There is a lot of controversy surrounding Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Company.
People who hate him call him "Red Cannon", saying that he doesn't play cards according to the routine, and often takes the initiative to attack, stirring up a bloody storm.
His admirers called him the "Cardinal Master" and felt that he dared to challenge authority, and his iconic redcoat was like a battle robe, pointing at injustice.
Back to Zhou Hongyi himself, the past of the business war has already settled, but the spring breeze of 2024 will blow and the storm will rise again.
At the end of April, Zhou Hongyi first became the "oldest car model" at the Beijing Auto Show, and the 9.9 million Maybach auction attracted the attention of tens of millions of people. He refueled and powered new energy vehicles, and was also nicknamed "President of Lei Jun Behavior Research Association".
On the short video platform, he calls himself "Uncle in Red" and said that his goal this year is to reach 10 million fans.
Nowadays, Internet celebrities want to be bosses, and bosses want to be Internet celebrities.
In a sense, Zhou Hongyi may have to thank Cheng Qian.
At the end of 2023, at the Fengma Niu year-end show, Feng Lun invited Zhou Hongyi and Wang Shi to participate in a roundtable discussion, and Cheng Qian, the head blogger of the business interview, was responsible for hosting.
No one would have thought that this commercial activity would cause huge controversy because of Zhou Hongyi and Cheng Qian's "mouth cannon".
In the process, Cheng Qian interrupted Zhou Hongyi's speech several times, mocking Zhou Hongyi for "giggling", and at the end of the day, he gave Zhou Hongyi a set of unreasonable personal attacks:
"I hope to see all the teachers next year, wearing red clothes (Zhou Hongyi), such a long time has not made his character converge, so I don't have any hope that his character will converge in 2024. But if you wear conservative clothes (Feng Lun), I hope to live longer, be healthy, and last. ”
This night, not only did the personality of the business upstart collapse instantly, but also brought up the past of the "Red God of War" again. While accusing Cheng Qian of being rude, many netizens said: To provoke Zhou Hongyi, what did Cheng Qian think?
Could it be that after retiring to the rivers and lakes for many years, Zhou Hongyi's red clothes have faded?
Cheng Qian and Zhou Hongyi
Facts have proved that the red clothes may become old, but Zhou Hongyi's fighting spirit has not diminished with the years.
A few days later, Cheng Qian released an apology video, and Zhou Hongyi responded: "Actually, it's not a big deal, and there is no need to apologize at all." ”
In his response, he summed up his youthful frivolity, and changed his words to help young people grow up, and launched his own free live class: You can also be eloquent - how to speak.
Finally, Zhou Hongyi returned to the "battlefield" he was familiar with.
Zhou Hongyi's response
In March, Xiaomi cars were listed, and Lei Jun became the top of the Internet, and Zhou Hongyi, who had "loved and killed" with Lei Jun, naturally did not let go of this wave of traffic.
He released videos one after another, analyzing the marketing strategy of Xiaomi Auto to break the circle, publicly criticizing Nezha Automobile in the live broadcast, and asking Nezha Automobile CEO Daniel Zhang to learn publicity methods from Lei Jun.
Due to the excessive number of mentions of Lei Jun, netizens also gave Zhou Hongyi a new title: President of Lei Jun Behavior Research Association.
In April, Zhou Hongyi posted a video again, wanting to sell the original Maybach 600 and embrace domestic new energy. At the end of the video, he also shouted to the car company: "Whoever is willing to take this opportunity to provide me with an experience car, I will not refuse." ”
As soon as the words landed, domestic car companies responded. Weilai, Wenjie, Xiaopeng, Zeekr, Yangwang...... Nearly 20 car companies took the initiative to send the car to the 360 floor for Zhou Hongyi to experience and choose.
Major car companies replied to Zhou Hongyi
On the 20th, Zhou Hongyi went to attend the 30th anniversary symposium of the Internet and met Lei Jun at the meeting. Lei Jun gave a thumbs up and praised Zhou Hongyi for being "very neat", and Zhou Hongyi asked Lei Jun if he could come to Xiaomi SU7 to experience it.
