Rebirth of the Internet Overlord

{Time: March 15, 2005}

{Location: United States-California Germany-Frankfurt}

Google in Mountain View, California, was still brightly lit on the night of March 15. In Google’s large conference room, almost all Google management gathered here.

There were several laptops placed in front of them, and several different web pages were actually displayed on the screen. If you look closely, you can see the various pages of blogger, LinkedIn, Bing, MySpace and YouTube. And where the slider is hovering,

Several advertising banners are displayed there.

"I just don't understand. As an emerging European Internet company, it is natural for YouTube to reach cooperation with Bing. But why, as local Myspace, LinkedIn and bloggers, Google has never called us." Larry

Page pointed to the advertisement at the top of the screen and asked the people in front of him, "What has our Commerce Department been doing during the past period? Why have we still not been able to place it on Blogger, LinkedIn and MySpace?

advertise?"

Larry Page's tone was so serious that the head of Google's business department, who was about to sit on the stool, felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

Despite this, Larry Page still did not stop speaking. He raised his arm, pointed at the data report projected on the wall of the conference room and wondered:

"Since March 2003, our rapid development has been slowing down. As of July 2004, we had actually returned to the same revenue level as in December 2002."

Sergey Brin looked at his old friend beside him, and he could clearly feel his old friend's frosty face from the corner of his eye. March is the season when spring comes, everything revives, and the ice and snow melt. You can see from his old friend's face

But there was no sign of any warming on his face. The temperature displayed on his face was like the ever-descending curve on the wall.

"In 2002, we were almost on the verge of forming a monopoly, but in 2003 we lost to a foreign company?" Larry Page continued to shock everyone's nerves, "Originally, we only needed to develop in 2003, and we could obtain enough

Occupying a dominant position in the search market. But as for us, we ruined this opportunity with our own hands!

Our revenue in 2003 only increased by less than 20% compared to 2002, and our growth in 2004 dropped by 1% compared to 2003! Originally we had enough cash to do many things, but now we have

We can only watch helplessly as Bing erodes the search engine advertising market that should be ours!"

Sergey Brin followed his old friend's words and looked at the content projected on the wall.

On the curve shown there, Google's earnings over the past three years are clearly visible.

In 2002, 1.19 billion.

In 2003, 1.42 billion.

2004, 1.689 billion

In the entire monthly Gantt chart, after the last big upward slope in January 2004, there is no steeply increasing climbing curve similar to that slope. The following parts are like

It is as smooth and weak as an old ox pulling a cart.

Because after that, it was the day when Bing entered the United States, and it was also the day when Bing began to fight hand-to-hand with Google in the United States.

Bang...

Sergey was awakened by the sudden sound in the conference room. He looked around and found that it was his friend Larry Page who was putting his hands on the conference table. Everyone around him was looking at him intently, and his eyes were flashing.

Cold light.

Obviously, the sound just now was made by him.

"Don't think about going public anymore, don't think about how much first-mover advantage we had, let alone fantasize about what new business we will drive." Larry Page snapped, "Think about the gbmail we once planned.

Think about our eroded news advertising market, think about the genius lab we once acquired, and think about the Google Earth project that was preempted by Bing."

Larry Page looked at the pairs of eyes in the conference room, and the cold light shone in his eyes again:

"The advertising business corresponding to search engines is our real foundation. If we are pulled down by Bing in this field, we will not be far from failure! Now, please forget our past glory and what we can give you after listing.

How much profit does the stock bring? Please remember our failures in the past days in your heart, and then spend as much time and money as possible to fight for and buy enough traffic back!

Whether it is Yahoo, whether it is MySpace, whether it is blogger, whether it is YouTube, whether it is the website of small and medium-sized website owners, now we need to seize it back."

Staring closely at the head of Google's business department, Larry Page said in a deep voice, "Just like Bing's advertising on YouTube, we need to get as much traffic as possible as soon as possible!"

"Okay, Mr. President." The head of Google's business department nodded like a rattle.

"Whatever it takes!" Larry Page said firmly.

***+***

"Master, what you are seeing now is our advertising revenue for the entire year of 2004. I specially collected some side information to estimate Google's revenue in 2004, but because there is no clear data, there may be 15%

The difference is within the upper and lower range. But I estimate that this 15% may be the smaller part."

Lu Qi's voice came from the headphones, and Lu Qi's screen content was seen on the monitor with the help of Queqiao internal version.

What was displayed in front of Ning Zimo was the comparison chart between Google's revenue and Bing's revenue in 2004 as stated by Lu Qi.

Ning Zimo watched and thought carefully.

11 million US dollars in January;

12 million US dollars in February;

23 million US dollars in March;

35 million US dollars in April;

5398w US dollars in May;

8085w US dollars in June;

In July, Bing's advertising revenue exceeded 100 million for the first time and rose to 107 million U.S. dollars. And the overall revenue for the year finally exceeded 1 billion U.S. dollars, reaching 1.325 billion U.S. dollars!

