It was July 11th, and in the next three days, WPS was trending five times in a row. Two days later, Kingsoft Office issued a longer statement, emphasizing that they act in accordance with laws and regulations and will not infringe on user privacy.

WPS is a typical example of the development cycle of China’s Internet for more than 30 years.

Text by He Qianming

Editor by Qian Yang

Rarely, Kingsoft Office CEO Zhang Qingyuan who was speaking at the meeting was interrupted by his boss. He was told that WPS was on the hot search list, and it was still the No. 1 hot search. That means it's already a public event. He was surprised and confused for a moment. WPS is office software. No one talked about Kingsoft Office IPO. Its market value reached 100 billion or 200 billion, but it did not become a public topic. He saw that the hot search topic was "WPS was revealed to delete users' local files." He called a meeting with his subordinates to deal with it. It was July 11th, and in the next three days, WPS was trending five times in a row.

WPS has been around for 33 years and is a national-level product. It is run on nearly 600 million devices on average every month, of which the desktop version accounts for 40% and hundreds of millions of users are overseas. As of the end of last year, WPS cloud stored nearly 130 billion documents actively uploaded by users.

During those three days, Zhang Qingyuan and several heads of the marketing, legal, and business departments discussed how to deal with public opinion in the conference room of the Zhuhai headquarters. Soon they realized there was nothing they could handle. "It's beyond our control," he said.

They wrote a short statement. "The user's sharing of an online document link is suspected of violating the law, but others are prohibited from accessing the link in accordance with the law. This matter was rumored to be WPS deleting the user's local files." The top three comments below this statement were:

"How did you know? Is it illegal? Did you secretly open other people's files to check? "

"It's none of your business even if I save X"

"You are just a tool. When did you become a law enforcer?"

Two days later, Kingsoft Office released another A longer statement emphasized that they act in accordance with laws and regulations and will not infringe on user privacy. Zhang Qingyuan asked to add the company's vision at the end, "to become a company loved by users, proud of employees, and respected by society."

On July 14, Zhang Qingyuan sat in his office and was interviewed by LatePost through Jinshan Conference. He always believed that WPS did nothing wrong - it just did what the information platform should do in accordance with legal requirements.

In the interview, he affirmed that WPS did not delete or block the local files of the parties. It was because the other party misunderstood the difference between online documents and local documents. He also emphasized that WPS would never review or perform any operations on users' local files. He was unwilling to disclose the specific reasons why the document was suspected of being banned, saying that it would be detrimental to the user involved and also belonged to the user's personal privacy. He admitted that the boundaries between online documents and local documents are blurred and users are easily confused. "This is an area that needs improvement." When

users use mobile phone WPS to share files, they will be shared as online documents by default, which means the files are uploaded to the cloud. Getting users accustomed to online document collaboration is the direction in which WPS has invested the most resources in recent years.

He thinks he understands why users are angry, but he still firmly believes that "in the future, documents should be moved to the cloud as much as possible" because it is more efficient.

Next, Kingsoft Office’s strategic focus will still be “online collaboration”, but it will do a better job of switching between online documents and WPS local documents. Zhang Qingyuan said that WPS now invests hundreds of millions of yuan every year to protect user data security and stabilize cloud service .

At the same time, Zhang Qingyuan believes that when it comes to domestic software, there will be many voices questioning it, and there will definitely be something going on in domestic software. He had to admit that this was related to the profit model of WPS in the early years of with Chinese characteristics and , and they were already working hard to make the business model "elegant".

During the public opinion storm, he twice released the information that WPS would completely shut down its advertising business next year. The first time did not attract much attention, and the second time he personally responded to the user's news in the background of the WeChat official account. This once again made WPS the No. 1 hot search topic. But this time he was happy to see it.He felt that he had finally regained some of the users' goodwill. He found the "hot search trip" these days "exciting."

Zhang Qingyuan denied that mentioning the advertisement at this time was to divert public anger. At the end of last year, he mentioned turning off advertising during some investor roadshows. He recalled that when WPS entered the mobile Internet era in 2011, advertising was its core business model. At its peak, advertising revenue accounted for about half of WPS's overall revenue. Today, it’s less than 10 percent. Kingsoft Office’s main source of income is already paid subscriptions from individual users.

The revenue model of inserting advertisements makes Kingsoft Office’s business model known as “rogue”. Kingsoft Office specifically mentioned in its statement that the company "has been developing office software for more than 30 years" and was ridiculed by netizens as "a hooligan who has been playing tricks for 30 years." Obviously he is familiar with this type of criticism. Zhang Qingyuan said directly, "If we really say that advertising is just hooliganism, we are also hooligans who want to quit the world after a few years."

