Just as Li Mu was preparing to return to Haizhou for filming, Kong Lingyu brought Li Mu a piece of big news. Tencent and NetEase were testing products similar to Tieba.
Tencent's Q Bar was based on QQ chat rooms, and Q Bar was a product that was 90% similar to Tieba. It was said that Tencent's idea was to direct users from QQ and QQ chat rooms to form the initial users of Q Bar. As for NetEase, their entry point was a little strange. They were developing a product called Game Bar. Just like Q Bar, it was 90% similar to Tieba in terms of product structure, but they intended to make it a professional game Tieba.
Ning Hao had almost completed all the preparation work, and they would be ready to leave in two days. The equipment would be sent to Haizhou soon, but Li Mu suddenly received a piece of news that made him a little anxious.
In Li Mu's memory, Tencent and NetEase had never made any products similar to Tieba. Why did they launch Tieba products at this time? The only possibility was Feng Yu.
Tieba was officially launched at the end of 2003, and Feng Yu's appearance brought Tieba's appearance forward by more than two years. It was because of Feng Yu's early introduction that Tencent and NetEase were interested in Tieba.
Li Mu calculated that Tencent had no real derivative products other than QQ. Their next major product was QQ games, but this platform was only launched in 2003, about the same time as Tieba. According to the rhythm of Feng Yu's previous life, when Baidu was developing Tieba, Tencent was developing QQ games. At that time, Baidu was developing Tieba to increase its user loyalty, and Tencent's goal was the same. So at that time, both companies were busy with their own business, and there was no conflict of interest. That was why Tencent did not spare any energy to develop Tieba. But now it was different. Now Tencent was in a gap in product development, and Tieba was rising at this time. It was reasonable for them to choose to follow suit.
As for what NetEase was going to do … Li Mu was a little confused. Even if they were going to do something like this, it should be a game portal like 17173. What is NetEase trying to do by creating a Tieba forum?
Li Mu suddenly remembered that NetEase will be a gaming company in the future. Their first online game, Journey to the West, should be released at the end of this year. Maybe it would be soon!
'Journey to the West Online' was NetEase's stepping stone into the online games market. Now that NetEase was developing rapidly, and with the Tieba product model in front of them, it was understandable that they wanted to create a Tieba for online games.
After a comprehensive analysis, Li Mu understood Tencent and NetEase's intentions in creating Tieba. Tencent wanted to compete directly with Tieba, while NetEase wanted to cut away Tieba's game users and traffic in the vertical field of games. Both were ambitious, especially Tencent. It now had tens of millions of users. If they really wanted to make "Q Bar" big, it would not be Tencent taking away their GK in the future, but it would be Tencent taking away their GK!
Li Mu responded quickly. On one hand, he asked Kong Lingyu to find out more information. On the other hand, he asked him to strictly block the two products that Makino Technology was currently developing: personal space and happy farm. These two products were his trump cards, and he must ensure that he was ahead of them.
Kong Lingyu had previously received all of Li Mu's plans for the "battle for the foundation." He was naturally aware of the threat of the two big internet companies. He immediately promised Li Mu that the two core products would not be exposed no matter what.
Li Mu nodded. He smacked his lips and said, "In fact, this may not be a bad thing. I originally wanted to use Tieba to take away Tencent's foundation in the instant messaging software. Now they even have the energy to imitate Tieba to replace me. As long as their Q Bar is online, I will not only destroy their Q Bar, but also take away all the advantages they have accumulated in the instant messaging software."
Kong Lingyu asked, "What about NetEase?"
Li Mu waved his hand, "NetEase has no chance. Before 2003, NetEase will not have a big development in the online gaming field. They can't even do their core business well. How can they compete with me on Tieba? The current gaming community is not professional enough. I still have a sharp weapon that I haven't used to dominate the gaming community. "
Kong Lingyu hurriedly asked, "What sharp weapon is it, Boss?"
Li Mu smiled slightly and said mysteriously, "Now is not the time to do this. Let's do our best to do the things in front of us first."
Kong Lingyu saw that Li Mu was not willing to say, so he did not continue asking.
Li Mu, on the other hand, was thinking about YY Voice. YY Voice was a team voice software. It started off as a voice platform for gamers, but it gradually changed to voice and live video streaming. At the beginning, this product was still very important to gamers. Whether it was real-time battle games or online games, they would all have a need for team voice. Li Mu could integrate this with the group function when he launched his own instant messaging software. However, the reason why he did not want to do it now was because of the bandwidth limitations of the current internet. It was not the time for instant voice to be developed in a big way.
