You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 452

"Weibo?" Zheng Nan was a little surprised to hear this new term. "What does Weibo mean? A micro blog?"

"That's right!" Qin Shaoyan showed an admiring look, "It's a microblog."

This is the most convenient aspect of Chinese characters. By combining existing characters together, even if you don’t know the meaning of the word, you can guess a little bit by looking at the individual characters.

The same is not true for English. A new word is completely made up and you have no idea what it means at first glance.

Xiong Xiaoge looked at the word "Weibo" on the whiteboard and pondered for a moment. "According to what you said, where does your Weibo belong in the social ecosystem?"

“Is it going to replace blogs?”

"Of course." Qin Shaoyan gave a positive answer with a smile, "It is an evolved and upgraded version of blogs. Weibo is the new hot social platform in the future."

"Why do you want to replace blogs?" Zheng Nan asked. "Blogs are very popular now. Do you think your product can replace them?"

"Blogs have been around in China since 2000, but no one has taken them seriously." Qin Shaoyan wrote the number 2000 on the whiteboard. "Internet users prefer chat rooms, BBSs, Tianya Forum, and other places, which are more interactive."

"Last year, in 2005, Sina, Sohu and NetEase all started blogging, and it seemed to be booming, but what was the actual effect?"

"Except for Sina Blog, which is doing very well, the others haven't made much of a splash."

"What was the original purpose of blogs?" Qin Shaoyan suddenly asked. "The original concept was to use it as an online diary, but later it became all-encompassing, from big political news and international events to small things like daily meals and trivial matters."

“It seems that the threshold for blogging is very low. Anyone can start a blog and anyone can write.”

"But what does blogging mean to most people?"

"It's just a place to write a diary." Qin Shaoyan asked seriously, "If you are an Internet user, you enter Sina Blog, search for a long time among a lot of blogs, and you see the title and know that the other party is writing a diary, will you click to read it?"

"The whole screen is filled with a diary. Besides, who would write a diary and post it online?"

“Do you think you would have the same experience if you were an Internet user?”

"Yes." Zheng Nan nodded subconsciously.

"Do you write a diary?" Qin Shaoyan asked.

"I don't write it." Zheng Nan denied it immediately.

"Who can write down their true feelings in a diary, right?" Qin Shaoyan spread his hands, "You see, this is the very embarrassing part of blogging. It's useless for ordinary people to open this thing."

“Blogging may seem like it has no barriers to entry, but in reality, the hidden barriers to entry are very high.”

"Readers come to blogs to see professional, useful text and pictures, but only a few people can write professional content. Many people can barely write a few hundred words. It's not realistic to expect them to write thousands of words online every day and have something meaningful in every post."

"What if it's a professional team?" Zheng Nan asked again, "What if it's a professional team that outputs the content?"

"First, we need to calculate the cost of maintaining a team." Qin Shaoyan wrote down the three words cost, traffic, and revenue on the whiteboard. "So, to what extent can the blog achieve traffic monetization, and is the revenue from monetization sufficient to cover the cost?"

"What's more, I think blogging is difficult to monetize. Advertising alone can't even support the website itself, let alone the bloggers."

"Blogs cannot be used for performance. It is difficult to sustain something without income just based on enthusiasm. Sina Blog invited a bunch of celebrities to join. It may look lively in the short term, but it won't last long."

"Celebrities don't make a living from blogging. They write blogs purely to attract attention and promote their own fame online, but the actual benefits are not much."

"Let's start with the vast majority of netizens who read blogs. Blogs that are too long and too professional are not user-friendly. You have to know that long-form reading also has its own barriers."

Xiong Xiaoge nodded. "You mean from the perspective of actual operation, blogging won't go very far, right?"

"Whether it's the operational thinking or the underlying logic, blogging is a dead end." Qin Shaoyan gave a very firm conclusion, "I just said that whether it's writing or reading, the threshold for blogging is too high."

"The Internet itself is an open platform that advocates inclusiveness. We want to absorb the broadest possible number of users."

"No matter what the time is, users are the right way to win. What we need to do is to lower the threshold."

