<h4>Chapter 729: Chapter 730: Amazon</h4>


    [Chapter 730: Amazon]


    Initially, the management team at Yahoo intended to quietly hold the Yahoo Tech Alliance and Advertising Alliance Conference, introducing new web technology products and discussingmercial coborations with Yahoo partners.


    After Eric devised a n in New York to misleadpetitors, the scale of the annual meeting was significantly erged. An exclusive budget was allocated for the event, which was ultimately divided into two major segments: a Yahoo web productunch aimed at users and the Yahoo Tech and Advertising Alliance Conference targeted at partners.


    In line with Eric''s vision to maximize influence, Yahoo sent invitations to executives at several high-techpanies, including Microsoft, Cisco, and America Online. The influx of media invitations was countless. After over a month of buildup, media spection suggested that Yahoo aimed not only to make the annual conference an industry highlight but also to further cement its position as a leader in the inte business.


    While Yahoo''s stature as a leader paled inparison to giants like Microsoft and Cisco, and could notpete with legacy techpanies like IBM, HP, and Apple, Wall Street had already valued Yahoo at $5 billion within just over three years of its establishment. Thus, no one could overlook Yahoo''s tremendous growth potential. Consequently, top executives like Bill Gates of Microsoft, John Chambers of Cisco, and Steve Case of America Online confirmed their attendance at the annual meeting. Jeff Katzenberg, as an executive representative of Yahoo''s important media business partner, Firefly, also nned to make time to attend. Jorma Oll from Nokia would take the opportunity to meet Eric in the U.S., alongside Quam CEO Irwin Jacobs and Sprintpany executives. This event could be seen as a gathering of the core figures in Eric''s economic empire.


    Thus, although the Yahoo annual meeting spanned five days, Eric''s schedule was filled to the hour.


    After ncing through his agenda, Eric flipped open the nning document for the Yahoo web productunch.


    This marked the sixth time in over a month that Eric had seen this draft. After Eric decided to hold the productunch, the first n from Yahoo was painfullyckingpared to what he recalled of mature productunches. Ultimately, Eric had to carve out personal time based on his memories to create a simple n, which was then modified repeatedly ording to real-world considerations until they arrived at the polished version he had in hand today.


    Due to the live television broadcast, thisunch event waspressed to just 30 minutes. This meant no celebrity guests and no time for executives to ramble. Eric wouldn''t take the stage himself, opting instead to leave all the time to a few key Yahoo executives. In the past month, Yahoo''s advertising nning department had devoted most of their time to figuring out how to maximize the limited 30 minutes to showcase the content Yahoo wished to present to television viewers, while also sparking interest in potential users.


    In addition to a brief review of Yahoo''s existing products and the promotion of key partnerships like ABC News and Amazon, theunch would primarily introduce two new offerings: the Yahoo personal homepage and the Yahoo online payment tool, Yahoopay.


    During this first wave of the inte era, information online was scarce. Simr to how movies and TV shows served the media industry, expanding online content was essential for the growth of the inte sector. Yet, such a task could not be aplished solely by specialized media websites. Tina Brown''s Yahoo news department, despite numerous expansions, had fewer than 1,000 employees, which was insufficient to provide adequate content for the current 25 million Inte users in the U.S.


    Thus,unching personal homepages akin to blogs and leveraging millions of users for this task would undoubtedly yield greater results. Everyone craves attention; if just one-fifth of those 25 million American users set up personal homepages and each contributed an average of 20 pages of new content annually, that would generate a staggering 100 million new content pages online.


    Moreover, if each of those pages generated 10 cents in advertising revenue for Yahoo each year, it could rack up $10 million annually. Eric understood that in theing years, those figures would skyrocket beyond imagination. Back in 1995, there were only a handful ofpanies in the entire inte industry that generated over $10 million in revenue. But as long as they maintained a strong position and given the impending explosive growth of the inte, Yahoo''s ad revenue would also experience exponential growth.


    On the other hand, inte emerce was just beginning, and even the behemoth Amazon was merely a seedling back then. Most emerce tforms couldn''t support aplete online payment system, making it the perfect time for Yahoo to enter the online payment segment. If Yahoo could sessfully establish itself now and everyone became ustomed to using Yahoopay for online transactions, the potential profits -- without ounting for any other revenue opportunities -- just from the interest on the hundreds of billions in user deposits would be substantial.


    When he considered Yahoopay, Eric couldn''t help but think of Amazon. After Yahoounched its $100 million angel investment program, Eric quickly spotted Jeff Bezos''s name among the project applications and specifically instructed Yahoo''s angel investment department to greenlight the project.


    However, Jeff Bezos was willing to part with only 10% of his shares in exchange for Yahoo''s $500,000 investment as seed money. It was clear that without special follow-up, Yahoo''s 10% stake would be gradually diluted as Jeff Bezos sought further funding.


    Eric understood the proverb about not taking on more than one could chew; therefore, he wasn''t going to let Yahoo be bloated. Whether in the present or future, Yahoo''s core business would focus on portal sites, search engines, and email -- fundamental inte services that would primarily rely on advertising for revenue, steering clear of heavy involvement in emerce. Even the nned Yahoo music store would operate as a separate electronic products division. Despite Yahoo not delving too deeply into emerce, investing in it was still a sound strategy, especially since he encountered the budding Amazon; Eric certainly couldn''t let this opportunity slip away.


