It has become the consensus of many people, especially Internet practitioners, that Mphone represents the future development direction of mobile phones.
We can also see the clues from the entrepreneurs who participated in the Mphone Developer Conference this year. A year ago, there were less than 500 developers present at the Mphone Developer Conference. This year, the number has been multiplied by ten, with 5,000 developer representatives coming to the development conference. The scene of the conference.
This is still the result of setting a threshold.
In the past year, the sales of the Mphone App Store were close to 500 million U.S. dollars. If calculated based on 5 million activated Mphones, each user spent an average of 100 U.S. dollars on the Mphone. This sales does not include offline payments using NewPay, it is just app store sales.
This number is not large, but it is enough to support a hundred small Internet companies. If it is an individual business, the number that can be supported will be even greater.
Among them, the game company that made "Prince of Persia" had sales of 50 million US dollars on the Mphone store.
Numbers do not deceive people. The paying ability of Mphone users has been recognized by entrepreneurs. Compared with Mphone, users' willingness to pay and actual payment rate on the app store launched by Nokia are much lower.
The Mphone is like the Apple of later generations, while the iPhone is a bit like the king of Android phones.
When Internet applications on mobile phones allowed users to pay, this was the early days of personal computers. Users needed to buy floppy disks to install software. The spreadsheet processing software on early Macintosh computers needed to be purchased separately.
More and more people are realizing that the Internet mobile phone represented by Mphone is very likely to become a product comparable to a personal computer, which will bring new opportunities to Internet companies.
Qiu Bojun is not only a pioneer in the field of office software in China, but also a game producer. He has his own understanding of Mphone.
"As Mphone develops later, I think its entertainment attributes will become more and more clear, and its office use will be weakened. The timely office use may continue to be maintained, but mobile phones cannot replace computers in some office scenarios with strong demand.
The email function of the Mphone can replace the video game function of the computer, but can the Mphone draw pictures? Users still need to rely on computers and tablets to draw pictures. The biggest limitation of mobile phones is not the chip but the screen.
The screen size determines that it can only support some lightweight, real-time office needs, such as email, text editing, phone calls, etc. It can't do a slightly higher intensity office.
But entertainment is actually not very limited. Computer screens are much larger than mobile phones. There will be no essential difference in the gameplay of products based on computers or mobile phones.
In the past twenty years, handheld consoles have been used as electronic game devices. The quality of the video games developed based on the handheld console platform is comparable to that of computer games. Judging from this point of view, I think mobile phones will become more and more entertaining in the future.
Nokia was the first to launch mobile phones with built-in snake and skiing games, which made users obsessed with them. They could play a game while lying in bed and empty their brains. Mphone gives users the right to choose. Users can download whatever games they want. A large number of game developers have launched new electronic games on the Mphone app store.
Sony, EA, and Sega are trying to port the games they developed for handheld consoles to the Mphone platform. Compared with computers, mobile phones can play a game at any time. Compared with handheld consoles, the advantage of mobile phones is that they are part of daily life. necessity.
Therefore, I think that if you want to work at Matrix, you must realize that the most important development direction of mobile phones in the future must be closely related to its entertainment attributes. "
After Qiu Bojun finished speaking, Lei Jun fell into deep thought. He obviously didn't know as much about games as Qiu Bojun. He was also mainly responsible for Kingsoft office software in Jinshan, and he could only say that he knew about Xishanju's business, but he couldn't say much about it. deep involvement.
“I can understand the importance of video games to mobile phones, but shouldn’t the form of mobile phones support more and more applications?
I have always believed that richness is the future development direction of mobile phones. In the past, mobile phones had fixed built-in applications, and built-in applications only met basic communication needs. After the launch of Mphone, a large number of applications independently developed by Internet companies have been used on it.
For example, they are not games, and there are no games in the apps that Mphone originally shipped with. "
Lei Jun obviously also has an in-depth understanding of Mphone. After trying Weibo, he almost instantly fell in love with the feeling of interacting at any time, because after he registered a Weibo account, Zhou Xin quickly followed him, and Zhou Xin’s follow list is very small. , after Lei Jun is followed, he will push it to Zhou Xin’s fans.
When Lei Jun was experimenting with Weibo, he found that any opinion he expressed could get feedback quickly. Even if he posted on Tianya Forum, the most popular forum in China, he would have to wait for more than half an hour from posting to receiving a reply.
