American History 1988
Chapter 302 - 292 All Business

Chapter 302: Chapter 292 All Business

The Explorer browser had been online for a week, and its download numbers were growing rapidly.

In just a week’s time, daily download numbers had broken a thousand, a pace that was even higher than what Dean had optimistically predicted.

As mentioned before, considering the cost of operations,

Dean and Clark did not initially prepare a massive promotion for the Explorer browser.

Their plan was to let the network spread on its own, waiting for a scale effect to occur, which might align with receiving good news from Europe.

Then, with a substantial number of users, Netscape could smoothly launch the next generation of browsers that included value-added services.

This would minimize Netscape’s operating costs while the internal team also gained experience.

However, given the current growth of the Explorer browser, as well as Mosaic’s unforeseen disruption,

they might need to slightly change their strategy - after all, with competitors now in play, the ’lying-flat’ strategy was no longer suitable for Netscape.

To become the dominant force in browsers in the future, the competition had already started in the initial promotion phase.

They not only had no revenue, but they even had to spend money to grab market share, which undoubtedly increased Netscape’s operational pressure.

But this was just the worst-case scenario - everything depended on the final development of Explorer and Mosaic.

After all, no one believed then that browsers could become a business, as all related software on the internet was free.

That included Explorer and Mosaic, so whether the University of Illinois would continue to invest in Mosaic remained an open question.

In this early spring time at the end of March and beginning of April, everything was just beginning. All things were sprouting and the earth was reviving.

According to Dean’s prediction, the time when Explorer and Mosaic might seriously threaten each other would probably be in the second half of the year.

The market was almost empty now, sufficient to accommodate the rapid growth of two browsers.

Before the direct confrontation, there was a window period that Netscape needed to grasp well.

From the data provided by Teresa, perhaps in a month’s time, Explorer would reach a new height.

Dean had not stayed long at Netscape; currently, the trivial matters here were being handled by Clark.

He had the time and was willing to take on these tasks, which Dean was happy to leave to him.

However, at Price’s List, he needed to personally oversee things.

The scene he had just witnessed on Mosaic reminded him that Price’s List could trigger a network effect more easily than Explorer.

Because it could become not only the homepage for Explorer but for other browsers as well.

Dean could already imagine that once Explorer and Mosaic captured a significant market share,

other browsers would likely follow the trend and set Price’s List as their homepage because it was an effective way to attract users.

And while browsers were platform-specific, web pages were not; they ran based on browsers.

Whether it was Explorer, Mosaic, or any other browser, they all used Hypertext Markup Language.

As long as Price’s List paid attention to compatibility issues, it could be viewed on all browsers.

"John, how is Price’s List performing lately?" In Palo Alto, Dean went straight to the point as soon as he entered the door.

"Boss, you’ve come at just the right time," John and Simon looked overjoyed.

"The website has been online for less than a month, and we already have over 60,000 new users.

These are the new users who registered for Price’s List aside from those in Ohio."

To emphasize the site’s growth, John specially excluded the data from Ohio.

Taking the data from him, Dean glanced over it briefly.

"Are most of these new registered users from major cities on the East and West Coasts?"

"Yes, here in California, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Jose contributed the most users, accounting for over 40,000.

The rest mainly come from cities like New York, Boston, Washington, where we don’t have any employees stationed yet."

John’s eyes sparkled, "Boss, this was all a spontaneous choice by the users.

This also means there is a huge market potential there. If we strike while the iron is hot, the growth will be explosive."

John, having stuck with Price’s List for many years, finally saw the dawn of victory.

"Dean, it’s time to expand. This is a golden opportunity," Simon chimed in encouragingly.

In theory, with so many new users, Price’s List should unhesitatingly scale up.

But whether it was John or Simon, they both spoke with a pleading tone when making their request to Dean.

The reason was that, aside from Ohio, Price’s List had no revenue yet.

The site’s services were currently free, and due to the surge in user numbers, Price’s List’s hardware costs were continuing to climb.

Servers are needed to support the user browsing the pages; data needs a place for storage.

And Byte Company was providing all this support for Price’s List, with their server centers now almost spread throughout America.

Apart from the initial ones in California, Virginia, Ohio, Byte Company had set up server centers in Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston.

Byte Company itself certainly didn’t need that many servers, but if you add Intuit, Price’s List, as well as the budding Netscape, it was another story.

Especially since these companies were all in rapid development, of course, Byte Company’s servers weren’t being used for free.

Intuit paid a monthly server usage fee, and so did Price’s List.

