Chapter 11 Chapter 2 Unintentionally inserting willows and willows into shades, the productivity produced by playing

Ma Huateng himself did not expect that the little gadget called OICQ that he played with casually at the beginning would grow into a "predator" of the Internet in the future.From a talented student at Shenzhen University to an engineer in an Internet company, Ma Huateng was once a "fancier" in the Internet industry.It is this mentality of "playing tickets" that "accidentally" played a "QQ Empire". In the 1960s and 1970s, Ma Huateng's parents, whose ancestral home was in Chaozhou, Guangdong, responded to the call of the central government and volunteered to work in Hainan, where conditions were difficult at the time. In October 1971, their youngest son Ma Huateng was born on Hainan Island.

When Ma Huateng and his family were in Hainan, not only were their living conditions difficult, but they also lacked cultural facilities and books.Ma Huateng liked "Astronomy Enthusiast" since he was a child. Although Ma's father only had a salary of more than 40 yuan a month at that time, his son's favorite books and periodicals have been subscribed by Ma's father for more than 20 years. Ma Huateng's parents are particularly strict in the education of Ma Huateng's siblings. They not only require them to be upright, but also to "behave with their tails between their legs."In such a family atmosphere, Ma Huateng has developed the habit of acting low-key since childhood.

In 1984, 13-year-old Ma Huateng moved from Hainan to Shenzhen with his parents who were chasing the economic tide.Ma Huateng, who has been interested in astronomy since he was a child, took a fancy to an astronomical telescope worth more than 900 yuan when he first arrived in Shenzhen.At that time, Ma Huateng's parents' monthly salary was only more than 100 yuan, and the parents did not agree to their son's "luxury" request.Later, Ma Huateng's mother saw her son's diary by chance, and wrote in the diary: "I want to buy an astronomical telescope, but my parents won't let me, so the future generation of scientists will be strangled by my parents." Ma Huateng's After discussing with the parents, they felt that they couldn't just "kill" the future scientists, so they bought the astronomical telescope with their teeth.

As he grew older, Ma Huateng began to face the college entrance examination.His interest in astronomy has become more and more intense, and he has repeatedly expressed his intention to apply for astronomy majors.His parents persuaded him that "you can't go up to the sky in astronomy, and you can't go down to the ground", so he should apply for a more practical major.Under the persuasion of his family, Ma Huateng applied for Shenzhen University, which was established only six years ago, with a score of more than 100 points higher than the key line in the 1989 college entrance examination.Shenzhen University is about to become the starting point for Ma Huateng to take off.

On May 10, 1983, Shenzhen University was formally established.On September 27 of the same year, Shenzhen University opened, and the first batch of 210 undergraduates attended classes.It took only 8 months from the preparation to the start of the school. The speed is rare at home and abroad. Therefore, Shenzhen University was praised as "Shenzhen Speed" by Deng Xiaoping, who came to Shenzhen for inspection at that time. At the beginning of its establishment, Shenzhen University implemented a policy that was very in line with the temperament of Shenzhen, an emerging city, and carried out a series of reforms and innovations and attempts of "dare to be the first in the world": it was the first in the country to propose "university graduates do not receive distribution", and it was the first to implement credits system, double degree system, work-study system, etc.After more than 20 years of development, the number of students in Shenzhen University has reached 24,000, integrating 8 disciplines including philosophy, literature, economics, law, education, science, engineering, and management.

In January 2006, the China Alumni Association Network released the "Investigation Report on the Cultivation of Outstanding Talents in Chinese Universities", and accordingly launched the "China Universities Rich Alumni List". Among the top ten are Peking University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, China Traditional prestigious schools such as Renmin University and Tsinghua University, while Shenzhen University is tied for ninth with Nanjing University and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics.The report specifically pointed out: "The strength of Shenzhen University is of concern. In just over 20 years, it has made full use of its geographical advantages in Shenzhen, a national special economic zone, and has surpassed many established universities in the cultivation of outstanding self-employed talents. .”

It is under the guidance of reform and innovation ideas that Shenzhen University has cultivated many "characters".Shi Yuzhu, president of Giant Group, and Zhou Haijiang, chairman of Hongdou Company, all graduated from here, and Ma Huateng has added another stroke to the "Celebrity List" of Shenzhen University. As the tide of reform and opening up, the electronic processing industry represented by computer accessories has gradually become the mainstream of Shenzhen's industry.Ma Huateng majored in computer and application, and the emerging Shenzhen University gave him the opportunity to get in touch with computers earlier.

