This title may be more like a slogan, but it is the truth. After the turmoil of Google’s "Thesaurus Gate" at the beginning of the year, another new input method is about to be widely promoted among Internet users. Last week, Tencent confirmed that its "QQ input method" has entered the invitation beta stage (bete version). Although the function is slightly simple, don’t forget the huge number of users of QQ.
From Wangma Wubi and Microsoft Pinyin, to the later flourishing Ziguang Pinyin and Pinyin Plus, to Sohu’s Sogou input method, Google’s Google input method, and now QQ and Baidu have to launch their own input methods. The reason why these IT industry bosses are eyeing this threshold level of input programs is that the purpose is very simple – to occupy the user’s desktop, and ultimately through the input method, which is a highly sticky product, to transfer users to other product lines of their own as much as possible.
The Forgotten Ultimate Weapon
Wang Yongmin, the inventor of the Wubi font, may have been the first to realize the value of the input method, but at the beginning, the charm or power of the input method was far from being accepted by the world.
Even Wang Yongmin himself did not realize the terrible commercial value behind "share". After occupying more than 50% of the national market – even as high as 90% in southern cities where Mandarin pinyin is not yet standard and popular – Wang Yongmin poured all his energy into the improvement and development of the input method itself, but failed to achieve greater breakthroughs.
In the beginning, Wubi Font hoped to make a small profit by charging licensing fees, but the hard-core target of Windows Chinese OEMs was smart ABC. In 1998, with the popularity of the Internet, input methods could be easily implanted in the operating system. In that "new economy" era, new input methods such as Pinyin Star, Universal Code and Smart Wubi appeared, but in the end, none of them achieved great success for similar reasons.
In fact, when the Internet was just starting, there were five-stroke input method training in various computer introductory courses. So many people mistakenly think that five-stroke is the only input method for Chinese characters, and if you want to type with a computer, you must memorize the root. But today it is no longer a simple software product, but has become a multi-purpose Internet client side tool through close integration with internet companies.
Wang Yongmin began to awaken on June 26, 2004, when he replaced the original complex root with 5 numbers from 1 to 5, and directly proposed the concept of "letting Chinese people’s mobile phones use Chinese people’s own input method". Only then is he believed to have realized the commercial value behind the input method for the first time.
Input method becomes the "pioneer officer" of desktop competition
The dispute between Sohu and Google over the input method also stems from the commercial value behind it. Because according to Sohu’s idea, the input results are integrated with the search engine, and the most popular words are dynamically transferred from the commonly used search thesaurus to improve the user experience. For example, by entering "laptop" and clicking "search", all pages about laptops will appear, which can increase page traffic on the one hand, and on the other hand is one of the origins of the media value in the eyes of advertisers.
The internet has given input methods the opportunity to knock on users’ desktops, but the intervention of portals has instantly changed the rules of the game. In June 2006, Sohu launched the Sogou input method as a representative of Zhang Chaoyang’s "return to technology-driven" philosophy.
But the question ****** the relationship between occupying the table and generating revenue really that simple?
One of the most commonly used examples is that Microsoft has occupied more than 90% of the world’s computer monitor desktops, so Microsoft has become the world’s largest software company by market value; Tencent’s QQ has occupied more than 90% of the desktops of Internet users in China, so Tencent is one of the largest internet companies in China by market value. In this IT2.0 era, "desktop" has become the frontier battlefield of these IT giants, and the input law has assumed the role of "pioneer officer".
In fact, in less than a year, the Sogou input method was rapidly popularized by the influence of the portal, and Sohu began to be handy in this field, and even began to develop input methods in different application environments. At this moment, the input method has been considered a new type of client side, used to stick users, and on this basis derived new value-added services.
The competition moves from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.
According to the principle of traditional newspaper editing, the position in the upper left corner is the first to be noticed, so it is often referred to as the headline position.
By the same token, icons on the desktop to the left of the display were originally the first choice for "occupying the desktop". Almost 99% of commercial software now prompts when installed that a software launch icon called a shortcut will be created on the desktop. Even when Kingsoft announced its entry into Japan last year, its CEO Lei Jun said with pride that Kingsoft’s software "provides three shortcuts on the Japanese version of the desktop, which is very important for the success of the entry into Japan".
But it’s not easy to "occupy the left side" – ordinary users often don’t even know the random software that comes with it. If there is no real need, how many people will try to buy new software? If not for this reason, why should rogue software make themselves so difficult to delete?
The intense competition in the upper left corner may reflect to some extent the preciousness of the location where the input method icon is located – in the "lower right corner", a field that is not obvious and can record user behavior at the same time, providing free input method downloads is undoubtedly the best way.
Of course, the most important problem is that the input method itself is needed by the vast majority of users. After the function is perfected, it is one of the sufficient conditions to improve the user experience to continuously enhance the convenience and accuracy of user information interaction; while the value that the rogue software can provide to the user itself is almost zero, and it will also seriously cause users’ disgust and dissatisfaction. This is why the rogue software will have "everyone shouting" today, and even if the input method is designed to jump out of advertisements in the future, it may not be as annoying as the rogue software.
Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang said that the key to the problem is that whether the input method is good or the client side, a certain product must be designed from the user’s needs first, rather than from the company’s needs.
Of course, for Sohu, the Sogou Pinyin input method is an effective way to occupy the user’s desktop. But there is a premise that "provides value to users" rather than uninvited like rogue software. In addition, there is not only one way to occupy the user’s desktop, but how to provide users with more valuable services after occupying the desktop, and ultimately convert users into valuable users of the entire website, is the root of the problem. (Reporter, Peng Wu)
Editor in charge: Li Erqing
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