At the beginning of 2002, Ronan temporarily stayed in the city of San Jose to familiarize himself with Netflix's operations and work with Netflix's management to solve the various problems it was facing.

But he didn't rush into Netflix's day-to-day business.

Ronan's strength lies in the company's future development direction and strategic decisions.

In addition to maintaining the stability of Netflix, Mark Randolph also brought back several technical managers who were rejected by Reed Hastings, and they also single-handedly built the framework of the Netflix website.

After a period of personal experience, Ronan saw more people like Mark Randolph and Jim Cook at Netflix, who were full of entrepreneurial enthusiasm, conscientious and responsible for the company's work, and even had a kind of fanaticism about the industry they were currently engaged in, and they would not give up until they reached their goals.

This is Silicon Valley, a startup paradise with an almost insane enthusiasm rarely seen in traditional industries, and too many programmers and designers who use computers for work as their companions.

In Hollywood, it's hard to feel the atmosphere of a Silicon Valley company.

Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why Silicon Valley continues to produce miracles.

Ronan once considered whether to move Netflix to Los Angeles in order to be closer to Hollywood, but after actual observation, he felt that at least in the past few years, the overall atmosphere of Silicon Valley is far more suitable for Netflix than Hollywood.

Over the years, Ronan definitely belongs to the group of hard-working people in Hollywood, but when he came to San Francisco, he found that there were too many people working hard here.

Early in the morning, as soon as he walked into Netflix, Ronan saw Mark Randolph sitting in the lobby with a coffee, and a dozen website technicians had already started to get busy.

"So early, Mark. Ronan walked over to the coffee machine and picked up a cup of coffee for himself.

Mark Randolph said: "The website optimization is almost complete, and we will try to finish it today. ”

The head of the design department, Eric Meyer, who Mark Randolph called a genius programmer, sat in front of the computer next to him, without raising his head, and said, "Two bosses, it will definitely be done today." ”

Ronan doesn't know how to program a computer, and says, "Don't forget to optimize the search function." ”

Mark Randolph then said: "The user's reminder function can be designed today. ”

Ronan nodded, it was a design request he had made, from memories of his past life.

Of course, the Netflix website in the previous life had more and more powerful functions in terms of film selection, but after Ronan learned about the company's situation, most of them were only put in future plans, rather than being realized now.

On the one hand, it is based on the acceptance of today's Internet users, and on the other hand, it is based on the development of hardware and the Internet.

Since the collapse of the stock market, the development of the Internet industry has been relatively slow in the past two years, hardware and bandwidth are issues that must be considered in website design, and too many website loaders, not to mention increasing the burden on the client, are also a huge test for Netflix's servers.

Netflix is only a small part of many Internet industries, and its current impact on the entire industry is too small, and it is unlikely to drive hardware changes in the computer industry.

But within what is affordable, the website will do its best.

In the middle of the afternoon, Ronan and Mark Randolph arrived at the technical department again, and Eric Meyer's technical team paused their work at hand, and it seemed that the optimization design had come to an end.

"Boss!" Eric Meyer said, inviting Ronan and Mark Randolph to the computer with the largest screen, "the optimization is done." ”

Mark Randolph didn't look at the computer screen, but said to Ronan: "We have wanted to leave this step a long time ago, without your support......"

Ronan patted him and said, "This is our business." ”

Mark Randolph nodded slightly, knowing more clearly how important money is to a startup.

Netflix's website optimization is not short of manpower, but it needs Oracle's latest design software, and Netflix's previous financial situation can only barely maintain the company's operations, and it is simply unable to complete the work.

As the de facto founder and operating officer of Netflix, no one knows better than Mark Randolph that many of Netflix's problems are caused by the general environment and lack of funds.

With the infusion of Relativity Entertainment, he believes that many problems will be solved.

"We re-customized the website program according to a predetermined plan and using the power of the software, so that starting next week, Netflix's website can handle up to 10 million searches and fulfillment operations per day, and can process 300,000 orders at the same time," said Eric Meyer. ”

Due to previous funding constraints, they have not been able to improve the website.

