In the end, Barron decided to try to carry out this social networking project in England before Facebook was founded.
He has also made preparations for both scenarios. If he fails in the end, he will wait until Zuckerberg founded Facebook before investing.
After all, the temptation of having a social network that is controlled by oneself is too great. Even if his social network can only retain the European market in the end, it can be considered a success.
It's not that he has no confidence. It's just that in his previous life, the global Internet market was dominated by America, and only China could maintain its own market in this regard.
This leads to the situation that America can completely control online public opinion - even though Britain is America's "traditional ally", when it comes to interests, it also needs a platform that it can control.
"The project I'm going to work on will be a real social network on the virtual Internet. Every user will be able to create their own homepage, where they can share their photos, personal interests, and daily life. They can also find and contact their friends and interact with them..."
"Isn't this similar to the website I created?"
"It may seem similar, but the most important thing is to be authentic!"
In response to Davo's doubts, Barron explained to him:
"The original intention of your current website was to allow students to interact and communicate, but have you noticed that most of the users who registered on your website may actually be students of Cambridge University, but they often do not use their real names and information, so this will create a sense of estrangement in mutual communication..."
Most of the websites with social functions currently available are almost all "stranger social networking", that is, people mainly communicate with "netizens" on the Internet. However, what Barron wants to do is to create a real social network on the virtual Internet, where users need to use their own information to show themselves and communicate with others.
"So how do we do this? Because most people are reluctant to show their real identities online."
"That's why I want to start with universities. In the early stages, I will use an invitation system, asking everyone to invite their classmates and friends to join the network. In this way, our social network will have a real network of relationships as a foundation. Then, through other means, I will encourage everyone to show their true identity, and we can achieve our goal."
At this time, real-name authentication methods such as facial recognition are not yet realistic, and it is still difficult to achieve 100% real social interaction. You only need to create a real social atmosphere based on the real network of relationships at the beginning.
Of course, the website that Barron is about to establish will be a new model called SNS (Social Networking Services), that is, social network services, as well as the subsequent development direction. Barron will not tell Davo about these more detailed contents now.
Although he has signed a confidentiality agreement, Barron needs to be the leader of this project, and Davo will only be his "tool" to achieve this. The tool does not need to know too much, but basic precautions are still necessary.
In his previous life, Barron worked in the financial industry, but because his work often involved overseas, he was quite familiar with applications including Facebook and Twitter. In addition, because of the once popular movie "The Social Network", he also had a relatively detailed understanding of some things when Facebook was first started, as well as its version changes. The only thing was that he himself was not a technical person.
So what he needs now is a professional to complete this project under his leadership, rather than sharing the company's growth with others. The attitude required is completely different.
In other words, Barron himself knows exactly what functions need to be realized and how the future will develop. He just needs people to implement them according to his ideas.
This is somewhat similar to Mr. Ma, who founded Alibaba. He himself is not an Internet professional, but this does not affect his leadership over the company. He only needs to think about how to do it, and as for how to realize his ideas, it is up to the hired employees to realize them.
So after an afternoon of conversation, Davo already understood what kind of website Barron originally wanted him to complete. Next, he just needed to go back to school and complete it.
"What is this website called?"
As for this question, Barron originally wanted to call Facebook directly. After all, walking in other people's paths will leave them with nowhere to go...
But thinking that if this fails, I will still have to wait to invest in Zuckerberg's Facebook, forget it, let's not do anything extreme.
After thinking for a while, he said:
"Let's call it Woaw. It's easy to remember and makes people amazed by this website. That's it."
During this conversation, they decided on the name of the website. Before Dawo left, he signed a contract with Barron to help him complete the website in exchange for corresponding compensation.
Next, Barron's subordinates will help him register Woaw Technology Company, and Dawo will become the company's first employee. Later, some students will also join in.
The reason why Barron specifically asked Dawo, a student, to do this was that, on the one hand, he had also made a similar website, and on the other hand, Woaw itself was planning to start promoting it on campus, so Dawo's identity as a student was more conducive to the initial development of the website.
Anyway, there were still more than two years before Facebook came into being, which was enough time for Barron to develop slowly. In the beginning, the website was small and its users were limited to students, so the cost was not much. It was not a big deal for him to take out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds to try it out.
…
"How are you today, honey?"
After Bonnie returned to London, Barron ended his "single" life. Now the two of them are living together, so most of the time, Bonnie comes to the Devonshire Hotel and lives with Barron.
After returning to the hotel, Barron waited for a while before seeing Bonnie, who was dressed in a professional suit, return to the room. He couldn't help but give her a hug and asked her affectionately.
"It went smoothly today. We contacted Julian Fellowes, who said he really liked the novel Downton Abbey and was willing to adapt it into a script and serve as the producer of the TV series."
"That's great."
"This is the person you recommended."
Yes, Julian Fellowes was recommended to Summit Media by Barron. The reason was that this person was the screenwriter and producer of the TV series "Downton Abbey" in his previous life.
Of course, the reason Barron gave to Summit Media managers Fergal and Bonnie was that he liked the movie "Gosford Park" written by Julian very much, and it also describes aristocratic manor. Julian, who is also a producer, is a more suitable candidate.
In March of this year, Julian Fellowes just won the Best Original Screenplay Award at the 74th Academy Awards for his work "Gosford Park", and his popularity is quite good at this time.