naruto-story Chapter 106 Promotion
Chapter 106 Promotion
Chapter 106 Promotion
At 8:17 a.m. on February 14, the snow in Boston University City had just stopped.
A thin layer of frost still clung to the glass windows of Dick's Cafe, and through the frost patterns, one could see the bare sycamore branches on the Harvard campus across the street, like countless frozen fingers pointing to the leaden sky.
There weren't many customers in the café at that time; there were only three customers in total.
The elderly professor by the window was slowly stirring the hot cocoa in his cup with a small silver spoon, the sugar making a soft, clinking sound at the bottom of the porcelain cup.
Two girls in Boston University's red and black uniforms huddled together, pointing at an open notebook, the scratching of pens on the pages mingling with the occasional burst of soft laughter.
Meanwhile, the owner, Dick, sat behind a gleaming oak bar, twirling a penny between his fingers.
His gaze, intentionally or unintentionally, drifted to the female college student working beside him, her buttocks sticking out. The girl was wearing a faded denim jacket, and her upturned buttocks swayed slightly with the movements of her hands.
Dick's Adam's apple bobbed, and his eyes darted around, as if he were plotting something.
"Hey, Dick." The young voice was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, instantly shattering Dick's illusions.
Dick turned his head, saw the person who came in, and glared at him irritably. "Stim, you're not welcome here today."
Steve chuckled, ignoring Dick's slightly annoyed tone. He revealed his messy brown curly hair and put on a harmless smile.
"Don't worry, I won't lie about the coffee today."
If someone else had said that, Dick might have believed it to some extent.
But coming from Steve, it sounds as unreliable as an heirloom gold watch being sold by a conman on the streets of New York.
Steve is a Harvard student in Boston's college town. He always uses little magic tricks or trivia to bet with Dick's at the cafe and get free food and drinks, and Dick always falls for it.
Last week, this kid tricked him out of two cups of Blue Mountain coffee using some kind of siphon principle, and Dick still feels the pinch when he thinks about it.
Three days ago, he claimed he could make ice stay in boiling water without melting, and then he actually fooled him with some Leiden Frost effect, not only stealing a cup of coffee but also a piece of blueberry pie.
"Then you're not welcome here either."
Dick's face darkened, like a wary old cat, firmly guarding his bottom line.
He had figured it out: as long as he didn't receive the other party, he wouldn't get caught up in this guy's schemes.
"Are you sure? You're going to push away a profitable deal?" Steve's voice was full of enticement.
Dick hesitated for a moment. "Are you sure you're not here to freeload today? This isn't another one of your tricks, is it?"
Dick had been fooled so many times. Every time he was absolutely certain that he wouldn't fall for it again, but he always ended up in their trap.
He recalled that last Christmas, when Steve claimed he could conjure money from playing cards, but ended up not only stealing his Christmas mulled wine but also making him lose the fifty dollars he had just withdrawn from the bank.
Steve didn't say anything, but instead pulled a badly worn black wallet from the back pocket of his jeans.
He unzipped his jacket and pulled out two crumpled one-dollar bills, slapping them onto the bar counter.
"A coffee, please." He smiled at Dick, his blue eyes gleaming mischievously in the overhead light. "Now you'll believe me, won't you?"
Dick stared at the two green banknotes, the portrait of Washington on them somewhat blurred from repeated circulation.
He paused for three seconds, then suddenly seemed to remember something, quickly reached out and swept the money in front of him, his fingertips rubbing the edge of the banknotes as if wondering if they were props.
After confirming that the banknotes were genuine, his previously tense face instantly relaxed, the wrinkles around his eyes smoothed out, and even his voice became warmer: "You mentioned earlier that there was a profitable business opportunity?"
Steve nodded but didn't say anything. Instead, he picked up the menu on the bar and slowly flipped through it.
He knew Dick all too well; this Italian-American, born in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, had spent his entire life battling with money.
Stingy, calculating, happy for half a day if he finds a penny, and depressed for a week if he loses a penny. For anything that requires effort, his first thought is always to get something for free.
Such people never get small advantages, but once they are deceived, they suffer a huge loss.
Like camels in the desert, they are meticulous about every drop of water, but once they see a mirage-like oasis, they will rush towards it without hesitation.
"Say something!" Dick leaned forward, his fingers, gripping the banknotes tightly, turning white from the force.
Steve smiled without saying a word, his eyes fixed on the two dollars that had just flown out of his wallet.
Dick noticed the other man's gaze, his expression changed again, and he tightened his grip on the US dollars noticeably. "You're not trying to trick me again, are you?"
"How could that be?" Steve put down the menu and leaned forward slightly. "This is a fantastic opportunity that could earn your store tens or even hundreds of dollars more every day. It's like a windfall!"
.
He paused deliberately, noticing Dick's pupils dilate noticeably, and continued, "And it's a zero-cost deal, I'm tempted. Unfortunately, I don't have the means."
The words "zero cost" acted like a key, instantly unlocking the tightly locked door in Dick's heart. His Adam's apple bobbed as he slowly pushed the two dollar bills back to the center of the bar, the edges still pressed tightly against his side, as if he could immediately take the money back if the other party's words didn't suit his taste.
"We've known each other for almost two years, so we're friends, right?" Dick forced a smile that looked more like a grimace. "How could I possibly ask you for money for a cup of coffee?"
Hundreds of dollars? That's $3.6 a year!
