Chapter 827 Beyond everyone's imagination!
"The fee after binding is $1.59 per month, $4.79 per quarter, $8.49 per half year, $15.99 per year, and $15.99 per year. High-end customized one-to-one account preservation service is not discounted.m. Lewen Mobile Network"
The annual fee is $15.99? That is equivalent to giving a 20% discount on two $9.99. But that's true. Since it's a discounted package, it's OK to get a 20% discount. After thinking quickly, Lin Zheng was quite satisfied with the price and said: "In principle, there is no problem. In this way, entrust the relevant company to conduct a survey to see if such a price can be accepted by everyone."
"Okay, I'll make arrangements now." Beniel agreed quickly and felt much more comfortable: his suggestions could still be accepted by the boss. For Beniel, who urgently needed to prove to Lin Zheng that he was not a corpse, Lin Zheng's move was of great significance!
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To Lin Zheng’s expectations, after Mellon Bank left, no bank was willing to have in-depth exchanges with IQ. This was obviously not optimistic about IQ’s implementation of charging services. Otherwise, these guys who are sensitive to money like cats and fish will definitely rush up impatiently;
This is not what Lin Zheng feels the most strange. What Lin Zheng feels the most strange is that after the news of IQ launching paid services spread, AOL will definitely take this opportunity to criticize IQ's approach, but the development of things is completely opposite to what Lin Zheng imagined. Regarding the upcoming membership fee system of IQ, IQ's biggest opponent: AOL, has always been silent.
This is not normal!
As the biggest competitor of IQ, Lin Zheng instinctively doubted whether this was a conspiracy in the United States Online. It was still under Benier's reminder that Lin Zheng realized why such a strange situation occurred in the market: In this era, Internet companies lived a hard life, and the only way for everyone to make money is to appear as an advertising platform. However, compared with traditional advertising media such as TV, newspapers and even radio, the new advertising platform of live chat software cannot be recognized by the market, and the advertising revenue is pitiful.
Lin Zheng agrees with this point. IQ is a very small number of Internet companies that can make money. But even IQ, the income they earn in advertising can barely maintain the financial balance of the company. The second brother, American Online, is even worse. If it were not for the care of several of its own companies, the advertising fee they could get was only tens of thousands of dollars a year.
As American Online is like this, you can imagine how sad other live chat software companies are.
IQ's current action can be regarded as exploring new profit channels for all live chat software service providers around the world, besides advertising. If IQ can succeed in doing so, it means that the market can accept this way of making money by relying on value-added services. Everyone has an extra way to make money. Who will not be able to get along with the money? Therefore, although everyone is so angry about IQ, this does not prevent everyone from forming a high level of tacit understanding at this time: they will never pull the hindrance of IQ.
After understanding what happened, Lin Zheng couldn't help but sigh: I'm afraid there are many differences within Mellon Bank about this, right? Otherwise, they wouldn't be so unproactive.
But it doesn't matter. Lin Zheng believes that these guys will regret it in the future. However, in order to be able to slap these bastards in the face, the most urgent task is...
"Lao Bei, how are we doing? Did the users of icq in our forum have a big rebound in the account protection service we launched?"
"Boss, we are doing the final debugging now, and we can ensure that 0 points will be available online," Beniel's voice sounded a little tired, but was more excited and excited: "The users have always been supportive of our approach. They think it is worth it to pay a little to ensure the security of their accounts."
"Very good, I'm waiting for your good news..."
Taking a deep breath. After hanging up the phone, Lin Zheng opened the icq forum: As the most concentrated place for icq users, in the past few days, the news that icq will launch account protection services has always been the main content that users discuss...
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It was already 10:30 pm, but Paulson was not sleepy at all. He even had the intention to play "Warcraft" his favorite, on weekdays. His gray-blue eyes looked at the time in the lower right corner of the screen from time to time, and always felt that today's time passed too slowly - he was waiting for 12 o'clock.
At 12 o'clock, it is time for IQ to officially launch the IQ account preservation service.
As a student at MIT, Paulson has the characteristics of all science and engineering students: he is shy and has not strong ability to communicate with others. As a student who was admitted to MIT with high scores, Paulson is even more "leading" among them. As long as he stands in front of the girl, he is so nervous that he doesn't know how to speak.
But Paulson is a young man. When he saw other lovers in pairs, Paulson was extremely envious and hoped that he could have his own relationship in college. However, his damn behavior habits made Paulson look pessimistic about his love. He even felt that he might have met a beautiful girl during college and having a passionate relationship was a luxury that could not be reached.
But the appearance of icq gave Paulson a brand new world. Paulson was surprised to find that in the world of icq, he had eliminated his usual taciturn words. He was not only knowledgeable, but also humorous and funny. In just less than half a year, he met his lover... Although he had never met and everyone just chatted through icq, Paulson had become immersed in his happy world.
But Paulson also has his own concerns. He is very clear that the security level of icq is not high. People with a little bit of hacking knowledge can easily steal their icq account. Well, or steal any person's account. Paulson, who has regarded the icq account as his most precious wealth, certainly does not want to see this happen. Although he has memorized the girl's account, not only does he have that familiar girl, but also many other friends on his icq account. Do you want to record everyone's account? God, this is really painful!
