Global Monopoly of Technology

After an American-style party, Luo Sheng doesn't know how much favor and recognition he can get from the employees here, but it's true that they are all having fun.

In fact, these local employees are also quite surprised. I thought it was boring, but I didn't expect that the party hosted by the boss of Huaguo could be so American.

Luo Sheng can easily integrate into American culture, but it is difficult for Americans to integrate into Chinese culture. This is the difference between the two sides.

"The front foot only got $325 million in financing from Wall Street. You are so crazy about the back foot. If I were an investor, I would probably regret it." Qin Weimu came to Luo Sheng and took a seat next to him.

The party is still going on at the moment, and the North American employees who come here are having a lot of fun.

Luo Sheng couldn't help laughing when he heard her complaining, and said calmly: "That's right, including the first few investments, the VC invested money in me and regretted it not long after, and then a group of happy people after a while. , and throw money at me, and then regret it... so repeatedly."

That's right, that's right.

When the two were chatting, Luo Sheng saw a Chinese face. Among the more than 80 employees, there were actually more than 30 Chinese faces, and they were all engineers, and their development ability was stronger than that of white people.

When Luo Sheng heard someone call the Chinese face "Steve Chen", he was stunned for a while.

Qin Weimu glanced at him and found his slightly stunned expression, so he couldn't help asking questions.

"what happened to you?"

Luo Sheng ignored Qin Weimu and immediately called out to the Chinese employee, "Steve Chen? Chen Shijun?"

The Chinese face turned his head and saw that the boss was really looking at him, so he pointed to himself, and saw the boss nod again. He confirmed that the boss was calling him, so he walked over.

"Boss, are you looking for me?" Chen Shijun wondered how the boss knew his Chinese name.

At this moment, Luo Sheng wasn't sure if it was the person he thought he was. After inviting him to sit down, he couldn't help but ask, "Have you worked at PayPal before?"

Chen Shijun nodded, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed, but said truthfully: "Yes, BOSS, but how did you know? Yes, that was three months ago, when PayPal laid off employees, and I unfortunately became one of them. One member, like me, is Chad Hurley and Judd Karim, and we were lucky to get an offer from Bluestar last week.”

After Chen Shijun's brief explanation, Luo Sheng suddenly realized that after they were fired, they were unemployed and in debt.

The remnants of the bursting of the Internet bubble still exist, and many large Internet companies are making more money and cutting expenditures, and laying off employees if they can.

"OK, have fun." Luo Sheng confirmed the guess in his heart and finished chatting with him for a few words. Chen Shijun also left the table.

At this moment, Luo Sheng is in a good mood. It really doesn't take much effort to get through the iron shoes. The three founders of YouTube have all joined the North American branch of Bluestar Technology and become their own employees.

The layout of the Internet audio and video business was originally a strategic plan laid out in his mind, which is also the focus of the work in the next year.

...

Three days later, Luo Sheng came to the small town of Menlo Park again, and met with a group of North American employees again. With the previous party activities, Luo Sheng and these foreign employees also got a lot closer.

At this moment, more than 80 employees are gathered in the work hall, listening to Luo Sheng's speech.

"...Before I leave California, we need to play some new tricks. Guys, I decided to start a brand new website in North America. The core is anonymity mechanism." Luo Sheng told everyone about the core.

After Luo Sheng roughly described it,

Everyone was caught off guard.

"BOSS, are you sure you're not kidding? This new website is the opposite of BlueSpace," said an employee named Vader Karim.

"BlueSpace is a real-name social mechanism, but this new website is a 180-degree change, which is too subversive." Chen Shijun said.

All the staff spoke freely. After a while, Luo Sheng looked around at everyone and smiled and said, "I believe, I know, because you all revealed your secrets at the carnival party three days ago, I know your secrets, every member here. , I know that this group of people here is very innovative, likes to challenge rules and formulas, and at the same time behave unrestrained, free and easy, our entire team will be one with each other, cooperate with each other, and fight together."

