Chapter 2255 It’s both business and politics

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is still a little confused about the Toutiao product, but some specific data are quite shocking.

In the first quarter of this year, Toutiao had 54 million monthly active users on PC and 28 million on mobile. It's just that the mobile terminal is still in the early stages of development and is still operating commercially, without generating profits. But the PC side has been developing for several years and has generated considerable revenue, reaching 230 million yuan.

230 million yuan is only 30 million US dollars, which is actually nothing.

Yahoo is now declining. In the first quarter, under the leadership of Thompson, it can be regarded as the most beautiful financial report in the past seven or eight years, with revenue of 1.221 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 28%.

However, what is really shocking is the huge group of creators behind Toutiao.

It actually exceeded 7 million!

Among them, the number of creators with income has steadily exceeded 2 million.

But among these 2 million creators, most of them have very little income. Some can only earn dozens of dollars a month, but they will still participate happily and continuously provide content for the platform.

Thompson became awe-struck when he heard that most of these creators were college students and college graduates, and that Boss Zhou had built an ecosystem around college students at the beginning of his business.

But my mood became more and more complicated.

It’s not easy to transform Yahoo into Toutiao!

Ziweixing has a core position of campus network in China, backed by tens of millions of college students. After so many years of operation... it has already formed a strong influence.

But not in the United States.

Especially with the supply of so many creators, this is impossible in the United States.

Thompson was a little worried.

He admitted that Toutiao has developed very well and has great product innovation. Compared with those content integration products in the United States, Toutiao has many great advantages.

But the most critical point has never been solved. If you want to transform into a content platform, where will the content come from?

On Zhou Buqi's side, he mobilized troops and mobilized the masses.

It was an eye-opener for Thompson. When Boss Zhou appeared, it seemed that every executive and employee in the company had light in their eyes, and there was unconcealable yearning and admiration between their brows.

It is such a big company, but the internal atmosphere is full of vitality. Looking around... almost all of them are young people, all big boys under the sun.

This is completely different from the lifelessness inside Yahoo, and the scene where employees in their 40s and 50s are everywhere.

This is what youth should be like!

In the afternoon, there was a meeting.

Thompson also attended the meeting, but unfortunately the meeting was in Chinese and he had no translator, so he was in a state of confusion.

The content of the meeting was very clear. Who should be sent to save Yahoo?

To transform Yahoo into Toutiao, it is definitely not possible to rely on foreigners, you still have to do it yourself.

Tang Yuefei, a vice president in charge of sales at Toutiao, volunteered to take on this task. He once studied at Princeton University and worked at Adobe for two years.

The most important thing is that his home is in the United States.

His son is currently in kindergarten in the United States, and his wife is accompanying him there.

Even if he doesn't have this opportunity, he plans to apply for a job transfer within a year or two, and wants to transfer from Ziweixing to Ziweixing International.

It's certainly a good thing if someone takes the initiative.

However, he is a sales executive, which is not enough.

If a product is relatively mature and needs to start commercial development, you might as well appoint a sales executive as CEO to solve the problem of making money.

But now Yahoo is about to begin its transformation and is only in its infancy.

It is best to find an executive with a product background to be the president.

The most important thing at the moment is to make the product "media platform" good.

Later, Liang Rubo nominated a product director named Zhang Li, who is a Chinese-American who grew up in the United States. After graduating from college, I wanted to experience the country where my parents grew up, so I returned to China to work.

He is an American and will return to the United States sooner or later.

Although he is a product maker, his level is a bit low and his experience and abilities are not sufficient.

Zhang Yiming wanted to ask Song Yansong, senior vice president of Toutiao, and believed that he was very suitable to take on the important task of transforming Yahoo.

This Song Yansong is quite powerful. He has been promoted to 9 levels in a row after more than three years of employment.

You know, in Ziweixing's system, promotion reviews are usually conducted every quarter. However, generally speaking, it is difficult for an employee to receive promotions continuously, because after working in a new position for 3 months, it is difficult for him to show outstanding results, and he can participate in a promotion review every six months... without actually being approved. If you get promoted, it would be great if you can participate.

Song Yansong is different, he participates in almost every quarter.

Within 3 years, he was promoted to 9 levels in a row. (The salary level has been improved 9 times and the job level has been improved 5 times.)

He jumped from a low-level manager of M1 to the level of group vice president of M6 today.

Although he is only the senior vice president of Toutiao, the president of Toutiao is concurrently served by Liang Rubo, the president of the new media business group. Song Yansong is actually the current main person in charge of Toutiao, and has single-handedly promoted the development of the mobile Toutiao App. develop.

