In the ending of "The Age of Entrepreneurship", the founder of "Magic Crystal" "Guo Xinnian" finally lost to the squeeze of capital and was forced to sell "Magic Crystal". On the night of making the decision, he and "Li Benteng" got drunk mud.
Before that, he wrote codes desperately in the face of brutal competition; or when he suddenly thought of an idea in the middle of the night, he excitedly called "Na Lan"; When there was a "life hanging by a thread", he was deceived by the capital that originally gave him hope, and he threw things and left in anger.
Looking back now, Huang He is very familiar with all of this. He is one of the prototypes of "Guo Xinnian".
In that era of crazy entrepreneurship, Huang He created the prototype of the voice chat software "Magic Crystal" - Talkbox in Hong Kong. In March 2011, less than two months after its establishment, Talkbox rushed to the top of the App Store's social list, becoming a phenomenon-level APP that is popular in Southeast Asia. At its peak, Talkbox had 13 million registered users.
Like "Guo Xinnian", Huang He had high hopes for Talkbox at that time. But very helpless, in the subsequent promotion, Talkbox experienced the simultaneous squeeze of blocked servers, copycat software and capital, and finally retired in less than 3 months. The most embarrassing thing is that the 3-month competition time is not enough to apply for a patent. In the end, the patent right of "press and talk" was obtained by Tencent, and Talkbox had to withdraw from the market.
Now that 8 years have passed, looking back at that experience again, Huang He, who was sitting in front of Odaily, still couldn't help but sigh with emotion. He is also a passionate entrepreneur, and he has never stopped starting a business in the past 8 years.
After Talkbox, Huang He created two more projects, namely "Jinxin" that can obtain big data, and a blockchain project for mail consumption - Measurable Data Token (hereinafter referred to as "MDT").
The latter is currently struggling under the background of the blockchain bear market.
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Ideas come from parents who can't type
In 2010, Huang He, who had just graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, gave up his position as a product manager in Shanghai and joined an entrepreneurial team, GreenTomato.
At that time, the main tool for people’s social communication was text messages. There were 9 telecom operators in Hong Kong, and packages could not be purchased between different operators. Fees were charged for sending text messages. This brings inconvenience to consumers, and the communication cost is also higher.
In June of that year, Apple released the iPhone 4, and the era of smartphones came. Huang He told Odaily that a software called WhatsApp appeared on the Apple mobile phone at that time, and it could replace text messages to communicate.
Huang He also downloaded the software for his parents, but he found that they couldn't type on their smartphones.
The voice instant messaging software that was born later - Talkbox was inspired by this. "My parents can't type, so I thought, can I make a direct voice communication, so that it can talk when you press it."
Like the "Magic Crystal" team, Huang He and his team have also experienced day and night development.
In January 2011, Talkbox went online, and quickly rushed to the top of the App Store's social list, reaching 13 million at its peak.
Unfortunately, shortly after its launch, Huang He's team found that the Talkbox application in mainland China could not be used, "the server was blocked."
The section of shielding the server later appeared in "The Age of Entrepreneurship" is a few important scenes. Three domestic operators once jointly sued "Magic Crystal" for not obtaining an operating license and operating illegally. Under the suggestion of relevant departments, the prosecution was changed to mediation, and "Magic Crystal" obtained a respite. But at this moment, the operator suddenly blocked the server of "Magic Crystal" twice, almost killing "Magic Crystal". The "Magic Crystal" team was extremely nervous, lobbying and finding someone to organize operators not to do that, because if the server was stopped again, "Magic Crystal" would die.
Huang He has a deep understanding of this process. Talkbox has been blocked in the mainland for an unknown period of time. At that time, Huang He was extremely anxious, but there was nothing he could do.
Even more unfortunately, at the time when the mobile Internet was just emerging, the idea of Talkbox was imitated as soon as it came out.
"In Southeast Asia and the mainland, it's a 'thousand-trust war' situation." Huang He said. In the face of fierce competition, Huang He still does not have enough manpower to develop new versions that support various systems. He is facing internal and external difficulties.
There is another important but conflicting clue in "Entrepreneurship Age", which is that capital squeezes the shares of "Magic Crystal". Huang He also experienced this process.
In May 2011, WeChat was updated to version 2.0, which added the function of "hold and talk". Since July 2011, WeChat's ranking has risen, while Talkbox has declined. After the effective migration of QQ users, WeChat has become the most mainstream instant messaging application in China.
So that year, Talkbox and some other copycat voice chat software were crushed by big capital and were strangled in the cradle.
"It's more about anxiety and helplessness. I always knew that this day would come. Facing the crushing of giants and insufficient manpower, even with rapid growth, I couldn't develop more system versions. I could only hold on with an attitude of not admitting defeat. .” Huang He said.
At that time, many companies approached Huang He to discuss whether they could cooperate or acquire, but the situation was complicated, and in the end, nothing came to fruition.
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"kill back"
In October, "The Age of Entrepreneurship" started broadcasting. Huang He, who has been away from Talkbox for 8 years, sat in front of the computer in Hong Kong, never ending a single episode...
In the last scene of the play, "Guo Xinnian", who lost to "Magic Crystal", took the heroine of the story "Na Lan" back to the place where "Magic Crystal" was born - Lacuolamu Lake.
