Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 560 Online Services Market in Europe

PS: The chapter number of the previous chapter was wrong, 586 was missed, and now two 587 appeared.

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At this stage, all countries are actively promoting the popularization of mass computers, that is, personal computers. The difference is that the intensity of action depends on the strength of the country's national power.

There is no doubt that the performance of the United States is the best, and it has directly reacted to promoting economic development, thus adding a lot of luster to the policies of the Reagan administration.

The situation in Asia is quite special.Due to the different writing systems, the informatization of Chinese characters has encountered a challenge that cannot be ignored in terms of technical realization.After all, since the product is positioned as a computer for the general public, language localization must be supported.

In view of the limitations of the existing CPU computing speed and memory capacity, the informatization of Chinese characters cannot be realized by pure software, and must rely on hardware, that is, Chinese cards.

Because of this threshold, the Fangyuan personal computer equipped with "Tangma" Chinese card quickly squeezed out other types of personal computers from this market, even including the PC-9800 series personal computers of Japanese origin developed by NEC.

The smoke of the North American personal computer market war spread directly to the European market. Many personal computer brands that could not gain a foothold in the North American market, including Commodore and Texas Instruments and other cheap personal computers, all set their sights on the European market, resulting in low-end 8-bit personal computers Computers are all the rage here.

However, due to the blockade of the West, the Soviet Union has become a marginal player in this world trend of personal computers, and only Western European countries have kept up with the pace of the times.

However, with Fangyuan PC, IBM-PC, and Apple Computer, the main force fighting in the North American market, they also came to the European market to stir up trouble, and the local brands of PCs in European countries disappeared one after another. The power of resistance.

However, when the scandal of Jimmy Savile, the "Uncle of the Country" host in the United Kingdom, was revealed, the credibility of the BBC suffered an extremely serious crisis, which led to the questioning of the rationality of the funds used for the personal computer education program. In the end, BBC Micro was quickly defeated and completely gave way to Fangyuan PC.

On the French side, after François Mitterrand became the fourth president of the Fifth Republic in 1981, he implemented a series of socialist policies, including expanding paid holidays, reducing statutory working hours, nationalizing Some private enterprises increased social security fees, etc.; however, as the economic situation continued to deteriorate, they turned to cutting public expenditures and tended to liberalism.

Although there have been a series of economic problems since Francois Mitterrand came to power, the Mormatiquepourtous - the public information technology plan initiated by him has made remarkable achievements in publicizing the popularization of computers, attracting all kinds of people in the technical field. Academic experts came to participate, including some big names, such as two leading figures in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Marvin Minsky, known as the "father of artificial intelligence", and Nicholas Negroponte .

Tang Huan's method of participation is of course a very realistic business cooperation. At this time, France, no matter how poor it is, is many times richer than China.

Like the stop in the UK, Tang Huan did not show up at Deng Lijun's public concert in Paris, but took this opportunity to visit Fangyuan Computer's operating results in France.Its outstanding performance in the field of education is nothing new, but Minitel, which has just begun to emerge, has aroused his great interest.

Minitel belongs to the national network established by France itself. It is the abbreviation of "Médium interactif par numérisation d'information téléphonique" in French, and the corresponding English version is "Interactive medium by digitalizing telephone information", which is "digital telephone interactive media information".

As the name suggests, Minitel is an online service built on the telephone network. It was put into trial operation in the Brittany region of France in 1978 and officially launched in 1982.

You should know that in the original time and space, Minitel was the pioneer of Internet applications in France. At its most glorious time, the number of terminal devices installed in France reached 900 million units and the number of users was 2500 million.

For this reason, the then French President Chirac proudly praised: "The baker in the northern French town of Aubervilliers knows very well how to check his account through Minitel. Can this happen to a baker in New York?" "

Minitel was so successful that it even hindered the development of the Internet in France.This situation is similar to the current Western European countries who believe that ISDN, which must be upgraded from the entire infrastructure, is the future. In the end, they found that there is a better technical solution that can be upgraded on the existing network—temporarily advanced , leading to another fork that does not know whether the comment should be right or wrong.

In fact, in addition to being a technology project, Minitel has also been given political meaning, just like France and NATO keep close to each other to show its status as a great power.

Because of this, Minitel, which is operated by France Telecom, is funded by the support of the French government. This is similar to the Pacific Online created by Tang Huan in the United States, which recently changed its name to America Online and other online services. Mainly driven by commercial companies is very different.

Regardless of the differences between the two, it is a delicious big cake.France, which wants to maintain technological independence, can only build barriers on Minitel's back-end network equipment, and the front-end users contact, that is, various smart terminals, it cannot monopolize.In the face of powerful personal computers, French companies simply cannot resist.

Due to the agreement with Apple, the 8-bit first-generation Fangyuan personal computer could not be sold in the United States, so it found its place in Asia and Europe. After the 16-bit second-generation Fangyuan personal computer was launched, it became the most popular among French users. The popular Minitel terminal.

The fundamental reason for this is that Fangyuan Computer Co., Ltd. has launched a model suitable for the French through the cooperation with the Olympus Group, a localized business partner in Europe. Although the price is a little more expensive, as a complete Personal computers, powerful enough to make users willing to pay the price.

This Fangyuan personal computer first supports international languages, including Western European alphabets such as French with extra accents, which have been perfectly realized by computer information; secondly, it supports all online services of Minitel, train tickets and air tickets Online services such as reservations, stock inquiries, e-mail, etc. are all within reach; finally, more general-purpose PC functions are supported beyond Minitel's proprietary terminals.

