What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 280 The elder brother locked up He Jinyin (5k)
In the second week of December, WeChat quietly completed another round of financing led by IDG.

However, because it involved the cooperation of many companies, the news of this round of financing was leaked very quickly. Compared with the previous round of US$1.5 million, WeChat not only failed to grow again, but was discounted instead. The latest valuation is US$1.2 million.

The reasons for this situation are well known, and the competition from Penguin Micro Chat is getting closer and closer.

Soon, on December 12, the update of the WeChat version made this pressure more concrete. It also updated the "People Nearby" function, making the user-favorite function popular again.

The last time WeChat chat followed up with the voice version, it took nearly a month. This time, it only took half a month to follow up with nearby people.

Yu Xing was not surprised by the move by Weichat. The planned competition focus had changed. He only protested on Weibo: "Hey, is there anyone who can take care of this?"

Obviously no one cares, this is a time when you have to fend for yourself.

Moreover, not only is no one in charge, but they also have to face debates at the public opinion level.

On December 12, WeChat tried to push advertisements from Alibaba, controlling the number of exposures and trying to ensure that the user experience was not affected.

However, this action was noticed by Penguin, which always pays attention to WeChat's movements, and thus launched a publicity offensive, specifically stating that "we will always create the simplest user experience for customers", "communication software without ads is good software", "it's the same WeChat, you only need to chat, no need to watch ads"...

When WeChat was being promoted on various channels, it put forward the concept of "simplicity". To a large extent, it was also aimed at QQ, which has complicated functions and interface. This is beyond reproach and everyone will inevitably admit it.

However, when it was forced to try to expand revenue first...

If the development environment of WeChat is stable, its actions as a commercial company can naturally be understood.

However, Penguin has elevated its competition with WeChat in the field of instant messaging to a strategic position. In today's competitive environment, WeChat's actions will be compared with Weichat to see which one is more concise.

Not only that, this also means that any action taken by WeChat that is not conducive to user experience will be pursued by similar competitors.

A startup company, one backed by a giant, with different resources like WeChat and Wechat, it is easy to understand that there are different pressures.

only……

The user is very simple.

They don’t need to consider, and are not obligated to consider, the situation facing their product.

Information on the Internet changes very quickly. The public opinion storm surrounding Penguin this year has gradually faded, and the persistent driving force from the giants has increasingly demonstrated its importance in this round of instant messaging competition.

However, WeChat is still trying hard to make different attempts.

Micro Chat was updated on the 15th, and WeChat updated its functions again the next day after "People Nearby". One was the launch of "Shake" and the other was the launch of "Emoji Graffiti". The models involved were still Android and Apple.

Will these two new ways of playing on WeChat be popular?
Because of previous reputation, this question is considered to have a high probability of a positive answer.

Will WeChat chat continue to follow up closely?

Because of previous word of mouth, this question is considered to have a positive answer.

That evening, Liu Jiankai updated WeChat on his mobile phone on his way home. He tried the "shake" function with great interest and sent some graffiti emoticons to his friends. However, in the end, he could only sigh at their actual playability.

Then, he remembered what Zhai Yifei said, who was dug out from Baidu by Mr. Yu, that homogeneous things cannot succeed.

You homogenize him and he homogenizes you, and it eventually becomes a competition of internal strength, which will quickly lead to decline.

However, Zhai Yifei's ideas are still unclear. He and Mr. Yu only firmly believe that a new system will emerge from the mobile Internet.

Liu Jiankai walked into the house and thought thoughtfully that perhaps the system should be given a name, such as "Hope" or "Luxury Expectation".

He took off his coat, drank a sip of water, sat down in front of his desktop computer at home, and was surprised to find that the results were already out.

I earned 1 Bitcoin by myself.

According to Mr. Yu, one coin was dug up.

"It's so slow." Liu Jiankai looked at the time. It took him 580 hours to mine one bitcoin using a GTX 7. How promising is this kind of thing...

