After discussing Facebook, Eric looked at Robert Millen and Howard Hughes.
"How is the development of Lionheart Network and YouTube progressing?"
Robert Millen plugged into his computer, then clicked on a lion head icon. The classic MGM opening animation appeared, and two seconds later, it transitioned to a video website page.
Compared to the clean simplicity of Facebook, Lionheart Network, as a streaming platform, had a much more elaborate interface.
At the very top were categories, including action, suspense, romance, and comedy.
Scrolling down the interface, movie posters were arranged in rows, featuring films like saw, legally blonde, Hart's War, Annie Hall, and the hannibal series.
These were all wholly-owned MGM films, either classics or relatively recent ones, and most importantly, they involved no copyright disputes.
For example, co-produced films like 007 die another day, released last year, could not be used directly due to Universal's investment.
Naturally, works from other companies were even more out of the question. This wasn't Africa; blatantly infringing on copyrights could lead to bankruptcy.
Further down were some less famous or older films.
"Robert, how many movies are currently on here?" Eric asked.
"A total of 1955 films and about 8000 episodes of TV series, which is roughly half of MGM's film library."
"It will still take some time to upload everything to Lionheart Network."
"During this process, my biggest takeaway was the impact of internet speed. We had to compress videos, sacrificing picture quality to ensure speed, and the result was a significant decrease in video clarity, not as good as watching a DVD on TV."
"How can we increase the speed? Can we equip more servers? Can these videos be fully uploaded to the internet?"
Robert shook his head: "This approach can only alleviate the problem, but not fundamentally improve it, because the broadband limitations are there. If the video is too large, the loading time will increase when users watch it online."
"We can only choose between loading time and video clarity. This is a limitation of the era and cannot be resolved until broadband technology breaks through."
"Open one for me to see."
Robert opened legally blonde as instructed. The screen transitioned, and a cartoon lion cub jumped around on the screen.
He clicked on the little lion a few times, and the lion immediately performed several actions, which looked quite interesting.
"Boss, this is a fun little interactive feature I added to prevent users from getting bored while waiting for the video to buffer. It might not be very useful, but at least it can pass the time."
"Hmm, that's an interesting idea too."
It took about ten seconds for the movie to finish buffering and start playing.
Eric frowned slightly: "Although the clarity has indeed decreased, it's still acceptable. Try fast-forwarding a bit."
The mouse dragged the progress bar directly to the middle. The little lion jumped out again, and this time it buffered for about half a minute before the video resumed playing.
Compared to Facebook, which loads instantly, this speed was indeed a bit slow.
"Robert, if there are no jumps in the middle, and you watch it normally, how many times will a movie buffer or stutter on average?"
Robert flipped through his notebook: "On average, only once, but this data is from a local area network, and the survey sample is too small. If it's scaled up to millions or tens of millions of people watching simultaneously, the frequency of stuttering will definitely increase."
"Is there really no way to solve it?" Eric was a bit annoyed.
"No, if the internet speed problem cannot be solved, then this problem cannot be solved. And the United States already has the fastest internet speed in the world. If even we can't handle it, other countries have even less of a chance; they will only be slower, more prone to stuttering, and have lower clarity."
"Internet speed! Internet speed!" Eric's fingers tapped lightly on the table.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.
"Robert, if civilian internet speed isn't good enough, what about military internet? According to our simple understanding, military internet efficiency should be higher, right?"
As soon as he said this, Robert Millen's eyes widened as he looked at Eric.
He found it hard to imagine why his boss always discovered so many key points and always came up with such wild ideas.
He wiped the dust from his glasses and stammered, "Theoretically, that's true. The network used by the military is different from civilian use. The transmission cables alone are not on the same level, with speeds differing by several or even more than ten times."
"Because the military network faces war, for example, if a reconnaissance plane flies a circle over a position, the image data transmitted back is immeasurable. Not only speed is required, but quality is also essential."
"If the military network could be used for commercial purposes, all problems could be solved. The only thing we would face is the capacity of the servers, which might require a room, an office floor, or even an entire building as a data storage center."
"But boss, I have never heard of a military network being converted for civilian use. Would this involve security issues, and the Department of Defense would not allow it either."
Eric took a sip of water: "You don't need to worry about that. That's my problem to solve. There's no precedent in this area because no one has proposed it. Every field always needs a pioneer."
"Alright, you continue."
Robert hummed: "Boss, besides the internet speed limitation, another difficulty lies in the algorithm."
"According to your requirements, we have been simulating the development of Netflix's user preference recommendation algorithm, but the progress is not yet sufficient. To my knowledge, Netflix took over a year from research to launching this feature, and it has been continuously refined. We need more time."
The algorithm Eric requested to develop was essentially equivalent to the big data recommendation of later generations, remembering user preferences and continuously pushing similar content to increase user stickiness.
Although Netflix was still doing video rental business at the time, it had already developed similar features years ago.
As long as users logged into their official website and clicked to select and consume, with increasing frequency, the website would recommend similar types of movies when they logged in later.
The importance of this feature goes without saying, especially for streaming platforms and YouTube, and even short videos after the advent of the mobile internet era, it is among the most core technologies.
"With our current R&D team personnel, how much longer will it take to develop this algorithm?"
Facing this question, Robert did not give a definite answer, but rather hesitated and was unable to speak.
"Robert, what's wrong? Have you suddenly lost confidence?"
After thinking for a while, Robert then hesitantly gave a vague answer.
"Next year, I think it will most likely be in the second half of next year. Please forgive me, I really cannot determine the specific month."
"Boss, your requirements for Netflix's recommendation algorithm are more accurate and refined, which requires the underlying logical operations to increase by an order of magnitude."
