"Boss, our market share has dropped to only 45%!" In the office, Brother Xiao Ma, who had just received the latest market research results, was so agitated that his fingernails were digging into his flesh.
He had previously assured investors with great confidence that QQ's market share would increase to over 65% within six months. Yet, he could only watch as, in less than 20 days after signing the agreement, QQ's market share plummeted from 56% to 45%, a staggering 11% drop. This happened so unexpectedly, yet it felt so inevitable.
This was because Facebook was incredibly popular, to an incomprehensible degree. In those 20 days, Facebook had transformed from a nascent infant on the internet into a traffic-devouring monster.
With 20 million registered users and 5 million active users, Facebook had become one of the top 5 most trafficked internet companies in China, trailing only QQ, 00, the 00 Game Center, and Legend of Mir.
If one looked closely, three of these top 5 traffic monsters belonged to the Jiangnan Group. The rival had firmly secured half of the internet world.
Furthermore, Facebook's user data was continuously growing. According to their own market analysts' estimations, Facebook would evolve into a monster-level internet product within three months, boasting over 50 million registered users and 10 million active users, ranking third in overall network traffic.
With a bit of luck, it might even become the second-largest, as QQ might not be able to compete with Facebook by then.
The fundamental reason for QQ's market share plunge was also tied to Facebook.
This was because Facebook was tightly integrated with 00. Although they were two entirely different products, due to the mutual compatibility of their friend lists, Facebook and 00 were inextricably linked. All 00 friends automatically became Facebook friends, and conversely, Facebook friends automatically became 00 friends.
Moreover, registering for a Facebook account required registering for a 00 account, as Facebook used 00 accounts for login.
However, Facebook's social experience was centered around schools, thus attracting many users outside of 00. After all, there were still many middle-aged people who owned computers but did not use 00 and had no interest in it whatsoever.
But with the advent of Facebook, a trend of finding alumni had swept across the internet.
Although Facebook's current core social experience was centered on small, exclusive campus interactions, it was still the main draw.
Facebook's content experience was primarily divided into three sections: the Space Hall, which displayed all Facebook spaces; Time and Space Dynamics, which showcased real-time updated space content from all connected friends or those who had unilaterally left a Time and Space Beacon; and the Learning Garden, which served as the social center for users' respective schools, displaying only space messages posted by users within that particular school.
Although this segmented the community somewhat, it greatly increased user engagement. For students, everyone knew that any minor event within the school would become the hottest topic for the entire school. Now, with a dedicated area for creating buzz, students would spend about two hours on Facebook after classes, engrossed in the various interesting anecdotes happening within their schools.
Anecdotes were only half the story; the other half was photo sharing. While obtaining a digital photo was very difficult in 2002, there were always a few tech-savvy students in every school who became the darlings of the entire student body. Many students, eager to have a digital photo on their space, would beg these students with cameras for a photo session.
Beautiful girls were particularly enthusiastic about this. Since photo editing technology was not yet prevalent, it was said that these beautiful girls would meticulously prepare for over four hours before taking a photo, just to upload a perfect picture to their spaces.
Then, countless "wolves" would howl with anticipation and flock to their school's designated area to admire their beautiful female classmates.
This situation turned many aspiring photographers into sought-after individuals. It was rumored that if someone brought a digital camera to school and claimed to be a proficient photographer, regardless of their appearance, they would immediately find a beautiful girlfriend, on the condition that the photographer refrained from photographing other female students.
This unforeseen development led to many future Chinese internet dwellers aspiring to become professional photographers.
Beyond current students, even alumni who had graduated for years or even decades were not exceptions. These older alumni had very complex feelings towards their former classmates and were extremely enthusiastic about alumni gatherings. However, it was difficult to find some classmates who had been lost for years. Thus, they began spontaneously promoting Facebook to those around them, inviting them to create accounts on the platform.
These individuals had a common characteristic: they used their real names and did not use online aliases. They also disliked posting photos or personal updates, but they enjoyed sharing articles recalling past stories, specifically to attract old classmates.
Such schools were primarily universities. In many university learning gardens, the number of alumni users who had graduated far outnumbered current students. These younger students would immerse themselves in the interesting stories of their elders and were astonished to discover many campus legends within their schools.
In essence, as long as one had attended school, one could find enjoyment on Facebook. This truly attracted many users who had never used 00 before. And once these users registered for a 00 account to log into Facebook, they directly became 00 users.
Of course, some might argue that simply registering for a 00 account merely made one a registered user, not an active user required for traffic metrics, and that such users were essentially meaningless.
However, those who spoke this way vastly underestimated our Boss Huang.
After all, Facebook was a website primarily showcasing user spaces. While the website offered messaging and internal mail functions for user communication.
Users familiar with platforms like Renren.com and Xiaonei.com knew that internal mail was quite inconvenient to use, cumbersome, and prone to missed messages.
This was because once the webpage was closed, no internal mail could be received.
But 00 perfectly solved this problem. Firstly, if one was already a 00 user, all internal messages would be directly sent to their 00 account, allowing communication through 00 without needing the internal mail function.
Then, for new users who had never used 00, this was even better. These users would soon discover the inconvenience of the internal mail function. Furthermore, within the internal mail page, there was a prompt: "Download 00 with one click for convenient communication, mutual photo and file sharing, and direct voice calls."
Faced with such a prompt, most new users found it irresistible, especially when they encountered old classmates they hadn't seen in years and had an urgent need to chat. They would unhesitatingly click the button and begin downloading 00.
Moreover, the 00 installer downloaded here had been specifically modified. Upon successful download, it would automatically enter the installation program. Subsequently, every option that required manual clicking would have a direct text prompt. If unsure which option to choose, simply clicking "OK" would suffice, as even those unfamiliar with computers could easily install 00.
Additionally, 00 thoughtfully provided startup and auto-login features. Upon starting the computer, it would automatically log into QQ, offering continuous service to those older users unfamiliar with computers.
In this manner, 00 gained a multitude of new users. Since these users had never previously interacted with QQ or 00, their loyalty to 00 was extremely high. They were virtually impossible to sway to QQ, as they were unaware that another chat software called QQ even existed.
Secondly, there were the "dual-cultivator" users who were on the fence.
Some had previously complained, questioning how market share could be calculated if many users simultaneously used both software.
In reality, market share calculation typically focused on the user's primary chat software.
During market surveys, a question was always posed: "What is your primary chat software?" This allowed for a clear-cut survey result: whichever software you used more time on, you were considered a user of that software.
The emergence of Facebook shifted many users' online time from internet chatting with platforms like 00 and QQ to browsing various interesting information on Facebook. This lifestyle led to a simultaneous decline in user engagement time for both 00 and QQ.
However, due to the deep integration between 00 and Facebook, and the fact that both used 00 accounts, many Facebook users would subconsciously opt for 00 when facing this issue.
In their perception, using Facebook also meant using 00.
These two factors combined caused the user balance to tilt decisively towards Facebook and 00. This resulted in the terrifying data of QQ's market share plummeting by 11% in less than 20 days.
"No wonder Huang He and 00 remained silent for half a year; they were actually spending that time developing Facebook!" At this moment, Brother Xiao Ma had a sudden realization, seemingly understanding his opponent's strategy.
But understanding the strategy was of little use. The crucial point was to halt the current decline.
"There's only one solution now: we must have our own Facebook!" Brother Xiao Ma, true to his reputation, immediately came up with the best solution and then sought out Zhang Zhidong.
"I'm giving you 15 days to come up with our Facebook!" Brother Xiao Ma said in a low but unyielding tone.