Open business day-to-day

Chapter 353 Open Platform

Lin Rui nodded: "How is the situation of Meituan now?"

Zhao Yandao: "The performance is very stable. After the establishment of Meituan in March last year, domestic group buying websites have sprung up like mushrooms, everywhere."

"The competition in this field has been fierce in the past year. Meituan, as the earliest group buying website in China, did not end directly, but silently improved service quality and explored development models, and developed in a low-key manner."

"Now other group buying companies are a bit weak, but Meituan has taken the first place in the market share, and it still seems to have a lot of stamina."

"In the past two months, as the competition situation and market share have gradually become clearer, Meituan has also begun to stand out and has been favored by many venture capital institutions. I am also optimistic about the company's prospects."

Lin Rui said thoughtfully: "So many venture capital institutions are optimistic, and Sequoia, an internationally renowned venture capital, is said to be an investor in the A round of Meituan. Does our company have a big chance?"

Zhao Yandao: "Compared to other venture capitalists, we entered the market a bit late. However, after sending the letter of intent, Meituan readily agreed to contact us. From this point of view, there is still hope."

"Moreover, compared to other venture capital institutions, or Sequoia Capital, we also have unique advantages that they cannot match." A confident smile appeared on his face as he spoke.

Lin Rui nodded to signal him to continue.

Zhao Yandao: "For these high-quality start-up companies, they are not only financing money, but also various relationships and resources."

Lin Ruidao: "In terms of influence, relationship and resources, Sequoia Capital is relatively superior in this regard. They can all play a role in Meituan's future financing and listing, and of course we are not bad."

Zhao Yandao: "The listing is too far away for Meituan at present. Sequoia's current help to Meituan is still indirect and cannot directly improve the strength of Meituan."

"As far as the current situation is concerned, the resources that our company possesses are the scarcest and most desired resources of Meituan."

Lin Rui suddenly realized: "You mean Weiyang Weibo, which has more than 8000 million users?"

Zhao Yan nodded and said: "Exactly, you need to be hardworking to make an iron. If you want to continue to be favored by venture capital, how to develop Meituan better is the most important thing."

"At this stage, the so-called resources of these venture capital institutions, including Sequoia, are too illusory for Meituan. Only real users and real market share are the most important .”

"And we have more than 8000 million Weiyang Weibo users. Compared with Meituan's current membership of hundreds of thousands, the temptation is too great."

"If you can promise them a certain amount of promotional resources, or even give them a direct access to a platform, it will be difficult for them to refuse, even for Sequoia. After all, they are Meituan's A-round investors, and only Meituan's development is better. Well, their income is higher."

Lin Rui said: "So we have great hopes, what about Sequoia? Are you willing to eat fat?"

Zhao Yandao: "There should be no problem in this regard. As an international veteran investment institution, Sequoia still has this vision and a mind. Only when Meituan develops better, their profits will be greater, and now Meituan needs our resources. to develop better.”

"Besides, the two parties can co-invest. We have given Meituan the user resources it needs most, and we can be the leading party. Sequoia already has shares in Meituan. Wang Xing will be wary of holding too many shares and can be a follow-up investor. Both sides can be regarded as equally benefited, and no one will suffer."

Lin Rui nodded, and it was true.

After the two finished talking about Meituan, Lin Rui remembered the opening of the third-party entrance.

"Old Zhao, do you think it's time for us to open up the platform entrance? With our current user growth rate, we can break through [-] million in less than two months."

Zhao Yan thought for a while and said, "With the launch of Weibo Moments, we have gradually got rid of the pure media platform model and become more and more like a social platform."

"As for the profit method of social platforms, in addition to advertising push, it is also very important to open the platform entrance."

"Like Facebook abroad, the number of users in [-] was less than [-] million. In order to cope with competitors and attract more allies, it chose to open the entrance of the platform, attracting many third-party developers to settle in, thus opening up the platform in one fell swoop. distance from competitors.”

"And they are indeed right. Since then, not only has the company's revenue increased dramatically, but its scale and influence have also grown larger and larger like a snowball."

