Someone actually wanted to buy Foxmail, and Lin Haiquan was so touched he could cry. Speaking of Foxmail, it was truly an item with complex emotions for Boda Company.
In fact, Boda's acquisition of Foxmail wasn't that long ago, just a little over a year.
A year ago, Boda "married" Foxmail with an astonishing dowry of 12 million RMB. At the time, it was absolutely the most shocking news in the entire internet industry. After all, in 1999, more than half of QQ was only sold for 1.2 million USD. It could be said that in Boda's eyes, Foxmail was a product with the same status as QQ.
In fact, it was the same. Foxmail was launched in 1997, along with its English version. When it was acquired by Boda Network in 2000, Foxmail already had 4 million registered users in China.
What concept was this?
In early 2000, Tengda also had about the same number of users.
At the same time, Foxmail was also loved by many international users. After the English version was released, it had hundreds of thousands of users in over 20 countries, which was truly an astonishing achievement for domestic software in 2000.
Therefore, in the eyes of Boda Company, Foxmail in 2000 was an absolute treasure. Moreover, the concept of email was much hotter than the concept of instant messaging software at that time.
"Email," the English transliteration of email, had directly become a synonym for the internet in China. Basically, whenever the internet was mentioned, "email" would inevitably be mentioned.
So, at that time, Foxmail was gold in many people's eyes, and Boda Network truly pursued Foxmail with the greatest affection.
However, when Boda actually took over the operation of the Foxmail project from Zhang Xiaolong, Boda discovered the tricky part of Foxmail: although Foxmail had a large user base, it had no profit points.
From the very beginning, Foxmail was designed as a free email software. After all, Zhang Xiaolong didn't plan to make money back then. Now that Boda had taken over, after investing 12 million in hard cash, they were bound to want to make a profit. Then they discovered that they couldn't find a reasonable way to profit from Foxmail.
Some people might say this is nonsense, why not just announce that email will have a monthly membership fee!
Unfortunately, this was completely impossible. First of all, there were no convenient online payment tools at that time. Online payments could only be made by phone or game cards. Purchasing monthly cards was very difficult.
Secondly, users were already accustomed to the free model. If you suddenly charged a fee, all 4 million users would definitely run away, especially since NetEase Mail was eyeing Foxmail greedily.
At that time, all internet products in China relied on free services to rise. None of them could survive by charging fees... except for online games at that time.
However, the net of monthly card fees in online games was about to be "poisoned" by someone who sold "Brain Platinum."
If Foxmail couldn't make money but could continue to grow at a high speed, it would be fine. The company could survive by going public and by "drawing cakes." Most network companies in China at that time were like this, relying entirely on financial blood transfusions to survive.
But Foxmail's user base began to decline. This was the most fatal problem. In the eyes of later generations, Foxmail's failure was multifaceted. The most important reason seemed to be competition from NetEase Mail, Sina Mail, and others. But in fact, it was Zhang Xiaolong's own failure.
First, Zhang Xiaolong refused to embrace webmail and stuck to the client-side email path, which caused Foxmail to lose the convenience of the web. For users, the reason for choosing an email was usually very simple: it needed to open quickly and be ready with a single click.
Secondly, Foxmail became increasingly bloated. Zhang Xiaolong insisted that email development was moving towards security. Many subsequent upgrades were focused on anti-spam, anti-hacker, and anti-data-theft. This resulted in the client becoming increasingly bloated, slower to start, and lacking many convenient features from the user's perspective, such as attachment functions and password-less login.
Finally, there was Boda Company's own inadequacy. In the future, both NetEase Mail, Sina Mail, and QQ Mail would be supported by a huge network company and product network.
But Foxmail always fought alone. Boda Network never allowed Foxmail to open up new businesses, ultimately leading to its self-imposed isolation and decline.
Although Foxmail was still a long way from death, Boda Games already felt that it was unsustainable and difficult to continue supporting Foxmail.
After deliberation, Boda's management found two best ways for Foxmail to continue: one was to find another product line to achieve a two-legged approach for Foxmail. Acquiring oo was their important decision. Of course, this was also achieved through Zhang Xiaolong's rights advocacy, as Foxmail was his "own son," and he couldn't give up on it.
The second way was to sell Foxmail while it still seemed valuable to recoup company funds.
Lin Haiquan and others came to Jiangnan intending to take the first path, but unexpectedly, this path was completely blocked. Just as they were dejectedly preparing to return, who would have thought that the situation would turn around, and the second path would appear. Someone was willing to spend 20 million to acquire Foxmail, and Lin Haiquan was instantly tempted.
Of course, Lin Haiquan didn't shamelessly go back to discuss selling Foxmail with Huang He, as it was too embarrassing. Moreover, he didn't have the authority to make this decision, and it had to be reported to Zhu Yue!
So, while Lin Haiquan was hugging Zhang Xiaolong and saying that it was their non-tradable item, he immediately called Zhu Yue after returning to the hotel to ask for instructions on how to handle the events of the day.
"Wouldn't this be bad for Xiaolong?" Zhu Yue said hesitantly after listening to Lin Haiquan's request, "And I consulted Master Lin from Hong Kong, and he said that Zhang Xiaolong is a talent like a hidden dragon in the abyss, waiting for the right moment to transform into a dragon!"
Well, instead of considering whether selling it would be bad, he directly asked if this would be bad for Zhang Xiaolong. Zhu Yue's attitude was already very clear, after all, Foxmail was a money-losing business, and they couldn't see any glimmer of profit or hope.
"Boss, this is our only chance to escape!" Lin Haiquan actively persuaded, because if this deal was completed, the commission alone would be enough for him to buy a bedroom in the capital.
"It's rare to have a fool willing to take over this mess. This opportunity won't come again. Also, we don't need to worry about Xiaolong's problem. They specifically said they want to take Zhang Xiaolong with them, so Xiaolong will still be with his precious son. This is the best for him."
"Furthermore, it's a good thing that they are willing to buy Zhang Xiaolong. To be honest, Xiaolong is good at development, but he's really not suitable for management. Such people can't keep up with the trend of the times. Foxmail is just something he stumbled upon, and his achievements are limited to that; he won't be able to come up with anything good again."
"What 'waiting for the right moment to transform into a dragon' is all made up by novelists. Besides, didn't Fengyun eventually kill Xiong Ba? This Xiaolong, he's reached his peak in this life. You don't need to worry about him!" Zhang Xiaolong could never have imagined that Zhang Xiaolong, who had just hugged him and said it was a non-tradable item, would turn around and persuade the boss to sell him.