Giants compete for cloud storage offering free flag or replay video industry war of attrition

"I am the heavy user of Dropbox," he said. In the United States, when my family is the most exaggerated when a total of six computers in use, I often in order to find a file in which computer in the end is a headache, Dropbox appearance let me think it is what I want. "Wanghuai," he continued, "But even so, I'm not a paying user." ”

Wanghuai, an early Facebook employee, returned as an angel investor after leaving Facebook in September 2011. He said this passage to reporters in south Dublin, both to prove that the cloud storage services in the personal market really real needs, but also to say that the market embarrassment.

Prior to the installation of the server has burned a lot of money, but individual users pay habits have not developed, coupled with several domestic internet and it giants have sacrificed "free" banner. The competition in the cloud storage field will be like the video industry of that year, become a battle of resource consumption of capital strength, "The remnant is king"?

Inside and outside the slaughter cloud storage

More than a year ago, Dropbox, the US cloud storage company, turned five times-fold in just over half a year, bringing a boom in domestic cloud storage. However, unlike other versions of the "Copytochina" story, in the cloud storage battle on the battlefield, not only have such as the first 115 net disk, cool plate, Yunno, nuts cloud, such as a small entrepreneurial team, but also squeezed into including Baidu, Tencent, Huawei, Jinshan, 360, including a number of internet and it "giants."

In many of the entrepreneurial concept of being hot, why the Giants are only the "cloud" flocking to it?

Pre Angel investor Wang Lijie explained to South reporters, with the popularity of smart phones, tablet computers and other intelligent terminals, the amount of data owned by individual users is growing exponentially, whether from storage security or with the convenience of access, uploading data to the cloud rather than local collections, is a general trend.

In other words, when people are accustomed to using different terminals to fetch data stored in the cloud at anytime, the cloud, which stores a lot of data, is the foundation of the entire mobile internet, and "Who owns the cloud, who can really be called a place on the mobile internet", is a big company that doesn't want to miss the cloud. The root cause of opportunity.

In overseas markets, companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have begun to build the foundation of cloud computing years ago. Amazon, for example, used the remainder of its other services to S3 cloud storage services for developers in 2006, because of the flexibility with which users can actually "pay how much" to make startups such as Dropbox able to start with "light assets", Provides file synchronization and sharing services for individual users based on S3. At the same time, Dropbox itself is open, can butt all kinds of more vertical subdivision of the application, thus forming a three-dimensional "cloud" ecology.

However, the domestic market situation is very different. The concept of "cloud" has been introduced into the country since around 2008, but the real start of application and popularization in the market is until the end of 2010, according to a survey by the Peking University Center for Market and Media research. For large companies, the importance of the cloud itself, coupled with missed initial development opportunities, they are more eager to launch a "tall and full" cloud service platform, from infrastructure to end products, even vertical application sweep, while offering a "free" banner to attract individual users, trying to push the entire market fast.

But for startups, it's a double whammy of internal and external overlap. On the one hand, they do not like Dropbox and other overseas peers have "giant shoulders" can tread, must invest a lot of upfront money to buy servers and bandwidth; On the other hand, the "free" boom led by the Giants has cut domestic individual users ' enthusiasm for paying services. Even if the start-up companies have strong financing capabilities to rely on, allow it to invest a lot of money, in the short term to rip the market demand, at least within 35 years will not be able to return the burned money, whether for its subsequent financing or the overall business model has drawn a big question mark.

Silly pull user "pear" big

So, in the cloud-storage market for individual users, will there be only the Giants left, not the startups?

The founders who are in it obviously don't think so. Hai Shi Network Technology Co., Ltd. founder and CEO Shini told South all reporters, the same is to do cloud storage company, according to its product positioning can be subdivided into a focus on sharing, storage and emphasis on the synchronization of three categories. Early 115 nets belong to the first category, cool disk, fast disk belongs to the second category, and in Shini eyes, Dropbox and his "cloud" is the third category.

From the perspective of meeting different market needs, the early 115 network disk is the use of a large number of pirated or even restricted level of audio and video files of their own strong dissemination of LICAI in a very short period of time soar, but the consequences, in addition to the policy and regulatory aspects of the unsafe factors, Also consumes a lot of bandwidth resources but can not bring high viscous active users.

