Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2253 Laziness is human nature

Because of the presence of Thompson, an outsider, Zhou Buqi had no time to rest after returning to China, and went directly to work, sending him to Ziweixing New Media Building where Toutiao is located.

Liang Rubo was in charge of the reception and introduced the concept of this product of Toutiao.

Zhou Buqi went to see Zhang Yiming, and called He Yang and Pei Yao.

Although Ziweixing and Ziweixing International have been split, the shares cannot be split.Ziwei Star International was spun off from Ziwei Star International. At the moment of splitting, Ziwei Star International's shareholders were all Ziwei Star International's shareholders, but later Ziwei Star International developed independently and absorbed more new shareholders.

For the old shareholders of Ziwei Star, they will still enjoy the dividends of Ziwei Star's international development.

It's just that it's hard to reach out in business.

There is still a relationship of interest.

Zhou Buqi said: "The acquisition of Yahoo is almost done, but there is one problem that is more difficult. What should Yahoo do? There must be something to do."

Zhang Yiming nodded, "Today's headlines will be a general direction."

Zhou Buqi said: "That's pretty much what it means. However, Yahoo is now a media website, and it may not be so easy to transform into a media platform, because there is a lot of internal resistance."

Zhang Yiming said with a smile: "Do not transform, but expand the business."

"Yes, no transformation."

Zhou Buqi was very happy and recognized this entry point.

Doing the same thing in different ways will have different effects.In the early stage of Ziweixing International's acquisition of Yahoo, Yahoo's old forces will have a great influence, and a series of games must be played in the process.

Transformation is too challenging.

Even internally may not agree.

If it is in the name of expanding business, there will be no resistance. All Yahoo people, including Yang Zhiyuan, hope that Yahoo can regain its glory in the past and make its business bigger and bigger.

Zhang Yiming said: "Retaining Yahoo's current media attributes, it can have its own editorial team, reporter team, interview team, etc. This part of the business can be called Yahoo News."

He Yang also understood, and said with a smile: "Yes, since it is a platform, it is inseparable from self-operated + third-party. 'Yahoo News' is the self-operated part of Yahoo's news platform. Just bring in more third-party news sources.”

Zhang Yiming said: "There is no need to emphasize the attributes of the news, the more important thing is the attractive content. This is our experience in Toutiao. Some uninteresting news is far less attractive to users than interesting old news."

He Yang said: "That is a completely different product concept."

Zhang Yiming said: "Yes, normal news products push content according to time... Of course, the time factor is very important, and many contents have strong timeliness. But most of the time, what people watch is not news, It’s content. There’s not much news every day, and the most important thing is attractive content.”

Zhou Buqi felt that the communication with the domestic team was smoother, and the thinking was basically consistent, so he nodded, "So we need to make content products, not news products."

Zhang Yiming said: "One of the most important reasons is the cost. The cost of news is too high. If you want to be a news aggregator, it may be difficult to make a profit. If it is old news, the price will be much lower, and the integration will be easier. "

Zhou Buqi couldn't help laughing.

It really hit the mark.

News is timely, but this timeliness means little to most ordinary people.

For example, the "Wall Street Journal" published an article about Tesla's construction of a new factory. Of course, this is news. Whoever knows the news at the first time can quickly buy Tesla's stock.

But for ordinary people who don't speculate in stocks, what difference does it make if they find out about the news two months later?
If Yahoo wants to integrate content, there is a huge cost difference here.

The price of news is too high.

can not afford.

Then you can buy old news.

For the fast-paced elites, of course it is to watch the news and quickly grasp the social dynamics; but for the slow-paced ordinary people, except for some particularly time-sensitive content, most of the news and old news, In fact, there is not much difference.

If this idea is told to Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, it is estimated that he will be dumbfounded again.

If the news is not new, is it still called news?

Is there any value in that?

In the domestic team of Zhou Buqi, Zhang Yiming, Guo Pengfei, and Liang Rubo, that is a normal cost calculation consideration.

Although He Yang does not make products, he has been an executive at Ziwei Star for so many years, and he has been fascinated by it for a long time. He said slowly: "The United States is not the same as China. The large domestic media companies and news platforms are all state-owned enterprises. These The level of people is not very good, and they cannot dig out the true value of news. Toutiao or other websites are full of their news, and they are all free. The United States is not the same. These companies are responsible for their own profits and losses. , have to look for a profit model, and they will maximize the value of the news.”

Zhang Yiming said with a smile: "Yes, it has copyright and is very expensive. If Yahoo wants to transform into a news platform and a content platform, then it must find a way to obtain high-quality content at a low price."

After a pause, he went on to say: "There are many integrated content platforms in the United States. When I started Toutiao, I was actually inspired by my colleagues in the United States. However, they did a poor job. Not only large American media companies and news Platforms have their own subscription software, and it is difficult for integrated software to reach agreement with every company on copyright issues. Also because their product models are not innovative enough, today they are still the model of 'people looking for information'."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "The progress of science and technology lies in making humans more and more lazy. This is the first driving force. The development of mobile apps, especially for this driving force, the easier it is to use, the more foolish it is. The more popular it will be. The AI-based recommendation algorithm, allowing information to find people, is to satisfy the logic of humans getting lazy."

This is of course not entirely true.

Laziness is human nature.

But there are always some people who want to break through human nature and are unwilling to live a life of laziness. They get up early and run every day, and keep themselves busy diligently. Life lies in exercise.

But for most people, laziness is the theme.

In the past, Yahoo still continued the product positioning of the 90s, targeting the elite group of users... This is a problem. No matter how good Yahoo does, it is destined to become more and more niche.It has nothing to do with the quality of the product, it has to do with the positioning of the product.

The so-called transformation, the most important thing is the transformation of product positioning.

To transform from the minority to the public.

Elites may not be lazy, but laziness is a more common attribute.

This is actually not an easy decision to make.

Many people who start a business often have some lofty ideals, and feel that they should do something higher... so they can't bear to do something.

This is also one of the reasons why the products made by many American Internet giants will be beaten all over the place by domestic apps. The most typical example is TikTok.

To say how high the technical content of this thing is, it is not at all.

The most important thing is whether you are willing to lower your face to specifically target those mass users, and to control those mobs through information cocoons.

The Internet is originally for information dissemination, breaking down information barriers and giving everyone the opportunity to work hard.

But if you want to work hard, you have to work hard, which is against the lazy human nature.

How to do?
Through the Internet, I can connect idiots with idiots, trap them in a cocoon, let idiots have fun together, and make them feel that they have found utopia and that I am the king of this world.

They can be lazy and don't have to think.

This traffic is coming up.

This kind of method is somewhat deceptive, but it is in line with human nature.If you are embarrassed to do it, then you quit, then you can only make niche products in a small circle.

The mob doesn't care who is really good for them, they only care about short-term simple happiness, as for whether this simple happiness is mental poison, whocare?

Some people want you to think, some people don't want you to think.

Due to lazy human nature, the public prefers people, organizations, institutions and products that do not make them think.

This is how Zhou Buqi is looking for the next transformation of Yahoo.

Zhang Yiming said: "In addition to cost, there is also a big gap in income. In essence, all Internet money-making models can be attributed to the selling model, and the selling attribute of news is not very strong..."

(End of this chapter)