Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 495 This is just the beginning

On December 12th, the whole world was celebrating Christmas, but many programmers were working overtime in Twitter’s new office building.

Even the four giants of Twitter are holding on with their own teams.

“Dick, is the backup server ready?
If this continues, the website will be down before tomorrow. "Biz Stone looked at Twitter's newly appointed COO anxiously and kept asking questions.

Because that flying bird (Flappy Bird) is so crazy.

Since its launch at 0:[-] yesterday, this game has been spreading like a super virus around the world. Along with this, the number of registered users and active users of Twitter has also grown rapidly.

In just one day, the total number of Twitter users increased by 30%.

Of course, the reason for such a high increase is also related to Twitter’s previous user base being too small.

But this is still a miracle, so strange that the four giants of Twitter can't believe it at all. This is the first time they have seen it after so many years in the Silicon Valley IT world.

What follows is that Twitter's servers are under tremendous pressure.

Because of the influx of users today, the situation is completely different from before.

In the past, users would only occasionally log in to Twitter to browse around when surfing the Internet, and there were not many people online at the same time.

But this time it’s different. Because of the game “Flappy Bird”, more and more users are addicted to it, which has resulted in the number of simultaneous online users being several times higher than before.

Although Twitter made emergency preparations in advance, as the game spread more and more widely, after arranging all backup servers, it still felt very difficult.

That's why Biz Stone came over hurriedly and asked for a solution.

Dick Costolo responded calmly: "Don't worry, I have already made arrangements. A batch of new servers will be activated tonight, and it won't delay things."

"You're still awesome, Dick!
Thanks to you and your team to solve the technical problems this time, otherwise Twitter would have been down countless times with such a large number of visits and online people. "

Biz Stone felt relieved after hearing this, and couldn't help but praise the other party.

Dick Costolo hurriedly said modestly: "Biz, look at what you said, these are what I should do.

But having said that, the real great one is not me, but our angel investor Mr. Marlon!
In all my years of entrepreneurship, this is the first time I have experienced this feeling of pain and joy. "

At this moment, he is really lucky that he was able to participate in the last round and became one of Twitter's investors, and he also successfully joined the company as COO.

You must know that it was only a few months ago. If it were brought to today, this opportunity is destined to be missed by him.

Judging from Twitter's current user growth, it is no longer just a question of how many times the valuation will increase.

Because everyone can now see that Twitter is no longer what it used to be, and it is already taking off.

Super unicorn can no longer describe the current Twitter company.

During the two days of Christmas alone, many large investment institutions did not take a break and extended new olive branches to Twitter.

All these changes were led by the young investor.

Dick Costolo still clearly remembers Ma Liang’s extremely strong attitude towards a group of investors when they were discussing Twitter’s Series A financing that day.

At that time, I thought the other person was young and energetic, but now every time I think about it, I realize that the clown is actually me.

It turns out that they really had a plan in advance and everything was well planned.

From managing the five major professional leagues and the four major record companies, to now launching an inconspicuous little game like "Flappy Bird".

Step by step, it really helped Twitter achieve ultra-high-speed growth. With a combination of punches, the number of Twitter users has not only doubled, but also directly exceeded an order of magnitude.

From the original number of more than 200 million registered users, it suddenly exceeded the [-] million mark.

And just in the two days of Christmas, the number of registered users has reached 500 million.

Judging from the current growth situation, this is just the beginning, and it is only a matter of time before the number of registered users exceeds 2000 million.

You must know that Facebook, which has the first-mover advantage, only has more than 3000 million users as of now.

What’s even more exciting is that Twitter’s number of daily active users is catching up with Facebook’s level, and the gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller.

The number of daily active users is an important indicator, which means that the website has greater advertising value.

What excites Dick Costolo the most is that Twitter has successfully surpassed Facebook, taking the lead in entering the North American market and expanding its users to all over the world.

At this moment, there are countless people around the world playing "Flappy Bird" at the same time.This is of great significance, and it means that Twitter now has the ability to compete with Facebook.

