Know how to take the express train, what can the opponents do?

Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “Zinc Scale” (ID: znkedu), authors Chen Dengxin, Li Qilin, editing yellow guns; This article was first launched by Tencent Technology, please do not reprint without authorization.

Knowing to catch up with Baidu, Douban have been retired?

1. Baidu, Zhihu, and fast-handed have internal integration requirements for the content industry, and can completely build a complete content industry chain. 2. In this capital marriage, the biggest beneficiary may be to know. 3. This combination will bring a devastating blow to the unfettered content platform. For example, watercress.

A meeting in 2018 changed the way of knowing the fate. In the meeting where the founder Zhou Yuan and the fast-starter Suhua attended, Zhou Yuan discovered that Suhua was using a small brush to know. Zhou Yuan is using a small brush to quickly…

The two look at each other and smile. Then two months ago, the two ate a box lunch and set the cooperation down.

This little story, known as the founder Zhou Yuan, was written in response to the official announcement of the completion of the F round of financing – on the evening of August 12, knowing that the official completion of the F round of financing, the total amount 434 million US dollars. According to official news, this round of financing was led by fast-handed investors, Baidu followed the investment, Tencent and the original investors of today’s capital continued to follow.

This is the largest round of financing to date. In Zhou Yuan’s response story, there is no shadow of Baidu, but it does not hinder the interest of this marriage:
 
What kind of spark can the audience be combined when the audience is clearly divided? What changes and impacts will be brought about by the content industry chain?

“One effect is that it may bring devastating blows to content platforms that are not in the group.” On the evening of August 12,Lucence, an Internet company’s CFO and executive director, said to the zinc scale – perhaps, the most stressful moment for the Douban, known as “the biggest enemy.”

01Break the island of content industry

Knowing to catch up with Baidu, Douban have been retired?

Learn about financing

Even in the industry, few people have thought that the anti-Baidu and fast-handed “political correct” will hold hands with both.

In the industry, the story is relished. In July of 2 years ago, the official operation of the fasthand quietly registered an account and answered a bland question: “Working at the fast-hand company is What kind of experience?” But no one can think of it, quickly settled in, knowing for himself and his users, fermenting into a conflict between an “elite” and a self-identified “grassroots”.

Between Baidu and Zhihu, there are more grudges that are hard to say. For example, the Wei Zexi incident is fermented in knowing the platform, and the knowledge has always been clamped down by Baidu’s search weight.

The root cause of grievances is largely due to the fact that although Baidu, Zhihuo, and Fasthand are all content providers, the audience and development direction of the three are clearly defined. So they formed their own closed loop.” On the evening of August 12th, an Internet observer told the zinc scale.

The previously disparate positioning of the three has also confirmed this claim to some extent: knowing that as the largest “deep content” community in China, the professionalism and readability of the content is its core; Baidu uses the search engine as the entrance, and builds closed-loop traffic consisting of multiple products such as Baijiahao and Baidu. As for the fast-paced, grassroots content providers, relying on “earth flavor” to take root and sink the market.

“This is a serious problem for the three companies. The content industry is severely fragmented and each is in the same position. However, with the rapid integration of the content industry, this is a serious split. The pattern has been difficult to grow and develop,” said the Internet watcher.

Zhou Yuan acknowledges that with the rapid development of the content industry or the media field, its competition is fierce, chaotic and full of uncertainty. The concepts of live/short video, information/information flow, community/search, etc., have been difficult to clearly define the boundaries of each other, and pure traffic competition has become a competition of traffic + quality.

In this environment, whether it is Baidu’s full-content ecological platform construction, or the sinking road that knows, the fast-handed eager to get the ups and downs recognized by the petty bourgeoisie and the elite, have encountered no small challenges.

“Only relying on DAU growth and product matrix expansion does not guarantee a win or loss.” On August 12, Zhou Yuan responded by saying: “To establish a new order in the competition, you need to remain open and open to each other. Empowerment.”

Knowing to catch up with Baidu, Douban have been retired?

Know the founder Zhou Yuan

Opening and collaborating, for the current Internet, countless cases have proven to be easy to understand. The same is true for knowing, fast-handling, and Baidu. Since 2016, we have tried to turn niche products into the public by asking for endorsements, advertising, chasing the market, playing marketing, and entering the field of knowledge payment and short video. product.

