Wu Xinhong: A boring man's pioneering career

　　Wu Xinhong , is a "stuffy man" male, but also has hundreds of millions of users of the Super Product manager, in recent years entrepreneurial upstart, listen to his story below.

A father must have a son. 2006, Wu Xinhong bought the first car of his life: BMW 325i. He soon became fascinated by the car racing and joined the club of friends. A son who was not yet 2 years old in his car, Wu Xinhong in the open highway in Xiamen suddenly speed up, saw the son's expression slowly from calm to consternation, like a very red on the internet in the face of the same "scene" of foreign children-life where there is no "pit son's father."

Later, Wu Xinhong's buddy, the founder of the synchronous push Xun Jun often take this little nephew to find music: "Go, take your father's car go ah?" The little guy shook his head in horror: "No, no, I don't want to sit!"

This story is in the spring of 2012, Xun Jun in Xiamen himself told me. One day at the end of 2012, when I was a Wu Xinhong in Beijing on business, he nodded and said: "That was when he was very young." Now he's 6 years old, yelling at me to take him for a drive!

The outward appearance is quiet, the inner is wild, is the Wu Xinhong definition. Sitting in the lobby of the Millennium Hotel in the east of Beijing, he was born in 1981 more like a third, fluffy curly thick hair below is an introverted, slightly shy doll face. I asked the east, he would never say west.

He came to Beijing to attend the annual venture capital conference, and in his discussion session, there is the Yaqi, Poly-Mei excellent product Chen Yu, Shuyi advertising, cool plate Guzhi, game Matrix Xu, the only one of the founder is in the chat net Xu Dechen, but he looks more than this special session of the oldest Wu Xinhong also mature. In other words, as the founder of the Mito, Wu Xinhong is one of the most "deceptive" of the people in the crowd.

To be frank, we did not think of the Wu Xinhong of age when it was the first time in the 2011, when the magazine launched "Entrepreneurial upstart under 30 years of age". Not only because the United States Mito in Xiamen, it is difficult to be found by the media, more importantly, when the United States Mito tens of millions of of the user, in China's PC client list, can only be regarded as an up-and-comer. But two years later, the United States Mito not only on the PC on the number of users reached 120 million, mobile end is also about to break through 100 million users before and after the Spring Festival.

At Apple's official App Store, published recently in the 2012 annual list, the U.S. Mito with QQ, micro-credit, micro-blog together into the top 10. Of these 10 applications, 7 are from platform companies, and only 3 are from start-up companies, and Wu Xinhong's beauty Mito is one of them.

This is a bit of a master drag racing feeling. Wu Xinhong is said to be in the field, usually open to 220 kilometers of lap speed. But when he got out of the car, it made people think it was a bad-talker, little-loved-neighbor boy. Wu Xinhong said oneself is a very curtilage, very introverted person, formerly did not love with the person to speak, but now even in the restaurant eats, as long as hears someone to mention the beauty Mito, he will run over, asks this to ask that. In his iphone, the microblogging search page is flooded with keywords related to the Mito, such as "the latest version of the Mito" or "The beauty of Mito is not good." Its default keyword is nearly hundred, he chooses, searches, then interacts with the user, resolving.

Constantly and all kinds of people to deal with, this is a child Wu Xinhong how can not think of. Learn to draw from Wu in the first 20 years of life, has been a brush with their own inner world communication, frankly speaking, that is to build a world of their own, and today's beauty Mito, is to help others build another self. "The similarity between the two is that images are used. "Wu Xinhong said.

Obviously, this is a story where the starting point and end point can be justified. But the process of the story is totally different:

High school graduation, Wu Xinhong did not choose to go to college, that is because he was in the exam after the suspension to the Academy of Fine Arts to learn two years of oil painting;

Back to continue to read High school, and found the domain name business, 18 years old began, he became China's first batch of business domain name Business person, almost with his Quanzhou fellow Cai at the same time start;

If the father's factory did not encounter difficulties, Wu Xinhong would have been a standard Fu second-generation, after the father's factory closed, his business in the domain name of the income, to a certain extent also repay the home;

He started his business in 2001, the first batch of Chinese entrepreneurs to enter social networks, even earlier than Facebook, but ended in failure;

Finally he defected to the domain name investment has helped his eldest brother-Cai wins, from the product manager to start, before and after tried 30 products, and finally made the United States Mito.

