Chapter 608 A Joke

Hearing Chris' question, Eric smiled lightly, picked up a pen and drew a simple diagram of the Long Tail Theory on the writing board, and said with a firm tone: "Of course it is meaningful, and it is significant. Everyone knows that Hollywood exists. Do you own a lot of B-movie companies?"

Although I don't know why Eric suddenly mentioned this, the people present nodded and looked curiously at the simple diagram Eric drew on the writing board.

Eric drew a schematic diagram of the long-tail theory that companies such as Google, Amazon, and Netflix depended on in the original time and space, and said: "Take some B-level movies in Hollywood as an example, the income structure of B-level movies is like this picture, We can call it a 'long-tail picture'. The head of this picture represents the box office revenue of a B-level film that was lucky enough to land in theaters. This part of the income occupies most of the area of ​​the long-tail picture. For a film, the cost is usually only For millions or even hundreds of thousands of B-level films, if they can be shown in theaters, they can make a fortune. However, most B-level films are difficult to get the qualification for theatrical release, so ordinary people often You would think that the survival of B-level film companies would be very difficult, but this is not the case, many B-level film companies live very well, and their rules of survival are like this diagram."

As Eric said, he used a pen to cut vertically with a dotted line on the head with the largest area of ​​the long-tail image, drew a fork, and then continued to quickly cut out a block of areas with a vertical line on the tail area, and explained while marking. Dao: "As shown in the picture, even if they can't get the biggest income of the 'head', they can still get the same amount as the head through the distribution of the video tape market, the income of cable TV broadcasting rights, and the sales of copyright in the vast overseas market. The area is quite the income. Moreover, as long as there are enough channels, the copyright sales revenue in the overseas market is very rich, think about it, a B-level film costing 2 million US dollars can recover a large part of the cost in the United States. But in the vast overseas market, even if it is a packaged sale of all copyrights. The UK sells 200,000 US dollars, France sells 150,000 US dollars, then Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal... After Europe, there is an equally vast Asian market. , and even some relatively wealthy Latin American and African countries, these sporadic incomes add up. Enough for a small company to make a lot of money." Speaking of which, Eric put the pen in his hand. On one side, he looked at the few people present and said, "So, do you see what's going on?"

Chris looked thoughtful. And Tina Brown, who knows Hollywood better, retorted: "Eric, I don't think any small B-movie company has the kind of extensive channels you have, except for the seven major Hollywood studios, you said. This ideal state does not seem to exist."

"But it's a fact that production companies like Roger Corman and other famous B-movie producers live very well in Hollywood through the distribution method I mentioned, isn't it?" Eric said with a smile: " And, I'm just using such an idealized example to demonstrate how Yahoo will make money in the future."

As a brilliant finance graduate, Chris figured it out quicker than the others, saying: "Eric, I think I know what you're trying to say. You mean. If a 'product 'The sales channels are large enough, so even if the profits from these channels are very negligible,

But accumulated, it will still become an amazing data. "

"Bingo," Eric raised his right hand and tried to snap his fingers, but he failed. He lowered his arms amid the light laughter of several people and said, "Considering the current network environment, the entire cyberspace already has dozens of There are thousands of websites of different sizes, if we can develop a set of advertising distribution technology that is easy to operate and recognized by customers, and pull 100,000 websites with good traffic to join the Yahoo Advertising Alliance, on average, each website even if only Bringing us a measly $10 in revenue, then in total, Yahoo can earn $1 million a month, which is still far from enough to cover Yahoo's current annual operating expenses. But in recent years, network users and The growth rate of the number of websites is very amazing, and if the number of websites in the Yahoo Ad Network can increase tenfold or a hundredfold in the next few years, then our revenue will also increase geometrically."

Tina Brown asked again: "Eric, if I build a website and successfully develop to a certain scale, I will definitely not join the Yahoo Advertising Alliance and choose to run it alone. It seems that I can get more income?"

