Chapter 43 Gates' seamless docking dream runs aground

In the instant messaging battlefield, the flames of war have been spreading. On October 12, 2005, Yahoo! Corporation and Microsoft announced a landmark agreement that will enable users of MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger to interconnect between April and June 2006.According to the agreement reached by Yahoo and Microsoft, Yahoo Messenger and MSN will realize interconnection on a global scale in the second quarter of 2006, so as to realize real-time communication between the two parties' 27.5 billion users. AOL's American Messenger and the burgeoning Google Talk stand alone. According to statistics, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger and America Online are currently the three major IM tools in the world, with a total of hundreds of millions of users, forming a tripartite trend. After the alliance between MSN and Yahoo Messenger, a relatively strong group will be formed, thus changing the entire IM market structure.Because of this, Mao Xin, the general manager of Yahoo China Communications Division, was very excited.According to him, the cooperation between the two parties is based on the thorough cooperation on the server side, which is different from the third-party interconnection software that once appeared in China.

In fact, long before MSN and Yahoo Messenger announced their interconnection, Netease Bubble and Sina's UC tried to attack Tencent's QQ monopoly through interconnection, but ultimately failed.Today, MSN and Yahoo Messenger are the first to eat crabs, and all IM vendors are also looking for opportunities to fight back. As soon as the news of the interconnection between MSN and Yahoo Messenger came out, according to Yahoo China executives, dozens of Chinese IM manufacturers have expressed their cooperation intentions, and Tencent is not among them.It can be seen how obviously this milestone cooperation has shaken the Chinese market.Some domestic small and medium-sized instant messaging software are in private contact with Yahoo China and MSN China, hoping to join the interconnection camp and jointly fight against the industry oligarchy Tencent QQ.Some analysts believe that this kind of market "forced palace" is quite deterrent, because once nearly 40 IM manufacturers in China are fully interconnected, Tencent QQ, the leader of IM in China, will be considered the last bastion that hinders the interconnection of hundreds of millions of Internet users in China. .

In response to this massive "forced palace" incident, Ma Huateng did not sit still, he fought back vigorously.He resolutely stated his position, "We support reasonable interconnection, but if QQ is unconditionally open, it will allow all instant messaging software to use QQ users to make profits. There is no such reason." This is character The most representative scene performed by the introverted and always low-key Ma Huateng in the past year. In 2005, Ma Huateng and his Tencent company changed their previous low profile in public.Behind the sudden change is an important turning point in Tencent's development strategy. Ma Huateng, who is like a frail scholar, revealed Tencent's strong development vision.

On October 27, 2005, the official version of Tencent QQ2005 was released in Beijing with a high profile. This is the first time that Tencent has held a new product launch conference for instant messaging software in seven years.Ma Huateng clearly put forward the concept of "instant messaging standards" for the first time, pointing out that "my country's instant messaging industry has entered the era of standards. Over the years, the development of the instant messaging The communication industry will soon enter the era of independent definition of industry standards and independent implementation of technology and product innovation."

Tencent's high-profile announcement of standard setting is used to show its continuous technological innovation on the one hand; on the other hand, it gives people the impression of an industry standard setter.These are all conducive to strengthening its position as an industry leader.Ma Huateng said that the standard depends on the product. The product is recognized by users and can lead the trend of the entire industry. It has objectively become the standard.So from this point of view, Tencent must first cultivate its internal skills in front of all competitors and speak with its products.Obviously, Tencent's high-profile release of new products and Ma Huateng's views on the future development of the instant messaging industry are aimed at the IM interconnection agreement reached by Microsoft and Yahoo.

The establishment of technical standards is one of the measures often adopted by industry leaders to ensure their market leadership. Tencent QQ suppresses MSN, and technology is one of the main paths.This is mainly reflected in the fact that its version update speed, improved client software performance, improved file transfer speed, improved instant messaging functions and other market responses are much more sensitive than MSN.Ma Huateng's statement that "the standard depends on the product" shows his strong confidence that he is not afraid of fighting alone. In the face of Microsoft's aggressiveness, Ma Huateng carried out a gorgeous adventure.

On December 22, 2005, a piece of news titled "Tencent Poach MSN Senior Project Manager Xiong Minghua as Co-CTO" released by Sina Technology attracted the attention of the media and peers, even though Tencent has many moves to poach people from its opponents. Suspected of hype, but at least from a certain perspective, Tencent's preemptive approach still makes people feel Ma Huateng's firm determination to compete with MSN. Xiong Minghua joined Microsoft in 1996 as Program Manager and participated in the development of projects such as JavaVM, IE40, Windows2000, WindowsME and MSN. Before joining Microsoft, Xiong Minghua worked in IBM, KT International and other companies.During his tenure in the United States, Xiong Minghua had a close relationship with the domestic software industry.Through speeches and consulting activities, he introduced international advanced software management ideas, which is very helpful for domestic software companies to improve their technical level.

