Reinventing the Millennium

Group buying is blowing, and entrepreneurship is moving.

The four project documents sent to Yike Investment were just appetizers, followed by a steady stream of Chinese version of Groupon or variant versions of Groupon.

Yike Investment has not been particularly active in China in the past two years, but it is willing to spend money as it is backed by a giant. Especially after the implementation of YMS this year, it has made successive moves. The motive is extremely straightforward, which is to serve the Yike ecosystem.

Now, since Lei Jun’s rice group is the first to receive investment from Yike, and because this model of leveraging both ends seems to be very suitable for Yike’s ecology, many people are willing to give Yike a try... just in case, pull Time to invest?

This rice dumpling guy, Lei Jun, does have some abilities, but that's all he can do.

Yike faces a market with great potential, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be the only one to invest in, right?

Many entrepreneurs who can be called elites adhere to this idea and also want to meet Mr. Fang in person and describe their thoughts on group buying, but in the end they all come to nothing and can't even make an appointment.

The reason for Yike's rejection was that it coincided with the Double Eleven of Yike and Mr. Fang was very busy and really couldn't spare the time.

In fact, Fang Zhuo barely expressed his own opinions on this Double Eleven observation as a mere passer-by.

Tesco originally considered implementing next-day express delivery in some areas before Double Eleven, but Su Wei decided to postpone this significant increase in speed. It had to digest this big promotion first before implementing it, so as not to delay the delivery for a year. An 11·11 incident had a negative impact.

Fang Zhuo actually had a slightly different idea. He felt that it could be tried out in the radiating areas of the warehousing center in October. However, since Mr. Su thought it was not possible, he should remain respectful.

This kind of respect is the same for people like Yixin Zhang Xiaolong, Bingxin Qiu Ciyun and even Lin'an Changji Minghua. However, these people have different personalities, so the scale of respecting their opinions is also different.

Fang Zhuo considered that he could talk about this kind of business management perspective on the Zhihu column created by Xiaoxiong.

As a long-time investor, Xiong Xiaoge has shown deep love for Zhihu this time. While raising investment and budget, he is also painstakingly seeking to expand his influence in order to cope with the erosion of Baidu.

Not only that, he now has proof of Zhihu's business model, and suddenly has a more personal understanding of the situation of domestic portals in the past few years.

It’s really hard to find a profitable direction...

He knew that Mr. Fang had great influence and always had ideas. This time he wanted to get the best of both worlds, and after constant discussions with the management, he changed the format of the Zhihu text column to a sponsored TV program.

Highlights of TV programs can be excerpted for promotion, which can make better use of the fame of the guests and make it easier to find partners.

And, even the name was decided in just half a day, and was named "Zhihu Zai".

"This is the style and grade of our website! We don't use column names to promote it. We directly paste your avatar on the advertisement and push it, so that it can spread." Xiong Xiaoge said plausibly.

Fang Zhuo thought that he was a professional after all, so he stopped making any objections.

Xiong Xiaoge turned around and convinced CCTV by confirming the name of the program with the richest man...

Somehow, I have known Mr. Fang for a long time, and many things are very familiar to me.

Xiong Xiaoge was very busy working happily in the capital.

Fang Zhuo is paying attention to Yiguo's results this year in Shanghai, and is also considering how to talk about Yixin's future direction to send signals to friends.

Penguin's new Q has been launched on November 9 as scheduled. This version of it has seen many users choose to update. However, judging from the feedback from the software store, the function of reading the address book is not as big as Yixin.

Taking into account the traffic base and fission effect, Yixin's management is very wary of New Q's low-key pursuit and steady flow.

That is to say, with the launch of New Q, Penguin's stock price in the Hong Kong secondary market has also rebounded.

At the end of the day, Penguin is still the communications overlord.

This situation made Fang Zhuo feel that it was necessary to come forward to shout for Yi Xin and try to guide Penguin's work from a distance.

Tesco's Double Eleven promotion is still three days in a row from the 10th to the 12th, and from the beginning of the big promotion, Su Wei has been busy, fully supervising the battle, which has attracted the attention of opponents, companies, users, and the media. activity.

On November 13th, Double Eleven ended and Tesco announced this year’s revenue results, 7.207 billion!

In such a financial recovery in the second half of the year, Tesco achieved a 44.7% increase year-on-year, which is already quite good. However, Taobao's 6.18 in the first half of the year was 12.36 billion, and the absolute numerical gap between the two major e-commerce companies was once again widened. big.

Last year, Tesco was 3.56 billion less than Taobao. This year, the number became 5.653 billion.