Lei Jun politely refused: SU7 is designed for people who drive, you can only ride in the car.
As soon as the video was released, Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun both appeared on the hot search. 5 days later, the two met again on the hot search.
At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Lei Jun, who was dressed in green, went to BAIC, Weilai, BYD and other booths to interact, and because of a misplaced picture that looked like Li Xiang was locked in the car, it was made into a joke by netizens, and Xiaomi executives were forced to refute the rumors.
But what is more "swaggering" than Lei Jun has to be the "only car model" Zhou Hongyi.
Lei Jun at the Beijing Auto Show
On the same day, Zhou Hongyi started the live broadcast at the auto show, but due to the large number of viewers, the live broadcast room was unusually stuck. Some netizens questioned that Zhou Hongyi was a "digital person", and Zhou Hongyi simply climbed onto the roof of an off-road vehicle and stared at the long guns and short guns below.
Some people say that this scene looks like the scene in the movie "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily" where everyone lights a cigarette around the heroine, which is meaningful. Some people also said that those who didn't know thought that Zhou Hongyi had defended his rights.
Zhou Hongyi at the Beijing Auto Show
After that, with the ownership of the Maybach, Zhou Hongyi became a frequent visitor to the hot search-
On April 28, Maybach, with a starting price of 600 yuan, was sold at a price of 9.9 million, and Zhou Hongyi admitted that he didn't expect it and was a little confused;
After the auction, Zhou Hongyi invited guests to dinner. At the dinner, the other party toasted and said that he had eaten cephalosporin, and the other party wanted to add WeChat and said that his friends were full, and "Zhou Hongyi's dinner" was played by netizens, and he stood in the traffic center again;
On May 1, netizens broke the news that the winning bidder had not paid the final payment; On the 3rd, Zhou Hongyi responded that he had received the final payment, and after deducting taxes and fees, he would donate all the money. Until now, Zhou Hongyi's car has not been selected, and the hot search has been booked.
In this way, netizens watched it lively, and Zhou Hongyi's red dress was also deeply engraved in everyone's minds.
I have to say that Zhou Hongyi knows it well.
Netizens summarized "Zhou Hongyi's dinner"
Zhou Hongyi analyzed his advantages of becoming an Internet celebrity, and compared himself to a "young man in red" who keeps fighting:
"One is that I'm probably the one who makes the most mistakes on the Chinese internet. The second I am probably the thickest-skinned, many entrepreneurs are ashamed to talk about their mistakes, more about their greatness, and I am one of the very few who is willing to share their failures and lessons. ”
Looking back at Zhou Hongyi's combat history, it also happens to be the magnificent 30-year development history of the Chinese Internet.
In 1995, Zhou Hongyi graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University with a master's degree and became a programmer. At that time, Lei Jun was already the general manager of Jinshan, and Lei Jun's wife had a good personal relationship with Zhou Hongyi's wife, and he was a colleague of Fang Zheng with Zhou Hongyi.
All kinds of inextricable relationships make Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun intersect. When he first arrived in Beijing, Zhou Hongyi sometimes went to Lei Jun's house as a guest, and Lei Jun cooked himself.
That year, Zhou Hongyi was 25 years old and Lei Jun was 26 years old, young and proud.
Zhou Hongyi said that Lei Jun's Pangu component was not doing well, and Lei Jun was angry; Lei Jun commented that Zhou Hongyi's Fangzheng Feiyang email was "embroidered on the toilet", and Zhou Hongyi was even more angry.
"Strictly speaking, we are not competitors, let alone enemies, but sometimes we have some emotions because of some small things, we are friends, but we are not very close friends." Zhou Hongyi summed up the relationship between the two like this.
Old photos of Zhou Hongyi
In fact, compared with Lei Jun's fame at a young age, Zhou Hongyi's ability should not be underestimated. In the three years since he worked for Founder, Zhou Hongyi has quickly become the general manager of the business department from an ordinary programmer. Then, he resigned.