115 Network Disk founder Railing Maple in the interview with the South reporters recalled, "At that time, we spend millions of dollars per month on bandwidth, but how many users from the chain to 115 will be able to register as active users while downloading files, I tell you, very little, not in proportion. "It can also be seen as one of the reasons why 115 websites suddenly shut down the public-sharing function this August.

The emphasis on personal data storage and backup, although still regarded as the mainstream of the industry, but the situation is quietly changing. Cool Disk CEO Guzhi to south all reporters frankly, experienced from 2011 to 2012 crazy "Happy Enclosure" after, whether the start-up companies or giants are beginning to realize that "silly pull users" to bring their own cost pressure. "If you spend a lot of money to do the promotion to attract users to only take your free space to store his long collection of movies, once put up may be 10 days and a half months will not come to see again, then such users are not only low value, but also a heavy cost load." "Guzhi said.

Therefore, the third type of office synergy for the application of the file synchronization and sharing is a new trend. Although Shini said, "Yunno's charm is to wait until you have two devices (PC + mobile phone) at the same time to feel the", this demand has not yet erupted among most netizens in the country, but he also stressed that, from the current Yunno background data, the ratio of new users to active users after using Yunno is quite high , and each old user can bring several new users to Yunno every day, "as long as the two data persist, the entire user can roll up, this thing can become." ”

Railing Maple, by contrast, has a bolder plan. After a 3-month adjustment that abruptly closed the public-sharing function in August of this year, Railing Maple for the 115 network has carefully designed three pillars of business, that is, the emphasis on personal data storage and backup of the 115 network disk, on the basis of the network to highlight the social function even with virtual trading function of the "circle", and corporate cloud-oriented enterprise customers. "I believe that by the second half of next year, when we adjust the functions of our products, the whole market will be detonated," said the entrepreneur, who once had a legendary entrepreneurial experience. ”

Enterprise market becomes "haven"

The capital markets do not give similar feedback to the entrepreneurs who are almost as optimistic about their own fuel-fueled optimism.

"There is only one big trend now," said Kui, a partner of Sequoia Capital China fund, who has shot in the cloud storage field. (cloud storage) This piece of demand is really there, but in the end will be satisfied with the way, what kind of ' players ' will win, and now can not see clearly. ”

Compared with Kui's reservation, Jingwei China Vice President Juhaibo's view is more direct. In an interview with South reporters, he bluntly said: "At least in the personal market, I think it is very difficult for small companies to emerge." Because in the personal market, in the final analysis, the competition is the brand influence, not just technical strength and product design. "In other words, after the Giants have squeezed in, the existing and potential users are basically divided up, small companies can not even make their products really" to the user, for their trial.

A handful of the domestic Oracle company awarded ACE Director title of the database expert, the current Lilac Park CTO Feng Dahui also and Juhaibo hold a similar view. He told reporters in the south that cloud storage-oriented markets are likely to be dominated by large companies, or stuck in a tight position. And, from now on, that's pretty much it. Smaller players will not be able to occupy a better position in the future, unless it is to preempt the niche market (Niche harsh), but it basically determines that such companies can only be small and beautiful, it is difficult to make the scale bigger.

According to the industry, the current can be paid users/registered users than to achieve the 1% level of the nut cloud, it is always adhere to the minority routes.

Feng Dahui suggests startups, perhaps turning to corporate services, is a way out. Because the enterprise market also has a large number of requirements have not been met, in many vertical areas, such as picture storage, video storage, static small file storage, have the potential to dig, and, around the picture, video, files can further refine the market to meet the needs of users. Juhaibo, though, is more robust and less risky for startups than it is for companies. But compared to individual users, enterprise users are more professional and picky, "if there is no technical two brushes, it is difficult to obtain their recognition." Moreover, if the individual market and the enterprise market as a whole to compare, the latter of the transition period is longer, to make large-scale income is also more difficult.

In fact, apart from the small size of the enterprise market and cloud storage, as well as from the early start of a quietly rapid transformation of the enterprise market to provide cloud storage services to the seven of cattle, including financing capacity, Several cloud-storage companies, including the cool ones that have completed B-round 20 million-dollar funding, have also taken the business market into account by the end of the year.

In addition, Wang Lijie also mentioned that his Preangel project syncbox.cn is to take a collaboration with hardware vendors, the introduction of cloud storage based hardware and software products to face the personal market, and the hardware manufacturers responsible for the final promotion, is a start-up enterprise to reduce their own risk of another way.

