Chapter 15 Chapter 3 Giving birth: Focus Media is born

In the book, "Talk against Confucians" portrays Zhuge Liang's image vividly.And Zhuge Liang's saying "The end of a strong crossbow can't penetrate Lu Jin" has also become a philosophical statement of "Speaking is not amazing and promises to keep going." It has continued to this day.Although the original meaning of this remark is that no matter how powerful a bow and arrow flies for a certain distance, its power will be greatly reduced, but it is not inappropriate to use it to describe the difficulty of thinking breakthrough. The distance between success and failure is actually between this seemingly insignificant millimeter.Therefore, trying to transcend the limitations of thinking is just like "the end of a strong crossbow can't penetrate Lu Jin". You may try your best, but you can't surpass and break through due to lack of stamina.

"Unpredictable things happen in the sky, and people have good fortune and misfortune." This sentence is probably the most appropriate to describe the vagaries of the market.Hundreds of millions of operating income did not end Yongyi's life once and for all. "Good times don't last forever", soon Yongyi encountered a sudden and unprecedented storm.After a year of climax, 2001 became the most painful year in Yongyi's growth history.Just when Jiang Nanchun didn't know where to put his money because it was easy to earn, the Internet bubble burst in 2001, and almost all Internet customers disappeared at once.

The Internet and IT industry were originally the two pillars of Yongyi's communication, but one pillar collapsed instantly.In order for IT to continue to support the company's development, and for the company's performance to continue to support its own "vanity", Jiang Nanchun had to return to the traditional market and conquer one position after another. This huge contrast made Jiang Nanchun start Think about the road you have traveled. "After a hard year in 2001, I felt physically and mentally exhausted. We were not in the position of the industry's advantage, but in the position of the industry's most vulnerable. At that time, I finally understood that the industry I was in was Wrong, the industry I work in is the most vulnerable link in the value chain. Although the company is big, there are still many companies competing with us, and they all have very good professional teams. I feel a lot of pressure, so I decided to Transformation, I don’t think business can go on like this.”

In fact, relying on the principle of "walking on two legs", even if the diversification strategy is not implemented? ? ?Beauty, but it also makes the winter of the Internet not completely a grave for burying Yongyi's communication. In 2001, all Internet customers disappeared, and the IT market was greatly affected. However, the overall turnover of Yongyi Communication did not drop sharply, and it still managed to maintain at about 150 million yuan.But at this time, Yongyi's profit margin dropped sharply, to a level of only 3%.Jiang Nanchun began to feel that "being a full-case agency is a very tiring industry." He no longer insisted on his previous dream of competing with international 4A companies, and began to vaguely feel that he should find a foothold of his own.This nightmare, which was not a complete nightmare, made Jiang Nanchun wake up immediately.

During that time, Jiang Nanchun, who was in a depressed mood, frequently appeared in the leisurely and elegant "Hanyuan Bookstore" at No. 27 Shaoxing Road in the old Shanghai French Concession.Flipping books, drinking tea, and thinking about "passing" behind closed doors have become the most important ways for Jiang Nanchun to vent his emotions.The painful wandering in the bookstore also became a watershed for Jiang Nanchun's career to flourish in the future. After a long period of thinking in the study, Jiang Nanchun, relying on his years of experience in shopping malls, has clearly realized the reason for his failure.Just as he once invested in a small-scale online game company as a shareholder at the beginning, and the funds he invested quickly went to waste, "I don't have a deep understanding of the industry, and I can't personally participate in the management." The fatal key found in this historical memory that still lingers in my heart.

At the same time, Jiang Nanchun also made his own understanding and detailed stage division of the development and profit of the advertising industry: 1980-1989 was the initial stage of China's advertising industry, "Anyone who invests in advertising at this stage will be successful, because no matter who As long as you make a sound, you will be successful"; the second stage is from 1990 to 1998, "at this stage, anyone who has enough money to invest in advertising will be successful, because many people advertise, and you can spend more at this time. The money is enough”; 1998 to the present is the third stage, “Even if you have enough money in this stage, you may not be able to succeed, because there are already very big problems in Chinese advertising, one of which is the poor focus.”

Just as French sociologist Auguste Comte's "three-stage theory" established his position in the field of sociology, Jiang Nanchun's "three-stage advertising" division strengthened his confidence in his future entrepreneurial model. Don't burn your mind because of temporary success, don't lose your calm thinking because of temporary failure, treat "gain and loss", "success and failure" rationally, and let "vanity" become your "motive force" instead of " stumbling block", calmly find out what is under the iceberg, this is what Jiang Nanchun excels at.However, Jiang Nanchun's wandering all night in the "Hanyuan Bookstore" and learning from the pain is a sign of another kind.Since then, Jiang Nanchun's work focus and enthusiasm have completely tilted towards the "new media" he expected.