Ma Huateng failed an exam not long after he entered university. That incident made him understand that learning should not only rely on cleverness, but also lay a solid foundation.He once revealed that his way of learning programming is "to comprehend in the most stupid way" - to cultivate the feeling by copying code.The teachers at Shenzhen University in the 1989 class recalled that Ma Huateng did well in the written test, but his computer-based test results were not satisfactory, and his comprehensive results were not enough to say that he was "smashing the pot". During the four years of studying, Ma Huateng's "idol" has always been a master programmer in UNIX and C language.During college, Ma Huateng's computer proficiency impressed teachers and classmates, and he often provided good solutions for the school's computer maintenance.

As the first generation of Chinese hackers, Ma Huateng has shown a good market awareness: transforming technology into productivity.His proficient computer technology can easily solve common computer viruses, and the teachers in the school's computer room often consult this student. Ma Huateng exchanged the time to use the computer on the condition that he cleared all kinds of viruses in the machines in the computer room.Sometimes, in order to have more time on the computer, Ma Huateng simply locked the hard disk of the computer, which made the school computer room administrator dumbfounded.

Because of more opportunities than ordinary people, and his own efforts, Ma Huateng's computer level has risen steadily.His test scores can be ranked in the top five every year. In the process of writing software and researching computer networks, Ma Huateng has experienced the fun that astronomy does not have. After four years of happy and fulfilling university life, Ma Huateng graduated from Shenzhen University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1993, Ma Huateng, who graduated from university, was still unwilling to leave Shenzhen. He decided to stay in Shenzhen for development.Soon, Ma Huateng joined a company called "Runxun" and became a computer engineer.

Founded in 1990, Runxun Company was originally engaged in paging business. It was a pearl in Shenzhen and even China's communication industry in the 1990s. Its advertisement of "one call to the world" still impresses many people. The early 1990s was a special era for the paging industry, and companies engaged in this industry generally had relevant backgrounds.Due to the relative monopoly, the first batch of paging companies in China lived a life like heaven.Ma Huateng joined Run Xun when he was living in heaven. Ma Huateng's earliest position was a software engineer, focusing on the development of paging software.Ma Huateng, who is proficient in computers, quickly adapted to work, and his work was done impressively.It took him less than 6 years to become the director of the development department of Runxun Company. Ma Huateng, who was promoted to supervisor, has always had a soft spot for the Internet, so he proposed to Runxun Company to use the Internet for wireless paging business, and developed a system.It's a pity that this has not been supported by the company.At this time, Ma Huateng already had the idea of ​​starting his own business. Self-employment requires capital. Ma Huateng's technical strength is beyond doubt, and what he needs is capital.As a software engineer, Ma Huateng, his first pot of gold did not come from the Internet, but from the stock market. In the years after 1992, the stock market became the hot spot of China's economy.Especially in Shenzhen, a special economic zone, stock trading has almost become a "national movement".It was a crazy era, Ma Huateng recalled: “There was a company with a business hall downstairs, and when I was watching the market in the business hall, it was still 5 yuan a share, but when I went upstairs to find someone to buy stocks, it had already risen to 6 yuan. When I went downstairs, it turned into 7 yuan. In one morning, there were hundreds of thousands more on the account, and I didn’t know what the food tasted like. It was just picking up money.” Under this situation, Ma Huateng, who had just started working, followed the tide and entered the stock market in 1994, starting his "stock market career".While investing in stocks, Ma Huateng still did not forget his old profession. He soon discovered that there is a board installed on a computer that can display stock trends in real time through the Internet, which greatly facilitates stockholders who want to know the dynamics of the stock market at home. . Seeing the computer being applied to practice, Ma Huateng's learning ability was stimulated. "Others can do it, why can't I do it?" As early as 1993, the "Hanka" software developed by Ma Huateng's senior brother Shi Yuzhu had become popular in China, and the Giant Group was even more famous.From Shi Yuzhu, Ma Huateng saw the power of technology. Therefore, Ma Huateng and a