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Chapter 2630 Unscrupulous Boss

On May 1, 1998, the domestic version of QQ was officially launched.

On the day of the launch, in Tencent's office in Shenzhen, Ma Huateng and Zhang Zhidong sat in front of their computers, staring at the backend data.

When the number of real-time registered users on the screen started to fluctuate, neither of them spoke, both of them tense.

The numbers jumped from two digits to three digits, and from three digits to four digits, with the curve on the screen shooting upwards like a lit fuse.

Zhang Zhidong stared at the screen and muttered, "It's still rising."

Ma Huateng didn't respond; his eyes were fixed on the number.

Everyone else in the office gathered around, but the AI ​​engineers remained calm.

But several young programmers who had just been recruited from Shenzhen were so excited they could hardly stand.

“Ten thousand,” Zhang Zhidong said.

"It's still rising." Ma Huateng finally spoke, his voice trembling with excitement.

"Fifty thousand."

"One hundred thousand."

That evening, the number of registered QQ users exceeded 200,000.

Ma Huateng excitedly stood up from his chair, walked around the office twice, then sat back down, refreshed the backend page, and the number jumped up by several thousand.

He then turned to Zhang Zhidong and asked, "Mr. Zhang, have you made any preparations for expanding the server capacity?"

Zhang Zhidong said, "We did it, but at this rate, the expanded servers won't last long."

Ma Huateng immediately picked up his phone and dialed Suning's number.

This speed didn't just appear out of thin air.

Before QQ was launched, the marketing department of Tianchao Group had already perfected its marketing plan.

At a collaborative meeting within Tianchao Group, the marketing director laid out the plan on the table, with the marketing heads of the four subsidiaries present. "President Su's goal is very simple: to have over 100,000 registered users on the first day of QQ's launch. How will we achieve this? Not by Tencent burning money on promotion, but by leveraging the resources of the entire Tianchao Group system."

"Understood! We have already contacted the marketing departments of each subsidiary."

"Yes, this is a tough battle, and our Tianchao Group must win."

……

With a single order from the marketing department at the headquarters of Tianchao Group, the marketing departments of all its subsidiaries sprang into action.

Tianchao Auto has placed promotional signs for QQ in every one of its more than 100 4S stores across the country.

The sign features the little penguin, with the words: "Buy a car and get a free QQ number, a premium number exclusively for Chinese car owners."

In 1998, offering a free QQ number with the purchase of a car was unheard of in the car sales industry.

After all, most people don't even know what instant messaging software is, and are completely unfamiliar with this cartoon version of the little penguin.

After customers finished walking around the showroom, the salesperson quickly invited them to sit down in the negotiation area.

First, they warmly poured a glass of water, then handed over a form. "Sir, this is QQ instant messaging software from our Tianchao Group. Register an account, and you can chat with your friends on your computer without having to make long-distance calls."

The customer took the form with some skepticism, "This thing is free?"

The salesperson said, "It's free! And it's one of the very first batch of premium numbers, which is itself very valuable."

The customer said, "Then I'll give it a try."

It's that simple; a customer becomes a user.

Mingju Real Estate has equipped its sales office customer lounge with computers.

Previously, the rest area had a newspaper rack and a water dispenser, but now there's a computer desk, and the QQ registration page is open by default on the screen.

While the customers who came to see the house were waiting to sign the contract, the saleswoman handed them a cup of tea, pointed to the computer and said, "Sir, you can register a QQ account while you wait. We'll use this to communicate in the owners' group from now on."

"Oh? Your QQ number?"

"This is an instant messaging software launched by Tencent, a holding subsidiary of our Tianchao Group."

How about this one?

"Sir, I can demonstrate for you personally."

"Okay! Thank you for your help."

This was the first time the customer had ever used a computer. He tapped the keyboard letter by letter with his fingers, and the saleswoman stood beside him, teaching him step by step.

After registering, the customer looked at the little penguin on the screen and found it quite novel, asking, "Can this thing really chat?"

The saleswoman said, "Yes, you can install one at home and chat with us online. You won't need to come to the store for anything; you can just ask on QQ."

"It is indeed very convenient."

