[Chapter 607: Is it Meaningful?]
Tina Brown clearly understood what this represented. A standard meant monopoly, and monopoly meant exorbitant profits. This truth had been proven countless times.
While governments around the world clamored against monopolies, and countless antitrust investigations surfaced every year, in reality, monopolies abounded and remained the ultimate goal pursued by countless businesses. The thought that she might have the opportunity to participate in this new monopolistic industry made Tina Brown feel a thrill of excitement.
In the week that followed, Eric worked tirelessly on the merger of three companies, finally confirming that Ian Gurney, the former head of the original IE browser company, would serve as the CEO of the newly merged Yahoo Networks. Jeff Locke was designated as COO and would primarily oversee the operations of the Yahoo website. Steve Mitnick joyfully secured the position of CTO, taking charge of all technological research and development projects at Yahoo Networks. Meanwhile, Tina Brown was appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo's News Department.
Services like browser and email would be gradually renamed Yahoo Browser and Yahoo Mail within the upcoming month, and the soon-to-be-launched instant messaging software would be named Yahoo Chat Room, abbreviated as YCR.
...
The main management framework of Yahoo Networks was established. Chris flew back from Finland and immediately arrived in Boston. Eric picked Chris up from the airport, and instead of heading to a hotel, they went straight to Yahoo's headquarters to attend the first high-level meeting since the company's restructuring.
In recent days, possibly due to Eric's arrival, the headquarters building of Yahoo seemed noticeably cleaner. Of course, Eric also recognized that the real reason was that a woman had joined the management team of three big men. Tina Brown was second only to Ian Gurney in rank at Yahoo Networks, equivalent to Jeff Locke and Steve Mitnick. While it was decided that Yahoo's content editing department would not operate from headquarters, the two workplaces were only a few hundred meters apart. Compared with the three big men who are a bit casual, the somewhat disorganized office environment at Yahoo was intolerable for Tina Brown. Thus, she personally arranged the logistics and cleaning work.
As Eric and Chris ascended the clean staircase to the meeting room on the top floor, they chatted about the situation over at Nokia. It was then Chris asked, "Didn't you invite John Chambers and Steve Case? Are they here?"
Eric replied, "Of course, I wanted to set everything up here before having them come over. I wasn't sure if I could persuade them to join this plan otherwise. They'll be here tomorrow."
Chris said, "If they don't join that plan, they'll definitely regret it in the future."
"There shouldn't be any issues with Cisco. We remain the largest shareholder, and that plan is advantageous for Cisco. John Chambers has no reason to decline. But AOL might be different," Eric said with a chuckle. "I wish AOL would focus solely on being an internet service provider, but many of its services overlap with Yahoo's, and they even imitated Yahoo with the AOL portal. Convincing Steve Case to step back from competing with Yahoo won't be easy."
"Steve Case is a smart guy. He'll surely understand what decision is most beneficial for AOL's development."
Eric smiled and shrugged, "Smart people are often quite stubborn."
...
Upon entering the meeting room, Ian Gurney and the others who had been speaking in low tones stopped and stood to greet Chris.
The meeting today would be crucial to Yahoo's future, and its confidentiality level was the highest; lower-level company executives were not even qualified to attend. With Eric and Chris, there were only six people in the entire conference room.
Eric had reviewed all the details of today's meeting multiple times and didn't rely on any written material. Once everyone was seated, he approached the whiteboard at the front of the room, writing down two simple phrases.
"OK," Eric set the pen down and lightly clapped his hands. "Though many of you have learned a bit about the content of today's meeting, you will hear the complete outline of Yahoo's future development plan."
He lightly tapped the two phrases on the whiteboard and continued, "For the next few years, or rather the next ten years, all of Yahoo's development will revolve around these two plans: the Yahoo Technology Alliance and the Yahoo Advertising Alliance."
"First, the Yahoo Technology Alliance. After more than two years of relentless technical investment, Yahoo has gained a significant lead in industry technology reserves and successfully launched three successful products that have transformed online user behaviors: the Yahoo Portal, browser software, and online email services. We will be introducing more products in the future. However, if we are merely content with this, that would be a very foolish notion. It's tough to maintain a pure technological lead for an extended period. Therefore, to maintain Yahoo's absolute leading position in the future, we need to promote the internet technologies Yahoo has developed and bring more companies and users under Yahoo's technological standards. As long as Yahoo becomes the industry's standard setter, we can create an invincible alliance to crush any potential competition in its infancy."
If what Eric said at this moment were recorded, it could very well become explosive evidence if Yahoo faced any antitrust investigations in the future -- indisputable evidence at that. However, the people in the meeting room didn't seem to be selfless advocates of a network-sharing ethos. Instead, there was a glint of fervor in Ian Gurney's and others' eyes as they absorbed Eric's unmasked ambition.
"Over the next year, technologies such as the IES scripting language for browser software, new MP3 audio technology, and the GIF image format will be the first batch of technology promotion projects that Yahoo will authorize the industry to use for free. Firefly Investment Company will provide more funding for the development of user internet multimedia technology. I hope Yahoo can become the first high-tech company in the world to successfully launch dynamic image and even video playback technology that works on internet software.
Simultaneously, the company will also begin developing the online payment tool YahooPay, which will allow users to conduct any transaction over the internet using this online payment tool, whether it's the purchase of virtual software products or physical goods. I envision that in the future, all online payment activities will rely on the YahooPay payment platform."
