Excellent view Yu: The value of UC reflects the future of mobile internet

gossip "Heroine"


　　


in the office of the 16 floor of the Suzhou Street Victoria Building, UC excellent as chairman and chief Executive Officer Yu Face "pioneering State" magazine once again: "A year since my attitude has been very clear, UC is not for sale." "This is the Beijing office of UC with more than 100 employees." UC1500 employees, mostly in Guangzhou, far away from Beijing.


　　


interview is catching up with "38" Women's Day, UC from outside to find a photographer, to the female staff to shoot artsy.


　　


Baidu's takeover of UC has long been rumored. The widely circulated version of the media is that Baidu reached a holding agreement with UC before the Spring festival, valued at about 1.2 billion dollars, but only hearsay. The attitude of the parties as always, the acquisition of Baidu tight-lipped, the acquisition of UC is insisted that no such thing.


　　


analysts believe that the Baidu acquisition of UC is to seize the import status of mobile Internet, to make up for the previous mobile Internet area of the lack of layout. And UC as one of the earliest mobile internet companies, once had a glorious past, in Saipan era is almost mobile phone users the only choice to surf the internet. But in the new generation of intelligent terminal era, facing the strong impact of local apps and other mobile browsers on the fierce competition for market share, its development prospects are not clear, but also want to "find a big tree good shade."


　　


1976-born Yu looks older than the actual age, round face, slightly fat. He was dropped to UC by Lenovo in the end of 2006, when He Xiaopeng and Liang led the UC team only 33 people, funding is extremely tight, financing plan by almost all the top VC said "No".


　　


Yu and lei a good relationship, Lei once said, Yongfu do whatever he supports. This UC got the first angel investment, Lei 2 million yuan.


　　


According to Yu's summary, "not for sale" means, first, UC entrepreneurs are the company's major shareholders, this matter is not shaken. Yu said he was very clear that a start-up enterprise to develop, must have a soul, that is, must be clear to the owner; many big companies like Nokia quickly collapse because they have no owners. So for UC team, to realize the dream of UC, to ensure the independence of UC is very important.


　　


second, enterprises in the process of growth, should be absorbed in the entire industry valuable resources, so that enterprises improve product technology, this is also unwavering. He said that there are multiple levels of cooperation, which can be equity investment or product and business strategic cooperation. The key is to identify the UC team's independence and dream, willing to contribute to the building blocks.


　　


, in addition to the Lei Angel investment at the end of 2006, in August 2007, UC also received the Morning Hing Investment and joint venture to add 10 million dollars of investment, and then Alibaba Group and Nokia's strategic investment. To calculate, VC also arrived at the time of exit.


　　


"We have no pressure to withdraw capital from investors. "Yu said," 2007 after the financing of 10 million U.S. dollars, UC became the financing of Party A. Early investors want to quit, at any time, because there is always a person to take a stand. UC is not short of money. "We could be one of the richest internet companies in a unlisted company," he said. ”


　　


Although Yu repeatedly claimed that UC is "not for sale", but "entrepreneurial state" from a reluctant to disclose the name of the investors there is the news is, Baidu and UC transactions are in full swing, and not only Baidu one in snapping up UC.


　　


"The deal is finally done, it must be above 1 billion dollars, it should be between 12 and 1.5 billion." "The investor said. In fact, Tencent had been in contact with UC a few years ago, the price also talked about almost, but a condition of Yu completely blocked the possibility of cooperation: Tencent can invest, but they can not do mobile phone browser. "This is obviously not acceptable to penguins. "An investor who declined to be named told the state of entrepreneurship.


　　


He is very optimistic about UC's entrepreneurial team: "Everyone is very strong." "This team includes four people, He Xiaopeng tube products, Liang technology, Yu is responsible for strategy, and later joined the Zhushunti-he is very strong in marketing." "Their transition from the Symbian era to the Android era is very rapid, the product is coming up, and the channel has played its original advantage." Although certainly not as strong as the Nokia era, but always up to say good performance. "The investor said.