……

Kunyu Shipping has set up a QQ experience area in its port office building.

When dockworkers and freight dispatchers took breaks from their shifts, they would squat against the wall, smoke a cigarette, and chat.

Now the team leader has pulled us to the trial area, and we're all registering one account.

The people at the dock were straightforward. After registering, they added each other as friends on QQ, then sat back-to-back in front of two computers typing and chatting. When they finished, they stood up and said, "This is more interesting than smoking a cigarette! Let's go to an internet cafe and chat on QQ tomorrow."

But what truly caused the explosive growth of QQ's user base was the contribution of big stars from Huayu Film & Television.

After receiving the task at the group's coordination meeting, President Zhou went back and called a short meeting with all the artists' agents under his company. "Starting today, all artists under Huayu Film & Television must register QQ accounts. This is not just a formality, but a real commitment. What do you use to chat on set? QQ. What do you use to interact with fans? QQ. When asked in interviews what you usually do online? Say you use QQ. Even when accepting gigs, you must use QQ. This is a group-wide coordination task, and everyone must cooperate."

"clear."

Shen Ranran may not be the biggest star among Huayu Film & Television's artists, but she is the most willing to cooperate.

During breaks on set each day, he would take his laptop and demonstrate to the actors in his group how to register for QQ, teaching them key by key.

There was an older actor who played the second male lead, over fifty years old, who couldn't even type.

Shen Ranran sat next to him and started teaching him from the pinyin input method, "Teacher Wang, you just press these keys and the words that come out are what you want to say."

The veteran actor said, "I've never touched a computer in my life. If you ask me to type in pinyin, I can't even recognize all the letters."

Shen Ranran smiled and said, "Then let's learn them slowly. Learn five a day, and you'll have learned them all in a month."

"Times are changing so fast! We old actors are almost outdated."

"Teacher Wang, you're exaggerating! This is just a chat tool."

The veteran actor was immediately persuaded by Shen Ranran, registered an account, and added Shen Ranran as the first friend.

Then, he slowly typed a sentence on his laptop and sent it: "Hello, Xiao Shen."

With a "ding-dong" sound, Shen Ranran's laptop immediately received the notification and replied, "Hello, Teacher Wang."

The veteran actor looked at the reply on the screen and laughed like a child.

After finishing filming and returning to the hotel, Shen Ranran didn't forget to send a text message to her colleagues, urging everyone to register for QQ.

She called out the names of the director, script supervisor, lighting technician, and makeup artist one by one.

Someone immediately replied to Shen Ranran: "Ranran, are you addicted to QQ? Your mind is full of QQ."

"I only recommend it because it works well. You'll know once you try it."

Other artists were not to be outdone.

When asked in an interview what they usually do online, several of Mr. Zhou's currently popular actors said to the camera, "I use QQ to chat with friends."

At this time, the distance between celebrities and fans was still very far, and it was almost impossible for ordinary people to say a word to a celebrity.

At that time, there was no WeChat, no Weibo, and no short video platforms. Even mobile phone communication was limited to basic calls and text messages. Therefore, for fans, celebrities were just shadows on the screen and in newspapers.

But QQ showed everyone a possibility: you could add a celebrity's QQ number.

Even if the celebrity doesn't necessarily reply, the number is real, and your friend request might appear in the celebrity's system notification bar. That alone is enough to drive fans crazy.

This destructive power is absolutely at the level of a nuclear bomb.

Fans flocked to the internet cafes across the country, and the little penguin icon went from an unfamiliar symbol to a standard feature on every computer desktop. Internet cafe owners were more astute than anyone else; the first question customers asked wasn't "Is the internet speed fast?" but rather, "Do you have QQ installed here?"

If it's installed, when someone sits down and turns on their computer, the first thing they open is QQ.

If they don't have it installed, people will just turn around and leave.

In some cities, internet cafe owners have even voluntarily put up signs at their doors that read "QQ is installed in this internet cafe," using it as a selling point to attract customers.

Ma Huateng sat in his office watching the number of backend users break through 500,000, 1 million, 2 million, each milestone arriving faster than the previous one.

It's important to know that in 1998, the total number of home computers installed in China was about 300 million, so two million QQ users was an absolutely staggering number.

