Reborn Russia As An Oligarch

For Internet companies, the number of users, or traffic, is of course very important. It can be said to be the lifeblood of a company.

But after getting the traffic, how to monetize it is a more important factor!

If your traffic cannot be monetized, then it is garbage traffic, which means that the company can only spend money to maintain this huge traffic, which requires huge server and bandwidth fees every month, as well as high personnel salaries.

But there is no corresponding income...

With high expenses and low income, what kind of future can a company like this have?

Therefore, ICQ, which was popular all over the world, could only sell itself to traditional media giants at a relatively low price because it could not find a channel to monetize its traffic.

And now Penguin Company can be said to be facing such a dilemma.

The number of users is large enough and the traffic is large enough, but no suitable way to monetize the traffic has been found.

On the surface it looks very "prosperous", but in fact it is full of crises!

One word is very suitable to describe the current penguins, that is "false prosperity"...

Because the number of users is still growing relatively fast, Penguin's investors are still patient and willing to give the company more time.

But as the growth rate of the number of users slows down, the importance of revenue will become highlighted.

If the company still cannot find a suitable way to monetize traffic by then, investors' patience will be exhausted, and Penguin will transform from the current "unicorn company" to a junk company...

Penguin has now reached this critical stage.

The number of users is large enough, and we need to start thinking of ways to turn these number of users into financial revenue!

For this reason, Ma Xiaomao and the Penguin management have also thought of many ways.

For example, open paid registration, QQ Club, pretty account business, advertising business, etc.

All of these have been launched one by one within the past two years, but the effect is as you can imagine, not ideal. Some businesses have even brought huge public pressure and infamy to Penguin...

Just like its advertising business, the earliest QQ users should still remember it.

At that time, there was a rectangular area on the QQ chat box, which was used to display advertisements.

This was the earliest method used by QQ to try to monetize traffic, and it was also the method used by all companies in the Internet industry to monetize traffic at that time, Internet advertising!

It is a pity that QQ is an online instant messaging software. The chat box is not large, so there is only a small area for advertising.

At this point, it is completely incomparable with those portals.

Advertisements on portals can even occupy the entire user's monitor screen, and the display effect is naturally much better than those on QQ.

Therefore, except for peers, that is, other Internet companies who are willing to advertise on QQ to attract users, no one is willing to advertise on QQ.

Not only because the advertising display area was too small, but also because the “quality” of QQ users at that time was too poor.

At that time, high-quality Internet users were still using MSN, and those using QQ were generally younger people. In the eyes of advertisers, they were those with poor spending power...

Therefore, QQ’s advertising business does not bring much revenue to the company.

As for paid registration, that is, you have to pay to register a new Q account. This incident caused an uproar at the time and almost caused Penguin to "die".

After a trial period, it was quietly offline.

Other Q clubs and pretty account businesses can only be said to be better than nothing. They are mosquito legs and cannot solve the problem.

At that time, Penguin's real main income came from the mobile Internet.

Yes, in 2004, the mobile Internet was already booming.

Through its cooperation with Monternet, it has brought a lot of income to Penguin. This income is also the largest source of income for Penguin!

In 2003, Penguin's annual revenue was 730 million yuan, of which 600 million came from Monternet's share...

…………

In fact, for Penguin in 2004, the inability to monetize traffic was not the most important problem.

There is a more serious problem that even threatens the survival of penguins, which is facing Xiao Ma and the others.

In the history of China’s Internet, when it comes to online instant messaging software, the year 2004 cannot be avoided.

Many people use the term "War of the Gods" to describe the brutal battle between online instant messaging software this year...

Perhaps it was Xiao Ma and the others' saucy moves in the past two years that allowed competitors to see an opportunity to take advantage of them.

Or maybe the original business development of many major Internet companies has reached a bottleneck, so they have become interested in instant messaging software, a segment that although it cannot make money, it can bring huge traffic.

