Webmaster King Cai: Market mature will enter the domain name Park

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

At the end of June this year, xingping, 30, had his first flight experience in his life, and he had rarely left his hometown of Xingning, Guangdong. Just like the previous three times out of the province, the xingping destination is also Fujian Xiamen. The difference is that his friend, partner Cai flew from Xiamen to Guangzhou, accompanied him to travel.

They are going to talk about the next step in the 4399 game Web site that the two people are working on together. In fact, the leisure gaming portal, which invests less than 1 million RMB and 40 people, has become the seventh Internet brand in the 2008 Google Hot List, with a monthly income of more than 10 million yuan and private equity valued at more than 80 million dollars. But they temporarily rejected the investment, "we will take the money to raise, 4399 have the opportunity to do a big, IPO is just a small goal." Cai laughs.

He and Xingping, perhaps the most grassroots combination of Chinese Internet. are successful personal webmaster, first as opponents, after the friend, now is a partner, and fully complementary. Xingping extremely introverted, do not understand management, the habit of singles alone. Cai, however, has a wealth of business experience, deep connections, and a considerable capital trust.

For the understanding of grassroots users, no one dares to say that they are stronger than xingping. He junior high school culture, installed a computer, pipe over the Internet café, in May 1999 to create a Web site navigation station hao123.com, a maximum of more than 30 million a day visit, comparable to Sohu. In August 2004, Baidu bought it at a cost of tens of millions of yuan.

Cai Sheng, Fujian Shishi, a school dropout, early to help the family to do clothing business, 1993 moved to Southeast Asia, 1999 after returning home to do domain name business, become China's most successful domain name investors. 2003 CAI began to imitate hao123 do Web site 265.com,2004 year to obtain IDG and Google Investment, Google in 2007 China to "tens of millions of U.S. dollars" (Cai said) The price of the acquisition of 265. Before and after, Cai began to venture into investment, the company involved in the investment including Storm audio and video, Express, CNCN Statistics, zcom, 58 city and other dozens of popular internet companies.

People often divide the internet entrepreneurs into Charles Zhang, Li as the representative of the returnees, and Ma, Jack Yun as the representative of the Turtle faction, although there are obvious differences, but there is a common feature is that they are entrepreneurial at the beginning of the operation of the company, relying on the founder's vision and charm, imitation of foreign business model, Gathered a large amount of human and financial resources to capture the trend of the big trend, before the successful listing, most of the long "burning money" stage.

But the individual stationmaster group's pioneering way is very far. The personal station invests very little, does not have the high technical content, the website is very simple, usually relies on one or two "the killer application", attracts dozens of millions or even millions of users, then obtains the advertisement or the value-added service income. This is a purely Chinese feature.

The 39-Year-old Cai is the best representative of personal webmaster to achieve business evolution.

"A person can make a website worth tens of millions of RMB by himself, as long as the 10 steps, xingping and so on have been validated; If you want to make tens of millions of dollars of the company must have a team, but also to walk 50 steps, go wrong step may not go; but to make hundreds of millions of dollars of the company, it is necessary to go to 100 steps, Every step wrong may be undone, I now is between 50 steps to 100 steps. ”

In a sense, the success of MA, Robin Li, Jack Yun and others can be summed up, but cannot be replicated. For most ordinary entrepreneurs, CAI's understanding of the product, the grasp of the user, the judgment of the opportunity, including its way of thinking of making money, is truly highly practical.

In the next five years of the "universal Internet" era, only a few lucky enough to make a big career, that requires ability, courage, team and luck. But to find the effective way to make money and develop a healthy business, many people still have a chance.

The secret of domain name registration

2001, Cai learned to use the Registrar of the domain name protection period of free access to a large number of domain names, this is the registrar sent him a fee notice letter

"Why do domain names?" Because I like 1 dollars to make 10 dollars business. Why I do better than others, because I work in the brain. All NB is a little more than the others ...

