Apple headquarters, executive meeting.

"I've speculated on many scenarios, but after all, I didn't guess that the competitor was actually from the mysterious eastern country on the other side of the ocean." Jobs' voice resounded in the quiet conference room.

"Steve, are you taking it a little too seriously? The iTunes music store now almost monopolizes 90% of the digital music market, MusicSpace is just a follower, Apple has the [iTunes+iPod] combo, and [MusicSpace+??? Sorry, Bluestar Technology is just an Internet company, where is their hardware carrier? One executive said nonchalantly, spreading his hands.

At this time, another executive at the meeting spoke: "Speaking of hardware, I have gathered some information, Luo Sheng, the founder of Bluestar Technology, established a technology company called Azure Coast Company last month, and its general business projects are the design, development, sales and after-sales service of electronic products and communication information products...... Perhaps, they are secretly developing relevant hardware products to complete the combination with it. ”

"Come on, the hardware R&D capabilities of the Chinese people? NO！ NO！ NO！ Just now, the executive said with a disdainful face: "Although I don't know what tricks that young Chinese kid used to fool that bastard on Wall Street and squander him with a lot of money, although I am also true that he has made some fame in the Internet technology industry, it does not mean that he can replicate his success in the Internet industry in the hardware area." ”

The executive was full of disdain, but Jobs attached great importance to it, admittedly, Qiao Gang Leader really didn't look down on it, and didn't think that the Chinese people could make a name for themselves in the hardware field, but they paid more attention to Luo Sheng.

Whether it can be done or not is unknown, but one thing is already certain that Gang Master Qiao really wants to do this.

The third executive at the meeting spoke, a middle-aged man with glasses, he held his glasses, and said unhurriedly: "I think it is appropriate to pay attention to it, the MusicSpace music store was launched on April 21, just a week after the launch time, everyone, do you know the user growth rate of MusicSpace in the past week?" ”

"How much?"

"About 920,000!"

“What？ Are you sure it's 920,000, not 92,000? ”

"I'm sure!"

When the senior management at the meeting heard this affirmative answer, the audience couldn't help but be amazed, the growth of nearly one million users in a week is terrifying.

After a while, the executive who exposed the data added: "I think that Bluestar Technology must attract our enough attention, and it is no accident that Luo Sheng can be called [the son of the Internet] by the Internet industry in Silicon Valley, he is one of the few entrepreneurs who has mastered the essence of Internet thinking." ”

"How did MusicSpace manage to add nearly one million users in just one week after its launch?"

"I think there are two aspects, one is that the product itself is eye-catching, and it is best not to underestimate Bluestar Technology in terms of technology, especially in the development of Internet technology, Apple may not necessarily be stronger than Bluestar Technology, and the second is to use their other major social platform BlueSpace to attract traffic, including the drainage of Reddit website, as well as advertising and promotion in other aspects."

Only then did it reflect that MusicSpace is a new product, and its owner, Bluestar Technology, is no longer a start-up, there are sufficient funds after several rounds of financing, and the financing is higher than one time, although it has not created profits so far, but Bluestar Technology has not yet had a crisis of broken capital chain, and VC is still throwing money at this company.

"Let's pay attention to the MusicSpace product itself, which was officially launched on April 21, first of all, the content, the five major record companies gave 2.25 million songs to digital license downloads, basically including popular songs, not only that, but the record companies actually agreed to give them to Eminem, Britney Spears, Coldplay, and Linkin Park and other 15 popular music superstars or groups of digital music licenses. ”

"The key thing is that the new albums of these 15 artists or groups are exclusively licensed to MusicSpace, which means that users can't hear the latest works of these artists on iTunes."

After saying that, the executives attending the meeting were shocked again.

"God, are those record companies crazy? Why? One executive was shocked, even a little dissatisfied, but more incomprehensible, because the record companies have always given the impression that they are extremely sensitive to copyright issues.

They won't just license others to profit from it, it's not easy to get the license from them, and this time it's still an exclusive license, or a new album by a popular singer, which Apple didn't get.

And Qiao's gang leader broke through the mystery: "iTunes has monopolized 90% of the digital music market, and the right to speak is getting bigger and bigger, which may cause the vigilance of record companies." ”

"What do you mean...... Can the record industry support another platform to compete with iTunes? ”

Jobs did not respond, and the silence was acquiesced in reciprocity, and immediately ushered in the dissatisfaction of several major executives attending the meeting, and greeted the five major record giants on the spot.

“Son of a b***h！！”

"Obviously, it's a good calculation to be able to support a competitor in order to sit on the ground and raise prices."

"These unfed bastards are not satisfied with taking 65% of the profits from the iTunes music store."

"If it weren't for iTunes, these damn record labels would still be being tortured by pirated music, and Napster should have killed them, bastards who crossed the river and demolished the bridge!"

"Calmly, this is business competition, and there are only eternal interests."

Everyone vented and suddenly felt much better, one yard to one yard, Apple has made $10 billion from the iTunes + iPod combination in the past three years is an indisputable fact, most of them are red-eyed.

Even though 65% of the music store's profits are shared, it still makes a lot of money, and iTunes drives the sales of hardware iPods, and all of this profit goes to Apple.

Not long ago, Apple was forced to disclose the first quarter report to the public, in order to give confidence to the market and increase the company's market value, and the result is indeed so.

After the release of the first quarter report, it far exceeded market expectations, driving Apple's stock price to rise sharply, and Apple's market value has exceeded $40 billion, an increase of ten times in just one year.

"MusicSpace's content issues aside, or looking at the product itself, I think that's the key point that gets the most attention. MusicSpace has a number of innovative features, such as smart shuffle, playlist lists, Windows user syncing, Outlook contacts and calendars, and added access to BlueSpace social chains. Including the intelligent push daily playlist function, which records listeners' listening habits and recommends similar songs, it is similar to Microsoft's Synapse music playback software, but significantly higher than this software. ”

They didn't know that Synapse, a music playback software, was written by Luo Sheng, and was eventually sold to Microsoft to get the first and most critical start-up capital for the start-up.

A closer look at MusicSpace revealed that Apple's top management, including Steve Jobs, was surprised to find that the user experience was very exquisite, and the interface of the MusicSpace software was very neat and simple, with no ads at all.

In addition, the secondary page also gives each single comment and like function, which is combined with the social chain of BlueSpace social networking site under Bluestar Technology, making this software rich in more active sharing and communication attributes.

In particular, the comment function and like function allow music lovers who are not familiar with each other to communicate and interact with each other through music, and resonate with each other because of their common music hobbies.

Obviously, the MusicSpace software is endowed with strong Internet attributes, iTunes may just be an online music store, but MusicSpace is not just an online music store, it is also an interactive community of music lovers.

Seeing the many excellent experience features of this software, Apple's senior management, especially those who make products, can't help but look sideways.

But at the same time, I also felt a sense of unease, because I indirectly saw the strong competitive advantage of this software, which can create nearly one million users in a week, it is definitely not accidental, it must have its excellent side to be praised, and won the recognition of users.

……