When asked why he left Tencent to start a business, Wang Haibing said with a smile, "This has a lot to do with my personality. Entrepreneurship has always been what I want to do. " So, in 2007, Wang Haibing, known as "the father of QQ pets", chose to start a business.
Soon after, Ceng Liqing, one of Tencent's five founders and former chief operating officer, was persuaded by Wang Haibing to start investing in Taomi Company in Wang Haibing, so the initial angel investment in Taomi was less than 6,543,800 yuan.
Similar to Wang Haibing, He, who entered the children's game SNS market in 2008, said with a smile when talking about his own business, "This is related to my personality. I look forward to trying new things and entering new markets. "
Prior to this, He Zhitao was a successful IT professional manager. From 2002 to 2004, he was the general manager of Panda Information Security Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., responsible for the work of Panda Software in Greater China. From 2004 to 2008, he served as the CEO of a technology company in Silicon Valley. This time, it was his first venture to set up Cool Lulu Network and launch the game Underwater World.
Obviously, entrepreneurship is definitely not only supported by the words "dream", "impulse" and "personality", because in their view, the children's game SNS market is definitely an undeveloped gold mine.
"In China, the market for children's game SNS is blank, and products specifically targeting this market are needed." Gan Jianping, managing director of Qiming Chuangtou, who invested in Taomi.com, said.
Wang Haibing and He believe that there are nearly 200 million children users in China, many of whom have Internet access, but there is no successful service for children aged 6- 14. This is certainly a blue ocean for entrepreneurship.
CNNIC's report also shows the great potential of this market. The 23rd Statistical Report on Internet Development in China shows that in 2008, netizens aged 10- 19 became the largest netizen group in China, accounting for 35.2% of the total netizens. At the same time, the report shows that 69.7% of primary and secondary school students have played online games.
In addition, foreign successful cases also make entrepreneurs and VC excited.
According to investors, in 2008, * * more than 65,438+00 American children's virtual world projects received $300 million in investment. The predecessor of all this is a children's website called Penguin Club. In August 2007, Disney announced that it would acquire Penguin Club for $350 million, and announced that it would increase its investment by $350 million or more according to its performance in 2008 and 2009. According to public data, the traffic of Penguin Club once exceeded the hottest online game World of Warcraft.
"Adult games are very different from children's games. This is an imaginative market." He said to Zhi Tao.
Know China's parents.
No matter what myth Penguin Club has created in the United States, it belongs to Penguin Club only. The "replicators" in China are facing the harsh market of China's parents.
"In some people's eyes, the blue ocean may actually be a dead sea, and the gold mine may also be a dangerous place that is about to collapse." An entrepreneur said meaningfully.
Countless people have raised their own doubts about this business model. They don't believe that this model will grow into a towering tree in the Chinese-style parent-led market.
Zhu, a veteran of the online game industry and CEO of Rainstorm Entertainment, said that he is very interested in children's game SNS, but this business model is not very clear for the time being. Because children's spending power is limited, excessive demand will cause resentment among parents and cause social problems. Children have poor self-control ability and need management and guidance. In addition, strict network security protection must be implemented for children, because children can easily become victims on the network.
At the same time, Bao Fan, CEO of Huaxing Capital, and Bao, an angel investor, all said that parents in China have strict supervision over their children, requiring them to bring games, pay fees and be safe. This is a high demand for any parents, so they are skeptical about the development scale of this market.
"Basically every VC will ask the same question. China parents have strict supervision and requirements for their children, which is objective. " He said that the second round of financing is underway.
In order to reassure parents, the first thing Wang Haibing and He should do is to reassure parents. Taking Moore Manor operated by Wang Haibing as an example, this paper puts forward some safety measures, such as time-limited opening strategy, controlling online time, shielding bad information, opening forbidden service area, real-time monitoring mechanism, and convenient complaint reporting measures. At the same time, the game is positioned as a safe, healthy and intelligent virtual interactive community, and some education and care mechanisms are implanted.
In a subtle way, some parents have begun to accept this kind of children's game community. "Instead of letting children play those bloody, violent and pornographic games online, let them play these clean games. Guiding them is much more useful than suppressing them, because it is impossible for me to watch my child for 24 hours and let him not play online games. " A parent said.
Wang Haibing also said, "To my surprise, some parents will buy their children a monthly package to encourage them to play Moore Manor."
But in any case, it is still very difficult for children who have no spending power to spend money on props and parents to support their children to play games. "As long as children's sns can solve the problem of charging channels, there should still be hope." Zhao Xufeng, an analyst at iResearch, said.
Wang Haibing and He are also trying to explore business models.
Wang Haibing said frankly that the whole industry of children's game SNS is now in the exploration period of business model, and everyone has not yet explored the most suitable business model. Now Taomi Company will start with the way to make money with the least harm to users, such as the monthly subscription system for props, develop derivative products such as offline dolls, books and clothes, and may be involved in the operation of product placement in the future.
The model He explored is somewhat similar to that of Wang Haibing-combining membership system with offline derivative products. At the same time, he also said that, like the initial stage of portal development, children's game SNS will definitely encounter doubts about the business model, but he firmly believes that as long as valuable people will get income, there will definitely be a better profit model in the future.
Although Zhao Xufeng, an analyst at iResearch, thinks that offline peripheral products are easy to be pirated, with low profits and limited income from product placement, the balance point is not easy to grasp, but Wang Haibing and He Du revealed excitedly that they will break even this year.
In the eyes of entrepreneurs, China's parents are obviously not a problem.
The covet of giants
This is an era of giants. Sohu, Tencent, Shanda, Netease, these giants are all good at long-sleeved dancing and woye. They will assess the situation and prepare to attack new markets at an appropriate time.
"On the battlefield of the Internet, there are too many examples of giants winning and preempting. No one knows whether it will be your turn next time. " An analyst said.
The CEO of Baby Tree, a parent-child website, believes that SNS, a children's game, is likely to be a typical example of the next latecomer. He said, "I have always been very concerned about children's game SNS, because in the next few years, when our audience is old enough to play games, this may be one of our business developments. But I don't think enterprises that enter this market early will win. Because children users aged 7~ 14 are easily attracted by good products, but they don't have much loyalty, and their relationship with friends and classmates usually lasts for a short time, so I think it doesn't matter when they enter this market sooner or later. We just pay close attention to this model. "
"If a giant like Tencent enters the children's game SNS market, its strong R&D capabilities, huge users and abundant funds will probably push the first website into danger." A venture capitalist who asked not to be named said.
Facing the situation of giants, game entrepreneurs have experienced more than just mental tests.
"This giant is terrible. The Internet industry, like the sports industry, basically only the top three in the industry can survive. Since I started my business, I have to consider the day when the giants enter and how to compete with them. This requires extra care. " When asked about the threat of giants, Wang Haibing, who ran away from giants, said.
But caution does not mean fear. Wang Haibing said that although there are giants in the Internet industry, from the past development and examples, not all emerging Internet companies have died, and there is still room for new companies to exist and develop in the Internet industry.
"Compared with giants and multi-business companies, our advantage is that we pay more attention to users and study market segments in detail, while giants often don't invest so much energy. Therefore, we still have advantages and need to face it bravely. " Wang Haibing said.
"Exploring business models has a cost. The first entrant may not be able to laugh at the end, but there will be a greater chance of success, which is certain. " He said to Zhi Tao.
In his opinion, children's game SNS is still in the early stage of business model exploration. Only when the business model is mature will real leaders emerge, and the cultivation period is about two to three years.
This is obviously a period full of competition and setbacks, tears and sweat. It is a necessary stage for entrepreneurs and mature market segments.