Internet Business Thinking

Chapter 7 Giants lead the business model (4)
Qi Xiangdong first answered the first question.He said: "To do free services, you must burn money in the early stage, so it is called the money-burning model, but this model is not good for the development of the industry, because the threshold is too high, and it may not be successful after burning the money. Therefore, this situation is Changes are needed. Qihoo 360 has made another innovation in this area, forming a 360 platform based on traffic, and it is an open platform. We are fundamentally different from Tencent.”

Qi Xiangdong believes that, unlike Qihoo 360, Tencent is engaged in a "private garden" where everything is available. After introducing users into the garden, users will start to live online in it and hand over the money in their pockets to Tencent.Many people call it "Tencent Empire".In this back garden model, there is a desert outside the courtyard wall.This model is of positive significance in the initial stage of the development of the Internet industry.But now, this model has a destructive effect on the development of the entire industry, because it makes its own garden lush and green, while leaving a desert outside the garden, that is, industrial desertification.

The 360 ​​mode is to lead users to the desert. "We sow seeds and water the desert, turning the desert into an oasis. Internet startups don't need to dig canals, cultivate soil, and fertilize themselves. We do these things, and they can start a business. This allows startups to grow without spending money. You can start a business, as long as you put innovative products on the 360 ​​platform, and 360 does not charge, and only shares with you after the product is sold.” Qi Xiangdong took the 360 ​​game platform as an example, he said, “On the 360 ​​game launch platform, If your monthly income is less than 50 yuan, 360 does not participate in the share, you can use this platform for free. We are also planning to launch this policy on the mobile platform. Let entrepreneurs start their own businesses without capital and turn their innovative ideas into products or services , forming an industrial chain, which is conducive to the steady and healthy development of the entire industry."

For users, if they only stay in the "private garden" and have no one to open up the desert, they will eventually find that there is only one choice in the entire Internet.All your needs and orientations are chosen, and the result is terrible.The Internet needs diversified competition, and this is the real responsibility to users.

For the second question raised by the reporter of "Manager" magazine, Qi Xiangdong gave the answer: Qihoo 360 will insist on providing value-added services to users on the basis of providing universal services. According to 360 statistics, when 5% of the online people have a demand, there is a huge service value. At this time, if someone is willing to pay—either the buyer pays or the seller pays—your income model can be established.That is to say, only when the value of the platform has accumulated to a certain extent, can your income be involved, and your business model will be formed naturally.

Forced to search

Currently, Qihoo 360 is developing very fast in the search market and has become an important participant in China's search market. In August 2012, 8 Search was officially launched, and in September it officially released the independent domain name of so.com; in April 360, it launched "Good Doctor Search", and in July released Thunder Search, etc.So, what considerations does Qihoo 9 base on its search business?What impact did it have on the search market?

Qi Xiangdong said: "We were forced to enter the search market. Originally, we really didn't want to do search, because search is a very complicated thing, and it is quite tiring to do it. There are many media reports that Baidu's security in search The user experience is too bad. There are still many users complaining about being cheated on Baidu search. In fact, we have discussed with Baidu and hope to cooperate with Baidu in the field of security, and provide security labels for their search results through our security software, that is, to remind users Which one is safe and which one is not, but Baidu disagrees, fearing that we will take advantage of it, and even sue us. In the end, the court sentenced us to lose in the first trial, and also sentenced us to lose in the second trial.”

The court admitted that Baidu's search results were fraudulent, but did not believe that Qihoo 360 needed to make a security label.Regarding the court's verdict, Qi Xiangdong felt helpless.He believes that Baidu, as the leader of China's search, refuses to make search the safest for commercial interests.And 360 is a security company with such a sense of responsibility and mission to allow users to search for safe results.From a business point of view, search is a huge market opportunity. Since Baidu is not doing well enough, 360 has the responsibility to do a better job of it!It is based on such considerations that Qihoo 360 started to search under "forced and helpless".

After the launch of 360 Search, it was well received by users as expected by Qi Xiangdong.Without doing any marketing, the market grew very fast. In 2012, the market share of 360 Search was less than 10%, but in 2013 it was close to 24%, an increase of 140%.

After Google withdrew from China, Baidu once monopolized the search engine market with a market share of more than 80%.As a latecomer, 360 Search naturally encountered great resistance in the development process.Qi Xiangdong said: "For example, in 2013, some people spread various rumors and discredited 360 search because we were also doing search. What is the purpose of our search? It is to let users have a better experience. Therefore, The resistance we encounter is not from users, but from peers, especially from the search leader. We have been hit in various ways, and it is very strong. Now we take these resistances as a spur to ourselves, motivating us to do better .”