Baidu has been eager to become a full content creation platform, and is eager for deep and professional high-quality content; fast-handedly set a goal of “300 million DAU (daily active users) before the 2020 Spring Festival), hope Recognized by the petty bourgeoisie and the elite.

The purpose of the three is to break through the closed loop and introduce more information flow and user group attention. “Although the product form and user scene are very different, everyone is facing the problem of information islands.” Zhou Yuan said.

In the eyes of the industry, the three most important cooperation is to break the information industry information island. “In fact, the three have inherent integration needs for the content industry, and they can build a complete content industry chain.”

02 Know that it will be the biggest beneficiary?

In the eyes of the industry, the biggest benefit of this capital marriage may be to know.

The current industry consensus is that the commercialization and listing process will accelerate the sprint, but from an industry perspective, whether it is Baidu, or fast, not only will bring a huge flow of traffic to the knowledge, but also accelerate the sinking of the sinking.

The huge traffic entry will come from Baidu. First, you can directly display the information flow through Baidu search, which will bring more ordinary users and better information flow display for existing content. Second, according to Baidu official publicity, Baidu small program platform has been The number of small programs settled reached 150,000, and the number of monthly active users reached 270 million. This means that once you know about joining the Baidu applet ecosystem, you know that the content can be directly displayed in the Baidu applet platform, which is equivalent to an invisible increase in hundreds of millions of potential monthly active users.

Knowing the short video content that is also eager for quick hands – In April 2018, in the short video boom, I also introduced the “idea.” However, compared to other strategies, it is known that there is no entry for short videos, and most user short videos are still nested in answers or ideas.

Interestingly, there was an article at the time saying that “the vibrating fast hand can’t represent all the short videos, knowing that the video will go on the third road beyond the fast-paced hands.”< /p>

In the end, this proved to be a failed idea. In January of this year, it was known that the short video project “Hit Shadow” was launched, and it was announced that it was dissolved after one month of internal testing.

In any case, short videos are important to knowing –
  Short video is the most direct form of content presentation and the fastest way to drain. What’s more, the difficulty of commercialization is difficult. At present, short video socialization is also the best way to prove yourself.

Therefore, some insiders are optimistic that hundreds of millions of users are fast-handed, and their content is a good complement to knowing.

In the eyes of fast-hand insiders, quick hands may also help to realize strategic transformation. Fast-hand AI technology is mature. If you know how to use AI, its content production, content quality, community atmosphere, information recommendation, etc., can also achieve intelligent advancement.

So, this may be an investment of 434 million yuan, which is one of the important reasons for the quick-handed investment and Baidu’s investment.

Under the multiple benefits, knowing the sinking speed and attracting more ordinary users make many people optimistic. “This means that a knowledgeable content, in addition to knowing the payment and reward, in the future, there may be Baidu APP traffic sharing and quick hand video adaptation.“Multiple content creators said: “The content monetization channel will be broadened and the revenue will increase.Stimulate the enthusiasm of content creators to create more sparks of inspiration and create more quality content.

Knowing to catch up with Baidu, Douban have been retired?

Fast founder Suhua

This kind of interest in the content ecology is currently multifaceted. For example, Baidu can use AI technology to distribute content to users with different interests, different tastes and different levels to achieve accurate delivery of content, thereby transforming traffic into content influence and completing high-quality content dissemination.

“Baidu Investment knows, behind the consideration of its own content ecology.” On the evening of August 12, when Baidu responded to the zinc scale (znkedu), it emphasized several points: “100 million high quality Q&A access content ecology”, “rich question and answer content enhances search experience”, “200 million daily super portals open to knowledge communities”.

Quick hands are better complemented in content, circle, and knowledge.
 
An official official responded to the zinc scale, knowing that the operations of the Internet, astronomy, medicine, etc. are relatively mature, and have penetrated into the knowledge circle for many years, investment knows, will help In the fast hand to increase penetration in the Kochi circle.

In addition, according to the respondents’ response, in the field of knowledge payment, in addition to interesting content, there are also a lot of “useful” content in the fast platform, and some people are willing to pay. “Quick Hands Classroom” was launched in June 2018, and the total number of paying users in July exceeded 10,000. Knowing the high-quality knowledge and popular science content will also help the fast-handed content ecological construction in the knowledge field.

