Chapter 76 Tencent's Way to Win Tencent's Differentiated Competitive Advantages

Tencent's differentiated advantages are particularly evident after 2003. This change stems from the rise of the concept of Web2.0 in the history of the Internet. Web2.0 is one of the popular concepts of the Internet after 2003, but there is no strict definition of what is Web2.0.Generally speaking, Web2.0 (also known as Internet 2.0) is a general term for a new class of Internet applications relative to Web1.0. The main feature of Web1.0 is that users obtain information through browsers, while Web2.0 pays more attention to user interaction. Users are not only consumers (browsers) of website content, but also producers of website content.The transition from WEB1.0 to WEB2.0 in the Internet era has opened up the era when Tencent has "blossomed all the roots and poles" in the Internet country. The decentralization advocated by Web2.0 allows everyone to become a node, without any Doubt will make the network generate greater value.

Differences between WEB1.0 and WEB2.0 Portal information in the traditional WEB1.0 era is disseminated in a one-way, centralized mode, and netizens only accept it passively, rather than actively participating in it as the main body; Users are not only users of the Internet, but also active communicators, authors and producers of the Internet. The user's initiative and creativity have been greatly exerted and liberated. The experience of Web2.0 is: effective use of consumer self-service and algorithmic data management, so as to be able to extend the tentacles to the entire Internet, to all edges instead of just the center, and to the long tail instead of just the head .As Mr. Jiang Qiping said, "Tencent started the history of opening stores on Wangfujing streets."

What kind of storefront to open, so that the bustling crowd can stay on this street for a longer time, Ma Huateng's first choice is the portal - Tencent.com. The three major portals spent tens of millions of dollars and took many years to establish a mature portal profit model.It took Tencent a year to follow closely behind, and it was already among the three major portals in the second year.The reason is simple, there are too many people on the virtual "Wangfujing Street".In the Web 2.0 era, users' demand for news reading is undergoing profound changes. According to the 17th CNNIC survey data, leisure and entertainment have replaced information acquisition as the number one demand of Internet users for the first time, and interactive forms such as content participation and opinion exchange are playing an increasingly important role in news.

In the "portal + IM" mode, people walking on Wangfujing Street, that is, all QQ users can learn about the latest news from the mini-portal and the instant messages that appear in the lower right corner of the desktop; in addition, each channel of qq.com The news content of QQ is also open to all QQ users to subscribe. Users only need to choose to subscribe, and the corresponding personalized news will appear on the user's desktop in the first time.Sun Zhonghuai, general manager of Tencent.com, vividly called it "news direct investment". Sun Zhonghuai believes that the differentiated advantage of Tencent.com lies in the form of personalized, interactive and diversified new media.Provide "news direct input" and "news subscription" through QQ's mini homepage and instant messages, creating a more timely and personalized news model; in terms of news forms, such as global QQ connection, news quiz columns, etc., provide users with It is a good platform to participate in news, which is what qq.com is proud of as "News 2.0".

The second is games. "Tencent holds more than 200 million US dollars in cash after listing, and the online game market will also become a key industry for our next investment." On July 10, 2004, at the 8th China International Software Expo Domestic Online Game Development Forum, Ma Huateng, chairman of Tencent, publicly revealed Tencent's ambitions for the online game market for the first time.At present, Tencent has replaced Lianzhong as the leader in casual games in China. The third is e-commerce.Ma Yun invested 450 million yuan, and it took 2 years to build a C2C platform. Ma Huateng spent half a year investing 10 million yuan in Paipai, which disrupted the charging plan.At the beginning, Ma Huateng's C2C team had about 100 people.At present, with the advent of Baidu's C2C products, Tencent's Paipai and Ali's Taobao and other companies involved in C2C business will undoubtedly set off a new round of frontal battles.This is undoubtedly another test for Paipai.com, which only started trial operation in September 2007.

Even in the face of many opponents, Ma Huateng is still full of confidence.In an interview with "New Finance and Economics", Ma Huateng said: "We have many core competitiveness in this business. First, Tencent has many charging models such as Internet value-added service charges and wireless value-added service charges. Second, online shopping has begun to reach ordinary people. , we have a large number of user resources. I admit that Taobao has played a great role in cultivating the online shopping market, and we also feel the practicability and prospects of this business. However, this business is free and needs to burn a lot of money. In the future The development of the company mainly depends on who has the best integrated services, which is also a full-service competition, and Tencent's resources in this area are relatively comprehensive."

With the advantage of business differentiation, Tencent also has the advantage of resisting risks.To use a more fashionable phrase at present, Ma Huateng did not put all his eggs in one basket.According to Xie Wen, an Internet veteran, among the three major portals, Sina and Sohu are in the same category, mainly based on advertising, and other income such as wireless value-added services, which is better than a single business model.Sohu's efforts in games in 2007 contributed somewhat to its profits.Netease is mainly based on games, and now advertising also has a relatively significant share. Before that, Netease also had a single model.

"Tencent has one fuselage with two wings, one for online advertising and the other for mobile. The main focus is on Internet value-added services. Some of them are related to games, but they are mainly casual games, and others have no way to compete with them. In QQ's The value-added services under the brand have formed everywhere. In my mind, this is the authentic income of the Internet, and others are grabbing jobs in traditional industries. Either rely on the policy to eat, or compare the margins to see the upper limit of growth. Tencent’s Internet value-added services are not Similarly, if you stop the Internet, this income will be gone, and no one else (other industries) can take it away.” Tencent’s advantage is very stable in Xie Wen’s view.Just because Ma Huateng did not put all eggs in the same basket, he avoided the fate of TOM Online, which was too biased towards SP business, but was delisted due to policy factors.