What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 269 Waiting and Seeing
WeChat’s shareholders are still working.

Yu Xing appeared on CCTV due to the resource recommendation from IDG, the reason being the new development of grassroots entrepreneurs in the mobile Internet era and the arrival of a new wave seen through this phenomenon.

In CCTV's view, WeChat, which focuses on mobile Internet, has become the third largest communication tool in China in less than a year since its establishment, which is valuable. It is also valuable for entrepreneurs to stand at the forefront and compete with giants and be widely popular.

Also, after the inhumane battle with 3Q, the courage shown by WeChat is quite positive. The only worrying point is that Bai Xiaosheng’s company sometimes seems to be too extreme. But then again, what does that have to do with Yu Xing of WeChat?

However, WeChat ushered in the update to version 2.0.0, adding a heavy-duty voice message function, which attracted more attention from users, the industry and Penguin than Yu Xing's appearance in CCTV news.

The ratio of Android to iOS users in WeChat is relatively high compared to other companies. The most obvious comparison is Penguin. Its current mobile phone QQ has no particular preference for Android or iOS systems, and has always pushed Symbian first.

Users of the new generation of smartphones are more active and willing to try new things. Many of them tried the new version of WeChat voice function as soon as possible and praised it highly.

Before it was free text messages, but now isn’t this just a crappy version of free calls?

If the low-health version has come, how far can the full-health version be?
Yu Xing received feedback from users about word of mouth, and when he opened Weibo to update the content to ask everyone's opinions on WeChat, he saw a wave of new jokes in his comment section.

——Yu Xing was arrested just after he updated the WeChat version. He shouted that he was innocent, but he only got a cold reply, “Do you think we don’t know who your new feature is targeting?”

——Ago, can you show me that? That one, that one.

——On my own behalf, I would like to formally notify Penguin that if WeChat does not replicate the voice message within three days, I will uninstall it immediately!

——Penguin, stop pretending, let us see the unique skills of the veteran Murong Fu!
Yu Xing opened Weibo, browsed Weibo, and closed Weibo.

As a person who enjoys fun, he doesn't mind the replication of Wechat, but as the president of WeChat, he still hopes that Wechat can be replicated more slowly.

Perhaps the recent voices on the Internet have really taken effect, or perhaps Penguin is still waiting for further market feedback. After WeChat upgraded to 2.0, there was no movement or news on Weichat in the next three days. Instead, Renrenchat announced that it would follow up on the latest developments.

October ended in the spotlight. This month saw the whipping of users by the 3Q war, the dreamlike advancement of WeChat, and the start of the mobile communications melee.

as well as……

When the Sohu reporter was reviewing this special month of October, he suddenly thought of what WeChat founder Yu Xing said in the news.

He quoted and placed it at the end of the report: "Perhaps, as Yu Xing said, the era of mobile Internet has arrived, so there is a question that will inevitably last for several years left for us: who will get the ticket to the new era?"

Who will get the ticket to the new era...

Anyway, Tudou.com won’t do that.

As soon as November arrived, Yu Xing received a message from the client, asking if he had heard that Tudou.com would be listed soon.

Yu Xing heard, and heard very accurately, the information from shareholder Xu Xin that the application would be submitted on November 11th.

He could only respond tactfully: "I heard about it, but I can't tell you. Maybe you can wait a few more days."

The person concerned responded with "thanks" and sincerely hoped that WeChat would defeat Penguin as soon as possible.

Although the recent competition with Penguin is very intense, Yu Xing still feels that there is a small problem before him. He previously felt that he needed to communicate with Xu Xin in advance. So, how and how far in advance should he communicate?
Mr. Xu always supports me, although maybe not 100%...

OK, when Yu Xing thought about this, and thought about Today Capital's tacit insistence on not letting the vote, he instantly decided to notify Liu Jiankai half a day in advance and let him convey the decision to Xu Xin.

This matter is not a big deal. No matter how the Baixiaosheng platform handles it, the outcome will be the same as long as the parties initiate a lawsuit. Tudou.com must suspend its listing according to the procedures. The difference is that with the expansion of public opinion, the problem will probably be solved more easily.

On November 11, Yu Xing announced in the WeChat financing group that the total number of customers had once again broken through the small milestone, reaching 1 million.

This was within everyone's expectations, so there was not too much joy. Instead, everyone was more concerned about the stimulating effect of the new voice version.

"Of the latest one million users, 65% are smartphone users, which is a pretty good percentage, and I believe it will continue to increase."

"In addition, these users have a higher rate of increasing the number of friends, and they are happy to recommend WeChat to others."

“This kind of user activity is the basis for our positive cycle of promotion!”