　　


Therefore, according to the investor's analysis, the deal for Baidu is a suitable business. If UC continues to grow, it is a very successful acquisition for Baidu. If UC does not grow, is also a defensive type of acquisition, UC did not fall into the hands of competitors. And UC is home to make money company, light game one months can have 40 million or 50 million of the income (before), "Baidu acquisition of money is able to earn back." ”


　　


if the UC value so much money, but also willing to sell, for Baidu, this is a valuable opportunity to cherish it?


　　


According to CHINGKO Research Center data, 2013, the number of mobile internet users will be more than the Internet for the first time. Predictably, mobile internet users will increase dramatically over the next few years. Although the absolute use of PC Internet will not be reduced, but compared with the mobile Internet, in many areas, PC fixed Internet traffic percentage will become relatively small.


　　


This means that a company that now has tens of billions of U.S. dollars in market value, whether it is Ali Department, Baidu department or Tencent department, four or five years later, if the mobile internet did not get the status, or did not acquire the same status as the PC Internet, then the company will really "out".


　　


is now spending hundreds of millions of of dollars, which is much more cost-effective than the horrors that will be marginalized one day. "Of course, if Baidu spends money to invest or buy mobile internet companies, it is a smart move," said one investor who focused on the early mobile internet. This is an older generation of internet companies, not a nap, accidentally by a company that does not know where to take the place of the best way to replace it: kill the opponents in the bud. ”


　　


No one can predict the future, and no one can rewrite history. "When Google 2 billion dollars to sell also sold, Tencent tens of millions of yuan to sell also sold." If they don't stick to the end, what will be the Internet world now? The investor lamented.


　　


UC's future equals the future of the browser?


　　


UC worth 1.2 billion dollars?


　　


people question the value of UC's existence, in fact, is more in the debate on mobile browsers in the future mobile Internet status. Is it an important entry point? will it become more and more deserted because of the scenery of the local app?


　　


Famous internet critic Bo is a firm "inverted browser pie". He even thinks that the phone itself is an entrance; there is no other entrance on the phone. And as the mobile Internet matures, users of mobile browsers will be diverted by local apps, and browsers will be discarded by most users.


　　


UC developed from the 2G era, at that time, the CPU processing capacity of the phone is very low, the internet speed is only a few KB, in order to solve the problem of slow speed, UC uses the server, the client mixed Computing Cloud architecture: first the user to access the Web page to catch their own server, so that the server compressed page, and upload it to your phone. Because Symbian's own browser does not give power, UC is almost the only choice for users at that time.


　　


Nokia that era no app, users can only access the Internet through the browser. Today, users have a large number of apps to meet their different needs. Bo said: "UC browser has been important in the past, but today its importance has been replaced." ”


　　


His conclusion is that the legendary Baidu acquisition of UC, the value of UC is not too high, but highly outrageous.


　　


, who holds the same view, is one of the most challenged places in UC: The competitive environment of UC browsers is not the same as the Symbian era. The impact of the local app, QQ browser, Baidu Browser, and so on, a few, big and small competitors have 10 or so, and Android, Apple and other native browsers do more and more good, but also reduce the number of people using Third-party browser opportunities.


　　


However, when the market is very small, it is useless to be alone, when the market is very large, a few percentage points of the market share is very considerable. The total number of users in the mobile Internet is increasing and the whole market is getting bigger, which is good news for every mobile browser vendor. The UC figure is that the number of active subscribers to Android is now 100 million. This number is several times larger than that of the Symbian era.


　　


UC Product President He Xiaopeng said: "Our growth is faster than many peers, our user activity is still improving." And we now find that the larger the screen, the better the network, the more active we increase. ”


　　


He Xiaopeng's reason is simple: "Hardware is enhanced, after June this year, basically the market out of mobile phones, the worst Shanzhai machines are dual-core, 500 trillion memory, and next year may be the worst four-core." The network is also getting faster, 3G to 4G, 4G to wifi such changes must be available. ”


　　


in the PC era, this kind of thing happened. Before 2007, everyone would have to install a client to watch the video. Because the browser to look very slow card, the advantage of the client is that can be cached, the video is very fluent. But 2008 years later, as bandwidth transmission efficiency increases, watching video in the browser is not slow. Today most people watch videos using pages to see Youku and potatoes.


