The exact time of going live is uncertain; next week is the Sanjiang recommendation, and based on past experience, we will go live the week after. So please be patient.
Additionally, 20 updates upon going live is just the minimum guarantee… This is explicitly a minimum, meaning at least 20 updates. There will be activities on the day we go live, so even 30 updates is highly likely.
However, 30 updates is the limit. If there are any unfinished ones, they will be made up successively afterwards. At the same time, the base update speed after going live will increase, from a minimum daily update of 4000+ characters to 6000+ characters. As for further increases in daily updates, that will depend on subscription numbers.
Old readers know that I am the man who maintained a daily update of 16000+ characters for over a month and a half.
“Are you really the CEO of Jiangnan Computer?” amidst the shock of people nationwide, the interview officially began. The reporter, with a forceful opening, asked the question that all viewers most wanted to know: was this young girl truly the CEO of the company?
“After the interview, you can verify. All our data and information are open to you. Ask whatever you wish. If you find that I am not the CEO of this company, you can directly cut this interview!” Leng Zhimeng said with a brilliant smile, then pointed to her forehead, “Or when the show airs, you can add a special effect text here, pointing out that I am a liar!”
“Hahaha!” The reporter was amused by Leng Zhimeng’s words. At the same time, a special effect indeed appeared on the screen, with a line of text above Leng Zhimeng’s head: “After reporter confirmation, Leng Zhimeng is indeed the Chief Executive Officer of Jiangnan Computer Services Co., Ltd.”
“Then are you a student? Why are you wearing a school uniform?” the reporter asked curiously.
“I just graduated from high school this year and did not get into university, so I am no longer a student. As for the school uniform, firstly, I genuinely like wearing school uniforms. Secondly, you are here, and I wanted to leave a lasting impression on the audience, so I decided to wear a school uniform. This way, you would ask me why I am wearing one!” Leng Zhimeng’s words made the reporter laugh again, and the viewers in front of the television were also amused by this eloquent young girl, marveling at how smart and well-spoken she was!
This was in 2001, and it was an interview with CCTV. To have such a playful answer, one had to admit that these two answers alone successfully left an extremely deep impression of Leng Zhimeng in the minds of people nationwide.
Moreover, it was an excellent impression. After all, who wouldn’t like a smart, cute, playful, and wealthy young girl? Even the executives in Tengda’s conference room, at least a dozen of them, were captivated by Leng Zhimeng.
After all, professional women in the industry were very rare at this time, especially those as young, beautiful, and playful as Leng Zhimeng. It was impossible not to be moved. Even our Mr. Ma couldn’t help but curl the corners of his mouth slightly, only to regain his solemn expression when he realized his expression was a bit too casual.
“Then, I believe you are aware of the sensational news currently circulating in society. May I ask, do you think such incidents are isolated or a very common behavior?” The reporter finally began asking serious questions.
“Well, how should I put it? Two men fighting is certainly an isolated incident. However, situations like falsely reporting gender or other personal information are definitely very common,” Leng Zhimeng replied.
“You say common?” the reporter emphasized, asking with some surprise.
“Yes, I say common!” Leng Zhimeng also emphasized.
“Then do you have specific data?” the reporter asked again.
“We don’t have that, because we don’t know who is behind our accounts – male or female. However, before we created oo, we conducted market research and found that about 15% of accounts had cases of gender concealment,” Leng Zhimeng said.
“You’re saying you knew about this situation before creating oo?” the reporter asked in surprise.
“Yes. Since we are developing an instant messaging software like oo, we must conduct thorough market research for the entire market. Only then can our product grow better in the market. This is a necessary step!” Leng Zhimeng smiled.
“This woman is indeed ill-intentioned, isn’t she trying to slander us?” In Tengda’s conference room, Zeng Qing directly lashed out. Although Leng Zhimeng hadn’t mentioned Tengda’s name at all, the data before oo was established was essentially QQ’s data, wasn’t it?
She was implying that 15% of QQ accounts were “gender-benders,” wasn’t she?
“It’s normal for them to say that. We can only say they were better prepared for this interview than we were,” Mr. Ma said lightly, but the smile was gone from his face.
“Since your company knew about this situation before operating, have you made any preparations to deal with it? Is your current product capable of preventing such phenomena?” the reporter asked in the interview.
“Preventing it is absolutely impossible with the current technological conditions!” Leng Zhimeng shook her head. “I don’t want to lie to you and the audience with safe, conventional words. Given the nature of online chat, guaranteeing 100% accurate information is impossible. Even in reality, it’s impossible to make such a guarantee!”
“Then you must have some countermeasures!”
“Well, we did come up with what could be called a not-so-perfect solution!” Leng Zhimeng smiled. “Since information can be faked, we’ve decided not to require our users to provide their personal details. Therefore, our registration process is very simple, requiring only your name, gender, and birthday. We won’t ask for any other information!”
“Won’t that affect the chatting experience?”
“Actually, it won’t. Because chatting is about two interesting souls connecting, not about chatting based on each other’s interests, backgrounds, or education. If you chat based on those things, it’s not a pure collision of souls. That’s not the product goal we’re pursuing. Our product always aims to bring two interesting souls together!”
“I see!” the reporter nodded. “However, you mentioned that your product still requires gender to be filled in. In online chats, there will always be people looking for relationships or boyfriends and girlfriends. In that case, wouldn’t that still be deceiving users?”
“This is a fact, and it’s also where we haven’t done a good enough job!” Leng Zhimeng nodded, then stood up and bowed towards the camera, saying, “Here, I want to apologize to all oo users. We truly did not handle this aspect properly, which may lead to some users having a very bad experience. This is our fault, and we sincerely apologize to you!”
“She actually admitted it!” In Tengda’s conference room, Li Dan’s bread dropped onto the table. When he was interviewed previously, the reporter had asked the same question, but he had struggled to avoid it, shifting all the blame to the internet and users.
But this Leng Zhimeng, she admitted it so readily?
“This Leng Zhimeng is too stupid. She actually admitted it. Doing something so foolish means she’s finished!” Zeng Qing scoffed without hesitation.
“Yes, since she admitted it, she’s finished!” The thoughts of everyone at Tengda were the same. In fact, the thoughts of people at all large corporations were the same: it's okay to be criticized, but admitting mistakes is absolutely not allowed.
Otherwise, consider this: in the next twenty years of Tengda, when has it ever admitted a mistake?
However, the Tengda people couldn’t figure out why oo would be finished after admitting its mistake. They also didn’t know what consequences admitting a mistake would entail.
“You admit this is your company’s mistake?” On the other side, the reporter also asked again with some surprise.
“Of course, this is an imperfection in our product design, and it is our mistake!” Leng Zhimeng admitted again.
“Then, for such a mistake, do you have a solution?” the reporter asked curiously.
“How should I put it? Since that incident happened over a week ago, our entire development team hasn’t gone home for over a week. We’ve been staying at the company, and we’ve managed to come up with a way to deal with it,” Leng Zhimeng said.
“What way?” the reporter asked curiously.
“Voice!” Leng Zhimeng said word by word. “Information and text can be faked, but voice cannot. As long as we hear the voice, we can know the other person’s gender!”
“What do you mean by that? Can you explain it more specifically?” The reporter was also surprised, asking with a hint of bewilderment in her voice.
“Tomorrow, we will release the latest oo 2001 version. In this brand new version, we will be launching the groundbreaking ‘oo Voice’ feature. As long as you plug a microphone into your computer and connect headphones or speakers, no matter how far apart two people are, through our oo, they can chat directly using their voice!” Leng Zhimeng said in her clear and pleasant high school girl’s voice.