HLnovel Chapter 108 Planning for the Future of the Family
Chapter 108 Planning for the Future of the Family
Chapter 108 Planning for the Future of the Family
The afternoon sun shone through the windows of the unassuming dormitory building next to the Harvard University library, casting dappled shadows on the floor.
The members of Slim's team sat around the slightly worn dining table in the living room, the air thick with the boys' barely contained excitement.
Who could have imagined that what was originally just a small plan to earn some pocket money in their spare time would snowball into a wealth storm that left them speechless?
They still clearly remember that on the first day of the prepaid cards' sale, as the evening glow painted the sky red, the money-making team gathered here, and when Steve spread stacks of dollar bills on the table, his fingertips made a soft sound as they swished across the paper.
The $2800 figure filled the group, who had initially only been trying their luck, with a pleasant surprise.
Then came the replication model, quietly expanding the business scope to cover most of the university town.
When their earnings reached a new high of $4900 the following day, the magnificent sunset seemed to be cheering for their success, stirring up ripples of joy in the hearts of the team members.
On the third day of selling prepaid cards, $6300 was earned, and the business expanded again. Coffee shops with computers in the area around the university town began to inquire about the prepaid cards.
The real outburst came on the fourth day, when Steve's hands trembled uncontrollably as the accounts were tallied again that evening.
The sales of game cards in one day reached $38, and the commission surged to $2.66.
This number struck like a thunderbolt, exploding in the hearts of the team members.
Over the next three days, his income skyrocketed, reaching $3.43, $3.85, and $4.13.
Every increase in their income made their hearts pound.
In just one week, Steve's team earned over $17 from game card commissions alone.
When the table was piled high with stacks of cash, the brand-new banknotes exuding a unique scent of ink and shimmering with an alluring luster under the light, several people couldn't help but swallow hard.
The air seemed to be filled with the smell of money, and every breath was filled with excitement and tension.
"What kind of game is this? Isn't its money-making ability a bit too crazy?" Martin's eyes were somewhat dazed. He stared wide-eyed at the cash on the table, feeling that all of this had overturned his previous understanding of the game industry.
In his view, games were just a pastime in his spare time, and he never thought they could bring him such a huge fortune.
Steve was also slightly dazed, and the scene before him was equally shocking, but he quickly recovered from his shock.
He swept his gaze across the team members present, each face filled with excitement and confusion. At that moment, a bold idea gradually became clear in his mind.
"Gentlemen, with Blizzard in front and Leapmotor behind, it seems we've never really paid enough attention to the online gaming industry." Steve's voice was steady yet full of power.
A glint of light flashed in his eyes, and he proposed with a determined look, "What do you think? Should we also enter this industry and give it a shot?"
Everyone fell silent, and the only sound in the room was their slightly rapid breathing.
They are all top students from Harvard, and they know the weight behind a decision. They cannot easily decide their future on a whim.
A gentle breeze blew past the window, rustling the leaves as if providing accompaniment to their silence.
Within a week, the sudden emergence of Counter-Strike had a tremendous impact, sweeping through the entire gaming market like a storm.
In California, the heart of the vibrant economy, a Stanford graduate earned his first fortune through computer science and began to have some different ideas.
However, his target was not the game itself, but the currency, or more precisely, online currency.
"Online payment?" When Ernst heard Ryan Ruiz's report that a ground sales team had approached YueDong to collaborate on developing an online payment business, he was so excited that his voice changed, causing Jessica Alba, who was eating a baguette, to cough up tears from his sudden reaction.
Ernst gave an apologetic smile, gently patting Jessica Alba's head to comfort her, while anxiously asking into the phone, "What's the other person's name?"
"Peter Thiel," Ryan Ruiz's clear voice came from the other end of the phone.
The name excited Ernst again, his heart pounding as if it would burst out of his chest.
He was quite familiar with the name; it was the founder of Confinity.
Confinity may be a company that few people have heard of, but after merging with X.com, it became the famous PayPal.
Ernst's excitement didn't stem from PayPal itself, but rather from the company surrounding it, the PayPal that Peter Thiel built.
mafia.
Everyone has heard of the Mafia, but the Mafia within the tech world is little known.
The PayPal Mafia is the most famous group in the global tech world today. Its members are all renowned and incredibly wealthy. They not only change the course of the world economy, but can even influence the seating arrangements in the White House.
Even Musk, within this group, can only occupy a subordinate position; that's the power of PayPal Mafia.
In 1998, Confinity merged with Elon Musk's X.com, giving birth to PayPal, which quickly monopolized the online payment market on the Internet.
PayPalMafia was formed at this time, and its members were all core members of PayPal.
In 2002, with PayPal being acquired by eBay for $15 billion, these core members left the company one after another, embarking on a new battle in Silicon Valley and dominating their respective fields.
Musk later founded SpaceX, and single-handedly built Tesla's success.
Three of the members co-founded YouTube, the world's largest video website, which was later acquired by Google, making them Google's shareholders.
