Chapter 83: [Apple internal meeting]

Apple headquarters, executive meeting.
"I have speculated a lot of scenes, but after all, I haven't speculated that the competitors actually came from the mysterious eastern country on the other side of the ocean." Steve Jobs' voice resounded in the quiet conference room.
"Steve, do you take it too seriously? The iTunes Music Store now monopolizes 90% of the digital music market. MusicSpace is just a follower. Apple has the [iTunes + iPod] combination, and [MusicSpace + ????] Sorry, Bluestar Technology is just an Internet company. Where are their hardware carriers? "An executive said casually, spreading his arms.
At this time, another executive who spoke at the conference said: "When it comes to hardware, I have collected some information. Luo Sheng, the founder of Blue Star Technology, set up a technology company called AzureCoastCompany last month. The general business projects are the design, development, sales, and after-sales service of electronic products and communication information products ... maybe, they are secretly developing related hardware products and combining them with them. "
"Come on, Chinese hardware R & D capabilities? NO! NO! NO!" The senior executive just said with disdain: "Although I don't know what trick the young Chinese guy used to make Wall Street Huyou's turbulence turned him around, and he wasted a lot of money on him. Although I also admitted that he had made some famous names in the Internet technology industry, it did not mean that he could replicate his success in the Internet industry in hardware. "
The senior executive was full of disdain, but Jobs paid much attention to it. Admittedly, the gang leader did not despise it. He did not think that the Chinese could make a name for themselves in the hardware field, but he paid more attention to Luo Sheng.
It is unknown if I can do it for the time being, but there is a certain point that Qiao Gang's master can already determine that Luo Sheng really wants to do this.
The third executive attending the meeting spoke, a middle-aged man with glasses. He helped his glasses and said in a hurry: "I think it should be taken seriously, MusicSpace Music Store in April It will be launched on the 21st, just a week after its launch. Do you know the growth rate of MusicSpace's users in the past week? "
"How many?"
"About 920,000!"
"What? Are you sure it is 920,000, not 92,000?"
"I'm sure!"
When all the senior executives at the meeting heard this affirmative answer, the audience couldn't help but be alarmed. The growth of nearly one million users in a week was terrible.
After a while, the executive who exposed the data added: "I think that Blue Star Technology must attract us enough attention. It is no accident that Luo Sheng can be called [the son of the Internet] by the Silicon Valley Internet community. He is a minority. Entrepreneurs who have the essence of Internet thinking. "
"How did MusicSpace achieve nearly one million user increments just one week after launch?"
"I think there are two aspects. One is that the product itself is attractive. It is technically best not to underestimate Bluestar Technology, especially in the area of ​​Internet technology development. Apple may not necessarily be stronger than Bluestar Technology. The second is to use the strong user base of their other big social platform, BlueSpace, for drainage, including the Reddit website, and other aspects of advertising. "
This is reflected in the fact that MusicSpace is a newly launched product, and its owner, Bluestar Technology, is no longer a start-up company. After several rounds of financing, it has sufficient funds, and the financing is higher than once, although it has not created profits so far. But Bluestar Technology has not yet seen the crisis of capital chain break, and VC is still madly throwing money at this company.
"Let's pay attention to the MusicSpace product itself. It was officially launched on April 21. The first is the content. The five major record companies gave digitally licensed downloads of 2.25 million songs, which basically included the popular songs. Not only that, the record companies actually agreed to give Digital music licenses for 15 popular celebrities or groups including Eminem, Britney Spears, Coldplay (), LinkinPark, etc. "
而 "The key thing is that the new album of these 15 artists or groups is exclusively licensed to MusicSpace, in other words, users cannot hear the latest works of these artists on iTunes."
After speaking, the executives at the meeting were surprised again.
"God, are those record companies crazy? Why?" An executive said in shock, even a little dissatisfied, but more often he didn't understand. The record companies have always given the impression that they are extremely sensitive to copyright issues.
They wo n’t just authorize others to profit from it. It ’s not easy to get the authorization from them. This time, it ’s still an exclusive license. It ’s still a new album of a popular singer. This is Apple. Did not get it.
Qiao Qiao helped the owner say: "iTunes has already monopolized 90% of the digital music market, and the right to speak is growing, I am afraid it has caused the record companies to be vigilant."
"Do you mean ... can the record industry support another platform to compete with iTunes?"
Jobs did not respond, he was silent about the equivalent of default, and immediately greeted several senior executives at the meeting, and greeted the five major recording giants on the spot.
"Sonofab h !!!"
"Obviously, this is a good way to respond to us and support a competitor so that they can start from the ground."
"This unhappy has taken 65% of the profits of the iTunes Music Store and is not satisfied."
"Without the launch of iTunes, these record companies will still be alive with pirated music, you should let Napster kill them, the across the river!"
"Calm, this is business competition, and there are only eternal benefits."
Everyone released a pass and immediately felt much better. One yard to one yard. It is an indisputable fact that Apple Inc. has earned $ 10 billion through the combination of iTunes and iPod in the past three years. It is mostly jealous.
Even if 65% of the profits of the music store go out, they still make a lot of money. ITunes has driven the sales of hardware iPods, and all of this profit belongs to Apple.
As long as you calculate a general ledger, you know that it is definitely a profitable business. Not long ago, Apple was forced to disclose the first quarterly report to the public in order to give the market confidence and increase the company's market value, and the result is indeed the same.
公布 After the release of the first quarterly report, it far exceeded market expectations, which drove Apple's stock price soaring. At present, Apple's market value has exceeded $ 40 billion, which has increased tenfold in just one year.
"MusicSpace's content issues are aside, or look at the product itself, I think this should be the most important point. MusicSpace has many innovative features, such as smart shuffle function, playlist list, Windows user synchronization, Outlook contact People and calendar functions, added sharing on BlueSpace social chain ~ EbookFREE.me ~ Including smart push daily playlist function, this function records listener listening habits and recommends similar songs, similar to Microsoft's Synapse music player software Sex but significantly higher than the software. "
They didn't know that Synapse, the music player software, was written by Luo Sheng, and eventually sold to Microsoft, and obtained the first and most critical start-up capital for entrepreneurship.
Study MusicSpace carefully. Apple executives, including Jobs, were surprised to find that its user experience is very exquisite. The interface of the MusicSpace software is very neat and simple, without any advertising at all.
In addition, the sub-page also gives each single a comment and like function. In combination with the social chain of BlueSpace's social networking site under Bluestar Technology, this software has a more active sharing and communication attribute.
Especially the comment function and the like function, so that music lovers who are new to each other can interact and interact with each other and resonate with each other because of their common music hobbies.
Obviously, MusicSpace software has been given a strong Internet attribute. ITunes may be just an online music store, but MusicSpace is not just an online music store, it is also an interactive community for music lovers.
Seeing these many excellent experience features of this software, Apple's senior management, especially those who make products, can't help but look at it.
But at the same time, I felt a bit uneasy, because I saw the powerful competitive advantage of this software indirectly, and was able to create nearly one million users in one week. It is definitely not accidental, it must be praised for its excellence, Has won user recognition.
Uh ...