Tencent - The Evolution of a Chinese Internet Company
Author: Wu Xiaobo Publisher: Tianxia Culture
Published: 2017/07/04
Language: Traditional Chinese
Book Recommendation Website: http://moo.im/a/28EIKW
Preface:
[The third book read in 2020]
With a billion users, one of the top ten global companies, how did they achieve such an empire through QQ?
Tencent has always been a company I wanted to understand, and it was because a Japanese colleague posted the Japanese version of this book that I knew there was such a biographical book. Although the company I currently work for (LINE) is actually, to some extent, following Tencent's growth path. But after careful exploration and thought, you will find that Tencent's growth path is a model for global internet companies. This book starts with the founder Ma Huateng after graduating from school, and not only describes the internet environment in mainland China at that time quite clearly, but also allows you to understand how internet companies in mainland China competed and grew after 1995.
Synopsis:
From QQ to WeChat, in less than 20 years, Tencent has become a world-class company with a billion users.
Why can Ma Huateng, who has a technical background and is shy and quiet,
Lead Tencent to surpass competitors like Sohu and Baidu,
And build the most valuable company in China and one of the top ten global companies?
．Is Tencent's success inevitable or accidental?
．How did Ma Huateng win battles one after another and become the "public enemy" in everyone's eyes?
．Will Chinese technology companies find a different way of survival than the United States?
The answers to these three questions will point to our future.
Uncover the secret of the successful rise of Tencent, China's largest internet company!
Synopsis from Duomo: http://moo.im/a/28EIKW
Startup
The whole book is quite clear and systematically records Tencent's growth process. Starting from the first batch of internet people in China, it tells that Tencent didn't go smoothly from the beginning of its startup, but instead had wrong turns, wrong directions, and a rather embarrassing first period.
However, due to the rise of ICQ, they made OICQ (OpenICQ) and later QQ, which led to explosive user growth.
And through the flourishing era of internet cafes, and by constantly improving the user experience through rapid iteration. They seized the first batch of a large number of internet users, most of whom were users of internet cafes. Developers created offline messages, online address books, and also had a virtual character (Avatar) mechanism to allow every user on the internet to find their own space. They gained explosive growth and went public.
Attack
But Tencent's ability to be among the top ten internet companies in the world (in fact, also among the top ten technology companies) is definitely not just because of the QQ software. Tencent adopted a multi-pronged approach (multiple battle lines), relying on QQ to develop "QQ Space" similar to Facebook, and also had an e-commerce platform similar to Taobao, and also faced attacks from other internet companies in China, and everyone knew that the most powerful IM platform at the beginning was actually Microsoft's MSN. The book also has a detailed analysis of why Microsoft's MSN eventually lost in China.
Later, Facebook opened its platform for many manufacturers to enter and develop many interesting games, which is the familiar "Happy Farm". Then in China, through the open platform of "QQ Space", many games similar to Happy Farm were also able to become very popular, and drove the user ecosystem and profits of the entire platform. It also started the beginning of Tencent Games, and later developed many blockbuster online games, and also acquired many world-renowned game companies.
The final powerful transformation was through the improvement of the advertising revenue industry, to let advertisers know how to effectively place advertisements, and monitor the way advertisements are viewed in real time. And through the analysis of user data and precise placement to get rid of the original impression of QQ users having three lows. Let advertising turn into another cash cow for Tencent.
Giant
The third part of Tencent is already a giant of the Chinese internet. And it controls many profitable business lines. In China, if you want to start a new company, be prepared for the answer - if Tencent wants to do the same thing as you? What are you going to do to fight back?
Tencent has never been a market pioneer, but they belong to the conservative followers. But they are constantly optimizing, iterating quickly, and letting users immediately fall in love with the service in the shortest time, and then gain a leading position in the market.
This is all thanks to Ma Huateng, the most powerful product manager in Tencent, for his picky and understanding of user experience. He can quickly update products and constantly move towards the direction that users like. Tencent has so many battle lines, but Ma Huateng will play with the new product lines every day and give complete modification suggestions. Let the direction of all business entities be towards the user experience first.
And the emergence of "WeChat" is a new breakthrough in mobile communication. After the great success of QQ on the desktop version and web version, Tencent originally wanted to develop good mobile communication-related communication experience software. But unfortunately, the mobile version of QQ did not succeed the first time, but instead, Chen Xiaolong, who advocated minimalism, brought a new proposal to Ma Huateng, and after getting permission, he developed the current "WeChat", another user experience of more than hundreds of millions.
And the success of "WeChat" also demonstrated that even Tencent, which started with QQ. Can also make a big splash again through a new communication software. Therefore, the related industries of games, movies, and even comics, animations or books, have all seen Tencent's attack. Adhering to "connecting everything" and "Internet +" has become a world-class company.
Thoughts:
As I mentioned at the beginning, watching Tencent's growth process. You will understand that many of LINE's current paths are correct. Because companies engaged in the internet with a large number of users. It is necessary to diversify its business to make it easier and more convenient for users to obtain the things they need.
Just like Tencent's "connecting everything" and "Internet +", and LINE also has "Closing the distance", and this year's "Create WoW for the world". You can understand that diversified operations will not have the worry of power dispersion, and latecomers will not necessarily be at a disadvantage.
How to find the functions that users like, need, and want through rapid product iteration is the key. Just as Ma Huateng still spends time every day to play with the company's products as a general user. Every developer, employee should love, be familiar with, and actually use the functions they develop. Only then can you make your users fall in love with the products and services you develop.
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