Hu Xinyong: The Kika Input Method Crawled Out of the "Dead Man"

In Hu Xinyong's 10-year career, he witnessed two listed companies - TOM.com and Skye Networks. So when he decided to start a business, he never thought that he would risk many times and be on the brink of bankruptcy.

Divide

On April 6, 2011, Xinmei Communication was established. "It is a coincidence that it is just one year later than Xiaomi."

In that year, the prelude of the smartphone was about to be pulled up. Due to professional relations, Hu Xinyong and Zhou Li smelled the smell of soil before the shower more quickly than others. At the time, the latter was "difficult to do in innovation workshops," betting on the mobile Internet, the two almost hit it off.

However, the "mobile internet" is too general and it is the right answer in almost every direction. In this regard, Hu Xinyong’s choice is - try:

"At the time more than 20 people, we made 7, 80 products."

One of the most worth mentioning is "Power Saver." This product was established very early, with high weight, but also saved the company's life.

The concept of "Power Saver" can be traced back to before the start of business. At that time, Hu Xinyong had two cognitions about the industry: the trend of smartphones and the poor experience of smart phones. This includes the complete lack of electricity.

In addition, at that time, the ecology of the App Store and Google Play had taken shape. The flattening of the channel made Hu Xinyong mourn and the internationalization route. After three years, at least half of the users will come from overseas.

The result did not expect that the current users are all overseas. Of course, this is something.

Interestingly, the same internationalization is also a "tool." Hu Xinyong and Cheetah CEO Fu Sheng had different positions on different occasions. The former believes that the power saving society is a greater demand than security. The latter said that clean-up is a demand that is as large as security.

Obviously, like the subtext of the two, the judgment is biased. Based on this, the Fu Sheng warrior broke his wrist, stopped all the items including "battery doctor", including CM, from the brutal growth; Hu Xinyong still insisted on "Power Saver" as the main, other as auxiliary, but soon, on the book No money.

Continue life

The company is only six months away from bankruptcy. This is Hu Xinyong’s own summary.

"There is no panic on the books. I am very panicked."

At that time, the team was thinking about new directions almost all the time. “At night it has been talking about 12 points. At least 10 of them are talking on the whiteboard every day. They are always on the whiteboard.” But once and for all, it is always out of reach. The rapid rise but the bridge that quickly disappeared is They happened dozens of times.

The reality is even more unreasonable. Hu Xinyong did not say that in the early days, the company could hardly control cash flow.

"If you lose hundreds of thousands in a month, you will lose money in a year. The company has been on the verge of bankruptcy."

Hu Xinyong and Zhou Li began to give money to the company, and then borrowed with family and friends. Every day they opened their eyes and owed a debt. The quality of life plummeted. In the office, two people could hear each other arguing with their family on the phone almost every day.

Of course, there is another way--selling projects. In order to survive, Qisi Wallpapers and Power Saver were sold. Hu Xinyong personally took a board and sold it for one life, basically without any psychological construction.

This process continued until the end of 2013, and the internal direction was finalized so far - the Kika input method.

“We think there should be a possibility to put all the things related to expression in one place. The past expression was text. Today, because social media is more and more developed, expression has been extended from text to video, audio and expression. ”

In combination with the tens of products that had previously declined, Hu Xinyong had a firm grasp of what users liked. Therefore, whether or not to go to the path of expression—the input method—is an affirmative answer.

As for whether it can be? do not know.

Detonate

Kika's R&D has gone through half a year, which is not common within the company. Recalling the state of mind at that time, Hu Xinyong stated that there was expectation but no desperation.

In June 2014, Kika was officially put on the shelves and by the end of the year, the number of users would have exceeded one million. Hu Xinyong knows that the crucial moment has come.

Will growth go down? Will daily living be reduced? Over the past three years, these problems have been like nightmares.

Finally, the curve suddenly rose after the tipping point. Hu Xinyong and the team have not yet had time to celebrate. The investors who follow up with them for a long time have said that we donate money and do not let other people come in.

"The most powerful is the investor. The point is very accurate."

At this point, Hu Xinyong knew that they would not have to borrow money or sell items anymore. Their own competition with themselves finally became their own competition with others.

One year after the Kika input method was launched, the number of users exceeded 10 million. Today's month is about 50 million. In the same year, Kika Tech was certified by Google as a top developer. Ascended to this point, the business model needs to consider:

"We have large-scale and accurate data. No matter which advertising platform, we must improve the accuracy of delivery. In this respect, the industry standard is 70%, and we are 90%."

The reason for this difference is that Hu Xinyong thinks that the main method of collecting data is different: "After scanning applications on mobile phones, is it a woman who has installed 'big brother'? As far as pregnancy is concerned, men may also install this application."

If it must be quantified, Hu Xinyong stated:

"If the advertising platform works with me and it earns 100 now, I have the ability to make it earn 130, which is our biggest advantage."

end

One day, Hu Xinyong went to the Chinese People's National Park and discovered that the languages ​​of many ethnic minorities have been forgotten, and only people in their fifties or sixties can still speak. According to statistics, there are 7000 languages ​​that disappear every two weeks.

In the face of this status quo, he told materialism:

"Now we have enough support in capital. Even if we are slow, we must do a better job in each language."

But obviously, this has nothing to do with business.