Li Mu strongly agreed with Fang Xudong's statement.
He has long realized that community products such as Tieba cannot become a real core product. Products that cannot generate strong demand for users are not suitable to be regarded as core products. That is why he laid out YY and prepared to use instant messaging software as the core product of Makino Technology. the real core.
Fang Xudong can see the essence of Tieba and its weaknesses, which shows that this technical talent has a profound understanding of the industry and products.
Li Mu then asked him: "In your opinion, what should Makino Technology use as the core of its future development?"
Fang Xudong hesitated for a moment and said with a smile: "I can't say this well. If you simply ask me to talk about the products with strong demand in the market, I can give you my own opinions. But if you ask me to talk about it based on Makino Technology, I I am afraid that what I say deviates from the actual situation of Makino Technology.”
Li Mu smiled and said, "Let's talk casually."
Fang Xudong said: "Actually, the current development level of the Internet has only just matured the exploration of the Internet world structure. However, it is difficult for anyone to imagine what can be done on this structure. For now, there are all products with strong demand. It is closely related to users’ lives and habits.”
"Do you think the community has strong demand? Its user viscosity is very high. Maybe users can come to a place like Tieba and watch for several hours without blinking. But high viscosity does not mean strong demand. If he comes to a place like Tieba in the next few He can't access the Internet or log in to Tieba every day, so he won't feel that his life has been greatly affected."
"Games also have high viscosity and relatively high profitability. However, there are too many competing products on the Internet, and their lifespan is not long enough. Users will be lost in large numbers after half a year or one year, and it cannot be counted as a product. There is a strong demand.”
"In contrast, search is a strong demand. Once you leave the search function, the entire Internet world will seem dark to you; instant messaging software is also a strong demand. Your real friends and online friends are all here. Without it, you will become extremely lonely in the Internet world... "
Li Mu nodded: "Search and instant messaging software are indeed the top products in strong demand among Internet users. Speaking of these two fields, do you think computer security is a strong demand?"
"Of course!" Fang Xudong said with a smile: "The market space for anti-virus software and firewalls is very large, but such strong demand cannot be achieved focusing on a single product. It's like everyone needs to eat, but not everyone can eat. For the same thing, there are too many competing products in the computer security market. It can only be said that the demand is indeed strong, but for enterprises, it can only be positioned as an ordinary low-frequency product, so I don’t think any company can. May rely on computer security to become a top Internet company."
At this point, Fang Xudong laughed at himself and said: "Maybe if what I just said spread, many people will say that I am too arrogant, but I think that is the case. Computer security software itself is a small accessory of the Internet. It’s like the positioning of airbags in the entire automobile market: they are very important, but they account for too small a proportion in the entire automobile industry.”
Li Mu nodded in agreement: "The market significance of computer security is indeed not big enough. No matter how fancy the security software is, it is still a product with very low frequency of use. Although it protects the security of computers all the time, it is not very useful to users. From a practical perspective, users simply don’t think of it when most of the time they use their computers normally, and the influence it can have on users is really too low. If you want to build an ecosystem based on security software, your imagination is really limited.”
The first thing that came to Li Mu's mind was Qihu 360. The number of 360 users peaked at more than 500 million, and the installed base accounted for 94% of the total number of domestic PCs. How much was it worth at that time? Before delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, its total market capitalization was less than $10 billion.
In this market of less than 10 billion US dollars, there are a lot of products such as 360 Security Assistant, 360 Antivirus, 360 Mobile Assistant, 360 Browser, Search Engine, 360 Hardware, 360 Mall, etc. But at the same time, Teng Xun was his Nearly twenty-five times.
So what Fang Xudong said is quite right. It is impossible for a computer security company to become top-notch. The viscosity of 360 users is not high. Most installed users don’t even bother to register. The user value is far worse than Tengxun, Alibaba and even Baidu. In Li Mu's view, the reason why it is difficult for it to become the top is because its core products are inherently deficient, so it will never be on the same level as Tengxun, and will only be further and further left behind.
