Focus on grass-roots Internet: changing the life-style

Intermediary transaction SEO diagnosis Taobao guest Cloud host technology Hall

Discuz (sing) was bought by Tencent! Personal webmaster Xiao Li and friends discuss this matter, Discuz founder Dai is in the North three ring to participate in a conference on the Internet. Dai a pair of casual dress, shorts, slippers plus the logo of the blue T-shirt, casually put sunglasses fling on the talk, the spirit of leisure.

Dai created by sing to be Tencent acquisition, is a grassroots internet event

"Being bought by a big company is different. "Xiao Li said that he used Discuz to do the site has been five or six years, these months discuz done a lot of product optimization, the acquisition is still anecdotal, the product changes he felt."

In their webmaster groups, acquisitions are a recent hot topic of discussion. Occasionally they tease each other: Do you want to sell your site to Tencent or Baidu? If they have been joking about it before, there are a lot of people who are secretly working towards this direction. Obscurity, the root of the grassroots Internet once difficult to access the mainstream internet has become less distant, Dai only 2 hours to negotiate the "Penguin" ship tickets.

"The acquisition is certainly not for survival. Dai responded, sing last year income 60 million yuan, the first half of this year income 40 million yuan, did not make any big money, to this 200 person's company also counted the survival worry-free. But Dai admits that making money is too hard, after being acquired there is no profit on the pressure, you can do a better product.

Not only Tencent, in 2010, almost all the big companies threw the olive branch to the grassroots Internet. At the same time, grassroots Internet entrepreneurship is also a potential outbreak. Beijing, hosted by the Discuz fifth session of the Internet Webmaster Conference, more than 2,500 webmaster flocking to the Great Wall Hotel in Beijing, like a jubilant feast. The venue was packed and the hotel had to send a large number of security personnel to maintain order, even if the invitations were strictly controlled until all the guests had finished speaking before they were allowed to enter freely. At this time it is three o'clock in the afternoon, many people stand outside the hotel door from eight o'clock in the morning until now.

There are Internet elite criticism, these entrepreneurs in reality have no place, not all day dreaming on the internet, like Carnival in general, is to rely on piracy, pornographic content attract point of flow, and then use the flow of money from the advertising alliance.

But the Internet elite may not know yet, what they call the grassroots webmaster is the past, a new generation of grassroots internet entrepreneurs have changed their living style. Those two or three-line cities, those big companies that are not reaching their reach, have long been the most lucrative areas of the Internet. Grassroots entrepreneurs will use the example of the side to refute, who made a small web site a year can make hundreds of thousands of, even if they are busy making money, there is no time to dispute.

The Internet entrepreneurs in the two or three-line and even four-line cities have no good academic qualifications, no solid assets, no rich resources, but also the dream of the rich. See the Internet opportunities around, see the Senate webmaster by the "Regular Army" examples of incorporation, how can not crazy?

Make money from the start

Use a computer to download songs to the phone to queue fees; bosses buy computers to play poker and think the game is networked; among the 30-50-year-old population, the number of users in hao123 is 10 times times that of Baidu and Tencent; the most popular games for children are 4399 and Moore Manor.

The Internet elite may scoff at the above scenario, but this is the real internet usage of China's third-tier cities. Those grassroots internet entrepreneurs are also earning a pot full of profit patterns beyond the elite's imagination.

According to the Boston consulting company's "China Digital New Generation 2.0: Digital media and E-commerce into the mainstream" report, 2015 China's internet penetration rate will almost double, more than 650 million netizens, most of the growth will come from rural areas. They may be migrant workers or newly graduated college students, or perhaps even old people.

When those elites, who are in the big cities such as north-Canton, 20-40 years old, have a good educational background and spending power, enjoy the convenience of free service, but complain. When the COM interface is not friendly enough, the grassroots users are more satisfied and willing to pay. The migrant workers, who lined up to download songs, took a mobile phone, but were willing to spend one hundred or two hundred of dollars a month downloading songs and games, contributing one-tenth of their income to the Internet. Grass-roots users are not too concerned about the Web page too slow, not too concerned about the page pop-up ads, and even the site will be interesting to bring two cents of income.

