On October 24, in response to market rumors "China Mobile may invest in Tencent " , Tencent Holdings responded to the media saying that "the news is untrue."
In this regard, some netizens also believe that "rumors are far ahead of the prophecy". Maybe it will be officially announced in a short while.
So the question is, if China Mobile really invests in Tencent and WeChat starts to charge 10 yuan monthly rent every month, do you still use WeChat?
The encounter between Tencent and China Mobile
Tencent is an Internet company founded in 1998 by Ma Huateng , Zhang Zhidong and others. Its diversified services include QQ, WeChat , QQ space , Tencent game , Tencent animation , Tencent news client and Tencent video , etc.
China Mobile, one of the three major operators, is also the largest mobile operator in China. The main businesses of include mobile voice, data services, wired broadband , information and communication services.
China Mobile has always regarded Telecom and China Unicom as its opponents, but unexpectedly, Tencent copied the back garden.
1. Acquisition of Tencent at a low price, but failed
1998, Ma Huateng and Zhang Zhidong founded Tencent in Shenzhen. They imitated ICQ and made an instant messaging software, named OICQ, which is also the predecessor of QQ.
At that time, most people didn’t know how to use computers at all, let alone OICQ. In order to keep customers, Ma Huateng even acted as a “chat”.
In this way, the number of QQ users gradually increased. By April 22000, the number of QQ users registered reached 5 million. At this time, another problem arose, the server is not enough.
It's really leaking and is raining all the time. At this time, the United States Online suddenly sued Tencent for infringing on intellectual property rights, and coupled with the Internet bubble burst, it directly put Tencent in a crisis.
Ma Huateng priced Tencent's assets at 30 million to look for buyers. But there is only one buyer, with a capital investment of only 600,000, which is rumored to be Guangdong Mobile . This is a slap in the face! However, if Tencent had been acquired for 30 million at that time, there would have been no trillion empire today.
At the end of 2000, China Mobile launched the "Mobile Dream Network Plan" and began to discuss future development with its partners, including Tencent.
Tencent quickly entered the operator's value-added service business and became China Mobile's SP supplier. Tencent made a huge profit of 10.22 million yuan a year and survived successfully.
At that time, China Mobile's number of users reached 45.134 million, operating income was 65 billion, and net profit was 18 billion. Such a scale directly crushes Tencent.
And Ma Huateng has to queue up to meet the Guangdong mobile department manager when he goes to see the Guangdong mobile department manager. Sometimes he can’t wait for people, so he chats with ordinary employees.
2, a brief truce
In 2002, Tencent began to develop rapidly. It launched QQ space, QQ pets, QQ show and other businesses, and laid out online games.
How fast is Tencent developing?
In 2002, the net profit reached 144 million yuan, and increased 10 times year-on-year; in 2003, it doubled from the basis of 2002, and in , Tencent's total revenue in 2004 was 1.1435 billion yuan and its net profit was 446 million yuan. and was successfully launched.
But China Mobile still doesn't take Tencent seriously, because in , China Mobile's revenue in 2004 was 192.4 billion, 168 times that of Tencent; its net profit was 42 billion, about 10 times that of Tencent.
The most important thing is that more than half of Tencent’s revenue at that time came from China Mobile. It can be said that if the mobile slightly changed the rules of the game, Tencent may not exist.
Of course, China Mobile does not need to do this, nor does it bother to do it. Because Mobile was winning at that time.
3, Feixin Zhan QQ
In May 2007, China Mobile released "Fexin", an instant messaging software that can realize free SMS, voice group chat, free SMS, etc.
In addition to the basic functions of chat software, Feixin can log in through various terminals such as PC, mobile phone, WAP, etc. to achieve seamless instant interoperability between PC and mobile phone, ensuring that users can achieve a never offline state.
Fein directly competes with Tencent QQ.
By 2009, Fexin had a total of 180 million users and had more than 50 million daily active users. However, this is still quite different from Tencent QQ's 1.06 billion registered users and 480 million active users.
In order to expand its achievements in the Internet field, China Mobile launched "MM", which is completely behind Apple , Google , 360, etc. due to shortcomings in interface, content, etc.
, Tencent continues to make rapid progress and begins to develop social apps on mobile.
4, Feijie Zhan WeChat
In January 2011, Tencent launched WeChat based on QQ. is an instant messaging software for smartphones. It can provide chat, circle of friends, WeChat payment, public platform, WeChat mini program and other functions, and also provide life payment, live broadcast and other services.
has QQ as its foundation, and WeChat's development is unstoppable. In just over a year, the number of users has exceeded 100 million.
In September 2011, China Mobile launched Feicha, which is similar to WeChat. It also sends messages, pictures, and videos for free through smartphones, and is also interconnected with SMS.
However, two years later, Feicha suddenly announced its discontinuation, and at this time, WeChat registered users had exceeded 400 million.
Feijie passed away in a short flash. The biggest reason is that the leadership strategy of mobile is not firm and is worried that Feijie will affect its SMS and MMS business. An executive even commented on Feijie like this. "We are digging our own corners."
As for Feixin, QQ did not let it perish at the beginning, but the appearance of WeChat directly announced the "death penalty". WeChat's pictures, voice, video, etc. are all free, while Feixin Mobile and non-mobile are charged, 0.01 yuan/item in China and 1 yuan/item in international space. The "short-sighted" development strategy like
is destined to be unable to beat WeChat.
By 2013, 4G became the main position of operators, and China Mobile focused its energy on 4G services. Tencent began to take "connecting everything" as its strategic goal and began to focus on building a social and digital platform.
market rumors
Recently, Internet companies have had a hard time, and the stock prices of companies such as Alibaba , Tencent, and JD have plummeted, cut in half, and even "knee".
