As a key project that Egret has been quietly incubating, 58list has been considered clearly in all aspects. Perhaps it is because of the consideration that the design plan of the first version of the homepage was directly killed by Simon.

Because it's too cumbersome.

Simon's memory of the classified information website in memory is very profound. At first glance, it is dense and a large amount of redundant information is rushing into your eyes, making you have no idea what to do.

The 58list team initially made a similar mistake.

In order to let users realize that their service is thoughtful and complete, the initial homepage plan has three screens.

Simon finally gave only one screen design space, and required simple and simple. At the current mainstream dial-up network speed, it must be turned on instantly without waiting.

This means that the homepage basically exists in full text.

Moreover, most non-mainstream classified information services have been cut off, and in the short term, they focus on operating three projects, real estate, work and second-hand projects. In fact, this basically covers more than 80% of classified information advertisements on paper media platforms.

The final page, in addition to the website logo and search box, is simply divided into four parts, real estate, work and second-hand as the main services, and also provides a forum for customer communication.

As a company that pioneered the World Wide Web era, there is no problem with Igrit in terms of technology.

If 58list wants to succeed, the key is operation.

For Simon, a latecomer, he knows better than anyone else about the false information, online fraud and other problems that the category directory website will encounter during the operation.

Therefore, during the preparation process of 58list, the legal team was formed as the top priority of this subsidiary.

Americans often speak as lawyers. Once they seek services on the 58list platform and encounter problems such as fraud, they will definitely point their finger at the wealthy Igrit.

Internet classified information services touched the foundation of the annual revenue of traditional paper media platforms up to US$20 billion. It can be imagined that as long as there is a dispute, paper media will never be stingy and hype the public opinion to the hottest and push Igret to the forefront.

It is almost the general trend that free Internet classified information services replace paid services for paper media.

Simon believes no one can stop this trend.

However, in this industry redistribution game that will never be calm, a strong legal team will be formed in advance and clear terms of rights and responsibilities can be established to maintain the smooth development of 58list to the greatest extent.

The last meeting before 58list was launched, and everyone had a meal together at the restaurant at the Igret headquarters at noon.

During this period, Egret has used US$1.5 billion in funds obtained from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to invest in multiple startups continuously. 58list is the only one wholly-owned subsidiary of Egret that is similar to Facebook, Google and Amazon. Therefore, it can be seen that senior management attaches importance to this project.

The CEO of 58list is Michael Novarek, 35 years old, graduated from MIT and worked at HP for five years.

After the establishment of Igret Company, Michael Novarek was poached to become one of the earliest employees of the company.

As a tech genius with a PhD and energetic, Michael Novarek has participated in the development of the Egret Portal's email and online forum projects.

Simon, Bezos, Tim Bonas Lee and Michael Novarek were sitting at a dining table in the restaurant.

Everyone continued to discuss some issues with the 58list business model. Seeing Michael Novarek's confidence, Simon asked: "Mike, the 20 billion US dollar traditional paper media classified information advertising market, how many do you think can be converted into revenue from the Internet industry in 10 years?"

Michael Novarek said: "In 10 years, even if the entire $20 billion output value cannot be converted due to the free features of the Internet, I believe that the industry scale of about $5 billion should still be there. Moreover, the low operating costs will allow us to have very high profit margins, which is incomparable to traditional paper media."

Simon looked at Bezos and Lee and asked, "How many do you think should be?"

Tim Berners Lee said: "I think it should be $5 billion, too."

Jeff Bezos probably felt Simon's intention and said: "What we are now carrying out is only classified information services similar to traditional paper media. With the development of the Internet industry, 58list can provide more classified value-added services in the future, thereby further expanding the market. US$5 billion, this number is not much."

Simon nodded slightly.

58list does not intend to pursue any profit in the short term, but during this period, the Igret team has also formulated more than one sustainable potential business model.

The former Craig Directory was a classified information website that monopolizes the North American market. Although it has a huge traffic, its annual revenue is only a few hundred million US dollars due to the founder's free operation philosophy.

Of course, because after many years of development, there are only a few dozen employees, the profit margins brought by the annual revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars in Craig Directory are also terrible, which has led to super Internet giants such as Yahoo, Google, and Facebook trying to enter the classified information market one after another.

The key to the success of the Craig Directory is free and monopoly.

This time, Igret started to make plans in advance, and it was even easier to rely on its own advantages to form a factual monopoly in this market.

However, it is very difficult to obtain a large amount of revenue from this.

Simon and the other three expressed their opinions, raised two fingers and said, "200 million US dollars."

Even if Bezos understands that Simon is pouring cold water on Michael Novarek, he is a little surprised. If 58list can only achieve $200 million in revenue in 10 years, the business will not be worth continuing.

Simon did not wait for the three of them to ask questions and actively explained: "According to the current free operation model, 58list is similar to a public service platform, and will continue for a long time in the future. Fortunately, our operating costs are very low. If we completely put aside the identity of the Igret subsidiary, I believe that even if we operate such a full text public service platform, even according to the user scale covering the entire federal government, it will only require dozens of employees, including office space, server expenses, etc., and the annual expenses will not exceed US$20 million."

Jeff Bezos and the other three have considerable technical foundations. Simon said this, and all three nodded in agreement.

If it is completely a free public service platform and does not pursue commercial operations, 58list does require only a few dozen employees and an equally small amount of other expenses.

