If you don't overthrow the three giants of BAT, you will be the next to die.

Internet giants led by Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are using their own advantages to lay out the entire Internet entrepreneurial track, becoming the three mountains for entrepreneurs in the mobile Internet era. BAT is becoming synonymous with Internet capitalism. Including BAT monopoly, the difficulties faced by Chinese entrepreneurs are probably not limited to these.

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Today's Double 11 has changed from an e-commerce festival to a carnival. In addition to hosting evening parties, encouraging consumption is to show data. Tmall's sales on Double 11 exceeded 91.2 billion yuan. Alibaba showed off its data, but poor JD only dared to show off that its customer unit price exceeded 800 yuan. Behind the disparity in numbers, the author saw some regrets and concerns about China's Internet entrepreneurship. Under the mountain of Alibaba, the big tree of JD "sways left and right", not to mention the situation of countless entrepreneurs. After Double 11, the author of Pintu.com saw the bloody wounds of Chinese entrepreneurs.

China's Internet has entered the era of BAT

The first batch of Internet startups were represented by portal websites in the PC era. Baidu, Tencent, Dianping and other Internet companies entered the PC Internet to seek development around 2000. It can be said that 1998 to 2003 was the window period for Internet startups, and various e-commerce and portal websites were established one after another.

The bursting of the Internet bubble after 2000 led to a dormant period for Internet entrepreneurship from 2004 to 2011. At that time, the Chinese Internet giant was not a company that won only in business model, but Lenovo, a computer manufacturer. With the explosion of PC network in China, Lenovo became a well-known computer brand at home and abroad. It was not until 2011, with the establishment and rise of Groupon in the United States, that Chinese group buying websites saw the opportunity and intended to copy the group buying model to enter China. Only then did the Chinese Internet begin to enter a new era of transforming business models. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is "transformation" rather than "creation". Since 2011, Chinese Internet startups have followed the example of the United States, but localized innovation is rare.

As early as 2007, Apple began to transform from a computer business to a mobile phone business. Chinese people also began to follow suit around 2011, and various copycat mobile phones came into being. At this time, Chinese entrepreneurs saw the absence of domestic smartphones and wisely chose to build their own smartphone brands. Smartphone brands such as Xiaomi and Huawei were born. In 2011, the United States entered the mobile Internet era, and the American WhatsApp APP was born. Social networking between people began to enter the mobile Internet era. Tencent imitated the WhatsApp and developed WeChat.

In 2012, the Internet entered the O2O era, and the O2O window period arrived. O2O was introduced to China. With the popularity of Uber in the United States, Didi, Yaoyao Taxi and other taxi-hailing apps came into being. In 2013, there were hundreds of taxi-hailing apps. In 2014, group buying moved to mobile terminals, and home delivery services became popular in China.

In the past 10 years of the Internet, it took JD.com 10 years to break through 10 billion, Alibaba 10 years to break through 100 billion, and Meituan 5 years to reach less than 100 billion. Didi only took 2 years to break through 10 billion market value, and the staff was only 4,600 people, and it achieved miracles with very few people... It is the success and continuous promotion of these Chinese Internet companies that make entrepreneurs eager to try, thinking that the Internet is full of positive energy, opportunities and dreams everywhere. However, when we calm down, we find that the Chinese Internet is entering a vicious circle of capitalism. Facing the era of Internet entrepreneurship, we need to reflect.

Five pain points of China's Internet entrepreneurship

Plagiarism is rampant

We found that there are many Chinese companies imitating American technologies and models, but it is difficult to find an American company learning Chinese models and technologies. This reflects the serious lack of innovation and entrepreneurship in China's Internet and the lack of brand building awareness.

Burning money

Burning investors' money to pay for customers, not to create value but to go public or sell the company to find a buyer. Burning money has created unhealthy values ​​for Internet entrepreneurship. Relying on subsidies to grab users, and sending gifts by scanning a code, this Internet push method, even if it burns money, cannot bring stickiness. Looking for target customers all over the world is just to have a good user share, then attract investment, and then burn money. The money-burning model has entered a vicious circle, and few startups can get out of it.

Pursuit of speed

They don’t want to build a business for the long term, but only want to make money quickly. They lack entrepreneurial ideals and fighting spirit. The entrepreneurial atmosphere is impetuous. Everyone only sees Didi, which has grown rapidly in two years, but does not see the large number of taxi-hailing apps that have died behind them. They all want to emulate these platforms and want to make money for retirement in two or three years, and then turn to investment. For entrepreneurs, it is difficult to steadily make good products without the spirit of creating value for users and changing the pain points of the industry.

