Case 1: Cookie CD: Why do you sell dozens of customized CDs for a few cents?
There are always some on Taobao that look good? Small? Business, such as writing letters and making business cards. Although these companies? Small? But doing it well is not easy. Is this the cookie dish business? Using customized methods, cookie CD has become a CD business with a cost of only a few cents, a few dollars or even dozens of dollars.
? Today, the freedom, richness and convenience of the digital age are changing our lives, with inexhaustible storage space, inexhaustible resources and high-speed communication? We enjoy the sound and light of zero and one. But after the noise, perhaps you also found that our memories are always as easy to be deleted and replaced as numbers? Let the little cookies be engraved with traces of happiness and my handwriting, so that the past will not be easily erased. ?
This? Cookies? You can't eat, but you can see and listen, and you have emotional temperature and taste because of DIY. Milan? Kundera said that the speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting. In the information age, people are in a hurry. Deep? With what? Unforgettability has become particularly precious. So in a place called. Cookie disc? Taobao opened a store, and Chongqing youth Zhang Yi led a small team of three people to start a business of making personalized CDs for guests.
Added value with increasing temperature
The popularity of optical discs was at least ten years ago. With the popularity of USB flash drives and mobile hard disks, optical disks have long been relegated to the second line as storage tools, and fewer and fewer people use optical disks. The price of an ordinary burning CD is also very limited, a few cents cheaper, only one or two yuan more expensive.
On Taobao, there are many shops that print and burn CDs. Most of them are engaged in bulk business, and the prices are very low. ? It is almost impossible to sell CDs these days. Only by letting them say goodbye to the sameness and have a unique personality can they attract people. ? Zhang Yi, the founder of cookie tray, said this.
Moreover, most customers buy car CDs, and there are many similar stores. Considering that Taobao will be more and more strict about piracy in the future, Zhang Yi thinks that selling blank CDs is the safest and can avoid copyright problems. So? Cookie disc? Our selling point is the personalized customization of the disk, not the content that customers can burn themselves.
The blank space on the surface of each CD is regarded as creative space by Zhang Yi. Can it be on it? Painting? Creative patterns, or customized patterns and words according to customer requirements.
Are you online? Cookie disc? There are two or three hundred kinds of treasures sold in the store. On the surface of each CD, there are creative illustrations, some are original by the owner, and some are copyrighted works, which are diverse in style, beautiful, funny, cartoon and fashionable. Except some car CDs, cookie CDs? Our products are more regarded as gifts and souvenirs by consumers. In the peak season, the monthly sales volume can reach more than 2,000 vehicles. Then, can two workers, a customer service artist and a shopkeeper who does everything guarantee the fine service needed for personalized customization of CDs?
Without the guarantee of quality, even the best ideas are just castles in the air. ? The most important thing in our production process is to ensure quality and efficiency. ? Zhang Yi said. ? Cookies? After all, it is a small batch production, and it is impossible to use the offset printing or screen printing method of CD surface treatment of audio and video companies. In order to obtain a texture that is not worse than offset printing, he has done a lot of experiments and explorations.
In the choice of raw materials, cookie CD? We use high-quality discs imported from 2 yuan. Followed by the key processing steps: first, slowly print the surface of the CD with a high-precision 6-color printer, then put it into a temperature-controlled drying oven, bake it at a low temperature of 45℃ for two hours to remove the moisture in the surface ink, then screen-print a thin layer of anti-ultraviolet oil on the surface of the CD, and finally irradiate it with high-intensity ultraviolet rays to instantly cure the varnish, so that the CD has a shiny texture and increase its durability. After these four processes, you can bake a cookie CD. Zhang Yi made this production process into a video and put it on the baby page to let buyers know.
Compared with complex patterns, simple illustrations are more difficult to do. Sometimes, due to machine obstacles or human factors, ink spots are accidentally left in the blank, and the whole CD is invalid. ? Many detailed questions can't be answered online, and no one can help you, so you can only find out for yourself. ? Zhang Yi said that in order to control costs, the scrap rate must be reduced. With the continuous improvement of workshop technology, the scrap rate of products has been basically controlled below 5%. After this treatment, the CD is no longer a cold little thing, but has been endowed with personality, temperature and even taste by the creator, and has become a beautiful little gift. Of course, the price of each CD is more than a few cents.
