Reborn Russia As An Oligarch

Entering Sergey's room, it was still as messy as the last time he saw it, with all kinds of things placed randomly.

A computer is placed on the desk, and two small spherical monitors are placed side by side.

There is another computer host placed on the ground. Various network cables and power cords are in a mess. You have to be careful not to trip over it when walking.

The computer host made a "buzzing" sound, and the heat emitted made the temperature in the room several degrees higher than outside.

Sergey picked up the dirty clothes on the chair and threw them on the bed, and asked Wang Ye to sit down.

He turned around and opened the small refrigerator in the corner and took out two bottles of cold beer.

Wang Ye took the beer, sat down, and glanced at the computer screen. It was full of lines of code, which he naturally couldn't understand.

He smiled and asked: "Sergey, you are a senior this year, haven't you thought about going out to find an internship or something?"

Sergey raised his head and took a sip of beer, exhaled contentedly, and then replied: "I don't have time to find a job. I am now responsible for maintaining the school's local area network. This can be considered a job. Although the salary is not high, it is good. You have free time and can do what you want.”

In Russia, the Internet fee is still quite high. When Wang Ye rented an apartment, the monthly Internet fee was more than 180 US dollars!

You know, that was back in 2001.

The monthly salary of a university teacher is only four to five hundred US dollars.

However, in school, the Internet fee is relatively cheaper, which can be regarded as one of the benefits of students.

For example, the dormitory at Friendship University offers a monthly subscription fee of US$45 per month with unlimited traffic, but don’t expect fast internet speeds.

It was no problem to read a web page or something, but in those days, you really didn’t need a fast internet speed.

As for Moda, the Internet fee is even cheaper, only $25 per month, also on a monthly basis.

And because of the large number of students, Mo University has a very good local area network and has its own server.

The most famous thing is the various shared resources in their LAN server.

It is said that the small H-movie alone is worth hundreds of gigabytes!

You know, the small movies at that time were only one or two hundred MB each.

Therefore, students from other schools often come here with hard drives to copy short movie resources.

Wang Ye in his previous life also did something like this...

…………

To be able to get the job of maintaining the school's local area network in a land full of talented people, it is obvious that Sergey's skills are quite impressive.

Because this job is not simple, it also involves helping students pull network cables to open the Internet, even assembling computers, and performing daily server maintenance.

You must be proficient in both software and hardware to be able to do it.

Wang Ye nodded and asked further: "You are about to graduate, right? What are your plans after graduation? Are you going to work or continue to study for a Ph.D.? If you want to study for a Ph.D., should you stay at MMU or study abroad?"

This question may have touched Sergey's pain point.

He took two sips of beer silently, then held the nearly empty beer can in his hand, making a squeaking noise.

After a while, he said with a wry smile: "Of course I will continue studying for a Ph.D. If I'm looking for a job, there aren't any good jobs in Moscow. But I haven't decided yet whether to study abroad or stay at Moscow State University..."

Wang Ye asked curiously: "You are studying computer science, right? It would be better to go abroad. Most of the students in your department have gone abroad after graduating from undergraduate degree, right?"

Sergey nodded and said with some pride: "Although there are few high-tech companies in our country, there are many computer-related talents! Students who graduated from the computer and mathematics departments of several prestigious universities want to apply for scholarships from prestigious British and American universities. It’s not difficult. It’s just that I’m a little unwilling. Why can’t we only go abroad to study for a Ph.D. and work for companies in other countries? Why can’t we build a few world-class high-tech companies ourselves!”

Wang Ye smiled slightly, "Now we also have good high-tech companies, such as YANDEX and MAIL.RU. These two companies were already very good. After the merger, they dominated the Russian Internet. They will definitely occupy the world's Internet industry in the future. A place for it.”

Sergey grinned, as if he wasn't too interested in the two companies Wang Ye mentioned.

He hesitated for a moment and then explained: "These two companies are pretty good, but I think they still lack creativity and are just imitating other companies. The only advantage is that they are Russian-language Internet companies and the competition is relatively small. .”

creativity?

Wang Ye smiled and asked: "Then what kind of companies do you think are creative?"

Sergey answered without hesitation: "Yahoo is, ICQ is, Amazon is, Google is also considered, and Apple is also included."

"Apple? Isn't that a company that manufactures hardware? How can it be said to be creative?" Wang Ye asked with a smile.

"The main thing is the online music store they launched last year. With the combination of software and hardware, I feel it is very promising." Sergey explained briefly.

Wang Ye nodded and asked: "So in our country, have you found any more innovative Internet companies?"

Sergey smiled proudly and reached out to turn the computer screen on the table.

"Look, this is a website I built. It should be considered the most creative one on the Russian Internet. I'm not bragging." As he spoke, he tapped the keyboard and opened a web page.

When Wang Ye took a look, his first impression was that this website is so crude...

The name of the website "Personal Short Blog of All-Russian University Students" is written in bold Russian on it.

Below are rows of school names retrieved by Russian letters. Sergey clicked the mouse and entered a random university.

On the university page, there are various professional categories again. Click a category again, and it will be a blank page. Obviously there are no users yet...

While operating, Sergey explained to Wang Ye:

"My website is a combination of the currently popular alumni directory and personal blog, absorbing the advantages of both websites and making innovations. Existing blogs all publish long articles, which requires users to spend money on it. It takes a lot of time and energy to write articles, but ordinary users are not interested in this. So, I simply canceled the long article blog and changed it to the form of pictures and short articles..."

Wang Ye was dumbfounded, this...

Isn’t it the prototype of Facebook?

It's just that the website Sergey built is a computer-based website, more like Weibo.

Of course, nowadays, almost no one uses mobile phones to surf the Internet, so it is naturally impossible to make a mobile client.

All Internet companies are still targeting the PC side.