QQ browser goes on the overwriting of IE

@新 新 新

Author 丨 Jiarong

Edit 丨 Yi Page

Not long ago, the 28 -year -old IE browser officially retired. Its scenery began in the 1990s. With the strategic advantage of free and bundled Windows operating systems, it defeated the first commercial browser NetScape.

Although IE once occupied over 95%of the world's market share and created a myth, it still couldn't stop being strategically abandoned. In front of Chorme, Firefox, Safari and other strong competitors, IE is immersed in the past achievements, and then gradually shakes away in the trend of rapid changes in the Internet.

The predecessors lost their feet, and the descendants slipped. The story of the IE browser sounded the alarm to the browsers who are still active on the stage. After all, the change of history never follows the standards that come first and then, and when the times abandon you, they will not say hello.

According to data from the international statistics website Statcounter, as of May this year, Google's Chorme browser settled first with a share of 66.16%, and the share of Edge browsers and Safari browser accounted for 10.12%and 9.14%.

Compared with the stability of the PC browser market pattern, the mobile browser market is more likely to have more possibilities for domestic Internet giants.

Among the domestic browser players, one who has received much attention is the QQ browser. The predecessor was the first multi -page browser in China, and it rely on Tencent's traffic advantage. Whether the QQ browser can take the lead in the market is also the expectation of the market. In fact, since the launch of the QQ browser's mobile terminal for 12 years, it has crossed the hills, but it is difficult to take off the hat of the "Twenty -Ten Lunar".

Under the general trend of reducing costs and efficiency, Tencent currently needs to focus on the strategic focus of the To B business. Perhaps the second market position will not make the QQ browser feel too much threat, but the Internet giants have recruited browsers, which is essentially a contest for seizing the entrance. In the face of a market without standard answers, QQ browser is constantly trying, but it has not yet won screams.

Early, I rushed to the late collection

In 2000, Tencent released the TE browser based on the IE kernel, but was only built into the "chat room" in OICQ (QQ predecessor) at the time. In May of the same year, the number of online online online exceeded the 100,000 mark, and the QQ registered users exceeded 10 million the following month.

Bind QQ will undoubtedly let TE walk in front of the starting line.

Soon after, Tencent rewritten nearly 90%of the code on the basis of TE, launched an independent TT browser, stripped from QQ, becoming one of the earliest multi -label browsers in the market, and achieved multi -page browsing It has added personalized functions such as replacing skin, mouse gestures, and advertising shielding.

A self -developed independent browser, Tencent can be said to be a pre -developed person in the industry, and took the lead in having an Internet entrance.

The "famous door", whether it was the initial TE or later TT, naturally enjoys Tencent's technical advantages, user resources, platform resources, and flow blood transfusion. However, people are not as good as heaven. With the strong entry of Google Chrome, it has set off the World War of World War II after the IE war network.

Chorme's speed concept has strengthened the user's perception of browser speed. Domestic browsers have catered to the trend, developing dual -core browsers with IE kernel and WebKit kernel. As the competition has intensified, TT can no longer meet Tencent's strategic ambitions, and began to develop another QQ browser.

And TT itself failed to keep up with the pace of the times, unable to support new standards and agreements, and products that failed to meet market demand are destined to not obtain "preferences". Tencent's update speed of TT also slowed down, and the technical support resources given gradually decreased.

Despite earlier entry, back to Tencent, and enjoying the replacement cost of users' habits, the TT browser has been made first to make people. However, Tencent may not expect that in the strategic transfer of TT browsers and QQ browser, users did not idealize the internal platforms according to Tencent's strategic focus.

In 2011, an article pointed out: "If there is a bit of deviation in the process of guiding TT users to switch to QQ browser, it will cause a major disaster to it, because it arouses the user's awareness of the browser, so that users will allow users The possibility of actively choosing other browsers. "

At that time, domestic browsers such as Sogou, Youyou, 360, and World Window had mastered the most popular dual -core technology at the moment and competition. Fasting food is far more important than profit, so there was almost no advertisement on the QQ browser at the time.