He pondered for a while, shook his head and let the computer continue working, then opened his notebook and browsed Bai Xiaosheng first, then Mr. Yu’s Weibo.

Not only people inside and outside the industry, people are generally pessimistic about the future of WeChat. This month alone, WeChat has revealed many problems in financing, valuation, revenue, replication, etc.

When you think about it again, WeChat was so vibrant just two months ago, which makes people sigh.

Liu Jiankai was stunned for a while, and when he came back to his senses, he noticed that Penguin executives appeared in this wave of public opinion.

At noon today, Lu Yanang, the vice president of Penguin, who had previously led people to acquire WeChat, spoke on Penguin Weibo and said meaningfully: "Yu Xing should now know what a commercial company is. In the final analysis, it's all about money. I hope he can sell WeChat ads better."

When Liu Jiankai saw the content of this post from Penguin’s senior management, he felt a surge of anger in his heart that would take a long time to let go, but he had to admit that Penguin was able to bring WeChat to the same moral level and then use its skilled experience to compete.

However, when he arrived at the company the next day, he found that Mr. Yu was not angry at all.

"Boss Yu, Penguin has gone too far this time. Not only has it been following the same version, but it has also used the issue of whether it is a commercial company or not, and whether it is an advertisement or not. It has more advertisements than anyone else!"

Liu Jiankai was still indignant.

Yu Xing just said cheerfully: "Competition is like this. My expectations are very low. As long as I am not arrested, that's enough."

Liu Jiankai: "...It can't be that low."

"If I were Penguin, I would probably do the same thing. What's the point of talking about whether it's excessive or not? Anyway, it uses all its excessive methods on me, so if I use excessive methods, I will definitely use them on it." Yu Xing shook his head. "This is the situation now. Facts have proved that it is difficult to fully drive the development of the company by relying solely on functional innovation."

He thought for a moment and continued, "I have been thinking about and reviewing the development of WeChat over the past two days. There is still a lot of room for improvement. In addition, you have criticized me for being sharp, unkind, and not giving face. I have also thought of ways to optimize it."

Liu Jiankai was a little suspicious and knew what Mr. Yu was referring to.

If it had not been for the breakup with Mr. Xu, Today Capital would most likely not have withdrawn, Qiming Venture Partners might have continued to invest, and the valuation of WeChat might not have been discounted. In any case, that incident brought about a certain chain reaction.

The problem is, all of this is due to Mr. Yu’s sharp temper. If it were so easy to change, would it have ended up like this today?
Liu Jiankai turned his thoughts and asked, "Then how do you want to change it?"

Yu Xing corrected: "It's optimization."

Liu Jiankai was at a loss.

"My personality is my personality. Since everyone doesn't like my personality, I'll just create a personality that people like." Yu Xing said seriously, "Next time if I have the opportunity to meet Ms. Xu and her investment project, I will say that I have some information from a private message. I will suppress it this time and save face. Please behave yourself in the future and don't get into trouble."

Liu Jiankai didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Who can believe this?"

"Just say it in public. Who can come to me to confirm the news in public? Anyway, I have made my position clear. You can't blame me for not giving face if something happens in the future." Yu Xing shrugged.

Liu Jiankai expressed deep doubts about this so-called "optimization".

He pondered for a while and mentioned that he had mined some Bitcoin yesterday.

"Congratulations, Mr. Liu, you have mined $0.3." Yu Xing was a little surprised, "That was fast."

"I worked for seven hours and earned $0.3..." Liu Jiankai spread his hands, "I'm on a good track to find a job after being laid off."

Yu Xing patted the man in front of him on the shoulder and said, "Boss Liu, keep up the good work. I have communicated with Boss Xiong on WeChat. Let's see what we can do later."

Liu Jiankai's heart sank, wondering what plans these two had made for the future of WeChat.

But no matter what plan is made, it will inevitably depend on the competitiveness of Penguin WeChat.