Now, the U.S. Mito on the smartphone-represented mobile end of the growth rate of 300,000 per day. Wu Xinhong said, "That's the user, not the money." ”

A maverick "year of the old"

The founder of the home, the famous page to visit the Immortal road of the production of punk (Yau Jianjun) in 2000 when they knew Wu Xinhong. Teddy Boy was in a magazine at that time to see the report on Wu. At that time Wu Xinhong because of domain name business, already in the circle small have fame. The magazine Wu looks quiet, and Quanzhou the image of businessmen in the vicinity. Teddy Boy to this is only a year older than their own young people are very interested, he followed the text mentioned in a forum, the Wu Xinhong found, two people began to add QQ, three years after the first meeting in Xiamen.

At that time the punk think Wu's appearance and magazine compare, nothing changed, full of artist's stylish. At this time the punk although also make some money, but he is not the Chinese tens of thousands of small webmaster in the mind of the "Master rudder", but not later by virtue of a page tour earned enough eyeballs and banknotes "God-man." To be exact, the meeting of the two young people in the 2003 was full of joy: a "cock silk" with only a secondary school education was called on to a "cock silk" that had not been to university and was wearing an artist's coat. After all, Wu Xinhong has earned hundreds of thousands of of the domain-name investment, at least in Fujian, a famous internet person.

Young Wu Xinhong think of n a way to become famous, but certainly does not include domain name investment. He was born in Quanzhou. Even in the local is also a wealthy family, the father of early entrepreneurship, has its own factory, has long been for Wu Xinhong to solve the worry of food and clothing. But Wu Xinhong fell hopelessly in love with drawing. Junior high School three years, Wu won a lot of art awards, coupled with academic performance, he was walked to Quanzhou one of the high school-Quanzhou. When people think that the child will follow the path of a good talent, that is, continue to award, take part in the college entrance examination, to enter the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, he chose another way: suspended for two years, to Hangzhou, China Academy of Art to study. Originally, he learned from the school's art teacher that every year there will be some teachers to learn. Wu moved his mind: since the university is also learn to draw, why not go to school now? In this way, he came to Hangzhou as a junior high school graduate, and from all over the country "uncles and aunts" together to class, sketching together. "At first the family objected, but I was stubborn and they finally had to agree. "Wu Xinhong said.

For a 15-year-old teenager, studying in a foreign land is a sad thing, but Wu Xinhong feel more fun. Every year before and after the Spring Festival, sit on the train, a day to sit, from Fujian to Hangzhou, or from Hangzhou to Fujian. He likes to go to the library of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts and look at all kinds of works from classical to modernist masters. From today's perspective, there is one thing in Hangzhou in the past two years that has far-reaching implications for the future Wu Xinhong: He is fascinated by photography. By looking for money at home, he bought a domestic seagull SLR camera, so he either took the paintbrush or took the camera every day. Do not have to deal with all kinds of exams, and did not want to take photos to contribute, anyway is like. "The two years passed very simply. "said Wu.

Two years soon passed, and Wu Xinhong came back. Fortunately, Quanzhou one also gave him the school, so, he and a group of students learn younger sister to read up a freshman. This is the 1998 China, the Internet has begun to grow tentacles here, the computer also walked into a small number of Chinese families. Wu Xinhong Home is one of them, home to spend more than 10,000 yuan to buy a computer, Wu Xinhong quickly learned how to network. He often bubbles in a number of arts-related art sites, will also look at the news.

One day in 1999, Wu Xinhong saw a news: a domain name called "business.com", which sold 7.5 million of dollars in the United States. This news, also was another in Hong Kong business Quanzhou people saw, his name is Cai wins. People can't step into a river at the same time, but pies sometimes hit two heads at the same time. At that time Wu, Cai did not know, but they almost at the same time by the news to the "Same River"-Domain name investment. And already not bad money Cai wins different, Wu Xinhong want to play domain name, must borrow money from home. One of the advantages of being born in Quanzhou is that parents do not regard business as "crooked", on the contrary, it seems to be a compulsory course for children in this area.

