novellhall Chapter 109 Incubating Momo
Chapter 109 Incubating Momo
Chapter 109 Incubating Momo (6k words, 2nd update, requesting monthly tickets/recommendation tickets)
Song Qing and Huang Haitang followed Geng Zhi into office 401. When they looked up, they were both stunned.
They weren't surprised that Hao Pengxiang was inside, but why was their senior brother, Lü Sifeng, also there?
The first thought that popped into Song Qing's mind was: Did the boss send his senior brother to "catch them in the act"?
"Brother Lü—Brother Lü? You, what are you doing here?" Song Qing looked at Lü Sifeng in surprise, then turned to look at Geng Zhi, his eyes full of questions.
"What, does this place say 'No Doctors or Dogs Allowed'?" Lu Sifeng chuckled and made a trendy joke.
"No, no, no, it's just... quite a surprise." Song Qing quickly waved his hand and chuckled dryly.
Huang Haitang began to wonder: Could it be that Senior Brother Lü has also been won over by Geng Zhi? Is the Qi family army about to be completely overrun?
For a moment, she even felt a little sorry for her mentor, Professor Qi Chuqin.
Seeing the two senior students' interesting expressions, Geng Zhi smiled and tried to smooth things over: "Senior Brother Song, Senior Sister Huang, you have a need to find real-world cases for publishing papers, and so does Senior Brother Lü!"
"Oh, I see, that makes sense!" Song Qing realized and nodded quickly.
After chatting for a few minutes, Geng Zhi walked to the whiteboard and began today's main topic.
He cleared his throat, looked at the group, and said in a serious tone, "A few days ago, Professor Qi specifically talked to me about the topic of spatial intelligence and the relationship between humans and the environment, which has sparked my long-term thinking."
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"I've been thinking about how, while I'm still a shareholder of 'Jiaotong University Matchmaker,' I can contribute my remaining energy to do something for our Qi Family Army."
"Residual benefits?" Lü Sifeng keenly caught the choice of words and asked suspiciously, "Junior Brother Geng, aren't you the company's founder and largest shareholder? This way of using words—why does it sound like you're about to retire honorably?"
"Yes, but I've already started transferring my company shares, and I'll be returning to academia later."
"I see." Lü Sifeng suddenly realized and gestured for him to continue.
"So what can we do? Then I thought, could we integrate LBS technology with my project to create a real product that can be implemented and generate multi-dimensional value?"
Upon hearing this, Song Qing and Huang Haitang felt a sense of déjà vu and turned their gazes toward Lü Sifeng, who was getting involved in the Gengzhi project for the first time.
Lu Sifeng frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and cautiously said, "Junior Brother Geng, the general direction of your idea is very attractive. But I still don't understand how LBS technology can be deeply integrated with a dating and matchmaking project. Please continue, and I'll listen to your logic."
"Great! I need Senior Brother Lü's help to check if this idea is feasible." Geng Zhi turned around, drew a large circle on the whiteboard with a whiteboard marker, and wrote the word "trend".
Then, two lines branch off from the circle, one pointing to "hardware foundation" and the other to "network foundation".
"From a hardware perspective, the iPhone 4 has already ignited the market, and Android phones from brands like HTC are rapidly gaining popularity, with affordable Android smartphones starting to appear."
"In the next few years, smartphones will inevitably become a standard feature for young people, especially our target user group."
"From the perspective of network infrastructure, 3G networks are being rolled out at an accelerated pace, and data tariffs are decreasing year by year, which makes large-scale, real-time mobile LBS applications possible."
Having said that, Geng Zhi looked at Lü Sifeng and asked, "Senior Brother Lü, do you agree with my two trend assessments above?"
Lu Sifeng thought about it carefully and nodded: "Yes, these two judgments are basically in line with the current situation and the foreseeable development direction, no problem."
"Okay, if this premise holds true, then let's look at the 'Jiaotong University matchmaker's' business." Geng Zhi wrote the word "business" on the whiteboard again.
"Jiaotong University Matchmaker" has raised over 600 million yuan in funding. Following the company's development plan and strong recommendations from investors, it is determined to move online in the future, potentially reaching tens of millions of users.
