Reinventing the Millennium

The head of 360 returned to China in a low-key manner on October 9, the first working day after the National Day holiday.

This year, due to the merger of the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, there will be a total of 8 days off. As for this longest holiday of the year, in addition to the topic of travel, the relay battle between 360, Penguin, and Yike really provides the largest number of netizens. fun.

According to one media outlet, we have never seen such a large-scale online fighting.

Zhou Hongyi arrived in Shanghai at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Nine days later, the situation has changed beyond recognition.

When Zhou Hongyi was sitting in the car heading to Hang Lung 23, looking at the metropolis through the car window, she still couldn't hide her complicated mood.

These days, he is naturally paying close attention abroad. The so-called fiercest competition among Internet companies has been handed over to Penguin and Yike, and 360 seems to... seem to have been forgotten.

Fortunately, the leader still cares about me, which is somewhat gratifying.

The plane landed smoothly, the car moved forward smoothly, and Shanghai was still prosperous, which largely calmed Zhou Hongyi's anxiety.

When he arrived at the CEO office of Hang Lung 23, and saw Mr. Fang standing up to welcome him, the last uneasiness disappeared.

"Mr. Zhou, thank you for your hard work. Is everything okay?" Fang Zhuo asked Zhou Hongyi again with great concern.

"Very good, very good, everything is fine. Especially seeing that Penguin's market value has dropped by another 2 billion today, I feel that this fight has not been in vain." Zhou Hongyi couldn't express this kind of "concern" from Mr. Fang, But his face was still very touched.

Fang Zhuo asked Mr. Zhou to sit down and sighed: "The last time I met Mr. Zhou, I wanted to say that our Yike has arrangements for communication business, but no one expected that there would be such a bad emergency. Okay. Now, despite the twists and turns, the results are good.”

He continued very emotionally: "Yesterday I was watching Roman's "Johan Christophe" at home, and I saw the sentence 'True light is never a time without darkness, but is never covered by darkness. The real light is never a time without darkness. A hero never has humble sentiments, but he never gives in to humble sentiments.' I immediately thought of Mr. Zhou."

Zhou Hongyi really likes this book, but... she always feels uncomfortable meeting Mr. Fang this time.

Maybe the aura here at Hang Lung 23 is not quite right.

The last time I came here, I almost encountered Waterloo, which I will never forget.

Zhou Hongyi sighed: "Mr. Fang is so ridiculous. How can I be called a hero?"

Fang Zhuo did not insist on greetings and invited Mr. Zhou to tea.

Although Zhou Hongyi's decision to come back was a little less subjective, after arriving here and communicating with the company and the administration, it was basically certain that there would be no major problems. At this time, curiosity emerged in her heart.

He chatted briefly and asked a question that many people are now concerned about: "Mr. Fang, I have read Yixin in the past few days, and it has received rave reviews. I wonder how many users it has?"

"No matter how many there are, most of them are just watching the excitement." Fang Zhuo shook his head, "I really want to shout a few more words on Weibo so that everyone will not just ignore it, but I am afraid that Penguin will see his weakness, so I can only urge him. The company has stepped up promotion.”

Zhou Hongyi laughed, and then asked: "There must be two million users, right?"

"It's more or less the same. It just relied on the previous swarm, and then the growth rate slowed down. The opponent is Penguin. Yixin Company operates independently. There is already a lot of pressure. I don't want to ask more." Fang Zhuo said solemnly, "Penguin's The fundamentals are very stable.”

Zhou Hongyi's thoughts changed and she estimated that there were 2 million users, but no matter how many there were, it would not exceed 3 million.

In just over a week, this scale has become very impressive. If we continue to grow in the future, we will have to compete with our internal strength and bear the pressure from Penguin, operators, and other manufacturers.

A few days ago, NetEase joined in the fun and launched an instant messaging software called NetEase MSG. Its positioning is similar to that of Yixin, focusing on acquaintance communication.

Although Penguin is silent now, it must be working overtime internally to develop competing products.

As for the operators…

In the past few days since Yixin was launched, people in and outside the industry have specifically analyzed and studied it. The characteristics of relying on real-life address books have become extremely obvious. In the past two days, Zhou Hongyi has even been thinking about whether 360 can also make a fuss in this area.

"The penguin really shouldn't be underestimated. What's new about it these days?" Zhou Hongyi asked.

Fang Zhuo just shook his head. He felt that the operator might have been provoked. Returning to the product level, Penguin still wanted to maximize its own traffic, whether it was directly through QQ or new products.

"I'm going to go to the Industrial Information Service this time..." Zhou Hongyi thought carefully.

Fang Zhuo knew this person's concerns and said firmly: "Don't worry, it'll be no problem."

