From 0 To 2.4 Billion Users

? ? ? Dongbeiwang village, once a village in Haidian city of Beijing, is now a small "Silicon Valley".

According to the official website, there are only 2.6 square kilometers of fertile land for science and technology. At present, the total output value has reached 336.6 billion yuan. There are more than 70 listed companies, more than 700 enterprises in the park, and 87 enterprises with more than 100 million income.

? ? ? ? Located in the incubator building of Zhongguancun Software Park, surrounded by Oracle, Zhongke Shuguang, didi and other big companies, ShareIt, founded in 2014, is not very impressive. In fact, even compared with huami and other start-up companies in the same building, this enterprise born in Lenovo Group and with "golden spoon" background has little sense of existence in China.

Who would have thought that in the overseas market, eggplant technology is another day: the total number of installed users of its various apps in the world is nearly 2.4 billion, the number of users of global content matrix is more than 900 million, and the number of users of tool matrix is more than 1.6 billion. "Fist product" eggplant quickly becomes a national product of emerging markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

? “ We have been in China for a very short time, and we soon find that our journey is overseas. " Recently, in an in-depth interview with the 21st century economic reporter, eggplant technology partner Wang Chao recalled the original choice. It is precisely by taking advantage of the "east wind" of the popularity of mobile Internet in overseas, especially in emerging markets, that eggplant technology has achieved a global installed capacity of 0-1 billion in just three years.

? ? In this wave of mobile Internet going out to sea, there are more enterprises "devoid of people"“ Mobile Internet enterprises do need special efforts to go abroad. In the past, many enterprises did not solve the pain points of overseas users and failed to grasp the complexity of local culture and law. " Zhang Yi, CEO of AI media consulting, told reporters of the 21st century economic report that "we found that many enterprises failed in the sea for less than two years and could not continue to push forward."

From the experience of eggplant technology in the past six years, we can have a glimpse of the ups and downs of China's mobile Internet going out to sea, as well as some insight into the sea experience.

Who is eggplant technology?

? ? ? It was hatched within Lenovo Group in 2012 and established in 2014. As the first batch of water testing cross platform near-field transmission software in China, eggplant express is a typical tool product. Through eggplant fast transfer, users can quickly transfer files between mobile phones, computers and other intelligent devices face to face without WiFi network and traffic.

"The name of this app is very good to remember. I can remember it once." A former domestic user of eggplant express recalled to the 21st century economic reporter that his Lenovo laptop had its own eggplant express app. "I tried to transfer the files of Apple mobile phone to the computer several times, and the experience was not bad."

However, in 2015, eggplant Kuaiyuan made a decision to change its fate: to enter overseas emerging markets.

"We had a round of debates about what kind of company we wanted to be." Wang Chao told the 21st century economic reporter. Finally, eggplant technology did not want to be an enterprise only relying on Lenovo ecology, but wanted to find a higher ceiling, so it chose to go abroad.

One big background is that in 2015, with the acceleration of domestic 4G construction, traffic transmission is no longer a luxury for users, thus reducing the demand space of near-field transmission where eggplant fast transmission is located. On the other hand, the mobile Internet market is still a blue ocean in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other emerging markets with underdeveloped infrastructure.

After the comprehensive shift to overseas, eggplant technology has become a technological force that can not be ignored in emerging markets.

According to the official website of eggplant science and technology, in the first year of going out to sea, eggplant Kuaiyuan gained 300 million users, doubled to 870 million the next year, and became the No.1 tool product in the emerging market of Google play app store. In 2018, the number of users of eggplant express exceeded 1.2 billion, becoming the most popular Chinese application in emerging markets.

The logic behind eggplant's rapid transmission and penetration is very simple. Wang Chao pointed out that with the popularity of smart phones in emerging markets, including the transmission of music, video and other files, users have to bear the brunt of the installation demand. With the increase of transmission networks among users, it continues to bring user stickiness.

Through eggplant fast pass to open up the users of emerging markets, however, eggplant technology "ambition" did not stop there. Since 2016, eggplant Express has continued to iterate more versions, such as adding community functions and application management functions to the original application. At the same time, eggplant technology began to lay out video and game tracks on the content ecology, creating a digital content platform.

"It seems that this ecosystem is no different from other players, but our platform is actually based on the pain points of users in emerging markets." Wang Chao explained to the 21st century economic reporter that "such users use the cheapest smart phones, only speak local languages, and the network transmission capacity is very limited, so our products focus on these pain points."

For example, under the premise of obtaining the user's consent, by analyzing and deriving the user's point of interest, eggplant's online video app watchhit can support video services in the network-free environment and provide users with content of interest.

This is different from other mainstream short video applications in emerging markets. In 2020, watchhit will stand out from the industry leaders such as youtube and tiktok, ranking top 2 in the Google play Indonesian entertainment list all year round.

In Wang Chao's opinion, the core reason why eggplant technology stands out among peers is not only the first mover advantage, but also the understanding of local users and people, which also reflects the values of eggplant technology.

In the mobile Internet industry, enterprises generally criticize ARPU (average revenue per user), and most players focus on users with higher ARPU value“ We are just different, because what we initially solved was that group of people (users with low ARPU value) Wang Chao told reporters, "we have been inclusive from the beginning, hoping that ordinary users in emerging markets can have fair access to digital content. In terms of commercial interests, we are making long-term benefits."

