Chapter 107: WWW Conference

Richard didn’t even know what was happening with his Manchester City at the time, because he was very busy himself.

Internet and Computers.

It all began in 1995.

Just adding ".com" to a company’s name could send its stock price soaring. The stock market was engulfed in a frenzy of speculation and hysteria.

Companies like Cisco became symbols of the dot-com bubble. As internet mania swept across the world, Cisco dominated the essential networking equipment market, making its stock price surge feel almost inevitable.

And it all started around the time AT&T dumped NCR in 1995, just as the dot-com bubble was beginning to form. If they had held on just a little longer, they might have reaped massive profits. But unfortunately, there are no "ifs" in business. They missed the opportunity that was right under their noses.

Of course Richard didn’t know any of this yet. But in his own way, he was walking the same tightrope.

The dot-com bubble was fueled by the mass adoption of computers and the internet—and for him, knowing that was enough.

As long as you rode the wave, wealth was almost guaranteed—at least for the next five years.

Yes, you’re right—five years.

Just five years after it began, everything vanished like sea foam on the shore.

By 2000, it all came crashing down.

The dot-com bubble burst.

Investors panicked and slammed their wallets shut. Founders everywhere were left scrambling. Without fresh funding, many had no choice but to sell their companies for pennies on the dollar.

"That’s why timing is everything in life," Richard mumbled, fiddling with PowerBook 5300—the first generation of PowerBook laptops manufactured by Apple Computer to use the PowerPC processor.

"Can I buy this already?" Richard asked the woman at the Apple booth as he fiddled with the laptop on display.

"Unfortunately not, sir," she replied with a slightly apologetic smile. "This is just a prototype. The final product won’t be released until next year."

Soon, the laptop gave a faint chime, and a browser window sluggishly blinked to life. The homepage slowly rendered line by line—first the header, then a clunky banner, followed by rows of blue links on a gray background.

"Ah, it’s connected!" Richard finally exclaimed as the internet connected and he could start browsing.

Even though the technology wasn’t as advanced as in the future, it was still useful for certain tasks.

"See, sir? The PowerBook is very reliable, lightweight, and perfect for both work and travel, especially for professionals and students—" she then said enthusiastically.

Richard opened the internet browser and typed several links, only to be disappointed with how few results he had gotten.

It seemed like people and businesses weren’t yet familiar with creating their own pages. There was nothing he could recognize. It was as if the internet was devoid of users and information at this time.

Behind him, people streamed by, casting curious glances at the booths, eager to discover the latest innovations in the world of technology. It was the dawn of a new era for many internet users, after all.

WWW Conference, Sands Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

This marked the second World Wide Web Conference, following the first in Geneva, Switzerland. It was a pivotal moment in internet history, hosted by Tim Berners-Lee and his team at CERN.

At this time, the conference still had a raw, early-stage feel, mostly attended by hackers, phreakers, government watchers, and curious tech enthusiasts.

Thinking about it, Richard stared at the screen for a moment before remembering something and typing in a particular address. They should have already started at this time, right?

There!

On the screen, he curiously ended up on a page titled

Guide to the World Wide Web

.

However, the current Yahoo!... how to call it?

It was very confusing. Only after tinkering for a while did he begin to understand.

At this stage, Yahoo! was more of a directory than a search engine. It wasn’t anything like the Yahoo! everyone would come to know. The famous Yahoo! portal hadn’t been created yet.

When the page finally loaded, Richard explored its directory, finding websites categorized by interest, searching for keywords, or simply browsing popular sites. But as he navigated the directory, he quickly realized that the page was still full of issues and lacked a clear simplicity. It felt more like a rough draft—an experiment in progress.

At this point, the founder probably hadn’t yet envisioned the concept of a full-fledged portal. After all, scrolling through the simple layout, there was no resemblance to the ’real’ Yahoo.

"Oh, sir, is that...?" the woman at the Apple booth asked, noticing Richard open the familiar page.

Richard looked up, surprised. "You know this?"

She nodded. "Yeah. They gave a presentation here yesterday, trying to secure funding. But it seems they didn’t make it."

"They failed?" Richard blinked, taken aback.

She said with a slight shrug, "Judging by the lack of interest they got, it doesn’t look promising. And honestly, they’re not the only ones trying to build directories like this. Lycos, WebCrawler, Gopher, Archie, Spiral, W3Catalog—they all presented yesterday too."

"Ah, the competitors... Wait, Lycos? How did they do? Did they get funding?" Richard asked, his curiosity piqued.

Lycos, the company with the fastest initial public offering from inception to listing on NASDAQ, and the first search engine to go public.

"Yes," the woman replied. "They secured $2 million in venture capital from CMGI."

Richard sighed, glancing around. "I’m late..."

"Sir, are you here to invest?"

Richard nodded.

"Technology only... or...?"

"I don’t mind, as long as it can bring me profit," he said dismissively.

The woman nodded, glancing around before leaning in closer. "Sir, to be honest, there are so many booths here... How about I show you something good? I promise, you won’t be disappointed."

Richard couldn’t help but give her a second look.

’Gold digger? Scammer?’

"You know your way around this place?"

"Absolutely, sir. I’ve got experience. I was a booth host at the conference in Geneva last year too. A lot of the teams that failed then are back again this year. I know which ones are worth your time."

Richard rubbed his chin, scrutinizing the woman. Something wasn’t right.

"What about your Apple booth?" he asked.

"No worries," she replied confidently. "My shift ends in thirty minutes, anyway. I’m just a contract worker, so it’s fine."