　　


users are not technical experts, users need not an app or a browser, but a simpler and faster service.


　　


Century Technology Co., Ltd. CEO Huang is a long-time observer of UC, he will browser and application store as the mobile Internet two major parallel portals. He said that in the long run, it must be more time to use the browser. Because the application store is just a short stay on the top of the user, download the application is gone, the user stickiness is low. The browser's business model is wider than the App store, and it's easier to bundle some high-value, commercially strong services in the browser.


　　


According to Huang's estimate, in 2012, the application store's entrance volume certainly surpasses the browser, the proportion is approximately 2:1; this year the browser will take up half;


　　


Huang the players in China Mobile's internet industry chain into four echelon.


　　


first echelon now has three half company, Baidu, Tencent, 360, still have half home is 91. The first echelon of the concept is that each company not only do their own business, but also try to dominate the entire industrial chain. These companies are very large in layout, all in the downstream. But big companies do not do a lot of real functional things because they grab the entrance.


　　


the second echelon is Sina, Sohu, NetEase, Century home, the public comments, and so on, these companies are trying to have a big model in the vertical field of a good position. The first echelon of those big guys do not thin or do not attend to the field, the second echelon of the people to do.


　　


Third Echelon is like the ink weather such company, in a very small area of cultivation, business model is not very clear.


　　


Fourth echelon is some small and medium-sized developers.


　　


UC is Huang as between the second echelon and the first echelon, although has not stood very stable, but in the browser this vertical area has occupied a good position. UC, although not the ability to dominate the industry chain, but already has the mobile Internet with Sina, Sohu, such as the strength of the competition. "he said.


　　

What is
UC?


　　


in Huang Eyes, UC now and other browser company is not the same place, it is not in its browser product itself, but in the UC layout. "It is a browser for the portal, has been implemented platform, but other browser vendors in this small place in the browser to play life, or in the stage of primitive accumulation." ”


　　


for 10 years of development of the PC Internet, Yu summed up a rule: the user's needs are divided into three types: the demand for information, the demand for entertainment and the demand for life services. Correspondingly, there are three kinds of commercial realizable ways: Enterprises pay the form of advertising, users pay value-added service forms and low buy high selling e-commerce forms.


　　


"Since 2008, we have built our own business services platform on the platform of Mobile browser Portal: Navigation platform to meet people's demand for information, game platform to meet the entertainment needs of mobile users, and a life service platform for E-commerce." "Yu said.


　　


on the PC Internet, advertising, value-added services, electricity quotient of these three ways of profit is phased maturity, on the mobile Internet is no exception. UC has been profitable since 2009, and commercial maturity begins with advertising. At present the advertisement still accounted for the big head of the UC income, the revenue from the game grows fast, the electric business is still trying stage.


　　


Huang said: "Each browser has a navigation station, the other browsers navigation location is not much commercial exploration, looking at where appropriate to put one." But the UC navigation station, almost every location is sold out, but also through a very sophisticated market pricing system sold out. "The resulting gains are certainly very different. "Similarly, if 1 million users a day, UC may generate 2 million revenue, but other browsers may be 100,000 revenue." ”


　　


2012 UC Nine tour with partners of the division reached 100 million, in the nine-platform last month revenue reached the million-level game of more than 20. And that's just the beginning.


　　


UC chief operating Officer Zhushunti introduced, 2008, UC has two main lines, one is to promote UC browser, the second is to calculate how to make money in the future. The game is definitely a big area.


　　


at that time the hand tour market is very small, PC game at the zenith. The mobile screen is small, the game experience is poor, the game life cycle is also very short, the user only can play in the very fragmented time. Coverage of the crowd, including a lot of people without PC cock Silk users, such as workers and students, usually play more, the weekend is less.


　　


at that time those PC game developers, do not care about these "gadgets" on the phone, do not see. And those game big Guy's Day also is not ease, but is grappling with the Life-and-death. The most talented people and the best resources are invested in PC games. Even if some developers on the phone have a little input, relatively not enough.


　　


"This is just an opportunity. To our professional mobile phone game manufacturers left enough market space. "Zhushunti said.


