Small defeat: Search for food and play products The echoes of martyrs

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Source: I black Horse Author: Wang Zesen

"Guide" Pioneer or martyr? In the entrepreneurial field, often becomes an important issue. The former is a matter of vision, but the latter is timing. Everyone wants to be the former, but a little bit wrong, it is easy to become the latter.

This time the story of two products martyrs, is just a small, each have thinking. Big people know, is a grand box, small now not many people know, called "Search and Eat to play", but almost Apple App store the first batch of Chinese native application.

Grand: The pathfinder of Mo's policy

2004, Chen to close to 9 billion yuan worth in the Hurun China Wealth list, "China's richest man" is the first of the merchants of the highest evaluation. He is proud to launch the Grand box in 2005, which is an important product for the grand transition "home entertainment strategy". The grand intention of the user's entertainment center from the PC to the TV, and through the Grand box, the contents of the TV is not limited to online games, but also include news, stocks, movies and other content, which is also summed up as "IPTV strategy."

With Grand CEO Chen at that time to describe is, "with remote control on the internet such a dream, Bill Gates did, but failed, Bill Gates's best partner Allen also did, he also failed." Today, a Chinese company wants to continue this dream. ”

The world is not only the composition of money, not to mention the grand touch is more than its volume dozen dozens of times times the interests of radio and television, the grand box listing less than two months, SARFT to the telecommunications and netcom to stop the "quasi-IPTV" business letter, said "recently appeared in the market an electronic device, Can be used to connect with the TV to play Internet content, such as ' Grand Entertainment ' and so on. Due to the existence of licensing, copyright and other issues, China Telecom and its affiliated companies to cooperate with radio and television, not to violate the network support enterprises.

Some points of view, Chen Tianqiao's box strategy is no problem, or even quite ahead, until today, many technology companies also want to be on TV. The problem with the Grand box is that the job of the radio and television system is defeated by the policy, and the policy takes time to dissolve.

At least today, the policy has been pushed open the door--October 28, 2011, SARFT issued the "holding Internet television licensing agency operating management Requirements" (181th), to encourage the operation of Internet set-top box (OTT TV). After this, millet, music, China, hundred-vision, Alibaba and so on have launched boxes, into the Internet television industry.

In China's Internet television industry, Shanda with its foresight to become a pioneer, but because the time to enter the node is not right, the pioneer has become the martyrs.

"Search and eat to play": Walking in the VCs before

In the industry to "company commander" famous Wang and his "brother" (Li Rijun, Dengyongqian, etc.) is China's first to do app application of a group of people. "At the end of 2006, the Apple iphone is coming out, and we see it very clearly." I'm familiar with Apple itouch, and I know jobs, the iphone is a real mobile internet based product. Under this judgment, Dengyongqian and Wang, and several alumni from Tsinghua University, joined hands to gold in the mobile internet.

In 2007, they developed the first product called "Search and Eat to play", the mobile phone software to "search" as the core, there are very practical restaurant introduction and signature dishes recommended, but also directly to the map, and can zoom in and out to determine the details of the restaurant location; more conveniently, click on the phone icon, You can dial a restaurant and ask for a call right away.

Wang

Rely on the practical, "search and eat to play" quickly accumulated millions of of Symbian system users, "most of them are Nokia's smartphones, then did not iphone,2007 the second half of the iphone only to market, 2009 years before entering China," Wang recalls. At that time the "public comment" also on the PC Internet, did not pay attention to the mobile Internet.

At the end of October 2009, the iphone officially entered the mainland market via China Unicom, and "search and search" was also on the shelves of Apple's App store. In the subsequent iphone TV commercials, "Search and search" was recommended as the only life search software.

Wang to I black Horse summary, "search eat search Play" did not end up in fact is a timing problem, we do too early, at least two years ahead of the industry, early results are, in that two years did not meet the market development, the team consumed too much.

In the consumption behind, you can see 2008 is at the peak of the financial turmoil, and the other side of the ocean did not appear such as Foursquare, Path, drawsomething, such as the 1 billion-dollar products, because of this VC for mobile internet attitude is also more ambiguous.

If "search and eat to play" can persist until today, will not be staged mobile internet reverse attack "public comment" story. But unfortunately, the lack of business model and the wind to vote for blood transfusion "search and eat Game" after 09 years slowly abandoned.

By the time of 2009, Wang's team had shifted its focus and focused on the new product "Flight Butler". "When you decide what to do, you first have to decide what not to do." ”

After several fundraising, according to Wang, it was all because of the timing-"for now, more active mobile internet companies are starting in the 2009". Can solve the demand of good products, and then catch up with the market outbreak, think not red is difficult.

Say in the end

Timing, many people say that this is the first meaning of business, the imported word is often translated as "point of Time" for understanding, in fact, "timing" is what it really means. And this timing is usually multidimensional, in addition to the appearance of time, "policy", "User Habits", "business model" and even "venture preferences" are the complex "timing" component.

Shanda chose not to buy the "opportunity" of the account, the result is also very natural, "timing" will not buy a grand bill. "Search and eat to play" in the absence of business model under the premise of "VCs" before, since also become source, roots.

Now, music and millet inherited a grand legacy, doing a new generation of internet-goers, which shows that some stories, in fact, can be again.