After completing a new round of financing, WeChat issued new options. However, compared with the last time, employees from top to bottom seemed much more solemn, as if they had not heard good news. On December 12, the third day after the WeChat options were issued, Yu Xing received a resignation letter from Song Xinlei, the leader of the application layer group of the technical development team.

This is also the person with the highest position to leave WeChat since its establishment.

Yu Xing made a special trip to the office to talk to Song Xinlei, hoping to keep her with the utmost sincerity.

Regardless of the level of her position or her contributions over the past period of time, Song Xinlei has great value and often participates in secret discussions on the development of WeChat.

"Song Xinlei, if you leave now, you won't be able to cash in the options you have. Just wait a little longer, and these things can be realized." Yu Xing mentioned the implementation of the options.

Song Xinlei replied in a low voice: "Mr. Yu, options... well, I have considered it for a long time, and this is my decision."

Yu Xing noticed Song Xinlei's evasive look and sighed, "How about this, I'll add 20% to whatever Penguin gives you. You've been in WeChat for so long and have worked hard for our development. This is what you deserve. Similarly, you also deserve the redemption of options."

Song Xinlei pursed her lips and did not answer for a long time.

In the end, she declined the offer and said, "Mr. Yu, I am extremely grateful to you for recruiting me and bringing WeChat to this point. I am proud that WeChat has become the third largest instant messaging software in China, and I am also proud that Penguin attaches so much importance to it, but..."

Song Xinlei looked up at the young boss and said helplessly: "But I also have to plan for my personal career. Mr. Yu, please understand me. If you were me, what would you choose?"

Yu Xing's lips moved, he touched the empty cigarette box, stared at the person who often appeared in the conference room, hesitated for two seconds and agreed: "Okay, I understand you, we understand each other."

He finally asked, "How much did Penguin give you?"

Song Xinlei replied: "Three times, plus a bonus."

Yu Xing stretched out his right hand: "Then I wish you all the best."

Song Xinlei shook hands with her boss, wanted to speak but didn't know what to say, so she turned around and left the president's office of WeChat Company silently.

This is not the first time that Penguin has poached someone, but it is indeed the first time that Penguin has poached such a high-level technical director.

WeChat does not have a large-scale non-compete agreement. Only the technical director, deputy director and the early core team have signed the agreement. Moreover, even if there is one, Yu Xing doubts whether it can prevent poaching at a higher price.

Filing a lawsuit is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Before the lawsuit is filed, the WeChat company may have already ceased to exist.

Yu Xing's mood was not greatly affected by the departure of senior executives. Whether he resigns or not, there will be no change in the following of Penguin Micro Chat, and WeChat's current user data will not change any strategic actions of Penguin.

What might really make Penguin feel the cold again might be the last order he would give to WeChat.

The only thing Yu Xing is worried about now is whether Alibaba can attach importance to this strategic window.

"As soon as WeChat's 'People Nearby' was launched, our activity level began to decline, but we are not sure whether it was due to the impact of similar functions or the effect of our launch of Alibaba Advertising."

"Mr. Yu, Alibaba's advertising fees are not that much, and we are under attack from Penguin Opinion. Why don't we stop now?"

Technical Director Ge Zhijie made the suggestion at the latest meeting.

Yu Xing just shook his head: "The impact of a user being exposed once or twice a day is not that big. However, it is not appropriate for us to launch any new developments now. We should focus on software optimization and function updates."

Ge Zhijie couldn't help but asked a difficult question, his voice trembling: "Mr. Yu! It's hard for the function update to work! Penguin wants to follow closely and then surpass us... What should we do..."

Yu Xing looked into Ge Zhijie's eyes, which were filled with deep worry.

He carefully gave an impossible hope: "IDG is helping to seek reverse injection of assets into the listed company. Mr. Ge, no matter what, I have only one thought now. We must give an explanation for the options we issued to you. If IDG doesn't go well, we still have other ways, but I promise that I will never let the options become waste paper."

Ge Zhijie stopped talking. He actually didn't care much about this.

