Hollywood Hunter

For security and privacy considerations, Simon does not intend to show the girls' lives for long. One week after the live broadcast of the London Villa Girls started, the Eaglet portal issued a notice on March 8 stating that the live broadcast will end on March 31 and last for one month.

Simon initially only planned to broadcast for two weeks.

Considering the fact that this phenomenon-level live video broadcast will promote AOL, Igreat, and the entire computer and Internet software and hardware industries, the live broadcast time has been extended to one month. A month later, the public heat of the girls has cooled down, and Eaglet has also completed detailed testing and data collection of the webcast technology.

During the period from the end of February to the beginning of March, along with the disturbance caused by the London girls, many companies in the Westeros system successively announced a series of financial report data, or the 1993 annual financial report calculated according to the natural year. It is the single-quarter financial report for the last natural quarter of 1993.

Daenerys Entertainment Group and Cisco, AOL, and Igreat Internet industry giants, which are promoting the IPO plan, have become the four most concerned companies in the Westeros system, and the financial reports of the four companies. The cycle happens to be calculated according to the natural year.

The first to announce the financial report was Cisco.

On February 25th, Cisco released the 1993 financial report through the Eaglet portal.

With the rapid growth of the Internet industry on a global scale, Cisco also completed the extensive global deployment of its products in 1993.

Even in order to avoid the influence of factors such as monopoly accusations and overseas country protection policies, Cisco's market share in the field of global routers and switches in 1993 dropped from over 95% when it went public three years ago to around 75% in 1993.

However, this new technology company that exploded rapidly with the rise of the World Wide Web still achieved a 135% revenue growth in 1993. The annual revenue increased from US$2.63 billion in 1992 to US$6.19 billion in 1993.

In the early stage, in consideration of technology research and development and market development, Cisco's net profit margins in 1991 and 1992 were maintained within 10%. With the completion of the global market layout, the company's net profit margin in 1993 also increased to more than 10%, reaching 12.6%, and the annual net profit was 779 million US dollars.

Compared with the net profit of US$252 million in 1992, the net profit in 1993 increased by 207% year-on-year.

In fact, the 12.6% net profit margin is still seriously low compared to the comprehensive cost of Cisco products. Cisco inside and outside knows that if it pursues profit as much as possible, the company can easily achieve a net profit margin of more than 20%, but regardless of Simon himself , Cisco management and the majority of external shareholders do not lack long-term vision, so it understands that Cisco needs to focus on expansion at this time, rather than impatiently pursuing profits.

The capital market was affected by Cisco’s annual revenue growth of up to 135% and the same amazing profit figures. On the day of the earnings report, Cisco’s stock price rose 3.6%, and its closing market value was $57.6 billion, surpassing the food and tobacco giant Philip Morris. Second to the veteran industrial giant General Electric Group with a market capitalization of US$791 billion that day, it became the second-highest company in North America by market value.

After a series of large and small corporate mergers and acquisitions and management equity incentives, Westeros’ shareholding in Cisco was reduced to 46.3% in early 1994. Based on the market value of US$57.6 billion on the day of February 25, Simon’s holdings of Cisco’s shares are worth US$26.7 billion, which alone surpasses any other rich man on the Forbes list.

On February 28, the last day of February, AOL announced the 1993 financial report following Cisco.

AOL has also launched a global expansion plan, but unlike Cisco, an Internet equipment manufacturer with relatively low barriers to overseas, AOL's overseas expansion, which focuses on the telecommunications field, is slower and basically appears in the form of joint ventures, so the focus of operation remains In the North American mainland.

As of December 31, 1993, the total number of AOL users in the United States reached 32.61 million, a year-on-year user growth of 88%, lower than 125% in 1992. This is mainly due to the gradual Internet penetration rate in AOL's original business area Because of the elevation. Although the potential for subsequent user growth is still great, due to factors such as infrastructure and economic conditions, residents' access to the Internet has begun to slow down.

Even so, the user base of more than 30 million accounts for 71% of the total number of users of the US World Wide Web, which is far larger than any other Internet service provider in the US at this stage.

Relying on such a large user base, AOL achieved total annual revenue of US$9.15 billion in 1993. Compared with the revenue of US$3.87 billion in 1992, the growth rate reached 136%. This data exceeds most Wall Street analysts. Expectations.

However, because of the huge investment in infrastructure equipment and ADSL network upgrades, AOL's loss in 1993 was as high as $769 million, an increase of 194% year-on-year.

AOL's losses have long been expected, and the capital market did not react too violently.

You know, after AOL issued US$1.2 billion in corporate bonds last year, the total debt was still only a mere US$2.6 billion. Compared with the company’s huge market value of more than US$50 billion, the corporate debt ratio is less than 5%, which is much lower than the same. Other companies in the industry.

As AOL is about to compete fiercely with local operators in the Great Lakes, the southern United States and other regions outside the east and west coasts, it is expected that the loss in 1994 will increase, and may even exceed 1 billion US dollars.

Simon knew this expectation last year, and the capital market knew it well.

