Back To 1995

   Chapter 147 Swept

   "Who is the genius of the Internet in this era, Blume Song gave the answer, Bruno Song defined the new Internet industry, instant communication and social networking, which will be the telegraph and telephone of the Internet industry!"

   The first to tout ICQ was the “Computer Magazine”, an old media in the technology industry. On the cover of the magazine the next day, the big character ICQ was used as the cover, and the appearance of ICQ was comparable to the invention of the telegraph and the telephone.

   "There is no doubt that this is one of the most influential Internet products in 1996 and even the next five or ten years!"

  The New York Observer directly listed the ICQ released on New Year's Eve as the top ten Internet products in 1996 that just entered the new year.

   What really caught the attention of the entire technology industry, and countless Internet technology fans, was Kevin Kelly's comments published on the "Wired" magazine website.

  As the most weighty and influential media in the Internet industry today, the comments published by the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine naturally do not need to be questioned about their influence.

"The emergence of ICQ will be the most memorable event in the history of the Internet industry. It breaks through the shackles of time, region and transportation, and truly allows the Internet to connect human beings together. In another ten years, perhaps the Internet will It will make the blue planet under our feet truly become a global village, and the instant messaging represented by ICQ will become the telephone line of this information earth!"

   Kevin Kelly's comment on the website made ICQ stand on the cusp.

The next day, all the media who participated in last night's press conference were almost always full of praise for ICQ, and they were almost always touted for ICQ. Since the advent of the Netscape browser, the technology industry has rarely seen such many The media is crazy about a certain Internet product scene.

Under the frenzy of many media, many users started to call the San Jose and Houston TV stations that broadcast the ICQ conference, and asked the two major TV stations to rebroadcast the ICQ conference. As a result, the number of viewers of the rebroadcast exceeded the live broadcast The number of people watching, which made NBC and other major TV stations also start to broadcast clips of the ICQ conference in their news reports.

ICQ, which has just been launched for one night, has not yet become popular among users, but the popularity has skyrocketed in the media. This is uncommon in the media that always like to play after the horse and tout which company is popular. !

   And ICQ’s side is even more frequent. In addition to the double-click company investing no money for ICQ’s promotion resources, ICQ has also advertised all the way to TV stations, newspapers, outdoor advertising and many other places where Internet companies have never advertised.

   Even the office and business buildings in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and other American cities have banners of ICQ, and the big screen in Times Square is also marked by ICQ!

In addition to these traditional promotion methods, ICQ has also continued to create momentum for breaking the circle. ICQ established the NFT Foundation, and issued the first batch of 10,000 NFT rare avatars, mainly punk style, with pixel characters, aliens, and orangutans. In addition, we will launch special NFT avatars and pictures for partners.

ICQ took the lead in launching three NFT images, namely Mona Lisa, Texas Grey Wolf and Giant Panda, and the ICQ account avatars. Then ICQ and the NFT Foundation jointly announced that the three NFT images will be separated. It was given to the Louvre Museum in France, the Texas Museum and the Panda House of the Chuanshu Zoo.

  What is rubbing the heat to raise the price, this is what ICQ is doing. By launching these NFT pictures, the NFT pictures are artistic.

Then NFT linked up with Hollywood stars and various stars in America. The first news broke that a fan bought the NFT of Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore from ICQ for $98,000. Pictures for collection!

  Drew Barrymore, who is just 21 years old this year, has been famous for a long time, and has appeared in many film and television dramas such as "Alien ET" and "Fate Gambler".

"This is driving me crazy, yes, when ICQ contacted me, they said someone wanted to buy my NFT pictures on the ICQ platform for collection, I couldn't believe it was true, but it happened, this I will donate the money!"

   Drew Barrymore, who was interviewed by the media, had a surprised expression on his face. Of course, this could not have happened for no reason. ICQ contacted Drew Barrymore Economics and jointly made news.

ICQ used Drew Barrymore to promote, Drew Barrymore took the opportunity to increase his popularity, and of course the effect was remarkable, the method was not superb, but it was indeed topical, and Drew Barrymore also became the first to open ICQ space A Hollywood actress in the community, ICQ promises to promote her…

After Drew Barrymore, NFT avatars and pictures suddenly became noisy, and big news continued to come out. The NFT avatar of NBA star Michael Jordan was fired to a high price of 2.8 million US dollars. Governor Schwarzenegger The NFT avatar was sold for $2.41 million, and Schwarzenegger also announced that he would donate the money.

