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from Thunder in the Shenzhen Software Park headquarters looked southwest, less than a mile away there is a newly constructed building, the building at the top of the blue Companies understand that the word is only one meaning: a reluctance to face another opponent can not be avoided. Zou Shenglong 37-year-old looked up at work every day you can see the word, for him, Tencent obviously means more.
Thunder started to download, but it is the largest Thunder Tencent to the commercialization of inspiration. Thunder can be said that Tencent's development path is being copied: first get a product to rely on mass user, and then launched on this basis, the Internet value-added services, and cash flow, with Zou Shenglong's words, the so-called . Third quarter of 2009, Tencent's Internet value-added services revenues of more than 2.6 billion yuan, Tencent this is a proven to be a bright road, but the Thunder can go far on this road?
2004 年 Thunder rise, with a download speed of the characteristics of other similar rapid than Flashget download software, download a leader in the field, in 2008 the market share of more than 73% of total installed capacity of over 260 million. With the increase of market share, Thunder also received VC sought after, from 2004 to 2007, Thunder get IDG VC, Morningside, Ceyuan, Google and a number of sector investment. Zou Shenglong said in 2006: Thunder in the 2008 listing.
but the download is only a basic service, Thunder is difficult to mass users, traffic into revenue, Zou Shenglong Tencent solution is to learn, the introduction of value-added services. Beginning in 2006, Thunder Thunder launch online, through online video services technology integration; 2007 Thunder Thunder 6 R & D investment in full force, adding SNS elements; integrate more with the gift of the search tools web gougou.com; to 2009, Thunder Final will focus on online video and online games.
But in fact, said Zou Shenglong Thunder far less optimistic, at least it faces three great challenges: the user, copyright, and download the value of atrophy.
one user. While users are massive, but Thunder and the essential difference between QQ: QQ is a communication platform, carrying the user's social relations, and even emotional sustenance, with strong user stickiness, so the user space for QQ, Q- Zone, QQ show that value-added services to pay; Thunder is just a tool, users download it only needs to solve, and not long, the eyes remain in the download interface, value-added services become passive water. It can be said, Tencent circle to the ground floor of the home and family, Thunder circle to just be a trail, as well as pedestrians passing by above.
II download. As an Internet service, download will die. As bandwidth has increased, most applications have no need to download to a local, directly on the network can be completed, this is the so-called Services can be for our use - even if such a huge high-definition video files, you can achieve in your browser smooth playback, who need to download? Who would tolerate the occupation of their hard drive drama? Technology and infrastructure development can shake the foundations of Thunder.
Third, copyright. Today's Thunder is not only a long download software, in July 2009, the Thunder will be And potatoes, and other video sharing site Youku different, Thunder is the flagship high-definition video to see work, although most of the domestic film and television work has been authorized by the copyright side, but almost all foreign television programs and movies are not authorized for advertising as the main Thunder look at revenue sources, this is a bomb could explode at any time. Thunder can be used even if the prevalence of the international Naturally, Thunder has been repeatedly sued by copyright party, and even advertisers have become the second defendant.
the past two years, the once fast-growing and shouted Thunder was listed in 2008 and died down, the reason is that its massive Thunder is still trying to get the scale of users and traffic, sustainable and innovative revenue models This process is not easy, and inevitably made some mistakes, but in December 2009, Zou Shenglong consider themselves seem to have found a direction.
now that she had found the most appropriate revenue model, that is, video advertising and online games. But the judge under
, we also find a look that is difficult to know the evidence. Taobao is an open e-commerce platform, all individuals and businesses can conduct business on this platform, combined with Ali Baba and the support Alipay and build a complete, unique, eco-system monopoly, in 2009 the eco- trading systems scale up to 2000 million. Thunder also has traffic and users, but only belong to a single tool to download and video, as well as traffic acquisition by selling advertising and online revenue, and Taobao is no comparable ecosystems. If both of listing, the market value of their concepts and will never be in the same order of magnitude.
business since 2003, from the technical to the Thunder after a product, from products to customers, revenue from the user to the three stages, which is a typical technology-based Internet company developing path. But to become a great company, there must be a fourth stage: from income to the concept, that is, a self-contained business model. Tencent's concept is based IM users online life, Taobao is open to the concept of e-commerce ecosystem. There is no such concept, that is Thunder from the
encourage entrepreneurship and innovation from the perspective of Thunder is undoubtedly a specimen-style success stories. Embrace the technology entrepreneurs dream career, which in not common in the Chinese Internet; then to develop products, capture the market, and explore patterns, which a narrow chain has died every possible juncture. Thunder all the way to go today, to If you want to leap onto the mainstream arena of competition, you are increasing the pressure and challenges can only be bloody. We are here to sort out the historical stage of Thunder, concerned about his limitations, the experience with the giant exchange of punches, hoping for a wider range of Internet entrepreneurs to give reference.
from technology to products
China's Internet industry technology career that not many companies, most companies do not have their own core technology, Zou Shenglong view, Baidu, Thunder is one of the few with a heterogeneous gene technology.
