Bo ke.com "slimming" to crack the Web2.0 bubble 5 billion yuan venture capital in winter

In the wake of the financial tsunami, the halo on the concept of "Web2.0" is gradually fading.

"When talking about web, we all thought it was the trend and direction of the future. A large number of organizations have created a bubble in this industry, and it is time to burst; in the future, many video websites are likely to follow suit." According to the reporter's rough statistics, Venture Capital has invested nearly 5 billion RMB in the concept of web.

A venture capitalist told reporters that "web may have become a story of the past. In China, all investment in Web2.0 has basically stopped ."

⊙ Our reporter Zhang Tao

Fang Xingdong was the first to feel the cold winter: first, the boss laid off workers, and then there was a pay-as-you-go incident.

Fang Xingdong, known as the "Godfather of blogs", created the blog network in August 2002 and renamed it China. In September 2005, Boke received a total investment of $10 million from risk investment institutions such as GGV, Mobius Venture Capital, and SoftBank Asia. At that time, it became the largest investment in the domestic Web2.0 field.

However, four years later, the industry even heard the news that the blog has been dissolved. Fang Xingdong's explanation is that his business status is indeed a problem, and 5 millions or 6 millions of the advertising funds have not been returned, so the funds are tight. However, "Now someone is tossing the blog in a systematic way. Someone is making negative things in a systematic way. It is not necessary for you to spend time with him ."

Aside from helplessness, Fang Xingdong's most recent topic is "winter of VC ".

According to the latest survey from Wall Street, in 2008, the number of IPOs supported by venture capital in the United States was 6, the lowest number in the 30 years since 1977, and the fourth quarter was not enough. In 2008, 40 enterprises preparing for the IPO had to cancel the application. In China, there is a flood of news about the withdrawal of venture capital, especially the U. S. Venture capital has basically stopped its business in China. It is said that venture capitalists are idle for golf.

"When talking about web, we all thought it was the trend and direction of the future. A large number of organizations have created a bubble in this industry, and it is time to burst; in the future, many video websites are likely to follow suit. "a venture capital told reporters that" web may have become a story of the past. In China, all investment in Web2.0 has basically stopped ."

Rise and Fall of blog websites

The concept of web was born in a brainstorm between O'Reilly and MediaLive International in. At that time, the Internet industry had gradually recovered from the downturn brought about by the bubble four years ago. Later, Tim Ole, inventor of the term, was gradually clarifying its definition. To put it simply, it refers to a series of network innovations that allow users to share and independently create content.

Of course, the revolutionary result of this participation is the interaction of multiple factors: the rapid development of bandwidth, the increasingly low price of computer hardware, and the maturity of digital and Internet technologies, and the awakening of self-consciousness among netizens. However, no matter what form and content these emerging websites use-YouTube, MySpace, or Facebook-they still point to the only ultimate goal since the birth of the Internet: make data richer and easier to get.

The rise of boke.com is a manifestation of the prevalence of the international Web2.0 concept in China. In addition, for example, Youku and Tudou in the video field. According to the reporter's rough statistics, the investment of venture capital in the concept of Web2.0 is nearly 10 million RMB after the company's $5 billion.

Currently, the blog network is experiencing a cycle between the freezing point and the boiling point of the industry. In Fang Xingdong's view, although the current 30 people of the blog network are not as large as 300 people in the largest scale, it is indeed "slim", but it is not the worst. When I founded a blog in China in 2002, Fang Xingdong was the only one, and the server bandwidth was sponsored by friends.

Currently, Fang Xingdong still believes that blog websites will not die, and the impact of the economic crisis on blog websites is not big. "We are adding servers and bandwidth, but our bandwidth is far less pressure than that of video websites ." Fang Xingdong's point of view is that a blog can quickly achieve a balance of payments through a low-cost model. The blog website can come slowly and the problem will not be too big, in addition, it is unlikely that a blog website will collapse in a large area. What's more, there are not many professional blog websites.

However, Fang Xingdong cannot face any other blog-type websites that rely mainly on network advertisements, paid blogs, Wireless value-added websites, and virtual goods for sale, but it has been unable to form a stable cash flow.

Another reason for the blog's "slimming" is that portal websites such as Sina and Sohu rely on their strong position to widely invite celebrities and professionals to expand their posts, it attracted more traffic and attention, and forced other professional blog websites to gradually give up their top positions. The general opinion in the industry is that the news demand for such websites as Sina, Sohu, and Hexun is relatively rigid, so this long-lasting stickiness will benefit their blog channels. According to such standards, it is obviously difficult for blog websites to compete with each other in terms of stickiness.

