You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 477 Product Launch

New Year's Day 2007.

The 798 Art District seemed particularly lively today, with crowds of people inside and outside the venue. A large number of reporters crowded nearby, constantly recording the scene in front of them with their cameras.

The service staff responsible for maintaining order in the venue have begun to guide the guests and audience into the venue, and the reporters can't wait to follow the guidance and enter the venue through the reporter-only channel.

As soon as they stepped inside, the hot air that hit them made the people who were shivering in the cold wind feel particularly comfortable. The warm air from the central air-conditioning was so strong that it seemed to blow away all the coldness from the audience.

After the audience took their seats, hot drinks were quickly distributed to everyone.

After drinking the warm drink, the warm feeling spread from the stomach to the whole body, and it felt like all the pores were opened.

This thoughtful service instantly dispelled the audience's dissatisfaction with waiting, and they couldn't help but sigh that the campus network's press conference was arranged in great detail and completely took into account the audience's experience.

The experience is even more different for reporters, although coming to the press conference is work and they have to come.

But if the working environment could be more comfortable, no one would be willing to endure the hardship.

Now that the service is so thoughtful, I am in a good mood. My fingers are stronger when pressing the shutter button, and my words are warmer when writing reports.

The layout of the press conference was different from the traditional tacky layout, with only a small podium on the stage.

A huge screen hangs in the center, with simple metal-frame lamp posts dotted on both sides. The scene is shrouded in a faint blue halo, full of a mysterious sense of futuristic technology.

The guest area in the front row of the stage was filled with celebrities. The backs of the chairs were covered with logos of various Internet companies, including Sina, NetEase, Sohu, Baidu, Penguin...

Reporters also found that representatives from Penguin and Facebook were sitting together, talking and laughing with each other.

It seems that the previous business disputes and public opinion storms did not affect the relationship between the two parties. They were in court a while ago, and today they are sitting down to discuss matters again. It seems very magical.

Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang attended the event in person, bringing with him several editors from Sohu News, while other Internet companies also sent several vice president-level representatives.

The reporters pointed their cameras at the guest area and took pictures from all angles, capturing all the guests from each company in the camera.

In the aisle facing the stage, several staff members wearing Qvod logos were carrying cameras and debugging the machines.

Today's press conference will be broadcast live on the Internet by Qvod so that netizens across the country can watch it.

As the numbers on the electronic clock kept ticking, there was only one minute left before the press conference began. The venue was already full, and reporters had all grabbed their seats, with their cameras all aimed at the stage.

Suddenly, the stage lights lit up, the BGM sounded, and a tall and handsome young man ran onto the stage.

He was wearing a high-necked white sweater and dark blue jeans, looking like a fashionable young man. He waved to the audience with a smile on his face.

"Dear guests, company CEOs, media reporters, and netizens who are watching the live broadcast, happy New Year's Day!"

"There are friends who know me and there are also strangers. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Qin Shaoyan." Qin Shaoyan looked at the flashing lights with a smile, "Qin is the Qin of the Qin State, and Shaoyan is the Shaoyan of few words. You can tell from my name that I am not good at speaking."

"Today's theme is the new product launch of the campus network. To be more precise, it should be the new product launch of Sentinel Technology Co., Ltd."

"But this description is not accurate either." Qin Shaoyan waved his fist confidently, "I should say that I want to subvert the Internet social model today."

Qin Shaoyan waved his hand, and suddenly a few big words appeared on the big screen in the center of the stage.

Weibo is born for innovation!

Then the PPT on the screen switched to the next page, "Traditional social networking? Outdated!"

The venue was completely silent, with only the sound of camera shutters clicking.

"That's right, traditional Internet social products are outdated." Qin Shaoyan said lightly, "From today on, the Internet's social model will enter a new era, which I call the Social 2.0 era."

"I'm not exaggerating. People who know me know that I'm an entrepreneur who likes to focus on product development and don't like making PPTs."

“No matter how good a PPT is, it’s not as good as a good product.”

