Reinventing the Millennium

When Fang Zhuo came to Beijing this time, in addition to trying to use the CCTV platform to speak out for Yixin, he also attached great importance to communication with China Unicom.

Among the SMS services of the three major operators, China Mobile accounts for half of the revenue and has the greatest inherent benefits. China Unicom has a solid cooperative relationship with Yike and has a user base that exceeds China Telecom. It is a good breakthrough point.

If there was no 3Q war, if there was no heated giant dispute between Yike and Penguin, Yixin would develop in a low-key manner, first forming a sizable user group, and then in turn force the operators, which is also a development path.

However, just like Fang Zhuo also regretted that Yixin was not launched when smartphones formed a stronger foundation. If the reality is the case, then we can only find a more suitable development model.

This can be regarded as the pros and cons of Yixin relying on the momentum of public opinion. After all, it has a reputation as a giant, after all, it is so high-profile, and after all, it came to the capital to hold two meetings in a row with Gongxin, which is a relatively appropriate time to enter the game.

"The carriers' tariffs are indeed expensive. China Unicom will launch traffic packages before the Spring Festival. We also have to draft an opinion to see if we can help users get more affordable benefits."

After returning to Shanghai from the capital, Fang Zhuo held a meeting and assigned tasks specifically for China Unicom's package cooperation.

This draft of opinions is not just random talk, it is about giving a complete solution based on the conditions of different regions.

Today's China Mobile, China Unicom, and Telecom, in terms of data traffic, basically have 5 yuan for 30M traffic packages, 10 yuan for 70M, 20/150M, 50/500M, 100/2G and other standards that fluctuate up and down.

This is already the standard after the preferential price reduction. It was originally 5/10M, 10/30M, and 20/50M. However, the traffic packages and packages after the price increase are often not enough for 3G users.

In addition, the threshold for this 3G tariff package is also relatively high. In many cities, the starting price of China Mobile is 88 yuan, then 128 yuan, 188 yuan, 288 yuan...

China Unicom's starting threshold is lower than China Mobile's, but it still starts at 68 yuan.

From a personal point of view, Fang Zhuo thinks it is more appropriate to cut the threshold of this package by half, but he is not very sensitive to these numbers now and still needs to look at the company's research.

Research takes time, but everyone has come up with a lot of plan ideas.

For example, college students, who are most receptive to new things, can open school cards for them, which will provide cheaper traffic as long as they are within the scope of the school.

In comparison, the 3G package threshold for office workers with independent financial ability is slightly more expensive.

This actually activated Fang Zhuo's memory. The operator seems to have done this before. Maybe the effect is not bad?

He didn't understand this, but it made sense logically.

On November 16, two days after Fang Zhuo responded, Penguin began to warm up for the launch of another free mobile communication software. The name seemed to continue the market habit of "X Letter" and was called "Letter".

Whether it's Fetion or Yixin, the "letter" means information.

The "letter" from Penguin... is also quite appropriate. In the past, letters were sent from far away places, but now new information comes on the mobile phone.

However, Fang Zhuo always felt a little weird after seeing it. He even wanted to call Pony, thinking it would be better to use "WeChat". Unfortunately, Pony's move of blocking the phone was too hurtful.

However, considering that there are other products called Toilet MT, Fox Friends... the letter is pretty good.

According to Penguin’s preview, “Letter” will be officially launched on November 26. It will be a communication software focusing on free SMS communication. It is almost nakedly introduced as Yixin’s benchmark product.

Considering this situation, Fang Zhuo thought it was time to let "Read" go online to try to communicate.

Well, Yixin is the answer to QQ, and Read is the answer to the letter.

Even if CCTV is not able to launch "Zhihuzai" and promote it accordingly, it must first let ghost users experience the latest features of Yixin, which can also make the former a footnote to the latter.

On November 18, Yixin updated in a low-key manner, describing the content of this update in the YMS software store. In addition to "resolving some known bugs", it also "updated the 'read' early adopter function for some users."

Just two days later, Yixin announced news that, even if it was predictable, still shocked the industry - the number of users officially exceeded 10 million.

Putting aside the competition with Penguin, the number of users at such a landmark node is really important to the new software.

Zhang Xiaolong, President of Yixin, personally published a handwritten letter on the official website, reviewing his journey of developing email, joining Sina Mail, developing communication products, and reaching the present.

He sincerely thanked the users, the team for their hard work, and Mr. Fang for his promotion.

Zhang Xiaolong’s letter is particularly upright.

But Wang Xing on Weibo added two sentences as usual to help: You have to thank Penguin, thank 360, thank Mr. Ma for caring about Yike’s business, and thank the users for really choosing between the two.

