novelnext Chapter 161 The WeChat of this life is no longer the WeChat of the past life.
Chapter 161 The WeChat of this life is no longer the WeChat of the past life.
Chapter 161 The WeChat of this life is no longer the WeChat of the past life.
Alum Technology, CEO's Office.
Just as Gu Wanning went out to inform Lü Siyu to convene a meeting of senior executives, Geng Zhi sat back down in front of his computer.
On the screen was the WeChat architecture design draft that he had read countless times.
The code hierarchy, module division, and interface definition were all carefully considered, and every design was based on a long-term vision.
In his overall plan, this soon-to-be-launched WeChat is by no means a product of imitation like Tencent's previous venture—
To become a truly national and world-class application, it must fundamentally differentiate itself from Tencent's WeChat, possessing an overwhelming advantage.
In its previous life, Penguin's [WeChat] was, frankly, a product of being forced into a situation:
Initially, it copied Kik's minimalist model, and later it benchmarked MiTalk's supplementary functions, stumbling and struggling step by step until it finally drew inspiration from Talkbo.
Only after launching the voice chat function did they gain a foothold.
Many of WeChat's later features were products of product managers' flashes of inspiration or responses to competitors: Shake, Moments, etc.
Subscription accounts, message in a bottle, people nearby.
It has successful features, as well as redundant, bloated, and unsuccessful features.
Geng Zhi has been approaching WeChat with an end-game mentality since birth.
His WeChat was modular and plug-in-based from day one of development, with its goal set on a future ten years from now, a future that is compatible with its own operating system, AI, and all scenarios.
He doesn't need to feel his way across the river.
Because he was already standing on the opposite bank, looking at the river, he knew where there were hidden reefs, where there were rapids, where a bridge should be built, and where a dam should be constructed.
Five minutes later, Lü Siyu sent the agenda for the two sessions of this meeting to all the core executives in attendance.
Fifteen minutes later, all of Mingfan Technology's core executives were in place in the conference room.
The meeting moderator, Shu Beibei, began with a clear and crisp voice: "This meeting consists of two parts. The first part is the sharing of Momo's operational data. Now, let's start with Mr. Tang sharing Momo's current operational overview data and the progress of the new version iteration."
Tang Yan nodded, connected his laptop to the screen mirroring, and began sharing Momo's operational data.
"As of today, Momo's user base has reached 46. New user growth has remained stable over the past two weeks, matching last month's growth rate and still meeting expectations. By the end of the month—"
"After the new feature was launched, there was a small surge in active users, proving that the new feature enhances user engagement —"
"my country's 3G user base has surpassed 2300 million, and the penetration rate of the Momo app has reached 17.5%. That means one in every six 3G users is using Momo."
"Daily message volume exceeded 3500 million, and 44.8% of daily active users initiated chats."
Tang Yan went through the data line by line, clearly, accurately, and without any unnecessary details.
"The only area where the data shows a significant decline right now is the user growth rate in third- and fourth-tier cities."
He flipped to a map showing the distribution of city tiers, where the two pillars representing third- and fourth-tier cities were noticeably shorter than those representing first- and second-tier cities.
Upon hearing this, Geng Zhi immediately interrupted, "What's the reason for the significant drop in data? Is the penetration rate of smartphone users in third- and fourth-tier cities nearing its limit?"
"No." Tang Yan shook his head, his expression turning serious. "Our analysis suggests that the biggest reason is that [Weiju], developed by Li Haipeng, is more popular in third- and fourth-tier cities, which has taken away some of our users."
The meeting room fell silent for a moment as soon as he finished speaking.
The expressions on the faces of veteran employees such as Shu Beibei, Sun Xiaowen, Song Qing, and Huang Haitang were slightly unnatural.
As a straightforward former partner, Li Haipeng did not join Momo after leaving Meihao Xiangyu (美好遇相) company; instead, he started his own business.
The creation of [Weiju] sparked some heated discussions in the media at the time.
Some people believe that Li Haipeng betrayed Geng Zhi and acted like a traitor; others expressed understanding, saying that everyone has their own ambitions and you can't tie yourself to one person.
However, thanks to his reputation as a straightforward partner and his remarkable achievements at the company "Beautiful Encounter," Li Haipeng's new venture has indeed attracted a lot of attention.
The media rushed to report on it, and investors flocked to it.
This is also the biggest reason why Microenergy quickly raised its Series A funding.
However, only Gu Wanning and Yang Mingxia knew the inside story of Li Haipeng's open conflict and secret alliance with Geng Zhi.
"How many users does Weiju have now?" Geng Zhi asked symbolically.
"It's said to be approaching 80; their growth rate in lower-tier cities is very fast, and it's expected to break 120 million by the end of the month."
"Ten thousand," Tang Yan replied.
"They've only been online for a short time, and the proportion of smartphone users in third- and fourth-tier cities isn't high. How can [Weiju] develop so quickly?" Ma Tongtong asked.