"Although Weiyang Weibo is quite different from Facebook, their approach can also be used as a reference. I think the time has gradually matured and preparations can be made. After all, this aspect also needs time."

Lin Rui pondered for a while and said: "Not only open the platform entrance, but also introduce third-party developers. With more and more users, our advertising system is about to go online."

Zhao Yan was surprised and said: "Boss Lin, you decided to let Weiyang Weibo launch the advertising function!"

Lin Rui nodded and said: "Now the time is ripe, look at other Weibo platforms, not to mention Sina and Tencent, which are larger than ours, but NetEase and Sohu, which are not as large as ours, have launched advertisements a few months ago. "

"Of course, in order to maintain a good user experience, the advertising system also needs to be restrained after it goes online, so as not to damage the user experience. There needs to be a balance between these two aspects."

Zhao Yandao: "I agree to maintain a good user experience and reduce the scale of advertising pushes. This is the key to attracting users. But in this way, compared with other platforms, our advertising revenue may be less."

Lin Rui smiled and said, "That's not necessarily the case. If there are two identical platforms, one is flooded with advertisements, and the other is very restrained in advertisements. If you were a merchant, where would you choose to advertise?"

Zhao Yandao: "Naturally, it is the platform that is very restrained in advertising. Although it is the same advertising, the user experience of this one is better, and the advertising effect is greater, and it is not easy to arouse user disgust."

Lin Rui nodded and said: "That's the reason. While we restrained advertisements, we also improved the user experience and made a single advertisement more effective."

"Under such circumstances, can the price of a single advertisement be the same as another platform flooded with advertisements?"

"Of course it won't be the same, because the advertising space on our platform is better than that of other platforms, and users will have less resistance and disgust when they see advertisements."

"While reducing advertisements, we can also increase the price of a single advertisement. In general, a certain user experience can be guaranteed, and the income gap will not be too large."

"And our algorithm and big data model are not built in vain. This is very similar to Facebook, and it can accurately place advertisements."

"Not to mention the better advertising effect, it can also increase the value of the advertising space again."

Zhao Yan also agreed: "Since the launch of Weibo Moments, the interaction between users has become more and more frequent, and the number of Weibo posts has doubled."

"With so much data, it makes it easier for us to conduct more accurate big data analysis through user behavior and make self-portraits for users."

"This is incomparable to several other Weibo platforms. The amount of Weibo posts by their ordinary users is too low, the interaction with acquaintances and friends is too little, and the data that can be collected and used for analysis is too little."

"In this way, it is impossible to make an accurate self-portrait for users, the placement of various advertisements cannot be accurate, and the effectiveness of advertisements will also decline."

"Compared with each other, it will become more and more obvious that our advertisements have higher gold content, and the price will naturally increase accordingly."

"That's another advantage we have."

The two discussed this issue for a while before Zhao Yan left.

Lin Rui sat in the office for a while, then got up and walked to the technical department.

He wanted to talk to Tan Yuanming and some experts in the technology department to discuss the establishment of the Weiyang Weibo open platform and the opening of third-party entrances.

At the same time, the advertising system of Weiyang Weibo is also a key point.

Since the launch of Weiyang Weibo, everyone knows that advertising online in the future is inevitable, and this is also one of the biggest profit models for social platforms.

How to set up advertising space on the platform, carry out precise push and marketing, has always been the focus of the company's attention.

In October last year, after Lin Rui became a naturalized member of the Luojing Club, he attracted so many companies to Weiyang Weibo and provided certain promotional resources for free. It was not without purpose.

On the one hand, it is to promote Weiyang Weibo, and on the other hand, it is also to test how to better place advertisements accurately.

Now after more than half a year of accumulation, the experience has been sufficient, and all aspects of polishing are also very mature.Combined with user self-portraits and big data, it is already a very mature advertising precision push system.

It depends on when, find the right time to go online.

A few days later, the investment fund went smoothly under Zhao Yan's operation. Weiyang Technology injected [-] million into the investment fund again, and ICBC gave [-] million accordingly.

