Zhou: Free is the best way to sell

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This evening, our partner, Gao Tak, announced that, starting today, the previously paid "high-cost navigation" mobile apps are fully free. It made me and my little friends all stunned! This is the German Revolution, the first to bring professional mobile phone navigation applications into the free era. I think this is a particularly remarkable move that not only gives us these little partners a free good product, but above all, it means that Gould is truly transformed from a traditional software vendor to a network of internet makers with a spirit and a genetic network.

I think that many people forget the first contact with the Internet when the shock: there are so many rich and colorful information and software, most of them are free, chat free, search free, e-mail free, including our construction site to use a variety of databases, a variety of programming languages, not only free and open source.

Why is the internet economy a free economy? This is because the cost of Internet development products is generally fixed, and the cost of delivering products to users via the Internet is very low, close to zero. As a result, the larger the user base of an Internet product or service, the lower the cost of allocating to each user, and also approaching zero. For example, I developed a product, if there are 100 million users, the cost of allocation to each user is a piece of money, then there are 400 million users, the cost of allocation to each user only two cents five.

All business models of Internet enterprises are based on a large number of user base, through the design of value-added services to a part of the user fees, or design advertising patterns, so that most users see. From a marketing point of view, you spend two cents on each user five, so that he will be able to boot every day to see you, if done well, he also volunteered to give you publicity, which is very low marketing costs.

So, I think free is the best marketing means, because it does not need to spend a lot of advertising to do promotion, itself can form Word-of-mouth. You think about it, if you have 10 million yuan in your hand, playing an ad in China and not even a ring, I might as well spend this 10 million to do a free product, really give the value of tens of millions of users. These tens of millions of users have used my product, have established to my brand cognition, loyalty, trust, this is much more effective than advertisement. You know, the biggest barrier is branding, not technology or patents. Microsoft has launched a blind search to try to prove that Bing's search results are no worse than Google's, but because there is no sharp difference, everyone said the search, the first thought of Google.

Free is also an effective means of competition. Now we take it for granted that the Internet is free. But when I preached free five years ago, the vast majority of people viewed 360 of free security with a questioning eye. We launched 360 free antivirus, there are competitors suggest the state authorities to check Zhou 祎 is not in the dumping.

As the independent director of Gould, I have more opportunities to contact with the gold, can understand the entanglement of the years, and four or five years ago antivirus software manufacturers are the same tangle. The good news is that he has finally moved on to the path of self revolution. Therefore, I often quote the words: "To succeed, you must first from the palace." ”

We launched 360 antivirus, free and easy to use, because a penny does not spend can have such a good software, 360 antivirus users suddenly soared. The competitor's user base is running fast, revenues are shrinking and the team is crumbling. But in the face of the revolutionary situation by leaps and bounds, they are unwilling to give up their existing income, do not want to from the palace.

Of course, we have been very entangled. Before the promotion of free anti-virus, 360 through the sale of other brands of anti-virus software, each year can have 170 million, 180 million of revenue. The promotion of free anti-virus means to give up the income, then the investors are very opposed to say that you insist again, we do 200 million can be listed. Go public and you get free antivirus. You see, we're investing in you, and it's not easy these years. I told them the revolutionary situation: Although the antivirus after free, I do not know where the future income, but I think the anti-virus is the trend of free, these 170 million, 180 million of the income will eventually be earned. Security will soon become a basic service of the Internet, you see foreign internet companies want to secure the router and the operating system, everyone wants to solve the security problem, security must be the Internet is a thing like air and water. So, instead of maintaining the status quo and other people's revolution, it is better to themselves to leather their own lives. If the ego Revolution, may also have a way out. If we wait for the revolution, the result will be miserable.

Then, I asked these shareholders to see a film-"the founding of the Great cause," and told them that "the land in the loss of people, the loss of the people in the land are all" the truth.

Later, 360 of the ego Revolution brought Internet security into a new era, those unwilling to the palace, do not want to self revolution, and ultimately the revolution of others. So, this time, Gold announced the professional mobile phone navigation application free, embarked on the road of self revolution, I sincerely happy for the gold, I hope that the gold can also bring map navigation into a new era.