In 1998, Zhou Hongyi started his own business and developed 3721 network plug-ins, creating a precedent for Chinese Internet services. Netizens no longer need to remember those cumbersome URLs starting with "www", and can jump to the corresponding page by entering Chinese.
This year, Zhou Hongyi was also introduced to Guangzhou to visit a programmer who had just been rejected by Lei Jun to acquire software. The two hit it off at first sight, they both liked to watch movies, and later when Zhou Hongyi arrived in Guangzhou, the two went to buy pirated discs together. This person was Zhang Xiaolong, who was later called the "father of WeChat", and the software that Kingsoft refused to acquire was Foxmail.
Zhou Hongyi during 3721
In 2000, when the development momentum of 3721 was strong, a website also under the banner of "Chinese Internet access" appeared-Baidu. In the following years, Baidu seized the market space of 3721 again and again, and in order to fight back, Zhou Hongyi came up with a trick: forced installation, difficult to uninstall, and bundled plug-ins.
3721 is still known as the "originator of rogue software". Zhou Hongyi recalled in the future that he was "forced to be helpless", and in order to survive, he had to do something that hurt the user experience.
During that time, Zhou Hongyi and Robin Li set up a ring on the Internet, fought for several rounds, and the end ended with Zhou Hongyi's exit - in 2004, Zhou Hongyi sold 3721 to Yahoo, Robin Li had no evenly matched opponents, and Baidu has been soaring ever since.
Robin Li and Hongyi Zhou
But the aftermath of this business war cannot be ignored either. In those years, the Internet was full of rogue software that benchmarked against 3721, and netizens detained the charge on Zhou Hongyi's head, calling him "the father of rogue software".
In 2006, Zhou Hongyi was furious and established Qihoo 360 and launched 360 anti-virus guard, and the first person to be "killed" was Yahoo assistant - that is, the previous 3721.
Zhou Hongyi was menacing, but Jin Shan was not happy.
360 antivirus guard is mainly free, but Kingsoft drug tyrant is charged, and 360's siege of the city occupies the living space of these old antivirus software of Kingsoft.
In 2011, Jin Shan had to bring back Lei Jun again. This year, Lei Jun put down the newly established Xiaomi company, returned to Jinshan, and confronted his old friend Zhou Hongyi. Zhou Hongyi said in a later interview that Lei Jun once explained to him: "I beat Jinshan too hard, and he, as the founder of Jinshan, can't sit idly by, he must take action." ”
After Lei Jun returned to Jinshan, he announced that Jinshan Drug Bully was free of charge, and also held a press conference to point out that 360 had a security vulnerability that stole user privacy, and the atmosphere between the two sides was tense.
Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi
Here, 360 and Jinshan are fighting inextricably, and Zhou Hongyi's battle on another battlefield is even more intense.
In 2010, Tencent launched QQ PC Manager, which benchmarked against 360 antivirus guards, and quickly reached more than 100 million users with the help of QQ's market.
Of course, Zhou Hongyi will not sit still. At that time, if you use 360 Antivirus Guard to detect your computer, you will find that it prompts "QQ has serious health problems", and it is recommended that netizens uninstall QQ.
Tencent launched a counterattack. In a "Letter to QQ Users", Tencent wrote: "We have decided to stop running QQ software on computers with 360 software before 360 stops infringing and maliciously slandering QQ.
Later, Tencent took a stake in Kingsoft and joined hands to fight against 360. Tencent and 360 sued each other, 360 lost the lawsuit, and finally had to shake hands and make peace. This is a large-scale business war known as the "3Q War".
During the 3Q war, Tencent released an open letter, and 360 judged that the open letter was a Trojan horse
In those turbulent years, Zhou Hongyi reversed the stereotype of technical personnel, using Weibo as the main position to line up and output, and the Chinese Internet was bursting with cannons.
