Frank dragged out his words, building the suspense.
"We've launched a 'Vault' value-added service targeting high-net-worth users. For a small monthly fee, the server provides high-frequency off-site data backups. And guess what? Test data shows that Wall Street fund managers and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are flocking to this paid service."
Tiered services, engineered demand—making users want to open their wallets.
Frank had mastered this game to an art.
"What are the competitors doing?" Takuya Nakayama asked.
"What else? They're all copying us, of course," Frank said, spreading his hands wide. "Yahoo, America Online, even some makeshift startups that just got venture capital—they're all studying our business logic. They have no choice; the user feedback is too good. If they don't learn, they're just waiting to die."
"Let them copy. They can copy the features, but not the ecosystem," Takuya Nakayama said, moving to the next topic. "Have we decided on the name for the portal site?"
At the mention of this, Frank's expression turned strained, as if he were constipated.
He pulled a stack of elegantly bound market research reports from the side and tossed them onto the table with a look of disdain.
"We paid a top-tier consulting firm hundreds of thousands of dollars for this," Frank snorted. "The solutions they proposed are all combinations of obscure Latin roots or compound words over a dozen letters long. They think that makes them look professional. Those suits are completely clueless about the Internet today."
With the spread of Windows 95 and various browsers, surfing the web was no longer the exclusive domain of geeks and programmers. A massive wave of ordinary people, many of whom couldn't even type properly, was flooding into this virtual world.
"The name must be simple," Takuya Nakayama said, shaking his head. "So simple that even an American high schooler—the kind raised on 'happy education'—could spell it with their eyes closed. So simple that when phishing sites inevitably appear, scammers won't even be able to use a visually similar character to impersonate us."
He pulled out the one unique report he had already seen from the stack.
GO.
go.com
Frank and Tom stared at the word on the report. Silence fell over the office for several seconds.
"Go?" Tom raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a bit too... casual?"
"That's exactly why it works." Takuya Nakayama set down the marker. "The Internet is a tool, not an academic paper. It doesn't need to feel high-end, grand, or sophisticated. When users turn on their computers, their first instinct is to go somewhere. Go. Action. Departure. Even someone with reading or hearing impairments can easily remember our domain name. And—"
He turned to face the two of them.
"These two letters have infinite potential for future marketing. Golden, Global. As long as the Marketing Department is quick enough on their feet, they can play with letter combinations and visual imagery. This word can fit into any slogan."
Takuya paused before asking, "Did we secure the domain?"
"The paperwork was finalized last week," Frank nodded. "The domain was unregistered. When this report came out, we preemptively registered it before a full assessment was even completed. We took the same approach with other promising domains mentioned in the reports. It didn't cost us much."
"Nice work." Takuya Nakayama sat back in his chair. "Let's get the rollout schedule started. I suggest we set it up today—put up a blank page for go.com with a countdown timer and a 'Coming Soon' message. Build the suspense. In late May, the portal will officially launch. We'll use free email as our main selling point to attract an initial wave of new users."
"The timeline is tight, but the Development Department can handle it," Frank said, scribbling quickly in his notebook.
"That's just the appetizer." Takuya tapped his fingers on the desk, keeping time. "The main event is in June. The Atlanta Olympics."
Tom sat up straight, his business instincts tingling. "You want to use the Olympics for sports marketing?"
"Not just marketing—traffic harvesting," Takuya said, his pace quickening. "Newspapers and TV are too slow. We'll leverage the real-time nature of our portal to create an Olympics Special Edition. A live-updating medal tally. A match schedule accurate to the minute."
He looked at Frank.
"The key is integrating the broadcast channels. The TV rights for North America, South America, and Europe are held by different organizations. We'll use the users' IP addresses to provide the TV schedule for their specific region. Tell them exactly what time, on which channel, they can watch which event."
Frank's eyes lit up.
This effectively placed the television remote control indirectly in Silicon Valley Online's hands.
"We need one more feature," Takuya Nakayama continued. "Customized follows. Users can select countries, specific sports, or even star athletes they're interested in. Whenever there's related news or match results, the system will push it to their personalized homepage immediately."
"That would require a massive editorial team to filter the information," Frank said, mentally calculating the labor costs.
"We don't need to write everything ourselves. We'll buy wire services from news agencies and integrate the UGC generated on our BBS and Blogs," Takuya offered as a solution. "We'll connect the portal site's information with our community matrix. If a real-name verified user writes a high-quality Olympic commentary on their Blog, it could be pushed to the go.com homepage. That's what I call a sense of participation."
Tom set down his coffee cup and let out a long sigh.
"You're turning traditional one-way information distribution into a two-way interaction. That's a ruthless move. Television networks and newspapers won't even be able to compete with us."
"The final piece of the puzzle." Takuya Nakayama pointed to the domain name on the whiteboard. "The search engine. Now that we've acquired this domain, the search business will be listed directly under it. On the portal's top menu bar, we'll reserve the most prominent spot for a search box. At the same time, we'll provide a clean subdomain, search.go.com, dedicated solely to search functionality for users with a clear objective."
The tone of the meeting was now set.
Frank closed his notebook and tucked the actuarial reports into his drawer.
"I'll compile the meeting minutes right away and copy the directors from Sequoia and KPCB," Frank said, standing up and preparing to head to the open-plan office to assign tasks.
"Add one more thing to the email," Takuya Nakayama called out, stopping him in his tracks.
Frank paused and turned back.
"Tell those Wall Street vampires to throw all their promotional resources into this launch," Takuya said, smoothing his shirt cuffs, his voice steady. "If we pull this off, Silicon Valley Online's stock price will double again by the end of the year."
The weight of his words was immense.
Frank and Tom exchanged a glance, both able to see the barely contained excitement in each other's eyes.
In the frenetic market of the Nasdaq, a doubling of the stock price meant an incremental wealth gain of billions of dollars.
"As you wish, Boss." Frank pushed open the office door and strode out.
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