He is only 29 years old this year. His undergraduate degree is from Nankai University and his graduate degree is from Tsinghua University.

After graduation, I joined Ziweixing and was promoted like a rocket.

Although he has no experience of studying abroad, his English is very good, so language is not a problem. But when I asked him his opinion, he said he didn't want to work abroad.

The meeting lasted for 40 minutes, but nothing was learned.

No suitable candidate found.

Guo Pengfei suggested: "I think the scope of selection can be too wide, and it does not need to be limited to those who have experience working in Toutiao. As long as managers above M5 can sign up."

Zhang Yiming said: "I think it's okay."

Guo Pengfei said: "Of course it is best if you have experience working in Toutiao. If you don't have it, it won't have much impact. We are all our own people. If there is anything you don't know, why not come to Toutiao to learn and ask for advice? That's all. Is it not easier to communicate with local people than with foreigners? In the final analysis, we still need to have innovative thinking and adopt new models to build the new Yahoo."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Yes, New Yahoo."

Guo Pengfei continued: "The main reason for sending people from China is to value the innovation of domestic business models and product models. However, in terms of product design, we still need to respect the local teams. There is still a cultural gap here. Our team used to The most important thing is to provide new ideas, new concepts, and new models. So in my opinion, the most important thing about this leader is not whether he can design products, but whether he can communicate and communicate with all parties. The forces are united."

Zhou Buqi thought what he said made sense and joked: "How about you try it?"

Guo Pengfei was startled and waved his hands quickly, "Pull him down! Let me live for two more years!"

There was laughter in the conference room.

Thompson had no idea what was going on. Seeing everyone laughing, he laughed along with them.

…

The meeting was quite a failure.

After discussing for a long time, we could not come up with a specific plan. We could only expand the scope of selection and open it to more management.

However, Zhou Buqi is full of passion.

It feels like I have regained the passion I had when I started my business.

Transform Yahoo!

What an exciting goal?

In the previous life, Yahoo was nothing but a piece of cake.

If Zhou Buqi can successfully transform this product, buck the trend and make this product a trend-setter in the mobile Internet era, completing Yahoo's recovery... that would be amazing.

It’s not just as simple as making some money with this product.

That would be a huge halo of honor!

After the meeting, Liang Rubo came over.

This is one of the five great diamonds of Ziweixing, even Zhou Buqi can treat him with courtesy.

Among the five major business groups of Ziweixing, the president of the WeChat business group is Guo Pengfei, the president of the Weidian business group is Wang Xiaochuan, the president of the Ziweiyun business group is Zhou Feng, and the president in charge of the central business unit and other administrative businesses is Ji Zi An, the president of the new media business group is Liang Rubo.

Back then, Liang Rubo squeezed out Tang Binchen and successfully took over.

"What's the matter?" Zhou Buqi laughed, "You even made a special trip."

Liang Rubo took a deep breath and said, "How about I go?"

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was slightly startled, "Where are you going?"

Liang Rubo said: "I will go to the United States and be responsible for transforming Yahoo."

"Ahem..."

Zhou Buqi almost spit out the coke he drank in his stomach.

Liang Rubo said in a deep voice: "Actually, when I first heard about this opportunity, I wanted to go out. Now after looking around, it seems that there is no suitable candidate, so why not just me..."

"伱? How are you going?" Zhou Buqi shook his head repeatedly and said angrily, "How can transforming a broken Yahoo be as important as your current job?"

Liang Rubo said: "I think this is a challenge."

Zhou Buqi said: "What kind of challenge is not challenging? What level are you at? If you go, it will be enough to remove Thompson and make you the CEO of Yahoo."

Liang Rubo said crisply and decisively, "Okay."

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "No! The internal chaos at Yahoo is not as simple as you think. Thompson must be at the forefront. With him here, the transformation of Yahoo can proceed smoothly, otherwise it will just be communication and cooperation between businesses. It will be very troublesome.”

Liang Rubo frowned slightly, "Is it really not possible?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Don't think about it. Yahoo only elected a vice president this time, who is responsible for developing mobile platform products. This is not only business, but also politics."

Liang Rubo was immediately amused, "Politics?"

Zhou Buqi sighed, "Well, politics, Yahoo is so complicated. We just took over, so we have to be gentle. Just like He Yang said before, you need warm water to boil the frog. Your level is too high. , if you go directly, everyone knows that we are going to take drastic measures against Yahoo, but you will encounter resistance."