MSN Big defeat: What should entrepreneurs learn?

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When you see this article, in addition to the Chinese area, MSN was permanently frozen by Microsoft. When it comes to its recent situation, it really makes people feel extremely: you and I are its once brilliant witness, "There is nothing hanging MSN" in the year is the symbol of white-collar workers, but now it is reduced to a close to the application of the chicken, and even became a high degree of network fraud.

Microsoft's move in China is to turn MSN into a WINDOWS8 portal. Yes, for the Chinese users, the relationship of precipitation in the above has not disappeared. But as a witness of its ups and downs, what do we need to do? What kind of revelation does the "cup" that occurs on MSN bring to us?

Guests of this visit to the "Product" column is "Touch Treasure" founder Wang Jialiang and "a push" founder Fang.

Wang Jialiang, Microsoft leaves staff. Although he did not work for the MSN team at Microsoft, he also anxious the MSN Global Research and Development department located in Shanghai and close to him. For the old club's products, he thinks, MSN problems are the details, and MSN and QQ, the success of the current Chinese Internet domain top master-Tencent's first, perhaps the only one reverse attack.

Fang, a number of start-up, has launched products including mobile phone preparation, a letter, a push, a push has just celebrated the "user over 200 million". He was outspoken and had "molested" MA in a group of micro-believers. Coincidentally, on the PC side, MSN lost to Tencent QQ, on the mobile side, his "letter" lost to Tencent Micro-letter. He and MSN once had the same opponents (and they failed).

Former employees of Microsoft, founder of "Touch Treasure"

MSN Business Operations I do not know, but I just entered Microsoft not long, 2006 years or so, Microsoft set up a department in Shanghai, MSN Global Research and development, the overall research and development of a part of the special cut to China to do, in Xujiahui's Hong Kong exchange Square. There are 300 supposedly people, the division of labor is very fine, light a "login" function to take into account all kinds of circumstances, and finally hundreds of people to do. Compare MSN to an aircraft carrier, it needs a whole battle group, the side must have frigates, helicopters, the Chinese team is equivalent to a frigate.

At first, MSN was a Microsoft subsidiary that offered ISPs (Internet service Provider, equivalent to Internet access services) to fight AOL, and AOL had an aim, and Microsoft pushed an MSN Messenger service to increase user stickiness. I didn't expect it to be much more successful than expected.

MSN in 2002, 2003 is already very popular, North wide deep white-collar use MSN, I feel this situation has lasted until 2008 years. And then it went down.

Its most obvious problem is that products are becoming more rigid and stagnant. Its product function is too poor, or useful features are not, but added a bunch of users look very chicken function. The most touching of white-collar class is that the MSN Dialogue window must be in the Windows taskbar, if the work chat, the taskbar where a pile of things in there flashing, the boss walked past can see. QQ is not the same, only the lower right corner of a small icon, press a shortcut key window bounced out.

and "File transfer." Im the main work is chat, file is the auxiliary function. MSN can not achieve a "breakpoint continuation", coupled with their own network instability, did not pass the past and will be again. At the peak of the time, QQ or carrying an alternative tool role, and then all of the QQ file, especially the relatively large file.

These are the details of the user experience, but they allow MSN to slowly lose the white-collar user community. White-collar originally is very top MSN, because everyone think QQ belongs to students use things. I think that from a strategic point of view, MSN is more clear than QQ. It starts with the IM tool, and slowly adds some social attributes, such as adding MSN. Finally, QQ won, which is more or less a component of luck, its own planning, including the entire product context does not appear so forward-looking.

MSN relies on strategy, and QQ relies on tactics. When entering China, MSN is like the subversion of QQ-at that time, the Internet is not many people, but everyone knows QQ.

QQ execution is very strong, the product user experience is good, it has been thinking about what users need, users need me to do. I guess QQ also does not have too many strategic layout, you want QQ to belong to the internal competition type, regardless of that time is not this culture, certainly has that kind of symptom, even some opportunism ingredient.

It's kind of like a planned economy and a market economy. MSN is the former, it felt that this thing strategy above significant, put huge resources, even if it does not make money, the user started relatively slow, also have to do; QQ is the fittest, the user choice, even if the product has been someone else to do, you can try. In fact, I think, the Apple is also a planned economy, the beginning of it is heterogeneous, it is a step-by-step guide you to use it, do not look now popular, before it is a small audience!

In the positioning, MSN is very clear, it is equivalent to real-name, to acquaintances social. You have to know each other's ID, otherwise no way to find, no stranger to add you, you can not add others; QQ inside are anonymous, there is a search function, can be based on age, geographical, etc. to check, then also popular netizens meet, young girls want to contact the society, QQ is also regarded as the year's "gun artifact." MSN main white-collar, is already a circle of maintenance, and QQ is to meet. So I talk with foreigners about these two products, the use of the two words are discovery and maintenance.

As a matter of fact, everyone was a teenager. Including now I feel that it should not be the first choice for white-collar users. After MSN declines, new products should appear. Now I find that micro-letters can play this role, because the micro-letter is also starting from the white-collar side, the so-called elite groups, a large part of the user with MSN overlap. This means that everyone is not entirely satisfied with QQ. Micro-letters if the main push desktop version, most people will be transferred to the micro-letter. Now in fact, QQ is a host of strangers social and acquaintances of the dual role of social networking.

But from another angle, the time of MSN decline and Google, Apple rise time is similar. In China, this is accompanied by a happy net, Renren, micro-blog up the time period.

Google began to develop, MSN in the United States has begun to drop down. In 2002, 2003, when many schools in Silicon Valley began to use Linux, but could not be compatible with MSN, where users migrated to AOL, Yahoo! Messenger, and then went to the Gtalk, and then Facebook, Twitter appeared, Everyone is not in the popular chat. Americans like "asynchronous" communication, you send me a thing, I do not need to return to you immediately, such as telephone messages, mail. American Time management is better than Chinese, which is a cultural nuance.

In China, early im actually played a role as a social network. Later, when Renren and Weibo got up, some people were diverted. Some of the above information, the original is through im inside the "chat group" to achieve. MSN began to accelerate the decline, chat group it did not do well, in a long time there is no way to form a group, and QQ Group is a long-standing. MSN MSN has a period of time is also very hot, and will put the title of the user article to the signature inside to roll update, so I said that MSN Strategic planning is very grand. But unfortunately, all of these moves were made when it was dying.

A good study of the situation of MSN, I found that each of its problems are not particularly important to look at, but it is the user experience in an indispensable link, it lost in the details, and the details at the end of the fatal. It was successful only because the user had no better alternative.

However, this reminds me of the situation of micro-letters. Yes, I'm a little worried about it. Its rise, on the one hand, because the user in the mobile phone, on the other hand is the past IM spam more and more, like the QQ on the people at sixes and sevens, but also with the net name. With more and more rubbish, the value of this social network or communication tool is falling and the cost of maintenance is higher. But frankly speaking, in my opinion, the core of micro-letter is still like QQ, that is, making strangers, it is difficult to ensure that a period of time will not occur before the QQ problem.

Perhaps this kind of product is a cycle of cycles, when it becomes bloated, it needs to be overturned. It's as if your computer's hard drive is constantly being stuffed into things, and the only thing you need is a replacement, a new computer, not an optimization, and how to optimize it is messy.