Chairman Meitu Xiuxiu tells you the best business model

"Entrepreneurship" is when an entrepreneur creates a new enterprise based on his or her own ideas and hard work, including the establishment of a new company , the establishment of new units in the organization, and the provision of new products or services to realize the entrepreneur's ideals. Entrepreneurship itself is a process of making something out of nothing. As long as entrepreneurs have the mentality of seeking innovation, change, and development, and create profits for new enterprises by creating new value, then we can say that this process is full of entrepreneurial spirit. , Chairman Meitu Xiuxiu tells you the best business model below, welcome to read.

1. No matter what the product is, it must follow three principles: there is demand, there are advantages, and there are benefits.

First of all, whether we are starting a business or investing, the most important thing is to choose a direction, that is, the positioning of the product. A product must meet three important principles: demand, advantages, and benefits.

1. There is demand

There is demand, which is actually the pain point that most people are talking about. For example, if a certain previous service or a certain company's product was defective, and we think we can improve it, then there is such a demand in this market. Having an advantage means that you have found the pain point, but you may not be able to do it. You have to combine your own advantages. We all know that WeChat is the best now, we know that Taobao is also very good, and Baidu search engine is even better. The question is whether we have any advantage in doing such things now. The advantage of my positioning is: when you find this demand and the market has not yet exploded, then you have an opportunity.

For example, in 2003, China’s entire e-commerce market was dominated by eBay, which accounted for 90% of the market share. Taobao came out in December 2003. At that time, there were only 70 million to 80 million Internet users in China, and only about 10 million to 15 million were interested in e-commerce. At that time, eBay's advantage did not mean much, although it accounted for 90, but the entire market did not explode. China's e-commerce market exploded in 2006-2007, so Taobao's efforts in 2004 and 2005 quickly killed eBay. After the outbreak, Baidu did Youah and Tencent did Paipai, but they had no chance because the market had already exploded by then.

Many of us say we are afraid of Tencent. Indeed, when a market is just starting to take off, if Tencent does something right away, you will basically be defeated by it in the market, including MiLiao at that time. But if you have taken the lead before the outbreak, you don't have to worry at all. For example, Baofeng was making players, and later Tencent made Tencent Video; Xunlei was making downloads, and Tencent also made Tornado. We started 4399 in 2004, when the market had not exploded. By 2007 and 2008, 4399 had already obtained a 40-50% market share. Later, Tencent launched 3366, and many people said to me, "Wen Sheng, you are the best." You may have to worry." Tencent 3366's interface is 100 times better than 4399, their servers are highly stable, and they even bought a lot of copyrights. What was the end result? About two years ago, the product manager responsible for 3366 told me that they shut it down. Because 4399 was already in the lead during the outbreak period, the people behind it were actually helping it.

Let’s look at Baidu. In 2004, Baidu’s market share in China was only over 30%. Google was the most powerful, accounting for about 40%, and the others were still there. There are Sohu, Zhongsou, etc. But Baidu's most critical battle was in 2005. First, it went public. Second, a very important event happened at that time. Google was suspended for a period of time at the end of 2004. Baidu quickly surpassed Google at that time, and the entire market changed. reverse.

2. Have advantages

The second point I want to make is that you have to combine your own advantages.

Everyone has certain strengths. Even if you don’t have an advantage, at least you are passionate about what you are doing, you like doing this kind of thing, and you are willing to do it and learn, then you will quickly become an advantage.

3. Benefits

The definition of benefit is that as long as you have users, you must be valuable. There is no doubt that Yahoo, Google and Facebook have already It's all proven. In China, the earliest Baidu and Tencent were not popular. The three major portals were able to close Baidu and Tencent in 2004. But in the end, why did BAT stand out? It was the users. When Tencent was listed in Hong Kong in 2004, its stock price was 3.8 yuan, but later fell to more than 2 yuan because no one believed that the company would eventually make money. As a result, its current stock price is equivalent to 800 yuan.

