At 10 o'clock, Gu Mojie's conference room.

The two people from Guangdong Province who were a little rustic were very punctual and did not arrive late. One of them looked to be in his thirties, with a thin face, pointed chin, a watermelon-covered hairstyle, and a beard. The other is also twenty-seven or eighteen years old, and his face shape is slightly more square than the former, but the temperament of the peasant is also heavier.

The one with a pointed chin is called Hong Lei, and the one with a square chin is called Lai Linfeng. Both of them are from Guangdong Province and are from rural areas, the former still has a college degree, and the latter is purely a technical school graduate.

I have to say that there are indeed a lot of grassroots Internet talents in Guangdong Province who have not undergone a professional education. Relying on a college or technical school degree, he has created a miracle in the programming world. Even Xiao Ma, one of the three giants in later generations, only graduated from the third-rate Shenzhen University.

This phenomenon may also prove a truth from the side: the Internet world is flat. No matter how much stock accumulates, it is better to grasp the increment.

AT PRESENT, HONG LEI HAS TWO EMERGING BUSINESSES AT HAND, AND THE PROGRESS IS QUITE IN FULL SWING: HE OPENED A FORUM CALLED "TOMATO GARDEN", AND ALSO ENGAGED IN A WINDOWSXP PIRATED SYSTEM CALLED "TOMATO GARDEN EDITION XP", WHICH WAS MADE WITH GHOST.

Lai Linfeng's career is similar to Hong Lei's, but slightly smaller. HE MADE A WINDOWSXP PIRACY SYSTEM CALLED "RAINFOREST WOODWIND", BUT HE DIDN'T HAVE A FORUM WEBSITE AS BIG AS HONG LEI, AND HIS INFLUENCE TODAY IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE FORMER.

THE RELEASE TRAJECTORY OF MICROSOFT'S WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM IS ROUGHLY THE 98 VERSION IN 98, THE 2000 VERSION IN 00, and the XP RELEASE IN EARLY 02 (THE ENGLISH VERSION ACTUALLY CAME OUT AT THE END OF OCTOBER 01, BUT THE MULTI-Chinese VERSION WAS SLIGHTLY LATE, AND THE INITIAL USERS IN CHINA WERE ONLY USED IN EARLY 02).

Chinese computer users have a long history of using pirated systems, 98, 2000, XP and other systems. There is widespread piracy in each generation. However, prior to 2003, the pattern of piracy was limited to the direct theft of the original and pure version, and it was disseminated by pirated CDs for five dollars each, and there was almost no such way to download and distribute them online.

In 2003, Symantec, an Internet security giant based in California, USA. ANNOUNCED A HARD DISK BACKUP AND RESTORE TOOL, NAMED "NORTON CLONE WIZARD", THE ORIGINAL ENGLISH NAME "NORTONGHOST", WHICH IS LATER KNOWN AS THE GHOST TOOL IN CHINA.

The original intention of this tool is only to give first aid when some personal computer system crashes, and restore the system to a historical state that was originally backed up, and this restoration is not the same as a system reinstallation with a disc plugged, but can be directly restored with the local data on the hard disk when the optical drive is not plugged.

The software is well intentioned and is all about protecting data and systems. However, after it reached China. The majority of piracy operators quickly smelled the infinite possibilities behind this software and used it to the bitter end.

At the end of 2003, there began to be a private, sporadic system GHOST replication propagation. By 2004, these behaviors had become climate and scale; Forums dedicated to the dissemination of these GHOST systems began to appear, as well as studios dedicated to making GHOST systems.

Under Hong Lei's name, there is a studio called Tomato Garden. Lai Linfeng does not have a studio at the moment, but he also has a few reliable brothers to help him. Historically, he didn't set up his own studio until '05 - of course. Gu Mojie naturally didn't know this.

Gu Mojie found Hong Lei and Lai Linfeng, not because he fell in love with the dirty business of the piracy system. It's about something else to talk about.

The piracy system is a little bit of dirty money, Gu Mojie doesn't bother to make it, there is no need to leave a stain.