"Cai Total, 300,000 buy your suzhou.com can?" "On the night of July 21, Cai won his iphone (mobile internet) phone and showed us a new text message from a strange number, and his reply was" This domain name is less than 1 million. "

Almost every day, he receives such phone calls, text messages, or emails that he or she can negotiate to buy and sell domain names. In the world of "rice farmer" (the name of the network domain player), CAI is a well-deserved "eldest brother". Even foreign domain name investors know that China has a Mr. Cai.

Interestingly, Cai actually began to do domain names in 2000 years. At that time already passed the golden period of domain name investment (Internet domain name began in 1985, 1992 before the domain name are free, 1994 years after the domain name registrars, only then began to charge, and has the registration). At that time, thousands of people all over China were involved in the business, including many internet elites.

Cai himself had no knowledge of the Internet in addition to earning some money in the PCCW of PCCW. He happened to see a newspaper in Hong Kong, said business.com domain name sold 7.5 million of dollars. That day is April 25, 2000.

This suddenly aroused his interest, "I'm not a big fan of 1 bucks for 1 dollars." A domain registration fee is only 200 yuan, but the good can sell tens of thousands of, the profit is very high. He decided to put down the family's import and export trade and real estate business and devote himself to it.

But 2000 years, the value of the international domain name has almost been registered empty, Cai won inevitably paid a lot of tuition. He registered at one breath one thousand or two thousand domain names, what types have, such as imitation Lenovo Fm365.com registered fm86.com, but this he thought very good domain name in fact and no value, "the result of a did not sell", all of a sudden lose hundreds of thousands of. Until the end of 2000, he learned that the domain name after the registration of a yearly renewal, if not renewed fee will be "fall", that is, can be registered again, so he put his eyes on the possible "fall" of the valuable domain name.

This will face two problems, one, how to find a valuable domain name, two, after discovering how to ensure that they can be registered.

Cai each have a set of methods to solve these two problems, the first is to pick the domain name.

The first stage is I put the famous website, commonly used pinyin, place name to do a database, there are about 100,000, the domain name that expires every day may have 500, I choose the best registration.

The second stage, the foreign has a website, specialized sells the domain name which falls out every day, 300 dollars may buy 100,000 lists. How do I pick out the domain name to rob? I usually put the Encyclopedia Britannica and my database match, this is the first step, matching out there are twenty or thirty words, that value is relatively large.

I'm more refined in the back. I put these 100,000 domain names through the program to the Domain name registration Agent website snapname.com database to match, there are usually more than 1000 domain names will be ordered by others, that is, other people to help me choose once, and then to the domain name auction site namewinner.com to check the price of others willing to, the highest price of the domain name is the largest value. For example, when Romantic.com was willing to pay 100,000 dollars, wirelessnet.com someone out to 180,000, I specifically rob these most expensive.

In this way, Cai discovered a lot of valuable domain names that ordinary people would not notice. "Do you know what Bharat means?" How much does bharat.com cost? Cai asked us almost to show off. We shook our heads, he happily replied: "' Bharat ' is the nickname of India, like ' Sino ' is a nickname for China, India's largest state-owned companies are almost the beginning of Bharat, the domain value of millions of of dollars, now in my hands." ”

But a valuable domain name is often a world of countless people will go to rob, how to improve their chances of success, Cai also have a very clever way to achieve, to fm365.com for example.

Fm365.com registered on October 21, 1999, has abandoned the Internet Business Association forgot to pay, until October 21, 2003 expired, but there may be 100,000 people want to register this domain name, how to ensure that can be registered to?

First of all, you have to understand that the domain name is not immediately after the expiration of registration, the Registrar to retain a period of time, but the rules of each registrar is not the same, and some may be the next day, some 1 months, some 45 days, so you first need to know which registrar it is. Fm365.com is registered in NSI, it's retention time is 70 days, so that is December 29 can register, only 10% of people know this day, this will eliminate 90%, there are 10,000 people, but you only have one out of 10,000 chance, so you must know the specific is a few minutes out. If waiting all day, the chance is very little, I know NSI is in the United States 12 o'clock Noon, China time is 3 o'clock in the morning, know this is eliminated 90%, there are 1 per thousand opportunities.