There are two important principles here, how do you get your users, and how big are your users? Why do so many people burn out their users but eventually die. It is best for your users to come naturally, which means your user acquisition cost is low. For example, the number of users of Youku is equivalent to about 30% of that of Baidu. Why is Youku’s market value and revenue far less than that of Baidu? The user acquisition cost of Youku is too high. One is bandwidth, Baidu is text, Youku is video, and the traffic ratio is Baidu is small, and the bandwidth cost may be several times that of Baidu. Second, Youku’s TV series and movies require money to buy, while Baidu gets them for free online. For another example, take 4399. When it first started in 2009, it had no revenue at all. Our current revenue of hundreds of millions in 2015 is because 4399’s user acquisition cost is very low. In fact, 4399 has not yet developed a business model in a large amount. , but it can make that much money. The same goes for Meitu Xiuxiu. We don’t make money, but we are not worried because hundreds of millions of female compatriots in China are using Meitu Xiuxiu. Once we make a beauty-related product, there will be a lot of room for development.

(2) Try to avoid copyright and gray issues, competitors are not strong, and the government does not interfere.

Before 2008, I invested in some websites, but they were unsuccessful. For example, eMule had a large traffic. Why was it not commercially successful in the end? I am also reflecting on it, because of copyright issues. Of course, it’s no problem for an individual or individual entrepreneur. If you make a product that serves the public, I will continue to invest in it, even if it doesn’t make money. But if you want to turn it into a commercial website, try to avoid copyright issues. There is also the relationship with the government, as you grow bigger or go public. We all know that why Weibo appeared on Sina is actually due to policy factors. So for those who are just starting a business, I think you should try to avoid this. Only when you are old enough and have a very good government PR team can you do something related to the government.

(3) Use network alliances to develop and form an industrial chain.

The biggest difference between entrepreneurship in China and the United States is that China has individual webmasters. Why not in the United States? In fact, strictly speaking, Jerry Yang of Yahoo, Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Larry Page of Google in the United States are all personal webmasters. In the beginning, they were just building a website by themselves, but the VC system in the United States has developed very well. As long as there is a little traffic and a slight improvement, VCs will invest in it, and it will gradually become a commercial website. Why is China different? China is a vast place with many very large personal websites. They used to be called personal websites, then they were called APPs in the mobile Internet era, and now they are called internet celebrities. This is the difference in China. China’s personal websites and personal alliances are very powerful. Only by being good at utilizing these two forces can you become great.

Two very successful cases. For example, Baidu and Taobao used this alliance method to grow rapidly. Before 2002, Baidu was just a search engine provider, providing search on three major portals. When it first started, there was no traffic, so it had to look for help from personal websites. In 2004, one year before Baidu went public, personal websites accounted for more than 70% of Baidu's traffic, and Baidu's main website only accounted for more than 20%.

As of today, nearly 25% of all alliance traffic goes to Baidu.

How can you use the power of China’s grassroots webmasters and grassroots alliances to grow quickly, which is very meaningful. Baidu and Taobao, you can't burn money together. Why Baidu can afford it is because the money it distributes to individual webmasters is actually paid by advertisers, and Taobao's Taobao customers also pay advertising fees by stores. It just builds a bridge in the middle and makes money. If your model is purely to spend your own money, it will be difficult to stick to the end. Therefore, once you find a big opportunity in the future, you must adjust and change. When we start a business, we think it's great at first, but in the process of doing it, it will actually change. Whether you look at BAT or foreign successful cases, in the end no one does it according to PPT. If your entrepreneurial system follows the PPT model, it will definitely be doomed. In the process of doing it, you adapt to and understand the needs of users and constantly make adjustments. The general direction can remain unchanged, but in some small tactics and strategies, you must constantly make adjustments, changes, and adaptations to achieve success. Probably well done.

(4) The name of the product should be easy to spread, be an auspicious name, and be a registered trademark.

I believe this is easy for everyone to understand. It is easy to remember and simple. In fact, everyone thinks so. But we often encounter problems, such as domain names and trademarks. If you think of a good one but it has been registered by others, you will think of the second, third, fourth, and finally 20, but no one has registered for this one. But this is already a bad domain name. Because the good ones must have been noticed by others, but you can change your mentality and you can actually buy them, which means the price of buying them may not be high. It is very important to have a good name. In China, the pinyin will have a great advantage.

