Crossover: 2014

Of course, it is impossible for Elizabeth Nishi to directly tell Lin Hui about Apple's internal projects.

It was during the chat that Elizabeth Nishi inadvertently mentioned that Apple is trying to integrate print media resources and seems to have taken action.

Taking advantage of this news, Lin Hui then combined the information from his previous life to infer that Apple is suspected to be working on a news aggregation app.

And the only news aggregation APP worth mentioning that Apple has developed in the past and present can only be Apple News.

Apple News, or "Apple News", is a news reading application developed by Apple Inc.

Apple has high expectations for the software Apple News.

Once Apple News came out, it became the built-in news application of iOS.

In Lin Hui's impression, this software came out together with the iOS 9 operating system.

At the beginning, this software appeared in the form of an Easter egg at Apple's WWDC 2015 Developer Conference.

In the previous life, just one month after the Apple News software was launched, Ku/K announced that the monthly active users of the Apple News software had exceeded 4000 million.

Not bad for a news reading app.

However, judging from the follow-up development, Apple News did not create another glories.

Until November 2016, the monthly active users of Apple News did not exceed 11 million.

Compared with the huge user base of Apple's devices, such a user growth rate is really hard to justify.

In addition, in Lin Hui's view, Apple News is a very unappealing Apple software.

For example, the new field of software that Apple has set foot in.

Apple's approach most of the time is to overthrow and start over, or to find another way.

But when it comes to the Apple News software, what Apple does is quite different from what it has done in the past.

From the perspective of the development of Apple News in the previous life, except for the Apple News Format (ANF), Lin Hui didn’t see another way, let alone overthrow and start over, only endless integration.

As for Apple's thinking?
Apple's vision for "Apple News" is similar to Facebook's vision for "Instant Articles."

Both hope to integrate media and independent production content into a complete "package" and user experience.

Make the platform an outlet for media content, while media and content providers only focus on their own content production.

Although the idea is very clear, the idea of ​​separating media and content providers from users is obviously a dream, or it’s like seeking skin from a tiger.

In the West, why do the media and content providers who have a high right to speak willingly stay behind the scenes?
The established hardware platform and excellent ecosystem are Apple's own advantages in entering the news field.

This advantage is merely attractive to users.

But for media and content creators, who cares
Don't use the development of domestic media to substitute the situation of overseas media.

Many overseas paper media that are keen to make big news have long ago captured the inevitable trend of the digital age.

So we started to actively embrace digitalization and carry out digital transformation very early on.

Relying on free traffic, but at the same time not forgetting to create high-quality content and build a paywall.

Such as The Economist, NY/NY Times, Bloomberg, NY/Yorker, Wall Street Journal, etc.

The digital transformation of many traditional paper media has done quite well.

Lin Hui remembered a piece of news he read in his previous life:
In the second quarter of 2018, The New York Times had more than 290 million digital subscribers.

Digital subscription revenue reached $9900 million in the single quarter.

Just relying on subscription revenue, the revenue in a single quarter is more than 6 million yuan.

This gold-absorbing ability is simple.

Overseas media with the right to speak and financial resources even dare to criticize politics.

In this case, who cares about your apple ecology?

Real money is the most important thing.

It's easy to talk about other things, but it's impossible to touch the cheese.

In short, although Apple is ambitious in terms of news aggregation.

But in the face of uncompromising authoritative media and high-quality content creators, Apple still encountered a lot of trouble.

In the previous life, it was not until 2018 that Apple mobilized its money-making ability to win Texture, an established app-based digital magazine subscription service provider, for $4.65 million and integrated Texture into Apple News.

The road of Apple News has become easier.

However, no matter how Apple News develops, it doesn't seem to matter much.

After all, services like iTunes, iBook, and Apple News basically have nothing to do with mainland China.

But if you look at the world, the trends of the Internet giants are still worthy of attention.

At least it deserves Lin Hui's attention.

After all, Lin Hui's real original intention is to build a company that can truly have strength and great influence in the world.

It is not to say that we should rest on our laurels in the country.