Chapter 498: The Bait

We are currently still in the "ancient" era of the internet. Technically, it is far from being as convenient and sophisticated as it will be in later generations. To do anything, one must first see if there is corresponding technical support.

To listen to music on a computer, one needs software that supports playback. This is also true for the Himalaya Internet Radio; one needs to produce podcast content first, store it on a server, and then have the user open the Himalaya software on their computer. As for how to actually output the sound on the computer, that was a difficult problem before!

In reality, the Himalaya Silicon Valley office is primarily focused on solving the troubles users encounter when using Himalaya software to play audio on their computers.

And the AMPMP3 digital playback engine program is what allows users to click and listen to content played by Himalaya Radio on their computers.

It is no exaggeration for Lu Kui to say that Jia Siding is a genius. He helped Himalaya Radio, and even countless internet companies and users, solve the problem of using software programs to listen to music on computers!

Jia Siding, who was mentioned by Lu Kui, is clearly not very old, but he carries an unyielding and rebellious air. At a glance, he is the type with a "troublemaker" attribute. Even with people from headquarters arriving, Jia Siding's eyes remained fixed on the computer in front of him.

Lu Kui clearly knows Jia Siding's personality and, fearing that the people from headquarters might be dissatisfied with him, stated in advance that Jia Siding is a genius at program development and is vital to Himalaya Radio.

When Li Dongling saw Jia Siding, he just gave an indifferent laugh. Geniuses all have personalities; being aloof and rebellious are labels attached to many geniuses.

If one were to ask if there are people who are both technical geniuses and possess exceptionally high emotional intelligence, of course there are. There is such a person in America named Bill Gates, and there is a similar person in China whose name is Lei Jun...

To be a genius technically, top-tier in emotional intelligence, have no obvious flaws in personality, and even be a person of perseverance—honestly, if such a person couldn't make a name for themselves, that would be the real wonder!

As for Jia Siding, who has the temper of a genius, Li Dongling is naturally not surprised. In fact, Li Dongling wishes Dongling Gao Ke had a few more geniuses like him!

Take this AMPMP3 digital playback engine program, for example. This technology alone is worth a fortune. It is no exaggeration to say that in the future, every company involved in audio playback will need to use this technology. Whether it is music websites, video websites, or MP3 players, they will all need to pay patent fees to Himalaya Radio!

"The player, equalizer, and playlist for Himalaya Internet Radio have all been developed!"

Lu Kui opened the Himalaya Radio interface and demonstrated it to Li Dongling and Yao Luoying. This interface was made according to the requirements sent over by Feiyan Technology, and it is quite concise.

Unlike websites like Netscape or Yahoo, which still require various operations, the Himalaya Radio interface is designed to be as foolproof as possible. Just open the page, click with the mouse, and it will play the content.

Lu Kui clicked on a piece of music used for testing Himalaya Radio. To be honest, the sound quality isn't great—it certainly can't compare to a Sony CD—but after buffering for a while, it finally played!

Regardless of the sound quality or whether the buffering is slow, as long as Himalaya Radio can play content, that is enough!

"Thank you for your hard work!"

Li Dongling patted Lu Kui on the shoulder and said this to him. Lu Kui is also a Chinese who came to America in his early years and has worked at many companies like Wang Laboratories and Cisco.

Himalaya Radio poached Lu Kui to manage the Himalaya Silicon Valley office. Lu Kui is currently doing quite well, and he has basically completed everything requested by headquarters.

Of course, joining Himalaya Radio is also an opportunity for Lu Kui. At companies like Cisco, his career had already hit a ceiling; he simply couldn't get promoted any further.

By joining Himalaya Radio, Lu Kui can take a key step in his career and become a manager. If Himalaya Radio can achieve results, his resume will be very impressive, and his compensation is also much better than before.

After entering the office's conference room, Li Dongling didn't waste time on other things and said directly to Lu Kui, "Once the first batch of Himalaya Radio creators are recruited and the programs are recorded, you must put these programs on Himalaya Radio as soon as possible!"

"I understand!"

Lu Kui said hurriedly. Even if he didn't know that Feiyan Technology wanted to use Himalaya Radio to complete the feat of going public, he could see Li Dongling's emphasis on Himalaya Radio and dared not drop the ball at this time.

Li Dongling then turned his gaze to Zhou Hualiang, "Currently, Himalaya's content is too scarce. In a situation where we cannot acquire songs or publish books on a large scale in America,

Himalaya Radio can seek cooperation with other open radio stations, let them settle into Himalaya Radio, and we can provide these stations with an exclusive entry fee!"

