In 1995, there were not many free shareware on the Internet, and it was not too complicated, and software such as QQ, which involves Internet communication protocol technology, was a high-end technology, so it was unique.

In the week that Yahoo recommended QQ, West Coast Computer News published an interview with David Ferro, vice president of Yahoo.

"Seriously, I can hardly believe that the world's first Internet instant messaging software came from China, which is a country with very backward computer technology.

But after using QQ, I read its software description, and logged on to Chongguang's download website, and I had to accept the fact that China was the first in the world to design an Internet instant messaging software.

This software will undoubtedly become an important milestone in the history of the Internet, as a sharing software, it symbolizes freedom and openness, I believe that with such a vision and ideals, the software will definitely achieve greater results in the world software field in the future. ”

As an Internet company, Yahoo naturally does not hesitate to praise the software products it recommends, and since there is no business conflict between the two parties, the evaluation is relatively high.

Hu Yiting received a report from Ma Huateng on a transatlantic phone call, and he also knew about the rapid development of QQ in the United States.

"Boss, QQ is crazy now, it's only been five days since it was launched, and the number of downloads and registered users has exceeded 100,000, I worked with our company's engineers to optimize the server, and we are currently renting two AOL servers, which can fully meet the needs of 100,000 people online at the same time. Looking at the current trend, the number of downloads is increasing very fast, so we rented two more!"

Hu Yiting instructed: "Very good, Xiaoma, you pay attention to expanding the manpower of the US branch, and be sure to ensure the smooth operation of QQ and provide users with a good experience." ”

"Boss, I'll talk to you about something. ”

"You say. ”

"I want to open the QQ group function, at least in North America. This feature is very powerful, and as long as it is turned on, it will definitely attract more users. ”

Hu Yiting hesitated a little: "When I didn't block the group function before, you also knew what happened." The server can't stand it, and as soon as the group function is opened, the maximum number of people online that the server can accommodate will drop by 90%! Now one of our servers can accommodate 50,000 people online after optimization, but once the group function is opened. It's only 5,000 people or less, and if we have 500,000 users, we need 100 servers. ”

"Although the rent of servers and bandwidth in the United States is cheap, the maintenance fee and service fee of the computer room are much more expensive than in China, according to the annual operating cost of 10,000 US dollars per server, 500,000 users need 100 servers a year, it will cost 1 million US dollars!"

"As long as we don't open the group function, the 500,000 users only need 10 servers, which will cost 100,000 US dollars a year. ”

Hu Yiting cleared his thoughts in one breath and put them in front of Ma Huateng.

"Ponies. QQ's most important task at present is to grab territory, as long as each netizen has their own QQ number, they will have a stickiness to QQ, light yì will not leave, so your task is to expand the number of QQ users as much as possible. “

"Boss, I understand your hardship, I mean, can you let go of some QQ groups for a fee. ”

"You mean pay?"

Ma Huateng said excitedly: "Yes, Americans are very rich, especially those who have the ability to access the Internet these days. These people are middle-class people who don't care about paying an extra $5 to $10 a month. As for the payment method, you can pay by phone, I have inquired. Telephone voice payment in the United States is more mature, AT&T and Atlantic Bell telephone companies, they can all provide this service, the handling fee is generally 20% to 30%, monthly accounting, and there is no arrears. ”

Hu Yiting heard this. There is still some hesitation in his heart, he knows that any kind of sharing software, once charged, will usher in a lot of abuse, in the case of low market share, it is likely to kill himself.

Ma Huateng seemed to guess Hu Yiting's thoughts, and said on the other end of the phone: "Boss, we are the only instant messaging software on the market at present, even if some netizens are unhappy, they have nowhere to find another one to replace our service." ”

Hu Yiting said frankly: "Xiaoma, according to my vision, the group function will be provided to users for free in the future, but the technology of the group function needs to be built on the basis of P2P, rather than relying entirely on the server as it is now." ”

“P2P？”

"Yes, as I envisioned, we needed to develop a P2P technology. In this way, if a group of 50 people and one person sends a group message, this message will be immediately sent by his QQ to the 5 people closest to his IP address, and these 5 people's QQ will immediately forward five people in the background after receiving this group message, so there are 25 users who receive the message, and then after the third forward, in this way, the entire group of 50 people will all receive this group message. And the whole process is completely server-independent. ”

"Boss, have you developed this P2P technology?" Ma Huateng was extremely excited when he heard the application prospect of P2P technology described by Hu Yiting on the phone.

Hu Yiting said: "I have been in Chongguang Semiconductor for the past two days, and I haven't gone to the software department, I want to wait for you to come back and we will discuss the technical details." ”

"Boss, I'm planning to return to China, I guess it's next week! Now the American branch has been on track, there are 13 permanent employees and 8 temporary college students, the company's work regulations have also been adjusted in accordance with domestic standards, with reference to the national conditions of the United States, and the employees are also very adaptable. ”

"Okay, when you come back, we'll start developing P2P communication forwarding technology right away. ”

Hanging up the phone, Hu Yiting smiled confidently.

He knows that the communication technology of the QQ group is indeed a kind of P2P technology, and the future generations are everywhere that kind of super groups of 500 or even 2000 people at every turn, if you rely on the server to forward, it is simply masochistic. The only correct solution for group communication is P2P.

Hu Yiting actually figured out that Guò charged for the group function to make up for the implementation cost of this function.

But he knows that if there is any problem with the free software, the user will complain at most a sentence or two, and once the paid software goes wrong, the ensuing spitting stars can drown people, and in a country like the United States, it may even cause legal action. Before QQ fixes a qiē bug and the version is stable, it is better not to consider any charging for the time being.

What's more, QQ is currently in the pioneering stage, once users who have not used QQ mistakenly think that QQ is a paid software, and thus give up downloading and using, it is likely to affect the marketing of the software. (To be continued.) )