Qihoo 360 Zhou Hongyi: Revolution And Self Revolution

In endless questioning,

In the middle of 11 2009, Tan Xiaosheng, the original gathering friend CTO, quietly joined the Beijing Qihoo Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qihoo 360") as vice president of technology. He had a lot of connections with Qihoo 360 chairman and CEO Zhou Hongyi. He was the 3721 director of technology development as early as 2003.

This is just a microcosm of the rapidly growing Qihoo 360's recent absorption of talent in the industry.

Corresponding to the rapid expansion of personnel, the Qihoo 360 showed a "aggressive" growth momentum.

Since the launch of the 360 security guard in 2006, Zhou Hongyi has led the company to the Internet security service. In 2007, the Trojan horse killing function was added. In 2008, the browser and anti-virus software test version were launched. This year, the cloud killing engine and the official version of the free antivirus software are launched.

In a very short time, the market share of the 360 anti-virus software has taken up second place, second only to the traditional manufacturers, and 360 of the browser is also closely following IE.

Zhou Hongyi, who carries the banner of "free", is once again pushed to the top of the storm. Many traditional security vendors including rising star have questioned the reliability of their products, and some even think that "making money with free will not last long."

The situation of besieging is no stranger to Zhou Hongyi: he made a scuffle with Baidu and CNNIC when he was 3721 years old, and later launched 360 security guards to deal with hooligan software and Trojan horses. He claimed that he had been personally threatened by moving the gray industrial chain.

The core of business disputes is nothing but a "benefit" word. You use "free" to do it. How else do you sell products that charge?

Qi Xiangdong, a business partner for many years, seems to be "one of the few superheroes in the Chinese Internet". Zhou Hongyi is very loyal to his friends. "On the surface, he plays with everyone, but he works well in any platform.

Just doing well is like moving someone else's cheese. They will have to fight with you and not fight. "

Zhou Hongyi, who is believed to have overturned the security market, does not see it like this: "I always believe that the Internet has subverted traditional manufacturers, and we all have to adapt to the needs of Internet users.

The trend on the Internet is that as long as all users need services, they must be free, and security services and mailboxes are the same.

As for the profit model, after two years of exploration, Qihoo 360 has gradually become clear.

Zhou Hongyi said: "our goal is to provide users with free basic services, establish brand and influence, and finally get income through value-added services."

This is quite similar to China's largest Internet Co Tencent, and what he calls value-added services include the upcoming network security storage.

In fact, only through games, browsers, security software and other products, Qihoo 360 has gained billions of yuan of revenue from many partners this year, and its profit situation is far beyond the conjecture of many people.

Free profit exploration

It is not the result of Zhou Hongyi's deliberate pursuit to make profits so fast. In the 3721 era, because of too much attention to competition, Zhou Hongyi admitted that he had done some harm to users. After he came back to the world, he was determined to make full efforts in user experience: "the premise of doing value-added services is that users should first approve of your basic services (free services), and have to make the user base particularly stable. We have only done three years, and there are many security things to do better."

For the idea of "free goods not good," he retorts: "the quality of free products is higher, because users do not have any opportunity cost, and feel that you are not easy to lose."

Taking anti-virus software, as early as July 2008, 360 anti-virus software launched the beta version, which is purchased from Bitdefender, an old antivirus vendor in Romania. Zhou Hongyi admitted that at the beginning, "it's a little simple," and wanted to buy technology to push it free.

As a result, the technology bought directly is somewhat unacceptable, such as the occurrence of manslaughter, the ignorance of the local virus in China, and the frequent crashes.

Zhou Hongyi decided to repolish the anti-virus engine and digest it completely. After more than a year's launch of the official version, the anti-virus software quickly won the market recognition.

Although no value-added services have yet been launched, in the past two years, Qihoo 360 has made similar attempts to work with Kabasiji and other traditional antivirus vendors to help them promote sales.

Facts have proved that despite the existence of 360 free antivirus software, it does not prevent a small number of users from choosing paid products.

Zhou Hongyi disclosed that the ratio is between 2% and 3%.