few friends began to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of various stock boards on the market, and imitated related products, and developed the all-time "stock card".The stock card is simple and practical. Once it was launched, it was well received. It was even sold out in the famous SEG electronic market in Shenzhen for a period of time. The rage of stock bully cards has greatly increased Ma Huateng's economic strength, and he has benefited a lot from fighting in the "stock sea".With a calm and patient personality, Ma Huateng is like a fish in water in the stock market.It is even rumored in the industry that Ma Huateng once fired 100,000 yuan to 700,000 yuan, and Ma Huateng quickly accumulated millions of dollars, which laid the foundation for Ma Huateng's later independent entrepreneurship. At the end of the 1990s, China’s economy developed rapidly. At that time, a popular saying was: “One hundred thousand yuan is not considered rich, one million yuan is just starting.” The "dominant spirit" of the upstart wealth. While making money, Ma Huateng has been thinking about this question: the value of information has gradually been recognized by people and will surely become an important factor of productivity, so how to convert it into a real commodity value? The success of the stock card made Ma Huateng believe that the things he wrote could be sold for money.Ma Huateng's concept of "pragmatic software" began to appear, and "practical" became Ma Huateng's first idea when looking for business opportunities in the software market.The Guba card developed by Ma Huateng can display real-time information online.This creation made him realize the importance of information. When Ma Huateng experienced the baptism of the "share sea", he did not let his eyes leave the Internet. Because of the success of the stock card, Ma Huateng not only obtained good economic benefits, but also became more and more famous in the Internet circle.Even so, Ma Huateng was not in a hurry to leave Runxun Company at that time. Calmness is his character, and he still waited for the opportunity leisurely.During his time in the stock market, he wasn't leaving the internet behind.On the contrary, he is more obsessed with emerging computer things, including the Huiduo Shenzhen website invested and established by himself. Most people don't know that before the real Internet was popularized, there was an earlier Huiduo.com to experience the fun of the Internet.Huiduo.com, whose English name is CFIDO, was born in the United States in 1984. It is not the Internet in the traditional sense. Until 1991, enthusiastic netizens set up the first Huiduo Great Wall station in China in Beijing.A station is often just a computer, a phone, and a MODEN.The user connects to the server by dialing the phone, and the server is the computer, and then downloads the latest posts in the BBS, and reads and replies offline.The way to reply is to pack the information, and then dial and upload to the server.Huiduo.com is the embryonic form of early Internet sites, and its slogan is "Huiduo.com no thanks".It means: Anyone who helps you, you don't need to express your gratitude, you just need to help others with your own strength.This slogan indirectly made the Shenzhen station of Huiduo.com. The early Internet bugs all liked to "surf" Huiduo Internet, and these Internet "pioneers" were the first to feel the attraction of the Internet.Later, they also became the best in the Internet, and Ma Huateng is one of them. In 1995, Ma Huateng had been on the Huiduo website for half a year, and he found that he had experienced an unprecedented feeling on it.Perhaps in order to reflect the slogan of Huiduo.com, Ma Huateng decided to let more people enjoy the fun of Huiduo.com. He resolutely invested 50,000 yuan to build 4 telephone lines and 8 computers at home to build Huiduo. Net's Shenzhen site, and he himself became the stationmaster of Huiduo.com's Shenzhen site. Ma Huateng spends almost all his spare time on Huiduo.com.At that time, Ma Huateng's English name "pony" became famous on Huiduo.com's Shenzhen website.Ma Huateng began to get really busy. For a long time to come, Shenzhen "Mazhan" had a very high popularity on Huiduo.com.Although the Internet was not full of gold at that time, many like-minded people gathered together without too many interests, and everyone could treat each other with sincerity.From this, many Internet talents got to know each other, and Ma Huateng soon got acquainted with Ding Lei who had been on the BBS for many years at that time. At this time, Ding Lei had already resigned from public office and went south to Guangzhou to pan for gold. In 1996, he set up a BBS called "Firebird" on chinanet, and he is a well-known computer expert in Guangzhou.Ma Huateng in Shenzhen quickly got acquainted with Ding Lei in Guangzhou. The two had a good personal relationship. They often drank together and discussed how to start a business in the future. The story of