I'll talk about Giants and 51.

The intermediary transaction SEO diagnoses Taobao guest stationmaster buys the Cloud host technology Hall

A company that frequently encounters "moral" doubts can shake the throne of Tencent's "China Web2.0" hegemony? What is the most scarce resource in China's internet industry? The answer may not be a technical or business model, but a reputation.

On the legitimacy of business model, there seems to be too much moral criticism of the room, so it is not difficult to understand why Tencent, Baidu and Taobao, perennial in a "many people scold, at the same time by many people use" the strange situation. But in China's internet industry, I'm afraid no company has more criticism than 51.com. Contempt and even contempt: Some say its founder, Shengdong, is a "smart liar", and the site grew early because of the development and bundling of rogue software, the late rise because it created itself to "China's largest one-night-love Community "-all kinds of extreme claims are morally punishable by capital punishment.

In stark contrast, however, it is also seen as the most commercially promising social networking site in China today. A veteran of the venture industry said to global entrepreneur: "After 2000, there were only two or three companies in the Chinese Internet industry: Thunder, 51, or mop." "So far, 51 have completed two rounds of financing, with a reputation for domestic Sequoia Capital in the country and a red-dot venture Investing in MySpace in the US." The latest rumor in the industry is that 51 is preparing for a third round of $30 million trillion in funding, with heavyweight figures about to become investors in about June this year. This year, 51 has formally proposed the 2010 landing on the Nasdaq.

Under the praise opposition, the question worth exploring is: Is 51 's success real? Is the outcome of the birth, packaging, or indeed reliable?

It's not difficult to verify this, just look at what it's going to do with its current strategy.--51 's open strategy is the most reluctant choice for a Chinese Internet start-up: Challenge Tencent.

Privately, Pang never hides his admiration for Tencent and Ma. In April, the Internet Webmaster Conference, for the Thousand Oak Group CEO Chen a boat "domestic SNS battle has ended", he did not hesitate to respond "only MA can say SNS battle has ended". After being invited to visit Tencent's headquarters and communicate with senior executives, including MA, he admitted to the global entrepreneur that he was "in a complex mood and slept well for many days". Indeed, compared to the 2007 total revenue of 3.8 billion yuan, profit of 1.5 billion yuan Tencent, monthly income of millions of dollars in the size of the remaining balance of 51 pressure is conceivable.

But the temptation is huge: when Tencent became one of the main entertainment options for young people in China, most of the past words of contempt for it had vanished. In other words, if Shengdong East can let 51 for the next Tencent, he has the full web site to "wash the white" time and smear the history of power.

To follow the beginning

Shengdong the east aimed at Tencent, began in July 2005, is also the beginning of the 51 set up.

The reason is simple, it is difficult to find a better imitation object on the global scale. At that time, QQ registered users more than 400 million, and MySpace and Facebook are still unknown.

Shengdong East and another co-founder of the partnership Zhang Jianfu believe that the full copy of the QQ mode, is undoubtedly suicide, but seize the QQ large product line of a new application of continuous "learning", should be able to succeed.

"In fact, to understand that the Internet does not exist any blue sea, the so-called difference and differentiation, are temporary, phased and unstable, can be successful in the Red Sea is really a success", since 1998 into the network industry Shengdong east is willing to summarize.

So they put QQ product line on the latest product "Qzone" when the coordinates, to create 51 of personal space. But what can not be overlooked is the huge natural difference between the two: Tencent QQ's huge user base makes it qzone with any opponent unmatched advantage, and 51 need to start from scratch.

Need to admit, the rapid rise of 51, in addition to often for peers accused of "relying on rogue plug-ins", but also with the Shengdong East led the "grassroots team" of the smart.

For example, it is a marketing tool, users login to the Central Administration page, will receive the system prompts: "To facilitate your memory, please fill out your home page address in the QQ material, so you can also increase the number of visits to your home page." "In this way, 51 of the personal home page indirectly in the QQ has hundreds of millions of users on the platform of viral transmission."