The family gave Wu Xinhong more than 10,000 dollars and said nothing. But Wu knew he already felt that his father's factory was going downhill, doing some business on the internet and might be useful to the family in the future. But 10,000 dollars quickly drifted. At that time, the average price of the domain is about 500 yuan, and Wu Xinhong's logic still has a "literary fan": Every day holding an English dictionary, from which to pick the words related to art. One year down, no deal. But when other students talk about "seven Dragons" or "pearl" at school all day, Wu Xinhong is always a person quietly hiding in the corner, like a good boy holding an English dictionary to study, so that teachers and students think he likes to learn English, have any ambition. "To describe him with the word ' stuffy ' is too fitting!" Teddy Boy said.

Any business has the doorway, domain name investment is no exception. After paying the tuition fee of 10,000 yuan, Wu Xinhong enlightened. First of all, the domain name has a lot of expiration every day, foreign has a special website, as long as pay some membership fee, every day the mailbox will receive a list, which is the turn date 0 o'clock can trade domain name. Second, because there are too many domain names to trade, and each investor's interest preferences are different, so how to take the fastest rate of condemnation has become the key. Under normal circumstances, Wu Xinhong will be interested in the keyword singled out, and then find a foreign professional registered company to serve themselves. Of course, this also needs to pay some fees. 2000, Wu Xinhong ushered in the first deal: he had a name called "e23.com" after bargaining, sold to a company in the United States, the price of 3000 dollars. It almost took all the cost back.

At this time, China's first batch of domain name investors also began to appear. Canton's Easy Domain network is one of the largest domain name investment forum, founder is now 58 with the city's founder Yiu Jingbo, later on TV ads fan that famous slogan "28, 28, ka ka is hair!", its domain name "28.com" was originally from Yiu Jingbo hand. The active molecule on the easy domain includes Cai, Wu Xinhong and other 30来 people. One day in 2000, Wu Xinhong received a strange call, the other party claimed to be Cai wins. Originally CAI is according to Wu Xinhong in the Forum contact way to find, did not expect two people was a fellow. After understanding, than Wu Xinhong a full 12-year-old Cai will occasionally Joeushing come out to discuss domain name investment, so that Wu's family once suspected that this shishi big man is not a liar ...

2001 was the year of the college entrance exam for Wu Xinhong, but he was already mired in the internet and didn't go to college at the end. Through domain name investment, Wu Xinhong accumulated his first bucket of gold. 2002, he found a very good domain name: 520.com. It was very popular at that time the Internet language is "5201314" (I Love you for life), yes, 520.com is a natural dating site (social two words are not popular at that time). Wu Xinhong took out his own 3 domain name and posted some money, just put this domain name from a foreigner hand over.

At that time, Tencent has just launched QQ friends, quickly become a network love a big booster, which let Wu Xinhong see the 520.com. This time he wants to start a business, do a similar QQ dating site, with today's incredible words, is ready to Shanzhai Tencent. Wu's idea is to collect money through membership fees, that is, when you are a paid member, you can get the other person's online contact. 2003, Wu Xinhong from Quanzhou came to Xiamen, ready to start a business.

After seeing Teddy boy, he put his ideas and punk tray out. Punk Listen very excited, ready to put some of their savings out of investment, but at that time Wu Xinhong other partners, ownership structure is more complex, also did not cast. Finally Wu Xinhong said, you know some technology, to be our technical director. In this way, more than 10 people in a residential building in Xiamen City opened the company. It was Wu Xinhong's first official venture, and he felt it was more ritual than copying the works of the Louvre, so he was always black trousers, white shirts, and a briefcase under his arm, and came to work with a pair of bosses. "As far as I know, he was intercepted by the security of the community several times, people think he is selling insurance, marketing," Teddy boy smiled and said, "the stuffy clothes are stuffy, no way." ”

However, the 520.com insisted on two years, and then put the last penny spent on the account before the Wu Xinhong the company off. "Both the product and the operation are relatively poor. "said Wu. 5,202-year cumulative paid membership is only hundreds of thousands of, and most still pay only one months of unpaid members. At that time, the most profitable business of China's Internet was sp. Teddy Boy Remember, at that time a few people SP company, one months down at least have millions of income. 520.com did not directly do SP, just received some work of CP, one months have about 100,000 income. Teddy Punk into the company, repeatedly remind Wu Xinhong thoroughly transformation SP, but at this time Wu Xinhong to look for friends. Two months later, Teddy Boy left his own business.