Moreover, the Chinese netizens, the elite only tens of millions of of the scale, as early as the Chinese netizens were covered, the remaining hundreds of millions of are grassroots users.

Cai, a personal website godfather, has a large number of grassroots internet fans

Cai has not been a webmaster for many years. Xiamen's one-storey office building, the company nameplate densely lined with walls, which he now invests in the Internet companies, almost every product has tens the number of other users. He has a bullish industrial orientation of two, e-commerce and mobile internet. Grassroots Internet is also concentrated in large companies do not reach the region, local sites, community sites, industry sites.

Grassroots Internet thinking "money" is not as big as the elite, "always want to do things very large, must be large, and then to make money." Cai said, grassroots start to make money, do not make money can not survive. Grassroots entrepreneurs are very realistic, different from the side is always no lack of resources of the elite, put forward a dazzling concept of angel investors door-to-door access to millions or even tens other financing.

However, grassroots and elite entrepreneurial path is no right or wrong. Cai said, originally China's entrepreneurial environment is an army across the bridge, grassroots or elite finally become large companies are the same probability. The difference is only in the entrepreneurial process, who first make money.

A dollar started

Grassroots entrepreneurs start by making money, making money from a single dollar.

The easiest way to get customers is to meet their needs. These grassroots networks know more about the needs of users than the elite. The elite are still unable to understand, why have the page friendly MSN, they accompany in the second-tier city parents chat also had to use QQ; #p # subtitle #e#

In fact, Cai said, the elite are also good at discovering demand, but the needs of elite discovery are only for the elite. China's internet is still mainly grassroots, a demand means Gui users. At the same time, grass-roots factions are more likely to "succumb" to demand. Cai to invest in "the" after the Internet application, even in the Internet circle has such a big fame, or every day to find time and the company, "I chat with them every day one hours can not understand them?"

"People do not have to read, but must have knowledge." Cai said that although he did not read any books, but do the domain name every day to spend more than 10 hours of research, the various domain name resources at their fingertips. His hometown Jinjiang, a number of primary school graduates do not graduate from making shoes to earn billions of assets, although some have no culture, but as long as a piece of material to look at one can accurately tell you for shoes or sneakers, do uppers or soles, the cost of about how much.

Grassroots entrepreneurs are more active in learning Cai's "knowledge". The Mito team goes to internet cafes or netizens ' homes to see how they surf the Internet; The elite are more idealistic, they respect the data, and if you're not used to his product, he'll try to prove to you, "mine is the best."

Will succumbing to demand affect innovation? Yes! " Cai without hesitation. But the internet has gone through that new concept period, and there are few things that can be innovated.

The internet has passed the stage of having to burn money, and it can develop slowly by accumulating itself, Cai said, but getting users must pay attention to costs. He once entered the video industry, but found it too early to stop the money.

The grassroots have a natural advantage in controlling costs. Most of the elite were proven winners before they started their business, perhaps without worrying about survival. Those who have been asked countless times, "so many users why not make money," the site, access to user costs are too high, grass-roots are naturally not to do, they are basically at a very low cost to obtain users.

Grab food with big companies

A new generation of grassroots entrepreneurs than the past "webmaster" group more mature. They learned to survive in big companies and the internet before they started their business. "The new grassroots Internet entrepreneurship is more technical content, they see VC is not as excited as in the past." ”

I want to play founder Liu's survival skill is "not with just need competition", she did not enter the big company intensive industry, choose a user to surf the Internet can play the web game, "as long as the product is good to have someone to."

August founder Jiu Penghui pioneering field is common, he suffered from the early grassroots internet money pain, the war, he stared at Shanda and other large companies ignored the field-best-selling novel. "Sensitive content, piracy is determined not to do." He had a thorough understanding of the bottom line of survival in the August.

Even several of them will be the prey of big companies in the future. For example, the United States, first Mito crazy in love with the United States Mito a few buttons can make their eyes become big, face smaller software, and then the baby to take pictures of the mothers. After 80 million users for two years of continuous testing, the United States Mito has been very mature.