Therefore, the huge loss in the financial report data on the day of AOL's release still did not affect the stock price rise. At the close of the afternoon of February 28th, the stock price rose by 2.7% throughout the day, with a total market value of US$56.2 billion, which also surpassed Philip Morris. Second only to Cisco, which had a market value of $59.1 billion after its stock price continued to rise on that day, ranked third in the US corporate market value list.

Also due to various equity operations, Westeros’ shareholding in AOL dropped slightly to 65.5%, and Simon’s holdings of AOL’s shares reached $36.8 billion on February 28.

Only after a weekend, the value of Simon’s holdings of Cisco’s shares increased from US$26.7 billion on February 25 to US$27.3 billion on February 28. The book income reached US$600 million in three days, which is higher than his previous year. In terms of real estate, women, etc., the private spending of about $500 million is even more.

Simon's personal expenses do not actually need to be obtained by reducing his holdings.

Next, for Eaglet, which has not been listed for the time being and has no IPO plan in the short term, Simon does not really want to announce the financial report of this Internet company, just like last year’s growth of nearly 400%, even after the outbreak in 1992. Later growth began to slow down, but it was only relatively speaking.

Eaglet’s specific financial report data is still very eye-catching.

Moreover, the media that pays close attention to new technology companies are also paying close attention to this last one among the three Internet companies that are part of the Westeros system, Cisco, AOL, and Eaglet. In order to avoid the media’s endless exploration and concocting various exaggerations Fictitious data, after consideration, Eaglet released a relatively simplified financial report on March 7.

In 1993, Yigrete Company relied on a series of popular Internet businesses such as software sales, YWS services, e-commerce, online advertising, software stores, etc., to accumulate revenue of 5.41 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year revenue growth rate of 179%. The loss was US$393 million, an increase of 182% year-on-year.

Although the revenue growth rate of 179% for the whole year was far lower than the 394% in 1992, it also surpassed Cisco and AOL.

The loss of 393 million US dollars is completely within the tolerable range compared to Eaglet’s revenue growth. For people familiar with more detailed earnings data, Eaglet’s cash flow situation is healthier than that of AOL and Cisco. At the current rate of capital consumption, it was only last year that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley bought Eagle. The US$1.5 billion paid for 10% of the shares is enough for the company to maintain operations for at least two more years.

Therefore, the current debt ratio of Eaglet, an Internet company that can already squeeze into the top 500 US companies list, is still ‘zero’!

Anyone with a little business experience knows how rare this ‘zero’ is.

The current Eaglet is almost equivalent to the complex of new technology companies such as Netscape, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, etc. in Simon’s memory. The overall revenue scale of US$5.41 billion is comparable to the company’s years of establishment. To describe horror. However, if the business is subdivided, several of these businesses have the potential to grow into a single corporate giant.

The outside world can only speculate on the specific revenues of Eaglet’s various businesses. Simon had already obtained very specific data before the release of the financial report.

Among the total revenue of US$5.41 billion, the annual turnover of Amazon Online Store increased from US$620 million in 1992 to US$1.36 billion in 1993, an annual growth rate of 119%.

The YWS department under Carol Bartz was re-subdivided last year.

YgritteDreamweaver, YgritteFireworks, and YgritteFlash have been reclassified as specialized software departments for the basic tools of the World Wide Web. With the rapid increase in the demand for basic tools and software by Internet companies worldwide, the sales of basic software of Ygritte has increased from 1992 US$280 million soared to US$810 million in 1993, with an annual growth rate of 188%.

There is still no direct publicity as a cloud computing service, but it continues to insist that Ygritte Web Service (YgritteWebService), which is the independent YWS division after the split, also has a substantial increase in market demand, and its annual revenue reached 790 million US dollars.

The reason why this part of the cloud computing business revenue, which is more core than the basic software, failed to exceed the software department, is mainly because Eaglet did not want to expose the huge scale and cost advantages of its cloud computing technology prematurely. Service providers only offer slightly lower prices when competing, so they have not shown an attractive price advantage for users for the time being. Many Internet start-ups are therefore more inclined to purchase servers to build websites on their own.

The Internet bubble will eventually burst one day.

Because of the broad market demand, many technology companies, including established computer manufacturers such as IBM, have begun to get involved in the most basic data center services, and have invested heavily in the construction of traditional large-scale server data centers.

It is conceivable that once the Internet bubble bursts, Internet companies have reduced costs or even went bankrupt, which will inevitably lead to a serious surplus of data center resources, and the pressure of competition from service providers will increase sharply. At that time, the elasticity and cheap advantages of Yigrete's cloud computing services It will be revealed, and the accumulation of technology will be deeper and more mature.

Manufacturers such as IBM have actually noticed Eaglet’s cloud computing technology and have seen the huge cost advantage.

However, in order to protect its own hardware and service business, in the case of Yigrete keeping a low profile and not pressing every step of the way, established manufacturers are not keen on following up this technology, and even instinctively resist it. After all, the rise of cloud computing will inevitably lead to an impact on the hardware sales of traditional server vendors, which is precisely the core business of many established technology companies such as IBM.