two heroes who were both born in 1971 cherishing heroes, encouraging each other and helping each other is a good story. "When we drank beer together, we were just wage earners, and we didn't know the future." Now recalling that past, Ma Huateng is a little proud, "I only get complete excitement online, and it hasn't changed so far." Ma Huateng's role as the Shenzhen stationmaster of Huiduo.com still seems to be "playing tickets" in nature. In fact, Ma Huateng is exploring ways to start a business while "playing".With a computer background and a website building background, Ma Huateng wanted to practice many of his ideas while "playing". Many years later, some media once asked Ma Huateng, as a "super worm", when he first came into contact with the Internet, was it based on a playful mentality?Ma Huateng gave a negative answer: "From the very first time I came into contact with the Internet, I knew which aspects of it were useful. I chose it purposefully, not just playing. The so-called playing is to know why this thing is good and why users Will like it, is to try with a research mentality." It is precisely based on the mentality of research that Ma Huateng would not regard himself as a simple user when he was a webmaster.Referring again to the experience of the webmaster of Huiduo.com, Ma Huateng said: "When I was doing Huiduo.com, I became the webmaster, which is equivalent to the current website. At that time, I thought it was very useful, and I thought this thing could provide new communication. way. In the past, 4 telephone lines could only be used by 4 people at the same time, but now tens of thousands of people can access the Internet at the same time, and my stage is much bigger.” "Super net bug" Ma Huateng came into contact with a gadget that changed his life through the introduction of netizens when he was in the position of "Mazhan". In 1997, Ma Huateng used ICQ for the first time and became a registered user of ICQ. ICQ is the abbreviation of "Iseekyou" in English, which means in Chinese: I'm looking for you.Its function is like a pager often used in daily life, so ICQ is also called "network pager".In the summer of 1996, after three young Israelis, Vesger, Wadi and Goldfinger, designed ICQ for surfing and communicating on the Internet, this software, which is vividly called "Internet pager", swept away like a storm. Take away the hearts of Internet users around the world. This "network pager" was so well made that the three Jewish boys established a small company named Mirabilis to officially provide ICQ services to people.In the end, they sold ICQ to America Online, one of the world's largest websites, for nearly $300 million. This was only in 1999. ICQ changed the fate of these three Jews. Ma Huateng, who is far away in Shenzhen, China, was also affected by this seemingly inconspicuous gadget. In 1998, Ma Huateng, who had been working at Runxun, was shocked by his inner entrepreneurial ideas.His idea is actually very simple, "explore and enhance your own value".The capital for starting a business is already available, and Ma Huateng has accumulated millions of dollars in his hands. He no longer needs to run around for a living. He wants to devote more energy to his hobbies and industries he loves. Obviously, "Mazhan" loves the Internet.At that time, Ma Huateng, who was the director of the development department of Runxun, had to face a painful choice. As the development supervisor, because of market demand, the company required Ma Huateng to devote most of his energy and time to the paging business.However, Ma Huateng, based on his understanding of the market, believed that more emphasis should be placed on the development of the Internet. Due to the violent situation of the paging industry at that time, Ma Huateng's suggestion did not attract the attention of Runxun. As an early user of ICQ, Ma Huateng saw the development prospects of this "network pager".So he put forward a proposal to develop software similar to ICQ, but Runxun executives were not interested in this, because they could not see any prospects for this little thing.Later, a middle-level cadre of Runxun revealed: "During the discussion at the time, some people said: 'Does this thing charge money or not? If it doesn't charge money, what should I do with it?'" At that time, most people only Seeing immediate benefits, did not realize that customers are far more important than cash income. Different ways do not conspire with each other, and as his suggestion was rejected, Ma Huateng resolutely left Runxun in October 1998. Since then, Director Ma has disappeared from Runxun. As one of the earliest netizens in China, Ma Huateng, who has deeply realized the value of the Internet, is planning to start his own business, but the only thing that worries Ma Huateng is whether there is a future for Internet software. "Ding Lei's later success inspired me. As long as you do it, nothing is impossible on the Internet." In 1998, due to financial constraints, Ding