Internet Summit

Although it was billed as an exchange event between new and old internet companies organized by Silicon Valley, the venue was not in Silicon Valley, but at a technology exhibition hall in downtown Los Angeles.

This exchange meeting would last for three days, starting at 2:00 PM and ending at 5:00 PM each day.

According to the schedule, a charity gala would be held at a hotel at 7:00 PM on the final night of the three-day event. It was said that the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of California would both be in attendance.

The first day of the exchange meeting.

Big Blue IBM, software giant Microsoft, computer manufacturing giants HP and Dell, portal leader Yahoo, AOL, and other companies all sent representatives at the vice-president level or higher to attend the first day of the summit.

On that day, there were more than 750 internet companies of all sizes exhibiting; in addition, there were more than 3,000 investors like Zucker Wald who had been invited, so the technology exhibition hall was packed with people.

Before long, Zucker arrived at the display area of an internet company.

"Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and welcome to the bitju display area!"

"As you can all see, our company is a professional internet equipment provider. Ok? Perhaps our company's reputation isn't as loud as Cisco's, but our equipment is absolutely world-leading. We firmly believe that we will be the next Cisco. No, or to be precise, we will surpass Cisco."

A middle-aged white man in a blue suit was introducing his company in a loud voice.

As his voice trailed off, the onlookers present, whether they agreed or not, gave polite applause.

"Alright, next I will demonstrate our company's latest technological achievement, America's new generation of server equipment."

In the time that followed, the middle-aged white man began to praise his company's equipment to the skies.

No, to be precise, he was spouting nonsense!

"What the hell!"

"Is this guy from a mental hospital?"

"Even a layman like me can see he's completely scamming for money, right? The level of advancement he claims for this server is better than the top-tier servers of 2020. How is that possible?"

"Shameless liar!"

Zucker began to rant crazily in his mind, thinking that surely not many people would believe his words.

However, the reality left Zucker stunned!

After the middle-aged white man finished speaking, more than a dozen investment institutions and individuals among the onlookers actually expressed interest in having a private chat on the spot.

For a moment, Zucker was filled with emotion.

He didn't know if these dozen or so investment institutions and individuals were genuinely interested in chatting about this equipment, or if they were shills hired by bitju.

Well, in any case, Zucker wasn't interested in the slightest.

Yes, I am not an internet professional, and I can't distinguish which companies or projects are worth investing in, but I am a transmigrator. I only invest in companies I've heard of in the future. How could I not make money that way?

This was Zucker's investment principle.

The internet in the 90s was crazy, whether it was business operators or individual investors. Especially in the late 90s, could you believe that there were people who had no fixed office location, no registered capital, no exclusive technical means, and who could obtain hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars just by holding a proposal and relying on their mouths?

There were!

And there were many!

If it weren't for this, the internet bubble of the early 21st century might have arrived a little later!

There were too many scammers!

And even more unreliable companies!

That's right, this was the most direct impression Zucker had on the first day of the exchange meeting.

As for those internet companies that were already beginning to show the bearing of overlords, Zucker had the intention to buy a stake, but they said: "Sorry, we don't have any financing needs at the moment."

Bullshit!

Where did they not have financing needs?

Apart from a limited dozen or so companies, which of the other internet companies could actually make money? They were all money-burning pits! They were all burning cash crazily and expanding crazily!

To put it bluntly, they didn't look down on Zucker's few million in investment capital at all!

"You will regret this!"

Zucker couldn't help but curse in his heart: "Damn it, when the internet bubble hits, just wait and see how I deal with you!"

As the first day of the exchange meeting was coming to an end, Zucker unexpectedly saw a very pleasantly surprising company.

--Amazon.

The representative attending this summit for Amazon was none other than the founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos himself.

"Mr. Bezos, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Zucker Wald. I am the owner of a Hollywood company and also an investor," Zucker introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Wald."

The two shook hands.

At this time, Jeff Bezos was not yet the iconic "Bald Bezos" he would later become.

Looking at his personal history, Jeff Bezos was both unfortunate and lucky.

Because at the age of only 5, he experienced his parents' divorce. However, his stepfather was very good to him, treating him as his own and giving him a wonderful childhood. During his student days, he always served as class president and student representative, showing his ability in business management, and graduated with excellent grades from the most outstanding university in America and the world, Princeton University.

As an adult, he was no ordinary person either.

He had successively worked at high-tech companies and a trust company on Wall Street, managing computer systems for assets worth 250 billion dollars, and by the age of 25, he had become the youngest vice president in the history of that bank trust company.

This guy is totally cheating!

From 1990 to 1995, Bezos co-founded one of the world's most advanced and successful hedge fund management companies, becoming its youngest senior vice president in 1992.

Therefore, even though Amazon was newly established and had not yet reached the scale it would have in the future, he was truly not short on cash!

"Damn rich people!"

Well, Zucker chatted with Bezos for quite a while, but he didn't accept Zucker's investment.

In his own words: "I came to attend the summit today not because I have a need for financing, but just to take a look around."

Damn rich people!

Baldy Bezos, he's damn too shrewd!

The feeling of having a huge piece of fat meat in front of him but being unable to take a bite really made Zucker feel quite unhappy.

What happened to the transmigrator tropes? Shouldn't people be bowing down and calling me boss?

Bad review!

On the second day of the exchange summit, Zucker didn't find any companies worth investing in.

They were either scammers, lunatics, or people with delusions.

In short, they wouldn't get a single cent from Zhu Koukou!

By the end of the third and final day of the exchange summit, Zucker still hadn't successfully completed any investments, and he looked a bit wilted.

Well, Zucker only felt now that he regretted not having read more books when he needed them!

Zucker was indeed a transmigrator, but in his past life, he was just an ordinary person, busy every day with the trivialities of life and occasionally reading the news. He only knew the names of big corporations; how could he possibly know about other internet companies in America?

A slightly wilted Zucker followed the crowd and left the exhibition hall in an orderly fashion according to the venue's rules.

"Hey guys, these three days have been amazing!"

"That's right, I think it's time for us to make some changes!"

"Wiesger, Wadi, I believe that by next year, once our ICQ is released, we will be just as successful and just as much in the spotlight as Microsoft, Netscape, and Cisco!"

A young man of Middle Eastern descent said to the other two.

ICQ?

Holy crap!

In an instant, Zucker shivered!

Isn't this the future chat software ICQ?!

<> The second update is here. It's a bit late today. I really had some things to take care of, apologies, apologies!