readease Chapter 19 First High-Level Meeting
Chapter 19 First High-Level Meeting
On August 17, 1996, Google held its first high-level meeting, which was of great historical significance, in a four-story white building in Mountain View.
The fourth floor of the office building is where Google's meeting rooms are located. In addition to the meeting rooms, the offices of senior executives are also located on this floor.
The second and third floors are the battlefields of laborers, with desks neatly arranged one by one.
The first floor has been transformed into a leisure and entertainment area, complete with a reception area, a canteen, a water bar, and even a playroom and a rest area.
This configuration is unique in the current internet landscape.
"Everyone!" Ernst sat in his chair, the metal legs scraping against the floor. "Today is the first day Google is officially established, but I see the company ringing the bell on Nasdaq a few years later."
"The internet industry is developing rapidly, and it is definitely a promising industry. The current market seems like a mess to me, but we will change all of that."
Looking around at the assembled executives, his tone was full of confidence and certainty: "And all of you here will achieve both fame and fortune as Google becomes a global force in the internet industry. Believe me, choosing Google will be the best decision you've ever made in your lives."
Applause is a must, whether it's genuine or not. At this moment, we need to affirm each other and accept Ernst's offer.
"Let's all share our thoughts on how to develop our product next and what our future plans are."
Everyone looked at each other, none of them rushing to speak. Ernst finally focused his attention on Larry Page, after all, the product was the core, and everything should be based on the product.
Larry Page appeared somewhat reserved, or perhaps shy, clearly not yet fully adapted to his new role, but he wasn't intimidated.
"The current internet industry already has some search engines, such as AltaVista and Excite, but they still have considerable room for improvement in terms of the relevance of search results and user experience."
"Take AltaVista for example. Since it was adopted by Yahoo this year, AltaVista has become completely Yahoo-like. It's more like a category website in the form of a search engine than a search engine."
In this day and age, AltaVista's search engine is already very comprehensive in terms of functionality, with a database of over 1 million web documents and a relatively fast update speed.
AltaVista also employs specialized filtering technology, allowing users to restrict search results from specific regions. While this is somewhat cumbersome, it is currently the most accurate search engine available.
Unfortunately, Yahoo did not require AltaVista to improve upon its practices and become a Yahoo supplier. AltaVista, having made money, began to live a comfortable but unfulfilling life.
There were no requirements from above, so I just went along with it.
"As for Excite, although it uses full-text search technology, the problem remains the same: convenience and accuracy are the biggest issues, and also Google's biggest advantage."
Larry Page then analyzed many of Excite's shortcomings and deficiencies, as he clearly had a better understanding of this Stanford-created project.
Sergey Brin picked up where he left off, saying, "Google's technological advantage lies in its innovative application of link analysis, which will certainly allow Google to stand out from its many competitors."
"However, we must remain vigilant at all times. Market competition is constantly changing. We have an advantage in technology, but it is not difficult for our competitors to imitate us. New competitors may emerge at any time."
"Therefore, we must attach great importance to technological research and development, and build a technological moat for Google in advance so that competitors will find it difficult to follow up, and we can also consolidate Google's technological position in the search engine field and strive for more market share."
"Another issue is Google's market development model. I believe Google cannot rely solely on licensing its search engine technology to other websites or businesses to gain market share and generate profits."
"Why?" Ernst asked.
This business model is not uncommon in the current search engine industry; it is entirely based on selling technology or services to generate profits.
Sergey Brin shook his head. "While simple technology licensing can bring short-term revenue, it may limit Google's long-term development. Google should build its own independent search platform to provide services directly to users. This would not only allow for better control over the user experience but also enable the accumulation of a large amount of user data, laying the foundation for future product innovation and business expansion."
Indeed, success is not a matter of luck. Before Google, all search engines were the same: they served businesses and provided search technology for portal websites.
Google, however, did the opposite and built its own search platform.
This laid a solid foundation for Google's future business empire.
"But there's a problem with doing this, and that's funding."
Jason interrupted their conversation, saying, "Don't think that being a CFO just means doing accounting all day and not having to worry about anything else."
In the internet industry, a CFO can express their opinion on any finance-related topic.
An independent search platform means that it is impossible to achieve short-term profitability because it requires more manpower and capital investment, and the company will always be in a state of deficit.
Ernst gave Brin his support: "I agree with Sergey's idea. Money is not a problem. At least until Google has fully grown, Google will not have to worry about funding."
Despite his lack of funds, Ernst was not intimidated at all.
One reason is that it knew Google's history; it soared to great heights in its first year, allowing Ernst to begin Google's Series A funding round.
Secondly, is there anyone who understands Google's profit model better than him?
In the self-managed, bidding-based Google Ads auction, advertisers can pay based on results, meaning they pay for each click.
At most, they can survive for a year. Even without further funding, Ernst believes that Google's market share will be substantial by then, and it will be able to generate commercial profits.
Sergey had no idea that Ernst was short of money at the moment, and continued, "There's also the issue of the company's organizational structure and talent recruitment. As the business gradually develops, Google needs to establish a more complete organizational structure to ensure the efficient operation of various tasks."
"Talent reserves also need to keep up. Google can't just focus on search business. We can't just cram engineers when we need them. We don't have enough talent right now."
Google will definitely develop other businesses, as Ernst mentioned before.
How many more employees do you think you need?
Despite Ernst's personal visit to Stanford, Google currently only has 27 employees, including the five present here.
In hiring, Ernst's principle is "better to have none than to have the worst," recruiting only the most outstanding engineers and professionals because technological innovation is Google's core competitive advantage. Only by gathering top talent can the company continue to move forward.
"I think there should be at least 30 people. There can be fewer engineers, mainly product operations, marketing and other key departments. We can't let senior Marissa be a lone commander."
Marissa was also a Stanford graduate. It was through Professor Snape's introduction that Ernst met Marissa's advisor and learned about this person.
This illustrates the importance of connections; otherwise, Snape wouldn't have even bothered to speak well of Google, let alone introduce it.
Ernst bears undeniable responsibility for the current state of the marketing department. When he arrived at Stanford, he was only focused on programmers and completely neglected other talent.
"It's true that junior knows how to think of senior," she said, her lips parting slightly, before giving Ernst a charmingly disdainful look.
Don't get me wrong, Marissa has a very loving family. This charm isn't deliberate; it's something that comes naturally to her.
"Tell me your thoughts."
Since Marissa was mentioned, Ernst wanted to know her plans for the future.
The other party was clearly prepared, taking out a large stack of papers from their work bag and handing one to each person.
Ernst took it and opened it, finding it filled with countless blue cuboids, in various shades of blue, including dark and light blue.
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't we decide before that Google would use blue for its borders? Now I want you to find the most suitable blue. There are a hundred shades of blue here, and I need you to look at each blue for twenty minutes and find the one that you think is the most comfortable and eye-friendly."
"Making it more comfortable for customers to use is also a very important marketing task."
"As for the work afterward, let's wait until we recruit people."
Ernst was speechless for a moment. One hundred shades of blue, each for twenty minutes, would take 33 hours to look at without doing anything.
"Um, well, you all need to cooperate well with Director Marissa, so I won't accompany you. After all, I still need to go out and find funding for Google."
Ernst stood up. "That's all for today."
We've pretty much finished discussing the important matters. If we don't run now, when will we? Are we really going to stay and become slaves?