   And what really caused a sensation was that Microsoft bought the NFT's Microsoft LOGO and the Windows image of the operating system at a sky-high price of 6 million US dollars, so as to prevent Microsoft's NFT pictures from falling into the hands of others.

Microsoft is basically showing goodwill to ICQ and Song Yang. This is also the first company to start buying NFT's own pictures, and then Yahoo, AOL, and many other big companies have also started to take action, and they are often sold at sky-high prices. It is dazzling to see.

   These are of course true and false, but not all of them are games made by ICQ. There are really such prodigals, no, they are played by big players to collect NFTs.

Like Nicolas Cage, who has always liked to be curious, on the day the NFT avatar was launched, he spent $820,000 to buy three NFT avatars, including a rather rare alien avatar. NFT avatar, ICQ and NFT Foundation will not be released in the future. If Nicolas Cage can keep it, maybe he can make a lot of money with this avatar in the future, even if he goes bankrupt. quite a few points.

In addition to Nicolas Cage, the rappers who have always liked to show off their wealth and publicity, this time also generously donated their money. One of the famous rappers spent an exorbitant price of two million dollars to let ICQ cooperate with the company. The NFT Foundation made a distinctive NFT avatar for itself. There is no reason for ICQ to refuse this.

On the same day, a big player who really played collection took action, making the NFT avatar completely out of the loop. A second-generation big collector who was born in a Boston consortium, with more than 10 million US dollars, collected nearly a hundred NFT avatars. The avatar has completely pushed the climax of public opinion!

No one expected that after ICQ went online, the first thing that became popular was the NFT avatar. All the stars, local tyrants, and game collectors made a big fight, which made the NFT avatar quickly become a symbol of identity and status. ICQ's NFT avatar seems to be With the value linked to real assets, when it is profitable, it will naturally attract more people to rush!

  ICQ office building, since last night's press conference, Song Yang has been staying here, staring at ICQ to prevent problems.

   At this moment, the technical department of ICQ is busy. Willis, who has bloodshot eyes, is full of excitement at the moment, and keeps instructing the people in the technical department, "Open another server for backup, and the backup server must be ready!"

   "Boss, is now a registered user of ICQ with real-time data!"

   Song Yang looked at the number of ICQ users in his hands, and couldn't help but look surprised. If this data were put out, it would immediately cause a sensation in the Internet industry.

   "Everyone has worked hard today, continue to keep an eye on it and handle ICQ online issues well. This month, everyone will get the bonus they deserve!"

   Hearing Song Yang's words, the staff on the entire ICQ office floor were all excited. They knew that this month's bonus and salary would be doubled.

   Kevin Kelly, who came to ICQ for an exclusive interview with the staff of Wired Magazine, saw ICQ's restless scene, smiled and said to Song Yang, "It seems that ICQ's situation should be good?!"

  Song Yang handed the report on the number of registered users of ICQ to Kevin Kelly. This data will definitely be found by outside data companies before long, so there is nothing to keep secret.

  Seeing the data in his hand, Kevin Kelly couldn't help but widen his eyes. Even if he expected it, seeing the number of user registrations on the first day of ICQ's launch made Kevin Kelly take a breath.

   When Wired Magazine conducted an exclusive interview with ICQ, major Internet technology companies were also waiting for third-party statistics companies, and Netscape was no exception to the statistics made by ICQ.

Netscape headquarters is a bit dull at the moment. Faced with Microsoft's pressing step by step, although Netscape seems to be able to withstand it, it has already declined, especially when Microsoft is constantly poaching Netscape allies and using various means. , Netscape situation is already quite bad.

Now, ICQ has appeared again, attracting more attention from the Internet industry. What Netscape is most worried about now is that once ICQ becomes a climate and the ICQ space community is completed, Netscape will probably be caught by the Internet industry. been marginalized.

   "Yeah, I've already registered for ICQ, our classmates and acquaintances have joined the ICQ group chat, and I even added a distant relative of mine as an ICQ friend, he is in London!

  Using ICQ to chat on the Internet is a completely different feeling from reality, it can make people see another side that has never been shown before…”

  Netscape headquarters, Anderson and Jim Clark watched the TV station. When a reporter interviewed a university, Anderson groaned when they saw this interview that was obviously biased towards ICQ.

   At this time, Netscape President Baxter came in from outside, but seeing Baxter's face, Anderson and Jim Clark had a bad feeling in their hearts.

   "Nielsen Statistics released the data on the first day of ICQ's launch, and the number of registered users now exceeds 87,000..."

   (end of this chapter)