"Their product logic is very successful."
Tang Yan, who had already researched [Weiju] for a long time, showed a hint of admiration on his face and began to analyze: "Use women's [free] offers to attract women, and use women's presence to attract men to pay. This way, you can filter out those who are [sincere]."
For male employees, this means they can generate short-term cash flow, and the business model has proven successful.
He paused, then continued, "Moreover, they are said to have a very strong ground promotion capability. They avoid our main battlefield and are very good at distributing flyers in internet cafes, barbershops, and night markets in county and prefecture-level cities."
"Yes, that's right. When President Li was at [Jiaotong University Matchmaker], he was good at on-the-ground promotion, so his on-the-ground promotion team must be quite capable," Song Qing added.
"Huh? That Li Haipeng used to work at [Jiaotong University Matchmaker]?" Ma Tongtong exclaimed in surprise. She joined late and didn't know about this history.
Shu Beibei, Sun Xiaowen, Song Qing, and Huang Haitang remained silent, while Yang Mingxia pretended to be silent as well.
Tang Yan continued analyzing [Weiju's] competitive strategy: "I had someone do some research, and their promotional language is incredibly effective. They say, '[Momo is a dating app where girls get harassed. Weiju is where girls have the final say; guys who want to chat have to pay first.]'"
"Damn, that's a cunning strategy! It both undermines Momo and creates a positive image for itself," Lu Zhijie couldn't help but admire.
Then, the others began to discuss WeJoy's competitive strategy and Momo's response.
Geng Zhi didn't want to continue talking about [Weiju], so he quickly gave Shu Beibei a wink.
Shu Beibei understood, clapped her hands, and interrupted the discussion: "Everyone, let's focus on the meeting topic today, and discuss competitive strategies later."
Only then did everyone stop discussing.
Shu Beibei continued, "Okay, next, please let Bao Guo introduce the development progress of the [SouI] Soul Matching Mode."
Upon hearing this, Niu Baoguo first gave a brief introduction to the functionalities, development progress, and difficulties of the [SouI mode], and then handed the time over to Sun Xiaowen.
Sun Xiaowen gave a detailed introduction to the matching algorithm from a macro perspective, and then Song Qing gave a general introduction to the recommendation algorithm from an engineering perspective.
[SouI] Soul Matching Mode is Momo's upcoming flagship feature.
In simple terms, it involves building a rich user profile for each user by using their personality test results, personalized tags, and various behavioral data. Then, based on deep learning algorithms, it calculates the compatibility between the user and other users and recommends new friends that the user might get along with.
The launch of the [SouI] mode serves two purposes: firstly, to shed Momo's [YP artifact] label, and secondly, to prepare recommendation algorithms for future new scenarios.
After seven or eight minutes of intense question-and-answer discussion, the meeting room finally returned to calm.
"Boss, do you have any questions or anything to add?" Tang Yan asked Geng Zhi.
"Momo's overall data is pretty good, meeting expectations." Geng Zhi nodded. "What are the detailed data for the two new features, the message board and chat groups?"
The message board is similar to the current QQ Space, focusing on social interaction among acquaintances. Groups, on the other hand, are chat groups based on shared interests, similar in function to QQ groups, but simpler.
Geng Zhi values these two features highly, especially the group chat feature, which is of great significance for the future launch of WeChat.
After Niu Baoguo gave a detailed report on the data after the two functions went online, Geng Zhi finally showed a satisfied smile.
"OK, how's the progress on the competitor's side lately?" Geng Zhi asked again.
"Boss, this is exactly what we want to report next," Tang Yan replied.
"Mingxia reported that Renren.com imitated Momo and created an identical product called [Private], and they're even planning to follow our example and hold a product launch event," Tang Yan said.
"Hmm? The product name is [Private]?" Ma Tongtong frowned. "The implication of this product name is even more suggestive than our Momo app!"
"I think Renren.com learned from Momo, trying to attract traffic by pushing the boundaries, right?"
"Nonsense—when has Momo ever attracted traffic by skirting the edges? Our growth is all organic!"
Everyone chimed in, and the discussion became lively again.
"Renren.com has deep pockets and such a strong social network. If they want to drive traffic across their entire Renren.com site and burn money on ground promotions on university campuses, it will be very disadvantageous for Momo!"
"Moreover, they received several hundred million US dollars from SoftBank the year before last, and there's a high probability they'll spend a lot of money to win."
"We have a strong user base, so we don't need to be afraid of them at all."
"However, what I'm more worried about is whether they will deliberately block Momo on Renren.com."
"My latest news is that Renren.com is going to announce a killer move at the press conference, and they will also invite several big celebrities to endorse it," Yang Mingxia added.
Although from the very beginning of Momo's launch, Geng Zhi warned everyone that there would be strong competitors, and everyone was already mentally prepared for this.
