Why the ticket season is an internet company arena

Absrtact: A slow and weak 12306 Web site, the Spring Festival in 2013 unexpectedly became a supporting role, the drama is a small ticket to grab the plug and in this plugin behind the Internet company. An IT engineer who lives in Ningbo, in the purpose of helping

The 12306 website, known for its slowness and weakness, unexpectedly became a supporting role in the Spring festival in 2013, while the drama was a small ticket-grabbing plugin and an internet company behind the plugin.

An IT engineer living in Ningbo, in the spirit of "help" designed a "grab ticket" plug-in, and free of charge to an internet company to use. To Supher's surprise, his design, after commercialization, not only led to the commercial competition of many internet companies, but also labeled another "unfair" label.

When the train ticket "grab tickets" plug-in program increasingly become the center of controversy, Supher, as many similar software designers, have to face the pressure of all kinds of speech, from fairness to the benefit.

"There is no commercial interest between me and the ' Jinshan ' company. "It's not about fairness," said Supher, who made up the software just to make it easier for him and others to buy train tickets.

The strange man asked me to delete the software.

Ningbo, January 18 late at night around 10:30, mobile phone ring alarm Supher ready to sleep.

The caller is a man. In Supher's memory, the other person said probably: "We have arrived, we come up, or you down." Supher was calm, and he knew who the caller was-morning had received a call from each other and told each other his address.

One of the men, who looked about 40 years old, said to Supher: "You have to delete it, the software is unfair to others." ”

Supher did not have too many excuses, then, he went upstairs, his own on the online program to delete, the other side did not say anything more, left.

The software is now the most talked about, train tickets "grab tickets" plug-in. "In fact, it is a ticket assistant, not ' grab tickets '." "It's the designer--Supher," he said.

Design Plug-ins one afternoon a night

"One afternoon plus one night all busy this thing ..." Time January 9, 2012, Supher Tencent Blog introduced his work: "12306.cn network ticketing assistant." And it's inspired by Supher's own online purchase train ticket experience.

Like most migrant workers, Supher Spring Festival from Ningbo back to Anhui Hefei home. He bought train tickets on the 12306 website of the Ministry of Railways, but trouble ensued. "After entering the username and password, the Web site always prompts the system to be busy and inaccessible." This will have to re-enter the username and password, ready to enter again ... "Supher said he gave up after repeated work.

As an IT practitioner, Supher decided to make a plug-in program to solve the mechanical labor problem. "I do not like hackers to enter the site system to steal tickets, I just for the client, make up for its lack of design." Supher said he was not the first person to do such a thing in fact.

At that time, Supher had sensed that 12306 websites were designed to have minor problems, such as typing in the username and password each time, but the captcha would not randomly change, which also gave the design software "the convenience". One afternoon plus one night, the Hefei Civil Engineering college students will take care of this plug-in program, and it solves the problem is "automatic login", "Automatic Ticket" and "Automatic Reminder."

"12306 will be based on different trips in different time period of the ticket, with this plug-in, we buy tickets do not have to cling to the computer in front of the official website of the ticket." "Supher so do not think that this is" Rob Ticket "software is" the ticket is placed by the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Railways do not put the vote, Plug-ins can not buy tickets. " ”

There is no commercial benefit from "Jinshan"

A lot of people who know programming are doing this kind of plug-in design, there are many people will put the design of Plug-ins uploaded to the internet for others to use, but unlike them, Supher will always maintain the update of their works. "I do not know whether the 12306 official website has been updated within the system, but from the client service, I do not feel much change." "Supher compares their product with the update speed between 12306 websites.

"I'm a little paranoid." Supher said that he just wanted to help others to buy tickets more easily, so this plugin is for others to download for free. But he also noted that "Taobao" began a lot of people to sell their own plug-ins. "10 yuan per piece." Supher very angry, with "Taobao" shopkeeper also negotiated, but no role. So, he also designed the need to sign in to use the "Ticket assistant": "The registration code I provide for free, but at the same time I will tell people that the software is free." ”

"11 of the time and Taobao cooperation, the Spring Festival one or two months before the cheetah to find me, they want to build inside the browser to facilitate more users." "This is what Supher wrote in his blog. Supher said that he quickly agreed to the company by mail, Cheetah Browser production company, "We do not mention business cooperation and money issues." ”

"I'm not a fool, of course I know they want to use this plugin to enlarge their browser's influence." "It's a sense of honor," said Supher, who only wants to get tickets for others. ”

For online criticism of Plug-ins, Supher feel wronged. "I have complied with the Ministry's rules in all the design of the assistants, such as the Ministry of Railways, which must have 5 seconds to retry, and I even set it to 6 seconds in the previous version." Supher through a long microblog.

