Exclusive interview with Qiniu President Lv Guihua: Let cloud services penetrate into life

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Cloud has become one of the hottest topics in the Internet industry. If you don't talk about cloud, you'd be embarrassed to say you're in the Internet industry. Just like what Qiniu's Lv Guihua said, the development of the Internet can be simply divided into two stages: the toy stage and the practical stage. The first ten years of the Internet were the toy stage. We used the Internet to read news and play games. Without the Internet, our lives would have no impact. Now is the practical stage. Without the Internet, we can't live. Without Taobao and JD.com, we might not know where to buy things.

In fact, it is not just the Internet, the same is true for cloud. When the concept of cloud is still being mentioned again and again, cloud has not been integrated into our lives. When one day we find that our life will become very difficult without the cloud, cloud becomes an indispensable part of our lives.

51CTO interviewed Qiniu COO Lv Guihua, how an Internet person who grew up with China's Internet views the future of cloud.

The following is a summary of the recording

Reporter: As a cloud storage company, why is Qiniu called Qiniu, which is a down-to-earth name and seems to be out of tune with the cloud?

Lv Guihua: Why is Microsoft called Microsoft? Actually, it has little to do with software. And I think the name should not be too straightforward. If you do cloud storage, you must call it something cloud, which shows that you have no confidence in the company's future.

If you want the company to develop in the future, the company name should not be related to the business scope, so that the team can have enough imagination, just like Apple is not called Apple Computer.

Reporter: You have experienced all aspects of the Internet at Kingsoft and Shanda, but why do you focus on cloud storage when starting your own business? Qiniu is more focused on image storage, what is the reason?

Lv Guihua: First of all, why did you choose storage? It has little to do with my personal experience. Because I have always been committed to becoming a comprehensive business manager in the industry, so what products to make depends on the situation. At that time, Qiniu's technical team was very focused on storage. From the perspective of improving the success rate of entrepreneurship, you must do it from the perspective you are best at, and then choose the most needed product at the moment. The Qiniu team has many years of storage experience. At present, cloud disk is the most popular direction, so we decided to do cloud storage after combining them.

Reporter: What was Qiniu's initial entrepreneurial team like?

Lv Guihua: At the beginning of the business, the core members of the team had been friends for more than ten years, but they were scattered all over the place and worked in different companies on different products. When we started the business, we thought about what kind of people we needed, but we did not limit them to which industry they belonged to or how much experience they had in a certain sub-function. Rather, we considered whether this person fits Qiniu's temperament. We selected the person in charge of direction, the person in charge of technology, the person in charge of business, the person in charge of HR, and the person in charge of finance in this way. Although we may need to learn skills, this is very down-to-earth and inspiring.

There are not many professional managerial jobs in Qiniu, so our team is very special. There is no absolute leader in the team. We are a team and we promote each other to make the whole team move forward faster.

Reporter: Although Qiniu does not have a core leader, a company must have a management team. As the company's COO, in what capacity do you enter the team and manage it?

Lv Guihua: Qiniu has two founders, one is Xu Shiwei, a technical expert, who is mainly responsible for the company's technical direction and product essence. I am responsible for a lot of coordination work - how to find the right people, put them in the right positions, and know the right direction.

Someone once asked me this question: "How to convince people who are better than you to join your team."

I think, first of all, don't compare yourself with others. If you are better than others in every aspect, why don't you do it yourself? And I just do the coordination work, let these strong people join Qiniu, let them have their own direction, and don't repeatedly compare who is stronger? I want them to realize that in Qiniu, he is the authority in the aspect he is in, and the authorities in several major aspects constitute our complete collective.

Reporter: You spent the first half of your career dealing with machines, and the second half dealing with people. Many technical people find it easier to deal with machines. What do you think?

Lv Guihua: It is generally acknowledged that it is easier to deal with machines, because machines are stable systems. As long as you understand them and give them certain inputs, they will definitely have certain outputs, and these outputs are predictable. On the contrary, people are unstable and dynamic. For example, if you say something to him today, he will understand it in this way, but he may not understand it in the same way tomorrow. Therefore, it is very important to obtain contextual information. Dealing with people, especially dealing with multiple people, is a more challenging thing. I am not saying this because I like to abuse myself, but I think different things need different suitable people to do them, and I am more suitable to deal with people.

Reporter: How do you coordinate the entire team at Qiniu?

