In terms of pure ability, Jimmy Wells and Larry Sanger satisfy Zhou Xin the most.
Regarding the setting of user thresholds, Zhou Xin just proposed an idea, and they were able to give a specific implementation plan, and he could not find too many faults in terms of feasibility and completeness of the plan.
Users register for the exam, and after passing the exam, they will only have permission to answer questions on this topic.
For example, if Rex passes the exam, he can only answer computer-related questions, and his right to ask questions is completely open.
At the same time, for other fields, such as history, politics, and economics, Rex has an opportunity to answer once a day, and he can choose any section.
If you rank first in the number of votes for more than three times in a row, you will be permanently unlocked.
In other words, the user registration test is only the first threshold, and there will be other thresholds in the future if you want to have more permissions.
At that time, Quora's internal operations team had a fierce dispute over whether to set such a strict threshold, because this had never happened before, and no Internet company had ever done this.
“Why can’t we give all users permission to ask questions?”
"Because there are not enough respondents, if everyone can ask questions, the questions will distract the user. There are 50,000 questions every day and only 5,000 respondents, and the user experience will plummet."
“Why can’t users pass one exam and be qualified to answer all sections?”
“The user has only proven his ability in this field, and has not proven his ability in other fields. We give him an opportunity to answer once a day, which not only allows him to prove himself, but also motivates users to answer questions.
This is a set of mechanisms to stimulate user activity. "
"Users who were invited in the early stage have no such restrictions at all. On the contrary, users who have passed the high-threshold exam face various restrictions. Is this unfair to them?"
“So we will introduce a series of supporting mechanisms to reward users who pass high-threshold exams.
Through these supporting reward mechanisms, previous test users can even be encouraged to take the exam. "
In the end, Zhou Xin decided to just do it. If the threshold is set high, it can be slowly lowered later, but if the threshold is set too low, it is almost impossible to raise it later.
Back at Yahoo, Jerry Yang also agreed with Kevin's view. Zhou Xin lost himself in a series of successes. This kind of threshold setting method is directly opposed to users.
After acquiring GeoCities, Yahoo took a series of measures against GeoCities. In Jerry Yang's view, they were far less egregious than Quora's user registration exam.
They just increased the number of ads and limited the page size. Users boycotted GeoCities on a large scale. Quora directly cut off most of the functions that users can use, which is not the same level at all.
Jerry Yang also believes that as long as Yahoo's knowledge question and answer community is launched, it can attract all the users who can't wait to cultivate the market that Quora has cultivated.
The biggest opponent Quora faces is Yahoo, which has traffic portals, abundant cash flow and personnel, while NewPay's biggest opponent is PayPal's predecessor, Confinity.
Because NewPay's valuation is too high, with a valuation of one billion US dollars, 10% of the shares is equivalent to 100 million US dollars, and the voting rights have also been castrated.
This price was acceptable only to Wall Street, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan each subscribing to 5%.
This also led Deutsche Bank and Nokia Investment Fund to realize the value of the electronic payment field. NewPay was valued at US$1 billion in the angel round, so it is not unacceptable for Confinity to invest US$3 million.
Therefore, Deutsche Bank and Nokia Investment Fund finally decided to invest in Confinity. Originally, the two investment institutions valued Confinity at US$9 million, and they jointly invested US$3.5 million.
After they restarted negotiations, Peter Thiel quickly realized that the other party's investment in NewPay was definitely not going well, and then used his contacts to learn that NewPay's valuation was US$1 billion.
“NewPay’s valuation is US$1 billion. The only difference between Confinity and NewPay is users, and NewPay’s cost of acquiring one million users is only US$20 million.
Our valuation is $20 million. "
"Peter! Are you crazy! Confinity currently only has products for handheld computers. This is a very niche field, and the number of owners of handheld computers is far less than that of computers.
Regarding the so-called information security technology, we cannot judge whether, as you said, your technology is on par with NewPay. This is something that cannot be falsified or confirmed.
I admit that we are willing to reinvest in PayPal because NewPay's valuation is too high and we think PayPal has the same potential.
But this does not mean that we can accept your low price. "
Because Peter Thiel is also in a hurry, they need funds to expand to recruit people, and after recruiting people, accelerate the development of computer-side payment software.
Therefore, after two rounds of negotiations between the three parties, Nokia Investment Fund and Deutsche Bank invested US$5 million in Confinity at a valuation of US$15 million.
Regarding the transfer, Confinity held a press conference in Silicon Valley and also invited Zhou Xin to participate.
At this time, the management frameworks of most of Zhou Xin's companies have been established, so he has the energy to spend more time in Berkeley. He spends three to four days in Corey Hall almost every week. Berkeley's electrical engineering and Laboratory 307 in Corey Hall of the Department of Computer Science.
This morning, Zhou Xin checked his email in the 307 laboratory, and most of the work items were sent to him via email.
"Invitation letter?" Zhou Xin thought to himself, "An electronic payment company called Confinity invited me to attend their press conference.
Peter Thiel, this name reminds me a bit. Isn’t he the founder of Paypal? Is it because I came to this time and space that they didn’t start Paypal but Confinity? "
To Chinese people, Peter Thiel is better known as an investor in Facebook. He invested US$500,000 in Facebook in the angel round and obtained 10.2% of the shares.
This is also the first external investment Facebook has received.
Zhou Xin had an impression of this name when he read the history of Silicon Valley, and electronic payment is the company he is most concerned about in the industry now, and Confinity, whether it is Paypal or not, is his strong competitor.
Therefore, Zhou Xin still plans to go to their press conference. The conference venue is in Palo Alto, which is very close to Berkeley, about a sixty-kilometer drive away.
"Newman, I'm Peter Thiel and welcome to Confinity's press conference.
We are also an electronic payment company. After NewPay's great success in the electronic payment field, this field has received widespread attention from investment institutions.
It is precisely because of this that Confinity can successfully obtain external investment. "
