Gould: Free is a revolution

A mobile navigation software, priced at 50 yuan and up to 70 million in the App Store, with more than 30% per cent of the market share, has taken the lead in announcing that it has its own reason to take the risk of falling short-term profits and falling share prices. Will certainly trigger an industry earthquake. Sure enough, their shares fell 14.4% per cent on the day of the free policy, the biggest competitor four-dimensional figure new fall stop more exciting "cut and" plot ahead of the release--Internet alligator Baidu, online only two months of Baidu Navigation, a day in advance announced free, before the user can also apply for full refund ... Around the "free", map data providers (for short) between the great attack and defense of the curtain from this opened. What does it mean to be a "perpetrator"? Born with endogenous creative Gene October 31, the highway from Bomi to China's last road of the county-Motuo. Only two days later, November 2, the road to Motuo information has been on the map of the new line, Gold became the first in the country to collect and update the road on the map business. This year "Double 11" Day Cat Shopping Festival before, the careful user discovers, the gold map in the newest version on-line "The Cat Double 11 area", has aggregated the Ordos, the Yintai department store and so on brand, the department store retail Enterprise, the user may not only direct in the gold map to jump to its day cat flagship store to order, You can also navigate through the map to store shopping for these merchants. To provide services beyond customer expectations, the introduction of online and offline innovation business model ... It's just a microcosm of the innovative power of Gould. "From the date of birth, Gould has endogenous creative genes." Cheng Congwu, CEO of the company, said that because of the lack of basic map data, obsolescence and rapid urbanization, complicated road traffic conditions and no uniform standards for data production, navigation electronic maps have long been a bottleneck in the development of China's navigation and location services industry. How to develop a completely independent intellectual property rights, suitable for China's national conditions of the navigation electronic map production standards, technology and platform, but also become the focus of the map business to solve technical problems. Of course, this has also become the source of the impetus for the innovation of gold. As the first in the country to obtain a map of navigation electronic map of the private enterprises, born in 2002, in the technical innovation continued to invest a huge human, material, financial resources, 2008 company R&d Research and development investment to achieve the year's income of 16%. Through the use of modern technology and tools, he developed a set of Chinese characteristics of the development, access to map data technology means, set up their own process, standards, the development of independent intellectual property rights of data acquisition tools and editing processing platform, and the construction of a rich, Attribute fully-prepared high quality navigation electronic map database. At present, the company has a number of fully independent intellectual property rights of software products, and has proposed the invention and utility model patent application for more than 100, registration software copyright more than 90, the establishment of internal operating norms 40 categories, 5More than 000 rules, self-developed software, production tools nearly 1000 kinds. His efforts were quickly recognised by mainstream carmakers. 2010 years ago, the composite growth rate of the year is more than 40%, in the vehicle navigation market share of more than 50%. July 1, 2010, the successful listing of the Nasdaq in the United States, to achieve the company's development of a new historic leap. Overseas listings provide the external impetus for continuous innovation "in my view, free is not a business model innovation, because this is the common practice of internet companies." "From the Wu explained that the free business model although not yet mature, but, how to do, domestic and foreign have a lot of ready-made practices, the key is you dare to do, can do. The reason why he dared to do, in Cheng Congwu view, overseas listing played a decisive role. "Nasdaq, of course, values the company's annual profit growth, but it values the long-term strategy of enterprises, and create a loose external environment for continuous innovation." "Into from Wu deep feeling to say, if the original selection in the domestic a A-share listing, the practice will certainly not be the same. In fact, it is not the first time that a major strategic transformation, such as the announcement of a free enterprise, was announced. 