American History 1988
Chapter 285 - 275: Securely Seize Third Place

Chapter 285: Chapter 275: Securely Seize Third Place

"Yute has been asking about you again recently," said Miranda, reluctantly tracing circles on Dean’s chest.

"Me?" Dean replied lazily, half-closing his eyes, "Shouldn’t he be more concerned about the upcoming election right now?"

"Politics are politics, business is business," Miranda scolded him with a glance, knowing he was still lost in a daydream.

"Our deal is done," Dean lifted his arm, and Miranda snuggled closer into his embrace.

"It’s not about old George’s election. He just wants to talk to you about the internet.

"Ha," Dean snorted with laughter, "I’d bet that hardly anyone in Washington knows what the internet is."

"Well, you made quite a splash on Wall Street; now they all say you’re the one who understands the internet best."

Miranda playfully slid her hand down, then began to study how it magically grew so quickly.

"They’re not interested in the internet at all; they’re only interested in how to invest in a stock that can go public."

It wasn’t just old George’s advisor Yute; Dean had received too many such calls recently.

For example, the governor and his wife from Arkansas had been calling to ask Dean for financial advice.

And other politicians he had known before, even people from Hollywood, were frequently sending him party invitations.

No way around it, Dean was making too damn much money.

In the blink of an eye, a previously unknown company went public, and his net worth surged by a hundred million US dollars.

Damn it, they sweat it out in gray-area dealings for years and couldn’t make what Dean made in a day.

The thing is, it was all legal and even worth bragging about, legitimate business.

Who wouldn’t be envious? Even Yute, who wasn’t particularly close with Dean, wanted to maintain a good relationship with him.

If Dean had another lucrative project in the future and happened to let him in on the deal, even a small profit wouldn’t be a surprise.

Miranda understood the logic; she only felt a bit of pride seeing how the big shots of yesteryear were now intentionally seeking to establish a connection with Dean through her.

"Oh, our office also started using the Worktitle software, and everyone has been giving it rave reviews," she said.

Following the contract between the federal government and Byte Company, public agencies were gradually adopting Byte’s office software.

The first contract Byte landed was worth 30 million US dollars, giving priority to the revamp of office systems for public departments in Washington and Virginia.

If the feedback was favorable, there would be a second and third phase to follow.

This was a long-term business deal. As long as they could get into the government’s supply chain, there would be no worry about making money in the future.

Now, as Worktitle’s reputation was fermenting, even offices of the Republican Party were purchasing this software packet.

"If you have any aftersales issues, I can offer personal on-site service," Dean said with a mischievous smile, patting Miranda’s pert backside.

"24 hours a day?" Miranda asked seductively, licking her red lips.

"I’ll do my best," Dean smiled, shrugging his shoulders.

A little relaxation could make work more efficient, but unfortunately, it was time for Dean to get back to work.

"Here are the keys; if you think your current apartment is too far away, move in here," he said.

The place where they had just waged their battle was, of course, Dean’s newly purchased mansion in Washington, which had plenty of space for them to run wild.

Seeing the keys on the pillow, Miranda pursed her lips in resignation. "Why do I feel like I’m being kept?"

"No, dear. I just hope to see you the moment I arrive on the East Coast," he replied.

As Dean got dressed and started packing his bags, he knew he had to fly to the West Coast shortly.

"Alright," Miranda accepted the explanation with some reluctance.

"Remember to call me," Dean said as he kissed her forehead and hurriedly left.

Caitlin and Paul were waiting outside for him. Wherever Dean went now, they followed.

His fortune meant that he could no longer wander the streets as an ordinary person.

Occasionally, Dean even thought about buying a private jet, the kind that could fly directly between the East and West coasts.

He would only have to travel more for business in the future, especially here on the East Coast.

Catching flights all the time wasn’t convenient; a private jet could perfectly solve all that.

...

By the time Dean returned to Silicon Valley, it was nearly September.

True to form, he didn’t go home immediately but went straight to Byte Company.

Although daily operations were handled by the Chief Operating Officer Jimmy, Dean was used to checking the financial reports after every business trip.

Byte Company’s third office software, BitCode, had launched smoothly, with the same pricing as Wortitle at 265 US dollars per year.

Also, soon after launch, BitCode clinched two large orders.

One was from Intel, the other from Ford.

Both were companies that Byte had been in touch with since the design phase of BitCode.

To meet the enterprises’ needs as much as possible, Byte had a dedicated team to collect users’ feedback.

One month before the official release, BitCode had already started internal trial runs at Intel and Ford.

Considering the business differences between the two large companies, Byte provided them with semi-customized versions of the software.

So securing their orders wasn’t just luck; the designers had put in a great deal of effort during development.

Of course, because of the semi-customization, BitCode was priced about a third higher than the standard version.

