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After two days of investigation, Zhou Buqi's team discovered a phenomenon.

The mobile phones of Sharp, Panasonic, and NEC that are popular in the Japanese market are all feature phones. It is very different from domestic feature phones, which are semi-smart phones.

In the mobile phone, the operator has pre-installed a lot of software in advance. When purchasing a mobile phone, users not only choose the brand, configuration, appearance, and price of the mobile phone, but also look at the built-in software and services provided.

Such as video, music, games, translation, notepad, tape recorder, stock software and so on. The difference with smartphones lies in the system to a large extent.

Smartphones generally use the Symbian system, which is very powerful, and users can control it as they like, just like operating a computer.

Download and install what you like, and uninstall it if you don't like it.

Users have a great deal of choice.

However, the stability of the mobile phone system is very problematic these days, and it is also limited by the processor and storage space. Once there are too many software running or the use time is too long, it is easy to cause freezes, splash screens, forced exits, and even system crashes. collapse.

It needs to be flashed before it can be used again.

For Japanese users who are afraid of trouble, this is the most unbearable point.

The operator pre-installs a lot of software in the feature phone. These software vendors and operators are all cooperative and have mutual interests, which are bundled products. Mandatory and cannot be uninstalled.

This, on the contrary, makes it simple and trouble-free for users. They don’t have to think too much, and they can use whatever products the operator provides.

Moreover, the embedded system of the feature phone is more stable, and the built-in software is carefully designed according to the configuration of the mobile phone. It will not exceed the standard, and there will be no endless failures like smart phones.

When it comes to UC browser, Sun Zhengyi is not very clear, so he asked his assistant to ask.

The feedback results are astonishing.

For example, video, music, and games are software with many products in the market, fierce competition, and strong profit-making effects. If you want to pre-install them in mobile phones, software vendors need to pay a sum of money to operators.

If it is a paid service, software vendors and operators can also share.

There is another kind of software that has a poor money-making effect.

The software itself lacks a reasonable model for making money, so it is unlikely to spend money to buy through the operator's relationship and let the operator pre-install it into the mobile phone.

However, some software is just needed and must be pre-installed.

Such as mobile browsers!

How do mobile browsers make money?

This is a problem all over the world. UC has no profit and is still in the stage of burning money.

Burning money for operations is a taboo in the Japanese market.

Conservative business philosophy makes them think that the first mission of an enterprise is to generate profits, and that no profit is nonsense. So the local mobile browser is a very embarrassing position.

There are probably only two or three models in Japan.

In order to provide more services to users, operators need browsers, some of them develop their own, and the products are terrible. Others are collective purchases, where operators pay to purchase a batch of genuine mobile browsers, which are pre-installed in mobile phones.

Others cooperate with mobile browsers such as Opera and are paid software. After the user buys a mobile phone, he needs to spend additional money to purchase Opera's services.

All in all, using a mobile browser in Japan costs money!

Either the operator spends money and gives users free access.

Either users pay out of their own pockets.

In fact, this is the mainstream model in the software industry. Manufacturers develop it and consumers buy it. There are less than 10% of free software in the world, and most of them have to be paid. Only in China because of rampant piracy, it is the other way around, software manufacturers have to beg users to use it for free.

This is Ziweixing's opportunity!

After struggling in the domestic market, it has long developed a set of free models. The business model of the domestic IT industry is advanced, let alone Japan, even Silicon Valley.

It is unnecessary for the operators under Softbank to spend money to purchase other people's mobile browsers.

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "No need to bother, UC is free! It's free for you to use!"

Masayoshi Son asked: "Charge users?"

Zhou Buqi shook his head and said, "No, it's free, free for operators, free for users, free forever. The spirit of the Internet is free."

Sun Zhengyi was silent for a while, "This model may not work, software is different from the Internet, relying on..."

Zhou Buqi laughed and said: "It doesn't matter, we have our own philosophy. UC is free in China and has been losing money. It doesn't matter. To be a business is to delay gratification. Ignore the immediate gains and losses and focus on the long-term. Ziweixing is here for the first time, providing Japanese users with an excellent free mobile browser, as if we spent money to make friends, so that everyone can feel the friendliness and kindness of Ziweixing.”

Sun Zhengyi asked: "Are you going to start building the UC brand?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "There is a plan."

Sun Zhengyi pondered for a while, "If it is for brand promotion, this kind of thinking is not impossible. The cost of free software should be used as marketing expenses. However, the Internet habits of Japanese users are different from yours in China. General products are not good. UC needs to be designed specifically for Japanese users."

"Of course! No problem! After it's finished, I'll hand it over to you for inspection, and then pre-install it if it's qualified. If it's not qualified, continue to adjust. Don't worry, take your time."

Zhou Buqi is full of confidence.

Companies in Silicon Valley can’t do it because their intellectual property protection is too good, their imitation ability is too poor, and their localized design is not enough; Ziweixing is not afraid, it’s too simple.