Immediately, the total amount of Weiyang Technology Investment Fund reached one billion. In 2011 in China, this scale is definitely not small.

Just when Zhao Yan was busy investing in Feicai Media and actively communicating with Meituan, promising some resources and conditions.

Lin Rui wasn't idle here either. On the second day after talking with Zhao Yan, he held a general meeting of the company to discuss the opening of the Weiyang Weibo platform and the launch of advertisements.

Everyone agrees that Weiyang Weibo launched an advertising system. It has been a year since Weiyang Weibo was released in June last year.

Over the past year, in order to maintain a good user experience, Lin Rui has never let go of the matter of launching paid advertisements. Now that he has finally let go, there is no reason for everyone to disagree.

Weiyang Weibo finally no longer serves as a drainage tool, and can also generate profits for the company.

Since the advertising system has been polished for more than half a year, it has already matured, and all aspects of the conditions have been prepared. It can be said that everything is ready, and only the east wind is owed.

So everyone agreed that on June NO.15, Weiyang Weibo officially launched the advertising system.

As for Weiyang Weibo’s establishment of an open platform and open access to third-party software, this issue is a bit controversial, but it is also the path that the company must take.

Although Weiyang Weibo has gradually increased its social attributes and staggered off the track with several other media-oriented Weibo platforms, some competition is still inevitable.

Besides, socializing is not so fun, and there are even bigger sitters waiting here.

Social networking is where Tencent started. Besides, the domestic social networking field is still firmly controlled by Tencent. Many companies have threatened him, but they all failed in the end.

Weiyang Weibo is now transforming into a social aspect. It is impossible to say that Tencent has not discovered it and is not vigilant.

But Tencent has more Weiyang Weibo users than Weiyang Weibo. At present, it seems that no matter how you compare, Tencent Weibo is stronger.

Also because of this reason, Weiyang Weibo did not arouse their vigilance and attention enough, thinking that this threat is still within their controllable range.

However, as the scale of Weiyang Weibo becomes larger and larger, direct competition with Tencent in the future is inevitable.

So now is the time to plan ahead and prepare in advance.

Establishing Weiyang Weibo’s open platform to attract more start-up companies and third-party developers is a good way to strengthen its own strength and influence.

Compared with its stronger opponents, Facebook also established an open platform, attracting more third-party software to settle in.

The momentum is getting bigger and bigger, and more and more third-party developers are cooperating, and this is how to defeat the opponent.

Now Weiyang Weibo has established an open platform to open up more than 8000 million user resources to the third-party software that has settled there.

Although it is inevitable to take a certain percentage of their income, it will not be too much, only about [-]% to [-]%.

But with so many user resources, those start-up companies and independent third-party developers cannot refuse.

On the other hand, Tencent has been a closed platform since its establishment until now, and has never considered opening up to the outside world and sharing their user resources.

Moreover, their ability to imitate is very strong, and they want to do it by themselves in any field. Until last year's [-]Q battle with [-], Tencent, which was used to smooth sailing, suddenly met someone who dared to fight them.

It was not until Shuangshuang was named by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and there was a lot of criticism on the Internet that Tencent began to think about its own strategy and began to slowly adjust.

But at present, Tencent is still a very closed company. It has never thought about building an open platform and opening up data and users to other companies.

What Lin Rui doesn't know is that if the future does not change, Tencent will be able to sit firmly on the Diaoyutai, gradually open up its own platform, and start a crazy investment model when WeChat becomes popular next year and won a mobile Internet ticket.

But this is all a year or two later, he can't possibly know.

But now he can really see that Tencent is not willing to open up its platform and share its user resources with other companies. On the contrary, a new company like Weiyang Technology does not have so many scruples.

In the future, it will really compete head-on with Tencent, which is also an advantage.

Therefore, although everyone was a little controversial, in the end they all agreed to establish the Weiyang Weibo Open Platform to provide access to third-party software.

However, the workload of establishing an open platform is not small, and it will take a long time. Lin Rui is not in a hurry. When the number of users exceeds [-] million, it is a good time to open the platform.

(End of this chapter)