Yu: UC evolution, how to grow from a small workshop of 6 people to 4 billion US dollars in ten years

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I black Horse Note: Success is not an overnight, UC spent a decade from 6 people small companies, grew into the mobile end of the browser king (500 million active users) and began to expand the search business. June 11, 2014 morning, Ali UC announced full integration. Yu, chairman and CEO, said in an interview that Alibaba's acquisition of UC amounts to about two 91, or 3.8 billion dollars, which is probably the highest value for UC.

What did Yu do right? What are the trends? So that UC can evolve from the Symbian era, become the mobile end of the king?

The following is I Black Horse & "entrepreneur" Dialogue Yu, his thoughts on the development of UC summed up:

Do "cloud + END" Platform UC come today, split into two clues, one is a matter, one is a person.

Things, we call the internal three times:

For the first time from 2004 to 2006, the goal is to survive;

The second time from 2007 to 2010, development and expansion;

The third time since 2011, to realize the dream.

The core of the first stage is to find the right user needs, determine the correct direction of development, that is, "cloud + End" architecture of the mobile browser. I was still investing in Lenovo and asked two questions:

First, stand-alone software from the investment point of view is meaningless, the future belongs to the "cloud + END" platform-oriented companies;

The second is a day without land, can only bombing. To occupy the market, we must rely on the "army", that is, the initiative to push.

The most common example of my second question is Sina and Tencent. Sina is the first generation of portals, Tencent relies on QQ window to push news from behind. On the active visit, Sina traffic is very high, but the total traffic has lost to Tencent. This raises a question, is the user in the end a pull or a push?

Pull, you need to marketing every day, push, you can keep running at a low cost. Therefore, from the platform point of view must do push rather than pull platform, to avoid a day without. Start-up companies in the initial stage to find your product, find that "1". Never found, always painting "0"; Found, the "1" stick to live, the back kept painting "0", can become 100, 1000. UC first do Ucmail (mobile mail client), embedded in an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) parsing module, found that the use of the module and the use of Ucmail user ratio is 10:1.

He Xiaopeng (UC co-founder, product leader) adhere to the data to speak, then the homeopathy for the browser.

At the end of 2006, when I joined, the UC team had 13 people, 10 of whom were doing technology development for China Mobile. I pulled Lei to make Angel investments, and he strongly suggested stopping the China Mobile project. This is the total of more than 10 million of the project, there are two, three period. But there are also problems, mobile think UC small, inspected for nearly a year, almost put He Xiaopeng they dragged to death.

For example, mobile will be assigned to Xinjiang for testing, a ticket back and forth will be five thousand or six thousand, when the company one months operating costs more than 10,000. Mobile also asked three people to go, He Xiaopeng said only one person, and then spent one weeks in Xinjiang, came back without money. When we saw the browser as an opportunity to access the portal, feel easy to make a platform, we have made a desperate decision: Sell the Enterprise-class market, all the energy into the personal market.

Decisively give up Symbian

The second stage of the most important three strategic decisions, one is to invest resources to develop a new generation of browser kernel U3, the second is the development of mobile gaming platform business, the third is internationalization.

2008, we were also optimistic about the Symbian operating system, Nokia in China one year shipments of 70 million units. But soon, we judge the trend will be transferred to the direction of the smart machine, from the perspective of research and development to the Android platform transformation, and constantly transfer the Symbian line of people in the past, open a U3 General Assembly to smoke once, until the backbone of the research and development of the half of the pump away.

The hardest part of the browser is the kernel. The shell is equivalent to the interface, and the kernel determines how the browser renders and runs when it receives a page.

PC browsers mostly do not do the kernel, directly with IE, this has become a PC browser to mobile browser the threshold of transformation. U3 took more than three years to form, in the midst of which we are full of contradictions and doubts, the complexity of U3 far beyond the previous generation U2, code line in the million-level.

We have also gone a lot of detours, such as never thought the handheld device will have more than 7 inches of the screen. He Xiaopeng said that we should design a big Chinese man to hold the machine in hand or in the trouser pocket of the maximum capacity, we thought that even 6 inches, so later to do pad is very difficult.

