You are confused, which means that my model has a high chance of losing money!
Pei Qian has also carefully considered this issue. The current models with a higher probability of success are encyclopedia and question and answer, and Qiandu has already done both.
It can't be called a success, but it can't be called a failure either.
Although the world is not yet Bihu, Pei Qian can roughly derive a less successful model based on Bihu's model.
In Pei Qian's memory, the Bihu model was very successful, and its goal was to create a "high-quality social Q&A website."
There are two key words here, "high quality" and "social", both of which are indispensable.
In the early days, Bizhu was based on an invitation-only system. Registration opened two years later. In less than a year, the number of registered users increased from 400,000 to 4 million, and a year later it received $20 million in Series B financing.
Many people believe that open registration makes the atmosphere of the entire community worse. This is an objective fact, but it is also a trade-off that this business model has to make.
The invitation system and strict limitation on the number of registered members can indeed ensure the high quality of the content of the entire website, but having said that, any website needs a large amount of traffic and users to develop.
The invitation system and strict limit on the number of registered members will indeed make the atmosphere of the website better, but if you want to obtain financing, gain popularity and revenue, the traffic of the website must be high.
For creators, they also need a lot of traffic to gain exposure and convert this exposure into popularity and tangible benefits.
The successful model of a similar platform should find a perfect balance between the user growth rate and the quality of Q&A, both of which are indispensable.
Therefore, Pei Qian’s approach is not to seek any balance point, not to want any popularity and traffic, and to try to persuade users to drive away as much as possible!
First of all, all users of useful apps must pay, and they can only browse the content after purchasing a membership.
This article directly dissuaded more than 90% of users.
Moreover, once the profit model is determined, it plays a role in fooling the system.
Pei Qian knows that even ten years later, the payment rate of similar Q&A platforms will be extremely low because most people are not willing to pay for knowledge. This is a conceptual issue.
Without users and traffic, a useful app cannot become popular.
Secondly, crack down on reprinting, stealing, and copying and pasting, on the one hand because Pei Qian deeply hates this kind of behavior, and on the other hand, it is also to further reduce the popularity.
Although the world has a strong sense of copyright, and piracy in movies, games, etc. has become extremely rare, there is still no way to completely ban things like copywriting.
After all, the cost of enforcing the law is too high, and even if most people have their manuscripts scrapped, it would be difficult for them to find out.
What if the high-quality content on the useful app is reposted in various ways and attracts users?
Pei Qian thought that it would be better to prepare a team of lawyers for the useful app team, and every day when they have nothing to do, they would just stare at the Internet to see if anyone is cleaning the content on the useful app.
On the one hand, it prevents the secondary dissemination of useful app content and increases popularity. On the other hand, it also cracks down on these bugs who steal things on the Internet and work as porters to avenge themselves!
When Pei Qian thought about the large number of web pages with duplicate content that he found when he used Qiandu to search for information, he wanted to pick up his knife and follow the Internet cable to talk about life with these plagiarism-prone self-media.
Finally, all real-name authentication is implemented, and all-round strict restrictions are imposed on users.
Ordinary users, that is, readers, although you have paid and are members, you can only watch, but cannot express your own opinions, or even leave messages for discussion.
As for those creators, they can only answer content in their own professional fields, and if it is found that the article is not correct or the answer is wrong, it will be deleted.
Of course, the hard-written answers will be sent to the original author via private message, but they will not be displayed on the useful app.
On the surface, you can earn money by writing answers here, and the monthly membership fees will be distributed to the creators as rewards.
But the key point is that few people will actually pay under this model, so the money the creators get will not be much.
In this way, we fall into a vicious cycle of "no traffic - no money - no creators".
Isn’t it easy to lose money and succeed?
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more he felt that this model was so perfect.
Definitely lose money!
Yu Ping'an obviously realized this very clearly.
He originally specialized in educational projects and had a deep understanding of similar encyclopedias and Q&A products. How could he not see the fatal flaw in Mr. Pei’s model?
But after carefully thinking about Mr. Pei's previous operations, Yu Ping'an still suppressed his doubts.
He thought for a moment and asked: "Then...Mr. Pei, can you tell me the specific method?"
Pei Qian nodded: "Of course."
