The early startups of domestic Internet practitioners were basically plagiarism, no, they were borrowed from American Internet companies.
Directly convert those Internet companies in the United States into Chinese versions.
However, it is not entirely suitable to directly "Chinese" those American Internet companies into China, and it is very likely that they will not adapt to the local environment.
Nowadays, the Internet user bases in the United States and China are completely different. In the United States, the popularity of computers can quickly reach one per household, but in China, the popularity of computers may be less than 1%.
There are currently very few Internet users in the country. No matter how popular Liu Hao's novel website is, no matter how much traffic surges, and no matter how much operating expenses increase, it won't increase much.
Now the maximum is tens of thousands of dollars a year, and in the next few years it will be capped at hundreds of thousands a year.
Like Liu Hao's novel website, many American Internet companies are now trying to make a big deal out of the pie and are basically in the stage of losing money and making noise.
But as they burn money, they gain market value.
There is no clear profit model, and everyone is in the trial and error stage. However, the Internet is very popular in the United States. As long as the pie is drawn well, it is still very easy to attract investment.
However, there are few domestic Internet users, which also makes the future of domestic Internet companies more uncertain, making it more difficult to deceive people into investing.
Since you want to start a business and "Chineseize" it, you must choose something with a more "money-making path".
So what are the most profitable ways to start a business in the Internet industry today?
Of course it is a portal website or a search engine.
There was Netscape before, and now there is Yahoo, which seems to prove one point.
When building a portal website, it is easy for search engines to recruit advertisements, and you can make a profit just by relying on advertising revenue.
Although the profit margin is meager, it really stands out from the crowd of Internet companies that have been burning money and losing money.
This is also the reason why Yahoo’s stock price has been rising since its listing.
Other Internet companies only have unknown prospects, but the "money prospect" of building portals and search engines is right in front of them.
The three Internet companies founded by the "Three Internet Musketeers" later became the first to stand out among other Internet companies. In the same year, they were listed in the United States and became portals and search engines.
But Xiao Ma doesn’t want to start a portal or search engine when starting his business.
"Internet paging service?" Liu Hao was a little surprised when he heard this relatively unfamiliar thing.
Network paging service, simply put, connects users and pagers through the Internet.
After all, pagers are the most popular mobile device nowadays.
Mobile phones costing several thousand yuan are relatively too expensive and cannot replace pagers for the time being.
"The current wireless network paging system is a bad product, with a poor user experience and many problems...
We can design some innovative paging services to solve these problems."
Hearing the words "innovation" from Brother Xiao Ma, Liu Hao couldn't help but glance at Brother Xiao Ma.
Brother Xiao Ma continued to explain hard to Liu Hao, a "layman".
“For example, in the web page paging service, users can access the paging station homepage on the Internet and send information to the pager through the paging system without making long-distance calls;
Another example is the email paging service. Users can see the subject and part of the content sent to the email on the pager;
There is also a network secretary service. Users can enter their daily schedule on the Internet, and the network secretary will promptly send the matters to the pager at the set time..."
Brother Xiao Ma thought of something else, "We have also designed a virtual paging service: users do not need to have a real pager, they only need to have a virtual paging number, and friends can directly call the paging station and send messages to your email.
superior…."
Brother Xiao Ma talked a lot, and Liu Hao finally understood what Brother Xiao Ma wanted to do in starting a business.
In principle, this is already an instant messaging tool based on the Internet, similar to QQ and WeChat in later generations.
The difference is that one is based on pagers and the other is based on mobile phones.
Pagers are the most popular type of mobile communication nowadays. This product does have a certain "money prospect". In addition, with Xiaoma's relationship, the partners are customers such as Pengcheng Telecom, and it can indeed make money in a short period of time.
.
After the later generation Xiao Ma established Tongxun, he earned 1 million with the product "Internet Paging Service" within one year.
However, you can only make money in a short period of time.
Because in the final analysis, this is still a bad product. The reason why it is bad is not because it is technically immature, but because it violates a very simple but difficult to detect competitive principle:
In an industry that lacks growth, it is difficult for any innovation to obtain equivalent returns, so it is meaningless.
All of Ma's innovations are based on one premise: People will continue to use pagers.
The fatal problem is: after 1998, with the increasing popularity of mobile phones, pagers gradually became an abandoned and outdated communication product, and almost all paging stations across the country stopped expanding and investing.