“...... Want to bring convenience to people, save the operation and time, is called unfair. In fact, I would like to ask, that the world is the fairness of where? Let all of you in there together. Query refresh? " Supher also wrote: "... The biggest disappointment for the railway ministry was that during the year, 12306 did not see any improvement in the convenience of the ticket. ”

Reporter observation

Why the ticket season is an internet company arena

Yesterday, the Ministry of Industry said in an interview with Xinhua news agency, the ministry did not stop the ticket-grabbing browser, but the Telecommunications Authority market Management office on January 18 night with three Internet enterprises telephone communication, requiring enterprises to take measures to avoid the impact of the normal operation of the ticketing system.

Prior to the news that a large number of users using ticket-grabbing browser to buy train tickets, increase the pressure of 12306 Web server, led the Ministry of Railways to the Ministry of Information Complaints, the Ministry for this request 360, Sogou, Jinshan, AO Tour browser, such as Stop the ticket software.

However, after the news, the media and users found that a lot of vendors to launch the ticket browser can still be used normally. Reporter learned that the browser market competition has always been fierce, especially in the public relations manufacturers are sparing no effort, the government departments "to stop" the ticket to grab the browser, the essence of the enterprise is caused by excessive marketing.

2011 360 actually launched a ticket to grab the browser, and this year Jinshan network is the earliest start in the network and micro-blog to promote its Cheetah browser grab ticket function, user volume and market share have significantly improved.

The ticket-grabbing function can not only please the user, but also bring a considerable amount of clicks, but also for the enterprise to establish a good reputation, so the internet companies have to follow up, a time of various browser grab ticket version, grab ticket plug-ins, grab tickets software flying, so that users see dazzling, in order to allow their own browser to grab mirrors, the companies are doing their best. During this period, fully embodies the characteristics of the rapid response of the Internet enterprises, such as the immediate search to see the software is very popular, and its engineers to open the overnight ticket grab tool for users free of charge, 360 in the hearing of the ticket browser unfair query, then launched a mobile phone grab ticket tool.

The reporter learned that the browser market competition has always been fierce, especially in the public relations vendors are sparing no effort, the government departments to "stop" the ticket to grab the browser, the essence of the enterprise in attracting attention to the "force too fierce" caused by farce.

But in the final analysis, or 12306 of the site is not to give the Internet enterprise performance opportunities, to January 15 as an example, the day 12306 site has 17 million people login, A total of 2.652 million train tickets sold, the highest rate of ticket sales of 255 per second, and the day of the cat and Taobao last November 11 big promotion Day, independent access to more than 200 million users, more than 100 million orders a day, Alipay peak when nearly 1500 transactions per second, the data are far higher than 12306, if only because the ticket software continued to refresh the page will cause the server overwhelmed , that can only explain the 12306 site's technical background there is a significant increase in space. Wen/newspaper reporter Cheli

Grab a ticket Raiders

How to use the browser and smart machine to grab tickets successfully

At present, the three support to grab the ticket function of the browser is 360 browser grab ticket version, Cheetah Browser Spring Festival Rush ticket and Sogou Browser 12306 Special Edition, in fact, the principle of these ticket-grabbing browser is to use the background program to replace the manual operation, to avoid users frequently refresh the process of the page.

Ticket-grabbing browsers have the ability to automatically log on to 12306 websites.

The viewer can "automatically swipe tickets" every few seconds

This feature is especially useful when the 12306 server is busy. Second, the ticket-grabbing browser has a function of automatic brush, users simply enter the starting point, destination and departure date, click the "Start to brush the Ticket" button, the browser will refresh every few seconds page, successful brush to the ticket after the browser will pop up a window to remind users of timely payment.

"Timed grab ticket" function can improve the success rate

However, several browsers in some details or some differences, such as Sogou browser also added to the timing of the ticket function, because 12306 of the site every hour has some new tickets out, "Timed grab ticket" function can be in the moment of the ticket to seize the ticket, improve the success rate of booking tickets.

The development of "Instant Search" grab ticket tool engineer Wang Haoyu introduced, his night overtime writing code to do out of the "instant Ticket" is a Web application, not plug-ins or browsers. He believes that, whether it is a ticket-grabbing browser, plug-ins or Web applications, are through technical means to improve the efficiency of the network ticket.

No internet people can use mobile phone "grab ticket version"

In fact, the Internet companies have been concerned about the people do not surf the internet, such as 360 of its software mobile defender launched the Spring Festival Rush ticket version, to help users automatically dial 95105105 booking line, until the open up, but also can choose to get through automatically hands-free, prompting the user for booking operations.

For those who are not familiar with the use of smart phones, 360 mobile phone guards to grab the ticket version also provides warm tips, including how to follow the prompts to choose the starting station, how to choose the seat, how to take tickets and other details.

According to the comparison of telephone booking and online booking of netizens reflect that in some times the success rate of telephone booking is higher than online booking, but only if you can dial the phone. "These mobile application software for the phone can not be connected to the problem, the development of unlimited automatic redial function, improve the success rate of dialing." ”