Rebirth starts with small money

Chapter 554 Free is a Double-Edged Sword

"Brother Lei~ What are you talking about!"

"Our red pony has a small family and a small business. We made a move for free before, and that was a last resort."

"After all. We have just set foot in this industry, so we can only be tough on ourselves, otherwise it will be difficult to gain a foothold."

"As for the next thing, it's naturally impossible to do something for free."

"Continue to do so. We can't even afford to eat."

Facing Rebus's questioning, Chen Li gave the answer.

He was actually quite curious~ Would the famous Rebs be worried about the red pony's free move?

You know, there were so many free office software popular in the market in the previous life, but big companies in the software industry such as Yinshan still made a lot of money.

So he was a little curious~ Is the power of "free" really that great?

No way~ Chen Li was just a nightclub director in his previous life, and the "free" that he usually has access to is actually not as good as he imagined.

Isn't there a good saying?The free ones are actually the most expensive.

From Chen Li's point of view, even if Red Pony Technology's office software is free in the future, logically speaking, it will at most have a certain impact on Yinshan Software, but the impact will definitely not be that great.

But Chen Li didn't know that the free that he knew was only for his individual in his previous life.

If the same strategy is placed in business operations, that is another matter.

Of course ~ In fact, for an industry giant like Yinshan Company, if it is normal market competition ~ there is nothing to worry about.

Don't look at Yinshan Duba being beaten by Red Pony Technology in the previous security software industry, but business competition is basically you come and go.

One loss~ It's not that serious at all, but if you lose all the games, it's a fatal thing.

For Yinshan, the software industry is their basic game, and a small part of the game is harmless to the whole game board.

So what is Yinshan Software worried about?Of course, he was worried that the shit-stirring stick of the red pony would directly mess up the entire chessboard.

Especially if the red pony is free at every turn, if the red pony even provides office software for free at that time, even if Yinshan software will not be defeated like a mountain~ but it will definitely hurt the muscles and bones.

As far as the company is concerned, let alone hurting the muscles and bones, even if it is just a little less money, those shareholders and investors will probably fall out.

After all, if you want to earn money in your own bag, then it is your own.

Therefore, as the general manager of Yinshan Company, Rebs naturally has enough reasons to be worried that the red pony will come out to disrupt the situation.

And it's not unreasonable for Rebs and Yinshan to be worried, because Red Pony Technology really planned to use the tactic of free from the beginning.

Although the move of free is considered to be a move that can hurt the enemy by [-] ~ self-damage by [-], but it is really easy to use!

Especially when it comes to competing for market share, this trick can be called a big killer.

As long as there is no problem with the product itself, then come to the next one for free. No matter what leader or overlord you are, I will kill you all.

After all, it's free~ that's really fragrant!
Even if there is a certain gap between the two products, as long as the gap is not big enough to allow enterprises and individuals to cope with corresponding office operations, free products must be more popular than paid ones.

That is to say ~ as long as Red Pony Technology really resorts to this trick, it is bound to have an advantage in the next battle for office software market share ~.

Unless other manufacturers follow in the footsteps of the red pony and implement free of charge, it is basically a certainty that the market share will be taken away by the red pony technology.

So here comes the question~ If the red pony keeps doing this, where is their profit point?
This has to mention a new department of Red Pony Technology
Advertising business department!
We all know that the vast majority of Internet companies make profits these days through advertising revenue.

For example, those portal websites~even including hao123 under Chen Li's name, almost all of the revenue of these websites comes from advertising business.

But to be honest~ the effect of Internet advertising, in 2000, it would have been very weak.

Therefore, except for those advertisers who are involved in violations of laws and regulations and are willing to pay high prices, other advertising costs are generally relatively low.

And this also creates a situation, that is, the operating income of these Internet companies is very low, and most Internet companies cannot achieve a balance between operating income and expenditure.

So many small websites can only face bankruptcy and site closure after burning out their money.

So so far, except for a small number of top portal websites, most of the small websites are either operating in debt or they will be beaten to the edge or even small websites that violate laws and regulations.

There are even some websites that simply violate laws and regulations, and their website pages are full of programs such as viruses and Trojan horses. As long as you click in, you will be recruited.

In the final analysis, the problem of insufficient traffic is still the problem. Those large portal websites almost eat up more than half of the traffic, leaving only a small part for other small websites to compete for.

But in the software industry, no one has thought of advertising yet.

Of course~ this sentence is not necessarily true, maybe there are~ but definitely not many, and the scale of the other party is definitely not large.

But the Red Pony is different~ Just a free running security guard is enough for the advertising business department to flex its muscles temporarily.

That's right~ it's only temporary, because as a reborn, Chen Li is well aware of the double-edged sword of free advertising.

Advertisements can be placed on the security guard, but it must not be excessive. Once it is excessive, the security guard will become 3721 in the previous life sooner or later.
Speaking of it~ This incident also shocked Chen Li at the beginning, after all, this kind of trick is too similar to the rogue software in the previous life.

But it's no wonder that now the chief engineer of Red Pony Technology is Zhou Hongyi and Chen Li.

Later, Chen Li hurriedly found Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi, and told them the pros and cons of this matter, which was a wake-up call for them.

But...he didn't stop the other party from doing so.

Because from the very beginning~ he said that he would never interfere with the management and operation of the red pony.

He can remind Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi, but he will never ask them to change the company's decision.

Anyway, based on the achievements of these two people in their previous lives, although I can't say how high the technology of the red pony can be brought, it should not be too low.

So. It is precisely because of the establishment of this new department that Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi both wanted to continue to implement the free strategy when planning office software at the beginning.