Grassroots Internet no longer relies on the big companies to make some hard money. In addition to making money, they can also have the same way with the elite Internet, to be acquired or to go public.

Of course, to remind those fanatical entrepreneurs, there is no bright future, entrepreneurship is a smooth road. According to the China Internet Information Center data, 2010 years ago, the total number of Chinese websites dropped to 2.79 million, "evaporation" of 440,000, most of which belong to the grassroots Internet.

Cai also admitted that, like their own that did a lone billion domain name business or do a traffic tens of millions of of the site is more difficult. In the past grassroots Internet rely on content to win, regardless of music, games, novels, web sites or software downloads, do not need to be very complex, and even Shanzhai can obtain traffic, and then converted into income. And with the continuous regulation of the Internet environment, relying on shanzhai, cheating, piracy will be difficult to survive.

Cai said the "golden period" for the grassroots Internet was only three years old. He gave three reasons: first, Chinese netizens already have 400 million and will grow fast to 800 million in the next three years, but then growth will slow; second, big companies are already buying up a lot of good grass-roots internet companies, where the area has already been circled by big companies; third, the business model in various fields is basically stereotyped. "Money will be better at that time, but there is not a lot of opportunities left for entrepreneurs." ”

US Mito: Focus on grassroots needs

The elite will surely be amazed at how the demand for Martian and American Mito is discovered. It is clear that grassroots internet entrepreneurs in the two or three-line city are more sensitive to the needs of grassroots users and, if they are diligent, can always make disruptive products

Xiamen, a group of people are busy in the hot weather. 16 floors of an ordinary office building, four or five grassroots internet companies gathered here.

This is a typical grassroots internet company scene: Located in the two or three-line city, the station is crowded but not full, employees have no work card, casual wear T-shirts, and some still with a matted hair.

But on this floor, several companies have reached tens. The United States Mito was founded in two or three years, the user has reached 80 million.

You may not know the beauty Mito, but it is one of the fastest growing Internet apps in the 2008. Perhaps you are surprised, those non-mainstream girl how to have the patience to use the tedious Photoshop to fix the picture on the net "show", a very fool of image processing software already widespread, especially those of the young.

The beauty Mito comes from a very common demand, everyone wants their photos to be more beautiful, the eyes are bigger or the face is thinner. But in the past, only professionals can handle it, and Photoshop and other image processing software is very cumbersome, even if the mastery of a perfect picture will take several hours.

Needless to say, eliminate red eye, thin face thin body these basic needs, is to eliminate black circles, plus false eyelashes for a wig of these difficult movements, the United States Mito can be a button to fix. It is the user's needs to explore the ultimate, even software introduction is very popular, "better than Photoshop 100 times times." A lot of people who excel in Photoshop have become Mito users, because "it's so Easy".

Mito and this floor other grassroots companies have in common is that their investors are "webmaster King" Cai wins. #p # subtitle #e#

"The founder of the United States, senior Internet people, the image processing and application has a profound understanding," This is the online Wu Xinhong Mito, there is also a photo-more than 20-year-old boy, curly hair, black frame glasses, black and white striped shirts. But Wu Xinhong is not an internet newcomer, and he has already had a household name--The Martian translator.

The Martian text is the typical barbaric growth pattern of the grassroots Internet: You may not accept or even dislike the Martian text, but it cannot be blocked until one day you download a Martian translator for a piece of Martian text that you have to read.

The elite must be amazed at how the demand for Martian and American Mito was discovered. It is clear that the grassroots entrepreneurs in the two or three-tier cities have their own way, which is quite different from the existence of a first-tier urban elite.

Grassroots Internet entrepreneurs ' own needs represent the vast majority of netizens. Wu Xinhong Love photography, like to repair the map and feel the existing tools too difficult. But his English is ok, Photoshop's tutorials can be roughly read. To do a truly suitable software for netizens, this kind of experience is not enough, and the United States Mito not like large companies to spend money to obtain relevant data, they have their own methods. Every month they go to a few internet cafes, observe the user's internet habits, a stare is a few hours, often with small gifts to the user's home, to see what pages they browse, what they like.