Since its launch in 1989, WPS has gone through many times In the crisis, Lei Jun realized that survival itself is the most important. Even for many years, it has been at a disadvantage in the competition with and Microsoft , with meager income or even losses. The turning point in WPS's fate came in 2011. After Lei Jun returned to Kingsoft, he spun off WPS into an independent subsidiary to allow the management team to be more autonomous. Then came the mobile internet wave or what they call “good luck”. Listed in 2019, Kingsoft Office's market value once reached 240 billion yuan, making it the software company with the highest market value in China. The replacement of the business model of

WPS is a typical example of the development cycle of China’s Internet over the past 30 years. This is why Zhang Qingyuan is willing to talk more about his decision to shut down advertising. Just like a person who has been wearing dirty clothes for many years and puts on new ones, he is willing to tell more about how he took off the dirty clothes. "Today WPS has gained the respect of many people," he said, "but there are still some people who don't understand it enough."

graduated in 1998 and joined Kingsoft in 2000. He became CTO 9 years later and became CEO of Kingsoft Office 20 years later. Zhang Qingyuan is A typical "Jinshan old guy", he is one of the core participants of WPS and was the last batch of Lei Jun's disciples at Jinshan. He is loyal to this company and its actual controller Lei Jun, and is immersed in the Jinshan-style brotherhood.

The following is the conversation between "Late Post" and Zhang Qingyuan:

"We did nothing wrong"

"Late Post": What does it feel like to be the first in the trending search?

Zhang Qingyuan: was very surprised, very surprised. Our IPO, subsequent market capitalization of 100 billion and 200 billion should not have been on the hot search. This incident was completely unexpected and unprepared for us.

"Late": It also shows that users care about their privacy and their local files.

Zhang Qingyuan: Our mechanism will not touch users’ local files. We only review the content of online platforms in accordance with the law. The person involved wrote two posts on Weibo. First, she never said that local files were deleted. Second, she shared it last year. We felt it was not particularly good to involve users, so the second statement did not mention this matter at all. .

"Later": The person involved mentioned that the document had been edited with more than 10,000 words when it was shared. Why would the link be banned at this time, not earlier?

Zhang Qingyuan: shared it last year and has never closed it. She has been updating this file, so this document has always been shared.

"Later": You said you didn't delete the local files, but she said the local files couldn't be opened using WPS.

Zhang Qingyuan: When the user opened the file, the link had been blocked, so we gave a prompt. At the same time, the entrance for subsequent operations was not so obvious, which gave the user the feeling that the file could not be opened.Our products have traditional documentation and online documentation, and the two are interoperable, so users sometimes get confused. This is where we don't do well.

"Later": Then why was there a so-called unblocking file later?

Zhang Qingyuan: has not been unblocked. In fact, the user did not understand that local files can be opened using WPS. She called it unblocking again.

"Later": If there is sensitive information in the document, some online document software only restricts sharing instead of directly blocking the document. I can access it.

Zhang Qingyuan: In fact, the document (the person involved) can enter it and download it, but our experience is not very good and it is hidden a little deeper. Maybe there are a few more steps.

"Late": She said customer service admitted the misjudgment and apologized to her.

Zhang Qingyuan: customer service did not admit a miscarriage of justice, and there was no miscarriage of justice. It's just that we apologize for causing trouble to you and we will definitely optimize it in the future. It's not that we think we did something wrong.

"Later": It sounds like you think you did nothing wrong in this matter?

Zhang Qingyuan: Yes, I did nothing wrong. We have areas for improvement, and there may be some areas where the experience is not good, including some interfaces that do not clearly differentiate between cloud documents and local documents. But we didn't do anything illegal. Whether it is for users or national laws, because we must comply with national user privacy protection and network security-related laws at the same time.

"Late": Local documents and online documents are easily confused. Are you responsible? We found that when using WPS to share files on a mobile phone, the default is to share the file in the form of an online document instead of sharing a file to the communication software. This does allow people to "inadvertently" upload local documents to the cloud.

Zhang Qingyuan: Our original intention is to start from the product application scenario. In the future, documents should be able to be moved to the cloud as much as possible. Once a document is written, it is usually for others to see. After moving to the cloud, your work efficiency will be greatly improved.

All my own documents are also on the WPS cloud, because security is higher than local. We have a very large team in operation and maintenance to ensure security. But local files are actually more unsafe if your computer is lost or has a Trojan horse.

"Late": Seamless migration and seamless switching from local to cloud, what kind of problems will it bring in the long run?