"Tens of millions?" Lu Sifeng's pupils dilated slightly.
He was unaware of the financing details and the user outlook beforehand, and suppressing his surprise, he did not interrupt Geng Zhi.
"My plan is to develop a mobile app while simultaneously developing the PC-based business. The business will involve features such as location-based dating services in the same city."
"This way, LBS technology can be combined with social networks to study the relationship between human mobility patterns and social behavior. The tens of millions of real-time mobile data points every day would be a tremendous help to our academic research, wouldn't it?"
Song Qing immediately understood and offered his timely assistance: "Senior Brother Lü! If we can really obtain tens of millions of real data points, it will be far larger and better than the purely simulated data in our lab! This is excellent material for publishing in top journals!"
After hearing this, Lü Sifeng's eyes visibly lit up.
With tens of millions of industrial-grade data points, his doctoral dissertation immediately gained a new direction, making it easier to publish papers than his current projects.
He nodded, a hint of excitement in his voice: "Junior, I don't quite understand the business logic. But from a technical and research perspective, your suggestion is excellent! It perfectly applies some theories from the boss's project to your 'Jiaotong University Matchmaker' project, for big data technology validation."
"I agree with Senior Brother Lü's point of view," Huang Haitang urged.
"Me too!" Song Qing raised his hand.
"Great!" Geng Zhi pressed on while the iron was hot. "Since the senior brothers and sisters all think the direction is feasible, I'll briefly explain the initial concept of this project and the main challenges we face."
Seeing Lü Sifeng nod, Geng Zhi felt a weight lifted from his heart.
He plans to create "Momo" in the future, and once it becomes a big success, it will definitely not be hidden from his mentor Qi Chuqin.
Rather than waiting for things to come to light later, it's better to slowly "drag" your fellow disciples down with you now, so that everyone can "get rich together".
After all, the law doesn't punish everyone!
Moreover, to be honest, the "Momo" project does indeed contribute to the lab's research, allowing everyone to gain a deeper understanding from real-world business scenarios.
He even secretly considered whether it was possible to get Professor Qi involved in the future, so that he could indirectly work for him.
Just as Geng Zhi was excitedly preparing to unfold his grand plan, Lü Sifeng's next words instantly extinguished the fire that had just been ignited in him.
"Junior brother, I think this is a good idea. However, I need to report to the boss first and get his approval and support," Lu Sifeng said earnestly.
Upon hearing this, not only Geng Zhi, but also Song Qing and Huang Haitang felt a chill run down their spines.
"No, Senior Brother Lü." Geng Zhi quickly waved his hand, carefully choosing his words. "Senior Brother, we're still far from settled. If we rush to talk to the boss now, what if he thinks we're neglecting our duties? Wouldn't that be counterproductive?"
"Huh?" Lü Sifeng asked, puzzled. "You're contributing your own commercial project resources to help our lab find research data and application scenarios, that's a good thing! Why would the boss scold you?"
"Senior, you know the boss well," Song Qing chimed in. "In his eyes, any part-time job before you produce results is a waste of time. If we just talk about it now, he'll definitely think we're trying to make extra money behind his back. It's better to wait until we secretly produce results and let the results speak for themselves—"
Lu Sifeng thought about it carefully for a moment and muttered, "In that case, we can only do it in our spare time, and it has to be physically isolated from the laboratory project."
Geng Zhi nodded quickly: "Yes—it's necessary to develop discreetly in the early stages."
"Alright," Lü Sifeng seemed convinced, and looked back at the whiteboard. "Junior Brother Geng, could you please give a detailed introduction to this APP version of Jiaotong University's matchmaker app? What are your specific plans? What are its core functions?"
"Okay." After saying that, Geng Zhi turned around and wrote eight big characters on the whiteboard: "People Nearby" and "Instant Chat".
"Actually, the core functions are just these two: allowing users to see other people nearby who are also using the app and chat with them in real time. Of course, basic personal profile and information display functions are also necessary," Geng said succinctly.
"We should also add Sun Bo's 'soul matching' algorithm model," Lü Sifeng added.
"Oh, that feature is quite complex, involving deeper algorithms and data accumulation. We plan to gradually roll it out in subsequent version iterations," Geng Zhi explained.
