Silicon Valley

Miramax Films was established in 1979, much earlier than Galaxy Films, and owns a lot of film rights. At this time, Nicholas IMDB urgently needs to buy a large number of film online copyrights, just use it!

Nicholas IMDB has spent more than 200 million US dollars this time and purchased tens of thousands of film and television works.

Real-Networks has also improved the RealPlayer video player, and divided the "online movie library" into categories, and users can see it at a glance after clicking it!

Because of the IMDB website, it is not difficult to promote the RealPlayer video player.

The IMDB website is the world's largest Internet movie library, ranking in the top ten in terms of website traffic.

The IMDB website didn't have a "watch online" feature before, but it does now.

In fact, the so-called "online viewing" has stolen the concept, and current browsers cannot provide viewing movies on web pages. After clicking "Watch Online", there will only be a black screen on the webpage, which shows a line of words "Please download the RealPlayer video player to watch this movie. If the RealPlayer video player cannot be played, please refresh the page once"!

A "RealPlayer Download" option appears below the black screen. Download RealPlayer Video Player with one click!

The RealPlayer video player was released at 12:00 on July 20, and the homepage of the IMDB website also gave promotion and download links.

At present, there are all kinds of download software on the market, the most famous one is Thunder P2P.

Thunder P2P is a software developed by the P2P department of Williams Laboratory. The software is less than 1MB, simple and practical. The most important thing is that the software is just like its name.

It is precisely because of this that Thunder P2P can quickly occupy the download software market. Become one of the current mainstream download software!

At the same time, Thunder P2P also launched its own website. Unlike software, a website is rich in content. All kinds of software can be found on the Thunder P2P website, and there are even download rankings for your reference.

When downloading RealPlayer video player, if you don't have Thunder P2P on your computer. Then, Thunder P2P will be downloaded by default, and then RealPlayer will be downloaded.

In the previous life, Henry downloaded games or something. At the beginning, he downloaded the company's download software by default, and then downloaded the real game through this download software! This is the red fruit binding. Whether the user likes it or not. It has to be like this anyway!

The launch of RealPlayer means the opening of the era of online viewing on the Internet, which immediately caused huge waves in the Internet!

On July 20th, the slogan on the homepage of the IMDB website was: "Epoch-making software - RealPlayer online video player!!!"

When you click into it, a detailed introduction to the RealPlayer video player will appear.

"RealPlayer uses the most advanced technology at present, no need to wait for downloading, you can watch while downloading, even under low network speed, users can watch videos smoothly! Currently. RealPlayer's online movie library has the hottest movies and videos There are tens of thousands of works, click to watch, and users are welcome to download and use!"

Some people downloaded RealPlayer after reading the slogan on the homepage; some people saw an "online viewing" option appearing under the pictures of some movies, and clicked to download out of curiosity.

Either way, after downloading and using RealPlayer, user satisfaction is high.

"It's cool. In the past, I could only see the picture and introduction of a movie. If I wanted to watch it, I had to make a special trip to rent a videotape. It's too troublesome! Watching online, this is a dick!!!"

"Oh, it's so cool, I can watch a lot of movies at home! Hoho, tens of thousands of movies can be chosen by me, it's dazzling if put together! However, RealPlayer has already considered users and is very user-friendly , separate movies and TV, and classify them separately, including sci-fi, horror, action, etc., what type of movie or TV show you want to watch, just look for it directly under this type!"

"..."

The layman watches the fun, the layman watches the doorway.

The industry is shocked by RealPlayer!

"I am a programmer, and online viewing involves many technologies, such as video compression technology, which is very difficult. At present, there is no company that can realize this function of online viewing. Real-Networks is too awesome!"

"It is foreseeable that the launch of the RealPlayer video player will rewrite the Internet video field and even have a huge impact on the traditional industry!"

"The most critical technology of RealPlayer is the video format. Only video formats with high compression efficiency can be downloaded and watched online. We know that Microsoft launched the avi video format this year, and the avi video format has just been released to the Internet. At the time, many people were surprised and called it the best video format. In fact, the avi video format was true at the time! However, within a few months, avi was overtaken. Exactly In other words, it is completely different from the video format supported by RealPlayer, it can be said to be a world of difference!"

"The video format supported by RealPlayer is called rmvb video format, developed by a little-known company called Real-Networks. We never knew about the existence of this company until the release of RealPlayer Video Player. However, After some investigation, it turns out that Real-Networks is not the small company we imagined, because there is still a person behind it, a person everyone must look up to... This person is Henry Williams!! !"

"From this, we can know that success is not accidental!"

...

...

A week later, the number of RealPlayer downloads exceeded 1 million, and the "Online Movie Library" was used to play movies more than 15 million times.

The stats just came out, and the studios were shocked.

15 million times, which is tens of millions of dollars if used to rent or buy video tapes!

To know. This is RealPlayer's performance for a week!

The film company was a little crazy, and even regretted selling the film's online rights to Nicholas IMDB, so that Marcy Fremont wanted to buy the film's online rights again. Difficulty.

However, it won't be long before pirated videos will come out.

The culprit behind the accelerated piracy is Real-Networks. A week later, Real-Networks released another software tool, the rmvb format converter. It can convert various video formats to rmvb video format.

RealPlayer can support "online viewing", and the "local viewing" function is naturally not a problem.

There are already some websites for downloading pirated videos on the Internet. However, due to the limitation of network speed, it is difficult for these pirated websites to develop. The rmvb format converter released by Real-Networks is just for them. So that they can convert all the video formats stored in the server to rmvb. Then provide it to netizens to download!

