You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 555

On the second day after Penguin banned the "Meitu Artifact", an article appeared on Weibo that angrily criticized the behavior.

The article was written by a very influential "Internet enterprise review" big V on Weibo - "Network Encyclopedia", who has about five million fans, and more than 70% of his fans are real people.

The title of the article is very distinctive, "Penguin, can you survive without plagiarism?"

As a senior netizen, Da V began to recount several major events in China's Internet over the past decade and listed a brief history of the development of the Internet.

Other Internet companies were briefly mentioned, and the focus was on listing Penguin and Sentinel Technologies, especially comparing the products of the two companies.

Then the big V criticized in a very indignant tone.

“What have penguins done in the past ten years?”

“What else does it do besides re-re ...

"Has Penguin created any meaningful products in the past ten years? Even if it's just one, a very small one."

"Netizens, please recall whether Penguin has ever innovated. If you can give me an example, I will apologize immediately!"

“Of course, micro-innovation cannot be considered innovation!”

"Let's take a look at Sentinel Technology. They have always been at the forefront of Internet innovation. From campus networks to Qvod, Happy Farm, Weibo, and Meitu Shenqi, all of them are innovative products that bring many new experiences to netizens."

"What did Penguin do at this time? It has been following behind and replicating. Happy Farm has been replicated, and Meitu Shenqi will also be replicated."

"The key is that you not only copied it, but also banned the original version."

"Do you know what you are doing? You are destroying, killing and blocking the soil for innovation in China's Internet!"

"In the Internet industries of both China and the United States, Sentinel Technologies is the only major player that can compete with American Internet companies."

"You are doing this to the dismay of your loved ones and the delight of your enemies. You have done something that America's competitors want to do but cannot do."

"Penguin, if you have the ability, you should compete head-on and defeat your competitors with better products, rather than stabbing them in the back, tripping them up, or using dirty tricks."

"I have never seen anyone so shameless!"

As soon as the blog post was published, it immediately became a hot topic, and tens of thousands of netizens forwarded and commented on it.

Most people agree with the views expressed in the article by "Internet Encyclopedia" and are quite disgusted with Penguin's actions.

You can copy it if you want, you have copied it a lot over the years.

But after plagiarizing the original version, you immediately ban it. Such shameless behavior really shocked netizens.

Nowadays, netizens have been surfing the Internet for many years and claim to be knowledgeable, but this is the first time they have seen penguins do this.

Amid the public outrage, many articles appeared on the Internet criticizing and even attacking Penguin.

The public opinion trend quickly spread from Weibo to other social platforms, including campus network, Tieba, Tianya, Mop, Sina Blog, Zhihu...

Subsequently, another article commenting on the related events once again became a hot topic. The article was published by "Silicon Valley Coder".

In the article, he described the influence of Qin Shaoyan, CEO of Sentinel Technology, in Silicon Valley. He then changed the subject and talked about Penguin's style of doing things. By comparing the characteristics of the Internet industries in China and the United States, he also mocked Penguin in a sarcastic manner.

He also asserted that if Penguin's behavior is not punished and a broken window effect is created, with everyone following suit, China's Internet industry will always lag behind the United States by 30 years.

In the second half of the article, he analyzed "Beauty Artifact" and "Beauty Show" from a product perspective.

After reviewing it, I concluded that “Meitu Magic Tool” is a groundbreaking product, especially its unique beauty optimization algorithm, which is a work of genius.

The "Beauty Show" is a complete imitation, the worst of the worst. At the same time, "Silicon Valley Coder" analyzed from a technical perspective that the technical means used by Penguin to ban the "Meitu Artifact" are based on violating user privacy.

He also predicted, "Penguin will completely deny the accusation and even claim that the ban did not exist and that the inability to upload photos with beauty tools on QQ Space is a technical problem."

In response to the torrent of accusations online, Penguin issued a statement.

What is strange is that Penguin denied the "ban" on the beauty tool in its statement, announcing that it was just caused by technical problems.

This statement completely ignited the emotions of netizens, all kinds of conspiracy theories flew around, and the penguin was scolded.

Public opinion on the Internet was boiling, with condemnations of the penguins growing louder and louder.

Sentinel Technologies, which is also caught in the public opinion storm, simply issued a statement.

Sentinel Technologies said in a statement, "No matter how our competitors react, Sentinel Technologies will always uphold an open and inclusive attitude towards the Internet. We hope that Chinese Internet companies can maintain the open spirit of the Internet and make progress together."

This statement broke Ma Huateng's defense. He called Qin Shaoyan and asked, "Boss Qin, are you going too far with Sentinel Technology?"

Qin Shaoyan asked in surprise: "What did Sentinel Technology do? Is it too much to issue a statement?"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Ma Huateng was very angry. "Your Weibo is full of articles slandering Penguin. Did you instigate this?"

"Boss Ma, you need to provide evidence when you speak!" Qin Shaoyan sternly retorted, "Weibo is a public social platform. Netizens have the right to express whatever they want. What do you mean we instructed you to do that? This is slander and defamation."

Ma Huateng was speechless for a moment. He knew he had said something wrong. "Freedom of speech cannot be nonsense. They are completely smearing us penguins. If you do nothing about it, you are condoning and shielding them."

"Qin Shaoyan, do you dare to say that this wave of public opinion was not mixed with you?"

Qin Shaoyan sighed, "Boss Ma, this public opinion storm really has nothing to do with Sentinel Technology. As far as I know, there are more than three or four peers behind this."

Ma Huateng was startled and asked subconsciously: "Who else is involved?"

"Well, I can't say that. How can I say something without evidence?" Qin Shaoyan was a little embarrassed. "I can only say that there are search engines, portal websites, and some others."

Ma Huateng fell silent when he heard this.

Qin Shaoyan did not lie. Although this wave of public opinion was started by the marketing account he maintained, he could no longer control it later.

Others who dislike Penguin will naturally not miss this opportunity. They have invested a lot of money to hire gunmen and water armies to participate in the public opinion attack.

The magnitude of this wave of public opinion and the intensity of the criticism were beyond the expectations of Ma Hua and Teng.

Moreover, as time goes by, public opinion has not shown any signs of fading, and more and more netizens have spontaneously joined in.

But what finally triggered public opinion was that many people pointed out that users were prompted that "a certain chat software" was snooping into users' personal privacy files and data without their permission, in order to ensure that users would not upload photos beautified by beauty tools to their space albums.

At the same time, the official website address of the beauty tool is prohibited on the chat software, and related keywords are blocked.

Several internet celebrities also began to reveal that the "Beauty Show" developed by Penguin plagiarized and used a large number of related patents of the "Beauty Artifact" and even copied the code.

Public opinion was in an uproar for a while, and the intensity of criticism escalated again.

After remaining silent in the storm of public opinion for a few days, Penguin issued a statement.

"A letter to our users."

"When you read this letter, we have just made a very difficult decision."

"In view of the repeated slander and unreasonable accusations from our competitors, we will stop running chat software and BeautyShow on computers with Beauty Tools installed from now on..."

(End of this chapter)