Another example, the realization of a key point of online dating is the authenticity of the photo, 51 invented the "Video Authentication" function: Users can take photos of their own camera, and 51 of the customer service personnel to carry out a real person and photos of the control certification, the head of a qualified person will have a pink logo. In the industry so far to explore whether users should use the real identity of the Internet, 51 close to the clever solution to the problem: the authenticity of identity is not important, as long as you can determine the other end of the network face is true, most people already know whether it is worth knowing each other. It happens that tens of thousands of internet cafes in China have almost all the necessary cameras on their computers.

and 51 another curve to surround Tencent's method is to imitate the online games industry, carefully cultivate the Internet café market. He set up early in depth to the city-level Internet Cafes Promotion Manager team, in the Internet café to provide 51 mouse pad, 51 posters and 51 T-shirts and other products, create and users "docking" opportunities. Follow the QQ show, QQ Mall and other models, 51 also launched a similar "51 show", "51 mall" and other products, the same needs of users through the form of money recharge, but unlike QQ, in the country 80% of Internet cafes, users can purchase through 51 specific distribution channels to recharge cards- It expands the influence of 51 in the net bar in reverse. "If you do a sample survey in Internet cafes, you will find that 51 of users have more than QQ space, in Guangdong, Hunan and other southern provinces, 51 of the total number of users has also exceeded the QQ space." "Shengdong East," said the global entrepreneur.

It is necessary to admit that these four means of Shengdong, with the east of the personal style is not unrelated. June 2005 published on the Network "Sun" article "an old webmaster said: How I made millions of through the Internet, he afraid to admit that he needs" tricks, good at opportunistic "collaborators-savvy, speculative, and sometimes not the rules, is the most impressive left to most industry peers. 51 initial investors, Sequoia Capital China's founding partner Shen said to this newspaper, Shen originally saw the company of Shengdong East, mainly because of his "grassroots", is because of grassroots, and can more profoundly understand the real needs of netizens.

But the other side of the coin is, in the domestic, called the grassroots webmaster countless, why Shengdong East can become Tencent Challenger? "Shengdong East eager to succeed, he did not like many of the same time personal webmaster down the old road, but concentrate on doing something and try to do it well." "Qi Tiger NET Chairman Zhou Evaluation said. Zhou had been plagued by rumours of "Shengdong with 51 of rogue software" and "financing traps", and was therefore less than a refuge from the east. In recent years, however, in his limited contacts with Pang, he confessed to the Economist that Shengdong "has made great progress".

Competitiveness

The impetus for Pang's growth is not complicated: he faces the pressure of survival that most of his peers do not have. Copy QQ mode, the QQ users streaming to 51 of the platform, and even the first QQ to introduce some interesting applications, can indeed achieve some good results, but these are clearly not enough to let 51 get subversive force, but also attracted Ma's high attention. 51 What do you build a moat for yourself?

"The difference in 51 is its focus on the user experience," Shen said. "It sounds like a cliché, however, the industry has carefully looked at 51 of people, all admit that this is a detailed website: After the registration of new users, the system will automatically recommend 3 heterosexual" users ": invite you to upload their own photos, to her (his) space to stroll?? And a little attention will find that the 3 "users" are actually system administrators. And the smart thing is that 51 of the systems differentiate the user's sex, making them perfect for personal information and familiarity with the community at the mercy of the opposite sex. Every time a user logs on to the "Central Administration" page, the system automatically recommends 4 friends, both heterosexual and local users--and it must be admitted that it is quite close to the network social psychology of most people.

There is no doubt that this product logic, based on a delicate grasp of human nature and psychology, quickly recruited a large number of young low-end users for 51. This "considerate" grasp in more details of the embodiment: User registration completed, the system will prompt the user to write down the ID and password or exist in the mobile phone, the actual and humane; the bottom two columns of personal User Management center provide the most common web sites and software downloads and links, and support users to add more their favorite links; 51 " The same life margin "can find the same date of birth, but whether to display their age on the home page, 51 will decide the right to the user?" Similar details are technically very simple, but few of the same sites are considered so thoughtful.

Overall planning 51 product framework and ideas, is Pang East acquired 10770.com personal webmaster, 51 co-founder and senior vice president, born in 1982 Zhang Jianfu. According to 51 of employees, in product design, Shengdong fully appointed Zhang Jianfu, almost never meddle.

