Near the headquarters of Ygritte, inside a model internet café.
Simon Westeros and Steve Case, among others, sat scattered in front of several 15-inch monitors. Although Simon found the CRT monitors less than satisfactory, a 15-inch color flat-screen was quite respectable for the era.
The homepage of the Ygritte portal seemed rudimentary to Simon, thankfully devoid of the flashy, mahjong-tile-like buttons that Yahoo used in its design, opting instead for a clean and straightforward layout.
The website featured a 'T' shaped division, with the topmost Ygritte LOGO followed by navigation menus for 'Online News', 'Online Games', 'Personal Homepages', 'Email', and 'Online Forums'. Below the menus, to the left were more finely segmented navigation options, the center displayed news content and directories of websites already part of the World Wide Web, and the right side hosted user login and registration pages.
While many more features were planned, for the next few years, Ygritte's portal would focus on these five major services.
Of these services, Simon considered online news the least promising.
However, before specialized news websites emerged, the news content offered by the Ygritte portal would be a significant draw for users. Thus, the Ygritte team was already preparing its own news media division.
Due to the limitations of browsers at the time, the content of online games provided by Ygritte was not rich, only featuring some simple card and puzzle games. Simon even brought out the famous 'Minesweeper' game, which originated in 1992 in his original timeline.
Because the content was temporarily scarce, Ygritte focused more on the 'interactivity' of the games section.
By introducing systems such as scoring rankings to foster competitiveness among users, and embedding text chat functions to allow game-playing while chatting with friends or making new ones, Ygritte aimed to enhance user engagement.
This, of course, was just a temporary measure.
Ygritte was already investing in developing web graphics and animation display technologies similar to the later Flash functions and planned to collaborate with Daenerys Entertainment's shareholder, the game manufacturer EA, to develop online browser games that could be integrated with IE.
The official name for the personal homepage service was Ygritte Blog, which also integrated Microblogging.
To quickly enrich the content of the portal, the personal homepage service would initially focus more on blog operations, though microblogging would not be neglected.
Moreover, the personal homepage service had already introduced business and celebrity verification features.
During this period, under Simon's coordination, the executives of most tech companies holding shares in Westeros Corporation had set up personal homepages, including Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Carol Bartz, Steve Case, Tim Berners-Lee, and others.
The joining of numerous prominent tech company executives was enough to draw the entire US's new tech industry's attention to the newly born Ygritte portal.
On the Hollywood front, Daenerys Entertainment's official homepage had also been officially launched, and it would soon be linked to Daenerys Entertainment's upcoming official website. Simon planned to attract public attention by announcing the progress of various projects under Daenerys Entertainment on its official homepage in advance.
Just within the few weeks since the official homepage was launched, Daenerys Entertainment had already posted exclusive news like the use of Malibu Daenerys Film Studio, casting details for 'Wonder Woman', and the upcoming filming of 'Terminator 2', generating significant interest.
The advanced state of the US film industry meant a vast core fanbase.
Before the internet, fans could only track their favorite films and film personalities through traditional media. Now, not only could they access this information more promptly, but they could also interact with the official sources online, which was highly attractive to fans.
Regarding celebrities, since internet users were still too few, Simon had not leveraged his influence in Hollywood.
After all, it was not a good look for a Hollywood superstar to open a personal homepage and have only a few thousand followers. Simon planned to wait until Ygritte's user base reached the million-level before encouraging some Hollywood stars to join.
However, despite Simon not pushing it, many celebrities had already voluntarily opened and verified their personal homepages.
Sandra Bullock was one of them, and upon hearing the news, Simon had someone purchase the latest Panasonic digital camera as a 'thank you' for her patronage and to facilitate easier photo uploads.
Personal homepages allowed for photo uploads.
However, despite digital cameras being invented in the 1970s, due to their high cost and poor photo quality compared to traditional film cameras, they had not become popular.
Most people are inherently eager to showcase themselves, and it was foreseeable that once the Ygritte portal took off, the popularity of digital cameras would follow.
Email was undoubtedly the most practical of Ygritte's five major services.
At Simon's insistence, the email service for the general public was still free
, though some features were limited due to the technological and server capacity limitations of the time.
Simon had initially planned to outsource the corporate email service to other companies, but after Carol Bartz joined Ygritte, she convinced him to keep it in-house and assigned it to the software division.
The final part of the portal, the Ygritte Online Forum, adopted a model similar to mature forums like the Tianya community. Compared to the topic-discussion style of Tieba, the forum model facilitated the production of relatively high-quality content, which would provide a wealth of content for the portal, like the personal homepage service.
After discussing the internet café's setup, the topic inevitably shifted to the Ygritte portal.
Simon had spent a week in San Francisco last time and had compiled a thick memo on various internet-related ideas afterward. He had not kept these ideas to himself; everyone present had already seen them.
Regarding the Ygritte portal's revenue model, Simon proposed an idea based on an internet advertising alliance.
Many small websites or personal sites were unable to operate their own revenue systems independently, but these sites constituted a significant portion of internet content resources.
According to the principles of the Long Tail theory, by uniting enough small and micro-sites into an alliance for collective advertising operations, it was possible to generate a revenue scale that could compete with some content giants. Companies like Google and Amazon in the original timeline were prime examples of Long Tail companies.
"Simon, I've noticed a problem," everyone was discussing when Carol Bartz, known for her tomboyish personality and occasional American swears, suddenly said: "To achieve the kind of Long Tail effect you're talking about, even ten or thirty million internet users wouldn't be enough. Moreover, even if the number of internet users has the potential to reach higher levels, how long do you think this will take?"