He made an appointment with Lei Jun. At that time, Xiaomi mobile phones were just starting, and 360 wanted to cooperate with Huawei to launch a special machine, and the two sides fought for several rounds. Zhou Hongyi posted a Weibo conversation with Lei Jun, "At ten o'clock in the morning on Monday, the East Gate 5 of Chaoyang Park, if you are a man", Lei Jun ignored him.
He and Robin Li also made an appointment. In 2014, Zhou Hongyi posted on Weibo that he originally wanted to ask Robin Li to talk about Baidu's "malicious bundling of software", but Robin Li said "no appointment", and Zhou Hongyi had to "ask for help" from netizens: "If you help me make an appointment with Robin Li, anyone who forwards this Weibo will give a 360 children's watch, plus 10 kidney six, or plus plus drops." ”
Zhou Hongyi Weibo
He disliked Shi Yuzhu for also wearing red clothes, saying that he had violated his intellectual property rights, "I wear red clothes because my name is Hongyi." Some media wrote that after the 3Q war, Zhou Hongyi also wanted to chat with Ma Huateng, but "Ma Huateng didn't seem to want to pay much attention to me".
Zhou Hongyi's "Grievances and Grievances"
Some people say that Zhou Hongyi is the only person who can be called a happy revenge among Internet entrepreneurs. But it is such a seemingly impulsive and aggressive person who leads 360 to the top of the Internet in an environment surrounded by wolves.
In 2013, 360's stock price exceeded $10 billion, making it the fourth largest Internet company after BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent).
"Don't feel like I'm grabbing territory, because these Internet giants, one monopolizes users, the other monopolizes traffic, I want to come out in the cracks, and I can't do it without fighting. A lot of companies are dead, and I'm a survivor. Zhou Hongyi said.
The cruel thing is that the mall is like a battlefield, and there is no winning general.
Around 2015, with the delisting of 360 from the U.S. stock market and its return to A-shares, Zhou Hongyi kept a low profile for a while.
Internet bigwigs, you sing and I will appear, Didi, Meituan and other O2O platforms staged subsidy wars, shared charging treasures are all over the city streets, one after another, and it seems that Zhou Hongyi is missing.
In a later interview, Zhou Hongyi mentioned what he regretted, one was that he missed the outlet of recommended search engines like Toutiao, and the other was that he did not insist on investing in short videos.
But it doesn't matter, "Zhang Yiming made 40 various APPs before making today's headlines". He was happy for Zhang Yiming, "He subverted Baidu in another way, Baidu was busy for a long time, always thinking that our search was a competitor, but I didn't expect that it was Toutiao that really subverted Baidu."
Zhou Hongyi
In those quiet days, Zhou Hongyi no longer maintained his previous high-spirited attitude, and his mentality became peaceful.
At the 2016 Wuzhen Conference, he sat with Lei Jun. At that time, Xiaomi's mobile phone encountered a bottleneck, and Zhou Hongyi also encouraged Lei Jun: "There is nothing to be anxious about, on the whole, Xiaomi is developing rapidly, and it is normal to encounter a bottleneck, and it will take more than ten or twenty years for a company to have a stable position." ”
Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi
In 2017, an article appeared online with the title "The People Miss Zhou Hongyi". The article wrote that in the two years that Zhou Hongyi was absent from the rivers and lakes, "BAT" became "AT", the Chinese Internet was in a backwater, and people who "needed to kick Baidu, punch Tencent, despise Ali, and easily stir up the situation of the Lei Army".
Zhou Hongyi specially wrote an article in response to this netizen. He wrote that he did not have the heart to build an empire, "I have always maintained the mentality of an entrepreneur, focusing on my own direction and establishing my core competitiveness." ”
The core direction of 360 is network security.
Over the years, 360 has completed the transformation, focusing on "To B" (enterprise-oriented) business, focusing on network security for government and enterprises. In addition, 360's investment tentacles extend to different fields, in 2021, the year Xiaomi announced its car manufacturing, 360 invested in Nezha Automobile, in a sense, Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun once again stood at the same starting point.
