Crazy stories of "poaching" in the Internet circle

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Someone once said, "In the 21st century, talent is the most valuable resource." Although gathering outstanding talents together may not necessarily produce an outstanding company, an outstanding company must gather outstanding talents. Looking at the Internet circle, from "BAT" to "MJ3", the giants all relied on their own highly combative soldiers to build their empires.

Precisely because talents are so rare, the various princes have used all kinds of tricks to compete for this rare resource: going directly to the door, offering a large reward, "honey trap"... There is nothing they can't do, except what you can't think of.

The scramble for talent is getting more intense

Last week, when the news of the closure of Yahoo's Beijing R&D Center came out, the entire industry was in an uproar. The 350 people in Yahoo's Beijing R&D Center are all industry elites who have been through many battles. How could they not be tempted by this piece of fat meat? So, a "recruitment army" said to include about 500 companies quickly appeared at the door of Yahoo's Beijing R&D Center. Among them were local giants who came in forcefully, and more were just there to join in the fun and try to pick up wallets. In just a few days, countless stories happened in the small Yahoo Beijing R&D Center.

On the day the news was released, former Yahoo employees immediately sneaked in to take their former friends away; afterwards, various companies in the industry also went there to set up stalls, and the coffee shop downstairs was packed with people. Those who came late had to queue further and further away. The scene was as popular as any large-scale job fair. Offline was so lively, and online hookups could not be stopped at all. Everyone wanted to get the most complete resources, so much so that the starting red envelope price for joining a Yahoo employee group was raised to 100 per person. In addition, Xiao Nei heard that there was a situation where the leader among the employees kicked the HR/headhunter away and led the brothers to find their own way out.

In fact, whether it is on-site competition or online hooking, this piece of fat meat will basically be divided up by the first-tier giants. If you rashly join the battle, you will not only join in the fun, but you may also never return. A tragic startup sent two engineers to the event, but both of them were poached by other companies on the spot. The so-called 500 companies present, most of them were there to join in the fun, take the opportunity to market, or even intend to pick up wallets. There was such a company, they didn't even want to poach Yahoo's elites, but sent two beauties to hook up, and finally brought back an engineer and a senior operator from the scene.

There are precedents for scenes like this. In 2012, Youku and Tudou officially merged, but the core members who left Tudou were not sad because they were quickly snatched up by LeTV, iQiyi, and Sohu Video. In the same year, Motorola, which had just finished its last gasp, began to lay off employees worldwide, with China being the first to be hit. As for employees who left Motorola, companies in the industry immediately rushed to grab them after hearing the news. As a result, the domestic mobile phone brands that have risen in recent years are basically inseparable from the contributions of old Motorola people. Last year, Motorola's good friend Nokia also made large-scale layoffs in China. With the experience of the last time, companies in the circle were more orderly this time. Companies such as Alibaba, Xiaomi, and ZTE have successively released recruitment information specifically for them. A few months later, Sony also made large-scale layoffs in China. It is said that many companies heard the news and sent HR to squat in the coffee shop downstairs to wait for on-site interviews.

It can be found that most of the scramble is due to the layoffs of foreign companies in China. This basically reflects a major trend in the domestic Internet industry. While old foreign companies are entering a period of decline, local companies are rising strongly. As a result, there is a flow of talent from foreign companies to local companies.

As long as the hoe dances well

The fierce competition for talent is not just about the scramble caused by layoffs. The truly exciting stories happen every moment in daily work and life.

It is said that spring is the season for love, but have you ever thought that love and poaching can be organically combined? On the eve of Singles' Day in 2011, a company in Chengdu did its best to encourage single employees. The boss said that he would provide bonuses and special paid leave for successful employees. In addition, he also came up with a unique trick - any local IT company employee who successfully develops a relationship can receive a "potential poaching bonus" of 1,000 yuan. This really brings the potential of employees to the extreme.

It is said that rabbits don't eat grass near their burrows, but some companies have no taboos and they start poaching people from next door. Xiao Nei has a programmer friend named TJ. One day, he got an enthusiastic call from a former colleague as soon as he got up. The other party said that his boss really wanted to meet him to talk, and the location was in Building C of a SOHO, and TJ's company was actually in Building B. So he went there that day, and the other boss made an irresistible offer on the spot. Then, TJ never went back to Building B to report. So, facing the "neighbor Wang" with ulterior motives, you have to be on guard.

