What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 405 Buying a coffin and returning a pearl
Tencent has still launched "Weishi".

Yu Xing knew that Tencent had been making short videos for a long time, but he didn't know the specific details. Based on the current situation, he estimated that the timing of this move was roughly the same.

After all, there's the logic of industry development, as well as the explosive popularity of foreign products.

Besides Tencent's Weishi, short video platforms like Kuaishou were also established very early. Similar products from the same period include Miaopai, which is backed by Weibo, and Meipai, which pursues differentiated competition. On the contrary, Douyin was launched quite late.

Yu Xing took some time to try out Weishi and found that it currently only has an iOS version, and it has made a small innovation to Vine, which is 6 seconds long, while Weishi is 8 seconds long.

In addition, Weishi can be shared across multiple platforms under Tencent and supports one-click login with QQ and WeChat accounts.

Yu Xing played around with the new app for two days and found that it was really flawless. Whether it was the consideration of social sharing or the categorization of videos such as popular, creative, and even celebrity videos on the product page, everything was very well done.

In terms of content, there is both user-generated content and promotion by celebrity influence, similar to Weibo, which seems to be different from Vine.

Yu Xing pondered it over and over, feeling that Weishi was somewhat like a combination of Vine and Weibo.

Sina Weibo's explosive growth was due to the influence of celebrities, while Tencent Weibo has never been able to catch up with its competitors. Now, Weishi seems to have learned from the shortcomings of past competition and delivered a very good result.

"That's interesting. Who's in charge of developing the Tencent Video app?"

At a conference held by Silicon Carbon Data Company, Yu Xing talked about Weishi's replication of Vine, shared his experience using it over the past few days, and then asked some interesting questions.

Zhong Zhiling and Lü Haiying did not ignore the latest industry trends and immediately recommended Weishi internally. Therefore, the attendees had similar usage time and basic understanding.

"I just asked yesterday, and Weishi has formed a product department. The general manager of the product department is Xing Hongyu, and the operations director is He Shan," said Ge Zhijie, the technical director, giving a clear answer.

“Xing Hongyu, He Shan.” Yu Xing repeated the two names twice, praising, “I really think their product is more mature than I imagined. I originally thought it would be very rough.”

Someone dismissively remarked, "President Yu, they've brought Vine over, so it must be mature now."

Yu Xing laughed and said, "What I mean is the overall feeling. The product is good, the resources are good, and even Pony personally recorded a video. You can see that they are quite determined."

On his first day of using Weishi, he came across Pony's short video, which was also Weishi's first video. The content was about Tencent's headquarters building in Shenzhen. In just a few days, Pony's personal account already had more than 100,000 followers.

Of course, this isn't the first time Pony has posted content on a key product. He once had high hopes for Tencent Weibo, and when it was fiercely competing with Sina Weibo, he became a Weibo influencer, not only advertising the product but also recording a lot of his personal life and company matters.

Pony posted hundreds of Weibo posts over the years, but with the defeat of Tencent Weibo, he has recently become almost silent.

Yu Xing also left a message on Pony's short video using his own account, but it's estimated that Pony wouldn't notice such an ordinary "Hello Pony" among the many comments.

What do you think of Tencent's move to launch Weishi?

Yu Xing posed questions to the executives.

“Multiple channels are being launched. Xing Hongyu, who is in charge of Weishi this time, is also very experienced,” Zhai Yifei said seriously. “He graduated from Tsinghua University and worked on the development of search products when he first joined Tencent. He is very knowledgeable about technology. He was the head of the Weibo business unit in the competition with Sina Weibo before. He has a lot of experience in leading product teams.”

Zhong Zhiling laughed and said, "Tencent's search and microblog businesses don't seem to be doing very well. How come he came from those two teams?"

“They have the technology, the leadership skills, and the experience to compete with other companies,” Zhai Yifei said. “This time, Weishi used the massive traffic resources of Weichat and QQ. It doesn’t seem like they’re adding layers of resources at once. It feels like they want to launch this new product all at once.”

Upon hearing this, Lü Haiying thoughtfully remarked, "Pony publishes content, provides traffic resources for referral, and the team has extensive experience. They've replicated Vine's approach. I feel this is very much like Tencent."

