In his previous life, Huang He had been curious about what the core server base stations of Tengda looked like. However, he heard that Tengda had moved most of its servers to Guizhou, excavating an entire mountain range to house them.
Huang He never had the chance to witness it, but he could see the current server station of Jiangnan Network. It was actually a room of about 100 square meters.
However, what was most striking in this room were not the server units, but six air conditioning units installed in various directions. All six air conditioners were in operation, reducing the temperature of the entire room to around 20 degrees Celsius. A normal person entering the room without enough clothing would shiver.
So, who enjoyed such supreme service?
Cough, cough, it wasn't people who enjoyed such service, but three large black metal cabinets.
These were the servers for oo.
But don't underestimate these three metal cabinets. These were imported server units from abroad, each costing as much as 1 million yuan. Three units amounted to 3 million yuan. More than half of Huang He's 5 million yuan investment had been sunk into these servers.
Such treatment made Chen Shoufu feel extremely extravagant. He recalled that the best server he had used before was his own computer modified for the purpose, costing only 6,000 yuan in total.
The server setup before him was truly too extravagant.
"Chairman, isn't this a bit too much? I estimate we won't even use half of the server's computing power in the first year!" Chen Shoufu said somewhat reluctantly.
Actually, there was some exaggeration in his words, because according to Chen Shoufu's estimate, by the end of 2001, let alone half of the server's computing power and traffic, even one-tenth would be difficult to utilize.
This showed how much confidence Chen Shoufu lacked in defeating Tengda and QQ.
"You said one server unit can handle how many people online simultaneously?" Huang He asked, turning his head.
"If it's simultaneous online, it should be around 500,000 people!" Chen Shoufu replied.
"Then how many such server units does Tengda have?" Huang He asked again.
"I'm not sure, but according to Tengda's data released this year, they achieved 10 million registered users and a peak of 2 million concurrent users. So I think they need at least four such server units to accommodate 2 million concurrent users. However, that would be very laggy. To achieve the current smooth performance, at least six server units are needed!" Chen Shoufu analyzed.
"Very good. Then our goal this year is to ensure that all three server units are working at full capacity 24 hours a day!" Huang He looked at the server units with a greedy glint in his eyes, while Chen Shoufu was stunned.
All three server units working at full capacity would mean at least 1.2 million concurrent users online, which was half of Tengda's current user base.
My heavens, in an era when Tengda already dominated everything, wasn't Boss Huang dreaming?
"Don't be so discouraged!" Huang He looked at Chen Shoufu, noticing the complete lack of confidence on his face, and immediately encouraged him. "Tengda isn't perfect yet, and we still have many ways to surpass it. So, we need to do the first step well, which is the product itself. Before it's launched on the entire internet, I want to experience the internal testing version of oo!"
"Yes, Chairman!" Chen Shoufu immediately led Huang He to a computer. The computer's desktop was very simple, with only system icons and icons necessary for work. The first thing that caught the eye was the oo icon.
According to the oo official website, the oo icon was oo's mascot, an adorable and charming panda. It depicted a panda in a seated position, with a large black and white round face, small white feet, and a microphone held in a small hand, forming a panda image that was striving forward, loved to communicate, and was good at interacting with people.
The description of the icon was not wrong, but anyone looking at it for the first time would have no reaction, thinking, isn't this just the QQ icon? It's exactly the same!
Of course, that wasn't the case. This was mainly because the monitors of that era were too low-end and had low resolution, making high-definition display impossible. Therefore, at first glance, it was easy to mistake it.
If you switched to a 1080p monitor (if you could afford it or get one at that time), or if you looked at the screen up close, you would discover that it wasn't a penguin at all, but indeed a panda holding a microphone.
"The icon is nice!" Huang He nodded with satisfaction. "Give all the artists a 100 yuan salary increase!"
"Thank you, Chairman!" The ten artists in the team immediately said joyfully. The entire team of 30 people were gathered around Huang He, and they could all hear his words clearly.
Next, Huang He clicked on the program, and a screen popped up asking the user to enter their account and password.
Well, this interface looked similar to QQ, with blue and white color schemes. However, the colors were a sky blue with a white glow and a glass-like texture, exuding a sense of sophistication.
In contrast, QQ's color scheme was simply white + blue, lacking any sense of sophistication.
At this point, some might say, "This description isn't good enough. It's too vague. How can I know what that sophisticated color scheme login interface looks like?"
It's simple. Open your mobile QQ now and look at the color scheme of the mobile QQ login page in 2021. oo is using that exact color scheme.
For this color scheme, Huang He and Chen Shoufu spent an entire evening selecting color effects on the computer.
Although the display screens of that era could not achieve the color richness of 2021 display screens, the approximation of the effect and concept could be replicated.
Simply put, it looked high-class!
At the same time, during the meeting, Huang He clearly stated to everyone that although they were copying QQ, they couldn't copy everything. Copying everything would lead to jail time. They would only copy QQ's UI layout and user experience. Copying these would not result in jail time, as they were not protected by intellectual property rights!
However, in terms of color and art, they absolutely could not copy. Not only could they not copy, but they had to far surpass QQ's current interface color scheme, creating an unprecedented sense of sophistication. They needed to create a difference from QQ here, making everyone feel that oo was more advanced than QQ at the very first glance.
They wanted people to feel that QQ was a rustic village girl, while they were refined ladies from good families.
"We are copying, but also surpassing the opponent. This is called 'copy-surpass'!" Huang He left behind such a classic famous quote at the end of the meeting.
Later, all Jiangnan people remembered this famous quote. But strangely, this quote could not be seen anywhere in the company, which showed how low-key our Boss Huang was.
Huang He's words were fully implemented, which was why a thirty-person team had as many as 10 artists.
After all, Tengda's entire QQ development team was 100 people at that time, but only three of them were artists. QQ did not value art much when it was first created, and only started to do so when QQ began developing games.
"No, there's a problem here!" Looking at the login interface, Huang He pondered for a moment, and then his expression became serious.
"Ah, Chairman, what's the problem?" Chen Shoufu was startled. He had strictly followed Huang He's orders to copy QQ's approach in everything.
"Login is too slow!" Huang He shook his head. "Old Chen, why do we need to input oo numbers and passwords for login? We can completely avoid entering all this messy stuff and just log in by clicking!"