On the other hand, for the cloud computing business, established companies are reluctant to follow suit. Even if start-ups see the broad prospects of this technology, the larger the scale of the cloud computing business, the more obvious the technical attributes, the more obvious the advantages of small companies. There is simply not enough strength to compete with Yigrete.

Therefore, the future Ygreat YWS will inevitably be like the Amazon AWS in Simon's memory.

Just as Kodak refused to move closer to the digital age and eventually went bankrupt in order to protect its own film camera interests, it is the same principle. If it cannot eliminate itself, it will only be eliminated by others.

Including the US$120 million in e-mail technology licensing and other businesses, Carol Bartz is responsible for the cumulative Internet software and service business for enterprise users, with a total of US$1.72 billion, a year-on-year revenue increase of 295%.

It has always been Simon’s most important advertising business, relying on the Eaglet advertising alliance program that was promoted last year and the sharp increase in advertising demand caused by the Internet outbreak. Eaglet’s portal website, social network, search engine and advertising alliance four The total online advertising revenue of the large advertising business segment in the past year also reached 1.15 billion US dollars.

Although there is still a huge gap compared to the US traditional paper media industry's annual advertising industry value of up to 40 billion US dollars, but the annual revenue growth rate of 313%, once exposed, it will definitely make the traditional media industry operators even more like enemies. .

The revenue growth rate of 313% is also the top spot in Eaglet's huge business matrix.

In addition, the IE browser sales revenue, which has always been listed separately, has relied on hardware manufacturers’ pre-installation, carrier channels and Ystore store sales in the past year, and has brought in 310 million U.S. dollars to Eaglet. The year-on-year increase was 33%. This growth rate is not only the lowest growth rate among all businesses of Eaglet, but also the proportion of IE browser software revenue in Eaglet’s total annual revenue has dropped significantly from 12% last year to 5%. .

The slowdown in IE browser software sales is mainly due to the openness of the Internet leading to the rampant pirated IE browser. Some PC manufacturers who refuse to pay for pre-installation and many small Internet service operators in the United States and abroad, in order to save budgets, simply privately or instigate themselves. Users actively use pirated IE software.

The attitude of the management of Eaglet is to keep a close eye on the large PC manufacturers such as HP and Compaq and ISP giants such as AOL, and at the same time, to block the found Internet pirated software resources as much as possible.

Even so, the annual revenue of 310 million US dollars, in fact, benefited to a large extent from the US$10 pricing strategy that Simon insisted at the beginning.

The original Netscape browser sold for as much as $50, which is actually one of the important reasons why Netscape browser lost to Microsoft IE. Even without the appearance of IE, the high pricing of Netscape browsers and the open nature of the Internet will inevitably lead users to pirated or free browser software.

Now, Eaglet’s price of US$10 for IE browser is basically within the easy acceptance range of most users, even overseas users who need to consider exchange rate factors will not feel too burdened.

Management such as Tim Berners Lee still appreciates the revenue brought by IE, but Simon sees that this software is introduced for free from the gradual marginalization of IE browser in the proportion of Igreat’s total revenue. After the financial report is released, the proposal will be formally handed over to Yigrete’s management for discussion.

IE browser software is free. The most critical role at this stage is not only to promote the World Wide Web, but to fight for the initiative in antitrust investigations that may be encountered in the future.

At present, many competitors and professional media have realized the irrationality of IE browser to fix the homepage of Igreat Portal, and proposed that users who have paid for this software should have the freedom to set the homepage at will.

As long as IE is free, similar excuses no longer apply.

Like the Android operating system in memory, Eaglet invested heavily in research and development of the IE browser, and gave users a free trial, which can naturally get some compensation in other aspects.

In fact, although Android is nominally free, the potential revenue that this mobile operating system brings to Google reaches tens of billions of dollars every year, and even allows Google to successfully complete the transition from the PC to the mobile. This is even more important. . In the era when those who have mobile phones have the world, another search engine giant across the ocean has gradually fallen out of the top Internet giants due to frequent failures in the transformation from PC to mobile.

In the IE browser software free plan given by Simon, only the download from the official website is free, and hardware manufacturers and telecommunications companies are pre-installed. Even if they are no longer charged at a price of about $10, Igreat can still pass the authorization service fee For reasons such as charging a certain fee, the free plan will not completely disappear this part of the revenue, and will even increase with the continuous outbreak of the PC and Internet industries.

Finally, Ystore, Steam, Ypay and other software game stores and online payment tools have a total revenue of US$870 million, a year-on-year increase of 141%.

This part of the business, except for the online payment tool Ypay, is very important. The others are only developed by Simon to enrich the Internet content resources. Therefore, he did not spend too much energy in it. It can even be used as a bargaining chip when necessary.

In addition, a series of Internet companies supported by Eaglet’s emerging venture capital department, because the shareholding ratio is generally less than 50%, the revenue data is not included in the overall revenue of Eaglet. In fact, these startups do not have much revenue for the time being, and the venture capital department itself is also in a purely money-burning stage.