Tencent also did its best to enter the "new favorite" input resources. Relying on the ecosystem, the QQ browser can achieve the dream linkage of "one -click stealing vegetables" with QQ, but also introduced the WeChat relationship chain later.

But with the advent of the mobile Internet era, the unique advantage of the browser entrance is no longer obvious, and the strategic position of QQ browser in Tencent is not as good as early. There are rumors that merge QQ browsers and Sogou browsers, and their independent strategic positions are no longer unbreakable.

Liu Run, a well -known domestic business consultant, pointed out: "The short -term high market share does not guarantee that you can lead you forever. It just gives you more time to dig the city. You need to know how to transform the market share into 'cost advantage', Or other moats. "

The early rise of the 360 ​​browser was a typical example. Although the starting start is later than the TT browser, with the background of security software, it is clear that the "security" positioning is clear, and a market cake quickly cuts a market cake. Subsequently, the share of 360 browsers rose steadily, while the TT browser gradually decreased. With the experience of being overtaken by the latecomers before, the QQ browser can not take it lightly. At present, the mobile browser is hot and hot, and the QQ browser wants to stand firmly to find a way out.

Falling into the triangle

User experience is important or advertising order is important? This is a question that needs to be balanced without answers.

In the early years, IE browsers defeated the charging network with a free strategy and proved that "experience is worthless in front of free." Once the free prelude is opened, it is in a situation where it is difficult. Unlike foreign browsers that can be bundled with the operating system, the domestic third -party browser's business monetization path is narrower.

Therefore, foreign browsers can realize perfect ideals, simple and clean pages, while domestic operating systems need to eat themselves. With the changes in market demand, simply browsing the web is not enough to retain users. Manufacturers need other grasping points to enrich the content of the browser to achieve business value.

The UC browser positioning content distribution platform is classified on Ali's digital media and entertainment sectors; the QQ browser belongs to "other advertising revenue" in Tencent's financial report, which can be seen from the different strategic positioning of the two. In order to rely on advertising to make a profit, you need to seize more users.

In 2016, Tencent announced the Tencent Browse Service (TBS, Tecent Broswork Service), integrating Tencent's underlying technology, content framework, advertising system, and big data upgrade browsing solutions. Subsequently, Tencent launched a data analysis tool for mobile browsing -Tencent Browse Index (TBI). By establishing hundreds of label systems, the user's reading interest attributes and behavior observations were captured. The commercial value of QQ browser also entered a period of explosion.

This strategy is indeed effective. In 2017, Tencent's revenue increased by more than half year -on -year, of which the online advertising business increased by more than 55%year -on -year. The increase of more than 260%.

In 2013, Zhong Xiangping, general manager of the QQ browser product department, pointed out in an interview that browser is the key entry of the mobile Internet, but it is difficult to become the only entrance. The mobile browser should first return the tool attribute to the premise of promoting the user experience.

In the period when the browsers are competing for the entrance, Zhong Xiangping has a clear understanding of the value of the browser, but the QQ browser failed to adhere to the tool attribute. This is not only the realization of commercial value, but also a active strategic choice.

With the commercialization of the QQ browser's commercialization, it seems that it has fallen into the "money eye". Opening the APP is a variety of advertisements and endless content pop -ups, causing users to complain.

Generally, under the strong search capabilities, users will tend to find them actively. Such actions can not only feed the algorithm, but also make the content recommendation more accurate, maintain the user experience to the greatest extent, and form a virtuous circle. But at present, the recommendation of QQ browser has caused users to complain constant complaints, and it is still in the "tough feeding" stage.

Therefore, even with the advantages of mutual dependence and traffic activation of Tencent's products, the QQ browser has a strong dimension of users, but the user stickiness is still unsatisfactory.

