A wave in the MSN before the outbreak of the "climax", so that users suffered losses

Abstract: In the discovery of MSN stolen number, she immediately to the mobile phone more than 300 friends sent a text message, but also made a few foreign phone calls. Just want to relax, but received an old friend of the phone, said already helped her to buy 4000 yuan Recharge card This is obviously on the cheater's when. Favorites

In the discovery of MSN stolen number, she immediately to the mobile phone more than 300 friends sent a text message, but also dozen more foreign phone calls.

Just want to breathe a sigh of relief, but received an old friend of the phone, said already helped "she" bought 4000 yuan Recharge card-this is obviously on the liar. Mingled with grievances and guilt, 刘薇 tears suddenly flow out.

刘薇 is not a case.

This wave in the MSN before the closure of the outbreak of the "climax", so that many users suffered losses.

Recently, MSN will be integrated into the global Skype (excluding mainland China) news, there is analysis that the recent trend of poor MSN services, or with Microsoft's strategic adjustment.

In fact, at the beginning of China, Microsoft did not have a large investment in the product. In the global architecture, MSN China is also difficult to improve products and services according to the needs of local users.

"Nightmare" 48 hours after the stolen number

In the stolen 48 hours, a total of several friends of 刘薇 lost 13000 yuan.

刘薇 is a member of a foreign company in Beijing. November 6 Noon, she was going to lunch, the company's colleagues to call her, asked if she is on MSN, but also let him help buy a recharge card. 刘薇 realized that MSN may have been stolen.

On a colleague's computer screen, cheats steal 刘薇 MSN account to chat with colleagues, trying to let colleagues buy phone recharge cards.

Back in the seat, 刘薇 found his MSN account has been unable to log in. She immediately sent a text message to all the friends on the phone and made a number of foreign friends. Even so, there are still a number of friends have been cheated.

Let 刘薇 unexpectedly is, retrieve account and password process, more difficult than she imagined.

Because MSN does not provide the telephone customer service, wants to retrieve the password, only can submit the application on the MSN China website. On that day, 刘薇 submitted the form is always pass, full 24 hours, she can only get MSN to her automatic reply.

Helpless, 刘薇 tried to communicate with MSN U.S. headquarters in English. Eventually, she contacted a Microsoft employee named Emma. Her MSN account was finally taken back after a number of harsh English emails were sent, accompanied by a screenshot of a friend's scam.

At this time, the distance she found the account was stolen, has passed about 48 hours.

In the 48 hours, several of her friends lost a total of 13000 yuan.

"I'm looking for a lawyer friend to send a letter of attorney to MSN Headquarters," he said. 刘薇 said she and her friends would not have lost so much if the burglary problem could be solved quickly.

刘薇 's experience is not a case.

Anyan, senior analyst with 360 security guards, said there had been a marked increase in fraudulent activities using MSN since the end of last year.

The Google trend figures confirm the claim that, since September 2011, the number of "MSN Thieves" in China has risen significantly compared to the previous year, with two peaks in January 2012 and July to November.

According to previous media reports, late last year, the number of MSN theft Fraud, MSN China has said, has reported to the United States headquarters, and immediately launched an investigation.

For a year, however, similar scams continue to occur, and a new "peak" has been reached before MSN is about to be closed.

Some users have reported that they do not feel Microsoft's efforts to prevent fraud, and even the desire to retrieve passwords, Microsoft does not seem to pay attention to. Netizen "Qingdao Liuzhiyong" said, found that MSN was stolen, he sent 7 times mail application, but reply "All is standard answer." ”

A global standard that does not change for China

In Microsoft's "Global Play", MSN in addition to language, functional aspects in the world are basically the same standards.

Jia Jinghua, a prominent it commentator, has been using MSN since 2003. He feels that the "user experience is getting worse" these years. In his impression, since the end of last year, MSN Virus, spam advertising significantly increased. Often friends are not on the line, but pop-up conversation window and attached to a suspected virus or phishing site links.

"No MSN." "November 15, Beijing, the Microsoft building, the reporter interviewed nearly 10 engineers, found that Microsoft employees have mostly not MSN."

The time dates back to 2005 years. At that time, MSN first into China, quickly obtained a large number of white-collar users of the favor, with the local Tencent QQ and called instant messaging tools of the two giants.

Today, 7 years later, MSN's situation in China has changed.