There is still room for price increases.
How much is a cookie disc? The loss of raw materials, labor and equipment, including the waste plates produced in the process of processing, the production cost of each piece is around 3.5 yuan. At present, the average selling price of finished CDs in the store is 7.5 yuan/piece, and it costs at least ten yuan to customize and add words. The highest price is customized CDs, each 25 yuan. In fact, although the price has doubled, Zhang Yi feels that there is still a lot of room for price increase. Is it now? Cookie disc? Open the market and accumulate repeat customers.
In 20 12, the price of cookie CD has been raised twice, once for non-customized products from 9.5 yuan to 12.5 yuan and once for customized products from 14.5 yuan to 19.5 yuan. ? Although it looks like a big increase, the price below 20 yuan is already very low for customized products. Of course, you can't raise the price too much. The premise of raising the price is to have more confidence in your own production process. ? Zhang Yi believes that it is the premise of brand premium to have a real level to raise prices and make enough differentiation and characteristics.
In addition to CDs, Zhang Yi also designed silicone sleeve packaging to make the packaging unique, and at the same time launched electronic music album service to provide buyers with more customized content.
Everyone's needs are different, and online communication sometimes has great uncertainty, so personalized customization is actually a very troublesome thing. The guest is not satisfied with the font design or photo clarity. In order to avoid this situation, we should seriously communicate with consumers in advance, confirm them repeatedly, and then enter the production process until the other party is satisfied.
? Although customization is troublesome, it is easier to make features. In the future, we should make more efforts in this respect, give full play to our own characteristics, and make the differentiation more obvious before we can truly be regarded as Taobao's? Small and beautiful? Yes ? With bigger dreams, Zhang Yi and his partners naturally did not stop dreaming.
Case 2: Xu Guangbin: My years as a stationmaster.
He cracked the website in the early 1990s, and everyone in the personal webmaster circle knew that he was the first IT person in China to play domain names. He controls 70% of China? 80% of the webmaster resources are good friends of grassroots webmasters such as He, Wu, Hua Jun, but he eventually became a webmaster circle? Deserter? . In 2004, by chance, he entered the IDC field in one go; In 2007, because of the in-depth understanding and mature operation of domestic IT resources, it became the first pathfinder in the field of domestic cloud computing. Later, the company transformed and he started his business again. Huayun Data, founded on 20 12, has led the transformation of domestic cloud computing industry. He is Xu Guangbin, the founder of Huayun Data, who is unwilling to accept the family business.
Insist on going out to start a business.
I graduated from Xi 'an Institute of Technology, majoring in thermal engineering, and I belong to a typical engineering male. 1997 worked hard at school, then cheated some living expenses from home, bought a computer and took an exam? Kitten? Dial-up Internet, several students began to play the Internet with great interest. After paying the internet fee every month, boys eat and drink everywhere. At that time, the internet was completely different from now, rough and demanding of technology. I am better at piling up code than I am now.
Later, because of my personal hobby, I assembled almost all cracking experts in China to make a cracking website and began to consider low-key naming? Win the world? . Later, my good friend gave me a domain name yingzheng.com, so I changed it to? Win the world? What's the slogan? Everyone for me and I for everyone? Everyone has a tacit understanding of mutual appreciation and a kind of selfless good trust, which is called conscience forum in present words. At that time, the cam sold in Zhongguancun was marked? The products that win politics must be fine products? A few words, because pirated CDs without LOGO are not easy to sell. Although the pirated sales that occupied the whole market at that time were amazing, we didn't make money from it and confiscated a penny, so many pirated software vendors couldn't find trouble.
After graduation, according to my major, I was assigned to the state-owned boiler factory under the Ministry of ordnance, burning boilers in the workshop, which was an iron rice bowl. As a result, he was gloriously laid off a few months later.
1March 30, 998, I moved back to my hometown, and after I got a new ID card, I wanted to travel by myself, but my parents very much hoped that I could follow in my father's footsteps and stay with my family. The process was quite intense, and the final result was that I ran out to start my own business under great pressure.