Registering a domain name needs to fill in the names, mailboxes, addresses, usually this process takes approximately 5 seconds, first I fill out, and then directly press F5 on it, as long as less than 1 seconds, the probability is higher, so that the elimination of 90%, this time there are 100 people, or can not guarantee that you can register, I later adopted the program registration, Submit 1000 times per second, so the probability increases a lot.

I also have dozens of to improve the success of the registration domain name tips, such as not directly with their own computer to register, because such words to submit information from Xiamen to Shanghai and then to the United States, through too many nodes, the speed is too slow. So, I first rented the server in Shanghai, and then simply rented the United States to register the server, so the fastest, and the registration information is filled in Arabic numerals, such as 1@1.com ">1@1.com." Anyway this information can be changed back, the simplest registration information than the complete information less than hundreds of bytes, will speed up the submission speed, thereby increasing the probability of success. Also such as registering a domain name, to submit a DNS address, one day I wrote wrong, the registrar returned to me the information is invalid DNS, DNS verification will take time, I simply do not fill out, the fact that also can register success, which can save time.

Then I was the first one in the world to start registering domain names through a special channel of registrars, for example, originally we rob outside the door, now I go to the door and others rob, my success rate is even higher, of course, this method later also popular, but the ICANN of the registered channel has restrictions, foreign companies are registered in quantity as the target, Every time to register a lot of domain names, and I only registered the most valuable domain name, centralized all channels to register one.

Finally, my success rate has changed from one out of 10,000 to over 50%.

It should be said that from 2001 to 2003, Cai wins the domain name business has been quite successful. He registered about 5,000 domain names, sold more than 1000, and his domain name buyers around the world, such as Spain, one of the largest biotech company Bionet.com was bought from his hand. During the period, all the domain name business is almost all he and a 2001 years to find a partner to complete. Later, China Internet Information Center (CNNIC) engaged in the domain name of CN, let him support. He's 3 letters. CN received more than 2000. So far, according to his own estimates, the hands of the domain value of billions of dollars.

"I'm a good person to find the ropes," he said. "There are no more than 100 people in China who actually make money from buying and selling domain names, and I should be the best," Cai said. "This can be corroborated from his first business.

1985, the 15-year-old Cai through relatives in Hong Kong bought a three-ocean 8800 dual-card recorder, the price of 280 yuan. And then began ripping up RTHK's pop songs, recording 40 boxes a day, a box of blank cassette cost of 1 yuan, after ripping sold 2.5 yuan, a day to earn 60 yuan, and then he put the number of recorders to 8, can earn hundreds of a day, which was already a large amount of income, so he dropped out to concentrate on business.

Obviously, if you can improve the speed of ripping, you can increase revenue, CAI will be a tape recorder apart, found that the tape recorder to expand a plastic coil, you can improve speed. Finally, he's ripping 3 times times faster than anyone else. "I am a successful domain name, do tape business is better than others, why?" "Maybe it's just a little bit more brain than the others," Cai said. ”

In addition to the Internet elites in Beijing and Shanghai, two or three-line cities have huge commercial potential.

Entrepreneurial approach

"Southerners start a business with the north, because Southerners have no big choice, think this can make money right away." The northerners thought too much of the business model, and they didn't do it. The best business is not to look for business models, it's all nonsense ...

After winning fm365.com, Lenovo through the middleman to find Cai win, proposed to spend millions of yuan to buy back. For the first time, CAI has entered the center of the Internet--Beijing. "After the negotiations, I was persuaded by a vice-president of Lenovo to return the domain name free of charge," he said. So Cai enjoyed the treatment of a central leader and visited Lenovo with finished executives.

Since then, Cai in the Internet Circle of fame, he also made Lei and other finished friends.

After 2003, CAI has gradually realized that the sale of domain names, although there is profiteering, but after all, is a personal business. However, the domain name is after all the most basic application of the Internet, through the domain name, he also put China's excellent website has been studied again. At this time, he found hao123.com, home page with a variety of web sites, traffic is extremely high, Alexa ranked 100.

Cai spoke Mandarin with a strong Minnan accent and broke 3 WordPad before learning to use the input method. When he first saw all the useful sites are listed on a page of the hao123, feel that this is the most needed site, because as long as the hao123 set as the homepage, you do not have to enter the pain of their own web site.