The pure lake water is inlaid under the snow-capped mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The camera slowly freezes on the calm lake. Better software, kill back."
"Guo Xinnian" was stunned.
Huang He was also stunned when he saw this scene, and then he posted a message on Moments, "The mobile Internet social battle in 2011 is vivid in my mind. Luo Wei said at the Tongxun press conference that 'Without Magic Crystal, there is no Tongxun 'To pay tribute to the contribution of the Talkbox team's innovation to 'changing the way of human communication', and also to draw the final end to that crazy experience."
"Kill back." He commented to himself, as if he was encouraging "Guo Xinnian" and also telling himself.
That day was November 11, and Huang He just returned from the United States. Huang He's "returning back" does not refer to returning to the country, but just like "Guo Xinnian", after "Magic Crystal" could not develop according to his own wishes, he returned to the team of entrepreneurs with the attitude of an entrepreneur and created a new era. "Magic Crystal" is a better product.
Huang He did the same.
Talkbox did not die later, and is still developing in Hong Kong today. It just adjusted its business mix in the competition, cut off the communication business facing the public, and only provides enterprise services.
In 2015, Huang He's team developed a new project, MailTime, which is a chat app that makes email as easy as sending a text message, and is also a product of email big data. It was much smoother than Talkbox, and soon got investment from Xu Xiaoping, and was also selected into Y Combinator, the top entrepreneurial server in the United States.
"It is equivalent to finding a way out of big data from the hopeless message product. At Y Combinator, the founder of Gmail and a partner in our group worked on mail protocol products. He helped us reorganize a Business logic, we began to transform to big data." Huang He said.
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Invest in the blockchain
In 2013, under the background of hesitation about big data operations, Huang He came into contact with blockchain technology in the United States. He was brought into the industry by Tom Ding, the founder of the Dfinity project in Silicon Valley.
"It can change production relations and subvert vested interests." Huang He said, which made him see the possibility of effectively solving data fraud and protecting user data privacy.
Soon, Huang He launched a project using blockchain technology in Silicon Valley, MDT Quantum. This is a big data analysis platform based on anonymous email data, oriented to the enterprise side, providing data on consumption and other behaviors that do not involve user privacy.
On November 7th, Huang He appeared in front of the Odaily reporter wearing a sportswear, jeans, and a gray backpack with the feeling of fatigue when he got off the plane. The blockchain industry has turned into a low period since the second half of this year. The progress of the project is not very smooth, and the price of MDT currency is also falling.
There is also a voice in the industry questioning the quantity of MDT, such as whether the mode of data mining and analysis through emails is outdated, and whether the data itself is valuable.
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"How far am I from Mao Kankan?"
Back in time to 8 years ago, Huang He would never have imagined that the entrepreneurial path he chose would be so difficult. He once created his own highlight moment because of Talkbox, but starting a business is like a battlefield. He is not strong enough, and even the fruits created by himself will be taken away by others.
Huang He said frankly that the pressure was very high.
The unfortunate news is that a close friend of his entrepreneurial days just committed suicide by jumping off a building due to unbearable pressure, and the purpose of his return this time is to help this friend take care of the funeral.
He mentioned Mao Kankan many times, and kept bemoaning the difficulty of starting a business.
Over the past few years, 4 of his friends committed suicide due to too much pressure to start a business. In the interview elevator, he kept looking low.
His friend ended his life because of capital and other pressures. He felt sad. He knew the process and the company could no longer operate. "But I still have feelings, and I can't bear it."
He also expressed his own experience. In his circle of friends, he thanked Fu Yao, the screenwriter of "Entrepreneurial Age". The scene 8 years ago is vivid in his memory. In order to ensure the smooth operation of Talkbox in the mainland, he often went to Beijing to drink in the garage coffee on Zhongguancun Chuangye Street. Fu Yao who was looking for a story.
Audiences have mixed opinions on the TV series "Entrepreneurial Era", but Huang He still likes it in the end.
"It puts more emphasis on the entrepreneurial process of the entrepreneur, rather than inspiring or remembering the successful person. It emphasizes the difficulty of starting a business, the risks and ups and downs in starting a business." Huang He said, he thinks this It is very meaningful to record the entrepreneurial process.
Since the second quarter of this year, the MailTime APP has cooperated with US telecom operators Verizon, AT&T and domestic mobile phone brands Xiaomi, Samsung, etc., covering the US and European mobile phone mail application markets.
With the broadcast of "The Age of Entrepreneurship", Huang He's team also launched a marketing campaign. A nostalgic version of "Jinxin" was launched, which was renamed as the "Magic Crystal" application with the same name as the mobile phone communication application in the play.
Relying on the popularity of the TV series, the app ranked second on the Apple App Store social list within two days of its release, and was on the hot search list, with more than 1 million downloads within 18 days. Huang He said that the development of this product has also brought many financing opportunities to the company, which are currently being negotiated.
The era of entrepreneurship is over, but the real entrepreneurs continue.
On the day of the interview, Huang He also reflected on the ending of his friend, and believed that the failure of a start-up company is not a problem of one person. It is because of the impetuous bubble, the high valuation of capital, the blind joining of many people under the wave of entrepreneurship, and the over-exaggeration of the media. , however, when the bubble bursts and the enthusiasm cools down, only the entrepreneurs themselves are left.
"Sometimes I wonder, how far am I from Mao Kankan?" he said.
