Zhou Hongyi's figure

Business figures

2024-04-28 17:56Posted on the official account of Beijing Business People

Author: Guo Ruyi

来源：商业人物（ID：biz-leaders）

Domestic entrepreneurs are roughly divided into two categories: one is afraid that they are too popular, and the other is afraid that they are not popular. The most recent Zhou Hongyi belongs to the second category.

After a period of self-effort, Zhou Hongyi finally became popular again. In online live broadcast rooms and short videos, offline press conferences and auto shows, his presence is everywhere. A 54-year-old middle-aged man is caught in an extreme thirst for network traffic.

If you look at it by the standard of hot search level, in the past few years, Zhou Hongyi has been popular about four times.

One was in 2017, when 360 Company was listed on the A-share market through backdoor, with a market value of nearly 500 billion, which was in the limelight at that time; Once in April last year, Zhou Hongyi divorced, and his ex-wife left with stocks worth 9 billion; This is really rare among the bigwigs, and the most recent time is now, Zhou Hongyi has become a lifesaver for the financial media with a lack of topics, and he has become a super Internet celebrity as he wishes.

This man really makes the media teacher love and hate.

has been in business for so many years, and being an Internet celebrity has become Zhou Hongyi's biggest experience at present. In the group of entrepreneurs, he is almost the loudest and most hands-on in shouting this slogan. As an Internet veteran, when Dong Yuhui was in full swing, Zhou Hongyi organized a group to learn from this young man who was more than 20 years younger than him. When the old enemy built the Xiaomi car, he publicly praised Lei Jun many times and called for learning from Mr. Lei. In the era when there are no Internet celebrities, there are only Internet celebrities in the times, and in this business era where "traffic" occupies the high ground, Zhou Hongyi seems to have found a grip again.

As long as you can become an Internet celebrity, your status is nothing, your grievances are nothing, and putting down your body is nothing.

However, relatively speaking, Zhou Hongyi's red lacks fundamental support. The market capitalization of 360 has fallen to less than 60 billion. According to the previously released 2023 financial report, revenue declined, and although net profit decreased significantly, it was still a loss. In the first quarter of this year, revenue and net profit still did not stop the downward trend.

360 has tried a lot of other businesses, and like countless companies chasing the wind, it also wants a piece of the pie. But most of them didn't work out. Now what makes him barely on the front line is not the size of the company, but the network personality.

Among the popular fried chicken of entrepreneurs, some people's popularity is blessed by business, such as Nvidia's Jensen Huang. Some people's popularity is the total explosion of past popularity, such as Lei Jun. Zhou Hongyi is different from them, his popularity always has a feeling of infinite nostalgia after the peak has passed - he is willing to do whatever it takes to touch the glory of the past.

In fact, it is normal for enterprises to be high and low, and there are only a few people who have an evergreen foundation. It's just that some people are willing to take a step back, and some people are still obsessed with the stage, trying to revive themselves and wake themselves up. Just like the "brothers who overcame all the obstacles", trying to activate the juvenile state of the brothers, so that they could believe that they were okay and could continue to fight. The current Zhou Hongyi is a similar character.

Before this wave of traffic, some people said that Zhou Hongyi had become mellow over the years, not as aggressive as in his early years, and he scolded and fought at every turn. The red-clothed cannon has become the red-clothed uncle, giving birth to the feeling that the years have passed in the man. even regarded Zhou Hongyi's transformation as a metaphor for the solidification of the Internet pattern. On the surface, this statement makes sense, age is indeed a catalyst for a man's calmness, but Zhou Hongyi deceived everyone, and it turns out that his character is not like this. This point was experienced by Daniel Zhang, CEO of Nezha Automobile, who had just been angered by Zhou Hongyi's live broadcast, and the audience who watched him sit on the roof at the Beijing Auto Show was even more experienced.

If it weren't for this temperament, I really couldn't do these things.

Zhou Hongyi has not become kind-hearted, he has always maintained his desire to fight, but he has to find the right time to show it. He also has a bit of a performative personality, which is not sarcasm, but from the perspective of enriching the ecology of business tycoons, this is a good thing. After all, the younger generation of Internet bosses like to play retirement, and if the veterans don't come forward, the business world will be too boring.

Zhou Hongyi is certainly no stranger to becoming an Internet celebrity again. He has been there for a long time, and he is also familiar with the logic of Internet celebrities. But in the new era of Internet celebrities, the style of play still has to change, such as being good at using new technologies and new platforms - not long ago, he posted his wardrobe through a short video and showed dozens of his red clothes to netizens. A man actually took the initiative to show his wardrobe and perfectly combined his clothes with popular channels for many years, and it belongs to Zhou Hongyi.

Comments all said that Zhou Hongyi's purpose as an Internet celebrity was to divert the company's business. Not only does Nezha Automobile need Zhou Hongyi's free advertising, but 360's main business also relies on the endorsement of the boss. This is the logic of doing business. Other bigwigs don't know how good Internet celebrities are, obviously not, but it's rare to be willing to put in the same effort. To a certain extent, Zhou Hongyi wants to be an Internet celebrity, just like Zhang Chaoyang wants to give a physics class at the Beijing Auto Show, with a bit of personal attributes. Zhang Chaoyang's lectures are becoming more and more a hobby, and Zhou Hongyi wants to be popular, and I prefer to believe that part of it is due to anxiety about the lack of attention from the outside world.

It's hormones that play a role.

*Header Picture | Visual China

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