Chapter 175: New Mode

The great purge of the domestic cloud drive market is indeed no lie.

Cloud drive providers are very bandwidth and hard drive intensive; monthly expenditures are an astronomical figure.

But on one hand, domestic users generally cannot accept paid cloud drives; after all, when cloud drives first spread domestically, they generally adopted free sharing to attract as many fans as possible.

At the same time, current domestic policies have also begun to be unfavorable to internet sharing and dissemination. With the government's crackdown on pornographic, violent, and even terror-spreading videos and files, coupled with the strangulation of pirated imagery by domestic and foreign cultural dissemination enterprises, the golden age of cloud drives ended just as it had begun.

A faint smile played in Sun Cheng's eyes. To others, the cloud drive market was like a harsh winter, but to him, it was a fertile field, for he held three good cards in his hand.

"I never said that Cybertron Technology was just a software company..."

Laughing secretly in his heart, Sun Cheng stood up and moved the ultra-thin laptop, which had been transformed by a Transformer, onto the table in front of Lu Nan.

He chose to power it on, and the computer screen lit up almost instantly.

This rapid boot speed made Lu Nan, who was a bit of a tech expert, eyes light up. He couldn't help but glance at the keyboard and screen, and finding no brand ID, he asked in surprise: "Brother Sun, what brand of computer is this? You must have optimized the system, it's so fast..."

"Mm, a custom machine, the system has been optimized..."

Sun Cheng replied casually, quickly pushing the computer further toward him, and pointing to a conspicuous icon on the screen, said, "This is the test version of the cloud drive client we rushed to complete. Why don't you give it a try!"

Lu Nan nodded, straightened his posture, and began to fiddle with the computer.

After clicking on the cloud drive client icon, a simple, clean login page popped up immediately.

Sun Cheng had not logged into his own account, so Lu Nan had to apply for an account first to log in and take a look.

He clicked on register, and a registration page popped up immediately.

Lu Nan first looked at the registration page carefully for a while, then looked at Sun Cheng with a surprised expression, "Brother Sun, is the company planning to go with a paid model?"

The registration page had nothing special. The only slight difference from the mobile registration that was becoming popular today was that Cybertron Technology's cloud drive account did not force the use of a mobile phone or email for registration; instead, there were options to bind a mobile phone or email in the non-mandatory registration boxes below.

The reason Lu Nan was surprised was that he saw a reminder behind the options for binding a mobile phone and email: Extend the experience by one month!

This kind of dialogue obviously would not appear on a free cloud drive.

"That's right!" Sun Cheng answered very crisply, "The era of free cloud drive usage has ended. The largest domestic cloud drive technology provider—Yibai Cloud Drive—has monthly losses in the tens of millions. Relying solely on advertising revenue cannot make up for the losses at all, and they have to resort to speed throttling to force users to purchase memberships. To be honest, their methods might not be presentable, but it is something they have to do. Even in the internet era, which relies basically on hype, there are not many companies that can keep losing money, and beautiful bubbles cannot last forever!"

Lu Nan nodded. The reason everyone was losing money in the country over the past few years, yet dozens of cloud drive companies could still spring up like mushrooms after rain, was nothing more than internet economics: you hype, I hype, everyone hypes, putting out registration data, and then pulling in investment everywhere.

As the market became more rational and venture capital's valuation of market capitalization became more accurate, and gradually no one was fooled by pretty PPTs anymore, once the main source of income for cloud drives tightened, everyone could only follow suit and go bankrupt.

Membership fees are indeed the guarantee for a cloud drive to survive, but Lu Nan still had doubts: as a penniless startup with no popularity and no customers, where does the capital come from to clamor for fees?

Sun Cheng clearly saw the subtle change on his face, but did not rush to answer, instead signaling him to continue using it to see.

Lu Nan continued to use it, but he did not bind his mobile phone number or email in the registration information, just wanting to see the situation.

After confirming the registration, the page changed quickly, but it did not enter the client directly; instead, it stopped on a brand-new selection page.

This page was somewhat special. Lu Nan pushed up his glasses and looked at it carefully, his face thoughtful.

He saw that three selection ports had emerged on the newly popped-up screen, which were 【Private Mode】, 【Share Mode】, and 【Confidential Mode】, each with its own explanation.

【Private Mode】, 1T capacity, can upload document files, pictures, and image data, maximum saved file must not exceed 1G. Allows sharing and remote login, but must not disseminate files, pictures, and image data prohibited by law, maximum shared image data must not exceed 500M, and daily sharing frequency is limited to 3 times (unlimited).

【Share Mode】, 1T capacity, can upload document files, pictures, and image data, allows shared disk files, daily uploads and sharing are not restricted, but must not disseminate files, pictures, and image data prohibited by law, and for works that infringe on others' copyright and intellectual property rights, the company has the right to delete them directly (requires real-name authentication).

【Confidential Mode】, 1T capacity, can upload document files, pictures, and image data, intelligent detection system will automatically block any files, pictures, and image data strictly prohibited by national law from being uploaded, otherwise there are no restrictions, but all files uploaded to the client are strictly prohibited from being shared, remote login requires completion of password protection procedures, daily limit of 1 time (requires real-name authentication).