Legend Wu Xinhong First also did the domain name, and later entered the CAI wins the company. A few years ago, Cai was trying to get into the software investment because he wanted to understand his son's Martian language, and when Wu found out again the market demand for the picture processing, Cai shun it.

The challenge for America's Mito is how to cover a wider age group of software that is better suited to the problem. Cai said, in fact, the United States Mito suitable for all ages, many mothers found that can give children photos with different frames and scenes. In addition to the demand for pictures, but also developed a "beautiful picture clap", "Beauty map to see" and other software.

Do a fool picture processing software technically has a certain difficulty, but, not insurmountable, now the market has appeared a lot of competitors. "Do you think it is difficult to do a QQ?" but does Tencent worry about people doing QQ? Cai said that the United States Mito already have a first-served advantage, if not make a major mistake, the latter will be difficult to overcome.

"Making money isn't what you're doing right now, it's about getting the product done." "According to Cai win the idea, the next year or two to achieve 50% loyal users." It's natural to make money by then.

August Habitat: Grassroots Higen

Every step of a big company will make a lot of grassroots sites die, but the big companies choose a road, there are more ways to get out. Through the environmental transformation of the grassroots Internet, Jiu Penghui found a new cut-in point

Reopened, Jiu Penghui to August

Jiu Penghui is a typical grassroots entrepreneur. Born in 1987, he came to Beijing after graduating from high school, and the project he chose was a commonplace--a literary website.

April 2010 August was opened, this is already Jiu Penghui "Higen". He was a typical grassroots webmaster, and now he says he's mature.

His immature period is three years ago, 2007 he was less than 20 years old, just found a job in the press. He likes literature and does not want to make a small profit by piracy and advertising alliances. Like those stationmaster, Jiu Penghui founded August to think particularly simple, establish a comprehensive online literature platform, users, authors, publishers are free to find their own needs, but also want to do a large-scale original literature contest. He did not hire people, found a technician on the Internet, and had time to sell his August home.

"When you do it, you know it's totally not the case." Jiu Penghui said, "I really can't stand it anymore." At that time, he had only 1000 yuan salary for one months, and the one-month server rent would be 600 yuan. After a year of operation in August, his work had been resigned, and he was just beginning to think how to feed himself and the August home.

If you and he complained that some literary sites have too many advertising chains, he will understand the expression, "if you do not bother to order, you read a book they also earn three or four yuan of advertising fees." "August is the most difficult time, also in the page Riga advertising code, now he said this, but also feel a little embarrassed."

The first two years of literature site pattern has undergone a great change, first grand acquisition of most of the scale of the site, after the internet "crackdown" small station have closed.

Another opportunity Jiu Penghui sees is that many electronic reading terminals are buying copyrights, and Jiu Penghui is rich in publishing and finding copyright is not difficult. Customers in August to find the work, and then through the Jiu Penghui to buy the copyright, a year can earn three hundred or four hundred yuan. So Jiu Penghui shut down August, concentrate on the copyright business, because "no business model to survive will die no doubt."

2010, the major electronic stacks have purchased a large number of electronic copyright, copyright intermediary business is no longer hot, Jiu Penghui found the August home "new play." #p # subtitle #e#

"Shanda has almost acquired all the medium and large literature stations, but it has set aside a path for our grassroots websites." Jiu Penghui smiled mysteriously, "I will focus on the novel bestseller, The Grand Library is not full." ”

This is a grand leave of the gap, is arguably the grand and deep in the battlefield should be won, just as they won the electronic publishing. However, very few publishers are willing to the copyright to the grand, because "the sale of physical books too much harm."

"I give the press greater freedom." "I want to be fully open backstage, so that they can see clearly how each book is sold, and then by the proportion of sales, I only take a small part of it," Jiu Penghui said.

The business model has been developed by the market, and many users are now accustomed to paying for e-books. August is about to make a comprehensive revision, then the Web page architecture will be more in line with the user's reading habits.