The media's immediate reports carried analyzes such as "the heavy assets of Tesco belong to the later development of the warehousing matrix" or "it is difficult for Tesco to catch up with Taobao's light model platform". This made Tesco also hold a high-level meeting in an overall celebratory atmosphere. discussions and even self-criticism meetings.

The domestic e-commerce market is huge, but how can we catch up with Taobao?

Fang Zhuo did not attend the progress-seeking meeting hosted by Su Wei, so he arrived in the capital with a score of 7.207 billion and continued to contribute to the development of Yixin.

Although Xiong Xiaoge invited CCTV, the program has not been finalized on which channel it will be broadcast. The station wants to see the recording effect before deciding how to release it.

If the scale is not good or is mediocre, CCTV may not use it and may switch to an online platform.

Xiong Xiaoge attaches great importance to recording, and when he met Mr. Fang, he discussed how to do it.

Fang Zhuo doesn't think it's difficult. If you want to make a successful recording, you just need to give the audience something to watch, including the past experiences between each other, the current competition between Yi Ke and Penguin, and the latest data exposure of Yi Xin...

This time he was going to talk about Yi Xin, so he thought there was no problem with this idea.

Xiong Xiaoge thought about it for a while and came up with an opening idea.

The recording was at CCTV. This was Fang Zhuo's first time coming here after several years, and he felt a little emotional when he saw his CCTV friends whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

CCTV originally wanted to assign a professional host to "Zhihuzai", but Xiong Xiaoge thought about it and felt that such a business-oriented job that required some insider information might not be possible for a rigid host, but she was just right.

Therefore, he came to take on this guiding task, and in addition to inviting Mr. Fang, he also invited a figure in the investment circle and an old friend who had besieged Mr. Fang at Hang Lung 23, Zhou Zisen of Dachen Venture Capital.

As for Wang Fengyi who took the initiative to call him, Xiong Xiaoge felt that he might be too noisy if he came over, so he left it to the next issue.

As soon as the non-professional group in the studio started recording, many idle staff members from CCTV came over to watch.

November 13, 3 p.m.

Xiong Xiaoge briefly discussed the ideas with Mr. Fang and started the introduction.

There are three guests under the photography lights, Xiong Xiaoge is in the middle, Zhou Zisen and Fang Zhuo are on the left and right.

Xiong Xiaoge stretched out his right hand and said solemnly: "This is Mr. Fang Zhuofang, the founder of Yike, who I went to Shanghai Hang Lung 23 to beg for three days and three nights."

Fang Zhuo waved his hand: "Hi, please support me."

Xiong Xiaoge continued: "Mr. Fang and I have known each other for a long time. Maybe many viewers don't know that we didn't know each other before fighting. If I knew that he could achieve this now, I wouldn't have asked anyone to surround him."

Fang Zhuo smiled and said, "You still talk about this."

Xiong Xiaoge: "I first made two investments with Mr. Fang. At that time, the Internet bubble had just ended. The money was really valuable."

Fang Zhuo said seriously: "I won't take it for nothing."

Zhou Zisen on the other side was listening to the two singing and singing, and suddenly interrupted in a daze: "I didn't say it was a cross talk at the beginning."

"This guy here, I originally invited Mr. Ma from Penguin to be a guest first." Xiong Xiaoge simply improvised, pointed to the left and asked, "Hey, what's your last name?"

Zhou Zisen: "..."

Fang Zhuo picked up the conversation: "Hey, don't bother, I know Mr. Ma well, he can be an offsite guest, I'll call him directly."

Xiong Xiaoge glanced sideways: "Didn't he block your phone number?"

Fang Zhuo spread his hands: "Okay, I forgot about this."

Zhou Zisen stood up and said blankly: "Wait, wait, it's a bit confusing. Let me check, the previous hand card didn't say this."

When he stood up, he truly interrupted the impromptu conversation between Xiong Xiaoge and Fang Zhuo.

Director Xu Meng, who was watching the excitement, saw the recording interrupted and laughed loudly: "Mr. Xiong, Mr. Fang, and Mr. Zhou, I didn't say that the show you three are doing is a cross talk, but if you want to record it all the way, we can use it."

Fang Zhuo cupped his hands and said, "Thank you. What's your surname?"

Xiong Xiaoge knocked on the table: "Mr. Fang is addicted."

Xu Meng smiled and said: "This can be used as a sideshow."

Fang Zhuo also laughed. He didn't rehearse, he just thought Little Bear's whim was interesting.

He took a sip of water and asked: "This recording was cut casually, right? Let's just chat casually, Mr. Zhou, please sit down."