But the wind of the times dispersed the smoke of gunpowder, and Zhou Hongyi also began to advocate harmony and wealth.
At the 30th anniversary conference of the Internet not long ago, Zhou Hongyi also met Ma Huateng. Zhou Hongyi smiled and called Ma Huateng an "old friend", and Ma Huateng ridiculed Zhou Hongyi's "Hong" as "the red of Internet celebrities".
The two shook hands and smiled at each other.
Zhou Hongyi once said that the character he admires most in Jin Yong's pen is Ling Huchong - he can make a lot of friends, is not restricted by famous and decent families, and does not have the great ambition to dominate the rivers and lakes.
Ma Huateng and Zhou Hongyi
Perhaps few people have noticed that the theme of the roundtable that was sucked away by Cheng Qian was: Hold on to it to have a way out.
In addition to Zhou Hongyi, who was born in the Internet, Wang Shi, the founder of Vanke, and Feng Lun, the founder of Vantone Real Estate, are both entrepreneurs in the real economy. They chose to participate in the conference before Cheng because they wanted to embrace the possibility of the traffic economy through this commercial Internet celebrity.
"Past success doesn't mean you'll always succeed." Zhou Hongyi once said, "For a new thing, if you use your past experience to set it, it is easy to look down on it." The essence of looking down is either not being able to see clearly, or not being able to understand it, but being embarrassed to admit that you can't understand it. But if you don't keep up with the development of the times, you may not be able to see it. ”
Zhou Hongyi's sharing
Zhou Hongyi's attempt began a long time ago.
In May 2020, Zhou Hongyi issued the first short video, which was edited by Ma Yun, Robin Li, Lei Jun, Shi Yuzhu, Liu Chuanzhi, Ren Zhengfei and himself, and the copy was "Tribute to the first generation of Internet tycoons".
His short video account is updated frequently, most of them are business interviews or activity clips, the traffic is not high, and the number of likes is mostly tens of thousands. It wasn't until the controversy with Cheng Qian that Zhou Hongyi was once again in the public eye.
Lei Binyi, founder of MCN agency Wuwu Media, revealed that at the end of 2023, Zhou Hongyi's team had contacted Wuwu Media to "communicate that Mr. Zhou wanted to be his personal IP".
In January 2024, Zhou Hongyi also went to Dongfang to select and consult Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui about the topic of the Internet celebrity economy.
Facts have proved that under the flushing of traffic, Internet veterans also have to find a new way out.
Zhou Hongyi once posted a video about Huawei executive Yu Chengdong, in which he said: "Yu Chengdong saves Huawei one billion dollars in advertising dollars every year. "Lao Yu's speech level was not as good as mine, and now I have to worship him as a teacher."
Screenshot of Zhou Hongyi's video
In recent years, bigwigs have collectively sunk into the network to create personal IPs. Among them, some people are like fish in water, some people are fishing in troubled waters, and some people have drowned.
Among them, Lei Jun did the best.
Since 2019, Lei Jun has opened a short video account to update relevant videos of Xiaomi products from the perspective of his own use. In 2020, he entered Station B, and the first two videos reached an astonishing 7 million views.
It is undeniable that Lei Jun has a natural advantage in being an Internet celebrity.
Grassroots character design, inspirational experience, and ghost animal videos make Lei Jun always close to ordinary netizens. What's more, Lei Jun has no shelf, and even takes the initiative to play stalks - in the second video of station B, he cooperated with the UP master who had made a ghost animal video for himself, and continued to ask "are you ok?" ”
Lei Jun
After the release of Xiaomi SU7, the price of the car was lower than netizens expected, and Lei Jun was crowned with the title of "Thor" overnight, and his personal account data rose.
Lei Jun is in front, and Xiaomi executives are close behind. In February, Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi, settled in Douyin. In March, Wang Teng, general manager of its Redmi, followed. The comment area of the two was then occupied by netizens, "instigating" the two to defect from Xiaomi and recover Gionee (Lu Weibing was the president of Gionee Mobile Phone).