Ma Huateng sat in his chair, while people in his office gathered around the screen, cheering every time a milestone was reached.

Ma Huateng didn't cheer. Staring at the still-climbing curve, he suddenly remembered what he had heard in the Suning office: "In the future, the Internet will penetrate into every capillary of the national economy."

Ma Huateng thought at the time that this statement was too grand, like a slogan.

Now he believes it.

……

After the domestic version of QQ was launched, Ma Huateng originally thought he could finally take a breather.

In the two months leading up to the launch, the entire team practically lived in the office. Folding beds were lined up next to each workstation, and whoever was sleepy would lie down for a while and then continue coding when they woke up.

The number of users is growing rapidly, and the servers are being expanded. Everything is on track, and he is looking forward to finally being able to go home and get a full night's sleep this week.

As a result, Suning called.

Su Ning's voice came through the receiver, getting straight to the point without any preamble: "Mr. Ma, Tencent's R&D department can't stop. Divide the team into two groups: one to maintain and update the domestic version, and the other to continue developing the international version. For multilingual versions, start with English, Japanese, Korean, and Thai."

Ma Huateng glanced at the work schedule for next week that he had just arranged on the table, then looked at the night view of Shenzhen outside the window, and remained silent for two seconds.

At that moment, he was thinking: The domestic version has only been online for a few days.

The user base hasn't even stabilized yet, and the servers are still being expanded every day. Is the international version about to be launched?

But what Ma Huateng actually said was, "Okay, President Su, I'll arrange it right away."

"We'll have to work hard during this period! Tencent will soon be back on track."

"Yes, Mr. Su."

After hanging up the phone, Ma Huateng walked to Zhang Zhidong's workstation.

Zhang Zhidong, staring at a line of error logs on the screen, asked without looking up, "Mr. Ma, what's wrong now?"

Then, Ma Huateng relayed Suning's words, adding his own frustrated remark: "President Su is trying to use us to death!"

Zhang Zhidong pushed up his glasses, looked up at him, and said, "Using it to the extreme is better than having no one use it at all."

The two looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh at the same time.

Ma Huateng patted Zhang Zhidong on the shoulder, turned around and walked to the whiteboard. He picked up a marker and drew a vertical line on it, writing "Domestic Group" on the left and "International Group" on the right. Then he began to fill in the names on both sides.

Everyone else in the office gathered around, watching their names being assigned to different groups on the whiteboard. Someone groaned, "I just finished fixing a bug."

Some people have already started discussing with their colleagues how to build a multi-language architecture.

After the R&D department was split into two groups, the office lights never went out before 11 p.m.

The domestic maintenance team monitors the backend logs provided by users every day, checking system stability, server load, and bug fixes, and responding to every issue in the shortest possible time.

The international development team faces entirely different challenges; the multilingual architecture is not simply a matter of translating the Chinese interface into English.

Different languages ​​have different reading directions and character encodings, so adapting the UI layout requires far more work than translating it itself.

English words are longer than Chinese words. What can be clearly expressed in two Chinese characters for a button might require seven or eight letters in English, so the button width has to be recalculated.

Japanese has a complex honorific system, and the system prompts that the same sentence should be expressed differently in different contexts.

The glyphic structure of Thai characters is completely different from that of Chinese and English, and the font rendering engine needs to be adjusted separately.

The international QQ team completely redesigned the login interface and interaction logic, ensuring that users, regardless of their language, can find the core functions the moment they open the software.

Ma Huateng personally oversaw the UI design of the international version, working with the designers to revise it draft by draft on the screen. They cut off most of the menu bar, keeping only the core buttons: chat, friends, groups, and settings.

The choice of colors and fonts was also carefully considered to achieve a clean and concise look.

One time at 1 a.m., the designer sent the seventh version of the UI design to Ma Huateng.

After seeing it, Ma Huateng replied, "That's fine, this version is good."

The designer replied, "You haven't even zoomed in to look at the details yet."

Ma Huateng said, "No need to look, you can tell a good thing is good at first glance."

……

At the same time, Tianchao Group's legal department also registered a Tencent branch in Hong Kong, specifically responsible for operating the international version of Tencent QQ.