Later, he published another update, praising Yixin's new features: This early adopter of Read is really good. I called and asked about it. He said that as soon as this was launched, there was a wave of more users, and it directly broke through the 10 million integer barrier.

Wang Xing is a big mouth, this is a certain thing.

But he is indeed the president of Weibo and has a close relationship with Mr. Fang. Otherwise, how could he have received such high regard and even a gift of a book?

Penguin's newly established "Letter" team held another wave of discussions under the organization of Senior Vice President Lu Shan, focusing on the new features promoted by Yixin.

"Having read this, I always feel that it will hurt the user's social boundaries. Although it is only a small detail, it seems to change the tone of the software."

"I think it's okay. It's an innovation. I think the reviews on their software store are pretty good."

"There are many voices on Wang Xing Weibo who hope that this function will be opened to the public as soon as possible."

"I'm not telling you, can this thing really satisfy users? Why do I feel awkward just thinking about it?"

There were different opinions in the discussion within the letter team, but no one thought that Yixin dared not make such an attempt. To be honest, Yixin Company has always had a daring temperament.

Lu Shan listened to everyone's discussion and was also thinking about the pros and cons of this function.

Of course, Penguin will not blindly follow it. The pros and cons of a new feature need to be weighed. Otherwise, why would Yixin continue to try this range instead of directly implementing it all?

The evening's discussion did not lead to a unified conclusion.

Before announcing the end of the meeting, Lu Shan asked: "Which of you had your cell phone picked? Let's see how it feels."

All the participating members were unsuccessful, and no one was selected by Yi Xin.

Lu Shan was a little surprised: "Why not? I see there is a lot of new feedback from YMS."

"Yixin must be doing orientation. Maybe they tried it in East China. This function is easy to implement. If you want to try it, we can just add it directly to the letter internally." Hong Zhenhui, the product manager of the letter, naturally explained to Yixin.

Isn’t geo-targeting normal?

During the previous 3Q war, we tried our best not to force installation in the big cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Lu Shan's strangeness was suppressed, and after pondering, he still said: "Then let's make a version first, and let's try it ourselves."

Just talking and watching is not enough, you have to have your own experience.

However, before the letter could be tested internally, Lu Shan received news from his colleagues the next afternoon and saw the new program "Zhihu Zai" broadcast in the afternoon on CCTV.

An interview show, or in other words, a chat show, that had little publicity before but was personally previewed by Xiong Xiaoge on Zhihu and Weibo before it was broadcast.

Just by looking at the name, I knew the sponsor of this column. However, when Lu Shan turned on the TV at the right time, he was shocked to hear an introduction that sounded like a cross talk.

Crosstalk is not strange, what is strange is the people who talk about it.

Does Mr. Fang still have this skill?

Tsk, this Xiong Xiaoge is completely in cahoots with Mr. Fang, Baidu will do no harm to him.

Lu Shan quickly ignored some of the strange feelings towards her family and noticed the information revealed in this program.

9122601 users? When was this recorded? It has now exceeded 10 million.

Read it before it goes online? Reduce user communication costs?

Lu Shan thought thoughtfully, is it a higher priority to reduce communication costs between acquaintances?

He didn't jump to conclusions.

Just the next day, the internal beta version of Laixin was launched, and the entire team used the software that added the read function.

Lu Shan felt a little uncomfortable when using it himself, but after listening to other people's opinions, it seemed that it would be okay after he got used to it?

News from the outside comes to my ears from time to time, and the recording and playback time of "Zhihuzai" is also easy to determine, but with this determination, the read function of the letter seems more pleasing to the eye.

It seems that hundreds of thousands of users have been added in less than a week. This speed is very high after Yixin has gone through a period of rapid growth.

Lu Shan noticed the change in the tone of discussions within the team, and also noticed that many people on Weibo were discussing this feature, but these users were doing their own extensions.

——“Smelly baby, let’s see if you dare to pretend you didn’t see my text message next time!”

——"The love we are in is called read."

——"It's easy to use, easy to use, easy to use, please give it to my mom, dad, and brother!"

——"Yixin is easy to use, better than QQ."

——“Let’s have a sweet love story!”

Lu Shan knew that at certain moments, not just now but in the past, many of his senior executives felt a sense of fear in their hearts, fearing that they did not understand users or young people.

Now, he suddenly had a similar feeling. What kind of love is called read? My QQ show will give you two more sets of clothes. Can you uninstall that Yixin?

In the afternoon of November 23, Lu Shan listened to the internal opinions in the letter and then made a small adjustment.

If Yi Xin goes up, then so will we.

Yixin is afraid of making mistakes because some users are early adopters, so some of our users are also early adopters.

Is this safe after all?