"It has been 12 years since the birth of the Internet in China. In 1995, Tsinghua University established the first BBS in China, and in 1996, Zhang Chaoyang established the predecessor of Sohu."

"Then there are NetEase, Sina, Penguin, Alibaba, Baidu..."

"From portal websites, instant messaging software, e-commerce, search engines, it covers everything. It can be said that a hundred flowers are blooming. But..." Qin Shaoyan smiled apologetically, "I have to say but. I apologize to my colleagues in advance."

"But the products launched by these Internet companies are all based on mature products of the US Internet. It can be said that in the past ten years, we have been imitating and exploring and advancing in the footsteps of the world's Internet."

"In the past decade, our Internet has been constantly innovating and iterating by learning from others. Many of our products have surpassed those of our foreign counterparts and are not inferior to those of our peers in the competition. This shows that we are no longer lagging behind."

"Today, I want to stand here and say that we have broken away from the models we borrowed from the past." Qin Shaoyan waved his fist, "We have our own innovative Internet products."

“That’s Weibo!”

There was warm applause from below the stage. The guests present had different expressions, but overall they were very respectful.

The applause from the other audience members was much more sincere. The China of this era is different from the era of great power confidence more than a decade later. The label of backwardness is deeply rooted in the hearts of every ordinary person.

It is well known that the domestic Internet learns from and imitates every other Internet. No one thinks it is wrong. If we lag behind, we must actively catch up.

When Internet products such as Amazon, Yahoo, Google, and MSN entered China, everyone was pessimistic, believing that the local Internet would not be able to compete.

But what is unexpected is that all domestic Internet companies have withstood the pressure, and even gained the upper hand, squeezing their competitors out of the domestic market.

Despite this, domestic Internet products still cannot erase the label of plagiarism.

Now Qin Shaoyan announced to netizens across the country that we will no longer follow the pace of the American Internet, and we have our own innovative products.

This sentence directly ignited the atmosphere of the venue, and a sense of joy and pride emerged in the hearts of ordinary audiences.

"It has been 2003 days since the campus network was launched on September 9, 1." Qin Shaoyan raised his finger. "In these 1218 days, except for sleeping, I have been thinking about how we can make a product that satisfies users every moment."

"From campus network to Facebook, from Qvod to YouTube, from Plants vs. Zombies to Farmville, I have been working hard."

"Today is the day we can announce to the entire Internet world that we have pioneered the era of Internet social networking 2.0."

"Weibo! Born for innovation, for social interaction, for hot topics, and for your attitude." Qin Shaoyan made a gesture, and the PPT screen turned into the UI interface of Weibo.

"What is Weibo? As the name suggests, it is a microblog. Everyone can post a message with just a few words or even dozens of words, without having to write a long article."

"Some people ask what 140 characters can do?" Qin Shaoyan walked to the front of the stage and smiled mysteriously, "It can do a lot of things."

"Efficiency is life. The Internet has brought our users into a fast-paced era, and efficiency has become the most important factor."

"Let's look at the first product that Weibo is competing against. It's obvious that it's blogs."

"Are traditional blogs like writing books?" Qin Shaoyan showed a look of disdain. "I'm not targeting anyone. Users are tired of the long-winded blogs because there is too much useless information and too many clickbait headlines, which seriously waste users' time."

"To waste time is to waste life, comrades."

"Weibo is like installing a rocket engine on information! It makes efficiency soar to the sky."

“Not only can users quickly post their opinions and content on the webpage, they can do so even without a computer.”

Qin Shaoyan took out a mobile phone and said, "You can also use your mobile phone to do this anytime and anywhere, provided that the mobile phone has a signal."

"A text message can contain up to 70 characters, and a Weibo post can be completed with a maximum of two text messages."

"This way users can quickly record their thoughts, feelings, jokes, or even just say hello when inspiration strikes."

"If you are a reporter and you encounter a breaking news on your way home from get off work, what should you do? You don't have a recorder or a camera, but only a cell phone. What should you do?"