"In the process of breaking through these resistances, the most harmful thing to Qihoo 360 is rumors!" Qi Xiangdong told reporters.As a security company, Qi Xiangdong and his team are always committed to providing users with safer searches. For this reason, they do not accept non-enterprise advertisements, fraudulent and scammers.They also solemnly promise users: 360 Search is safe, authentic and accurate, and you can use it with confidence. If users encounter fraud with 360 Search, 360 will fully compensate. "But our opponents attack us and slander us through various forms of rumors-saying that 360 is not safe, stealing user privacy, etc., in order to slander our image. But the eyes of the masses are discerning. The rapid growth of the market represents the user's love for 360. Our recognition." Qi Xiangdong also talked to the reporter of "Manager" magazine about the ultimate goal of 2013 search, that is: the market share accounted for 20% in 2014, 30% in 40, and [-]% in the future.

Three user relationship models
In Qi Xiangdong's view, the fundamental reason why Qihoo 360 survived all kinds of blows and finally rose from the market is the trust of users in 360!
In Qi Xiangdong's eyes, Internet companies only solve the relationship problems with users.For example, the relationship between Tencent and users is dependent and irreplaceable. Users rely on Tencent's QQ and WeChat. In 2010, during the battle between Tencent and 360, users had to uninstall the 360 ​​software to log in to QQ. Although some users protested on the Internet and supported 360, when Tencent really let users "choose one", users would still reluctantly use 360. The software is uninstalled.Obviously, there is a huge space for manipulation.

There is a semi-dependent relationship between Baidu and users.When it comes to search, users will habitually think of Baidu, so there is a habitual dependence relationship between users and Baidu, not an irreplaceable dependence.But it is difficult for Baidu to improve the search experience, why?Also because users have dependencies on it.

However, there is no dependency between Qihoo 360 and users, and a relationship of trust has been cultivated between users and Qihoo 360. Therefore, Qihoo 360 has always been strict with itself and will always be careful with users, because "once the user loses trust, users may uninstall our software at any time and replace it with "opponent" things".Qi Xiangdong further explained: "Users have no dependence on us. The reason why users choose Qihoo 360 is because they trust Qihoo 360. We always pay attention to user experience. Therefore, even if many people make rumors that Qihoo 360 is good for users Doing bad things has not had much impact on us. Qihoo 360 cannot do things that harm the interests of users, because we know that the basis of users' trust in us is that we respect users and respect user experience."

Back then, when Tencent proposed "choose one of two" to users, Qi Xiangdong's first reaction was: It seems that Qihoo 360 is going to start again, and the accumulated users will be cleared.At that time, Qi Xiangdong and his team were ready to start over and kept an optimistic attitude.Because they firmly believe that as long as Qihoo 360 has the courage and courage to start all over again, it will definitely open up a better world.But later, due to the timely action of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it made a mediation between Tencent and Qihoo 360, and asked Tencent to stop "choosing one of the two" immediately. In the end, Qihoo 360 was saved.In Qi Xiangdong's words, if there is no external intervention, Qihoo 360 will be wiped out in the end.

Have the courage and determination to defeat the "local tyrants"

In December 2013, Qi Xiangdong said: "In the Internet industry, in various industries, there are many local tyrants. Their scale is very large, and their user resources are monopolized by them. Some small companies can only work for local tyrants. During the growth process, Qihoo In order to meet the needs of users, 12 has offended many local tyrants. But Qi Xiangdong firmly believes that no matter what, it must fight the local tyrants with a clear-cut banner. Without attacking the local tyrants, there will be no innovation that meets the needs of users.”

Speaking of the obstacles to innovation and development created by the "local tyrants" in the industry, Qi Xiangdong was filled with emotion: Internet giants such as Tencent are involved in almost all the businesses you do. To succeed, if you don't have the courage and determination to dare to defeat your opponent, then you can't have a chance to breathe.In this sense, the market environment faced by start-up companies is not good, and they all face the threat of giants.

In the process of competing with the "local tyrants", the most troublesome thing for Qi Xiangdong is to continuously design products that are valuable to users.Users have diversified choices. If you want to win users from the strong, it will not work without more and better innovations!In other words, in the face of powerful opponents, you must have stronger innovation capabilities.

Now, Qihoo 360 itself has become more and more powerful, will Qihoo 360 also become a "tyrant" in the future?Regarding this question, Qi Xiangdong gave a categorical negative: No!What we call "local tyrants" has the intention of holding users hostage.Qihoo 360 will never do this, because no matter how many users we have, no matter how much they favor us, the basis of our relationship with users is always trust, so we cannot become such a "local tyrant".This is determined by our mission.

The philosopher said that experience is the most precious wealth in life.The same is true for businesses.Along the way, Qihoo 360 encountered a series of lawsuits, including active lawsuits and forced lawsuits.In this series of lawsuits, Qihoo 360 has been growing continuously by summarizing experience and learning lessons. At the same time, it also has a deep understanding of the monopoly and anti-monopoly of the domestic Internet industry.

For Qi Xiangdong, the first experience is that no matter what, you must be kind to users, respect users' right to know and right to choose, and not hold users hostage.This is the core experience that 360 has gained along the way.Although under the suppression of competitors, 360 has had many lawsuits with competitors, but there is no conflict or tension with users.

