Top of the big era

From morning to afternoon, Zhou Buqi felt a little sore in his back, but the old guy Ballmer was still in high spirits. This entrepreneurial spirit really requires a bit of hard work and hard work.

Fortunately, the initial intention has been achieved.

Zhou Buqi did Ballmer a big favor.

Not only did they agree to sell Yammer to Microsoft, they would also sell the core assets of UC Group to Microsoft, in addition to reserving two domestic products.

One is UC mobile assistant and the other is UC reader.

UC Mobile Assistant was renamed from 91 Mobile Assistant earlier and is currently the most popular mobile assistant App in China. According to the latest data, the number of users has exceeded 80 million.

Various data and major policies have shown that this year will be a big year for the explosion of smartphones in China.

With the explosion of smartphones, the number of users of various top apps will become larger and larger.

UC Reader is an app for reading novels on your mobile phone.

There are a large number of pirated resources in it, integrating almost all domestic online novels, and the resources are very rich. This has become the most popular novel reader in the country.

But there is no way out for this type of product.

As domestic protection of intellectual property rights strengthens, it will become increasingly difficult for such products to survive.

Better to sell than keep it.

Baidu has also been actively developing the field of online literature recently, so why not sell it to them as well?

Zhou Buqi did not make such a decision to deceive others, at least not Baidu.

If you want to cheat, you also want to cheat Microsoft.

Although in Zhou Buqi's view, UC Mobile Assistant and UC Reader are two products with no future, they are still very important to Baidu.

Baidu's layout on the mobile side has lagged very far behind. Its core product, Baidu Mobile App, is not even in the top 50 in China.

The most urgent thing is to stop looking at the future.

Let’s seize the moment first!

There is not even a "now", so how can we talk about a "future"?

In any case, both UC Mobile Assistant and UC Reader have a huge mobile user base. After Baidu bought them, they spent a certain amount of time changing their names to Baidu Mobile Assistant and Baidu Reader.

It is equivalent to user traffic.

Introducing so many mobile phone users into Baidu's product system.

Ballmer agreed to split UC Mobile Assistant and UC Reader from UC Group and sell them to Baidu without any objection.

But he insisted on one thing.

He wants to get all the "UC" brands.

This is a bit difficult.

Because of the products bearing the UC name, the most popular one in the world is not UC Browser, but Ucgram. Although one is "UC" and the other is "Uc", there is a case difference, but the correlation between the products is still obvious.

Originally, according to Zhou Buqi's plan, he would let the other party change his name after selling it.

For example, if you sell UC Mobile Assistant to Baidu, you have to give Baidu a two-year buffer time, and then change the name of the product to Baidu Mobile Assistant.

Microsoft is the same and wants them to replace UC with its own brand.

But Ballmer disagrees.

The company has bought it, but the brand cannot. How can this make sense?

This is a bit troublesome.

In the evening, Ballmer took a private plane back to Seattle to hold a board meeting to discuss the next step of heavyweight mergers and acquisitions.

Zhou Buqi was a little tired, so he still left Lu Qi in the office.

Discuss what to do about this.

Lu Qiyan said concisely, "If you really want to sell UC Group to Microsoft, there are actually two options for Ucgram. One is to keep your name unchanged, and the other is to change your name."

Zhou Buqi said without hesitation: "It can't stay the same! Either they change, or we change!"

Although selling UC to Microsoft was not in the category of foresight, he had foreseen it.

In the hands of Microsoft, UC will definitely get worse and worse.

What Ballmer is most optimistic about is actually UC Browser, which is the second largest mobile phone product in the world after Google Chrome.

But how can this thing have a way out?

The days of browsers are long gone.

Even if there is still a little market left, it is dominated by Google Chrome.

This means that the UC brand will become increasingly weak in the hands of Microsoft, and its reputation will become worse and worse... What if Ucgram is implicated?

Even if the implication is small, Ucgram will be an increasingly successful product. With the success of this product, the UC brand will also be established.

Isn’t this free advertising for Microsoft?

This is not possible!

Either Microsoft gives up UC, or Ziweixing gives up UC.

Lu Qi was in a dilemma, "If Ucgram changes its name, how will it be changed? The popularity and usage habits it has cultivated over the past three years will be lost."

Zhou Buqi had a headache, "Yes, if you continue to break it, you will suffer chaos."

"ah?"

Lu Qi was a little surprised.

Zhou Buqi said: "I wanted to change it at the beginning. I thought that using the UC brand would have some troubles, but the product had already been launched, so I didn't make the decision."

Ucgram is actually Instagram.

When this product was launched, it was a complete coincidence.

Tang Binchen was in charge of Ziweixing Japan at the time.

There is a domestic photo editing software called "Weimei Xiuxiu". It failed in the competition with "Meitu Xiuxiu" and the project team is about to be disbanded.

