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Chapter 307 0304 [The Rapidly Developing HaiNei.com]

Li Yanhong has not registered any social media accounts; he made these remarks during a media interview.

And he took the initiative to contact the media!

Last year, the verbal dispute between Chen Guiliang and Li Yanhong became known throughout the country. Now, Li Yanhong has suddenly revived the old story, and everyone's attention has turned to Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang and his secretary's work phones were bombarded with calls from reporters, and their work emails were flooded with related messages daily. Many reporters from various newspapers wanted to interview Chen Guiliang, hoping he could respond to the matter.

Many netizens have also come to inquire about Chen Guiliang's personal accounts on Renren and HaiNei.

Chen Guiliang declined all interviews, only responding on his personal account:
"Baidu Tieba, Baidu Zhidao, Baidu Baike, Baidu Space, Baidu Collections, Baidu Video... Baidu has so many Web 2.0 products. If Web 2.0 really becomes a bubble, would Mr. Li be so happy? Or is he hoping all his competitors will die out so he can have a monopoly?"

“I also watched O’Reilly’s speech video. When he speaks in public, he is just as abstract as Mr. Li. He thinks he is very humorous and tries to make turns in his speech. He doesn’t say things properly and insists on taking long pauses. As a result, the reporters took his words out of context and only reported half of his speech.”

"Web 2.0 did indeed see overheated investment last year, just like real estate investment the year before and heavy chemical investment last year. Because it was profitable, capital naturally flocked in. You can't say that because of overheated investment, China's real estate and heavy chemical industries experienced a bubble..."

"Overheated investment in real estate and heavy industry has prompted government intervention to regulate the market. However, overheated investment in Web 2.0 can only be regulated by the market itself. Therefore, it's natural for a number of uncompetitive companies to fail, while those that survive will be seasoned veterans... Which sector isn't like this? A thousand sails pass by the sunken ship, and ten thousand trees bloom before the withered tree!"

"What O'Reilly, that jerk, really meant was: Web 2.0 will give birth to great products, and the story of Web 2.0 has only just begun."

Reporters and netizens were shocked to realize that Baidu has the most Web 2.0 products of any internet company in China.

It can be said that Baidu is the largest Web 2.0 related company in China.

none of them!

So why is Robin Li jumping out again to predict the demise of Web 2.0? Is it just to prove that he had unique insight and successfully predicted a bubble?
Or is it, as Chen Guiliang said, that Baidu hopes all its competitors will die out so that it can dominate the field?
When reporters tried to contact him again for an interview, Li Yanhong disappeared once more.

No response, no statement.

what happened?
It's quite simple: Baidu's executives and product managers have all begged Robin Li to stop talking nonsense.

Baidu's Web 2.0 products, while not needing to attract venture capital, are still related to its stock price.

Currently, skepticism and pessimism about Web 2.0 have become mainstream in the US media. Baidu has a plethora of related products; if Robin Li's remarks were to reach the US, Baidu's stock price would undoubtedly plummet.

Why are you, the boss of a listed company, arguing with Chen Guiliang, who didn't even graduate from university?

Although Robin Li remained silent, his remarks drew attention from Chinese media to this year's Web 2.0 Expo.

Originally, Chinese media outlets were following suit and predicting the downfall of Web 2.0, expecting it to emerge on a large scale only in July. However, Robin Li's remarks brought that timeline forward by more than three months.

IT and finance-related newspapers and portal websites flocked to report on what was happening in the United States. Other media outlets compiled lists of Chinese Web 2.0 websites that had failed in the past two years, analyzing the fatal flaws of the Web 2.0 model.

Then, without Li Yanhong saying anything more, the overall public opinion completely shifted to pessimism.

Venture capitalists have also become more cautious.

Last year, it was easy to get investment, but this year, even praying to gods and Buddhas won't get me any funds.

Last year, two to three hundred video websites emerged in China, but more than one hundred of them went bankrupt in April this year due to insufficient funds.

Countless Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, especially those who couldn't get venture capital, wished they could strangle Robin Li with their own hands!

"Venture capitalists haven't completely lost confidence; 51.com just raised $1500 million in its Series B funding round." Lu Zhihui has been keeping a close eye on industry developments, and he'll be flying to the US next month to contact various investors in advance.

Chen Guiliang was both amused and exasperated: "51.com is really something else!"

All of Renren's direct competitors have died out, leaving only QQ Zone as an indirect competitor.

However, HaiNei.com has many competitors, with 51.com having far more registered users than HaiNei.com!

Over the past six months, 51.com has seen more than 500 million new registered users every month. Currently, it has a total of 7200 million registered users, with over 2000 million logging in more than once a month!
HaiNei.com has also seen a rapid increase in users over the past year, with just over 10 million users in September last year, but exceeding 20 million by March this year.

After reviewing the data released by 51.com after its Series B funding round, Chen Guiliang convened a meeting with the company's senior management, feeling extremely puzzled.

"What's with 51.com having 7200 million registered users? Four months ago, the official number of Chinese internet users was only 1.37 million," Chen Guiliang said.

Xie Yang said, "As our biggest competitor, I have been keeping an eye on 51.com. Among their users, there are a large number of internet cafe users who are not officially counted."

"51.com initially attracted many users who were not very familiar with computers and the Internet by using adware from rogue browsers. This method was very effective, and we followed suit, contributing a good amount of data to the surge in domestic and international Internet users."

"51.com is still relying on the 'beauty and handsome guy' effect. For example, when they only had a few million users, 30% of them were from Chongqing. The reason is ridiculous: just one very pretty Chongqing girl used 51.com and even did video verification. Then it attracted two million Chongqing male netizens to register. It's just inexplicable."