Eric pointed to the cross at the head of the long-tail image on the tablet, and said: "The operation focus of Yahoo's advertising alliance is not originally on these websites that are at the head of the 'long-tail'. What we want to get is the 'Heads' generate profits on a comparable scale to the tails."

Tina Brown smiled slightly embarrassedly, but she ignored the rules that Eric just finished talking about.

Eric didn't mind either, and continued: "Also, the $100 million plan I mentioned to you earlier to fund the development of a large number of small and medium websites can actually be classified as part of the Yahoo Advertising Alliance. Anyone who wants to get angel investment from Yahoo! Fund websites must join the Yahoo Advertising Alliance. It is still the initial stage of the Internet industry. I think there are not many investors to choose from those small and medium websites. We can take this opportunity to pull in the websites with more potential for development. In the Yahoo Advertising Alliance, the promotion is carried out through Yahoo's huge portal website channel effect, then, at least in the next few years, most of the most powerful websites on the Internet will come from the Yahoo Advertising Alliance. Even if these websites choose to leave in the future, I think Yahoo has also developed enough strength to justify other avenues of profit.”

The so-called other profit channels, of course, is the search engine service.

Yahoo already has the initial function of a search engine, but due to the limited scale of the Internet industry, it has not yet developed enough potential. The main reason why Yahoo in the original time and space failed was blindly believing in the unshakable status of portal websites and ignoring the development potential of search engines. And now, Eric certainly wouldn't make such a mistake.

This small high-level meeting was held until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. After Eric finished talking about Yahoo's two future development plans, Chris, Ian Grenier, Tina Brown and others also spoke freely and published Some of my own suggestions. At the end of the meeting, Eric and Chris left the Yahoo headquarters together, but the four of Ian Grenier remained in the conference room to discuss enthusiastically.

After Chris attended Nokia's board meeting from Finland, he came to Boston just after returning home. He was very tired. When I got back to the hotel, I couldn't wait to get into my room to make up my sleep.

After holding today's meeting, Eric didn't have much to do in Boston, and some details of Yahoo's next development process can be discussed with everyone via email. If tomorrow's meeting with John Chambers and Steve Case goes well, Eric can return to Los Angeles. compared to Chris. At this time, Eric still maintained a slightly excited state during the meeting, without the slightest feeling of fatigue after participating in the meeting for a whole day.

There was no sign of the summer heat in Boston in May. His eyes were warm in the afternoon. After sending Chris back to his room to rest, Eric changed into a casual set of casual clothes. Go downstairs and out of the hotel.

It has been a week since he came to Boston. Except for the party where all the employees of the company were invited, Eric's activities these days have been limited between the Cambridge Hotel on Massachusetts Avenue and the Yahoo headquarters a few hundred meters away. After everything was done, and there was still some time in the afternoon, Eric planned to walk around, which was his little habit after he went to every city. What's more, it is less than two kilometers west of West Avenue, which intersects with Massachusetts Avenue, not far from the hotel. Crossing the Charles River is the famous Harvard Business School. Although Eric has no previous life, he has done a lot to this family. The admiration of business schools of political and business celebrities. But he was still very curious.

Eric just walked out of the hotel when Carter Moen appeared at the right time and asked, "Boss, do you need a car?"

Because he has neglected to take care of his personal image recently, Eric has a slight stubble on his lower jaw at this time, which adds a bit of mature temperament to his whole person. He took out the light-colored sunglasses from his pocket, and with the casual outfit at this time, Eric believed that there were not many people who could easily recognize him except for his very familiar relatives and friends: "I went to the other side of the river for a walk, just No more cars."

Carter Moen nodded. Seeing Eric walking leisurely to the front intersection like a common young student on this street, he followed with another companion from a distance.

Turning into West Avenue, although the name seems to be a commercial street, it is only a two-lane asphalt road. Most of the roads on both sides are red brick houses that trigger some of Eric’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. Boston’s brownstone culture is very popular, and these shabby-looking red brick buildings are usually middle-class and well-paid. Only the wealthy can afford to live, while low- and middle-income people can still only live in cheap wooden houses.

