American History 1988
Chapter 387 - 376 Acorn Space

Chapter 387: Chapter 376 Acorn Space

At the beginning of 1996, what Gates said at a meeting in Seattle remained a mystery to outsiders.

But after the meeting, the executives at Microsoft were extremely secretive about the content discussed.

It seemed there was some secret or significant change brewing quietly.

However, the overcast skies of Seattle did not affect the brilliant sunshine of Silicon Valley.

With the internet boom heating up, the area was brimming with young entrepreneurs "panning for gold" everywhere you looked.

Walking the streets of Mountain View, you’d often see groups of youngsters in plaid shirts, engaged in heated debates as they walked.

Don’t be surprised; they might just be disagreeing over the valuation of their first round of funding.

Yes, this is Silicon Valley. Waves of entrepreneurship following the internet have swept across all of California.

Durell, just back from Seattle, hadn’t even had the chance to discuss the Amazon investment with Dean in detail before he had to rush off to meet several young founders.

He had been keeping such a busy schedule for quite some time, meeting with as many as a dozen entrepreneurs in a single day at times.

This phenomenon wasn’t exclusive to him; it was the norm for most venture capitalists.

The Netscape IPO was like the opening of Pandora’s box, with many ambitious teams flocking to the scene.

They then looked forward to taking their slice of the internet craze, not needing to reach the step of an IPO, but content with being acquired by a larger company for a hefty sum.

Most importantly, the cost of entering the internet was low; tech teams only needed to set up a website and rent some servers to start their venture.

They didn’t even need an office, nor did they have to visit potential customers door-to-door as in traditional industries.

The global internet user base of over 30 million was their potential customer pool.

On this interconnected web platform, anyone had the opportunity to visit their site without extra requirements.

It can be said that since the dawn of civilization, there hasn’t been a revolutionary industry with such low barriers to entry, accessible to almost everyone.

Without a doubt, America, with 25 million of the world’s 30 million internet users, was the epicenter of the internet startup craze.

The land was fertile enough, and some ideas were ready to hatch.

In early February, Bit finally released Toktok 2.0, which was also the first instant messaging software based on Windows 95.

Because there were no competitors in the industry, the consumer division took the principle of craftsmanship to refine this version of Toktok for a long time.

It might sound strange; after all, Bit’s financial reports were soaring, and its market valuation had broken 40 billion US Dollars.

So why hadn’t other companies entered this field? That was because Mikkel’s initial analysis report had misled everyone.

Mikkel attributed Bit’s revenue surge to the Toktok game center from the consumer division.

The popularity of Flash games was indeed a crucial factor in Bit’s successful transformation, and that wasn’t incorrect.

After all, the published financial statements showed Toktok’s business was actually at a loss.

The software itself was free, and the only value-added service was those decorative virtual avatars.

In the two quarters after 1995, Bit’s revenue from this was only a few hundred thousand US Dollars, which wasn’t even enough to pay employee salaries.

Not to mention supporting the server groups it operated on; it could be said that Toktok was not only losing money but losing big money.

Hundred-million-dollar server investments for just a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue was not an endeavor others were eager to try.

With that budget, wouldn’t it be better to develop Flash games and set up one’s own server center?

Yes, that was the common view within the industry.

Therefore, starting in 1996, not just one company announced they would consider entering the field of internet gaming.

This even included Netscape, which started with web browsers; Bit’s financial reports were too enticing.

In the two quarters of the second half of the year, with nearly 1 billion US Dollars in revenue, it was irresistible.

Clark and Durell had almost initiated this proposal in the board of directors the second day after Bit announced its year-end financial report.

Dean didn’t object, being a shareholder in multiple companies, he needed to balance the interests of each.

After all, with so many companies vying for a piece, Netscape was hardly an exception.

If the market had to be divided, it was preferred that the benefits not flow into strangers’ fields.

However, both Bit’s consumer division and Dean were skeptical of this herd behavior within the industry.

Because they overlooked the key to Flash games’ success, Toktok’s pop-up push notifications.

Developing Flash games was not hard; the difficulty lay in how to promote them.

Without the advantage of a platform, relying solely on the internet’s organic behavior or conventional push advertising, it was tough to produce a hit game.

Even if there were a few lucky successes, they would certainly be rare.

Netscape had the potential to succeed, though, because it also had its platform—an app store.

Furthermore, Netscape’s email user base of over 20 million was the ideal target for Flash game promotions.

Just insert one or two hyperlink ads in emails, and there was no worry about attracting players to the games.

