Internet Business Thinking

Chapter 11 Internet mobile battle - shopping is within a square inch (2)
As we all know, for mobile developers, the core issue is profitability. After Baidu acquires 91 Wireless, it can provide developers with two business models, forward and backward, to better maintain its own mobile alliance.Li Mingyuan said: "We provide developers with two types of monetization methods. One is the advertising display model. Baidu's mobile advertising platform is now the largest mobile advertising platform in China. We have helped developers earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. In the end, developers share with Baidu. In addition, we also provide a complete payment solution, users can realize the whole process from order to payment in mobile search, so developers can also realize commercial cash through forward charging , This is a very complete service support for some game developers, especially for pre-paid developers." The latest data shows that Baidu Mobile Open Platform has gathered 70 developers.

Invigorate mobile search with light applications
There is a view that after Li Yanhong acquired 91 Wireless, he completed the layout of the mobile era.But another point of view is that after the acquisition of 91 Wireless, Baidu's mobile layout strategy may have just begun.

Baidu’s acquisition of 91 Wireless was not just for 91 Wireless; Li Mingyuan valued the maintenance of 91 Wireless’s developer relationship, and spent so much effort to win over developers, not just for 91 Mobile Assistant and the Android market, but for the [-] Mobile Assistant and the Android market. The developer is directed to Baidu's search platform.As Li Mingyuan said: "Baidu's core is to do search, and everything else is to make search more useful."

Baidu has always relied on search engines to distribute traffic in the traditional Internet, but it started relatively backward in the field of mobile Internet, and its pillar business search engine, because mobile devices are occupied by apps for too much time, the value of search marketing has been weakened.Liu Yang, director of Baidu's business search department, also believes: "In the app era, many apps have closed data and do not open it. Therefore, it poses many challenges to search."

In order to revitalize the mobile search business, Baidu launched "light applications".Light application is neither a series of tools nor a product, but a mechanism that can distribute the massive long-tail demand of mobile search to developers.At the same time, create a complete set of high-quality experience of "search as a service" for users.

Li Mingyuan's explanation for light applications is: "Light applications have four major characteristics. The first is that there is no need to download, and you can search and use immediately; the second is broken shell retrieval and intelligent distribution; the third is very powerful functions, developers and users can obtain Almighty experience; the fourth is to provide a subscription push function that is extremely beneficial to developers, thereby accumulating users.” Starting from users having a natural search demand, it is connected to the mobile search ecosystem, and then through intelligent distribution, users The needs of the developer are connected with the light application. Finally, when the user subscribes to the light application, the two parties form a strong two-way relationship.

For users, light applications have the characteristics of no need to download, and at the same time, they are no less than Native Apps (third-party applications based on the local operating systems of smartphones such as IOS, Android, and WP, ​​and written and run using native programs, also called native apps. ) user experience.More importantly, for Baidu, light applications can be retrieved by search engines, which means that light applications can also be intelligently distributed like web pages.There is no doubt that the light application is to save Baidu's mobile search business.Currently, Baidu's mobile search has more than [-] million daily active users.

Li Yanhong believes: "99.9% of medium and long-tail applications are in a very disadvantageous position in mobile distribution. These applications only account for 30% of our application distribution, while the top few hundred applications of 0.1% account for 70%. % distribution. I believe that the vast majority of developers in China are in the middle of 99.9%.”

If it is said that the applications distributed by the App Store are mainstream applications, then Baidu is trying to distribute 99.9% of the medium and long-tail applications with light applications.Li Mingyuan pointed out: "Users will use light applications to meet a large number of long-tail needs in the future, and users will still tend to use Native Apps to meet high-frequency needs and applications that are highly coupled with terminal capabilities, such as games."

At present, Baidu Open Cloud has been in production, incubated, and supported a large number of applications, including popular applications such as Didi Taxi and Three Kingdoms Kill.Take Baidu Cloud Storage PCS as an example. At present, PCS has attracted more than 1000 developers and served 1500 million users.

On August 2013, 8, Baidu released the "22Q2013 Mobile Internet Trend Report".The report shows that in many typical low-frequency applications such as life tools, entertainment tools, life information, travel and travel, users' demand behavior has further migrated from Native App to mobile search.

Among them, online tool applications focusing on applications such as office and study, financial management, and practical inquiries; life service applications including group buying discounts, transportation, and tourist attractions; and media applications represented by information media and self-media. These are the three areas with the strongest demand for light applications.Li Mingyuan introduced: "Light applications have covered transportation, medical care, tourism, housing and other life service categories, and the self-media and game industries can also rely on light applications for effective distribution. In the next period of time, we will have more Many fields are open to developers, including finance, automobiles, medical care, music, office, learning, food service, etc.”