Alibaba founder Jack Ma , JD.com founder Liu Qiangdong, Pinduoduo founder Xu Zheng, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming , etc. all resigned one after another, leaving only Ma Huateng.
Life has always been "unparalleled blessings, and misfortunes never come in singularity". In the cold winter of the industry, rumors suddenly appeared in the market: China Mobile has invested in Tencent.
To be honest, I don’t believe it very much, for the following reasons:
1, Tencent’s business has 6 most of them, namely social, entertainment, finance, information, tools and platforms. China Mobile may be interested in WeChat, but probably not interested in entertainment and gaming;
2, Tencent’s total market value is as high as 1.98 trillion yuan, equivalent to 1.8 trillion yuan. Even if 10% of the shares are 180 billion, it doesn’t make any sense to exchange more than 100 billion yuan for 10% of the shares, right?
3. Tencent’s development is approaching its peak. If you cannot find a new growth point in the future, it will only slowly descend. Intervening at this time is a total loss-making business.
4. Let’s talk about WeChat. The number of active accounts in has reached 1.151 billion, which has reached its peak. Even if China Mobile gets WeChat, it will probably change its flavor.
Of course, some netizens will still understand this way. If China Mobile obtains WeChat management rights, it can charge monthly rent, 10 yuan per month, and will reach 138 billion in a year.
So the question is, if WeChat really charges monthly rent and only charges 10 yuan per month, will you still use it?
yuan per month rent per month, do you use it?
First of all, in Tencent’s world, WeChat is the basis of everything. Without WeChat, there will be no traffic portal. The so-called social, entertainment, finance, information, etc. will become the moon in the water and the flower in the mirror.
Therefore, Tencent will never charge easily, but after the control rights change, it is hard to say. But even if you really charge, you can't give up WeChat in a short period of time.
Reasons to use WeChat
For me, WeChat is no longer a social APP, it has become a part of my life.
WeChat address book:
There are my closest people (parents, wife, children), as well as my friends, colleagues, and classmates. As a social person, it is impossible not to keep close contact with them.
WeChat group:
I don’t know how many WeChat groups you have, I just know that I have a lot. Classmate group (4), work group (9), parent group (4), owner group (2), family group (2), and shopping group (3). A total of 24.
These groups undertake too many tasks, including children's homework, clocking in, running the train, school payment, work tasks, community water outage, electricity, purchasing special items, etc.
WeChat scan code:
Health code , itinerary code, nucleic acid code, WeChat payment, which one can leave?
plus functions such as living payment, mobile phone recharge, social security payment, mini programs, etc. are simply too powerful.
In short, even if WeChat charges 10 yuan monthly rent, I still cannot live without it in a short period of time, but I will try other social apps and recommend them to friends. For example: DingTalk , Changlian.
is actually very simple to make a social APP with instant messaging, voice, video, and scanning code functions. Huawei , Xiaomi , Alibaba , etc. all have this strength.
For example: Huawei Changlian was launched on on February 2, 2021. It is an full-scene device communication APP, providing Huawei users with audio and video calls and information interoperability between all-scene devices.
At the same time, Changlian can also maintain smooth calls in dark and weak network environments, as well as flash large files, sound and vibration expressions and other functions.
WeChat is not necessary, nor can you charge monthly rent
Relying on WeChat, Tencent has made a lot of money. Its profit model is mainly advertising, payment, games, and portals.
Traffic Entrance :
WeChat has more than one billion users, which is a huge traffic entrance. Where these users are, the entrance is. With this "entry", Tencent has invested in 58.com , JD.com, Dianping and other companies, and has achieved huge profits.
Advertising revenue:
In 2021, Tencent's advertising revenue reached 88.6 billion, of which 75.3 billion were social advertising and 13.3 billion were media advertising.
Tencent relies on WeChat's powerful traffic diversion, uses user clicks to watch, attracting major manufacturers to place advertisements, and at the same time directing traffic to other platforms. Third-party platforms can also earn advertising fees.
Game Revenue:
Tencent has launched a number of games, such as: Honor of Kings, Peace Elite, Ace Warrior, Perfect World , etc., all of which are money-making tools. Just the recharge service will make Tencent a big profit.
Why are Tencent’s games so charming? In addition to doing a good job in the game, WeChat traffic and help are also one aspect.
Mobile payment:
In the field of mobile payment, Alipay has always been the big brother. Afterwards, WeChat entered this field and kept eroding Alipay's share by scanning the QR code to pay with WeChat.
In 2014, Alipay's market share was 82.8%, firmly occupying the top spot, and Tenpay (including WeChat Pay) had a market share of 10.6%.
By 2019, Alipay's market share dropped to 53%, and Tencent's Tenpay rose to 39%.Such data cannot be separated from the help of WeChat.
It can be said that Tencent has made enough money on WeChat. If the monthly rent is charged, it will be a little "greedy", and greed will often become a factor of failure.
I believe Tencent will understand this truth if it can become the number one social leader.
to the end
Now is the best era and the worst era. Tencent can stand out because it seizes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with its thinking and innovation.
As the largest operator in China, what China Mobile needs to do is to improve its own strength, technology and thinking. Seize the next vent.
In the new business world, there are no eliminated companies, only eliminated products and outdated business models. In the future, all competition will focus on product innovation and model innovation.
The wind on the mobile Internet has passed, and it may not be worth the effort to intervene in Tencent at this time!
, and the WeChat monthly rent that netizens are worried about is also annoying!
I am the Mingcheng of Science and Technology, welcome to discuss together!
