American History 1988
Chapter 303 - 293: Killing Three Birds with One Stone

Chapter 303: Chapter 293: Killing Three Birds with One Stone

"What condition?" Simon immediately asked.

Only he and John understood that the most thriving section on Price’s List right now was actually the escort services section.

The volume of users and discussions in this section far exceeded that of other sections.

Just look at Price’s List in Los Angeles, where almost every few minutes, a girl would post an ad for companionship.

Of course, everyone knew exactly what ’companionship’ entailed.

With such a dense volume of transactions, how could Simon not be tempted?

This wasn’t even considering the ads posted by men seeking technicians; all of these ads combined were undoubtedly a substantial amount of traffic.

If Price’s List charged a few US dollars for each of these ads,

perhaps just this income alone would be enough to cover all of Price’s List’s costs in Los Angeles.

Therefore, as soon as he heard Dean give in, Simon immediately became spirited.

In the face of his sparkling eyes, Dean, however, began to laugh.

"Price’s List will charge $5 per ad for the escort services section," said Dean.

"Great!" Simon cheered with a fist pump.

"But all the fees collected from the escort services section, Price’s List won’t take a penny of it."

"What?!" Simon’s smile froze.

"All the money will be donated to charity, and this will be noted on the website.

We need to tell those ladies that Price’s List hasn’t earned a single penny from them.

The $5 fee goes where it should. Every order they take on, in a way, is also contributing to charity.

I think, at the very least, it will make them feel a bit better about themselves; it is the only ’cost’ they are paying for their business.

We understand their difficulties, so Price’s List won’t forbid them from posting ads."

Since the escort services are key to the activity on Price’s List and an effective way to attract new users,

Dean would certainly not get rid of this community, but he knew relying on such means was a two-edged sword.

Perhaps it would bring a large number of users to Price’s List initially,

but over the long term, it would inevitably attract criticism from outsiders, as it’s not exactly an honorable matter.

What to do then? Is there a way to have the best of both worlds?

Yes! Charitable activities are the best choice.

What Price’s List needs is the traffic and new users brought by escort services, not the small advertisement fees, which Dean doesn’t care much about.

If that’s the case, then make things nicer.

Mainstream social values instinctively loathe streetwalkers, so when Price’s List charges them, it is seen as some sort of ’cost.’

And the money collected is a hot potato that people think is dirty, while the ladies think Price’s List is squeezing their hard-earned money.

Faced with this quandary, all Price’s List needs to do is announce that all of this income will be donated to charitable organizations, and all the problems will be solved.

Instantly, the money becomes clean, even carrying a halo of moral righteousness.

The ladies pay the ’cost,’ Price’s List doesn’t earn this ’dirty money,’ and mainstream values are satisfied.

Although they pay a small fee, it doesn’t end up in the pockets of capitalists, but rather is seen as contributing to a charitable cause, and the ladies are satisfied too.

Price’s List gains a great reputation and reaps the benefits of the traffic brought by the escort services community, of course, Dean is even more satisfied.

See, acting like a prostitute and still putting up a chastity arch... heck! A win-win-win situation just like that emerged.

Simon and John looked at each other, completely shocked.

"Holy shit! Dean, is that why you can become a billionaire?"

Simon felt that his little ideas were utterly petty compared to Dean’s grand strategy.

"Buddy, don’t just look at the short term in business, we’ve got to set our sights as far ahead as possible."

Dean jokingly patted his shoulder, "Of course, your large-scale recruitment of ladies in Los Angeles.

And then advertising on Price’s List is a passable marketing strategy."

"All right, you caught me," Simon shrugged.

When Price’s List just started in Los Angeles, to attract users quickly,

Simon found a lot of shills near Hollywood, where there’s never a shortage of girls chasing dreams of stardom.

But reality is often cruel, and most remain obscure, eventually taking private gigs out of necessity.

Simon targeted this group; these girls often had better than average conditions, especially in looks.

Placing them on Price’s List was like unleashing chaos.

This brought a significant number of users to the website, with high daily click rates.

With these performances, Price’s List has begun to reach out to merchants in Los Angeles.

"Like I said, the upgrade to the escort services section needs to be implemented as soon as possible, and the charity statement should be placed prominently."

"OK, we’ll arrange these in the next update," agreed John.

"You guys deal with CIX Alliance first, and if you can’t handle it, come find me."

In an era where browsers were not yet widely popular, clients of internet service providers would be a good place to promote Price’s List.

"By the way, Price’s List’s search function needs an update, that’s some old antique from years ago," mentioned Dean.

"The search function?" John asked in surprise, as he didn’t think there were any issues with the current search service.

"Our search function is mostly for internal use, but as the number of websites increases, external search needs to be considered," explained Dean.

Dean planned to take some time to personally check the feature, it didn’t need to be extraordinary, just functional.

He couldn’t possibly take on the entire internet business scene, but being early in the game could add more chips for the future.

Since entering ’93, his prior layout in the internet field had finally begun to gradually take effect.

