Just like a sudden thunderclap overnight, the development speed of Hotmail is so fast that it cannot be described by common sense.
When Hotmail was launched on the first day, it only had 3,000 users. There was no media attention at all, and Silicon Valley didn't care either. Silicon Valley was full of such niche products.
But when the number of registered users of Hotmail exceeded 100,000 in a week, American technology media began to pay collective attention to Hotmail. When the number of users exceeded 270,000 in half a month, people in Silicon Valley could no longer tolerate it.
There are too many mysteries surrounding Hotmail, and without any large-scale publicity, the result is that the user growth rate far exceeds that of any other Internet product. Even looking at any other industry, there has never been such performance. Hotmail has almost redefined the speed of the Internet!
You should know that the current scale of Internet users in the United States is less than 17 million. You can imagine how big a shock Hotmail has brought. At this rapid pace, it will conquer the entire American user base in less than half a year.
And it's not just America. From the time Wang Laboratories introduced Hotmail to Europe, it took less than six days from the first day it entered London to the day it gained 50,000 users in the UK. The same . This shows that Hotmail's performance in America is more than just luck!
In the technology column of ABC TV station, a technology expert invited by the TV station was talking excitedly about the astonishing performance of Hotmail email.
"Now is far from the limit of the growth rate of Hotmail users. Hotmail is in the process of nuclear fission. Mathematicians at MIT have tried to build a model based on Hotmail. The conclusion they reached is that when the number of Hotmail users exceeds 500,000, the growth rate will accelerate again. Maybe before next year, there will be an Internet product with more than 10 million users in America!"
Another person invited to the forum was a professor from Harvard Business School. He said, "We need to know the origin of something in order to understand it. What interests me most about Hotmail is not the number of its users, but the way it promotes itself. It is a completely new and different way of promotion from the past!"
At this point, the Harvard Business School professor couldn't help but look a little excited. "Harvard Business School calls this new promotional method used by Hotmail a viral marketing!"
"Viral marketing?" The host was also surprised by the Harvard Business School professor's words, "You said Bruno Song and Hotmail invented a new marketing model?"
The Internet, which is regarded as a grassroots industry, has actually created a new marketing model that has even been studied by Harvard Business School. This is definitely a big boost for the Internet industry.
"I think Bruno Song should come to Harvard Business School. This is a good place for him. The combination of traditional marketing and publicity models and the Internet will produce a wonderful collision. I am willing to personally guide him or recommend other Nobel Prize-winning professors in economics to personally guide him..."
This Harvard professor actually publicly recruited Song Yang on TV, saying that as long as Song Yang came over, he would be able to get the Nobel Prize in Economics.
San Jose University was the first to speak out against this. Who was it looking down on? San Jose University is not as famous as Harvard, but it is really shameless to poach people so openly, right? !
For a time, professors from the business school of the University of San Jose came out in groups to curse at each other with people from Harvard Business School.
The media has been reporting extensively on Hotmail, and how could Professor Tristan be missing? The crazy performance of Hotmail has made Tristan famous, and his reputation as an Internet mentor has become more and more famous. He is Song Yang's nominal spiritual mentor . This time, when Hotmail was released, he was the first to cheer, and even shouted the slogan of "the godfather of modern email."
Now, many media in America and even overseas have begun to use this title to describe Song Yang.
"I have said it before, Song is the father of modern email. I do not deny the contribution made by Ray Tomlin and others to email, but just like the tungsten filament when a light bulb turns into an electric light bulb, Song's Hotmail is the one who brought Americans into the era of email!"
The performance of Hotmail gave Tristan the qualifications to challenge others. He spoke out loudly on the TV programs he was invited to appear on, completely suppressing his opponents. Those media outlets that had argued with him were silenced by him alone.
"But according to our latest news, Ms. Erin Doherty, currently serving as the special assistant for the Hotmail mailbox project, announced that there is no plan to introduce commercialization of Hotmail mailbox yet!"
The host took the latest news and asked Tristan, "Some Internet insiders have also claimed that the profitability of Hotmail, which is mainly free, is questionable, and may even fail to make a profit in the end!"
