Chapter 801: Pornography is the primary productive force
Just a few days before New Year’s Day in 2005, Lu Yiming received a call from Wang Xing.
Wang Xing seemed very excited on the phone, and said to Lu Yiming in a high-pitched voice: "Mr. Lu, good news, very good news, we have already won Shuimu University!"
Compared with his previous entrepreneurial ventures, the success of this one was far beyond Wang Xing’s imagination, so he was so excited to report the situation to Lu Yiming immediately.
However, after listening to Wang Xing's words, Lu Yiming did not say anything to congratulate him. Instead, he complained: "It took you almost two months to take over Shuimu. Did you know that it took Facebook only half the time to take over Harvard?"
“Ah, this…”
Hearing Lu Yiming's complaints, the smile on Wang Xing's face suddenly froze.
He originally thought that this was a very smooth start, but he didn't expect Lu Yiming's requirements to be so high, which directly dampened his enthusiasm.
However, Wang Xing has never been a person who is afraid of setbacks, and he will never easily admit that he is not as good as others. This can be seen from the fact that he persists in starting a business despite repeated failures.
When he heard Lu Yiming comparing him to Facebook, he even felt a little secretly happy in his heart.
However, Lu Yiming's strict requirements also made him sweat on his forehead. He felt a huge pressure and quickly explained: "Boss Lu, please listen to my explanation. Our team has no experience in this area before. I promise that the next promotion activities will be accelerated."
Lu Yiming ignored his explanation and continued to speak sharply: "Don't make excuses for failure. Your team has worked on several projects and has been working together for a long time. When I first met Zuckerberg, he didn't even have a team. He was drinking coffee with his girlfriend in a cafe."
It has to be said that there is a gap in abilities between people.
Compared to ordinary people, Wang Xing is considered a genius, but compared with Zuckerberg, he seems a bit "mediocre".
The gap between the two is not only in software technology, but also in the understanding of the market and users. Wang Xing still has technical strength, but he lacks business acumen and knows nothing about financing routines. Therefore, he failed nine times in the early stage of entrepreneurship, and was beaten by his rival United Capital every time.
It was not until I lost a lot of money that I finally realized the need to analyze the market and users and embrace capital.
After severely criticizing Wang Xing, Lu Yiming changed the subject and softened his tone. After all, there would be a lot of dirty and tiring work for Wang Xing to do in the future, so he had to give him some sweet rewards after beating him up.
“Do you know why your promotion is so slow?”
Wang Xing paused, feeling somewhat insecure, and muttered, "Mr. Lu, you said before that the national conditions of the two countries are different, so I think..."
Lu Yiming interrupted: "I don't want your opinion, I want my opinion. Do you know what the primary productive force is?"
"Science and technology?"
"It's pornographic."
"ah!?"
Wang Xing's mind was suddenly in chaos.
It is clearly written in black and white in the textbooks that science and technology are the primary productive forces.
What is pornography?
But since those words were spoken by his financial sponsor, he dared not refute them. He could only hang his head and continue to wait for Lu Yiming to answer his doubts.
Lu Yiming continued, "You bribed the student union to do work for you, and used chicken drumstick lunch boxes to attract students from Shuimu University to register. These two ideas are pretty good, but unfortunately they are just good. You have also been to college, so you should know what a group of hot-blooded college students are thinking about in school, right?"
Wang Xing racked his brains and thought for three seconds, then said to Lu Yiming, "I don't know."
Lu Yiming: “???”
"What the hell did you do in school when you were in college?"
Wang Xing said: "Read books, do exercises, take exams..."
"Okay, shut up."
Lu Yiming never knew that this guy was actually a test-taker.
"Let me tell you, Confucius said that when one is young, one is full of vigor and vitality. Then what?"
"The Analects of Confucius: Ji Shi: When a man is young, his blood is full of vigor and he should be careful not to fight."
"Damn, did I ask you that? It's not a big deal to be well-educated. Let me tell you, hot-blooded and youthful boys like pretty girls!"
"oh."
"Oh your head."
Lu Yiming gave up his persuasive advice and said, "Design a campus beauty contest. All college students can participate, and real-name registered users on the campus network can vote. Design a popularity formula that includes the number of likes, comments and reposts, and rank based on the votes and the formula value. Give the first place a bonus of 10,000 yuan. By then, you won't have to promote it, because they will find ways to get people to register on the campus network."
Wang Xing just didn't understand love, but he did understand business. He immediately realized it and said to Lu Yiming, "Great."
Seeing that Wang Xing understood, Lu Yiming stopped talking and just made a request: "In the third month after Facebook was founded, its influence has spread to all Ivy League schools and some other schools. As of now, its registered users have exceeded 1 million. I don't ask you to be faster than him, but at least don't be too slow. I need to see results before June next year, OK?"
In half a year, the number of registered users exceeded one million, which was a big challenge. However, Wang Xing was very excited about the competition proposed by Lu Yiming, and felt that if such a competition was really successful, it would not be difficult to have one million registered users in half a year.
“Totally OK!”
This phone call was originally meant to announce good news, but ended up being a complete blow to Lu Yiming.
