Chapter 45: Three Hidden Cards

"Mm!" Huang He kept performing various operations on OO, making thoughtful noises as he worked, while the surrounding development team watched him anxiously, worried that he would come up with yet another suggestion. The previous two pieces of feedback definitely required changes—if the boss was in a hurry, they might have to work through the night again, pulling another overtime shift. It was truly exhausting.

But, as the saying goes, what you fear most always comes to pass. After about ten minutes of waiting and watching as Huang He experienced the entire OO interface, the boss finally spoke.

"There's a problem with the profile picture!" Huang He pointed to the avatar on his new account, which was identical to the OO logo. "Do you think an avatar like this would attract friends to chat with you?"

"We do allow users to change their avatars!" Chen Shoufu hurriedly explained. "We've provided more than a hundred different images to choose from, and users can also upload their own avatars."

"That brings me to my second point—what on earth are the images you’ve provided?" Huang He tapped the table. "An anime chick? An anime duck? There are also 3D shapes, landscape paintings, and even simple color blocks. Do you really think any of these avatars will create an instant connection at first glance?"

"But the system avatars provided by QQ are basically the same!" Chen Shoufu protested. "Weren’t we supposed to copy—no, I mean, take inspiration?"

"Yes, but I also said we should copy, improve, and innovate!" Huang He made an exaggerated gesture to convey his feelings. "Back when Tenda only had two graphic designers, they made those avatars. Now we have ten designers, and this is all you can come up with for our default avatars?"

"So, Chairman, what kind of avatars do you think would attract users? To be honest, we’re not entirely sure ourselves," Chen Shoufu replied helplessly.

"I may not know everyone’s exact preferences, but I do know that every ordinary person has a desire to look better!" Huang He declared. "So, the simplest solution is to add a hundred different handsome male avatars, a hundred different beautiful female avatars, and a hundred different anime character avatars. Kids these days all like anime—these would definitely appeal to them."

"Understood," the art team replied, looking utterly dejected. It seemed they, too, would have to work overtime.

"But Chairman, if we use photos of handsome men and beautiful women, we'll need portrait rights. If we use them without authorization, we’ll get sued," someone pointed out.

"Don’t worry. I’ll get in touch with some agencies and arrange for two hundred models to come in for a photo shoot. We’ll get them to sign image release agreements," Huang He replied.

"What about the anime avatars? Those are probably copyrighted as well," Chen Shoufu said. "Most anime copyrights are in Japan, and it’ll take time to acquire the rights..."

"No problem, just use them for now. In six months, once our user base is stable, delete all the anime avatars. By then, I doubt anyone in Japan will even notice," Huang He waved dismissively.

Huang He was right. Not a single person noticed the copyright infringement with the anime avatars until they were quietly removed from the official avatar library six months later. It wasn't until years later, when a former employee from Jiangnan wrote a memoir mentioning this episode, that the Japanese finally realized what had happened. But by then, more than a decade had passed, and there was nothing anyone could do except curse Jiangnan for its shamelessness.

After that, Huang He continued to point out more than a dozen other issues, leaving the entire OO team with constipated expressions. Of course, the boss noticed their discomfort. He knew that while once the company was large he could drive internal competition at will, during the startup phase it was crucial to keep morale high. So he immediately added, "Finish all these changes in three days without any major bugs, and everyone gets a bonus of two thousand yuan—cash, paid on the spot!"

"Long live the Chairman!" Everyone’s faces instantly lit up with smiles, and morale soared. Huang He nodded in satisfaction, then patted Chen Shoufu on the shoulder, beckoning him to follow.

"The issues I just pointed out are all minor. Do you know what our real problem is?" Huang He asked as they walked through the still half-empty third workshop.

"Technically, we have no problems left. The real challenge lies with the users," Chen Shoufu answered, his lack of confidence evident. "Chairman, the problems you raised just now can all be fixed, but the issue with new users is beyond our control."

"At this point, almost every internet user in China who uses instant messaging software is on QQ—maybe a small number use MSN, but over ninety percent are loyal QQ users. All their friends are there, so they can't leave. User stickiness is incredibly high. As for newcomers to instant messaging, they're almost always invited to open QQ accounts by their friends. They naturally become QQ users, and they have no alternative, since all their friends are already on QQ. It’s nearly impossible for us to win them over," Chen Shoufu sighed. "To be honest, Chairman, not only is it impossible to defeat QQ, even snatching a small fraction of users from them has less than a one percent chance of success. It’s just too difficult!"

"What you’re saying is absolutely true, but isn’t it a bit late to point that out?" Huang He smiled faintly. "Before I decided to hire you, I was already aware of these issues. Yet, I still chose to give it a shot—do you really think I don't have an ace up my sleeve?"

"Ah?" Chen Shoufu looked up curiously, wondering what trump card his boss was holding.

"The first ace is your Coral Beetle QQ," Huang He said calmly. "From what I know, over a million users are already logging into QQ through your Coral Beetle QQ, aren’t they? You haven’t abandoned it, have you?"

"No," Chen Shoufu shook his head. He had considered dropping Coral Beetle QQ, since he was now working on his own product—who would want to keep running that thing? But Huang He had specifically told him not to abandon it, and had even allocated resources to keep Coral Beetle QQ running.

"Do you know what would have happened if I hadn’t recruited you, and you kept running Coral Beetle QQ?" Huang He asked again.

"There could be some legal risks," Chen Shoufu answered honestly.

"It’s not just possible—you would definitely be sent to jail. Tenda would sue you for copyright infringement, and you’d be behind bars for at least three years. They’d make an example out of you, so that everyone eyeing Tenda’s user data would be scared stiff and never dare to try anything similar again," Huang He’s words made Chen Shoufu’s legs go weak. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly had a vivid vision of himself in handcuffs, spending three long years in prison.