"Since the birth of the Internet, the amount of information has grown exponentially, and the amount of information that Internet users are exposed to is also increasing. The time they spend online every day is fixed, so how to compete for users within a certain period of time is the most important factor in determining the success of future Internet products."

"Music, novels, games, videos, and a variety of other forms of entertainment fill the time of Internet users. Simply relying on long articles and articles will not win over Internet users, because their time is becoming more and more valuable, and they will spend less and less time on your products."

"So what we need to consider is how to catch the attention of netizens in a very short time, or make use of their spare time, that is, fragmented time."

"This means that future Internet products will be short, flat and fast!"

"Weibo meets this requirement. The biggest difference between it and blogs is that it is short and concise, with only 140 words. The threshold for writing and reading is greatly reduced, which greatly shortens the time for bloggers and readers."

“And its biggest feature is its strong interactivity, which allows readers to interact in the quickest way possible.”

As Qin Shaoyan spoke, he switched the PPT and displayed the Weibo homepage template. "Please look at the big screen. This is the Weibo page I designed."

Xiong Xiaoge and Zheng Nan first glanced at it, then sat up straight, staring at the demonstration web page template in amazement.

Qin Shaoyan walked to the projection screen and began to explain, "Traditional blogs are fixed in the format of title + text. Users see the title first, and then click in to see the text."

"That is to say, when users browse, they don't know what the title says. It's a black box. Users have already formed expectations when reading the title. Either the content meets expectations, or it's a clickbait title. So for users, browsing blogs is actually a risk."

"But on Weibo, what you see is what you get. A post of just a few dozen characters or up to 140 characters can be read in a few seconds."

"We have also added forwarding and commenting modes. Forwarding is the quickest and only requires one button. It is more than an order of magnitude more convenient than blog forwarding."

"Retweeting is also a form of commenting. Combining the two methods into one also reduces the social cost of users."

"Users decide whether to interact in a very short time, which greatly reduces the cost of interaction." "Interaction is extremely critical for social platforms. Interaction can increase user stickiness and loyalty. If there is no interaction, the social platform is dead."

"From an operational logic perspective, the operation of a blog is refresh - click in - read - exit - refresh, while the operation of a Weibo is refresh - read - refresh. This greatly simplifies the process, allowing users to obtain more information in a shorter time."

Xiong Xiaoge and Zheng Nan clapped their hands gently. Xiong Xiaoge smiled and said, "Well said, Mr. Qin. I have always felt that you have your own unique interpretation of the Internet, and you understand it more deeply than other Internet entrepreneurs."

"Your Weibo post is very reasonable and logical."

Zheng Nan also echoed, "Weibo is more convenient for users to operate and has lower social costs. It is indeed more suitable for Internet users, and its format is simple and novel."

"This new design is good." Xiong Xiaoge nodded, "We can do it."

Zheng Nan asked curiously, "How did you design such a thing?"

"In fact, Weibo itself is an extension of a sub-function of the campus network, and it is not something that was thought up out of thin air." Qin Shaoyan explained, "We found in the backend that the interactive data of personal posts is much greater than that of long articles, so I carefully observed this phenomenon and finally evolved it based on people's posts."

"Short, flat and fast means low cost, which is the same for both creators and readers. The threshold for Internet access is getting lower, and the threshold for using the products we make must also change."

"Hey, so you figured it out by looking at the data?" Zheng Nan was surprised. "Is this the big data analysis you mentioned?"

"Yes." Qin Shaoyan said very calmly.

"Very good. This new product has market data as a basis, which makes it more convincing." Xiong Xiaoge is very satisfied with the new product developed by the campus network. "How do you make this product? Do you want to do it in the campus network or develop it independently?"

"Of course we will develop it independently. I am very optimistic about its prospects." Qin Shaoyan said firmly, "The campus network needs a broader and more open social brand, not just developing users around university campuses."

"The campus network really needs to go a step further." Xiong Xiaoge also agreed with Qin Shaoyan's idea, "The users on university campuses can no longer meet the development of the campus network. It's time to expand outward."

"Everyone will soon see new moves by the campus network." Qin Shaoyan added, "After the listing, we will adopt more ways to expand social networking."

