"Hmm!" Huang He continuously operated on the QQ, making humming sounds. The surrounding development team watched Huang He nervously, worried he might come up with more suggestions.
The previous two suggestions definitely needed to be revised. If Boss Huang was in a hurry, they might have to revise them overnight and work overtime again, which was a pain!
But as fate would have it, after about ten minutes of waiting and a complete experience of the entire QQ, Boss Huang spoke.
"The avatars are problematic!" Huang He pointed to the avatar on his new account, which was identical to the QQ icon. "Do you think an avatar like this can attract friends to chat with you?"
"We can change avatars!" Chen Shoufu quickly replied. "We provide over 100 different avatar images for replacement. Besides that, users can upload their own avatars."
"This is my second point. What kind of rubbish are the avatar images you provided!" Huang He tapped the table. "A cartoon chick? A cartoon duck? There are also 3D graphics, landscape paintings, and even simple color combinations. Do you think avatars like these will catch the eye at first glance?"
"But the system avatars provided by QQ are basically like this too!" Chen Shoufu argued. "Didn't you ask us to copy... no, to draw inspiration from it?"
"Yes, but I also said that if you copy, you should copy well, and you should copy smartly!" Huang He made exaggerated gestures to express his mood. "Tengda's avatars were created when we only had two designers. Now that we have ten designers, you give me these default avatars?"
"Then Chairman, what kind of avatars do you think can attract users? We're not really sure!" Chen Shoufu said helplessly.
"I don't know everyone's exact preferences, but I do know that for normal people, there's a desire to make themselves look better!"
"So, the simplest thing is to add 100 handsome male avatars, 100 beautiful female avatars, and 100 anime character avatars to these system-provided images. Kids nowadays love anime, so this will be attractive to them."
"Yes!" The art team members looked dejected. It seemed they would also have to work overtime.
"But Chairman, these handsome and beautiful avatar images require portrait rights. If we use them randomly, we'll be sued."
"It's fine, I'll contact someone to get 200 models for you, take photos, and sign a portrait rights authorization agreement!" Huang He said.
"What about the anime avatars? Those should also be copyrighted, right?" Chen Shoufu asked. "But most anime copyrights are in Fusang. We can't get the copyrights quickly..."
"It's fine, use them for now. Use them for half a year. Once the users are stable, we'll delete this batch of anime avatars. By then, I estimate that no one in Fusang will even know about this matter!" Huang He waved his hand.
Huang He was right. By the time this batch of anime avatars was deleted from the official avatar library after half a year, no one noticed the copyright infringement issues. It wasn't until later that an old employee from Jiangnan wrote a memoir mentioning this incident, and the people of Fusang suddenly realized it. Unfortunately, it was a matter of over ten years ago, and no one could do anything about it. They could only curse Jiangnan for being shameless.
After that, Huang He made more than ten additional revision suggestions, leaving the entire QQ team with constipated expressions. Of course, Boss Huang noticed all of this.
Boss Huang knew that once the company grew, employees could be pressured as much as they wanted, but in the early stages, they had to ensure the employees' morale was extremely high. So, Boss Huang added, "If completed within three days with no serious bugs, everyone will be rewarded with 2,000 yuan in cash, paid on the spot!"
"Long live the Chairman!" Everyone's faces instantly lit up with smiles, and their morale soared. Boss Huang nodded with satisfaction, then patted Chen Shoufu's shoulder, signaling him to follow him out.
"The issues I pointed out just now are minor. Do you know what our real problem is?" Boss Huang asked with a smile as they walked through the still half-empty third workshop.
"Technically, we have no problems. The real problem is with the users!" Chen Shoufu's face was filled with uncertainty. "Chairman, we can fix all the problems you just raised, we can change them, but we can't change the problem with new users!"
"Currently, among all internet users in China who use instant messaging software, besides a small number using MSN, over 90% use QQ. These are all loyal QQ users because all their friends are on QQ, and they can't leave QQ. The user stickiness is extremely astonishing!"
"As for newcomers who use instant messaging software for the first time, they are almost all invited to open QQ by their friends. They are naturally QQ users, and they have no choice because their friends who have already opened QQ are all on QQ. It's very difficult for us to take them away!" Chen Shoufu sighed. "Chairman, to be honest, let alone defeating QQ, even snatching a group of users from QQ has only about a 1% success rate. It's really too difficult!"
"What you're saying is all true, but is it too late to say it now?" Huang He smiled slightly. "Before I decided to hire you, I already knew about these problems, but I still chose to fight. Do you think I have no trump card?"
"Hmm!" Chen Shoufu raised his head curiously, looking at Huang He, not knowing what trump card his boss held.
"The first trump card is your Coral QQ!" Huang He said calmly. "As far as I know, the number of users logging into QQ using your Coral QQ has exceeded 1 million! You haven't abandoned your Coral QQ, have you?"
"No!" Chen Shoufu shook his head. He had considered abandoning Coral QQ, as he had already started his own product. Who would want to operate such a thing? However, Huang He had asked him not to abandon it, and instead, allocated resources specifically to Coral QQ to keep it running.
"Do you know what would have happened if I hadn't found you and you had continued to operate Coral QQ?" Huang He asked again.
"There might be some legal risks!" Chen Shoufu replied honestly.
"It's not 'might be,' it's 'definitely will be sent to jail.' You will be imprisoned by Tengda for copyright infringement, at least for three years. It's a warning to deter everyone else who covets Tengda's user data, making them tremble and never dare to plot against Tengda!" Huang He's words made Chen Shoufu's legs go weak. For some reason, in his heart, he could already see the terrifying scene of himself being imprisoned and serving three full years in jail.