With the current value of Hong Lei and Lai Linfeng, even if their gray attributes are not considered, they are estimated in real terms, and they will have a market value of tens of millions. People like Gu Mojie. In their eyes, he is already an industry boss. Gu Mo is outstanding and recruits money, how can they not come.

……

In the conference room, on the guest side, sat Hong Lei, Lai Linfeng, and a negotiation consultant brought by Hong Lei who was a guest lawyer. Help them check the financial and legal details.

On Gu Mojie's side, Gu Mojie sat in the center, and on both sides were Fei Liluo and Sheng Wei.

In 2004, the profit model of those who pirated the GHOST system mainly stayed in some crude methods: such as stuffing the backdoor into the system during pre-packaging, putting dust pigeons, modifying the system patch registry, deliberately deceiving the system's patch self-check, leaving specific patch gaps for future use, and so on.

Therefore, people who do GHOST piracy often know a little bit about the tricks of gray pigeons and manipulating botnets. Their operating logic is: I'll give you a free system to use; If you use it, you will make my free broiler.

Before Gu Mojie came to Hong Lei through Zou Sheng's appointment, Sheng Wei had also heard that there was a person named Hong Lei in the circle. They can also be regarded as mutual friendship and can have a certain common language.

A few people greeted and introduced, and drank two sips of tea. Hong Lei took the lead in opening his mouth:

"Mr. Gu is really young and promising, look at your age, you are not even 20 years old. Compared with Mr. Gu, we are all living to dogs at this age. I wonder what business you want to discuss when you meet us today? Isn't it necessary to brush the number of clicks on the homepage of 'Hatsune'? ”

As soon as Gu Mojie heard it, he knew that the other party was an occupational disease brought by his old bank.

If you go back half a year, Sheng Wei is similar to Hong Lei, and he has to make a living by doing this kind of business of manipulating botnets to make fake clicks. Now that Sheng Wei's broiler chicken has been served, Hong Lei and these people are still in the field, but they are more happy.

It can also be seen from this that Zhou Hongyi's contact with the administrative forces of Shangfeng to carry out "special centralized rectification" has not actually knocked out many zombie network giants. At best, it's just targeted to knock out some zombie giants who have data centers worth exploiting. The kind of small fish and shrimp that do not have a data center and cannot play the role of a source of big data for cloud security are only worthy of being "raised by thieves" by Zhou Hongyi.

Gu Mojie replied, "Brother Hong, don't misunderstand. That kind of business, I'm not busy right now, and I won't do it for the time being. I wanted to talk to you about how you calculate the price if you want to cram a few pieces of software into a pre-packaged system? ”

Hong Lei was stunned. didn't react immediately to what Gu Mojie wanted. It was still Lai Linfeng's brain, and after thinking about it for a while, he poked Hong Lei with his elbow and whispered in his ear, and Hong Lei suddenly realized.

"Gu always wants us to use a system that has installed 'Hatsune Computer Manager', 'Hatsune Download', and 'Hatsune Input Method' when we are in the GHOST system to back up?"

Gu Mojie made no secret of it: "Yes." That's what I want. ”

Hong Lei and Lai Linfeng glanced at each other and hesitated: "This...... We didn't expect that before we came. If Mr. Gu had already said the business you wanted to discuss, we would have prepared as soon as possible. We'll have to look at the cost ......."

Gu Mojie smiled and didn't pierce the other party: "I'll give you 15 minutes to discuss it privately." I don't know enough is enough? ”

Hong Lei hurriedly packed the ticket: "Enough, definitely enough!" ”

Hong Lei and Lai Linfeng left the conference room and went to the lounge outside; Talking secretly.

Feliro sat beside Gu Mojie, took out a lipstick, and replenished the moisture. He whispered, "They must be trying to raise the price temporarily." ”

Gu Mojie patted Fei Liluo's hand and said indifferently: "Business, you always have to leave a profit for others." They need to discuss it on an ad hoc basis, which I think is good, at least it shows that they don't do this kind of business often, so they don't have the experience and don't know how high the price to ask. ”

As he spoke, Gu Mojie turned to Sheng Wei. said: "Senior brother, you can also help watch it in a while." Hong Lei doesn't seem to have done anything about selling pre-installed software. I don't know how to make a bid. You've also done botnets before, and you're their peers, so if you give me a price that you think is reasonable, I'll also press it. ”

Sheng Wei didn't say a word, stared and thought for a while, and wrote a few lines of numbers on the paper. Attached a simple explanation of the reason, he handed it to Gu Mojie.