2010 overseas listing, in the car navigation market occupies half of the gold, the first to start from business-to-business to business, "walking on both legs" attempt. "We are fortunate to catch up with the fast-growing golden age of China's auto market," he said. "In the face of intensified competition in the auto navigation market, especially after the 2010 overseas listing, a question has been put before the policy makers," said Wu. "is the traditional model of selling products sustainable?" Maps and people are closely related to basic necessities, along with smartphones and other mobile internet terminals popularization, map services quickly from the service of automotive enterprises, transformed into services to thousands of end-users, will eventually become O2O (online to Offline, online and offline) entrance. After much deliberation, he decided to make his first transition-from relying heavily on a handful of cars to big customers-to relying on massive end-users. To this end, the "four screens a cloud" strategic concept, "four screens" that is, car screen, smart phone, PC, Smart TV, "a cloud" will be the kinetic energy module set in the cloud, through the mobile internet to "four screen" push. In this strategic concept, the rapid occupation of the mobile end of the market, has become the main goal of the transformation of the German. Following the launch of the free version of the High German map, May 2011, the fee version of the German navigation in the App Store officially online, only two years, the German navigation has 70 million users. But, obviously, this is far from being able to meet the expectations of Gould. "Free is a revolution, he does not want to rely on selling software to survive, but to dare to die for the user!" "The map service will be a very important portal for mobile Internet after social software, anti-virus software and instant messaging," Cheng said. Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and other giants are in the layout, Gould announced at this time free, in order to consolidate the advantages, in exchange for greaterMarket share, is absolutely ripe. It is understood that about free, as early as two years ago, the interior of the German has been unified opinion. But the preparations before the launch took two years. Cheng Congwu explained that the free is not a simple announcement on the whole thing, before, from the company data acquisition to marketing, after-sales service the entire process must be changed. If the products, services do not keep up, even if the announcement of free, but also to hand over the market. The Eco-circle partners are losing money. The initiative to give up the immediate economic benefits is a major challenge for any business. A third-party survey shows that mobile Internet location service revenue in the first quarter of 2013 accounted for 41% of the total revenue of the High German business, while the car navigation business, which has been the focus of Gao Deying, has fallen 28.57%, accounting for only 45%. Declaring perpetual free means that Gould will give up nearly half of his income. Although, as a mobile Internet entry level service, the map of the business model and prospects have unlimited imagination space, but, after all, far water can not solve the thirst. It was also the main reason why the shares fell 14% on the day of the announcement. But for the military, all this was already in his surprise. Because he was ready for it. First, at the strategic level, in May this year, the company received about 28% of its shares and gained a 294 million dollar investment from Alibaba Group. "Along with the rapid development of mobile Internet, it seems that overnight, Tencent, Ali, Baidu, 360, including Sina, Sohu and other internet giants, are aware of the importance of location services." "Cheng Wu said, micro-bo or, micro-letter or search engine, even the telecom operators can not be separated from the map and other location services. This is both an opportunity and a huge threat to Gould. Choose to have Taobao, cat, Alipay and other platforms Alibaba to do strategic partners, both sides are not only highly complementary, but also easy to explore a forward-looking and highly operational business model. Of course, Ali's huge capital injections, combined with overseas listings and cash flows in recent years, have also laid a solid financial foundation for a free war. With enough capital to support, the key to success is the ability to create an innovative business model. In Cheng Congwu's view, many mobile internet age entry-level applications, excluding games, maps are the easiest to build business model applications. "The content of the map itself contains tens of thousands of business applications, if this as a platform for these businesses to show on the above, and guide customers to shop consumption, how can you not earn money?" "With the day Cat Mall cooperation, through line online, is only the first attempt to innovate business model." "The map service has three levels, one is the tools, such as search location, provide navigation, and the other is related to the location of life services; third, the social platform, users can sign in position, provide or modify navigation data, share photos and experience, and even for business services rating ... In fact, Google Maps early in the early August 2013 on the new business model of the attempt-support "Related advertising ", but the industry on this mixed, the capital market also on the survival model of the business concern. Gold is no exception, it is understood that, with Alibaba strategic cooperation, Gould has for the follow-up business model innovation has a series of preparations, but, in the eyes of the outside, it seems that the introduction of the innovative application of the speed is not fast enough. "Mobile internet is an ecological circle, map as an entry-level service, its innovative applications can not be separated from other partners." The Eco-circle partners are losing money. "Cheng Wu believes that, at present, the successful business model of mobile Internet is still in the exploratory period, the current to do is to firmly occupy the mobile internet portal, lock more users, focus on product operations, enhance the user experience. "Once the profit model is produced and the ecosystem is built, how can Gould not earn money?" ”