Cai found several people to form a team, decided to get one. At that time he had 3 three-digit domain name 870.com, 716.com and 265.com, first with 870.com, the result was 1 weeks, traffic to 1 days a hundred thousand of. Cai became more convinced that "this seemingly silly application is the demand of hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese netizens".

He resolutely to replace the domain name 265.com, and put his hands of the good domain name all guide 265.com. By 2004, 265.com of daily traffic had reached nearly 4 million. At this time IDG investment manager came to the door, hoping to invest 265. In Beijing, he met the partners of IDG to Macro, kan a half-day domain name business, the next door shong, comprehensive and so on came to listen to him tell stories. However, "they understood only half of the 265 business," and finally, 265 got millions of dollars in investment.

This valuation is not very high, but Cai is the first grassroots webmaster to obtain investment in VC, this halo effect let Cai quickly become Stationmaster's eldest brother, more importantly, CAI thus entered the mainstream of the Internet. After getting the investment, 265 moved the company from Xiamen to Beijing, Cai himself began to have direct contact with the major Internet companies.

2005, guests gathered CEO Wang Jianyue once to visit Cai Sheng, in Cai's business card folder found that Google is responsible for investment affairs of a person's business card, which let Wang quite unexpectedly, because 265 is such a grassroots site, and High-tech Google is simply irrelevant, And Google has yet to enter China. In fact, 265 is Google's second investment in China, the first is Baidu.

"In China, Web site and search engine is very close to the combination of high-end users know the URL, will also type, can be directly on the search engine, but many low-end users do not know, is from the Web site began to surf the internet, they contacted the first search engine will decide what he uses, this is Baidu acquisition hao123, Google buys 265 of the reason, so far every day from the hao123 on Baidu's flow of up to 20 million. "Cai said.

It is worth mentioning that IDG in looking for 265 before, had to Xingning find xingping, but poor talk Li Jean IDG investment Manager is quite disappointed, think hao123 flow although very high, but the founder lacks will its big vision and ability, IDG this will look at the Web site on the second 265.

In the acceptance of investment, CAI plan to buy hao123, and then merge with 265, so that will certainly be bigger, "can be around the Chinese Internet, but also to the search engine," IDG also recognized the idea of mergers and acquisitions hao123.

But Cai made a mistake, because it is a competitor, Cai worried directly to find xingping difficult to communicate, through a variety of relations on the side of the desire to express the acquisition, but Lee all refused. August 2004, Cai suddenly found hao123.com registration information changes, September, Cai personally to Xingning to find Lee, just know hao123 has been Baidu acquisition, lost the opportunity to merge.

But two of people's knowledge of the Internet is hit. At that time Cai has been invested in IDG, xingping consciously this ability to deal with capital is their own soft rib, do personal site limitations too large, two people can in other directions to cooperate.

and xingping to the user's understanding and sensitivity to the product to make Cai quite "worship", "he really has talent, although in a small town, but through the Internet, he to China's various websites, stationmaster's situation, flow how to do up the clear, the world did not succeed in vain." "Cai exclaimed," hao123 don't say, he made a IP138, query IP address, it is not even a website, just a simple web page, but very useful, 1 days have million of traffic. I think he is the Chinese internet inside very understand the user, and I know the webmaster, very understand the product. "Cai said.

In the second half of 2004, two people began to quietly cooperate, small game website 4399. In more than 4 years, 4399 mainly provide free flash games services, not a lot of profit. 2008, the Web game market began to break out, 4399 also began to introduce web games, by virtue of the accumulated popularity, quickly began to profit. There are big companies and investors looking for the door to buy 4399, Cai and Xingping decided not to sell. 2009, two people set up a team in Guangzhou, formally 4399 commercial operation.

Until today, 4399 of the decision by two people together, the product of the matter xingping, business development, staffing management to CAI mainly. Lee stay in Xingning home, Cai usually in Xiamen, usually through QQ and telephone communication, a month or two to touch. Cai plans to put 4399 of the base camp in Xiamen, he had considered moving to Beijing, but later "still think that Xiamen better, not impetuous, can be steadfast to do something." In big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, it is easy to overlook the needs of the following Internet users in the two or three-line cities.

