Back To 1995

  Chapter 950 The Jewel in the Crown

After taking a shower at the fastest speed, Colin McMillan took out the formal suit that was pressed at the bottom of the suitcase and put it on. This was the rule when Edgar Bronfman Jr. was the president of ICQ. He didn't like to see The "style" inside ICQ requires everyone to wear formal clothes.

  Walking on the streets of San Jose, the wind was blowing, and there was a slight chill, but Colin McMillan's heart was full of fire. He had read the email several times just now, and finally determined that it was not a prank played on him by someone.

When he came to the gate of ICQ headquarters, he took a deep breath, and Colin McMillan walked in. Compared with before, there were obviously a lot more security personnel in front of the ICQ headquarters building, and some people carefully tested it with security equipment , before letting Colin Macmillan in.

  During the security check, Colin McMillan was still a little apprehensive. After all, there were not so many security check procedures before, but when he entered, Colin McMillan saw another scene.

  Colin McMillan saw the office scene of Internet "culture". It was hard to say what it was, but the scene in front of him convinced Colin McMillan that he came to an Internet company.

Compared with before, the entire ICQ is busy now, and compared to Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s time, it is obviously much more noisy, and except for Colin McMillan, who is wearing formal clothes with a few people, he sees The people inside were all busy in casual clothes.

The baffles that strictly separate the various departments, the executive offices and the office areas of ordinary employees were also strictly separated before, and now they have disappeared, and the president and directors are nowhere to be seen, but the executives of the various departments are now They all sit in the same area as the staff, that is, the office area is much larger, and there is no need to send emails to report something.

When going to the personnel department, Colin McMillan also saw new areas such as the tea room, lounge, gym, game room, and pet room that were relisted along the way. Why is it again, Colin McMillan listened Said that when he first entered ICQ, these departments existed, and they were all closed down by Edgar Bronfman Jr....

When he entered the personnel department, Colin McMillan felt that there had been a change here. It was no longer the attitude of the personnel department that was obviously higher than him when he first joined the job. At that time, the personnel assistant gave Colin McMillan a smile, and finally asked for his business card.

  Just after signing an agreement, completing the onboarding process, and getting back his access control card and other things, the head of the technical department who received the call over there hurried over.

   "Colin, **** it, finally someone from the technical department is back!"

Before Colin McMillan could speak, he was dragged out by the supervisor of the technical department and entered a new office area. Colin McMillan saw several people who were just like him sitting Inside, this is a newly formed R&D team.

  The director of the technical department only told Colin McMillan they said, "Come to live!"

  Having never experienced the research and development of ICQ and other products, Colin McMillan still doesn’t quite understand this sentence. He only guesses that ICQ has recruited a lot of people this time to develop new products.

   It is still unknown what product was developed, but Colin McMillan has heard about the treatment of the team members who developed ICQ.

After the launch of ICQ, members of the R&D team have received extremely generous rewards. Compared with the kind that ordinary American people can only earn after working for ten years, there are also option rewards, bonuses, dividends, etc., even if they leave ICQ , It has also become the target of the major Internet companies in Silicon Valley. If you go to other Internet companies, you can basically take the position of technical director or even manager level!

   Colin McMillan didn’t know if he would get the same treatment as before when developing a new product this time, but his heart couldn’t help getting a little hot.

  The management of ICQ is also very busy at this time. Irene, together with Greck, Marcus and others, are meeting ICQ's major banks, investment banks and other creditors, preparing to repay part of the dollar, and then reach a new agreement.

From American Telecom, Western Pictures, and Symbian Systems, ICQ can recover a lot of dollars, but returning all the money to banks, Wall Street institutions, investment banks and the like is purely overthinking. Repay part of it and make up for the interest. I mean, ICQ still needs to use this cash flow to do a lot of things, so how can I give it all away.

  Song Yang came to Wesley's office, which took over the technical department of ICQ again. Now Wesley is busy rectifying the technical department.

   "That guy, little Edgar, left me a mess!"

  When Wesley saw Song Yang, he couldn't help complaining that Edgar Bronfman Jr. wanted to take over the entire ICQ before, and kicked away many "thorns" who were unwilling to obey.

Especially in the technical department, little Edgar followed the principle of "can't eat meat without a butcher Zhang", and kicked away many rebellious engineers in the technical department. After all, in theory, it is hard to find three-legged toads in Silicon Valley. , Engineers with two legs are not everywhere.

Those are all the technical masters that Wesley managed to dig up at the beginning. ICQ and various new functions were developed by them, and they were responsible for maintenance and updates. The program searches once, and I don't know how long it will take.

As a result, ICQ has not updated a new version almost since Wesley left. Before that, ICQ claimed to be ahead of other social platforms for at least two centuries. It is not an exaggeration at all. MSN and Yahoo! Behind the buttocks, copy ICQ's ideas and concepts, and then change the skin, and even some small social platforms don't want to face, just copy directly.

   But now, ICQ does not have much advantage over technology alone, and mainly relies on patent barriers to block latecomers.

Wesley is busy going around, preparing for a new R&D team, and getting back those tech experts. However, the Internet market is not so good now, and it will take some effort to find the tech guys. Not afraid of being poached.

  If the Internet market was at its hottest, those tech giants would have been scooped up long ago.

  After making several phone calls, Wesley put down the phone and said eagerly, "Song, what new product do you want ICQ to develop?!"

  Outside, Wesley would still pretend to be the "father of Internet social networking", but in front of Song Yang, Wesley never thought of pretending to be Bi.

My family knows my own affairs, he has a few brushes, Wesley Menqing, at the beginning, he just needed to build momentum for ICQ, Song Yang has one more title and one less title, it doesn't matter, that's why he took the title of the father of ICQ Internet social networking Gave it to Wesley.

But the concept of ICQ, as well as the main functions, are almost all completed according to Song Yang's requirements. Wesley is just playing the role of a tool man. In front of Song Yang, Wesley has no need to pretend to be Bi, really. In terms of pretense, isn't Song Yang's experience more bragging than his? !

  "In the future, ICQ must maintain its absolute leading position, keep an eye on the social market, and acquire potential new social companies!"

   "ICQ will launch two new products this time, and officially confirm ICQ's status as the king of Internet social networking!"

  Hearing that Song Yang wanted ICQ to launch two new products in one go, Wesley was also taken aback for a moment, and then became more excited.

   "Skype and Twitter!"

  Wesley chewed on the two new social platforms that Song Yang was going to launch, and looked at Song Yang.

"Skype can be used as a supplement or upgrade to ICQ. It needs to provide more professional voice and video chatting, and it also has functions such as multi-person voice conferencing and video conferencing. It can communicate with merchants for eBay and Amazon users, and also It can provide communication services for more companies and users!"

  Wesley was a little hesitant when he heard it. Skype mainly focuses on voice and video chatting. Although Song Yang hopes that it can become the main communication and conference platform used by major companies, it will obviously take away some users of ICQ.

   “As for Twitter, you might think of it as a new kind of… blogging.”

  Song Yang calmly said to Wesley.

  (end of this chapter)