Internet going to sea

Some enterprises want to make cash loans in Pakistan, which makes Jin Xiang, chief operating officer of Blue Boat, who has been engaged in offshore services for many years, feel very strange. "There is a war in that place!" ? Going to sea seems to be a "compulsory course" in front of many internet companies, but where to go to sea? How come? Is it drift? Or a hard adventure? ? Many internet companies that go out to sea may not think clearly or underestimate the difficulty of going out to sea. Behind the brilliant overseas Kaicheng good news, there are many unknown sad stories and sufferings that are difficult for outsiders to tell. ? ?

0 1 "On the first day at sea, I was fined 65,438+10,000 yuan"? "There is a company that has just landed in Vietnam. On the first day of business, its employees were arrested for signing a tourist non-work visa and were fined 65,438+10,000 yuan. " Jin Xiang lamented. ? Going to sea is different from opening a new city in China, and it is not just as simple as going abroad. Doing business in a strange place is like entering a new world, and the original way may change. ? Apps, who went to sea earlier, encountered some embarrassing things when he entered the Arab countries. Arabs write from right to left, which leads local users to think that one star is the highest score, so many Arab users write "very good" on the product in Google Play and then play a star.

When 5miles first went to America, because the company didn't have a bank account, founder Lu Liang took cash from the bank and put it in an envelope to pay employees. As a result, the employee returned the money to him. Because this is illegal, there are regulations in the United States that more than $65,438+0,000 must go to the bank. ? The overseas market environment is very complicated, and cultural differences involve all aspects of work and life. Not to mention that the culture is not acclimatized, and even many domestic employees are directly acclimatized overseas, how to carry out their work is also a problem to be discussed. ? No wonder Chen Ning, the founder of RozBuzz, said, "The first Internet companies to go to sea are not business people, but people who can logistics." ? In fact, going to sea is a very big concept, and where to go and what business to do are all problems. ? When domestic Internet companies go to sea, most of them copy the existing model overseas, which is relatively safe and familiar, and even the future development is almost visible. In terms of geographical distribution, the main battlefields going out to sea today are Southeast Asia, Latin America, and many go to Africa. ? But even the well-known Southeast Asia with a population of 600 million is actually 1 1 countries, and many enterprises can only set up business in one city or region when they go to these places. The market should be played one by one, but which one to play first and how to play it. If you don't do a lot of work in the early stage, you may be completely blind in this place. Language is a big obstacle. The Kaicheng team of cargo Lala is in the Brazilian market, because the main language is Portuguese, which leads to the high hidden cost of the team in recruitment and daily work. ? In the industry, starting from areas with more cash flow, such as games, e-commerce, finance, and of course blockchain, it is closer to money. ? Xie Lebing, director of UCloud's offshore business development, once talked about an Internet reference. "There's a joke about how China's Internet economy goes to sea. Go to a destination and test the water with games, live broadcasts and cash loans. If these three businesses can enter, it means that their market environment is similar to that of China. "

"The sea is a chance, the general direction is no problem. For enterprises going out to sea, the key is to judge what stage the local Internet environment has developed and whether it is suitable for them to conduct business locally. " Jin Xiang believes that this is the most difficult for Internet companies that go out to sea. ? The investigation before the opening of the city is essential. In this regard, some companies have different practices, some entrust a third party to make local situation reports, and some do it themselves. For example, the cargo girl is in Kaesong, Brazil. Because it is a federal country, the Kaesong team needs to visit a number of legal institutions, financial institutions, local enterprises and residential areas for research. However, some companies regard research as a kind of public travel. "There are even overseas delegations of some companies going to the local collective to find young ladies." ? ?

02 "It's difficult to go to sea, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult"? When the business really starts to land in the local area, there will be new troubles. ? Softbank Masayoshi Son has a time machine theory, which develops business in developed countries, and expands its business to less developed countries when it matures. It's like a time machine. The pits you stepped on in the past, past problems and past successes will all reappear one by one. ? Even if you are already familiar with the development of the domestic Internet in the past 20 years, enterprises going out to sea may have to go through it again. The environment overseas is different from that in China, which is why many enterprises that go to sea are psychologically prepared, but for them, they didn't expect it to be so difficult. ? "In a strange environment encountered at sea, any small thing may make business unsustainable." Xie Lebing said. ? Many enterprises are stuck in the first step of acquiring users. SMS verification code, the most basic service in China, will not work in some overseas markets. The short message arrival rate of local operators is low, and it is difficult for users to register. At present, this service of many overseas enterprises is provided by a domestic supplier, and this system is built through some local channels of China Telecom. ? Southeast Asia, like mobile payment, has no foundation at all, and many transactions are still carried out in cash. It is also domestic enterprises that start to do it locally and undertake the market education of users. Jin Xiang believes that "in fact, many overseas markets have not yet reflected what Internet companies in China are doing, but we can see the opportunities in a higher dimension."

