Reinventing the Millennium

On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, Penguin's stock price has fallen for five consecutive days since the Hong Kong Stock Exchange resumed trading on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, showing the secondary market's attitude towards Penguin's Spring Festival battle and future prospects.

But that day was the day when it fell the most, with its market value falling directly back below 30 billion US dollars. The core reason was that the head of Yike disclosed official data, with 40-45 million active users.

Moreover, the media widely reported his views on the competition between the two companies, saying that "there is no chance for a letter."

With such a competitive background, such data support, and Mr. Fang's sincerity, the stock price plummeted almost at the same time as Penguin reallocated resources.

Last year, when E-commerce went public, Penguin's market value was US$30.7 billion. Affected by the good news about its cooperation with the Spring Festival Gala, its stock price began to rise before the Spring Festival. However, this trend continued after E-commerce launched a blessing event. Slowing down, as of the New Year's Eve market close, the market value hit a record high of US$36.8 billion.

The market sentiment is excellent, and it is generally believed that Penguin can replicate the rapid growth of Yixin last year and reverse the competition between the two companies.

It closed at US$29.74 billion on the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, a drop of US$7.06 billion.

Such a decline not only adds more reporting content for the media, but also makes everyone attending the Penguin General Office meeting feel like they were in a trance. Last year, it fell like this after the New Year. Why did it happen again?

Time flies so fast, Yi Xin is so fierce, and Mr. Fang is so fierce!

And how did this happen...

Let’s start with Yixin breaking through the moat through the “Hippo Incident”.

But when talking about the "Hippo Incident", just like Zhang Chaoyang did not talk about Yi Xin's 16 months but talked about Yi Ke's 10 years, it seems to be just a microcosm of Penguin's past years, like an inevitable necessity.

Without it, Mr. Fang would probably still keep an eye on Penguin’s mistakes, right?

No, no, no, mistakes may be big or small, and they may not be such a good opportunity.

No, no, no, the further you delay, the stronger the hardware foundation of Yike will be. I don’t know what it will be like.

In the conference room of the General Office, Xu Chenye gave a mechanical report on the current situation. The others were silent, but they had mixed feelings in their hearts. Everyone knows what President Fang thinks, not to mention the industry-famous "Just do it Penguin"...

However, he really did it, and looking back on the past 16 months, it still makes people feel dazed.

"Okay, stop talking about the situation." Boss Ma Huateng suddenly interrupted Xu Chenye's uncomfortable report and directly expanded the scope of participation, "Let the heads of each department come to the meeting."

The highest-level meeting expanded the number of participants, but the atmosphere did not ease due to the increase in the number of people. On the contrary, it became more dull.

Everyone who walks in has a solemn expression, and these individual solemnities add up to the anxiety and uneasiness of the company.

No one understands better than Penguin himself what the failure of "Letter" in mobile strategy means.

There is no need to go into details about the significance of the mobile Internet, and Mr. Fang’s famous saying “Mobile Internet is subversion” is also very famous. However, Penguin did not expect that Qiang Ru himself would be among the first to be subverted.

What's more, we Penguin have already started to move around. Alibaba and Baidu over there are still slow. If we want to conquer, we should start from there!

This kind of confusion really makes people crazy!

The conference room remained silent after everyone arrived. President Liu Chiping frowned slightly, Vice President Ren Yuxi held a pen, and Xu Chenye, Lu Shan and others were either reading documents or raising glasses and drinking tea, waiting for the content of this impromptu meeting.

"Letter failed."

Ma Huateng's first sentence shocked many people. No matter what the outside world said, for the head of the family to directly admit failure is tantamount to...

Okay, I broke the luck mentality.

"Yixin has more than 40 million active users, which is still growing. Our active users are 13.6 million, which is still declining since the Spring Festival."

"The situation before us is extremely serious."

Ma Huateng talked about the latest data of the two softwares. Active users are the foundation of the software. Normally, letters will continue to grow during the Chinese New Year, but with Yixin, which has a better reputation and a larger number of people, there has been an obvious increase. The siphon effect caused letters to fall instead of rising.

Once this situation starts, considering the subsequent actions of competitors, it may be really difficult to have a chance.

You can still continue to write letters, you can still advocate the traffic drainage effect and the number of registrations, you can still linger on, but what is the point of struggling?