The second experience is that in China, when any small company faces industry giants, it will face litigation problems, because the giants often use litigation to create trouble for weak challengers. A routine practice and means.In fact, this is also the case internationally, but it is more common in China.

The third lesson is that you should not underestimate the trouble your opponent creates, and at the same time maintain a spirit of optimism.On the Internet, netizens are the root of everything. Only when your service is welcomed by netizens can you have the ability to defeat your opponent, no matter how powerful your opponent is.Of course, there is a premise that the services you provide to netizens must be of great value. If the value of the services you provide is too small, netizens will not support you.So, I think it depends on how innovative you are.If you really innovate, even disruptive innovation, then the giants can't stop you from moving forward.

Flat management and small team operation
In order to meet the needs of product innovation and market competition in the Internet field, the management of Qihoo 360 did a lot of thinking and discussion on corporate management, and finally came to two conclusions: first, to maintain flat management, because only flat Second, when the company grows bigger, it may lose the spirit and characteristics of a start-up company, which will weaken its innovation ability, so the company's entrepreneurial culture must be maintained.

How to maintain an entrepreneurial culture?The usual practice is to adjust the organizational structure and make the company a small team.That is to break the company into parts and split it into several small companies or small business departments with 100-300 employees, and each small team has completely independent resource scheduling capabilities, including personnel rights, salary, product development direction, Marketing etc.In this way, each small team leader can lead his own small team to the market like the CEO of a start-up company.Of course, the company has their backs.Qi Xiangdong and the management of 360 hope that the flattened team can set its own goals and finally achieve self-success.

"We have been doing the work of flattening the management, and the small team operation has just started, and it has only been implemented for a quarter." Qi Xiangdong told the reporter of "Manager" magazine, "I directly hold meetings with the bottom employees. Companies can no longer do that because there are too many layers in the middle.”

Some people worry that if the president of the company directly faces the grassroots and directly holds meetings with the grassroots employees, will it bring about management efficiency problems?To this, Qi Xiangdong replied: "No, I must participate, otherwise I am not grounded." Qi Xiangdong believes that the Internet is changing rapidly every day, unlike traditional industries, where problems can be solved by experience. "If you stand taller, you can see farther. I need to correct and supplement the decisions made by the small team. Only flat management and small team operations can better adapt to the needs of the Internet environment."

Online Business Tips
Ma Huateng: It was Zhou Hongyi who changed his goal and hit me
3Q war, who is right?Is there something wrong with Zhou Hongyi, or is it Ma Huateng's monopoly?Ma Huateng once expressed his opinion in an interview with the media before—

We did have the feeling of being raided.At that time, Zhou Hongyi felt very threatened when he saw us working as computer housekeepers.At the beginning, we were asked to invest in him, just like Microsoft invested in Facebook, buying a small stock at a high price.Later, he also said that he would cooperate with us to fight Baidu, saying that he would sell us search traffic, and he would release a device to block Baidu, first hit its medical advertisements, and destroy 30% of its revenue.To be honest, this time I changed his target ahead of time, because I didn't agree to his proposals, so he changed his target to hit me.The reason is that if I don't give up making security software, he thinks that he will be restrained by Tencent when he hits Baidu.He said that Tencent must be called first, so he quickly made a privacy protector.

It cannot be said that market share brings everything. More than [-]% to [-]% of companies in search, e-commerce, and security software already exist. Does this mean monopoly?no.The key is whether you have used this share to deliberately attack competitors and abuse this right.

Tencent has always been relatively low-key. Sometimes the outside world does not know what we do, but what we feel is more of the voice on the Internet.In fact, Tencent has done a lot of things in innovation.From the user's point of view, you can't say that there are already many companies in a certain field, and other portals have done it, but Tencent just can't do it. This is also unfair to our user experience.

(Section [-]) Traditional industries: left-handed e-commerce, right-handed finance

Baosteel relies on the e-commerce platform to obtain a large amount of effective data, and relies on the cooperation with banks to obtain financing channels. On this basis, it builds a financial business platform to connect customers and funds.Different from traditional e-commerce that mainly focuses on fast-moving consumer goods, the Baosteel model has a demonstration effect on the strategic transformation of traditional industrial enterprises.

Steel giant Baosteel Group started to carry out Internet financial business relying on the e-commerce platform in May 2013.On the one hand, it complies with the trend of combining e-commerce with finance; on the other hand, it provides financial services for steel suppliers and users to enhance the adhesion effect of e-commerce platforms.

The e-commerce platform extends the developing "right wing"

Baosteel once stated that under the background of the rapid development of domestic e-commerce and third-party payment business, Baosteel's participation in e-commerce finance intends to implement a strategic transformation from manufacturing to service.

This change of the steel faucet reflects the change of the overall environment of the steel circulation industry.In the era when iron and steel enterprises made a lot of money, most of the sales of iron and steel products did not go directly to end users. Middlemen of various sizes occupied many links and controlled downstream customer channels. Therefore, end users and steel The factory is far away.

(End of this chapter)