PDLP Chapter 476 Ecological Outbreak
Chapter 476 Ecological Outbreak
Jinan, Xinghuo Group Convention and Exhibition Center.
This convention center was just built last year, and its exterior resembles a piece of crystal with a corner cut off. A huge display board stands at the entrance, displaying the Spark OS logo and the words: "The 2nd Spark Developer Conference." The area beneath the board is packed with people; some are exchanging their conference badges, some are collecting information bags, and some are taking photos with their StarPhone phones in front of the display board.
Wang Jianguo stood beside the registration desk, a walkie-talkie in his hand, a fine layer of sweat on his forehead. "The number of attendees was 1,400 this morning, but the registration system just refreshed and it's over 1,500." The voice of the event manager came through the walkie-talkie: "Mr. Wang, we've added three more rows of chairs in the back. If we add any more, there won't be any standing room." Wang Jianguo replied, "Add them for now," hung the walkie-talkie back on his waist, and turned to see Ling Yun entering through the side door.
"President Ling, the number of people has increased fivefold compared to last year."
Ling Yun glanced at the long line in front of the registration desk. "How many people were there last year?"
"three hundred."
Ling Yun didn't speak and walked towards the main venue. The corridor was lined with booths from partners—game developers, enterprise software developers, and educational application developers. One booth was surrounded by a large crowd, several layers deep, where someone was demonstrating something using a StarPhone, eliciting bursts of laughter from the onlookers. As Ling Yun passed by, he glanced inside—the screen displayed a demo version of the Fruit Ninja game, the blades flashing as they sliced fruit.
The main venue was already full. The lights dimmed, and the large screen displayed the startup animation of Spark OS. When Ling Yun walked onto the stage, the audience fell silent for a moment.
"Welcome everyone." He stood at the podium, without a script. "Last year, for the first Developer Conference, we rented a hotel conference room in Jinan and had 300 people. This year—" He glanced at the audience, "1,500 people. If we come again next year, this venue might not be able to hold them all."
Some people in the audience laughed, and some applauded.
"Let me show you some numbers first." Ling Yun pressed a button on the remote control. Three lines of data popped up on the big screen: the number of apps in the app store has exceeded 800, the cumulative downloads have exceeded 30 million, and the number of registered developers has exceeded 12,000.
"These three numbers represent our achievements from last year to now. But what lies behind these numbers?" He pressed another button on the remote, and an app details page popped up on the screen. "This app is called Fruit Ninja. The developer is one person with the ID 'Fruit Ninja Programmer.' In three months since its release, it has surpassed 500,000 downloads. Last month, his revenue share arrived, amounting to 200,000."
A buzz of whispers arose from the audience. The number two hundred thousand floated in the air above the venue, like a stone thrown into a calm lake.
"There's one more." Ling Yun turned to the next page, and a public transport query app appeared on the screen. The interface was simple, but it had over two thousand reviews. "The developer of this app is from Guizhou, and his name is Chen Zhiyuan. In the app description, he wrote: 'Thanks to Xinghuo, I, a graduate from a second-tier university, can also support myself by writing code.'"
He put down the remote control. "I'd like to invite Chen Zhiyuan up."
A young man stood up from the back row. He was wearing a plaid shirt, the cuffs unbuttoned and hanging loosely. When he walked onto the stage, his steps were unsteady, as if he were walking on cotton. A staff member handed him a microphone, and his hand trembled as he took it.
"My name is Chen Zhiyuan." His voice was soft, with a slight southwestern accent. "At this time last year, I was still carrying bricks on a construction site."
The venue was so quiet that you could hear people in the back turning pages of documents.
"I worked on the construction site during the day and went back to the workers' shed at night to study Spark's SDK. There was no internet in the shed, so I used my phone's hotspot to download development documents. It cost one yuan for 10 megabytes of data, and I spent more than 300 yuan a month." He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Later, I wrote a bus route query app. In Guizhou, many bus routes are old, and the data online is inaccurate. I took each route one by one and checked it myself. If I took the wrong route, I would take it back. It took me two months to input all the bus routes of three cities in Guizhou."
He opened the app and held it up for the audience to see. The interface on the screen was simple, white background with black text, but the stations for each line were clearly marked.
"In the first month after it was released, it got over 20,000 downloads. In the second month, 50,000. In the third month, it was featured on the Spark App Store, and the downloads skyrocketed to 150,000." His voice started to tremble slightly, not from nervousness, but from suppressing something. "Last month's revenue share came in, 8,000 yuan. Before, I worked as a construction worker, earning 1,200 yuan a month."
A low murmur rippled through the audience. Some turned to look at the people next to them, while others typed on their phones.
"I want to say—" Chen Zhiyuan gripped the microphone, his knuckles white, "Spark didn't just change me. It changed my hope for the future."
The applause rolled from the back rows to the front, then exploded. It wasn't the polite, rapid clapping; it was a deep, sustained applause that welled up from the throat. Wang Jianguo stood to the side of the stage, took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on. Li Mo leaned against the wall, staring at the ceiling.
Chen Zhiyuan bowed, handed the microphone back to the staff, and walked off the stage. Ling Yun patted him on the shoulder from the side of the stage, without saying anything.
After the press conference, Ling Yun sat in the lounge with several core developers. Chen Zhiyuan was also there, sitting in the corner of the sofa, holding a glass of orange juice, hesitant to drink it. Next to him sat a young man with a buzz cut, the "fruit-cutting programmer" who made Fruit Ninja. His name was Liu Yang, from Chengdu. He used to work for a game company but later quit to start his own business.
"Mr. Ling," Liu Yang put down the can of cola, "Let me tell you the truth. I used to work at a game company, making mobile games. But the platform's revenue sharing ratio was 30/70—the platform took 70%, and the developer took 30%. I made a small game back then, and it got over 100,000 downloads, but after paying the rent, all the money I received was gone."
"How did you come up with the idea of joining Xinghuo?"
"Because of your revenue sharing ratio," Liu Yang said, "80/20, with the developers getting 80%. I initially thought it was just a marketing gimmick, but after the first month's revenue sharing arrived, I found out it really was 80/20. So I quit my job and went full-time to develop Spark OS."
A middle-aged developer wearing glasses chimed in, "Mr. Ling, our biggest concern today is—can this revenue sharing ratio be maintained?"
Everyone looked at Ling Yun. The lounge fell silent.
Ling Yun put down his water glass. "I can't guarantee that things won't change for the next few decades. But I can guarantee that as long as I, Ling Yun, am still at Xinghuo, as long as I can still make decisions, the developers will always get the lion's share."
Liu Yang recorded those words. He later told people that it was the most reassuring sentence he had ever heard since becoming a developer. The atmosphere in the break room relaxed a bit. Several developers started adding each other as StarPhone friends. Someone took out a StarPhone to show Ling Yun the prototype of their new app. The interface was still rough, but the idea was good. Ling Yun took it, swiped around a few times, and offered two suggestions for improvement. The developer listened attentively and took out a small notebook to jot them down.
After the meeting ended, Wang Jianguo followed Ling Yun to the parking lot. "President Ling, I feel that today's meeting was a bit different from last year's."
"What's different?"
"Last year's developers had curiosity in their eyes. This year's—" Wang Jianguo thought for a moment, "have that look in their eyes that says, 'I'm planning to make a living from this.'"
Ling Yun opened the car door and glanced back at the convention center. The Starfire OS logo on the display board glowed blue and white in the twilight. Several developers who hadn't left yet stood under the board taking photos, holding up StarPhone phones and smiling happily. "Let them have a meal. The rest, they'll create on their own." He got into the car and closed the door.