Entrepreneur: Looking for a niche industry champion that has not been invested

Wen/"entrepreneur" reporter Wang Yu from February onwards, "entrepreneurial" "Dark Horse" column added a "subdivision of the industry dark Horse." We will be in each issue from the it, the Internet, new energy, medical, modern services, equipment manufacturing and other high-growth areas, to explore the investment of the industry's business champions. These niche champions have unique technology and business models, which not only have the value of investment, but also the innovation power of Chinese business.　　Finding them, serving them, is the mission of the entrepreneur. This period "segment industry" focuses on micro-blogging application development, covering the client, reading tools, SNS games and other microblogging popular applications. Although most of these applications are not profitable, they already have a huge user base.　　Their common belief is that as long as the product is strong, the business model will not be a problem. The biggest business opportunity for the 5 Weibo developers who are worth investing in is third-party apps, but it's also brutal. How to ensure that investment does not become "wasted"? In addition to the developer's own quality, the application of its development has a successful application of the characteristics of the article/"entrepreneur" reporter Wang Yu micro bo fire. According to CNNIC's latest data, the number of users in the domestic microblogging has exceeded 63 million, of which Sina Weibo has 50 million users.　　Because of this, Sina's share price doubled in 2010, reached more than 80 dollars per share, the people who hold Sina shares made a fortune. But how does Weibo make its own profit? The whole world is trying to answer this question. Twitter, Weibo's predecessor, has attracted 360 million of dollars in investment, with 100 million registered users, sending 1000 messages per second, but has yet to find an effective way to profit.　　Sina CEO Cao Chao also admits that there is no clear micro-blogging profit schedule, the current Sina is exploring the micro-boping platform how to advertise and divide. If we extend our gaze to a third party application, we will feel much more comfortable. Twitter has more than 70,000 apps that contribute more than 70% of the traffic to Twitter and can quickly combine with business to give birth to its own business model. For example, a company called Tweetup, whose bid ranking business earns profits by bidding on key words from 600 Twitter users per second, will charge 1 to 2 cents for each bid. At present, these applications have become the investment object that the venture capital pursues.　　As of the first half of 2010, the various apps on Twitter attracted 40 million of dollars in VC and Angel Investments, and were still in their early stages. Clearly, Weibo's biggest business opportunity is in the ascendant of Third-party applications. So which applications are most favored by investors? In the case of the United States, Twitter's applications include 5 categories: information acquisition, flow output, business management, social tools, and customer service. Most of the investment is in search applications, accounting for up to 67%, followed by browser plug-ins, accounting for 11%, information delivery and social analysis accounted for 9%, payment and financial services accounted for 4%. CountryDue to the comments, the micro-blog has more community functions, social analysis tools are more important, so it is worth the investors to focus on.　　Search applications and browser plug-ins, information to provide applications can not be overlooked, such as a large number of fans of bloggers how to effectively manage their content, to third-party applications to provide opportunities for development. Although the stage of development is slower than in the United States, business opportunities for third-party applications in the domestic microblogging market have already emerged, such as browser plug-ins, games, etc. have been invested. Shen, a founding partner of Sequoia Capital China Foundation, believes that a good investment-worthy application includes three features.　　First, conform to the trend, there are clear objectives and product positioning, and secondly, there are unique barriers to competition, can not easily be replicated; third, maintain good communication with Weibo platform. From the 5 microblogging developers that the entrepreneur has reported, good microblogging applications also have the following commonalities: First, a deep understanding of user needs, the developer is the best is heavy players, such as to find my information development love SMS; second, with the accumulation of technology and traditional resources, can quickly move the advantages to the micro-boping platform, For example, China to read the digital Zaker, third, in the technology to achieve the ultimate, beyond all opponents, such as navigation Desktop, Android307 pocket Weibo; four, in the same kind of application, the first to obtain advantages, such as Crystal stone, "Honey Hall."　　