On November 30, 1994, according to IDC statistics, the number of registered Internet users and advertising revenue of GPIC surpassed AOL. The overall ranking surpassed AOL for the first time, and was promoted to the first among Internet companies in the United States, with AOL ranking second.
On December 22, as global investment institutions and individual investors were optimistic about the development prospects of gpic, they finally successfully issued 300 million shares at a price-earnings ratio of 6.0 times and raised US$189.1 million, excluding 3% underwriting fees.
On Thursday, January 199, gpic was listed on Nasdaq and closed at $10.18, an increase of $3.68, or nearly 7%.
On January 6, gpic launched a monthly Internet subscription service of US$21.88, changing the practice of charging by the hour and ushering in the always-on Internet era.
After listing, it plans to invest another US$2 billion to complete the goal of establishing branches and base stations in 0 states and Washington, DC, two years ahead of schedule, recruit 6,000 employees, continue to expand its database, and purchase a large number of copyrights for music, movies, and books. Meet the needs of 60 million Americans who are online at the same time.
100 million US dollars of idle funds were entrusted to Atic Investment for two years to invest in Nasdaq and the New York Stock Market and purchase Internet technology stocks and blue chip stocks.
On June 8, 1999, gpic used the web server pe6.0 to launch an online book selling business and an online subscription model to carry out music and movie DVD rental business. It will use a branch located in the United States and with the help of ups, in the United States Take the lead in launching e-commerce.
On the same day, gpic cooperated with Citibank to launch the gpicvisa card, the first online credit card in the United States. When people hold this online credit card, shopping and subscription will become more convenient.
Last year, gpic purchased a large number of music, movie and book copyrights at discounted prices, which are now put to use.
One year later, pengtal (pt 3.0), which supports functions such as chatting, sending messages, and transferring files on the i, has become very popular, with more than 30 million registered users.
Advertisers flocked to the site.
On June 26, 1996, AOL cooperated with First National Bank of the United States to launch the Aolvisa card, the second online credit card in the United States.
In November 1997, Vol's plan to acquire Hotmail was blocked by the wealthy Microsoft, and the two powers fought. In December, Microsoft successfully acquired it with a huge investment of 100 million US dollars.
In his previous life, Sun Jian didn’t know how much money Microsoft spent to acquire it?
As the second largest shareholder of Hotmail, Wukong Angel Investment Foundation has kept its promise not to interfere in the company's operation and management and has not interfered with it. Hotmail is just an investment project for i. The purpose of investing in it's original company is to reap investment income, not to Block competitors.
Hotmail can flourish in the hands of Microsoft. This has been proven in previous lives. Microsoft did not have the ability to monopolize the free email market in previous lives. Pengmailpmail has the first-mover advantage and has become the leader in the free email market. There is another strong competition. Opponents, Liu Xiaokun and Ye Jin's team had to work hard to upgrade pmail.0, 6.0... The goal was to update faster and more conveniently.
The reborn Sun Jian did not dare to underestimate Microsoft, which had strong technical strength. Ordinary people could not understand Sun Jian's good intentions.
Hotmail was founded in Silicon Valley in November 1999 by Jacsmith and Sabeerbhatia. On March 27, 1996, Hotmail registered a domain name on the Internet and became independent in the United States on July 4, 1996. It started commercial operations on 19th, and what is known as the world’s second free email service provider was born.
Shabir Bhatia graduated from Stanford University with a major in electrical engineering. After joining Apple Computer, in order to facilitate contact with his colleague Jack Smith but prevent being discovered by his boss, Badia germinated to develop a new type of mail while using pmail. His idea was finally put into action based on the email communication model.
Although Liu Xiaokun and Ye Jin led the team to successfully develop the free email service pmail1.0 in 1991, which became an instant success, Sun Jian did not forget hotmail. Jack Smith and Shabir Bhatia thought of it when they planned to raise A round of financing for hotmail company. After learning about the Wukong Angel Investment Fund, i finally used US$2 million to acquire 40% of Hotmail's equity. I invested another US$10 million in Series B financing and continued to hold 40% of Hotmail's equity.
After i cooperated with Microsoft and Hotmail to complete the equity handover, I received an after-tax investment income of US$180 million.
In August 1999, Microsoft launched msnmietor, a Microsoft network online service, becoming a competitor of gpic and aol.
On March 2, 1996, the number of users using MSN dial-up access to the Internet in the United States exceeded 1 million. In December 1997, Microsoft integrated the email service company Hotmail, together with Hotmail's 6 million users, into the MSN website.
msn then integrated the passport service that provides the function of "logging in to multiple websites at one time".
Microsoft has deep pockets, responds quickly to the Internet, and is ruthless. Through its free model, its Internet business is also developing rapidly.
"Mr. Weisger, happy to work with you!"
"Mr. Case, happy to work with you!"
On March 1, 1998, AOL CEO Keith and Mirabilis CEO Visig signed an agreement for AOL to fully acquire Mirabilis, with AOL investing US$400 million in cash.
AOL got what it wanted and got the icq instant messaging software and 9 million users, which greatly increased its strength.
A situation of three powerful forces is formed!
Relying on the methods and experience of the rapid growth of Internet oligarchs in his previous life, Sun Jian used pengtal to guide Brody, Brosnan, and Qiu Guodong online. There is no need to be respectful in person. The United States is full of talents and has a sound legal system. There is no need for a backdoor trust relationship, as long as it complies with the law. , use money to clear the way.
In Japan and South Korea, broadband based on DSL is rapidly becoming popular. However, in the United States, local calls are charged a fixed fee and can be used without restrictions. Therefore, the growth rate of home broadband is not as high as that in Japan and South Korea. Despite this, the United States has a lower demand for broadband. The demand for AOL is also increasing. It can be said that the real broadband era in the United States is coming. Under this trend, Steve Case is worried that AOL's membership income will be significantly reduced, so he invested in Hughes Company's Sky Broadband. business, but missed the opportunity to become a promoter shareholder of att broadband.
Five years later, by the time Att Broadband's broadband business entered thousands of households in the United States along with Att's fixed-line telephones, Att Broadband had become a listed company on Nasdaq, and its stock market value had reached more than 3 billion U.S. dollars. Six major sponsors The shareholders made a lot of money, but Steve Case regretted it. This is a story for later.
While AOL provides online services, it is also a service provider that accesses the Internet through dial-up. It also has huge interests in the dial-up Internet market. For AOL, the popularization of broadband such as DSL and line is by no means a good thing, which means that members Will terminate the contract with the service company and switch to other broadband service providers.
Steve Case is somewhat resistant to the spread of fixed broadband to homes.