"Dr. Xiong Minghua has extensive experience in project management." A person familiar with the matter said that Microsoft's project managers accounted for one-fifth of the total developers. "In the process of Tencent's development, the technology R&D team is growing. We need to improve the R&D process management capabilities, and we have been absorbing talents with good management experience." Facing the media, Tencent believes, "Xiong Minghua has 15 years of work experience. Help improve Tencent's process management level."The addition of Xiong Minghua has also slightly changed Tencent's high-level structure. Tencent has changed to dual CTOs. Zhang Zhidong, the original CTO and one of the founders, will serve as the joint CTO with Xiong Minghua.

Ma Huateng went to Microsoft to poach people at this time, which is a risky behavior in the eyes of others.Because during that period of time, Microsoft became very sensitive because of the "Kai-Fu Lee Incident", and it almost punished it for the slightest offense. The so-called "Kaifu Lee incident" is as follows: In July 2005, Google announced that it would set up a product research and development center in China in the third quarter of that year, and appointed Kaifu Lee, the former global vice president of Microsoft's natural interactive software and services department, as the head of the center. and President of Google China.But maybe there was an error in the operation. Just the day before the announcement, Kai-Fu Lee was still working at Microsoft.Microsoft immediately filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Washington State, accusing Google and Kai-Fu Lee of violating the non-competition promise (non-competition promise), demanding financial compensation, and requesting the court to support the signing of the non-competition agreement between Microsoft and Kai-Fu Lee and other contractual terms, including Kai-fu Lee is prohibited from disclosing Microsoft's trade secrets.Since Lee Kai-fu left Microsoft to join Google after the lawsuit was triggered, Microsoft's restrictive clauses for employees joining competitors have attracted widespread attention.Because Microsoft has been involved in operating systems, office software, entertainment systems, instant messaging and other aspects of software, it often has disputes with other peers, but Ma Huateng's poaching incident did not leave Microsoft any handle.

After this battle, the pace of Microsoft's sharing of domestic instant messaging has accelerated. On July 13, 2006, Yahoo and Microsoft announced the realization of interconnection, which is the first time that many instant messaging giants at home and abroad have achieved interconnection.The two parties will use several months to complete the public test of the interoperability between instant messaging tools in multiple markets around the world.The test will be expanded to voice, video interconnection and wireless fields, marking that Yahoo and Microsoft will jointly create the world's largest individual user instant messaging community with more than 3.5 billion users.After the news was announced, Alibaba and Yahoo also indicated that they would realize interconnection with Tradelink, Taobao Want Want, AOL, Google and eBay in the near future.

The cooperation between Yahoo and Microsoft is aimed at AOL's IM tool abroad, but in China, it directly puts pressure on QQ. MSN and Yahoo! Messenger target white-collar business people in China, but in the business field, IM software is more likely to create a stable user base and business value.In addition, when the IM software is integrated, it will not only snatch the respective customers from the chat room, but also blogs and search engines.Once users can instant message with Yahoo Messenger friends through Microsoft's MSN, both parties will attract more customers. At present, the interoperability between MSN and Yahoo! Messenger cannot shake QQ's dominance in the Chinese market. The reason is simple. Yahoo Messenger's share in the Chinese market is too low, and the cooperation between the two is irrelevant to QQ.But on the other hand, QQ is not just "sit back and relax". In fact, since MSN launched in China, QQ has been worried about whether it will be positioned as entertainment, whether it will be surpassed by MSN, which is positioned as business. After all, in the business field, IM software is easier. Create a stable user base and business value. In fact, it is not surprising that Tencent refuses to join the Interconnection Alliance, because the huge user base that Tencent has worked so hard to attract will never be willing to share it with other IMs. Although QQ is free, all the money-making businesses it painstakingly fosters are attached to QQ. Once it is fully interconnected, new businesses such as commercial TM, online auctions, and online games that Tencent is vigorously promoting will be severely hit.In the current IM market, only QQ, which is in an absolute monopoly position, is profitable. Throughout 2006, MSN and QQ launched a series of competitions around instant messaging, but Microsoft, as the global hegemon, seemed somewhat unacceptable in China.