From Li Mu's point of view, with the explosive development of human technology, batteries were a special field that was difficult to find a breakthrough in.
People could already condense computing equipment that would have required dozens or even hundreds of tons a few decades ago into the size and weight of a book. Even the computing power had increased by thousands of times. Based on the speed of computer development, a battery the size of a mobile power supply should be able to drive a two-ton car for two thousand kilometers non-stop.
However, the reality was cruel. Human technology had not found a huge breakthrough in the field of batteries. All mobile devices were troubled by the unbreakable capacity of batteries.
How much energy could a kilogram of a battery from 50 years ago store? Today's lithium batteries could at most increase the capacity by a few times. It was extremely difficult to increase the energy density of a battery. Laptops came with heavy batteries that could only store energy for a few hours. Ten years later, smartphones would need to be charged every day, no matter how much they advertised about saving power. Based on the development of computer processing chips, it would be reasonable for the battery to be reduced to the size and weight of a one-yuan coin in the era of iPhones.
It was precisely because the battery industry could not find a major breakthrough that the service life of lithium batteries exceeded everyone's imagination. Everyone was already used to rapid innovation. Even modern scientists believed that in the near future, someone would be able to find a more advanced energy storage solution than lithium batteries. However, the scary thing was that lithium batteries were like rubber. They had become a part of the industry that could not be replaced.
Since the invention of the automobile, there had been no less than ten thousand technological innovations. People even began to try to get rid of the fuel tank and the fuel engine. However, so far, no car could get rid of the rubber.
The more this was the case, the more Li Mu felt that the layout of the lithium battery industry should be tightened up. Before it became a mainstay of the information age, they should quickly dig out the source of this industry.
Nowadays, people's lives were still far away from lithium batteries. The penetration rate of mobile phones was not high, so not everyone had access to lithium batteries. However, in the future, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, power banks, cameras, and even flashlights, vibrating toys, alternative energy vehicles, etc. None of them could do without lithium batteries. They must get the resources into their own hands before the industry's benefits became obvious!
…
The Harvard campus was the same as always. As the palace of learning, everything here followed its own rules, and there were no visible changes. However, inside Harvard, there were some elements that were different from usual. This was because inside Harvard, there was a very trendy baby, and its name was Facebook.
With Li Mu's funding, Mark Zuckerberg put most of his energy into the incubation of the Facebook project. He was not ambitious. In the early stages of the business, his biggest wish was to make Facebook popular in American universities and become the new Internet darling of American university students.
In order to achieve this goal, Mark Zuckerberg invested a considerable amount of energy and funds to promote Facebook in major universities across the country. He and his marketing team planned to go to all universities in the United States in the next three months and introduce this trendy social media product to college students.
When Li Mu arrived at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg had just returned from New York. The marketing team was taking turns promoting Facebook at Columbia University and other universities in New York. Because there were too many universities in New York, Mark Zuckerberg attached great importance to it. Before this, he had been in New York for more than a week. When he heard that Li Mu wanted to meet him at Harvard, he rushed back to Massachusetts.
In Mark Zuckerberg's eyes, Li Mu was his boss. As soon as he arrived at Harvard, he went straight to Li Mu and excitedly reported the current development of Facebook to Li Mu.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook currently had millions of registered users and more than 100,000 daily active users. More than 90% of the users were college students. This was not only because the focus of the promotion was on university campuses, but also because college students had more time to interact with the Internet and there was a high demand for social media on campus.
Li Mu asked him, "How many college students are there in the United States right now?"
Mark Zuckerberg said without hesitation, "Currently, the total number of undergraduate and graduate students in the United States is about 17 million."
Li Mu nodded and said, "You now have millions of registered users, which accounts for 6% of your total target group in the first phase. There is still a long way to go."
Mark Zuckerberg said, "Although it only accounts for 6% now, with our current promotion speed, this proportion can increase to 30% by the end of the year."
Li Mu held his chin and said, "From 6% to 30% in about half a year, this is a linear growth."
Mark Zuckerberg didn't understand what Li Mu meant. He just vaguely felt that Li Mu might not be too satisfied with his goal, so he tentatively asked him, "Li Zong, if you have any opinions or dissatisfaction, please point them out. I will definitely try my best to correct them."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Don't be too nervous."
After saying that, Li Mu slowly said, "On the Internet, the number of users of a good product increases linearly. It starts from 10,000 users, crosses the 50,000 mark, the 100,000 mark, the 200,000 mark, and continues to grow to millions, tens of millions, and even hundreds of millions."
Mark Zuckerberg agreed and said, "You are right. This is indeed the quality that a good product needs. The total number of users increases steadily, and there are few or even no bottlenecks."
