Redwood City, Silicon Valley Online Operations Center.
Frank Marshall stood before the screens.
The Technical Director pulled up the latest load monitoring charts.
"Bandwidth usage has skyrocketed since the Olympic Organizing Committee's exclusive materials went live," the Technical Director reported. "The image-heavy promotional reports are consuming a massive amount of server resources. We had to urgently rent several backup nodes in Seattle just to keep the access latency within a safe range."
"Money is no object," Frank replied. "Just ensure the pages load quickly. Netizens have very little patience; we can't let them close the page while waiting for images to buffer."
"The cross-platform call data for the Passport System is also in," the Technical Director said, switching the screen. "Seventy percent of users who browse the Olympics Zone remain logged into ICQ. They see a hot news item on the webpage and immediately forward it to their friends via ICQ. Social and information have formed a perfect closed loop."
Frank noted this set of data.
"Categorize and bundle the collected user preferences," Frank instructed the Technical Director. "Send them to the GG Sales Department. Tell them to use this data to negotiate with sponsors. We can precisely target every potential consumer interested in a specific event."
At the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee's volunteer recruitment center, the phones rang much less than usual.
In the past, the operators wouldn't have had time to even take a sip of water at this hour.
Michael Jones stood in the office, looking at two reports in his hand.
One was the call log from the traditional hotline; the other was the online registration data faxed from Silicon Valley Online.
"Thirty thousand," Michael said, slapping the faxed paper onto the desk and addressing his supervisor. "In just forty-eight hours, over thirty thousand volunteers submitted complete application forms through go.com. Meanwhile, our hotline has taken fewer than two thousand calls."
The supervisor stared at the numbers, speechless.
With the Olympic Organizing Committee's active cooperation and guidance, volunteer recruitment and the pre-opening torch relay activities were carried out with even greater enthusiasm.
The torch relay route map was prominently displayed in the most visible spot within the go.com Olympics Zone.
Netizens in the states along the route spontaneously organized welcoming ceremonies on forums.
While traditional print media were still sluggishly printing route announcements, netizens had already started discussing the brands of shoes the torchbearers wore on BBS.
Where the traffic was, the money followed.
Redwood City, California.
The first-floor lobby of Silicon Valley Online Headquarters.
Bill Campbell, a partner at the West Coast's largest GG Agency, slammed his briefcase onto the front desk.
Behind him, two assistants clutched thick files.
"I need to see Frank Marshall," Bill said, tugging at his tie, his words coming fast. "No appointment. Tell him I've brought the quarterly budgets for Coca-Cola and Ford."
Ten minutes later, Bill was seated on the sofa in Frank's office.
With the surge in traffic to go.com, GG agencies were already scrambling to capitalize.
"There aren't enough GG slots to go around," Frank said, pushing a schedule across the desk. "Nike has bought out the entire month of July for the Olympics Zone homepage banner. McDonald's and Visa are bidding against each other for the right sidebar."
Bill didn't even glance at the schedule.
He wasn't here today to wait in line and follow the usual procedures.
"Frank, we've worked together many times," Bill said, leaning forward. "I want to set up a permanent office here. Give me a conference room and two dedicated phone lines. My team will interface directly with your sales department right here."
Frank leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the desk.
"That's against the rules."
"The rules are for TV networks," Bill insisted. "Your traffic is growing too fast. Every hour of delayed communication means my clients miss out on millions of impressions. On a premium ad platform like this, every second counts, every inch of space matters. California's largest ad agency needs to be on-site."
Frank stood up, walked to the whiteboard behind his desk, and drew several boxes with a marker.
"On-site is fine," Frank said, turning around. "Buying ad space is just the most basic way to play. go.com now provides highly detailed ad placement distribution strategies. We can tell you which positions have the highest click-through rates and which time slots have the densest traffic."
Bill's eyes lit up.
In the era of traditional media, this was pure fantasy. Newspapers could only provide circulation figures; television networks could only offer estimated viewership ratings.
No one could provide click-through feedback accurate to the single digit.
"How much for this data?" Bill asked.
"This part is free," Frank said, putting down the marker. "Consider it a courtesy for an old friend."
Bill was a smart man; he heard the unspoken words.
"Then what do you charge for?"
"If you need the demographic distribution of the users who clicked, that's where you pay extra." Frank walked back to the sofa and sat down. "You know about our Passport System. Users filled in their age, gender, and state when they registered. In the Olympics Zone, they customized the sports they wanted to follow."
Frank held up a single finger.
"Do you want to push your Ford Pickup ad to New York high schoolers who only watch women's gymnastics, or to Texas ranchers who follow weightlifting and track and field?"
Bill's breath hitched for half a second.
Precision targeting—this was the ultimate goal that the ad industry had only dreamed of.
"More money," Frank stated, laying down his final condition. "Billing will be based on click-through rates and demographic accuracy. The base price is triple that of a standard banner ad."
"Deal." Bill extended his hand without hesitation. "Sign the contract immediately. I want the phone lines connected this afternoon."
Silicon Valley Online's monetization capabilities were fully unleashed after the launch of its Olympic Games section.
In a conference room at Sequoia Capital, Donald Valentine and John from KPCB reviewed the monthly financial projections Frank had sent over.
"Daily average clicks are at 120 million," John said, pointing to a set of figures on the report. "Registered users have grown by 300% month-over-month. Ad revenue—"
John paused, looking up at Donald.
"—has quadrupled since last month."
Donald took off his reading glasses and tossed them onto the table.
The shareholders were stunned. The user registration and ad revenue generated by the Olympic Games section were far more explosive than anything the Silicon Valley Online BBS or blog had ever seen. With go.com now steadily maintaining over 100 million daily clicks, they had to marvel at this miracle born of the era.
The advertising barriers that television networks had spent decades building were being torn down in a matter of months.
The appetite of capital is never satisfied.
Even with the stock price at an all-time high, Donald still felt it wasn't enough.
The market needed a more powerful jolt.
"Wall Street analysts are still trying to value us using traditional P/E ratios," Donald said, sliding the report into a drawer. "They think $50 is the ceiling. It's time we showed them these real numbers."
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