With Lu Nan's vision, it was naturally not difficult to see the benefits of these three modes.

【Private Mode】 is enough for most ordinary users. For them, a cloud drive is more of a storage tool, and they are not so trendy that they need to share every day. This type of user generally will not consider recharging; they belong to the category of users who can be fought for but are difficult to win over.

【Share Mode】 is self-explanatory; it is designed for those users and certain types of enterprises who like to search for shared resources everywhere in the internet age. But Lu Nan also had to admit that among domestic cloud drive membership buyers, this type of user accounts for 95 percent. They are the objects that major cloud drives like the most and are also the easiest to be targeted by crackdowns.

As for 【Confidential Mode】, Lu Nan was a bit confused. This mode seemed to have almost no restrictions on users. Was Sun Cheng not afraid of breaking the law after launching it?

Unable to figure it out, he simply raised his head and looked at Sun Cheng.

And Sun Cheng really didn't make him wait long, pointing to the selection page on the screen, and explained: "By using three choices for positioning, we distinguish users from the very beginning. I believe that users with real needs will realize what they really need after a little exploration! I personally favor 【Private Mode】. Although it's a bit of a legal gray area, this mode has great potential."

Lu Nan made a listening expression, but when he lost focus for a moment, he realized that he was slowly sipping the tea in his hand again, and couldn't help but feel a sense of frustration in his heart.

He wanted to ask more, but after all, he was wary of the other party's status as his boss, so he had to look back at the screen sullenly, and after hesitating for a moment, he chose 【Confidential Mode】.

After the page buffered slightly, it finally entered the clean client.

Lu Nan fiddled with it for a while, clicking everywhere, and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. The basic function settings of this client were roughly similar to the cloud drives on the market, with nothing extraordinary.

Just as he was about to click the cross in the upper right corner to close it, his gaze caught a glimpse of the renewal option behind the 'Remaining experience time: 30 days' reminder in the lower left corner, and after hesitating for a moment, he chose to click it.

Sun Cheng, who was on the side, was secretly happy in his heart, put down the unfinished water cup, and stared at him without blinking.

Soon, he saw what he wished for: Lu Nan's eyes widened, and he stood up suddenly with an incredible expression on his face, pointing at the computer screen with one finger while looking up at him, "This, how is this possible..."

"There is nothing impossible... Lu Nan, I never said that Cybertron Technology Company was a pure cloud drive technology provider. In the registration information, our business scope includes intelligent equipment..."

Having seen the surprised expression of the talent he valued as he wished, Sun Cheng felt proud in his heart. While explaining to him, his gaze could not help but turn to the computer screen along with him.

He saw that after the renewal option was clicked, the client automatically popped up a purchase page. On the page, there were only three simple purchase options: 【Member Phase 1 Recharge】, 【Permanent Member Upgrade】, and 【Permanent Cloud Drive Expansion】.

Among them, 【Member Phase 1 Recharge】 is to renew for one month, and the price is very low, only three yuan, which has a certain attraction for ordinary users.

The 【Permanent Member Upgrade】 is priced at 199 yuan. After purchase, not only will one get the right to use the cloud drive forever, but Cybertron Technology Company will also give them a 1T hard drive for free.

【Permanent Cloud Drive Expansion】 provides different expansion options, only open to permanent members. Increasing the cloud drive capacity by 2T costs 299 yuan, also giving a 2T hard drive; increasing by 5T costs 599 yuan, with a 5T hard drive included; increasing by 10T costs 1099 yuan, also with a 10T hard drive included.

Such generous conditions, presumably as long as one is not a fool, one knows how to choose.

It's just that Lu Nan looked at him in disbelief. Although he hesitated for a moment, he finally asked: "... Even to attract users to upgrade their membership, charging for membership and giving away a hard drive will definitely be a losing business... The cost of a 1T hard drive is at least over a hundred, even if the quantity is large, we can't get the finished product for 199 yuan. And if we choose defective goods, once exposed, it will be a devastating blow to the company..."

He didn't even mention the 2T/5T and 10T hard drives. I'm afraid Lu Nan had already begun to suspect if his brain had been kicked by a donkey. As an electronics enthusiast, Lu Nan clearly knew that, let alone 1099 yuan to buy a 10T hard drive, this amount of money wasn't even enough for the cost.

However, that was someone else's cost.

Smiling, he walked to the desk, Sun Cheng took a few hard drives from the drawer, walked over, and handed them to him, "Our future flagship product, you can take it back to test today... I have to correct your preconceived concept. The cost of hard drives can be controlled, for example, by adopting new technology..."

After I come back from the world of 【Transformers】 next time, I can mass-produce them!

Secretly saying this in his heart, he picked up the water cup in front of him and drank it all in one gulp. Sun Cheng knew that it was time for him to go back!

PS:

There may only be two updates today. I will try to see. It is mainly because my cousin came to my house at noon, and he left something behind when he left and forgot to take it. I had to take time to send it to him in the afternoon, and I was dragged to have two more drinks in the evening, so I came back a bit late.