Because of this, those large investment institutions ignored the Christmas holiday and sent strong investment intentions to Twitter.

While testing, give a higher estimate.

Looking at the valuations reported by those institutions, Dick Costolo was so happy that he couldn't sleep.

Because the small amount of investment he made in the last round has now more than doubled four to five times. It seems that this is just the beginning, and there are greater possibilities in the future.

I just regret that the share he received at that time was too small, otherwise the wealth he would gain now would be even greater.

"Dick, it seems that this server is still not enough. There will be new products coming online in two days. We must not lose track as the New Year approaches."

Although Biz Stone breathed a sigh of relief, the personal page function he took the lead in developing has been initially completed. It is expected that the test will be successful in two days, and it can be launched on January 1 as scheduled.

This feature not only makes users more sticky, but also can win over some Facebook users.

The shopping mall is full of intrigues and intrigues, and they use every possible means.As for whether personal homepage products are plagiarized, who will care after winning this social battle.

Justice is written by the victor!

When the fight breaks out, everyone is already fighting to the death, but they are still talking about morality and are not childish.

So Biz Stone doesn't have any psychological burden at all at the moment, not to mention that this kind of thing has never happened in Silicon Valley, so it's nothing.

Seeing Biz's worried expression again, Dick Costolo nodded and reassured him: "Don't worry, Biz, I have applied for a large new amount of expenses from Jack.

A batch of new servers and bandwidth will be purchased around the world in the next two days, which will not delay things. "

"Dick, don't forget, not only are my new features going online, but a newly developed small game by Zynga is also going to be integrated.

Both products are already being debugged and will be launched on the first day of the new year.

But don’t tell me, the creativity of that game is really great, and it is a perfect match with the personal Twitter page. I can’t wait to see the surprised expressions of users, haha.”

Biz Stone couldn't help laughing heartily as he recalled the handover and testing process over the past few days.

Because the programmers under him couldn't help but start playing first, and even hung up there 24 hours a day, even after get off work, they didn't forget to log in to check.

This small game is "Happy Farm" that Ma Liang designed in advance, and authorized it to Mark Pincus to develop it quickly.

With the early cooperation of board and card games, the implantation of "Happy Farm" will naturally be much easier.

Of course, the copyright of the game is still firmly in his hands, and it is conveniently placed under the name of [Dafeng Interactive Entertainment].

Changing one's destiny against the will of heaven is not something that can be said casually, but is achieved through a careful plan that links one link to another.

The promotion of cultural and sports stars, the "Flappy Bird" game to attract traffic, the launch of personal homepages, and the implantation of "Farm" are all serving the purpose of changing Twitter's destiny.

The implementation of these plans immediately made the four giants of Twitter completely unable to deal with it, and Ma Liang was shocked for a while.

In particular, Biz Stone is even more cautious now, fearing that the server and bandwidth cannot keep up, which will ruin his plan to change his destiny.

As soon as he mentioned this, Dick Costolo shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Hey, I've heard about it a long time ago!
The boys under my command have also been playing secretly these past two days. If I hadn't been forcing them, they would probably have started to slack off.

But don't worry, I've made all preparations and nothing will happen. "

Whether it's "Flappy Bird" or "Farm", plus the board and card games from Zynga, they are all products that are very easy to get into.

Even though the games are very simple, even if the programmers are well-informed, it is still easy for them to play secretly and take advantage of the situation.

The two executives of Twitter also had a headache when they thought about their IT nerds taking advantage of opportunities.

"That's good. To be honest, I can't wait." Biz Stone was completely relieved after hearing this, and couldn't help but look forward to New Year's Day coming as soon as possible.

Now everyone had a certain tacit understanding, so Dick Costolo naturally understood the meaning of his words, so he smiled and echoed: "Biz, I am the same, hahahaha."

The situation in the past two days has been so gratifying that both of them can't help but look forward to what miracles the new product will bring to Twitter after it is launched.

They all recalled the last words Ma Liang said during the video conference a few days ago.

"Guys, this is just the beginning!"

(End of this chapter)