Chapter 1848: A Difficult Choice

If Zhao Fusheng's memory served him right, although these companies were now treating Weibo as a major project, in fact, not long after, around 2009, they all shut down their microblogging services.

Only Sina Weibo managed to survive.

In August of next year, Sina.com would launch the beta version of Sina Weibo, becoming the first portal among website portals to offer microblogging services, officially bringing Weibo into the mainstream视野 of Chinese internet users.

As Weibo grew increasingly popular among netizens, various internet buzzwords born on Weibo quickly went viral, forming the Weibo effect.

As for the subsequent development, it was quite normal.

Of course, the development of Weibo was not without its criticisms.

This was undeniable and unavoidable.

After all, it's hard to please everyone; even renminbi has its detractors, let alone an internet product.

"Should I invest?"

Zhao Fusheng thought for a moment, feeling hesitant.

To be honest, Weibo was a good thing, but the problem was that it carried too much risk.

This high risk wasn't financial but pertained to other aspects.

For example, if he launched a Weibo-like service before Sina, he might face various problems. Running a portal website wasn't easy; all kinds of relationships would be involved.

A single trending topic could be enough to throw him into a panic.

Zhao Fusheng knew his own temperament too well. If something displeased him or someone asked him to remove a trending topic, even if he compromised temporarily, he would find a way to do something about it afterward.

And that would clearly do no good for the development of Weibo.

After much deliberation, he decided to give up the idea.

Money could never be fully earned; he had understood this principle long ago. Since that was the case, there was no need to wade into this muddy water. Although he might make a lot of money, it would put him at the center of the storm, which was not a pleasant thing.

With this decision, Zhao Fusheng's attitude toward Weibo naturally changed.

That's how people are: the more they care about something, the more they pay attention; if they don't care, it becomes dispensable.

Originally, Zhao Fusheng had always been interested in domestic portal websites or things like Weibo, after all, China's internet population was growing daily, making it a huge market.

But after just thinking it through, he suddenly realized he had oversimplified things.

Ring ring ring!

The phone rang.

Zhao Fusheng glanced at the caller ID and saw it was Dong Guoxiang.

Hadn't this guy already called? Why was he calling again? Did he dial the wrong number?

A smile curling at the corner of his mouth, Zhao Fusheng casually picked up the phone: "Hey, what's up? Treating me to dinner?"

"No, there's something I want to discuss with you."

Dong Guoxiang hesitated but still spoke: "My team has developed a small game that they say is quite fun. Should we do something with it?"

A small game?

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback: "Tell me about it. What exactly is it?"

He really didn't know much about this, having had little contact with the gaming industry before.

"I'll send you the specific plan by email. I'll buy a ticket to the capital tomorrow, and we can talk face to face," Dong Guoxiang said to Zhao Fusheng.

It was clear that he was quite optimistic about this project.

After Zhao Fusheng finished reading the file sent to his email, he was stunned.

The content of the file wasn't much; it took him less than half an hour to read the entire document. But after reading it, Zhao Fusheng suddenly realized that the era he remembered seemed about to begin.

"Social networking sites."

Zhao Fusheng muttered to himself.

As he recalled, starting this year, a large number of social networking sites joined the fray, leading to unprecedented prosperity in China's social networking scene, entering a period of leapfrog development that insiders called the Great Leap Forward. From Kaixin001 to knockoffs of Kaixin001; from Sun Zhengyi investing in Xiaonei to Zhu Yushi's alliance with 51.com—all these made social networking sites red-hot, attracting countless followers. Almost overnight, social networking sites of various sizes, such as Hainei, Yiqi, Mosh, Zhanzuo, Tianji, Yiyou, etc., sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

However, despite the many entrants, the forms of Chinese social networking sites were very monotonous.

In the early days, almost all domestic social networking sites imitated internationally successful sites like Facebook. This copycat approach directly led to a high degree of homogenization among social networking products.

What embarrassed social networking sites was that the huge number of registered users and the massive traffic they brought did not translate into good advertising revenue.

Perhaps this was the reason why Chinese social networking sites were short-lived. Before the craze subsided, China had yet to see a success story like Facebook, so the newly emerging Weibo easily stole the spotlight.

This was a sad story.

And now, the document before him presented an opportunity to choose.

Should Future Group enter the social networking business?

…

…

"Why aren't you asleep?"

When Fan Baobao entered the bedroom, she saw Zhao Fusheng sitting seriously in front of the desk, his computer screen on, lost in thought.

Most importantly, his expression was strange, as if he was pondering something or hesitating.

"It's nothing."

Zhao Fusheng looked up at Fan Baobao: "Where's the child?"

"Her grandparents took her."

Fan Baobao replied: "My mom is sleeping with Beibei."

"Oh."

Zhao Fusheng nodded, not dwelling on the issue.

Seeing his expression, Fan Baobao hesitated but still asked: "What's wrong?"

She rarely saw Zhao Fusheng like this, as if he was troubled by something and couldn't make up his mind.

In Fan Baobao's impression, Zhao Fusheng rarely showed such a reaction. Most of the time, there was no problem he couldn't solve, and he always made decisive moves with great efficiency.

Zhao Fusheng in this state had almost never appeared before.

"There's a project."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and pointed to the laptop in front of him: "I'm hesitating whether to do it."

"Company stuff?"

Fan Baobao was a bit surprised but still asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Yeah. Something Dong Guoxiang proposed. It's very interesting, but the risk is also considerable."

This was the truth. The social networking project seemed promising and full of bright prospects, but Zhao Fusheng knew well that the competition in this project was as fierce as panning for gold.

Out of hundreds of websites, perhaps not even one in ten would survive, or even fewer.

Most importantly, you couldn't guarantee that the website you invested in would be the last one standing.

Even Zhao Fusheng, a reborn person, didn't have such confidence.

The reason was simple: China's internet market had too many uncertainties.

For everyone in the internet industry, the Chinese market was highly attractive. After all, with a population of over a billion, even if only one-tenth became netizens, it would be a market so huge as to be mouthwatering.

But the problem was that the variables in this market were too great.

Even an administrative order could change the fate of a website.

Under such circumstances, Zhao Fusheng really couldn't guarantee that if he let Future Group enter this industry, it would definitely succeed.

It's often said that the more experienced one becomes, the more cautious one grows. This saying held true.

At the very least, once upon a time, when Zhao Fusheng had nothing, he wouldn't have hesitated like this.

Because for him back then, failure was just a word; if he failed, he would start over.

But now, Zhao Fusheng understood that any decision he made required careful consideration.

"There's no business without risk."

After listening to Zhao Fusheng, Fan Baobao smiled slightly and said casually.

In her view, doing business was like buying a lottery ticket. Although the logic might differ, the outcome was similar.

It was all a matter of choice.

If you chose correctly, you would make a fortune; if you chose wrong, you would have to bear the consequences.