Zhang You: Public platform will become the future of hardware innovation

Public-chip model in overseas already is a very mature financing mode, let the public participate in supporting creative projects, has involved in film and television, design, publishing, games, music, technology hardware products and other fields. Take the star-funded platform Kickstarter as an example, by the end of 2012, a total of 345 million dollars for its financing promoter. The domestic public financing model has been developed for 2 years and is still just beginning.

Now, innovative hardware projects have become a popular category of popular concern, with smart watch Pebble as the representative of innovative hardware is benefiting from the promotion of the public-chip model. In the domestic "roll-call time" is the domestic launch of the earlier, the largest platform for the public to raise the platform in the domestic development, we have to roll-call co-founder and CEO Zhang You conducted an exclusive interview, the conversation has these several points:

1, the public raised in the domestic development 2 years, the earliest in the film and television and publishing projects, nearly half a year of hardware projects developed.

2, the core of the public-chip mode is to be able to change the process of innovation, soft + hard + public is a very clear mode of cooperation.

3, the public is not "illegal fund-raising", a principled rule is that the participants do not hold the project shares. For start-up companies, the advantages of the public-chip model is to reduce the share splitting as little as possible.

4. As a link and platform for bridging the public and creative projects, the public will not participate directly in the investment.

5, the best in China to do a few of the following directions are: Film and television, publishing, music, products (products rely on the beginning of the start).

6, from last month, the call time has been canceled to charge a service commission, free to become a domestic platform and foreign models of a different point.

7, the domestic single project of the highest level of funding has reached 1.5 million, and still distance from abroad, but rapid development.

8, millet, visual China and other companies have also been involved in the support of the public projects.

The following questions and answers about the call time Zhang You to see the development of the domestic public-raised platform:

Moderator: Please give a brief introduction to the process of roll call and the current scale?

Zhang You: At the end of 2010, we found this model abroad, it is a coincidence that our eldest brother (Tsiang) in the documentary Foundation, he found that there are some documentaries abroad through the public to raise funds, he is very curious. And then I started to study, after doing it is very interesting, first of all, I am a designer, another partner he is a programmer, but he is also interested in music, we are a little bit of literature and art, this model can actually help these creative innovation of these young people, can help them.

The core of the public-chip model is to be able to change the process of innovation, you have to do one thing is sure that the first encounter is the money problem, the most traditional way of money is you find investors or yourself to borrow money from the bank. People who borrow money from this model will consider the return on investment from a business perspective and lend you a profit. Public-chip mode is to bypass this group of people directly facing consumers, they are the ultimate beneficiaries, they feel that you are doing a meaningful thing to support you, if you like your things will be directly to your purchase, become very direct, over the middle of this threshold.

The public is sure to bring a lot of influence in China, and decided to build the platform. July 2011 Website On-line, now just full two years.

Moderator: What successful projects have you developed in the early days?

Zhang You: In fact, is a little bit cumulative, there are several more prominent outbreak point, just started our website online when only four projects, are very simple literary and artistic projects.

Until Guyue. We said he was going to do a tourist project (editor: A project to raise $100,000 for its travel through South America), which was the first of its kind.

The second set is the Nanjing Folk Circle of Cattle Li, in the folk circle quite famous. The people below him launched the project (editor: A project to launch a concert-collection DVD). One day after the crash crashed tens of thousands of tens of thousands of of the come in, we startled, that is a very important impact.

Then slowly there is "Hunton and tumor June" comic book project, 340,000 of the fund-raising, the first let us see the power of the public-chip model, a morning hundreds of thousands of come in, also quite fierce.

Until about six months ago began to pay attention to intelligent consumer products, soft and hard combination of intelligent equipment, in-depth to the industrial chain began to communicate with you, the whole started up. I think that the trend of the combination of soft and hard from the beginning of last year abroad to the domestic, there is a lag in the domestic to the beginning of this year, we have been particularly concerned about, we just connect to this allocation. In foreign mode is very obvious, smart consumer goods is inseparable from the public-chip mode, if you do from the software development of mobile Internet is very simple, you write code sent up on the shelves, there will be no production, supply chain management, small batch of the threshold in the inside. Hardware, foreign through the public chip, you have everything ready, the first prototype OK, put this prototype into the public platform to see how to do, like everyone with your advance, you can become a thing, you can bring this thing mass production, if not no longer do not go down.

Referring to foreign countries abroad, we feel that soft + hard + is a very clear mode of cooperation, at home we encourage everyone to push in this direction.

Moderator: In the early days when the project was more literary, where did the user base come from?

Zhang You: The main project itself brought in, we ourselves did not do any promotion, endogenous word-of-mouth effect. For example, I like Guyue, he is in his microblog fan inside to push, his friends support will tell friends, so Word-of-mouth spread.

