Reborn in 1999: Starting as a black marketeer

"You'll be going to Moscow in a little over a month. Wow, time really flies."

Song Yi said with a hint of sadness.

Wang Feiyang picked up the freshly squeezed juice next to him and poured her a glass, smiling as he asked, "Why are you suddenly so sentimental?"

"You probably won't be coming back much for the next few years, and who knows when we'll meet again?" Song Yi looked straight at Wang Feiyang and asked earnestly.

"It's hard to say right now, but even if I come back, I won't stay long. While I'm still young, I'd really be doing myself a disservice if I didn't make the most of it."

Wang Feiyang almost said "I'm sorry for being reborn," but luckily he realized his mistake in time.

Song Yi didn't notice anything amiss. With a sweet smile, she picked up lamb rolls from the hot pot for Wang Feiyang and said, "Does a big city like Moscow mean a bigger stage for you? We didn't interact much in high school, but over this time, I've always felt that you're the kind of boy who's unwilling to settle for mediocrity. There's a poem that goes something like, 'No one supports my lofty ambitions, I will tread the snow to the mountain peak myself!'"

Wang Feiyang smiled and shook his head, "I don't have such big ambitions, but the new millennium is just around the corner, and the Internet is rapidly becoming more widespread around the world. A brand new era is beginning!"

Some say that our generation was born at the wrong time. When we took the college entrance exam, college diplomas were worthless, and the government no longer guaranteed job placement after graduation.

But I don't think so. On the contrary, I think we are lucky to have caught a good time because there are opportunities everywhere now, and you can achieve upward mobility by just grabbing one!

The old days, where you were assigned to a unit after graduating from university and could see your life thirty years from now at a glance, were the most boring things.

Actually, although I didn't do well on the college entrance exam, I was still admitted to a junior college. My family's initial idea was for me to go to junior college first, then transfer to a four-year university, and then use connections to arrange a job after graduation.

But I don't want that. I'd rather go to a foreign land and explore the world. The outside world is more exciting, and wouldn't it be a waste to live this life if I didn't go and see it?

Because he was already quite familiar with Song Yi, Wang Feiyang unusually launched into a long speech, revealing a few of his thoughts.

Song Yi looked at Wang Feiyang with bright eyes. She felt that Wang Feiyang was most charming at this moment. A good man should have ambitions beyond his hometown!

After Wang Feiyang finished speaking, she said, "Actually, I'm quite envious of you..."

Wang Feiyang quickly waved his hand, "Don't joke around, what are you envious of? Are you envious that I failed the college entrance exam?"

"Wait until I finish speaking!" Song Yi said, feigning anger.

Then she added, "Of course I envy you for being able to go out and see the world while you're young. I've inquired around, and our school has some opportunities for international exchange every year, allowing students to go abroad for a year during their sophomore or junior year. I'll see if I can try to get one then."

"If you don't want to go abroad for graduate school after you graduate from university, that's fine too. Quite a few graduates from your school go abroad every year," Wang Feiyang said casually.

The University of International Business and Economics is also a key university. Although it can't compare to Tsinghua, Peking University, or the top five universities in China, studying abroad shouldn't be too difficult.

"That's four years from now! I want it to be sooner..." Song Yi emphasized.

Wang Feiyang didn't understand the meaning behind her words.

However, he could sense that Song Yi's gaze towards him had been a little strange lately. You can't hide the look in someone's eyes when they like them, and he was afraid that this girl might impulsively confess her feelings to him.

Should I agree or refuse at that time...?

…………

As Wang Feiyang said, the internet is becoming more and more widespread. In the short two months he has been training there, three new internet cafes have opened near the University of International Business and Economics!

With competition among internet cafes, internet access prices have started to drop, and now it only costs four yuan per hour.

If I weren't going abroad for a few years, opening an internet cafe in China would be a good business. Business licenses are easy to obtain, and when internet cafes really take off in two years, I could earn two or three hundred thousand yuan just by transferring a business license!

Wang Feiyang now has two friends on OICQ: Song Yi and Su Ying.

However, he didn't chat with Su Ying online much, because he would log off quickly after logging on once in a while, and he guessed that Su Ying did the same. Their avatars were never lit up at the same time, and they would only leave messages to greet each other from time to time.

Su Ying felt that this was good enough, because it made her feel that she and Wang Feiyang had not lost contact. Whenever she wanted to say something, she could leave a message for Wang Feiyang to see, which was much better than before when she didn't know where to find him.

This slim penguin app is actually quite convenient!

OICQ was launched in February of this year. Due to its convenient features and user-friendliness for Chinese users, its user base has grown explosively. In less than a year, the number of registered users has reached the millions!

Don't think this number is not high, because in June of 98, the number of Internet users in China had just exceeded one million, and even by the end of 99, the number of Internet users in the country had not yet reached nine million.

However, compared to the rapid increase in the number of users, Tencent is actually not doing well, and is even close to the point of not being able to make ends meet!

Tencent's initial registered capital was only 500,000 yuan, which was pooled together by the five founders. When the number of users grew faster than expected after OICQ was launched, they were both happy and worried.

They didn't intend to operate this themselves when they developed it; it was just a project they were bidding for. They just lost the bid, so they had to try operating it themselves.

With the surge in the number of users, the corresponding costs of data center rental and bandwidth have also skyrocketed!

The company's founders had no choice but to grit their teeth and scrape together another 500,000 yuan to increase the company's equity to one million yuan. Then, in order to reduce operating costs, the salaries of the shareholders and executives were all halved.

Actually, their wages weren't high to begin with, only one or two thousand yuan a month...

Even so, they still couldn't withstand the soaring operating expenses, so after a few words, they decided to just sell the company!

So they started going around "promoting" their company, including to their "landlord," the well-known SEG Group in Pengcheng.

Later, after Tencent grew into the largest internet giant in China, someone who had served as the vice president of SEG Group talked about this in an interview, saying that Mr. Ma had approached their group several times, but they did not invest because at that time no one was optimistic about OICQ's prospects!

With ICQ in the lead and MSN in the back, how could Tencent possibly compete? Moreover, the so-called million registered users figure is not very valuable, as many of them are duplicates.

Moreover, this kind of instant messaging software hasn't found a way to monetize its traffic yet, and nobody knows how to make money from it!

Even if Microsoft created MSN, it wasn't for profit; it was merely a supplement to their existing business.