Yu Xing sent the voice message in an enthusiastic voice, and it took three tries to get the most enthusiastic effect.

"Very good, Mr. Yu, very good. Unfortunately, we don't know what effect Penguin's micro-chat has achieved in the past few days." Xu Xin replied in a half-true, half-false happy voice.

"It's really hard for us to know since Penguin didn't announce it, but I think a lot of users downloaded it because of the QQ icon. I believe that the user activity of WeChat Chat is definitely not as good as ours. The next step is to continue trying to widen the gap." Yu Xing also said half-truthfully, "We are still developing our new version, and the Symbian version of WeChat Voice is also on track."

Simple discussions and evaluations occurred in the WeChat group.

After reading it, Yu Xing was about to talk about the second question when he heard a knock on the door of the president's office. Chairman Song Yufeng came back exhausted.

He threw a cigarette to Song Yufeng, poured a cup of tea, and then sent a voice message tentatively: "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Hu, Mr. Xu, the competition pressure from Penguin is still very high. When the company was discussing the market, there was a suggestion that we could also make a PC version of WeChat. This would directly pose some threat to Penguin QQ. What do you think?"

The best defense is offense, this indeed comes from internal discussions within the company.

However, Yu Xing had already temporarily rejected it.

The main reason is lack of money.

All the money raised by WeChat is currently used to maintain operations and publicity. The last round of funding was barely enough to push the number of users to the 2000 million that was repeatedly negotiated with investors. The development team has also been fully tasked with developing a new version, and needs to launch a series of iterative functions such as "Shake", "Message in a Bottle", and "People Nearby" in a timely manner.

Up to now, WeChat company has no income and relies entirely on the support of the three institutions. They will certainly weigh the situation before discussing the next step of support.

If WeChat still has some spare capacity, its first task should be to increase the total number of mobile communication users rather than opening a second front. Otherwise, if the skin is gone, where will the hair be attached?
But Yu Xing also considered that this move could be a gesture of confrontation, which might have greater symbolic significance. And when it comes to symbols, there is no time more necessary than when making big news during a sale.

There was silence in the WeChat group.

Yu Xing waited for a while, then pointed at his phone screen with a smile: "Brother Feng, you know, every time my shareholder group is silent, I feel like they are trying to reach a consensus behind my back. Generally speaking, Zhang Suyang is the first to object, then Xu Xin comes out to help. As for Hu Xubo, he sometimes doesn't speak, but not speaking is a way of expressing himself."

Song Yufeng had a strange look on his face. It sounded like WeChat didn't have unanimous support despite its booming popularity.

He took a sip of tea and reported on the extensive contacts he had made on his trip as a representative of WeChat.

Yu Xing had previously assigned the chairman a task, asking him to see the attitudes of other institutions after Penguin's counterattack, and at the same time, to see the attitudes of Sina, NetEase, Baidu, Alibaba and other manufacturers. "Brother Xing, as for the investment institutions I contacted this time, they are generally relatively calm, and are all watching the competition between WeChat and Weichat. Well, basically they want to wait for certainty." Song Yufeng said, "Some, like Sequoia, think that the valuation of WeChat is a little high, and they are willing to contact and discuss the next round of financing, but the valuation may not be increased."

Sequoia had been to the fourth floor before and was quite enthusiastic, but they had no intention of giving a higher valuation for WeChat's growth from a few million to ten million. This was simply due to the huge uncertainty of the competition with Penguin.

Yu Xing took the document handed over by Song Yufeng and read it while listening to his description.

"Companies like Sina, NetEase, Sohu, Baidu and Alibaba, their attitudes are even more... should I say, indifferent." Song Yufeng talked about the institutions and companies. "They gave me the impression that they are happy to see the threat of WeChat to Penguin, but they are not interested in actually investing in it. Moreover, some companies may prefer to do it on their own."

Yu Xing took out a cigarette, then thought that he had smoked too much recently and rubbed it in his hand.

Song Yufeng did not bring good news.

This isn’t surprising, but it’s still a little disappointing to actually hear.

This kind of challenge to the giants is likely to start off with excitement, become difficult in the middle, and end with regrets, while the powerful companies watching are either declining, setting up projects to test the waters, or having a clear strategy...

Yu Xing shook his head and lit up the cigarette anyway: "After all, it's a penguin, and a penguin with such quick reactions."

Song Yufeng was quite confident when he went out, thinking that with the popularity of WeChat company, he would definitely be the guest of honor this time. However, after he came back from this round of shopping, he felt cold in his heart.

Everyone's attitude is different from what I imagined...