Qin Weimu, who was also present, found that Luo Sheng was very able to mobilize the emotions of employees. Whether it was domestic employees or foreign employees, he could always say the most appropriate words in the most appropriate occasions, and sway a team in the most appropriate way. in a bundle.

It's not just about money and contractual relationships, it's also about personal charisma, and he seems like a natural leader.

"Only we would think of doing this, wouldn't we?" Luo Sheng added.

"Go ahead, so what's the name of the new site?" an employee named Russell Simmons said eagerly.

"R-E-D-D-I-T,!" Luo Sheng said concisely.

When everyone heard the name of the new website, they couldn't help but burst into laughter, and Vader Karim immediately said, "Sorry BOSS, I think this name is ridiculous, can you change it to something more meaningful? "

Everyone nodded, and they all felt that the name was too stupid. The Americans had a straight personality and said what was in their hearts.

Luo Sheng spread his hands and said helplessly: "There have been too many cybersquatting domain names on the Internet, and it is really difficult to apply for a simple and easy-to-remember name that is not occupied, although I can spend money to buy it. Obviously, I don't want to waste money. Also, Reddit also means 'read it', so it's a little bit like 'connotation' anyway."

So, at the insistence of the boss, it was settled.

"Reddit needs a notable feature, which is to give users great permissions, including the introduction of user message functions. We also need to be mentally prepared. After launching this website, the anonymity mechanism will inevitably be scolded, even if it is scolded. I'm not surprised that there has never been such a stupid website, and it also means dealing with all kinds of evil in human nature."

Luo Sheng stood in the middle and described in an orderly manner. Everyone said nothing. Many employees were surprised by the boss's remarks, because they found that the boss can always inadvertently reveal some eye-catching features. creative.

For example, the introduction of a message function.

But for Luo Sheng, this function is standard for all websites, but it is a very bold decision now that it has just entered the time point of 2004.

Luo Sheng added: "In the future, we should allow users to create sub-sections. We must start the trend and challenge the inherent rules and concepts. Users can gather on Reddit through sub-sections of various themes, which allows them to Having more intimacy and belonging with Reddit also really sets Reddit apart from the rest of the competition."

Users can create their own sub-sections, which are similar to Tieba, or even copy the Tieba model to some extent.

Russell Simmons frowned and said: "But, is it really good to empower users so aggressively? Like a double-edged sword, it may make administrators overwhelmed, even if it can bring super high traffic, it is quite A large number of users share some violent content... well, no wonder you, Boss, predict that the launch of Reddit will attract a lot of bad comments, okay..."

Thinking about it, Reddit's anonymity mechanism is definitely the eruption of the evil side of human nature, hiding behind the computer screen, typing on the keyboard recklessly and venting some things that are usually afraid to do in offline life.

One of the core battlefields such as navy and spray.

But this group of employees is inexplicably excited about this idea. Reddit may have been defined as the most chaotic and terrible super community in history before it goes live.

Luo Sheng said to everyone in an orderly manner: "For a long time, the state of online communities has been a game between managers and saboteurs. Going deeper into every aspect of people's lives, past notions such as the safe haven principle, technological neutrality, and unrestricted freedom of speech are being challenged, and a more proactive confrontation with saboteurs may become the new normal. So we need like-minded volunteers, and together we maintain this community.”

The next week, Luo Sheng stayed in Menlo Park to formulate the development sequence of Reddit with Chen Shijun, Wade, Judd, Chad and other employees. Among the more than 80 employees, Chen Shijun, Russell, Judd, etc. 15 The individual was spun off to be responsible for the initial development of the Reddit project, and the others remained the same and were responsible for the operation and management of the BlueSpace website.

In just one week, Luo Sheng showed his powerful computer skills here, completely convincing this group of people. If it was said that wealth crushed them before, they were not convinced, but now they show the strength of technical crushing. .

A week later, Luo Sheng ended his trip to North America, and before returning to China, he gave Chen Shijun and the others a simple task, asking their development team to officially launch the website by the end of February at the latest.