Is there money floating away, or is there something else hidden?
For employees of large factories, even if bonuses and salaries are calculated in a complicated way, they still need to speak with performance in the end. As a result, it is difficult for underperforming departments to expect to receive the full year-end bonus.
But not long ago, the 20 society exclusively learned that the entire Kuaishou international department employees have received 2-4 months of year-end bonuses, while all employees have a 20% increase.
It is reported that the relevant departments of Kuaishou Internationalization did not have year-end awards in 2018 and 2019. Compared with TikTok's outstanding performance, kuaishou went to sea and said that it was successful. "Over the past year or so, there has been some growth in some marginal markets, but the overall performance is average." A former person in charge of operations in Kuaishou International was surprised by the "good luck" of his former colleagues.
The performance of Kuaishou APP in the Brazilian app market. Source: sensor tower
Another industry insider speculated that this may be Qiu Guangyu, the new head of Kuaishou Internationalization, who sent everyone a "big red envelope for entry" to restore morale.
At the end of 2020, Qiu Guangyu, coo of the former Didi International Business Department, joined Kuaishou as the general head of internationalization, and was fully responsible for Kuaishou KT, X6, XYZ (all overseas business), as well as overseas middle office. Compared with his predecessor, Qiu Guangyu is at a higher level, in addition to being responsible for overseas business as a whole, he is also in the list of 12 people in the Kuaishou 2020 Management Committee.
"The year-end bonus + salary increase is likely to be the condition that he negotiated with Su Hua when he entered the company." A very clever approach. The above-mentioned person believes.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > opportunity for the fast hand to lose</h1>
"Kuaishou's international business, the logic has always been consistent, is to recruit people from the companies that do the best business overseas to lead the team." A former employee of Kuaishou's international department said.
Qiu Guangyu joined Didi in 2015 and has been responsible for investment and financing, special car and internationalization in five years. In August 2019, he was promoted to COO of the International Business Unit, reporting to Senior Vice President Zhu Jingshi. Prior to joining Didi, Qiu worked for Morgan Stanley and Bain Capital.
Qiu Guangyu and his Didi international business unit have achieved outstanding results in the past few years. In November 2020, Liu Qing, president of Didi Chuxing, announced that Didi's market share in major Latin America has approached 50%. For Qiu Guangyu, the main task now is to copy these successful experiences to Kuaishou.
Kuaishou International Edition Kwai. Source: Visual China
Qiu Guangyu's predecessor was actually Liu Xinhua, cheetah's former CMO. After leaving Cheetah in 2016, Liu first joined ByteDance as a consultant, participated in the establishment and expansion of its overseas business, and became the actual person in charge of ByteDance's first generation of overseas products Topbuzz (overseas version of today's headlines).
But soon, Liu Xinhua left ByteDance and joined Kuaishou. "Liu Xinhua's dilemma in Byte and Kuaishou is the same," said a former ByteDance employee, "Cheetah is really good overseas, but he (Liu Xinhua) has no technical background, as the overall person in charge of the project, he can't figure out the product and technology department." ”
It can be said that in the matter of internationalization, Kuaishou and Douyin seemed to stand on the same running line at the beginning: almost at the same time to carry out business, the business leader is also the same root and the same origin. But as a result, TikTok is now sweeping the world, and Kuaishou's international business has almost only a major market share in some marginal markets.
Compared with douyin, almost every market can be steady and gradually bigger, from the opening of the sea business in 2017, Kuaishou every time to a new market, often the king of the beginning, the early wind and water, but soon fell rapidly.
A front byte mid-level indicates that, in fact, in terms of playing style, the two sides are similar. Liu Xinhua also brought the style of "vigorously out of miracles" to Kuaishou.
In October 2017, Kwai first entered the Korean market, and the number of downloads exceeded 10 million that month. In May 2018, Kuaishou topped the list in terms of daily downloads of Google Play and the App Store in Russia. But the good times are not long, in 2018, Kwai's ranking in Google Play and App Store was the first in the double list in Russia, South Korea and other countries at the beginning of the year, and by the end of the year, it had ranked more than 30 in the Google Play sub-list in South Korea.
