Chapter 13 Chapter 12 Taught by Users: Cannot Be Overemphasized

It is true that he created the pattern, but others took it to a more extreme level.He invented the knife, and it wasn't all his fault that people used it to kill people.He later opposed rogue software because all rogue software claimed to be his students, and they all pinned this shit on him.After Ma Yun took over Yahoo in 2005, he promoted the client much more vigorously than him, because Yahoo needed to search and had income pressure.While scolding Zhou Hongyi, everyone followed the wrong path.It made him feel bad. To sum up the success of 360 today, it is inevitable to go back to 3721 back then.

No matter how profound the experiences and lessons of others are, they are not as unforgettable as your own.If it hadn't been for the thrilling battle in 3721, and if he hadn't been criticized overwhelmingly at the beginning, Zhou Hongyi's understanding of the importance of user value may not have been such a deep pain. Zhou Hongyi reflected on the problems of the 3721 software itself. The external environment he faced at that time was: With the support of Microsoft, the domain name resolution of msn.com pointed to the RealNames server. If 3721 wants to compete with RealNames in the market, it has to spread the clients as widely as possible.Strictly speaking, a piece of software needs to be installed, but the installation process is too time-consuming.So he had been thinking about two issues at the time: one was how to reduce the software client to tens of K (kilobytes); the other was wondering if there could be an easier way to install the software.

Usually, the download of software requires the user to actively click the download button, save the file in the disk of the computer after the download is completed, and then click install on the file disk, and run it after the installation is complete.At the same time, a small icon will appear at the bottom right of the computer desktop.But at that time, many ordinary users either didn't know how to download it, or thought it was finished after downloading, and didn't know how to run it. Zhou Hongyi was later inspired by Flash software: when Flash pops up, you click "Yes" and it will be automatically installed.He thinks this method is very good, that is, using plug-in technology in software installation.According to this idea, 3721 compresses the size of the client software to 100K and turns it into a plug-in. It is really simple and convenient.

He was very proud of it and thought it was a good innovation.The next step is how to use plug-in technology to improve the installation efficiency of network real names. They started looking for a website to cooperate with and put this script on the webpage, similar to a network alliance.As long as the user visits this webpage, the script will check whether the user has installed the 3721 plug-in. If it is found that the user has not installed it, IE will pop up a dialog box. After the user clicks "Yes", the installation will be completed automatically.This kind of installation speed has increased by more than a hundred times compared with the original one, which has brought a crazy increase in the amount of client resources to 3721.

The plug-in pop-up method brought a huge turning point, but it also paved the way for 3721 to be widely questioned later. From the perspective of 3721, the plug-in pop-up method is installed with the user's consent, because pressing "No" means not agreeing and giving up the installation, but this method ignores the user's experience.If the user does not install Flash, the displayed content of the web page will not be complete. Because of its simplicity, many users will choose to install Flash at this time.But different from the Flash web page, in the software with online real name, when the user sees the relevant prompt, he has no idea what kind of software the real name is, and the prompt text in the window is also very limited, only the software and company name can be seen .For most users, they basically don't read the specific content of the pop-up window.

The final result is that after the pop-up window of the online real name came out, half of the users chose to click "Yes", while half of them clicked "No".Some "Xiaobai" (short for "little idiot", which is a joke-like term commonly seen on the Internet) users don't know that they have installed the software of Internet real name even if they click "Yes", and they basically don't know it. I noticed that there is an icon representing the real name of the network in the lower right corner of the computer. In this way, Zhou Hongyi used the Internet promotion alliance he had established before to promote this installation method.

In this process, he ignored a detail - for those users who choose "No", this plug-in method has another disadvantage: the window on the web page is popped up by IE, and the background of 3721 does not record whether the user Refused, after the user presses "No", the next time 3721 will persistently ask "Yes" or "No".In fact, it has no technology to record whether a user has refused to install. From 3721's point of view, there are only two situations: installed and not installed, and those who have not installed will be defaulted as new users.As a result, these computers, which were regarded as new users, were repeatedly harassed by pop-up windows, which was one of the reasons why he was criticized later.As the scope of website alliances expands day by day, the troubles caused to users are also increasing.

