Sitting across the conference table, Eric gestured to close the door and clear the room.
After the irrelevant personnel left, the projector was turned on, and the screen slowly lowered.
Looking at the three generals he had recruited, Eric asked, "Who wants to go first? Let me see if my money was well spent."
Fitz Heisenburg glanced at the two beside him, then plugged his device in first.
"Boss, I'll go first. The development difficulty of Facebook is relatively lower, and its current completion is higher."
Saying that, he clicked on an icon on the projection, and an interface immediately popped up on the screen.
This interface gave Eric the feeling of a simplified personal homepage from a large website in later generations.
An avatar plus a few lines of introduction, followed by some pictures, somewhat similar to the embryonic form of WeChat Moments.
"Boss, this is the result of our recent work. Now, please allow me to introduce it to you."
"Through the idea you proposed, my team and I realized that this is actually a social network built on a system of acquaintances, and its root is still the LAMP architecture."
"According to your description, our team has completed the required internal algorithms and operating system setup during this period, and we have first built an internal local area network. I will demonstrate it to you."
Knowing that Eric was not a professional, Heisenberg did not dwell much on technical details. With a click of the mouse, he arrived at the login page.
The words "Welcome to Facebook!" immediately popped up in the center of the screen. In the upper left corner was a blurred avatar, and below the avatar were two blank lines for entering an account and password.
"Fitz, what does this avatar mean? Is it the logo you designed for Facebook?"
Heisenberg shook his head with wide eyes: "No, it's Haigar, our team's illustration artist. She felt the interface was too monotonous, so she wanted to add some embellishments."
"I see. What types of registration does the password section currently support?"
"Currently, it only supports email. All emails in the United States can be used, whether you use Google, Yahoo, or others."
"Hmm, can a mobile number be used?"
"What?"
"Can a mobile number be used to register?"
Heisenberg was stunned. To be precise, everyone looked at Eric in a daze.
"Sorry, Boss, do you mean to register a Facebook account with a mobile number?" Heisenberg asked for confirmation.
Eric nodded: "Yes, from a technical perspective, can using a mobile number instead of an email be achieved?"
The reason for raising this question was naturally based on the soul of a Chinese person. Living in later generations, whenever someone downloaded new software, it was always done with a mobile number and a text message.
Email was too troublesome. Eric remembered that early domestic websites still used email for registration, such as Taobao and Alipay.
But somehow, email seemed to have been gradually phased out, and mobile numbers became a more convenient new way.
Heisenberg hesitated for a moment: "Boss, I don't know the answer to this question, and I can't answer you, but registering an account with a mobile number doesn't sound very reasonable."
"Why? Isn't it more convenient to register by sending a text message from a mobile phone?" Eric asked.
"Uh, first of all, many people don't have mobile phones, not just the elderly and children, but even many middle-aged people. And many people are still using old-fashioned phones that can only make calls and send text messages."
"As far as I know, in big cities like New York or San Francisco, the penetration rate of new-style mobile phones is relatively high, but if you go to third- and fourth-tier cities, or economically underdeveloped states like Missouri, a considerable number of people don't use or can't afford mobile phones."
"This model of mobile number registration sounds very novel and also seems very convenient, but the premise is that you still have to open a webpage and click the registration option for the backend to send you a text message."
"Since you have to log in to a webpage anyway, why not use the more direct email? The transmission speed of text messages is slow, which is actually slower than email."
Heisenberg briefly explained his views, and Eric roughly understood where the pain point was.
It was, after all, 2003, and there were still several years until the rise of smartphones. Without the support of smartphones, even if many software released mobile versions, their functions would be severely cut down.
To have a complete user experience, the PC end was the only option.
Moreover, even if smartphones were developed earlier, mobile internet still couldn't be fully established.
Because the signal currently used was 2G, loading a webpage image often froze for a long time, and data fees were also a big problem, unaffordable for ordinary people.
This problem could only be solved when there was a major breakthrough in global information technology; that would be the era of mobile internet.