All in all, during this year, Xiao Ma and the others suddenly discovered that special competitors had emerged on the market.

Moreover, they are all very powerful large companies, and they have launched their own instant messaging software to directly compete with Penguin.

NetEase launched NetEase Paopao in 2002, and its market share ranked third after Penguin and MSN.

In 2004, Mr. Ding announced that NetEase Paopao would be upgraded to a strategic product, and the project manager reported directly to him.

In June 2004, NetEase held a press conference and announced that it had made a breakthrough in technology. NetEase Bubbles could send voice messages directly. Not only could NetEase Bubbles users make voice calls between each other, but they could even make voice calls with mobile phone users!

This technology was absolutely amazing at the time!

As long as the policy allows, it can be launched immediately. This is much more advanced than Penguin at that time...

In addition to the competitor NetEase Paopao, there is also MSN of the global Internet giant Microsoft. Although the number of users is smaller than Penguin, the quality of users is very high.

Most of the young white-collar workers in those years used MSN. If you said you were using Penguin, you would be embarrassed to say hello to others...

In 2004, Bill Gates came to China for the ninth time and solemnly announced that he would continue to expand domestic investment and established MSN China's marketing and R\u0026D centers in the capital and Shanghai.

In this year, NetEase and Microsoft were not the only companies that rushed into the instant messaging market and wanted to compete with Penguin for users.

There are also Yahoo!'s Yahoo Messenger, Sina's Sina UC, TOM introduced SKYPE, Sohu's SouQ, 263's E-Telephone, Netcom's Tiantian Instant Messenger, Alibaba's Tradelink...

Even domestic telecom operators have entered this market to join in the fun. China Telecom launched VIM...

At the same time, China Mobile's Fetion is also in the process of being brewed...

According to statistics, there were more than 200 instant messaging software in existence in China at that time.

For penguins, it can be said that war is everywhere and enemies are everywhere!

…………

It's just that Wang Ye hasn't mentioned this yet, he just asked Xiao Ma about the company's revenue status, which made Xiao Ma a little confused about how to answer.

Xiao Ma is also an honest person, and he does not want to deceive Wang Ye with lies.

So after muttering for a long time, I finally managed to say something.

"Hey, Mr. Mikhail, this issue is actually something I have been thinking about. It's just that I haven't thought of a good solution yet. In addition, the company is facing great competitive pressure this year, and many companies have launched instant messaging software. So. I think the most important thing for a company right now is not revenue, but holding on to its base, which is its users!”

This sentence is still very sincere, and it is also Xiao Ma's true thoughts.

Wang Ye nodded and said with appreciation: "Although I haven't come to the company in the past two years, I know something about the situation here. I know all the things you said and have thought about them. This time Come here, my main purpose is to help the company solve these problems."

Xiao Ma looked at Wang Ye in surprise and couldn't believe what he said.

Just kidding, people like me can be said to be experts in the domestic Internet industry. They rack their brains all day long and still can't figure out how to solve these problems.

Mr. Mikhail has been abroad and is busy with official duties. He needs to worry about more and more important things every day.

Can he figure out how to solve Penguin's troubles?

Maybe this is really possible. After all, with Mr. Mikhail's "height", the vision and layout are naturally beyond the reach of ordinary people like him.

The methods and means to solve problems may be beyond your imagination.

Otherwise, why is it that I am just an ordinary entrepreneur, facing so many difficulties in starting a business, while he is already in a high position at a young age, and has "taken everything" in politics and business...

After learning about Mikhail's identity and background, Xiao Ma was really shocked.

That is to say, the Internet is not very developed these days, and Mikhail is still abroad, so the domestic people cannot contact him.

Otherwise, Xiao Ma can hardly imagine what kind of sensation it will cause.

Wang Ye understood what he was thinking and didn't explain too much. He just smiled lightly and said, "Let's discuss it in detail when we get to the company. Don't worry, I will stay in Pengcheng for two or three days."

