer kegs in New Haven!"

A few days later, just as Bai Yuhang saw Zhang Lei off from the office, the overseas landline phone on his desk rang.

If you calculate the time difference, it's just past 9 p.m. in New York.

He pressed the speakerphone button, and Sheryl Sandberg's rapid-fire speech immediately came through, accompanied by the cheers of champagne being popped in the background.

"Boss, I formally retract my previous statement and apologize to you." Shirley cut to the chase, her tone brimming with excitement. "It proves that Ivy League elites are utterly powerless against free beer and hot girls. Your sales tactics are simply genius marketing."

Bai Yuhang leaned back in his boss's chair and chuckled softly, "Did President Shi get arrested by the campus police?"

Shi Hongchao's booming voice came through the phone, clearly he was leaning close to the receiver: "Yuhang, don't even mention it! The Yale security guards were going to confiscate our beer kegs, so I casually slipped them two dozen stouts. Guess what? The security guard is now helping the cheerleaders maintain order in the registration line downstairs at the dorm! This kind of social nicety from back home works everywhere!"

Bai Yuhang chuckled: "President Shi, your sweet talk is spot on. Just don't corrupt the academic atmosphere of the Ivy League."

"What bad influence? These guys look all respectable, but their eyes turn green when they see real photos of girls from their school!" Shi Hongchao shouted cheerfully.

Shirley regained control of the call and quickly got to the point: "Boss, let's talk about the data. The results of Facebook's public beta at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale over the past week can only be described as insane. First-day registrations exceeded 60% of the student population!"

"How's the retention rate?" Bai Yuhang asked.

"That's exactly what I wanted to say." Shirley's voice trembled slightly. "Your minimalist UI design, especially the Newsfeed feature, is a complete time sink. These college students are used to writing personal blogs; they used to only be able to see updates on other people's websites. Now that they've registered and logged into Facebook, every time they refresh, the entire social media feed is scrolling across their homepage. They're completely addicted, with each person spending an average of over an hour online every day!"

Bai Yuhang picked up the purple clay cup and took a sip of tea.

The information feed, a weapon that has been proven countless times in later generations, was indeed a game-changer on American university campuses in 2000.

"There's even more interesting news," Shirley said in a low voice. "The wolves of Wall Street have caught wind of this. This afternoon, partners from Sequoia Capital and several other venture capital firms were using personal connections to inquire about Facebook's background."

"What did you find out?"

"They probably won't find anything," Shirley said smugly. "The company is registered in Delaware, and its shareholding structure is completely hidden. All they know right now is that it's a phenomenal social networking site that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but they can't even find out who the real boss is, and they're as anxious as ants on a hot pan."

Bai Yuhang tapped his fingers twice on the table: "Let them rush. Tell President Shi to extend the battle to Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, expand the team quickly, and launch simultaneous attacks from multiple points. There's no need to control the budget. I want to take over the entire circle of top universities on the entire East Coast of North America in the shortest possible time."

"Understood." Shirley replied crisply. "When they come knocking on the door with their checkbooks, I'll show them what a real seller's market is."