The next day.
Silicon Valley, Wald Building, ICQ.
ICQ had only recently been founded. Its CEO was Wiesger, 27; its president was Wadi, 26; its chief technology officer was Goldfinger, 26; and its marketing director was Annon Amir, 24, who had just arrived from Israel.
There was no denying it: ICQ was a very young internet company.
Of course, this was very common in Silicon Valley in the 1990s!
ICQ's official version was now fully developed. Zucker, who knew how successful it would become, had naturally arrived here early.
I really am a genius. I got 40% of the original shares for just $400,000. Even after later rounds of investment dilute my stake, I'll still make a fortune! Zucker thought.
In 1998, AOL had paid more than $400 million to acquire ICQ!
"Zucker, you finally made it," Wiesger said.
Zucker smiled. "How could I not? I'm the company's chief creative officer."
"Right, right."
Wadi and the others beside him nodded repeatedly.
Although Zucker didn't often come to the ICQ office, he was certainly qualified to serve as its chief creative officer. The many features he had proposed fit ICQ's development perfectly, giving it a clear direction from the moment it launched.
Of course they fit. How could they not?
Zucker was a time traveler. Even if, in his previous life, he hadn't known much about ICQ's specific features as someone from Great China, surely he knew QQ?
Free software downloads;
Membership titles and levels;
Paid memberships with features like colored text, faster membership-level progression, and text effects;
Develop versions in other countries' less widely spoken languages alongside the English version;
Zucker had made many suggestions along those lines.
In particular, simplifying the interface and developing versions in non-English languages were especially important.
In his previous life, ICQ had taken