"Hmm?" Lü Sifeng frowned. "The 'soul matching' algorithm is your core value, why not add it?"
"Exactly! Without a soulmate match," Huang Haitang wondered, "how can we help users filter suitable people and match them up?" "This doesn't seem like a dating product."
"Senior Sister Huang, this involves product methodology," Geng Zhi explained. "When our product is first launched, we must focus on solving the most critical pain points and achieve extreme simplicity."
"The right approach is to take small steps, iterate quickly, and create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to quickly validate it in the market."
Huang Haitang understands the concept of MVP, but she still doesn't fully understand it: If a dating product doesn't even do basic matching, how can it ensure that the person the user is chatting with is "suitable"?
However, seeing Geng Zhi's confident demeanor, she chose to suppress her doubts for the time being, trusting that her junior brother had his own reasons.
"Junior brother, if it's just these two functions, it doesn't sound like the technical difficulty is particularly high, right?" Song Qing steered the conversation back on track. "Then what were you referring to as the 'main challenge' you mentioned earlier?"
"There are two main challenges," Geng Zhi said, then turned around and wrote "1. Technical difficulties" on the whiteboard.
"The core of this app consists of two main parts: a high-concurrency real-time LBS system and a highly available instant messaging (IM) system."
As he drew a simple diagram on the whiteboard, he explained, "Let's start with the LBS system. How do we convert two-dimensional latitude and longitude into one-dimensional coordinates—ensuring efficient searching for nearby people?"
How to store the real-time locations of tens of millions of users in a database—capable of handling hundreds of thousands of queries per second—
"Currently, iOS and Android systems are not very mature, and finding a balance between the accuracy, power consumption, and real-time performance of LBS is a technical challenge."
"Android Multi-Phone Compatibility — Real-time Message Reception and Push —"
He spoke frankly and steadily, presenting one technical challenge after another, leaving Lü Sifeng, Song Qing, and Huang Haitang completely bewildered.
Hao Pengxiang, who was completely unfamiliar with the technology, was even more confused.
The technical challenges raised by Geng Zhi are problems that Lü Sifeng, Song Qing, and others cannot solve at this stage.
To be precise, there are currently no ready-made solutions in the internet industry; each aspect requires further research and development.
A long silence fell over the office.
Finally, Lü Sifeng broke the silence: "Junior brother, I can understand what you're saying about LBS, but why are you so demanding of instant messaging services? Services don't have to be this real-time!"
Before Geng Zhi could answer, Song Qing immediately interjected, "Yeah, junior brother, I think you're overcomplicating things. This is something only Tencent and QQ would consider. We haven't even learned to walk yet, and we're already asking to run. That's unrealistic."
Huang Haitang nodded in agreement: "+1, junior brother, can we take it a little more gradually?"
My future goal is to launch a surprise attack on QQ! A large part of the reason MiTalk lost to WeChat in my previous life was because its technological capabilities couldn't keep up.
That's what Geng Zhi was thinking, but he smiled and asked, "Senior brother, why do you say that?"
Song Qing stepped forward and pointed to the whiteboard, analyzing, "Jiaotong University Matchmaker currently only has tens of thousands of users. Even with the help of financing and the resources of Baihe.com, it will still take several years to reach the tens of millions of users of Baihe.com and Century Family Network."
"You just said the product should be extremely simple," but your technical architecture plan is entirely geared towards handling millions or tens of millions of concurrent users instantly. The return on investment is too low; it's completely unnecessary!"
Lu Sifeng also said earnestly, "Junior brother, I understand you want to lay a solid foundation, but scientific research and engineering both require a gradual approach. Even the boss's projects started with tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of data points, working their way up step by step. We can't become fat overnight."
Huang Haitang: "+1."
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Geng Zhi couldn't tell them his considerations at this moment, so he could only explain it in another way: "Senior brothers and sisters, if the foundation is not solid, the ground will shake. Minimal functionality does not mean minimal technology. We need to plan ahead and lay a solid foundation so that we won't be unable to handle the surge in traffic and all our efforts will be in vain."
Geng Zhi paused slightly before continuing to explain, "It's precisely because these technical challenges are so significant and strongly related to core LBS technologies that I sought help from my senior classmates. If it were just a regular app, I could easily find a few people to do it."