Currently has 4399 of millions of users positioned as the largest Chinese game release platform, including web games registered users more than 12 million, daily new users nearly 200,000, daily traffic 16 million, the average at the same time online 800,000, monthly income to tens of millions, Shanda, giants and other large companies began to cooperate with them.

An interesting question is, whether hao123 or 4399, its pages are extremely ugly, which makes the Internet elite can not understand why such a site can achieve such a large amount of traffic, the reason for its success?

"China's average internet users are relatively low-end, and for them the Internet is simpler and better." I have done experiments, I let five or six-year-old children play 4399 and other games online game, one weeks later, he would prefer to use 4399. "Cai said. This is similar to Robin Li's evaluation of hao123: "hao123 simple enough to make people unable to go beyond." ”

Investment Principles

"Traditional business teaches me two things: first, there is value in having users." Look at the store good is to see people, there are people who like to come here, you can sell a lot of things. Second, the sensitivity of business and the speed of decision making. I made the decision very quickly, some important investment in half an hour to finalize, the money is in the past. ”

April 2005, CAI Personal contribution under the package of all food and lodging, in Xiamen even run two days, "China Internet Webmaster Conference", invited the domestic flow of the largest 150 personal webmaster to participate, including Shengdong East, Yiu Jingbo and so on to obtain a large number of venture capital. This session of the Webmaster Assembly is also considered to be a personal station to the commercial station of the transformation of the symbol, and thereafter the CAI is faint with the potential of webmaster leader. Although he later admitted that the first time he stood on the podium, his legs were shaking.

"When I started to do webmaster meetings, the era of personal webmaster has passed." This is not to say that there will be no webmaster in China, but that today the individual again to do a website to do a national famous, there are tens of millions of of users are not likely, many personal stations are commercialized, and achieved success. "And Cai is an important pushing force.

At the end of 2005, Chinabbs founder Wang Dingpei, who attended the first Webmaster conference, found Cai and wanted to buy a better domain name. Cai and he chatted for several hours, the whole development of Chinabbs put forward a series of suggestions, Wang Dingpei very recognized, invited CAI as shareholder. Chinabbs investors are also IDG,IDG on this is not against, Cai Daqi.com gave Chinabbs, plus his ideas, resources, become a big banner net shareholder.

Another 58.com founder, Yiu Jingbo, was also a successful domain name investor, and Cai personally. 2005 when he founded 58 with the city, Cai is also very optimistic about the classification information site in this direction, investment in shares. In addition, CAI often in the server, bandwidth, domain name and so on to some smaller sites to help, but usually does not share.

After selling 265 in 2007, Cai that he had achieved a basic success. Besides 4399, Angel Investment became the main interest of CAI. Cai has two ways of investing.

1. The site itself has a large user base, usually to achieve tens, "there is the value of users, the number of users to achieve the initial success", this understanding stems from CAI's early experience in clothing business. CAI also formed the value of the site to judge the standard, "as long as there are enough users, you will be able to find a business model, but can do a big problem." "There are some things that cannot be supported very much, be contented ..."

2. Cai himself saw what the market needs, look for a direction, will actively organize the team. For example, the United States Mito Cai believes that ordinary netizens need a fool version of Photoshop processing pictures, this can easily make a variety of effects of the image processing software is one of the fastest growing Internet applications in 2008.

But Cai's most distinctive investment feature may not be the above two points, but "fast". He usually discovers potential projects in the early days, and then makes the decision to invest quickly, "I make decisions quickly, sometimes in half an hour-not by making decisions, but by putting money on the account." "Clearly, this rapid investment is very attractive compared to the lengthy negotiations, investigations and legal signatures of VC agencies."

This also comes from Chua's earlier experience in clothing business, "when others use the price of 10 yuan to order 1000 pairs of trousers, must be in a very short period of time to determine whether they can use the price of 9 yuan into the arrival, otherwise the opportunity will be lost in an instant, the premise of this rapid decision-making is the overall grasp of information and a keen sense.

