Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Xu Cheng was utterly exhausted, even his soul was weary. It was nearly midnight. He was in a conference room on the fourth floor of the Tencent headquarters in the Feiyada Building, Futian District, Shenzhen. Everything here was gleaming white, including the marble floor, the ceiling with spotlights, the framed portraits of Tencent executives hanging on the walls, the ten-square-meter wooden conference table, and the leather ink-absorbing mats in front of the ten men sitting around it.

Early yesterday morning, a phone call jolted Xu Cheng awake from his bed in a Shanghai hotel. The call was from headquarters, ordering him to return immediately. The people in the conference room included the company's three founders, four key personnel from the strategy and business departments, and a professional support team comprised of the technical director and financial analysts.

A spokesperson from the Strategic Development Department reported to everyone the reason for convening this "Founding Partner Special Decision-Making Meeting": Qingniao Reading.

Previously, the strategy department conducted an assessment by reverse engineering competitor data, and it was estimated that the conversion rate of the Qingniao Reading project was likely to be over 10%. Therefore, Xu Cheng was immediately dispatched to Shanghai for on-site investigation.

However, just yesterday, the company's business development specialist received intelligence that at the mobile headquarters' quarterly strategy conference two days prior, Zhang Qiming of the Shanghai branch of China Mobile had announced Qingniao Reading's first-day conversion rate—a figure that exceeded everyone's expectations. Furthermore, the strategy department speculated that China Mobile headquarters might give Qingniao preferential policies, even allowing it to expand into more provinces. If this were true, it would mean that Qingniao was about to enter a phase of explosive growth and could rapidly expand.

After the spokesperson for the Strategic Development Department finished his report, the silence in the conference room was as thick as the smoke from a cigar.

Cigar smoke rose slowly at the far end of the conference table, where Tencent CEO and founder Ma Huateng sat, leaning back in his chair, his face hidden in shadow. Ma Huateng remained silent, only letting out a soft sigh. Xu Cheng noticed that everyone was looking at Ma Huateng.

"Xu Cheng," Ma Huateng said, his voice surprisingly high and rather effeminate, "you've met Han Fei face-to-face. Putting aside the data, what's your impression of him? Is he the kind of nouveau riche who stumbled upon an idea by chance, or is he someone capable of turning this into a formidable force?"

"Pony, I have a very unusual feeling about this person," Xu Cheng said. "When I tentatively proposed cooperation, he did not show any fear or greed that a small company would have when facing a giant. He was very vigilant. I used the analogy of a supply depot to describe him, and he politely declined by saying that he would just have to take a short break. This shows that he is very familiar with our usual tactics, or rather, he had already anticipated our possible moves."

The CTO cleared his throat: "Pony, do you have any suggestions?"

"Not yet," Ma Huateng said, "but I think you must have some ideas, so tell me."

"Technically, we could launch a WAP site and SP interface within a week by replicating the same technology. The real bottleneck isn't technology, but content. Judging from the fact that Youth Reading can consistently push different novels every day, its content production capacity has already reached a certain scale. If we were to train authors from scratch, our initial estimate would be at least three to six months."

"Can't we just poach their authors?" a spokesperson for the business department said. "Even if we don't know who the authors are, as long as we find their pen names in their posts, we can use those pen names to find them. Someone will always know who they are."

A spokesperson for the strategy department responded: "Finding the person will take time, and even if we do, we don't know if they have signed an exclusive agreement with Qingniao. We can only gamble."

"Then let's just go for it! We have QQ, and we can push our own novels in the chat window, reaching millions of users a day. They achieved a 13.7% conversion rate. Even if we can't beat them in terms of content, our large user base means that even with only a 5% conversion rate, we can still crush them!"

A spokesperson for the strategy department shook his head: "Everyone, QQ pop-ups are our most core asset, and also what we need to protect the most. If we frequently use pop-ups for commercial promotion, we will lose users. Moreover, if our content crosses the line and we are held accountable by regulatory authorities, it won't just affect this business, but the entire QQ platform."

The business department spokesperson straightened his collar, and Xu Cheng could tell he was very uneasy.

"Let's look at it from a different angle," Ma Huateng said. "Is this direction a strategic track that we absolutely must pursue?"

Silence fell over the meeting room again. Ma Huateng lit his extinguished cigar. The lighter clicked, then clicked again, and a sucking sound came from the shadows as smoke rose again.

"Qingniao has proven that on the small screen of a mobile phone," Ma Huateng said in a slightly raised voice, "users are willing to pay for content with continuity and strong emotional conflict. This is different from what we currently do with QQ Show and QQ Membership; this is pure content consumption. It's also different from our paid reading website on PC, Qidian.com. In the future, mobile phones will not only be communication tools but may also become entertainment terminals. If users get used to reading novels on their phones, then this market will grow larger and larger. If we don't do it now, and others occupy the authors' resources and readers' minds, then it will be much more costly for us to enter. So my judgment is that this direction is worth investing in."

As Ma Huateng exhaled the smoke from his cigar, everyone in the conference room held their breath.

"Based on the information we have now," Ma Huateng continued, "we know their model is feasible, we know their data is very strong, and the mobile headquarters is very likely supporting them, so we can only make a steady, step-by-step plan."

Zhang Zhipeng, the company's CTO and one of the founders, looked at Ma Huateng and said, "Pony, you speak."

Ma Huateng nodded: "The first step is for the Strategy Department to lead a special task force to secretly track the progress of Qingniao's projects, try to contact Qingniao's authors, and find out the depth of Qingniao's cooperation with the Mobile headquarters."

"The second step is for Xu Cheng to return to Shanghai tomorrow and be responsible for negotiating with Qingniao. The legal department will provide you with a range for the valuation after the meeting. If he is wary, we can talk about business cooperation instead of investment, such as using our channels to help him promote his products, so that he can get a taste of success first. Once he relies on our traffic, it will be natural to talk about investment."

"At the same time, we need to start preparing our own platform. The technology department will begin building a platform framework similar to Qingniao Reading, and the business department will begin looking for authors who can write this type of novel. We shouldn't make a big fuss at first; we can quietly and slowly build up our technology and content reserves. If Qingniao resolutely refuses investment, then we will fully invest in the development of our self-built platform and send signals to Qingniao's contracted authors through various channels to put pressure on Qingniao and create uncertainty for them."