Eric's data show that this May, Tencent QQ Internet users reached 73% rows first, MSN ranked four, Internet access rate of only 2.8%, or even Ali and fly a letter.

MSN's decline in China is closely related to its localization strategy.

Tao, the incumbent CEO of PPLive, has worked at Microsoft headquarters and is in charge of Microsoft's Asia-Pacific Internet online product, leaving Microsoft in 2009. As for the development of MSN in China, Tao last week received a telephone interview with reporters.

Tao told reporters that because of the relevant restrictions, Microsoft as a foreign-funded enterprises, can not operate independently in China's internet business. In this context, MSN in China's operating party is not Microsoft China, but a company called the United States Grace of Shanghai.

2005, the company was formally established, Microsoft and Shanghai Union and Investment Co., Ltd. each contributed 4 million U.S. dollars, respectively, accounting for 50% shares.

In the staffing structure, the company from Microsoft's full-time staff only a few people, the rest are the company's staff, a total of more than 100 people. As a result, the company's internal focus on MSN software employees about more than 10 people, and mostly for business operations. The replacement of MSN and other technical work, is the responsibility of Microsoft's global headquarters.

"This arrangement is related to Microsoft's global strategy. Tao said that Microsoft has maintained a "global play", the headquarters to develop a product, into the world to promote operations, in addition to language differences, functional aspects of the world are basically the same standards, rarely for a single region to develop a product alone. Such strategic arrangements make it unnecessary for Microsoft to maintain a large research and development team around the world.

This is similar to McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks, and is replicated all over the world. "Microsoft is also recruiting heavily in China, but most of these engineers are serving Microsoft's global headquarters, not Microsoft China," Tao said.

Local team with insufficient permissions

There are multiple levels of communication between MSN China and Microsoft Headquarters, and some issues require layers of reporting applications.

Compared with the qq,msn in the function of less change, has not been added by the Chinese users welcome the "Offline File transfer", "screenshot" and other functions.

Why is MSN not according to the characteristics of the local market, the product to improve it? An internet source who has been the general manager of MSN China told reporters that this is because changes in Microsoft products need to be considered at the global level, but Microsoft's global team believes that "such changes are not very urgent".

He said that there are multiple levels of communication between MSN China and Microsoft headquarters, according to "MSN China-msn Asia-Pacific Headquarters-MSN overseas Headquarters-Microsoft MSN Division-Microsoft Headquarters" in the order of a layer of report application.

Yes, managing director of the Qing Branch venture, said that to transform MSN, it was not easy to communicate with the American developers about the Chinese market, including China's unique business model. Tencent, by contrast, is completely localized, serving Chinese customers and understanding the Chinese market.

Microsoft, an unnamed engineer told reporters that because MSN is not directly operated by Microsoft China, but by the United States, even if the MSN has such views, Microsoft China is not convenient too much intervention.

Single profit model

MSN in China's business model, simply rely on advertising and MSN Chinese Network channel outsourcing revenue.

MSN China in the company's structure of the various problems, not only affect the user experience, but also makes MSN in the business model is relatively rigid, difficult to adapt to the local Internet environment.

Look up Tencent 2012 three quarterly earnings, the company's revenue composition, accounted for the largest QQ members, online games and other "internet value-added services", accounting for Tencent's quarterly income of 72.4%. Among them, the net advertisement income accounted for is not high, only 8.4%.

By contrast, MSN's business model in China relies solely on advertising and on the Channel outsourcing revenue of the MSN Chinese Network.

MSN China's senior executives told reporters that, unlike Tencent, MSN's profit model is relatively single, the most important is the network advertising. This includes ads on the MSN Main panel, ads on the window "Msntoday", and advertisements in the MSN Chinese Web.

Tao said that the reason can only rely on advertising profits, because the United States Kurtzmann in China's capital and manpower are extremely limited, the early days of the establishment of Microsoft has injected 4 million U.S. dollars, but after this company basically rely on its own funds to run. Therefore, MSN is difficult like QQ to get the big research and development input, develop online games and other new products.

Outside of advertising, another source of revenue for MSN China is the outsourcing of website channels. Since its establishment in 2005, MSN Chinese Network has been taking channel outsourcing mode. MSN Chinese Network Initial partner is 9, currently has more than 30.

The North Green Net is one of the channel outsourcing side of MSN Chinese Network. Last week, Xu, general manager of the Northern Youth network, told reporters in a telephone interview that the network has been working with MSN for 7 years, with the largest number of 8 channels, and currently has 6 channels, including entertainment, technology, sports, life and so on.