Although cooking wine to talk about heroes does not ask about the origin of the heroes, but similar life experiences have made heroes have the same views and sympathy for each other since ancient times. The listing of Focus Media has repeated the scene of young people becoming billionaires in China in the 1970s.Major websites and newspapers commented one after another: Jiang Nanchun is the second Chen Tianqiao in the IT field, and Jiang Nanchun has never concealed his admiration for Chen Tianqiao.Chen Tianqiao of Shanda Networks and Jiang Nanchun of Focus Media, two young people in Shanghai who were born in the 1970s, met and became good friends because of advertising agencies, and the comments they gave to each other were surprisingly consistent: "He has a great understanding of his industry. The depth of understanding is extraordinary."

Chen Tianqiao created the most brilliant case of online games with a Korean game.Among the top ten of the 2003 100 Rich List, Chen Tianqiao was the youngest rich man at that time, if not the fastest rising rich man.In 2003, Jiang Nanchun had to face an important turning point in his advertising career. After experiencing the nightmare of the Internet, in order to maintain the operation of the company, Jiang Nanchun, who is used to doing big business, also took up small advertisements for restaurants. This year has been so difficult for him.Although the company did not lose money that year, for the first time, Jiang Nanchun had deep doubts about the advertising agency industry he had been engaged in for 10 years.At that time, Jiang Nanchun's most unforgettable feeling was: "I have never worried about any problems in this industry. After this problem suddenly appears, I will feel that your growth is illusory. You used to be doing a precarious job."

The business dilemma inspired Jiang Nanchun to break through.But in the future, whether the development of the company and himself will go left or right will deeply trouble him.Although he continued to work hard during the day, at night, Jiang Nanchun fell into a state of hesitation. In his own words, day and night are completely two people.And at this moment, he was awakened by a friend's casual words.The friend who awakened Jiang Nanchun was by no means an idle person. He was Chen Tianqiao mentioned above. At that time, Chen Tianqiao was working in an industry that no one in China had set foot in—online games.By virtue of this, Chen Tianqiao became a dark horse to create a "legendary" wealth.Jiang Nanchun and Chen Tianqiao have been friends for many years.Of course, when they first met, the two were just unknown people in the business world. Jiang Nanchun had not yet appeared on the Nasdaq opening market, and Chen Tianqiao had not yet become the "richest man in China" later.Their acquaintance was also a very accidental thing: in 2000, Chen Tianqiao was still running a small website stame.com, earning popularity by adopting a virtual pet dog named Stame. The advertising agency of the website is Yongyi Communication Company of Jiangnanchun.Due to frequent business contacts, two young people who are similar in age and have the same interests naturally became friends.

