Chapter 679: Instagram Launches (4)

The Instagram launch ceremony was very simple.

Once the website went live, a few bottles of champagne were opened at the Instagram team's office, creating a lively atmosphere. The employees began their busy work on the first day of the website's launch. Some stayed behind to handle company affairs with the D-girls, while Simon left with the A-girls and C-girls who attended the launch ceremony.

As for the high-level executives of the company, none were invited.

It wasn't about face, but necessity.

Simon didn't plan to force Instagram's growth prematurely. Therefore, during this period, the D-girls, along with several 'angel investors', were busy preparing various aspects. Deborah was responsible for communicating with Egret to secure technical and traffic support. Waist and Leg Jing used their connections in the entertainment and fashion circles to attract a group of celebrities to open Instagram accounts first.

In the short term, this was already enough.

Simon instructed the D-girls not to consider any profit-related matters for the next three to five years and to focus solely on developing the user base. Funding was not a concern for Instagram.

However, Simon clearly underestimated the influence of the women around him.

Or rather, it was an extension of his own personal influence.

Others might not give face to the ABCD girls or Waist and Leg Jing, but they couldn't possibly ignore Simon Westeros.

Even though Simon didn't step in personally, the fact that the website was created by a few of his women already spoke volumes. Even if the site was just a toy for his lovers, everyone would definitely support it.

Thus, as soon as the website went live, many fashion and entertainment celebrities who were already on Facebook recommended Instagram on their social media pages. Egret's portal news homepage also featured an article introducing the website. Although the position wasn't prominent, it still garnered millions of views. The Egret portal's website navigation page also included Instagram and gave it a special highlighted recommendation for free.

To protect its own interests, Egret had various explicit or implicit restrictions on recommending other websites on its platform.

Now, Instagram, which had no equity relationship with Egret, received treatment akin to that of a directly invested website.

On the other hand, Simon left the Instagram headquarters and went to Tinkobile company with the C-girls.

For Instagram to develop, the proliferation of personal computers and digital cameras was a basic requirement.

However, both aspects were no longer a problem.

In the first half of 1994, global PC shipments reached 26.3 million units, compared to 20 million units for the entire year of 1990. Although the rise of the internet led to an increasing share of PC exports, North America still accounted for 41% of global PC shipments, reaching 10.9 million units.

It was expected that in 1994, global PC shipments would reach around 55 million units, with North America accounting for no less than 22 million units.

The global PC installed base would then exceed 230 million units.

Regarding digital cameras, in the first half of 1994, Tinkobile shipped 3.27 million units, maintaining over 50% of the global consumer digital camera market share, reaching 53%. The annual shipment volume was expected to reach 8 million units.

Globally, consumer digital camera shipments in 1994 were expected to reach around 16 million units.

As the world's largest consumer electronics market, the proliferation rate of digital cameras in North America was much faster than overseas, similar to the growth of VCRs in recent years. Of the 16 million digital cameras, over 70% were in North America, amounting to 11 million units.

Even without considering past accumulation or overseas users, the 11 million digital camera user increment in North America alone for 1994 was enough to ensure a broad user base for Instagram.

Moreover, as Instagram spread, it would stimulate user demand, further increasing digital camera shipments next year, creating a mutually reinforcing cycle.

Simon arrived at Tinkobile's headquarters and was first taken by the C-girls to see the already completed digital video camera prototype.

Having already applied for a full range of trademarks, still using 'i' as the prefix to signify 'Record', Tinkobile's digital video camera series would be named iRec.

Simple and easy to remember.

"We tried CD, flash memory, tape, and other storage media. Ultimately, as you suggested, the only suitable storage solution for us right now is the micro hard drive. Although the prototype is complete, many issues still need to be resolved, and we need to wait for the hard drive manufacturers to develop larger capacity micro hard drives. Therefore, iRec won't be released until at least next fall. By then, we will launch iRec with a 250M storage capacity, and the cost can be controlled within a reasonable range."

In Tinkobile's laboratory, as Simon played with the obviously rough digital video camera prototype, Claire explained.

Simon recorded a video with the iRec prototype and played it back on the small iRec screen, clearly noticing a lag, which was likely one of the issues Claire mentioned.