However, this did not stop Li Mu from planning the next phase. Tieba had already gathered a considerable number of gamers. When his instant messaging software was online and the group function was brought out, he would be able to provide an instant group communication service for these gamers. Although it was only text communication, it was enough for this phase. As for group voice communication, that would be a matter for the next phase.
Less than two days after the news spread, Tencent's Q Bar completed its internal testing and was launched.
Kong Lingyu received news that Tencent was preparing to launch Q Bar on New Year's Day 2002. However, he did not expect that Tencent had been in internal testing for half a month and could not wait to launch Q Bar on Christmas Eve.
Even Li Mu was a little surprised. Tencent had just received news of their internal testing, and they were already online. Tencent's development and internal testing process was really tight. The most embarrassing thing was that Makino Technology's personal space and Happy Farm had not completed their internal testing.
Tencent had the upper hand at this stage. Tieba's share was originally 100%, and the users overlapped with Tencent's QQ. Once Q Bar was launched, Tencent used QQ software and QQ chatrooms to lure away many users. Tencent even mobilized fake reviewers to advertise on the major Tieba forums, trying to lure more Tieba users to Q Bar.
Almost instantly, Tieba was criticized by people in the industry.
First, there was news of Baidu withdrawing from Makino Technology. Then, there were rumors that Makino Technology was stubborn and insisted on building a navigation station. Then, there was the appearance of Tencent's Q Bar and the news of NetEase's internal testing. It was not surprising that Makino Technology's Tieba was criticized. After all, in the eyes of outsiders, Makino Technology first lost its allies, then chose the wrong development direction. Now, a strong enemy emerged, and it was bound to start going downhill. If Makino Technology could think of a strategy to turn the tide in time, it could still slow down this downward trend. However, if they really wanted to build a navigation website at this time, the speed of decline would probably get faster and faster, and eventually, it would be out of control.
As soon as Q Bar was launched, Baidu's Li Zong and Tan Yaocheng met in the office. Li Zong asked Tan Yaocheng, "Old Tan, what do you think of the future of Makino Technology?"
Tan Yaocheng said, "I think that Li Mu is really screwed up this time. The most important thing is not his obsession with building a navigation station, but the fact that Tieba has not received a Series B financing yet. Ideas can change as the situation changes. However, Makino Technology is not optimistic about the industry now, so the investors will definitely be very cautious about them. Before this, Makino Technology could use a valuation of three to four hundred million yuan to raise Series B at any time. But now, it seems that even if he lowers his value, the investors will not casually come in. They will definitely wait and see for a period of time. However, Makino Technology has only raised a few million yuan from Series A since the beginning, and cut out a portion of the cash to Yi Ting Technology. Their cash flow probably won't be able to support them for long."
Li Zong nodded repeatedly and said in agreement, "You're right. When two armies fight, it's not military strength, but logistics. Li Mu has no food on hand now. Tencent's Q Bar is constantly exerting its power. He can't afford to fight at all. In the end, he can only be eaten a little."
As he said that, Li Zong said with a smile, "I think we should wait and see how long Li Mu can last under the siege of Tencent and NetEase. If the time is right, I think we can help him."
Tan Yaocheng's eyes widened. "Help him?"
Li Zong smiled and said, "That's right. Even if Q Bar and Game Bar besiege Tieba together, Tieba still has a certain advantage. At least Tieba has such a long time of accumulation of content and user habits, so its market share will be eaten away. However, this process will not be too fast. If Li Mu does not have the funds to go against these two companies and does not have the capital to invest in him at the critical moment, then we will re-invest in Makino Technology. Whether it is Tencent or NetEase, their Tieba products do not have our advantage. Tieba is a form of search for keywords. The nature of Tieba is naturally to integrate with search engines."
Tan Yaocheng said, "What you said is true, but Li Zong, even if we invest in Tieba, we may not be able to defeat Tencent and NetEase."
Li Zong nodded and smiled. "There is no need to defeat them. As long as Tieba can hold more than 60% of its market share and persist, it will be a success. If Li Mu is at the edge of the cliff, he will definitely not be able to save himself. At that time, only we can save him, because we can not only provide money, but also provide traffic. If Tieba is on the verge of death, only we can save it!"
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