Chapter 59

After Li Mu's rebirth, it was rare to encounter someone like Kong Lingyu, who had a sufficient understanding of the internet and was highly optimistic about its future prospects.

After a thorough conversation, Li Mu still had a very positive view of Kong Lingyu, and the shock Kong Lingyu felt towards Li Mu was self-evident. Li Mu's profound understanding of the internet was such that even the slightest bit of information he inadvertently revealed was hard for Kong Lingyu to comprehend.

For example, Li Mu said that Yi Ting should try to provide basic cloud listening services, but Kong Lingyu didn't understand what cloud listening was.

But for Li Mu, the concept of cloud storage was already something that had been thoroughly explored in the future internet. No matter how complex it got, it essentially involved transferring data that should have been stored locally to cloud servers; and handling tasks that should have been resolved locally on cloud servers.

The simplest form of cloud listening, in essence, was an online listening list. In the future, the backend of the website would store a user-defined listening list for each registered user. No matter how the user changed their device, as long as they logged in, they could open their favorite playlist.

Ten years later, any website without this feature would be criticized, but at the moment, apart from online games and instant messaging software, no one else had this service. This was because developers had not yet popularized the concept of serving users.

After an hour of discussion, Kong Lingyu also talked about his own website. He saw the huge traffic that Hao123 had gathered and felt the business opportunities it contained, so he created something similar. However, the problem now was that while the technology for a navigation website was simple and the server requirements were not high, promotion was a big issue.

He had been working on it for half a year, but the number of daily unique visitors was still less than 3,000, which was pitifully low.

Li Mu did not have a high opinion of the future of navigation websites. Hao123 was the strongest among navigation websites, but the price at which it was eventually sold to Baidu was only in the tens of millions. In the future, many portal websites and software companies would use their traffic and installation base to promote their own navigation websites. This kind of service had a low cost and a low barrier to entry. Although it had a lot of traffic, it lacked true user stickiness and the potential to convert users into revenue. The main source of income in the future would be advertising.

Moreover, after Baidu acquired Hao123, it continued to support Hao123 with its own massive traffic, making it a win-win situation for both. If Baidu had been willing to put some effort into operating a similar website itself, the market for navigation websites might have been very different, unable to form a strong industrial chain.

However, the concept of a music portal was much more meaningful than a navigation website.

Li Mu knew about numerous huge acquisitions and mergers in the future internet domain, all of which had one characteristic: the party providing the funds often acquired or merged with companies in areas where they were weak or lacked presence, with the aim of making their ecosystem complete and not giving competitors a chance.

For example, Tencent invested in Didi Chuxing, and Alibaba invested in Kuaidi Dache, leading to a series of subsidy wars. Behind these wars, both sides aimed to strengthen their market share in mobile payments.

For example, after Alibaba entered the entertainment industry, it acquired Youku Tudou to fill the gap in online video.

For example, Baidu acquired 91 Assistant to make up for its shortcomings in mobile wireless technology.

The transaction prices for these acquisitions were all in the hundreds of millions, and in US dollars.

With the future surge in online listening and MP3 download demand, giants would certainly focus on this market. If Yi Ting became a leader in this field at that time, it would be very significant, and its valuation would naturally be high.

Li Mu did not negate Kong Lingyu's navigation website but reached an agreement with him. On the basis of not affecting the progress of the Yi Ting project, Kong Lingyu could continue to operate his own project and even use some of Yi Ting's future team resources. If Kong Lingyu ever wanted to sell his navigation website, Li Mu would consider acquiring it first.

As for Kong Lingyu's salary, it was initially set at 3,000 yuan per month, with a two-month probationary period during which the salary would remain unchanged. After passing the probationary period, Li Mu would arrange for a human resources company to provide social security for him.

Kong Lingyu knew that Li Mu was an individual entrepreneur without a company, so he had no objections. The salary Li Mu offered was roughly the same as what he earned at Yahoo, but since this was in Jinling, the cost of living was lower than in Yanjing, so he was very satisfied with the salary.