Cai was always a good learner, and he almost always did a lot of homework before doing everything. After doing 265 in 2003, he looked at the tens of thousands of posts on the k666.com of the webmaster at the time and learned about almost all the major personal stations, and when he approached IDG, he touched the history of the company and all the partners. Naturally, when he started his own investment, he had already done a full research on the companies he valued before making the decision, and made a lightning bolt out of the other's conditions.

At the same time, CAI also has strict investment discipline. His principle is not more than 2 million yuan, "I only do upfront investment is not particularly big things, if you want to rely on burning money to big, I will not do, of course, if you can attract VC that is another thing." "4399 of the input less than 1 million yuan, fool picture processing software beauty Mito is almost no promotional costs." He and Xingping once invested in a video site because the investment needed was too big to be resold to others.

For his investment in the company, Cai Du have clear steps to arrange: the first consideration of what to do for netizens is not useful, can seize tens of millions of of users, with tens of millions of users to consider first let it make money, and then the third step to consider whether it can be done very large, or even made public companies.

Next big deal.

"From 1998 to 2003, it was the elite era of China's internet, which was copied overseas, and from 2003 to 2008, Internet users reached 300 million from tens of millions of, it was the popular age, this stage of the turtle beyond the Turtles, and 2009 to 2014, China's Internet users will increase from 300 million to 600 million, This will be the era of universal Internet, there are many opportunities. ”

Now, Cai get up 12 o'clock noon every day, and then drive their own Porsche SUV to the office, a root to smoke Chinese smoke, bubble good red robe tea, and then go online to various forums and QQ webmaster Group to see what topic we talk about, and then call their own investment companies to guide the direction. Seemingly relaxed he is still thinking about his next direction, he does not hide his ambition.

"I can't say I was underestimated." Because I haven't really made a big career. There are two kinds of human value, one is floating on the table, the other is slowly accumulating, but will change into a big thing, I think my accumulation period still need time. Cai admits.

Although Cai now spends only 1% of his energy on domain name investment, he still talks about the domain name, he knows the story of all the famous Chinese websites, and many domain names are closely related to him. For example, g.cn is he sold to Google China, if Chen is not affected by Cai wins, may not later go to the domain name kaixin.com registration NET. From time to time he would like to bask in his collection of classic domain names, such as romantic.com, "This is not million dollars is not sold." "I also have a collection of the domain names of thousands of local cities in China, enough to engage in a local portal alliance."

The domain name is probably the basis for his next big business.

In early July this year, a U.S. domain name investors flew to Xiamen to visit Cai, Mr cai in foreign domain name investors are very famous, the investor asked Cai, he has so many valuable domain name, why he does not do domain name parking (domains Parking)?

Cai admits that China's corporate brand awareness is not so high, and click cheat More, do domain name parking time is not mature, but he expects the next 3-5 years, this market will gradually mature, and this may let his hands to generate a steady stream of income.

The so-called domain name parking, mainly by the use of the domain name to bring visitors to reach the ads click, thereby gaining revenue, in foreign countries, this is a huge business, the annual market size of 1 billion U.S. dollars, according to CAI estimates, Google every year to hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to the domain name Park. It is obvious that the greater the value of the domain name, including a good keyword domain name, the domain name of the search engine, the domain name that has been built, and the domain name close to the famous domain name, the domain name of different suffix is the most suitable for the domain name parking.

And Cai Hand has a lot of such domain names, such as and sohu.com very close to the shou.com, Ctrip phonetic domain xiecheng.com, netease phonetic domain name wangyi.com, these domain names have a large flow. For example, Xiecheng.com has more than 1800 clicks per day, "Open this site people must be to find reservations, booking tickets, is Ctrip's target customers, Baidu keyword click on a 5 dollars ah, Ctrip hired so many people at the airport hairpin, the cost is very high, These 1800 potential users they don't, really ... "Here, Cai shook his head," but I now a family to talk is not cost-effective, education market too hard, or wait for the market to do it again. ”

"My current idea is to make 4399 the biggest game platform, and I will focus on the combination of traditional industries E-commerce, wireless Internet, these two are the biggest opportunity of the internet age." Cai opens his own ThinkPad notebook, the desktop is his own 4399 business development plan.