After all, the free effect of security guards is there, and everyone is more optimistic about continuing to do so.

But at a critical moment, Chen Li raised an objection.

There is a big difference between Red Pony's office software series software and Security Guard.

Security Guard is an active defense software, which can actively discover and remind potential dangers without the user's own operation.

But office software is different. This thing is made for users to use actively.

At present, what everyone is more familiar with in the market is naturally Microsoft's office software series, and even when many people learn computers, they learn this series of software.

It is precisely because of this reason that the operation interface and method of office software developed by many other companies are similar to Microsoft's office software series.

But the new set of office software developed by Red Pony Technology is not like this. After two magic changes by Xiaomeng and Red Pony R&D Department.Although Red Pony's office software series has more complete performance and more convenient operation, it has little to do with Microsoft's office series.

In such an environment~Red Pony office series software naturally needs to be tested online for a period of time.

But if the free card is played at the beginning, then the so-called test is meaningless.

And the most critical point, if the free card is played at the beginning, the competitors will naturally respond accordingly.

Although Red Pony Technology is not afraid of any competitors. But this is definitely not the case!
What's the best way?
Of course, it is free to test first, and then make adjustments to the competitors' responses after the office software series has accumulated a certain number of users.

The big killer move of free can only be used as the last hole card, not thrown out at the beginning.

To put it bluntly~ If the red pony really does this, maybe other competitors can give the red pony the name of "malicious competition".

In the previous life, Qihoo 350 produced free security guards and anti-virus software, but at that time Zhou Hongyi was almost hacked by competitors.

Of course ~ Zhou Hongyi at that time was actually not a good person.

After all, according to what was said at the time, he had the title of the father of rogue software on his head.

But actually?At that time, almost all Internet companies in the market were making similar plug-ins, except that Zhou Hongyi made a bigger one.

This buddy first offended users by making rogue software, and then created a security guard, which wiped out almost all plug-ins on the market at that time, and then offended his colleagues.

So Zhou Hongyi became the one who was not human inside and out.

Users scolded him ~ peers scolded him, and even investors didn’t like him, because the free strategy he came up with made Qilion 350 lose a lot of profits every year.

But what about the end?

The user scolded Zhou Hongyi while using the free 350 Security Guard and anti-virus software.

Colleagues scolded Zhou Hongyi while closely following 350's operation strategy. They would do what 350 did.

In the final analysis~ But it's still just the word interest!
Another point is that when 350 was free in the previous life, the Internet market at that time had become more and more mature.

But in 2000, the blind pursuit of free, the final result may not be so good!

Because the current Internet market is not so mature, if you keep using the double-edged sword of free to clear the way, you will hurt yourself sooner or later.

This is actually Chen Li's opinion, and he told Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi about this idea.

So after some discussion, Red Pony Technology temporarily gave up the strategy of continuing "free".

To be honest~ The biggest reason why Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi always think of offering free money is because of the "trust" of the shareholders!
The reason why the quotation marks are added is because even if the shareholders of Red Pony don't trust, there is nothing they can do!
Because from the very beginning when Red Pony introduced venture capital, it was determined that investors or institutions have no right to intervene in the management of the company.

That is to say~ no matter how many rounds of investment Red Pony Technology will make in the future, the management of the company will always be in the hands of the three founders, Ma Xiaoyun, Zhou Hongyi and Chen Li.

Such a shareholding structure is not surprising. The founders of many companies often only own a small number of shares, but their right to speak in the company is "absolute".

In addition, Chen Li didn't care about anything, so Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi had the final say on the whole red pony.

As for Chen Li~ He basically has a positive attitude towards all the decisions of Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi, and will only give Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi certain suggestions when he feels something is wrong.

Yes~ It's just a suggestion, if Ma Xiaoyun and Zhou Hongyi insist on a certain issue, Chen Li will often back down.

But there is a prerequisite for this, that is, Chen Li's personal interests cannot be harmed.

Otherwise, it would be like the time when Ma Xiaoyun brought investors to put pressure on Chen Li and wanted to let the security guards be free.

In fact, it was that time~ that made Chen Li even more reluctant to interfere with the management of the red pony.

The reason is also obvious. In the beginning, the relationship between Chen Li and Ma Xiaoyun was actually very good.

But when it came to the company and related interests, Ma Xiaoyun stood on the opposite side of him.

Of course~ It may be a little bit exaggerated to say this, but that's probably what it means.

If Ma Xiaoyun came here by himself to discuss this matter with Chen Li in advance, then Chen Li would not have made things so rigid.

But at that time, Ma Xiaoyun showed his "big cleverness". This guy first convinced Zhou Hongyi, and then brought his investor Xu Xing directly to Chen Li.

This...relationship has changed!

From negotiating to putting pressure~ Chen Li naturally couldn't bear it.

And the most important thing is, this kind of thing~ Once there is the first time, there will be the second, third, or even the Nth time.

Chen Li did not believe that people like Ma Xiaoyun would always live under his influence.

That's right~ Don't look at the fact that the CEO of Red Pony Technology is Ma Xiaoyun, and the chief technical engineer is Zhou Hongyi. The two of them have the final say on almost everything about the company.

But in fact~ all the old people in the company know that Consultant Chen, who doesn't talk much on weekdays, is actually the big boss of the company.

This kind of gossip spread among the old people in the company to a limited extent for a while, but after someone was dealt with, it didn't spread much.

But even so, Chen Li is very clear that a person like Ma Xiaoyun... unless he is not given a chance.

Whenever he has a chance in the future~ or if he is full-fledged, he will jump out by himself.

For this~ Chen Li is ready!
(End of this chapter)