Moderator: What is the size of your project now?

Zhang You: Over the past two years a total of more than 7,000 projects received applications, more than 900 projects through our audit online.

Moderator: I am in the foreign site probably search a bit of a Indiegogo site, is probably such a scale, that your size has been with the international standards. What do you do differently in China now according to foreign models?

Zhang You: The difference between domestic and foreign practices, from the supporter point of view is very different, we face the project sponsors, on the one hand, like Taobao you have buyers and sellers have two sides of the relationship.

The biggest different domestic supporters consumption capacity, preferences basically determines what kind of projects in the country can be successful, the soil itself is not the same, you see now the domestic user groups they like their lifestyle their economic ability level and foreign certainly is different.

From the amount of support, we now get the average amount of data that each person supports is almost 120 dollars a group, in fact, very high, but compared with foreign countries they are equivalent to 100 dollars, so there will be a difference in price levels.

What is the impact of this? The first, the same thing you may need 100,000 dollars to do, you will only need 1/6 of people in foreign support to be able to succeed, in the domestic relative to the United States need six times times the number to be successful. This is certainly not a bad thing, anyway, the number of domestic, tactics also can support up, but this is a burden for the project sponsors, because you originally only need 1/6 of people to promote, as long as 1/6 of the strength to promote the OK, now six times times the people, its marketing costs are relatively high. This is the biggest difference.

There are some differences in terms of project preferences and categories. Foreign most successful three categories are: games, film and television, design products, design products include intelligent products. Domestic words at present, the first major categories of film and television, the second category of publication, the third category of music, fourth class products, this has a little bit. Now it is not accurate to see, we are only two years.

At present the highest fund-raising project 1.5 million cartoon "The Sea". Now see an inkling of the domestic project cultural creative category of film music Publishing this is definitely OK, and people like these things. Product Category especially intelligent products or design products, this kind of actually we are still observing, but my side is very optimistic, its next potential will erupt.

Moderator: Your basic rules of the game, and foreign exactly the same?

Zhang You: Exactly the same. You want to make a movie today, you come to call the time to tell everyone who you are, what you want to do, why you need everyone's support, you have to tell everyone how much money you need, and then you can give everyone what the return, this return is the most critical, why we can legitimately operate to the present.

The international pattern of public-financing mode is one of the most rewarding, a kind of equity shares of the re-raised, the stock of equity shares, including equity shares, today to support me 10,000 yuan, compared to give you what kind of shares, this form of current domestic and foreign countries do not have a legal case, the United States to walk the comparison front, The United States has enacted legislation (note: The United States already has a lot of legislation to allow individuals to participate in investment), but has not been implemented, and its restrictions are very strict.

First, we do not think that the domestic will open this thing in the short term, because its risk is really very big, we have studied. In addition, the return type of the public chip we feel more controllable, for everyone, the risk is also low, we can control. At the same time, from the point of view of the project sponsors, he chose to choose the name of the time is because he did not want to share the shares out, or to find VC will be good. Many large companies in the public to raise the platform above 10 million U.S. dollars, in the traditional financing channels equivalent to the C round is sure to account for 20% or 30% of the shares, but today do not use the purely pre-sale way to do, it is not. Even if it is true to open up this form of equity stakes, we will not do it. We feel that the advantages of the public-chip model is to reduce the share splitting as little as possible.

Moderator: Is there any better item on the hardware roll call time?

Zhang You: At present, intelligent remote control device, intelligent lighting, intelligent sockets.

Intelligent remote controller itself is a good product, now the most successful is the smart wallet, is a Bluetooth anti-loss concept, you can put in the wallet inside. This project is already on, and has been financed successfully, more than 100,000 dollars.

Moderator: Some people think that the domestic pattern is still immature, is a need to nurture and need users to learn the market, the public will accept this way?

Zhang You: No, from the current data, its support rate conversion rate is completely different from the General Electric. The conversion rate of the electric quotient 100 people go into this site, such as Beijing East, 1%-3% of people to complete the payment, our data is completely, this is a misunderstanding, some projects even higher conversion rate than the electricity quotient.

Moderator: Who are your users?

Zhang You: The people who are mainly in the north and in contact with the internet earlier.

Moderator: Will there be any policy findings? such as being considered illegal fund-raising.

Zhang You: No, if I knew, we wouldn't have survived until now. Participate in the user's return part is the key, we pinch is also pinch in return.

Moderator: What is the approximate size of the user?

Zhang You: 2 million users per month will be customized.

Host: Are you going to do the moving end?

