Iron hit users, running water network disk.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Internet issues” (ID :quanneishi), the author of Shanglu.
Last week, Jay Chou’s new song, “Say Good, Don’t Cry,” caused QQ music to collapse. Netease cloud music without copyright was silently crying. The music that has long been unattended has caught the attention of many people.
As a “pseudo-fan”, after discovering that a new song requires a member, I would like to search for some free resources to use it as usual. However, after spending a lot of effort, I found that the old “seeing network” has already seen Not much resources.
September 23, the little-known NetEase network disk announced that due to product adjustment, the entrance to wp.163.com will be closed on November 30th, Beijing time, when the entrance will be inaccessible. NetEase mailbox users can continue to access and use the network disk through the “File Center” on the left side of the mailbox homepage.
The generation of artifacts that accompanied the people through countless lonely times, from the initial “incoming people” to the “survivors of the survivors”, what happened to the nets in these years?
Before Google blocked, there was a copyright dispute
Like many domestic Internet products, the network disk is also an exotic product.
At that time, many foreign netizens had the need to store data. Under their voice, the network disk was born in the form of a BT site. However, many sites have been closed due to copyright issues. Then there was a cloud storage service based on the http protocol, but at the time these services were not called “network disk”, but called “file hosting website”, but it was born at the beginning of this century from the nature of service and technical means. These batches of websites are the “predecessors” of the network disk we are talking about today.
Just as at the Lei Jun Wuhan University, a “Silver Valley Fire” made him run around the playground for three laps. Since then, with the idea of starting a business, China’s network disk has also been inspired by Silicon Valley.
Google launched Gmail Drive on Gmai in 2007. It is an extension that is attached to the Window Explorer. Users only need to copy and paste to complete the storage. At that time, the user did not expect “a program of several hundred K, can help me store several G data“.
There was then Netease also launched a “folder” in its own mailbox. a function,It is this kind of mailbox-based “folder” that has enabled the rapid development of the “network disk” that affects countless people in the future.
Between 2008 and 2009, Huawei, the one-five technology and the fast disk represented the Chinese players officially entered the personal cloud storage market, and launched the earliest batch of network disks in China. There are many problems that young Chinese network players need to face, and two of the most important ones.
The first is to face the competition with Big Brother Google
. Before the domestic players introduced the first batch of network disks, Google’s Gmail Drive is only a sub-section of the mailbox, but it is essentially a “network disk.” Thanks to Gmai’s total capacity increased to 6G in 2006, the available space for Gmail Drive is much larger than that of its competitors. In addition, Gmai can permanently retain the characteristics of the file and allow a large number of users to be harvested based on its existing Gmail Drive. . The domestic “network disk” that was just born, no matter whether it is technology or resources, can not be compared with Google, the situation is not optimistic.
If the technical problem is a move of Google chess, then the copyright issue is a problem that exists in both domestic and foreign network disks.
The data stored by domestic users on the network disk is mostly copyrighted content such as movies, music, and novels. Often a new movie has just been released, and everyone can see it on the web..
“After giving me a red envelope, I will send you a link, and the network link will never be deleted permanently.”
After Huawei and the one-five technology launched the first batch of professional network disks in China, other Internet companies quickly chose to follow up. With 2010 as the node, including Baidu, Tencent, Jinshan, 360 and other companies have launched their own network disk or cloud disk business.
After the old Google started to withdraw its business from China in 2010, the domestic network players finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to release themselves.
Beginning to launch the free permanent 100G capacity by Jinshan Express, which is owned by Thunder in 2013, the network disk war officially kicked off. The originator of the free model 360 is to give the user a permanent capacity of 1T on a free basis, and push the war to a climax. Even the low-key Huawei has launched an unlimited space service.
Telecom operators, Internet giants, and traditional hardware suppliers have entered the market for free, permanent, or even unlimited capacity. Although there was no such thing as “the slogan” at the time, it could not cover the heat of the cloud storage industry. However, the people who fought in the battle did not think that this was just the evening before the night.
In March 2016, the old network disk 115 network disk, Ali’s UC network disk continued to suspend some functions; in April, Sina micro disk completely shut down the free personal storage service, all user data is retained until June 3 of the same yearOn the 0th, it announced that it will gradually close the functions of sharing and searching for micro-discs; Thunder Express also closed the personal data storage service; Tencent Weiyun announced the function of closing the file transfer station; in May, Huawei announced the closure of the user data storage sharing service.