After they agreed, Li Mu invited him to have lunch together and then asked him to help interview other candidates in the afternoon.

Li Mu needed Kong Lingyu to be a leader. In the future, he could only control Yi Ting in broad terms, but the specific details would need to be implemented by Kong Lingyu.

In the afternoon, they interviewed another web developer, a young man in his early twenties who had just graduated from university. After a conversation and some professional knowledge tests, Li Mu and Kong Lingyu felt that the young man was somewhat overambitious.

The basic server technology was fine, and the graphic designer was a female graduate from Jinling University with no work experience, but she seemed very down-to-earth and had her own understanding of the internet.

After discussing, Li Mu and Kong Lingyu decided to hire the server technician and the graphic designer first. As for the web developer, they would let Kong Lingyu recruit slowly, as Li Mu didn't have time to stay in Jinling any longer.

Li Mu left the specific development requirements for Yi Ting to Kong Lingyu, as well as the procurement of office computers and other facilities. Li Mu had no time or energy, so he had to make the best use of Kong Lingyu's efforts. As for whether he was trustworthy, Li Mu didn't really care; since they got along so well, he decided to trust him completely.

Because he hadn't registered a company, Li Mu didn't hire a part-time accounting firm. Instead, he entrusted the support issues to Ye Tianming.

Ye Tianming was very helpful. He called in an accountant from his father's company to handle all the expenses for the office, including the salaries of Kong Lingyu and other employees, as well as daily purchases and reimbursements. If Kong Lingyu needed to add office equipment, he just needed to give a heads-up.

As for the funds needed to maintain the project, Ye Tianming took full responsibility.

"You don't need to worry about this. We four have already promised to help you. You help us, and we will provide the money and effort to run this business."

Given that there were others present, Ye Tianming didn't explicitly say what Li Mu was helping with.

Li Mu, however, knew exactly what it was. They had indeed reached this agreement. Since that was the case, he didn't want to be polite with them. After all, he didn't have much money, and the cost of opening a specialty store would probably be around 500,000 yuan, leaving him with little money.

Before Li Mu left, the four people who had planned the project together contributed another 200,000 yuan. This 200,000 yuan was not given to Li Mu but was directly deposited into an account dedicated to the Yi Ting project. If it was not enough, the four would contribute more.

By now, Zhang Kexuan and the other three had already contributed 380,000 yuan, which was a significant amount, but it wasn't much for them. However, Li Mu had a rough idea that their 200,000 yuan was enough to get Yi Ting started. As for future costs, he didn't plan to continue burdening them. Once the Legend was launched in September, he would have a steady income, which would be enough to support Yi Ting.

After settling the matters in Jinling, Li Mu bought a train ticket back to Haizhou at 7 PM. Zhang Kexuan and the other three insisted on treating Li Mu to a farewell dinner, but during the dinner, Li Mu quietly paid the bill.

Zhang Kexuan was very unhappy with Li Mu's action, and the other three also complained. In their view, Jinling was their home turf, and it was embarrassing for Li Mu to spend money in Jinling with them around.

Li Mu, however, smiled and said, "Just consider it as my early celebration for your success. Simple Plan will definitely win the provincial championship and go to Yanjing for the final!"

Zhang Kexuan nodded. When it came to the competition, he was more passionate than anyone. He stood up, full of enthusiasm, and said, "Simple Plan's goal is the national championship! As long as Brother Mu is here, the championship is guaranteed!"

The other three cheered. In his excitement, Zhang Kexuan asked Li Mu, "Brother Mu, if we win the provincial championship, we need two more songs. Do you have them ready for us?"

"Ready," Li Mu smiled. "It's up to you."

"Can we hear them first?"

All four were full of anticipation. What other good songs Li Mu could give them was their greatest concern.

At this moment, Li Mu shook his head seriously. "It wouldn't be interesting if you knew now. You need to complete your current task to unlock the next song. After I return to Haizhou, practice well. You must win first place in the semi-finals tomorrow night!"