Chapter 184 The best
Chapter 184 The best
After hanging up the call with Macaulay, An Rushong took Jiang Xiuyuan's arm again and went upstairs with her.
After returning to his office, An Rushong first pressed the power switch of the desktop computer, and then, before the system started up, he called attorney Thomson.
The call was automatically disconnected and no one answered. An Rusong was not in a hurry. He turned around and continued to tinker with his computer.
I logged into the server backend of NGN company and checked the relevant data of NGN software.
After completing the first round of financing for NGN, with the investment from DFJ and Apple in NGN, and especially with the international promotion of the “Photo Wall” application, the number of registered users of NGN software has grown by leaps and bounds. In just one week, the number of registered users of NGN software has exceeded 6500 million.
If there is any problem, it is that the registered users of NGN software are still mainly concentrated in Asia, specifically Japan and South Korea. Interestingly, the number of registered users in Japan has now completely surpassed that in South Korea, making Japan the largest audience region for NGN software.
An Rushong retrieved the user growth data for the past week and was about to make a curve chart to get a more intuitive understanding of the data growth when the cell phone he had just put aside rang. Looking at the caller ID, the call was from attorney Thomson.
Putting the mouse aside temporarily, An Rusong pressed the answer button on the phone, then pressed the hands-free button, and then heard Thomson's unpleasant voice coming from the speaker of the phone: "Hey, An, my friend, I'm very sorry, I was just answering an international call and couldn't answer your call in time."
"Don't mind, Thomson," An Rusong took out a pencil from the pen holder and spun it on his finger while smiling, "It's my impolite call that disturbed you."
"Haha, Ann, I think we should not be so polite to each other?" Thomson said with a smile.
"You are right," An Rusong said, "Then I will speak frankly."
"OK," Thomson said.
"It's like this, Thomson, I was attacked today," An Rusong said bluntly, "Someone tried to pour a bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid on my face."
"Oh, shit!" Thompson cursed subconsciously, and then asked anxiously, "Are you okay?"
"Of course I'm fine, otherwise I wouldn't be able to call you," An Rusong said, "I just got a little hurt on my hand, it's not serious."
"Thank God," Thomson said. "I have to say that Seoul's public security is really getting worse. What they say on TV is absolutely true. Those pro-North Korean guys can't do anything except sell out their country. They can't manage the economy or public security. They really should step down."
"Hey, hey, Thomson, I don't want to complain to you about this," An Rusong interrupted him and said, "I just want to ask you for a favor."
"Do you want me to help you keep an eye on those policemen and solve the case as soon as possible?" Thomson said, "No problem, I will keep an eye on this matter. However, Ann, you'd better not have too much hope in those policemen. I'm not saying that they are useless, but they are indeed not much better than useless."
"No, no, no, I don't have any hope of solving the case." The pencil in his hand flew out, and An Rushong reached out to grab it back, and then continued, "What I mean is, I hope you can introduce two bodyguards to me, reliable ones, and the price is not a big deal."
"Oh?" Thomson seemed to hesitate for a moment. After a moment, he said, "Ann, please wait a moment. It's not convenient for me to talk here. I'll hang up first. I'll call you back in five minutes."
"Okay, Thomson," An Rushong didn't ask any more questions, just responded and hung up the phone.
After hanging up the phone temporarily, An Rushong turned his attention to the computer monitor and began to think about his plan in his mind.
As a core partner of DFJ, John had discussed the issue of profitability of NGN software as early as when he was negotiating with DFJ and Apple on financing.
At that time, John’s suggestion was to learn from China’s Tencent and establish a voluntary paid membership system. At the same time, the profit model of pop-up ads could also be considered.
At that time, An Rushong, considering that the current main task of NGN software was to attract as many registered users as possible, that is, to focus on attracting traffic, rejected John's suggestion. He believed that whether the membership system launched by NGN was voluntary or not, and no matter how often pop-up ads appeared, it might affect the user experience, thus having an adverse impact on the rapid promotion of NGN software.