However, whichever market you first do, Juhaibo and Feng Dahui are invariably to south all reporters sigh, "in fact, said cloud storage, cloud computing, are very virtual things, really want to see or where the demand falls," the market is there, the key is to listen carefully to what users want, and how to meet. This is far more than talking about direction, trend or blindly burning money to pull users, more easily access to capital real favor.

Rumors

"The need for cloud storage is really there, but in what way it will be satisfied and what kind of player would win, and now it's not clear." "——— Sequoia Capital China Fund partner Kui

"It has been very difficult for small companies to make a debut, and the individual market is competing for brand influence, not just technical strength and product design," he said. Juhaibo, vice president of China ——— Jingwei

"It's a way out for startups to turn to corporate services." For example, image storage, video storage, static small file storage has the potential to dig, and around the picture, video, files can further refine the market to meet the needs of users. "——— has acedirector title of database experts, the current Lilac Park CTO Feng Dahui

Entrepreneurial Show

Yunno: Strictly controls the seed user

Yunno is an entrepreneurial project launched by Chinese-American Shini in July 2011. Before that, he had two entrepreneurial experiences in the United States at the age of 31. From the product's online time, Yunno does not occupy the first opportunity, but as of this year, it is still above the value of billion won the Tens Angel investment. The reason, Shini that the product itself is important, but accurately grasp the market demand point is equally critical. This is the truth, but only after he started his business almost a year later realized.

All along, the designers of the Shini have the product details have a near-stringent requirements. For example, with many cloud storage products when users upload files in accordance with the "first upload, and then sync" the order, but Yunno can do while uploading side synchronization, for users to save more time; For example, he also designed the Yunio robot animation image, used in various needs and the details of the user description, Allows users to feel the creative team's humour while using Yunno.

But the 1.0 version of the cloud on the line nearly a year later, Shini found that Yunno not only has a lot of great features not been found by users, even the most basic synchronization function has not played its true charm. "It was a stupid mistake and there were so many users who didn't know the ' sync ' concept. "Here, Shini some breast-wringing. As a result, in the 2.0 version of the Shini, which came online this September, the special features of synchronization and team sharing are highlighted. In his view, the biggest difference between Yunno and the traditional network is that the latter is more focused on the storage itself, while Yunno is more concerned about how users can use these cloud files more easily after storage.

In order to achieve this goal, Shini from the first batch of seed users introduced from the cloud to carry out strict control. "Mainly in Beijing, Shanghai white-collar mainly." They have the strongest office needs and frequently process files, "which means higher user stickiness and activity for Yunno." Shini believes that through Word-of-mouth transmission, as long as the control of Yunno user retention rate and the proportion of old users to bring new users, the entire user scale may slowly roll up, and eventually get the same level with Dropbox.

Cool dish: Test Water Enterprise Market

In the cloud storage field of a small start-up companies, cool Disk is a "star enterprise." Not only has the Internet Express CEO Huangmingming and Storm Audio and video co-founder Guzhi as co-founder, but also shortly after the establishment of the Shire Angel investment and from the Haina Asia (SIG), DCM two rounds of million-dollar financing.

But even if there is such a strong financing capacity as a back-up, the current cool disk CEO Guzhi in the south have been interviewed by reporters frankly, experienced over the past year crazy "happy enclosure" after the cool plate has begun to calm down. "It's not going to be long, even for big companies," said the user. Because they'll soon find out that if the money was burned and promoted, but pull in the user just put their original collection in the computer movie upload to your free space, 10 days and a half month also no longer login, not only the user itself is low value, he will also bring you a heavy cost burden. "Guzhi said.

At the same time, in the last year, with the United States and other applications Mito, Guzhi also found that these application development teams themselves have a strong cloud storage requirements, and from the user uploaded files, the cool disk itself on the server also happens to have stored a considerable proportion of these development team file data. "Since this is the case, 2C the pace of the market slowed down, you can at the same time in the enterprise market to do some try." "Guzhi said. However, compared with the 2C market, the most obvious feature of the enterprise market is that "you are not willing to spend money to do marketing, this market will certainly be able to rise", to a large extent, the growth of the enterprise market depends on the growth rate of the enterprise customers themselves.

Therefore, Guzhi repeatedly to the South reporters stressed that the enterprise market for cool disk, just test the water, and will not invest a lot of energy, his main energy will still be placed in the 2C market, by providing high-quality users such as Office synergy, file transfer and sharing services, to consolidate and increase the user's stickiness on the cool plate.