Chapter 1291 Market-oriented open source

It is a reasonable arrangement to take down Cheng Zhenping and dismantle the SP business group. There are good reasons, it has alerted everyone, and it is also in the company's interest. As for future business development, there is no need to worry about this.

The SP business is already a sunset industry, and it is no longer the hero of the local area. At that time, countless SP manufacturers begged their grandparents to tell their grandma to give gifts through their relationships in order to put their products on Monternet. Now it's a bit reversed. The state has been rectifying this industry for two years, and with the emergence of the mobile Internet, this industry is no longer viable.

Just like WeChat in the previous life.

When this product was born, it was under a lot of pressure from operators. Because this is grabbing the rice bowl of the SMS business. Threatening to withdraw QQ from Monternet if this product is not withdrawn!

At that time, QQ could still earn tens of millions of dollars per month through the SP business.

Later, WeChat withstood the pressure. Not only did it not shrink back, but its business scope became wider and wider, and even the voice function was launched. It was really going all out.

China Mobile did not dare to remove QQ.

If it is withdrawn, not to mention the loss to QQ, Monternet will suffer the same loss. The income of both parties is split fifty-fifty.

For Ziweixing, the SP business group is the easiest and most inconspicuous department. The reason why the high standard is set as a business group is because this department can make money.

We have to rely on this department to support other departments.

But even so, everyone looked down on it in private, this is not an Internet department at all.

In the name of the Internet, they are working in traditional industries. They scrape out the contents of Embarrassing Encyclopedia, Moments, Interests, Secrets, Toutiao, etc., and hang them on Mengwang.com, and then they can collect money, just like an intermediary. No technical content.

Now the SP business platform has been set up, and the business development is basically almost the same. With the advent of smart phones, how many people will still subscribe to the funny jokes through Monternet? How about downloading an embarrassing app directly on your phone?

Taking advantage of the last few years, it is a fortune to make an extra fortune.

Monternet didn't dare to take big.

They dare not offend Ziweixing, the largest domestic SP customer. If Ziweixing quits, Monternet's performance will plummet, and everyone will have to step down.

Under such a big environment, there is no need for Cheng Zhenping, like a businessman in a traditional industry, to keep inviting this leader to dinner and that leader to sing.

Normal operation is enough, and Guo Pengfei is enough to support it.

In addition, Guo Pengfei also made a request, wanting to recruit Hao Cheng, director of the marketing department of Netease, to serve as the vice president of the network media department, temporarily provide the position of M5, and promise to be M6.

Zhou Buqi didn't pay too much attention to such details, and directly instructed on the document: "Student Zhuan Yiming."

But there was one thing that interested him.

Ziweixing Engineering Institute received the cooperation invitation from Hulu China and wanted to promote a streaming media-related project together.

Originally, this was just an order of 2 million yuan, not worth mentioning.

But when Boss Zhou got involved, Cheng Binghao, the dean of the Academy of Engineering and a veteran entrepreneur, appeared in person and accompanied him throughout the process. Let's go to the Hulu branch together.

I found out after inquiring about it. What a coincidence, it is less than 500 meters away from here!

It is in the Tsinghua Science and Technology Park.

A group of more than a dozen people walked over together.

Zhou Buqi asked, "Is streaming media technology difficult?"

Cheng Binghao said: "It's not difficult, basically all domestic video sites are used. We have made some technical improvements before and applied it to Youku, and the effect is very good. Hulu should have heard the news and wants to cooperate with us." .”

After a pause, he smiled confidently: "Although they are a Silicon Valley company, they are far less attractive to Tsinghua students than Ziweixing."

"What kind of Silicon Valley company is Hulu?" Zhou Buqi shook his head, "It's a Los Angeles company, the same as Hollywood."

Cheng Binghao really didn't quite understand, "Oh, really?"

Some of the things Boss Zhou did in the United States are the layout of the family business, which they don't know.

Zhou Buqi whispered: "Do you know about Netflix?"

"Um."

"They also have streaming media, have you followed it?"

"No."

"Uh..." Zhou Buqi was a little speechless, "Netflix is ​​a Silicon Valley company, what do you think of Netflix's technology?"

"What's the meaning?"

Cheng Binghao was stunned for a moment. What's the technical level of a company in Silicon Valley?

Zhou Buqi said: "I mean, in the field of video streaming technology, is there any gap between China and Silicon Valley? If the gap is not big, can you recommend Netflix to open a branch in China? Help the country solve it employment."

Foreign-funded video sites cannot be opened, and Hulu's domestic branch is actually a technology research center. When Hulu was founded, the CEO was a white man hired from Amazon, and the other core entrepreneurs were all Chinese. Due to limited funds and Chinese genes, Hulu's first research institution was opened in China. A second technology center was established in Silicon Valley just a few months ago.

Cheng Binghao nodded, "This idea is okay, but...it won't work if it's too high-end. You still have to cooperate with us."

"What's the meaning?"

"There are a lot of open source codes now, such as streaming media technology. The technical principle is very simple, which is to first compress the media content to be transmitted, and then transmit it in segments through the network, so that the media content can reach us one after another like flowing water. The terminal playback equipment. But there are many ways to realize it, and there are advantages and disadvantages.”