But then again, it is true that An Rushong does not want to launch a membership system in the near future, and it is also true that he does not want to launch advertisements. However, he is not very resistant to the launch of NGN pop-ups. It’s just that in his expectation, NGN pop-ups should not be used for advertising, but should be used specifically to push hot news.
That's right, in An Rushong's plan, the pop-up window of NGN software should be the same as Yahoo's news hotspots, which is specifically used to push the most popular news at the moment. However, whether a piece of news is popular or not needs to be decided by NGN. In other words, it is actually a tool controlled by NGN to guide public opinion.
In a country like South Korea, if you want to gain a foothold in the political environment of intrigue and deception, you must master a tool that can speak for yourself. At present, An Rusong is not sure whether he can create a portal website to compete with Yahoo. All he can rely on is an NGN software. Therefore, relying on the pop-up function of the NGN software to test the waters is a very effective means.
However, even so, An Rusong originally did not intend to launch this pop-up function in the near future, because pop-ups, whether they are used to publish advertisements or not, will inevitably affect the user experience as soon as they appear. Therefore, An Rusong's idea was to wait until NGN really developed to a certain extent, at least until it had a sufficient number of users internationally, before launching the pop-up function.
By that time, users' dependence on NGN software will be high enough, and they will naturally tolerate the existence of pop-ups.
But now, An Rusong couldn't wait any longer. He urgently needed something to amplify his voice, so that those who wanted to take advantage of him would be more or less afraid of him. Furthermore, only with this tool could he launch an effective counterattack against the provocation of certain people.
"beep beep"
Just as I was lost in thought, the phone beside me rang again.
As expected, the call was from Thomson. Just like before, An Rushong pressed the answer button and selected the hands-free function.
"Hey, Ann," Thomson's voice came from the phone. He seemed to be in a relatively empty place, because to An Rushong his voice seemed a little distorted.
"Hey, Thomson," An Rushong responded.
"Do you know anything about the bodyguard business, Ann?" Thomson asked on the phone.
"Do you have any suggestions?" An Rushong asked.
"Well, it seems you don't understand," Thomson laughed, "So, can you tell me what you want?"
"My request is very simple," An Rushong did not ask any questions. For him, it would be useless and of no benefit to ask too much. Thomson is a lawyer, and a senior barrister. In An Rushong's view, he only needs to tell the other party his requirements and then follow his advice.
As for the issue of commission, that was not within An Rushong's consideration. If Thomson could find a good bodyguard for him and help him avoid all legal problems, he would rather pay the other party a large sum of money.
"Thomson, the bodyguard I need must be of Asian appearance, preferably Korean or of Korean descent," An Rusong said. "In order to ensure my safety, I hope the bodyguard you introduce to me can carry weapons and will not cause me any trouble at any time."
"Hey, Ann, your request is not simple," Thomson laughed on the phone, "On the contrary, your request is very difficult. I can even think that what you need is not a bodyguard, but a mercenary."
"Whatever you say," An Rusong said with a smile, "These are my requests anyway."
Thomson pondered for a moment and said, "So, how much are you willing to pay for such a bodyguard?"
"Like I said, I don't know much about this business, so can you give me some advice?" An Rushong said.
"Ann, frankly speaking, according to your requirements, the income of such a bodyguard must be above the 90th percentile in the entire industry," Thomson said. "To be more specific, the annual salary should not be less than 12 US dollars. Considering that you still need bodyguards to work in Korea, the annual salary needs to be increased on the original basis. If additional expenses such as commissions and subsidies are added, then the annual salary of a bodyguard will probably not be less than 20 US dollars."
"I need the best, Thomson, the strongest ability, and the least trouble," An Rusong said, "For this, I can accept an offer of $300,000 per person per year."
"Oh, my friend," Thomson laughed, "With this offer, if you can accept a long-term contract of more than three years, then you can definitely get the best bodyguard. Yes, the best."
"OK, I need two, preferably one boy and one girl," said An Rushong.
"Wait for my news," Thomson said. "You will get feedback tonight at the latest."
(End of this chapter)