The accounts of different companies had to be clearly delineated, even though some were Dean’s own businesses.

Now Simon and his team are calling for an expansion of Price’s List, which meant more servers would be needed, and inevitably higher costs.

Without an increase in profits and yet a rise in costs, John and Simon naturally felt a bit embarrassed to bring it up.

Any other stingy boss might even yell at them, pointing fingers.

But Dean didn’t, he knew that the internet economy couldn’t be viewed through traditional lenses.

"Go and get a report from the CIX Alliance, include Price’s List in the expansion for every city in America with more than 100,000 internet users."

"Great!" John and Simon excitedly high-fived each other, this was even better than they had hoped for.

"Also, initiate business partnerships in these cities as soon as possible. Job recruitment, real estate agencies... this is your old forte."

Price’s List still maintained its free policy for regular users, but the website needed to make money, otherwise how would it continue to operate?

Now, John and his team were required to quickly find advertisers for Price’s List.

And they needed to move fast, because if the number of users increased too quickly, Price’s List could collapse under its own weight without revenue.

"No problem, Boss, we’ve already started sending out business announcements here in California.

"We have experience from Ohio, and it will be effective soon," John promised confidently.

"OK, by the way, have you noticed the recent surge in Price’s List traffic?"

"Of course," John and Simon exchanged glances, "Explorer browser, it has been a big help for us."

"No, not just Explorer," Dean corrected them, "it’s all browsers."

"Oh~" John and his team were somewhat surprised by this answer, "All browsers?"

"Yes, don’t limit Price’s List to just Explorer; your growth space is much larger," Dean said.

Dean had already figured it out, Explorer and Mosaic were competitors, but as far as Price’s List was concerned, both were partners.

Each deal was separate; for Dean, they were all just business.

"Apart from Netscape, you should also proactively contact the creators of the Mosaic browser.

Even though this browser has already set Price’s List as its homepage, it would be best if you draw up a contract with them.

Price’s List may offer some compensation if appropriate, all for the sake of securing that contract," Dean insisted.

Dean knew that both browsers would be dominant in the market in the future, and if Price’s List could become the designated homepage for both, the benefits would be obvious.

As the number of internet users utilizing browsers skyrocketed, so too would the traffic to Price’s List explode.

Dean wanted not just a share of the browser market, but also the first wave of internet website dividends.

"I will get in touch with the Mosaic browser," John said, admitting that this was the first time he had even heard the name.

"Besides browsers, don’t forget about the CIX Alliance; they have a lot more users in their hands.

If necessary, I will personally make a call to them later."

If an expansion was to happen, Dean wanted to go all out.

Browsers could indeed bring significant user growth to Price’s List, but currently, the CIX Alliance held the reigns.

All they had to do was persuade AOL and others to update their clients to the version supporting hypertext,

and set Price’s List as one of the recommended pages, and then the former’s user growth would be even more pronounced.

However, things wouldn’t go that smoothly, as AOL had its own subscription content.

Promoting Price’s List could potentially divert traffic from their value-added services, so Steve Case would most likely hesitate.

Of course, that was a matter for the future, and if necessary, Dean would make another trip to Virginia.

Upon hearing that they had the support not just of browsers but also the CIX Alliance, John and Simon beamed with delight.

They could already envision the day when Price’s List became immensely popular, and of course, Nasdaq was the ultimate dream.

"By the way, I just mentioned to Netscape that Price’s List’s special services are very well-known, right?" Dean asked as they were wrapping up.

"Uh," John looked a bit embarrassed, but Simon was confident.

"Dean, it’s just a marketing strategy, and it’s effective, isn’t it?"

Why did Price’s List’s new user base spike recently? Half of it was people looking for the opposite sex.

Yellow Pages, Dean understood; he had used this tactic before.

But a stereotype couldn’t form, especially not during the growth period of Price’s List.

"This is what we’ll do: I have my reservations about that marketing tactic, but Price’s List must not deliberately lead users in that direction."

Dean’s point was clear, Price’s List officially should not be involved, let the internet develop freely.

"Dean," Simon whispered close to him, "this business is booming, should we charge advertising fees like we do with real estate agencies?"

WTF? Dean looked at Simon incredulously, you’re really something!

If Price’s List charged streetwalkers advertising fees, what would that make them, pimps?

"Price’s List can charge them advertising fees," Dean said with a pseudo-smile.

"Really?" Simon’s eyes lit up.

"Of course, but there is one condition." An idea was forming in Dean’s mind.

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