"Actually, in our tech circles, many people believe that artificial intelligence will definitely be prevalent in the future, and perhaps one day it might even develop self-awareness."
"It will be able to learn, identify, and even evolve autonomously, just like the robot HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey."
"And the algorithm you're asking to develop can roughly be understood as the prototype of this type of artificial intelligence. Creating such a thing is extremely difficult."
"I'm sorry, my explanation might be a bit chaotic, but in short, it's very difficult. Can you understand?"
Robert Millen was the kind of traditional tech geek in popular perception, only knowing how to hunker down in his room to develop, with little interest in socializing, and over time even began to fear socializing.
Watching him flustered and incoherent, Eric opened his mouth to comfort him: "Relax, Robert, I'm not putting pressure on you. Relax, okay?"
Robert Millen took a deep breath, his emotions stabilizing: "Boss, in short, when the website can autonomously recommend suitable products to users, it is already equivalent to a salesperson with self-awareness."
"If we compare Netflix's algorithm to a novice who just started, it needs to interact with the same customer 10 times before it can distinguish their preferences."
"And I want to make that number 9 times. It seems like only a reduction of 1, but the amount of computation required behind it grows geometrically."
Eric rubbed his temples. He didn't understand this technical stuff, so he simply asked, "Then what about with Howard's team? The algorithms for Lionheart Network and YouTube should be interchangeable, right?"
Howard Hughes pressed Robert Millen's wrist, signaling him to stop first.
How could Eric understand what you're saying? He's providing so much funding, and all he wants is results!
"Boss, the basic architecture of the algorithm can be shared, but there are differences in the details; YouTube is more complex."
"So my team and Robert's team have been collaborating, but even with joint development, progress is still slow."
"If you want to see the algorithm released before the end of this year, the only way is to increase manpower. I suggest hiring another batch of technical personnel."
Eric nodded to himself. Howard's speech was much clearer and more logical. He didn't even mention a timeframe, and Howard already brought up the end of the year deadline.
Putting a tight leash on himself, what a great employee.
As the boss, he couldn't be stingy either.
"How many people do you want?"
"At least 150!"
Eric didn't hesitate at all: "Okay, then I'll give you 150. I'll arrange for people to recruit as soon as possible. You two should also participate, or you can directly recommend interested personnel. If they're from other companies, poach them for me!"
"By Christmas 2003, I want to see your results, understand?"
Howard and Robert exchanged glances, then both patted their chests, guaranteeing they would complete the task.
"Boss, what about the launch of Lionheart Network and YouTube?"
"After the basic functions are perfected, we will launch normally, and other functions will be improved later. Also, one more point: I require the three platform accounts to be interoperable. Users only need to register once to log in to all three platforms. Is there any difficulty in implementing this function?"
Heisenberg smiled: "No, that's very simple. As long as the architecture is similar and the data storage is adjusted to the same format, it's easy to achieve."
"Is it that simple?" Eric was a little disbelieving.
"Yes, it's very simple."
"Then why can't Google's products currently have interoperable accounts? I thought it was due to technical reasons."
Howard shook his head: "It has nothing to do with technology; it should be due to profit distribution. Many of Google's software products belong to different subsidiaries."
"Some of these subsidiaries are wholly owned by Google, while others are only partially owned."
"Once accounts are interoperable, it will greatly facilitate users and drive the flow of traffic, like breaking up the forks in two rivers."
"Once traffic increases, it drives an increase in profits, and after profits increase, the problem of distribution arises."
"Even Google's wholly-owned companies are managed by different teams, different factions, and different cliques; there is fierce competition among them."
"Let alone those equity-holding companies, which also have to face the demands of partners. Just the negotiations alone are tormenting enough."
Knowing the reason, Eric chuckled: "It seems we are once again pioneering in the industry."
"Yes, boss, under your leadership, the absence of internal strife will be a major advantage for us, which is why Heisenberg, Robert, and I are all willing to follow you."
"We firmly believe that under your leadership, the company will become a new generation of internet giants, a super giant comparable to Google and Microsoft!"
Eric lightly tapped the table: "Then it's settled. Today is May 24th. Go back and prepare diligently for the official market launch."
"At that time, we can proudly announce one thing: the world's first social network has been born!"
"And you, my friends, you are all heroes! You will all be permanently etched in history!"
On the way back to Silicon Valley, people from the three teams sat on the bus, chatting animatedly.
Most of them were not very good at social interaction, but they got along very well with each other. A girl from Howard's team and a young man from Heisenberg's team had already become a couple.
"Hey! Did you notice? Although Eric Cooper doesn't understand technology, he's really amazing. The ideas he proposes always precisely hit our points of interest."
"Charlie, that's called creativity. That's why he can be a boss at such a young age, while we can only write code," an old programmer nearing thirty sighed.
"I heard he's also a director. Directors are a bunch of people with overflowing imagination, no wonder he could propose Lionheart Network, Facebook, and YouTube, and the three serve as mutually supporting cornerstones, providing resources for each other. Eric Cooper is simply a genius!"
"Hahaha, compared to being a genius, I think his attribute as MGM's Vice President is even more important. Without economic support, even the best ideas cannot be realized."
"Boss, since Eric is a big shot in Hollywood, can you suggest to him that we invite some celebrities to the company for a lively year-end event?" a young man in a baseball cap asked Howard Hughes.
Howard smiled: "If you can deliver the algorithm before Christmas, I'll go ask Eric. How about that?"
"Agreed! I hope it's Julia Roberts. I absolutely love her Notting Hill."
"Julia Roberts' mouth is too big. Cameron Diaz is better; her Charlie's Angels is so sexy."
"Are you kidding me? Can you talk about some younger actresses? I think Jessica Alba is great."
"Discrimination! Why are they all actresses! You geeks, I like Orlando Bloom."