Unless you are a well-known person in the forum, you will need to wait for a long time, but on Weibo, someone will reply to you within five minutes of your Weibo post. At first, Lei Jun thought it was a troll, but it was just a Weibo. Respondents arranged by the Bo official.
Later, he specifically checked other people’s homepages and found that they were all real people.
This made Lei Jun fully appreciate the charm of Weibo, and also made him question Qiu Bojun's statement that video games will become an important part of the Mphone ecosystem.
Qiu Bojun said: “Text information is also a form of entertainment. Weibo and Quora are essentially forums, and the text information contained in forums can also bring entertainment effects to users.
I do not deny the diversity of entertainment methods, but it is always games that drive technological progress. Games are the core force that drives the development of hardware. It is enough for computers five years ago to use the latest version of Kingsoft software. Why do users want to change computers? Why does the industry need to develop chips with better performance?
The industry develops chips with better performance because consumers will pay for them. Consumers are willing to pay for chip performance because they have entertainment needs. Computers with better performance can play richer games. Computers five years ago cannot play Fallout 2. , can't play Warcraft 3, can't play the latest Metal Slug.
The same logic applies to mobile phones. For pure text applications, I estimate that after ten years Mphone will be able to support text applications at that time. So why do users need to change their mobile phones? Mphone's inability to carry mobile games ten years from now is the source of motivation for users to switch to mobile phones and the source of enterprise development.
So I think mobile games are the most important. If I were you, I would definitely establish a good relationship with mobile game developers first and lean towards them in terms of app store strategy.
Only if they can enjoy the dividends will they be more motivated, and the entertainment of Mphone will be further improved. "
Qiu Bojun also has his limitations. He still uses the development of the computer industry to speculate on the development of the mobile phone industry. He could not predict the progress of mobile communication networks and the coming of the picture era and short video era.
But he did hit the key point, that is, video games are one of the core driving forces for hardware progress. It is precisely because of the support of countless players for video games that chip performance continues to improve. If we rely solely on the computing power needs of Internet companies, AI chips will be nowhere in sight.
"I roughly grasped some ideas. I also thought that Zhou Xin hired me to do software-level management work, such as MOS system development management work.
Because I think my level in the field of software development is pretty good, and that’s all I can do.
Even if I go there, I may not be able to do it. "Lei Jun had his own ideas. He thought he was attracted by Zhou Xin because he promoted WPS to compete head-on with Office on the Chinese office software battlefield.
Qiu Bojun said: "Your guess is very likely. The mobile operating system is a new thing. Zhou Xin may have many ideas of his own. He hopes that Chinese people will help him take care of this and fully realize his ideas.
So I took a fancy to you.
But this does not prevent you from trying to express your views and expand your influence in other fields. Zhou Xin gave you the position of vice president, not R&D director, so there is nothing to worry about.
I have been using Mphone intermittently before. Mphone has not entered China. It is indeed inconvenient to use and the speed of downloading applications is too slow.
Just from such short-term use, I thought of an optimization point, that is, in the Mphone app store, applications and games can be completely separated, and separate recommendation pages and display pages for electronic games can be given. "
Qiu Bojun explained his thoughts to Lei Jun in detail. In fact, the Mphone app store on the computer has two columns, one column is for applications and the other is for games.
This can give video games more recommendation positions. Although he doesn't understand what traffic and exposure are, that's what it means.
After hearing this, Lei Jun thought this was a good idea. He secretly wrote down: "Bojun, I actually feel that you are more suitable for this position. You know the Matrix and the mobile phone industry far better than I do."
Qiu Bojun is also a strange person. He led more than a dozen people to write wps97 and successfully survived on this product. When Dragon TV invited him to have a face-to-face interview with Bill Gates, he said:
"National industries still need to be mentioned, but now we want to mention them as little as possible to avoid misunderstandings. People will always think that your products are not good, so you play the national card to win everyone's sympathy."
This shows how broad-minded he is.
Qiu Bojun said: "I am old and have no energy to work hard anymore. You are much younger than me. You are only in your early thirties now, which is the age to do something serious.
Matrix and Silicon Valley are definitely the best stages for you to show yourself. "
After Lei Jun arrived at Matrix, the certification on his Weibo personal homepage changed from Chairman of Kingsoft Software to Vice President of Matrix.
