On the evening of the 19th, Zhang Ran, Bai Yunfei and Mike Solomon recorded a video to thank YouTube users and say goodbye to everyone. Bai Yunfei www.biquge.info has handed over the position of CEO to Chen Shijun, and Mike Solomon has also handed over the position of technical director to others, they have been ready for the new company these days, and they will be busy for the new company in the next days, and YouTube will be a good memory for them.

Zhang Ran said with a smile in the video: "Without your support, there would be no success of YouTube, you created YouTube, thank you! The future belongs to the Internet, and we will meet again in the network!"

The less than three-minute video was uploaded within 12 hours and had more than one million views, making it the most clicked news and blog on YouTube that day.

Lonelygirl5 is a well-known influencer on YouTube, and has quickly become one of the most popular stars on the site with a fun and light-hearted style by posting video diaries online and telling her own stories. She specially recorded a video in response, first congratulating YouTube for being bought at a high price, and at the same time expressing her gratitude to Zhang Ran for changing her life.

In the next two days, Time Magazine, Fortune magazine, Wired magazine, CQ magazine, and various media rushed to interview Zhang Ran. Bai Yunfei and Mike Solomon were busy with the development of Weibo, and neither of them was a good talker, and they didn't like to be interviewed, so they pushed the interview to Zhang Ran.

Zhang Ran had no choice but to play the role of spokesperson and keep accepting interviews from various media, which is also to prepare for the listing of Weibo later, Weibo has media attributes, and it is very important to have a good relationship with the media.

On the afternoon of the 21st, Zhang Ran received a call from the program team of CNN's ace program "Larry King Live", saying that he hoped to interview Zhang Ran and record an episode of "Larry King Live".

In 1985, media mogul Ted Turner invited Larry King to his fledgling CNN network to host the evening interview show "Larry King Live" on CNN television. With CNN's strong rise and global expansion, Larry King's programs and fame have spread to every corner of the world where CNN programs can be watched, becoming CNN's "treasure".

From Ross Perrault's announcement of his candidacy for president to the 1993 televised debate between Gore and Perrault to the murder of Simpson's wife, Larry King's interviews with hot news figures captivated large American audiences, became the most-watched talk show in the country, and peaked in 1993 — a total of 11 million viewers tuned in to watch King's televised debate between Gore and Perot.

There is a saying circulating in the media that Americans can not trust the president, but they cannot fail to believe Larry King. Larry King's questions are known for being bold and sharp, and he always gets to the bottom of things, and no matter who the interviewee is, he justifiably tortures the other person, and he dares to ask anything with an iron mouth. He once revealed that the secret of his success is that he rarely or even does not prepare at all before the interview, and often plays on the spot, because he believes that the best visitors are the ones who know the least about the interviewee, hate to ask questions that already know the answer, and are never afraid to ask questions that may be stupid.

Zhang Ran was very happy to hear that Larry King was going to interview him, after all, Larry King is the national mouth of the United States, and it is an honor to be on his show. Of course, Zhang Ran wants to be on Larry King's idol Wallace show, but unfortunately CBS has announced Wallace's retirement in March this year, and Zhang Ran has no chance to talk and laugh with Wallace.

Zhang Ran knew that Larry King would definitely ask a lot of sharp questions, but as a teacher in the acting department, he could speak well, and it was not necessary for him to torture whom! He remembered that when Larry King visited Ahmadinejad, he was once speechless by Ahmadinejad, and he should be able to speak better than Ahmadinejad!

Larry King's interviews are live, and in many cases, they are not conducted in the studio, but in the interviewer's home, hotel, café, etc., which creates a natural and relaxed atmosphere. In such a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, it is easy for the interviewee to put down his burden and express his thoughts without scruples.

A day later, Larry King and his team arrived in San Bruno to the offices of Zhang Ran's new FlyMessage. Larry King is exactly the same as the image Zhang Ran saw on TV, with silver hair combed into a big back, a brain, small eyes, a pair of black-framed glasses, a blue shirt, suspenders, a bow tie, and a bracelet on his right wrist, with sharp eyes.

Larry King had a warm smile on his face, as if he was meeting an old friend: "Hi, Zhang, nice to meet you!"

"Hello, Larry, I had terrible English when I first arrived in the United States, and I learned English by watching your show! I've been looking forward to being on your show one day, and now I'm finally getting my wish. Zhang Ran shook hands with the other party with a smile, then coughed and began to imitate Larry King's opening words, "Welcome to "Larry King Live", now we are sitting in Zhang Ran's office, I have never conducted an interview in such a humble office, there is only a desk and a chair here!"

Zhang Ran's imitation of Larry King's unique hoarse voice is vivid, which makes Larry King amazed, and Zhang Ran's ridicule of his office makes Larry King laugh: "Zhang, you are such a cute young man, I like you very much, I believe that today's interview will be a great success!"

