Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 803 What is WeChat for Business?

A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier, and Chen Hang's ambition goes far beyond becoming a "general".

He also wanted to be the "crown prince"—Ali's "crown prince"!
"The emperor's throne rotates, this year it's my turn." Even the position of the supreme ruler can change, so how can the position of the crown prince remain unchanged?
So what if Jiang Fan? As long as DingTalk can suppress WeChat Work on the other side and gradually erode WeChat's social base, he can join the ranks of Alibaba's powerful ministers.

Jack Ma owns half of the e-commerce empire, yet he has repeatedly missed out on opportunities in the social networking field. He must regret this in his midnight dreams.

Now that the "Spring Mud Project" has been launched, the e-commerce business under Jiang Fan's leadership is facing a strong challenge from the alliance of Douyin and JD.com, and the pressure is increasing sharply; Alipay, under Peng Lei's leadership, will also inevitably have a fierce battle with WeChat Pay this year; plus there's DingTalk, which he is in charge of.
With three fronts and three distinct business lines, the one that ultimately emerges victorious may determine the outcome of Alibaba's "battle for the crown prince."

At that time, Chen Hang will certainly have the opportunity to get involved.

Since Alibaba admires martial arts culture, it should deeply understand that fundamental principle of martial arts—

No moves are better than moves!
Outside the Beyond Science and Technology Park in Beijing.

Zhang Xiaolong stood in front of an advertising billboard and stared at it for a long time.

"Ms. Tan, we heard that you were scammed out of hundreds of thousands of yuan of public funds in a WeChat group. We want to say that here, whether it is General Manager Wang, General Manager Li or Manager Zhang, they are all real people."

You won't be fooled here.
For truly meaningful communication, use DingTalk!

These damn ads, they change them so often.

Since discovering that DingTalk's advertisements have been placed at the entrance of the Bi'an Science and Technology Park, Zhang Xiaolong has recently switched to taking the subway to and from get off work, and he always pays attention to DingTalk's advertisements around him.

This is the third batch of advertisements that DingTalk has replaced, and it has even appeared in the Metro Express, which shows that the other party's offensive was premeditated.

Zhang Xiaolong stroked the stubble on his chin and muttered to himself, "Once the WeChat Work colleagues are all back at work, I can bring everyone over to clock in. Let them see that our competitors are already at our doorstep. That's more effective than any mobilization. I reckon these guys will be screaming with excitement then."

In the past few days, he and Dr. Lu have had several in-depth discussions on the future development of WeChat Work. They finally decided that WeChat Work will evolve from its current "lightweight OA + WeChat ecosystem connection" to "lightweight mobile office platform + communication platform", with an emphasis on the communication layer, since this is WeChat's forte.

Its ultimate goal is to become a world-class "full-scenario digital office platform".

Today's WeChat for Enterprise is not a copy of WeChat with secondary development, but an independent product developed specifically for enterprise-level communication by separating out the core underlying communication architecture.

As for lightweight mobile office platforms, that is currently the main focus.

The next day at the same time and in the same place, about twenty people were looking around the DingTalk billboard at the subway station entrance. At first glance, they looked like a tour group visiting the area around the Bi'an Science and Technology Park.

A crowd of passersby gathered at the subway station entrance because some recognized Zhang Xiaolong, known in the industry as the "Mother of WeChat," as the person leading the group just a few dozen meters away.

Why "mother" instead of "father"? Simply because the title of "father of WeChat" belongs solely to Chen Mo.

The father of WeChat sowed the seeds, and the mother of WeChat carefully nurtured them, which is perfectly reasonable for this towering tree in the field of Chinese social networking to grow.

The identities of those who followed Zhang Xiaolong are self-evident; they are all core managers of the WeChat team.

The sounds of conversation drifted from afar, mostly revolving around DingTalk and WeChat Work, with some speculating and others making jokes.

Listening to the commotion and looking at the solemn yet indignant expressions on the faces of his colleagues, Zhang Xiaolong smiled slightly.

This row of advertising spaces on the street is like an unkillable fly—it doesn't bite, but it's still annoying, even more bothersome than mosquitoes on a summer night.

However, such open "provocation" can actually act as a catalyst within the department.

“I was wrong in the past. I always thought that as long as we polished the product and developed it step by step, we could easily expand WeChat by relying on WeChat’s traffic. But the development of things is always survival of the fittest. If we don’t have a sense of crisis, the market will teach us a lesson.”

When everyone heard their leader speak, they all nodded in agreement.

"Remember how you feel right now. When the rest of your colleagues come back, you can bring them all over to see for themselves. The competition is at our doorstep; that's more effective than any mobilization effort."

Zhang Xiaolong paused for a moment, then continued, "The big boss didn't say anything, he didn't even talk to me. That's his sense of righteousness, but we can't be ignorant of his feelings, right?"

"Fuck them!" someone shouted, igniting a fire in everyone's hearts. "Shouting slogans is useless!"

