Introduction: It has been more than three years since the 930 revolution in 2018, how should we evaluate the transcript of Tencent COO Ren Yuxin at the helm of PCG (Platform and Content Business Group) for three years?
Ordinary | author
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Due to his low profile, Ren Yuxin is the most underrated Tencent executive. But within Tencent, Ren Yuxin is recognized as the best coach who leads soldiers to fight.
This is also an important reason why Ren Yuxin not only serves as The COO of Tencent, but also heads two major business groups of Tencent IEG (Interactive Entertainment Business Group) and PCG (Platform and Content Business Group). In the executive ranking of Tencent Holdings' official website, Ren Yuxin is also second only to Tencent Chairman Ma Huateng, President Martin Lau and co-founder Xu Chenye, before Zhang Xiaolong, head of WXG (WeChat Business Group), and Tang Daosheng, head of CSIG (Cloud and Smart Industry Business Group), and is the No. 3 person in Tencent's true sense.
However, after the 930 change in 2018 and Ren Yuxin became the head of the PCG (Platform and Content Business Group), although he still maintained a low profile, the particularity of the role still made him stand on the cusp of public opinion. Because in the PCG it is responsible for, there are two short-board businesses that have attracted much attention from the outside world, short video and information flow.
Among them, the product main body of the short video business is MicroVision, and the product body of the information flow business is the daily headline. These two businesses are partly to block byteDance's Douyin and today's headlines. However, due to poor progress, these two businesses have also received more criticism from the outside world.
In addition to the short video and information flow business, the social platform business with QQ and QQ space as the core has also been merged into PCG. This business, as Tencent's starting business, has experienced a sharp decline due to the impact of WeChat. Whether Ren Yuxin can return to QQ and QQ space growth is also of great concern to the outside world.
In addition, there are a number of similar QQ browsers, QQ computer butlers, application treasures and Tencent News under the PCG umbrella that have been brilliant in the history of Tencent's development, but due to changes in the industry environment, they are now in the decline of the river and do not return to the business of the past.
There are both daily headlines, Weishi, which is a follow-up business that lags behind competitors, as well as the declining starting business of QQ and QQ space, as well as the declining business of QQ browser, QQ computer butler, application treasure and Tencent News, which is at the end of the strong crossbow, in general, the Tencent PCG that Ren Yuxin took over is a business full of thousands of problems, difficult and complex, and it takes the strongest leader to bring about big changes.
Ma Huateng and Martin Lau mainly control the overall situation at Tencent, and it is difficult to have the energy to manage specific businesses. Zhang Xiaolong, who is good at products, and Tang Daosheng, who is good at technology, are not suitable for leading such a complex business as PCG, so Ren Yuxin, who has led Tencent's game to miraculously counterattack, has become the best candidate for transforming PCG.
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The newly formed PCG is the result of the restructuring of the businesses of three different business groups: interactive entertainment, social networking and online media, which also leads to the complicated background of its executive team. In order to bring together these executives from different business groups, Ren Yuxin launched an executive partnership system at PCG, binding the interests of these executives and dividing the work according to their respective characteristics.
Among them, Cheng Wu from the Interactive Entertainment Business Group is responsible for Tencent Pictures and Tencent Animation. Sun Zhonghuai and Chen Juhong from the online media business group are responsible for Tencent Video and Tencent News respectively. Liang Zhu, Yin Yu, Lin Songtao and Zeng Yu from the Social Networking Business Group served as the heads of QQ, Weishi, Internet Tools, Technology Middle Office and Content Center Desk respectively.
In general, before the implementation of the adjustment decision of large enterprises, they can only try to be reasonable, the real optimal form, and they also need to be optimized and adjusted according to the actual progress of the business. The same is true of the organizational adjustment of the 930 revolution.
After determining the general direction of the business and the division of responsibilities of the core executives, Tencent PCG's various businesses began their own exploration and development, and after a two-and-a-half-year exploration period, Ren Yuxin gradually began to have a more comprehensive understanding of the future development of PCG and a more sober judgment. Therefore, since April 15, 2021, it has carried out a series of adjustments to the organization and personnel of the PCG.
The first change is that the three businesses of Tencent Video, Weishi and App Bao have been integrated into "online video BU". Sun Zhonghuai, the former head of Tencent Video, was promoted to CEO of Online Video BU, in charge of content, operations and membership systems. Lin Songtao, who was previously in charge of MicroVision and is good at technology and products, served as the president of online video BU, in charge of product system and technology.
