Bedouin: The survival rule of lbs

More and more Foursquare companies have sprung up to make the competition more intense, and the Bedouin realise that all-round players are more likely to get their attention than individual champions, depending on the clarity of product and brand differentiation and profit patterns. Author: He Fi Murong's Bedouin in 2008 became the "Red herring" in the eyes of the potential stocks, the Bedouin products "Bedouin" and "open" is almost the epitome of China Mobile internet lbs service changes in contrast to the Foursquare, the Bedouin CEO Murong is also a senior predecessor. Murong founded in 2005, Suzhou Guang da Friend Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Guang da Friends), the company's shareholders, including the world's top 500 U.S. Qualcomm, Orange and other strategic investors, as well as new ventures, more exotic investment, such as the government or international background of venture capital funds. 2008, the Bedouin and its products have won the Silicon Valley "Red Herring" magazine 2008 the most potential private unlisted technology global hundred companies. At present, the Bedouin has 11 million registered users, covering more than 100 cities in China, "We are planning to cover 200 cities over the next year or more, to expand coverage and precision."　　"Murong said. The current main products of the Bedouin include Location-based mobile social networking Services "Bedouin" and "open", as well as the Network positioning Service platform "Dr. Donkey". Among them, "Bedouin" is the earliest mobile phone application based on geographical information dating, and was put into operation in 2008. "In the 2006-2007-year design of the" Bedouin, because there is no similar lbs applications, product design and user requirements capture is the biggest challenge we experience. "Murong said. But he also tasted the early sweetness: "Our positioning database in the country is the most advanced, in more than 100 cities in the country can reach 90% of the positioning success rate." "Bedouin" is also the only home in the Web can also sign in on the platform, as long as the download a "Dr. Donkey" plug-in can be achieved. "Dr. Donkey" is also a relatively special business-to-business product, designed to help partners develop location services, and Microsoft's Bing phone client and Baidu handheld map are using it to develop positioning technology. Murong is not worried about speeding up the development of other people's lbs and let himself not eat, he said confidently: "This is good for our professional lbs service provider, but also conducive to the development of the entire lbs industry." "Bedouin" and "open" two products, China Mobile internet lbs service changes in miniature. "Bedouin" is location-based dating (meeting new Friends), and ' open ' is location-based socializing (close contact with old friends). "Murong said. When developing ' Bedouin ' in the 2006, China's mobile internet community was dominated by students, so the need for making friends was greater than social demand. By the year 2010, more people with higher levels of age were becoming active users of mobile internet, "they need more social needs than friends." The "open" Official edition, launched in August this year, is a product of mixed-breed temperament. "' Open ' has 60% LokoSquare descent, 30% gowalla descent, and calculated Twitter lineage. "Murong said. The "Roar" of this kind of Twitter function, strengthens the "open" social attributes. By binding, "open" can be synchronized Sina Weibo (http://t.sina.com.cn), Sohu, everyone, happy, Twitter, Facebook and so on more than 10 platforms, clients include the iphone, Android, Symbian, Windows　　Mobile and so on, the BlackBerry client will also be launched. "Overall, the mobile Internet user community is still relatively young. "This is the Murong in the" open "the development of" treasure hunt "function reason. After the user "treasure hunt" there are two possibilities: Find the virtual baby, get the coupons offered by the merchant. This could become a Bedouin source of revenue: virtual baby fees and the advertising fees charged by cooperative businesses. "It is generally believed that users with higher age and income levels are more likely to advertise, but younger users are more receptive to paying for virtual treasures." "However, despite the fact that there are already businesses working with them during the test, Murong still thinks:" Our focus is not on how to make money. "Really don't worry about it?" The early LBS service is technology-king, but as more and more classes of Foursquare enter this field, the Red Sea has been a free-for-all, and the Almighty is more likely to take the eye than the single champion, which depends on product and brand differentiation and the clear profit model. Murong has realized this: "Our investment in research and development accounted for more than 75% of the operating costs, and then do strengthen the market." ”