You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 205

Zhang Pingyi was very puzzled by Qin Shaoyan's idea, "If you don't plan to build a video website, then why are you putting so much effort into it?"

Qin Shaoyan was a little dumbfounded, "I did this in the United States just to make a fortune and leave. Of course, I wanted to make a big profit so I could boast about the valuation."

Zhang Pingyi frowned, "I thought this was another new track you laid out?"

"Yes, yes." Qin Shaoyan looked at Zhang Pingyi with a look of relief, "This is what I will tell investors when I go out from now on. This is to lay out a new track."

"No?" Zhang Minyi's face was still full of doubts, "I think you have the same attitude towards Facebook. You said you wanted to make a fortune and leave, but you also built a campus network in China."

"Since this video website is also trying to make a fortune, why isn't it done in China?"

Qin Shaoyan shook his head, "That's different. The campus network is in your hands, and it's a little hard to get rid of. And the campus network is not impossible to build. Once it's done, you can still make money."

"But video websites basically just lose money."

"The information on the campus network and Facebook is still text and pictures, but the information on the video website is video."

“The biggest problem with video websites is not their high costs, but their monetization capabilities.”

“So, it costs money to guide users to upload more content and upload high-quality content.”

Qin Shaoyan sighed, "How do video websites make money by adding advertising?"

Zhang Pingyi was stunned, "Mr. Qin, just treat yourself as a human being."

Qin Shaoyan said disapprovingly: "This is just a simple trick, there are also more outrageous designs."

Therefore, there are very few advertisements on the campus network. Some of them are either the campus network's own or used for promotion of Jingdong Mall.

"Adding ads is quite damaging to the user experience."

"What's this? I haven't designed it to shrink the video screen with just a pause and maximize the pop-up advertising page." Qin Shaoyan sneered, "Make a fake close button on the advertising page and close it with just a click. Jump page pops up."

Zhang Pingyi suddenly felt shuddering after thinking about it, and couldn't help but ask: "You can't be so inhumane, can you?"

"At least it will be like this in ten years." Qin Shaoyan nodded, "The video website is a content-oriented website, but it costs a lot of money to produce content."

"The website itself cannot produce much content. Most of it depends on users uploading content themselves."

There are few ads, the page is clean, and users feel comfortable. This is one of the reasons why users like the campus network.

"If nothing else, the bandwidth cost alone is quite high."

Zhang Pingyi was still a little unwilling in the end and asked: "Is there really no hope of making money?"

Zhang Mingyi nodded. He knew that Qin Shaoyan always paid great attention to user experience and was disgusted by adding more advertisements.

Zhang Pingyi thought for a while and asked cautiously: "Then according to what you say, the video website only loses money? There is no room for profit?"

"The duration of videos on today's Internet-speed websites is definitely not too long, a few minutes or even half a minute. You can't let users watch a 15-second ad before watching a -second video, right?"

"In addition to placing ads on the page, in order to generate revenue, ads will be added to the video, and they will even be added directly before the video is played for better results."

Qin Shaoyan said: "Advertisements on video websites are either hung on the page like other websites and smeared around like dog-skin plaster, or they are blocked in the middle of the page and must be closed before viewing the web content."

"The real close button will appear only after closing the pop-up page."

"Being a boss can make money, but video websites most likely won't." Qin Shaoyan answered Zhang Pingyi's question seriously.

Zhang Pingyi continued to ask: "Didn't you say that video websites are the future? Can you watch movies and TV shows in the future?"

"It will take a few years. With the current Internet speed, even watching a video for a few minutes is so slow that it is useless to watch a TV series that lasts for dozens of minutes." Qin Shaoyan said lightly, "If you have time like this, you might as well watch a TV. "At this time, Zhang Pingyi completely gave up and felt a little depressed, "Isn't this work in vain?"

Qin Shaoyan comforted him: "It's okay, just think of it as learning skills. It will always be useful."

……

The next day, Zhang Minyi arrived at the office of the video website as usual.

Although his interest was not as high as before, he was still doing the work at hand very seriously.

After all, you can learn a lot from working with a talented programmer like Bram Cohen.

The father of BT is famous on the Internet, but unlike everyone's imagination, BT did not bring him any money.

In the first few years of developing BT, this technology did not bring him a penny of income.

Bram Cohen barely makes a living by relying on a little donation from users and selling T-shirts with the word BT printed on them online. He also faces the risk of being sued in court at any time.

The interesting thing is that he is the inventor of BT technology, but he has never used BT to download any videos or unauthorized software.

This unsociable technical boss was not easy to hire. Thanks to G Fat's relationship, Qin Shaoyan finally paid a high salary to get this boss to work.

Of course, it's all worth it.

With the hard work of technical experts and many coders, the video website was quickly completed.

Qin Shaoyan didn't bother to think of a name, so he just moved the YouTube name over and borrowed it.

On November 11, the YouTube website was officially launched.

The buttons for the three core functions of the website, Upload, Watch, and Share, are placed below the most eye-catching search box, and the function introduction emphasizes speed and convenience.

Qin Shaoyan personally registered an account and uploaded a video on the website of YouTube employees celebrating the launch of the website.

After testing, all functions of the website are normal, and even some minor problems will not affect use.

"Well done, everyone!" Qin Shaoyan stood up and greeted other employees, "You have created a new era!"

YouTube employees applauded and smiled excitedly.

Even Sequoia's Taylor and Microsoft's Davis also applauded and celebrated. The emergence of video websites is indeed an innovative milestone for the Internet.

Because before this, saving videos on the Internet was very troublesome.

You need to go to the video store first to convert your video tapes to digital format and then burn them to a CD.

Then pay to purchase a private server or server space to host the site and upload videos.

You can basically understand the whole process as copying the contents of your DVD at home to the network disk, but in the end you have to pay a sum of money to the network disk.

The emergence of YouTube provides the majority of netizens with a place to save videos for free, as well as the convenient function of one-click sharing.

This is also the biggest advantage of early video websites in attracting users.

The celebrations didn't last long, it wasn't time to pop the champagne yet, they still had a lot of work to do.

The first step is how to populate the website with content. They cannot wait for users to do it themselves.

Therefore, how to promote the video website has become the most important task.

(End of this chapter)