Reborn: Billionaire in College

What is OTT?

Over the top was originally a sports term, meaning "over the top pass". It means that Internet companies bypass system operators and develop various video and data service businesses based on the open Internet. WeChat is a typical OTT application.

If WeChat wants to develop voice and video calls, it cannot avoid the three major operators.

As an operator, they can accept sending messages on WeChat or even 60-second voice messages, but they absolutely cannot accept phone calls.

This has affected the three major operators.

Of course Chen Pingjiang can force his way in and wait until the three major operators find that something is wrong before negotiating with them.

But Chen Pingjiang wanted to do his homework in advance to eliminate possible risks.

There are both paid and free OTT options around the world, and even the same OTT software has both paid and free options in different countries.

Chen Pingjiang obviously could not accept the operator charging him.

Although WeChat also charges certification fees for public accounts and mini-programs, or some advertising fees for Moments, they are a drop in the bucket compared to the huge investment.

WeChat will only be an ecosystem, like a stage. It is difficult to make a profit on its own and can only be used to push up the market value of Renren.

In this way, if we pay sky-high network fees to the three major operators every year, it will not be conducive to the operation and promotion of WeChat.

Li Xi, CEO of Renren.com, has also arrived in BJ.

"This conversation is just to give them a heads-up and tell them about this matter. In fact, no matter whether they agree in the end or not, we have to launch the video and voice calls. It is impossible for a living person to be suffocated to death by urine." Chen Pingjiang said to Li Xi.

"If it's in a written document, there's nothing to be afraid of, right?"

“It’s hard to say. Even if they agree now, they may change their minds in a year or two when the existence of WeChat really affects their interests. After all, they can’t even do a simple number portability.”

Chen Pingjiang would certainly not be so stupid as to walk into trouble and tell the three major operators, "Don't charge me money."

Negotiation requires strategy.

When we arrived at the hotel where the meeting was held, representatives from the three major operators had already arrived. They were all vice presidents in charge of specific business.

In fact, this is quite good, at least the other party can understand what you say.

Chen Pingjiang just briefly elaborated on the needs of WeChat, but he unexpectedly encountered fierce opposition. The vice president of China Mobile was recently depressed about the decline of his Fetion.

"Mr. Chen, are you kidding? You've taken over the voice call business, so what do you want us, the operator, to do? How are we going to make up for the huge revenue loss caused in the middle? Should we charge you? Voice calls now account for the majority of our total revenue. Once our core business is damaged, we will have no money left to lay out the 3G network."

China Unicom also frowned: "We didn't feel it deeply before, but after the number of users reached a certain level, it has already put a burden on our network. This is without voice calls. If voice and video calls are added, I dare not imagine it."

"Frequent signaling and link resets will take up a lot of signaling resources, and every friend's dynamic update and group message consumes a lot of network resources."

In response, Chen Pingjiang could only shrug awkwardly.

WeChat can only be "always online" or it will not receive messages. But as long as it is online, it will continuously send "heartbeats" to the operator's network. These "heartbeats" themselves do not have any traffic, but they will occupy the operator's signaling channel. If the "heartbeats" are too fast or too many, it will cause problems with the operator's network or even paralysis.

"Mr. Chen, I hope you will pay attention to this issue. We spent hundreds of billions to build a mobile network not just to serve WeChat. Last December, the UK operator O12 encountered this problem. 2% of smart terminal users generated 8% of the signaling traffic, resulting in some users in London being unable to make or receive calls periodically."

Chen Pingjiang smiled and said, "Mr. Liu is not dissatisfied with WeChat occupying the channel, but is dissatisfied with WeChat occupying signaling resources but failing to generate corresponding mobile data traffic. In other words, WeChat currently occupies too many operator resources but does not generate corresponding traffic revenue, and may even paralyze the network. This is the direct reason for your dissatisfaction."

"I personally hope to achieve win-win results with all operator partners, just like our cooperation on contract phones."

When it comes to this, Lenovo's Vice President Liu is a little dissatisfied and says, "Don't involve me. I have never had any contract phone cooperation with you."

Chen Pingjiang continued: "We should work together to make the pie bigger, and then charge users for data traffic, rather than taking a piece of the pie from basic communication services. OTT is a progress and a trend. The whole world is changing now. Can we just stand up to the enemy for our own small interests? If we do that, we will become the sinners of the country, standing on the opposite side of the people, and will be swept into the dust of history. This kind of power cannot be stopped by anyone."

"Mr. Chen, let's just talk about business. Don't put labels on us. If it gets out, people will think that we, the three major operators, are the bad guys. Let's be business." Before Chen Pingjiang could say anything, the person on the other side interrupted him anxiously.

You, Chen Pingjiang, are a master at manipulating public opinion, but we are not. If this statement is exposed on Weibo, will we still be alive?
Chen Pingjiang laughed: "Okay, okay. Let me put it another way. You operators don't like OTT, but ordinary people like it and love to use it. You even use WeChat, right? Besides, this is not the first time the OTT problem has erupted. Previously, P2P downloads occupied too much broadband resources, and you banned it, but what did you get in return? Users voted with their feet, so just change the operator."

"Some demands are rigid demands of users. Simply banning them will not achieve the goal, but will push users to the arms of others. If there is no WeChat, there is still Weichat. Do you believe that Pony Ma will come to you to discuss this matter in a while? Although WeChat has diverted some SMS and voice business, it will also increase your traffic income. With one in and one out, you may still make money."

