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Chapter 105 Google Mail

It was as if they had planned it all together; all the products were rushed out at once.

Not only has CS basically completed its internal testing and is about to be released, but Google's email service has also appeared at the same time, clearly not wanting YueDong to have all the glory.

"I swear, once Gmail is released, all other email products on the market will be utterly crushed." This confident and domineering statement echoed in an office at Google's headquarters in Mountain View.

In Mountain View, Ernst left Motion Games and went to Google headquarters.

The Gmail development team is located in the northwest corner of the second floor.

There are no fancy decorations here, only rows of neat computers and a group of hardworking engineers. The air seems to be filled with the unique aroma of code and coffee.

Igor Patterson, the head of Google Mail's development, was barely able to contain his excitement as he demonstrated the first official version of Google Mail to Ernst and others.

His eyes shone with pride, his admiration for the email system evident in every gesture and word, brimming with pride in his team's achievement.

"I used to think that the best email service was Hotmail, and that no one could surpass it. But now I have to admit that I was short-sighted. A much greater email service has been born at Google." Igor Patterson's voice trembled slightly, a sign of extreme excitement.

As he operated the computer, he introduced the various functions of Gmail to everyone.

"Putting everything else aside, the fact that it's free and allows you to check your emails anytime, anywhere absolutely blows away all other products except Hotmail, not to mention that our Gmail is much more powerful than Hotmail in terms of features."

Indeed, a free trial and the ability to check your emails anytime, anywhere—these are such normal features in later generations, but in this primitive era of the Internet, only Hotmail on the market has implemented this function.

Hotmail is more commonly known as Microsoft's email product.

But this product wasn't developed by Microsoft; it was purchased by Microsoft.

Last July, two hardware engineers who had previously worked at Apple released this internet product, which differed from all other email services on the market in that it was free and allowed users to log in anytime, anywhere.

Before Hotmail was introduced, email services were all paid services.

Furthermore, in order to maximize the promotion of the service, an email software can only be logged in on one computer. Once a user changes devices, they cannot check their emails, causing great inconvenience to their work and life.

However, the emergence of Hotmail completely changed this situation.

It's not only free to users, but more importantly, it can be logged in via a browser. Even when users are traveling, as long as they have an internet connection, they can log in to their email anytime, anywhere to check their messages.

Thanks to these two revolutionary innovations, Hotmail's user base skyrocketed to nearly three million in just over six months after its launch.

In today's internet environment, this number is undoubtedly an astonishing speed.

When Ernst first proposed creating a free email service, many people within Google felt it was a copy of Hotmail's model with little innovation, and some even privately discussed that it wasn't a good choice.

But when Ernst revealed more of his ideas, he once again astonished Google's top engineers. As they listened to Ernst's novel concepts and technological directions, their initial skepticism gradually gave way to admiration.

"Ernst, no wonder Sergei said you're the best product development manager in the world. I used to have some doubts, but now I'm completely convinced," Igor Patterson exclaimed sincerely, his tone filled with admiration.

"You actually thought of combining sharing technology into email and even improved the transmission technology."

Ernst's proposed Google Mail is an upgrade of Hotmail, mainly in three aspects.

The first is storage space. Gmail not only increases storage space to 10MB, just like Hotmail, but also innovatively adds the option to expand storage space for a fee.

Compared to those paid email services on the market that only offer 2MB of storage, this represents a huge improvement in storage capacity.

However, in Igor Patterson's view, this wasn't the most crucial point, nor did it present much technical difficulty. What truly impressed him about Ernst were the proposals for the other two technologies.

One is the transmission technology. The addition of large text transfer capabilities has greatly enhanced the office functionality of Gmail.

Igor Patterson even boldly believes that Google Mail will disrupt an industry, and traditional communication methods such as telegrams and faxes may eventually disappear from the stage of history.

Compared to cumbersome telegrams and faxes, email is undoubtedly much more convenient and faster.

The ease with which a large document can be sent via Gmail to another computer's email address and then printed out has led Igor Patterson to imagine the enormous impact it will have on the business world.

He could almost see countless corporate employees abandoning traditional communication devices and turning to Gmail.

The second point is sharing technology. This sharing isn't the same as the shared goods concept like bike-sharing, but rather the sharing of information.

For example, if a team creates a spreadsheet together, everyone can enter information into the spreadsheet and share it in real time, eliminating the need to painstakingly send updated spreadsheet content one by one.