Richard glanced at his watch and shook his head. Thirty minutes was too long. With only five hours left before the conference ended, he couldn’t afford to wait for her.

As if she had already picked up on Richard’s cue, the woman asked him to wait a moment. A short while later, she returned in casual clothes, her booth uniform gone.

"Don’t worry, sir," she said with a smile. "My friend’s covering for me—we’ve already switched shifts. I’m all yours now."

Richard’s heart chilled hearing that. ’

What is with this woman?’

He was about to turn her down when she added, "Sir, I saw you were interested in Yahoo? How about you come with me—and in return, I’ll give you their contact information?"

Richard finally stopped. ’

Who were the founders again?’

he thought. He couldn’t remember their names.

Seeing Richard remain silent, the woman pressed on, "Sir, even though they failed yesterday, they’re still from Silicon Valley. Companies like that usually already have venture capitalists lining up. If you want to catch them, you need to act fast."

"..."

"Did you really say you have their contact information?"

"I promise you, sir."

"...Give me their information first."

"Impossible. You need to follow me first."

Richard’s mouth twitched at her quick thinking. But now, he was finally interested.

’Is this woman actually asking me to follow her? Why? Hmmm, as long as it’s still within the conference, I don’t mind, actually. I’m curious too..’

"Alright, lead the way."

"Okay, follow me, sir."

While walking briskly beside the woman, Richard asked, "What’s your name?"

"Marina," she replied simply.

After walking for a moment, they finally arrived at a booth that made Richard’s eyes widen.

"Evrazholding...? Russian?" Richard was stunned as he noticed the unmistakable Russian flag alongside the American one at the booth. "You’ve got to be kidding me—out of all the American companies here?"

He picked up a brochure, still processing what he was seeing. "And how on earth did a metal trading company even end up at a World Wide Web conference?"

While Richard and Marina were still engaged in conversation, inside the Evrazholding booth, the man—who was the Director of Public Relations for the company—sat there, clearly bored.

To be honest, opening a booth here wasn’t really about promoting the company. It was more about trying to find investors for their small company.

He sighed, deeply frustrated. He understood his boss’s desire to explore every possible scenario to attract investment, but setting up a booth at a tech-focused conference like this?

"Look, everyone here is either a government official or a tech geek. How could they possibly be interested in a small steel-making company?" he muttered under his breath. "It doesn’t make sense."

But then, as his boss’s intern arrived, the man’s eyes lit up. ’

Operation infiltration succeeded. Finally!’

"Hello, hello, welcome!" the man happily stood up and immediately pulled Richard toward him, making Richard facepalm at his overenthusiasm.

Of course, Richard understood the reason behind this. Just the keyword "Russian" was enough for him to imagine what was happening at this moment. Thanks to his acquisition of Rover Group, he had at least kept up with global economic trends.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was transitioning to a market economy, shifting from its old centralized system to one that embraced private ownership and competition.

He was aware of Russia’s loans-for-shares auctions program, where their government offered shares in state-owned companies as collateral for loans from private banks.

The shares were sold off in auctions, but the deals were structured in a way that the government, in many cases, couldn’t repay the loans. As a result, the private banks that provided the loans ended up acquiring the shares.

Many of these assets were essentially sold off at a fraction of their value to a small group of oligarchs.

One example is Evrazholding, as Richard sat there listening to the pitch from the man who introduced the background of his company.

"I am curious though, why list in the U.S.? Why not choose Europe?" Richard asked, his curiosity piqued.

Based on the introduction, the company now wanted to establish itself as a major player in Russia’s industrial sector, focusing on steel production and metals trading.

The problem was that Russia was struggling with hyperinflation and the collapse of state-run industries, which made growth challenging. Their solution was to seek financing by considering a listing on the U.S. market first, which made Richard confused.

The man understood the confusion. "Moscow Stock Exchange was not yet capable of handling large public offerings, as it lacked significant market liquidity. After the collapse, our country was still undergoing significant political and economic transitions," he paused for a moment before continuing, "Let’s just say the markets here are significantly more developed and liquid, with a much larger pool of capital."

"So that’s how it is," Richard nodded.

They were hoping to tap into the American investors’ appetite for foreign opportunities—especially those eager to gain early exposure to Russia’s privatization efforts and the promise of post-Soviet economic growth.

Richard found it a bit amusing—after all the effort they made to come all the way here, they ended up finding a potential investor who was from the UK, not the US.

He shook his head and chuckled, offering a sheepish smile. "Well, the problem is... I’m not even American. I’m British."

"..."

The man glanced at his boss’s intern, clearly about to criticize her—but before he could say anything, Richard spoke first.

"But no worries, I think I’m willing to listen to your pitch first. After all, there’s no harm in hearing it out," he said, handing over his business card.

The man took it, reading aloud, "Maddox Capital... that name sounds familiar." He tilted his head, trying to recall.

Richard simply nodded. "Rover Group."

The man’s eyes widened in recognition. "Ah!" he finally remembered. "My apologies—I didn’t introduce myself properly. My name is Otari Arshba. It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Maddox."

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Arshba," Richard replied, shaking his hand firmly. "Before we go any further, tell me more about your company—how much are you seeking, and who are the other stakeholders involved?"

"Yes, sir," Arshba nodded seriously before he began introducing the company in more detail.

Richard, to be honest, wasn’t particularly interested in investing in a small steel-making company. It was more of a formality to hear the pitch. However, when Arshba mentioned the key stakeholders, particularly the largest ones, Richard changed his mind.