"Campus Network and Weibo, two products, two-pronged approach, moving forward in parallel." Zheng Nan gently rubbed his palms and laughed, "The future potential is unlimited."

Of course he was happy. The campus network was the first major project invested by China Sequoia Capital and also the most successful Internet product to date.

In just two and a half years, Campus Network was going to be listed on NASDAQ. This return efficiency is amazing.

Regardless of whether there is this new "Weibo" product, the market value of the campus network will not be low, but who doesn't like icing on the cake, and this flower looks very tempting.

"The campus network's market value is guaranteed to be $4 billion, and $5 billion is very likely." Zheng Nan said excitedly, "We can strive for a market value of $6 billion."

"Secure fourth place, win fifth place, and strive for sixth place." Xiong Xiaoge thought for a while, "Well, there shouldn't be any problem. President Qin, can the online game business of the campus network have any new breakthroughs?"

"It's a little difficult to make a big breakthrough, but maintaining the current revenue is not a problem." Qin Shaoyan was conservative for once, "But we will launch new online games in the next two years."

"Very good!" Xiong Xiaoge praised, "The campus network has a lot of good cards, we need to think about how to make good use of them."

Zheng Nan was a little regretful, "It's a pity that the game company does not belong to the campus network, otherwise the market value of the campus network could be considered 8 billion US dollars."

Xiong Xiaoge also looked at Qin Shaoyan, "Boss Qin, would you like to consider letting Campus Network acquire the game company under your name? Price is not an issue."

"Let's talk about this later." Qin Shaoyan did not give a direct answer.

The game company is my money printing machine, how can I sell it so easily? You are dreaming.

Zheng Nan persuaded, "Think about it carefully, Mr. Qin. Game development is also risky. Let Campus Network acquire it while its value is high. Later, you can use the funds from the stock market to ease the pressure of R&D funds. This is a win-win situation."

"Well, I'll consider it." Qin Shaoyan replied perfunctorily.

What Zheng Nan said is indeed true. Game development is indeed very risky. Many game companies have gone bankrupt after the products they invested huge amounts of money to develop failed suddenly.

We cannot just watch the thief eat the meat without seeing the thief being beaten. We cannot just watch the game companies that make a lot of money from the successful 3A games think that they have made a fortune and can stay defeated for a long time.

In fact, the money earned cannot withstand the brunt of the investment. Most of it will be consumed in developing a 3A masterpiece. No game company can succeed every time.

But for Qin Shaoyan, this is not a problem, at least not in the short term.

Seeing that Qin Shaoyan didn't respond, Xiong Xiaoge stopped trying to persuade him and changed the subject directly, "Then Mr. Qin, keep working hard and perfect your PPT. Our first stop for the roadshow is San Francisco!"

The IPO roadshow is not the same as the movie roadshow. The movie roadshow is to meet the audience in the cinema as a movie-watching benefit and also a promotional activity.

The IPO road show is purely promotional marketing, mainly targeting stock underwriters, institutional investors, analysts, fund managers and hedge funds, etc., with both parties performing against each other.

Traditional roadshows are usually held in several major cities in the country where the exchange is located. For example, projects listed on the U.S. stock market are generally held in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and other places.

Xiong Xiaoge and Zheng Nan have already used their connections to invite many people to attend the event. There will be special hosts on the scene to create atmosphere. The rest depends on how well Qin Shaoyan's PPT is done.

Qin Shaoyan sent Xiong Xiaoge and Zheng Nan away, then turned to look at Zhang Pingyi next to him, "Master Zhang, time is a bit tight, can you build the Weibo website before the roadshow?"

Zhang Pingyi was a little speechless, "Your requirements are a bit high."

"I don't have high requirements. Just make a simple demonstration website. You can optimize and rebuild it later." Qin Shaoyan encouraged with a smile, "Master Zhang, you are so capable. You will definitely be able to do it."

"Let me try." Zhang Pingyi sighed, then asked curiously, "Can our backend big data really show that personal comments have more interactions than long articles?"

"You can see nothing." Qin Shaoyan said casually, "I made that up."

In fact, big data and the like are all nonsense. He never looked at the background data at all. The Weibo thing was just a plan he came up with on the spur of the moment and showed it to investors.

(End of this chapter)