Zhou Hongyi was slightly surprised when she heard such a solid answer and asked: "Did Mr. Fang ask the leader?"

Fang Zhuo shook his head and said calmly: "No, I guessed it."

Zhou Hongyi: "..."

Good guess.

He felt that Fang was always joking, but when everyone came back, he took out the mules and horses for a walk.

Anyway, after the "Qingzi" took off with me, all the good news came out. The 360 ​​uninstalls caused by the previous choice of one or the other are slowly recovering.

Zhou Hongyi finally asked: "Mr. Fang, this attack on Penguin is the right time, place and people. Is Yi Ke confident?"

At the right time, when Penguin forced himself to choose one of the two, the location was favorable, Yixin was based on the hardware foundation, and people, Penguin was ridiculed by public opinion.

Fang Zhuo took a sip of water, hesitated slightly, and then said: "Penguins should not be underestimated. How can we talk about confidence? We are just waiting for the giants to make mistakes."

Zhou Hongyi was about to nod when a thought suddenly came to her mind. Yi Ke, who took advantage of the opportunity to take action this time, was like a cheetah escaping from the jungle. He watched his prey drink water with its back. Mr. Fang, who "waited for the giant to make a mistake", was Just talk about the penguin family?

Being the king's vanguard, the guests and hosts enjoy themselves.

Zhou Hongyi declined Mr. Fang's dinner invitation and still borrowed a "Qingzi" to fly back to the capital. She wanted to see her family today and deal with the company's affairs overnight.

Fang Zhuo actually has to leave tomorrow, and the department meeting is the day after tomorrow. He also wants to take advantage of this trip to meet with people from China Unicom to see if he can make a breakthrough with this operator with whom he has good cooperation.

However, when he arrived in Beijing the next day and contacted China Unicom Vice President Wu Yunjun, he was in Yangcheng, and the meeting time could only be postponed to after the industry information communication meeting.

In fact, the relevant departments have been investigating and arranging measures after noticing the competition between 360 and Penguin. Whether it is QQB or one of the two, it is obviously against the orderly competition that the industry should have.

However, just when the two companies were about to be notified, the competitive situation changed significantly. Both the bodyguard and the second choice were eliminated on their own. The matter was not so urgent, and the department investigated for a few more days.

The software was removed from the shelves, re-compatible, and each apologized...

The meeting has not even started yet. It seems that the actions of 360 and Penguin have already been intervened by the "invisible hand". Therefore, in addition to the two parties, this meeting also invited a third party. This "party" represents the invisible hand of the market. hand.

October 11, 8:50 am.

The three companies involved arrived at Wanshou Road, and they didn't have many people. That is to say, the three heads each brought a senior executive.

Yi Ke and 360 arrived at the door of the conference room together. They turned around when they heard the footsteps coming from behind. It was Penguin.

At this moment, Zhou Hongyi looked at Ma Huateng with anger in his eyes, and Ma Huateng looked at Fang Zhuo with complicated eyes. Fang Zhuo... Fang Zhuo walked into the conference room and shook hands with the leader.

There were not many people in the conference room, but the level was not low.

Although this incident has subsided, it is indeed a major event in the Internet industry and must have an outcome.

Fang Zhuo came here this time as a real third party, a complete passerby.

In fact, he felt that he should not have come. It was not that QQ was removed from the YMS software store.

The atmosphere in the conference room was not too harsh. Although the leader had already conducted an investigation, he still gave both parties a chance to speak from their own perspectives.

Fang Zhuo drank tea and listened silently, thinking about his own Yixin. From now to the Spring Festival, he is still in a hurry to iterate Yixin's products. The company also wants to see how Penguin will respond to competition.

"Mr. Fang, Yike is a well-known company in the industry. What do you think of this matter?"

The leader asked for opinions after the two families finished speaking.

"Ahem." Fang Zhuo said with some embarrassment, "I heard Mr. Zhou and Mr. Ma arguing just now. The question is whether this KouKou bodyguard is a plug-in. I don't understand the technology. What should I say?"

Zhou Hongyi and Ma Huateng couldn't hold back even in this conference room and had a wave of exchange of views.

"Mr. Fang doesn't understand. Don't your company's technical team understand?" Ma Huateng asked calmly.

"That's right, Mr. Ma, Yike doesn't do your two businesses. Oh, yes, if you want to do communications, then I can talk about it, but this plug-in is not a plug-in, and we won't study it either." Fang Zhuo frowned.

Ma Huateng smiled: "Mr. Fang, if you say that, it's boring."

Fang Zhuo raised his eyebrows, looked at Pony first, then at the leader and Mr. Zhou, and asked, "Then let me tell you something interesting?"

Many people were refreshed.

Ma Huateng suddenly felt a little regretful, forget it, just let the product speak for itself.