Lu Sifeng and Song Qing carefully considered Geng Zhi's words, and they seemed to find no fault with them.
Without challenging work, it's not worth the precious free time of these high-achieving students.
"Junior brother, what is the second difficulty you mentioned?" Lu Sifeng asked.
Geng Zhi turned to look at Song Qing and Huang Haitang, his tone becoming somewhat embarrassed: "This project requires a high degree of confidentiality in its early stages and a significant investment of time. So—I'd like to ask Senior Brother Lü for help, and also to help Senior Brother Song and Senior Sister Huang cover for the boss so they can focus wholeheartedly on it."
"Of course, they only need to invest more in the early stages of the project, and then they won't need to once the project is up and running," Geng Zhi added immediately.
Upon hearing "focused and single-minded" and "covering the way," Lü Sifeng clicked his tongue, a hint of unease rising in his heart.
He was willing to help his junior brother Geng.
However, if this affects Song Qing and Huang Haitang's progress on their main projects in the lab, he, as the senior student, will indeed have a hard time explaining it to the boss.
Moreover—Junior Brother Geng's arrangement seems to have a hint of "freeloading" the laboratory's human resources.
It's worth noting that Professor Qi Chuqin has research projects and a company, and the stipends he gives to students are considered quite generous within the college.
Master's students like Song Qing and Huang Haitang receive a monthly stipend of 300 to 500 yuan. Doctoral students like Lü Sifeng receive 2000 to 3000 yuan per month.
"Junior brother, how long is the 'early stage' you just mentioned?" Lu Sifeng asked cautiously. "It's okay to muddle through in the short term, but if it goes on for too long, the boss will definitely notice."
"Probably three or four months, and then—maybe we won't need to cover it up anymore." Geng Zhi added in his mind: "Then we can do it openly and honestly."
Lu Sifeng glanced at Song Qing and Huang Haitang, then nodded reluctantly: "Okay."
Just then, Geng Zhi's phone rang; it was Zou Lu calling.
[Zou Lu]: "President Geng, I've arrived at the entrance of Jiaotong University, but the security guard suddenly wants to check my student ID, so I can't get in."
[Geng Zhi]: "Okay, Mr. Zou, wait for me a moment, I'll come get you."
Today, I was going to talk to the team about product requirements, so I specifically called over Zou Lu, who was going through the resignation process.
"Senior Brother Lü, you guys chat for a bit, I'm going to the school gate to pick up a new colleague." Geng Zhi said, and quickly left office 401.
After Geng Zhi left, Hao Pengxiang also went to the restroom, leaving only Song Qing, Huang Haitang, and Lü Sifeng in the room.
Lu Sifeng hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help himself and asked the two in a low voice, "Junior brother, junior sister, you two are working so hard for Geng Zhi, does he give you any subsidies?"
"Yes, we'll give it to you! We've been giving it to you from the very beginning!" Huang Haitang said with a hint of smugness and a mysterious air, "And Junior Brother Geng told me this morning that starting this month, our salaries will double!"
"How much did you give before? How much are you giving now?" Lu Sifeng raised an eyebrow and immediately asked.
"It used to be 1500 yuan a month, now it's 3000!" Huang Haitang held up three fingers.
Lu Sifeng was stunned: "—How much? 3000 yuan? Ten times more than what the boss gave me?"
"Yeah!" Huang Haitang pouted at Song Qing and added, "Song Qing does more work than me, and he earns 4000 a month."
"Where's the piece?"
Lü Sifeng: "4000??"
It's higher than the PhD student stipend my boss gives me? That's not fair!
At that moment, Lü Sifeng felt a mix of emotions. His earlier doubts about "getting something for free" vanished, leaving him with a slight sadness.
He was about to say something when Hao Pengxiang pushed the door open and came back.
Lu Sifeng had no choice but to swallow his words, but in his heart he had already begun to silently compare the boss's "stinginess" with Geng's "generosity".
A few minutes later, Geng Zhi brought Zou Lu to office 401.
"Huh, Engineer Zhou?" Huang Haitang exclaimed in surprise.