Zhou Buqi asked: "Good technology, fast transmission?"

Cheng Binghao said: "It probably means this. The better the technology, the better the experience. Especially now that high-definition and ultra-high-definition videos are popular in foreign countries. This is a huge data packet, which requires high technology."

"Then what happened to Hulu's domestic branch?"

"It's just a group of very ordinary technicians."

Cheng Binghao didn't take this foreign company seriously.

To put it bluntly, this is the Tsinghua Science and Technology Park. If there are IT talents, Ziweixing must be the first choice, followed by Sohu and Youku. It's rare that a true master will go to Hulu, a new video company.

Cheng Binghao said: "Few domestic Internet companies will really do their own technology research and development. Either they are very simple and mature projects, or they are looking for open source code, modifying it and making it their own. I told Shen Xiangyang about this matter. We talked about it, and there is a conceptual difference between China and the United States in this regard.”

"how?"

"The pace of Internet companies in Silicon Valley is relatively slow, and the project spends a lot of time in the early stage, such as requirements analysis, architecture discussion, and technical discussion. When writing code, it will take a long-term consideration, and it will have more time to consider development principles and maintenance costs. It is also willing to arrange versions To solve the technical debt. The country is fast-paced, small steps and fast running. In many cases, it takes only a few days of development time. No matter what happens, the track will be occupied first. Under this rhythm, you can only use some Open source code, high efficiency and fast speed. For example, Emby and Plex solutions for streaming media are all open source.”

Zhou Buqi nodded slowly, "There are advantages and disadvantages in everything. The self-developed code has good security and high stability. Although the open source code is easy to use, the stability will be slightly worse."

Cheng Binghao was a little amused, but also sighed inwardly.

Yes, people grow up.

I think that when I first started my business, this was a silly boy who knew nothing about technology. Over the past few years, he, a layman, can also have a certain degree of understanding of some technical concepts.

In this case, Cheng Binghao will have a more in-depth chat, saying: "Although the Internet has the gene of sharing, no Silicon Valley giant will share its exclusive core technology. The reason why they will share the project source for free There are also market considerations for code sharing.”

Then, three reasons are briefly explained.

First, the technology is too simple.

For example, to build a music website, a few college students can do it casually. What is there to hide in the code of such a website? Just open source and share it.

Second, when you are weak, you can use open source to make a big difference.

In the field of operating systems, there are two giants: Microsoft and Apple. How can Google compete if it wants to create an operating system? The answer is open source. Through open source, attract developers from all over the world. The Apple system is completely closed, and the Microsoft system charges fees, so the Android system has a chance to win.

This is the main reason why some high-end technologies are open source.

But open source will definitely bring security risks. It's not that the open source code is poorly written, but that after the code is fully disclosed, developers can use it, and hackers can also use it. It is equivalent to opening the doors and windows of a house, and hackers can easily come and go without a trace.

Third, when it is strong, it can crowd out competitors through open source.

Such as Google Chrome.

In order to develop this product, Google spent nearly 10 billion US dollars before and after, spending more than Android. From a technical point of view, this product is excellent. From a market point of view, this product was a complete failure, a strategic failure. In the wireless era, the browser is the traffic portal for mobile phones. Google thought that the browser would also be the traffic portal in the mobile Internet era.

As soon as the Apple Store came out, Google was dumbfounded.

There is no way but to open source and turn passive into active.

Google's IT technology is number one in the world, and they spent several years making a product that cost billions of dollars... Once this product is released, as long as it is open source, other people's browsers will die!

Only Google is left in the market.

Some small companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop their own browsers, and there is no possibility of survival. Unless a Silicon Valley giant like Microsoft is not convinced and is willing to spend 20 billion US dollars to build another browser kernel, this may surpass Google, but is it necessary? Browsers don't make money at all.

The final result is that the entire browser market is unified by Google, and only Apple's closed system is exclusive. In the future browser, no matter how the shell is changed, there are only two cores, one is Google, and the other is Apple's own Safari.

Although this method did not make money, it hit competitors and promoted its own reputation.

In later generations, when many technology companies were researching self-driving solutions and achieved initial results, Tesla suddenly announced that it would open source its own self-driving solutions... As soon as the news came out, everyone in the world except the Google team The autonomous driving self-research teams are all on hiatus, layoffs, closures, and fire sales.

Cheng Binghao said: "There is another kind of technical expectations that cannot be met, so we can only open source and let developers from all over the world work together. This is true open source technology, but it is rare. Most of them are open source for the market. Make money for free."

Zhou Buqi said: "So Hulu and our cooperation are because they don't see several open source streaming media solutions on the market, and want to develop a safer and more efficient one by themselves?"

Cheng Binghao smiled, "Yes, that's what it means."

This time, Zhou Buqi knew it.

Technology is the user experience. Hulu's research center in China is really poor in technology, and the research center in Silicon Valley is only half opened due to insufficient funds. From this point of view alone, Hulu cannot be Netflix's opponent.