Zhang You: But we didn't do it because we watched too many people die on the moving side of the block. Let's say you have a friend who shares a link to a project in a micro-letter today, and you can also complete the payment process, which is fine.

Moderator: What kind of people are the creators of hardware projects?

Zhang You: There are two kinds of creators, in fact, it should be said that another kind of people do not call the creators, there is a kind of person is to do this industry, did this line more than 10 more than 20 years, before making a mobile phone or Bluetooth speakers, moving power this batch. Another group of people from the student mobile Internet or network to cut in, the so-called creators should refer to the back of this group of people, this group of people older than the experience of doing hardware is not so rich, with the open source software those things put it together, or maybe just play a game, But this group of people may play to a certain extent and start to rely on the professional field, because you have done two times three times always progress. We are divided into two batches of it, in fact, is not the same, the so-called creators should be a narrow sense of the creators are so, the broad band of the two categories of people together.

Moderator: You have more on the platform which group?

Zhang You: Or the first category, or really professional this group of people, because from the consumer's point of view, he to support you are supporting your products, he wanted that product, he would not want a creator to do is the PCP version of Things, this only the insiders will support. We are now on the intelligent product projects are basically the type of people to do, are all this kind.

Moderator: I think the amount of pebble financing is very surprising, they can melt to 30 million of dollars, this amount is very huge, the amount of individual project financing how do you do?

Zhang You: Sooner or later, we will be able to one day, now we have a single project to 1.5 million, we have a year ago in fact, the best results are 500,000, a single project. The last half of the year spends more time in smart products. Movies and music are completely without effort, but now the best results are movies and music.

Cumulative financing, the first year we nearly nineth months only three hundred thousand or four hundred thousand, then there is a 500,000, and now the best result is 1.5 million. We have one months to raise money on a single month 1.5 million, this record has been in the cumulative breakthrough, this is sooner or later you will let us encounter a 5 million of the project.

Moderator: Besides doing the network platform there are other ways to do activities?

Zhang You: Our wired activities, regular every two months, is actually the integration of resources, we are exposed to the experience to share with you. We want to use offline activities to tell you that there are people in front of the wrong, you do not make the same mistake, we will progress faster. Otherwise the information asymmetry, you also make Bluetooth bulb, there also do Bluetooth bulb.

Moderator: Hardware, which direction is now more participants or more prospects?

Zhang You: Smart home is definitely a big market, it's just an old-school security system. That era has passed, the new era of foreign products in the form of modules, today give you a light bulb can use the original wiring to change the light bulb immediately, which is now around the mobile phone to the combination of soft and hard control related, This must be a particularly big market.

Moderator: How do you think about your profitability?

Zhang You: We have to consider, but we are not the most critical issue right now. We received 10% of the final financing before, and a 5% commission on the final financing amount, which we removed last month. We find that the biggest difference between China and overseas market is that you have to be free first. At the same time, I do not think that is a good profit point, I would like to put all the items in the talk.

Moderator: Do you have an investment in your own operating expenses?

Zhang You: We have angel investors and then we will continue to raise money. Now the Angel has just entered a round. Before the angel Wheel is 500,000 dollars, a round of size 2 million or 3 million.

Moderator: Now a voice, that the public-funded mode of normalization, will also be to the direction of vertical development, roll call or do comprehensive?

Zhang You: We still do comprehensive, we will not do vertical, vertical does not work, as if Taobao again how to do must be the whole field.

I often cite examples, the platform is very similar to the Spring Festival Gala, in China who on the Spring Festival gala who on the fire, we are actually equal to the creative Industry Circle Spring Festival Gala, you on the fire you are easy to live.

Moderator: This analogy is more appropriate, the equivalent of the draft.

Zhang You: In fact, we are all contests, to see what the public like.

Moderator: Now the domestic entrepreneurial innovation atmosphere development is very hot, you and entrepreneurial cafes, innovation workshop incubator This will have intersection and competition?

Zhang You: It's not a competitive relationship, we don't think of ourselves as incubators, they offer venues to invest, we don't invest in ourselves. Although we can solve the problem of money, but we do not pay. I'm working with them, and I hope they hatch something that can be named on time, and what we hatch out can also be recommended to them.

Moderator: Millet has to participate in the designated time of the project investment? This is a kind of cooperative relationship.

Zhang You: Support, millet they take the initiative to find us, because they are to do mobile phones, the hands of the opportunity to have a lot of ecological circle of things derived from a variety of soft and hard to combine with mobile phone-related things. Millet from strategic layout hope to be able to set up the ecological circle, the first step is to find a group of such products platform cooperation.

They pay for some projects, after the establishment of a partnership, regardless of the future to invest in mergers and acquisitions is also convenient, three benefits, we are as the middle of the party.