The second change is that Liang Zhu, the former head of QQ, was transferred to Tencent Music as CEO, and Yao Xiaoguang, president of Tianmei Studio Group under Yuxin Interactive Entertainment Business Group, went to PCG to concurrently serve as the head of QQ and QQ space business.
Liang Zhu is no stranger to Tencent Music, which served as the general manager of QQ Music from 2014 to 2016. Liang Zhu's appointment as CEO of Tencent Music has also brought about a series of changes in the core management of Tencent Music. Among them, former Tencent Music CEO Peng Jiaxin was promoted to executive chairman of Tencent Music, and Tang Daosheng stepped down as chairman of Tencent Music to focus on leading the development of Tencent's strategic business CCG.
The third change is that Chen Juhong is no longer responsible for Tencent News business and is transferred to CDG (Enterprise Development Business Group) as the head of the newly established Sustainable Value Innovation Division. The head of Tencent News was replaced by Wang Shimu, the former head of Xiao goose Spelling.
Wang Shimu has served in NetEase for a long time, serving as vice president of NetEase Music and head of NetEase Aesthetics, and is a potential product manager. Later, due to the fact that the aesthetic development of NetEase was not smooth, he joined Tencent and was responsible for the person in charge of PCG's e-commerce project Xiao goose spelling. Because e-commerce does not conform to the core strategic direction of PCG and the business has not made much progress, the Xiaogean Spelling business was shut down, and Wang Shimu also turned to Tencent News.
Previously, Tencent News, like Other Core Businesses under Tencent PCG, was headed by Executives at the level of Vice President of Tencent. However, Wang Shimu, who is the head of Tencent News this time, is only at the level of general manager and is not from content, which can be seen from this the transformation of Tencent's news positioning and the declining status within Tencent's system.
After the first organizational adjustment on April 15, 2021, on October 15, 2021, Tencent PCG continued the previous organizational structure adjustment idea, and integrated QQ browser, Tencent Watch, search, free novels and Tencent documents, etc., and established the "Information Platform and Service Line", referred to as "Confidence Line", with Yin Yu as the person in charge.
"Faith Line" is an upgrade from a series of Internet tool businesses that Yin Yu was responsible for before, and its biggest changes are two, one is to move the app treasure business to the online video BU, and the other is to integrate the search, browser and input method businesses of the newly acquired Sogou company.
From the perspective of the top-level design of the business, the core model of "Xinfu Line" is to use QQ browser as the basic user and traffic platform to provide users with information services in the fields of search, short video and information flow. Among them, the search service is controlled by the "Faith Line" team, and the content of short videos and information streams is supported by other sister business units of PCG such as online video BU and content middle office (Penguin).
However, less than two months after the establishment of the "Faith Line", it changed its business leader. On December 1, 2021, Tencent Vice President Xi Xiaohu succeeded Yin Yu as the head of the "Faith Line", and Yin Yu went to the CSCG (Cloud and Smart Industry Business Group) headed by the old leader Tang Daosheng as the head of Tencent's smart education industry line.
It is worth mentioning that the new head of the "Faith Line", Xi Xiaohu, is one of the few new people who joined Tencent and soon became in a high position. Xi Xiaohu graduated from Princeton University in the United States, and during his 12 years at Google, he served as the core designer of the advertising system, the global technical director and the vice president of Google China Research Institute, and also served as the CTO of Xiaohongshu and the vice president of Didi Chuxing, and is a well-recognized technical expert in the industry. Around August 2020, Xi Xiaohu left Didi and joined Tencent's platform and content business group, responsible for search algorithms and data business.
Xi Xiaohu, who has better technical ability, succeeded Yin Yu as the business leader of "Faith Line" this time, and can see that Ren Yuxin hopes that he can use his previous technical accumulation in the field of search to promote the breakthrough of "Faith Line" in the "browser + search + intelligent recommendation" model.
In addition to the above four changes, the only ones that are not involved are Tencent Pictures and Tencent Animation, which were transferred from the IEG (Interactive Entertainment Business Group), both of which were handled by Cheng Wu.
Among them, Tencent Pictures is a business with outstanding internal performance in PCG in the past two years, and it has successively produced many high-quality masterpieces such as "Qing Yu Nian" and "Son-in-law". In particular, the recently produced "Human World" led by him has become a phenomenon-level drama at the beginning of 2022, and the scenery is unique.