Lei wrote Netease's free email system and 163.net domain name It was sold to Feihua.com in Guangzhou for 1.19 million yuan. For Ma Huateng, who is still undecided, this news has played a role in promoting. Ma Huateng seems to have seen the future direction of China's Internet: the Internet will inevitably become a trend in the future.Therefore, Ma Huateng decided to join the Internet industry.From today's point of view, although Ma Huateng's decision at that time was risky, it was undoubtedly wise: with the rise of mobile phones, the paging business quickly declined. In November 1998, 27-year-old Ma Huateng and his college classmate Zhang Zhidong co-founded Tencent, and the company was registered as "Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd.". The name "Tencent" has a strong meaning of company positioning, which is to do business related to the Internet and communications. "Teng" means a way of information jumping. Initially, Tencent's goal was to develop a wireless network paging system. The main function of this system is to allow users to send information directly to pagers through the Internet without making long-distance calls.In fact, at the beginning of Tencent’s founding, Ma Huateng was not very clear about the company’s future development direction, “I just felt that we could find space in the two major resources of paging and the Internet.” All judgments come from his 5 years of Internet experience and professional experience. Looking back at the entire development process of Tencent, Ma Huateng himself thinks it is "very simple and common".However, "as a software company established without the intervention of venture capital", Tencent's early days were not easy.At that time, Tencent was a very poor "small company": there were only 3 people including Ma Huateng.Its entrepreneurial funds all come from the years of hard work of Ma Huateng and Zhang Zhidong. At the beginning of Tencent's establishment, Ma Huateng never thought of competing for world hegemony. He thought more about "how to survive".In order for Tencent to survive, they do web pages, system integration, and program design... In short, they accept any business as long as they have it. The company looks more like a grocery store. At this time, Ma Huateng still couldn't forget the gadget of ICQ. As a user, he always thought ICQ was very good.At that time, the penetration rate of mobile phones was very low, and "big brother" was a symbol of the rich, and even having a BP machine was quite cool.Ma Huateng felt that ICQ could provide instant messaging on the computer, which was like a BP machine.He believes that ICQ can be used as a pager between PCs.But ICQ has a big shortcoming, ICQ does not have a Chinese version, it is very inconvenient to use.Therefore, Ma Huateng wanted to make a Chinese ICQ. Soon, Ma Huateng imitated ICQ's Chinese network pager, and he developed OICQ with his own independent intellectual property rights. In February 1999, Tencent launched the "paging software" OICQ. The name is just an "O" added to "ICQ", which means "Open" (open meaning), and the homonym is still similar to ICQ. "Oh, Iseekyou". From the point of view at that time, OICQ was not an epoch-making innovation, it was completely a replica of Ma Huateng based on ICQ.Ma Huateng himself said that at that time the company was busy working on projects for Shenzhen Telecom, Shenzhen Unicom and some paging stations, and did not have much energy to focus on other things. OICQ was just a "by-product" that he had no time to take care of. Of course, this "by-product" OICQ is not a complete copy of ICQ, nor is Ma Huateng simply Sinicizing it.From the perspective of user experience, Ma Huateng made some small changes while localizing ICQ.Although OICQ cannot escape the traces of ICQ, Ma Huateng, who was born in technology, quickly discovered the disadvantages of ICQ.For example, all the information of ICQ is stored in the user end, once the user logs in with another computer, the friends added in the past will disappear.In addition, it can only chat with friends who are online, and it can only find friends based on the information provided by the user. Ma Huateng organically combined the functions of the front and rear ends according to the needs of users, and wrote a set of programs for saving terminal information on the server.In this way, no matter where OICQ users log in, their user information is always stored in the unified server terminal, so there is no need to worry about losing friends added in the past.And as soon as OICQ was born, it has the function of offline messaging. Anyone can choose a chat partner at will through the online user list, and it even provides personalized avatars. It is these seemingly subtle differences that bring about completely different results: when the Internet is fully rolled out in China through Internet cafes, and the characteristics of storing information on servers instead of users' computers make OICQ the desktop of