Stationmaster Jianghu
After leaving home, I wanted to work on the Internet, but my understanding of the Internet was rather hazy, and there was no business model or perfect products to refer to at that time. With thousands of dollars in his pocket, he began to look for it. The first time I went to Beijing, I didn't get along very well. I caught up with college students, so I don't need to be assigned. I think young people are competing all over the street. After discussing with my classmates, I came to the only one of the five special economic zones in China with huge room for development? Xiamen. At that time, it was 1998. My first job was to apply for a domain name for an enterprise, build a website and set up an enterprise mailbox. Although we all know that this is the Internet business now, when I talked with the enterprise 15 years ago, others thought I was a big liar and a big liar.
In the most difficult time, I used to eat only one meal a day for two months in a row, but I just held my breath and didn't tell my family. At that time, everyone else got up at 8 o'clock. I got up at 6 o'clock, ironed my clothes with a stainless steel thermos, and then went out. Because my job hopes that customers will have a good impression on me at the first time, I am eager to achieve success and accumulate seriously.
I have played with domain names and am familiar with the webmaster circle. For example, Wu, the founder of Meitu Xiu Xiu in 58 cities, was not named Wu at that time. We all played domain names before Cai Wensheng. The first time Cai Wensheng played domain name should be 1999, and he has been studying it since then, becoming the most successful one among us in the domain name field.
Cai Wensheng and I have known each other for more than ten years. In 2000, he asked me to help optimize domain name registration. In 2003, I was working to win the government, and Cai Wensheng was working for 265. I often did various jobs for him. At that time, I didn't talk about money, because Ying Zheng was a personal forum operated by interests and interpersonal relationships, and it had become a habit to help users optimize.
One night in the middle of the night, Cai Wensheng called me and asked if there was any way to increase the number of 265 installations and homepage settings by 5 million in one month. I said it was not easy. But then, I saw someone who could handle this matter well, and that was Zhou. At that time, Zhou had not made 372 1, but was making a community aggregation model called qihoo community, which was working against it all day. One of the reasons why he voted for Dai Zhikang is that he founded the Qihoo community. Although the name is Qihoo, it is completely different from Qihoo's business later.
Cai Wensheng's first employee in Xiamen is Zhang Li, the founder of Xinxin Tourism today. Cai Wensheng is a big brother mentality. Xiamen was very small at that time. At first, Wu was not in Xiamen. He started a company and built a website in Quanzhou, his hometown. Later, when he saw that Xiamen had greater development opportunities, he came to 520.com to set up a social networking site, one or two years earlier than FaceBook. The website could have done well, but it was closed when it encountered some problems. Then Cai Wensheng asked him for help, and then Wu made a beautiful picture of Xiu Xiu, which is now half the sky red.
At that time, there was a fee (Yao Jianjun, the founder of Shenxiandao, founded the stationmaster's home, CNZZ statistics, halo games). I was not an entrepreneur before, and I wanted to download the source code as early as possible. However, I appreciate some characteristics of A Fei, so I introduced him to Cai Wensheng. A Fei founded cnzz.com, and later Cai Wensheng became the chairman. Cnzz.com domain name and 7-digit cash were exchanged for some shares of A Fei. Later, Teddy boy played halo game, except Teddy boy, Cai Wensheng became the major shareholder.
Dai Zhikang and I are also very good friends. We have known each other since he went to college. After graduation, I founded the idea, accepted Zhou's investment and started this company step by step. We always keep in touch. I am his client, and I introduced him to many clients. In 2007, I came to Beijing because I founded the cloud computing company of Century Internet. I often play badminton with Dai Zhikang, eat, drink and chat with friends, and the relationship becomes more harmonious.
In a word, I am familiar with people who do Internet in Xiamen, unless he has just come in for a year or six months. At that time, in Xiamen Internet circle, everyone had a good life. Although I didn't make money by cracking the world, the advertising fee was quite high. Li Xingping, the founder of hao 123, is really a master of traffic, and 4399 is also his. At that time, 4399 played a small game, no one played it, and no one played it. Later, Cai Wensheng found it interesting, so he started slowly.