Zhang Ran knew that Larry King's interview liked to be impromptu and didn't like to make too much preparation, so he took Larry King to interview his new company. In addition to Bai Yunfei and Mike Solomon, the new company has four new employees, two recruited from UCLA and two from PayPal.

Mike Solomon is a truly talented architect, he completed the server architecture of YouTube in just three hours, and the team responsible for the backend technical architecture after the sale to Google is still only 4 people. Mike Solomon's server wolfberry architecture is so perfect that Google's engineers are amazed, and it only takes 4 people to get the world's most trafficked video site. It didn't take much time for Mike Solomon to write the FlyMessage server architecture, it only took an afternoon.

After the server architecture was set up, Zhang Ran directly moved out the Weibo and described the functions carefully. Bai Yunfei and the others developed the corresponding functions according to Zhang Ran's description and began to conduct corresponding tests.

In addition to plagiarizing the future Weibo function, Zhang Ran also shamelessly plagiarized the blue bird icon of the future Twitter and named it "chu", and now the blue bird icon has been made and pasted on the wall of the office. Zhang Ran originally wanted to tell Larry Kim that "chu" came from his girlfriend's name, but when he thought that the old man had been married eight times, he didn't say it.

Zhang Ran took Larry King on a tour of the company, and when he returned to the office, Larry King's assistants had already finished the lighting, and set up chairs and coffee tables. When Larry King interviewed, he liked to sit in a high chair with his weight on the tall glass coffee table in front of him, so many times his assistant would arrange it the way he liked.

At this time, Larry King's makeup team began to put makeup on Zhang Ran and Larry King. Both of them are men, and the makeup is relatively simple, and the makeup is quickly done. Zhang Ran and Larry King sat opposite each other, and the recording officially began.

Larry King faced the camera and said in his hoarse voice, "Good evening, another good night." Tonight, "Larry Kim Live" will welcome Zhang Ran, and we'll talk about his YouTube base, his films, and the opening ceremony of the Peking Olympics two years later. If you don't know who he is, you won't be online, just a few days ago he founded YouTube was bought by Google for $2.5 billion, and he is also a very famous director, "Time Warrior" is his work, and he is also the director of the opening ceremony of the Peking Olympics two years later. ”

When this passage is broadcast on the show, it will be accompanied by a special short film to introduce Zhang Ran, so that viewers who don't know Zhang Ran can also understand him.

Then came the formal interview, in which Larry King faced the camera and said, "Welcome to 'Larry King Live' We are now in San Francisco's San Bruno in Zhang Ran's new company, and in less than two years, Zhang Ran's YouTube has become a hit in the United States, has 35 million registered users, and is being sold to Google for $2.5 billion." Larry King looked at Zhang Ran and asked, "I want to ask how you did it?"

Zhang Ran smiled: "Because people all over the world have colorful experiences, and they want to be dizzy and shared. But I didn't expect YouTube to be so successful, thanks to my alma mater, UCLA Film School, many students in the school put their homework on YouTube, and there are many very good works, which have attracted the attention of many netizens, and of course, Bai Yunfei and Mike Solomon, who have put in a lot of effort. ”

Larry King asked, "Has YouTube changed the definition of fame? You see, it's possible to become an internet celebrity on YouTube because of a video." ”

Zhang Ran replied: "It's all created by users, and YouTube only does one thing, which is to make it easy for all users to have and reach fans, even if they don't know each other, and I think this is the fundamental reason for YouTube's popularity." ”

"We know that in addition to being a successful entrepreneur, you are also a successful director, and you will be directing the Peking Olympics in two years' time," Larry King asked. We all know that there is pressure from censorship when engaging in artistic creation in China, and many films cannot be released normally due to censorship, so will the opening ceremony face censorship pressure?"

Zhang Ran pondered for a moment and said: "Our program will definitely be reported and reviewed, but our real pressure is not from the superior leaders, but from the expectations of the people." The chairman of the Beiping Olympic Organizing Committee told us that it is not important that the leaders are satisfied, as long as the audience is satisfied, the leaders will definitely be satisfied. We think the same way, the key is to make the audience happy. China has 1.3 billion people, and it is too difficult to satisfy most of them. Therefore, in the creative process, we were very ruthless in our creativity, and even the opinions of the two assistant directors were not adopted, and Zhang Yimou and I didn't know how many of our own decisions were. ”

Larry King smiled and asked a very sharp question: "Recently, Professor Michael Berry of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in an interview with the New York Times, you originally had the potential to become a master of art, but you sold yourself to the Chinese government, catering to the political needs of officials, and now you have become a pet of the government, what do you think?"

Zhang Ran's first reaction was that Michael Berry was a pet, and his whole family was a pet! )