As for how to use the hoe of poaching well, naturally, it is nothing more than strong strength and a sharp weapon - money. Large companies have a natural advantage in this regard. Last year, LeTV ushered in explosive growth amid the "no return storm" of its own boss Jia Yueting, and its stock also experienced a miracle of "28 to 82" after several suspensions. While performance grew and stock prices soared, they also attacked from all sides to reserve talents through poaching. In the first half of the year, two former Meizu VPs, Mo Cuitian and Ma Lin, joined successively, and now LeTV mobile phones are ready to go. In the second half of the year, from CCTV Liu Jianhong to Sina Sports, LeTV Sports also completed its independent formation through recruiting troops.

In the battle for talent, it is not always the wealthy who launch a "money war" against the weaker party. Occasionally, there will be a counterattack. In 2008, that was the heyday of 51.com. As a social networking site, their biggest rival was QQ Space. In order to win the competition, 51 hired headhunters to launch a fierce attack on multiple relevant departments of Tencent. After a round of money offensive, 15 "Penguin Warriors" actually threw themselves into the arms of the other party. Tencent woke up quickly and filed a lawsuit against the other party, and began to take 51 seriously. As for the story later, after new friends such as Xiaonei, Kaixin, and Renren joined, 51.com had long disappeared.

To achieve the highest level of poaching, you must not limit yourself to the Internet circle, but reach out to a higher level. With the rise of Internet finance, batches of financial professionals have accepted offers from Internet companies without hesitation. But when it comes to the strongest upward poaching, it must be the feat of poaching from the government. Last year, Liu Qiangdong said in an internal speech that if people from the Ministry of Agriculture go to JD.com, their salary can increase by 5 times and they will also be given free stocks. In addition, 360 also successfully poached the spokesperson of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine as VP. Alibaba has even reached out overseas, poaching Wilkinson from the US Treasury Department to be in charge of international affairs.

It is precisely because of the constant competition for talent in the Internet industry that a series of vertical industry recruitment websites have room to survive. Some of them even have a valuation of over 100 million yuan, which really makes those old recruitment websites that are on the decline sweat.

Attack and defense among Silicon Valley giants

At the beginning of this year, a talent poaching war broke out between Tesla, which already makes cars, and Apple, which plans to make cars. According to statistics, Tesla, which took the initiative, poached 150 R&D and sales personnel from Apple. But Apple also responded quickly, offering a salary 60% higher than Tesla's to attract employees from the other side. Although Tesla has an advantage in poaching, they have to lay off a large number of employees due to sluggish sales. In this regard, Apple, which plans to build the "Titan", said it was happy to see it, and even a shareholder proposed at the meeting that "we should just take them over."

Apple has always been quick to respond and act ruthlessly when it comes to poaching people. In September last year, BlackBerry, which was losing ground, laid off 40% of its employees. Upon hearing the news, Apple immediately held a recruitment event in a hotel and conference center not far from BlackBerry's headquarters, aggressively recruiting the other party's mobile phone elites to join. Also last year, in order to create Apple Watch, a "luxury product in smart devices", Apple poached four big names from the luxury goods industry, including the CEO of a first-tier brand like Burberry.

In addition to Apple, other giants in Silicon Valley, such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, have all made great efforts to poach people. When they fight each other, the usual rhythm is like this: Google poaches people from Yahoo and Apple; Microsoft poaches people from Yahoo; Mei leads Yahoo to fight back and poach people from the old company; even Samsung comes all the way from South Korea to interfere... In short, the cycle of revenge seems to never end.

In order to avoid such a vicious cycle, this group of highly intelligent bosses once discussed together and came up with a "Love Silicon Valley - No Poaching Alliance" consisting of 7 companies. However, because they were too shrewd, the clause aimed at lowering employee wages by not poaching each other eventually became the Achilles heel of this "invincible agreement". In 2011, five former employees sued the 7 giants in court for this agreement. In May last year, the three-year lawsuit ended, and Apple, Google and other giants paid a total of US$325 million in compensation, and the agreement was declared invalid.

The competition for talent, especially elite talent, is fierce in any field. As long as there is competition between different companies in the market, poaching aimed at attacking rivals will definitely continue. As for whether it is "only the price that cannot be paid" or "wealth cannot be moved" under the influence of money, it depends on the individual.