"We can discuss the signaling storm issue slowly, and I will ask the technical department to make some adjustments. We will always find a good model for us to develop together. There is no need to stand on opposite sides. When the 4G era arrives, maybe the signaling problem will be solved?"

The vice president of Telecom nodded and said, "Mr. Chen, to be honest, I also had some immature ideas before I came here. WeChat is not the only one occupying signaling, there is also QQ, and other software will emerge in the future. It is indeed impractical to ask enterprises or users to pay for all of them. If, I say if, if the two sides can share resources or recommend services to each other, I think it would be great!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the vice presidents of China Unicom and China Mobile glared at him, wishing they could eat this "traitor".

Hey man, we are still arguing with each other here, and you turn around and sell us out?
The vice president of telecommunications said there was nothing he could do.

After all, China Telecom is the only one doing mobile business, and it cannot be compared with the other two. A set of figures can make it clear.

There are more than 5 million mobile phone users, and China Unicom has almost 1.5 million. In comparison, China Telecom has only a pitiful 7000 million.

How can we turn things around without finding a new way?
As long as the data can grow, everyone can get more year-end bonuses, so it's not impossible to sell their souls.

Everyone is selling anyway, it’s just a matter of who sells more. In this age where people laugh at the poor but not at prostitution, it’s not a problem.

What's more, there are few telecom users, and the signaling storm they occupy is limited.

The situation is very clear.

Mobile, which has the highest market share, has the toughest attitude. They even reject WeChat and Weibo from the bottom of their hearts. After all, these are competitors of their own Fetion.

Old Liu from China Unicom coughed and said, "It's not that there is no solution. Mr. Chen, your Renren, Weibo, and WeChat are all big users of traffic. Setting up a separate zone will not cause conflicts with other users. I also hope you can understand that charging for valuable resources is a reasonable demand at home and abroad. Didn't France Telecom ask Google for charging for occupying network traffic? Data channels are like building highways. Both construction and maintenance require costs."

"We are not like China Mobile, which has to protect its Fetion service. China Unicom is just dealing with the issue at hand. Free WeChat is encroaching on the SMS market and will encroach on the voice call market in the future. Our performance will definitely decline. On the other hand, it consumes precious and limited mobile communication resources for free. It is not an exaggeration to say that we are being attacked from both inside and outside by OTT businesses."

Mr. Liu from China Unicom is relatively objective in his comments, and is relatively neutral among the three operators.

At the end of the conversation, it was no longer a question of money.

But after this loophole is opened, does Renren need to pay, does Weibo need to pay, and who will ultimately pay for it, the consumers or someone else?
If we only use WeChat, then do we need to use QQ? And do we need to use DingTalk, Momo, and TanTan which will emerge in the future?
Chen Pingjiang still insisted that the user has already paid the monthly rental fee and traffic fee, and it’s not like he didn’t pay, so why should he be charged a second time?
To put it bluntly, WeChat has taken away the cheese of the three major operators!

If WeChat does not affect the voice call and SMS services of the three major operators, do you think they will clamor for charges?

Free Internet is the mainstream trend, and charging for it is going against the trend!

The meeting ended unpleasantly, no one was able to convince the other party, and each party even stood more on their own perspective.

There is no right or wrong, only interests!
Chen Pingjiang frowned slightly. The situation was more complicated than he had imagined, especially since this time point was three years earlier than the negotiations between Tencent and the three major operators.

"It seems that this is not something that can be solved overnight." Chen Pingjiang said slowly.

Li Xi also nodded in agreement: "Today, everyone just expressed their own views. It is normal that we cannot reach a consensus. I estimate that we will not be able to reach an agreement in a few months. China Telecom only wants to promote its own Fetion and Fetion Chat. I estimate that China Mobile and China Unicom will also promote their own instant messaging software next. Many foreign operators have done so. But they will definitely not be our opponents."

Chen Pingjiang said: "The best entry point is China Telecom. They are eager to expand the market, increase the number of users and market share, and have the least resistance to OTT."

"Uh, Mr. Chen, what are you going to do?"

"It's very simple. We will cooperate with China Telecom to make a SIM card with China Telecom's number segment, and users can use all of our Renren applications without using data. If China Telecom wants users, we will give them users."

Li Xi's eyes lit up: "This is a good idea."

Chen Pingjiang was referring to the Big King Card that Tencent launched back then. At that time, the Big King Card allowed users to play hundreds of applications for free, including Tencent Video, Honor of Kings and other traffic giants.

虽然这年头流量费更贵，3元10MB，5元30MB，10元70MB，20元150MB。

But again, there aren’t that many applications for waste traffic.

This is clearly a win-win cooperation for both parties.

It is difficult for people who have not experienced that era to understand.

At that time, WeChat didn’t dare to let it run in the background all the time.

You can play mini games, but if you want to watch videos you have to pay more.

In that era, whoever had 1G was a symbol of wealth and could watch videos.

Why is it said that Chen Pingjiang is only qualified to make short videos after 4G becomes popular?
It’s because of the network charges!

If Internet charges are not lowered, it will never be popularized.

It is almost foreseeable that as long as Chen Pingjiang finalizes this cooperation, the activity level of WeChat and Weibo users will inevitably reach a new level.

The dispute with the three major operators cannot be resolved in one day.

Just wait and keep dragging it out.

Delay until the 4G era arrives, and lure them with benefits. (End of this chapter)