Compared with Byte, Kuaishou's determination to burn money overseas was not enough. Perhaps due to the experience of natural growth in China, the initial way of burning money to buy volume overseas, but due to poor retention, it was stopped by Suhua, and the budget of international business has not been sufficient since then, and I dare not invest too many resources.
On the one hand, Liu Xinhua, the person in charge of Kuaishou internationalization at that time, was slightly indifferent in the entire Kuaishou system, on the other hand, the root cause was that Kuaishou as a whole was "tied hands" to the internationalization strategy.
From the early cheetah Liu Xinhua to the current Didi Qiu Guangyu, well-known executives have settled in, indicating the importance that Kuaishou attaches to internationalization. "But always looking for the person in charge from the outside, which also shows that at the level of the founder of Kuaishou, there is no one who really understands international business." said the above-mentioned person.
Wang Qiang entered the Kuaishou International Department in 2017 and left in 2019. He experienced the most critical moments of the Kwai and TikTok competition.
Take, for example, India, the fiercest battlefield ever fought. In July 2018, ByteDance's TikTok and Musically officially merged their portals and launched a fierce "buy campaign" in India.
TikTok invested 500 million yuan as soon as it came up, and Kuaishou was willing to take out less than 100 million yuan. There is no way to resist. Former Kuaishou overseas employees recalled that in the early stage of short videos going to sea, no company could come up with an all-in posture like ByteDance.
At that time, Kuaishou claimed to have 10-15 million users in India, but because the budget could not be spelled, from the beginning of TikTok to buy, Kuaishou's promotion in the Indian market was suspended.
Kuaishou and Douyin's short video wars, from home to abroad. Source: Visual China
"ByteDance must have done a detailed strategic deduction, how much money can be invested and how big a battle can be fought." Then throw the money in. Wang Qiang believes that at that time, Kuaishou may have been able to come up with the same budget, and the difference lies in the strategic level of the international business." Zhang Yiming was determined to do global business from the beginning, not to say that external forces pushed. ”
In addition to India, Kuaishou's launch in Southeast Asia also completely stopped at the end of 2018. Markets such as South Korea and Russia, which were once the main markets, also basically rely on natural growth.
This is also related to the "natural philosophy" pursued by Su Hua. Previously, when "Finance and Economics World" interviewed former overseas employees of Kuaishou, the other party mentioned that some old employees who came to overseas business from other departments believed that "good products can speak on their own" and formed differences with new members who wanted to operate strongly.
At the end of 2018, the entire international department did not even have a year-end bonus, obviously the company was not satisfied with the growth of international business, in December of that year, the former head of overseas business Liu Xinhua also left Kuaishou, which means that Kuaishou went to sea 1.0 stage of the fold. During the period of 2019-2020, Kuaishou International Business Department did not have a prominent "leader", and all business units reported directly to Cheng Yixiao.
The front and middle levels of the aforementioned bytes indicate that Liu Xinhua is not really trusted in bytes. For example, as early as 2016, he suggested internally that the focus of overseas business should shift from graphics to video. But it wasn't until he left that Byte began to actually kick-start the strategy. "From byte to kuaishou, the last people who stay at the top are actually those who come from technology."
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the person counting beans</h1>
Kuaishou's relaunch of international business began after the K3 campaign. In June 2019, Kuaishou began to re-recruit overseas technology, product, design, review and other personnel, and Kwai's overseas business leader also became Cheng Yixiao, the founder and chief product officer of Kuaishou.
Fast hands can make a comeback, and the Brazilian market is the key. Wang Qiang mentioned that a business leader within Kuaishou who jumped from ByteDance's international department, Chang'an, played an important role in it.
"After the loss of the Indian market, kuaishou internationalized many people lay off employees and transferred jobs internally, and the internal chaos was very chaotic. Later, Changan has been leading the team to focus on Kwai's Brazilian market, and the other market business is mainly coordinated by another person in charge, Zack. Two people basically do their own thing. Wang Qiang recalled.
At that time, short video and live broadcast products went to sea was a major trend. But most of the products focus on Southeast Asia, India and other neighboring countries with large populations and rapid daily growth. After TikTok became a national application in India, it mainly focused on the North American market.
