What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 388 Change
"It's still so much easier to make money on the internet!"

"Look at Mr. Ding and Mr. Zhang, they're so generous with their money and act with such a magnanimous attitude. And then look at those investors, tsk tsk, they're so calculating, as if they're afraid I'll run off with their money!"

"I should have begged for alms from those people on the internet a long time ago!"

Before the meeting at Carbon Silicon Data Company, Yu Xing chatted casually and mentioned the financing progress of the company next door, which made him quite emotional.

Upon hearing this, Lü Haiying couldn't help but laugh and said, "Hey, senior brother, President Ding and President Zhang were only willing to invest because they saw the current state of the Silicon Carbon Group. You can't just say the steamed buns you ate before were useless now that you've had your fill."

She added, "I think Sister Ying is a very good investor."

Yu Xing opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Saying that Xiaoying is different seems to damage her professionalism, but saying that she is the same doesn't make sense in this conference room.

He could only say somewhat reluctantly, "I was just saying, but this financing idea can indeed be expanded. Those in the internet industry, or wealthy people with spare cash, can all be approached. It's much easier that way."

Upon hearing this, Zhai Yifei laughed and said, "President Yu, the way you're talking makes it sound like you're trying to extort them."

"Really? Both President Zhang and President Ding were impressed by the planning of Silicon Carbon Group." Yu Xing watched as the people in the conference room gradually took their seats, and his evaluation became more objective. "However, to be fair, IDG and Capital Today were quite generous in funding Silicon Carbon Data this time."

Lu Haiying brought the logic back together and smiled slightly: "Isn't it precisely because money is easy to make in the internet industry that it's also easy to invest money?"

Yu Xing nodded, and the topic returned to the meeting: "Carbon Silicon Data Company is still far from making money. We need to solve the problems at hand first. The three major portals are not providing content, and traditional media are also going to sue."

The atmosphere in the meeting room became heavy. The situation that Carbon Silicon Data Company had been facing for the past two weeks had made the company very tense, with one piece of news after another, almost all of which were negative feedback.

CEO Zhong Zhiling was absent; he flew to Beijing on behalf of the company to discuss cooperation and promotion with telecom operators.

As a vice president who recently joined the company, Lü Haiying observed the people at the conference table and, seeing that they did not intend to speak, spoke first: "I feel that there are three main reasons why the three major portals, including Sina Weibo and Sogou which are affected by them, reacted so quickly this time. First, there is direct competition in the news category. Second, everyone is very sensitive to the positioning of 'super app' now. Alibaba has acquired WeChat and is directly competing with Tencent. This situation is still very frightening."

Tencent's predicament is obvious to everyone in the industry, and the competition before and after WeChat needs no further explanation.

Once a new trend takes hold and becomes a hot topic, whether it continues to grow or is sold to Alibaba, Baidu, or even Tencent, the entire market is likely to be lost.

This vigilance can hardly be said to be a "bad consequence" of Yu Xing's previous actions.

Seeing that everyone was listening attentively, Lü Haiying smiled and said, "As for the third point, there's not much to say about Senior Brother's reputation management. This point might be a bit subtle, and people may not necessarily want to see this reputation continue."

Ignoring the slight laughter in the conference room, Yu Xing gestured for Lü Haiying to continue.

"The content litigation involving traditional media is not uncontrollable. We still try our best to reach a settlement and use money to pave the way for content licensing. Traditional media and portal websites have different positions, and they are negotiable. There is no need to go through all the procedures. We can also use our connections in Lingang." Lü Haiying said frankly, "However, with the portal websites cutting off the supply, we are now both passive and need to take the initiative to build our content team. There is no reason why Sina and others can do news, but we can't find people to do it."

She then connected the topic to the business she was in charge of: "In addition, the necessity of building such a content team also helps to increase our user activity. The company's initial goal this year was 1000 million daily active users, but now it seems that it may be difficult to achieve."