Ronan said with satisfaction: "Well done. ”

Eric Meyer adds, "We've also taken the company's ideas for the user interface, inventory management, shipping, and even credit card usage into a user-friendly interface. ”

Mark Randolph patted Eric Meyer on the shoulder: "Good work. ”

"It's not hard, it's so satisfying!" Eric Meyer has the typical Silicon Valley passion: "For us, coding is a fun game that allows marketing to dance with technology." ”

Ronan and Mark Randolph, under the supervision of Eric Meyer, saw the design team optimize the website interface and functionality more.

In the user interface, they have optimized a function called "queues" to make the handler "smart", allowing customers to sort and optimize the catalog in their personal accounts.

In the same position, there is a new reminder function, and the icon is quite eye-catching - a raised index finger with a bow on it.

This allows customers to mark the videos they are interested in.

In addition, Eric Meyer wants to build a digital shopping assistant that, according to his ideals, would be a avatar with an avatar that would help customers find their favorite titles in Netflix's vast library of future films.

This is only a hypothesis and is unlikely to be realized in the short term.

After the introduction, Ronan sat in front of the computer and actually experienced the various functions of the website, which was indeed more convenient and faster than before.

Especially when it comes to processing orders, the speed of the website is significantly faster.

But Ronan searched for a while and suddenly found a problem, clicking on the link of a film and finding that it was out of stock, and there were several other films in the future that were in a similar situation.

"Mark. Ronan pointed to the computer screen and asked, "Is this ......?"

Mark Randolph, who was sitting in front of another computer, stuck his head and said, "We don't have a license for these films. ”

Eric Meyer continued: "This is Mr. Hastings' decision, and since the number of titles in the library is so small, Mr. Hastings believes that increasing the number of titles on the website will be better for attracting customers. ”

Ronan thought for a moment and said, "All the films that are not licensed will be taken down from the website." ”

Just borrowing the name of the film doesn't involve copyright issues, but he still said: "We should never use the method of placing empty boxes of videotapes on the shelves like Pepsi to whet customers' appetites." ”

Mark Randolph continued: "Some of the practices of Peskind are really worth reflecting on. ”

Eric Meyer said: "I'm going to let people do it. ”

Ronan had an idea and said, "We may face a shortage of inventory in the future. Erik, can you design a program that guides customers to stock movies instead of showing them all available sources? ”

Eric Meyer thought for a moment and said, "This optimization program is not difficult, I will have people design it right away." ”

Ronan then enters the office with Mark Randolph.

"With financial support, we are re-conducting market research. Mark Randolph said: "In the past two years, too many jobs have been put on hold because of financial problems. ”

He added, "Netflix's current customers are mainly students, skilled immigrants and neighboring areas of California, and market research can provide us with more data to support our promotion. ”

Ronan said: "Skilled immigration customers account for a relatively large number of customers, which is conducive to our introduction of foreign film licensing. ”

Mark Randolph said: "Ronan, you did what we always wanted to do but couldn't do, the film licensing negotiations between South Korea and the island nation went very well, we won the licenses of several film companies at a very small price, and after the news spread, other companies in these two countries reached out to us. ”

The licensing fees for these overseas films are very low, and Ronan said: "Try to talk about it as much as possible, and funding won't be a problem in the short term." ”

He thought for a moment and said, "Skilled immigrants in the California area, Indians make up a considerable proportion, I will contact Indians, and you send people to contact Bollywood." ”

Mark Randolph asked with concern, "You have connections in India. ”

"A very large film investment fund in India. Ronan said simply: "They have a close relationship with Bollywood, and it will be convenient for them to act as intermediaries." ”

Hearing Ronan's words, Mark Randolph deeply felt that the development promotion of a movie-related business company like Netflix by Hollywood industry bigwigs is not comparable to Reed Hastings.

Just like negotiating film licensing with companies in South Korea and island countries, many of the extremely difficult tasks that Netflix does can easily be achieved under the hands of the other party.

Mark Randolph suddenly had a feeling that when he founded Netflix, if he hadn't accepted Reid Hastings' angel investment and went to Hollywood to find funds, Netflix might not be what it is now.

San Francisco, California, and its vicinity are now Netflix's main source of customers, and the majority of skilled immigrants here, East Asian and Indian, will be even more attractive to these customers if they can license many films from island nations, South Korea and India.

Ronan also has a very important matter to discuss with Mark Randolph.

About the obscure art film on the Netflix website.