Since Qihoo 360 series software has already had hundreds of millions of users, many people outside the world speculate that Zhou Hongyi will also sacrifice the most direct income pattern of advertising, but he explicitly denied that "basically refusing advertising mode, this is a must."

For some Internet Co, who also do clients, start making pop-up ads under the pressure of profit. He thinks: "some people say that investors are under pressure. I think they are all excuses. As CEO, we should have our own judgement and resist temptation and pressure."

For example, making pop-up ads can definitely earn money, but I do not think it is practical, because it may hurt users and cause users to lose.

Too early to consider revenue or earnings is a bit like chronic suicide.

From the history of Internet development, whether Google or Facebook or Twitter will experience the pressure of income in the early stage, it has proved that as long as we can really make a good product, solve problems, create value and be welcomed by many users, we will surely find a suitable profit pattern.

Therefore, Zhou Hongyi only focuses on the product itself. He also laughs, "maybe I mixed up on rivers and lakes for a long time, and investors still respect me more, and generally do not exert any pressure on me."

Qihoo 360, when other companies are not aware of it, uses the free strategy to quickly create an Internet security service system that aggregates hundreds of millions of users. Once it becomes a profitable cake, it is likely that other competitors will follow up quickly.

Microsoft has launched a free antivirus software test version in the near future.

Zhou Hongyi said: "at present, what we do is centered on Internet security, while Tencent is taking entertainment as the core, and the road is still different.

I think a lot of things have proved that no matter how powerful a company is, you can't do anything well if you try to do anything.

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Not painful pformation

In fact, even if there is no pressure from investors, Zhou Hongyi also has to be responsible for investors.

After leaving from YAHOO China in August 2005, he threw himself into a very favorite investment business. The creation of Qihoo 360 also intervened as an investor. He was initially led by Qi Xiangdong.

But the "community + search" model that the company began to pick up quickly encountered problems. Zhou Hongyi said that this was the two hot concept at that time. "We do not want to directly imitate the American model, and want to take a unique road. Of course, we have paid the necessary price for innovation and exploration."

Zhou Hongyi, who was committed to investors, became chairman and CEO in March 2006 to reestablish the direction for the company.

Zhou Hongyi did not deny that the beginning of a detour was due to "empiricism". "When I first came out of YAHOO, I felt like a bull. I felt a little self inflated on my mind. I thought it was very simple to see any problems."

But the Internet is a rapidly changing field. Like water, it is constantly flowing. Every stage is different. If we can not learn to sink, we just want to copy success from past experience and fall into the trap of "eager for success".

He led the company to make quick adjustments, face the reality, put down the state of mind and give himself zero.

"If you are not modest, you can't reconsider yourself as an entrepreneur, and work 10 hours a day to get to the front line to understand the needs of your customers, which is likely to be eliminated by the times."

He is clearly aware that today, with the rapid growth of Internet users in China, his ideas can no longer represent the mainstream users' ideas, so they must consider them from an angle of humility.

Thus, when conceiving 360 security guards, Zhou Hongyi started from some very small points, such as killing rogue software, killing Trojan horses, and patching the operating system. These things do not seem to be of great significance, but if they are done well, they will be able to meet the real needs of users.

He concluded later that "we must start from the user's perspective, and fear that the macro strategic planning and business mode that are proceeding from the height of industry must be completely divorced from reality."

Qi Xiangdong, who met Zhou Hongyi for 11 years, commented: "he responded very fast and was very sensitive to the development direction of the Internet, so we quickly completed the adjustment."

In Qi Xiangdong's view, the pformation of Qihoo 360 is not as painful as what the outside world thinks. First, cloud computing technology used in cloud security is born out of search engine technology. This part of technology and talents can be inherited. Secondly, Qihoo 360 has accumulated a large number of users in the initial stage, and then launched a series of safety products and established public praise, which has attracted more and more professionals.

"It is a natural pition, but we really paid the hard work and struggle that ordinary people could not imagine before completing the pformation."

Speaking of the immediate goal, Zhou Hongyi revealed that in addition to introducing value-added services, he also had to enter the field of mobile phone security, and had acquired several related companies, while 360 anti-virus software and firewalls should strive to reach 200 million users.