This can undoubtedly greatly simplify work processes and improve work efficiency for company offices, especially for large corporations with many employees.

This technology became very common in later generations, and even in this era it is not considered a particularly advanced technology, but it is definitely a forward-thinking and great innovation.

After Ernst proposed the idea, the Gmail team, with their strong technical capabilities, overcame the technical difficulties in less than a month and perfectly integrated the feature into Gmail.

Igor Patterson skillfully demonstrated the various functions of Gmail, performing each operation with precision and fluency.

Ernst and the Google executives stood quietly behind him, their eyes fixed on the computer screen. They showed no signs of impatience despite the long wait for the large file transfer demonstration; instead, they were all beaming with anticipation.

They all knew that this product would once again amaze the world, and could very well break the current fragmented competition in the email market, achieving unification of the email industry.

At that time, Google's valuation will inevitably skyrocket, and their net worth will also increase accordingly, achieving a double leap in wealth and career.

Jason glanced at his cousin Ernst with curiosity, his eyes full of inquiry, and asked, "So when you first decided to make Gmail free, you already had a profit model in mind, right?"

The cost of email can be much higher than the cost of services such as search engines.

So when Ernst first proposed making Google Mail free, Jason Arlington was the first to stand up and oppose it.

Although Google has raised a lot of money through financing and has hundreds of millions of dollars of Wall Street funds sitting on its books, it's not good to waste money like this by making a product that's purely a money-losing venture.

Unlike portal websites and browsers, email is not something users open and check frequently.

Software can increase its revenue through Google, but email can hardly do the same because users usually open their emails with a clear purpose: to view and send emails, and rarely pay attention to Google content.

But now the situation is completely different. Sharing services require a membership to access. Although the enterprise version only costs $998 a year, there are many companies that need this feature. Over time, this will amount to a considerable amount of revenue.

Another feature is large file transfer. This feature is free, but users must have enough storage space to hold the large file before using it.

This means users will need to expand their storage space and renew their subscriptions, which could be another potential revenue stream.

"These are all temporary; they will definitely become completely free in the future," Ernst replied calmly.

When Ernst proposed the sharing technology and the large text transfer technology, he intended to use the time difference in technology to generate revenue from these two features and further inflate Google's valuation.

However, when the time is right, or when a strong competitor emerges in the market and Gmail is threatened, Ernst will decisively implement a decision to make it completely free or significantly reduce the cost in order to consolidate Gmail's position in the market.

"Why?" Sergei asked, puzzled. He frowned and looked at Ernst with a questioning expression. "If it's free, then Google Mail will really become a burden for Google. It's neither useful nor worth abandoning, and it will continue to consume company resources."

Ernst shifted his gaze from Igor Patterson's computer to Sergei's face. "You need to remember one thing: the most important thing on the Internet is not profit, but traffic and the number of users."

In Ernst's view, revenue and concepts were not the most crucial factors in the early stages of internet development, as later practice has shown.

Whoever has more internet users will dominate the market and become its darling.

"Google Mail may become a money-losing product in the future, but have you ever thought about what would happen if all the internet users in the world used this product?" Ernst's voice was not loud, but it exploded in everyone's ears like thunder.

"Have you thought about what it would mean if we used Gmail to drive traffic to Google's future new products?" he continued, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.

"Regardless of whether these people will use our new product, at least from the very beginning, we can let all internet users know that this product exists."

As Ernst finished speaking, a collective gasp of breath immediately filled the air around him.

All the executives stood there, speechless for a long time.

They tried hard to imagine the scene Ernst described, but they couldn't even fathom what it would actually be like.

After a long pause, Marketing Director Marissa Mayer was the first to come to her senses. She took a deep breath and uttered two words: "Entrance."

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Ernst smiled to himself, thinking to himself, "No wonder he's a marketing guy, his mind works so fast."

"We can use Google search to drive traffic to other products, but who can guarantee that everyone will use Google search?"

"So we need to control more entry points. You don't have to use Google Search, you don't have to use Gmail, but as long as you use a Google product, you will become our potential customer."

In the world of the internet, traffic is king. And where does traffic come from? It comes from various entry points, of course.

Gmail is one of the super traffic portals that Ernst meticulously created for Google.

It may be a money-losing proposition, but its strategic value is immeasurable.

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