Claire then had someone bring the latest IBM laptop and connected the iRec to the laptop's USB port, starting to transfer the video Simon had just recorded.

The iRec used 240P video resolution, which was sufficient for current user needs.

The one-minute video recorded at 240P resolution was only 2.2MB in size.

A 2.2MB MP4 format video transferred via USB today would be almost instantaneous. However, this time, Simon noticed another issue. The USB 1.0 standard, which began to be promoted last year, had a transfer speed of only 90K per second.

Transferring the one-minute 240P video took about 25 seconds.

This meant that transferring an hour of video could take half an hour, severely affecting user experience.

However, Claire seemed fairly satisfied with this, noticing Simon's expression and saying, "The USB 1.0 standard with a 1.5Mbps transfer speed already meets current user needs. The theoretical transfer speed is equivalent to 180K per second, but due to hardware limitations, we can only achieve half that speed for now. It will be further optimized by the time the product launches next year."

Simon nodded.

Indeed, progress must be made step by step.

Reaching the current stage was already very advanced compared to the original timeline where the USB standard first took shape in 1995.

According to statistics, with strong promotion from the Westeros system, the proportion of new PCs with USB ports has exceeded 20% since the promotion started last year. By next year, this proportion will exceed 50%.

Moreover, for existing home users without USB ports on their PCs, using USB functions won't require replacing expensive PC equipment; they only need to purchase a $20 to $30 adapter.

Since the promotion of USB began late last year, Egret, Microsoft, Intel, and other companies have set up dedicated venture funds for investing in USB peripheral products, supporting startups in developing hardware products such as USB mice and keyboards.

At Tinkobile, with the proliferation of USB ports, next year's planned releases of digital cameras, digital music players, and digital video cameras will all switch to using micro hard drives with USB transfer formats.

However, next year's upgrade of the floppy disk digital camera will continue, with a floppy disk version of the iCam-40s as a transitional model in addition to the micro hard drive version of the iCam-50.

After seeing the iRec prototype, Claire took Simon to view other ongoing product developments.

This included the iBook, which had no leaks so far.

This was a concept Simon had proposed early on and was one of the first trademarks Tinkobile had stockpiled.

Apple had launched its first Newton tablet last year, the predecessor to the iPad, featuring a very advanced touch screen design.

Unfortunately, Apple didn't position this product correctly, using it only as a personal digital assistant. Moreover, the high price of $900 meant very few could afford it.

Electronic book readers already existed in the market but hadn't developed well due to limitations in storage capacity and content resources.

The iBook, being quietly developed by Tinkobile, had no plans to release a finished product in the short term mainly due to the high cost of small LCD screens and the inability to make it as compact and delicate as a book for now.

The plan was to release this product around 1996.

Simon hoped that by then, this product could achieve a certain level of integration, combining the functions of a digital music player and even further, incorporating a digital camera and using a touch screen design.

By then, it would be similar to the later tablet computers.

In the lab, after hearing Simon's vision, Claire said, "If that's the case, our product might be even more expensive than Apple's Newton tablet, and very few people would be able to afford it."

The reason electronic products could be priced in the thousands was due to the significant cost reduction brought about by the development of the entire electronic industrial system.

Currently, it was far from reaching that level.

For example, flash memory.

Tinkobile launched flash memory-based USB drives in the first half of the year, with capacities of 8MB and 16MB, surpassing the 1.44MB capacity of floppy disks. However, compared to the price of less than $2 per floppy disk, an 8MB USB drive was priced at $39.99, and a 16MB USB drive at $99.99.

The next generation iCam didn't consider the more stable flash storage primarily due to cost.

However, with rapidly increasing demand, it was expected that by 1996, iCam-60 could launch a flash storage version at a reasonable cost.

Currently, the cost of micro hard drives wasn't low either, but compared to flash memory, micro hard drives had a capacity advantage

. The planned 150MB micro hard drive version of the digital camera next year could store up to 3000 photos based on current image sizes, ensuring users wouldn't run out of space.

Simon put down the iBook prototype, which lacked touch functionality and could only be operated with buttons, and told Claire, "If you think about it, it's actually an inevitable trend, isn't it? Tinkobile doesn't need to be too ahead of its time, but since we've got a head start, we should ensure we stay ahead of other manufacturers."

