Switching to the "Google Model": Alibaba's new path for home Internet

The concept of home Internet continues to be popular, but it is still just a concept. Some approaches have been taken from hardware, some from software, and some from a single application, but none of them have found a path to home Internet.

On July 16, Alibaba announced its unique path: full Internet services give birth to home Internet. The home Internet services released by Alibaba on that day include four aspects: first, e-commerce, namely Magic Health Shopping; second, games, which Alibaba calls "cloud games"; third, instant messaging and social networking, namely video chat; and fourth, voice remote control for information acquisition.

Alibaba has made many attempts on the road of home Internet, and this is its latest exploration in this field.

Last July, Alibaba released the Ali Smart TV operating system, and also released two types of boxes and smart TVs based on the Ali Smart TV operating system. The route of this exploration is very clear, entering the home Internet through the hardware ecosystem.

On April 8 this year, Hangzhou Yunxi Investment purchased a 20% stake in Wasu Media for more than US$1 billion. The investors of Hangzhou Yunxi are Jack Ma, Alibaba co-founder Xie Shihuang and Giant Network founder Shi Yuzhu.

In addition to Wasu Media, Alibaba's acquired entertainment assets also include Evergrande Football, CITIC 21st Century, China Culture, Youku , Xiami, Tango, Yulebao, etc. So far, Alibaba has spent more than 20 billion yuan on mergers and acquisitions in this field.

The above assets are all content assets. In fact, since the beginning of this year, Alibaba's home Internet path has changed direction, transitioning from the hardware ecosystem to the content ecosystem. This can reduce risks: the hardware ecosystem faces more severe supervision.

On July 16, a source revealed that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television recently interviewed the license holders and required them to strictly implement Internet TV supervision in accordance with previous regulations. Those who fail to strictly supervise will have their Internet TV business suspended. The purpose of this policy is very clear, which is to stop TV manufacturers, hardware manufacturers, video websites and third-party applications in the downstream industry chain from cross-border operations.

Alibaba has great ambitions in the home Internet sector, while also needing to keep pace with changes in national policies.

Full Internet Service

Alibaba said that Alibaba Group plans to bring home digital entertainment services such as Magic Key shopping, cloud games, video calls, home monitoring, cloud photo albums, and Ali TV Assistant to all family members; in addition to Alibaba, manufacturers such as Wasu, EA, Gameloft, and Glu Mobile also appeared at the press conference as ecological partners.

Alibaba Cloud's gaming platform includes Konami's flagship game Winning Eleven 214; 2K's NBA 2K14; Capcom's Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Tekken VS Street Fighter; Time Warner Interactive Entertainment's Batman: Arkham City and Lego: Harry Potter; and Taiwan's Dahua's Xuan-Yuan Sword: Han Cloud.

Liu Chunning, president of Alibaba Group's Digital Entertainment Business Group, said that client games used to have very high requirements for hardware terminals, but cloud games are different. All games are run on cloud servers. Users do not need to download games to experience the "big productions" that were previously only available on home gaming consoles and high-end computer hosts.

Liu Chunning said that Alibaba is committed to creating a "living room shopping" experience. The voice remote control has the world's first M key (magic key), Tmall , Tmall Supermarket, Juhuasuan, Miaoxiansheng, daily specials, water, electricity and gas payment and other services. The services on the platform are shared with one click, and special shopping starts at 10 pm every night. Search, order and payment can be completed simply with the remote control.

Video chat and home monitoring allow family members to meet and chat in the living room via video chat.

By installing Ali TV Assistant on their mobile phones, home users can easily access a variety of information, content and services. For example, if they say "I want to watch Transformers", Transformers will be played for them. If they say "I want to buy corn oil", a shopping page will appear. The mobile phone can be transformed into a game controller or steering wheel during the game, and they can "go home" to see their children and pets at any time.

In addition, Ali TV Assistant can also wirelessly transfer photos, videos, and music from the mobile phone to the TV.

Dream Living Room E-commerce

Providing full Internet applications and services to home users has become a new path for Alibaba to enter the home Internet. The above services include four major mainstream Internet services: e-commerce, instant messaging and social networking, games, information and content services.

Hardware exploration was the route that Alibaba initially chose. However, in the Alibaba Smart TV Ecological Alliance, some partners have different goals and are planning to learn from Alibaba's Internet thinking and then replicate it in their own companies.

Every traditional TV manufacturer has a dream, that is, to become a big player in the home Internet era, rather than being a vassal of Internet manufacturers. Apple has given them inspiration: hardware manufacturers can achieve a gorgeous transformation from hardware to the Internet.

In the field of smart TV, Alibaba's core product is the Ali Smart TV operating system, which is connected to hardware manufacturers on one end and to Internet application and service providers on the other. If the hardware manufacturer's ecosystem is established, Alibaba in the home Internet era will be similar to Microsoft in the PC era; if the application and service provider ecosystem is established, Alibaba in the home Internet era will be equivalent to Google in the mobile Internet era.

Cheetah Mobile CTO Xu Ming explained why Google has become the strongest Internet company in the global market, with a market value even approaching that of Apple. He said that the secret lies in the Android operating system, which has made Google the Microsoft of the mobile Internet era.

Microsoft builds its ecosystem with OEM alliances, while Google builds its ecosystem with applications and services. Different paths lead to the same end, and both are ultimately an ecosystem of "hardware + software + applications and services." Applications first, hardware later, or hardware first, services later, these two software system manufacturers made different choices in different eras.

After the failure of the "Microsoft path", Alibaba is trying a second path, the "Google path".

Alibaba has spent a lot of money in building a content ecosystem. On June 5 this year, Alibaba and Guangzhou Evergrande jointly held a press conference to announce that Jack Ma invested 1.2 billion yuan in Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club. After the transaction is completed, Alibaba holds 50% of Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club. In January this year, Alibaba invested in CITIC 21st Century, holding approximately 54.3% of the shares, at a cost of HK$1.2 billion; in March, Alibaba acquired 60% of the shares of China Culture Communication for US$805 million; in April, Alibaba purchased 18.5% of Youku Tudou for US$1.22 billion; in the same month, Jack Ma and Shi Yuzhu invested 6.536 billion yuan to acquire 20% of Wasu Media.

On March 20 this year, Tango, a US mobile video chat service provider, announced that it had received a new round of financing of US$280 million. In this round of financing, Alibaba Group led the investment of US$215 million, and Tango's original investors invested the remaining US$65 million. The greatest significance of Tango is the home Internet: In the PC Internet era, instant messaging was picture and text chat, in the mobile Internet era, it was voice chat, and in the home Internet era, it must be video.

Some people commented that Alibaba's acquisition of Tango was like setting fire to Antarctica, meaning entering Tencent's base camp. This is a misunderstanding. Tango is building a plank road in the open, but secretly crossing the Chencang Pass to seize the next high ground.

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.