"I came up with the idea to start Blockbuster because of a rental experience three years ago! A friend of mine recommended to me that Ghostbusters starring Murray was a great movie to watch!

Originally, I wasn't interested in this hodgepodge of supernatural and sci-fi and a funny comedy! So although the film was the runner-up at the national box office in '84, I didn't choose to go to the cinema when it was released!

But since it was recommended by a friend, I finally decided to drive to a video rental shop in town to rent the film. The owner of that tape was a black guy who spoke with a thick New Orleans accent!

Well, that's not the point, and he basically doesn't know what movies he has in his rental shop. I told him I wanted to rent Ghostbusters, and he told me to go to the shelves and find the cover of the videotape first!

I had to rummage through the tens of thousands of movie covers on more than a dozen shelves, one by one. It took me half an hour to finally find the cover of the Ghostbusters!

I had to wait for almost ten minutes, only to have him come out of the pantry and shrug at me, saying that the tapes were either out of stock or had been rented out!

"So you decided to start Blockbuster. Let more people who suffer from these stupid people like you get out of the sea of suffering!" Li Xuan smiled faintly, his eyes shining through the glass window of the café and landing on the sign of the video rental store across the street. The word "Blockbuster" is written in yellow on a blue background.

The largest video rental chain in the United States, the Chinese translation is often referred to as "Blockbuster". The company's English name, "Blockbuster," was once the same as the row of letters "Hollywood" that stood on the top of Hollywood Hill, and was hailed as an important part of American culture.

At the peak of Blockbuster's growth, it had more than 9,000 stores across the United States, and you can find the "Blockbuster" chain in any small town in the United States. In the previous life, when Li Xuan was studying in the United States. I once rented a disc from a Blockbuster branch near the rental house.

It's just that when Li Xuan went to study in the United States in his previous life, Blockbuster was already in decline. This American film rental leader, which was once popular all over the United States, finally failed to keep up with the pace of the times. became an outcast in the Internet era. Another online DVD rental company, Netlifx, has succeeded in replacing its position in the national video rental market.

The average number of daily visits to Netlifx's website is usually ranked in the top 15 websites in the United States. It's just that the popularity of this American Internet company in China is far less than that of companies such as Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The American drama "House of Cards", which caused a huge sensation in China. In fact, it was this company that invested in filming.

But now in 1988. Netlifx is still early from the birth, even Blockbuster is still in the ascendant, Cook founded Blockbuster in October 1985, after nearly three years of development, the company born in Dallas, has opened 19 branches throughout Texas.

For BesTV, which has not received any venture capital so far, the pace of development can no longer be regarded as slow. But Cook is also well aware that Blockbuster has reached a plateau. The company needs a lot of capital to support its rapid expansion, otherwise it will miss out on the best period of growth.

"Because of this unpleasant rental experience. I came up with the idea of writing my own software to manage the stock of movies! The owner could simply scan the barcode and enter the rental information of the videotapes into a computer database.

Then, by managing and querying the database, stores can view the information of their store inventory tapes in real time. And judging which movies are more popular based on the statistics of video rentals!

The reason for the success of Blockbuster is actually very simple, it brings users a better consumer experience than other traditional video rental stores! In order to make customers have a better look and feel of Blockbuster, our façade decoration strives to be brightly lit!

While the company has grown to the present, our model has proven to be viable, and the only thing missing now is a large injection of capital that will allow the company to quickly seize a large enough market before others can copy our successful model!

So there's not much point in me staying, after all, I'm just an ordinary computer programmer, and I can't play a big role in the next capital game!" Cook smiled self-deprecatingly.

"Technology always drives the progress of mankind, and those who follow me prosper and those who go against me perish, and this will not be transferred by the subjective will of some people! Acting skills are as superb as Mr. Chaplin, when sound movies appear in theaters, he and his silent films can only reluctantly rush to a curtain call!

And Mr. Cook, you and Blockbuster have just followed the tide of history. The film inventory management software you've developed is a revolution for the videotape rental industry!

Computers are changing our lives more and more profoundly. I don't deny the role of strong capital in Blockbuster's next expansion, but I think it's always the technology that deserves more attention!

Because I could have invested $100 million or more to quickly surpass 1,000 Blockbuster stores in the United States. But if these branches don't get recognized by customers, then I will only lose a lot of money on my investment!

The core competitiveness of Blockbuster is the computerized management model you have created for it! The company is bound to continue to give full play to its existing advantages in the future, so as to defeat other competitors and achieve greater success!" Li Xuan said sincerely.

In previous acquisition talks, Cook sold all of Blockbuster's shares to Oriental Group for $20 million. And Cook himself is ready to resign to start a second business, but Li Xuan wants to keep this talent, which is why today's conversation is here.

The aura of rebirth above Li Xuan's head made him feel like he was hanging, and he could know many future trends in advance. But he is not God after all, his brain capacity and life experience are limited, and a company like Blockbuster, which has gone bankrupt in his previous life, naturally cannot leave much impression on him.

The reason why Oriental Group acquired this future leading company in the national video rental industry has nothing to do with Li Xuan's rebirth golden finger. As early as two years ago, Cook crossed paths with the Eastern Bloc. Blockbuster applied to the U.S. branch of Oriental Commercial to become a game cassette retailer for Oriental Games. (To be continued.) )