Looking back at this experience, Wu Xinhong's lesson is that, first, reverse entrepreneurship, that is, through a good domain name to set up a company, completely unreliable; second, more importantly, oneself very curtilage, at that time is not sociable, do not know the user's real demand is what, what to talk about makes the friend website?

2011, 520.com This domain name is Wu Xinhong 3 million yuan price to sell.

Take over the

After turning off 520, Wu Xinhong joined the Big Brother Cai 265, but he did nothing to do with 265. Cai let him make a search Toolbar: Yok Super Search. Like most software, Yok takes a bundle of downloads, and the main partner is Huang Yimeng's electric Donkey. The latter at the time of the download market scenery Unlimited, the list of such "rich", for yok, the remaining thing is to count money. Yok's profit model is the same as most of Cai's products, through the flow of cash, plainly, to earn the search giant's advertising fees.

Bundled software, once became the era of "rogue software" synonymous. Unknowingly, the user is "built-in" a lot of things can not be unloaded. Wu Xinhong does not recognize Yok as a rogue software. "First, the Yok is unloaded; second, the user can check the installation before installation. Wu Xinhong said that was because the heart is not ruthless, did not enter the SP field, "Do you regret it?" Of course, I regret that one months of millions of income topped my annual harvest. ”

From the point of view of cost accounting, Yok is definitely a "windfall" products. In the first year of the launch, the revenue is near tens of millions, and its costs are negligible. "The cost of bundling is lower, and there is labor costs left." "This is Wu Xinhong in Cai under the first gun, no blockbuster, but also absolutely no JAP." However, in terms of the product itself, Yok is not an active choice of products by the user, it is more through the passive choice of users into thousands of households. In other words, product channel operations are far more important than the product itself. "Stuffy male" product feeling has not yet fully demonstrated.

In 2007, Cai sold 265 to Google, but Google still took care of 265 to Cai's team. Has hosted the two session of the Webmaster Congress Cai wins began to become angel investors, everywhere looking for gold, and Wu Xinhong led the product team became his internal experimental plots. In fact, from the beginning of joining 265, Wu Xinhong started one after another product incubation.

"It's a product hatch," said the website. "Wu Xinhong said, 265 as a traffic platform, no one can ignore its great value, so, how to bring 265 of the traffic into the new website, and eventually advertising to become, it became Wu Xinhong to do things." From 2006 to 2007, Wu Xinhong made nearly 30 products, of which the vast majority of the site, there are stock categories, video classes, and information classes, all the "products", anyway, is the site, all the play, are flow diversion volume. Although it made a lot of money, but has kept Wu Xinhong not interested. "There was no sense of achievement," he said. ”

Until the Martian text appeared. First, we need to explain what a stuffy-looking man is. This word put on Wu Xinhong body, can present a classic scene: Everyone in QQ group chattering chat, most people into the play too deep, no matter how boring, can kan to the lasting. Wu Xinhong, he is always the least of the group, but the most sensitive one. The appearance of the Martian translator is related to the QQ group. At that time many people like to send a variety of strange expressions and symbols in the dialog box, one day Wu Xinhong whim, why not introduce a set of language suitable for the network context?

In the spring of 2007, from the project to the launch, Wu Xinhong and his product team took only three days to get the Martian text online. This product is able to meet the many children's "Meng" characteristics, an instant detonation of the whole group. By September, the Martian user volume exceeded 10 million, and by the end of 2007, had exceeded 40 million, at this time the user base has spread to 85 after the market.