"Haitang? What a coincidence, you're here too!" Zou Lu was also a little surprised.
Huang Haitang previously interned at Microsoft Research Asia as a test engineer, and had professional interactions with Zou Lu.
Geng Zhi was even more pleased to see that the two knew each other, and formally introduced them: "Everyone, let me introduce you. This is Zou Lu, a senior iOS engineer from Microsoft Research Asia. He will be joining our company after the Spring Festival. Mr. Zou, and these are—"
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Geng Zhi stood in front of the whiteboard again, his expression becoming formal and passionate: "Okay, everyone's here. Let me formally introduce our internal incubation project. The project is codenamed MM. The team is very lean in the early stages, but will expand as the business develops."
"I will serve as the architect and product manager. The server side will be handled by Senior Brother Lü and Senior Brother Song, the iOS client side by Engineer Zou, and for Android, I'm in talks with an engineer from Dianping who will be able to join after the Spring Festival. Testing will be handled by Senior Sister Huang."
"We are still hiring two developers, and we need Hao Pengxiang's help to find a design student —"
"If the project goes well, we are very likely to spin off into a separate new company, and the core contributors will be awarded stock options."
Lu Sifeng became increasingly confused as he listened, feeling that the plot development seemed to be beyond his imagination.
Didn't Junior Brother Geng say that he would return to academic research in the future?
Why are we getting further and further away from returning to the past?
Based on Lü Sifeng's past personality, upon hearing this, he would immediately raise questions.
But at this moment, thinking of the 1800 million valuation of "Jiaotong University Matchmaker", thinking of Song Qing's monthly extra income of 4000 yuan, and hearing the tempting words "independent company" and "options", he unexpectedly remained silent, and even had a faint expectation.
"Next, I will elaborate on the product planning, technology roadmap, and first-phase development milestones of the MM project."
After saying that, Geng Zhi opened his laptop and began to present the PowerPoint presentation to the group.
Geng Zhi talked and discussed with them, and the whole meeting lasted for two and a half hours. He even ordered dinner from Ele.me.
After Lü Sifeng, Zou Lu and others left one after another, Geng Zhi immediately began to design the product architecture diagram.
Hao Pengxiang, following Geng Zhi's direct approach to recruiting UI designer interns, posted the recruitment requirements in the design school's large group chat.
After submitting his request, Hao Pengxiang checked the download statistics for "Fruit Ninja" and couldn't help but exclaim, "Senior, 'Fruit Ninja' has already topped the Australian free download charts!"
"Oh? That's amazing?" Geng Zhi showed a slight look of surprise.
When he checked before leaving home this morning, it was still ranked nineteenth on the free charts, which made him think that Fruit Ninja was released too early to become popular.
"Yeah, senior, look!" Hao Pengxiang excitedly showed his phone to Geng Zhi.
Geng Zhi glanced at the rankings and was very excited.
Hao Pengxiang asked excitedly, "Senior, when will Fruit Ninja be released in our country?"
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"I remember Teacher Wang saying that if it's successful in Australia, they'll first promote it in North America for a fee, and then promote it in Xiao Rizi and our country," Geng Zhi said.
"Oh—" Hao Pengxiang looked disappointed, then asked, "Then, the workload for the art team will be even greater for the later iterations of Fruit Ninja, right?"
"Yes, Teacher Wang mentioned before that he might ask you to help introduce another game artist." Geng Zhi nodded.
"Senior, I think my roommate Xu Youqing would be more suitable to work with us. He's been playing Fruit Ninja like crazy lately."
In Australia, he's also willing to take on part-time jobs.
"Okay, then you can recommend him to Teacher Wang and see if he meets Teacher Wang's criteria."
"Okay!" Hao Pengxiang said excitedly.
Back at the Nordic Doctor's Garden, Geng Zhi checked the download rankings of "Fruit Ninja" again. Not only was it firmly in first place, but it was also leading by a wide margin.
He immediately decided to launch it for a paid subscription in North America, priced at $0.99.
Once the overseas company has received the funds, it can begin discussing formal cooperation with the agent that Gu Wanning helped find.
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P.S.: I'd like to ask for a monthly ticket and a recommendation ticket from fellow readers. Thank you!