Entertainment

The entertainment of Internet startup marketing lacks a rigorous product attitude. Large companies are either "speculating on tea" or hiring a celebrity as a "vase", and small companies are either topless or sticking QR codes on their buttocks. I wonder if this is sensationalism or a "must-have" for public opinion? Can entertainment marketing really bring user stickiness and product recognition? I don't think so.

monopoly

Monopoly, starting with the merger of the top two companies in the industry, has been going on for the whole year. The merger of the top two companies has made it more difficult for other small and medium-sized enterprises to survive. In the absence of a competitive business environment, consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises will sooner or later have to pay the price. Among them, BAT is the manipulator behind the monopoly.

BAT has become synonymous with China's Internet capitalism, intending to monopolize vertical tracks, prompting China to accelerate its entry into the monopoly stage of Internet capitalism. It is difficult for entrepreneurs to have equal voice with BAT. BAT's investment in a segmented track means that many other vertical track companies have no chance. A recent joke just illustrates this point: Alibaba - After giving me traffic, you are mine. Baidu - After giving you traffic, I will control you. Tencent - Give you money, you give me shares to strive for profit maximization.

Facing these five pain points, perhaps we should recall the original intention of the Internet - don't forget the original intention, and you will succeed. The Internet's pioneers did not make a fortune by patenting Internet technology, but chose to make this technology that changed humanity public to promote progress. Chinese Internet startups lack such a fair and selfless spirit of the Internet.

How to move forward after reflection?

In this era of entrepreneurship, if we are calmer, we will think about how we should proceed so that China's Internet can develop more healthily and generate more user value, rather than exploiting users and small and medium-sized enterprises to bring ourselves capital profits. This is not the original intention of fairness and freedom of the Internet. So what should entrepreneurs do when faced with the situation of being chased by wolves in front and soldiers behind? Here, Pintu.com prescribes three good prescriptions for Chinese Internet entrepreneurs:

First of all, we should strive to carry out localized innovation. It is better to have a long-term vision than to have a long-term vision. Having a long-term vision means that as soon as we see new models and technologies from abroad, we will copy them and try them out in China. If they fail, it will consume a lot of social resources. For example, in the group buying war after 2011, hundreds of group buying companies copied the West. Later, the originator of group buying chose to be forced to transform, and group buying websites fell one after another, which proved the fate of plagiarism. Meituan and Dianping can survive because they localized traditional group buying, that is, the transformation of group buying to the field of local life services, so everyone can see today's "New Meituan". What should be long-term is vision rather than eyes! Finding the outlet of the times requires insight and judgment. What is popular in the West may not be the outlet of our future. It is feasible to learn and draw on Western business models, but it is not feasible to blindly copy.

Secondly, we don’t seek to become a unicorn from the beginning, but to create value in a down-to-earth manner. The greater the value generated, the greater the market value. It is not that value is generated only when there is market value. To become a unicorn, it is not about lofty ambitions, but about ingenuity to change the pain points of users or contribute to the industry. Entrepreneurs need to understand what value and how much value my products and services can generate, which requires conscientious service and products. For example, DJI’s world-leading drone technology is something that even the United States wants to explore. DJI has developed and reserved the best technology for the next 2-3 years through innovative R&D laboratories, and continues to integrate new technologies into its own creativity and imagination, so that these advanced scientific and technological achievements can be applied to products that solve various practical industrial and commercial problems. DJI has accumulated nine years to achieve today’s results. No matter how big a business is, it must start from the ground, and no matter how big the ambition is, it must be accumulated in a down-to-earth manner.

***, start from scratch, China needs more than just one BAT. In the competition dimension of BAT, there are only two fates, being invested or being destroyed. The so-called starting from scratch and building an ecosystem by yourself may be a way to jump out of the monopoly. Of course, this is extremely difficult. It requires not only strong human and financial support, but also requires at least one product with high user recognition, and thereby building an ecological chain to complete the closed loop. LeTV has achieved profitability by building its own ecosystem "platform + content + terminal + application". Among them, content is undoubtedly the core. From the hoarding of copyrights since its establishment in early 2004, to the establishment of LeTV Pictures in recent years, to the upstream layout, to the launch of hardware products and other content-carrying channels, it has also seized the living room market earlier. Finding a different way to play may still have the hope of becoming the next BAT, because China needs more excellent Internet companies rather than just one BAT.

We cannot predict the future of China's Internet, but as entrepreneurs in the Internet era, we have the obligation to promote the healthy development of Internet business, not just to entertain the public. Internet entrepreneurship, like the spirit of "openness, equality, collaboration, and sharing", requires diversified and equal competition. Only in this way can our new Internet business model be healthier and more sustainable.