Even though Liu Hao didn't know much about this industry, he had the perspective of future generations and knew that Brother Xiao Ma had no future.
If Liu Hao wants to invest in an Internet company, there is no need for the company to provide any short-term benefits.
What he wants is the future.
So no matter how Xiao Ma tried to deceive him or how much he talked about this product, Liu Hao had no interest at all.
Liu Hao showed no interest, thinking that if you were Xiao Ma and started a business to develop instant messaging software like QQ, I would be willing to invest even if you didn't cheat.
Liu Hao frowned and fell into deep thought, wondering why Xiao Ma did not choose to develop instant messaging software such as QQ when he started his own business.
Why? A very simple reason is that there is no "money scene" in instant messaging software.
The originator of instant messaging software is ICQ, this software.
ICQ, which means "I SEEK YOU", was very popular among young people as soon as it was developed. The user growth was amazing and it soon became popular all over the world.
The traffic of ICQ software is amazing, but no one knows how to monetize this traffic. The advertising revenue of ICQ is far less than that of portal websites, search engines and other software, and it cannot meet the growing needs of R&D, maintenance and operations.
etc. fees.
That is to say, the current Chinese version in China, no, the development of instant messaging software like ICQ is a pure loss of money.
Brother Xiaoma is really interested in instant messaging software after using ICQ, but he doesn't understand the "money scene" of instant messaging software, and he can't use such a purely money-losing thing to deceive investment.
people.
In later generations, ICQ was a software that could not be burned for money. In 1998, it was finally sold to AOL for US$407 million. The hundreds of millions of US dollars in "sale money" really stimulated Xiao Ma.
In 1998, Guangzhou Telecom wanted to purchase a Chinese instant messaging software similar to ICQ and publicly invited bids from the public. At the same time, the market for the "network paging service", the main business of Pongxun founded by Xiao Ma, was gradually shrinking and it began to be unsaleable.
There is an urgent need for open source, so Xiao Ma is ready to develop instant messaging software and bid for it.
The predecessor of QQ, QICQ, was born.
But this time, Feihua Company, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Telecom, was bidding, and they had already developed PCICQ, an instant messaging software.
Obviously this was an implicit bid. Xiao Ma's company developed QICQ but did not sell it in the end, so he had to keep it himself.
Brother Xiao Ma was so deceived that his mouth was almost dry. Seeing that Liu Hao still hadn't been persuaded, he suddenly felt a little downcast.
Over the years, Brother Xiao Ma has also made hundreds of thousands by selling software and stock trading. The money is barely enough to start a company, but computers are a luxury product in this era, and people like them who are brave enough to experiment with computer technology are very money-consuming.
I haven't actually saved much money over the years.
Brother Xiao Ma’s family background is still good, but starting a business in the domestic Internet industry now has an uncertain financial future. If you want to be competitive, you have to burn money, which is basically making money at a loss.
If you burn money, you will definitely burn other people's money, so when Xiao Ma wants to start a business, he first wants to attract investment.
In Xiao Ma's view, although Liu Hao is a "layman", his ability to invest in novel websites regardless of cost shows that he is a "layman" who can accept the Internet and is even interested in the Internet.
Moreover, during the conversation with Liu Hao, Xiao Ma could feel that Liu Hao was no stranger to the Internet.
But if he can't even convince someone like Liu Hao, Xiao Ma really doesn't know who he can convince to invest in his own business.
"Is it true that I have to wait until I have saved enough money to start a company before starting a business?" Brother Xiao Ma thought with some disappointment, and he felt a little unwilling.
In fact, many of the big bosses in the domestic Internet industry had intersections with each other in the early days. For example, Ding Sanshi from Internet Network, met and talked with Xiao Ma Ge before the two started their own business.
He has now founded Wangji, so Xiao Ma really doesn’t want to lag behind others anymore.
"To be honest, your business plan is not attractive to me. I was not moved by you, so I'm sorry..."
Seeing that he could not convince Liu Hao, Xiao Ma was disheartened and was about to leave, but Liu Hao stopped him.
Liu Hao changed the topic and said, "I am very satisfied with the novel website you designed and built for me. I feel like my eyes are shining brightly, so I have full confidence in your technology..."
Brother Ma didn't even think about it and didn't even know who was doing this job with me. It was my Lao Zhang.