Li Mu sighed and said, "But this is only a good product. A truly excellent product should have an explosive growth in users. It contains a huge amount of energy like nature. Just like an ancient poem by Hua Xia, 'Suddenly, like a spring breeze, thousands of pear trees bloom.' Nature will never let the trees in Harvard or even Massachusetts grow green shoots one by one. It will use its energy to make most of the trees in Massachusetts grow green shoots at the same time in a very short period of time. After a few days, the other latitudes and altitudes will also grow green in large areas. An excellent product should be like nature."
Li Mu firmly believed in the theory of "excellent products develop explosively." Many products quickly occupied a large part of the market in a very short period of time. This theory was also a rule that the most popular products on the Internet had to follow. In the past, there was Legend of Mir 2, QQ, and Taobao. Later, there was Weibo, iPhone, iPad, Android, and even TikTok. However, Li Mu did not have the opportunity to experience the era where TikTok became popular all over the world in a little more than a year.
Facebook itself was also a popular product. It was just that it had not opened the door to popularity in its early stages. Li Mu knew that Mark Zuckerberg would open the door to popularity sooner or later, but he still hoped that day would come sooner.
"Excellent product …" Mark Zuckerberg muttered to himself. What came to mind was the scene of everything reviving at the same time when spring came. He had lived for more than 20 years and was long used to the change of seasons. Therefore, he had never thought that the revival of everything at the same time was a shocking thing. However, now that he thought about it carefully, it was really an extremely powerful force behind all of this. It was that force that could bathe half of the world in a warm spring breeze in a short period of time.
If the powerful force behind the trees and plants of the world was pushing everything, then what force was behind the world's Internet users? Or rather, how could one have such power?
Mark Zuckerberg suddenly looked at Li Mu, and his mind was suddenly enlightened!
Wasn't Li Mu such a force? He started from YY, and all of his products had such explosive growth. The number of YY users did not need to be set at 10,000, 50,000, or 100,000. Its growth was so fast that its phases were set at 1 million, 5 million, 10 million, and 50 million.
Compared to YY, Facebook's growth was not just a little bit slower. He was still crazily running around with his team to conquer one high school after another in the US. Back then, Li Mu almost conquered one country after another. The difference between the two was so big that it sent chills down his spine.
Mark Zuckerberg then understood that when Li Mu said that the product would grow linearly, he was not praising the results of his work. Instead, he was implicitly conveying his disappointment! If Facebook continued to develop at this pace, it could only become a good product with linear growth. It would definitely not become an excellent product with explosive growth.
All of a sudden, Mark Zuckerberg's heart was filled with a sense of defeat.
Li Mu saw his disappointment and did not say anything to comfort him. Instead, he asked him, "What's the pace of your promotion now?"
Mark Zuckerberg said, "First, I divided the United States into several large regions. Then, I delineated a few areas that need to be broken through. For example, the New York University circle that we are pushing forward now. We will continue to promote it from university to university. Every time we go to a university, we will try to motivate the students there and make them interested in Facebook."
Li Mu nodded and said, "What you're doing is right, but this method itself is following the rules. You always think that the students of each university are independent closed loops, so you have to open them one by one. Therefore, I believe that your current Facebook users are also independent closed loops. For example, Harvard students only interact with people from Harvard on Facebook, and MIT students only communicate with MIT students. Although everyone is almost separated by a wall, on Facebook, everyone is like two separate local networks, right?"
Mark Zuckerberg was stunned and immediately said shamefully, "You're right. That's indeed the case now. Users interact with each school as a unit, and rarely can they break through the boundaries of the school …"
Li Mu nodded and asked him, "Do you set off firecrackers?"
Mark Zuckerberg was stunned and asked him, "Are you talking about the string of firecrackers like Hua Xia?"
"That's right."
Mark Zuckerberg said, "I played it when I was a child."
Li Mu said, "In Hua Xia, there are 100 firecrackers, 100,000 or even a million firecrackers, but their essence is no different. They are all independent firecrackers, and then connected together with a fuse. The individual firecrackers are called firecrackers, and the connected firecrackers are called firecrackers. Because firecrackers are many firecrackers connected together, after you light them, they will continue to explode until there is no one left."
After saying that, Li Mu changed the topic. He looked at Mark Zuckerberg and said seriously, "But now, you're not setting off firecrackers. You're just lighting firecrackers. A university is a firecracker. You run over, light it, and when it explodes, you light the next one. How long will it take you to finish lighting them?"
Mark Zuckerberg looked at Li Mu and murmured, "Li Zong, do you mean that I need to quickly solve all the universities like lighting firecrackers?"
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