Carol Bartz was mainly responsible for the sales operations of Ygritte-related software applications. In Simon's vision, for a long time to come, the revenue from Ygritte's software would be used to subsidize the operation of the portal.
With America Online upgrading its new and existing users to World Wide Web technology in less than a month, 100,000 users had installed the IE browser. According to the original $10 carrier pricing agreement, this had already brought in $1 million in revenue for Ygritte.
If the number of internet users could reach the tens of millions in the next few years, the IE browser alone could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Ygritte.
Looking at the Ygritte portal, not to mention profit, there was almost no revenue in the short term.
Clearly, if Ygritte abandoned the portal business and relied solely on software sales, turning a profit would be straightforward. Thus, it was understandable why Carol Bartz might disagree with Simon's decision to invest heavily in the portal business.
Hearing Carol Bartz's question, Simon looked at this outspoken female executive and said, "In 1980, the VCR penetration rate in North America was 2%, but by 1990, this number had risen to 70%, achieving widespread adoption within ten years. I believe the internet has similar potential."
Carol Bartz quickly retorted, "That's completely different industries with no comparability."
Inside the internet café, everyone stopped their discussions to watch this new executive challenge her boss.
Simon appeared very patient, saying, "Okay, Carol, you must be aware of Gordon Moore's law proposed by the founder of Intel, right?"
Carol Bartz skillfully replied, "As the number of components that can be housed on an integrated circuit increases, computer performance doubles every 18 to 24 months."
Leaning casually against his chair, Simon knew that others around him probably shared Carol Bartz's doubts. He scanned the room and continued, "The increase in computer performance also means that we can achieve more functions through computers on the internet. The services of the Ygritte portal, as I see them, are still very rudimentary. In the future, I believe internet platforms can completely replace traditional paper media platforms. Online games can far surpass simple card and puzzle games, even allowing thousands of people to interact simultaneously on a single game server. The functions of email, personal homepages, and online forums will also be much stronger. Moreover, that's not all; in the future, in addition to news, games, and social networking, people should be able to access novels, music, videos, and online shopping, among other functions. Can you imagine, if a person can obtain all the information and services provided by newspapers, television, and physical stores through the internet, and at a relatively low cost or even for free, how many people would be attracted to such a platform?"
The internet café was filled with industry elites, and Simon's simple description easily enabled them to envision a grand industry blueprint. Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Case, and others looked excited, John Chambers had a longing look, Jeff Bezos was rubbing
his knees, clearly eager to return to work at Ygritte headquarters.
Carol Bartz, who had initially raised the question, fell silent for a moment before speaking again, "But Simon, this could take a very long time, perhaps ten or twenty years. Moreover, I think developing a completely new industry is not something one company can achieve alone."
"Of course, it's not just one company," Simon replied, "In fact, there are many, such as Cisco, America Online, and Ygritte right now. Besides, Westeros Corporation has also invested in Microsoft, Intel, SUN, Oracle, and other new tech companies, all of which can be our allies in jointly developing the internet industry."
John Chambers from SUN chimed in, "Simon, are you saying you've had this idea since three years ago?"
After the 1987 stock market crash, Simon made billions through Standard & Poor's 500 futures and immediately invested most of that money into the new tech sector.
Simon shook his head, giving a half-truth, "More accurately, it was when I first joined Stanford and encountered ARPANET."
In 1985, a poor young man, through years of effort, received a full scholarship to Stanford University.
Then, within a few months, he went mad.
Simon was not just Carol Bartz's boss but, technically, the boss of everyone else present.
The room fell into a unified silence again.
If one madness could create such a remarkable person, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to go mad themselves.
John Chambers was the first to break the silence, "Simon, there are already some other network router companies in the industry. If we want to ensure Cisco's leading position, we must proceed with an IPO as soon as possible and then expand our strength through acquisitions. Moreover, maintaining Cisco's absolute lead will also ensure the promotion of World Wide Web technology."
"You can discuss Cisco's IPO with James and others tomorrow. However, before Cisco's IPO, we will re-plan a dual-class stock structure to ensure Ygritte's absolute control over Cisco. Additionally, during the IPO process, Ygritte will participate in the underwriting to ensure our shareholding ratio."
Simon looked at Steve Case, asking, "What about you, Steve?"
In just one month, America Online had surpassed 100,000 users, and Steve Case was feeling quite ambitious.
Without Simon's financial backing, pushing America Online towards a public offering to raise funds would naturally be the best choice.
Now, Steve Case was no longer in a hurry for that. After all, the absolute control of the company already belonged to Westeros, and an early IPO would further dilute the shareholding ratio of the original partners. Hearing Simon's recent statement about implementing a dual-class stock structure, it was clear that Westeros did not intend to relinquish control over America Online.
America Online needed to expand, and an IPO was inevitable, but it could also accumulate for another year or two.
Thinking this, Steve Case said, "I think waiting until America Online's user base surpasses 1 million to consider an IPO is the best timing."
Simon nodded in agreement but then shook his head, suggesting, "That's a bit conservative. Perhaps, you should set your sights on 10 million."
In the original timeline, the World Wide Web was declared free in 1993, and the graphical interface browser, the 'key' to unlocking the World Wide Web, appeared. Consequently, America Online began its exponential growth, surpassing the ten million user mark by 1996.
Now, with Simon releasing the World Wide Web technology standards three years early and the graphical interface browser already developed, along with launching a content-rich portal to ensure internet content resources, and given the years of foundation already laid for personal computers and online networks, plus Simon's personal drive, he believed that this time, it would still only take three years for America Online's user base to escalate from 100,000 to 10 million.
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