    He marked Amazon''s name in the document with a pencil, and when he looked up, he noticed Caroline hurriedly averting her gaze.


    Seeing Caroline''s flushed face, Eric realized she had just been sneaking a peek at him. As a normal man, he didn''tck that kind of vanity from being noticed by the opposite sex. He simply smiled, knowing Caroline was shy and chose not to tease her.


    "Caroline, prepare a dossier on Amazon for me, and also make a copy of their original proposal," he said. "Oh, you know Amazon, right?"


    Caroline, relieved that Eric was serious and hadn''t teased her, nodded. "That''s the online book-selling site created by Jeff Bezos, right?"


    "Yes, and also schedule a time for me to talk directly with him."


    As Eric spoke, he nced down at his itinerary for theing days. His days were certainly packed, leaving only evenings open. On the night of the 10th was a g for techpany executives attending the annual meeting, while the 11th evening was reserved for executives within the Firefly system. Scanning down, he found that after 8 PM on the 12th, he had no other engagements, so he looked up at Caroline. "Let''s set it for the night of the 12th, from 8 to 9 PM, at the hotel where I''m staying."


    "Sure thing, Eric," Caroline nodded, pulling out her memo pad to jot it down. Although her memory was excellent, she still prepared a small memo, in line with most people''s working habits.


    After making the note, Caroline looked up and asked, "Eric, are there any other issues with this information?"


    "None," Eric shook his head, setting the folder aside. "By the way, how are the materials I asked you to prepare on the electronic yer and e-book?"


    "Almost done, but regarding the microdisk development coboration..." Caroline hesitated before continuing, "I''ve been calling IBM every day this week, but they haven''t responded. They just said their upper management is still discussing."


    While they were leaning towards using the small drives developed by Toshiba for storage, Eric still nned tomission IBM to begin immediate development on the microdisk. In this timeline, IBM was the first to introduce microdisk technology.


    Eric frowned and said, "It''s been a week; even if they aren''t nning to coborate, there should be some response."


    Observing Eric''s frown, Caroline thought for a moment and said, "Eric, I don''t think IBM is a good coboration partner."


    "Hmm?" Eric looked up, signaling Caroline to borate.


    Caroline exined, "IBM has long been a very bureaucraticpany. Their decision-makingmittee has as many as 38 members. Three years ago, they appointed Louis Gerstner to implement a series of reforms, which proved effective. But these corporate ailments can''t be resolved overnight. Even in coborations with partners of simr standing, IBM has consistently shown a veryckadaisical attitude. Even if they eventuallye to a conclusion, with their arrogance, I doubt they would agree to our terms."


    The battery, LCD screen, and other technologies for developing electronic yers and e-books were already rtively mature; the only remaining challenge was the storage medium. Current sh memory had too small a capacity, leaving only the microdisk as an option.


    Currently, top hard drive manufacturers hadn''t developed any micro-disks yet, but given their substantial technical foundations, miniaturizing hard drive technology wouldn''t be too challenging. Eric originally nned to pay IBM''s hard drive department to develop the microdisk and secure exclusive rights for a few years after sessful development, dying any potentialpetition by two to three years. Considering Caroline''sments, Eric remembered some data about IBM.


    It was said that IBM had an extremely strict hierarchy; during meetings, each executive was assigned a seat equivalent to their rank, and even thepany work attire reflected their hierarchy. Such a rigid system inevitably stifled management, which exined theck of response to their proposal for an entire week.


    At this moment, Eric realized IBM wasn''t a good partner after all. What he sought was exclusive rights to the microdisk, allowing Firefly to dominate the market for theing years after IBMpleted the development. As such agreements weremon among techpanies, the odds of Firefly securing exclusive rights from a giant like IBM were slim.


    "I should have thought this through," Eric said. "So who do you think we should coborate with instead?"


    "Seagate or Western Digital. Both hard drivepanies are based in California, making coboration very convenient, and they have strong technical capabilities," Caroline suggested. "Moreover, while Japanese hard drivepanies have more advanced technology, firms like Toshiba and Hitachi are involved in manufacturing electronic products, which may lead to futurepetition with us on simr products."


    Eric recalled that after 2000, Japanese electronics firms fell into decline due to slow adaptation, eventually bing upstreamponent suppliers. However, Japanese electronics still held amanding global position at that time.


    "In that case, let''s reach out to Seagate and Western Digital. You take charge of this and aim to secure results before the end of July."


    "Sure, got it," Caroline nodded earnestly as she recorded the instructions. When she looked up, she caught Eric watching her, making her cheeks flush. "Eric, what''s up?"


    "Nothing, just wondering if you really need to write all this down?"


    "It''s best to keep a record, just to be safe."


    Eric replied, "Still, if you have some time, you might want to chat with Buffett. I think he''d really appreciate you. He''s the type who can store everything in his head. Back when Capital Cities acquired ABC, they invited an entire investment banking team, but only Buffett was on the Capital Cities side, having all the acquisition data in his head. While others neededputers to crunch numbers for hours, he could just spit it out."


    "Oh, how could Ipare with Mr. Buffett?" Caroline shook her head, feeling embarrassed.


    *****


    /Sayonara816.