"At present, there are several types of domestic enterprises going out to sea. First of all, they are tool products, which are not necessarily related to local culture and other factors, and are relatively easy to achieve success. Eggplant rapid transmission is one of these." Zhang Yi told the 21st century economic reporter that the advantage of Eggplant's rapid transmission is that there are not many competitors, but the profit cycle is relatively long.

Breaking hands with giants

How is eggplant technology profitable? I'm afraid that's a question for everyone who comes into contact with the company.

The ideal of "making long-term profits" is full, but life is not just poetry and distance. In particular, enterprises such as eggplant technology, which focus on low ARPU value users, have been embarrassed by the problem of firewood, rice, oil and salt in front of them.

"When we did the Indonesian market five years ago, it was very difficult to be honest because we couldn't make money and these users really didn't have much consumption power," Wang Chao said frankly. "Even if I had 1 billion users at that time, the commercial income was very small."

However, as more and more enterprises began to go to Indonesia "battlefield", eggplant technology began to have profitability. Starting from 2019, eggplant technology started b-end business, enabling more business partners and consumers through its own experience and commercialization ability, which has become the latest direction of eggplant technology.

The first is advertising“ Today, some of the largest e-commerce platforms in Indonesia are our advertisers. The reason is that we occupied this position earlier than they did, and had better interaction and deeper connection with users in the position. " Wang Chao pointed out. Using eggplant technology to reach the target users in emerging markets is the only choice for advertisers.

It should be noted that "selling advertising" is a common practice for China Mobile to go abroad. However, in the past, a large number of mobile applications were carried on advertising platforms such as Google and Facebook, essentially selling traffic to giants in a wholesale mode“ Such enterprises are only suppliers of raw materials in the value chain of the whole ecosystem, can not reach the final customers, and have no voice in the whole chain. " Wang Chao said.

To a certain extent, this is the reason why cheetah mobile, once a star enterprise, has no power to resist in the face of Google's offline application. As a provider of "raw materials" for traffic, cheetah Mobile has no say in front of Google. The final result is that cheetah mobile, which has a market value of 1.5 billion US dollars in 2014, will have a market value of less than US $300 million at the end of that year after all 45 applications were removed by Google in early 2020.

Eggplant technology is different. According to reports, eggplant technology has independently developed and built an advertising system from its own flow, direct sales team and self built platform, realizing a breakthrough from "delivery flow" to "delivery effect".

"From 2019, we have been a completely independent advertising platform," said Wang Chao. "Although we have not yet reached the scale of Google and Facebook, we are in the same position as them. In some regions, such as the Middle East, they have even become rivals to compete with them. This brings us not only economic returns, but also business model expansion. "

In addition to the advertising business, eggplant technology is also looking at payment, which is also derived from the deep cultivation of users' needs in emerging markets“ Whether it's Google pay or applepay, you need credit cards. It's hard to imagine, for example, that a user in Bangladesh wants to play a game that costs 10 cents and has to get a credit card. " Wang Chao said.

As a result, eggplant launched payermax, a one-stop payment service“ Users can pay with local wallets or even phone bills. You can even go to an offline convenience store and pay through the owner's system. " Wang Chao said. So far, payermax's monthly trading volume has exceeded $10 million.

In Zhang Yi's opinion, considering the huge number of users, the realization mode of eggplant technology is first advertising, and then the commercial value of data capabilities. "For example, product recommendation through data capabilities, and analysis of consumer behavior and user preferences by using data can dig out a lot of value."

Revelation of mobile going to sea

Although the overall smooth sailing, eggplant science and technology also has twists and turns. The "India ban storm" in 2020 made eggplant technology realize that "eggs can't be put in one basket".

"We fully developed the commercial seeds planted in various places two or three years ago, and soon established direct sales teams in different regions, such as Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, Johannesburg and Dubai, and won local customers. At the same time, we seized the opportunity of the rise of Southeast Asian market." Wang Chao pointed out.

The eggplant technology of "multi-point flowering" has avoided the disaster brought by the Indian ban. After reflection and resumption, eggplant technology realized the importance of government relations.

"To be honest, as a" villager "of Houchang village, our past team consisted of only operations, R & D and products, and there were very few personnel related to the market. However, after this incident, we built a gr team," Wang Chao said. "In this team, both Chinese small partners studied the constraints brought by the labels we could not take off, At the same time, there are also local students to carry out local risk assessment and early warning, and provide us with scientific decision-making from a macro perspective. "

The construction of GR team is also a part of eggplant science and technology's real localization. In Wang Chao's view, different from "attacking" mature markets, the enterprises "diving" into emerging markets "should not be arrogant and biased. Any country has its own local characteristics.

"The new connotation that has been produced by the development of globalization is composed of countless localizations. If your products are not localized enough, you can't achieve globalization. The era of eating fresh food all over the world is over." Wang Chao said.

Wu Yijie, guest lecturer of China business school, University of Hong Kong, also stressed to the 21st century economic reporter that the success factor for Chinese mobile Internet enterprises to go global is to become a "global localization enterprise". The top technology level is not the most important factor for mobile Internet enterprises to stand out. How can the products meet the behavioral needs of local users, and how can the products meet the behavioral needs of local users The key is to optimize and change the existing local business model. "

Zhang Yi also pointed out that Chinese enterprises are facing great challenges in going out to sea“ In the process of going out to sea, Chinese enterprises need to match the local cultural background, legal environment and ideology of different countries. After all, compared with China's unified high development market, overseas markets are small and scattered, and the legal environment and religious culture of different countries are different, which needs to be further overcome. "

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