Chapter 556 (1/2)
As a key project that igritte has been quietly incubating, all aspects have been considered clearly. Perhaps it is because of too clear thinking that the design of the first version of the home page was directly killed by Simon.
Because it's too cumbersome.
Simon has a deep memory of the classified information websites in his memory. At a glance, a lot of redundant information rushes into the eye, so that you don't know what to do.
The 58list team initially made a similar mistake.
In order to let users realize that their service is thoughtful enough, the initial home page planning has three screens.
Simon finally only gave a screen design space, and asked to be simple again, with the current mainstream dial-up network speed, it must also be opened instantly without waiting.
This also means that the home page basically exists in the form of full text.
In addition, most of the non mainstream classified information services have been cut off. In the short term, they focus on real estate, work and second-hand projects. In fact, they basically cover more than 80% of the classified information advertisements on the paper media platform.
The final page, in addition to the website logo and search box, is succinctly divided into four parts, with real estate, work and second-hand as the main services, and also provides a forum for customer exchange.
As a pioneer of the World Wide Web era, there is no technical problem for igrit.
The key to success is operation.
For Simon, a latecomer, he knows better than anyone the false information, network fraud and other problems that catalog websites will encounter in the process of operation.
Therefore, in the preparatory process, the formation of the legal team has become the top priority of the subsidiary.
Americans often talk with lawyers. Once they encounter fraud and other problems when seeking services on the 58list platform, they will definitely point the finger at the rich and powerful igrit for the first time.
The Internet classified information service touches the foundation of the annual revenue of the traditional paper media platform, which is as high as 20 billion US dollars. It can be imagined that as long as there is a dispute, the paper media will never be stingy to stir up the public opinion to the top and push igritte to the top.
It is almost a general trend that free Internet classified information service replaces the charging service of paper media.
Simon believes no one can stop this trend.
However, in this never calm game of industrial redistribution, the smooth development of 58list can be safeguarded to the greatest extent by establishing a strong legal team in advance and formulating clear terms of rights and responsibilities.
At the end of the last meeting before 58list went online, we had lunch together in the restaurant of igritte headquarters.
During this period, igritte has invested in a number of start-ups continuously with us $1.5 billion from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. 58list is the only wholly-owned subsidiary of igritte similar to Facebook, Google and Amazon. Therefore, it can be seen that the senior management attaches great importance to this project.
58list's CEO, Michael novarek, 35, graduated from MIT and worked for HP for five years.
After igritte was founded, Michael novarek was hired to become one of the company's first employees.
As an energetic technology bull with a doctorate, Michael novarek has successively participated in the development of e-mail and online forum projects of igrit portal.
Simon, Bezos, Tim Bonas Lee and Michael novarek sit at a table in the dining room.
We continued to discuss some issues about the 58list business model. Aware of Michael novarek's complacency, Simon asked, ”Mike, how much revenue do you think will be converted into the Internet industry in 10 years' time in the $20 billion traditional paper classified information advertising market?”
Michael novarek said: ”in 10 years' time, even if the Internet's free feature can't convert the entire $20 billion output value, I believe there will still be an industry scale of about $5 billion. Moreover, low operating costs will allow us to have a very high profit margin, which is unmatched by traditional paper media. ”
Simon looked at Bezos and Lee and asked, ”how much do you think there should be?”
Tim Berners Lee said, ”I think there should be five billion dollars.”
Jeff Bezos probably felt Simon's intention and said: ”what we are doing now is just classified information service similar to traditional paper media. With the development of Internet industry, 58list can provide more classified value-added services in the future, so as to further expand the market. The figure of 5 billion US dollars is not much.”
Simon nodded slightly.
58list doesn't intend to pursue any profit in the short term, but during this time, igritte's team has developed more than one sustainable potential business model.
Craig catalog used to monopolize the North American market as a classified information website. Because of the founder's free operation concept, although it has such a large amount of traffic, its annual revenue is only a few hundred million dollars.Of course, after many years of development, there are only a few dozen employees, and the profit margin brought by Craig catalog's annual revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars is also terrible. As a result, super Internet giants such as Yahoo, Google and Facebook have tried to enter the classified information market one after another.
The key to the success of Craig catalog lies in free and monopoly.
This time, igritte company started its layout ahead of time, and it is even easier to form a de facto monopoly in this market relying on its own advantages.
However, it is also very difficult to obtain a large amount of revenue.
Simon and the other three people all expressed their views, pointed up two fingers and said: ”200 million dollars.”
Even Bezos, who knows Simon is throwing cold water on Michael novarek, is somewhat surprised. If 58list can only achieve $200 million in revenue in 10 years, the business is not worth continuing.