Fang Xudong did not expect that Li Mu thought the same as him on this point, and believed that the development space of computer security was not big enough. His impression of this young man became a little better. It was not that he was conceited or that he denied the security field, it was just that He felt that it could not be extremely large, but Li Mu's views coincided with his own.
At this time, Li Mu asked him again: "Tell us about Teng Xun and Baidu."
Fang Xudong smiled and said: "You have a lot of connections with Tengxun, so let's talk about it first. Although Makino Technology defeated Tengxun in Q Bar and QQ Fishing Ground and won very well, but Tengxun QQ's The foundation is actually much stronger than Tieba. Although their instant messaging market share is very high, their wings are not yet full. At this time, it would be unreasonable to compete with Makino Technology in other fields. If they put most of their energy Focus on taking QQ to a higher level and truly make it a leading product for Internet social networking, and put a small amount of energy on extending the core product of QQ. It will not take long before it will become one of China's top Internet companies. .”
Li Mu smiled noncommittally and asked, "Where's Baidu?"
"Baidu has taken the lead in strong search. Google's current development direction is mainly based on English search. Simply speaking from the current computer user population, English is still the most important and most used language. Now even if Google wants to compete with Baidu It is impossible to compete in the domestic market. Google will not sacrifice one thing and lose the other like Tengxun did with Q Bar and QQ Fishing Farm. It must first establish its dominant position in English search before it can compete with Baidu. If Baidu is smart enough and works hard enough , before Google entered China, it should have become the top Internet company in the country."
Li Muxin said that he is indeed a top student and has a very thorough view of the problem. Google is now unable to worry about the non-English search market, so it will not be anxious when Baidu grows bigger, but will continue to work steadily to perfect its core products, etc. Once the core is solidified, we can then find ways to enter the markets of other countries.
If Teng Xun also has this vision, they will definitely not follow the trend in Q Bar and QQ Fishing Ground. It can be seen that Teng Xun has the gene to follow the trend very early, but they did not have it during this time in their previous life. After discovering suitable follow-up products, their own appearance was like planting a few wild flowers beside Tengxun's development path, making them unable to bear the loneliness and stopped in advance to try to pick them.
Li Mu, who wanted to bring Fang Xudong under his command, asked him with a smile: "Are you interested in returning to China for development?"
Fang Xudong nodded and said, "Yes, yes, but there is no very suitable opportunity at the moment."
Li Mu didn't take any detours and directly extended an olive branch: "Would you like to consider Makino Technology?"
After Fang Xudong talked with Li Mu, he had a very good impression of Li Mu. However, if the issue of employment really came up, Makino Technology was not attractive enough to him. He himself felt that the subsequent development of Makino Technology might It's a bit weak. Besides, with Makino Technology's current product structure, it has little use for itself.
When he thought that the two people were chatting quite speculatively, Fang Xudong did not say any pomp and polite words to Li Mu, and said directly: "Makino Technology is developing very well now, but I am still worried about its future development space. Another thing, if If I join, what position do you want me to be placed in?"
Li Mu smiled slightly: "CTO."
Fang Xudong said: "What aspects does Makino Technology's current technical needs mainly focus on? The subsequent development of Tieba, or games?"
Li Mu waved his hand and said with a serious face: "To be honest, you should be able to tell which part of the game Happy Farm I value the most."
Fang Xudong nodded and said, "User connections."
"That's right." Li Mu said: "To actually make games, I have another company shell, and I have bought a game from South Korea, and it is now in internal testing. This is another aspect. I will introduce it to you first. The current situation of Makino Technology, as you said, Tieba is really not suitable as a core product, so I have been brewing a real core product for Makino Technology, and now it has been developed to the end, and it will be available for internal testing after the year."
Fang Xudong's eyes lit up: "Can you tell me what product it is?"
In Fang Xudong's view, since Li Mu denied the possibility of Tieba being the core, the real core he selected must be bigger than Tieba. It might be instant messaging, but Fang Xudong was not sure.
