American History 1988
Chapter 316 - 306: Take Out Mosaic

Chapter 316: Chapter 306: Take Out Mosaic

Information from Price’s List sparked a sudden inspiration in Dean.

With the popularity of the internet, a variety of web pages were making their debut.

If Price’s List was encountering server issues, were other companies experiencing them too?

Uh...perhaps not. To date, no other website could rival Price’s List.

But that was just as well; it meant it wasn’t too late.

Otherwise, once other manufacturers realized this market demand, Dean might be out of the picture.

However, before acting on his idea, Dean decided to secure some funding for Price’s List first.

So, he called Morgentaler, who had invested in Price’s List a few years ago.

"Hey, Dean, you haven’t been to my party in a long time."

Almost an hour after receiving the call from Dean, Gary hurried over from San Francisco.

"You’re faster than I thought," said Dean, gesturing for him to take a seat before continuing to swing his club at the lawn holes.

He had turned the area into a mini golf course, where he occasionally came to hit a few balls in his spare time.

"Golf can wait, but parties can’t be missed."

Gary flopped down into a chair and casually popped a piece of pastry into his mouth.

He was close with Dean, and David Morgentaler treated Dean like a junior.

Their relationship had started back in Cleveland, and visiting each other during the holidays was common.

Living in San Francisco, Gary often invited Dean to his parties.

He knew Dean had a liking for Hollywood starlets, so his parties were filled with all sorts of lesser-known celebrities.

"Forget about those parties."

Thwack, Dean swung his club mightily, sending the white golf ball spinning far into the distance.

"Have you kept up with Price’s List lately? It’s going to surprise you."

"Of course!" Gary perked up at the mention, "It’s now the most popular website."

Even though it had been quiet during the first two years, it was his first investment.

But ever since the headquarters of Price’s List moved to California, Gary started to pay attention to it once more.

Especially after the advent of browsers, as Price’s List began to spread with their rise, Gary knew the time was coming.

To promote Price’s List, he didn’t only pitch it fervently to his friends.

He even personally ventured into the online dating community.

Indeed, it was convenient to do this sort of thing online because he could see what the girls looked like in advance.

If he was not satisfied, he could simply change his choice.

Gary thought this was the coolest invention on the internet.

It was unthinkable for Price’s List not to be a hit!

"Don’t celebrate just yet," said Dean, setting down his club and taking a sip of water, "Price’s List is running out of money."

"Oh~" Gary blinked in surprise, "I thought its business model was mature enough."

"You should have a good talk with John and the others. Price’s List is now a gold digger."

It was Morgentaler’s connections that had originally snagged John from AT&T’s Cleveland division.

"Alright, just tell me how much funding you need," Gary said, preferring to get straight to the point.

"At least ten million US Dollars. By proportion, Morgentaler needs to prepare about 2.1 million."

Websites were money-burning enterprises before they turned profitable, and Dean could not guarantee there wouldn’t be additional needs in the future.

"No problem!" Surprisingly, Gary agreed promptly and readily.

This made Dean pause, "Honestly, I thought the amount would give you a shock."

"Heh heh~" Gary was about to respond when a ringtone interrupted them.

"Hello?..." Dean pulled out his cellphone and walked toward the lawn not far away.

Watching his figure, Gary lay back in his chair with nothing else to do.

2.1 million US Dollars might not be a small amount, and it was indeed many times more than his initial investment of a few tens of thousands.

However, when Gary left the house, David Morgentaler had instructed him.

To invest any amount in Dean’s projects without bargaining or questioning the use of money!

Kidding aside, so many people were waiting to offer Dean money willingly.

This was a top-tier super-wealthy individual on Forbes 400 list.

And how had Dean acquired his wealth? By making money through investments.

Unlike entrepreneurial geniuses like Bill Gates, whose wealth was more significant.

Microsoft was nearly his sole source of wealth, while Dean’s situation was different.

Though Byte’s market value contributed the majority of his fortune, the rest of his assets were diversified.

They were all results of Dean’s investments, often starting with minimal initial input, most of which were grand slams.

Dean’s tactics were much shrewder than Gates’, and venture capitalists, in particular, loved dealing with Dean.

Wall Street favored Dean’s asset allocation as well, seeing it as strongly resilient against risks.

That’s why in the capital arena, Dean was far more popular than Gates.

He didn’t hoard his riches and could lead everyone to wealth; naturally, Gary understood this principle.

"So is that settled then?" Dean turned around after finishing the call and walked back.

"Of course," Gary, coming back to his senses, nodded. "By the way, who was that call from? I thought I heard a familiar voice."

"It was Durell," replied Dean nonchalantly, as he had begun visiting more frequently of late.

