Searching and Losing

"Banana?"

"Yeah, our company is developing a mobile application called Banana Market. Previously, we outsourced the design work, but the banana icon just doesn't feel right no matter how you look at it. So I thought of having you draw one."

Route chuckled, "Once it's done, I'll introduce it to others as a design by my... uh, sister."

Upon hearing this, Ye Qingchen was taken aback and softly replied, "It's not..."

Route had initially planned to take advantage of the situation and casually claim that she was his girlfriend. But upon further thought, he realized that he had never expressed his feelings to Ye Qingchen in any way. Suddenly saying it might have the opposite effect.

"Who called me 'brother' in front of my mom?"

Ye Qingchen couldn't argue with that and gave Route a resentful glance, which he naturally accepted.

...

After dinner, Route accompanied Ye Qingchen back to her dormitory and then returned to Room 305 alone.

Some of the people in Room 305 went back to their own dorms for a nap, but Route had no plans to sleep. He continued working on the tasks from the morning.

Currently, the development of the Android version of Banana Market and some backend functions had been completed, but there were still many missing features that needed to be developed.

In the documentation he had organized earlier, he added a lot of explanations regarding the backend logic.

In the existing Dream Grain Ads 1.0 version, there were already three functional modules: developer integration module, advertiser integration module, and admin panel module.

Since the plan was to integrate everything into a unified system, some of Banana Market's functions could be incorporated into the Dream Grain Ads system, mainly affecting the developer integration module and admin panel.

Currently, the developer integration function provided an SDK. After developers integrated the SDK, they could load ads and display the data in their own applications and the advertiser's icons, and settle the corresponding fees.

Integrating Banana Market's function meant providing developers with the ability to upload their own APKs to the Dream Grain Ads server. The admin panel would add an APK review process to determine if the developer's application met the requirements. Approved applications would have their data added to the database, which would then be loaded and displayed in the Banana Market application.

Unlike the manual addition of other market applications, Banana Market allowed developers to actively add their applications. Quality applications could gain traffic from Banana Market, attracting more users. If the advertiser was also an application developer, they only needed to create a developer account to publish their apps.

The arrival of Banana Market would create a unified ecosystem for application development. Developers no longer needed to worry about channel promotion and only had to consider publishing their apps. Banana Market would provide them with a traffic entry, and the ads provided by Dream Grain Ads would monetize that traffic, solving the monetization and profitability issues.

Essentially, it was a traffic market where the roles of advertisers and developers could interchange. The sole purpose was to expand the traffic for their own applications and generate more profit, and Dream Grain Ads provided them with the necessary tools.

In the completed Banana Market APK, there were several data-based lists, such as the download rankings, recommended rankings, and bestseller rankings, all based on the performance of the applications themselves.

The revenue of Banana Market came from several ad placements and the search entry. The ad placements were located on the first screen, with one column for recommended applications and one column for recommended games. Developers needed to bid for these positions in the backend, or wealthy sponsors could directly contact and secure the positions.

The search entry logic worked as follows: if a user searched for "Youku" and Youku had purchased that keyword, the

first row of search results would display "Youku" with a "Recommended" label.

Similarly, the search entry adopted a bidding model. While the competition might not be as intense between keywords like Youku and Tudou, it could be different if a user searched for "video."

"This term means that users do not have a preference for a particular product, but simply want a video app. Therefore, whether Tudou or Youku is the first option determines which app the user may download. So, in a broader sense of this search term, if there are competitors in the same industry, the bidding war will intensify in the market of distributors.

Why do internet companies spend more and more money in future channel wars? Because if the channels are controlled by others, if you don't pay a high price to occupy the traffic entrance, you may be eliminated by competitors. Therefore, in the intense competition, channel costs will only increase to an astonishing level.

It's already 2 o'clock, and everyone who took a break has returned to work in Room 305.

Lu Zhou reorganized the logic and documentation of the entire Banana project because two members of the Banana team have left. Lu Zhou will integrate some functions into the DreamAds system and assign them to Fang Qiang's team to complete. Lu Zhou himself, along with Wang Zhengye and Huang Dong, will work on the rankings, ad placements, and search functions.

"In the future, when cloud computing starts to be explored, we will start with SaaS and then move on to PaaS. Developers can gain traffic in the Banana market and make money from DreamAds. What do we need for business expansion? It's nothing more than manpower and servers! SaaS can be used for statistical analysis and operational components, and PaaS can provide several commonly used language environments and databases. By offering discounted accounts to Banana developers, we can directly guide them from advertising to cloud computing. And as developers grow, the amount of DreamAds Cloud they purchase will increase."

Closing the loop, what is an ecological loop?

As Lu Zhou followed the steps of DreamAds and clarified the complicated business relationships, he gained some insights. This is a process of growing together with developers, who represent the entire industry or the Internet industry.

These developers can be companies in the industry or numerous small and medium-sized developers. DreamAds has built a platform that provides them with traffic, money-making channels, and affordable computing power, helping them complete the entire product life cycle.

"We laugh here, we cry here."

"We die here, or maybe we die here."

"We pray here, we wander here."

"We search here, we lose here."

...

Tang Yutong was talking on the phone with an advertiser, covering the microphone with her left hand. Fang Qiang was shocked, his thumb pressed on the space bar and couldn't release it...

Suddenly, Lu Zhou burst into song, stunning everyone in Room 305. "Great! Great! I understand!"

These thoughts, nurtured in his previous life, gradually emerged with their original order in the midst of this chaos. If all the tracks were chosen based solely on the experience of rebirth, then at this moment, he truly understood.

"It's nothing, it's nothing. Let's continue working. Qiangzi, come here for a moment."