Brother Ma nodded, his heart full of expectations.

After all, he is the one who wants Penguin to become better. This company is his entire career.

…………

Penguin Company has now moved to the Fiyta Building in South S District, and its employees have expanded to nearly 2,000. It is considered a big company.

The hotel where Wang Ye stayed was not far from the Penguin headquarters.

The motorcade first arrived at the hotel and checked in, allowing Wang Ye and his entourage to take a break and wash up.

According to Wang Ye's instructions, Xiao Ma and the others waited downstairs. About half an hour later, Wang Ye and the others went downstairs, got in the car, and went straight to the Penguin headquarters.

It's not even lunch time yet, just in time to hold a high-level meeting.

In the large conference hall of the headquarters, several founders of Penguin and top managers gathered together.

Wang Ye took the main seat without hesitation, Xiao Ma sat beside him, and his assistant Bakova sat behind Wang Ye.

Brother Ma stood up with a smile on his face and said loudly: "Let us welcome the company's major shareholder, Mr. Mikhail, with the warmest applause!"

Everyone present stood up and applauded warmly.

Wang Ye stood up and bowed slightly to express his gratitude.

Then he pressed his hands down to signal everyone to quiet down.

After the applause stopped, Wang Ye said with a smile: "Under the leadership of Mr. Ma and everyone, Penguin has developed rapidly in the past two years and achieved very good results. Although I am not in the company, my heart is really with you. Everyone has been together, happy and proud of every progress the company has made..."

Wang Ye's words made everyone beam with joy. After all, this was praise and recognition from the major shareholder!

But when it came to the end, Wang Ye changed the topic again, his face became serious, and he said in a heavy tone:

“Through communication with Mr. Ma and the market information collected, I learned that the company is currently facing great challenges.

Our own business revenue has encountered a bottleneck, and market competition has become increasingly fierce.

This year and next are crucial years for us at Penguin.

If this difficulty is overcome, then the world will be brighter and the sky will be brighter. In the future, Penguin will surely develop into one of the leading Internet giants in the country and even the world!

But if you fail to cross this threshold, I don’t need to say more about what will happen. "

The atmosphere in the conference room also became solemn. Everyone here was very aware of the current situation of the company, and naturally understood that Wang Ye was not alarmist, but telling the truth.

Wang Ye turned to look at Brother Ma and said, "Mr. Ma, I want to ask you a question."

Brother Ma immediately sat upright and said seriously: "Mr. Mikhail, please speak."

"For QQ, what is your and the founders' positioning for it?" Wang Ye asked.

Brother Xiao Ma was a little confused because this question was too simple. He blurted out: "Instant messaging software."

Wang Ye shook his head, obviously not satisfied with the answer given by Xiao Ma. He said in a deep voice: "I think QQ is definitely more than just a communication software. In my eyes, it has a more important meaning. It’s an entrance, the entrance to the Internet!”

"Internet entrance..." Xiao Ma repeatedly muttered.

The concept was a bit new to him.

It’s not that this term is new, but that at that time, Internet practitioners regarded portals and search engines more as entrances to the Internet.

No one thinks that instant messaging software is the entrance to the Internet, they just regard this kind of software as a communication tool.

But now, Wang Ye proposes that instant messaging software can also become a portal to the Internet!

The rest of the senior managers also whispered, and everyone was discussing in low voices whether the new concept proposed by Wang Ye made sense.

Wang Ye smiled lightly and continued:

"What is an entrance?

In my opinion, as long as it is the first website or software that a user opens after connecting to the Internet, it can be called the entrance!

In the past, that is, in the early days of the Internet, the portal website was the entrance, because the information that users needed to obtain was all on the portal website.

Then, the search engine also becomes the portal because it provides the search functions that users need.

So why can’t instant messaging software become the entrance? "

This was coded last night. It will be updated in advance today and will be available tonight.