MSN China executives said that the original reason to outsource, is to "let professional people do professional things", to circumvent the risk of content editing. In addition, MSN just entered China, relying on one's own strength to quickly build a mature web site is not realistic.

An editor who once worked on the MSN channel Contractor said the channel outsourcing approach seemed to give MSN a steady channel income, but in the long run it was not conducive to MSN's brand building.

MSN too pay attention to money, appear some quick success. Mao, a long-time media person who tracks the Internet.

According to "global entrepreneur" reported that from 2005 to 2009, the U.S. Grace's revenue is more than 30 million yuan, 100 million yuan, 170 million yuan, 180 million yuan, 230 million yuan.

Tao said that although MSN revenue data is good, but basically breakeven, or, no big profit.

Chinese users face Choice

Let the user completely give up MSN in a short time, still have certain difficulty. At the same time, the improvement of MSN user experience will be even more difficult after the normal operation in China.

Recently, Microsoft released a message that the first quarter of next year will be Skype to replace MSN. On the day of the announcement, MSN China said MSN's business in China would not migrate and Chinese users would still use it normally.

However, many Internet analysts invariably point out that while MSN is preserved in China, it should be just a transition.

Yes, managing director of the Qing Branch venture, said that MSN in Microsoft is actually a product has been abandoned, it is in China's demise is sooner or later; Microsoft many engineers also think that MSN in China will certainly disappear.

Look around the world, although MSN Europe and the United States and other markets are not as difficult as China, but over the years, MSN users continue to lose is an indisputable fact.

According to Microsoft Official data, the current MSN user has dropped from 2010 300 million to 100 million, and Skype users of 280 million, has already surpassed MSN.

MSN is not Microsoft's core business, compared to Windows, Office, Windows Phone, and Xbox. In May 2011, Microsoft, with its huge cash acquisition, bought Skype for 8.5 billion dollars, again capturing the world's largest share of IM software.

Reporters interviewed the United States, Britain, Germany and other countries of many Chinese students, in their mouth, MSN abroad is also the verge of elimination of products, in daily contact with the local people, Skype use rate to be higher.

In Yes's view, Microsoft's takeover of Skype signals that MSN may be abandoned by Microsoft.

At the same time, the upgrade of the MSN user experience will become even more difficult after the "normal operation" of the Chinese region alone.

Because of the stickiness of social network, let the user give up MSN in a short time, still have certain difficulty.

In the reporter's interview, there are still many companies will be MSN as the Office of Instant communication tools, at the same time, there are a group of users out of contact with foreign friends needs, still need to frequent use of MSN for a long time.

Is it a better option to turn to Skype, just like other users around the world, by giving up MSN?

At present, domestic users have downloaded the latest version of Skype, the software has supported users to use MSN account login. Users found that with MSN account login Skype, the original friends group are gone, all the friends are lined up together. At the same time, the friend who had been pulled black, on Skype again came out.

"Although a little dissatisfied, but always to contact friends." "Because of foreign trade business, Mr. Xue has now" without MSN. By using it for several days, he found that not only did most of the foreign contacts go to Skype, but all sorts of ads and harassment messages that were often popping up on MSN were gone.

Contrary to Mr. Xue, 刘薇 or decided to give up MSN, "Now I log on, friends think I am a liar, and occasionally scold a sentence, or flirt." ”

She recalls that a few years ago, MSN once suddenly can not use, "at that time feel like a lot less life, but now will not, there are micro-bo, micro-letter, QQ, the way too much contact." (刘薇 in the text is a pseudonym)

Resolving

How are friends on MSN cheated?

Why are there so many scams on MSN?

Anyan, senior analyst with 360 security guards, said the fraud using MSN had increased significantly from the end of last year, perhaps in connection with a massive user data leak at the time of the Internet.

In the interview, many victims reflect the situation is basically similar: Cheats steal account, will be the name of the user chat with friends, repeatedly asked friends to help buy recharge cards.

Anyan said that after the cheat got MSN account, will also like Snowball, to all MSN friends to send phishing links, steal user name and password.

Rising antivirus expert Tangwei said that in the past two or three months, MSN fraud complaints have increased the trend, the main reason is that MSN and Third-party Plug-ins may have some loopholes; the second is that MSN China's maintenance power is weak; third, some backdoor viruses steal the user's password.