Moreover, doing so can ensure that 58list has almost no competitors monopolize the category information service field.

After monopolizing the market, ensuring proper commercialization on the basis of free services will be very easy to earn US$200 million per year.

However, revenue of about US$200 million will probably be the limit.

$20 million in fixed cost expenditure will bring in $200 million in annual revenue. At that time, the platform's life will be very comfortable, but there will be no breakthrough.

Seeing that the three of them were all thinking, Simon stopped talking and picked up the tableware to continue his lunch.

After a while, Simon had almost eaten lunch, Michael Novarek smiled bitterly: "If we killed a $20 billion industry and only received a new $200 million market, would it be a bit too much?"

Simon put down the tableware and said, "From the public's perspective, it is actually equivalent to saving them $20 billion in spending every year, and many people want to thank us."

Jeff Bezos said: "The paper media group will want to kill us."

Simon said: "Every technological change means that many industries are eliminated. When steam looms first appeared, traditional workers rushed into factories to smash machines, but they could never save their jobs. On the contrary, those who set up mechanized textile factories in accordance with the trend have made a fortune. The steam revolution, the electrical revolution, are like this every time. Now, we are at the beginning of a brand new information revolution. Those who follow the trend will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. This is an inevitability that cannot be changed."

Tim Berners Lee couldn't help saying: "The beginning of the great era."

"Yes," Simon smiled, pointed to a few of himself, and then to the rest of the restaurant, saying, "A great era we have created ourselves."

Jeff Bezos and Tim Berners Lee both had a little more high expression when they heard this.

Michael Novarek also felt a little excited, but remembered Simon's words just now and said, "I still care more about my project."

Simon took back the topic just changed and said, "In fact, the $20 billion industry scale is still there. What I just said is just the worst result. The specific conversion depends on your work results. However, Mike, I need to remind you one more thing, 58list can continue to try to explore various business models, but never care about making money, users should be put first. All services of 58list must follow the principle of user first. If our platform services can make users feel worthwhile, they will naturally take out their own wallets. On the contrary, if everyone thinks that this is a platform that is rampant with scammers, false information is rampant, and only knows how to charge but cannot provide equivalent services, even if you monopolize the entire industry with your own advantages, compared with the potential market that could have been larger, what you will eventually get is a small cake with severe shrinkage."

Everyone understands the truth, it is easy to know and difficult to do.

For classified information services, what Simon can do is to remind the 58list team as much as possible not to go the wrong direction of development.

Moreover, compared to Igrit's huge layout in other fields, this part of the business is not the core after all. If Michael Novarek screws up, Simon will decisively adjust the subsidiary to a free public service platform, which is considered a public welfare act of Igrit.

After the meeting on that day, 58list quietly went online on Wednesday, August 11.

This service is too obvious to traditional print media. Therefore, the Igrit portal did not provide any big publicity, which actually largely avoided the direct outbreak of user needs and gave the 58list team relatively sufficient room to explore.

However, as a classified information service platform with the same-city model as the core, if it is done by other startups, they may only be able to choose one or two cities to conduct business. 58list has strong technical support from Igret. After it is opened, it directly covers the capital cities of 50 states in the United States and some other urban areas with a large population.

Although it has not been widely promoted, as a service interface application that is parallel to Facebook, Google, and Amazon on the homepage of the Igrit portal, it can also be logged in directly through the Igrit email address. The service is completely free. In just a few days, a large number of users have poured into the 58list website. In just three days, the number of posts in various sectors exceeded 1 million.

The charging standards for classified information advertisements on newspaper platforms vary according to factors such as circulation, ranging from about a few dozen to a few hundred dollars.

58list exceeded 1 million posts in just three days. If the charging standards of newspaper platforms are based on the newspaper platform, it is equivalent to potential losses of 50 million to 100 million US dollars to the paper media industry.

In recent years, many people have never believed that the rise of the Internet industry will bring too much impact to traditional media. With the launch of 58list, everyone has finally clearly felt a real threat.

Even though most paper media platforms instinctively show a evasive attitude towards the popularity of 58list after it was launched, and even the Igret Portal itself keeps a low profile with the mentality of quietly entering the village, the launch of this online service has inevitably attracted the attention of some people.

A financial interview program on CNN channel even made a special topic on 58list on Monday, detailing the popularity of this online service and the potential threat to traditional print media.

So, the news began to spread naturally.

In addition, the 58list interface is placed on the homepage of the IGRENT portal that is necessary after opening the IE browser, which is very convenient to use. Some users who were not interested in it also clicked in quietly.

More professional real estate or recruitment information may not be used in a short period of time, so the second-hand market has become the target of most users.

Second-hand transactions in the United States are very developed. Whether it is car furniture or toys, as long as you want, some people will sell them or buy them. What's more, this platform is not like newspapers, and you don't have to spend a penny. Some things that you don't need to use for a long time can be put on at your fingertips. If you can sell them for dozens of dollars, why not?

In order to expand business, many service platforms in Simon remember are always used to concealing the potential risks of related services from users.

58list didn't do that.

Before a user posts, the first thing he needs to read is the website terms and fraud prevention statement carefully formulated by the 58list legal team to remind him of the potential risks of using the platform to trade, and he can only continue to post after the user clicks the consent button.
Chapter completed!