Fifteen minutes later, Hong Lei came back and offered Gu Mojie a price.

"Mr. Gu, every time you sell a set of GHOST systems with your software package pre-installed. We're going to charge 10 dollars. ”

Gu Mojie waved his hand without hesitation: "This price is too outrageous - I make free software, and there is no profit model at all." I let the user use it for nothing, and I still posted 10 yuan to go out? Now a pirated disk on the market is only 5 yuan, do you think this is reasonable? ”

"But if you think about it, if your software wants to be installed through advertising, an effective installation will cost you at least a few dollars in advertising costs, and it is not as good and stable as our pre-installation. If you want to bundle 3 pieces of software at once, don't you have to get 10 yuan? ”

Gu Mojie snorted slightly: "If you have to do this, I can choose one of the three, just let you pre-install the 'Hatsune Computer Manager'." As long as the user has 'Hatsune PC Manager' on their computer, the other two users will naturally download it themselves. If I do this, will you give me 3 yuan for a single installation? ”

Hong Lei has no experience in this area after all. In 04, there were still too few CEOs of software companies who thought of looking for a GHOST system to sell bundles. It was difficult for him to find a precedent to bargain with Gu Mojie. In addition, Gu Mojie's software is self-contained, so no matter what pricing system Hong Lei comes up with, Gu Mojie always has a way to bypass it.

Hong Lei was also afraid that the bid would be too high and scare away Gu Mojie, a big customer.

After all, it didn't cost him anything. It didn't even affect the goodwill of Tomato Garden and Rainforest Woodwind - pirated XP users in '04 didn't care what you stuffed into it, and no one had this concept yet, let alone the value of the so-called "pure system".

The two sides bargained for a long time, 10 yuan was too high, but 3 yuan Hong Lei couldn't accept it, so he repeatedly saw a few rounds.

In the end, Gu Mojie saw that it was almost the same, and gave an additional condition.

"So be it. I can get 5 yuan a machine, but there are conditions. ”

Hong Lei and Lai Linfeng glanced at each other, and said in unison: "Mr. Gu, you say." ”

Gu Mojie stretched out two fingers and said: "I want you to guarantee in the additional terms: First of all, within one year, in the three fields of computer housekeeper, download tool, and input method, you can only exclusively pre-install my software, and you are not allowed to accept orders from my peers." Secondly, in the future, if I develop other system tools, and you do not do bundling, I have the exclusive right of first refusal. ”

"This ...... Isn't it a little overbearing? ”

Gu Mojie pushed his glasses: "Domineering? I don't think so. I think I've shown you a way to make money. If I hadn't let go of the amount today, I would have collected you for 5 yuan a machine. You haven't even thought of focusing on making money in this new field. Maybe you're still sprinkling pigeons to make broilers in '05.

Today I woke you up, as soon as you go out, maybe you can contact those 'free online game' manufacturers, and talk to them about paid pre-installation, don't you say? Shouldn't you thank me?

What's more, there are not only two of you who are doing GHOST system studios in China. The current situation is nothing more than whoever gets sufficient cash flow first, who is easier to grow. Cooperating with me is also conducive to the rapid expansion of your disk, why don't you do it? In a gray industry like yours, you can't even absorb venture capital, and cooperating with me is already your best choice. ”

With a three-board axe cut down, Hong Lei and Lai Linfeng looked at each other, and they couldn't raise the slightest idea of resisting the bargain. The cash flow problem mentioned by Gu Mojie at the end really made Hong Lei excited. Piracy also depends on speed, this industry is often more brutal than genuine, if you steal slower than other pirates, your traffic will drop sharply.

"Then according to 5 yuan a machine, your series of software is packaged for you to pre-install." (To be continued.) )