Lei Jun is Matrix's first Chinese executive besides Zhou Xin, and has aroused heated discussion in Zhongguancun.
"Mr. Wu, how do you think Lei Jun fell in love with Mr. Xin?" Someone tried to find out at a dinner hosted by a Zhongguancun entrepreneur.
After Pony Ma called Zhou Xinxin President at the Internet conference, more and more people in China began to call Zhou Xin President Xin in public or private situations.
The main reason is that there are too many people with the surname Zhou, so it is not easy to identify someone called Mr. Zhou. Secondly, it is also to show closeness.
Mr. Wu is Wu Shiqiang. As the person in charge of emerging capital in China, he has a very high status in the Chinese Internet industry and has prospered.
Before, I had no money and only listened to PPTs without investing, which made Wu Shiqiang not so popular. Starting from 2000, emerging investment almost became the only channel for financing Chinese Internet companies in that special period, which made Wu Shiqiang quickly become a man of the hour.
At that time, there was a saying circulating in Zhongguancun: If you want to invest, go to Mr. Wu.
Wu Shiqiang has been around the world for several years, so he naturally knows what can and cannot be said. If he talks nonsense, what he says will be spread to the Internet in various ways, and then reach Zhou Xin's ears. :
"Lei Jun is a very good entrepreneur. Isn't it normal for the new president to like Lei Jun? Our boss has always been short of people and has promoted many talents in China."
If employees of Zhou Xin's companies do well in China, they have a good chance of being transferred to work in Silicon Valley.
Companies like Tencent and Alibaba, which are on the fringe of Zhou Xin's business landscape, have some of their best employees who have been transferred to work at Amerikan.
This was a very big temptation for the Chinese people at that time.
"I never meant that Mr. Lei was not excellent, but it would be hard for such an outstanding person to leave Matrix and directly become the vice president.
Matrix’s valuation is at least a hundred times that of Kingsoft. "
Lenovo spent US$4.5 million to acquire 30% of Kingsoft's shares, which means that Kingsoft's valuation is US$15 million, while Matrix's valuation is much more than US$1.5 billion.
Another entrepreneur at the dinner continued: "According to the rules of China, this is a rocket promotion, which is mainly not common, so we want to know more about the new president's preferences."
In the minds of the Zhongguancun entrepreneurs, the most important company in Zhou Xin's business landscape is naturally NewPay.
Originally, the second most important thing was emerging investment. With the great success of Mphone in major countries around the world, Matrix is considered to be the second most important company.
Wu Shiqiang took a sip of Pu'er and replied: "Maybe it's because Mr. Lei has some qualities that are now scarce in the Matrix and was discovered by the new president.
When selecting talents, the new president doesn't pay much attention to previous resumes and backgrounds. I think he pays more attention to feelings, which are the characteristics you show when you talk to him. This is what the new president pays most attention to.
Before I became the president of Emerging Investment Asia Pacific, I was the lobby manager of a bank. I never thought at that time that I would engage in primary market investment.
I'm doing pretty well now, barely living up to the new boss's expectations.
Therefore, I believe in the vision of the new president and the ability of Lei Jun. We have also inspected Kingsoft before. Mainly because they were not short of money after accepting investment from Lenovo, so they did not accept our investment.
But judging from Kingsoft's operating conditions, Lei Jun's management skills are definitely not bad. "
The person next to me quickly flattered him: "Can the lobby manager of the Los Angeles branch be the same as the lobby manager of a domestic bank? In 1998, only the best people could go abroad to work. Mr. Wu, you are too humble."
Another person continued: "The management difficulty of Matrix is much greater than that of Kingsoft. Kingsoft's employees are all Chinese. When Lei Jun joined Kingsoft, Kingsoft was still a small company with only a few dozen people.
The situation at Matrix is completely different. I read the news a few days ago that Matrix has more than 2,000 employees worldwide and is still growing rapidly.
The management difficulty is completely different. In addition, Matrix is already a relatively successful consumer electronics company, so it is still difficult to gain a firm foothold. "
Everyone here is a successful person, but even successful people will be jealous of Lei Jun's opportunities, because joining Matrix as an executive can get option incentives.
(End of chapter)