The per capita GDP of the United States is just over $30,000.
Steve saw through the other party's little scheme, but he wasn't going to give them any chance.
He reached out and pressed the banknotes down, his fingertips swiftly snatching the money back and stuffing it into his wallet.
"Thanks, Dick." He deliberately zipped up his wallet with a loud zipping sound, watching as Dick's lips twitched involuntarily.
But Dick wasn't worried about the two dollars anymore; all he could think about was the lucrative business of making 36,000 a year.
He leaned forward and lowered his voice, asking, "Tell me quickly, what kind of profitable business is it?"
This time, Steve didn't waste any words and gestured towards the right side of the cafe.
There were six beige Compaq computers against the wall, with old-fashioned CRT monitors and the computer cases standing like solid bricks under the table.
Two of them were on, displaying glaring interfaces on their screens.
"These are them."
"Them?" Dick's voice rose noticeably by two decibels, as if he had been tricked again.
"Yes, these are them," Steve nodded affirmatively, then picked up the backpack beside him and took out a contract from it.
"This is a promotional contract from Leap Motion." Steve pointed to the third clause of the contract: "As long as your computer installs their new game, you will receive two dollars in promotional fees for every hour each computer runs."
He picked up the pen on the bar and quickly calculated on a napkin, "You have 6 computers here. Assuming you're open for 11 hours a day, as long as the computers are running games, each computer is worth $22 a day, so 6 computers would be $132."
"Even if someone goes online to do other things, making a hundred dollars a day is not a big problem."
Internet cafe promotion is one of the ways YueDong promotes and advertises CS.
In the United States, there is no such concept as an internet cafe now; they are all in the form of coffee shops, which is the earliest prototype of internet cafes in the world.
In 1991, a coffee shop in San Francisco added several computers for its customers to use.
Back then, computers were a luxury, not as common as they are now.
As a result, it instantly attracted a large number of young people who were curious about new things, and the coffee shop was doing incredibly well, with coffee sales skyrocketing.
Then this model of placing computers in cafes spread throughout San Francisco in just two months, and within two years, this combination appeared in almost every region of the United States.
This model later spread all over the world, and the first internet cafe in China also followed this model.
However, consumers' demand for internet access eventually surpassed their demand for coffee, so internet cafes were born.
But that was China, and this is America.
Even students who can't afford to buy a computer usually choose to use the school's computer lab, so they don't have to worry about not having a computer.
Therefore, the internet cafe business simply cannot develop in the United States. The computers in coffee shops are now more for bored people to kill time or for those who need to look up information immediately.
But that's enough. Leap doesn't need these people to play CS; they just need to be able to see it.
Imagine this: when you walk into a coffee shop, every time you scan the computer, the screen displays a Counter-Strike game.
When you want to choose a game to pass the time, does this game suddenly pop into your mind?
In YueDong's view, those were not expensive computers at all, but excellent GG display boards.
Therefore, Yuedong's involvement is not about these coffee shops leaving their computers running to exploit the system; they are actively giving these opportunities to them.
How many coffee shops can a university town have? Fifty? Or a hundred?
For example, if a coffee shop spends an average of $150 a day on advertising, that's only $900 a week. Even if 100 coffee shops spend only $90,000 a week on advertising.
A week is enough time for the university students in the city to get to know the game.
Then it spread like wildfire, from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred.
There aren’t many college towns of Boston’s size in the whole of the United States.
Leap Motion calculated that with just two million US dollars, the GG effect would be greater than the five million US dollars of traditional advertising.
"real?"
Dick's fingers traced the lines of the contract, his fingertips brushing against the rough surface of the printed paper. He suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with wariness. "What kind of company is this Leap Motion? If they go bankrupt, who will I get my money from?"
Dick was skeptical. Could there really be such a good thing in the world?
"You have nothing to lose, do you?" Steve put down his coffee cup, the bottom of which made a crisp sound as it hit the table.
"You don't need to invest a single penny; all you need to do is get the computer running the game. Even if they really go bankrupt, you'll only waste some electricity. But what if it works out?"
"Then where do I collect the money?" Dick thought about it and realized that was indeed the case. He gripped the edge of the contract tightly with his fingers, almost crumpling the paper.
Steve pointed to his nose, a bright smile spreading across his face. "Let me formally introduce myself. I'm Steve Cohen, a marketing specialist at Leap Motion. I'll come to settle your bill the next morning."
Dick's eyes widened, and he stood up abruptly. "You? You, a Harvard graduate, actually went to work in sales?"
No matter how much Dick disliked the other person, he had to admit that Steve was a Harvard graduate.
In Dick's view, Harvard students should be dressed in suits and ties, giving orders on Wall Street or Capitol Hill, not running around like salesmen.
Steve didn't care; it was just a collaboration, and he wasn't even officially employed by the company.
He knew very well that this event wouldn't last long, and he would get a 10% commission for each coffee shop he promoted, so why not?
However, he didn't explain to Dick, finished the rest of his coffee, and asked, "Do you agree or not? If you agree, we'll sign the contract."
Steve didn't want to waste too much time here; he still had a lot of places to visit in and around the university town.
"Sign it? Only a fool wouldn't sign it."
Steve picked up the contract with the other party's signature, looked at it carefully, and smiled with satisfaction.
He then took out something that looked like a business card and handed it over. "Log in at the website address on it. There are tutorials inside that will tell you how to download and install it."