Zhang did not go to college, had sold medical equipment, and played in discos and bars and other places, and then opened a personal website, seemingly with the internet "grassroots" external characteristics. What is really important is that the "edge" experience makes Zhang Jianfu easier to discern the hidden needs of the most low-end users of Chinese netizens. One fact may reflect this insight: when talking to a global entrepreneur, he has just received a "51 group list" redesign from the product manager. For the "number of members" in the column position and the number does not highlight the design, he is very dissatisfied: "The more the number, the more users have a sense of participation, the number of members should be as important information and the Administrator ID in the first row, and to enlarge the number, the user can see how lively the group, and then directly next to the" I'm going to join ' OK. ”

For the details of the control, became the 51 attack on Tencent's weapons. Almost every QQ launch a new function and application, 51 can quickly "transplant" to their own platform: "51 Show", "51 mall", "51 groups" or even "51 ask", are all rapid replication QQ Model products-now 51 has almost copied the QQ product line of all applications.

But no matter Shengdong East, Shen, or bystander Zhou out, all mentioned a point: "Identical products, 51 need to provide some unique features." such as "online Big Shot", "to give users photos" and "Luantan" and other QQ did not have, more can stimulate the user to participate in the function. Even though Ma had said that Tencent would be a user-interactive community like Facebook, the product had not been formed. And 51 has recently launched a similar newsfeed "news broadcast" function, to help users track the whereabouts of friends in the station-this step is clearly in front of the QQ.

But on one of the most critical issues-business model--51 is still as reference to QQ as possible.

51 income is currently generated mainly through value-added services and various forms of advertising. The former includes VIP membership fees, virtual goods purchases and transactions even published on the home page of the personal "broadcast." The latter form is more diverse: users can choose whether to keep ads on their home pages and "pick" different ads to hang on the home page. "Viral" online marketing, which mobilizes 51 active users, is giving advertisers a real "measurable" effect: In 2007, Pepsi-Cola and several domestic communities, including 51, launched a "I want to go" promotional campaign, users submit personal photos to participate in the user vote "draft", The winners ' photos will be printed on Pepsi cans. At the end of the event, 51 of the enrollment was as high as 1.3 million, while the other 4 communities added only 500,000.

According to Shengdong, global entrepreneur, there are now 51 dollars a month of income--the ratio of value-added services to advertising revenue of 3:1. Although the profit has not started, but the balance of payments is close to equilibrium. The flip side of the coin is: There are some indications that 51 is trying to become a "journey" on social networking sites. Take the virtual goods and "charm value" two value-added services for example: More and more users have been added as friends by strangers set the "Gift Rose" threshold, and a virtual rose value of 5 51, each 51 real price of 0.5 yuan, received 50 roses users in 51 is not uncommon This means that 51 earns at least 125 dollars from a similar active user. Other users need to raise the "51 charm value" approach to attract attention, 1000 points "charm value" of the price of 25 yuan, and charm is at least 10,000 points above only results, it means that 51 from a user to earn hundreds of yuan of "charm money" is not difficult. This is similar to the Shi Yuzhu network "Journey", as long as the use of Money can buy services to the extent that the practice will destroy the real meaning of social networks and trigger a "bubble", but it is a cause for concern.

Build the regular Army (poster note: The wall of the digital walls of the main 51)

51 The various controversies and worries behind the rapid growth in fact point to a fundamental problem: 51 must soon become the regular army of the Internet industry from a "sword walk slant" alternative player. It requires stronger technical support, operating systems and talent reserves, as well as a critical brand reputation.

Easy。 A 3-year breakthrough in the user 100 million mark, the number of employees from more than 10 people to expand to more than 300 people of the start-up companies, need to take into account too many things. The usual scenario is that the new thresholds and bottlenecks are immediately present as the milestones are just completed.

The most Shengdong East empathy is 51 of the hardware resources: The company was founded only a year, the user is the breakthrough 10 million, towards 50 million, must be from the existing 200 servers quickly increase capacity to 1000 servers. The second year, the number of users continue to advance to the 100 million mark, 1000 servers must be turned into 2000 as soon as possible to reluctantly support demand. Even so, users are still complaining that video and music are often jammed, which is obviously due to server resources.