He counted the accounts for reporters. If a set of anti-virus safety software was set at 50 yuan, 200 million users would have saved 10 billion yuan by using free software, and the killing of Trojan horse would reduce the loss of 10 billion yuan for netizens.

Painful self pformation

Zhou Hongyi, who has made two pioneering experiences, is totally different from the two experiences: the 3721 was founded in because his ideas were not recognized in the founder. It was a truly poor and grass-roots "entrepreneurial undertaking"; and once again, Qihoo 360, who had already made a name for himself, was already a "noble entrepreneur" who did not break away.

When he heard many people say, "the more money you have when you start a business, the better," you can't help but refute. "When you are a Qihoo 360, you need experience and experience, money and money, but if you take a detour, you can't get rich."

In fact, Chen Yizhou also made similar mistakes. Thousands of oak interactive first made a lot of miscellaneous products, such as mop and so on, but finally found the school network (now renamed Renren net) in this direction.

Zhou Hongyi thought, "mentality is very important. Team ability is no problem."

In his own experience, he summed up the two biggest problems of continuous Entrepreneurs: one is to wait for the past, and the last so-called success is inevitable. In fact, it is probably just a chance to pick up a dead rabbit. It is not necessarily your ability to decide. As a result, you are sitting under this tree and waiting for rabbits. The other is carving the boat, and the times and industries are changing. If you do not realize the change, you still think you can continue to succeed in the original way.

Now that Qihoo 360 is entering the fast track of growth, Zhou Hongyi, who is good at introspection, has begun to consciously adjust the pace of company management.

He did not deny that he had made a head decision before, but also said: "I will communicate with the team after making decisions, and I will make amendments based on different opinions. I am not a self opinionated person."

But now it has scale, "it will slow down a little bit in decision-making, sacrifice some efficiency, and maintain the stability of decision-making and direction."

This experience also comes from the lessons of skin cutting. When Zhou Hongyi summed up the painful lessons in history, he found that all the stupid and erroneous decisions were made in a very impatient and emotional state.

Today, he will spend a lot of time thinking about his internal decisions. "I think the most urgent thing that Qihoo 360 needs to overcome is impetuosity."

Zhou Hongyi, who believes in some aspects of gifted temperament, also knows that he is not a versatile person and has many shortcomings. He must constantly learn to improve himself and overcome his weaknesses. "Changing oneself is the most painful thing, but if you want to succeed, you have to find your own problems and correct them."

Just like the rebirth of eagle, written by TCL chairman Li Dongsheng several years ago after the two cross-border merger and acquisition, it is necessary to undergo painful process to complete metamorphosis.

At present, Zhou Hongyi spends a lot of energy on finding excellent talents to become entrepreneurial partners, so as to make up for his shortcomings.

In addition, CDH investment and other shareholders also sent some experienced management experts to help them improve their management system.

"In the early days of the company, the business model and development direction were very important. The ability of the founder to fight alone was also important. But the direction of Qihoo 360 is clear now, but how big the future can be is related to the founder's mind, pattern and team composition.

A man is iron and he can't beat a few nails. He must overcome his limitations by team strength. "

Zhou Hongyi claims that he is in a good state of mind. Qihoo 360 does not want to be an empire. He has no idea of being an emperor. "I always think of myself as a hero. What I like most is Linghu Chong."

Therefore, he is not willing to go to online games or search for more areas to earn money than.

He believes that making Internet security services is very meaningful, and through this matter, it has also redefined its position in the Chinese Internet industry, not simply for the pursuit of money.

For Qihoo 360, which has already introduced a huge amount of venture capital, listing is undoubtedly Zhou Hongyi's "clear mission".

Of course, he was regarded as a "natural entrepreneur" by Qi East. He hoped that once he was listed, he could find a suitable career management team to do it. "The company that I am good at managing from start-up to hundreds of people is really a big company, and my style may not be appropriate.

Therefore, my future destination is to engage in venture capital and angel investment, invest exclusively in early stage enterprises, and play their best skills.