Will I have more opportunities if I do whatever Tencent does?

A few years ago, software service entrepreneurs would remember the phrase "What would you do if Tencent did it?" At that time, being targeted by BAT was a stressful thing. The giants searched for new ideas in their ecosystems and then used their huge resources to squeeze entrepreneurs.

After 2012, the establishment of Tencent's development ecosystem and the massive acquisitions of software services by Alibaba and Baidu created a different picture: the top players in new fields such as e-commerce, maps, and taxi-hailing have all become the targets of BAT's rapid division and grabbing. This "divide-and-grab" battle has become a game in which entrepreneurs, investors, and BAT participate, and the rules are very fixed. Once BAT participates in a certain field, this once unknown territory, where entrepreneurs mostly see no hope, becomes the focus of attention.

For example, in May 2014, Tencent released an OBD hardware called Tencent Lubao. In the next 2-3 months, 2,000 companies that made OBD products emerged in China, while Automatic, a similar product that had appeared in the United States a year ago and received a lot of financing, did not receive much attention. During that period, almost every OBD entrepreneur I met would make such an evaluation of Tencent Lubao - the layout of the giant in this field means more entrepreneurial opportunities. Obviously, this "opportunity" has two meanings: market opportunity and the opportunity to be "acquired". But to this day, these 2,000 OBD products, as well as Tencent Lubao, have not been recognized by users. It can be said that most of the OBD devices in their current form are failed works.

For Tencent, this "ecological layout" will not cause it much loss - every time it enters a field, there are entrepreneurs in the entire market to help it quickly trial and error, and if it does not do well, it can also fill the gap through mergers. But for entrepreneurs, it is the worst thing to pay too much attention to the giants' gameplay, be controlled by the panic or temptation of BAT's "action", lose subjective judgment on products and markets, and waste time and energy.

The latest example is that a new austerity is invading the car rental industry. Didi Dache, a subsidiary of Tencent, has just launched a new business car rental service. Last month, Alibaba also launched a similar service "No. 1 Private Car". In addition, Baidu and Yidao Car have cooperated... For a time, BAT has once again entered a market that has not yet been verified, but the concept is fresh enough and will definitely trigger a money-burning battle.

Does this scene look familiar?

In 2013, more than a dozen startups emerged in the taxi-hailing software market. All of them were in the early stages of product development, exploring the interactive design, functions, and service methods of such products, and verifying this immature market. This industry could have come up with more interesting and useful products after several rounds of self-renewal. However, the intervention of BAT instantly caused the entire market to experience a bloody reshuffle - except for Didi and Kuaidi, which were respectively invested in, other startups fell one after another. The remaining two companies became the protagonists of the 2.4 billion yuan money-burning war. PingWest has described this phenomenon in "The Taxi-hailing Software That Was "Played Badly"" - after Didi Taxi and Kuaidi Taxi cancelled the subsidies on the passenger and driver sides, it became increasingly difficult to get a taxi using these two software. In addition to burning money to promote operations, the product experience of taxi-hailing software has stagnated.

In fact, the reason for this situation is very simple.

For startups, finding users, verifying needs, iterating products, and establishing business models are the only way to create new products and new models. Just like Tencent's QQ and WeChat, Alibaba's Alipay and online financial services, and Baidu's search... None of these BAT's core products and businesses have grown into today's dominant players through massive mergers and acquisitions.

As for BAT, they often have other "strategic purposes" when they enter a new field. For example, behind the car-hailing war between Didi and express delivery is the competition between Tencent and Alibaba for mobile payment scenarios. Therefore, their priority is not products and user needs, but how to grab market share in the short term. This leads to the result that once entrepreneurs are led by BAT, they can only get the result of being forced to grow.

For entrepreneurs, Uber may be a good case study. Although this Silicon Valley upstart with a valuation of $18 billion has received a lot of investment, it still maintains its own development rhythm - through trial operation, formal operation and other step-by-step methods, it first enters a street, then enters a community, and finally expands to a city. At the same time, it also pays more attention to how to make its products interesting - from time to time, it lets its drivers "transform" into movers, couriers and supermarket waiters... It does not have arrogant and rude "capital subsidies", but it never lacks attention and users.

So, as an entrepreneur, when BAT is about to repeat the bloody, brutal and brutal layout war, will you celebrate, panic, or continue to be yourself?

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.