In fact, around 2000, people didn't want to make money playing the Internet. The atmosphere at that time was that everyone was in a circle, like a big family, and everyone was very close. Are you a cow? Things, I think you are awesome. What we are discussing together is not business, but how the Internet develops, how your forum develops and how to go in the future. Have pure revolutionary friendship.
Escape from the stationmaster circle, willingly? Charter?
I am a deserter in the stationmaster circle, and I won't win the world in the end. In fact, when I first arrived in Xiamen, I started a small team by winning advertising click fees, and I can easily earn tens of thousands of net income a month. But slowly, the website traffic was too large for the place where the server was hosted for free, so I set up ADSL dialing myself. Later, the website was shut down for several months, and the advertising revenue was cut off. I had to actively seek new business directions. Because after all, it is piracy, which is not good for software vendors, and the domestic environment is becoming more and more mature, which will eventually be completely stopped. But I still attend the annual webmaster meeting in Cai Wensheng.
The first venture is a partnership with friends. It was in 2000 that I first set foot in IDC. In 2003, he chose to leave and set up Lan Mang independently. At that time, the original intention was not to do IDC, but to do software. Our team also developed a software called Domain Name Virtual Host Management System to help others manage domain names and servers, which is the first server management software in China. At that time, there were five or six hundred IDC merchants in China, and more than half of them bought my software. Later, everyone said that the software is yours, and even IDC services such as servers can help me? I'm good at it anyway. I do business, so I directly entered the IDC field.
At that time, the first big customer was Sega, a Japanese video game company. They went to China to play games with $65.438+0.5 billion, and their office was located in Nanjing West Road. I opened more than 100 servers for Sega in Shantou. He only used 5 servers and paid me every month. At that time, there was no concept and technology of cloud computing, so I could only watch him waste so much. Of course, it does bring me a fixed good income. Slowly, a bunch of high-quality enterprises such as Shanda and Youku came to me to host the server. By 2006, Lanmang can be regarded as the private IDC of TOP, with its popularity and reputation.
Internet companies in China are all my customers, ranging from Baidu, Sina and Sohu to comprehensive websites such as Sohu Changyou and LeTV, as well as some vertical websites. Several god-level webmasters in China have been my customers from the beginning. The first is Dai Zhikang, who is undoubtedly the current leader. The servers he used for starting a business in college are all mine. I also provided ALFY's first server for free. I also have servers and content distribution for 265 and 0.com, 5 1.com and Kejiji (now called People's Network).
There are many close friends in the circle, but in fact, everyone is not just doing business. For example, A Fei, Wu, Hua Jun, etc. At that time, everyone I could think of had a good relationship. And because I provide services behind the scenes, I have no competition with them. I will give these people a basic access plan, get a lot of bandwidth, networks and servers, and provide them with good services very practically. So people have always trusted me. At that time, domestic IDC manufacturers used half my software and half my IDC.
Later, Century Internet talked to us for a long time and wanted to acquire this part of the business. After consideration, I finally sold the IDC assets of Lanmang, leaving only the software business and team. At that time, Lanmang earned hundreds of millions of dollars, had many profits and high brand value, and the company was in a period of benign and rapid development. After selling IDC business, I found the first bucket of gold in my life, which is a very cost-effective transaction for the 2 1 century Internet. It was 2007, and I was not yet 30 years old.
Deep exploration in the field of cloud computing
Lanmang software team was established by me from the earliest, and has a high degree of tacit cooperation. It has been helping the national Internet authorities to develop software such as system filing system and harmful information discovery system. In 20 12, he got US dollar financing in Xiamen, went to Wuxi to set up Huayun Data, and officially started operating software business. At this level, Blue Mountain is equivalent to the predecessor of Huayun Data.
Since 2009, we have been developing cloud computing software. Five or six years ago, I mentioned the concept of cloud computing to others, and others regarded me as a big fool. This is the second time in my life that I have been regarded as a big fool.
