Life in the countryside is tough—very few people can escape it. You’re already on the right path, and it’s fine to have some fun along the way. As long as you keep moving forward, that’s what matters…”

In later years, people would clamor about rural development, always saying how much they love their hometowns. But that’s only because the cities became too competitive, so they all ran back to the countryside. When urban clusters were developing at lightning speed, did you ever see anyone professing love for their hometown?

To put it bluntly, the countryside will always be the safety net.

But right now, it’s 2001, and the countryside is truly poor and truly hard—completely different concepts.

“……”

Brian Clark was stunned. It was the first time he’d heard someone interpret his going to college from this angle. Suddenly, he felt a bit of admiration for his big brother—so deep!

But the next second, that guy asked, “So how much have you actually saved up?”

“Three or four thousand yuan, I guess.”

“I’ve got a little over a thousand, saved up bit by bit for living expenses. My thousand plus your three or four thousand should be enough. Here’s the thing—I’ve thought of a business idea, need some startup capital. You give me the money, I’ll handle the operations, and you’ll be in charge of the tech.

If you’re worried, let’s set a deadline—how about Spring Festival? By then, if we’ve made money, we split the profits. If not, I’ll definitely return your principal.

Listen, I’m only bringing you in because you’re my brother—other people would beg for this chance and not get it…”

Brian Clark was shocked!!!

Brian Clark stared at this shameless man, who with just a few words had turned his money into his own!

“Bro!”

“That’s settled, then.”

“No, wait!”

“We’ll talk details later.”

“No, I, I, I…”

Smack!

William Clark pulled two crumpled sheets of paper from his pocket and slapped them on the table. “I wrote something down—it’s all solid info, will help you quickly understand what we’re doing. Take it home and digest it.

Actually, the timing isn’t great—we’re about to start school. But most of this can be done online, so it’s doable.”

“……”

Brian Clark wanted to refuse, but he instinctively glanced at the paper. The most eye-catching thing, circled in red, were a few big characters:

“SMS Alliance, Passionate Friend-Making!”

Hiss!

Brian Clark sucked in a cold breath. “Bro, are you doing something dirty?”

“Get lost!”

“Does ‘passion’ have to mean something dirty? Does ‘making friends’ have to involve supernatural relationships? You see a short sleeve and think of a white arm, see a white arm and think of full nudity—your display of the worst national traits is just perfect!”

William Clark was righteous and indignant: “I despise you!”

……

So, the internet can be roughly divided into four stages:

The first stage was from the mid-to-late 1990s until the bubble burst. The internet had just emerged and shocked the world—a 100% new industry, a gold mine, all about high concepts.

Countless investors rushed in, waving cash, eager to join the game. You could throw out any concept, make a prototype, and get a huge investment, then go public and cash out in no time.

The US was the main base—almost all ideas and products spread from America to the rest of the world.

For example, China’s three major portals were modeled after Yahoo, Baidu after Google, Dangdang after Amazon, and QQ after ICQ—ICQ was developed by Israelis and later acquired by an American company.

With so much capital backing, the internet barely faced any startup challenges. The model was:

Propose a concept → develop a product → get venture capital → initial user acquisition → big capital investment → burn money to expand → burn money to expand → burn money to expand.

It’s still like this today.

The second stage was from the bubble burst to the recovery of financing in 2003.

The bubble burst from early 2000 to October 2002, wiping out $5 trillion in market value worldwide and causing countless companies to go bankrupt.

Sina’s stock price fell to $1.06, Sohu to 60 cents, NetEase almost got delisted, and Pony Ma wanted to sell QQ for a million.

The two core problems for internet products: traffic and monetization.

With stocks crashing, investors stopped putting in money. Websites had solved the first problem, sitting on tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of users, but had no idea how to monetize—just scraping by on meager ad revenue and losing money every day.

The third stage was from 2003 until the advent of smartphones.

After the winter ended, the internet industry quickly recovered, and investors came rushing back with cash.

During this stage, hardware, internet speed, and payment systems all improved greatly. A new generation of products emerged, like video sites and group-buying platforms.

The fourth stage is from the appearance of smartphones to the present.

Let’s set that aside for now and return to the issues of the second stage.

Right now is the internet winter. Not knowing how to monetize is the biggest headache for all web companies.

But in the end, China’s three major portals survived, and QQ survived too. Not only did they survive, but they even became profitable before the winter ended.

Why?

Because they had a great benefactor: China Mobile!

Chapter 5: SMS Alliance

In the past, the post office wasn’t called the post office—it was the Post and Telecommunications Bureau.

Later, it was split into two departments: Postal Services and Telecommunications. Telecommunications became China Telecom. Then, on April 20, 2000, China Mobile was separated from Telecom and became an independent company.