Mobile Internet: From the entrepreneurial field to the giant game

The two-day Global Mobile Internet Conference (Gmic 2014) was set to fall in Beijing May 6. Gmic is held two times a year in Beijing and Silicon Valley respectively. The theme of this session is "next 5 billion", according to the organizers, the total number of users of the global mobile Internet is over 1 billion, but there are 5 billion people have not been changed by mobile Internet, the future goal is to "move" the 5 billion users.

Although the slogan of the organizers shouted loud, this year's General Assembly is considered to be the most lack of excitement in the past few years. 2012, "Angry Birds", "Fruit Ninja", "Tom Cat" and other well-known game applications Qi Qi ran to the Internet Conference. In the 2013, under the slogan "Redefining the Internet", practitioners embraced the embrace of mobile internet with great entrepreneurial zeal. And this year's Congress, in addition to alpaca 3000 yuan per day "sky-high" platform fees and talk of "robot beauty" can arouse the interest of the audience, no other bright spots.

In fact, the mobile Internet conference is a microcosm of the current mobile internet industry. Although the mobile Internet seems to have unlimited opportunities, but the "table (Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Lei, Zhou) roundtable" dominates the huge flow portal, the cost of start-ups acquiring new users is getting higher and harder to grow independently, eventually having to embrace the "thighs" of these giants-or be invested or merged. The notion of "entrepreneurial death" has long been rampant in the mobile internet industry.

In fact, the mobile Internet has evolved into a "giant" game. Table by virtue of the primitive accumulation of the internet era, in the Mobile Internet field wantonly launched acquisitions, expand their respective territory, to complement their own short board. Since last year, Alibaba has invested in Sina Weibo, Friendship Union, Mo Mo, American Regiment, Tintin net, poor swim net, high-quality map, Yintai department store, excellent cool potatoes, etc. Tencent shares the public comments, Sogou, Jingdong Mall, NavInfo, etc. Baidu bought 91 wireless, glutinous rice nets, PPS, investment snacks, where to go. And Lei's millet phone has been firmly in control of the mobile side hardware entrance. Zhou's 360-series software has been running the security of our phones. So that the vast number of netizens really realize that the Giants are everywhere, and tick-tock taxi and quick taxi staged this unprecedented taxi subsidy war, behind it is actually Tencent and Alibaba wrestling each other.

Zhang He founder of the alliance, said, compared to a few years ago like singing, Mo mo, ink weather such as tens of millions of of users of the new application is now uncommon, "hug thigh" become more and more companies have to make the choice. "The company was harvested by the Giants when it was about the same." Yu, chairman of the technology, said that the mobile Internet game rules than the Internet era has changed, "10 years ago, as entrepreneurs, must kill a way out, then the big companies in addition to copy you, even buy are unwilling to buy." Big companies are increasingly willing to spend money today. ”

In foreign countries, there are also a lot of similar mergers and acquisitions. In 2012, Facebook bought a 1 billion-dollar mobile photo-sharing app with only 13 employees, and Facebook bought a WhatsApp with a instagram;2014 of 19 billion dollars. Google 3.2 billion U.S. dollars to acquire new smart home companies such as Nest.

In the industry, it is not easy to survive under the cracks of the Giants, "want to find a godfather," the idea is understandable. But the scary thing is that when startups are incorporated, entrepreneurs may lose the incentive to innovate and become the next giant's ideal.

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There is no doubt that mobile interconnection is the most active area of the Internet economy, and its most innovative and talented people are the most likely to be the next Big Mac. But the current map of the mobile internet has been monopolized by several big giants, like a round table full of people, and it's hard to squeeze anyone else. Of course, such a monopoly is completely different from the administrative monopoly, which is the result of an industry full of competition. For the Giants, acquisitions are a shortcut. They want talent and the possibility of their own subversion, with money in exchange for development time. For newcomers, such monopolies imprison innovation and push up the cost of innovation, which is not necessarily a good thing for the industry as a whole.

(Responsible editor: Meng)