Zhang Xiaolong said in a deep voice, "No matter what, this kind of psychological attack is just a minor tactic. In the end, we'll see the real results on the product. Let's go back to the meeting."

After saying that, he took the lead and strode towards the Science and Technology Park on the other side.

The group of people following behind them instantly changed their demeanor. Just a moment ago they looked like a sightseeing tour group, but now they looked like gang members about to engage in a fierce battle on the blacklist, their eyes filled with fighting spirit.

Half an hour later, a meeting on the theme of "Scenarios and Implementation of Lightweight Mobile Office Platforms for Enterprises" officially began inside the WeChat business unit.

During the meeting, the product, technology, and operations managers of the WeChat Work business group were all very enthusiastic and expressed their opinions freely.

"Our research on enterprises last year revealed a problem of overcapacity in enterprise-level systems. Through analysis, we found that over 80% of enterprise systems on the market are essentially OA (Office Automation), JIRA (project and task tracking tool), Confluence (enterprise document management and collaboration software), CRM (customer relationship management), IM (instant messaging), etc., and 80% of the functions in these systems are generic."

"I totally agree! In the companies I've worked for, every single one had a different OA system, but most of the functions looked familiar. If we could truly standardize it, it would be beneficial in every way—improving office efficiency, saving companies R&D costs, and reducing learning costs for employees."

"Take OA as an example. Although WeChat for Business has similar basic functions, it has not been taken seriously before. I suggest that we create a system that can adapt to the vast majority of enterprises and meet the most basic functions, such as basic collaboration modules: process management, schedule management, document and knowledge management, organization and human resource management, etc."

The remaining 20% ​​consists of smaller, specific needs arising from different industries. These can be further developed and customized. We can reserve scalable interfaces and conduct unified development and adaptation according to standardized technical specifications.

"Isn't this the enterprise-level system open platform that we're currently using on the other side?"

Upon hearing this, a technical manager responsible for the underlying architecture of WeChat for Business lit up, eager to try, and said, "Module disassembly? I'm familiar with that! Leave it to our team. One... no, give me half a month, and I guarantee the porting and integration will be successful."

Suddenly, he saw the boss's gaze sweep over him, and half of the fire in his heart was instantly extinguished. He thought to himself: Oh no, I broke a taboo in my excitement.

He quickly changed his tune: "Once everyone returns, we'll report back to you after we've assessed the project timeline."

Zhang Xiaolong withdrew his gaze and said, "It's good to have drive and enthusiasm, but we can't just have a three-minute burst of enthusiasm. We can't lose our rhythm. Everyone needs to pay attention to this."

He paused, then continued, "Everyone's points were valid, and many hit the nail on the head. Although our current competitor is DingTalk, I believe we can take a longer-term view. The vision for WeChat Work may not be limited to the domestic market; it could even become a national or even global enterprise system platform."

"Boss, can we still call that WeChat for Business?" someone asked.

"So I suggest we split it into two sets. One set is the existing lightweight enterprise application + communication platform, which is our WeChat for Business; the other set is the enterprise system open platform, named 'WeChat Enterprise'," Zhang Xiaolong replied.

At this point, a product manager commented: "I've used DingTalk, and it does have some features worth learning from. And it's not just the product itself that's noteworthy, but also their free and on-the-ground promotional strategies."

DingTalk's rapid growth last year was due to the support of Alibaba's massive sales team, which enabled it to acquire 100 million enterprise users.

"Hmph, when it comes to ground promotion capabilities, no matter how strong Alibaba's iron army is, can it be stronger than a full-scale attack?" someone said disdainfully.

During the meeting, some people spoke, some people took notes, and finally everyone summarized these scattered ideas into an actionable plan.

Before the meeting ended, Zhang Xiaolong picked up the meeting minutes and began to summarize: "Comrades, it is understandable to despise the enemy tactically, but we must take our opponent seriously strategically. Although the advantage is on our side, we cannot let our guard down."

"Based on everyone's suggestions, the conclusions of this meeting are as follows: First, we will divide the product lines into two sets with different focuses. One set is WeChat Work, which was originally positioned as a 'lightweight mobile office platform + communication platform', and the other set is 'Weiqi', which is a 'heavyweight enterprise office platform + lightweight communication'."
Second, we must do both things well. While iterating and developing products, the sales team began to coordinate with the entire army to carry out targeted and intensive promotions at the city level.
Third, we will collect system scenario requirements from international small and medium-sized enterprises, conduct data collection and requirement analysis, and pave the way for future internationalization.

Let those competitors know what WeChat for Business is all about!

"Everyone, please!" Zhang Xiaolong raised his voice.

The attendees immediately straightened their posture.

"First, the product and technology teams each need to provide me with a proposal; second, the marketing operations team is responsible for coordinating with the all-out ground sales campaign; third, I'll first communicate with Zhou Shouzi's team. Does anyone have any questions?"

"No!" everyone answered in unison.

Zhang Xiaolong nodded: "Meeting adjourned!"

(End of this chapter)