This industry was undoubtedly a blue ocean, but unfortunately, Qualcomm had already occupied most of the road, making it almost impossible for outsiders to squeeze in.
Looking back over several decades, only Huawei broke the technological monopoly in the future, but that was achieved based on decades of technological accumulation.
For MGM, venturing into this field was simply impossible.
Unless the behemoth Qualcomm suddenly collapsed, and everything came to life after its fall!
"Fitz, continue!"
Heisenberg entered his account and password, and after clicking to enter, the screen immediately jumped to his personal homepage.
He operated the mouse, sweeping across the toolbar at the very top: "Boss, this is the common toolbar, which can be understood as the tool section like in Word."
"First, this question mark is for Q&A, mainly to help solve account security and common problems, as well as settings, such as changing passwords."
"This exclamation mark represents message notifications, such as someone sending you a private message, or system messages, including comments on your posts."
"Then comes the most important blank space, where you can add new friends."
Saying that, Heisenberg clicked on the blank space, entered an email address, and pressed Enter. A new interface immediately popped up, belonging to another person, somewhat similar to adding friends on QQ.
"Well done, but I want to know what information can be retrieved for the add friend function, besides email?" Eric continued to ask.
"Also Facebook account and nickname. To pinpoint someone, currently only these three points can achieve it."
"Can I search by keywords and range? For example, if I enter 'big eyes' and then a age range of 18 to 30, can it retrieve strangers who meet these criteria?"
What Eric was talking about was obviously the search function of Penguin in later generations, and other functions like 'Drift Bottle' were also very good.
Although these two functions were criticized for various problems, 'Drift Bottle' was even permanently removed due to its involvement in pornography.
But don't forget, this is the United States. While it's a problem in China, there's no need to worry about it here.
Even if it causes some social problems and lawsuits, it's nothing compared to the traffic and users it can attract. At worst, they'll just go to court; isn't that what the legal team is for?
Fitz Heisenburg was stunned again, his mind rapidly pondering this question, then looked at his young boss with some surprise.
The function proposed by the other party, with a little thought, revealed its hidden meaning. Such a search function would undoubtedly attract a large number of lonely men and women.
"Sorry, currently only email, account, and nickname can be retrieved. The function you mentioned, Boss, requires rewriting a new algorithm, but just thinking about it feels very interesting. We will improve it as soon as possible."
"Good, you continue."
Over the next hour or so, Heisenberg introduced Facebook's features in detail.
Currently, it could only be considered a prototype. The main functions still focused on dynamic sharing and commenting, roughly equivalent to WeChat Moments.
It also provided a rudimentary chat function, more accurately, sending private messages.
However, despite being rudimentary, it was already one of a kind, like a scorpion's poop.
In 2003, let alone WeChat Moments, even WeChat itself hadn't appeared yet.
Not to mention WeChat, even the idea for QQ Space hadn't been proposed yet.
However, it was limited to the basic functions of WeChat Moments. More advanced functions like sharing, liking, blocking, and viewing visitors have not yet been implemented.
These functions, which seem very common 20 years later, would cause a huge sensation if any one of them were brought out today.
Eric would gradually add these in, eventually building the software into a super social network that combined the advantages of various major programs like Facebook, WeChat, and Penguin.
"Fitz, I'm already very satisfied that you've produced a finished product in such a short time. You've done a great job. Can Facebook be launched into the market now?"
Heisenberg nodded: "Our internal local area network has been tested for a month. I can ensure that the functionality meets the standards and there will be no bugs, guaranteeing a smooth user experience."
"The issues to consider for market launch are how to promote it, and also the data storage of the servers is a very important aspect. The former relates to whether our efforts can bear fruit, and the latter is to ensure the maturity of the fruit."
"This is not only a problem Facebook has to face, but also a problem Lionheart Network and YouTube will face after being launched into the market."
Howard Hughes and Robert Millen nodded in agreement simultaneously.