Wu Xinhong The Martian detonation down to three points: first, the target is clear, is for those who touch the Internet time is not long, no rules of the girls, and second, the use of social products unique characteristics. Most of the Martian users are known through QQ chat, the fission effect of its dissemination is very significant; third, light cut. Mars is not even a real sense of the Internet product, because it is only an input method plug-in.

The Martian text was the first of more than 20 projects in the Wu Xinhong experiment, and he did not expect to be so popular, and it was one of only a few software products, others were web sites. Tens product, this conforms to CAI to "pass the Internet product" the definition, but Wu Xinhong also with a kind of near "the disorderly fist kills the old master" the routine, took out own investment name.

After the product shape stereotypes, where is the commercial space? This is the question that Wu Xinhong began to think at the end of 2007. He must think. At this time the number of users of Mars is still growing dramatically, but it makes Wu Xinhong feel confused. "At that time felt so small a show space, it is difficult to have any way of commercial liquidity." "More importantly, Wu Xinhong his basic use of the Martian text, which makes him very painful: if a product itself are not, what can be a future?"

However, Wu Xinhong did not want to lose this product behind the large-scale, distinctive features of the user base. In a small talk, Cai mentioned two possible product directions: file compression and pictures. These two types of products at that time did not have a particularly prominent localization products, most of them are foreign, such as the decompression software winrar and repair software Photoshop.

Whether from sensibility or from reason, Wu Xinhong chose the picture without hesitation. First of all, although the decompression software at that time there is a large market demand, but compared with the picture software, its product display space is much smaller, so the commercial imagination space is far inferior to the latter; what's more, the Wu Xinhong of art and photography has a natural affection for the picture, applying today's popular phrase: The picture is his dish.

In the image revision software market, at that time, there is only a "shadow Magic Hand" product, is a few young people in Jiangsu to make, and later sold to the Thunderbolt, is said to be now only two employees doing day-to-day maintenance, Shenglong once also want to sell it to the United States Mito, of course, this is something. Wu Xinhong The reason why the market is promising, also from the inspiration of Tencent: Wu Xingchang ran to the QQ space to wander around, especially the female students of the homepage, he found that these girls are very fond of their own photos, but the quality of the photos are uneven, many are not aesthetic.

Beauty of the heart, people have, especially in the case of a. This is Wu's basic judgment. He has weapons in his hand: the Martian language. If the promotion of the Martian text benefits from QQ, then, the promotion of the United States Mito is due to have tens of millions of of users of the Martian text, after all, the user group is too coincident. In fact, this is also the starting point for Wu Xinhong to do beauty Mito: Migrate The Martian user base to a more imaginative product.

The United States Mito the earliest not called Metosio, it is called the United States Figure master, October 2008 on the line, to the end, the user breakthrough 1 million. Obviously, this speed is far below the Martian user growth rate. "Because the Martian text is based on the QQ group propagation, so the burst speed of the geometric level." "Wu Xinhong said.

He also sees a basic problem, which is the name. Two months after the line, we all think that the beauty master is too serious, and its user base is biased, so changed the name, called Metosio.

But really let the United States Mito user growth inflection point, is the beauty of the function of the addition. The former beauty master is actually a filter software, there are some basic rotation, change the size, cutting and other functions, this and other revision software at the time not much different. The so-called beauty function, in fact, is to give photos makeup. This function Photoshop also has, but its operation step is very complex, did not tell the user, this key is to the photograph rubs the skin, that key is whitening. Beauty Mito beauty function, is to these needs thoroughly scene, just press a key, can realize "little Lori" want effect, save the tedious operation process. "Beauty Mito is the first product to add to this feature because it is close to the real needs of most of the small white users in China." "Wu Xinhong said. Beauty function is exactly in the 2009 Spring Festival during the online, which makes the U.S. Mito users growth is almost instantaneous speed.

The American Mito and the Martian are starting from the PC, and their user access can only follow the rules of the game. However, as mentioned earlier, the previous years Cai wins its product form, mostly Web sites, their access to the user's method is traffic, plainly too dependent on search engines and Web site. But the United States Mito is the client, the client has the client to play.