Even e-commerce, live broadcast, short video and other formats have developed well in the Southeast Asian market, but they are still very different from those in China. There is a company that is going to do live broadcast in Southeast Asia, and wants to quickly start a live broadcast software through a guild, but it has never been done, because there is no guild in the Southeast Asian market. ? In addition, the KOL effect is transformed into a paid cooperation model, which is completely absent. The commonly used methods of resource replacement and cooperation between Internet companies have not appeared. Companies still advertise directly through Facebook and other channels, some of which are domestic channels, such as cheetahs. ? The biggest headache for enterprises to go to sea is probably the management of personnel. This involves many aspects such as recruiting people and employing people. For example, a programmer has a basic position in a domestic Internet company, and it is difficult to find a suitable position in Southeast Asia. ? The technicians in many parts of Southeast Asia are not at the same level as those in China. They have not experienced the changes of the times experienced by domestic programmers. There are many very mature development methods and technologies in China, and it is difficult for technicians in some fields to keep up with the rhythm. "The feeling that communication is not in a frequency band, of course, India will be much better." ? The work efficiency of the staff is also different. An overseas enterprise doing e-sports hall found that the staff there were twice as efficient as those in slow three. For example, a wiring project takes two days in China, and it may basically take a week here. This led to the company's original plan to open for three months, and it has been delayed for half a year to complete it. ? "I know this market is poor. I know I can do it. I have already landed. You want to speed up, but not so fast. " This is a very helpless thing for China Internet companies. ? Of course, these internet companies have also had an impact on the employment of local people. An Internet company in Indonesia hired an employee working in OPPO Indonesia as an executive with a high salary, and the salary was very good. The employee also wants to seize the opportunity for China Internet companies to enter the local market. As a result, the company failed to do this quickly and closed down. ?

03 "The rise of local elites does not have much advantage"? Many people regard "Southeast Asia is the Internet of China ten years ago" as the biggest opportunity for the development of this market, but there are two meanings behind the opportunity:

1. Infrastructure, including the Internet, is very similar to that of China ten years ago, so be prepared for hardship; 2. The development path of Internet in Southeast Asia may be similar to that of China in recent ten years: mature overseas companies have entered the local market and established a set of infrastructure, benefiting from which local enterprises have also begun to rise. ? The development of Internet in Southeast Asia and other regions is later than that in China. Behind this, enterprises not only have to face the difficulties in the initial stage, but also bear the risks that many models may not be suitable for their growth environment. ? According to the mature model of China, there are also many failed examples. For example, a company that went to Latin America to do the Boss direct employment model did not do it in the end, and many tool products that went out to sea earlier later encountered difficulties in realizing it. ? Liquidation is too slow, and death is fast. In order to increase the frequency of users' opening, Cheetah, APUS and Chizicheng Mobile also moved closer to the content when they entered overseas. Although content products are sticky, the economic environment in Southeast Asia determines that they are far from being realized. Take India as an example, some data show that the urban-rural duality is very serious. Except for a few big cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata, nearly 70% of the population in China is distributed in more than 600,000 rural areas and towns. The mobile internet is still relatively backward, and the liquidity of products is very weak. In the words of insiders, in India, "it is easy to get users." ? Even Tik Tok, which is very successful in sailing, maintains the rapid growth of users through large purchases. A local short video practitioner in the Philippines once revealed that in 20 18 years, Tik Tok spent nearly 10 million dollars in the Philippines alone. In addition, there is the American market, and the advertising cost on Google alone is as high as more than 300 million US dollars. According to the information reported before, after Tik Tok began to implement globalization, the loss of ByteDance in 20 18 increased to1200 million dollars.

Another challenge facing China's Internet going out to sea is that many local Internet companies have started to rise. ? In the recruitment and business development of local personnel, many domestic Internet companies first contact with local students, who have a certain understanding of the Internet and are familiar with the local environment. Through these international students, we can get in touch with some local people and gradually get in touch with more local people. ? Jinxiang's business includes docking some local industry resources, such as helping a tool product of Headline International to find illustrators and KOL in the Indian market, and promoting an information product of Tencent International locally. ? This path is very similar to the rise of the Internet in China. ? Based on this situation, Zhou Yahui, chairman of Kunlun Wan Wei, publicly called on China Internet companies to go to Africa. He believes that in the past few years, South Asia and Southeast Asia, especially India, have clearly felt the rise of local elites. "The rise of the Indian elite is very fast. In fact, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in China should think of South Asia and Southeast Asia to compete with local entrepreneurs and local elites, which does not have much advantage. " ? With the rise of the local market, it's hard to say whether the education in China's local market and the elite circle who know more about the Internet will be the biggest competitors of China's Internet going out to sea. ? ?

Conclusion? After more than 20 years of rapid development of Internet in China, especially in the era of mobile Internet, many innovations even surpassed those in the United States. ? When China's Internet enterprises are marching into the global population of 6 billion in an advanced mode, the future is boundless, but it is also full of thorns. ? When asked when this tidal wave first started, "in fact, it has just begun."