Despite this, Wang Xing still felt that he had gained a lot.
After hanging up the phone, he was full of fighting spirit and couldn't wait to get back to work.
Wang Huiwen asked curiously, "How is it? What did Mr. Lu say?"
Wang Xing sighed and relayed what Lu Yiming had said to him to Wang Huiwen, then said with emotion: "No wonder Mr. Lu can become the richest man at such a young age. His business vision is really good. He grasped the core and focus of our product at once."
After hearing the plan for the school beauty contest, Wang Huiwen was immediately astonished. After chewing it over carefully, he could not help but smile bitterly and said, "It seems that we did think wrong before. Although small favors such as chicken leg milk tea can indeed bring in some users, there is no way to give full play to the subjective initiative of users. I guess the registration will stop when our event ends."
"But Mr. Lu's plan is completely different. It fully utilizes the competitive mentality of young people today. There is no entry threshold, and anyone can participate. These young people will definitely go around looking for people to register for themselves or for their idols."
"The most important thing is that the competition between schools is the trickiest part of Mr. Lu's competition. If you are a student of your school and you have selected your school beauty, and you want to compete with other schools, then don't worry about anything else. You have to defend the honor of your alma mater, right? My alma mater is the only place where I can scold others. If anyone scolds me, I will be angry. So this time, it's not a student fighting alone. This is about the honor of the school. Anyone who dares not to register and vote will have to walk with his head down in school."
"Besides, in order to get votes, the contestants will definitely pose and take all kinds of attractive photos. What does this mean to us? It is the most valuable asset. Even after the competition is over, these contents will definitely be frequently browsed and reviewed. Doesn't this keep the users here?"
Their original idea was to create a community website for communication between "alumni". They were thinking about pure relationships and routines. They were not like Lu Yiming, who started out by making trouble and taking a despicable approach.
Wang Xing suddenly felt that all his skills had been opened up, and he said with emotion: "Sure enough, you can't be too naive when doing business. This bad habit needs to be changed."
Wang Huiwen: “…”
Lai Binqiang: “…”
Mizuki University.
Hu Jiake had just returned to the dormitory after class when her roommate Ji Ziqian said gossipingly, "I heard Ling Tanglian confessed his love to you? He's known as the most handsome boy in the School of Civil Engineering."
Hu Jiake said indifferently: "I have no interest in these school beauties or school hunks."
Ji Ziqian said with a smile: "Why, you like mature ones, such as handsome older men?"
Hu Jiake rolled her eyes and cursed, "You're going to die, what nonsense are you talking about? Who wants to like someone older?"
"So handsome uncle is still okay?"
"Go have fun somewhere else. I don't have time to talk to you about this. I still have to find a part-time job. Winter vacation is coming soon, and I have to work to earn some living expenses for the next semester."
Hu Jiake sat at her desk and began to look through the part-time job flyers she had collected recently.
Ji Ziqian came behind Hu Jiake, leaned on Hu Jiake's shoulder, and asked, "When we were shopping before, didn't a scout hand you a business card? How about it? When will you start to be an actor and become a big star?"
Although Hu Jiake comes from an ordinary family, she has very good physical conditions, beautiful facial features, a well-proportioned figure, and she is also a top student who was admitted to Shuimu University. It is very normal for scouts to come to her.
Hu Jiake didn't even raise her head and said, "I tore up all the business cards."
Ji Ziqian was extremely surprised: "Torn? Why? Could it be that the scout was a jerk?"
Hu Jiake said: "That's not the case, it's just that the man has bad intentions. He asked me out for a drink late at night. I can tell at a glance that he is not a good person."
Ji Ziqian couldn't help but complain: "Why are all men like this? Are their minds full of these dirty things all day long?"
Hu Jiake said: "Who knows? Men are all pigs anyway."
"Okay, take your time to find a part-time job. I'm going to use the campus network."
Ji Ziqian's family is well-off. She bought a laptop when she was in college and surfed the Internet frequently, so she is considered an old Internet user.
After a while, Ji Ziqian suddenly screamed, "Lao Hu, Lao Hu, come and see!"
Hu Jiake was startled and said, "Can't you be more ladylike? You are yelling like a girl. What are you doing?"
Ji Ziqian pulled Hu Jiake in front of the computer and said, "Look, the campus network is going to hold a school beauty selection contest. The school beauty of each school can get a bonus of 10,000 yuan, and is also eligible to be selected as the national school beauty. The top eight will get bonuses, the eighth place will get 10,000, and the rest will get 20,000, 50,000, 80,000, or 100,000. The first place will get a bonus of one million! One million!"
Hu Jiake frowned. She had encountered many malicious looks since she was a child because of her outstanding appearance, so she was very vigilant. Facing the excited Ji Ziqian, she couldn't help but pour cold water on her: "Be careful, this is a scam. How many millions can this campus network spend on such an event?"
Ji Ziqian is an extrovert, but not as cautious as Hu Jiake. She said immediately, "The campus network seems quite legitimate, there shouldn't be any problems. Besides, it's such a good opportunity, how can we know if it's true or not if we don't try it?"