It is precisely because of this kind of crushing that Fangyuan Computer has easily won more than half of the share of Minitel terminals, and the future growth is more optimistic.

In fact, Fangyuan personal computers have always been fierce in replacing traditional terminals.In addition to public-oriented national networks such as Minitel, various giant manufacturing companies, including automobile manufacturers, are also implementing proprietary networks with e-commerce functions in order to reduce supply chain costs.

Media Asia TV's predecessor, Li's TV, and its parent company, Li's Yingsheng, extended their diversified business tentacles into this type of e-commerce field when Tang Huan was seeking to buy Li's TV.

In the beginning, the terminals it promoted were variants of TVs equipped with computer chips, but now they all use specific models of Fangyuan personal computers.

The sales volume of the Fangyuan personal computer produced by Fangyuan alone will easily exceed 250 million units this year, and the strong contributors include these specific terminal fields.

What made Tang Huan drool the most was that due to Minitel's excellent performance since it started serving, European countries such as West Germany, Belgium, and Italy have also moved their minds.

During the visit to Minitel, Tang Huan noticed that it is very obvious that the online services provided by Minitel are available in its own AOL; while some online services provided by AOL, Minitel does not.

Why?That's because Minitel's French-origin background web server is not powerful enough.

In this way, Tang Huan has the opportunity to provide a package of solutions including front-end terminals and back-end equipment for those countries trying to follow Minitel.

……

Accompanied by French government officials, France Telecom executives and a group of people, after visiting Minitel, Tang Huan attended the solo concert held by the French President's wife Danielle Mitterrand for Deng Lijun at the Elysee Palace. President François Mitterrand was also there.

The romance of the French is world-renowned, and some dignitaries and celebrities, including François Mitterrand, all have dark love affairs in secret.

Therefore, Tang Huan reminded Deng Lijun jokingly before, "Be careful of being harassed."

Deng Lijun, who has been to Paris several times, does not take it seriously. Compared with the impression that she was frightened by the bad security situation when she hid in the United States after the "passport incident", she obviously feels better about the artistic background displayed here and there.

Just as Tang Huan said, Deng Lijun's demeanor at the concert attracted the fascination of the French people in the audience.

At the end of the concert, when it came time to give thanks, a few French men who thought they were elegant and elegant kissed their hands diligently, which made Tang Huan feel a little disgusted.

Unlike the first lady of the United States, Nancy, who concentrates on assisting her husband Reagan and being a good housemate, Danielle Mitterrand, the first lady of France, does not honestly stay in the Elysee Palace and live a pampered life, but Actively involved in social activities, is a senior social activist.

When Danielle Mitterrand visited Tang Huan’s semiconductor factory FAB1 in France, he repeatedly asked the workers there about their salaries, benefits, vacations, etc., even to the point of annoying the boss. From this, we can see Out of her way of acting.

François Mitterrand is the first democratically elected left-wing president of France. His wife, Danielle Mitterrand, is a long-term supporter of Cuba. Unique.

Therefore, another point that Tang Huan reminded Deng Lijun in advance is that we and each other are only for mutual benefit and each takes what we need, and we must pay attention to keeping a distance in personal relationships.

This reminder was listened to by Deng Lijun, but some accidents were still inevitable.

When Danielle Mitterrand handed over a commemorative medal for cultural exchanges to Deng Lijun, she said in public: "Teresa, I heard that you have been enthusiastic about charity and concerned about children's education in underdeveloped areas. Recently I’m going to visit Africa, why don’t you come along and have a look.”

Deng Lijun happily nodded and agreed to the invitation from the first lady of France, but Tang Huan, who was at the side, showed displeasure.

At that time, he didn't have much to say, so he had to say to Deng Lijun afterwards: "This invitation, find an excuse to decline."

"Nothing? This is an invitation from the president's wife." Deng Lijun was a little puzzled, "Besides, I am still serving as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, so I should care more about such activities."

"Africa is more chaotic, I really don't know it." Tang Huan explained with a sigh.

"Is it still dangerous to stay with the president's wife?" Deng Lijun smiled sweetly, turned around and comforted Tang Huan for a few words, and finally said what was in her heart.

"After the concert in Paris, there is only one stop in Baodao left on my world tour. If you can win the chance to hold a concert in mainland China, then there are two stops left."

"But no matter what, after the trip here in Paris is over, I will definitely return to my hometown and return to Treasure Island, and then I will inevitably cooperate with official arrangements to attend various public events."

Tang Huan interrupted in a muffled voice: "I have reached an agreement with Mr. Jiang, you can refuse these interruptions."

Deng Lijun smiled wryly, "You just won the treatment for me without being forced, but you can't stop people from being so sophisticated. After all, my family still lives in Baodao. Now that I have the invitation from the wife of the French president, I can openly and honestly Quiet for a while, and wait for the preparations for the Treasure Island concert to be completed, then go back and start singing directly."

Tang Huan was speechless for a moment. Just when he was looking for other reasons to dissuade him, Corina Menzelpoulos, the hostess of Chateau Margaux, invited Christina and Deng Lijun to go on vacation. The two women improvised Leaving Paris in a hurry.

In less than a week, the Los Angeles Olympics will begin.A series of promotional activities in San Francisco were waiting for Tang Huan to attend, so he had no choice but to shake his head and return to the United States on Silicon Valley One.

(End of this chapter)