Walking a few hundred meters along West Avenue, Eric saw an ATM hall next to a supermarket. Realizing that he didn't have any money with him, which he might use later, he walked over and took out his credit card to withdraw a few hundred dollars.

Walking out of the atm hall, I saw a girl in a light blue coat holding two full convenience bags walking towards a red Ford on the street, and cautiously reaching out to open the trunk, Eric took the initiative to walk over to say hello: " Ma'am, do you need help?"

"Thank you, you're such a warm-hearted person," the girl smiled and gave way to the side, Eric reached out to help the other party open the trunk, nodded to the other party, and continued to walk forward.

The girl carefully put away the daily necessities in the convenience bag, closed the trunk, looked up and noticed Eric walking forward, and only remembered the feeling of deja vu when she noticed Eric's side face just now. , but this is where the feeling comes from and there is no clue. In the end, this feeling can only be regarded as a common psychological sense of sight.

However, despite wearing sunglasses, he is still a handsome guy.

After thinking about it for a while, the girl quickly cursed herself for being a nympho. Just as she was about to get in the car and leave, she remembered that she had just forgotten to buy some of the things her roommate asked her to help with, so she had to go back to the supermarket again.

Walking out of the supermarket again, the girl threw a bag of things in her hand on the back seat of the car, got into the Ford, and when she took out the key, she unconsciously glanced in front of her, the figure was still in sight. Inexplicably there was some throbbing, and the girl followed in the car, came to Eric's side to slow down the car, pressed the window of the car and summoned the courage to say to Eric: "I'm going to the soldier factory in front, do you want a ride?"

Eric, who was standing on the curb, leaned slightly, waved to the girl sitting in the driver's seat of the Ford, and said with a smile, "Thank you, I'll be there after crossing the river."

The girl in front of her looked the same age as herself, with long smooth hazel hair, and a fair face with light makeup that looked very delicate, with an obvious bookish air on her body. Eric himself would not refuse to have such an affair in a foreign country, but if he got into this beauty's car, Carter Moen, who was following on foot behind him, would definitely be thrown off. Mr. Bodyguard once explained to him that for the sake of personal safety, he should not do anything that they did not expect.

I thought that after refusing, the girl would leave, but the other party smiled and said to Eric: "Don't you know that crossing the river is the Soldier Factory?"

Eric was stunned for a moment, and shook his head honestly. He simply looked at the map and determined the location of Harvard Business School, but he really didn't know what the soldier's factory was talking about: "I'm from Los Angeles, just I want to go to Harvard Business School."

"Are you going to apply for business school? Maybe I can show you around." The girl looked at Eric with bright eyes, still pressing down the speed, and said, "Introduce me, my name is Melanie."

Eric had no interest in making up a pseudonym at random, nor did he take the initiative to introduce himself. Listening to the girl's accent, he changed the subject with a smile and said, "Aren't you from Georgia?"

"Oh," Melanie asked in surprise, "how did you guess that?"

"Anyone in your family likes to read Gone with the Wind?" Eric asked casually again.

"Yeah, my dad, my name is Melanie Hamilton from Gone with the Wind, and it's amazing that you can guess it from that."

"Of course I can't guess this with your name," Eric laughed. "The most important thing is that I can hear your Georgia accent. I have a... friend who is from Georgia."

In fact, the topic of "Gone with the Wind" was indeed guessed by Eric, but the others were not considered blind, because among the women around him, Julia grew up in Georgia, and Eric felt that the name in front of him was Melanie's girl is very similar to Julia in certain pronunciation habits. After being reborn for a long time, Eric can easily distinguish the various accents from all over the United States and various races.

"Hehe," Melanie patted the steering wheel lightly and smiled, "I see, you are imitating the joke of Conan Doyle and the coachman." (To be continued.)

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