The speed at which WeChat grew from nothing to something was too fantastic, and it really gave itself the goal of defeating Penguin head-on.

Yu Xing ended the tense meeting with a joke: "There is another good news. Renren.com's Renren Chat has indeed been disbanded. It is said that Sina Weibo's similar project has also been temporarily suspended. I have to say that we, together with Penguin, are still very intimidating."

WeChat is competing hard, while Penguin Micro Chat is catching up quickly. Executives such as Pony, Martin Lau, and Zhang Zhidong have expressed their opinions one after another. This strategic attention from a giant has made the companies that had previously wanted to test the waters due to the development of WeChat have self-awareness.

Renren officially disbanded its instant messaging business on December 12, stopped operating and maintaining related software, and focused its attention back on its core business and listing.

At the same time, Renren's CEO Chen Yizhou also made a statement through the media.

"Renren briefly explored the field of instant messaging, but Penguin proved that its position in this field is unshakable, so we need to cut losses in time and focus more."

"I have to say that Yu Xing led WeChat to seize a golden development opportunity, but looking back now, this opportunity also trapped him."

"Just like Zhang Chaoyang said, WeChat has no chance."

"Yu Xing has proven his talent and innovative ability, and Penguin has also proven its status and strength."

"It's over. The competition in this field is over. Once Penguin makes its move, the brief chaos in the mobile Internet sector will return to normal."

Chen Yizhou was very emotional and once again emphasized his similar judgment to Zhang Chaoyang.

Yu Xing did not respond to such remarks, and both Weibo and Bai Xiaosheng fell silent.

However, on the last day of 2010, there was news that the deputy technical director of WeChat company was suspected of jumping ship and joined Penguin despite the non-compete agreement.

At the same time, WeChat user data was also exposed.

By the beginning of 2011, WeChat had reached a staggering 2376 million users.

What is even more surprising is that the data from WeChat chat appeared simultaneously the next day, narrowing the gap to within two million, with the total number reaching 2193 million.

A senior executive of Penguin discussed the situation of competitors informally on Penguin Weibo: "WeChat will be caught up this month. Its activity is already declining. It has no chance. QQ's offline messaging alone cannot compare. It is already in a state of slow death. Otherwise, Tan Ruize would not have left WeChat."

Tan Ruize is the former deputy director of technology at WeChat.

There is no doubt that his move to the Penguins must have brought a lot of confidential information.

In the first week of January, WeChat had a lot of bad news. In addition to the problem of the deputy technical director, someone revealed that WeChat's institutional shareholder Qiming Venture Partners was negotiating with Penguin on the share sale price.

WeChat, which made its debut in October last year, seems to be collapsing at an accelerated pace.

Executives are leaving, shareholders are clearing out their shares, the number of users is approaching, activity is declining, and it is difficult to expand revenue-generating businesses...

Someone on Bai Xiaosheng made a pessimistic assessment: "WeChat has been surrounded and blocked by Penguin in all aspects. This is not just normal market competition. Even those with non-compete agreements have been poached... Penguin has locked WeChat."

On January 1, Zhai Yifei, who served as temporary consultant of WeChat, was called to Yu Xing’s office.

"Mr. Zhai, come with me on a business trip next week." Yu Xing informed.

Zhai Yifei knew that WeChat was not doing well, so he was a little surprised that he was going on a business trip now, and asked, "Where are you going?"

Yu Xing replied lightly, "I'm going to Pengcheng. Penguin has invited me to a strategic seminar. I agreed before. They set the date for next Saturday, the 15th."

Zhai Yifei hesitated and asked, "Boss Yu, are you still going now?"

As WeChat was already in decline, he was worried that he would be humiliated on this trip.

Yu Xing smiled and said, "Yes, if they invite me, I will go. It's almost the New Year, so I don't have much time."

He has to attend the meeting on the 15th, and Bai Xiaosheng has to upgrade his technology on the 22nd, so time is really running out.

(End of this chapter)