eurekapd Chapter 302 Rethinking
Chapter 302 Rethinking
April 15, 1998, 9:20 a.m.
Redmond, Microsoft Campus.
The rain has been falling since last night and hasn't stopped. The gray clouds hang low, and the raindrops patter against the glass windows of the conference room.
Ballmer stood by the window, his back to the door.
There was a knock on the door behind me.
"Come in."
Meyer pushed open the door. He was wearing a dark suit, his tie slightly askew. He had deep bags under his eyes, and his face was ashen; several days of overtime had left their mark on him. In his hand, he held a leather folder, the edges of which were worn and faded from repeated use.
Ballmer did not turn around.
Meyer walked to the conference table and placed the folder on it. The metal clasp clicked softly against the wooden surface. He stood there, waiting.
The sound of rain filled the silence.
"Speak," Ballmer finally said, still without turning around.
Meyer took a deep breath and opened the folder. Inside were over thirty pages of printed paper, each page densely covered with writing, some paragraphs crossed out and rewritten, some with sticky notes attached. This was the result of his three sleepless nights of work.
"I've thought about it again," Meyer said, his voice a little hoarse. "We've been doing one thing wrong all along."
Ballmer turned around.
Meyer looked at him: "We're following the stars. They release social media accounts, we release social media accounts. They release group chats, we release group chats. They release levels, we release levels. They release skins, we release skins. They release farms..."
He didn't go on.
Ballmer walked to the conference table and sat down in the leather chair. The chair surface made a slight rustling sound. "And then?"
"And then we're always one step behind," Meyer said. "We're always copying, never finishing copying, and always getting called 'copycats' by users. It's not because our technology is bad, it's because we're going in the wrong direction."
"direction?"
"We're doing what Starry Sky has already done." Meyer turned the folder around so Ballmer could see a few lines on the first page, "But users always remember the first person to do it. No matter how well the second person does it, they're still just the second person."
Ballmer didn't speak; he stared at the lines of text for five seconds.
"So what's your suggestion?"
"Stop," Meyer said.
The rain grew louder, and the raindrops pounded against the glass, making a dense, pattering sound.
"Stop what?"
"Stop pursuing the all-encompassing path." Meyer flipped to the second page of the folder, where a hand-drawn diagram was displayed. On the left was written "Star Language," and on the right, "ICQ." Star Language listed a long string of features: Space, Group Chat, Levels, Skins, Farm, Red Diamond, Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, Speed-up Cards... ICQ only had four words written on it: Instant Messaging.
"This is what I've come up with," Meyer said. "ICQ is going back to basics. No spaces, no farming, no levels, no skins. Just one thing—instant messaging. We'll do it faster, more reliably, and more simply than anyone else."
"Simple?"
"Minimalist mode." Meyer turned to the third page. It was a sketch of a phone screen, with only three things on the interface: the title "ICQ" at the top, the friends list in the middle, and the input box at the bottom. There were no avatar decorations, no level indicators, no skin options, and no personal space entrance; it was as clean as a whiteboard.
"Users can open it and send messages. After sending, they can close it. No need to learn, no need to figure it out, no need to log in every day to harvest crops," Mayer said. "This is a completely different path from Star Language. They are becoming more and more complicated, we are becoming more and more simple. They do everything, we only do one thing."
Ballmer stared at the sketch for a long time.
Why should users choose us?
"Because it's fast, because it's stable, because it's small and beautiful." Meyer turned to the fourth page. It was a comparison table. StarTalk's startup time, message sending latency, memory usage, and power consumption—everything was listed. Next to it were ICQ's target figures: twice as fast as StarTalk, half the message sending latency, two-thirds less memory usage, and three-quarters less power consumption.
"If we only focus on instant messaging, we can pour all our resources into this one feature," Meyer said. "We can perfect the core functionality and make it unmatched by any other software. If users want fancy features, they can go to StarTalk. If users just want to chat, they can come to ICQ."
"Then why would a user install two?"
“They’ll pretend,” Meyer said. “I interviewed twenty StarTalk users. They all said StarTalk is fun, but it takes up too much time. Every day they have to harvest crops, steal crops, decorate their spaces, and level up. Sometimes they just want to say a word to a friend, but once they open it, they get attracted by all sorts of things and can’t leave for half an hour. They said they want a ‘simple chat tool’.”
Ballmer's eyes narrowed slightly.
"simple."
“Yes,” Meyer said, “It’s simple. Just chatting, nothing else. Turn it on, say what you want, turn it off.”
The rain subsided a bit. People started walking by in the parking lot outside the window, umbrellas in hand, their steps hurried.
"What is Microsoft's purpose in acquiring ICQ?" Meyer asked.
Ballmer did not answer.
"It's for the sake of having an instant messaging product," Meyer answered himself. "It's not to fight a feature war with Star Language. It's to ensure that Microsoft's system isn't controlled by Star Language. If one day Star Language decides not to be compatible with Windows, or only runs on Starry Sky System, Microsoft will be in a passive position. We have a backup plan."
After he finished speaking, he looked at Ballmer.
Ballmer tapped his fingers lightly on the table. Once, twice, three times.
"Go on."
"So ICQ doesn't need to beat Xingyu." Meyer turned to page five. "It just needs to survive. It just needs a core user base, a stable technical foundation, and the ability to step in at any time. If we can start up faster than Xingyu, consume less power, and be more stable than Xingyu, then a group of users who just want 'pure chatting' will stay. This group of users may not be large, but it's enough for ICQ to exist."
"Is mere existence enough?"
"Existence is enough," Meyer said. "No matter how powerful StarTalk is, it can't monopolize instant messaging. Users have diverse needs. Some like fancy features, while others prefer simplicity. We'll target the simpler market segment and not compete head-on with them."
Ballmer remained silent. His fingers stopped tapping.
The only sound in the meeting room was the sound of rain.
Just then, the phone on my desk rang.
The red indicator light flashed, and the ringtone sounded particularly jarring in the quiet conference room. Ballmer glanced at the caller ID, his expression subtly changing.
He reached out and pressed the hands-free button.