Upon hearing this, Zhai Yifei hesitated for a moment before saying, "Regarding the daily active users (DAU) issue, our algorithm technology is not mature enough. We expect to see significant improvements by the end of the year, and the company has also poached quite a few people from Baidu next quarter." He briefly introduced the efforts of the technical team.

After listening quietly, Lü Haiying said, "I brought up the issue of daily active users today not to talk about responsibility, but because I believe that resources in this area need to be increased. The issue of daily active users is comprehensive. The increase in total users that President Zhong is currently working on will naturally drive the growth of daily active users. Secondly, the personalized algorithm recommendation that President Zhai is working on is quite advanced compared to similar news software, and it also conforms to the logic of fragmented reading in the mobile Internet."

"Furthermore, the user-generated content model similar to Sina Weibo is worth learning, as it can help solve the problem of content scarcity when we build our own team."

"Finally, I think we need to develop a more refined strategy for daily active users. Let's take our predecessors and competitors as examples, such as Sina. Many years ago, its portal website had local stations, like Sina's Shanghai website. Visitors in Shanghai are naturally more concerned about the news and information of their local area."

"However, due to technical issues, Sina's segmentation method works fine on PCs, but it's quite crude in the mobile internet era. I think that since Mr. Zhai's personalization system is targeted at specific users, it should also be able to optimize information push for specific regions."

"I have repeatedly reviewed the mobile apps of Sohu, Sina, NetEase, and Tencent. I think their adjustments are relatively slow, but the mobile internet should provide faster adjustments."

Lü Haiying summarized the theme of her advice as follows: "In general, in the mobile internet era, how to quickly reach users will be the key to gaining a competitive advantage."

This was the first time she had systematically discussed strategies for solving the daily active user problem in a formal setting since joining Carbon Silicon Data. Her eloquent explanation truly caught the attention of the executives in the meeting room.

Regarding Lü Haiying, although she hasn't been here long, she has received extra respect from both the boss and Zhong Zhiling, and her speech today is a testament to her abilities.

Yu Xing grunted in agreement and gave a brief summary: "Daily active users are of paramount importance. If daily active users cannot be increased, this project will stagnate. The pre-installed market can bring new users, the algorithm system provides personalized recommendations to specific users, the content ecosystem can ensure a continuous output supply, and the strategy of rapid adjustment is an inevitable requirement put forward by the mobile Internet."

His summary immediately brought to mind traditional portals like Sina, which Lü Haiying had cited as an example. They had taken action on both user-generated content and regional information strategies, but the characteristics of the mobile internet provided the foundation for further development and expansion of these initiatives.

This leads to another crucial question—revenue.

Yu Xing raised his cup to drink tea, and after putting it down, he suddenly said, "Sina, Sohu, and NetEase, these three portal giants, have used an entire era to prove that relying solely on advertising for revenue is not advisable. They have developed many games to boost revenue. Therefore, since the establishment of Carbon Silicon Data Company, the industry has not been optimistic about projects with information aggregation attributes."

"But I was just thinking, are things that couldn't be done in the PC era still applicable to the mobile internet?"

“You see, they traditionally can only rely on brand display ads such as banners and pop-ups, but the information flow we want to create can bring a different development in terms of both display and precision.”

"This revenue stream, which relies on technology-driven advertising, might still cover our costs, right?"

He looked at Zhai Yifei, who seemed to be deep in thought, and smiled, "Mr. Zhai, the restructuring of the business model through technology is very likely achievable, and it's worth trying. Your technical team still needs to strengthen its capabilities."

After listening to her senior's innovative ideas and digesting them, Lü Haiying seriously proposed a different positioning: "If this works, Sina and others used to be content producers, and what we need to do is traffic operators."

The change in the meeting room agenda mirrored the shift in Carbon Silicon Data's self-positioning and thinking.

While external forces are launching a crackdown on silicon carbon data, silicon carbon data is undergoing a new round of transformation based on the characteristics of the mobile internet.

(End of this chapter)