Li Mu did not answer Fang Xudong's question, but said: "Let me tell you about the layout in other aspects. Finally, let's talk about the question you just asked me. You just said that strong demand includes search, social networking, and security, but there is no There are no e-commerce and payment channels. In my eyes, these two are big areas with strong demand."
“E-commerce will become a new global business model in the future, including but not limited to retail, wholesale, customization and cross-border e-commerce, so e-commerce platforms are imperative. It may seem that e-commerce is still in its infancy now, but it will in the future It will definitely become a behemoth of the Internet, and the business model of any Internet project is not as direct and clear as the e-commerce business model."
“The rise of e-commerce will inevitably require the support of online payment channels. However, online payment channels are not just for e-commerce. Strictly speaking, online payment channels will be the most critical for the Internet to take money out of users’ pockets. First, most Internet projects require a profit model. If there is a profit model, it must be supported by supporting payment channels. In the future, those who do e-commerce, games, and information value-added services on the Internet will all need to be online. To complete the payment, the payment channel requires sufficient technical support and bank relationships. This means that the threshold is very high. Not all companies can develop it themselves. When the time comes, they must look for open third-party payment channels. Come collaborate.”
Fang Xudong was silent after listening, but the look in Li Mu's eyes became brighter. He and Li Mu now had a consensus in their hearts, that is: Li Mu's technical strength may not be as good as Fang Xudong's, but Li Mu's understanding of the Internet and His vision is definitely higher than Fang Xudong's.
At this time, with a faint confident smile on Li Mu's face, he continued: "I already have payment channels. If you know 3321, you will know Alipay. If you know Alipay, I can tell you that 3321 and Alipay are what I do." Yes, although Alipay is an independent company, it was incubated in 3321, grew up in Kaixin Farm, and has now begun to provide payment services for Shanda Legend. At the same time, it will also be the backbone of our e-commerce industry."
"Speaking of e-commerce, I will definitely start the e-commerce business in the first half of this year. I have registered the domain name, Taobao, Taobao for gold, treasure for treasure."
Fang Xudong was dumbfounded. He knew about 3321 before and didn't think much about it at the time. He just thought the idea was good and there was nothing remarkable about the technology. However, when he heard that it was done by Li Mu and heard that he used 3321 to incubate Alipay, Fang Dongxu was convinced. .
Li Mu's work always relies on each other and is closely connected with each other. 3321 is used to support Alipay, Yiting.com is used to support Tieba, and Tieba is used to support Happy Farm. Happy Farm not only revitalizes Tieba users, but also By rapidly increasing the level of Alipay as a payment channel, Alipay can in turn provide services for Happy Farm, while also supporting future e-commerce and even value-added services for all products.
Fang Xudong looked at Li Mu in shock, wondering what kind of monster this young man was. What others fear most when starting a business in the Internet field is not focusing. Only by grasping a core and digging deeper can success be achieved. But he is not. He He laid out so many products for himself at one go, but did not lose sight of one or the other. His industrial chain is truly complementary to each other and intertwined with each other, allowing each product to become more powerful with the support of other products.
At this time, Fang Xudong was truly impressed by Li Mu, a young man who was more than ten years younger than him. He sighed and felt awe in his heart. He took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Li, I am willing to join Makino Technology, or your other... Any shell company.”
Li Mu was overjoyed and asked him with a smile: "Don't you ask about salary first?"
Fang Xudong smiled slightly and said, "After listening to what you said, I think there is no need to talk. You can make the decision."
Li Mu asked again: "Then you don't want to know, what was the key to my initial sales? Don't you want to know first what the real core product of Makino Technology is?"
Fang Xudong said: "This should be the core secret of Makino Technology. You should join first and then ask. I was rash just now." As he said, Fang Xudong looked at Li Mu, changed the subject, and said: "But I guess, it should be immediate Communication products.”
(End of chapter)