"Durell?" Gary was taken aback, "Did he spot some good idea again?"

"You guess~" Dean smirked at him with a meaningful smile.

Gary blinked, then suddenly came to his senses.

"Shit! I’m going to go write a check for John and the others right now!"

Gary bounced off his butt and immediately sprang up from the lounge chair.

Watching his hasty departure, Dean couldn’t help but shake his head with a chuckle.

He wasn’t joking just now; Durell was indeed inquiring about Price’s List.

Look, the influence of 1.5 million users was beginning to spread, and it first caught the attention of Durell.

While others were still uncertain about the Internet, Durell was already trying to understand it.

However, this business was temporarily not for him; Dean needed to carefully ponder Price’s List.

Just as Dean was about to swing a couple more times, he hadn’t even put on his gloves when another call came through.

...

"Jim, what’s the situation?"

Poor thing, December was approaching, but Dean had hardly had a break all year.

While other tycoons were holidaying and in the company of beauties, Dean was unceasingly busy.

"Did you hear the news?" Clark asked with a serious expression, "Mosaic is going to charge."

"Wow~" Dean raised his eyebrows in surprise, "That’s faster than I expected."

It wasn’t even December yet, and the European nuclear organization hadn’t announced the open sourcing of hypertext language.

But the other party’s impatience left Dean feeling very puzzled.

"It’s a bit complicated, it’s not official news from NCSA, but it does come from them."

"Wait, the more I listen, the more confused I get?"

"You’ll understand after you see this." Clark turned the computer screen towards Dean.

"Look, the Mosaic development team has leaked this information on the BBS.

They claim it’s an NCSA decision, and although they tried hard to stop it, it’s beyond their control."

Alright, it seemed that there was a disagreement within Mosaic.

From the content of the post, it appeared that NCSA’s management had made up their minds to charge for Mosaic.

But the development team disagreed and decided to leak the news online beforehand.

"What’s the reaction from the people?" Dean was more concerned about this.

"You guessed it, Dean~" Clark sighed, "Everyone is against it."

He scrolled down the post, and the comments section was filled with criticism of NCSA.

Clearly, since the birth of the browser, people had become accustomed to it being a free service.

Now that Mosaic suddenly hinted at charging, it naturally stirred up a storm.

Everyone mocked NCSA’s greed for money, some even harshly slapped it in the face using Explorer.

That’s right, without Mosaic, there was still Explorer.

Moreover, the latter was more popular on the widely used Windows system; Mosaic wasn’t irreplaceable.

Most of these objectors voiced their opinions from the Unix platform, where Mosaic had a dominant position.

However, Explorer also had a Unix version, and Mosaic’s misguided move actually caused a surge in downloads for Explorer’s Unix version.

After browsing through the online comments, both Dean and Clark wore serious expressions.

Indeed, the route of charging was not viable.

Browsers couldn’t be sold like consumer software, piece by piece.

Mosaic was getting the heat, but Clark’s expression showed little excitement.

"Dean, so where is Netscape’s way out?"

If they couldn’t monetize the browser, then what was the point of all their work up to this point?

"Of course, commercial licensing," Dean shrugged as if it were obvious, there were plenty of ways to make money.

"Hmm? You mean...?" Clark’s eyes slowly lit up.

"Since we can’t make money from the average person, we need to shift our target."

Mosaic had provided a good example for Netscape; when the market had options, it was best not to go against the grain.

If today it was Explorer announcing a charge, then perhaps Mosaic would become the biggest winner.

"Our Explorer browser is free for ordinary users, but corporate users have to pay a licensing fee per copy."

This was the best method for browser monetization so far, after all, Netscape also needed funds to cover costs.

If it was entirely free, then Netscape would lose its only source of income.

Without the ability to monetize, how could they attract Wall Street’s attention? How could they step onto Nasdaq?

As for additional value-added services, they were not out of the question, but they would take time.

Browser technology was still not perfect back then, and there were even fewer things that could be used for value-added services.

So, commercial licensing was Netscape’s best option going forward.

"Oh~ Dean!" Clark’s face brightened up, "This idea might just work."

In this way, Netscape would gain favor from the general public while securing benefits from corporate users.

As for whether enterprises needed a browser or not, one only had to look at the current state of Explorer.

In Silicon Valley, most companies had Explorer installed on their desktops.

And with the coming of the Internet wave, no one could do without a browser.

"Jim, although Netscape has found its direction, we have something even more urgent to take care of right now."

"What’s that?" Clark was taken aback.

"Before Netscape launches the next generation of paid browsers, we need to take down Mosaic!

By the way, I also have another idea I need to test, and it might just be the secret to Netscape earning money."

When it came to the Internet, Dean thought further ahead than anyone else.