Yu Xing's eyes lit up: "It really is very Penguin-like. In recent years, Penguin seems to have a fixed approach to product development. Relying on strong channels, it has increased the number of features on a large scale. The product methodology has iterated quite quickly, but upon closer inspection, it is still lacking."

He gathered his thoughts and looked ahead at Tencent's products, using Tencent Weibo as an example: "Before the competition between WeChat and Wechat, the competition between Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo was very typical. At that time, it had not yet been troubled by strategic setbacks, but the Weibo business still failed."

"Traffic redirection is a tried-and-tested product success strategy for Tencent over the years. Tencent Weibo has also used this traffic redirection method to achieve rapid user growth, but don't you think this kind of growth is not very effective?"

"Penguin Weibo can communicate with QQ's personal signature. If the personal signature is updated, Penguin Weibo will also have an update. QQ users are using two products at the same time without any impact on them. But although Penguin Weibo increases data, what are the actual operational benefits?"

"QQ Space, QQ Signature, and Tencent Weibo are interconnected, so many users see the same content repeatedly. On the other hand, Sina Weibo provides fresh content."

"Tencent's product operation method of directing traffic to resources doesn't seem to work well on content-based platforms."

Yu Xing has been trying out Weishi these past few days and has been thinking about Tencent's product development approach. This comparison has made his thinking even more agile.

"Huh? Senior, if that's the case, Tencent's product operations seem to suffer from some big-company problems." Lü Haiying echoed this sentiment with a smile.

Before Weibo failed, Tencent had created many successful products, otherwise it wouldn't have accumulated so much bad reputation. However, that product approach ran into trouble after Weibo, and now Weishi seems to be using the same old approach.

Yu Xing frowned: "Yes, I need to tell Pony."

Everyone in the conference room simultaneously had the same question in their minds: ?

Seeing the obvious expressions on some faces, Yu Xing smiled and said, "I don't hold grudges. This doesn't seem like it will work. Short videos might not be able to make it work. Let's see what they end up with."

Short videos are an emerging trend in the industry, both domestically and internationally.

Vine has been online for less than half a year, and Weishi has followed up very quickly. Both sides need to see how things develop.

Yu Xing did not mention any plans for silicon carbon data in this regard, but simply shared industry trends and thoughts with everyone.

However, immediately after the meeting, Lü Haiying contacted her senior colleague: "Senior, don't actually talk to Mr. Ma about this. If Tencent really makes it big, it still has a lot of traffic and might just take the cake."

"Xiaoying, what do you think of the priority of Wechat and Weishi within Tencent?" Yu Xing asked.

Lü Haiying answered without hesitation, "WeChat is definitely better."

“That’s good. There’s also Alibaba’s WeChat outside, which creates such a constraint. As long as WeChat aggregates short video content into Moments, Tencent won’t be able to do a good job with Weishi,” Yu Xing said.

Lu Haiying was taken aback, her mind quickly flashing through the competition between the two giants and the two software companies following in each other's footsteps.

If Alibaba develops WeChat, it's equivalent to Tencent developing WeChat. But if WeChat, which has a higher priority, is developed, where will the newly launched Weishi be placed within the group?
Such a treacherous entry point...

Is this kind of bad water just overflowing?
Lü Haiying's mind was quick; she didn't dwell on the Penguin issue, but quickly connected it to her own company, asking, "Senior, do you think it's worthwhile for us to do this?" "Let's wait and see," Yu Xing said. "First, everyone isn't familiar enough with this product format. Second, the speed and cost of traffic acquisition aren't quite mature yet. I think we can wait." "Third, as mentioned at the meeting, Penguin's product approach is somewhat inadequate for a content platform, but our algorithm mechanism also needs some refinement."

Taking all these factors into account, he believes that silicon carbon data should not rush to seize the short video market.

Yu Xing had talked about the rapid development of the mobile internet a long time ago. Today, considering Tencent's setbacks in its business, the simple traffic + function model seems insufficient to incubate a phenomenal product.

Silicon carbon data can be used to further refine algorithmic techniques, and the latest hot topics are perfect for this kind of refinement.

Since Zhai Yifei and others learned their lesson, there has been significant progress in this area this year.

Lü Haiying digested what her senior brother had said.