Fang Xingdong still does not agree with this idea. "We just didn't do our blog well. According to foreign models, independent blog websites must have great prospects, and several blog websites have already received money. In the United States, SNS have cooled down, but Blog websites, such as Wordpress, have received tens of millions of dollars. In the second half of last year, three or four blog websites have received venture capital investment ."

Web2.0 out of favor

In any case, the decline of boke.com is a fact that raises concerns about where all Chinese websites that are not listed yet will go with the concept of Web2.0.

"In addition to the unclear business model, the fierce competition for wealthy portal websites is another major cause of the decline. Similar situations exist in SNS social websites, video fields, life search websites, web games, and other fields. Once the profit prospects of these web websites are relatively clear, the intervention of portal websites such as Sina, Sohu and Tencent will inevitably lead to shuffling of the industry ." An executive of a Portal told reporters frankly.

These entrepreneurial websites often rely on one idea or a leading advantage in China, but their current profit model is still not obvious. In the past, some venture capital organizations may be willing to spend money to package a company that is basically not profitable, such as YouTube, and then sell it to Google at a price of over $1.6 billion to easily earn $0.8 billion, however, with the collapse of financial institutions in the United States, their assets have shrunk dramatically, and venture capital institutions are overwhelmed. Even the originally promised installment investment now needs to be re-evaluated, this greatly reduces or even terminates the service. A us-China Foundation director confirmed that venture capital institutions have basically stopped their business in China and no longer invested in projects.

An analyst at ChianVenture pointed out that video and SNS websites are currently at a greater risk than other types of websites. For any type of Internet company, the financial crisis only accelerates the process of its possible collapse. If the website has no clear profit model, it will eventually be abandoned by the market.

Li Wenyu, general manager of Alibaba Cloud for SNS, believes that since its birth, SNS has been constantly evolving. At present, SNS is highly risky and the profit model is not mature, there will be huge variables in the next 4-5 years.

Recently, a report from Yiguan International has triggered alarms for video websites. According to the report, the number of video users in China dropped by 9.4% in the fourth quarter of last year due to the loss of much-watched events like the Olympic Games. The scale of the online video market did not grow as expected, only a slight increase of 0.5%. Due to the financial crisis, many small video websites have withdrawn from the market. Some relatively large video networks are under high cost pressure and are also facing the risk of collapse.

Similar to the situation faced by professional blogs, portal websites are expanding dramatically while shrinking video websites. The report points out that video news users of major portals are on the rise. Analyst Yi Guan pointed out that "this is a new trend this year. Portal websites are using their brand advantages to snatch the Internet video advertisement market ."

The unclear profit model and the interception of portal websites have become the nightmare of all entrepreneurial websites with the concept of Web as the gimmick.

In the financial crisis, venture capital's disappointment with Web2.0 may be more clearly expressed in the words of Virgin founder Richard Bransen: "I don't want any more, it has become a thing of the past!"

Web2.0 enterprise financing statistics

 

 

Website

Investment amount

Venture capital institutions

 

 

The second half of 2008 as of now

 

 

Changxiang network	US $30 million	Kaipeng Huaying, Hangzhou Tonghui venture capital, and qingke venture capital
Internet	US $6 million	Tano Capital
Kaixinnet	USD-million	Northern Lights Venture Capital
Skynet	US $6.8 million	Nokia Venture Capital Department
Beijing Vivian	US $10 million	Plateau capital investment, French VENTECH fund, and China Broadband industry fund

 

 

Before the first half of 2008

 

Youku	US $40 million	Brookside Capital LLC, Sutter Hill Ventures, Farallon Capital, and Chengwei Ven-tures under Bain Capital
You video network	US $25.7 million	DFJ/Plateau/SteamboatVC and other joint Sequoia and SIG
Myile network	US $20 million	HKARI Private Equity, etc.
Tudou	US $ More than 20 million	Today's Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Huihui investment, JAFCO and IDGVC
Cool 6 Network	Tens of millions USD	DFJ and DT)
Seat occupancy network	US $5 million	Sequoia China
Dangdang	US $27 million	DCM and huandeng International
Popcorn net	US $10 million	Qiming Venture Capital
Boke.com	US $10 million	GGV, Mobius Venture Capital, and SoftBank Asia
Treasure tree	US $10 million	Jingwei venture capital
Century Jiayuan	US $10 million	Qiming Venture Capital