But it was at this highest moment that Tencent PCG made the fifth change of this round of organizational adjustment, adjusting Tencent Pictures from PCG to Tencent President Martin Lau directly responsible for cdG (Enterprise Development Business Group), but the business is still led by Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent Group.
This adjustment of Tencent Pictures makes us have to mention another change two years ago. On April 27, 2020, due to business turmoil in Yuwen Group, a listed company under Tencent, the original management team of Yuwen Group with Wu Wenhui as the core resigned collectively, and Cheng Wulinwei, who was in charge of Tencent Pictures and Tencent Animation at PCG, was appointed as the CEO and executive director of Yuwen Group.
Cheng Wu has a deep relationship with Yuwen Group, it was he who led the merger of Tencent Literature and Shanda Literature many years ago, and served as the chairman of Yuwen Group for a long time, Cheng Wu took over as THE CEO of Yuwen Group in this business and personnel turmoil.
After taking over as the CEO of Yuwen Group, Cheng Wu continued to enhance the strategic importance of the film and television content production business in it, which gradually produced a relatively large business intersection between Yuwen Group and Tencent Pictures and Tencent Animation. In the early days, most of the three were content production through business alliances, but because Yuwen Group is an independent listed company, small and medium-sized investors have clear requirements for their performance and stock price performance, which requires them to gradually clarify the business boundary with Tencent Pictures and Tencent Animation.
The final conclusion is that the ip film and television development of Tencent Pictures' original strong commercial attributes will be entrusted to Xinli Media, Yuwen Film and Television, and Tencent Animation under PCG, which are subsidiaries of Yuwen Group. For example, in the current projects planned and developed by Tencent Pictures, the second season of "Qing Yu Nian" and "Son-in-law 2" and related teams will be merged into the Reading Group; Tencent Animation IP film and television projects and related employees such as "Under One Person" (film and drama series) will be merged into Tencent Animation. In this way, the business scope of Tencent Pictures has been greatly simplified, and it will serve as Tencent's film and television label, focusing on the development of melodic works of the times and assuming more social responsibilities.
After the importance of Tencent Video has been greatly enhanced, and Tencent Pictures has been merged into the CDG (Enterprise Development Business Group), we can see tencent PCG's defense of the top-level strategy, that is, adhering to the platform model and weakening self-made content. This is also why we see that Tencent Video did not broadcast a number of high-quality masterpieces such as "The World of People" led by Tencent Pictures, but all of them were broadcast exclusively on iQiyi, which shows that Tencent Video, which is based on the platform model, does not rely too much on the self-made content of Tencent companies such as Tencent Pictures.
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So far, 4 of the 7 partners at the beginning of the establishment of PCG (Platform and Content Business Group) have left. Liang Zhu and Cheng Wu became the CEOs of independent listed companies respectively, and Chen Juhong and Yin Yu were transferred to other business groups within the company.
The business of PCG (Platform and Content Business Group) has also been greatly simplified compared with the beginning of its establishment, which is mainly divided into four core businesses of online video, social platform, information platform and service, technology middle office and content middle office, which are respectively responsible for yao Xiaolong, Sun Zhonghuai, Xi Xiaohu and Zeng Yu. Behind this series of organizational and personnel adjustments, it is actually a change in the business direction of PCG.
First of all, Tencent Video's status in PCG has been greatly improved, while the status of Weishi has been seriously weakened. In the future, as Tencent Video's leading edge in the field of domestic long-term video is further expanded, its strategic position in the Tencent system will continue to rise.
Secondly, the downward trend of QQ and QQ space has not been effectively reversed, and the status quo cannot satisfy Tencent's decision-making level, so it has reached the stage of not breaking or standing. "Breaking" and "standing" will largely rely on the key strategies formulated by the two key figures Ren Yuxin and Yao Xiaoguang. From the perspective of adjusting Yao Xiaoguang to be in charge of QQ and QQ space, Ren Yuxin has taken the integration and innovation of QQ with games and metaversics as the most promising change measure.
Third, the combination of QQ browser and search, information flow and short video means that PCG strategically abandons the path of winning by imitating rival products, but efficiently integrates internal resources and pragmatically chooses a different path from competitors. However, due to the decline of the browser market, PCG's integration path is quite difficult.
Finally, there are two branches with great uncertainty, Tencent Animation and Tencent News. Among them, with the importance of PCG self-made content decreasing, it remains to be seen how Tencent Animation will position itself in the PCG in the future, but Tencent News is already on the front line of life and death.
