Why not be a Chinese Facebook

How long has it been since you've been stealing food?

Almost 18 months ago, a virus called "happy" spread rapidly through the computers of young white-collar workers in big cities. Buy and sell friends, Rob parking spaces, steal vegetables, the truth of the Big Adventure, simulation stocks, happy restaurant ... A variety of tricks of the mentally Retarded games let Kaixin001.com became China's most fire SNS community. Venture capitalists are vying for money, and many in the industry are predicting that it will be the next phenomenon-level Internet company in the country.

But now, its contagion power has been greatly weakened.

Not long ago, I in the Alexa official website (a relatively authoritative third-party flow monitoring station) on the search kaixin001.com the last 6 months of the situation, found that whether the site traffic, or user volume, page traffic, the daily average PV and so on have shown a noticeable downward trend. Strangely enough, the snowball seems to be stuck in the mud, not only not rolling, but also getting slower.

What happened to Happy net? To know that it has emulated the foreign model of Facebook has broken 500 million users, but still on the go.

So I raised this question on Weibo and got hundreds of forwards and 70 comments. The answer is roughly as follows: first, micro-Bo stole the thunder of happy net, this is indeed the current office of the most fashionable new Dongdong; two, too closed, the lack of fresh applications, the existing games are similar, let life annoying; third, QQ attack; many companies expressly prohibit employees to work time to find "happy" ... ...

I believe that the trouble of happy Net is not a solitary example. In the Internet, an extremely new industry, almost every year, a few small start-up companies emerge. In 18 months or more, from zero to tens of millions of users and billions of dollars in valuations.

But is this "success"? Please allow me to remain suspicious of it. Think of the school, 51, Thunder and other examples, these in happy net before the widely favored Web2.0 company, now is no longer the darling of the market. Can they become Chinese Facebook? Or have you lost this opportunity forever?

If we broaden our horizons, you will find that these "dubious successes" are not only in the Internet industry, but also in almost all the industries that have been chased by the capital and the media, the difference being just the length of "fermenting" time. Purely personal observation, a start-up, as long as it can survive the toughest lifetime of the first year, the team is diligent and reliable, then in the next 3-5 years (different industries, internet companies may be shorter time, the traditional industry may be a long time), happen to do something, it will hit a chance of their own.

At this point, the company's products or services will easily win market share, the emergence of positive cash flow, venture capital began to pursue the "future star", entrepreneurs have become the darling of the major media. "They are going to be", and a similar emotional judgment will encourage the industry's activists to take it as a job-hopping choice.

But I always feel that this opportunity is the entrepreneur "hit" rather than really "caught". It is God's hint, not your consciousness.

The truth is simple, a rotten clock can always catch up to two times a day. "Good wind by virtue of force, send me to the Blue sky", the big industry trend to stop, as long as you happen to stand in the position, happened to do something right. Today is you, tomorrow is someone else to step on the dog luck.

But God does not always favor a lucky one, the wind will not always go in one direction, the more new industries change the amplitude of fluctuations. The problem is that if the potential energy suddenly fails, even if it doesn't, you and your company have no kinetic energy to fill.

When you are lucky enough to have a "dubious success", it may be the most dangerous time for you.

In the past you are barefoot not afraid of shoes, now you also have the money to buy shoes, regardless of sandals, shoes, can be as long as wearing on will not necessarily have to take off the courage.

Usually enterprises do not really understand their own business logic, not to explore the nature of the game: in the end the product is because of what red? What do users really need? Where is the driving force for long-term growth? Can you draw a circle for your starting point, course, current position and future direction?

In fact, a start-up enterprise in the process of growing up, need to constantly self torture, its business logic also need to be repeatedly falsified to be challenged. Entrepreneurs who rush to overdraft are rarely willing to think more about them. But God does not always favor a lucky one. The first person to reach Everest's forward camp is not necessarily the last successful winner. Even if you are the first to reach the top, but also intoxicated in the so-called infinite scenery, there have been late quietly downhill, ready to conquer the next peak.

Why? Because too early and too easy success is usually "suspicious", it is more deceptive than its inspirational function. When you "take it easy", it is the time to make a mistake unconsciously. The following mistakes may lead your business to "mediocre" halfway to "success", or even never to break out of the business jungle.

One: Rob the user's wallet

I have to admit, in China, users are the best to fool and the most difficult to serve the people.

They are very kind and tolerant, every day to mix a little bit of water in the milk, every day in the Web page to play one or two ads, every day to find them to receive one or two yuan to buy road money, every day to achieve the promise of sorry, is not a hard thing. Everyone understands, do business is not to learn Lei Feng, no income how to survive, eat rice and talk about what development.

But I don't understand why startups are so eager to turn the business model into a profit model.

