Chapter 83: Sweet
What Wesley has in front of him is an ICQ equity reward. When the ICQ project is completed, he will become the Chief Product Officer of ICQ and get 5% equity of ICQ, and from being an employee, he will become one of the shareholders of ICQ!
Although it is still unknown which one has greater potential, Hotmail or ICQ, Wesley feels that the latter may far exceed the former. After all, a user may send at most dozens of emails a day, but instant messaging may be used all the time.
Song Yang looked at Wesley and signed the agreement. If you want the horse to run fast, you must at least feed it.
"As for Hotmail, you still need to pay attention to the Hotmail development team in Houston, which needs to continue to improve Hotmail.
We should also develop versions in more languages as soon as possible, or work with partners in various overseas regions to jointly launch mailboxes that adapt to local languages and are more popular with local people, and promote Hotmail to the world !"
Song Yang is not a pedantic person who insists on giving up control. In later generations, major Internet giants in America have all failed in China, so there is no need to take sides.
There is definitely a reason for that. Any region will tend to support local brands, which is understandable.
But many other brands, such as Coca-Cola, KFC, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Colgate, Apple and others, are still doing well in China. Some of them are even about to lose their headquarters market, but they are still making huge profits in the mainland.
On the contrary, Google, Cisco, Amazon and others who refused to give up their control have suffered a complete failure in the mainland, while Yahoo fully authorized Softbank to establish Yahoo Japan. When all Yahoo's global brands were sold, Yahoo Japan continued to thrive and has long been the number one Internet brand in Japan.
Hotmail mailbox, Song Yang is also preparing to imitate Yahoo in the future. In the English-speaking regions such as America and Britain, Hotmail headquarters will directly manage them because the language, habits, customs, etc. are similar, so Hotmail can directly manage them. Of course, there is another reason. These regions have a deep American imprint and dare not provoke America...
As for other regions, like the Russians in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and various parts of Asia, Song Yang is ready to find partners to jointly operate Hotmail, and even changing the name is fine. Anyway, it will be enough to build Hotmail into the world's largest email account as quickly as possible.
In the future, when DoubleClick, America Movil, ICQ and other industries enter overseas markets, Song Yang is also prepared to use the same routine. Those that can be managed directly will be managed directly, and those that cannot be managed directly will be handed over to local operators for management. Give the operators enough authority and just wait to collect the money!
If Hotmail can really become the global email overlord, then when he looks for financial sponsors to cooperate with in the future, Song Yang might be able to do some fancy things.
For example, selling it twice, once for American domestic email, and once for the international Hotmail brand, or even more conditions. It is not impossible to propose it. The key is to have enough capital.
Wesley, who had just obtained ICQ shares, naturally wanted to prove that he was worth the price. After hearing Song Yang's words, he immediately patted his chest and said, "Boss, don't worry. I will ask the Hotmail development team to launch Chinese, Japanese, Russian and other language versions as soon as possible."
"ICQ must also be developed quickly. You will have to work hard on this side in the second half of the year. We will start promoting it at the beginning of next year!"
Song Yang doesn't have many people he can use now, so naturally he will take advantage of any opportunity he can get.
As for the Hotmail mailbox, Irene is currently in charge, but she is happy to work as a slave for DoubleClick and the Hotmail mailbox. She has no intention of complaining at all. She is almost living in the Harbor Building in Houston.
When Wesley heard Song Yang's words, he couldn't help but ask, "Promote ICQ in the same way as Hotmail? "
In the past few days, Wesley has heard too many analyses of Hotmail's promotion methods. After reading those media reports, Wesley realized that Song Yang's "viral marketing" actually has so many tricks...
Song Yang shook his head. It was fine to use this thing once or twice occasionally, but it would be stupid to use it all the time. Don’t you see how badly a certain mobile phone brand was criticized for playing tricks?
"I want ICQ to become one of the sponsors of the Atlanta Olympics next year, so that everyone who comes to Atlanta next year will use ICQ!"
Next year is a great opportunity. Taking advantage of the Atlanta Olympics, ICQ will be promoted to the world. Song Yang has even thought of a slogan: "ICQ connects the world!"
As for whether it can be successful, Song Yang is not worried at all. Next year's Atlanta Olympics is privately contracted, and even the floor can be auctioned with an Olympic label. What money can he not dare to make? As long as ICQ pays, it is not difficult to temporarily get the title of an Olympic Games-specific communication software.