At the same time, another thing to pay attention to is the trademark. Many entrepreneurs really don't pay attention to the trademark at the beginning. It is not until you have been doing it for many years that you realize that the trademark is not in your hands. Some of them make up for it and buy it back. In some cases, if they don't sell it to you, you have to change your name. It becomes starting from scratch. The greatest value of a company must be your trademark and intellectual property rights. I have some personal experience with the auspicious names mentioned here. The older people get, the more they believe in fate. The richer and more successful people are, the more they believe in fate. If you can find a master or other ways to calculate the names, I think it will be helpful. Definitely helps.

How do entrepreneurs find investors?

What I talked about earlier is the positioning and direction of the product. Once you start working on it, the next step is to find investors. Strictly speaking, even if you don’t start a business, People who invest must do their best to do it well, but in today's capital era, if you can't get investment, you can't develop quickly. The most you can do is to be a well-off family. If you want to grow bigger, you must combine it with capital. There is no doubt about it. How to combine with capital? Contact and communication with investors are very important. Here are some suggestions:

1. Understand the situation of the investor you want to meet

I met IDG in 2004. It was an investment manager from IDG who first found me. After we finished chatting, they told me that their boss wanted to see me tomorrow. In 2004, there were only a few VCs in China. SoftBank, SAIF, and IDG were relatively famous. At that time, meeting VCs would be exciting for a long time. I asked who I wanted to see, and he said: "Guo Yihong." That day, I read all the information about IDG overnight. IDG had 9 partners at that time. Wang Gongquan was still a partner of IDG at that time. Through the official Websites and search engines learned that it turns out that the boss of IDG is Zhou Quan, not Xiong Xiaoge, who is often promoted outside. Zhou Quan graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China and went to Boston to study in the United States. IDG was actually the International Data Group in Boston. They wanted to set up a VC, so they sent Zhou Quan and Xiong Xiaoge to China. Guo Yihong originally worked for Soros Fund. When you go to meet an investor, if you know something about him, it will naturally be easier for you to communicate with him. The next day, I first chatted with Yihong, and then I attracted all their investors.

2. The business plan must have exact data

Some people do not have the opportunity to meet investors, or you only want to meet the VC you want to meet, such as a big boss, you may have to ask him Submit plan. I have seen countless PPTs, and most of them are filled with nonsense in the first two or three pages, describing how big the market is. A half page or a few sentences is enough. Investors must know the industry better than you do, and you don’t need to introduce it. Be sure to disclose more precise data to make investors interested in you.

Similarly, it only takes half to an hour for a VC to meet an entrepreneur. If you can’t get him to deal with him in half an hour and don’t make him interested in you, basically he won’t continue chatting with you. . The key points must be stated in the first half hour. What are the points that investors are most interested in? If your product has a certain volume, directly mention the numbers, how many users, revenue, how many employees, how many employees, and how many employees you have done. Big, these are the highlights. Even if the income is not large, you can still find the bright spots and say it is growing rapidly. This is the most obvious number. Some people have just started and don’t have any numbers, what should they do? Try to talk about your previous success stories, such as organizing an event at school, or something that you feel is more successful in life. Stories are the most touching. of.

3. The numbers are real, don’t fake them

You said I would give you a big number at the beginning. Generally speaking, it takes about three times for an investor to complete the investment from the time he contacts you. From month to half a year, there are very few people who say they will do whatever they want tomorrow after meeting today. Generally, they will meet today to confirm their investment, but when the entire investment is completed, the company needs to be re-established, and there are a lot of things like DD (due diligence). In this process, my suggestion is to be as realistic as possible about the previous numbers, because the board of directors can DD; but you can enlarge the future numbers, because this is confidence and ideals. Without this confidence and ideals, investors will not invest in you. Most investors dream of investing in a great company, so you need to make them feel that you are a great company. The previous numbers should be as true as possible, otherwise if there is a fake somewhere, once discovered, all your things may be doubted. ;