Price’s List and its symbiotic relationship with the browser, their unification will bring unexpected synergies.

At the same time, the CIX Alliance can provide data support and platform promotion functions for their development.

How many netizens are there in America, and how are they distributed in the major cities of each state—all these statistics are available within CIX.

With this data, Price’s List can plan the order of its future expansion.

Additionally, there can be rough estimates made about how much room there is for growth in the browser market.

Look, what seemed like erratic busywork in the past is now beginning to converge.

Everything divergent eventually converges; the Internet will link them together—this won’t require any extra effort from Dean.

...

As time entered April, Dean found time to go back to Cleveland, where Miranda had given birth to Little Roy.

With the level of care at Cleveland’s clinic, both mother and child were of course safe and sound.

However, Dean didn’t stay there for long; two weeks later, he hurried back to Silicon Valley.

This year, Byte Company’s strategic goals will once again undergo significant adjustments.

"Gentlemen, just last month the federal government placed an order with us for a suite of the Web Zhensystem, valued at 40 million US dollars."

No sooner had Dean finished speaking than a round of enthusiastic applause broke out in the conference room—it was time for Byte Company to reap the rewards.

"Of course, this isn’t our biggest harvest," Dean said with a smile on his face, "The largest order comes from the military, and it exceeds one hundred million dollars."

"Damn! They really did take the most money from the taxpayers!" Valentine said indignantly.

Although he had a military background, it was precisely because of this that he understood the corruption within the ranks.

"Relax, Valentine, this is all business," Durell advised calmly.

Without the military’s corruption, where would Byte Company get such a big order.

"Our video technology made a deep impression on Washington; they need this system for internal video conferencing.

Of course, after evaluation, the military concluded that they needed this technology even more, as video Web Zhen systems are beneficial for establishing a more efficient command structure."

Dean wasn’t too surprised by the orders from the federal government and the military.

That’s because, under current conditions, only these two entities had the dedicated lines needed to support the transmission of high-quality video.

Moreover, many advanced technologies first see military use before they slowly transition to civilian use.

These two orders couldn’t have come at a better time; with these funds, Byte Company can continue to invest in research and development costs to develop the next generation of video technology.

Only after multiple iterations will the cost of technology gradually decrease to a commercially viable stage.

"I’ll contact the Hilton Hotel; their guests should also have this need," a member from Goldman Sachs took the initiative.

Businessmen often need to hold meetings anywhere, anytime, and the video Web Zhen system can perfectly meet their needs.

"Good, our business range is expanding," Dean took the opportunity to boast.

Discovering new business growth points for the company, then including them in the financial reports, and thus Byte Company’s stock price will rise yet again.

"Of course, this is still not enough; it’s time for Byte Company to make the appropriate adjustments to its strategic layout."

Dean’s announcement made everyone on the board take notice, knowing that he had a grand plan.

"Before we start, let’s first review the business performance of Byte Company over the years," Dean said, getting right to the point, taking the materials from Anna.

"Do you remember the Vision Plan? Byte Company has been developing according to its schedule these years.

Five major product categories: Instant Messaging with Bit Teams, Project Management with Bit Work, Research and Development Coordination with Bit Code, and now our remote meeting category with the Web Zhen System.

Of course, Instant Messaging and Remote Meeting categories might be merged in the future.

As for the remaining two categories, Document Collaboration and Micro Databases, we already have plans for them.

This year, in the second half, Byte will launch a microdatabase software, Bit Book.

It’s a knowledge base tool containing a variety of technical documents.

The sources for these documents are mainly two-fold: one is the official organization and collection by Byte Company, and the second is the engineers themselves as users who write and upload.

If a user wants to access certain technical data from the database, this may incur additional costs.

The specific charges depend on the value of the technical data; some might be free, others require a paid subscription.

We will hire experts from various fields to rate and categorize these technical documents.

Of course, if the technical data are user-uploaded, they can choose to publish it for free or share it for a fee.

And Bit Book will take a small cut, but most of the earnings go to the creator.

We respect the choices of the creators and the value of knowledge."

In Dean’s plan, Bit Book is somewhat akin to a future CNKI, though it’s certainly more conscientious.

The creators can freely choose their charging methods, either free or paid.

Even if Byte Company takes a cut, it is still just a minor portion.

In addition to this, Bit Book will also feature a social element, allowing users to leave messages and communicate over technical issues.

In future updates, a Q&A feature may be included, enabling users to seek help online.

In short, this database software leans more towards technology and earns money from professional knowledge.

For enterprise users, it will still adopt a membership system. Once a member, they can access information in the database for free.

If there needs to be a comparison, Byte Company is assuming the role of an electronic publishing house.

Regarding the new line of business, the board naturally supports it in its entirety; they want Byte Company’s financial reports to look better than anyone else does.

"What about the Document Collaboration software?" a director asked.

This is the only remaining business in the Vision Plan that Byte Company has yet to enter.

"Let’s put that field on hold for the time being; Byte Company has more important targets to focus on next."

That was also the purpose of Dean’s board meeting today.