Mobile Internet background, what do operators do

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A recent chat with an operator in Shanghai has been about what operators should do in the context of mobile Internet. The senior executive has revealed a strong "channel-maker" concern – a concern that is well publicized and not surprising. But chatting, I suddenly found that in the Internet circle, in fact, there is a similar business in fact there is such a concern, the company is Baidu.

The essence of Baidu is "diversion volume", in other words, a channel between the user and the target content. Background technology is certainly very complex, but the front interface is quite simple. A completely ignorant user may be magic in Baidu search information capabilities, but the user's migration costs are not high. 360 in the use of browser power quickly snatched more than 10% of the traffic, is a circumstantial evidence. However, Baidu rely on user habits this card, 360 to think more, will be more difficult. But anyway, the 3B war can tell us one thing: the root of Baidu is the channel of diversion. When the channel is moved, Baidu will face a very embarrassing situation.

Admittedly, there is a difference between the business routines of Baidu and operators. Operators if only to earn phone calls, SMS fees and traffic charges, the gross margin is not high, imagine the space is not big. Because the three major operators of the user increment has been very limited, only three fees on the fuss, ARPU value is not high where (more likely to fall). But Baidu has no such concerns at least on the table. Baidu's revenue does not come from users, but from customers. It absorbs 600,000 advertisers. And in the enterprise side, the dependence on the internet is not high enough, there are more enterprises in the future can become Baidu customers. Supposedly, Baidu has nothing to worry about very much.

Mobile Internet is different. In front of the mobile internet, Baidu faces two problems: 1, Mobile end users open a browser to enter Baidu to find information on the possibility of how much? Anyway, it's certainly smaller than the desktop, because there are millions of apps on the mobile end. Most of the original application, and Baidu has no relationship; 2, even if the user opened the browser input Baidu, the desktop auction ranking mechanism ads, how much is the possibility of being clicked? Speed is not a very important variable, because the speed will always be promoted. But the size of the screen is a painful hurdle: there's no reason to imagine a 17-inch moving end. In the size of a few inches of the screen, click on the ads, really a bit of a view of users.

Baidu's basic strategy is: investment in the Middle page company. The middle page is a very strange noun, but I can't think of a better word to replace it. Baidu invested heavily in where is a typical middle page company: a vertical type of search. When users need to travel, on the possibility of Ctrip, more than on the possibility of Baidu much. But once there is such a vertical search, it is possible to search first and then go to specific sites.

But the extension of the middle page is very wide, because even the Beijing-East site can also be considered as the "middle page": The specific supplier and the user between the layer, so the spread of Baidu want to invest in Jingdong News (Li is a personal investment in Beijing East). The middle page strategy may explain that Baidu's investment is sometimes difficult to read: Why do so many companies that look unrelated?

Give an example, Archie art. This is a video site, Baidu should become the video site of the drainage, rather than to engage in a video site. The consequence of this is that it could have been a collaborative relationship with the home video site, but now it's a competitor. But if you use the logic of the middle page: The video site is, in the final analysis, the middle page between the specific content of the TV play and the viewer. In terms of the "Investment middle page" strategy, it seems to make sense again.

But the concept of the middle page is too broad, and Weibo can also be viewed as an intermediate page: A user speaks to a middle page company, or to a middle page between the user and the electrical quotient of the social electric quotient. Maps can also be viewed as middle pages, and many localized businesses rely on the platform. But Baidu has ceded these two "middle pages" to Ali. The phrase that Robin Li created in 2011 is so extensive that it is impossible to become a true concept.

Baidu is aware that it will become increasingly difficult to move to the Internet as a channel for wholesale traffic, but its solution may have some problems. or the flow of wholesale, and then the flow of these wholesale to the middle of the page, and then from the middle page to the specific supplier wholesale. Sounds very beautiful, but the middle page in the end is what, or say, is not what, Baidu is afraid they are not clear answer.

Baidu also has a problem similar to the operator: the product itself to do why not. Baidu has a relatively stronger engineer culture and feels it's easy to make a product. The same is true of engineers-led operators. Then the two have a common resource: Baidu has the highest flow of the site, operators have a large number of users, feel that a product to do hot matching resources more than sufficient. However, it is a pity, whether it is Baidu, or operators, do products easy to push products difficult, is exactly the same.

I gave my carrier friend's advice is: guarding so many users, you do a bit of data mining and analysis is not good? Do not hurry to do a type of import products, you are not good at, and can "unite all the forces can unite to form the United front." This word put on Baidu also set up. I've always believed that Baidu's cloud computing platform is the right direction and that investment is more about investing in data teams than products. The advantage of channel operators is that they have great business value for the product companies.

Finally, I said to my carrier friend: "Be careful, Baidu's problems, and your problems, is almost identical."