American History 1988
Chapter 312 - 302: Let the Opponent Make the First Move

Chapter 312: Chapter 302: Let the Opponent Make the First Move

"Jim! Jim! I’ve got great news!"

Excited, Dean just stepped into Netscape’s office and couldn’t help shouting aloud.

"I’m here!" Jim Clark poked his head out of the office.

Sure enough, Dean knew he would be here.

Ever since Netscape’s Explorer browser download surpassed 500,000, Clark hardly went to SGI at all.

He truly treated this place as the center of his entire business; SGI probably really just remained a name.

"What’s the good news?" As soon as Dean entered, Clark couldn’t wait to ask.

He felt a vague expectation in his heart, for Dean came to him at this time, surely about Netscape’s affairs.

"Berners-Lee just sent a message, the European nuclear agency has almost agreed to his request!"

"So hypertext language is about to become open source code?!" Clark’s eyes widened.

"Exactly! But the official announcement won’t be made until December."

Dean’s face, wearing a smile he couldn’t hide, had come straight from the Knowledge Exploration Company.

"Oh~Shit!" Clark swung his fist hard, "Dean, it’s time for us to strike!"

He had finally waited for this day, no one knew how much he longed for this to happen.

Watching Explorer’s users grow day by day but unable to make a single dollar out of it was almost too much for Clark’s heart to bear.

This was a gold mine; the download numbers had proved everything.

"By the way, how many users does Explorer have now?" Dean was already calculating in his mind.

"Close to 900,000, and we might even breach that number by next week," Clark’s heart was also aflame.

"900,000..." Dean nodded, satisfied, "That’s a very good number."

The browser had been released for barely over half a year to this day.

Even with the factor of it being free, this was still a remarkable achievement.

After all, it was the first of its kind. Before this, people didn’t even know what a browser was.

And precisely because of this, the significance of browsers for the Internet era was even more pronounced.

"So should we recruit more staff and get ready to establish a marketing department?"

Clark, eager to get down to business, was rubbing his hands together impatiently.

To save on operating costs, Netscape never had a marketing department before.

Even so, after half a year. The just over four million US dollars they had scraped together were already more than half gone.

Before the cash in the account was completely exhausted, Netscape needed to find a way to turn a profit.

Dean of course understood this principle, but he wasn’t as eager.

"Jim, how do you think we should run Explorer?"

"By selling software rights, of course," Clark replied as if it were obvious, "like the other software companies do."

We couldn’t do this before because of the risk of copyright infringement.

But with hypertext language soon to be open source, we should be able to proceed, right?

Meeting Clark’s inquiring gaze, Dean slowly shook his head.

"Jim, we had better wait a bit longer."

"After December?" Clark seemed to understand, "I see, but we can start getting ready in advance."

"No, what I mean is, even after it’s open source, we wait a bit longer."

"Why?" Clark was taken aback.

"Because the market has gotten used to free browsers, and people have never paid for them.

Of course, the most important, Mosaic, hasn’t charged either; if we choose to charge now, just think what would happen?"

At Dean’s reminder, Clark suddenly realized.

Damn! He had been so excited by the good news that he had almost forgotten that all browsers on the market were free.

And if Explorer were the only one to start charging, then people who had gotten used to free would certainly turn to other browsers.

Who would be the biggest beneficiary? Of course, it would be Mosaic with the second-largest market share!

Months ago, Mosaic had already launched their Windows version.

Though its presence had been diminished by Explorer, with its reputation built on the Unix version, Mosaic would still be the people’s choice after Explorer.

So if Explorer chose to charge now, it would be like handing over the market to Mosaic on a silver platter.

For a moment, Clark was at a loss; it seemed Netscape was trapped in a difficult situation.

"Dean, how the hell do we make this business profitable? We can’t just keep burning through cash, can we?"

They had founded Netscape to do business, not to do charity with the spirit of "sharing" that pervaded the internet.

Seeing Clark almost beside himself, Dean started to laugh.

"I just said, let’s wait a bit first."

"But there’s hardly any money left in Netscape’s coffers... Hmm?" Suddenly, something clicked for Clark.

"Dean, when you say wait a bit, you mean...?"

"Exactly," Dean nodded, "Let’s wait and see Mosaic’s reaction.

They’re definitely more anxious than we are, because it has given NCSA market feedback beyond their expectations."

NCSA may be a research organization, but every year it leverages its research results for commercial benefits.

For instance, it would license some patents to commercial companies in exchange for a handsome licensing fee.

