A few days ago, some netizens posted on social ** "The world's biggest drug lord: Zhang Yiming", the main argument is: In the past ten years, the drug market has undergone fundamental changes, from physical stimulation to mind control, from cocaine to electronic products. The short **, represented by Douyin, completely controlled the minds of teenagers, abandoned their studies and forgot their culture in the waste of time.
The article cites a set of figures: Pablo Escobar, the king of cocaine in the world, has assets of 30 billion US dollars (198.2 billion yuan) and is selected by Fortune as one of the world's seven richest people, but his money is nothing compared to Douyin. In 2023, ByteDance's revenue will be $110 billion, with a valuation of more than $2 trillion. Zhang Yiming is worth more than 250 billion yuan, and Douyin boss Zhang Yiming is not fundamentally different from Escobar, the king of cocaine.
The article concluded: Douyin is the most powerful drug, and the Douyin building is a drug factory, and the people in it are all drug dealers. Zhang Yiming is the "world's biggest drug lord".
Zhang Yiming is the founder of many products such as Toutiao, Douyin Short**, Volcano Small**, Watermelon**, Wukong Q&A, etc. After reading his entrepreneurial journey, let's talk about whether he can bear such a stigma?
1. Working after graduating from university.
Zhang Yiming was born in Fujian Province in 1984 and was admitted to Nankai University in 2005, majoring in software engineering. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 2007, he joined the company. At the beginning of 2012, Zhang Yiming took the initiative to leave his job and began his entrepreneurial journey. "I really wanted to start a business when I started my freshman year, and I wanted to make a product like Facebook," he says. He has always wondered: how will the Internet change people's lives? He believes that the development of the Internet requires a new generation of technical talents, and this is exactly what he has been looking for and trying.
In fact, after joining the company, Zhang Yiming did not directly engage in Internet-related work, but engaged in information service and search technology development. During this period, he did not give up thinking and research on the design and operation of Internet products. He believes that a good product needs to have four requirements: innovation, user experience, maintainability and scalability.
In March 2012, he wrote an article on his blog titled "Why Do We Do Mobile Internet". The paper proposes that in the era of mobile Internet, three problems must be faced and solved: first, how users use it; The second is how users can find it; The third is how users can use this product more conveniently. The article suggests that "in the next 3-5 years, mobile Internet will become the mainstream, which will profoundly change people's work, study and lifestyle, and become an indispensable part of people". "We must seize this opportunity to seriously study how mobile Internet technology and applications can change the way people live."
Zhang Yiming mentioned in the article that with the popularity of smartphones, many people no longer use PCs for daily work, study and life. So what will be the characteristics of the mobile Internet in the future? He believes that the future mobile Internet will present two characteristics: the first is to "connect everything"; The second is "everywhere".
In January 2014, Zhang Yiming published an article titled "The Battle of WeChat" on WeChat*** Venture State, in which he wrote: WeChat will be one of the most important, basic, core and critical entrances to "connect everything". In the next 5-10 years, 300 million people will use WeChat; Every day, 2 billion people use WeChat to send messages; Each Chinese sends 4 messages a day.
In July 2016, Zhang Yiming published an article "Content is King or Mobile is King" on his own "Venture State". γγHe believes that content is king is a very simple truth: content can produce value when it is valuable; If the content is valuable, it will be seen by more people; Content can be seen if it is valuable; Content can be distributed if it is valuable.
2. Resign and start a business and start Toutiao and Douyin.
Zhang Yiming once said in an interview that his initial dream was to be an engineer, but he soon found that the knowledge he learned in college did not meet his needs. So, he began to think deeply about his future. In this thinking process, he saw the huge opportunity of information distribution and acquisition in the era of mobile Internet, and realized that he must use the method of mobile Internet to solve the problem of information acquisition.
So, he made the decision to quit his job and start his own business. In July 2012, Beijing ByteDance Technology was established and Toutiao was founded. Zhang Yiming has a unique approach to entrepreneurship: I like a problem, just think about it. If you don't know how to solve a problem, go to someone else to solve it; If others don't know how to solve this problem, then go to someone else**; If it doesn't work, create one. β
1.Today's headlines: the super entrance in the era of mobile Internet
Founded in September 2012, Zhang Yiming's first entrepreneurial project is "Toutiao", which is an information distribution platform based on the mobile Internet, focusing on informational content, aiming to allow users to accurately find the content they need in the ocean of information through personalized recommendation algorithms.
The biggest feature of Toutiao is that it is a content platform, not a ** platform, which is what distinguishes it from other news clients. Users can subscribe to the content they are interested in through Toutiao, or they can commercialize it through in-feed advertising.
Toutiao's management of content is relatively loose, unlike traditional news**, which strictly controls the quality of content, and it is more inclined to encourage high-quality content. This way of management is also what sets it apart from other news clients.
In essence, Toutiao is an information aggregation platform, which can also be understood as a new ** platform. And Toutiao uses this platform as an entrance.
2.Douyin: China's first short** social stock
Douyin, also known as Douku, is a short ** social platform under ByteDance, which was officially launched in April 2016. Before Douyin, there was no short ** social platform that could really be popular in China, but the emergence of Douyin brought hope to this gap.
The popularity of Douyin is not accidental, but an inevitability. The Douyin team established a content-first strategy at an early stage, choosing to focus more on content production. According to the data, Douyin is used by more than 20 million people every day on average, and an average of 4 people swipe Douyin every second.
In addition to doing a good job in content, Douyin also makes accurate recommendations for users of different ages and interests to meet user needs. It is precisely because of its accurate algorithms and strong technical capabilities that Douyin has been able to rise rapidly in just a few years.
On June 11, 2019, Douyin officially landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for trading. At the launch ceremony, Zhang Yiming said: "I am very happy to see that Douyin has become the longest-used app by users in just one and a half years. β
3. The core competitiveness of ByteDance.
ByteDance is a technology company with strong technical strength, and its core competitiveness mainly includes the following three aspects:
First, advanced technology. ByteDance has advanced artificial intelligence technology, which can provide users with personalized information recommendations through algorithms, and its algorithms can also conduct ** and analyze users' needs and interests. ByteDance's artificial intelligence technology is at the leading level in the world, which can provide users with accurate and personalized information services.
Second, an efficient team. ByteDance has an efficient and united team that can quickly respond to market changes and user needs. ByteDance also focuses on attracting high-level talents and continuously strengthening team building.
Third, a large user base. ByteDance has a large user base, and it is able to continuously explore new markets and tap new users.
Therefore, ByteDance's achievements today are closely related to its founder Zhang Yiming and the core competitiveness of ByteDance.
Science and technology have always been a double-edged sword. Speaking from facts, while providing users with high-quality, accurate and personalized information services, Douyin and some other online products do have phenomena and problems such as vulgar and unhealthy content, adulteration and abduction, etc., in the dissemination and sale of information content.
However, nothing new is perfect from the day it is created. Therefore, we should maintain a rational and tolerant attitude toward the problems and defects existing in new things, and promote their continuous improvement and perfection by constantly strengthening management and supervision, so as to promote the progress and development of science and technology, so as to better serve consumers. Therefore, he really can't afford to say that Zhang Yiming is "the world's biggest drug lord".