The rise of vertical search at the moment, there are vibrato, fast hands, and station B, and even Tencent's inside is vigorously developing WeChat search. Whether Sogou joins Tencent to make the search of the QQ browser's search passive on the side of the user, it remains to be observed.

With the weakening of the uniqueness of the entrance value, the browser is increasingly returning to the "tooling" identity. But using immediately means that the user's retention is not too high. In order to retain users, the QQ browser constantly increased the module bloated, as if it was caught in a "impossible triangle".

From the perspective of business history, the competition of enterprises has gone through a stage of evolution from product competition to industrial chain competition to platform competition. The advanced stage of platform development is a powerful and orderly ecosystem that tests the ability of enterprises to build an incubation commercial ecosystem and the ability to provide diversified services.

It is not difficult to develop a browser with its strength, but the business model, subsequent continuous service capabilities and product operation capabilities are the key to deciding whether to go to the end and beautiful.

"Directly" is not a antidote

In order to retain the user's heart, the QQ browser began to restore the image, launched the "direct-search" function, and placed in the center of the bottom bar, in order to achieve fast and efficient.

The so -called direct access is actually the aggregation of the applet. In this sector, users can log in to Weibo, B, iQiyi, Pinduoduo and other small programs. By aggregating most of the mainstream Internet platforms, they try to put users and traffic boxes in their own apps.

The QQ browser applet itself is also suitable for the WeChat mini program, which means that developers only need to perform simple adaptation work to transplant WeChat applet directly to the QQ browser. Perhaps to pursue the "concise" image, the QQ browser allows only 9 entrances.

The interconnection of applets also provides opportunities for the QQ browser's e -commerce business. Last May, I also launched the content grass -planting platform "QQ browser", hoping to attract users to shop through information content. Although it has been developed for a year, it is still in the basic graphic form after opening. There are no search sectors and no interactive sector. It can be seen that it has not obtained too much cultivation resources. At the top of the direct page, the QQ browser regards this as another monetization window. Last year, I started to go online on the direct page to explore the theme gameplay, which realized a closed loop from direct to doodle to search.

However, compared to the simplicity of the beginning of the launch, there was a "entire network hot search list" under the direct page. Not only is the pages complicated, but in terms of module positioning, the "Search" and the hot search list are reunited with the search box and the information flow below on the homepage.

(The left is the homepage interface, and the right is the direct interface)

Regardless of whether the user pays for this module that "both wants", but for the QQ browser, the first thing to do is to let the user open the APP. At present, although it has a high monthly work, it does not last long. Under this, I am afraid that any app is eager to monetize.

Related data shows that in the daily use time of mobile netizens, short videos account for one -third, and instant messaging accounts for one -fifth. The remaining online videos, mobile games, comprehensive news, comprehensive malls, online reading and search downloads Several types of apps are divided into the remaining mobile net user time.

Although the QQ browser adds a variety of functions as much as possible, videos, screening halls, games, novels, etc., under the diversion of the super app, there are not many cakes that can be divided.

Even though the current direct -to -module is located in the C position of the QQ browser, the mini program itself focuses on the concept of "use that is to go". The improvement of the function sector may bring a certain amount of traffic. Degree instead of seemingly good -looking monthly work. At present, whether it is a mission of "direct" or recovering the simple image, it is still difficult.

Some users bluntly have a QQ browser on their mobile phones, but because of the complex pages and bloated functions, he prefers to use his mobile phone to bring your browser or search directly on WeChat and Douyin. The QQ browser is only an alternative trilogy browser, with few use time.

IE's exit also sounded the alarm to the high positions. Higher market share does have a strong competitive advantage, but can it be used as a moat? Is this competitive advantage sustainable and indestructible? QQ browser may need to ask for yourself.

There are more and more choices for the current browser. At this time, either follow the needs of the times, or it may allow it like IE to decline in tranquility.

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