Plug-in installation also has a big inherent drawback-when the pop-up window comes out, the plug-in content has been downloaded and the user's signature is verified. A window pops up asking if you want to install it. It's okay for ordinary "novice" users to bear it, but some high-end users can't bear it.At that time, Zhou Hongyi was not aware of these problems in the plug-in technology itself, so he did not make corresponding corrections after causing trouble to users.In order to compete with RealNames, 3721 did one more thing.At that time, Internet users did not have the habit of using search engines, and most people searched directly on several portals. 3721 cooperated with Netease, Sohu and Sina, and put a text link in front of the search box on their pages, which read: "Are you looking for the real name of *** Internet?"

Such cooperation is certainly impossible to achieve today, but in the early days of the Internet, everyone was in the groping stage.In this way, 3721 bought the best position in front of the portal search box.This means that even if the user has not installed the network real name, this method can tell the user that the network real name can be found with a search engine. 3721 only needs to pay 1 million to 1.5 million yuan to the three major portals each year. This is actually quite a disadvantage for the portal, because 3721 uses this method to tell users not to click through the portal next time, just install the plug-in and directly enter it in the address bar.

Moreover, 3721 is eager for success and is too pursuing the conversion rate of users in the process, so it uses a script to pop up a dialog box whether to install or not without consulting users.Although the installation rate has skyrocketed, the resentment caused by the interruption of users is also slowly accumulating.This kind of resentment finally broke out when 3721 fought hand-to-hand with Baidu and CNNIC. In June 2002, Baidu vigorously launched "Baidu Souba", fighting against 3721 together with CNNIC.In order to compete for users, the three parties first uninstalled each other's plug-ins, and then continuously strengthened their self-protection in order not to be uninstalled by the other party, and finally gradually developed to the point that even users themselves could not uninstall them.

