Independent mobile reading Entrepreneur's life and Death robbery

According to friends, there is a bit well-known mobile internet start-up companies have broken capital chain, no wages, the reason is not expected to achieve the goal, VC do not want to invest money. No profit model, no income, rely on VC investment money to feed, this way of life is certainly fragile.

In the first few years when mobile Internet was emerging, two-dimensional code, LBS, mobile social networking was the leading three areas of entrepreneurship. With the advent of the traditional internet giants, independent entrepreneurs are not well, many of them are almost over.

I feel that the next step in the field will be the independent mobile reading start-up company. The reason for this is similar to the fact that the addition of the traditional internet giants has quickly mastered the advantages of users, channels and brands, leaving limited space for independent mobile-reading apps. More crucially, the Giants have a relatively stable source of revenue, can continue to provide financial support for mobile new business, weaning is less likely.

Some time ago, China and the United States and the two major pioneering instructors Lee and blank dialogue, all pointed out that entrepreneurship and large companies do not coincide with the project, should not only focus on products, business model is more important. And now the field of mobile reading is not to avoid the problem, but in the not yet, big companies on the initiative to paste up, "was" coincident. And the profit model? Each may feel that there is a huge scale of users, the profit model will naturally have, at least can advertise.

Mobile reading driven by giants

Now independent mobile reading products (mainly app), can be divided into three categories: one is mobile reading app, such as watching more, the second is the information platform-type app, such as Zake, fresh Fruit Network, third is the information aggregation category app, such as today's headlines.

Mobile reading app, from the beginning there is a strong grand literature, the three major telecommunications companies, mobile reading base, Amazon and other giants pressed, and after the Beijing-east, when joined the regiment, pay-reading profit model has already existed, this is already a piece of the Red Sea! See how much space you can toss out? Looking at the current operational Strategy, Look at the similar watercress in the digital publishing platform direction, but this aspect is also facing the strong competitive pressure of large companies.

Whether it is called a media platform, or digital publishing platform, in essence, is to provide a direct link between readers and content producers channels. It's not just mobile book apps, it's apps that are also trying to make a profit. As early as last November, the fruit network released from the operating platform, said the content of the operation and management of the right to return to the content of copyright, in fact, is the media platform. In March this year, Leeson CEO and said April Zake will push "media platform".

Micro-letter launched the public platform, no amount of effort, the wooing a large number of traditional media, new media, experts, writers to join, but also set off a wave of entrepreneurial upsurge in the media, so that the public platform lively, unlimited scenery. In contrast, the release of the media platform of the broadcast of fresh fruit is no longer a movement; look at the digital publishing platform is a bit of a climate, but the results are in the operators everywhere Thing pull, I have many times on the micro-blog to see more operators in some well-known experts and scholars of the microblog message pull people.

It is said that at the end of April, micro-blogging media platform will be online, functions and micro-letter public platform similar. Two strong "Dragon Tiger Fight", then there are independent mobile reading app What's the matter?

Water to the great currents, people go with the lively! Business yell, have to find more places! Do the truth of the media platform is the same, expect to find readers of the media or from the media, that is, the seller of information, of course, to many places to open shop, to stall, to yell! Because it is easier to find the buyers of information, that is, the reader. and micro-letter, micro-Bo compared to see more, the fruit of the network, the advantages of Zaker?

Again, similar to the "today's headline" such as information aggregation app, competitors are also very obvious, Sina, Sohu, NetEase, Tencent and other portals of the news category app. Today's headlines give users a good reading experience, competition with portal news app may be advantageous, but the biggest risk is copyright. The portal has established a stable cooperative relationship with traditional media, websites and so on, plus its own blog platform, their news-type app basically does not exist content copyright problems, and in the copyright purchase, the basic will not increase the amount of fees. Today's headline-like app, unlike the media platform Route app, you can talk to the media about the mode of cooperation, advertising, or even cooperation to promote, information content is dispersed from different media, through the classification combination or intelligent personalized recommendations for distribution, talk about advertising and cooperation promotion, will be difficult to operate, It is possible to solve the copyright problem by paying for it like a portal, but the cost will be high.

In addition, even the personalized recommendation of this path, and the portal does not have much advantage. Personalized recommendations rely on the user behavior data reserves, "Today's headline" User behavior data, that is, from the microblogging API open interface, not its own, fate or in the hands of others. At the beginning of April, Sina Portal Homepage of the revision, depth and micro-blog account docking, added personalized information recommended module, slowly also take the same route. With huge user-behavior data resources, other portals will sooner or later embark on this path. When they come back for you, a big step can overtake the "Today's headlines".

Where is the mode of survival?

The business model is important, as the startup mentor Blank says. With good business models, when users are smaller, they can get a little bit of income, which gives investors a chance to see hope and make employees feel promising. It's better to make money than to make money. User size can be met but not to be asked, business model can be tried and not slow. To wait for the size of the user to consider the business model, sometimes it may be too late to do it.

Advertising? Mobile reading business model, traditional banner advertising, picture class hard not necessarily can succeed, this is limited to screen size, the particularity of the use of habits, no longer said. There is also a kind of advertising is information, that is, soft advertising, which depends on accurate delivery. Now on the market to see there are two modes: one is personalized accurate delivery, as Sina Weibo is now on the line of "Fan Tong"; In fact, this can be classified information sites (such as fairs, 58) cooperation, can also be such as Sohu News client, the introduction of life, leisure business cooperation column, perhaps a good way.

The transfer of users to a profitable model of the product is also a direction, this aspect of the customers tried. In the Mushroom street, beautiful said such electric shop shopping products after the fire, last year, the bar to launch the "window" APP, unfortunately not a few splash a few quietly. The planning of the fruit network also has the idea of fresh fruit music and fresh fruit videos, but only the idea. This model for the user's size is too high, not hundreds of billions of users, talk about how to transfer users? In the current mobile reading app market competition and the scale of user needs, this model has little hope of success.

Pay to read? The user is willing to pay for the content, in addition to the content is good enough, but also required content is exclusive release. If users get the same information from a free channel and are fast enough to be complete, then why spend money. This involves the creation of a media platform, compared to the internet giants, independent mobile reading entrepreneurs are not the advantage and hope.

Some time ago wrote a "micro-BO micro-letter is Sina Tencent to dig their own graves?", was scolded so miserably, so that the two weeks of melancholy did not slow over. Whether it's digging a grave or not, I also believe that the trend of mobile internet subversion is the trend, the key is to see when to explore a mobile Internet profit model, this road is big enough.

The prospects for mobile reading, especially for independent mobile-reading app entrepreneurs, are worse now than those of several mobile apps. With the social type app, the user stickiness is less, the user size is smaller; compared with the tool app, the competitive pressure is much higher, and the profit model is a lot darker than the game class, the utility type app.

Perhaps, under the force of the VC, this year will be mobile reading the last of the entrepreneurs, survival or death, see if it can survive the end of the gate of Hell.