Claire knew her boss wouldn't say this casually, so she nodded seriously and noted it down.

They stayed at Tinkobile until around 11 o'clock.

After having lunch with John Chambers, Simon visited the Egret Park construction site in Mountain View and attended a conference call with AOL in the afternoon.

Around five in the evening, Simon boarded a plane back to Los Angeles.

In the cabin of the Boeing 767.

The A-girls brought a thick stack of documents to the front cabin office, handed them to Simon, and said, "D just called. As of 5 PM, Instagram's registered user count has reached 370,000, and it's expected to surpass 1 million this weekend."

Although Simon hadn't personally intervened much, he understood what was happening based on what Allison said.

Shaking his head and smiling, Simon picked up one of the documents and said, "D is a bit anxious."

Surpassing one million users in just three days, even with the strong support of the Westeros system, would bring many problems that could overwhelm the small company, which was only three months old. If this affected user experience, it would be a significant loss.

However, from another perspective, surpassing one million users meant that this company was already very valuable in the booming new tech industry.

After this weekend, if the D-girls wanted to cash out, they could easily fetch $20 million, and there would be plenty of takers.

Compared to the initial investment of just over a million dollars, it would be a return of dozens of times in just a few months.

Hearing Simon's comment, Allison added, "D also mentioned she wants to exchange some shares for more support from Egret."

Simon asked with a smile, "How much?"

A-girl replied, "20%."

Simon nodded and said, "You can discuss it with Jeff. I won't get involved."

From a pure profit standpoint, selling the shares directly to the Westeros company would be best. After all, Egret was no longer wholly owned by the Westeros system, and transferring shares to the Westeros company would still ensure Egret's support for Instagram.

However, doing so would somewhat break the rules.

Mutual interest is the strongest basis for cooperation.

Simon preferred to let business be business.

Although Instagram garnered widespread attention due to Simon, transferring some shares to Egret wasn't a loss at all.

Currently, countless small companies in Silicon Valley wanted to cooperate with Egret but couldn't find a way.

After discussing this matter, Allison saw Simon flipping through the weekly box office report and continued, "There's another matter about EA's game 'Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.'"

Without looking up, Simon responded with a hum.

Allison continued, "Preliminary statistics show that this real-time strategy game sold approximately 76,000 units in its first week, generating $3.8 million in sales. EA has already recovered its costs, and it's estimated that this game could reach 1.5 million units in total sales, breaking the 1.1 million unit record of the first 'Dune II.'"

'Warcraft: Orcs & Humans' is priced at $49.99, the standard for video games at this time.

An estimated 1.5 million units in total sales would mean around $75 million in revenue.

In comparison, the development cost of this game was only about $2 million, making it an extremely profitable venture, even more so than drug trafficking, and it's legal.

In Simon's memory, the first 'Warcraft' was also successful, but its total sales were only around 300,000 units.

But even that brought significant attention to Blizzard, especially since the success of the first 'Warcraft' provided Blizzard with sufficient funds to develop sequels, leading to the phenomenal 2.5 million unit sales of the second 'Warcraft.'

This time, the first 'Warcraft' was expected to exceed a million units in sales, a result of Silicon & Synapse Studio's upgrade in production and distribution standards with EA's support.

Just like in Hollywood, the same movie would achieve different levels of box office success when handled by a major studio compared to an independent film company.

In its IPO prospectus, Danilisi Entertainment had identified the gaming business as the group's next major growth point.

In the past six months, while maintaining its thriving console game business, EA also released the hit online game 'Happy Farm.' Now, the successful launch of the PC game 'Warcraft: Orcs & Humans' added another positive boost to Danilisi Entertainment's stock.

With a three-pronged approach in console games, PC single-player, and online games, as the video game market continued to expand, maintaining its current market position could make the video game business alone a potential trillion-dollar segment for Danilisi Entertainment.

At its peak, Disney's market value barely touched $200 billion.

For Simon, this was certainly not the ceiling.

Although many viewed Danilisi Entertainment's current market value of over $100 billion as exaggerated, Simon believed that breaking Disney's scale wouldn't be difficult. Achieving excellence in future TV, games, music, and streaming could each reach a trillion-dollar level.

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