Of course, the expansion of Netscape’s business was another matter; now, Bit’s Toktok 2.0 was bound to attract everyone’s attention.

After more than a year of development, Toktok’s user base had already surpassed ten million.

As the internet became more widespread, more and more people were getting accustomed to using Toktok for communicating with friends.

In some regions with advanced infrastructure, its usage frequency even vastly surpassed that of email.

Instant messaging, also supporting leaving messages, this is much more convenient than email.

If it weren’t for the habit of using email for work in the West, maybe Toktok’s popularity could have climbed another level.

Even so, outside of work, Toktok is the most commonly used chat tool, bar none.

Now that version 2.0 has been released, even though it’s a beta, it’s still highly anticipated by everyone.

Paul returned to his dorm the first chance he got after class, and in the final second before he rushed to the bathroom, he casually pressed the power button on his computer.

Ever since he got hooked on Flash games, he spent nearly half his time immersed in the Toktok hub.

After the sound of water rushing, Paul shivered in comfort.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the Windows95 desktop was almost fully loaded.

After flushing the toilet, he quickly returned to his desk and then clicked on that familiar squirrel icon.

Only, unlike the usual login screen, this time a pop-up appeared first.

"Toktok version 2.0 beta is now available, would you like to upgrade and enjoy a whole new online world?"

Huh, a new version of Toktok? It was only then that Paul remembered seeing such a promotional ad these past couple of days.

It was free anyway, without a second thought, Paul clicked the "confirm" button.

Almost the instant he clicked the mouse, a progress bar began to slowly fill from left to right.

Tsk, you’ve got to admit, Bit Company makes really good software.

Almost all of its installation processes are very user-friendly; you just click "confirm" once and then you don’t have to do anything else.

Not like other companies, where you basically can’t install their software without a CD or floppy disk.

Plus, you’d even have to hold the manual just to figure out what to do next.

Paul really liked Bit Company’s products, just like now. After a little over a minute, the brand-new Toktok 2.0 update was complete.

The refreshed interface was prettier than before, and that squirrel logo even had a hint of three-dimensionality.

Additionally, there’s now a colored dot behind each friend’s avatar, which, according to the newbie guide, is a status indicator.

A green dot means online now, a yellow dot means away, and a red dot indicates busy.

Naturally, users can set their status themselves; if you don’t want to be disturbed, just change it to a red dot.

What surprised Paul was that, behind this status indicator, he could also add a note with a sentence.

According to the description, your note is visible to everyone.

You can use it to explain your status or express your mood, or even mention what you’ve done today.

Interesting, without giving it a second thought, Paul changed his status to a red dot and added a note: Do not disturb, gaming!

Cough~, that’s what gamers do.

All that emotional stuff is what blonde bombshells would do.

He just wanted to play games, so Paul went to look for Toktok Game Center as usual.

Only, to his surprise, next to the game controller icon, there was an added acorn icon.

Curiosity led him to click it, and instantly, a brand-new webpage opened and loaded.

Paul’s Acorn Space! The bold title appeared above the header.

"What is this..." Paul was stunned. He saw his own avatar and his ID name.

Then came the main page, journal, photo album, message board, and Toktok.

Alright, Paul was completely confused now, the massive changes in Toktok version 2.0 caught him off guard.

He tried clicking each of the headings one by one, but unfortunately, they were all blank.

However, based on the hints, he had a rough idea of what functions these headings corresponded to.

The main page is what others see first when they visit your Acorn Space.

The journal is more like a diary, and the photo album is self-explanatory; both could be set to public or private.

The message board is probably similar to replying in forums, as for the last one, Toktok.

After Paul clicked it, the content that popped up was, Do not disturb, gaming!

OK, this feature was in sync with the status note from outside.

According to the official introduction, Toktok is a place to express your feelings, and it’s a homophone of "Talk".

You can choose to sync it to the status bar on the front page or just vent in your space.

Paul shrugged; clearly, this was a community feature, and probably some people would like it.

But not him, the gamer. If there was anything about the Acorn Space that satisfied him,

it was the hot games leaderboard in the right column, where many Flash games could be accessed directly.

Also, there was a shortcut to the Toktok Game Center here, and Paul specially tried it; it led to the same place as the game controller icon on the outside client.

Of course, with the version update, the Toktok Game Center had also changed; it even had its own standalone client.

Games that used to be displayed on web pages were now all gathered in this client.

Interesting, Paul’s eyes sparkled as if he had found a treasure.