"We have also adopted the video verification model. However, the user groups on HaiNei.com are different, and many are unwilling to undergo video verification. 51.com, on the other hand, has a very high video verification rate, emphasizing real communication. Many young men and women use this to start online relationships, and there are also many perverts who use it to scam for sex."

"Their 7200 million registered users are largely inflated; many are people who forgot their accounts and re-registered. Why would they forget their accounts? Because many of them are internet cafe users who might only go to an internet cafe once every two weeks, as they're usually working." "Their 7200 million registered users only had a peak concurrent user count of 50. Our 2300 million registered users, on the other hand, had a peak concurrent user count of over 80. Our active user ratio far exceeds our competitors!"

Chen Guiliang said, "You only talked about the good things, but didn't mention the bad things. They have millions of paying users."

Xie Yang explained, "Most of their so-called millions of paying users are 10 yuan monthly VIP subscribers. Moreover, 51.com is playing word games. Their millions of paying users don't all recharge every month; it's an accumulated number of paying users. A user might recharge this month but not for the next six months. Otherwise, 51.com would have tens of millions in membership fee revenue every month. They would have been profitable long ago, and wouldn't they be emphasizing that in their advertising?"

"Actually, 51.com's user base overlaps more with QQ Space. It's mostly made up of middle school students and recent graduates who have their own social circles and can hang out together. Our HaiNei.com user base, on average, is several years older."

The executive in charge of advertising is named Ma Yuqin, and she was promoted purely based on her performance.

Ma Yuqin said, "Because of the different user groups, most of the advertisers on 51.com are online game and mobile phone manufacturers. In particular, games targeting internet cafe users overlap with 51.com's user group. It is very difficult for them to accept other advertisements. On the other hand, our HaiNei.com has a wide variety of advertising content."

Despite its current popularity, 51.com's user base is too homogeneous, limiting its potential for further growth.

Later, they simply switched from a social networking site to a gaming community.

The game community struggled to survive, so they switched to browser game platforms.

Ultimately, it transformed into a gaming companion platform, focusing on verified female gamers and real-person matchmaking for gaming...

Their development path is quite peculiar.

It's hard to imagine that a web game platform or a gaming companion platform initially targeted QQ Space, an online social networking community.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Will HaiNei.com have 3000 million registered users before the IPO roadshow?"

Xie Yang said, "It's a bit difficult, but not impossible. In the past year, the number of users on HaiNei.com has increased rapidly, and it is far from reaching a bottleneck. First, there is the celebrity effect; many new users come because of celebrities, especially stars. Second, there are internet celebrities and public intellectuals. A single hot online event can add hundreds of thousands of new users. Mr. Chen, your feud with Li Yanhong last year added millions of users to HaiNei.com."

The last sentence made everyone laugh.

Xie Yang didn't laugh: "In the past two weeks, the number of users on HaiNei.com has surged. Many of the new users are here to criticize Yang Lijuan. There are also some who are criticizing Andy Lau, whose HaiNei.com account has already disabled the posting function."

Everyone was silent.

Yang Lijuan is a fan of celebrities. Since 1995, she has stopped going to school, working, and making friends, and devoted herself to following Andy Lau.

In 1997, Yang Lijuan, at the age of 20, spent 9900 yuan to join a tour group to Hong Kong with her parents' support. However, she did not get to see her idol.

In 2003, the whole family sold their house in order to support their idol, and they lived in a house with a monthly rent of 400 yuan.

In 2005, the father and daughter went to Hong Kong again, but still did not meet their idol.

In 2006, the father sold a kidney to raise money to help his daughter chase after her idol.

Just half a month ago, Yang Lijuan finally met Andy Lau and even chatted and took photos with him at an event.

The next day, the father who had helped his daughter fulfill her wish finally jumped into the sea and committed suicide, leaving a suicide note in which he cursed Andy Lau.

Because Andy Lau only had a social media account on Haiwainet, Yang Lijuan also registered on Haiwainet. She left messages on Andy Lau's account every day, and because she was so active, Andy Lau replied to her online several times.

After the incident was exposed by the media, it sparked heated discussions across all sectors of society.

A large number of onlookers flocked to HaiNei.com, carefully reading Yang Lijuan's account updates and browsing her obsessive idol-chasing logs. Then, they condemned Yang Lijuan for being unfilial, claiming she drove her father to his death.

Many people also criticized Andy Lau, forcing him to apologize multiple times and eventually disable the comment function.

In just half a month, HaiNei.com gained over a million new users because of this incident.

Even some people who never use online communities have come to HaiNei.com to register accounts—just to type out and criticize Yang Lijuan or Andy Lau.

Some people even criticized HaiNei.com, saying that there are too many celebrities on the site and that it encourages the public to idolize celebrities.

Faced with public criticism, Haiwainet had to add a special reminder when recommending celebrities to users: moderate celebrity worship enriches life, but do not become addicted, as it harms both yourself and others.

As a result of this incident, HaiNei.com has become widely known in the entertainment industry.

In recent days, Orange Sky Entertainment has proactively contacted us, announcing that its artists will soon be collectively joining HaiNei.com. This includes stars such as Chen Daomin, Liu Jialing, Liang Jiahui, Rosamund Kwan, Xia Yu, Hu Jun, Tong Dawei, and Chen Wanrenmi.

Some opinion leaders have also joined the site, specifically to comment on the Yang Lijuan incident on Haiwainet.

The whole thing is incredibly absurd and has nothing to do with HaiNei.com, yet HaiNei.com has become the biggest winner.

(End of this chapter)