Lv Guihua: First of all, you must be humble. Don’t compete with others every day and take pleasure in defeating others. But you must be strong enough in your heart. Being strong means that you cannot limit your behavior because of other people’s opinions. You need to have your own opinions, and then be able to integrate them to make a plan that everyone must accept and move forward. The stronger the person, the stronger his opinions. If you ignore his opinions, you will get a serious backlash. If you want easy opinions, find a group of very frustrated people. You tell them what to do, and they will do it. They will not scold you. If they fail and the company goes bankrupt, they will find another company. This kind of management is the easiest, but the possibility of the company being successful is relatively low. If you want to succeed, you must have a group of talented people, and you must keep these talented people in the team. It is not for you to suppress them, but to make them feel that this environment is the most suitable for them and the most suitable for their development. Qiniu has been committed to creating such an environment.

Reporter: You have more than ten years of experience in the Internet industry. It can be said that you have been with the Internet all the way. How do you view the future position of cloud in the Internet?

Lv Guihua: I think the development of the Internet can be divided into two stages. The first stage is the toy stage. The first ten years of the Internet were in a toy state. We use the Internet to read news, socialize, and play games. If the Internet suddenly disappeared, we might feel very unhappy, but we can still go on with our lives.

The Internet has undergone drastic changes in recent years. It seems that life cannot go on without the Internet. Without Taobao and JD.com, where should I go to buy things? In fact, the Internet is disappearing and integrated into our lives, just like water, electricity, and gas. Cloud services themselves are only a support system, and they should be integrated into life. We should strive to make it disappear, let it become a support for every bit of life, and disdain to perceive the existence of the cloud.

The cloud itself should not be a product. It should not be a service that everyone says is great. There is no need for so many people to praise it. The same is true for the Internet. The so-called "Internet +" is actually the Internet economy. The Internet economy is to integrate the Internet into life and the real economy, and the real economy is Internet-based. After mutual integration, the Internet is just a certain attribute of the real economy, but some work must be done on the Internet. Therefore, O2O should not be a sub-industry, and there should be no O2O industry. All entities are O2O, and all Internet is O2O.

Reporter: Speaking of the toy stage, the smart hardware industry seems to be undergoing such a transformation. Many smart home entrepreneurs believe that the process of smart home from toys to intelligence requires the accumulation of big data. What plans does Qiniu have in terms of big data?

Lv Guihua: First of all, data accumulation requires a kind of blind accumulation courage. When I was accumulating data, I didn't know what the data was actually for. For example, in the current cloud photo album, users think that it is just to collect and display, and to ensure that it will not be lost. In fact, this can be considered a false demand. In the future, the information contained in these photos will generate huge value. The question is whether you have the courage and money to accumulate until the moment when it explodes.

Qiniu is currently doing this with its clients, first advancing based on the needs that can be seen at present, but at the same time it also needs to instill a concept - data assets are becoming increasingly important and will surpass physical assets at some point.

Reporter: When data accumulates to a certain level, its value can only be reflected through analysis and mining of the data. So does Qiniu have any plans for data analysis?

Lv Guihua: We believe that data analysis can be divided into three levels: the first level is data, the second level is data processing capabilities, and the third level is what kind of processing to do. What we need to do now is to store the data well, have data processing and storage capabilities, and store a large amount of data. In the third level, we prefer to introduce a large number of analysis vendors, so that everyone can work together to provide analysis for customers.

Reporter: Now BAT are all launching their own cloud services. Are you worried that these giants will pose a threat to Qiniu?

Lv Guihua: At present, the threat is minimal. We still attach great importance to Alibaba Cloud because we think it is serious about cloud computing. We respect and value all competitors who are serious about this industry.

Reporter: What suggestions do you have for technical people's transformation?

Lv Guihua: If you are good at technology, you don’t need to transform. As long as you keep learning, you can retire as a technician. As your experience grows, your value will increase. Moreover, it is a difficult process for a technician to switch to a management position. It is not that I can become a manager if I don’t write code. In fact, management is another process, and it is more difficult than writing code.

summary

With the development of mobile Internet, cloud will become more indispensable, but there is no unified standard in the industry at this stage. Lv Guihua believes that just like office software, there is no standard, but if Microsoft Office cannot be opened, there is a problem. Therefore, there will be a de facto standard in the cloud industry. And this de facto standard is formulated by the industry leader, and Qiniu is committed to becoming such a leader.