"Brazil is still a gap." Kuaishou has deeply cultivated the Brazilian market and has also learned the lessons of the past.
According to Zhixiang Network, after entering the Brazilian market, in order to better user experience, Kwai set up offices in Brazil, and set up operation teams in Beijing and Brazil, launched a "creator recruitment program", and also allowed users to share videos through WhatsApp. Last year, Kwai received the full broadcast rights to one of the important components of the Brazilian June Festival, so Joo, a total of 45 concerts.
At the same time, Kuaishou set up the XYZ division, focusing mainly on the development of new business related to the sea. According to the product matrix logic, XYZ has successively developed new products such as U Video, Snack Video, MV Master, V Status, etc., and the focus is also on the Latin American market. Among them, Kwai International Edition and V Status are used to focus on the Brazilian market, and U Video, MV Master, including Snack Video, etc. are launched in many Latin American countries.
The new business also leveraged Kwai's experience and was relatively well promoted in Latin America. As of May 2020, Kwai's daily active life in Brazil has reached 12 million. Another product, V Status, also rushed to the second place in the Brazilian overall list.
During the period, Kuaishou was not willing to hand over to other markets in India and North America and relaunched new products. But these attempts have been full of twists and turns, and the results have not been high. Unfortunately, China's application was banned in India, ending the battle for this market ahead of schedule.
In the North American market where Tik Tok has long dominated, Kuaishou took advantage of the epidemic to launch a short video product Zynn, which is very similar to Douyin, in May 2020, and vigorously launched red envelope subsidies.
Thanks to this, less than 20 days after the launch, Zynn rushed to the first place in the overall iOS list in the United States, and the momentum was very good. But Zynn's money-burning journey didn't last long either.
On June 10, Zynn was removed from Google's shelves for stealing content from other apps, and according to Google Developer Program policies, Google Play merchants' apps can't involve "skill games that offer cash or other real-value rewards." Zynn didn't go live until July, and the original system of watching videos to give money rewards has been replaced by the new points system.
In addition, when Kuaishou intends to conquer the North American market, Tik Tok is not idle.
In August 2019, TikTok began to focus on attacking the Brazilian market, and according to the blue ocean Yiguan Network, from July 2019 to July 2020, TikTok's monthly visitors rose from 9.1 million to 39.8 million, an increase of more than 20 times. Across the Latin American market, TikTok's single-person visits rose from 5 million in July 2019 to 64.4 million in July 2020.
TikTok ranks in the Brazilian app market. Source: sensor tower
That said, even in the Brazilian market, which is doing the best, Kuaishou has not taken advantage of TikTok. Even if you choose to work in the marginal market, Kwai still can't avoid the competition of TikTok.
Fortunately, in the Latin American market, Kuaishou temporarily withstood the bombardment of TikTok. According to sensortower data, as of March 2021, Kwai's number of downloaders in Brazil remains in the top five, surpassing TikTok as the highest-ranked short video app.
Kwai still ranks higher than TikTok in Brazil. Source: sensor tower
In Wang Qiang's view, Qiu Guangyu took over a "endgame", "Kuaishou can only seize the blind spot of TikTok now, and it is unlikely that he can win by hard- and hard-hitting." ”
What is the real gap between Kuaishou and Byte in the past five years in international business? Wang Qiang believes that it is a strategic ability, "The overall person in charge of the byte business has financial power, dares to burn money in a big way, and does not worry about being stopped." When entering each market, there are strategic departments that have made detailed plans. ”
The aforementioned byte front and middle level said that Byte has begun to recruit management elites from top consulting companies such as McKinsey and PwC very early on, and the strategic department composed of them has made plans for various businesses of the company: "When will WeChat ban the Douyin link" "If Kuaishou enters the market we are in, how many times are we willing to pay the price to retain Internet celebrities" and so on.
Therefore, compared with Liu Xinhua, this person is more optimistic about the future of Qiu Guangyu, who was born in McKinsey, in Kuaishou. Just as harvard-born management elite brought modern corporate management to large American companies after World War II; after the end of brutal growth, China's Internet giants are likely to play out this scene. The one who counts beans (who is good at calculation) is the winner.
(At the request of the interviewee, Wang Qiang is a pseudonym)