Thunder first company called The so-called third-generation distributed computing framework, the basic principle is: the Internet through an algorithm to code all the computers, and computer orientation between the addressing, addressing greatly improve the speed, so as to enhance the efficiency of distributed computing. For example, if the network has 100 million (10 ^ 6) computers, from one computer to another, addressing the needs of the number of any computer no more than 6 times the number of computers if the network is 1 million units, then , addressing no more than 8 times, we can say that the basic theory is the technical foundation of Thunder. From the application to download, Thunder can search automatically for the user to find the matching object files to increase download the source, thereby greatly speeding up the download speed.
but the download is not the first choice, in early 2003, Zou Shenglong and Cheng Hao want to start at the beginning is the e-mail distributed storage system. At that time there was an e-mail charges trend, the main selling point is that more storage space, Zou and Cheng that this is an opportunity. But the e-mail itself is a mature technology, even if the later ones to be innovative in order to enter this field will not be easy, they do not accumulate contacts and resources. Zou Shenglong NetEase had hoped to provide technology to find, but did not know Ding Lei, the field in the e-mail technology, NetEase also has a strong disdain of others in the use of technology.
the end of 2003, Zou and Cheng to realize that e-mail distributed storage and not much commercial space - indeed the case, 2004 April 1, Google has launched a capacity of 1G and free email service Gmail , break all the e-mail charges may be. If the e-mail technology to do what is harvested, that is, Zou Shenglong recognize that in China's Internet entrepreneurs, networking is very important. This is from the later cut into the Thunder game download from the Internet to find Lei Jun, as well as the introduction of Hong Zhou Thunder financing can be confirmed.
2004 year, Thunder decided to make a transition to download, due to the distributed computing technology has been accumulated, the products developed out soon, download software different from the traditional, Thunder from the user can automatically search for more recent and fastest a resource at the same time to download, greatly speeding up the download speed.
a quick thing, he suddenly is easy to remember you, so we do not take it off the market cost up.
2004 年 time is the rise of online games, MMOG size of the client is often up to several hundreds of megabytes or even G, on the online games company, how to make the most of these large clients and quickly arrived at the player is a big problem. Zou Shenglong Jinshan seize this opportunity to cooperate, and soon turned the situation, since online vendors are still the major advertisers Thunder.
founder of the company's soul, Zou Shenglong and Cheng Hao and technical personnel are born, their genes determine the core technology focus for the Thunder, the time to do the same emphasis on technology products. a company without its own core technology, there will be a huge risk.
Thunder Thunder player software recently launched a look, as they do not have the core codec technology, Zou Shenglong do not think the player is its core products, just a layout. The player market is currently the largest user STORM, Zou Shenglong is that it is dangerous: , people have to reform its life. I think it is only one strategy is to reform their own lives, make their own codec. Otherwise, it is a duckweed, not the root, the impact it may have been at any time. It must go to core competencies, or sooner or later is the case of slabs of meat.
This is a typical Zou Shenglong and Thunder, Lunatic Fringe, extreme and sturdy. But reality does not possess the core technology and rely on the ability of successful Internet companies operating everywhere, such as Shanda and Sina.
from the product to the user
Thunder
when first started, Zou Shenglong not want to know how to make money in the future, and, like all entrepreneurs, his initial excitement downloads a day to see the growth of Thunder, which is a process of accumulation of the user. After, they go to reduce the possibility of increasing the cost of his go to enhance the user experience, resulting in Matthew, the strong get stronger. Matthew
how to generate? Thunder has more than 200 products, function point, but the things are icing on the cake, the most important feature is the speed of Thunder has at this point is too obvious advantages, such as the Thunder also support BT download, but in the same network conditions, Thunder BT download speed is 3 times. Thus, while many original Thunder software bug, but rely on constantly updated sound, and soon accumulated a sufficient competitive advantage, access to a large number of users. To the end of August 2006, Thunder's coverage of over 110 million users, installed capacity reached 80 million units, more than 50% market share, has become the QQ in China after the Internet's largest client.
