"Sir, if IBM said it wanted to buy Microsoft, would you agree?"

Zhou Xin looked directly at each other, and Bill Gates smiled: "Well, it seems that you don't know much about the history of Microsoft.

Back in 1980, I wanted to sell DOS to IBM, which is the earliest version of the current office series.

The price I quoted was about $70,000.

Later, in 1986, when Microsoft had launched its first window system, I offered to sell 10% of Microsoft's shares to IBM.

I have never refused to cooperate with IBM, and even hoped to be deeply tied to IBM in the early stage of development. ”

Zhou Xin really doesn't know much about this history, he only knows that Microsoft and IBM fell out.

However, he quickly found a point of rebuttal: "Sir, even if you want to cooperate with IBM."

It is also on the premise that he has the initiative, rather than completely joining IBM and becoming an IBM executive.

Even if you sell DOS to IBM, it won't affect your ability to develop better personal software in the future.

In the same way, I want to be free to think on my own terms, rather than working in the Microsoft system and following Microsoft's strategy.

The most important spirit of Silicon Valley is innovation, and I think joining Microsoft will make me lose the spirit of innovation and the idea of innovation. ”

There are a lot of Chinese Americans working at Microsoft, and there are also a lot of Chinese people working at Microsoft.

Back in 1992, Microsoft set up an office in Yenching, and so far, they have hundreds of employees in China.

Bill Gates even plans to upgrade the Yenching office to a China R&D center, which will become an Asian R&D center in the future.

But he feels that Zhou Xin is a very special Chinese, and there is a kind of self-confidence that is difficult for Chinese people to have in this era, which refers to the self-confidence that comes from the heart in the real sense.

Bill Gates doesn't believe that the other party doesn't know the status and treatment of the head of Microsoft's game section, because the other party has interned at Microsoft.

"Okay, you can go for it, but it may be difficult to have a similar opportunity in front of you in the future.

If your mind changes in the short term, and you are willing to come to work at Microsoft, feel free to email my secretary.

She'll arrange it. ”

"Thank you, although this possibility is very small, but if this possibility happens, I will definitely email her as soon as possible."

"The other thing is that Microsoft wants to buy your payment system.

This is the whole set of code. ”

"Price?"

"500,000 dollars, Microsoft is willing to pay 500,000 dollars for this payment system.

If it were a complete set of patents, including the solution, Microsoft would be willing to pay 10 million dollars. ”

The patent registration for the SMS verification code is already in the process of applying for an America Ken patent and an international patent.

The SMS verification code that can be seen everywhere in later generations, 10 million dollars is a lot.

Zhou Xin shook his head and said, "I am willing to sell the payment system to Microsoft."

But patents don't.

The value of this set of patents is not worth tens of millions of dollars. ”

Bill Gates looked at each other with a puzzled expression: "Why?" ”

Zhou Xin admired Bill Gates' acting skills, he knew why, and asked him back, but Zhou Xin didn't mind explaining again:

"The idea of the SMS verification code is simple, but the idea behind it is not so simple.

It symbolizes online ownership confirmation, locking your ownership of a virtual good on the Internet through an SMS verification code.

This is clearly not something that can be measured in the mere 10 million dollars. ”

Bill Gates thought that the other party was so young and lacked a clear understanding of the value of SMS verification codes, but as a result, the other party highly summarized the value of SMS verification codes in just a few words.

He knew that the other party's knowledge of the field was far beyond his imagination.

"You're so much smarter than I was.

When I made DOS, I thought it was worth $70,000 and wanted to sell it to IBM for $70,000.

Now it's worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

And if I offer you 10 million dollars, you won't be tempted by it.

Very good, young man, in the future if you want to start a business anytime come to me.

I'll invest in you.

Let's not talk about work. ”

Zhou Xin interrupted the other party: "Sir, I still need your help with something."

But it's not just my family's business. ”

"You say."

"Links to pirated versions of Angry Birds are already appearing on the Internet.

Most of them are the work of game publishers, so that we don't prove that this path is viable.

They promote piracy in a variety of ways.

We hope that Microsoft will provide us with legal help, as well as assist some media resources to condemn this behavior from public opinion. ”

"Why should I help you?

Microsoft is also a game publisher. ”

"Because I'm willing to sell this game payment system to Microsoft, Microsoft will obviously take the form of online sales for game hardware and game sales in the future.

In the future, once you need to make game hardware similar to NS, you can save a lot of money by selling games directly through the Internet.

Therefore, piracy is our common enemy. ”

"Piracy cannot be eradicated.

Microsoft will use technical means to avoid this problem.

But I'm willing to help you with that.

I'll talk to the secretary and let him coordinate the media coverage of the matter.

But for legal matters, you have to find a lawyer yourself.

Microsoft is not a law firm. ”

"That's enough, thank you very much."

"Angry Birds is a lot of fun, my wife loves the game, she thinks it's fun."

"We're going to have a Christmas DLC at Christmas.

That is, the Christmas special, which will make it richer through some Christmas-themed costumes and some Christmas-themed levels.

Of course, there is an additional fee. ”

"A game pays multiple times, great model, a bit like a subscription magazine."

"No, it can't be released as a standalone game, we're doing it as an expansion pack for the previous game.

There is enough content to be launched2.

Instead, you can think of it as a system upgrade.

For example, there will be 1.1, 1.2, and so on between 1 and 2. ”

So far, Zhou Xin has accumulated the first pot of gold, but he has not bought a car, so Bill Gates also arranged a car to send him back after the dinner.

The next day, Hu Zhengming called him to Berkeley's lab to ask him what he had talked about with Bill Gates.

"That's about it."

"You made the right decision.

If it were me, I would have made a similar choice.

For several years, the former TSMC wanted me to go there as a chief technologist.

As a mature chip manufacturer, TSMC gave me more treatment than I made when I started a business.

For the field of integrated circuits, the early stage of entrepreneurship is a pure investment work.

You may invest millions of dollars and not see any returns.

But I still didn't say yes to TSMC.

That's the case for a middle-aged man like me, let alone you're only twenty years old. ”