"Oh right, I think the team that Tencent has put together for Weishi is really good. Let's see if there's a chance to bring them here to realize their product dream." Yu Xing mentioned his admiration again.

"Alright, senior brother, I think no matter how good Weishi is, your treacherous scheme of using one tiger to devour another has made it very difficult to succeed," Lu Haiying said with a sigh.

Yu Xing smiled and said, "This is not driving a tiger to devour a wolf, it's called buying the casket and returning the pearl."

Buying the casket and returning the pearl—a new version of the story.

Yu Xing kept his word; he said he would remind Pony, and he really did.

The executives at Carbon Silicon Data Company thought their boss was joking, but they soon saw the news. Following the Spring Festival special, Mr. Yu appeared on "Only You" again, this time discussing a topic that has been widely discussed in the industry over the past two years.

—Who will ultimately win between Alibaba's WeChat and Tencent's WeChat?
Yu Xing shared his observations on the stage of "Only You".

"These two companies are so close. I had a hard time deciding who would win. At one point, I thought this situation of dividing user groups would continue like this."

"But based on my recent observations, I think Alibaba's WeChat has a better chance of winning."

"This is definitely not because I founded WeChat, that's a thing of the past. I just feel that Tencent itself may be gradually losing confidence. Now it has turned to making a short video platform called Weishi, and it has given a lot of resources. I haven't calculated it in detail, but it feels a bit like the scale of its full-fledged efforts to make Weichat."

"With the competition reaching this point, one side is brimming with momentum while the other is numb and cowardly. I can only be optimistic about the former."

When Yu Xing brought up this topic, he naturally talked about "Weishi" and then used this opportunity to discuss Tencent's corporate problems in product operation.

He basically repeated what he had said in a company meeting on camera.

"Social fission, celebrity effect, channel traffic, Tencent has put together a very well-organized set of promotions on Weishi."

"This set of methods isn't useless, but I don't think it's very effective."

“I really think this is something Pony should think about.”

Yu Xing publicly addressed Pony on the show.

Moreover, after the show aired, his registered Weishi account posted this segment of the show in several videos, tagged with "trying something new," "operation," and "thinking."

Weishi's promotion utilizes celebrity influence.

Is Yu Xing considered a celebrity?

Of course it counts.

Should we give him streaming access or not?
The Weishi product department had a brief discussion about this issue at the meeting. After a temporary cooling-off period, it was learned that the head of the company, Pony Ma, had presented Yu Xing's criticism to the general office and discussed whether this observation was accurate.

As the person in charge of emerging products, Xing Hongyu also participated in the discussion, but he did not expect the discussion to be so intense. Everyone first criticized Yu Xing for half the discussion, then criticized WeChat for half the discussion, and finally criticized Tencent for half the discussion.

Do they suffer from the problems associated with large corporations?
Have.

Has it reached the level Yu Xing described?

Hard to say.

So, can the old product operation model still make Weishi successful?
Xing Hongyu encountered this problem.

He found it difficult to answer, so he changed his approach and asked the bigwigs present, "The question is, if we don't do it this way, then what should we do?"

If past successes are not enough to rely on, how should we deal with new industry trends?

This rhetorical question silenced everyone.

"Let's do it first. At least it will be effective. We can't let what Mr. Yu said throw us into disarray. That would be a laughing stock," Liu Chiping said, offering a compromise.

"I found it quite laughable that they invested in Yu Xing's car manufacturing project before," Xu Chenye said sarcastically.

Liu Chiping disagreed: "To be honest, from a purely investment perspective, that investment was not bad. Yu Xing didn't ask for much valuation, IDG acted as guarantor, and the company invested in the Series A round. Given the current situation, it's not bad."

Xu Chenye pressed further: "Is that about investment? President Yu was right about one thing: some people are hesitant to take the plunge."

Seeing that the two bigwigs were about to start arguing, the meeting was called off.

Xing Hongyu was originally going to go back and think about the product, but he was caught up by President Liu Chiping after only a few steps.

"President Xing, how should we approach Weishi? Well..." Liu Chiping didn't give instructions in the meeting, but instead discussed it privately, "Let's see how Vine does it."

Xing Hongyu: "..."

Putting aside Mr. Yu's mouth, his judgment is truly exceptional!

(End of this chapter)