For quite some time, Tencent News was the best news portal platform in China for high-quality content. However, due to the impact of today's headlines, Baidu Baijia and other information flow platforms, Tencent News's users and traffic continue to decline, which makes Tencent News gradually strategically abandon original high-quality content and begin to fall to the content aggregation model of vulgar content flooding.
If Tencent News insists on boutique originality, then it will be a small and beautiful business. If it insists on following the content aggregation and machine recommendation mode of today's headlines, it will be no different from the information flow business of the QQ browser of the service line. From this point of view, it can be drawn to the credibility line that Xiaohu is responsible for, but in that case, Tencent News will also have difficulty competing with opponents such as today's headlines and Baidu because it does not have its own characteristics.
From the author's point of view, Tencent News's shift to a self-media platform with content under the mud has neither commercial value nor strategic value for Tencent, and will also damage the company's overall brand image due to the flood of vulgar content. At present, in the case of the proliferation of vulgar content on self-media platforms, China needs a serious and authoritative high-quality content platform, so the author expects Tencent News to adhere to the media positioning of high-quality original content and be a clear stream in China's content industry. At the same time, tencent news' high-quality content can feed back qq browser and other information flow businesses as differentiated content that is different from other platforms. If Tencent does no longer attach importance to the creation of serious original news content, it is better to give up strategically, rather than in the name of news and practice the vulgar content of self-media platforms.
In addition, in addition to gradually rationalizing PCG's own business, Ren Yuxin also promoted the clarification of the three business strategic directions of Tencent Music, Reading Group and Tencent Pictures and the optimization and iteration of the organization, providing a good development environment for further breakthroughs in each business in the future.
Although from the perspective of business group ownership, Reading Group and Tencent Music no longer accept the direct management of the platform and content business group, on the one hand, Ren Yuxin, as the COO of Tencent's core content business, on the other hand, is also the old leader of Cheng Wu and Liang Zhu for many years, so the strategic synergy between Tencent PCG and Reading Group and Tencent Music will not weaken, but will be further strengthened in the future.
After the great simplification of business and organization, personnel redundancy has become a more prominent problem of Tencent PCG (Platform and Content Business Group). Recently, there have been media reports of Tencent's large-scale layoffs, of which PCG is the core of the hardest hit areas. However, the optimization of organizations and personnel cannot be simply interpreted as the decline of the business, but on the contrary, it represents the clarity of strategic priorities and the improvement of organizational efficiency.
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It has been more than three years since the 930 revolution in 2018, how should we evaluate Ren Yuxin's report card at the helm of Tencent PCG for three years?
On the surface, Weishi and Tiantian Express not only did not undertake the heavy responsibility of blocking Douyin and today's headlines, but also the Tiantian Express was strategically abandoned very early, and Weishi also tended to be marginalized; QQ and QQ space also did not substantially improve compared with before the 930 reform, on the contrary, users and traffic continued to decline. But this can not be harshly responsible for Yuxin, because these businesses are actually difficult to reverse the situation from the general trend, even if it is replaced by any executive other than Ren Yuxin, it may not help.
But from a deeper level, the author believes that Ren Yuxin has strategically straightened out the PCG for more than three years, allowing video to return to video, social to social, information services to information services, content to self-made and content self-made, and some redundant businesses and personnel to be decisively dismissed.
Being able to make such a decision reflects Ren Yuxin's profound business insight and overall view on the one hand, and on the other hand, it reflects Ren Yuxin's ability to jump out of the mindset and pattern of business group-basedism, as well as the courage and outstanding leadership to promote responsible change in super-large organizations. Therefore, Ren Yuxin's ability to make PCG achieve such a clear business line and a prominent strategic focus today is already a very outstanding achievement. In such a situation, Ren Yuxin's ability will also be able to be better exerted in the future.
Let's try to sketch the most ideal endgame picture of Tencent PCG's future. First, Tencent Video has completely won the chinese online video field, comparable to Netflix, becoming a business with a market value of 100 billion yuan, 10 billion profits and 100 billion US dollars. Second, QQ and QQ space to achieve reengineering, re-find a killer function to restore growth, or seize the opportunity of the meta-universe era, and newly incubate a strategic new product that integrates "social + meta-universe + game". Third, using the product model of "browser + search + short video + information flow" integrated development, to achieve the catch-up of today's headline App and Baidu App, forming a three-legged industry situation.
If Ren Yuxin can lead Tencent PCG to complete the above three major tasks, then this will add another chapter to his already brilliant career at Tencent.