How to make money has always been a difficult problem in the Internet industry. Tristan was criticized by Wall Street investor Barnard because of this problem. That’s how Song Yang got to know Tristan.
Now being asked the same question again, Tristan still felt a little guilty, but with a turn of his eyes, Tristan immediately asked back angrily, "Tell me, who said that?"
For a moment, the host was stunned by Tristan's punch. Is this the legendary solution of "if you can't solve the problem, then solve the person who asked the question"?
After threatening those Silicon Valley guys who dare not reveal their true colors to be more careful with their words, Tristan said righteously, "Don't forget, Song has another company, DoubleClick, which was created specifically to solve the problem of Internet profitability!"
"Besides, come on, the founder of Hotmail is Song. Do you think Song can't solve this problem?"
The host didn't know who the founder of Hotmail was and whether it had any necessary connection with whether free email could be profitable, but listening to Tristan's words, it seemed to make sense.
Tristan was praising Song Yang and Hotmail crazily, but Hotmail, with its explosive growth in users, was not without its own problems.
A TV station in Mississippi, the most conservative state in the United States and the least friendly to the Internet industry, criticized Hotmail. "We do not deny that the genius founder from Houston, who is touted by many media, may really create a product that can change the global office model, but the development of Hotmail at the cost of violating user privacy is absolutely unacceptable!"
"Ten Hotmail users from New York said that the promotion method of Hotmail emails with links and invitation rights has violated their privacy. They will hire lawyers to file a class action lawsuit against Hotmail!"
The host of the Mississippi TV station looked down at the manuscript and continued, "In addition, the invitation rights model of Hotmail mailboxes has also been greatly controversial. Some users believe that this model violates the principle of fairness. In some areas, underground transactions of Hotmail mailbox invitation rights have even begun to appear!"
Hotmail, which was gaining popularity, attracted the attention of countless people. Some people didn't even know what an email account was, but since everyone around them wanted it, they also joined the scramble for the invitation to Hotmail. This was another new trick, called hunger marketing, or monkey tricks...
In some companies and universities in America, invitation rights to Hotmail email accounts have even begun to be given to each other as gifts.
Where there is demand, there is a market. There are even a few small companies in Silicon Valley that specialize in collecting and reselling Hotmail invitation codes. One code can be sold for up to US$15, which means that the value of a Hotmail account has been raised to US$75. This shows how popular Hotmail is.
As for the storm it caused in Silicon Valley, there is no need to mention it. When Hotmail was first launched, companies such as Netscape, Yahoo, and AOL all paid attention to it, but didn't take it seriously. Who would have known that in the blink of an eye, they would find it out of their reach.
"Jim, the people we sent have arrived in Houston, but Song is definitely not in Houston!"
At Netscape headquarters, Baxter spoke to Jim Clark and Marc Anderson who were looking at the data on the number of Hotmail users .
"Is it too late to develop email now?!" After a long silence, Mark Anderson finally spoke first.
Jim Clark was troubled by the soaring number of users of Hotmail, especially those overseas users, who were now out of reach for Netscape, but were easily obtained by Hotmail.
Jim Clark was reluctant to admit that he had made a mistake, but that was the fact. He sighed and said, "Netscape will definitely enter the email market, but by the time we develop email, Hotmail will have already occupied the entire email market in America and the English-speaking region!"
"If necessary, we can use some necessary means!" After Netscape's IPO, Marc Andreessen also became more decisive. "If Netscape breaks off cooperation with DoubleClick, there are people in New York who want to sue Hotmail collectively..."
"Don't use these means first. Talk to that guy Bruno Song first. It would be best if you can acquire Hotmail. Break up with him now. If he goes directly to Microsoft..." What Jim is most worried about now is that Song Yang will get excited and go directly to Microsoft. That would probably make Netscape suffer, so he didn't dare to push Song Yang too hard.
"How dare he..." Mark Anderson also took a breath. As someone who considered himself the leader of the Internet, he couldn't imagine that Song Yang would turn against the entire Internet.
"We must find him first and call him!" Jim said to Baxted on the side.