Like the grassroots webmaster, he is unusually familiar with the user. "Read novels mostly, but pay the money or the same, male and female users are equal, but women are more willing to pay; men look at Real, game novels, women look at society, marriage ”

By the way, this time Jiu Penghui August, he got the venture capital. Hired several people to move the office to an office building in Beijing Asian Games Village.

I want to play: avoid the internet giants

When the mailbox, search engine and so on "just need" already has the big company highway, does not have the entrepreneurial opportunity, Liu to stare at the game this "soft demand"

Liu I want to play is China's largest web game company

Casually throw "I want to play" doll, Liu Smile still like a college girl.

Worked in Jinshan company, university degree, some people feel that Liu experience is not enough "grassroots." But Liu himself as a grassroots, "I think starting from scratch is a grassroots".

Previous five or six years of work experience in the gaming industry, so that Liu very optimistic about China's huge game market. But the users of Chinese online games are young, the large online game consumes users four or five hours a day, too tired. She aims for more mature and healthy users, intends to do more relaxed games, discard the cumbersome client side, as soon as the open can play.

2007 New Entertainment Brother Network Technology Co., Ltd. (I want to play) when the establishment, 4399, 2345, such as small game site has a huge user groups, the site can only rely on advertising to get rich profits.

But I want to play or to the rapid speed surface, 2008 to get the first investment in China's web game industry, is now China's largest web game company.

This depends on the market space found by Liu, "Users still like to play games with people, and they are mainly stand-alone games." ”

And Liu for me to play design a very effective business path: Use the game mode to run the site, and then use the Internet to promote the game.

Whether it's a video game, a PC or a user-side game, people are willing to spend money to meet their entertainment needs. Liu said: "And the Web game, a computer can play, there is no threshold." "The other reason she dares to charge users is that the big online games that have flourished in the past few years have fostered consumer habits and they are willing to pay for the game."

Compared to the huge channel cost of large online games, Liu chose a more economical way. Discard Internet bar Promotion, PC set, I want to play even "a ground promotion personnel are not", completely rely on the user invitation, search engine and other Internet mode promotion. This greatly reduces the cost of acquiring users, some large online companies to promote the cost of the ground to even account for half the total cost of the company.

I have to say, Liu chose a clever entry point. "The Internet's just needed products have no entrepreneurial opportunities. Liu said, but the web game is not the same, as long as you do well there will be people to play, a user playing Warcraft or other games do not hinder their 51wan.

So Liu don't have to stare at market share like those internet CEOs. For her, market share is a vague indicator, a happy or sentimental reason. "Web games are not like search engines, mailboxes and other Internet services, the number of users, but user habits are difficult to change." Today's 60% market share could mean tomorrow's 100%, and today's 40% may turn 0 tomorrow. ”

Liu is to seize the customer's needs. There is no doubt that she is the hardcore user I want to play, spends a lot of time every day playing own game, "My feeling is also one of the driving force of our improvement." ”

The game industry is always not calm, often appear Nova, the company's death is also the normal. And the user's change is always difficult to capture, not necessarily when the taste is all changed. Liu's solution is "perseverance", she likes to tell the story of Edison invented the filament, "9,000 times before the failure is the foreshadowing of success, startups have to go through these, test the entrepreneur is whether can survive these failures." ”

Fortunately I want to play has accumulated a certain advantage of the first. "The threshold does not refer to pure technology. Liu said, "Our programmers can also use a few days to edit an IM, but he can compare with Tencent?" QQ experienced hundreds of millions of users 10 years of testing, this accumulation is the greatest wealth. ”

Although technology development based on IE is easy to plagiarize, Liu is not worried. She said that the Internet choice is not a threshold, users have no reason to choose "Cottage." Instead, she is worried about large companies that have amassed a large number of users, and that "small companies can only survive with constant innovation".

"What the game industry did yesterday can't represent today." "Liu is very thorough, just as some directors have taken a piece that has been praised and lost inspiration, and some directors have been able to attract the box office for decades." "If I want to play really to the end of business life, someone can remember us and I feel very proud." ”