Chapter 112: Unexpectedly Going Big

"Hey, hey, I'm talking to you!" In the small restaurant, Ethan snapped back to reality at the sound of Jason's voice: "Ah, what did you say?"

Anyway, given Zoe's personality, even if she didn't sleep with me, she would find someone else. Since that's the case, I might as well be the one to benefit.

Hearing Jason repeat his question, Ethan silently consoled himself and said: "I know, she's going to New York for business this time, saying she wants to establish an Open Handheld Device Alliance."

Jason frowned. Zoe had originally agreed to stay longer, but unexpectedly, she left for New York after just three days.

He sighed disappointedly and asked: "She previously mentioned that our internet company wouldn't last long before Zoe sells it. I actually think it's pretty good to keep running the internet company."

The company's development is actually going very well at the moment. The traffic on Nextdoor and the news website is on the rise, and the situation looks very promising.

Ethan lit a cigarette and said: "Who knows what she's thinking. The two professional article writers we signed a few days ago sent over their sample articles today. They really do have a high level of writing. The article was uploaded this morning, and by noon, the number of clicks had already exceeded 50,000!"

"By the way, when do you plan to release the photos of that Lewis actress and the man in the hotel room?" Jason asked again.

Ethan blew a smoke ring and said: "It's not our turn to take the lead. This matter is quite complicated. The actress also has a patron. Let's wait and see. Once someone reports on it, we'll follow up immediately. I've already arranged for those two writers to write articles."

Jason nodded: "I used to like that Lewis actress quite a bit. I didn't expect her to be so messy in private. Do you think our performance this month will exceed 200,000?"

Ethan said: "There's hope, but it depends on Nextdoor. Now, many companies in other states have joined Nextdoor, and it's growing faster and faster. Once we have the money, we'll directly place two Fox News advertisements. The traffic will definitely explode. The rental business that someone started is now using Nextdoor."

The "someone" referred to Jacob.

Because both of them were not happy with Jacob, they generally did not mention his name.

Although the matter had passed a long time ago, when Jason heard about Jacob, he still couldn't help but let out a cold snort. After a while, he said: "Why didn't you persuade Zoe to just focus on doing a good job with these two websites? This business of setting up some kind of alliance seems like a complete distraction to me."

"What's the use of me persuading her? The company is hers, and I just get some dividends!"

Ethan stubbed out his cigarette, and his expression became serious: "Judging from what she said, this time she's planning to play a big project!"

Jason sneered: "We've invested more than a million in these two websites. How much bigger can the project be?"

Ethan lowered his voice: "A million is nothing. Zoe has developed a real estate project in New York. It hasn't even been a month, and the foundation hasn't been laid yet, but it's almost sold out. Do you know how much money she's going to make?"

Jason was stunned. He hadn't been to New York and wasn't very clear about the situation there. Zoe hadn't told him either: "Won't it take at least half a year to a year to make money from building a building?"

Ethan snorted: "The methods you mentioned are outdated. People now play with pre-sale apartments. You buy a house now, and you can't receive it until two years later. Even so, some people want to buy but can't. She has connections in the government. She can get approval and sell without even laying the foundation, and it has to be in full payment. I've calculated it privately. In just this month, with this real estate project, Zoe has made at least twenty million!"

Jason was shocked. He had never seen so much money: "Where is the money then? I haven't seen her spend it."

Ethan said: "It's all invested in that alliance. I've talked to her once and wanted to persuade her, but she said that what she really wants to do is mobile phones. Real estate and the internet are just stepping stones!"

"She found someone to register a company in the Cayman Islands for tax avoidance. This company is going to be a multinational one. This Open Handheld Device Alliance is laying the foundation for it."

Jason knew nothing about the mobile phone industry, but he felt very uneasy about Zoe doing this: "Tell me in detail, what exactly is this Open Handheld Device Alliance for?"

"Do you know Google?" Both Ethan and Jason were programmers by origin, and it was very convenient to explain many issues, "Zoe has developed a system called the Android system, which is a free and open-source operating system based on the Linux kernel, mainly used on mobile devices!"

"Zoe is using this system to cooperate with Google to jointly establish an alliance and develop this Android system together!"

"I heard that the companies currently being contacted include well-known international companies such as AT&T, Nokia, Motorola, Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung, Telefonica, and Telecom Italia!"

Jason was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth: "Really? I haven't seen her contact these companies."

Just now, when Ethan said that Zoe was going to do something big, he didn't expect it to be this big!

Ethan shrugged: "I heard she has a partner abroad who is handling quite a few things. Maybe these companies were contacted by her partner?"

Could it be Charles?

Jason immediately thought of this person, with a very complicated mood, and gradually calmed down. He suddenly thought: "Zoe has developed a system and found chip manufacturers and mobile phone manufacturers. Is she trying to build an ecosystem?"

The term "ecosystem competition" is not currently popular in the domestic market, but Jason and Ethan, due to their professional background, have both been exposed to this concept abroad.

What is an ecosystem?

For example, before Apple developed its mobile phones, its main business was computers.

Computers need an operating system. The operating system for Apple computers is MacOS.

There is also a company called Microsoft, which specializes in operating systems, and their system is Windows.

Under normal circumstances, exe programs on win cannot run on the mac system.

So here comes the question. When someone wants to develop a software, do they plan to run it on win or mac?

The best way is to make it run on both sides, but the cost is too high. One version for win and one for mac means that a software has to be developed twice. Entrepreneurs are not fools. They will definitely choose one side to test the waters first.

To be more specific, how developers choose depends on which system has more users. This leads to a vicious cycle.

The more users a system has, the more people will develop software based on this system, whether it's office software or entertainment software. This indirectly makes the system more attractive to users. The more users there are, the more developers will come to develop software.

In this way, the snowball keeps rolling and gradually affects the upstream hardware manufacturers, giving them the motivation to develop hardware devices that are more suitable for the operation of this system.

The upstream and downstream are perfectly combined, and thus an ecosystem is formed around this operating system. If you are in an industry related to this ecosystem, the best choice is to join it.

In the field of computer operating systems, Microsoft is much stronger than Apple. The fact that Apple computers can install the win system is proof. On the other hand, in the mobile end, Apple's mobile phones later cannot run the Android system.

Because to a large extent, an ecosystem is something that, once it occupies a position, it is easier to grow stronger, and later challengers find it very difficult to challenge the dominant position.