Zhang Qingyuan: Many users will cause some confusion between the client and the cloud. This is also a problem that we are now trying to solve.

"Late": How to solve it?

Zhang Qingyuan: We don’t have a particularly good method yet. We are also promoting the independent brand Kingsoft Documentation in the cloud. Many users who are aware of the cloud will use Kingsoft Documentation. There are more users who are actually novices. This time (the person involved) is not very familiar with the product functions, so it will cause some trouble when switching. We are also currently planning a new version and trying to find ways to make it better, but it is not yet online.

The elevator door is full of users scolding Kingsoft Office

"Late": How do you reflect on the whole incident? What are your responsibilities as a CEO?

Zhang Qingyuan: First of all, the crisis response capabilities of the marketing department must be improved. This time our response was still slow. Our marketing team is not yet equipped to deal with such a major crisis. The boss of our marketing department has just been on the job for two weeks. He was absent for almost two months due to the epidemic. The other is how to simplify the product and make it clear and easy for users to use.

"Later": What have you done in terms of privacy protection? What else can be done?

Zhang Qingyuan: We have actually spent a lot of money on privacy and data security in the past two years. We invest an additional 100 million yuan to do this every year.

"Late": Where to invest hundreds of millions?

Zhang Qingyuan: Let me give you an example. The year before last, the optical fiber in a computer room was cut off. Our cloud documents were down for about half a day, and many users could not access the files. We implemented "three centers in two places" and activated a second cloud vendor to create three cloud centers in two places. We invested an additional 60 million yuan in this matter last year, and this year it may be even more. Last year, our cloud stability reached four nines, and there was no more network-wide crash.

In addition, in terms of security, we invite many white hats every year to help us improve the security of our core business systems. I think Kingsoft Office has done a good job in terms of user privacy and user security. To be honest, the cloud business is suffering serious losses. Our annual IDC (data center) expenses are about 300 million. But our cloud revenue is only tens of millions a year.

"Late": We checked Kingsoft Office's prospectus and annual reports for 2019 and 2020. You rarely talked about user privacy. It wasn't until 2021 that you said you had formulated some institutional norms.

Zhang Qingyuan: We have always attached great importance to user privacy. Later, the company started working on ESG ( corporate social responsibility report ) in 2021 and did a lot of things. In fact, A shares are not required to do this.

"Later": Will you establish a user privacy or data security committee?

Zhang Qingyuan: We now have an information security and data privacy management system, and I personally took care of this matter. If you have a chance next time, you are welcome to come to Zhuhai to see us. Zhuhai is our R&D base, and the elevator entrance is full of users scolding us.

"Later": Doesn't that mean there is no gap at all?

Zhang Qingyuan: I pay attention to the top ten. I require that the top ten items cannot stay on the list for more than one quarter.

"Late": What is always ranked first?

Zhang Qingyuan: I used to criticize advertising more, but now advertising is much better. There are some problems with the functionality of our products.

"Later": The same thing happened to , Apple, or Microsoft. Maybe people's first reaction is that they misoperated it. But for you, many people immediately accepted the assumption that WPS would have problems. Why do you think there are problems? Such a difference?

Zhang Qingyuan: For so many years, as long as domestic software is mentioned, there will definitely be a lot of doubts. Even in some communities, black WPS is politically correct. I myself am relatively calm about this matter, and I am used to being scolded for so many years.

"I want to make a good product

I don't want to do anything like highway robbery"

"Late": After the negative news topped the trending search on July 11, you said on Weibo that you will completely shut down your advertising business next year. These two things does it matter?

Zhang Qingyuan: No. This is not the first time I have spoken out about turning off advertising completely. Investors started talking about it at the end of last year. (July 13) The one that topped the trend list again (WPS said it would completely shut down advertising before the end of next year) was actually answered by me in the background of our official account. One person said that we have too many advertisements, so I responded and said that we plan to shut down all advertising business by the end of next year.When I found out that this thing was ranked No. 1 in the hot search, the editor who didn't know the situation got scared and hid the reply again. I said that there was no need to hide it, so I restored it.

"Late": You emphasized that you have been making office software for more than 30 years. One commenter said that you have actually been making rogue software for more than 30 years.

Zhang Qingyuan: I think this is prejudice. If you really say that advertising is just a hooligan, we are also hooligans who want to quit the world after a few years.

I am particularly afraid that our advertising team will sometimes do some bad advertising for the sake of income. We used to say internally that the operations team must not "force" users.

"Late": What counts as a "forced" user?