From map to life service platform
At present, the three recognized entrances to the mobile Internet are: application stores, browsers and super apps.The acquisition of 91 Wireless is the layout of the application store field; the release of light applications is to occupy the homepage position of the browser through mobile search; the third step of Baidu's layout for the mobile Internet is to target super apps.

The so-called super app refers to an application that has a huge number of users like WeChat and has become a super platform.The super app that Baidu wants to build is LBS.Tencent has relied on WeChat to become a social entertainment platform for mobile Internet users, and Baidu is trying to take advantage of Baidu Maps to become a local life service platform for users.

Throughout the industry, the independent LBS operation lacks bright spots, but the comprehensive and practical LBS platform has a strong development momentum.The Matthew effect is particularly evident in the LBS industry. The larger and more complete the platform is, the more attractive it is to users, developers, and merchants.

In June 2011, Baidu acquired Qunar.com for US$6 million, which can be seen as Baidu's first step into the local life service industry.

In October 2012, after the establishment of the Baidu LBS business unit, Baidu Maps gradually upgraded from a single travel tool to a life service platform.Shen Li, head of Baidu LBS, said: "Based on Baidu Maps, we deepened and extended the functional applications. In April 10, we successively launched independent apps such as Baidu Navigation and Baidu Group Buying. At the same time, we are also building an open Merchant platform, merchants can use BGC to mark the location on the map and operate the store."

At present, the number of Baidu Maps users has increased from 7000 million to 2 million, and it has more than 500 million merchant data, covering merchant data from various industries including restaurants, hotels, and hospitals.

Like 91 Wireless and the light application strategy, Baidu LBS also attaches great importance to the cooperation with developers. Hu Yue, chief product architect of LBS, said: "Next, Baidu Maps will develop around the three keywords of authenticity, interaction and vitality. Our product system is divided into three layers. The bottom is all the Baidu service capabilities we provide. For example, location-based services; on the second layer above the underlying services, we build our own products, including Baidu Maps, Baidu Bus, Baidu Travel, and Baidu Navigation; and on the top third layer, we hope to build together with all developers. .”

At present, the Baidu LBS open platform attracts 40 developers a day, with 10 active apps, providing map services for 25 websites and applications; providing location services for more than 7 apps, with an average of 35 billion location requests per day.

So far, Baidu’s layout on the mobile Internet has been clear: in terms of business model, by acquiring 91 Wireless, it has completed its ability to operate developers and app commercial realization, thereby opening up its forward charging business. Realize both forward charging and backward charging; Strategically, use 91 wireless as the entrance of the application store, light applications as the entrance of the browser, and LBS as the entrance of the super app, firmly control the three Internet entrances, and then control control channels.

Online Business Tips
The so-called forward charging refers to charging for end users, such as paid downloads of libraries, paid downloads of music, and monthly membership subscriptions.The traditional way of charging advertising fees to advertisers is the so-called backward charging.

(Section III) The war has begun at the entrance

At present, the three recognized entrances to the mobile Internet are: application stores, browsers and super apps.According to the long-tail theory, the mainstream market in the future will be occupied by super apps in vertical fields like WeChat and Facebook, while the long-tail market will use the browser as the entrance.For the application store, when HTML5 really rises, it may be the time when it will withdraw from the stage of history.

Recently, the biggest debate in the mobile Internet industry is the battle between Native App and Web App (referring to Web-based systems and applications). There are those who disdain, and there are those who are impassioned.

In the final analysis, the essence of this debate is a dispute over mobile Internet access, a dispute about commercial interests.Mobile browser manufacturers naturally hold high the banner of Web App, and application store manufacturers naturally defend Native App to the death.

Enterprises such as Oupeng and UC, which rely on browsers to survive, firmly believe that "browsers are king", while listed companies like NetDragon, which sold 91 Wireless for US$19 billion, undoubtedly stand in the application store side.

Is the future mobile Internet portal a mobile browser, an application distribution platform such as an application store, or a super app such as WeChat and QQ?

The battle between Native App and Web App
Supporters of the application store believe that future user habits must be based on each application, rather than each web page.

There is no doubt that this is indeed becoming a trend: we may use the music app Kuwo in our smartphones to enjoy music, we may use video apps such as LeTV to watch videos, and we may use reading apps such as Panda Reading to read e-books, We can use the QQ mailbox application to send and receive emails, and use WeChat to interact with friends, but we just don’t use the browser to browse the web.