Boya Interactive invested by Dai Zhikang uses my cloud service. It was Dai Zhikang who introduced me to Zhang Wei, the founder of Boya Interactive. When the website was first launched, Dai Zhikang wondered whether he could make money by developing Texas Hold 'em. I said yes, my buddy supports you, and I will get you a server. He invested 500,000 yuan in Zhang Wei. I think it's better for me to vote, because at that time, Dai Zhikang seemed to have a balance of 6.5438+0 million yuan, which was about to break in half. Boya Interactive went public, and another project fell through. Now, Boya Interactive is also a customer of Huayun Data.
For example, another customer of Huayun Data, 4399, has a deep relationship with Huayun Data. From the person in charge at that time, Cai Wensheng, to the person in charge now, we all know each other very well. Cooperation comes from trust, and there is no need to do too much preparation before cooperation. Just explain our products and services clearly. Games, especially web games, have an amazing number of servers. You can open 100 partitions a day, and each partition counts as 4 servers. According to the traditional IDC method, how long does it take you to install the operating system of 400 servers? We can make him have the ability to install a partition in five minutes, that is to say, it takes 10 minutes to open the service, not only to install applications and databases, but also to copy various ad hoc networks and contents for you. Our clothes are very fast.
The webmasters are willing to put the server with me because they think I won't cheat him and it's impossible to sell it for 500 thousand to 2 million. I will also help them consider when and what kind of bandwidth is most suitable. I don't need a bunch of people to buy it for him. I may buy 50G bandwidth, but I only use 5 G bandwidth, which is as much as the network management said, and you can't explain it yourself.
In fact, I think the accumulation of webmaster resources is only one aspect of cooperation. It is not enough to rely on friends, but more to understand the demands of entrepreneurs. For example, why did 5d6d.com in Dai Zhikang put it in Blue Mountain? Because I can provide Dai Zhikang with unexpected services, so that he can always need me in infrastructure.
Around 2006, there was no concept of cloud computing in the industry, and many servers were bought and piled up. 5d6d website has a very large number of visits, and the database reads and writes a lot every minute. Disk IO is stuck in a bottleneck, and the service is a bit chaotic. Later, Dai Zhikang and I discussed that we should not use the hard disk, but use the memory to read and write, and virtualize the memory into a hard disk. This efficiency can solve the disk IO problem. I also helped him reorganize the IT architecture and system to make reading and writing faster. In addition, we also help 5d6d.com to resist all kinds of malicious database attacks. In fact, our service at that time was also free.
Be a service provider of IT enterprises.
Now Huayun Data takes the channel mode of agent more, and we do OEM, giving channel providers more product sovereignty. There are more than 1200 authorized IDC manufacturers in China, and basically more than 90% of them are familiar with them. Many IDC vendors are still using the software developed by my technical team when they first started their business. The cost of cooperative communication is very low, and sometimes we can use our software just by making a phone call.
IDC manufacturers all over the country are trading companies. They buy IDC resources from operators and then sell them to end users. Gross profit margin is very low, and they lack core competitiveness. So it has never been favored by investors. Huayun Data wants to form an IDC vendor alliance to help small and medium-sized IDC vendors transform into the cloud computing field. Now we are the agent of 1000 IDC manufacturers. In the future, we will work hard in the direction of developers, and jointly set up the internet society of china Developers Working Group with internet society of china to provide cloud services for mobile Internet companies and application developers.
In the past two years, cloud computing in China has developed very rapidly. In fact, everyone has similar skills. It is very important to fight for who knows users best and how to sell products to customers in what form. In fact, I have been in contact with IDC since 2000, and I should be one of the earliest entrepreneurs in China to contact cloud computing. I named the cloud host in 2007, before I applied for a patent (laughs).
Playing the internet, people may earn tens of millions or hundreds of millions a month. Someone asked me why I didn't do the internet and infrastructure. I don't think I'm as smart as Wu and Yao Jianjun. I just think about how to take good care of these people and serve them well. Maybe many people think it's hard to watch people play the Internet, but they think it's fun. Sometimes when I think about it, I feel that I am actually quite hard. At least netizens can rest on holidays, but we can't. We must keep an eye on their servers 24 hours a day, and we must ensure the continuity of their business.