Free is the best way to sell

Recently, Goldman Sachs announced that the original payment of the "high German navigation" mobile phone application free of charge, 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi said Goldman move optimistic: "Gold is finally toward the road of self-revolution." He believes that to be successful, we must first "From the palace."

On the Internet marketing, he put forward his own views:

1, the Internet economy is free economy, free is the best marketing tool. Not many calls to promote a lot of advertising, but also easier to get word of mouth.

2, free is also an effective means of competition. Because a penny can not have such a good software, competitors' user base is rapidly losing money, and revenue is rapidly shrinking. The team will face disintegration.

3, have the courage of self-revolution. Instead of waiting for others to maintain their status quo revolution, not as good as themselves to revolutionize their lives. If self-revolution, may also be a way out. If you wait for revolution by others, the result will be miserable.

The following is Zhou Hongyi blog article "Free is the best marketing approach":

I think a lot of people forget about the kind of shock they had when they first came into contact with the Internet. There are so many colorful information and softwares, most of them free, free chat, free search, free e-mail, including our erection Various databases used in the website, various programming languages, not only free but also open source.

Why Internet economy is free economy?

This is because the cost of developing a product on the Internet is generally fixed, and the cost of delivering the product over the Internet to the user is very low, close to zero. As a result, the larger the user base of an Internet product or service, the lower the cost allocated to each user and closer to zero. For example, if I develop a product with 100 million users, the cost allocated to each user is one dollar, then when there are 400 million users, the cost allocated to each user is only two cents.

All business models of Internet companies are based on massive user base, charging some users through the design of value-added services, or designing advertising models for the majority of users. From a marketing point of view, you spend two or five on each user, allowing him to see you every day, and if he does well, he volunteers to advertise to you, which is a low marketing cost.

Free is the best marketing tool

Because it does not need to spend a lot of advertising to promote, itself can form a reputation. You think about it, if you have ten million yuan in your hand, playing an advertisement in China, there is no sound, I would have spent ten million to do a free product, really worth the tens of millions of users. This tens of millions of users using my product, it established my brand awareness, loyalty, trust, this is much more effective than advertising. You know, the biggest barrier is the brand, not technology or patent. Microsoft has launched a search blind, trying to prove Bing's search results better than Google, but because there is no clear difference, we talk about search, the first thought or Google.

Free is also an effective means of competition

Now that we talk about the internet for free, we all think it is a matter of course. However, when I was advocating free five years ago, the overwhelming majority of people viewed the 360's free security with questioning. We launched the 360 ​​free antivirus, a competitor recommended that the state authorities check Zhou Hongyi is not engaged in dumping.

I often quoted the phrase in the Swordsman in the Swordsman in Swordsman: "If you want to be successful, you must start with your own house."

We launched 360 antivirus, free and easy to use, because a penny can not have such a good software, 360 antivirus users suddenly soared. Rival user base is rapidly losing money, revenue is rapidly shrinking, the team is falling apart. However, facing the rapid development of the revolutionary situation, they are reluctant to give up their existing income and are not willing to use their own resources.

Of course, we have also been very tangled. Prior to the promotion of free antivirus, 360 through the sale of other brands of antivirus software each year can have 170 million, 180 million revenue. To promote free antivirus means to give up these revenues, then investors are opposed, saying that you insist on it, we can do two hundred million can be listed. You listed again free antivirus bar. You see, we invest in you, mixed in recent years is not easy. I told them about the revolutionary situation: Although I have no idea of ​​the future revenue after free antivirus, I think the antivirus toll-free is a trend. The revenue of 170 million and 180 million will eventually not be earned. Security will soon become a basic Internet service, you see foreign Internet companies can not wait to safely do the router and operating system, we all want to solve security problems, security must be on the Internet like a piece of air and water things. Well, instead of being revolutionized by others while maintaining the status quo, it is better to revolutionize one's own life. If self-revolution, may also be a way out. If you wait for revolution by others, the result will be miserable.