Early enterprise, each also pretended to be beneficial to the people to take the bait "jiang". First-class to the user scale up, "success" seems to be waving, I would like to use the power grid fishing guns. Are you trying to prove your ability to make money?

Chinese users, in fact, very easy to be fickle. As long as your service is always lower than the customer's expectations, the charge is always higher than the customer's expectations, then sooner or later the problem will come. No more good, a peer comparison, the problem is big. Think of an ebay example. In today's universal Taobao era, who still remember this many years ago the king of the local Consumer-to-consumer. What is the biggest mistake ebay has ever made? is eager to find users a little bit of management fees, to prove their ability to make money, rather than expand the user base, in-depth grasp of the needs of Chinese users in the end with the people of the United States what is different.

It is said that happy net this year's sales revenue can do 200 million yuan, but the light to do up the revenue is enough? Revenue is a lagging figure that reflects your previous traffic. But your future traffic will determine your future revenue. Advertising is all about what you used to be, and no one will give you an ad because of what you did two years later. But how can a person who does his own business not think of two years later?

In fact, the biggest failure of happy net is to delay the opening of Third-party APIs, always want to make money to do their own things. When you have to open it now, users don't want to play with you anymore.

Liu said that "building a house to be rammed earth", the user is the most important foundation of the enterprise, the foundation played more solid, the future can grow much taller.

Two: Enemies, no ego.

"High wall, wide grain, Slow King", this is the 1357 great Confucian scholar Zhusheng to Zhu Yuanzhang's proposal. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was only one of the many warlord entrepreneurs in the troubled times of the Yuan Dynasty, just a little "success". Relying on this nine-word guideline, Zhu Youliang, Zhangshicheng each destroyed, endure until 1368 finally proclaimed himself emperor.

A lot of startups, just make a little achievement, I can't wait to announce that I am the eldest of XX field, the leader of XX platform. The next thing is to give yourself an enemy. Let the whole world know oneself in with QQ, GE, Mobile war, the weak need everyone sympathy.

I really do not see what it is necessary to pull the banner of tiger skin, I do not understand why so afraid of Big Mac. After all, people are just a department of Business Line a eight-hour work, you are holding the power of the whole company, centralized resources 24 hours to run, to Mingxiang stroke. Who's afraid of who?

When Chiang Kai-shek was most nervous of the Communist Party, it was the time when the Communist Party played the banner of "The Soviet Republic of China" at Jinggangshan, and when the Communist Party was most relieved, it was the Red Army's initiative to weave the revolutionary eighth Road Army.

As long as the start-up companies have not listed, it should be clear to put their own small, on the surface to the big place. Less self hypnosis, more self examination.

Every day to the imaginary enemy, wondering what people will do. Want to think of only tactics, where is your strategy? Ma Yun said, "Heart invincible, can invincible in the world." Entrepreneurs can really think of their own business logic, their own business model to draw a circle, the complement of their own short board to make up, the market so big, how to do it.

Just like Spain in the World Cup, the first game loses the ball, insists that his style not waver, the goal can win the Octopus Paul's favor.

Three: Bigger and bigger?

Commercial competition has never been a hundred-meter dash, but an unknown triathlon.

Four years ago, I chatted with hanting, a continuous entrepreneur, when the economy chain hotel industry looked promising. I asked him what was the most important thing. He did not hesitate to open a shop expansion. The whole industry is the same idea. Because the hotel occupancy rate is more than 90%, the user's request is not high, the enterprise management structure is far from to withstand the limit. But since then, the financial crisis, the Olympic Games harvest far less than expected, property rentals soared, even the industry boss such as home also inevitable loss.

Hanting later admitted that his "scale is unimportant, quality is the most important", 74-year-old Accor Hotel Group founder Doublu said this sentence to hanting three times, as the answer to three different questions.

In today's impetuous snobbish business environment, will not be determined entrepreneurs must be wary of increasingly PE VC. They are realistic, as long as you are likely to be the next xxx, they will give you a large cheque you have never seen, encourage you to grow bigger. But if you don't make the top three, they'll just drive you out of the company and sell the company. Chinahr is the best example.

The most popular industries where venture capital is piling up are becoming the dumping ground for "mediocre" companies, from chain hotels, educational training, Web2.0 to today's e-commerce.

In the United States, a two-year report by the Retailers Association shows that the three websites of Zappos, Amazon and Overstock continue to occupy the top five of the best retailers in the United States. This suggests that the consumer has represented the highest level of retail business in the United States. And in the domestic, low-cost product promotion + advertising bombing to lure consumers, the use of asymmetric information to maintain gross profit margin, is still the mainstream of domestic consumer play. In addition to the different logo, you do not see any personalized features and values on the home page of the mainstream domestic company. Each company is concerned only with faster growth, more categories, higher exposure rate, as long as the influx of new users is always more than the loss of old customers are not afraid.