The 3Q event should not have happened

Even Professor Shi Jiaan of Ohio State University, who sings praises for the imitation ability of individual companies, believes that from the perspective of ensuring the healthy development of the industry, a balance should be established between imitators and innovators - for innovation It should provide enough incentives to protect their interests; and imitation in the industry should enable the content that proves to be successful to be applied to a greater extent in different situations and on different scales. Obviously, if the ecological environment can be coordinated and orderly, the 3Q incident (the dispute between 360 and QQ) will not happen. The fuse of the 3Q incident stemmed from Tencent's large-scale installation of QQ Computer Manager in users' computers in late September 2010. Tencent's move directly threatens its own safety in the eyes of 360. "This is a product with a very similar interface and function to 360 Security Guard." 360 believes that Tencent will use this "copying itself" product to link up with QQ, which has a large number of users, and "will not allow you to log in to QQ without QQ Computer Manager", and gradually become incompatible with 360, and finally remove 360 Security Guard from the user's Extrude on the desktop. Out of such concerns, 360 took tit-for-tat measures. One month after the launch of QQ Computer Manager, it launched Koukou Bodyguard, a company that intercepts QQ advertisements, prevents QQ from scanning user privacy, cleans up QQ peripheral software, and prevents QQ account stealing. product. And this kind of trick to directly block QQ's financial path angered Tencent. As a result, the battle between the two sides unfolded one after another on the client's computer desktop, until the government came forward to shut down the fire.

Although the current 3Q battle has receded from the customer's table, the battle between them is still ongoing, and the war has spread from the two companies to more enterprises. This is a battle that has been raging for a long time. However, if China's industrial ecological environment can protect innovation and suppress monopoly; if Chinese entrepreneurs have certain business civilization and moral values, as well as a long-term vision of development, such a battle will not be possible. can be avoided.

No boundaries lead to confusion

What counts as plagiarism and what counts as learning to imitate? What is a monopoly? What is normal business practice? In a relatively young country with a market economy like China, many industries do not have a clear definition of these issues, especially the Internet industry with a history of more than 10 years. No boundaries means freedom and disorder, which leads to chaos. The 3Q incident is a typical outbreak of this chaos.

Although 360 cited many phenomena to explain Tencent's plagiarism, Tencent was very disapproving. They believe that all their actions have not crossed the legal minefield, and therefore, within the boundaries of the law, they do everything that is in their own interests. Although some practices have caused a lot of dissatisfaction. In fact, many companies in the industry have a consensus on Tencent's plagiarism. They believe that the industry leader himself rarely innovates, rarely appears in the exploration period of a field, and always waits for others to do almost the same before copying. Some even listed a long list of Tencent's resulting products. However, despite this, these companies have no good countermeasures, and can only beware. For example, Alibaba's Jack Ma once warned his team that new ideas must operate in a low-key manner, and do not attract the attention of Tencent. Moreover, Ma Yun also deliberately has a harmonious relationship with Tencent, in order to hope that Tencent will not intervene in Alibaba's business territory prematurely and buy time for Alibaba's development.

Tencent is also very aggrieved by these accusations and precautions in the industry. Just like this 3Q incident, Tencent believes that it is a last resort to force customers to choose between QQ and 360 to defend their survival: "It was 360's bodyguards who were out of line", "The situation was very critical at that time, if we didn't do it ourselves Help or die." As for being accused of using its monopoly position to bundle and push products, Tencent is also at a loss, "Who said we are in a monopoly position? What rules did we violate?"

Tencent's confusion is understandable. This 12-year-old company has accumulated more experience in business operations in the Chinese market over the years. In this borderless market, it is difficult for it to consciously develop the sense of responsibility and ability of industry leaders. Tencent is like this, and other peers living around Tencent can only follow similar rules of the game. As a result, a series of melee hits from the stage to the table.

The current industrial situation, according to the interpretation of Hu Jie, a professor of finance at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, is in line with the Prisoner's Dilemma phenomenon in the principles of economics. As shown in the figure on the right, in this borderless industrial environment and pattern, if a company chooses innovation and self-discipline, then when its opponent chooses to plagiarize, its losses will be greater; if it chooses to plagiarize, then even the opponent chooses Plagiarism, it loses at best the same as its opponents. Therefore, plagiarism becomes a "rational" choice, even if it makes life difficult for everyone.

So, how to break this "bad balance"? Hu Jie believes that the key lies in changing the rules of the game, reducing the interests of plagiarists and protecting and increasing the returns of innovators. To change this rule, we must formulate hard rules—protect intellectual property rights with laws and fight back against monopoly. At the same time, it is necessary to create public opinion-oriented soft rules that advocate innovation and oppose plagiarism.

Entrepreneurs need to break their own thinking ceiling

Whether it is a hard rule or a soft environment, the outside world provides a constraint boundary for the company to ensure healthy growth. These constraint boundaries can be passively obeyed by enterprises, but the passive cost is relatively large. Only by transforming these boundaries into the norms of our own behavioral values can we take the initiative and act naturally and take the initiative in the market that has changed the rules of the game. Judging from the progress of the internationalization of the Chinese market, this change in the rules of the game will happen sooner or later.

The rapid development of the Chinese market has allowed many Chinese entrepreneurs to taste the sweetness of making quick money, and also cultivated the habit of thinking of short-term interests for some people. For example, in a company like Tencent with an annual sales revenue of more than 10 billion, there is also a saying, "You can't make products that didn't make money back then." If this statement is true, they are certainly reluctant to get involved in product innovation that requires years of investment, although this is the responsibility of an industry leader, and such innovation can bring long-term tangible and intangible benefits to the company. return. However, when the rules of the game change, how long can an industry leader who is not good at innovation last? ! At least, in those regulated markets, such an example has never been seen before. Even those imitators such as Apple and IBM, who are highly praised by Professor Shi Jiaan, have the same innovative imitation ability that he praises, that is, they can make full use of existing mature technologies and innovate to realize their ideals.

Breaking the ceiling of thinking requires the drive of long-term goals and missions. The reason why the two founders of Google can relentlessly invest in innovation is that they have the ambition to conquer all the information on the Internet; Similarly, Jobs, who is determined to provide excellent products and experiences for people all over the world, driven by his ideal of perfection, does not hesitate to The price is new and different.

Napoleon Hill, the founder of modern success, once said, "All achievement and wealth originate from an idea or a dream." Not only did Google and Apple succeed in this way, but they also led booming related industries. Therefore, if China's industry is to succeed, it also needs such enterprises and entrepreneurs with lofty ideals. Only when such entrepreneurs become mainstream in the industry can events like 3Q become history forever.