The benefits of Real-Networks' release of the rmvb format converter are mainly in two aspects. On the one hand, it increases the number of downloads of RealPlayer and enhances its influence; on the other hand, in a sense, it also enriches movie resources!

Netizens download pirated movies from pirated websites, what does it have to do with Real-Networks?

After the owner of the pirated website got the rmvb format converter, he was so excited that he didn't sleep all night, and immediately organized the work of converting the format!

Henry went to Real-Networks at this time to find out the situation. never thought. But here I meet someone.

"Hello, Mr. Williams, it's a pleasure to meet you here. My name is Jiang Wanmeng, I'm from China!" Jiang Wanmeng was a little shocked when he saw Henry, and hurriedly stepped forward to say hello.

Henry knew who he was as soon as he heard him introduce himself.

Jiang Wanmeng is the founder of Wanyan VCD Company, the first VCD in the world was manufactured by Wanyan VCD Company. In 1992, Jiang Wanmeng, who originally worked in Anhui TV Station, went to the United States to participate in the International Radio and Television Technology Exhibition. At this exhibition, Jiang Wanmeng was caught by an inconspicuous technology, MPEG decompression technology, exhibited by C-CUBE Skober Microsystems in the United States.

Jiang Wanmeng is keenly aware of the MPEG technology that can store images and sounds on a relatively small disc. It means that a high-quality and inexpensive audio-visual product can be created for ordinary people to use at home.

The chairman of C-CUBE Skober Microsystems is Sun Yansheng, a Chinese American.

The two cooperated and established Wanyan VCD company together, and even the company name is a combination of their two names.

What Henry just didn't understand was that he should have worked with C-Cube and Skober Microsystems, so how could he come to Real-Networks?

However, Henry knew that C-CUBE Skober Microsystems was a pitiful company, which had made Wanyan VCD miserable. The real core technology of VCD is the decoding chip, but it is controlled by C-CUBE Skober Microsystems.

Obviously, Jiang Wanmeng's small arms and legs, how could it be possible to wrench the wrist with C-Uube? Jiang Wanmeng definitely couldn't get the patent for the decoding chip!

Jiang Wanmeng thought that C-Cube could be tied up with shares, but C-Cube saw the huge VCD market in China and sold decoding chips, which was more than the money it received from Wanyan VCD. Sell ​​decoding chips to all buyers.

Wanyan VCD started with brilliance, but ended in failure.

In fact, another major reason for the failure of Wanyan VCD is that Jiang Wanmeng did not apply for a patent for the whole machine for Wanyan VCD, so that everyone could get a piece of the pie. Perhaps, in Jiang Wanmeng's view at that time, it was useless to apply for a patent for the whole machine. Because what he knows is that China is a country where piracy is rampant, and patents, etc., have a use for wool. It costs money to apply for a patent, save it if you can!

As a result, 1,000 prototypes came out, and they were sold out as soon as they went on the market. The buyer then takes the VCD back and disassembles the counterfeit.

VCD players basically have no technical content. To say that they have technical content, it mainly lies in the decoding chip. With the decoding chip, anyone can make a VCD.

Henry looked at Jiang Wanmeng and asked, "Well, hello, may I ask, what's the matter with you here?"

"I'll come and visit and ask Real-Networks about the rmvb format!" Jiang Wanmeng responded.

Henry rolled his eyes and thought, could it be that Jiang Wanmeng wants to use rmvb as the video format for VCD?

"Have you consulted?" Henry asked him with a smile.

Jiang Wanmeng nodded: "I consulted!"

"what do you think?!"

"Very good video format, better than all current video formats!" Jiang Wanmeng praised.

Henry smiled, did not speak, but looked at him and let him continue.

Jiang Wanmeng was silent for a while and said, "Mr. Williams, to be honest, I came to inspect your company this time, in fact, I wanted to cooperate with your company! Previously, my idea was to design a Wumart product based on MPEG technology. Inexpensive audition product, but after seeing rmvb, I think rmvb is better than MPEG!"

Henry asked knowingly, "Have you found other companies before?"

"Yes!" Jiang Wanmeng nodded and said, "I have seen C-Cube's MPEG compression technology at the International Radio and Television Technology Exhibition, and this is how I came up with this idea! This time I came to the United States, I originally wanted to work with C-Cube. The company cooperated, but I saw rmvb at this time, so I thought about it and came over to ask about the situation. As a result, rmvb made my heart a lot!"

Henry also moved in his heart, but his face was calm. He looked at Jiang Wanmeng and said, "Well, very good, since that's the case, then we are also happy to cooperate! Mr. Jiang Wanmeng, please come to the office, and we will discuss the cooperation in detail!"

"Okay!" Jiang Wanmeng replied.

Henry smiled slightly and took him to the chairman's office. As Henry walked, he thought to himself, C-Cube is unlucky and lost a cash cow!

...

"Please sit down!"

Henry then asked the secretary to bring Jiang Wanmeng a glass of water, and then talked about cooperation.

Jiang Wanmeng said: "This product, I call it VCD. At present, CDs are generally audio CDs, and what we want to do is video CDs, V stands for video. The most important core component of VCD is the decoding chip. The way I originally cooperated with C-Cube was to entrust them to design the decoding chip and hold 30% of the shares! How do you think we can cooperate in this way?"

Henry smiled and joked: "Aren't you afraid that I will sell the decoding chip to other companies in the future? The 30% stake may not be as much as the money I make from selling the decoding chip..."

Jiang Wanmeng's face sank when he heard this. In fact, this was what he was most worried about.

(To be continued ~^~)