Lucci estimated Google's full-year revenue in 2004 at around 1.85 billion.

Ning Zimo was not sure whether this amount was correct. But he vaguely remembered that Google's advertising revenue in 2004 seemed to be around 3 billion. If calculated based on the total revenue of Bing and Google's overall revenue, Lu Qi's contribution to Google's revenue

His estimate may be higher than Google's actual earnings! It is not lower than Google's actual earnings as he conservatively estimated.

But this is not a big problem. After all, Google in this life did not successfully go public in 2004, and there is no public financial data. Lu Qi can make such an estimate, which is already a reflection of his sufficient control over the search engine market.

.

After thinking about it, Ning Zimo said, "I think the mistake is not big, and our current monthly revenue of Bing has exceeded 200 million, so now there is no need to pay too much attention to the development of competitors, but to focus more on

Focus on your own development plan.”

After a pause, Ning Zimo continued, "I think it is better to follow your plan and put the [Wandering Earth] project in cooperation with Spark into the market as soon as possible to open up a new incremental market. Then, quickly push the book search function online

Accelerate the pace of market encroachment.”

"Okay, these plans are already being implemented. We will release the April Fool's Day product announcement for the first time on April 1 this year."

Lu Qi's tone seemed very relaxed, and through the earphones, Ning Zimo could even hear him laughing softly on the other end.

But before Ning Zimo could say anything, he sighed slightly, "It's a pity that our profit is not as much as expected, because in the past 2004, we invested 500 million yuan in traffic intake.

% or more of funds.

Although our total revenue reached US$1.325 billion, our marketing investment was reduced to 50%, comprehensive operating costs were reduced to 12%, R&D investment was reduced to 19%, and hardware investment was even reduced to 11%. So after calculation, our 2004

The annual gross profit margin is only 18%, which is really too much expense.”

"There is no need to belittle oneself," Ning Zimo smiled. "After all, the Internet industry is a place where every inch of land is precious. It must be a situation where the big fish eats the small fish. There is no possibility of peaceful development at all. If we

If we didn’t spend as much money as possible in the past year, it would have been impossible to get back Bing’s annual income of 1.325 billion.”

That being said, there were actually more hidden things that Ning Zimo wasn't prepared to tell Lu Qi.

Last year, Spark invested 500 million in the acquisition of qnx, and also invested more than 7,000 in three map program development companies. There are also bloggers acquired early on, the long-established celebrity plan, and YouTube, which has just been launched.

It seems that Bing is facing Google alone. It can rely on the traffic obtained from Yahoo's friendship, the traffic diverted by Myspace, LinkedIn, bloggers, and Spark chasing and intercepting them. These are all outside Bing's own system.

Invest.

If we hadn’t planned Skype in 2001, MySpace and LinkedIn in 2002, and acquired bloggers in the same year and established the celebrity plan. Then we continued to increase investment after selling Skype in 2004, then what would be the whole story?

Might there be a chance to beat Google?

Bing is not fighting alone at all. It relies on an entire cluster planned by itself to bring down Google!

After a pause to calm down, Ning Zimo then added, "In December last year, Bing's operating income reached 220 million U.S. dollars. Looking at the data in January and February this year, it reached 240 million and 260 million respectively. This shows that we

We are still on the right path, and this year is likely to be the year when we overtake Google!

Now my request for Bing is to invest all current profit-making funds into sustainable development, use as much funds as possible to purchase more traffic to occupy the market, and do everything possible to seize the share of the search market."

In addition to being a place where land is at a premium, the Internet industry is also a place where it is easy to form a monopoly to a certain extent, and this Internet monopoly is unavoidable to a certain extent. Because once a company exposes a small hole somewhere,

, other competing companies may find a breakthrough.

In the previous life, Google developed its ecological chain in an all-round way with abundant funds, which resulted in its absolute dominance. In this life, Ning Zimo finally obtained the qualifications to compete with Google for dominance through the strategy of surrounding the city from the countryside.

Now that Bing has the strength and opportunity to compete with Google according to the plan, I naturally cannot let it slip away easily!

"The only pity is that Yahoo, our largest traffic source in 2004, will not open the opportunity for us to increase the traffic entrance this year, which makes us lose the opportunity to obtain large traffic." Lu Qi sighed.

Although he couldn't see his movements, Ning Zimo still smiled and shook his head.

"Don't always focus on the traffic of portal websites. The era of social networking has arrived. You must have confidence in YouTube and MySpace."

Ning Zi silently looked at the Gantt chart comparing the revenue of Bing and Google. He paused and said, "In terms of tactics, we are rich and flexible. Since we have grabbed a lot of shares from Google users in the past year, then this year we will

Just rely on the rise of the social era and let Google experience the feeling of losing ground!"