If it is a localized design from scratch, it will be very difficult, and Ziwei Star will not have any advantages over the Silicon Valley giants.

But now it's not starting from scratch.

There are also several mobile phone browsers in Japan, so it is enough to imitate their strengths and avoid weaknesses. Mobile browsers are small objects, unlike engineering software that has many patents, and any design is strictly protected.

At the end of the meeting, Zhou Buqi and his party were very excited.

It went well!

Sure enough, as expected, Masayoshi Son is very interested in developing his own country's Internet market. At the same time, it also found the first market breakthrough for UC.

Yu Yongfu said: "I'm not afraid that the opportunity is small, but I am afraid that there will be no opportunity. If we can reach a cooperation, UC browser can really be pre-installed in the mobile phones sold by SoftBank Vodafone, I believe that a catfish effect will soon be formed."

He Yang agrees: "No matter how traditional and old-fashioned their business model is, one thing can be confirmed, that is, everyone is here to make money. If there is money to make, there will be a market."

Yu Yongfu smiled and said: "That's right, Softbank can use free mobile browsers, and other operators have to spend money to purchase... This is equivalent to increasing the competitiveness of Softbank operators virtually. Other operators must If you don’t adjust, you will suffer. As long as we cooperate with Softbank, I believe that within two to three years, UC browser can be pre-installed in all mobile phones.”

Zhou didn't think he was a bit conservative.

It doesn't take two or three years at all!

As long as the subprime mortgage crisis breaks out smoothly, all enterprises will face a crisis of survival, and they will increase income and reduce expenditure, and even lay off employees... Half a year later, all operators will have to come to UC for cooperation.

Accepting Softbank's financing is still very valuable.

Shi Jinglin asked: "Can UC's free model really not make money?"

Yu Yongfu hesitated for a moment, and pondered: "It's more difficult. The main income of UC in China is not the browser, but the mobile website derived from UC. The income of the browser is only two yuan. It cooperates with the search engine to get A platform fee. There is also an advertising fee. For example, when the software is opened, an advertisement pops up on the interface.”

Shi Jinglin immediately said, "It's best not to! MSN's mobile version has pop-up ads like this, and I'm so annoyed."

Zhou Buqi said: "In the early stage, it is better not to invest in advertising. Let's talk about word-of-mouth and brand first. After forming a market monopoly through the relationship of operators, we will try to explore some profit models. Don't worry. UC Browser The positioning of the company is a traffic grabber. First burn money and raise it.”

Tang Binchen said firmly: "UC Browser's default search engine must be Yahoo. Even if they don't pay service fees, they still have to cooperate. This will become the key to our cooperation with Yahoo Japan."

Zhou Buqi was silent for a while, "It should."

He's a bit idealistic.

Just making money is no longer enough to satisfy his pursuit. He has enough wealth already to spend it all. To develop Japanese business, to a large extent, we want to use the advantage of foresight to enter the market in advance and build the flow ecology of the Japanese market.

Just like Ziweixing in the country.

At that time, domestic companies will be able to use Ziweixing's traffic platform to expand their business in Japan, without having to be low-key like Kingsoft Antivirus in the past.

Even in many cases, low-ranking and low-ranking people ignore you.

The search business is difficult, involving Japanese, and it is not easy to do it in a short period of time. It has been discussed internally before that Micropoint will not be involved in this business in a short time.

But Baidu has been doing it for a year.

It is said that Baidu Japan will officially operate next year, grabbing share in the Japanese market.

Zhou Buqi firmly supports.

Even mentioning the default search engine of UC Browser, the first thing he thought of was Baidu.

But Tang Binchen is right, in the short term, he must embrace Yahoo Japan's thigh.

...

The next day, a group of people visited Yahoo Japan.

Everyone has more confidence.

How can Yahoo Japan look like an Internet company? Just like a traditional business. In China and Silicon Valley, the first impression of the company when going to the Internet is that it is young.

There are young people everywhere.

Most of the managers who inspected with work badges were in their twenties.

The young people of Yahoo Japan are all sitting at their workstations, and the leaders who came forward to greet them, it seems that none of them are under 35 years old, and most of them are in their 40s or 50s.

Zhou Buqi directly characterized it.

Rigid, rigid, lifeless!

After turning around, he talked about the salary structure of Yahoo Japan, and the statement he gave was similar to that of Tang Binchen.

In their twenties, the monthly salary is generally more than 200,000 yen; in their thirties, a monthly salary of more than 300,000 yen; in their forties, a monthly salary of more than 400,000 yen... There are obvious differences in levels.

There is not much difference in the level of technology. For college students who have just graduated, the cost may be 290,000 yen for those with better skills, and 200,000 yen for those with poorer skills.

Can't go down, can't go up.

It is very offensive and unfair that a freshly graduated college student earns a higher salary than an old employee in his thirties.

"That's it!"

Zhou Buqi was determined, and when he saw He Yang, Wang Haiyang and others accompanying him, his eyes lit up.