Ma Huateng has been thinking about it over and over these days, and has also seen some people's opinions and information from Yike. He really agrees with Sohu Zhang Chaoyang's statement that Yixin's development is not the result of 16 months, but the accumulation of Yike's 10 years. strength.

Similarly, the failure of the letter is not a matter of 16 months, but the shortcomings accumulated by Penguin in the past.

Ma Huateng reflected on the company, and what came to mind was another declining giant, Nokia. Coincidentally, Yike also had a share of the credit for this.

And how did Yike succeed by stepping on Nokia, and how did it enter the communications field by stepping on Penguin?

Comparing the past self and the current opponent, two extremely obvious characteristics emerged: closedness and openness.

Penguin has internally mentioned the goal of "to be among the top three in the industry in every important segment of the Internet." There have also been jokes among each other about "taking all roads and leaving other companies with no way to go." That is to say, we must Get your hands on the fruit.

Yike, which makes mobile phone products, united with a number of manufacturers to attack Nokia's Symbian, and built YMS to unite the surrounding ecosystem. This time, it has clearly taken advantage of system operations.

Fang Zhuo often talks about win-win. Although his win-win is questionable in some cases, it has indeed been effective in many businesses.

The conference room became more dull because of the leader's organizational language.

The situation is grim and Penguin is in danger. This kind of failure in core business is too unacceptable!

"However, the letter has lost, but we have not lost yet."

Ma Huateng spoke again, picked up the data file at hand, and made a twist.

"We're still a $30 billion company."

He put down the document and corrected his mistake: "Sorry, it's a company with a market capitalization of US$29.74 billion, but it's still one of the top four companies."

This is an honorary title awarded online by Tesco before.

Ma Huateng's accurate market value and honorary titles are quite a bit of joy in the bitterness.

The mood of everyone in the conference room has indeed eased a bit, and no one is talking. They are all paying attention to Mr. Ma's thinking at this juncture.

Penguin had the Five Tigers, and later they were joined by powerful forces like Liu Chiping, but Ma Huateng was always the most authoritative leader of Penguin.

"YiXin has gained a huge advantage that can win on this track. However, the entire communications market is not either/or. Our QQ is still No. 1 in the communications market."

Can communications markets coexist?

It certainly can.

"However, our current No. 1 is completely different from the past. If we are not careful, Yike's Yixin will even surpass our QQ."

What will the market look like after coexistence?

Penguins are definitely not as comfortable as they used to be.

"In a sense, it was Yike that woke us up. We must face up to the disadvantages that exist today. Not only that, we also have to learn from Yike, its platform, and its openness."

"There is nothing to hide. Yike can beat us in the areas we are good at, which proves that they are better."

"However, only 16 months of competition is not enough to defeat us. For a software like Laixin, 16 months may be a long time. However, for Penguin and Yike, our competition has just begun."

"The era of mobile Internet has just arrived. In the past, Penguin could start from scratch, but now we start from US$29.74 billion, but can't we?"

“In the future, our strategy must be more open and share traffic with the entire Internet, rather than being closed and unable to recover.”

Ma Huateng described his strategic thinking. Penguins can coexist and have not yet reached the end of the mobile era. Everything is still promising.

His voice slowed down: "Kodak is coming to an end, and Nokia has fallen off the altar. Even if they can't keep up with the times, their demise will come as expected."

"When the giant fell, his body temperature was still warm."

"We have reached a period of strategic transformation. We must change, we must change."

Ma Huateng paused and said something shocking, which clearly proved his determination: "Even if it is suitable, we will not rule out cooperation with Yike."

There was some vague commotion in the conference room.

Everyone feels the intensity of this "strategic transformation". If even Yike can cooperate, this is really... an unprecedented attitude!

After everyone digested his words, Ma Huateng said: "A company with a market value of US$29.74 billion has reached a moment of life and death. I hope that when others list business cases in the future, Penguin will not become a bloody lesson like Kodak and Nokia. .”

The Penguin leader's internal speech ended.

He did not request that this impromptu speech, which he had thought about for a long time, not be leaked, which meant that it was more like an internal public speech.

Acknowledge failures and setbacks in letters and company strategy.

Clearly carry out the strategic transformation of openness and sharing.

And, the current and future severe development situation.

Ma Huateng showed no intention of listening to the ideas of others in the conference room and signaled that the emergency meeting would end here.