"At this time, you can simply edit a short message and send it to Weibo. You don't need to write, edit, review, and publish like portal websites, and you don't need to typeset and print like traditional media."

"With just a text message, we can write news in real time and get readers' feedback quickly, which significantly reduces our social costs."

"Users don't need to write anything. They can just move their fingers and forward a message to express their attitude. It's fast, convenient and low-cost."

“You don’t need to write hundreds or thousands of words like traditional blogs. Just a few dozen words can make you an Internet celebrity.”

"The hot search list function allows you to see the hot trends of the entire network at any time. The things that netizens are most concerned about are all on it, including current political news and celebrity gossip."

"The new era of Internet social networking has arrived!"

At this time, the audience in the audience had already shown expectant expressions. Weibo is indeed convenient and fast.

You don’t need to think about how to write an article. You can post it with just a few dozen words and read dozens of articles in one breath. This is real efficiency.

Who has the patience to read those long and boring blogs? It's a complete waste of time.

The reporters felt even more complicated, and their hands were shaking as they pressed the shutter buttons.

Weibo is indeed a disruptive new Internet product. If you register an account for yourself, it will be more convenient to get the latest news in the future.

If you have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of fans, you will become an Internet celebrity and you won't have to write articles according to the editor-in-chief's mood.

……

At the press conference, Qin Shaoyan sent his first Weibo post in front of the audience, guests and media.

“The era of social networking 2.0 has arrived. Welcome to the new era of the Internet.”

On that day, countless netizens flocked to Weibo to experience this new thing, and the number of registered users exceeded five million.

More than a dozen media outlets published articles in their technology sections, praising Weibo.

《A groundbreaking new product: micro blogs》

"In 2007, the sky of China's Internet was struck by a thunderbolt! When everyone was still writing articles on blogs and climbing high on forums, Weibo, a new social product destined to go down in history, was born! 140 characters? No! This was the first time that Chinese netizens truly had the superpower of 'putting the world in their pockets'!"

《Disruptive innovation, everyone is a blogger》

Are you still envious of those celebrities who write blogs? Weibo will make you a celebrity! A short message can be forwarded crazily by netizens thousands of miles away.

Complaining about the traffic jam on the bus can quickly become a hot search in the city! There is no threshold here, only the carnival that can be ignited by pressing the "forward" button.

《Slay traditional media in seconds! Efficiency is king!》

Newspapers are still in the printing factory? TV stations are still writing articles? Weibo has made the news a hot search! Where has the Olympic torch been passed? What is the truth behind the stock market crash? Here is always one second faster than the rest of the world!
Of course, there are praises and there are criticisms.

Soon, well-known authors, experts and professors wrote articles to denounce it as "a half-finished product that is just for show and has no innovation at all."

"The fact that simplified blogs can still be touted reflects the low quality of netizens as a whole and their lack of proper literary literacy."

"What can you do with 140 characters? You can't even write a complete sentence, so you can only brag about your speed."

"The information flow is too cluttered, the content is of low quality, and it is filled with meaningless nonsense and all kinds of vulgar, obscene and crude language."

Someone wrote ten blogs overnight, severely criticizing Weibo and saying it was complete Internet garbage.

There are mixed reactions to the criticism and abuse from these internet celebrities.

However, Internet peers were unusually silent. Except for Sohu News which published a few standard news articles, other portals only published a simple report.

Especially Sina, there is not a single word related to Weibo on the entire website.

Sina seemed a little nervous and also a little surprised and angry. Microblogging, isn't this aimed at us?
If someone else sets up a Weibo account, Sina won’t even look at it.

But Qin Shaoyan is different. He is completely different from other Internet bosses.

The person who is best at Internet marketing hype in China is also the person who understands Internet product design best.

Qin Shaoyan's impressive record is frightening enough when listed out. Not only is he successful in China, he is also like a fish in water in the United States.

For someone who is so resourceful, it is definitely not a casual move for him to create a Weibo post in such a grand manner.

(End of this chapter)