Symbian will die during this period, but we think we're going to die and turn the whole line off. Technical director Unwilling, said he agreed to Android is very important, but Symbian has done so long should come out, at least not to let the child does not appear on the hang.

I said it could be published, but not the official version. Not only satisfies his complex, but also lets him walk a circle in the industry. But when I came back, I said, I must not do Saipan. Symbian era, the client's ability is weak, very dependent on the server side. All things in the server resolution, know which is the advertisement, which is the text, and then the best way to deal with a simple instructions to pass down the show. For example, we are to the picture, are trimmed size, adjust color, and then use the best compression packaging to download to the phone.

To the Android era, the U3 kernel is stronger than the U2 kernel, itself can do full rendering on the phone, then the server side became a cooperating role, obey the command of the client. For example, the client said, I am in the WiFi environment, fast speed, their computing power is also very strong, do not need server-side help, you directly to my load site. For example, the client in the 2G network, the export is very small, slow, will tell the server side, you help me deal with the data, compressed to me.

Integrating business into internationalization

The second thing is to fully integrate nine tours in 2009. Previously, nine tour is a UC investment to do mobile personal construction station system company.

After the acquisition, we put the UC Game center all put in, support nine tour will hand tour business bigger. The most important thing to integrate is to understand whether you're going to die or get bigger. Big, then concentrate all the resources to help it develop, not to help the platform. This sounds simple, but most of the time the integration is over, the platform company itself has a overlapping business. For example, the integration of the application market, you are still developing application market, in vivo competition, doomed to failure.

If you believe that he knows more about business than you do, you should give him your business instead of upside down. Just as Lei and Ma Yun said, Yu do everything to support-because I do this in a better way than they do.

The third thing is internationalization, we are faced with two challenges: first, there is no Chinese internet companies to go out of the success of the case; the other is no money, no energy, can more line combat?

But the pattern is more important than the strategy, the pattern changes you must change, the strategy is difficult to affect the pattern.

The last pattern of the winners, catching up with extremely difficult, like the micro-letter did not directly on the PC to chase QQ, because this is very difficult. We think that internationalization is the next corner of the opportunity to overtake, so even if only more than 20 people, but also want to try, the result we have a very large infiltration in Iran.

A colleague goes to Iran to play, meets the local user only to use the mobile phone to surf the internet, basically all uses the UC. But in the end, the Iranian government banned us and wanted to communicate without knowing who to go to, and then we deliberately bypassed such countries. In fact, the population of India, Russia and Southeast Asia is close to 2 billion, and the space for development is very large. Our Indian office since November 2011 has occupied more than 1/3 per cent of the market and has a UC user in every three mobile internet-surfing Indians.

The third stage of decision-making is lost. Lost in the application distribution, we hold the UC browser and Skynet (Symbian platform ranked first mobile app download station) Two good cards, has developed the occupation application distribution market strategy, but at the implementation level is not strong enough to squeeze into the first echelon.

2013 we make a decision: integrate the PP assistant. There were only two players on iOS-91 and PP. 91 by Baidu to 1.9 billion U.S. dollars mergers and acquisitions, and we picked pp. It seems today that the PP Assistant has more than 91 distribution assistants, laying the groundwork for us to return to the First Army of the application distribution market.

Head and waist

The other line is people and management. The original six founders were definitely right, including He Xiaopeng and Liang (UC technical director). The reorganization team at the end of 2006, they invited me to join (as Chairman and CEO), formed the later UC Iron Triangle.

Early entrepreneurial team to complement partners, few to find their eldest brother, because most people have their own business desire, UC is a special case. He Xiaopeng, Liang and I have been able to walk steadily to this day, very lucky.

Another important staffing adjustment was the accession of Zhushunti, the incumbent chief operating officer, at the end of 2007. I disagreed with the integrated investor of Zhushunti (a company founded in Wuhan), for which I was only once red in the boardroom. It turned out that my insistence was right, at least two far-reaching impact: first, Zhushunti for business development has played a vital role in laying down my position in the board of Directors, the second is to make the partner team's mentality more and more open, because Yu successfully restructured, Zhushunti also successfully restructured.