"As an Internet person, I have been very sad recently." Fang Zhuo said sadly after receiving permission, "Because I am not only a practitioner, but also an ordinary user."

"Just now, I listened to Mr. Zhou and Mr. Ma talking about their companies, about this problem and that problem, but no one started from the user's perspective. Therefore, I also thank the leader for allowing me to attend this meeting on behalf of the majority of users."

"What have users seen in the past period of time? Forced pop-ups, forced upgrades, forced scanning, and forced promotion."

"Has this phenomenon existed in the industry before?" Fang Zhuo asked himself and answered, "It did."

He frowned and said in a serious tone: "However, I have never seen such unscrupulous coercion on this scale. It is simply appalling!"

"I have to say, from my perspective, when a company starts to show signs of monopoly in a certain market, user interests are no longer the first priority, but are giving way to commercial interests."

"The industry is in chaos and has turned into disorderly competition. Users have been hurt and interests have been harmed. But what about companies? Have they really benefited?"

"I think Mr. Ma can also get the answer from this public opinion. Is the company going to be short-term or long-term?"

“Here, I want to talk to Mr. Ma. I heard that Penguin’s vision is to become the water and coal of the industry. I heard that Penguin has internally proposed a strategic goal of ranking among the top three in the industry in important Internet subdivisions. This is indeed He can swallow thousands of miles like a tiger, but I also heard that even Penguin’s own employees were jokingly calling it..."

"Go all the way and leave other companies with nowhere to go."

Fang Zhuo stared at the head of Penguin: "Po... Mr. Ma, this is not a good thing. We business owners must be wary of such signals!"

Ma Huateng looked at each other indifferently, then avoided his eyes.

"Leaders, to be honest, I am feeling very emotional when I sit here today, because Mr. Ma and I have known each other for a long time, and we both came from the entrepreneurial stage. The so-called YBAT was originally moneyless, and I started Yike for the first time. A sum of money went to the TV station to record a program. Penguin was not profitable at first and almost sold himself."

"It's not easy for YBAT to be where it is today, and it's not easy for the Internet industry to develop to what it is today. I have simple industry feelings and want to see the Internet get better and better."

Fang Zhuo was very emotional, and then looked at Pony again: "Mr. Ma, what do you think?"

Ma Huateng thinks that it will be fine as long as Mr. Fang feels it.

Under the gaze of the conference room, he replied: "Well, Penguin must learn from this incident, strictly regulate behavior, maintain market order, respect the rights and interests of users, and jointly promote the healthy, stable and sustainable development of the Internet industry. "

Fang Zhuo sighed: "Mr. Ma, you, you..."

He talked about Penguin, then looked at the head of 360 and raised his head: "As for 360..."

Everyone in the conference room was attentive, and Ma Huateng also listened carefully to what the man named Fang had to say about the other party involved.

"Mr. Zhou, you must also learn lessons, strictly regulate your behavior, maintain market order, respect the rights and interests of users, and jointly promote the healthy, stable and sustainable development of the Internet industry." Fang Zhuo, who always has a good memory, quoted Pony's words.

Zhou Hongyi follows the good deeds, it should be done, it should be done, Mr. Fang is right, Mr. Ma is right.

The meeting continued. In view of the independent measures and positive attitudes of the two companies, it was first determined that the two companies would issue a joint statement to sincerely apologize to users and promise to resolutely put an end to similar behavior.

Subsequently, further research will be conducted on the punishment measures for the two companies.

This matter needs to be reported. Although it seems to be over in fact, it still needs to be marked by a report.

The meeting lasted until noon.

Ma Huateng stood up and said goodbye to his boss. He had no intention of saying hello to the other two families. When he got into the car, he only had one warm feeling about meeting Fang Zhuo again: "Hurry up and get QQ online!"

Fang Zhuo and Zhou Hongyi also said goodbye to their leaders. However, Fang Zhuo was pulled by a familiar leader to chat for a few more words, and he became more open-minded in private.

"They said you became a fire extinguisher this time. I think you are fighting fire with fire and fire with fire."

"I'm so speechless that I can't explain it. This code is the same code." Fang Zhuo was helpless.

"I think your mouth is enough. If you just click on it and say something to Mr. Ma, his face will change."

Fang Zhuo shook his head: "It's okay, buddy."

The leader smiled and turned to leave.

"Hey, leader, I just happened to be here today. Let me tell you about our communication software and report it to the leader." Fang Zhuo followed a step and said as he walked, "The Yixin we created is also to promote the industry. compete."

"Please write a report and hand it over. It's time to eat. Will Mr. Fang come to the canteen?" The leader said with a smile, "When making software, just don't mess around."

Fang Zhuo hesitated, what do you mean by messing around?

I will talk to the leader today first, and after that, it should not be considered a mess.