2006, the Thunder in the download area is like Zou Shenglong said, But in November 2006 made Tencent QQ Tornado, QQ more than 5 million registered users, the whirlwind, and QQ client tied up, the offensive is very fierce. Compared with the Thunder, QQ Tornado's interface is very clean, beautiful, no advertising, a good user experience, which gives Zou Shenglong caused a lot of pressure. But the QQ does not destroy the Thunder because of the size of the user determines the speed of Thunder can be kept in a large lead, the current whirlwind of market share QQ about 6%, compared with 74% of Thunder. QQ Tornado is no reason why the capture of Thunder, Thunder's first-mover advantage first, the second is Tencent, the battlefield is not important. Unimportant reasons, first, from the instant messaging far the main battlefield, and second, the value of this business is being undermined by two trends: the bandwidth becomes larger, the rise of cloud computing.
a download software and bandwidth is inversely proportional to the value, and is proportional to the size of the target file, bandwidth is and will continue to become larger. For small files, Thunder's use of the increasing value of small, but large files, only the remaining large-scale network game client, and video, online games companies is still the major advertisers Thunder; and trends in the video are: online and not download watch.
2008 beginning of the rise of Cloud Computing, Internet service completed on the network, without having to download to a local, which can be called Thunder in terms of a lethal change. Thunder online video is a natural choice, in fact, from 2006 Thunder has already begun to try, but then the market potential of online video does not appear, Zou Shenglong was supposed to be cash flow will be Thunder, because a user downloaded the software after the most , placed in the Thunder before the question is how to attract users to continue to use their service, and to the user and flow into the income scale.
advertising revenue is the simplest,
Monster Headphones, but depends on the value of advertising attracted the attention of the audience, there are birth defects Thunder: When a user starts a download, download the software to be placed in the background, no one will staring at the interface. Simply download the service user behavior characteristics of the decision itself does not have to carry out a Thunder based advertising, which is the main push Thunder root causes of online video: Only the user will be downloaded for the purpose of settling in to your site, ads only space.
online video are mainly two models, one is a video sharing to Youku, potatoes, cool, 6, represented by, the other is online live television, to PPLive, PPStream, UUSee represented, while the Thunder look with this two modes are not the same. Thunder look at the main push high-definition movie content, in the same bandwidth conditions, the Thunder's home video more clearly than all the rest, which you download from the Thunder on the accumulation of technology, because the process of video online play can be understood as another Download the form, just need to follow the video content, in chronological order to download.
Thunder
technology accumulation than other video sites to 20% of the bandwidth cost advantage. But the cost is not the core resources of online video contest. With reserves of $ 1,000,000,000 has grand, Sohu, Tencent entry, technology cost advantage in the overall competition is irrelevant. Copyright issues and the operational capability has increasingly become the key, and this is undoubtedly a technical career by Thunder lack.
Zou Shenglong has been using the When the network service providers that provide space only and does not produce pirated content, if the infringement was told, there are deleted obligation, or to be regarded as infringement. If neither infringing content on the service provider's server, storage, and were not told what should be deleted, the service provider does not bear tort liability.
The key is to look at Thunder
pirated content is available on their servers, despite the repeated claims that this is the official Thunder through the integration of search technology from, but the former employee Thunder Wang Kai (according to the respondents asked, Wang Kai as a pseudonym ) revealed that the contents of Thunder does have its own storage servers, many of them pirated. September 2009, excellent friends when Pollock claimed in the lawsuit Thunder This is a hidden danger may be a sign of lost income can make Thunder badly hit.
Copyright regularization is the premise of the Internet video industry bigger, Zou Shenglong's tough not to solve the problem of choice. Active choice to cooperate with copyright copyright means that the rapid increase procurement costs, Thunder is not an advantage. M & Cool 6 grand invested 300 million will improve the quality of site content, including 100 million for the purchase of copyright, which previously invested Sohu also announced that $ 2,000,000 per quarter to purchase the copyright. With the excellent cool, potatoes and other video websites, Thunder and the relationship between the copyright side was even worse. Can be drawn: Thunder in the network video genuine issue, rather passive.
revenue model from the user to
the first two phases is relatively smooth, but still not perfect Thunder income as a threshold beyond. Thunder download the client sell the ads though, but too much will affect the user experience. In 2006, the Thunder began commercial attempts to convert the massive income users, the main attempt to have the following 5:
1. introduce resource integration portal Thunder online, try to transfer the user from the client to the Web site.