　　


UC has adopted a step-by-step, step-by-step approach. First to do the game download, through the user's download behavior to see the user's preference for the game and market development. At that time UC was basically determined to take the platform of the route, do channels, do not do content. Then set up nine platforms to identify game operators. By the time the nine platform was released in 2012, the previous 5 years had already accumulated.


　　


"Now is the third stage of our development," said Zhushunti, nine tour 2013-year goal is to developers of the split to reach 300 million yuan.


　　


UC in the field of electric power to try similar to the game, do platform, by Taobao and other professional electric website to provide content. Yu said that UC hope to do Shopingmall, to provide coal and water utilities and venues, partners open shop business. Online shopping on the PC is very convenient, because there is a convenient payment experience, through the browser can direct transfer, payment to the merchant, and before the mobile phone, users can only use each client. UC through the cooperation with Alipay and UnionPay, the mobile phone browser can support the direct use of Alipay, UnionPay card payment.


　　


According to Taobao wireless data, UC Browser has been the user to use mobile phone to visit the main channel Taobao. Millet once sold on UC phone, the result of a week to sell more than 20,000 units.


　　


Huang often summarizes the user volume for each application in the App Store, and finds that UC currently has the largest number of active downloads in all mobile browsers.


　　


"UC user activity is also relatively high. All the domestic browser in our above have been cast ads, the money is a lot, is the UC's retention rate is higher, this shows that UC people, or the original Saipan used, there are some brand stickiness, or may feel the product function is really good. "he said.


　　


but Bo does not agree with UC's commercialization attempt. "I don't think it's an innovation, it's just that these places make money," he said. Browsers are for browsing the web. To become a game center, in fact, is to narrow the value of the browser. "Bo said.


　　

What is the nuclear weapon of
UC?





Many people think that UC's success stems from early start. Shun for investment vice President Kong Yi said, Lei for UC, everyone on the mobile internet is not too much to feel it, so the UC accumulated a large number of users. A software user uses much, takes a long time, will have the sentiment, produces the brand dependence.


　　


in Huang View, "early" is a reason, more important, is the UC market promotion ability. "UC is the most successful place is not technology and products, but with others exchange volume." UC navigation page on each location, such as Sina, Sohu, these locations, are either to sell money, or change the volume. ”


　　


UC has been changing for many years. "The Symbian era was built on this rapid development," Huang said. "Now UC can exchange 100,000 new users every day." ”


　　


said that UC spent two years dedicated to this system, chief Operating Officer Zhushunti is the system behind the "trader." A lot of small web sites with UC established this relationship, it can not be separated from. Because after leaving, immediately there is no flow. They were kidnapped and willingly.


　　


For example, a site that wants to hang on the UC navigation page, let UC pour its own traffic. The way the site returns to UC, either to give money, or to help UC push users, is on their own site to hang UC Browser, recommended users to download. Many large domestic WAP websites are hung with the UC browser download link, is because there is such an exchange of relations, one time if the change is flat, everyone is suitable. But in fact, the change, UC to the site to bring more users. At this time, the webmaster will pay their own money, on the advertising platform to ask others to help him promote UC.


　　


UC oneself in advertising platform to do promotion, may download the unit price is 1.5 yuan, is the user each download, UC pay advertising platform piece five. These adsense in advertising platform push, download price is 3 yuan. Because too many stationmaster not to have UC so many flow, all these stationmaster must pay to advertise the platform promotion UC, everybody a bidding, the price rises up.


　　


AdSense and advertising platform formed a very tacit cooperation between the relationship. The main source of revenue is to put ads, the site put a lot of ads, such as stationmaster made 5 dollars, he will take out 3 dollars to help UC promotion browser, the 3 money back to advertising platform. For this stationmaster, he earns back 5 dollars from advertisement platform, pay advertisement Platform 3 dollars, finally he only earned 2 pieces.


　　


a webmaster said: "Stationmaster make money affirmation half take to promote UC." ”


　　


"UC to give others a user, others also UC a user." UC to other people's users or UC users, others to UC has become a UC users, UC flow is 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8, the greater the change. The webmaster analyzes the way.