"Wired" magazine published a far-reaching article in 2010: "The Web is dead, and the Internet lives forever."The article mentioned: "In the past few years, one of the biggest changes in the digital field has been the transition from the open Internet to semi-closed web platforms. These platforms use the Internet for data transmission, but do not display it through the browser. Their rise Primarily driven by mobile computing models such as the iPhone. They are not bound by the language rules of HTML, and Google cannot crawl their data."

Our Internet is becoming more and more closed.People are gradually abandoning free web pages and choosing relatively closed platforms instead. Whether it is an application store like the App Store or a social network empire like Facebook, its biggest feature is the division of territory in the open Internet. , standing on the top of the mountain.

I have to admit that the time of using the Web in life is slowly decreasing.Most of the information we see in the browser is HTML data transmitted by the HTTP protocol through port 80.These figures account for less than a quarter of total Internet traffic today.The vast majority of traffic applications generated by the Internet include P2P file transfer, email, corporate VPN, machine-to-machine API communication, VoIP, online games such as "World of Warcraft", and video services such as Youku Tudou.Unfortunately, the carrier of these services is not a webpage, but an App.

How much we used to advocate openness, but in the end we still prefer convenience: why can Apple sell apps for tens of dollars, even though users can get it for free as long as they are willing to "troubleshoot" their phones?

Although "Wired" believes that the Web is dead, Jobs once said that "the Web is the future."

Faced with the advantages of App, the Web is not sitting still.The rise of cloud computing allows us to put applications in the cloud, and users can enjoy the user experience of traditional Native Apps without installing them, and Web Apps came into being.

Just as Zhong Xiangping, deputy general manager of Tencent Wireless R&D Department, said: "Web App is based on the browser, so that users can get the same experience as App in the browser, use the Web mode to open, enjoy the service and Native App Are the same."

If the characteristics of Native App are closed and paid, then the characteristics of Web App are open and free.The view of browser vendors is: "If a mobile browser can provide the clean interface and seamless interaction that users want like an app, why should users choose paid and closed app stores?"

It looks beautiful, but unfortunately, the user experience of Web App is still not comparable to that of Native App. Native App has advantages in graphics rendering and independence.No matter in terms of 3D performance or hardware acceleration, there is still a big gap between the current Web App and native applications. Song Lin, General Manager of Opera China and General Manager of Oupeng also admitted, "The performance of Web App has not fully met the user's usage habits. Many people use Native App, and it feels smooth when using it locally. This is because the animation effect is well done. .Native App can achieve [-]-[-] frames per second, or even [-]-[-] frames per second, but browsers can’t do it. The current browsers still need to improve their animation technology.”

The current Web Apps are all developed on the basis of HTML4, and the browser can only optimize the text, so the graphics-based display cannot be perfect.

However, it should be noted that following Java, Flash, and Ajax, HTML5, which has high expectations, has completed 90.00% of its standards.However, HTML5 is different from HTML4, it can really make Web App obtain a user experience similar to Native App.

HTML5-based webpages are richer and can implement more functions, and many functions of local applications will be directly implemented through HTML5-based webpages.

For developers, technology developers who use HTML5 will no longer need to invest too much manpower and material resources in the development of various systems and versions. They only need to develop according to the HTML5 standard to adapt to all systems and models. , which means that the cycle for developers to introduce new technologies and products to the market will be shorter and shorter; for users, frequent downloads and updates can also be avoided.No wonder Song Lin believes: "In the short term, the browser will not be the terminator of Native App; but in the long run, the open and free Internet spirit will never be replaced, and HTML5-based Web App will become the mainstream."

Whether it is the traditional Internet or the mobile Internet, the development model is similar, and the application store is just a product of the initial stage of the development of the mobile Internet.Just like the software download websites (such as Huajun) in the early days of traditional Internet development, although they were all-powerful at the beginning of their development, they will gradually fade out of the historical stage with the improvement of Internet infrastructure and the development of browser technology.Nowadays, ordinary users seldom go to software download websites to download software.

The fatal flaw of the app store model

Regardless of the strong competitiveness that HTML5 will bring to Web App in the future, the application store model itself also has fatal flaws.Li Mingyuan, vice president of Baidu, believes: "The app store is inherently flawed. I think the main problem lies in the identification of precise needs and the cracking of app content. This is not particularly beneficial to long-tail distribution."

In the final analysis, the application store model is too closed. "Whatever enters is locked in. When a user downloads an app in the app store, he is locked in the app, which has nothing to do with the app store." Song Lin believes, "On the web page of the browser, just click and it will be locked. Web pages that can jump to other websites. Why can the entire Internet, the so-called Web, develop? It is because it is open, a web page, several links, and information can jump from one site to another.”

(End of this chapter)