Paulson firmly believed that icq should do something for this, especially the pitiful appearance of several stolen guys who appeared in the school some time ago, which made Paulson be careful: even if he spent some money on this, he could accept it...
Subconsciously refreshed the page. Paulson, who was absent-minded, was shocked: It's coming out!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not yet 12 o’clock. It’s not that the account security system has been officially opened, but that the function and cost of the account security system have been introduced.
Paulson, who had been waiting for a long time, looked over carefully. The monthly fee for applying for account security service was US$0.99, less than US$1? The annual fee was only US$9.99. Less than US$10?
Not bad! Paulson, who originally thought that the service fee for the account preservation service launched by icq would be very high, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief: the annual fee is only less than $10, which is nothing at all. Anyone can afford it, but... what is this member?
Paulson, who only costs $15.99 a year when he saw the introduction below, was stunned.
"ICQ will provide members with more value-added services. The value-added services activated in advance have custom avatar functions, custom nickname font color functions, and super-large group functions of 200 people..." Paulson read gently, looking at the introduction of the custom avatar function "such as setting a lover's photo as your own avatar". His eyes suddenly lit up: "If I set Jenny's photo as my avatar, Jenny should understand what I mean, right?"
Although IQ said that more membership functions will be activated in the future, in the opinion of the otaku Paulson, this membership function has no practical significance. But he also admitted that if the membership and account preservation service costs $15.99 per year, the amount of money is still worth it: in this era, what can I buy $6? Just give a small gift to the girl I like or have something with her for more than $6, right?
I took a look at the time inadvertently, Damn it! It was already 00:00? Paulson quickly refreshed the page and waited for a while. The previous page changed...
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"Boulson, I heard you applied for IQ account security last night? Is it true?" At noon the next day, Paulson's classmate in the dormitory, Washington, whispered Paulson.
"That's right." Paulson nodded. He knew that Washington met many beautiful girls online and had a great time chatting with them. This guy cared about his account very much.
"How much?"
“$0.99 per month, $9.99 per year.”
"Wow, so expensive?" Washington obviously didn't think the price was very cheap, so he frowned immediately.
"It's less than $10 a year. Is this expensive?"
"Brother, isn't this price expensive?"
"I think it's okay." Although Paulson is not a rich man, he really doesn't think that the service fee of $9.99 a year is very expensive. To be honest, who can't afford this little money? Besides, if you think it's expensive, you can pay it once a month. It costs $0.99 a month, who can't afford this little money?
"It's fine if $0.99 a year, $9.99 a year? God! I won't give the money I earned from working hard to these damn capitalists. Without this account, I'm just having fun chatting with my cute little girls," Washington said, opening his computer like a demonstration: "Look, even if I don't spend a penny, I'll have fun. Why don't I spend this money on the girls I like... Oh? God!"
Without warning, Washington suddenly screamed.
"What's wrong?" Washington's scream shocked Paulson.
"My account," pointed to his computer, and Washington gritted his teeth, "I can't log in..."
Can't log in? Paulson opened his IQ account casually and logged in easily: "How could it be? I logged in here? Could it be that there is something wrong with your network?"
"How come there are problems with my network? Look. My web page can be easily opened...Click..."
Speaking of this, Washington was suddenly stunned and looked at Paulson: "Damn! I've been stolen!"
In addition to being stolen by the damned account thieves and tampered with their passwords, can there be a second explanation for the situation in front of them?
Looking at the sad and angry place, cursing myself for not even spending $0.99, although I knew that I was happy at this time, Paulson was still in a very happy mood: the $15.99 spent was particularly worth it!
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For a whole day, Lin Zheng did not step out of his office.
For a whole day, he was observing the popularity of the account security system through the icq database system.
The situation was beyond Lin Zheng's expectations and beyond the expectations of all IQ executives. From the opening of the account security service function at 00:00 to 22:24 now, more than 120,000 IQ users have applied for account security services.
This is not what surprised Lin Zheng the most. What surprised Lin Zheng the most was that he thought that in the face of this new thing, most people would probably try to apply for the one-month account security service, but the actual situation was not the case. Less than 30% of users applied for the one-month account security service. The number of users who opened for one-month account security service accounted for 50% of the proportion. The number of users who chose to open for one-year year even exceeded 20%. About 4% of users chose to open the account security and membership functions at the same time. The database system automatically counted that today's income was as high as US dollars.
A brand new paid service, before the end of a day, more than 120,000 users applied to launch a paid service, and their income on the first day was as high as more than 840,000 US dollars?
As soon as this number came out, not only Lin Zheng was extremely excited, but Benier was even more excited and kept whispering to Lin Zheng, "Boss. We sent it, we sent it..."
"We sent it!" Lin Zheng nodded heavily with a hug of Benier!
The best result that everyone predicted before was that more than 10,000 users could be activated. But now, this number is more than 10 times more than what you predicted!
How can everyone not be excited about this result?