The top ten web sites have been “destroyed”
The reason may be that we can find some clues from the 360 cloud disk announcement.
In October 2016, 360 Yunpan official website announced the announcement of service transformation, stopping personal cloud disk service, and no longer considering recovery before the legality and security of network disk storage and content dissemination were completely resolved, and then will transform. Enterprise cloud services.
When the transition is closed, the official answer to the 360 cloud disk is this. “ Some criminals use 360 cloud disk storage to spread illegal documents, infringement and piracy, and disseminate obscene pornographic information, and so on. The serious violation of the legitimate rights and interests of genuine enterprises has brought great harm to the society. Before finding a solution to solve these problems safely, it is decided to stop the cloud disk personal version service.”
Accounting for 360 cloud disk, in 2016, a total of 7 network disks announced the closure or suspension of some services. After 2016, the domestic network disk entered the era of Baidu network disk, 115 people, and Tencent Weiyun.
The cloud storage industry, which was in full swing, fell into a trough overnight. At that time, every time there was a network disk closed, someone would say “This is definitely not the last one“.
The network disk brings convenience to users, bringing business to the sellers, but the copyright owner is losing the rights and interests. This is a veritable “the honey of the other, my arsenic”.
Is the “network disk” a good business?
Baidu network disk is one of the few survivors, and did not harvest the audience because of losing competitors. Instead being ”
The term “speed limit” is plagued by many users. Many users said that they use optical fiber. Why do they use the Baidu network disk and the file never exceeds 200K? You must purchase a member to use the normal network speed.
In this regard, this June Baidu’s network disk responded on the official Weibo.
According to Baidu, the speed limit does exist, The reason is that the cost of expenditure is too high < /strong>, if the unlimited speed Baidu network disk is likely to be closed. Even the Baidu network disk backed by Baidu can not afford the operating costs, the operating conditions of other survivors can be imagined, among themIt is inseparable from the development model of domestic network players.
Recalling the development model of the domestic network disk, you have to mention the red dress leader.
The free mode has always been the “nuclear bomb” of the red-collar master. From the 360 anti-virus guards, it has formed a set of “industrialization” styles, as well as the 360 network disk. Although the teacher is not a free pioneer in the field of network disk, it is definitely a master. After entering the network market, 360 quickly harvested a large number of users. In the Internet industry, there is a general rule. The larger the scale, the lower the marginal cost. After the user scale is accumulated to a certain extent for free, the profit can be realized through value-added services and other means. Local services are the logic.
The majority of the industry’s entry is the Internet company, coupled with the rumble of the red-collar masters. In the end, the domestic network disk models have almost become free models, and the network players have started a cloud. Hungry Games”. But unfortunately, the cloud storage industry is different from the Internet industry.
The network disk does not decrease as the marginal cost of Taobao and Didi drops increases with the number of users, and can even approach zero. In contrast, the larger the scale, the higher the cost of the bandwidth and server costs, and the free mode points the accelerator to the process.
This point can also be confirmed from the statement that Baidu’s network disk responds to the speed limit. This shows that it is no longer feasible to burn it up and then slowly harvest it.
On the other hand, users have not yet formed a payment habit. After vigorously implementing the free mode, they will turn over and charge users, not to mention profit, and even the cost is difficult to cover.
The “network disk” have no way to go? Combining the experience of other industries, there are two points that the “network disk” must do to continue to go.
The first point is to control the content of the platform
. At this point, it is better for enterprise users, and the network disk for individual users can easily follow this issue. On the one hand, there are many copyright issues in the resources uploaded by users, and on the other hand, there will be some content such as vulgar porn. The solution to these two aspects is currently only one, that is, using the machine + manual 24-hour inspection, found a deletion. However, this increases the security of the platform and improves the network environment while invading the privacy of users, and the platform has to do so.
The second point is the issue of profit model. As we have already mentioned above, it is difficult to achieve profitability in the “network disk” industry by relying on the traditional method of making large-scale services through other services, so we must find a new way out in the model. Survivors in the industry are also exploring new directions, with Baidu’s network disk choosing to pay for knowledge, and the style is similar to “getting”.
From the initial vents to the survivors of the present, China’s “webnets” have gone through a lot of roads and filled a lot of pits after ten years of development. Despite the development of survivors Baidu’s network disk and 115 people, its profit model is still in the process of exploration, but with the arrival of big data and 5G, “network disk” may find a new direction.
I hope that these products that create “value” for users can find a model that suits them at an early date.