When Zhang Chen heard the words writing code, his heart couldn't help but move. The most important purpose of his visit to the United States this time is to take advantage of the current Internet boom in the United States to make a sum of money and find suitable investment projects for investment.

In Zhang Chen's memory, Google is still just an idea, if he can become one of the co-founders of Google at the beginning of the establishment of Google by Larry Page and Sergei Brin, and invest a sum of money, what can be obtained in the future is hundreds of thousands of times the income.

But the names Viggs and Wadi that the young man in formal suit just mentioned, as well as Tel Aviv, an Israeli city. Zhang Chen felt that he couldn't remember some vague things in his memory, but in his previous life, he must have heard the names Viggs and Wady.

"Hey, bro, being angry doesn't solve anything. Or can I invite you to a cup of coffee, and let's sit down and talk slowly and see if there is anything we can do to help you?" said Zhang Chen as he walked up to the two of them.

The two young men were a little surprised to find that they were talking to an Asian teenager.

Zhang Chen smiled: "My name is Zhang Chen, I just heard you say that you are from Tel Aviv, you are Israeli?"

Viggs said embarrassedly: "Uh, yes, we're from Israel, and this is my good friend Goldfinger. Our luggage had just been robbed so we couldn't stay at the hotel. “

Zhang Chen said regretfully: "Oh, that's too bad. Let's have a cup of coffee and sit down and talk. “

Viggs and Goldfinger looked at each other, and thought that it was okay to sit down for a cup of coffee, and maybe they could meet a kind person and take them in for a night so that they would not end up on the streets.

Zhang Chen asked the waiter to bring two cups of coffee over and gave the waiter a tip, and Goldfinger was embarrassed to say that they hadn't eaten since noon, could you help them order something to eat.

Zhang Chen smiled and said, "Of course you can." “

The two of them gobbled up the hamburger that Zhang Chen had just called for the hotel and drank two glasses of water, and Goldfinger began to tell about their recent encounter.

It turns out that Israel is a system of universal military service. Viggs, Wadi, and Goldfinger, three young Jews, had just finished their military service and were still studying at Tel Aviv University. The three of them were good friends, and they were all computer students. So I wanted to take advantage of the rare vacation and the three of us to do something together.

When they were in school, they found that the email system left a lot to be desired. For example, if both parties are online, it is not efficient to communicate instantly. So they set out to develop a software that would allow two people who are both online to communicate in real time. At present, it is estimated that this software will be basically formed in another month. But they were embarrassed to find that the three of them had no money to continue the development and promotion.

Goldfinger has an uncle in the United States, and in a phone call, the uncle said that there is a wealthy man in Los Angeles who is interested in investing in computer technology, and they can come and try it.

Instead of coming together for cost savings, Goldfinger flew from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles with Viggs, who was primarily responsible for coding.

Originally, the two of them came to see this rich man with great hopes, but they didn't expect to be poured a basin of cold water on their heads. After listening to their plan, the rich man looked at Viggs in a blue T-shirt and said contemptuously: "You are just a group of hairy children who don't know what business is, and the things you do are not worth a dime." “

Viggs and Goldfinger, who were depressed after the blow, wanted to buy a plane ticket back to Israel, but the house leak happened to rain overnight, and they did not expect to be robbed of their luggage by several Mexicans near the University of Southern California. In addition to his passport, he can be said to be penniless and in a desperate situation.

They had just arrived at the hotel lobby and wanted to ask if the hotel could let them rest on the sofa in the lobby for the night, but they were refused. The two people, who were tired and hungry, couldn't help but complain to each other.

After Zhang Chen heard this, his eyes lit up. It turned out to be them!

ICQ！

The QQ that we all know in later generations, originally called OICQ, is a product launched by Tengxun's little brother in imitation of ICQ. Later, because he was sued by ICQ for infringement, he changed his name and called QQ.

The originator of instant messengers, ICQ, was developed by these two young people in front of him and three young Jews, Wadi of Tel Aviv, who were still in the midst of war.

At its peak, ICQ even accounted for 90% of the entire Internet instant messaging market, but later because it could not find a profit model, it could only be acquired by AOL for $400 million, and Viggers and other three founders each took about $80 million.

After AOL acquired ICQ, ICQ's market share fell sharply due to a series of decision-making mistakes. By 2003, it couldn't even compare to rising stars such as Msn. Eventually, AOL sold ICQ to a Russian investment firm in 2010 for a low price of $187.5 million.

The history of ICQ represents the history of most Internet startups in this era. Even Yahoo, which is now in full swing, was valued at nearly 100 billion at its peak. But in the future, in 2016, it was also acquired by Verizon (the largest communications provider in the United States) at a low price of 4.8 billion US dollars.

Bill Gates once said that Microsoft is only 18 months away from bankruptcy. And Boss Baidu, whose assets are far inferior to Bill Gates, also once said: Baidui is only 30 days away from bankruptcy.

This is the cruelty of high-tech companies and the Internet economy, no matter how high your valuation was in the last moment, once you make a mistake, you may be doomed.

There are even companies that are not wrong and will never recover, such as Nokia.

After hearing what happened to the two, Zhang Chen was ecstatic in his heart, he was really sleepy and came to the pillow, he was worried that he had no place to invest money, so he came to such a golden mountain as ICQ.

Seeing that the two of them had almost eaten, Zhang Chen pretended to be concerned and asked, "Then what are your plans for the future?"

The two looked at each other, and Viggs said embarrassedly: "Chen, thank you very much for your coffee and burger, I may be a little sorry to say this, but it would be great if you could lend us some money and let us stay in the hotel today." Tomorrow we will contact Goldfinger's uncle and give you the money back. Of course, if you're leaving Los Angeles tomorrow, you can leave your account and we'll send you the money then. ”

Zhang Chen waved his hand and smiled disappreciatively: "These are trivial matters, I can help you check in and buy a ticket back to Tel Aviv." I just heard from you that the economy is not very easy at the moment, so you can pay me back when you have money. But what do I mean, what are you going to do with this software that you're developing?