every computer. Prerequisite software. Unintentionally inserting willows and willows into shades, Ma Huateng's unintentional work has made Tencent's "legend". In 2008, the market value of Tencent, which had been listed in Hong Kong for four years, had exceeded US$10 billion. Tencent has become the most competitive enterprise in the Internet industry.But I am afraid that no one thought that Ma Huateng's only idea in creating OICQ was to wait for it to mature and sell it for cash. Time went back to 1999. As Internet cafes sprung up in China, OICQ’s unique offline message function and server-side information storage function were more popular with users than ICQ, which only had a local storage function. OICQ has already Began to enter the public's online life.However, OICQ did not directly bring any economic benefits to Ma Huateng at that time, and even brought a lot of trouble to Ma Huateng.The Internet elites at the time also looked down on this "little penguin" at all, thinking that Ma Huateng, who played with such a gadget all day long, would not have much promise. Ma Huateng once showed OICQ as a project to China.com, but the latter said that he would buy it only when there were 30,000 users.At that time, Ma Huateng thought: When will the 30,000 users be achieved?Ma Huateng himself didn't know how big the market potential of OICQ would be. He put OICQ on the Internet for free use by users with the mentality of trying it out. This unpopular OICQ developed to 1 million users in November 1999. The good performance of OICQ made Ma Huateng think more. However, while the large number of downloads and the surge in the number of users excited Ma Huateng, it also made it difficult for him to support.Because of the increase in the number of people, the server must be continuously expanded. At that time, the server hosting fee of one or two thousand yuan made Tencent, which mainly opened "grocery stores", feel huge financial pressure.At that time, there was no funds to update the equipment, and Tencent's staff were almost unable to pay their salaries. Ma Huateng had to take OICQ out to seek financing. However, the operator's attitude is not positive at all: ICQ is "popular in the world" at this time, operating a new chat tool is too risky, and profit is the fundamental pursuit of them.With no hope of seeking financing in China, friends began to persuade Ma Huateng to sell OICQ.Ma Huateng's confidence in OICQ also began to waver, and he began to conduct substantive negotiations with some companies interested in purchasing OICQ. Judging from the development of the Internet at that time, Ma Huateng's idea was undoubtedly wise. The initial focus of his "little" Tencent company was not on OICQ at all.If the company wants to survive, selling OICQ, a little penguin that "eats money", is the best way for Ma Huateng and his Tencent company to survive.As a result, Ma Huateng seems determined to get rid of this silly-looking little penguin.Of course, OICQ is his "child" after all, and Ma Huateng set a bottom line for himself: OICQ cannot be sold for less than 1 million. Even so, Ma Huateng found out how to sell his product is much more difficult than writing code.This is a course that needs to be relearned, and Ma Huateng had to grit his teeth and "make up the lesson".After developing OICQ, Ma Huateng took OICQ out to market because he didn't understand market operations, but was often rejected, "I didn't even see us." Even negotiations with some companies that intend to purchase OICQ are not smooth. Whenever it reaches a substantive stage, the other company "does not understand the value of Tencent's technology and intangible assets", saying that it can only rely on Tencent's "how many computers, How many tables, chairs and benches to buy."In the end, after talking about 4 companies in a row, none of them reached the expected bottom line of 1 million, and the highest one only paid 600,000. As OICQ users continue to increase rapidly, Ma Huateng is increasingly in trouble.Recalling this experience later, Ma Huateng still had some helplessness in his words: "We can only use other people's servers everywhere. At first, it was just an ordinary computer, put it in a computer room with broadband conditions, and then secretly put the program on it. run in someone else's server." If it hadn’t been for seeing his friend Ding Lei’s NetEase get venture capital, Ma Huateng, who was overwhelmed, might end up disposing of OICQ with 600,000 yuan.Netease's acquisition of venture capital made Ma Huateng realize the value of the Internet, and he began to realize that OICQ can "play" a larger space.Ma Huateng finally decided not to sell OICQ, "We decided to 'raise' it ourselves." To raise it by yourself, you need to have enough funds, and the little penguin OICQ also has to "eat".In order to obtain venture capital, Ma Huateng and several partners began to look for venture capital "crazily".They made a total of six versions of business plans, each with more