But the three biggest benefits will still come from short videos.

The latest data released by QuestMobile shows that
  The short video industry is booming, with users exceeding 820 million, a year-on-year increase of 32.3%.
  In June of this year, the number of newly installed short video App users still exceeded 90 million, mainly for sinking users aged 35 and above and in third- and fourth-tier cities.

However, although the short video industry is gaining momentum, its competitive pressure is also increasing. Short video players are arranging panoramic ecological search for incremental, with the “App+ applet”The product matrix is ​​a group battle.
  Baidu + fast-handed + know, optimistic, not only will form a complete “APP + small program” ecological matrix, but also provide high-quality content that competitors can not provide, and seize the opportunity to sink the market.

03 “The mostThe big enemy Douban” is this nervous?

“The combination of the head companies in these three areas is mainly to drain each other and improve the ecological content. This is in fact a reason for Tencent to invest in Jingdong. It is estimated that there will be no new industries born this time.” On the evening of the 12th, Lucence, an Internet company CFO and executive director, said to the zinc scale.

But he also stressed:
  ”
 
This combination will bring a devastating blow to the unfettered content platform.
 

Like a watercress.

Knowing to catch up with Baidu, Douban have been retired?

Douban product matrix

For a long time, Douban and Zhiru were put together for comparison, and even some media called “the biggest enemy.” The former started with a book and audio, which is a spiritual corner that focuses more on the sharing of cultural and entertainment aspects. The latter is regarded as an elite question and answer community with higher professionalism and better content.

Kylie, who claims to be an old watercress, is also a frequent visitor. She said that if she wants to learn a skill, she will choose to know, but if she wants to find a good book, a good movie, she will have a watercress, both of which are for her. Different functions.

“Now that it has become more and more popular, but the watercress is still too small, just like the Chinese version of IMDB, there are not many attractive points.” In Kylie’s view, the minority It has gradually become a derogatory term, and the watercress is also somewhat closed.

Like the knowledge, Douban has not tried commercialization, FM, group purchase, e-commerce test water, but the end result It has been summed up as “the spiritual corner of Cheng, the spiritual corner of defeat”, even the exploration of knowledge payment has become a bigEarly, caught a late episode. The “Douban Time” launched in 2017 is a latecomer in the field of knowledge payment. However, compared to the products obtained, knowing live, answering, etc., “Douban Time” still maintains the characteristics of Douban community culture based on “interest”.

Even, it is hard to imagine that the last investment of Douban is the C-round financing that was obtained in 2011, which was invested by Sequoia Capital China, Yuxin Capital, and BAI Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund. But after 2019, for a full eight years, Douban has not announced a new round of financing, and Douban’s listing plan has been stranded.

The reason is related to the fact that it is always slower.
  For example, in the direct realization of information flow advertising, Douban only appears in the “recommended” information flow, and the content is mostly for the advertising of educational institutions; but it is known that information flow advertising does not only appear in attention, recommendation, answer, etc. For a while, even the comment page has advertisements, which cover a wide range of fields such as online loans, mobile games, shampoos, education and even friends.

Now, with the knowledge of joining hands, Baidu, it is becoming more and more inevitable, coupled with the huge traffic of Baidu, fast-hand search and short video, I want to come and stick to the “spirit” Douban. In contrast to the competition, there is a big gap – just for Douban, it is time to continue to adhere to the refined operation strategy, or to the general public, I am afraid it is a dilemma, but it must be a choice.

Knowing to get on the express train, Douban sticks to the spiritual corner, and there are fewer left to other participants in the market.

Industry sources said that in the field of knowledge payment, the world was informed, Himalayan, got and answered. The first two occupied the head position and got slightly inferior. The answer has already withdrawn early. . At the same time, another product, the fruit shell network of the founder Ji XIII, is getting smaller and smaller in the niche field of fun and pan-technical.

In addition to knowledge-based paid products, there is also a class of rivals that are social information products. Among them, Weibo and today’s headlines are well-deserved head products, whether from registered users or MAU is able to crush and know.

So, even if you know, fast, and Baidu, even if the three form a complete chain of short video production, distribution, and realization, regardless of whether the three are willing or not, with the three In combination, I am afraid that a comprehensive war with Weibo and headlines has already been avoided in an all-round way.