Then I heard Liu Hao continue: "I appreciate your technology, so if you can help me develop a software, I can invest in your business..."
"What software?" Brother Ma immediately asked subconsciously.
"ICQ, I don't know if you have ever used this software..."
Liu Hao once found someone to install this instant messaging software on his and Gao Yuanyuan's computers. However, this software currently does not have a Chinese version. When Liu Hao used it, he could only communicate with Gao Yuanyuan in English.
Liu Hao, who wants to make a record in Europe and the United States, has been practicing English hard. Now he has no problem communicating in English, but this software has many other problems and the experience is not good.
"I Seek You, I know this is an instant messaging software..."
Brother Xiao Ma liked this software very much and introduced the functions and advantages of this software to Liu Hao in detail.
Liu Hao pretended to nod frequently, resisting interruption and interjecting, "It seems like you like this software very much. Then why don't you choose to develop similar software like this if you want to start a company..."
Brother Xiao Ma looked embarrassed and answered truthfully: "I really like this software, and I do have the idea of developing this software, but developing and operating this software is very expensive, and there is no prospect..."
"Uh..." Liu Hao suddenly remembered that later generations of Brother Ma also almost sold QQ at a very low price because of the high operating costs and lack of prospects. In confusion, he almost sold QQ at a very low price.
Now Xiao Ma is hesitant because of this reason.
If you hesitate, then I won’t let you hesitate. If you don’t plan to develop QQ now, then I will let you develop QQ.
"Did you know? ICQ is a very troublesome software to use. Not to mention that you have to communicate in English. The most annoying thing is that every time you change a computer, you will lose all your original friend information and have to re-create it.
OnePlus is back...."
Brother Xiao Ma explained: "This is because the data of the ICQ software is stored on a personal computer. After changing the computer, there will be no data..."
"Is there any way to solve it?" Liu Hao asked.
"It's very simple, just transfer the data stored on the computer to the server, so that your friends will not disappear if you change computers..."
Liu Hao nodded, "I like the ICQ software very much, but it is too troublesome to use, so I want to develop a similar instant messaging software. If you can help me develop it, help me solve the problems of ICQ."
No problem, I can give you venture capital..."
"Really?" Xiao Ma looked delighted. He had originally had the idea of developing instant messaging software.
I couldn't wait to agree directly.
But before agreeing, Xiao Ma asked solemnly: "What is your purpose of developing instant messaging software?"
Liu Hao thought for a moment and replied: "It's okay, just because I like it. Just treat it as my whim..."
"It's that simple?"
"It's that simple."
Well, looking at the big water pipe in front of me, Xiao Ma doesn’t understand the world of rich people now.
Next, Liu Hao and Xiao Ma discussed the matter of venture capital.
The content is probably that Liu Hao will invest 500,000 in Brother Xiao Ma, which includes money for developing instant messaging software.
Brother Ma and his partners will also raise 500,000, which is equivalent to a joint investment of 1 million by both parties to establish a company.
Brother Xiao Ma and his partners contribute money, people and technology, so they hold 75% of the company's equity, and Liu Hao, who only contributes money, holds the remaining 25%.
The daily operations of the company are left to them and Liu Hao cannot interfere, but Liu Hao has other rights corresponding to his shares.
Although the agreement is only initialed now, that's pretty much it in the end.
Leave professional matters to professionals, and Liu Hao will naturally not interfere in the affairs of Xiao Ma's company.
Although he spent the same amount of money and got fewer shares, Liu Hao didn't care. In fact, this was Liu Hao's intention.
What Liu Hao is interested in is not Brother Xiao Ma's company shares, but Brother Xiao Ma's team.
Because in fact, there are many instant messaging software developed in China that imitate ICQ, but in the end, Xiao Ma's QQ can stand out, dominate the crowd, and occupy a huge user market. The key lies in Xiao Ma's team.
Don't look at the fact that Paixun is known as a "copycat", but in fact, Xiao Ma's team is brave enough to innovate and bring out the new.
Being superior to others is based on strong technical skills.
It is necessary to avoid being reduced to working for yourself and destroying their enthusiasm, or even leaving yourself alone to leave them more shares.
It is not necessary to eat meat, just drink soup along with it.
Besides, if you feel that the shares are not enough, there will be opportunities to increase the shares in the future.
There have been several crises in the pain news of later generations.