Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 99 Monetization

Two months after the open platform went live, Han Lu walked into Zuo Cheng's office with a financial statement in her hand.

"Brother Cheng, good news. The open platform generated its first paid revenue this month." Han Lu placed the report on the table. "Lin Yuan's company signed up for the enterprise version's annual fee of 12 yuan. In addition, three smaller companies purchased value-added service packages, totaling 8 yuan."

"20?" Zuo Cheng looked at the number on the report. "It doesn't sound like much, but it's a good omen."

"Indeed, this is a milestone," Han Lu said. "The breakthrough from zero to one is often the hardest. With the first paying customer, the rest will become easier and easier. Moreover, Lin Yuan's customer feedback has been very good; they have already spontaneously helped promote us within the industry."

Zuo Cheng nodded. Han Lu was right; 20 was negligible compared to 402's revenue. The returns from just one project on Sky Dome were equivalent to several years' worth of revenue. But the significance of the open platform lay not in short-term income, but in establishing a sustainable business model.

What about the data from the developer ecosystem?

Han Lu flipped through another report in her hand: "3800 registered developers, 87 applications launched, and a total of 1.2 connected devices. The average daily API call volume is 50, with a peak of 100 million."

"1.2 units of equipment." Zuo Cheng pondered for a moment. "That's still a long way from our goal of one million units."

"But the growth rate is very fast," Han Lu said. "Last month it was 4000 units, and this month it's 1.2, a three-fold increase. At this rate, breaking 10 units within six months shouldn't be a problem."

Zuo Cheng stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and drew a curve.

"The key isn't the number of devices, it's the paid conversion rate." He marked several points on the curve. "Out of 3800 developers, only 4 paid, a conversion rate of one in a thousand. That's far too low."

Han Lu thought for a moment: "Most developers are personal enthusiasts, working on experimental projects without commercial needs. The ones truly willing to pay are enterprise clients, but they require more mature products and more comprehensive after-sales support."

"Therefore, our focus needs to shift to the enterprise market." Zuo Cheng wrote two lines on the whiteboard: "First, build an enterprise customer team to specifically serve paying clients. Second, launch industry solutions, not just providing APIs, but offering a complete package of hardware and software solutions."

"Industry solutions?" Han Lu asked, somewhat surprised. "Isn't that taking away work from developers?"

"We don't compete. Our industry solutions set a benchmark for ourselves, proving the platform's commercial value. Just like Android, Google made the Pixel phone to prove Android can produce good products, but that didn't stop Samsung and Huawei from using Android to make their own phones. Developers can do secondary development and customization based on our solution, which actually lowers the barrier to entry for them."

Zuo Cheng returned to his seat and opened the system panel. The status of the technology tree hadn't changed much since his last check; the Internet of Things branch still had thirteen leaves, plus two fusion leaves. His score remained at 130 points, with no new changes.

But Zuo Cheng noticed a new notification. In the corner of the system panel, a line of small text was flashing: [Sky Overlord] Task Chain Stage Two: Connect 10 devices to the IoT platform. Progress: 1.2/10.

Zuo Cheng stared at this line of text for a few seconds. It turned out that the number of devices connected to the IoT platform was linked to the main task. 10 devices—this was the condition for completing stage two.

What will the reward be upon completion? Zuo Cheng didn't know, but based on his experience with the first stage, the reward shouldn't be bad. The first stage gave 50 points and a growth acceleration, so the reward for the second stage might be even more generous. Moreover, the further along the quest chain you go, the greater the reward is likely to be.

He turned off the system panel, feeling a renewed sense of motivation. Reaching 10 devices—from 1.2 to 10—would take about six months. During those six months, he needed to do three things: expand the developer ecosystem, increase the number of enterprise clients, and launch industry solutions.

"Han Lu, you'll personally lead the enterprise client team," Zuo Cheng said. "Take three people from the business development team to focus on the enterprise market. The goal is to sign 10 paying enterprise clients within a month."

"Ten?" Han Lu hesitated. "Time is a bit tight."

"Not at all," Zuo Cheng said. "Lin Yuan's company has already proven the platform's value. Using him as a benchmark will ensure a high conversion rate. Enterprise clients aren't most afraid of price; they're afraid of risk. With a benchmark case, the risk is minimized. Besides, we have our trump card: 9ms latency, which no one can match."

Han Lu thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll give it a try."

"This isn't a trial, it's a must-do," Zuo Cheng said firmly. "402 is shifting from technology-driven to business-driven. No matter how good the technology, if it can't be monetized, it's just a castle in the air."

Han Lu nodded: "I understand. Ten paying enterprise clients in one month."

After seeing Han Lu off, Zuo Cheng picked up his phone and dialed Chen Hao's extension. He needed to finalize the framework for the industry solution as soon as possible; with a clear direction, the team could move forward quickly.

"Chen Hao, I'll set the direction for the industry solutions. The first industry we'll choose is Industrial IoT, and the solution needs to cover four modules: device access, data acquisition, real-time monitoring, and anomaly alarms. The documentation and demonstration environment should be ready within two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Chen Hao's voice sounded hesitant. "Completing all four modules will be very tight on time."

"Let's start with an MVP version, just enough to demonstrate. We'll add the details later," Zuo Cheng said. "The code for edge scheduling and device management reuses the open platform's code, and the anomaly alarms use Ying's detection algorithm; you only need to encapsulate the monitoring interface."

"If it's for MVP, two weeks should be enough."

"good."

After hanging up the phone, Zuo Cheng leaned back in his chair, gazing at the skyline outside the window. Dusk gradually enveloped Hangzhou, and distant lights began to illuminate the city. 402 was transforming from a technology company into a business-oriented one. The key to this transformation wasn't technology, but rather the pace. Technology could be accelerated through a tech tree, but the pace of business needed to be controlled by the company itself.

When to open the platform, when to launch industry solutions, when to acquire enterprise clients—every step must be timed perfectly. Being too early makes you a martyr, being too late makes you fall behind; only by timing things right can you gain a first-mover advantage.

He recalled a quote he'd read in his previous life: "Doing the right thing at the right time is more important than anything else." Those companies that fail aren't technologically inept; they're just doing things the wrong way.

In this life, he will absolutely not make that mistake.