Zhihu summary: What would you do if Tencent copies you!

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Everyone who wants to start a business in the Internet field will be asked the same question: "What would you do if Tencent copied you?" On the one hand, it shows that Tencent's title of "King of Plagiarism" is well known in the industry, and on the other hand, it also implies the cruel competition in the Internet field where "big fish eat small fish". The following is a collection of wonderful answers from Zhihu.

First, let’s analyze Tencent’s strategy.

@江南刀客:

I think we should start with analyzing Tencent's strategy. If you want to do IM, and use the same routine as QQ, you can't surpass Tencent even if you work overtime. Tencent may imitate you, but if your business model is not the main strategic direction of Tencent, you may still succeed in the gap. Or even if Tencent follows up, if it is not the core business of the entire Tencent Group, then this team may not be too strong, and your first-mover advantage still has a good chance of giving you an advantage in the confrontation with Tencent's non-main force.

Tencent's core interest is IM, and the current focus is on platform-based SNS, which always wants to attract people. So MiTalk hits Tencent's most sensitive area. WeChat is a product that Tencent must make successful, and Ma Huateng will definitely invest heavily to fight you to the death. Tencent's investment in Kaixin.com is more like a defense than an investment. But for example, e-commerce, I think Tencent also attaches great importance to it, but has not yet decided whether to use its full strength. As for group buying, Tencent was not very optimistic from the beginning, so it chose to find local channel partners.

Secondly, these are probably what you can do

• Focus on technology and stay vigilant

@冯明鹏:

This question is like the VC asking software companies ten years ago, what would you do if Microsoft also did it? Google's answer is the best answer.

1. Qualitative change in technology is always the most important bargaining chip. Focus on technology, ensure code quality and program stability, and leave your competitors far behind in the early stages. Innovation in the model of a startup company is itself something that is easy to be copied. Only technological innovation can take you further.
2. Always be vigilant and don't make the same mistakes that companies that died at the hands of Microsoft (Tencent) did before (for example, Netscape was killed by Microsoft's system binding, and Google chose to negotiate the Firefox pre-installation agreement before Microsoft).
3. Identify the blind spots behind large companies. Slow transformation of large companies is a common problem in itself. For example, Motorola was unwilling to give up its advantage in analog mobile phones, which led to competitors taking advantage of it when digital mobile phones came. Nokia was also unwilling to give up its closed Symbian platform, which led to the loss of its position as the industry leader in the era of smart phones. Not to mention Microsoft, whose software charging model is its main source of income, so Google Doc and other software can eat into its market through this point.
4. The leader of a certain type of product in the IT industry generally occupies 60-70% of the market share. There is always room for you to survive. If you can't be the leader, you just have to fight for the remaining share. Market segmentation and vertical fields are both ways to do this.

• Think differently and take a differentiated competitive approach

@Kenneth:

In the face of a powerful and agile competitor, no matter how many features you create, they are likely to be copied. So you cannot survive with just features.

What should we do? In fact, the answer is very simple, differentiated competition. However, many people do not understand what differentiated competition means. Let’s take Tencent’s WeChat as an example. WeChat follows the idea of ​​social networking among acquaintances. All its functions are to facilitate communication among acquaintances - this is its product tone. If I make a product that optimizes the experience of stranger social networking, can Tencent copy it? No! Why not? Because the genes are different, it is impossible to copy it into WeChat. Therefore, Momo and Yujian were born and survived well. If Tencent wants to rely on WeChat to kill Momo, it will definitely mess up the social experience of acquaintances in WeChat, which will not be worth the loss. Therefore, WeChat cannot handle Momo. The feature that is incompatible with the essential characteristics of the competitor’s product is differentiation.

• Choose a vertical

@ Zeng Yi:

Don't make content, make products. If Tencent wants to intervene, they will spend a lot of money to buy copyrights and kill you in minutes. If you make functional innovative products, it doesn't matter. There is a high probability that by the time Tencent follows up, the market scale will have grown. Don't commit suicide so easily.

It is important to distinguish whether Tencent is copying you or you are all copying foreign countries. The former often means that you are on the right track and have great hopes for success, while the latter probably means that you feel good about yourself, but it doesn't matter.

When small companies start up in vertical fields, it is difficult for companies like Tencent to follow up because the user scale is too small and they don’t value it.

• Making decisions during product changes

@Li Jiangming:

Entrepreneurs should make a reasonable judgment of their own position. We have 1 million soldiers, and the enemy has 50 million soldiers. Of course, Tencent also has to fight in other places and will not use 50 million soldiers to fight you. At this moment, you have to judge how many soldiers it will send to fight you, that is, how much importance it attaches to this project and how much resources it invests. If it sends too many soldiers, avoid it and differentiate yourself to win in the segmented channels. If it sends too few soldiers, fight it head-on and let it continue to be the second. Make decisions in the midst of changes and always understand your situation.

• Find venture capital or sell, sell, sell

@Allen:

In the United States, VCs will bet with entrepreneurs on key products and models. That is, they will invest money and start a war with existing giants. Although the existing giants may have been invested by these VCs a few years ago, the cruelty and repetitiveness of Silicon Valley are completely driven by VCs' pursuit of returns.

For them, it is very simple. Facebook and Google may add your features to their products, or make a similar product. But for VCs, they cannot invest money in these giants. It is also very simple. These giants no longer need VC money. They can enter (or expand) this market with their own capital. And VC money is also very hot in their own hands. After all, they have to explain their return rate to LPs.

So, this is why, when apps like Instagram came out, Silicon Valley VCs were eager to make a move and gave it a valuation of 500 million US dollars, wanting to gamble with Facebook on the future of mobile photo social networking. Of course, Mark, who is highly intelligent, gave it double the valuation and decisively acquired Instagram, which also stopped these capitalists from thinking about it.

What these stories tell us is that if VCs are afraid of Tencent/Facebook entering a certain market, what is the point of VCs? This is actually a driving factor in the monopoly of BAT in the Chinese market today.

If there are no VCs with a bloody and gambling spirit in a technology market, the market will eventually move towards oligopoly, and the result will be that the return rate of VCs will become lower and lower.

@王政:

Once Tencent joins, quickly find venture capital! Tencent joins, doesn’t that make the application “valuable”? Would you be willing not to fool venture capital into investing a few million at this time? Only when the wind blows can the clouds fly.

When a second company among the three BAT companies appears to make a product similar to yours, you can wait for the right price to sell it - B or A, sell it at a good price - of course, if you think you can continue to fight with Tencent, you are welcome to continue.

@金洪运:

This is a classic question in angel round financing. The best answer is to go to BAT and persuade them to acquire you.

Finally, having said so much, think about it carefully, is your success rate really related to Tencent?

@Wang Yi:

If you are working on IM, then congratulations, your success rate is about 0.0001%. Even if you succeed, you will be acquired by Tencent at a very early stage. If you are not working on IM, then congratulations, your success rate has nothing to do with Tencent. Forgetting Tencent may be the right choice.