Today, even in the first week and the first month, icq users were still skeptical and doubtful about this service. There were many people who opened the service, but there were actually more people watching. Lin Zheng knew that Benier knew. The staff of icq also knew that after a while, after everyone personally experienced the kind of account preservation service, this service would become the most important source of income for icq!
As for the huge user scale of icq, even after the peak growth period, it can basically maintain the scale of 60,000 to 80,000 new users every day. After a year, including the renewal of old users... it cannot be forgotten. Benier suddenly felt dizzy in front of him: this year is a net income of hundreds of millions of dollars!
This money is too simple to make!
Looking at the technician who was also excited and blushed, Lin Zheng announced loudly: "Thank you for all this time, everyone's bonus this month is quadrupled!"
As soon as Lin Zheng finished speaking, the technicians who had already waited for the boss to announce the bonus immediately cheered: "Long live the boss!"
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Lin Zheng's prediction was still a little different. He thought that the number of people who could open 120,000 on the first day was because the service was just launched, and the number of new users should gradually slow down after that, but the subsequent development gave Lin Zheng a huge surprise: the number of users who opened the service every day did not decrease, but was increasing, from 120,000 to 125,000, 130,000, and 140,000... A week later, the number actually reached 180,000!
The number of new icq account security service that has been launched every day has exceeded 180,000?! After this number came out, Lin Zheng suddenly wanted to slap himself to wake up. Although it was slightly different from the situation some time ago, among the new users, the proportion of users who chose to activate $0.99 per month is gradually increasing, accounting for more than 40% of the number of new users, but considering this huge base, this number is still too amazing.
Lin Zheng was still shocked, but Mellon Bank could not wait to hit him and die on the wall.
Although the account of icq is open at Citibank, Mellon Bank still used its own channels to inquire about the daily income of the newly opened service of icq. The directors of Mellon Bank yelled to let some people stand up and take responsibility.
In just less than a week, Tim Sloan, the chief financial officer of Mellon Bank, was like staying in Africa with little food and clothing for two years. He stood in front of Robert Kelly, the chairman of Mellon Bank, and said sadly: "Mr. Chairman, this time it was my mistake. I am willing to take all the responsibility for this matter."
Robert Kelly sighed and patted Tim Sloan on the shoulder and said, "Hey, man, you don't have to blame yourself so much. We all know that this is not your fault. Who would have thought that so many people would spend money crazy?"
Speaking of this, Robert Kelly smiled bitterly and said to Tim Sloan: "Did you know, when I was young, I dreamed that if every American gave me a dollar, I would be a billionaire. My dream was not realized, but now it seems that this dream has come true with this little kid."
That's right? From a certain perspective, what Lin Zheng is doing at this moment is indeed a game of "Everyone gives me 1 dollar and I become a billionaire". In the past, people thought that this was just a child's dream. Who would have thought that Lin Zheng, a bastard, turned all this into reality now?
Robert Kelly was smiling bitterly, and Tim Sloan was also smiling bitterly. He smiled bitterly at what Lin Zheng said when he left Lin Zheng's office one day: I hope Mellon Bank will not regret it.
At this moment, he still clearly remembered the ridicule of Lin Zheng in his heart: This is Bank of Mellon, whose total assets are hitting the 200 billion US dollar mark! Will Bank of Mellon regret it? Joke!
But now, just a week passed, and Lin Zheng's words were still heard, but he really began to regret it. At this moment, Tim Sloan felt that Lin Zheng's words were like a loud slap in the face, slapped heavily on his face... I guess that guy must be smiling very proudly at this moment?
"Your Excellency Chairman, I'd better decide to try it again." Tim Sloan said to Robert Kelly.
"Do you decide to try it?" Robert Kelly looked at Tim Sloan in a steady state and asked in a deep voice: "You should understand that Citibank must have taken action. They cannot be indifferent to such a high-quality customer in danger of losing it."
This is a real truth. Although IQ used to have the largest user base in the world, its financial situation was very average. At best, it can only be said to be a potential stock. Citibank attaches great importance to them, but it can only be said to be a general attention. But now it is different. In just one week, icq has fully proved to Citibank that it is no longer a potential stock. The potential stock at the beginning has broken out into a butterfly. If this time comes, Citibank doesn't know how to quickly catch the golden pig of icq, their management should be dismissed.
"I know," Tim Sloan nodded with a wry smile. Of course he knew that the guys at Citibank were not vegetarians, "but do I have any choice now?"
Yes, does Tim Sloan have any choice now? Hearing Tim Sloan say this, Robert Kelly smiled bitterly: Although it was not Tim Sloan who volunteered to persuade Lin Zheng when he arranged the job of convincing Lin Zheng, and the board could not reach him, but the situation is different now, and someone always has to stand up.
He patted Tim Sloan's shoulder hard and took a deep breath. Robert Kelly said with a serious look on his face: "Okay, go ahead, I promise you too that if someone initiates an impeachment case against you, I will do my best to help you win it on the board of directors... After all, you are the chief financial officer of Mellon Bank, and negotiating with others is not your job, and you have always done a good job in your job." (To be continued)
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Chapter completed!