Eric smiled. He had, of course, thought about this problem many times. After much deliberation, following Zuckerberg's old path was the most stable approach.
That was to first promote it on university campuses, and then use university students to influence their families, thereby radiating throughout society.
Zuckerberg took only a few months to conquer all universities in the United States. He would only be faster than him.
"I've already thought of a strategy for promotion. I've decided to adopt a combination of offline and online methods. Online is the old routine: buy advertisements, buy a lot of advertisements, and increase exposure."
"However, online is auxiliary; offline is our focus. The primary target is major universities, because university students can flexibly access the internet, many of them own their own laptops, and their willingness to socialize is also the most active."
"4,000 universities in the United States, two months. I want Facebook to conquer them within two months."
"Then, based on these university students, encourage their parents and siblings to join. High school students and young people under 30 are our second-stage target."
"The final step is those over 30. Although their willingness to accept new things is weaker, once family members get involved, no one can be immune to this game."
Seeing that his boss had clearly planned a mature promotion strategy, Heisenberg immediately put his thoughts aside.
He opened his mouth and asked, "Boss, what model will campus promotion follow? Direct cooperation with the schools?"
Eric nodded: "That's one of them, but I estimate most schools probably won't accept it. Schools have their own academic dignity."
"The method I'm considering is to directly hire people to go with a hard promotion model, spending money to hire a group of university students to become the first batch of users, and then these university students will promote Facebook in their respective schools."
"However, hiring must have a prerequisite: men must be handsome and charming, and women must be beautiful and sexy."
"Think about it, you only need to create an account to become friends with the handsome guys and beautiful girls in the school, you can keep up with their updates at any time, and in the future, it's not excluded that it could develop into a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship or an underground romance. This will be an irresistible temptation."
"Yes!"
Before Eric finished speaking, a chubby young man in a plaid shirt and glasses behind Heisenberg excitedly shouted.
Everyone's gaze instantly fell on him, and the chubby young man immediately deflated, returning to his timid appearance from before.
"What's your name?" Eric pointed at the other person.
"Danny McHale, Boss."
"Okay, Danny, let me ask you a question: if such an opportunity were presented to you, would you join Facebook?"
"Of course, why not? First, you can see your goddess anytime, anywhere, and then you get an interesting piece of software. I would eagerly create an account."
"Hmm, very good, that's the answer I want. Also, be more confident, Danny. When we succeed, those former goddesses will come chasing after you."
Laughter immediately erupted in the conference room.
To put it bluntly, this strategy was still taking the low road, but the low road is often the most effective, and everyone has to admit that.
After discussing the promotion issue, the next topic was data storage.
Heisenberg continued: "Boss, for Facebook, the most important data currently is images. An image may only be a few tens of KB."
"But when tens of millions of people upload, access, and comment simultaneously, the processing volume will reach a terrifying level. We must prepare for this in advance and build our own server farm."
Although Eric was an outsider, he understood how terrifying a server crash could be.
For example, he used to be a Dungeon Fighter Online player. During anniversary events, even logging in and idling was difficult; he couldn't log in at all.
Players were extremely annoyed, which is why Dungeon Fighter Online was also known as "Disconnect City."
Moreover, according to Eric's superficial understanding, internet companies that developed to a certain scale all built their own data storage centers.
Many even built not just one, but several for backups, fearing accidental data loss. If that happened, it would be an absolutely devastating blow, and the software could directly withdraw from the market.
Eric nodded: "You make a good point, but you're still being conservative. What are tens of millions of people? Our goal is hundreds of millions of people accessing simultaneously."
"Tell me, what's the best server on the market right now?"
"Currently, it's blade servers, launched in 2001, but the price is relatively expensive."
"Money is not an issue. When those 10 million dollars are used up, I will continue to invest. Give me the best."
Heisenberg's face broke into a smile. As a developer, he clearly knew that Facebook would not be able to achieve profitability in the short term.
Inability to profit meant burning money, and a boss who had money and was willing to invest was undoubtedly everyone's favorite.