In China, PC client products, for a long time from the download station, such as Huajun, Sky and other well-known sites. But one problem is, as you all know, the key is how to get users to find you on these sites. Chua's members are most familiar with these sites, but they know that almost every download station has a version upgrade recommendation zone, which downloads much higher than other zones because users like the new version. "Once a week is updated, you will get a higher exposure and the rankings will be elevated," Wu Xinhong said. "We worked out a strategy at the time and the US mito a two update." ”

From 2011 onwards, Wu Xinhong began to usher in a series of key nodes: the end of 2011, PC Plus mobile end of the user volume exceeded 100 million, 2012, PC end of the user volume exceeded 100 million, while the PC Plus mobile end of 200 million users; the Spring Festival in 2013, mobile end users will break 100 million. And at this time the user crowd, also from the initial, the beginning of the first, and even whenever expansion.

2009, Wu Xinhong officially from the CAI company independence, by the department leader become the entrepreneur, and Cai wins by the boss turned angel investors. This shift, to a large extent, stems from Cai victory. Picture This direction is he proposed, touched the Wu Xinhong, but Wu Xinhong did not Grang, like many products he had done before, the United States Mito is silently made out. Six months later, to see a gradual formation of the product, Cai very excited, the initiative proposed WU Xinhong should be independent with the team, so as to have incentives.

Wu Xinhong also seem to find their own second spring, the excitement has disappeared for many years, it seems only that year in Hangzhou to learn to enjoy the painting. Yes, he's back to the beginning. "Painting and making products are sometimes very similar to the overall sense of the grasp is very important." Just like some people, less experience more like to pull local, and painting actually need to start from the overall, and then gradually progressive, this concept I also brought to the product. The first thing I need to think about is capturing the core of the product, let it have the vitality of God, have a soul, may look or relatively rough, but it does not matter, the overall first and foremost, and then gradually to do some semblance of optimization, there is light weight, until eventually it becomes a relatively perfect product. This has a great effect on me. ”

From the Tens users of Mars to the hundreds of millions of users in Mito, these two tools are enough for Wu Xinhong to sweep the next wave of Chinese users. The logic of his shot was:

First, the core needs of the grasp. Many people follow their own interests to do a product. But what is the core requirement, this is important. It is either a general requirement from the user or a potential untapped requirement. And you need data to prove that the demand is extensive. At that time, we went to see Baidu Index, Non-mainstream Avatar and Non-mainstream picture index more than 100,000 a day, which was very high at that time, which means that many people are looking for such things, but there is no market.

Secondly, it is to rely on the big platform. Depending on the big platform is like the early Mars in the spread of QQ chat, but also a large platform for the spread. Including the back of the micro-blog, to the current micro-letter, as long as you have a good product, you can quickly get millions or even millions of users. I would like to cite an example, such as the beauty Mito puzzle function, is because the micro-blog to extend after the demand, because Weibo can only send a picture, so we designed a number of different pieces of the puzzle function.

Again, whether the product launch or version upgrade, must be fast, the Martian text only three days on the line, the United States Mito version of the upgrade speed is very fast.

From a product point of view, Wu Xinhong also faces a trend problem, that is, when all Internet products, especially the mobile end of the application of more and more social, today, the future of tool products where? Wu Xinhong the answer is service. "In terms of tool products, I think the United States Mito to the service to transform, because the picture it has a lot of services, such as free material." Many products actually have no service concept, and we have, we have an account system. Now the United States Mito has more than 20 million of registered members in the use of our membership services. ”

Wu Xinhong Father's business has already been turned off, and now parents are living in Quanzhou's hometown of retirement. "My annual domain name investment income can be millions of, the family is still no problem." Wu Xinhong says the entrepreneurial state is completely different from what he saw as a child through his parents. "When I was young, I felt that I had to make money, and it was hard, and now I think making money may take a long time, but I'm happy to see so many users using your product." Of course, it's best to make a lot of money! Said the stuffy man.

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Three paragraphs of Wu Xinhong's products

Grasp the core needs. It is either a general requirement from the user or a potential untapped requirement.

Attached to a large platform. As long as you have a good product, you will be able to quickly obtain millions or even millions of users on a large platform.

Whether the product is launched or version upgrade, must be fast!