Behind NetQin's success in mobile entertainment: three magic weapons for successful transformation

Ten years ago, NetQin entered the security field and caught up with the mobile Internet trend. After going through many difficulties, it was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange. After the listing, NetQin's transformation and expansion did not stop.

In May this year, NetQin officially announced a new strategy to focus on the mobile entertainment show business. In August, NetQin released its second quarter financial report showing that the company's net revenue was US$102.1 million, compared with US$81.6 million in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 25.0%. Among them, the revenue from mobile value-added services was US$31.7 million, compared with US$29.2 million in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%.

From this point of view, NetQin's transformation from mobile security to mobile entertainment has achieved a phased victory. What are the necessary supporting factors for NetQin's successful choice of development path in such a short period of time? Some inspiring answers may be found from the three perspectives of direction, resources and technology.

(Photo: Xu Zemin, CEO and President of NetQin)

Direction selection

The direction is the primary issue that any company faces when making strategic adjustments, because it fundamentally determines whether the subsequent work is meaningful. It should be said that the mobile Internet field that NetQin chose 10 years ago was extremely forward-looking at the time. So, does NetQin's shift to mobile entertainment 10 years later continue the strategic vision of the last time?

The answer should be yes.

First of all, NetQin has not made any major adjustments in the general direction of mobile Internet. In the past two years, with the popularization of smart phones and 4G network technology, the mobile Internet industry has developed rapidly. According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of August this year, the number of mobile Internet users in my country reached 946 million. Industry insiders even regard mobile Internet as one of the major trends in the development of the IT industry. NetQin's persistence in this point has well complied with this trend.

Using the show as a starting point to open up the 2C social market has brought NetQin a stable profit model. Whether in the traditional Internet or mobile Internet era, social functions are an important means of gathering users. Compared with traditional social networking, the fan entertainment and interactive model of the show can provide a more direct means of monetization. The positioning of the young user group provides a guarantee for the realization of this means of monetization.

Resource Integration

Statistics show that the total output value of my country's mobile Internet is expected to exceed 400 billion yuan in 2015. Behind this lies not only huge opportunities but also huge competition, which is also true in the segmented mobile entertainment market. To survive among many large and small players and occupy its own place, the success of NetQin's transformation is inseparable from the effective integration of existing resources.

In 2014, Xiuse Show officially entered the group system of NetQin. Whether in terms of capital or resources, the big tree of NetQin provided better opportunities for the development of this product. On the one hand, it was supported by NetQin's large-scale channels, and on the other hand, it cooperated with the traffic of Xiuse Music Radar, Xiuse Wallpaper, Xiuse Desktop and other products under the "Xiuse Product" series.

According to He Xiaowu, the person in charge of "Xiuse Show", a sub-brand of NetQin's "Xiuse Entertainment", the goal of "Xiuse Platform" is to become a complete ecological entertainment O2O platform in the mobile Internet era. To build a complete ecosystem, NetQin will cooperate with related online and offline products or enterprises to form an O2O industry closed loop.

The rich resource accumulation and strong integration capabilities over the past 10 years are one of the keys to NetQin's victory in this battle.

Technology Utilization

As an Internet company, technology has always been NetQin's trump card.

Compared with the large web pages on the PC side, the mobile screen is relatively prioritized. Specifically for the Showtime show, it means that what kind of anchor appears on the interface in what form will directly affect the user experience. At present, the push of the Showtime show is set according to the user's region. The realization of this function relies on the team's data mining technology.

He Xiaowu believes that big data is a major trend in the future development of mobile Internet. Together with the existing entertainment systems such as games on the Xiuse Show platform, these may become new profit points for Xiuse Show. In addition, Xiuse is also actively exploring H5, cloud computing and other technologies, and pursuing a better user experience is its constant pursuit.

From the above three aspects, we can see that NetQin's success this time stems from its accurate grasp of the development trend of the Internet and its focused exploration of the mobile entertainment market, while the resource integration and technical strength behind it provide a solid guarantee for its development.

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.