Is the poor advertising business due to not touching user data? Zhou Hongyi's new remarks remind netizens of 360's dark history

The Internet has memory, and netizens have sharp eyes.

Recently, the media has focused on the 2022 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit. As a forum for global Internet business leaders to discuss, the Wuzhen Summit has become a beacon for the development of the global Internet. The opinions and voices shared by the big names here often trigger heated discussions from all walks of life. At this year's Wuzhen Summit, some remarks made by 360 founder Zhou Hongyi sparked heated discussions among domestic netizens.

Zhou Hongyi said in an interview with the media that 360 Advertising is not as good as its peers, mainly because 360 ​​basically does not touch user data. The company collects more bad behavior of hackers on computers every day, and the company's big data is not based on personal portraits, and basically has no user account system.

However, the vast majority of netizens disagreed with Zhou Hongyi's remarks. In the comments section of the relevant news, netizens were even more excited. Some netizens bluntly said that 360 started out as a rogue software company, while others said that the first thing they did after buying a computer was to uninstall 360.

Objectively speaking, there is nothing wrong with Zhou Hongyi's remarks, and they even express 360's respect for user privacy. However, his remarks cannot cover up 360's previous unethical behaviors.

The past cannot be washed away

On December 12, 2017, an article titled "A 1992-born girl wrote to Zhou Hongyi: Stop staring at us" attracted attention from all walks of life. The author of the article called out to Zhou Hongyi, questioning that 360 smart cameras put relevant images on the Waterdrop live broadcast platform without the user's consent, thus leaking the privacy of users and related persons.

Later, although some media claimed that the article was a deliberately planned black PR event against 360, 360 also came out to explain: the default state of the camera purchased by the user is security state. Only when the user manually adjusts the security state to live broadcast state and confirms the opening of the live broadcast agreement with the platform, can the camera record the picture. However, the water drop live broadcast filled with related content cannot convince consumers that it is innocent. In the end, 360 had to close the live broadcast platform involved on the grounds of internal business adjustments.

In addition to the privacy violations of smart cameras, 360's "family bucket" service is also a lingering pain for many users. The so-called 360 "family bucket" is actually a description, which means that after users install a certain 360 software, they will be "recommended" to install other 360 software. For example, after users install 360 Security Guard, they will be "recommended" to install 360 Browser, 360 Compression, 360 Driver Master and other related software.

Objectively speaking, although these 360 ​​softwares have certain capabilities, not installing them will not affect user usage. On the contrary, those users who accept 360's "family bucket" service often encounter some inconvenience and confusion due to installing these extra softwares.

A netizen once reported that after he set the homepage of 360 Safe Browser to a navigation website, the homepage would still jump to 360 Navigation when he opened it again. This mandatory jump of 360 Safe Browser caused great inconvenience to his use, so much so that the netizen complained: "It's not that I can't use your 360 Navigation, but you should set the search engine as optional!!!"

In addition, some netizens reported that 360's software pushes advertisements very frequently, even if they turn off cloud push. What makes the netizen even more horrified is that 360 will push some products that he has searched or purchased to him. The user once suspected that his privacy was stolen by 360's software. In 2018, with the exposure of the news that 360's software Kuai Video stole the database of Bilibili, the behavior of 360 software stealing user privacy was also confirmed.

Judging from the feedback from users, 360 has too many pop-up ads. People also don't believe Zhou Hongyi's statement that he "does not touch user data". If 360 does not touch user data, why would the software in the 360 ​​"family bucket" push purchased products to users? How did 360's Kuai Video steal the database of Bilibili?

An unclear future  

Data shows that in the first half of this year, 360's Internet advertising and service business revenue was 2.309 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 24.52%. From a side view, this set of data proves that Zhou Hongyi's statement about the poor advertising business is true. However, referring to the reasons given in 360's semi-annual report this year, the argument that 360's advertising business is poor because it does not touch user data is not tenable. According to 360's semi-annual report this year, 360's advertising business performed poorly, mainly affected by two factors.

First of all, the decline in 360's advertising business is closely related to the reduction in advertisers' budgets. Since the beginning of this year, with the recurrence of the epidemic, advertisers have also chosen to cut back on their spending. CTR Media Intelligence data shows that the advertising market decreased by 10.7% year-on-year from January to September this year. Among them, advertising spending in September fell by 11.5% year-on-year. Faced with the weakening demand for advertising from advertisers, although 360 has also actively promoted innovation and launched new marketing products such as 360 PC lock screen pictorials and 360 cuttlefish balls, from the perspective of market results, it has not helped the company's advertising business to recover.

Secondly, the poor performance of 360's advertising business is inseparable from the tightening of regulatory policies. In December last year, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Internet Advertising Management Measures (Public Comments Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft for Comments"), which clearly stated that it is strictly forbidden to lack a closing sign for advertising, and it is not allowed to set a countdown to close the advertisement, and it is not allowed to continue to pop up advertisements after closing. Starting from September 30 this year, the "Internet Pop-up Information Push Service Management Regulations" issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation officially came into effect. For 360, which once relied on pop-up advertisements for its livelihood, the strengthening of supervision not only forced it to strengthen its self-discipline, but also affected its own advertising business revenue.

In addition to the above reasons, the decline of 360's advertising business is also related to the advancement of network security technology and the change in users' impression of 360. As we all know, network security is the key for 360 to open the door to the user market. However, in recent years, with the integration of Windows Defender in computer operating systems and the upgrade of built-in firewall systems, computers themselves can guarantee users' security needs. In contrast, although 360 has gained a higher market penetration rate by virtue of its first-mover advantage, the company's endless scandals in recent years have also caused more and more users to choose to abandon 360's related products.

As we all know, the key to advertising is to reach consumers. With the strengthening of supervision and the departure of users, 360's Internet advertising business is likely to continue to decline. Data shows that from 2019 to 2021, 360's Internet advertising revenue fell by 8.76%, 22.75% and 16.6% year-on-year respectively (including service business). From Zhou Hongyi's point of view, compared to fighting hackers, he seems to be more focused on finding new growth points for 360 other than advertising business. On the one hand, the decline in advertising business will affect the normal operation of the company. On the other hand, with the emergence of big data, metaverse and autonomous driving technology, network security has also had a new battlefield. In addition, 360 seems to have to rethink its relationship with consumers. After all, the C-end market has always been an important market.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.