However, customers with such custom demands were mostly capital-intensive manufacturers, while small companies found the standard version sufficient for their needs.

From the monthly financial report handed over by Jimmy, it was evident that even though ByteCode only had a few clients,

its sales volume had reached nearly one hundred thousand units, most of which were customized versions, because the purchasers were large manufacturing enterprises.

Their staff number was extremely large, with just the design personnel possibly amounting to tens of thousands.

As long as ByteCode entered their supply chains, there would be stable sales channels.

"Besides large factories, research institutions and university laboratories are also our ideal customers.

Before similar software appears on the market, we need to plant Byte’s flag in every corner as fast as possible!"

Dean had just finished reading the financial report when he began to adjust Byte Company’s upcoming marketing strategy.

He needed to make Byte Company’s brand recognition in the office field reach a deeply rooted level.

"Our sales team is already on the flights to our target customers!" Jimmy had arranged everything.

"Good, remember our philosophy of survival, to be number one in the market!"

Innovation first, customer first, industry first!

With a vision for the future, Byte Company did not need to follow in the footsteps of Microsoft or IBM and just be second.

Those two often waited until a small company proved the market for a certain innovation before making their move.

Because the flaws or hidden risks of the business would have been already exposed by these smaller companies.

Microsoft and IBM only needed to improve upon this foundation to easily capture most of the market.

But Byte Company did not need that because Dean would tell the team which direction to go and what to avoid.

Then the world would see Byte Company achieve success after success, growing rapidly.

The now over two thousand employee-strong Byte Company had become a notable name in Silicon Valley.

And in the field of office software, Byte had also become synonymous with the brand.

The three software products it launched had been largely successful, with hardly any other company able to match its creativity.

Having one successful software product was not unusual. Having three without a single miss, that was impressive.

Wall Street was very aware of the tremendous potential of such a company, so one year after going public, Byte Company’s market value had exceeded 8 billion US dollars.

Besides Microsoft and Oracle, Byte Company firmly held the position of the third largest in the software industry.

Microsoft was without saying, its market value was more than twice that of second-ranked Oracle.

And Oracle, having recovered from financial scandal, reached a new sales record this year, with Wall Street estimating around 1.1 billion US dollars.

So without the scandals to hold it back, Oracle’s market value had skyrocketed this year.

It quickly surpassed 10 billion US dollars, becoming a "Decacorn" enterprise.

A Decacorn is the industry term for a titan that is an order of magnitude higher than a unicorn.

Above that, there are "Hectocorns" with a hundred billion valuation, although, up to this point, no company had yet achieved this feat.

And the young Byte Company, founded just three years ago, was already nearing ten billion, attracting the attention of many.

Indeed, with the office software business booming, competitors had already emerged in the market.

Just recently, Lotus announced their next product plan, "Lotus Notes".

To be precise, this was not a plan, but a pre-launch marketing campaign for the product.

If one had seen its promotional copy, one would find that the software’s functions were highly similar to Worktitle’s.

There was no doubt; this was a product competing with Worktitle.

Seeing Byte Company increase its market value by more than two billion US dollars because of this software, who wouldn’t be tempted?

Lotus, desperate for their next point of business growth and having only Lotus 1-2-3 as their killer app, needed to find it.

Looking left and right, Microsoft’s operating system was not worth imitating, and Oracle’s database was too specialized.

In the end, Byte Company’s products looked simplest and easiest to capture market share.

Because they were just recently launched, the incremental market was still very substantial.

So, Lotus ultimately targeted this direction and began development at the beginning of the year.

Now, the time had come to push them to market, and Byte Company was about to meet its competitors.

"Boss, the marketing department thinks we should standardize the names of our office software.

At the very least, brand them with Byte Company’s imprint, which is beneficial for our brand promotion."

To cope with the increasing competition in the future, Byte Company, besides continuing the development of new software,

also began to gradually increase investment in brand marketing. Jimmy and his team hoped to name all software as a family.

For example, the proposal handed to Dean changed Teams to Bit Teams, and Worktitle to Bit Work.

As for Byte Code, it had already followed this principle since the beginning of its development.

"I have no objections, but let’s keep all new software names as simple as possible in the future, which is conducive to brand dissemination,"

Dean had always believed that Microsoft’s Word and Excel were very successful product names.

Short, catchy; these were all part of the success factors in product marketing.

"We will hire the team from Regis to be responsible for the ad campaign of the new software."

They had collaborated very well over the past two years, and Regis’s team was adept at selling products from Silicon Valley.

"OK, I trust you, Jimmy, now I need to step out for a bit..." Dean was interrupted before he could finish speaking by the ringing telephone on his desk.

"Hillary?... Oh, I didn’t expect you’d come to California at this time."