Back in time to one night in December 2002, Jiang Nanchun met with old friends Chen Tianqiao and his wife.In the teahouse in the camphor garden, three cups of strong fragrant tea were placed in front of the three of them. Chen Tianqiao, who hadn’t seen him for a few months, told Jiang Nanchun that he no longer was a small website that relied on netizens to adopt virtual pet puppies to earn popularity, and now he was making an online game. The number of simultaneous online users of this game he represented could reach 11 every night. Ten thousand.And 110,000 people are online at the same time, which means that there are at least 700,000 paid users, and each user is 35 yuan per month, which is 24.5 million yuan a month. This number greatly stimulated Jiang Nanchun. Afterwards, Jiang Nanchun recalled: "On a weekday afternoon, Tianqiao's Shanda network had more than 110,000 people online at the same time. Someone told you that this is called an online game. Pay 35 yuan for a month. I think it’s scary. This company has only made 100 million yuan in just 4 months. This is almost unimaginable. How many copies of yourself you may not be able to complete this task. "In Jiang Nanchun's view, Chen Tianqiao actually achieved a turnover of 100 million in just 4 months, which is something he could not even imagine. "At that time, I felt that I had to learn from Chen Tianqiao and discover the industry model that others hadn't discovered, so that I could make a lot of money!" Chen Tianqiao's online game brought great shock to Jiang Nanchun. Finding a brand new business model can create an excess profit.” In fact, in 2001 and 2002, when he worked hard in the past, Jiang Nanchun had already started to "deny" his choice for almost 10 years from time to time.Jiang Nanchun regards getting acquainted with Chen Tianqiao as a blessing.Because, after several in-depth chats with Chen Tianqiao, Jiang Nanchun admired Chen Tianqiao's business acumen and strategic vision.So Jiang Nanchun never denied his admiration for Chen Tianqiao. "Chen Tianqiao has a good judgment on the industry. The biggest inspiration he gave me is to always create a new industry instead of competing with others." Jiang Nanchun said, "So, you should create an industry by yourself. , and then quickly occupy a monopoly position in this industry, only in this way can you truly leave all competitors behind.” At that time, one of Jiang Nanchun's concepts was that he actually made a mistake that he was bound to make in 10 years.What exactly is wrong? During the Spring Festival of 2002, Jiang Nanchun pondered behind closed doors for a full 7 days and came up with four principles for the development of new media: high-tech means should be used to improve the performance of the media, the market should be subdivided and advertising information should be accurately transmitted to specific groups, and a brand-new communication should be created. Time and space, and the active viewing that constitutes "mandatory".And Chen Tianqiao's way of making money is to find a gap in the market, take a slanted sword, and find another way.Realizing this, Jiang Nanchun wrote down his feelings in his diary.He wrote: "I was wrong, can I change it?" The most direct experience of drinking tea this time is that Jiang Nanchun decided to set up a separate company and began to look for opportunities like Chen Tianqiao back then, bypassing the fiercely competitive traditional media, and entering the "Flower World" to find a unique "cave".Later, he did find a joint point, and discovered a huge neglected market by relying on LCD TV advertising machines.Since then, Jiang Nanchun has embarked on the road of "Focus" without hesitation, and started his "business worth doing for a lifetime". Jiang Nanchun, who has worked hard in the advertising agency industry for almost 10 years, realized in pain that the advertising agency he has been engaged in for the past 10 years is the most difficult to make money and the most competitive link in the entire industry chain.The words of Chen Tianqiao, who is his advertiser and good friend, even touched the idea of ​​Jiang Nanchun's transformation: why must he keep entangled in the low-level "tactical level" of the advertising agency, instead of jumping to the strategic level of the industry What about doing something more promising? In the same diary, Jiang Nanchun made up his mind to transform.But what would you do if you weren’t an advertising agency?In the following months, Jiang Nanchun has been looking for answers.In order to seek inspiration, what Jiang Nanchun did most at that time was to find a group of friends out for dinner and chat.Even in "Hanyuan Bookstore", Jiang Nanchun thought hard for a whole week. Jiang Nanchun, who was at a loss, came up with the theory of "empty bus" after several days of deliberation: instead of jumping on a bus full of people and fighting hard to gain a narrow foothold, it is better to find a place where there are no people. The bus drove away.Recalling the seven days of "Hanyuan Bookstore", Jiang Nanchun said with a smile: "Actually, I had already thought of more than a dozen possible plans." In fact, the traditional interpretation of this "empty bus" theory is exactly the opposite of Jiang Nanchun's explanation: Just imagine, have you ever taken a taxi in bad traffic weather?In the past, when it was difficult to call a taxi, many taxi drivers refused short-distance customers with various reasons.When these short-distance passengers take the bus, the driver will drive them away or even put on a bad face, telling the passengers that he does not go in that direction.In fact, these drivers would rather have empty cars and wait for customers in front of some big restaurants and department stores, or even wait for a long time, but they don't want to make that little money in order to be in front of these high-end places. Waiting for bigger "business".The thought in their hearts is: Maybe the next customer will go far away, so that the traffic jam will not be so easy. Most people regard this "empty car theory" of drivers as unwise and extremely stupid, and don't think at all that these drivers who would rather keep their cars empty can perform well, and don't believe that they can run in life. What a great result. Thinking carefully about Jiang Nanchun's understanding, everyone must have a feeling of sudden enlightenment. In fact, the reason why those drivers don't make such small money is not the same as the reason why they don't want to crowded the bus? Maybe you will still think, how can there be an uncrowded bus?So we saw Chen Tianqiao, maybe he was not taking a bus, but a Mercedes-Benz, so could Jiang Nanchun not take the big bus that was always crowded with people at that time, but to find his own What about the little red sports car? In 2002, overwhelming outdoor advertisements were plastered on car bodies, street signs and bus stops. At that time, Jiang Nanchun tried to find places where no one had found to post advertisements.He even came up with the idea of ​​the gate of the office building.Jiang Nanchun invited the boss of China World Trade Center to drink tea and said, "Can I advertise on the door of China World Trade Center?" He was sternly rejected on the spot.Putting advertisements on the doors of high-end office buildings seriously damaged the image of the office building in the eyes of the boss of China World Trade Center, so Jiang Nanchun was shut down. Under the influence of Chen Tianqiao, Jiang Nanchun began to reflect on his own business model.He also finally thought of breaking through the fetters of traditional "inertial thinking" and using reverse thinking skills to find "the little red sports car that belongs to him".But where is the little red sports car parked?Jiang Nanchun has been thinking hard...