than 20 pages, but most of them fell into the sea. The Shenzhen High-Tech Fair in 1999 saved Ma Huateng and his Tencent. Relying on the market position occupied by OICQ for only half a year, Ma Huateng was lucky to attract IDG and Li Zekai’s Yingke Digital’s investment of 2.2 million US dollars. Tencent found a way to survive. OICQ, the penguin, will No more hunger. "At that time I asked Ma Huateng, why is your company worth so much money?" Lin Dongliang, one of the IDG partners who first invested in Tencent, later recalled, "Ma Huateng said how many users does Israel's ICQ have? They sold tens of millions US dollars, how many users does my OICQ have? That’s why I’m worth so much money.” Ma Huateng, who has a gentle personality, would also say such “ruthless words”, which shows that Tencent was already facing great difficulties at that time. When Tencent was listed in Hong Kong in 2004, Ma Huateng commented on his experience in those years: "We almost sold the OICQ we developed to others at a price of 600,000 yuan. Now I am a little fortunate that we did not act rashly at the beginning. We must dig on the Internet. Kim can’t just see the short-term benefits. Many very talented network talents often fail to pay attention to this and lose long-term opportunities.” When OICQ was first launched, Ma Huateng was also worried about competition with similar instant messaging software such as ICQ.By April 2000, when the number of OICQ users reached 5 million, Ma Huateng breathed a sigh of relief.He believes that OICQ is finally on the right track, can generate consumption inertia, and drive the development of the number of users.At this time, Ma Huateng began to have more ideas. He began to see the future of Tencent clearly, and he was confident in making Tencent bigger. It can be seen from the OICQ slogan he set for individual users, "Don't call me, Q me", Ma Huateng's "ambition" has expanded with the development of OICQ. The real rise of Tencent began in 2000. Ma Huateng needed OICQ to bring benefits to Tencent, and his first thought was to advertise on OICQ.Tencent was the first in the world to advertise on ICQ, and AOL's ICQ only followed suit a few months after Tencent launched its advertisement.Today, Tencent's advertisements display 1 billion times a day and hit 1 million times a day, which is beyond the imagination of any website.Advertisers advertise on Tencent on a monthly subscription basis. If it is based on the number of impressions or clicks, no one can afford it.In terms of daily hits and daily displays, Tencent has become the largest carrier of online advertising in the country. But OICQ, which just started in 2000, was far from such a strong strength. At that time, the advertising revenue brought by OICQ to Tencent was not enough to satisfy Ma Huateng.Ma Huateng needed to think of a way, so he thought of cooperating with operators. This time, Tencent is really going to take off. In August 2000, Ma Huateng signed a cooperation agreement with Guangdong Mobile.Through the intercommunication between network and mobile, users of Tencent and mobile users in Guangdong can exchange information anytime and anywhere through "Mobile QQ" and SMS.At that time, the SMS service had just been launched, and operators desperately needed a partner to promote this business.On this basis, Ma Huateng cooperated with several other operators, and "Monternet" was officially launched.If there was no basis for cooperation with other operators at that time, it would have taken a lot of trouble for Ma Huateng and "Monternet" to come together when the policy was not clear. The Monternet project fully stimulated Tencent's commercial potential in the wireless SP market, and Ma Huateng found the second largest source of profit besides advertising.In terms of cooperation with traditional communications, Ma Huateng led Tencent to the forefront of the development of instant messaging in the world, and he even opened up new ideas for the development of instant messaging. Learning and innovation have brought substantial benefits to Ma Huateng. In 2000, in cooperation with Guangdong Mobile, Tencent achieved a net profit of 10 million yuan, and Ma Huateng began to turn losses into profits.Since then, Ma Huateng has successively launched advertising business, mobile QQ business and paid QQ membership system, continuing to expand Tencent's business scope.Among them, Tencent's brand outsourcing is a great innovation of Internet companies. The outsourcing of the QQ cartoon brand is in cooperation with Guangzhou Donglihang, which was originally an export-oriented enterprise that produces and sells clothing, gifts and toys.Its inherent channel and manufacturing advantages, combined with the advantages of the QQ brand, quickly expanded to 120 QQ cartoon stores.In addition to QQ cartoon toys and clothing, they also launched an independent derivative brand - Q-Gen, to expand the brand extension of QQ and develop the clothing industry in depth.In terms of the