Himalaya Radio can enter the business of music platforms like iTunes or Spotify in the future, but that will be several years later. At the very least, it will be when pirated music is rampant and the major record companies have suffered heavy losses that those record giants will lower their heads and be willing to become music suppliers.

When we cannot obtain a large amount of music copyrights from America, besides self-produced content, the only way to increase the content of the Himalaya America website is to obtain content from open radio stations in America.

What is an open radio station? To put it bluntly, it's a wild radio station that doesn't charge money and broadcasts for free. America has countless radio stations. Besides a few large stations covering the entire country, there are countless small stations, the most numerous of which are local music radio stations in each state.

Some of these stations are more formal, being radio stations under local TV stations, while others are the kind where they set up an antenna on the roof, get a set of second-hand radio equipment, and start holding court on the air.

These music radio stations actually serve as channels for record promotion, the same channels as TV stations, newspapers, and magazines, only their quality and influence vary.

Besides music radio stations, there are also radio stations for sports, current affairs, talk shows, etc. Basically, they all broadcast for free, and their influence is limited to the local area.

When the Himalaya website cannot obtain copyrights for large-scale records or published books, cooperating with these open radio stations can be considered an expedient measure. It's hard to say how effective it will be, but at least it won't make the American Himalaya look empty.

"These open radio stations probably won't be easy to talk to. It won't be that easy to get them to settle into the Himalaya website!"

Zhou Hualiang frowned and said. Why do so many wild small radio stations exist? Besides a very few who truly love the industry, most are in it for the dollars.

If it's just inviting a few open radio stations to settle into Himalaya Radio, that's no problem. Spending a few hundred or a few thousand dollars per station, or at most a ten-thousand-dollar exclusive internet entry fee for a station with some fame, can get it done.

But wanting to invite them all over is not that easy. There are simply too many radio stations in America. If we pull them all over, who knows how much funding that would take!

In the process, if we run into radio stations that open their mouths like lions, it would be like running into a holdout during demolition—who knows how much blood we'd have to shed!

Li Dongling glanced at Zhou Hualiang, "Who said we have to spend money all at once to invite these open radio stations to settle into the Himalaya website?"

Hearing this, Zhou Hualiang looked at Li Dongling in confusion, not knowing what Li Dongling meant.

"First, recruit a batch of open radio stations. In the early stages, give these stations an exclusive entry fee. Select a few stations with potential from among them and focus on supporting them, making them the leaders among open radio stations so they can earn revenue!

As long as these few stations that settled into the Himalaya website develop and make money, are we afraid that other open radio stations won't cooperate with Himalaya?" Li Dongling said indifferently.

After hearing this, Zhou Hualiang couldn't help but widen his eyes, and then he couldn't help but slap his forehead. He knew he had fallen into fixed thinking.

Li Dongling's move is simple and unadorned; it is to borrow people's envy. It's like buying a lottery ticket. As long as one person wins five million, even if people know it's just luck and they might never win in their lifetime, countless people will still buy lottery tickets every day, regardless of the cost, just for that one day of turning things around.

Similarly, as long as we can make one of those open wild small radio stations that settled into Himalaya popular, we won't even need the Himalaya website to speak up; other radio stations will come running, begging to cooperate with Himalaya. With more radio stations coming, we might even save on the entry fees.

"I'll go send people to contact the open radio stations in America right now!" Zhou Hualiang stood up and hurried out.

The arrival of Li Dongling and Yao Luoying, with a big financier supervising, made the entire Himalaya Silicon Valley office start to get busy.

The next day, when Souxin founder Steve Kirsch and Li Yanhong arrived, what they saw was a busy scene in the office.

When they were led into the reception room, Steve Kirsch also saw two other figures. He was not familiar with GeoCities website founder David Bohnett, but he did recognize Gruna, who was also the founder of a search company, ASK.

When Steve Kirsch saw Gruna, his heart sank. As fellow search companies, Gruna coming here today had to make him suspicious—was Li Dongling no longer wanting to support Souxin, but turning to support ASK, the competitor?

Competitors are enemies. Even though the search industry is not favored by investors, after Steve Kirsch and Gruna met, they just nodded at each other and didn't say a word more.

Gruna and David Bohnett discussed the latest rumors in Silicon Valley in low voices, "I heard Yahoo rejected the offer from America Online!" ===== CHAPTER 499 =====