"A useful app is a combination of encyclopedia and Q&A mode. We will also create many entries based on keywords, including "core content" and "derivative content"."
"Our creators are divided into three different star levels and have corresponding problem areas."
"If you want to become a creator, you must provide certification information to our reviewers to prove your professionalism in this field."
"One-star creators can only edit and interact in 'derivative content', that is, they can only answer questions within their own professional field, or post comments under other answers."
"Two-star creators can edit in the 'core content'. The 'core content' is equivalent to the essence of the entire concept, the index part. At the same time, they have the authority. If they believe that there are factual errors in the content created by a one-star creator,
You can report it.”
"In addition to the editing rights for all content, Samsung creators can also view the historical version of each entry edit and view the additions and deletions of content by various creators. At the same time, they can process reported content."
"Our staff have the highest authority. If a Samsung creator commits any violation, it will be dealt with after discussion by the staff."
"All first-, second- and third-star creators in the early stage will be invited by our official staff. After that, the review can be started, and based on the quantity and quality of the creators' output, it will be decided whether they can be upgraded."
"If a creator violates our creative regulations, such as if the article is not on topic, the facts are wrong, the answer is maliciously misleading, etc., it will be deleted."
“The name of our app is ‘useful’, which means that all the information on it must be useful.”
"We don't have to have a certain term, but as long as we have it, we must ensure its accuracy."
"For some issues that are extremely controversial and inconclusive, we need to indicate that the issue is controversial and write down the views of both parties in the dispute; if it is an entry that is too controversial, we simply do not include it."
"For example, we will not do any of the emotional questions, the clever questions, or the war-provoking questions that have high traffic volume."
"Real-name system, membership system charging."
"Our real-name authentication must be as strict as the payment software. Each account must be bound to an ID card and facial recognition, and we have only one charging model: membership, delayed charging."
"Every month, we will charge based on the member's usage time and number of views last month."
"If you haven't used it at all, there is no charge."
"If it has been used, the minimum charge is 1 yuan and the maximum charge is 15 yuan."
"At the same time, we must have anti-theft and anti-cracking functions. For those who wash manuscripts online, we will prepare a team of lawyers to file lawsuits at any time. Every cent of the recovered compensation will be returned to the creators!"
"At the same time, creators can receive incentives, and the value of the incentives mainly depends on three aspects: the creator's star rating, the number of edits and answers the creator has, and whether there are any violations."
"We use 90% of all monthly membership fees as incentives for creators. The remaining 10% is used for daily maintenance and development costs of the website. If the maintenance and development costs are not enough, I will make up for it."
"That's almost it. Any questions?"
Pei Qian said all his ideas in one breath and took a sip of tea silently.
Yu Ping'an was at a loss. He was silent for a long time before asking: "Well, Mr. Pei, where did the first batch of content on our useful app come from? We need to cooperate with Qiandu Encyclopedia or some other similar websites to use them
content?”
Many encyclopedia websites are made directly from the Internet. This phenomenon is very common.
Pei Qian immediately shook his head: "Of course not!"
"What we want to do is absolutely original, and of course we have to start from ourselves! We don't let others copy us, and naturally we can't copy others."
“All entries are edited from scratch, and must be clearly different from Qiandu Encyclopedia.”
Yu Ping'an was stunned: "Mr. Pei...this is a workload as big as Foolish Old Man moving mountains!"
"If we follow this approach, I'm afraid this app won't have any possibility of making a profit in the next ten years..."
"Don't even talk about profitability, I'm afraid it will be difficult to even increase traffic..."
Pei Qian couldn't help but feel happy.
Really? Do you think so too?
Very good!
We won’t be able to make a profit in the next ten years. You are more optimistic than me!
Pei Qian felt that it would be a blessing if this thing could guarantee no profit for five years.
Five years, at least a dozen cycles, is enough to make you lose a lot of money!
It is simply unthinkable to think about such a good thing as not being profitable for the next ten years.
Pei Qian smiled slightly: "Yes, this is indeed a job of the level of a foolish old man moving mountains."
"However, it is also very meaningful. We must create a pure land without garbage for the Internet that is full of garbage."
"There is a saying that the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, and the second best time is now."
"Since the workload is so heavy, we have to start quickly, right?"