It happened to be discovered by Tang Binchen.

Then I moderately revised the WIMI show and released it in Japan, and it immediately became popular... This product is UC Beauty.

After developing in Japan, Tang Binchen added some social functions to the product, allowing you to share pictures with friends, and launched an English version to the European and American markets, called UCgram.

The whole thing was completely out of Zhou Buqi's control, and then it became popular all over the world.

It's too late to change the name.

It has been postponed until now, and it is almost impossible to change the name.

UC Mobile Assistant can be renamed Baidu Mobile Assistant, because the brand value of "Baidu" is greater than that of "UC" and will have more appeal. Changing Ucgram to Instagram won’t work. What the hell is “insta”? It’s unattractive and users have become accustomed to the playful nature of “uc”.

This is a social product for photo sharing. The most important selling point is sharing beautiful photos for others to see.

It just so happens that "uc" is the homophone of "you_see" in English, which means "you see".

The name is so consistent with the positioning of this product!

In terms of the fun and evocativeness of the name alone, ucgram will leave a deeper impression on people than Instagram, and will be easier to remember and spread.

However, changing the name of a product is a matter of business level. Even if Zhou Buqi is the big boss, it is not easy to directly interfere with other people's products.

Lu Qi didn't agree with the name change, so he went around in a circle, "Why don't you ask Tang Binchen?"

Zhou Buqi felt helpless, "Okay, give him a call."

Lu Qi called Tang Binchen.

Not surprisingly.

Tang Binchen firmly refused to change his name!

Zhou Buqi was helpless.

Tang Binchen said: "As the old saying goes, if you are poor, don't change your family, and if you are rich, don't move to your grave. Ucgram is doing so well now that there is no real competitor on the market... Facebook has also launched a similar product, and there is no competition at all. Strength. Then why change the name? What if the name is changed and the good momentum stops? "

All right!

The reasons are strong.

Tang Binchen continued: "How much does UC Group cost? If it is sold at the top price, can it sell for 3 billion US dollars? But the potential value of Ucgram is full of imagination. Don't lose the big for the small. Besides, didn't we change our name, from upper case to lower case? ”

It would be difficult for Zhou Buqi to say anything more to him.

Hang up the phone.

Zhou Buqi sighed, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lu Qi let out a long sigh of relief, feeling relieved.

Depend on!

He doesn’t agree with this either!

Zhou Buqi felt helpless and asked instead: "When will Helo's circle of friends function be launched?"

"It's expected to be in April, and it's still under testing." Lu Qi smiled, "Once the function of Moments is launched, it will form a huge competition for Facebook. It will be a stronger social network of acquaintances."

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows, "By the way, are Helo's Moments and WeChat's Moments the same structure?"

Lu Qi said: "Yes, it's the same thing. They are all developed domestically, and they are adjusted appropriately abroad."

Zhou Buqi said: "WeChat's Moments will also be launched in April, right?"

"right."

"Why don't Helo wait first?"

"Um?"

Lu Qi raised his eyebrows.

Zhou Buqi said: "Ziweixing's situation in China is very good. WeChat has firmly seized the territory. We can let WeChat go online first and give it a try first. Let's wait until June. When WeChat's experiments are completed, we can put some Common problems have been fixed, and Helo will launch Moments online again, so the product can be more mature."

Lu Qi hesitated, "Is it too late? Tang Binchen also said just now that Facebook has already challenged us. They have imitated Ucgram and launched a similar picture social product. We will not take action. ?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Don't worry, the stability of the product is more important. Overseas markets will be more complicated when facing so many countries. Especially the most important point is that in China, the circle of friends is the continuation of the friend network and has formed If users are used to it, it will be easier to promote. This will not work overseas. In overseas markets, social networks of acquaintances are dominated by Facebook. If Helo’s circle of friends is not mature enough, it will be easy to compare with Facebook.”

Lu Qi nodded, "Okay, let's postpone the release for two months."

"That's how it should be."

Zhou Buqi actually had another consideration.

Facebook's IPO plan has been confirmed after a series of adjustments and will be listed in May. During the IPO process, Ziweixing International will sell a large number of shares, thus reducing Ziweixing International’s influence in Facebook.

Both parties are competitors who are willing to take advantage of the situation, and it would be inappropriate to have some deep-seated equity disputes.

At least the shares should be reduced to less than 5%.

Zhou Buqi is also happy to see the success.

Cash out a wave of stocks to ease the current cash flow pressure of Ziweixing International.

Therefore, if the two sides want to go to war, it is best to wait until Zhou Buqi cashes out all his stocks. What if Facebook is beaten too badly and its stock price plummets, and its own interests will also be damaged...

Zhou Buqi even has a plan, why not take this opportunity to completely sell out all Facebook’s shares!

Sell ​​out, get the money, go buy Yahoo!