"The Legal Department has reviewed it," Michael said, offering his recommendation. "They're only using publicly available information. More importantly, they are one of our top-tier sponsors and an official online information platform, so there's no copyright dispute. In fact, they're actually giving us free promotion."
"So you want to collaborate with them?"
"Yes," Michael said, closing the briefing folder. "We'll give go.com priority access to the behind-the-scenes materials we were planning to distribute to newspapers. In exchange, we'll get an official ticketing link on their homepage. It's much cheaper than running TV ads and will have a much higher conversion rate."
Redwood City, Silicon Valley Online Headquarters.
Frank Marshall answered the landline on his desk.
The Public Relations Director reported from the other end of the line: "Boss, the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee is here. They want to see you."
Frank glanced at the clock on the wall.
"Show them into the conference room. I'll be there in five minutes."
After hanging up, Frank straightened his suit.
In the conference room, Michael Jones and two assistants were seated on one side of the long table.
Frank pushed open the door and pulled out the chair opposite them.
"Mr. Marshall, let's get straight to the point." Michael took out a document. "The Olympic Organizing Committee has noticed the Olympics Special Edition recently launched by Silicon Valley Online. You've integrated the competition schedule and broadcasting information from various TV networks."
"We've cited our sources. There's no copyright infringement," Frank replied.
"We're not here to talk about infringement." Michael handed over the document. "The Organizing Committee has conducted an internal assessment. Your platform possesses an astonishingly powerful information distribution capability. The netizens discussing the games on your forums are far more engaged than ever before. We would like to establish a more direct partnership."
Frank flipped open the document.
"An exchange of information," Michael proposed. "The Organizing Committee has a vast amount of exclusive content that hasn't been released to traditional media—for example, behind-the-scenes footage of national delegations preparing, introductions to the internal facilities of the Athletes' Village, and even written interviews with some star athletes. We can provide this content to go.com first."
"And the conditions?" Frank closed the document.
"Add a link to the Organizing Committee's official ticketing platform on your homepage and Special Edition page," Michael stated his request. "Additionally, regularly share the voting data and preference analysis of netizens on your platform with us. We need this data to adjust on-site security levels and volunteer allocation."
Frank clasped his fingers together.
This deal was a guaranteed win.
The Olympic Organizing Committee's exclusive content was a resource that major TV networks and newspapers were fighting tooth and nail to secure. Yet, the Committee had walked right through their door, offering it all just for a link on the homepage and access to the site's backend data.
"To a successful partnership," Frank said, extending his hand.
A few days later, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Richard returned home after work, turned on his computer, and logged into go.com.
The Olympics Zone section had been updated.
The headline news was no longer a dry, generic press release from a news agency.
The title was bolded and highlighted in red: EXCLUSIVE: A Glimpse Inside the Atlanta Olympic Village—What Does Dream Team III's Private Training Facility Look Like?
Richard clicked his mouse.
The page loaded a report rich with text and images.
The photos' resolution was limited by the network bandwidth, but the content was more than enough to draw him in. The article detailed the material of the training gym's flooring and even mentioned the players' post-game recovery meals.
At the bottom of the page, the comment section had already grown thousands of posts deep.
Richard's fingers flew across the keyboard as he posted his own thoughts.
He navigated back to the Olympics Zone homepage. A new section had appeared on the right side: "Official Ticketing Express."
Clicking it took him directly to the Olympic Organizing Committee's ticket booking page.
Richard casually bought two tickets for the track and field preliminaries.
This seamless, one-stop experience—accessing official inside information and completing a purchase without leaving the site—was fundamentally altering how netizens consumed information.
At UC Berkeley.
Eric and his roommate stared at the new section on their screen.
"Official endorsement from the Olympic Organizing Committee," Eric said, pointing to the joint promotion logo at the top of the page. "Silicon Valley Online has finally broken into the exclusive territory of traditional media. In the past, only NBC or Sports Illustrated could land this kind of exclusive, behind-the-scenes access."
"Look at this poll," his roommate said, moving the mouse.
An interactive module appeared on the page: Which athlete would you like to answer your question?
Netizens could leave questions in the comments below. The Olympic Organizing Committee would arrange for the athletes to provide written responses to the most-voted questions, which would then be published exclusively on go.com.
"It's the sense of participation," Eric said, tapping the table. "Traditional media is condescending; they tell the audience what to watch. Here, the netizens decide the news content. This isn't even the same level of competition."
He opened the comment board and typed a professional question about the USA Track & Field training schedule.
After submitting, the page showed his question had already garnered several hundred upvotes, placing it near the top of the trending list.
In the back-end database, millions of questions and votes were being recorded, forming a massive user profile.
Manhattan, Sequoia Capital's office.
Donald Valentine was reviewing the latest industry analysis report.
The phone on his desk rang.
"Watch the Nasdaq order book!" a hedge fund manager shouted on the other end. "Silicon Valley Online just issued a joint statement. They've established a deeper partnership with the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee."
Donald hung up the phone and tapped his keyboard to bring up the trading terminal.
SVOL's stock price was surging.
The moat of traditional media had been breached.
The official deep partnership with the Olympic Organizing Committee was equivalent to stamping a seal of legitimacy and authority on Silicon Valley Online's information aggregation model.
Before this, Wall Street conservatives had been skeptical of the portal's monetization model.
They feared that if traditional media jointly blocked their news sources, go.com would become an empty shell.
That fear was now completely shattered.
Official institutions, seeking greater exposure, bypassed traditional media to connect directly with Internet platforms.
Buy orders flooded the trading floor.
The stock price broke through the $55 mark.
New York, Wall Street Journal Editorial Department.
Columnist Charles tapped away at his keyboard.
He was writing an in-depth analysis of the new economic model.
Just a few days ago, he had been questioning the valuation bubble of Silicon Valley Online.
Today, he overturned his previous arguments.
"Internet platforms are no longer mere appendages of traditional media. The Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee's proactive participation marks a shift in the power of information distribution. By aggregating public information, go.com has captured the attention of netizens, forcing official institutions to cooperate with it. This business logic will reshape the landscape of the GG and media industries."
Charles saved the document and sent it to the Editor-in-Chief.
The newspaper's printing presses began to roll. This report would be delivered to the desks of financial professionals across the United States the next morning.
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