Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Xu Cheng sat in the office of Ma Huateng, CEO of the Fiyta Building, on the fourth floor, staring blankly at two documents on his desk: yesterday's "Shanghai Morning Post" and a printed copy of the tender documents from Guangdong Mobile's official website. He was exhausted and didn't know if he could continue working.

This morning, the Qingmang team made progress; they built a clone of Qingniao Reading's WAP site with a more attractive interface and a more powerful backend. The technical director confidently stated that once they obtain the mobile API documentation and prepare the content, it could be launched within a week.

Easier said than done. The Qingmang team's self-built platform plan had to proceed quietly. Once Tencent started the formal process of requesting interface documentation from China Mobile, it would be tantamount to abandoning its investment in Qingniao and announcing its entry into the market. However, this step was merely a minor inconvenience in the overall launch of Plan B. Worse was yet to come.

Content line.

Xu Cheng had the business development department find four or five authors who claimed to be able to write novels like "Bluebird" through various channels. He gathered these authors in a conference room on the third floor of the Feiyada Building, gave each of them a sample manuscript of a popular "Bluebird" novel, and asked them to write in that style.

Xu Cheng couldn't bear to read more than three of the manuscripts submitted on the first day.

One author used to write erotic novels, and the first line of his manuscript was: "Wang Dazhuang pushed open the bathroom door and saw Li Cuihua drying herself, water droplets running down her back..." Xu Cheng crumpled the manuscript into a ball and threw it in the trash after reading only the third line. This kind of manuscript wouldn't pass the mobile app's review, and even if it did, publishing it would only cause trouble for Tencent.

The second author's work was quite good, capturing almost every key element of the Qingniao novel's formula. Just as Xu Cheng was about to report to his superiors and commend the author, someone suddenly rushed over to report something. It turned out that the novel was a direct copy of Qingniao's "Borrowing Seeds." The author had changed "village party secretary" to "town mayor" and "widow" to "left-behind women." Xu Cheng's high spirits vanished instantly, and he ordered his subordinates to blacklist the author.

The last author was a freelance writer who had published a few decent short stories in magazines. Judging from his appearance, he seemed unassuming and reliable, and Xu Cheng had high hopes for him. However, his work was just as unassuming as he was—fluent in writing and well-structured, but utterly unappealing.

Xu Cheng asked the author if a manuscript like that could make readers want to reply "Y" halfway through. The author simply shook his head. Xu Cheng then asked if he knew what to do next.

The author thought for a long time before saying, "I don't know. When I read Qingniao's novels, I felt there weren't any special techniques involved, it's just... it's just that kind of energy that I can't pull off."

Xu Cheng sighed, recalling a quote from Han Fei: "Creation is not an assembly line; if the soil is not right, the seed will not sprout." He had initially thought Han Fei was being deliberately mysterious, but now he had to admit it was the truth, utterly insightful.

Around 11 a.m., someone reported to Xu Cheng that Guangdong Mobile had released a tender notice for content-based service providers (SPs), and then he was summoned to this office.

"What do you think?" Ma Huateng asked, gesturing with his chin to the tender documents on the table. "Do you think Qingniao will submit a bid?"

"It's highly likely," Xu Cheng said. "The standards set by Guangdong meet their requirements very well, and this is a good opportunity that they have no reason not to seize."

"Hmm, anything else?"

Xu Cheng nodded: "I understand, Pony." He pondered for a long time, then reached for the tender documents. "If Qingniao really submits this bid, it means that the China Mobile headquarters isn't supporting them behind the scenes. Otherwise, they wouldn't need to submit a bid for a provincial branch of China Mobile. But on the other hand, if Qingniao can get this spot, it means they've obtained official cooperation status with a provincial operator, which means we're about to acquire an officially verified team. However, it also means our investment costs will increase."

Ma Huateng nodded, looking down at the *Shanghai Morning Post* on the table: "What about this report, Xu Cheng? You tell me first, besides us, who else might be targeting Qingniao?"

"There are many," Xu Cheng said, covering his face with his hands and massaging his temples. "Among the mainstream internet companies with SP (Service Provider) businesses alone, there are NetEase, Sohu, and Xinlang... But none of these companies have had face-to-face conversations with the founder of Qingniao, or even learned about his strategies. NetEase may also be observing, but they don't have the depth of contact we've reached. We are the closest to Qingniao. So Pony, I think we should maintain this half-step distance and not let others level us off. This report is both a good thing, because it's equivalent to a third-party public certification of the Qingniao model and its market influence, proving that we weren't wrong. But it's also a warning sign, telling us that time may be shorter than we thought."

Ma Huateng popped a cigarette into his mouth and took out a lighter: "Well, regarding those companies you mentioned, NetEase's core business is games. 'Westward Journey 2' is their cash cow, and Ding Lei just downgraded their wireless business, betting everything on the game sector. They probably won't invest too many resources in the content-based SP (Service Provider) sector at this time. As for Sohu, Zhang Chaoyang is currently preoccupied with the 2008 Olympics. They just won the contract to build the official website of the Olympics in 2003, and this year they're vying for sponsorship. Do you know what that means?"

Xu Cheng nodded: "It means that their human resources, financial resources, and strategic focus for the next four years will all be tilted towards the Olympic projects. The Olympics are a national project; if done well, it will bring political correctness and commercial returns, but if done poorly, it will be utterly disastrous. Therefore, Zhang Chaoyang is unlikely to divert resources to pursue a SP novel project at this time."

"That's right." Ma Huateng lit his lighter with a click. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, and the smoke curled upwards.

"But Pony, what about Sina?" Xu Cheng said. "What they lack most right now is user stickiness. Portal website traffic is transient; users read the news and leave. They've been looking for something to keep users engaged—forums, blogs, and email—they've tried them all, but none of them are enough. If Sina notices Qingniao's data, wouldn't they think that continuous content like novels naturally brings users back? Wouldn't that be an opportunity for them to fill their gaps?"