Zhang Qingyuan: deceives clicks and so on. If we find out, we will ask for rectification.

We started advertising in 2011 to survive. At that time, people were not willing to pay for office software. We cooperate with third parties for advertising, and the content of some advertisements is borderline, making people think that we are rogue. At its peak, advertising accounted for 50% of our company's entire annual revenue. Now it only accounts for about 10% of our revenue last year. We will turn off all advertising at the end of 2023.

"Later": Why not build an advertising system yourself?

Zhang Qingyuan: We tried it. Originally we wanted to do targeted advertising, but later we found that it didn’t work and the effect was not good. In addition, Office software has a characteristic that users are often unhappy when opening it, and may be in an irritable state. Unlike TikTok, users have a lot of fun browsing and can accept entertainment advertisements. It is inappropriate to advertise Office products.

"Later": If you were determined, why not turn off ads earlier?

Zhang Qingyuan: In the beginning, our income was only advertising and no other income. If we cut off everything, we might not survive today. We can't cut it off in one go.

"Late": In the early days, products were free, and charging for advertising or services would be considered an innovation in China's Internet model. Today, you charge for products without advertising. What does this reincarnation mean?

Zhang Qingyuan: I think there are several opportunities for to cancel advertising. First, ordinary people have become rich in recent years; second, the rise of mobile payment, WeChat Pay, Alipay ; third, iQiyi, QQ Music membership, etc. have made Chinese users accustomed to recharge consumption. It is now easier for users to accept small payments. An ordinary member of WPS costs 70 to 80 yuan a year, and the most expensive super member costs more than 100 yuan a year. You can also get discounts when encountering events.

"Late": Has Kingsoft Office done anything in the past that led the industry or pioneered the industry? What you have been talking about just now is that you enjoy the dividends of this industry.

Zhang Qingyuan: In fact, the free model is also our earliest. In 2005, we started the free model of WPS. At that time, it was entirely for public welfare, and there was no Internet business model. We thought that no one would buy the software anyway, so we might as well just make it free.

"Later": Later, when you made more money, when did you start to consider the user's perception?

Zhang Qingyuan: When the advertising team was summarizing in 2011, I made a one-page PPT of various advertising pop-ups and criticized them for more than an hour. From that time on, I felt that there was something wrong with this thing and it would do too much harm to users, but there was nothing I could do because there was no better business model at that time, so I could only carry it. Later, in 2013 and 2014, we fully devoted ourselves to value-added services. At that time, we saw that users’ spending power had increased, so we shifted there. After that, we internally began to consider reducing advertising.

"Later": Do you think advertising is a huge gap between Kingsoft Office WPS and Microsoft Office?

Zhang Qingyuan: is like this from a negative perspective. But on the plus side, we still have a lot of things that Microsoft doesn't have. In fact, in recent years, most brand computers have Microsoft Office pre-installed, plus pirated versions. Under this circumstance, our Windows version users have been growing, and users still choose WPS with advertising and paid functions. There are now 200 million desktop monthly active users in China. This shows that we have many innovative points that are deeply loved by users.

"Late": Many people will mention one thing when reviewing the development of Kingsoft Office. Kingsoft Office took the lead in transforming into the mobile Internet, laying the foundation for subsequent growth.

Zhang Qingyuan: Microsoft’s mobile strategy is Windows First. It still hopes that Windows Phone can compete with Android and iOS, so Office has limited investment in mobile platforms. Second, we are also lucky to have Chinese mobile phones going overseas, because all Android phones except and Samsung are dominated by China, and domestic mobile phones also support us. Third, we have made a lot of optimizations on the product side. What Microsoft did at that time was to move the Windows version code of Microsoft Office to mobile, so it was difficult to use on mobile phones. Our Android version was re-made, and the experience will be better than It's much better. Two lucks, one product. Luck is a very important strength.

"Late": But there is still a big gap between Kingsoft Office and Microsoft.

Zhang Qingyuan: The core issue of is still the brand. The events of these two days can clearly see the brand gap between us and Microsoft. I know that many people call us hooligans because of our advertising business model. I also wanted to make a good product that was very clean. I am a mysophobic person.

is really helpless. Advertising cannot be stopped all at once. It needs a soft landing because there are still hundreds of millions in advertising revenue. Therefore, we will choose to adjust gradually and upgrade and iterate the business model.

"Later": If you completely shut down the advertising business, will users respect you?

Zhang Qingyuan: can’t. In fact, there are very few ads now, and users will definitely feel that we have changed.

Want to surpass Microsoft in terms of brand

Make the business model more elegant

"Late": When Lei Jun left Kingsoft in 2008, did you also want to leave? Why did you stay later?