Of course, we will also consider setting up branches around the world, since internationalization will be a long and arduous battle.

In 1998, Hong Kong had a more mature business environment than the mainland, a greater concentration of international talent, and world-class professional services in finance, law, and accounting. Although the internet industry was still in its infancy, its infrastructure and international perspective were far superior to those of the mainland.

Tencent's Hong Kong branch is located in an office building in Causeway Bay, a prime location with a subway station right downstairs, making it convenient for employees to commute and for future meetings with international partners.

The core team of Tencent's Hong Kong branch consists of a group of AI robots who are responsible for handling complex issues such as server maintenance, cross-border data interaction, and multilingual technical architecture. At the same time, the company has also recruited a group of product operation and marketing talents with international backgrounds.

There were Hong Kong locals who had returned from studying abroad, foreign market experts working in Hong Kong, and several veterans who had done international marketing in the telecommunications industry.

On June 1, 1998, the international version of QQ was officially launched.

On the day of the launch, Suning, sitting in his Beijing office, received a simultaneous notification from Tencent regarding the launch status of its Hong Kong branch…

The server is stable, and login channels for all language versions are open. The first batch of overseas registered users have begun to flock in.

The marketing strategies in the international market are exactly the same as those in the domestic market, but the intensity is only greater.

China's overseas dealer network has once again come in handy.

Every Chinese car dealership in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Africa has become an offline promotion point for the international version of QQ. A standee has been added to the showroom, featuring the little penguin and a download guide for multiple languages.

After a customer finished test driving the car, the salesperson handed him a card with a QQ download link printed on it, saying, "This is an instant messaging software under our Tianchao Group. You can use this to chat with friends all over the world for free."

After receiving the card, some customers immediately took out their phones and wrote down the website address.

Of course, QQ couldn't be installed on mobile phones back then, but they wrote down the website address in their notepad, planning to download it on their computers back at the company.

Kunyu Shipping distributes multilingual brochures for QQ International Edition at every port of call for its roll-on/roll-off ships.

The dockworkers, port dispatchers, customs brokers, and freight forwarders were all given brochures.

Huayu Film & Television's overseas copyright distribution channels have also joined the promotion, with some films invested in by Huayu Film & Television including download links for QQ International in their end credits.

Especially when those Hollywood international stars stepped in to promote the products, it immediately triggered a whirlwind of publicity.

The user growth curve of the international version of QQ is steeper than that of the domestic version when it was first launched.

In Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, netizens have just as strong a demand for instant messaging as users in mainland China.

There were very few comparable products on the market, and the international version of QQ quickly gained popularity upon its launch.

Growth in the European and North American markets has been relatively moderate, but the user base has been steadily climbing, especially among overseas Chinese communities, where QQ has become a topic of conversation for almost everyone overnight.

Many international students and overseas workers have made QQ their regular way of contacting their families back home. In the past, international calls cost several yuan per minute, and letters took two weeks to travel back and forth. Now, you can type a few lines on QQ and receive a reply in seconds. This feeling is revolutionary for people who are far away from home.

One detail in the data reported back from the Hong Kong branch left a deep impression on Ma Huateng.

Less than half a month after the international version of QQ was launched, users in several European countries spontaneously created local QQ groups. The group names were in the local languages, and the conversations were about local daily topics.

There is a German photography enthusiast group that discusses film and aperture parameters in German in a QQ group.

A group of university students in Paris, France, created a group to share French learning materials, which has grown from the initial five members to several hundred.

This means that the international version of QQ has begun to transform from a simple cross-border communication tool into a social tool for local users, upgrading from "tool stickiness" to "social stickiness".

After reviewing the report, Suning picked up a pen and wrote a few words on it: Continue to investigate further.

He even called in the head of the marketing department to personally arrange things, saying, "Users creating their own groups are more valuable than us spending money to buy traffic. Compile those cases of spontaneously created groups in overseas markets, make them into internal training materials, and let the heads of each overseas promotion point take a look. Tell them that the best way to promote QQ is not to distribute flyers, but to get users to help us invite people."

...(End of this chapter)