On the battlefield of the address bar, which is almost 1 centimeter high, several Internet companies have been beaten to death. Zhou Hongyi and Li Yanhong developed from a war of words to a court confrontation. 3721 was deemed "unfair competition" by the court because it prevented users from downloading Baidu Soba. In this vicious competition with no bottom line, Zhou Hongyi relied on his "excellent" technical level to make the plug-in more difficult to remove, and finally grabbed more users. In 2002, 3721's sales reached 200 million yuan, with a gross profit of 60 million yuan, and its traffic and revenue exceeded Baidu. At that time, Ma Huateng, who was struggling, almost sold QQ software to others for 600,000 yuan. But many netizens who "got shot while lying down" quit, and cursed Zhou Hongyi like a flood. The Internet in China at the beginning of the 21st century was at the beginning of chaos, and the market was not regulated. He originally hoped to take advantage of the chaos to conquer a country, but later he regretted it—although he captured a city, he lost everything. Although this history has passed 10 years, it is still the magic weapon for competitors to attack him.In this regard, Zhou Hongyi showed a distinctive style: first, he did not make excuses, but repeatedly admitted his mistakes to the public; second, he not only apologized, but also acted repentantly. As mentioned earlier, he is a very reflective person who cares deeply about his image of "justice".Such a big mistake and such deep guilt finally inspired him to create a tool for free malware detection and killing, and in a series of products since then, he has always put user experience first. When Zhou Hongyi started his business again in 2006, the external environment was quite different from a few years ago. There are many princes in every industry, and it is tantamount to a sheep entering a tiger's mouth to seize food from the territory of the great powers.He has always been fond of search, but Qihoo's search business has not made a substantial breakthrough for a long time, but it was an unintentional work-the security software of Chashaliu® Software has done well, which brought him hope. But the anti-virus software industry at that time had already shown the trend of the three kingdoms.Rising, Jiangmin, and Jinshan have all been in business for many years, and it is not easy to tear a hole in the site where the three powers stand side by side.If he follows the conventional growth model of the software industry, he will not only be too late in time, but also may not be able to surpass it technically. At this time, Zhou Hongyi was quite entangled: he really didn't want to search anymore, but he didn't know whether to make a remedial tool the center of gravity. After all, this is a major decision related to the company's entire development direction.At that time, many investors didn't say anything, but he could read their thoughts: I invested so much money in search for you, and search is a big concept in the world.As a result, your search failed. Although the 360 ​​anti-rogue software was welcomed by the common people at that time, it offended its peers, and it couldn’t make money because it was simple.Therefore, investors are critical. In this major strategic transfer, two people played a very important role. One was Zhou Kui from Sequoia. He encouraged Zhou Hongyi to do 360 and thought it was a good thing.Zhou Kui has always been a partner of Sequoia and has always supported 360. Zhou Hongyi still admires his vision. The other person is Wang Leilei.Because he and Zhou Hongyi had a good personal relationship, they spoke more directly.He once said to Zhou Hongyi: What are you still doing with those vain things? I don’t think you can do search.Zhou Hongyi said: We have no problem with search, and the search technology is very good.Wang Leilei said: What's the use of that? Google and Baidu have done a lot. I see 360 ​​and there are still movies, so you should concentrate on 360.Later Zhou Hongyi did go all out to do 360. Of course, because 360 ​​itself has achieved "unexpected success", Zhou Hongyi had actually found a rigid need of users at that time: security.Because the computer is slow, and it is plagued by various rogue software and password viruses, the security appeal of not being disturbed is already very strong. In addition, it was also during this process that Zhou Hongyi discovered the martial arts secrets of the Internet: the free mode. At that time, the antivirus software industry was still a fee-based model.No one expected that Zhou Hongyi would bring about a "catastrophe". In July 2006, Qihoo unexpectedly launched a free security software - 360 Security Guard. In August 2006, 360 Security Guards launched a referendum campaign on malware, calling on netizens to openly vote on software that has been debated in the industry.Zhou Hongyi's calculation is that users are already harassed by rogue software at this time, and the launch of 360 Security Guard will surely win cheers, and it will also clean up their notoriety. In the 360 ​​"evil comment" software list, there are "enemies" software such as Baidu, CNNIC, Alibaba, etc., and of course Yahoo Assistant formerly known as 3721. 360 Security Guard can check and kill the above-mentioned rogue software, and uninstall the software with the consent of the user. In the first two months after the release of the software, 1 million software with bad reviews were uninstalled every day, among which Yahoo Assistant was uninstalled more than 600,000 times.Zhou Hongyi "knife" this "red boy" raised by himself. Whether it is for strategy or self-salvation, for users, virus plug-ins dare not harass users blatantly.The opinion of him in the Internet arena suddenly improved a lot, and people began to call his pioneering act "washing hands in the golden basin" or "the prodigal son turns back".And this provided a moral bargaining chip for its subsequent promotion of security software and the increase of a large number of users. But when the rogue software is always killed, what else can Zhou Hongyi do next?Based on the need for security and the success of security guards, he entered the field of antivirus in 2008. In fact, the anti-virus software market has maintained a relatively stable pattern for many years. The three major local anti-virus companies Rising, Kingsoft and Jiangmin are almost divided into three parts, and Kaspersky's position is not stable.In this pattern, they occasionally use marketing methods such as price reduction promotions or half-year free trials to grab market share. At the same time, they unconsciously reach a consensus that they will occasionally attack each other, but they will not fight. But this time they met Zhou Hongyi who never played cards according to common sense. When 360 Security Guard was launched, Qihoo cooperated with Kaspersky - as long as you use 360 ​​Security Guard, you will get Kaspersky anti-virus software - which greatly promoted the early promotion of 360.Kaspersky, whose position is not stable, has also gained a firm foothold in the antivirus software market through its cooperation with 360. Rising, the leader of anti-virus software, was very alert to the attack of 360, and quickly launched Rising Kaka, which is also a security software. Where is the way out to win market opportunities in the seemingly impregnable antivirus software industry?Regardless of the industry, acquiring users is crucial, and the Internet needs a large number of users.This point is no