Many companies last long, not feet did not grow up, waist did not grow up, but the head did not grow up. The early days were those people, and then those few people, such a company is not done. UC Development to now 10 executives, is rooted in the embrace of a firm belief that new partners will bring benefits.

We have a few requirements for partners: first, we have to be experts in a professional direction, and then we can maintain simple and direct communication in the team, instead of trying to figure out what the above means every day, as the government does, and to create value for the company. That is, professional ability, cultural flavor plus performance.

specifically to the management, we have two times change. The first was in July 2009, a company-wide initiative, with the core idea of the guerrilla to the regular army, which had already reached 400 people. 100 people is a small change, 100 to 400 people or to see the partner's diligence, but 400 people to go up, again diligent is also dry, need "waist" role.

It turns out that everyone is a mail exchange, on the flow of the card. Became the regular army, we added the process tools and it tools to ensure quality and efficiency, to avoid more enthusiasm, inadequate specifications.

The second change has lasted until now. With more than 2000 employees and a complex line of business, my central message is from regular armies to field armies.

Because each line of business growth cycle is not the same, such as browser bias research and development, time is long, and the game is a lot of time to play the charge war, the difference is very large, so each field army to form their own growth closed loop, from the goal set, the angle of the individual consideration. The reason is simple, the Air Force and the Army standards can be the same?

In a word, the management change is caused by three reasons: one is the complexity of the business, the other is the team size and the third is competition. To today, UC's several major business sectors are lined up in the industry: browser first, mobile games and mobile search second, application distribution in iOS first.

Submarines and students

In the final analysis we are a research and development company, the company nearly 3000 people, the front-end sales of only more than 10 people.

My view is that the product is 1, the market and management is 0. 1 to stand, 0 will pour a piece, so I do not superstitious channels. The market solves is arrives, the product solves is the flow, corresponds to a pool's inlet and the outlet. The most important resources must be put into the product.

The product itself has the function, the performance, the vision and the interaction and so on each aspect, the spiral rises. Some things do not do, long-term problems; Later slowly found that a good user products, in fact, is often channel products.

This channel does not refer to its download volume, but the brand and Word-of-mouth, is the product itself has become the distribution of other products channels, such as Baidu, QQ. On the other hand, the development trajectory of UC is the first submarine, and then surface.

If I'm going to give the startup a piece of advice, it's going to be a submarine, never a cruiser. But be forced to surface, to quickly change the role. Now look back, 2007 after the financing, we did not worry about the money, the most painful or the staff pressure to U3 that period of time. Millet is a positive case of elite entrepreneurship, but in fact millet this model also has its own risk, because the endurance of the top research and development talent cycle is two.

Two years think the direction is wrong, pat buttocks go, direction, four years did not hit in place, also pat the buttocks to leave.

So to hold high, the first high cost, the second high appeal, the third high pace of development.

Accordingly, to the leader's request, I summary is "the students"--first must do well, takes the entire business to go forward, everybody can follow you to be able to accomplish, second wants well, your preliminary judgment everybody can accept, the fact also confirms you to think correctly; The last thing to say is that the key is to be confident in what you are saying.

Many friends in the circle said Yongfu eloquence, but in fact, I failed to pass the college entrance examination, January 3, 2007, the first company plenary meeting, only more than 10 people, I also nervous. But now both the speech and internal mail are relatively fluent, because unlike the original writing when the paper is a patchwork, now is the real thing to sum up.

From this point of view, the role of the leadership in different stages of the company is not the same. The leader of a small company is a pacesetter. Run the market, talk about cooperation, can not stand outside the team, must be the best business. The medium size is like flying a kite, sometimes the loose line, sometimes the line, sometimes they need to a gleam, sometimes must exit a gleam.

And UC come today, my core job is to find a way. The next cycle is a multiple-screen world, with multiple screens and multiple portals. Micro-letter is difficult to produce enough value on the big screen, especially the non-communication screen, so it will be parallel with QQ, it is difficult to say who to replace. The PC's market share has fallen to a point where it will stagnate, and TV will be one of the next major screens.

Therefore, through the cloud hook multiple portals, in the multiple-screen connection, the application of the adhesive will be stronger. At the same time, using large data from the cloud can create many new products. There are many opportunities in the future, and that is why we chose Ali.