Zhang Qingyuan: was unwilling to give up, and felt that WPS was not done well. It's a shame to run away in despair.

I was born in the 1970s, and my dream in this life is to make a software that is used by many people. I hope to take my son to a computer store one day to buy a software CD, point to the CD and say, son, this software was made by your father. But by the time I realized this dream, there was no Computer City anymore, and there were no software CDs anymore.

I loved using WPS when I was studying, and I felt that Kingsoft was a heroic company. At that time, Qiu Bojun and were on the news network and said they would compete with Microsoft, so I liked this company very much and came here. Unexpectedly, I fell into a "big pit" (laughing).

"Later": You just said that Kingsoft is a company with a heroic background. Do you think the halo of heroes has faded now?

Zhang Qingyuan: has never been there.

"Late": What does "hero" mean to a company?

Zhang Qingyuan: Jinshan’s heroism was mainly shaped by Qiu Bojun and Lei Jun, who are admired by the entire company. Heroes often have dreams, responsibility, and perseverance.

"Late": After taking over as CEO in 2020, what do you think is your most important decision?

Zhang Qingyuan: Collaboration should be considered the most important thing I do. We are now investing a lot of effort in collaboration. The company's business has slowly evolved from a single Office software tool to a collaboration platform.

"Late": WPS already has nearly 600 million monthly active users. What kind of user level do you think the ceiling is?

Zhang Qingyuan: We are currently focusing on the number of users on computers. There are probably more than 400 million office computers in China, and we now have about 200 million monthly users. Referring to third-party data, it probably now accounts for more than 40% of the market share. A goal I have set for myself is that we must at least be number one in China.

"Late": When will you be able to be number one, and how will you be number one?

Zhang Qingyuan: surpasses Microsoft in terms of brand and is more elegant in terms of business model.

I hope that those who come to scold us today will still be able to give us a thumbs up in the future. Although WPS has gained support from many people today, it is far from enough. There are still many people who do not understand us.

"Late": 2018, the 30th anniversary of Kingsoft. Lei Jun said he hopes the company can continue to live for another 30 years. Why does Jinshan always emphasize staying alive?

Zhang Qingyuan: Mr. Lei believes that a company's ability to survive for such a long time can prove its competitiveness. He has experienced the ups and downs of Jinshan in several stages, leaving and coming back. For Mr. Lei, Jinshan is his youth. The sustainable and healthy development of Jinshan is the most important. He cares about us very much. Now we are working in the same park as , Xiaomi and .

"Later": Are you afraid that Kingsoft Office will die in your hands? How likely is it?

Zhang Qingyuan: will definitely not be killed in my hands. This will make me a sinner through the ages. When I got into WPS, WPS was at its worst, and I went through a little bit of getting it done, and this one, like my son, would never allow anyone to get it done.

"Late": What do you think is the most likely reason if Kingsoft Office goes bankrupt?

Zhang Qingyuan: I don’t think so. There have been many crises in the history of WPS. Mr. Youqiu sold the villa to continue the business, and Mr. Youlei used the profits from the online game , Duba, and to support the continued business. As long as the big Jinshan family is here and Mr. Lei is here, Jinshan Office will continue to do its job. Worst case scenario, I myself am willing to invest money to keep WPS alive.

"Late": So there is always a part of Lei Jun's soul in Jinshan.

Zhang Qingyuan: is not only his soul, he is also in Jinshan now. He is also the chairman of Kingsoft. We have always been Mr. Lei’s “red kid”. Yesterday I also read your article interviewing Chen Rui (the chairman of B station ). He also used the word “red kid”. Chen Rui and I are of the same generation, both of whom were trained in the Jinshan Cadre Training Class. Mr. Lei has three identities here at the same time. He is our boss, he is our boss, and he is our teacher.

"Late": Do you feel restricted as the CEO of Kingsoft Office?

Zhang Qingyuan: can’t. Many of my working methods were taught by Mr. Lei. In addition, Mr. Lei is like a big brother and can help you with some things. The most difficult thing as a CEO is the conflict between financial reporting and the company's strategic development. Just now, why did the advertisement stop but not immediately? The advertising is going to stop, and Mr. Lei supports me strategically. Now that I know what's going on, it's easy to operate. I'll make a soft landing for this business.

"Late": Are you more afraid of disappointing users, or are you more afraid of disappointing Lei Jun?

Zhang Qingyuan: users are disappointed. Because I know that Mr. Lei is disappointed with me, it must be because the users have opinions about us.