This is one of the ways most research institutions fund their projects; otherwise, relying solely on federal grants, it would be impossible to support multiple research projects simultaneously.

Although Mosaic is not yet on par with Explorer, a download volume of three to four hundred thousand has been enough to catch NCSA’s attention.

Dean is very certain about this because it is evident from how Mosaic is currently operated.

Yes, following Netscape’s lead, Mosaic also has a dedicated team tracking customer feedback in real time.

They’ve managed to offer the same 24-hour customer support as Netscape, which simply couldn’t be achieved without the collective effort of a team.

So, why is NCSA willing to put so much effort into Mosaic?

It’s, of course, in the hopes of reaping significant returns.

Clark quickly understood this rationale, as he had been keeping an eye on Mosaic.

"But Dean, does NCSA know that the hypertext language is about to be open sourced?"

It was because of Dean’s connection with Berners-Lee that he got wind of this insider information ahead of others.

If NCSA is unaware of this, wouldn’t they end up waiting in vain for several more months?

Dean, however, didn’t see Clark’s query as significant.

"They’ll find out, and it won’t be much later than us.

Don’t forget, Berners-Lee works for the European nuclear agency, and NCSA is a research institution.

Remember the original purpose of the NSFnet’s creation?

It was to provide network connectivity for international research institutions to facilitate their communication."

"Wow~" Clark was impressed with Dean’s swift logical thinking.

Just that alone had put him ahead of so many others.

"One last question," Clark said, raising his index finger, "what if Mosaic also becomes free in the end?"

"What does that have to do with us?" Dean asked, spreading his hands innocently.

"Netscape will still start this business, just not by making money from the general public.

Of course, to test market feedback, it would be best to let Mosaic do some trailblazing first."

"A wise choice." Clark now had a clear grasp of the entire situation.

Now, between them and Mosaic, whoever started charging first would be in a passive position.

Of course, people at NCSA might not understand this, because you can’t expect people in a research institution to know how to do business.

But behind Netscape stand two experienced entrepreneurs who know exactly when to make their move.

"However, regardless of Mosaic’s reaction, Jim, you were right about one thing earlier."

Dean pointed with his finger, "Netscape indeed needs to be prepared in advance, both as a company and for our Explorer."

To make money with a browser, Netscape naturally has to conduct a major upgrade of Explorer.

The upgraded browser must be superior to the current version and support more plugins and interactive features.

Otherwise, without any distinct advantages, how can it compete with Mosaic and persuade potential users to willingly spend their money?

"I’ll always be here!" Clark said emphatically, pointing at his seat, "This is my office!"

"Good! I’m now even more confident in Netscape’s success," Dean said as he waved his hand, ready to leave, having other matters to attend to.

"Wait a second, Mr. Billionaire, have you seen this?"

Jim Clark picked up a magazine from the desk and waved it.

Dean paused, recognizing it as a Forbes 400.

Well, it was that time of year again for the rankings.

"You know I don’t pay much attention to those," Dean shrugged.

"Then congratulations to you, America’s tenth richest billionaire!"

Clark tossed the magazine his way, having already read it and marveling at its contents.

Three or perhaps four years ago, he still remembered meeting Dean for the first time at the Carriage Wheel Bar.

Back then, he was a respected founder of Silicon Graphics, while Dean was just an ordinary, as ordinary as it gets, Stanford student.

But it was that fateful encounter that began to tint their story with remarkable hues.

From a kid from the Rust Belt to the tenth wealthiest on the list.

If that couldn’t be called an American legend, then who could claim such a title?

Clark prided himself on witnessing the birth of this legend firsthand.

Look, the star of Silicon Valley shone even brighter than that of Seattle.

Most importantly, they had become friends, and Clark had an intuition that this might turn out to be an achievement even more significant than founding SGI.

Dean knew nothing of his musings.

His mind was filled with Byte, Netscape, Price’s List, and even the issues with AOL and the CIX Alliance.

As the footsteps of the internet approached ever closer, Dean felt busier and busier.

Take, for example, Byte Company’s market value breaking through the 100 billion US Dollar mark, a milestone that should’ve been celebrated with a grand celebration for the employees.

But because the interior was preoccupied with setting up the consumer division, not just Dean, but many employees overlooked it.

It was as if all this was bound to happen, and nobody was surprised.

Indeed, the young Byte was now in a phase of bold progress.

Leaving Netscape’s office and getting back to his car, Dean casually flipped through the magazine in his hand.

Whoops, it seems the richest person this year has changed again.