Within the 51 management layer, the investment in hardware has led to considerable conflict. Shengdong, chief operating officer Xinghua and technical background, insists on spending money on hardware and bandwidth, buying expensive servers and optical storage devices round and round, and Yang Bing, the former 51 executive president of the traditional industry, says: "As a start-up, Pang spends money on the server like water and doesn't know when to get paid." , which is a major cause of Yang Bing's future departure.

"Because of this kind of thing, I am criticized by some people, take the money of venture capital to be extravagant", Shengdong laughs. However, if there is no continuous investment in hardware, 51 how to face the bandwidth and storage requirements of more than 100 million users, I am afraid it is difficult to answer.

Also controversial is the introduction of 51 of "wasteful" talent. For mature product development and technical personnel, 51 often hesitate to use heavy sums and options. It is said that 51 of the salaries and benefits of products and technical personnel, generally higher than Tencent's 15% of similar jobs. Tencent's talent, 51 will be reimbursed for their tickets from Shenzhen to Shanghai interview to join matters, it is alleged that Tencent employees will be a shuttle bus to the hotel. At present, there are dozens of original Tencent employees joined 51.

Meanwhile, 51 also launched campus recruitment in 2007, competing with mainstream internet companies such as Google, Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba for potential products and technical talent. In both rounds of financing, 51 raised salaries for employees and allocated options for most employees. On holidays, the company buys gifts and spring Festival for the employees ' parents, and the annual medical check-up for the benefit also covers the employees ' families.

A recurring misreading is that 51 of the management team is made up of "grassroots". In fact, in addition to the 1977 born founder and CEO Shengdong East and 1982 born the founding partner and senior Vice President Zhang Jianfu is the "grassroots", Other management members have basic experience in well-known multinational and local companies: COO and CTO Xinghua the 1980s in the Chinese Academy of Sciences work, 1993 "The Sea" to develop artificial intelligent Pinyin system, earning the first bucket of gold, and later participated in the creation of the famous local software company Ufida Huabiao, Rich experience in technology development and Management, Vice President Yao and Dai Jianqing respectively from well-known multinational companies and domestic online games company, the chairman of the assistant Huang Shaolin from Taiwan, has been the director of Sina Taiwan website and 3G Telecommunications consulting company management. The average age of our management is 36 years old, we are all elites, and only individual people are grassroots. Shengdong East laughs.

The team propelled 51 to the "Regular Army" evolution. 51 just established, all product personnel are called "planning", there is no clearer division of labor, until the middle of the 2006, only the "Product Manager" title, and gave a different division of labor. Now, even the grassroots of Shengdong East himself, but also more aware of the importance of management: Every week he will be all the vice president and middle managers gathered in the conference room, "collective learning" management books. "At every meeting, everyone looks at the same chapter of the same book, read silently, speak at any time, and then discuss, then read," Shengdong said to the Economist, "the company is likely to expand to 1000 people in the next 2 years, and we now clearly do not have the ability to manage the 1000-person team. ”

In addition to the hardware resources, talent reserves and management level and other factors, restricting the 51 future development of more dangerous factors: it is its bad brand reputation. 51 of product design and interpersonal interaction relies too much on the simple idea of "opposites suck", and even 51 of companies admit that they once tacitly called this "bubble and bubble" culture. In the initial stage of the user-gathering, it is an effective means, but with the user's geometric level of growth, the proliferation of this "culture" has a dangerous tendency. It is hard to imagine how a Web site that is frequently linked to pornography and sex trading can be recognized and successfully marketed in the capital market.

Obviously, 51 is trying to solve this problem: In the 2007, when realised that the "bubble and bubble" culture had made 51 a breeding ground for some pornographic transactions, 51 quickly shielded the user's homepage search engine on Baidu, thereby circumventing the possibility of anyone entering the illegal homepage through Baidu's keyword search. In turn, 51 set up a 24-hour monitoring mechanism for sensitive word screening, where employees monitor the illegal information, characters, and images of the user's home page 24x7. "They now have limited space to live on 51," she said. "Shengdong said.

I hope so.