Reid Hoffman, the former CEO of PayPal, founded LinkedIn, which was later acquired by Microsoft for $262 billion, and he subsequently joined Microsoft's board of directors.
Also, Max, the founder of the office collaboration platform Slide, the largest shareholder of ELP, and an investor in OpenAI, is also a member of PayPal Mafia.
It can be said that this force, which later became the largest and most influential in Silicon Valley, had only a small number of members, just over twenty, but each of them was a well-known figure in the Internet industry.
Peter Thiel, who founded PayPal Mafia, is considered a godfather figure in Silicon Valley's startup scene.
There's even a saying in Silicon Valley: "If you need startup guidance or investment, you can go to anyone. But if you need both, you can only go to Thiel."
This demonstrates his immense influence in Silicon Valley.
Money and wealth were never a problem for Ernst.
Influence and status were things that came easily to him.
Ernst needed someone to stand out, not someone who was truly in the media spotlight, but someone who could make a name for themselves in the circles of the wealthy.
He needs these people to help him manage the entire internet industry, or rather, the Garfield family's assets.
The Garfield family, like the Morgans and Rockefellers, became nothing more than legendary figures.
How do they operate? It's nothing more than financial control over real industries.
Take the Rockefeller family for example. Chase Manhattan was founded by them. Citigroup's predecessor, Citibank New York, was originally the financial center for Rockefeller Oil and was controlled by the Stillman and Rockefeller families.
Bank of America also had a significant stake held by the Rockefeller family, and Wellington, the predecessor of the asset management giant Vanguard, was also founded by the Rockefeller family.
The Luo family used these financial institutions to penetrate various sectors during successive financial crises.
For example, there were later the largest insurance companies in the United States, such as MetLife, Equitable Life, and New York Life.
In the industrial and commercial sectors, companies such as Fluke Corporation, Honeywell, Emerson, Freeport-McMoRan, American Smelting Corporation, and Northwestern Corporation are mentioned.
The Luo family has influence behind companies such as ITT Industries, Xerox, Westinghouse, and International Paper.
In the aviation and defense industries, the Lockheed Martin family controls three of the largest airlines in the United States, and Chase Manhattan and Citigroup are major shareholders of Boeing. The family also has ties to Lockheed Martin in the defense industry and McDonald Douglas in the arms trade.
The Lo family exerts influence over these companies through finance, and these large corporations, in turn, influence various industries in the United States and around the world through their supply chains.
If Ernst wanted to develop the Garfield family into a family like these reclusive ones, he needed to have his own front man.
Peter Thiel is clearly one of the candidates who fits the bill.
He could help Peter Thiel build a more influential and larger PayPal Mafia, making it one of his tentacles into the internet sphere.
Ernst originally wanted to wait a bit longer in the field of online payments, since e-commerce platforms had not yet taken off and the timing was not right.
However, Peter Thiel's early entrepreneurship and his proactive approach to Leap Motion made Ernst change his mind.
"You can tell him that I'll make time to meet with him," Ernst said into the phone, a hint of barely perceptible excitement in his voice.
On the other end of the phone, Ryan Ruiz had no idea that Ernst would personally meet with this unknown nobody.
It's important to understand that Ernst is no longer the carefree playboy he once was in Hollywood; he's now a true tycoon and a Silicon Valley mogul.
Moreover, with the popularity of CS, the valuation of YueDong Company will inevitably rise sharply, and Ernst's wealth will increase significantly again.
"I will pass on the message to this lucky little fellow," Ryan Ruiz replied respectfully.
"By the way, isn't YueDong currently well-equipped with engineers? Let's pull out a group of them to develop our own game platform."
Peter Thiel's mention of online payments served as a key, reminding Ernst of this.
When he visited YueDong Company before, he always felt that something was wrong. Now he finally remembered that there was no dedicated gaming platform to launch the game.
The current game registration process is simple; basically, one account and password are all you need. However, this also brings a hidden danger: security issues.
As players spend more money in the game, their accounts gradually demonstrate their value, and security issues have become a top priority.
Binding identity information, phone number verification, and setting security questions are all essential.
But we can't expect players to fill out all this tedious information every time they register for a game, can we?
Blizzard's solution to this problem is a universal solution; if I remember correctly, Battle.net will be launched in a few months.
Ernst's Leap platform, however, has a much grander goal: to target the Steam model.
When all games can be published on the YueDong platform, and players can purchase games and make in-game purchases on the platform, YueDong will become the Alipay of the gaming industry.
At that time, the massive flow of funds will become Yuedong Company's most valuable asset.
Since all of YueDong's engineers are currently focused on developing Call of Duty, it would be a good opportunity to free up some people to develop the YueDong game platform.
After sharing his thoughts with Ryan Ruiz, Ernst hung up the phone, feeling exceptionally relaxed. Even the way he looked at Jessica held a long-lost tenderness.
Sunlight streamed through the window, bathing everything in a warm hue, but Jessica pouted slightly, muttering to herself.
Without that intense, shattering impact, it just feels like something's missing.
She then muttered a curse to herself as she lay on the bed, thinking to herself how ungrateful she was.
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