On November 26, Penguin's mobile communication benchmark product "Lixin" was officially launched. It was accompanied by the news that the number of "YiXin" users once again exceeded 11 million, and high hopes were placed on it.

In addition to similar software interfaces and similar functions, the online mail has a unique function, which is Penguin's trump card this time.

It supports QQ account interoperability registration, and you can receive messages after QQ goes offline in a timely manner, which is a very direct way to import traffic.

After the letter went online, Hong Kong stocks surged again, expressing optimism about Penguin’s competitive response.

…

"President Fangda, please add a 'read' function to my Yixin. Don't ask me to beg you."

On the evening of November 27, Su Wei finally relieved the frequent overtime work caused by Tesco's Double Eleven, and took a bus home with Fang Zhuo, who rarely got off work on time.

In the car, she remembered the recently popular Yixin function and made a small request.

"Ah?" Fang Zhuo was stunned for a moment before he remembered that he had never discussed this with Teacher Xiao Su. He laughed and said, "We don't have this function, how can we add it to you?"

Su Wei gave the same reaction: "Huh?"

She would not doubt this man's words. President Buff entered her mind, her thoughts were spinning rapidly, she connected the scattered things together, and said in shock: "You... you lied?"

Fang Zhuo nodded happily.

"This, um, can't be what it was yesterday..." Su Wei was really surprised. She calmed down and asked, "Is it true that the number of users exceeded 11 million yesterday?"

Fang Zhuo said implicitly: "Isn't it normal for Internet companies to inject data into the company?"

This is normal in the industry, but Yike has always been relatively standardized in this regard...

Su Wei: "...how much water was added?"

"Close to 2 million, less than 20%." Fang Zhuo shrugged, "Is this a good ratio?"

Su Wei was even more surprised: "The symbolic significance of breaking through 10 million before co-authoring, is there something wrong with that number? You... Zhang Xiaolong... Wang Xing..."

She couldn't help but rolled her eyes. These people were really colluding.

"I don't know how effective it is. Maybe users like the read setting of Penguin. The internal preferences of user groups are also very different." Fang Zhuo shook his head, "I will give it a try."

Once you try it, it will work. The interface, color, and application bar of the incoming message are all the same as Yixin, and it almost has the hippopotamus emoticon.

However, the similarity this time is like the Star Absorbing Technique absorbing the internal energy and even absorbing the ice energy.

Fang Zhuo even suspected that Penguin might not have held a meeting internally to discuss this, and did not pay attention to the comments of the YMS platform and the advocacy of other platforms. Maybe he pointed to Yixin on his mobile phone and said, "Just press this. How does it come? How do we do it?" ".

No matter what, my attitude here is serious. The true qi of the ice must be like the true qi of the ice. I will continue to update user comments in the future.

"It's really hard to guard against it." Su Wei glanced at the man in front of her.

"They look the same. I haven't asked YMS to take them off the shelves yet. The letters they send are Yixin." Fang Zhuo complained.

According to the YMS review, there is now reason to remove Penguin’s new products from the shelves.

However, considering that the effect of the last interview meeting has not completely faded, he has asked the product department to communicate with the other party to at least change the color and not be too similar.

Fang Zhuo was also confused. Penguin should have internally reflected on and discussed the previous incident. Why is it still like this?

The car arrives at the villa.

As soon as Su Wei got out of the car, she found that a guest had arrived.

"Mr. Liu?" Su Wei recognized Liu Suyi, the president of Yongke Real Estate.

"Good evening, Mr. Su." Liu Suyi said hello with some reluctance, and then said hello to the boss who got off the car.

Su Wei glanced at Fang Zhuo, then at the sullen Liu Suyi, and said with a smile: "With such a lack of energy, Mr. Fang is going to sell his stocks, right?"

Liu Suyi: "..."

He came just after receiving this notice.

Seeing this, Su Wei realized that she had guessed right. Fang was not honest in what he did. At least he wanted to wait until Yongke Real Estate had completely built the new headquarters before selling it.

"You guys chat, I'll go upstairs." She couldn't bear to stay at the scene any longer.

"Go in and sit down, Mr. Liu." Fang Zhuo said in a friendly voice.

Liu Suyi took a breath of the ruthless cold air in late November and followed the boss into the living room.

However, he didn't even drink water when he heard Mr. Fang's extremely straightforward statement.

"I'm going to absorb Morningstar's shares and trigger a general tender offer when it reaches 30%." Fang Zhuo took a sip of water, "Just in time, I have Yongke Real Estate shares on hand, which can come in handy this time."

Liu Suyi did not expect that Yongke’s first reduction in holdings came from such a background.

Morning Star, Morning Star, if you fall from the sky, don’t hit me on the head...