Only then did Zhou Zisen sit down. He was suddenly confused by the opening of these two people, but...the two of them had a tacit understanding when teasing each other. The important thing is that many of the things they said while joking and laughing were true.

Audience friends, there is truth between them...

Zhou Zisen’s Dachen was one of the venture capital companies that besieged Hang Lung 23 back then. Mr. Fang taught him a lesson right after he debuted, and he still remembers that lesson to this day.

"Mr. Fang, I invite you to come here today. In fact, I am as interested in your competition with the Penguins as the audience, and I inevitably want to ask about this." Xiong Xiaoge became serious.

"There's actually nothing to say about this matter. I sometimes watch the news, but there really isn't any inside story as some people describe. Normal business competition between two companies is sometimes amplified." Fang Zhuo summed it up simply, "Yike launched Yixin because it wanted to do communications. This is Penguin's inherent business, that's all."

Xiong Xiaoge sped up and talked about a series of things that happened a while ago: "So, Shenxin Technology was investigated for insider trading by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange? Penguin Portal publicly bombarded? Yike Software Store removed QQ? Yike and Penguin went to the capital for a meeting ?that is it?"

Fang Zhuo gave an initial response: "Hey, just say this!"

He saw Zhou Zisen smiling next to him, so he ignored it and said, "That's all. I have a bad memory. I can't remember the past clearly. The past is over. The important thing is the present, which is our communication business. "

Xiong Xiaoge asked: "Well, Mr. Fang, I know there is a question that the industry has always been curious about. How many users does Yixin have now?"

Fang Zhuo replied without hesitation: "9122601 users."

Zhou Zisen asked in an infected manner: "Don't you have a bad memory?"

Xiong Xiaoge waved his hand: "Remember the things that should be recorded, and wait for the ones that shouldn't be taken out with the knife to stab them later."

"That's nonsense. I happened to see the company's report on my phone just now." Fang Zhuo shook his head, "Yixin's customers are worth over 9 million, which is not satisfactory."

Xiong Xiaoge faced the camera: "Friends from the audience, unsatisfactory means barely satisfactory. Fang is always satisfied with Yixin's results. From the perspective of our investors, Yixin has only been successful since its launch on September 30. In one and a half months, this has been a miraculous growth.”

This was the most serious moment for him since the recording: "To put it simply, as long as Yixin is willing to open up financing for this project, and Mr. Fang opened his mouth today, the Yixin headquarters in the evening will be filled with investors from all over China."

Fang Zhuo smiled slightly: "It's all my colleagues who praise me. Without my colleagues, there would be no Yi Xin."

"As far as I know, Mr. Fang, Penguin attaches great importance to the competition with Yixin. It has launched a version of the software with similar functions. I also heard that there will be more competitive products. How will Yixin develop next?" Zhou Zisen asked.

Fang Zhuo shrugged: "Yixin's growth has plateaued. According to our estimates, it will only reach 1 million users in the next month. However, we will just develop silently. This is a long-term task, and it is impossible to suddenly appear." Just one marketing campaign will ignite Yixin’s user base.”

Xiong Xiaoge asked solemnly: "In addition to the right launch time, Mr. Fang, what other details do you think are the key to success of Yixin so quickly?"

"We have always put the user experience first, whether it is the Yizin software or the Yike mobile phone. Take the details of Yizhen as an example." Fang Zhuo took out his mobile phone and clicked on the beta version of Yixin. The letter was shown to the camera, "Just like our function that hasn't been launched yet, you see, if I send a message to Mr. Xiong, it shows that he has read it."

A beta version of Yixin was specially installed on his mobile phone.

Fang Zhuo said seriously: "What is the reason for this? This reduces the time cost of user communication. We at Yixin are often used by acquaintances. With this, there is no need to consider whether to change channels to contact us. The other party, such as calling or texting again.”

“In addition, for some lower-level messages, showing that they have been read is effective in substantively completing the communication.”

"Details like this are what we hope to bring to users a useful communication experience, which traditional text messages do not have."

Xiong Xiaoge said with a smile: "Yixin's development team is very technical and has a lot of considerations. It is because of their existence that Yixin can advance to this level."

"They think a lot, but sometimes, when we face competitive pressure, we worry about whether we are thinking about it right." Fang Zhuo shook his head with a smile.

Zhou Zisen said from the bottom of his heart: "Yixin has many users, and Yixin has the right team."

Fang Zhuogong handed over his hand and responded: "It's still close to tens of millions of users. It's almost the third largest mobile communication software in the country. It still has to rely on everyone's support and the support of its peers."