"Besides, you see, if you win the title of school beauty, you will be rewarded with 10,000 yuan. If you win the competition, isn't that better than a part-time job? If you win the national championship, you will get a prize of one million yuan. How many years do you think you will have to work to earn that much money? This is a one-time payment. If you deposit this money in the bank, you will earn tens of thousands of yuan in interest every year, and you will have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of your life."
Hu Jiake was somewhat moved by what he said, and said, "How about...signing up? How do I sign up?"
Seeing that Hu Jiake wanted to sign up, Ji Ziqian was very happy and said, "It says here that you should send a recent life photo and an artistic photo to this registration email address via email for preliminary selection. If you pass the preliminary selection, your registration will be successful. At that time, some basic personal introductions and photos will appear on the exclusive event page of the selection contest. All contestants who pass the preliminary selection can canvass votes by constantly updating their photos..."
The process of the competition was very simple. As soon as Ji Ziqian explained it, Hu Jiake immediately understood it and said, "Then let's go sign up."
At that moment, the two of them took photos in the school photo studio and sent the electronic photos and personal introductions to the registration email address.
A few days later, Ji Ziqian suddenly received a call.
"Hello, Ji Ziqian, I'm Lai Binqiang, the operations director of the campus network. Congratulations to you and your roommate Hu Jiake for passing the preliminary selection. Are you free at five o'clock this afternoon? I'd like to arrange a meeting with you at the cafe in Shuimu University to sign a competition authorization contract for the promotion of your entries."
When she heard that it was at the Mizuki University cafe, Akane Jizi immediately had no more doubts and said, "Okay, then we'll wait for you at the cafe at five o'clock."
After hanging up the phone, Ji Ziqian said to Hu Jiake excitedly, "Hey, we both passed the preliminary selection, and the operations director of the campus network is coming to sign a contract with us."
Hu Jiake frowned, obviously not expecting an offline meeting: "Isn't it that kind of talent scout again?"
Ji Ziqian smiled and said, "He said he would come to our school's cafe. What are you afraid of? When the time comes, we will shout and he will be thrown out of Mizuki University lying down."
"Pfft...you're such a jerk. Okay, let's go there this afternoon."
In the afternoon, Lai Binqiang saw the two of them in a cafe. At first sight, he was attracted by Hu Jiake.
He felt that this girl was not only beautiful, but also had great temperament. In addition to her beauty, she also had a bit of intelligence and strength, especially her eyes, which were firm and sharp.
"Please take a seat, I'm Lai Binqiang from the campus network, nice to meet you."
The two sat down, and Hu Jiake asked directly: "How are you going to fulfill the conditions promised in the email? I checked, and the campus network is currently only developed in Shuimu University. Although you have successfully got half of the students of Shuimu University to register accounts on it, it is not enough for me to believe in your strength."
Lai Binqiang felt depressed because he was looked down upon by a girl who was still a freshman in college.
But there was no way, he was indeed an unknown person at this time.
But he is not famous enough, but he can still use his fame to show off his wealth!
Lai Binqiang adjusted his tie and said to Hu Jiake solemnly, "Student Hu, although the campus network is still in its infancy, our background and strength are still very strong."
Hu Jiake had heard this kind of talk many times from the talent scouts. She said disapprovingly, "Oh? How do you force it?"
In order to calm her down, Lai Binqiang had to say, "Our angel round investment was five million from Mr. Lu, and as long as we can get into the top 985 and 211 universities in China, the follow-up investment will be in place immediately. As for the questions you asked just now, with Mr. Lu backing you up, I guess you don't have to worry, right?"
Hu Jiake, who originally had doubts about the strength of the campus network, immediately changed his expression after hearing the three words "Lu the richest man".
Although she had never seen Lu Yiming in person, she was familiar with all the industries related to Lu Yiming.
Even Ji Ziqian was excited: "The campus network was actually invested by Mr. Lu, the richest man?"
Lai Binqiang said: "This is not really a secret, it's just that we didn't actively publicize it before."
Ji Ziqian quickly said to Hu Jiake, "Don't hesitate. He is the richest man in Lu. He has invested in many companies and enterprises. He even owns consumer brands such as Mingyuan Technology and Shijinji. If he can get some advertising resources from him, it will be enough for us to make a fortune."
Hu Jiake rolled her eyes at her and said disdainfully, "Wipe the corners of your mouth first, your saliva is almost flowing out."
"hey-hey."
Ji Ziqian wiped the corner of her mouth and said to Hu Jiake, "You get a one million bonus, and I'm a little weaker than you, so I'll just get three or five hundred thousand."
“Eh…”
The two men argued for a few words, then asked Lai Binqiang for the contract. After reading it carefully and feeling that there was no problem, they signed it.
Lai Binqiang collected the contract and said, "Okay, I hope you can win the championship. I have also made appointments with other contestants, so let's just stop here for now."
He put away his things and stood up, saying, "By the way, I've already paid for the coffee."
This behavior made the two girls like him better. Ji Ziqian said to Hu Jiake: "See, now you should believe it. Good luck in the competition."