cooperation model, Tencent charged more than 10% of the agency fee, while the agency fee of the famous cartoon character Hello Kitty at that time was only 5%. Through cooperation with operators, advertising, and Tencent's membership value-added services and Tencent's brand outsourcing, Ma Huateng and his Tencent took off rapidly. At the end of 2001, Tencent realized a net profit of 10.22 million yuan; in 2002, Tencent's net profit was 144 million yuan, an increase of more than 10 times compared with 2001; More than doubled again. On June 16, 2004, Tencent was officially listed in Hong Kong. It was the first time that Ma Huateng attracted public attention with such a high profile.In the same year, Tencent announced its financial report for 2004. Tencent achieved a turnover of 1.144 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.99%; a net profit of 446 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.6%. On September 19, 2007, the Hong Kong stock market experienced a blowout, and the Hang Seng Index broke through the 25,000 mark in one fell swoop.Affected by the good news, Tencent's stock price once rose to HK$45, a record high in the three years since its listing, and its market value exceeded HK$79.8 billion (approximately US$10.2 billion). This is also the first time that the market capitalization of a listed Internet company in China has exceeded US$10 billion. Looking back at history, the rise of the Tencent empire has experienced several milestones: in June 2000, the number of Tencent QQ registered users reached 10 million; in March 2002, the number increased ninefold to 100 million; After one and a half years, the number of registered users of Tencent QQ has doubled again, breaking through the 200 million mark; by 2007, the total number of registered users of Tencent QQ reached 647.1 million, of which the number of active users reached 273.2 million; by 2008 In March, the number of registered accounts of Tencent QQ exceeded 783.4 million, and the number of active accounts exceeded 317.9 million.Little penguins are almost all over China, and Ma Huateng's slogan "Don't call me, Q me" has been realized.On this basis, there are more breakthroughs, and the current catchphrase is: "Today, have you Q?" According to Tencent’s 2006 full-year financial report and fourth-quarter financial report, Tencent’s net profit was 1.06 billion yuan, far surpassing Baidu, Sina, Netease, and Sohu, becoming the most profitable Internet company in China, and Tencent has become a real QQ empire .However, these are all "played" by Ma Huateng. Ma Huateng is a low-key person, and his name is far less famous than Tencent's Little Penguin.That chubby little penguin has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has become the image spokesperson of Tencent, and Ma Huateng is the well-deserved "Father of QQ". In Ma Huateng's view, both the company's name and QQ Little Penguin were obtained by "accidental".当然，腾讯的崛起不是“偶然”，更多的是“自然”。当别人不把OICQ这个小玩意当回事的时候，它却在不经意间“自然”地成长起来，这一切连马化腾自己都始料未及。 “网上很多的新体验我都会使用。”正是凭着这份好学与骨子里的“不安分”，马化腾“玩”出了新意，“玩”出了价值，更“玩”出了互联网的传奇，正如马化腾所说的：“其实，'玩'也是一种生产力。” 《东方企业家》：腾讯在未来的业务方向上将有哪些创新性的设计？如何保证在产品和服务渐趋多元化的同时，不会丢失核心竞争优势，且不断强化之？ 马化腾：腾讯未来的发展将主要体现在：发展并完善体现社区化和互动性网络人际平台；进一步凸显个人信息处理的功能；更加强调互联网应用的整合，尤其是与无线互联网资源的整合，3G机遇的融合；即时通讯与社会文化深度融合，传播正确的文化导向和价值诉求也是即时通讯发展中面临的重要课题。 今天，腾讯的目标就是要搭建这样一个网络生活的平台。大家都知道，腾讯公司是从专注于互联网即时通讯起家的，从我们熟悉的QQ，到企业级的RTX，这套完整的即时通讯产品线是我们的基础，也是一个纵向的核心。同时在横向方面，我们经历了一年时间的不断完善，极大扩展和丰富了我们的qq.com门户网站。 未来，在深度整合的基础上，腾讯将采取“一横一竖”的业务模式，原有的即时通讯工具和门户网站将从两个维度叠加包括MMS、WAP等在内的无线增值服务；包括网络游戏在内的互动娱乐服务，以及包括多媒体、音乐、电子杂志等在内的网络内容服务，和包括B2C、C2C、拍卖在内的电子商务。这种布局可以服务更多用户量，搭载更前沿的技术，更为重要的是，在此基础上，可以扩展更广泛的网络增值业务，实现更多的用户需求。 《东方企业家》：从目前运营情况看，腾讯所采取的所谓“一横一竖”业务模式的市场前景如何？ 马化腾：企业发展必须顺应环境才能有广阔的空间，要说腾讯业务模式的市场前景，首先需要了解未来互联网的发展趋势。 随着市场的成熟，互联网服务商开始为最终用户提供越来越多优秀的服务项目。在个人消费市场，大家可以看到数字娱乐体验服务已经成为一个主流；在商用市场中，要实现的不仅是人与人之间的互动，还有企业与企业之间的互动、人与企业的互动、人与服务的互动，这个市场正方兴未艾。 越来越多的互联网企业正在超越单纯的吸引眼球和注意力，开始真正思考并实践如何更好地利用网络技术、信息通信技术、多媒体音视频技术和网络海量资源去为用户创造价值，开始关注用户的感受和体验，为用户提供适用易用的一站式服务，互联网经济的回暖正标志着以用户为中心的服务与体验经济时代的到来。 几年来，毋庸置疑的一个事实是：用户的成熟和技术的进步像两驾马车一样驱动着互联网的发展，基于互联网自身的崭新服务正在以前所未有的速度改变着人们的生活方式，人们的上网目的呈多元化发展趋势。正是基于这种多元化的应用环境，深度整合将成为互联网产业的一个趋势，因为它代表了互联网产业价值链的延伸，体现了互联网作为媒体平台、沟通平台、交易平台和增值服务平台间的资源共享模式，以及相互结合所激发的价值。 相信腾讯的业务模式顺应了互联网深度整合的趋势，当这种整合愈加深入的时候，顺应这种趋势将使互联网应用无论从规模上还是从范围上都将迎来雪崩式的增长。那时，网络生活化将会跃然而出，成为一个必然。 《东方企业家》：网络是发展极为迅速且业务模式相对比较容易被复制的行业，要保持领先的竞争优势，无疑是一个长期的挑战，您如何看待这个问题？ 马化腾：其实除了网络，大多数行业的业务模式都容易被复制。因此，保持领先的竞争优势的关键就是保持核心竞争力。庞大的用户数是我们的宝贵资源，而坚持以“用户价值”为中心一直是我们的核心发展战略。腾讯会坚持一贯路线，深入挖掘用户在娱乐和应用方面的需求，不断加强本土化应用和突出优势。 《东方企业家》：网络公司在面临强大的竞争对手（比如微软）时，通常存在着3种命运：被彻底打败、被对方收购，或者依附于其他巨头。腾讯何以超越这一宿命？ 马化腾：所有的竞争对手都是值得尊重的，正是高素质的竞争对手的存在才促进了我们更快地成长。目前其实有很多网络公司在独立良好地发展着，相信您所说的三种命运并不是一种宿命。互联网的下一个十年将是“网络生活化”的十年，是这个产业继续繁荣、攀登新高峰的十年，这会给更多的互联网公司带来繁荣商机。腾讯会一直坚持自己的发展战略，结合自身特点，树立互联网的一大品牌。 《东方企业家》：腾讯目前面临的主要竞争压力是什么？最为担心的竞争对手是谁？Why? 马化腾：腾讯目前面临的挑战是：如何维持一个稳定和可持续增长的赢利模式；如何搭建一个高效的、科学的管理平台和架构；如何形成一个具有自己特色的能够为员工提供发展舞台的企业文化氛围。而最大的竞争对手其实还是自己。成为一个优秀公司并不难，然而要成为一家卓越的公司不容易，优秀往往是卓越的敌人，超越自身才是最关键的问题。我们希望能够通过不断努力和超越，实现“最受尊敬的互联网企业”的愿景。