šMerry Christmas!!!
šThis week, I will be uploading 2 chapters per day as an early Christmas gift to you all!
---------------------
Compared to the "Hundred Group Wars" of 2011, 2006 also had its own SNS war.
In the summer of 2005, Facebook exploded in popularity in the US, and Wang Xing also founded Xiaonei.com in China.
Earlier this year, a large number of campus SNS emerged in China: Fudan's "Bao Du", Renmin University's "eDorm", Sun Yat-sen University's "Yi You", Beihang University's "looface", a Stanford PhD created "Kejiancao", Chen Yizhou created "5Q.com", and Yale MBA couple Zhang Fan created "Zhanzuo.com".
Afterwards, Xiaonei.com quickly grew its user base to one million but faced the dilemma of being unable to afford servers.
It was in this October that it sold itself to Qianxiang.
Just two years later, Xiaonei.com was renamed "Renren.com", receiving an investment of 430 million US dollars from SoftBank's Masayoshi Son.
In 2011, it successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with a market value exceeding 7 billion US dollars on its listing day, ranking fourth among Chinese internet companies, only behind BAT.
At that time, Renren.com once held half of China's social media landscape, with the other half being QQ, and was known as "China's Facebook."
Many years later, someone asked Wang Xing,
"Was selling Xiaonei.com a pity?"
Wang Xing stood still, unable to speak.
Of course, Renren.com ultimately failed to become "the Chinese version of Facebook."
There were many reasons for this, such as WeChat seizing the initiative in mobile social networking, acquaintance social networking not being a rigid demand, severe content homogenization, coupled with continuous trial and error, venturing into games, group buying, video, live streaming, and even internet finance, eventually turning Renren.com into a 'four-unlike' creature with little social functionality left.
Speaking of Renren.com, Kaixin001.com must be mentioned.
It focused on game-based social networking, was once wildly popular, and even briefly surpassed Renren.com in traffic.
However, a domain name dispute severely weakened it, and coupled with attacks from Weibo and QQ Farm, it eventually faded into obscurity.
So, 2006 was a very interesting year.
Various SNS platforms emerged, but the northern wind hadn't yet blown south, Kaixin001.com hadn't launched, and mobile internet was still early.
"So, you want to build a social SNS website similar to Xiaonei.com?"
The young programmer opposite frowned and thought for a long time after hearing Chen Pingjiang's words, then asked tentatively.
Chen Pingjiang nodded,
"You could say that, but not entirely."
Chen Pingjiang found "Focus Software" online, located on Zhujiang Road.
The entire company consisted of only six people, usually taking on web development projects.
Someone next to him asked,
"What is Xiaonei.com?"
The young programmer explained,
"Some of my classmates in BJ have started playing with this thing, uploading photos or writing blogs."
"I know about blogs, we can do that, no problem."
"Which secondary pages do you need?"
Chen Pingjiang thought for a moment, took a pen and paper, and drew from memory:
"The horizontal categories are Home, Personal Profile, Friends, Messages, Mall, Applications, in order. The left navigation bar is subdivided into Hot, Friends' Updates, Related to Me, Following, Groups, Gifts, Knowledge, Anime/Manga, Music, Food, Job Search, Topics, Game Applications. Inside the Personal Profile are Logs, Albums, Posts, Shares, Videos, Music, Message Board, Personal Column, My Image, etc."
The programmer's name was Miao Bingwei.
He watched Chen Pingjiang continuously describe on paper, initially feeling like it made sense, but the more he looked, the more something felt off.
Why did the style start to change?
Anime/Manga and Food were understandable, but what the heck was this "Mall"?
And "Games"?
Why "Job Search" again?
After thinking, Miao Bingwei reminded him with subtle words,
"Uh, Mr. Chen, is that right? I feel it's a bit strange; there's a lot more content than a typical SNS."
Chen Pingjiang nodded,
"Yes, just follow this template. We'll discuss the specific details via QQ later."
Yes, Chen Pingjiang planned to create an SNS social website, but also incorporated local life and classified information, making it essentially a hodgepodge Frankenstein.
To put it more vividly, it was a combination of Xiaonei.com + QQ Zone + e-commerce + Zhihu + Weibo + 58.com + Tianya.
Seeing Chen Pingjiang so resolute, Miao Bingwei simply shut up.
If the client made a request, then they would do as the 'dad' said.
After discussing the SNS social website, Chen Pingjiang brought up a new request:
"Also, help me create a POS system for restaurants."
Miao Bingwei nodded,
"That's easy to do. We've made similar systems for other clients before. We just need to modify it according to your requirements."
Miao Bingwei verbally agreed with Chen Pingjiang, but his mind kept dwelling on the SNS social website.
He always felt that what Chen Pingjiang was doing was interesting; to be precise, it looked like social networking, but it was actually a deceptive facade.
Chen Pingjiang had his reasons for doing this.
Xiaonei.com was about to be acquired this month, possessing a first-mover advantage and capital.
He had to create differentiated content for his product to increase user stickiness and cultivate user habits, so as not to be crushed when the big wave came.
Xiaonei.com adopted a real-name system and focused on the university student demographic.
Chen Pingjiang did not intend to do that.
While targeting university students, the white-collar demographic could not be neglected.
Seizing the opportunity while Xiaonei.com was confined to university students, rapidly conquering the white-collar market was the path to survival.
First, incubate within the university campuses of Dongjiang City, then radiate to the white-collar corporate demographic in Dongjiang, creating high-quality and vertical content to increase user stickiness and form user habits.
Recruitment and the mall were naturally means of monetization.
Xiaonei.com having to sell itself because it lacked the money to continue renting servers was the best example.
Ultimately, a product must have self-sustaining monetization channels; otherwise, it will gradually become a meal for capital, and may also lack good market prospects.
It wasn't that Chen Pingjiang hadn't considered going all-in at once, seizing Kaixin001.com's fortune, and directly launching "Steal Vegetables" and "Grab Parking Spaces".
However, while doing so might bring temporary glory, it would lead to a quicker demise once that glory faded.
Firstly, once the "Grab Parking Spaces" and "Steal Vegetables" games went online, they would inevitably bring a large number of visitors.
Explosive traffic growth would require a large number of servers, and all of this would demand real money.
Secondly, without a moat, once QQ Farm followed suit, he would have no ability to resist.
Finally, although these types of games brought traffic, they also needed to retain it.
Social games, unlike traditional games that can constantly update content versions, have a very short lifecycle.
When customers get tired of "Grab Parking Spaces" and "Steal Vegetables," to keep users, the website still needs to have enough content to attract them.
This is how Kaixin001.com withered away, and of course, this wasn't the only reason.
Therefore, Chen Pingjiang needed to first hone his internal skills, create content, and solidify the foundation before using social games to drive traffic.
This was the correct path.
It's not advisable to take too big a step, as it's easy to overextend.
It's better to lie low and develop slowly first.
As for worrying about too much content, in the initial stage, focus on adding.
Once developed, subtract, and then split into independent entities as needed.
(End of this chapter)
---------------------
Support me on P@treon
[email protected]/charaz
$3 -> 15 chapters in advance
$5 -> 30 chapters in advance
$10 -> 60 chapters in advance
Check my pinned post on P@treon