2. to see online video service launched Thunder, Thunder attract online users to stay down.
3. integration gougou.com, multimedia downloads and the transformation of the search engines.
4. joint operations online, the user guide to online game operators,
monster beats, and get into.
5. upgrade Thunder download the client and increase SNS, IM and other elements, and integrate all the services Thunder, a QQ + facebook-style client.
is worth mentioning that the Thunder on the client's attempt, in 2007, Thunder power of company-wide development of dumping Thunder 6, particularly clear, but the team's understanding of the Web product is not enough, do not succeed.
Thunder 6 is a product of impulse, it attempts to go beyond simply download the software, such as QQ and facebook into the user's life as, for example, Thunder 6 to increase the so-called Thunder, as long hung on the client, according to the duration and hang up the number of downloaded files allow users to upgrade, this blunt imitation of a departure from the Thunder as a core value of downloading software, users will not be accepted, and ultimately renamed the product Thunder 5.9, compared with the original vision, the project basically failed.
slow the progress of several other products. of hulu.com.
attempt after nearly 2 years to 2009, video, and games become the Thunder final choice.
2009 年 7 months, Thunder Thunder online and integrated into today's Thunder look to see online video site xunlei.com, and launch the player client, so the search with the dogs, Thunder download form from the video to find, access to play a full service chain, and its revenue in the form of video advertising. December 2009, the Thunder announced the establishment of gaming research and development center in Nanjing, plans 2 years invested 100 million yuan, casual games do first, do large-scale online games, no longer confined to joint operations.
Wang Kai
It is estimated that in 2009 the income of Thunder about between 2 to 3 billion, of which the client Thunder, Thunder to see all the ads about 7000 ~ 8000 million the dogs search for advertising about 3,000 million, the rest of the main income of the joint operating online games, there are a small number of member services revenue. Zou Shenglong high expectations for video advertising in 2009, the Thunder has more than 10 billion sales space, but not enough advertisers,
Dre Beats Headphones, Zou Shenglong 2012, Youku, potatoes, Thunder three companies advertising sales space up to 100 billion accounted for 75% of the entire video advertising market.
Obviously, many people feel that this forecast is too optimistic. 2008, online video advertising market size of about 4.3 billion, even though the rate of 200% growth in 4 consecutive years, to 2012,
monster pro headphones, only 6.9 billion. In other words, the whole market can not meet Youku, potatoes, Thunder three companies advertising space. Analysys International is expected to easily understood: in 2011, Internet video advertising market is only 10 billion.
Look for Thunder
Zou estimated advertising market share, seems equally optimistic: If you remove the Thunder download the client and dog search, Thunder to see the ads below Youku, potatoes, and PPLive, PPStream is also no clear comparison advantage. This reality, and Zou Shenglong
online games the same. Even Thunder joint operations have been carried out more than 2 years, but far as its own online games business conditions for success. Separatist warlords online games industry, Tencent casual games business in a single large, Thunder can not catch up. MMO is a separatist warlords, few people will believe: no development experience, the lack of operating experience to the sudden emergence of Thunder.
industry sources, 2007, Cheng Hao looked for the community to play more online games information network to negotiate merger of online community + download + the concept of combined operations listed, but the network did not accept to play more. Since then, the Thunder turned to the independent business model exploration to find the listing of concepts.
There
between income and market, there is a huge gap: that is, whether this income can support a concept, which allows investors to see whether a grand room for growth. Value-added services,
bose headphones, whether Tencent, Baidu's bid ranking, or e-commerce Taobao ecosystem, have a solid user base, not copy the business model, the monopoly of the market,
Monster Beats Headphones, while Thunder was not satisfied. The situation is: user base will be divided up online video, there is no unique business model, and its revenue by selling traffic so far is still quite elementary way. Thunder listed the apparent lack of a clear concept.
QQ and Thunder
Zou Shenglong get analog. On the basis that first, both strong client and user groups, and second, their source of income comes from value-added services, such as games, advertising and e-commerce possible. But the key is, QQ is not the core of the client, but rather a social network. Without this, no matter the client or user group, or source of income, have become passive water. Analogy with the QQ, is the risk of being embodied Zou Shenglong: QQ base in the absence of circumstances, to make a QQ shelf.
this lack of grounding on the shelf of the future, we will call it
(This article Source: Entrepreneur)
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