The rapid occupancy of large numbers of users will be a key factor in the success of Weibo applications. Kai-Fu Lee believes that micro-blogging greatly reduces the cost of content production, meet the most basic user needs, and has a trust chain based on the characteristics of the virus, so it is not only a social network and the hottest new media, but also a new platform, can create great business value. For developers, success can be borrowed from foreign applications, but more importantly, to explore the needs of local users, and in the first time to meet this demand. Of course, good applications can not be separated from the support of micro-blogging platform, similar to Sina Weibo advocated "open and sharing" will be the fundamental achievement of all applications. Company (Team) name represents application application Type Application Profile Company (team) reviews EICo Design Weico.iphone Phone Client A Sina Weibo iPhone client, optimized and enriched the mobile microblogging function, providing a smooth, fast experience with more than 30 designers, The largest independent user experience design company Street side network share footprint mobile phone client based on location service record your daily whereabouts, together into a travel log, if you are willing to share with friends of the United States Team innovation, the Taiwan team's dedication, And the efforts of the Beijing team Suzhou Bedouin Technology Co., Ltd. opened k.ai mobile phone client open (Http://k.ai) is a record of the location of the whereabouts of users diary, is a new generation of location-based dating network lbs mobile application field of cutting-edge companies, has access to Qualcomm and other institutions of the wind investment in Shanghai, which is slightly network Information Technology Co., Ltd. Instant customer mobile phone client based on location to provide life information micro-blog, it can automaticallyIdentify the current location and display the surrounding discounted information and active users Reche group of companies, focused on smartphone applications and instant Information Management Magic Chart Wizard of the wizard Mobile client an Android phone handheld beauty software, easy to operate, basic functions to meet the day-to-day needs of innovative workshop investment projects, team , the target is young female users Beijing Image Alliance Technology Co., Ltd. MINI map mobile phone Client A free mobile phone map software, to provide such as interest point search, route planning, GPS or mobile phone base station positioning, real-time road conditions and other functions of the domestic largest electronic map service providers, was nurtured by the National Innovation Fund. BEIJING Blue Cooper Communication Technology Co., Ltd. Voice microblogging phone clients dial 95112011 to be able to post voice micro-blog, for the only love to move the hands of the fans are originally an SP, Voice microblogging from its early development of the voice mail system evolved from the United States Mito cartoon card Weibo micro-blogging tools specifically for the application of micro-blog production, can test their own or friends of the exclusive cartoon image processing software company, its beautiful picture and other products have a good reputation picself studio picself Weibo gadget China's largest online picture editor, a free online image editing tool, can be decorated after the image of micro-blog to set up less than two years of the start-up team, focusing on online image editing tools to develop the MA Honeycomb micro-bo small tool ma Honeycomb provides 2,889 common destinations of the travel guide, which food, transportation , accommodations, features and other travel tips from the traveler's real experience, and will regularly update the latest practical information 4 young people who love to play the team, travel is their common hobby Hangzhou Amoy Search Technology Co., Ltd. graphic reading Micro Bo Micro bo small tools to bring together a variety of or official or celebrities or individuals of the graphic content, And Sina Weibo real-time synchronous update, can be read on the PC or the ipad, the predecessor of the search for image shopping, the main focus on the field of images purchase, has been Alibaba strategic investment in Beijing every message Victory Information Technology Co., Ltd. per message Reader micro-blog Gadgets web-based personalized reader, by content aggregation, analysis, mining, Display technology to achieve content and human matching and interactive service business model similar to Zaker, but the reading terminal for the mobile phone, its own video content is a bright spot Hangzhou short interest Network Media Technology Co., Ltd. Micro bo send blessings microblogging gadgets most in the most personalized blessings, with the automatic generation of the most funny blessing graffiti, Suitable for the spring festival and other holidays with micro Bo to send blessings to friends and relatives mainly do SMS derivative application development, at present, there are tens of millions of users in the use and dissemination of Beijing Run Tang Network Technology Co., Ltd. Weibo Taobao game an enterprise user microblogging marketing applications, can organize micro-BO award-winning activities, auctions, seconds kill, promotion, rebate platform, such as micro-blog is just a tool , the company is essentially to do the local consumer industry business marketing Services singular moment interaction (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. greeting card teaser game a player DIY greeting card production and gifts to friends and family of small applications, users can give a personalized certificate for friends and family, can also diy a temperatureXin's card has 4 studios, a leading position in the social gaming arena, the 2010-year microblogging site of the FOLLOW5 Weibo (Dalian) Technology Co., Ltd., based on Location-based services, has nearly ten years of experience in the software industry to share a simpler, more relaxed and free more than 10-person team Like the rest of the team.