However, when there are still only 11 people in the general office left, how to proceed around the leader's ideas is still a problem, but unconsciously, the attitude of "what to do now" has turned into a consideration of "what to do now".

The original meeting of the General Office lasted until the evening, and the will of the Penguin's top decision-makers gradually became clearer.

Based on Ma Huateng's strategic description, we will broaden the boundaries of the Internet, attach importance to the application and development of data, use the power of capital and the sharing of traffic to carry out two-wheel drive, and seek the development of Penguin in the new mobile era.

This is a painful decision after the failure of "Letter", and it is also a positive adjustment in the face of competition.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Xu Chenye walked into Ma Huateng's office and saw him looking thoughtfully out the window.

"Can you really cooperate with Yike?" Xu Chenye asked directly without greetings, what shocked everyone before.

"As long as it's appropriate, it's not impossible." Ma Huateng came back to his senses, "We must implement the right strategy to the end."

"Aren't you afraid that Fang Zhuo will turn your right strategy into a wrong strategy that is beneficial to him?" Xu Chenye said.

Ma Huateng choked and muttered: "So, we have to carefully check whether it is suitable. In short, we have to change. If we are poor, we will change. If we change, we will be general. If we are general, we will be long-lasting."

Xu Chenye was silent for two seconds and complained faintly: "There is the word "Yi" in front of it."

"Book of Changes·Xici": Yi, if it is poor, it will change, if it is changed, it will be general, and if it is general, it will last.

He sighed: "If this continues, I might as well find someone named Fang and have him inscribe 'Four Big Five' and hang it in his office. Maybe it will be more effective."

Ma Huateng glanced at Xu Chenye: "If you dare to ask, he will dare to ask questions."

Xu Chenye resisted the urge to sigh again. He already understood what Pony meant. At the moment, he wanted to focus on the company itself and the expansion and application of the still huge traffic in the mobile Internet era.

Or, it can also be understood as slightly avoiding the edge.

…

The decline in Penguin's stock price and the increase in QQ's resources have all fallen into Yike's eyes, and they have naturally been included in discussions at high-level meetings.

Especially the latter, this is surrender.

Therefore, Yixin is bound to develop faster. At the very least, it can devour the users developed by a wave of letters. Anyway, the interfaces and uses of the two software are similar.

Fang Zhuo discussed with everyone the status of Yixin and QQ in the future market. Ace applications like Penguin are still monsters, but they are not as tit-for-tat as Letters.

Although QQ has also added an address book function and will definitely continue to increase its focus in this area, there is still a clear difference in the tonality of the two products.

When the speech of the leader Ma Huateng was circulated within Penguin, this information was placed on Fang Zhuo's desk, which surprised him a little.

I wasn't surprised by Pony's change of attitude when he said "I can cooperate with Yi Ke", but I was surprised by the speed of Penguin's turn.

In less than two weeks, the Penguins appear to have made up their minds.

Fang Zhuo thought about the new competitive situation, and the result of his discussions with Qi He, Zhang Xiaolong and others was nothing more than two words - cannibalization.

Yixin must first develop itself, and then encroach on the other party's market in competition with QQ.

However, a problem that existed in the past has also been raised before us. How to commercialize Yixin? In the past 16 months, we have been purely burning money. A long-term business logic obviously cannot be like this.

However, there is still competition and attention should be paid to word of mouth.

Yixin gives Penguin users a new choice, and in turn, Penguin can always be another choice for Yixin users.

"Mr. Fang, Mr. Wu from China Unicom will come to Shanghai after the Lantern Festival." Liu Zonghong reported a new news.

"Let Qi He receive you." Fang Zhuo has plans to go to Spain and doesn't intend to let Mr. Wu wait here anymore. "Did he mention anything?"

"Not really, it's still the promotion of China Unicom package cards." Liu Zonghong replied.

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly. He knew that Mr. Wu now belonged to the Yixin faction within China Unicom. There had been calls in China Unicom to develop its own software, but this year's fierce competition and the growth of Yixin undoubtedly suppressed similar proposals again.

China Unicom is quite interesting. There was an internal argument earlier that it could not engage in this type of innovative competition, so it promoted cooperation with Yixin.

"Anyway, a new era has begun."

Fang Zhuo looked at the northern sky and knew that there would soon be a tentative attempt at a new era.

There is a birthday event for Mr. Xiong. You can go to the "Activity Center" to participate.