different from the 3721 era, the difference is only in the way of obtaining it.It is Zhou Hongyi's only chance to break the charging model of the original anti-virus software.The most important role of free is not only to benefit users, but it also subverts competitors' business models. Free and continuous micro-innovations have effectively improved the user experience. This practical feeling is inseparable from Zhou Hongyi's repeated emphasis on user experience.The emphasis on users is a value, but the emphasis on user experience is cultivated in endless trivialities, which requires entrepreneurial spirit. There are three key words in the second entrepreneurship: the first is customer first, the second is innovation, and the third is entrepreneurial spirit. User supremacy means supremacy of user interests and supremacy of user experience, which is the foundation of Qihoo 360's survival.Today, users don't want to know whether your technology is good or not, and don't want to know what great dreams and ideas your company has. What they really care about is what problems your product can solve for them, and what your product can create for them value. When Internet products are becoming more and more homogeneous, who can think for users and maximize the experience—rather than simply listing functions—and finally let users feel convenient, pleasant, and enjoyable when using the product? Rest assured, whoever can really win the trust of users. The phrase "customer first" is easier said than done.From a tactical point of view, when making products, we must always start from the user's point of view, not from the self.From a strategic point of view, customer first means that enterprises must respect the interests of users from the bottom of their hearts, and should not damage the interests of users in order to make a lot of money. When Qihoo 360 first entered the security market, its technology was not strong, but they were determined, not afraid of offending their peers, and dared to kill all rogue software that occupied users' computers, so they won the trust of users. 360 launched a free anti-virus, first waved a knife at itself, first cut off nearly 200 million of its anti-virus software sales revenue.Without this spirit, they could not have risen from the Internet security field.This also gave Zhou Hongyi a great inspiration, that is, when commercial interests and user interests conflict, commercial interests must give way to user interests. Speaking of it, this is the truth he has learned since he was working on anti-virus cards, but at that time he was still at the level of dealing with users, only knowing that the value of products can only be realized through the purchase and use of users.Later in Founder, although he had product awareness, his understanding of user value remained at that stage to a large extent. He was thinking about how to provide users with as convenient and advanced technologies and functions as possible. It wasn't until after doing 3721 that Zhou Hongyi truly realized that users are not objects or tools to make money.At that time, China's Internet was in a barbaric era with no rules.Many promotion methods, such as the website alliance model, were indeed his first.The model itself is right, the technology itself is right, it depends on how you use it.Many people think his promotion method is very good, and they all choose to be clients.Then, this promotion method was pushed to the extreme again, and many software became rogue software. Later, everyone put a hat on him, saying that he was the initiator of rogue software.He is responsible for this matter.However, he is not convinced that all the responsibilities are on him. In 2006, well-known big companies such as Sohu, Baidu, Yahoo, and Renren all produced rogue software, and even Google launched a toolbar.In that era, whoever does not do rogue software will suffer.You are a company, I am a company, you do not do rogue software, sorry, you will have no traffic.If you don’t have traffic, you won’t be able to get investment, and then you may not be able to survive. It is true that he created the pattern, but others took it to a more extreme level.He invented the knife, and it wasn't all his fault that people used it to kill people. He later opposed rogue software because all rogue software claimed to be his students, and they all pinned this shit on him.After Ma Yun took over Yahoo in 2005, he promoted the client much more vigorously than him, because Yahoo needed to search and had income pressure.Everyone scolded him while following the wrong path.It made him feel bad. "For example, a child has a stepfather, and the stepfather told him to steal things, but others said that the child was born by Zhou Hongyi, and Zhou Hongyi asked him to steal it. I still want to work in this industry, but I watch them every day. I did bad things, but they pushed my bad reputation on me. I was always a marginal person who hoped to be recognized by everyone, but it turned out to be like this. Naturally, I was extremely disappointed. During that time, every day I opened my eyes It’s just the overwhelming criticism in the media.” He locked himself in the room, dared not come out for a week, and smashed a table and two doors. It felt like a repeat of the "virus door" in his graduate school.He did make some mistakes, but the source of the mistakes and the circumstances were justifiable, but he was despised and scolded by others. At times, the rage of being wronged made him almost rush out to duel them, but he eventually calmed down.Ten years have passed, and step by step reflection, Zhou Hongyi understands how to control fear: find solutions to problems, find ways to make up for mistakes.After all, he opened this Pandora's box, and he had no choice but to close it with his own hands.The idea is not noble, but it makes sense. "First, since you are making money by ruining my reputation, let's not make any money. I will destroy your stuff. Second, you all want to be hooligans, but I don't want the company I invested in to continue If you want to be hooligans, then let’s not be hooligans. Of course, I voluntarily refrain from being hooligans, and I force others not to be hooligans.” His starting point is very simple, that is, if they are all wiped out, everyone should stop playing.Some people say that Zhou Hongyi did this with a lot of scheming.In fact, if he was really scheming, he might not be able to do it.Anti-virus software companies definitely have the technical ability to do it, but they dare not do it, because doing it first does not make money, and second offends people.Everyone is in the industry, you can't see up and down, and they are all products made by world-renowned companies. If you kill them, how much pressure is there. He is motivated by self-interest, so he has a particularly strong heart.If he doesn't destroy them, he can't do anything himself.Doing this does not make money, and there is no business model.But if he doesn't do it, he won't be able to stand up in the industry.Moreover, it didn't cost much to build this client at that time, and five or six people could probably do it.He is self-interested subjectively, but objectively he is altruistic and beneficial to users. Although this move is unintentional, it also coincides with the way of heaven. The later facts just confirmed a truth in the Internet industry-no matter how the business model is ever-changing, the user base is king.Without respect for users, "Shenma's business model is nothing but clouds."