This was the first time Eric revealed the concept of YahooPay. Noticing Chris and Ian Gurney turning their attention to Steve Mitnick, Eric smiled and said, "Don't look at Steve. The YahooPay online payment tool is an idea I just came up with in the past few days. Before I leave Boston, I'll write a simple proposal, but the specific research and development work will be up to you folks. I hope you can have a formal product ready within a year."
Ian Gurney asked, "This online payment tool would definitely require collaboration with physical banks; will they be willing to work with us?"
Eric replied, "You guys don't need to worry about that. I will personally follow up. As long as the platform you develop ensures security and practicality, I can bring enough banking partners to Yahoo."
Steve Mitnick rubbed his hands together excitedly and said, "Eric, I have a great idea..."
"Stop," Eric chuckled, interrupting Steve's comment. "I don't know what you plan to say, but I know I won't understand your terms regarding encryption algorithms or software architectures. So why don't you discuss that with Ian and the others after the meeting?"
Everyone broke into laughter. Steve Mitnick smirked and playfully mimicked a choking gesture towards Eric.
After the laughter subsided, the more reserved Jeff Locke raised his hand. After receiving Eric's nod, he said, "Eric, I think if we're really going to develop YahooPay, we need to focus on one operating system platform. Even though we've already enabled our browser software to run on all mainstream platforms like Windows, Linux, Unix, and MacOS, when it comes to handling users' financial operations, security is paramount. The more platforms we have, the more we compromise security."
In his previous life when he was exposed to computers, Microsoft already ruled the market. Like many ordinary users, Eric was accustomed to Windows. He hadn't considered the current situation. But this wasn't a difficult decision. Pretending to think for a moment, Eric finally said, "Then let's start development on the most popular operating system right now, which is Windows. Graphical interface operating systems are bound to become the mainstream for personal computers, so we can directly abandon Unix and DOS. We don't need to consider open-source systems like Linux."
Ian Gurney chimed in, "What about Apple's MacOS? Its popularity among average users is second only to Windows. I believe we can also focus on developing YahooPay technology for both platforms simultaneously."
Apple sells over half a million personal computers each year, which, while it may seem negligible a decade later, was significant in this era when total shipments of personal computers were only a few million. Ian Gurney's attention to the Apple operating system wasn't surprising.
However, unless history deviated significantly, once Windows 95 was launched the following year, Apple would see a drastic decline in personal computer sales, pushing the once-thriving company to the brink of bankruptcy. Even after Steve Jobs returned to the helm, Apple could only maintain a foothold in the high-end PC market. Prioritizing MacOS development alongside Windows at this point did not seem like a smart move.
"We have too much to do. For YahooPay, splitting our focus across two platforms will slow down our overall development process. It's better to start with Windows and, after accumulating ample technology and experience, we can easily roll out products for other operating systems later on, saving a lot of time."
"I think Eric makes a good point. However, to prevent our other platforms from being preempted by competitors because we were unable to manage them, I propose that we combine YahooPay with the YCR instant messaging tool. At least that way, we will secure our absolute advantage in the user base," Tina Brown stated with a smile. "Furthermore, Eric, I think the name YCR lacks creativity."
Eric laughed and said, "Once everyone gets used to the name YCR, they'll start adding various meanings to it on their own."
Many chat tools in the past had names that weren't particularly special, and users gradually accepted those names over time. Out of a bit of twisted humor, creating a brand-new abbreviation for a chat tool was quite amusing.
With Tina Brown voicing support, Ian Gurney and others recognized the benefits of going this route and accepted the decision.
"Now, moving on to the Yahoo Advertising Alliance," Eric continued. "The purpose of this plan is self-evident, so I won't elaborate on the terminology."
With a light chuckle, Eric's tone turned more serious as he said, "But this plan will determine Yahoo's survival. While I personally am completely selfless, there's a limit to the funding I can invest in Yahoo. If Yahoo cannot survive by being self-sustaining, then all plans regarding Yahoo will become mere empty talk. Therefore, the Yahoo Advertising Alliance is even more critical than the Yahoo Technology Alliance. The current online environment is very similar to the old public television networks. Users currently have no concept of paying for online content, apart from their internet access fees. The likelihood of us charging users for quality content services is nearly zero. Thus, as the user base continues to grow exponentially, it will become inevitable to achieve profitability through advertising. Therefore, the next step for Yahoo must be to enhance our advertising technology, ensuring precise and effective ad placements, so that online ads can match the effectiveness of television ads, making businesses willing to spend money to advertise with Yahoo."
Tina Brown asked, "Eric, when you say 'Yahoo Ads,' what does 'Alliance' mean?"
"By 'alliance,' it obviously refers to partnerships with other websites on the internet. Yahoo's platform is ultimately limited, even if we have over a million or ten million pages of our own content in the future, it still pales compared to the vast web space. Most websites on the internet aren't capable of running ad operations; what we need to do is unite all these millions of smaller sites to consolidate advertising efforts. These small sites can earn revenue through ad-sharing agreements. This is a win-win solution, and Yahoo will be the biggest winner among them."
Chris had been quietly listening to Eric's explanation, and couldn't help but speak up for the first time. "Eric, even if technically, you can realize the alliance plan, does uniting these small websites with little traffic really make sense?"
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