This seems to prove that WeChat is far from being as bright as it seems.

Song Yufeng couldn't help but ask: "Brother Xing, what should we do next? Oh, right, I didn't go to 360. Otherwise, I will go to 360 to ask if they are willing to support it."

Yu Xing laughed and said, "The advertising fee over there is still pending."

At this time, a reply sounded in the WeChat group.

Yu Xing clicked it directly, allowing Song Yufeng to hear the attitudes of the institutions.

As expected, Zhang Suyang was the first to speak up: "Mr. Yu, the priority of the PC side is not that high. It can be temporarily put aside. If the mobile side cannot make a difference, the PC side will not be able to invest. Of course, this does not mean that I do not support your competition with Penguin."

Xu Xin was also the second to speak up: "Mr. Yu, what we need to compete for now is a mobile Penguin. If we do PC, we will be facing a complete Penguin. This is a case of playing to one's weaknesses and avoiding one's strengths."

Although Song Yufeng was worried about WeChat, he couldn't help but admire them when he saw that the order of their replies was the same as what the boss said: "Brother Xing, you... you are used to seeing this!"

"You have to be good at observation." Yu Xing replied to the message in the group while smiling, and finally said to Song Yufeng, "They do have a close tacit understanding."

Song Yufeng was silent. This is not easy to do.

However, WeChat has been on a difficult path since the very beginning.

"Okay, Brother Feng, you've worked hard. Go and take a rest. I'll study your article again." Yu Xing stood up and saw the chairman out.

Then he picked up the document and looked closely at the details about Ali.

Well...Ali belongs to the most apathetic group that has no intention to invest nor try out the communications business.

Yu Xing thought about it and called Liu Jiankai again, and learned that not only did Alibaba have almost no external investment, but it also took money from investors this year to consolidate its e-commerce ecosystem. In addition, there were recent reports that Alibaba wanted to buy back Yahoo's shares.

It seems that it is not only a strategic problem for Alibaba, but also that the company does not have sufficient funds.

Yu Xing drew a circle with a pen and said, "If we squeeze a little, we will eventually be able to create a company like Alibaba."

That night, issues such as WeChat, Penguin, and Alibaba kept lingering in Yu Xing's mind. He was still a little dazed when he suddenly received a call from Alibaba.

"Hey, Mr. Cheng, good evening."

Yu Xing received a call from Cheng Xiangwen, deputy director of operations at Alibaba.

Cheng Xiangwen first congratulated WeChat on its success, and then asked with a hint of trepidation: "Mr. Yu, I wonder if WeChat can still help me if I come here at this time?"

Yu Xing was somewhat surprised and delighted: "I couldn't ask for more, Mr. Cheng! Come quickly, come quickly, I'll take you to the job tomorrow!"

Cheng Xiangwen smiled and said, "Boss Yu, oh... I'm flattered. Well, I still need to hand over my work at Taobao Mall, so I may not be able to leave until before the Spring Festival at the earliest."

Yu Xing hesitated for a moment. Before the Spring Festival, before the Spring Festival, if it was before the Spring Festival, WeChat would probably only serve as a springboard given its current situation...

A springboard from Alibaba to WeChat and then back to Alibaba...

Cheng Xiangwen didn't hear the answer, so he asked, "Mr. Yu, is there anything wrong? I'll do it as soon as possible."

"Mr. Cheng, um..." Yu Xing just said "um" for several seconds, unable to think of any good words. In the end, he could only say, "Okay, welcome. Mr. Cheng, I really wish you could come earlier. When I think about working with you only during the Spring Festival, I feel... not very happy."

Cheng Xiangwen felt the sincerity in Mr. Yu's words and was even more flattered: "Mr. Yu, I am also looking forward to that day!"

Yu Xing ended the call, thought about it, and decided that he could only give a little compensation in salary.

Or maybe Mr. Cheng would be happier working in another department.

In the first week of November, the voice version of WeChat received stronger feedback, with new highs in total number of users, activity level, and fission ratio.

At the same time, some people in the industry realized belatedly that WeChat stopped disclosing this data after the number of users reached 1000 million. This was definitely not because its growth was getting worse, but it might have been to prevent Penguin from conducting relevant assessments.

On November 11, Penguin suddenly announced some intriguing personnel changes. Several heads of instant messaging businesses were transferred from their posts, while Lu Shan of Weichat temporarily took over the communications business of the entire group.

This action was interpreted as indicating that even after WeChat was released, there were still differences of opinion within Penguin about it.

Obviously, WeChat has received further support from the highest decision-making level of Penguin, and it is very likely that the opposition forces from PC interests have been cleared out.

(End of this chapter)