But now that Renren.com has actually entered the fray, many people are still a little apprehensive.
The atmosphere in the meeting room became slightly tense for a moment.
Having pondered this for a long time, Tang Yan began to reassure his men: "Gentlemen, Renren.com has its advantages, and we have ours. In terms of product—in terms of operations—in terms of public opinion—"
Tang Yan shared the solutions he could think of, then looked at Geng Zhi: "Boss, what's your idea?"
Geng Zhi nodded in satisfaction: "The strategies that President Tang suggested from these angles are quite good. They can be further refined later."
He then reassured everyone, saying with a smile, "Renren.com has money, and we're not short of money either. Our Mingfan Technology is about to raise its Series B funding, and the amount will not be less than 2000 million US dollars."
"Wow!!"
"Wow, Momo is awesome! The boss is awesome!"
"If we raise 20 million, wouldn't our company be valued at over 100 million US dollars? Holy crap! Then our stock options will explode—"
The news of the Series B funding round immediately put an end to the anxiety of the executives.
Once everyone's excitement had subsided, Geng Zhi finally asked a question: "When will Renren.com hold a product launch event?"
"July 4th, around the same time we launched the [SouI] mode," Yang Mingxia quickly replied.
After a moment's thought, Geng Zhi smiled and said, "Alright, since they're holding such a grand press conference, let's go and support them, give them a big gift, and take advantage of their momentum."
Seeing the puzzled looks on everyone's faces, Geng Zhi simply said, "We'll make the details later. Let's continue the meeting."
Upon hearing this, Shu Beibei continued to advance the meeting agenda: "Everyone, the first half of the meeting is over. The second half is the launch meeting for the [WeChat] project, which will be chaired by the boss."
After Shu Beibei finished speaking, she helped Geng Zhi connect to the screen mirroring.
Geng Zhi glanced around the meeting room and said, "Alright. Now let's begin the [WeChat] project launch meeting. Mr. Tang, Senior Brother Lü, Wan Ning, Senior Sister Huang, Zou Lu, Chu Jiatong, Jia Zhenbiao, Guan Peidong, and Ji Liufang, please stay behind. The rest of you can go ahead and get busy."
For safety reasons, the project name at this time was still the English code name.
Since Gengzhi is trying to recruit people from Tencent, Tencent may also be contacting people within its own company, so it's not advisable to reveal the true purpose too early.
Shu Beibei and the others who were not named began to leave the meeting room one by one, and the room became lively again.
After everyone else had left, Ma Tongtong stood up and closed the conference room door before smiling and saying, "Everyone, starting tomorrow, everyone except President Tang and the boss's wife will be going to the 'little black room'!"
Upon hearing this, the conference room fell silent, and everyone looked puzzled.
"Tongtong, what's this little dark room?" Zou Lu asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, what kind of project is [WeChat]? Why is it an English name?" Huang Haitang asked immediately.
"Our Innovation Department has launched a new overseas project targeting North America, which requires closed development," Ma Tongtong replied without batting an eye, then looked at Geng Zhi.
Upon hearing the phrase "[an overseas project targeting North America]", the people in the room frowned.
Geng Zhi cleared his throat and said with a serious expression, "Everyone, Mingfan Technology's core strength is social networking, but in China, social networking is dominated by Tencent, with QQ already boasting 6 million users."
Even giants like Baidu and Alibaba have struggled to shake its foundation.
"To be honest, the reason why Momo chose to enter the stranger social networking market was not only due to its original intention, but also to avoid the sharp edge of Tencent."
"Momo is developing rapidly, but it is far from successful. Moreover, it faces competition from companies like Renren and Weiju, and there will be even more formidable rivals in the future."
Geng Zhi's tone rose: "Our mission at Mingfan Technology is to purify the world, but to purify it, we first need to be strong enough. Relying solely on Momo as it is now is far from sufficient."
"So we established the Innovation Department. We need to bring our social media DNA to find new growth points and breakthroughs. We need to break through."
"Where should we break through?" He glanced at Ma Tongtong and continued, "To a place without penguins, to the birthplace of the mobile internet."
In the room, besides Tang Yan and Ma Tongtong, who had just learned a little about the North American market, only Gu Wanning had any knowledge of it.
But Gu Wanning didn't know what [WeChat] was at this time.
Everyone waited for Geng Zhi to continue speaking.
"I had Tongtong research many aspects of the North American social networking market, and we ultimately found that while there are BlackBerry Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger in the instant messaging field based on acquaintances..."
They have products like these, but the mobile market is still largely untapped.
"So, we decided to develop a mobile instant messaging product to test the waters."
Gu Wanning was startled.
I just helped Arctic Capital complete its investment in Kik, and now Geng the Great is also going to make an IM product? And go to North America too?
Is Geng Da Hu You's product a competitor of Kik?
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