"Is this Silicon Valley?" Ding Ming sat in a taxi and looked at the buildings in the distance with a pilgrimage mentality.

"This is Silicon Valley, a place full of miracles." Zhang Chaoyang sighed a little. He has been to Silicon Valley several times before, and half of them were to seek entrepreneurial funds.

Zhang Chaoyang went abroad very smoothly, after all, he lived in the United States for several years. Ding Ming went abroad as a Chinese technology employee and obtained a commercial visa. Sohu company is too small and the visa officer will not give him any good face.

"Xiao Ding, do you think a search engine is really worth millions of dollars?" Zhang Chaoyang was deeply suspicious.

Zhang Chaoyang's Internet thinking is similar to most practitioners at this time. He wants to build portal websites to accumulate traffic and refinancing and list. His purpose of working as a search engine is like Lifang (Sina), NetEase and foreign companies. It is just a tool to attract users - just search engines can be used, and there is no need to be too smart, otherwise it may lose (portal website) users.

Zhang Chaoyang thought it was feasible to spend hundreds of thousands of yuan to buy search technology. But spending millions of dollars to buy search technology is purely full!

Ding Ming, from the perspective of Internet users, said: "If we have the smartest and most advanced search engine, it will definitely attract netizens. When they go online, they will inevitably search content on our website. Wouldn't the traffic increase rapidly?"

Ding Ming also did not realize the true value of search engines, but just regarded it as an auxiliary tool to increase website visits.

Zhang Chaoyang shook his head and said, "Have you ever thought about it? If our search engine is so useful, netizens may go to other websites if they search for content and websites they like. Isn't this the same as we actively push our users to the competitors?"

Ding Ming said: "But our search engine is easy to use, and users will still come back to search for content."

"Then what other portal website should we do? Let's just make search websites!" Zhang Chaoyang said angrily.

"Yes, you can do a special search website." Ding Ming's eyes lit up.

Zhang Chaoyang said: "The problem is that special search websites are not very valuable. Although Yahoo makes a fortune by search engines, they sell content and their main business is portals. Yahoo is the most successful Internet model and the most feasible Internet model. Focusing on search engines will lead to a dead end."

Ding Ming remained silent because he didn't know how to refute.

These days, it is really hard to make a lot of money by working in a search engine, and it is difficult to attract large investments.

When Google was booming in history, it shocked everyone and made everyone feel unbelievable.

That night, Zhang Chaoyang and Ding Ming stayed in the hotel, and Yoscott Hasson met at a cafe near Stanford the next day.

...

Three tech teenagers in jeans walked out of campus, namely Google's three founders: Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Scott Hasson.

"Can Chinese Internet companies spend 3 million US dollars?" Larry was deeply suspicious.

Scott smiled and said, "Who knows? I won't suffer any loss when I meet you anyway."

"I don't think I should sell pagerank, it's the most advanced search algorithm in the world. $3 million is a loss," Sergei said.

"It's a big profit for $3 million," Scott said. "No one is willing to buy $1.6 million in Silicon Valley."

Larry frowned and said, "I don't think I should sell it either. Who can tell the Internet? Perhaps, as long as we wait for another year, the pagerank algorithm will be worth $10 million."

Scott laughed, "Then try talking about authorization."

Larry and Sergey were both relatively simple students at this time and did not know any big bosses. All business negotiations were initiated by Scott. Although Scott did not get any shares later and was little known, the industry calls him "the third founder of Google."

These three guys are very ideal. Their goal is to make money through Internet technology and then use the money to build a machine - a space elevator.

Simply put, it is to tie a "rope" on the earth's orbit. This "rope" remains relatively unchanged as the earth moves, so people can reach space along the "rope".

OK, it's pure nonsense.

Who hasn't had a fantasy of his student days yet?

Unlike Bill Gates's background, Larry and Sergei both came from ordinary families, and their parents were senior intellectuals. Larry's family was left-wing and was keen on the civil rights movement, while Sergei's family was a Soviet immigrant.

Walking into the restaurant, Larry pointed to the corner and said, "There are two Asian faces over there, are they?"

"Maybe, go over and ask," Scott walked over and smiled, "Are you Mr. Zhang and Mr. Ding from China?"

"Yes, hello!" Zhang Chaoyang and Ding Ming immediately stood up to shake hands.

They introduced each other and everyone started chatting quickly.

Ding Ming said: "3 million US dollars is too expensive, we will bid up to $1 million."

"In fact, I don't want to sell $3 million, so we'd better talk about authorization," Larry said.

"Since I don't want to sell, then stop talking," Zhang Chaoyang waited for this sentence. He said, "I came to the United States this time mainly to discuss financing. There are two American companies willing to invest in Sohu."

Scott quickly eased the atmosphere: "Don't worry, everyone, business negotiations, you should take it slowly, it's normal to bargain."

Ding Ming said: "I only buy the pagerank algorithm, not the backrub search engine."

Sergei was a little unhappy because the pagerank algorithm belonged to Larry alone, and he only participated in the research and development and design of the backrub search engine. He immediately said, "It seems that the two gentlemen are not sincere, so they can't reach an agreement."

"Yes, no need to talk about it." Larry was also very loyal to his buddy and was unwilling to eat alone.

Scott immediately stopped him, took out his laptop and said, "Two Chinese gentlemen, backrub is the best search engine in the world, so we might as well try it first."

Zhang Chaoyang inputted a keyword casually and carefully checked the results. He found that the contents of the first 20 were very consistent with his wishes.

Ding Ming also tried it, the same is true.

The two looked at each other and were shocked. Sohu also developed a "smart search engine" at the end of last year, but it lacked reasonable algorithms, which was just easier to use than traditional ones.

Zhang Chaoyang casually strokes on the desktop, looking like he is thinking, but in fact he wrote a Chinese character - buy!

Search engines are not uncommon, but such a useful search engine will inevitably achieve great success, and it would be a pity to miss it.

Ding Ming asked: "Why is the pagerank algorithm not patented?"

"Uh, applying." Larry replied.

"Then let's wait until the patent application is successful before we talk about it." Ding Ming said.

Only then did the gods know when they could apply successfully. Scott said: "Whether there is a patent does not hinder our cooperation. We can talk about ordinary licenses for search engines, or exclusive licenses for China."

Ding Ming said: "We don't want search engines, we just need to search algorithms!"

"Sorry, the algorithm is not sold." Larry said angrily.

"Perhaps, the two gentlemen can go back and think about it," Scott said.

"Of course, we will consider it." Zhang Chaoyang said.

The first negotiation ended unhappily.

When he returned to the hotel, Ding Ming immediately called Song Weiyang across the country and explained the situation in detail.

Song Weiyang asked: "Do they really don't sell it? Or are they waiting for a price?"

Ding Ming said: "They have a very firm attitude. It seems that they are really not going to sell algorithms. They are just planning to talk about search engine authorization cooperation."

Song Weiyang thought for a while and said, "In this way, US$1 million will be used to permanently buy out the exclusive Chinese authorization of the pagerank algorithm. In the future, as long as the search engine of the pagerank algorithm is used, it will not be authorized to other Chinese websites."

"This seems to be feasible, and Americans do not attach much importance to the Chinese market," said Ding Ming.
Chapter completed!