　　


UC Although not directly get the money, but got the user. In this process, UC did not spend their own money to promote, is tantamount to the cost of advertising to save most. UC These years of online promotion, 80% of promotional fees are not their own dig. ”


　　


a bunch of people to help UC money to buy users, UC user volume rose quickly. The more users, the more effective the advertising position, UC sell ads can sell a good price. UC game channel, music channel all their own sales, search all sold to Baidu. The webmaster said, "Who is the last to make money?" UC is the most profitable. ”


　　


according to the webmaster observation, QQ Browser has always wanted to UC this set of change mode, but never succeeded.


　　


a long-term partnership with UC entrepreneurs said, UC this system is the most important cooperation atmosphere. UC work more reliable, said to bring you how much flow, will give you how much; say how much money you give you how much money, never defaulted. So UC and channel cooperation atmosphere is very good. In contrast, Tencent is too bureaucratic and strong, the flow is not UC big time, to channel partners to put forward various requirements. Originally, the exchange of traffic is everyone's equal cooperation, too strong approach to people uncomfortable. Tencent's change system has been limited in a very small range, hematopoietic function is not UC strong. ”


　　


Dialogue Yu


　　


: What's the value of search on mobile phones?





Yu: A summary of the 10 Internet, is the internet running three streams-people, information flow, cash flow. Only two locations are key, one is the entrance, the other is the destination. Like browsers, like search, are portals, like communities, music, videos, and information are destinations.


　　


on mobile phones, search needs will only be more exuberant. The entire Internet or IT industry is actually helping to improve the efficiency of your users, making it shorter for you to complete a requirement. After your time is short, the demand will become more and more, because anyway 24 hours a day. So on the mobile internet, the need for users to find and reach a destination is very strong. Here can not put the search too narrow righteousness to see, the first is the search form on the PC, to the mobile side of this demand will be very exuberant, but the handset terminal itself and the PC is different, will search the needs of the level of amplification.


　　

What's the biggest difference in
? different input methods. In the traditional sense of the search, the most important thing is to enter a key word, it gives you feedback results, which is the search for the most significant input and output. Mobile Internet is the largest change in the way the input has changed, the original to enter a text, now mobile phone with more eyes, mouth, ears, it can use a microphone, you can use camera, the input of a variety of ways.


　　


also has a lot of background input, is your phone model, who you are, where you and so on a series of information, this is the use of the characteristics of the phone, you can provide a background input to some information. So that will be the entire user of this broad search requirements, in the future will be greatly magnified.


　　


: What do you think of listing?


　　


Yu: This depends on a big cycle. In the last year, if you are a PC business company, it is best to go public. If you have only PC business this year, there is basically no one interested in you. Mobile internet companies I think in the next 5 years, there are opportunities for listing, we will be interested.


　　


: In your eyes, what is a cool company?


　　


Yu: I think there are several layers of meaning. The first level of meaning is that the trend, everyone is in use, the user can be called Cool company. The second is the technology is leading, we can not reach, for example, Google glasses, there is no user, but everyone feels cool. The third design, which is increasingly evident in the United States, is designed to be a product of competitiveness.


　　


of course depends on the form of your product, such as the browser in the design of the cool, it is very difficult. But it has a large number of users, technologically advanced, but also cool.


　　


: As the CEO of the Airborne, how do you think the entrepreneurial team can be more cohesive?


　　


Yu: Over the years, I feel that the cohesion between brothers has been strengthened day by day. Lenovo management three elements, the team, the strategy, with the team, the team is still very important. The members of the different teams are one of the boards, and his forte makes the whole team a barrel. The team must have a good decision-making mechanism, the problem should be fully discussed, but must not fake democracy, must be in the business is a number of people to make decisions, such as we all can give small Peng in the product suggestions, but the final decision must let Xiaopeng do. See if a team is called a team, in this case, see if you can trust and respect. A number of old make wrong decision, certainly not. But if you make a mistake, someone else is going to flip you, that's too much tolerance.


　　


There is also a point is that we must be able to complement each other. The advantage of complementary ability is that you can do things I can't do, I can do things you do not do, so you see me beautiful, I also see you beautiful, each other with heartfelt appreciation.


　　


Original title (how much does UC actually cost?)