What's even more talked-about is that Wang Teng also replied to a netizen with Lei Jun's avatar: "Don't try Mr. Lei, I will work hard." ”
Lu Weibing and Wang Teng's comment area
When someone tastes sweet water, there are naturally people who want a piece of the pie.
In addition to Zhou Hongyi, who has become the "president of the Lei Jun Research Association", Jia Yueting, the founder of LeTV in the United States, is not to be outdone.
He first accused Xiaomi Auto of "copycat culture, shortcut mode and follow thinking", and after Zhou Hongyi commented on his FF (Faraday Future) car supply chain, he took the initiative to say that when Zhou Hongyi arrived in the United States, he hoped that "FF91" would become Zhou Hongyi's exclusive car.
Zhou Hongyi responded to Jia Yueting
On May 7, Jia Yueting, who has been making cars for 10 years and sold 11 cars, released a video saying that he wanted to create a personal IP to save FF, which was on the verge of delisting. "I will try to make some money as soon as possible by starting my personal IP commercialization, partly to repay debts, and partly to save the company to subsidize the car-making ......"
The words are high-sounding and lofty, and the translation may be "I will be an Internet celebrity as soon as possible and make quick money to pay back".
Netizens no longer believe in the future he described, in addition to asking him to repay the money in the comment area, the first hot comment reads: Mr. Jia, I don't think there is any need to save it.
Here, Jia Yueting wants to turn over as an Internet celebrity, but on the other hand, Baidu is in a public relations crisis because of the top public relations leader.
In May, Baidu's vice president and public relations No. 1 Xuan Jing opened a short video account to share her workplace insights. In 5 days, with the 4 videos she released, she evaporated Baidu's market value by 6 billion Hong Kong dollars.
She talked about how to deal with "employees breaking up and leaving": "Why should I think about the employee's family, I am not her mother-in-law...... Our relationship is an employment relationship. ”
When talking about "there is no holiday for public relations people on the Spring Festival weekend", she took herself as an example, her mobile phone should be turned on 24 hours a day, and she was always on the way, completely forgetting that her income was not equal to the income of ordinary workers.
Xuan Jing's cold remarks and aggressive attitude have shaped Baidu's corporate image as "without the slightest humanistic care", and netizens have shouted to uninstall all Baidu products.
On May 9, Xuan Jing apologized, and that night, her employee relationship became "departed".
Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei commented on the matter: "Baidu also realizes the importance of having its own self-media matrix, and it still responds faster than many companies, but the company's executives are unwilling to introduce it, so they can only work hard in the public relations department themselves." ”
In this regard, Zhou Hongyi also deliberately posted a video, summarizing this matter as "The direction of enterprise building IP is definitely right, and it is inevitable to make mistakes and pay tuition." ”
Screenshot of Xuan Jing's video
Zhou Hongyi has repeatedly emphasized the importance of entrepreneurs to be Internet celebrities - not only to save advertising costs, but also to be close to consumers, and to have a window to face public opinion and dialogue with netizens.
"Entrepreneurs should not easily change their main business, but we always need to connect and establish contact with our users."
The end point of Internet celebrities is not only to bring goods through live broadcasts, but also to become the spokesperson of enterprises.
It is impossible to say whether Zhou Hongyi's new Internet celebrity road will go smoothly, but his determination and know-how have been written in his signature, silently warning other bigwigs who want to bow down to the game:
Don't pretend, don't end, you have to be a little two.
Zhou Hongyi's short video homepage
Some references:
1. "China Entrepreneur Magazine"|Red Star shines on Zhou Hongyi
2. Interview with Zhou Hongyi: I am a supporting role
3, "People" Magazine|Zhou Hongyi talks about Lei Jun: If I have to find fault with him, I am too sensitive
4, "China News Weekly"|Zhou Hongyi, who does not have a driver's license, sits on the roof of the car
5, "Luyu has an appointment"|Zhou Hongyi's part
6. Zhou Hongyi's personal social platform
Image source: Internet, Zhou Hongyi's social platform