Wesley was stunned. He could never have imagined that Song Yang had set his sights on next year's Olympics. If an Internet company were to be related to the Olympics, no one would believe it if he told others about it.
"I understand. I will complete the development of ICQ as soon as possible!" said Wesley.
After Wesley left, Song Yang thought about the industries and projects in his hands. DoubleClick is now running stably. After Ryan established a branch in New York, DoubleClick's revenue capacity has skyrocketed. It is not too far away for it to become the world's first truly profitable Internet company.
Hotmail is currently experiencing a user explosion phase and is also a big spender. The main pressure is still the server costs. However, once a large user takes over, the invested money can be recovered many times over.
What remains are the America Movil and ICQ projects. These two are the most important industries in Song Yang's future hands, and can be said to be the foundation of his survival. In comparison, Double Click is a little weaker.
However, it will take until next year for America Movil and ICQ to see improvement, so we still need to wait.
Song Yang looked at the time. Today, Song Yang had to wait for someone to come. The person was a private accountant, Chris Jain from Bank of America, who was recommended to Song Yang.
The three most important people in an American's life are a personal doctor, an accountant, and a lawyer. Basically, in America, as long as you are not bankrupt or homeless, you cannot do without these three people.
Needless to say, a private doctor is a matter of life and death. Lawyers are used to fight lawsuits or to avoid going to federal prison. Song Yang has not used a private doctor yet.
Needless to say, the private lawyer is currently held by Greg. Unless Song Yang has a falling out with Greg or the Bruno family in the future, this position will not be easily replaced.
As for private accountants, this is a very complicated subject. Most of the richest people in America have their own financial advisors. These accountants are responsible for tax filing, asset management, handling foundations, etc. As long as money is involved, it will go through the hands of these accountants.
Of course, these highly skilled accountants battle wits with federal tax officials every year to help employers avoid most of the high taxes in a "reasonable" way every year.
Before, Song Yang had always used ordinary accountants hired by DoubleClick Company to handle financial issues. Now it is time to hire a dedicated accountant to handle a large number of financial issues in order to cope with next year's federal tax return. Song Yang does not want to fail in this matter and be targeted. Now there are many people who want to deal with Song Yang!
After Song Yang waited for more than half an hour, a man with some gray hair walked into Song Yang's office.
"Marcus Bird!"
Song Yang extended his hand and asked Marcus to sit down. Song Yang had heard about Marcus from Chris Jain. Marcus was a veteran accountant who had worked in a bank for many years. After accumulating connections, he opened a private accounting firm in San Jose.
He specializes in being a financial advisor for wealthy people. He is also the financial manager of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. His skills are quite high and of course his fees are not low.
After Marcus sat down, Song Yang looked at him and said, "Jian recommended you to me and said you are the best financial advisor in San Francisco!"
Although Marcus looked quite old, he had an extraordinary demeanor, as if he had experienced countless storms. He smiled, looked at Song Yang and said, "Bruno Song, I have heard some rumors about you, the genius of the Internet. So why did you call me here today...?"
"I need a personal accountant to provide me with some financial help and advice!" Song Yang said directly to Marcus.
Upon hearing this, Marcus looked at Song Yang seriously. In the past, those people who came to him were basically just for some consulting or to deal with financial issues. There were people who wanted to hire him as a private accountant, but they were very few because Marcus' fees were really not cheap.
"Song, I have to remind you that I have to charge higher fees than my counterparts in America. I hope you know that." Marcus reminded Song Yang.
"I know!"
Seeing that Song Yang agreed directly, Marcus thought for a moment and said, "I need to do a comprehensive review of your financial situation before I can make any suggestions, including the charging standards!"
Song Yang nodded, took out a stack of documents that he had prepared long ago, and placed them in front of Marcus.
Seeing so many documents in front of him, Marcus was slightly stunned. He had done his homework before coming and knew that Song Yang was an American upstart who had just emerged this year, but he did not expect that Song Yang would take out so many financial documents.
After flipping through a few pages, Marcus couldn't help but sit up straight, and his gaze towards Song Yang changed a little. The industries and finances involved in these documents were far beyond Marcus' expectations.
Especially when he came across the financial information related to America Movil, the financial situation of 300 million US dollars shocked Marcus so much that he almost screamed out.
Just by reading this, Marcus raised Song Yang's level in his mind to the highest level!
