Volume 2: Storm Rising 2015 Chapter 404: Catching the Leader
Listening to Zhou Dongsheng's serious words, Yang Luyu couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart and quickly spoke.
"President Zhou, just speak your mind. I'm all ears!"
This attitude showed that Zhou Dongsheng's first speech had the effect of grabbing the attention of others. If Zhou Dongsheng had mentioned this matter right away...
I'm afraid that as the founder, Yang Luyu would have some resistance and thoughts in his heart.
After all, the godfather said in front of the child's biological father that he wanted to change the child's name. From this perspective, we can probably understand Yang Luyu's psychology.
"I discovered this in my daily life, which is the name of the Muse short video."
"Since I encouraged my company employees to play short videos, I found that only a few people can really call it Muse correctly. The vast majority of users call it Mousse or simply transliterate it as Mu Se."
"What's worse, they directly use letters to spell out the name, MUSE..."
Zhou Dongsheng spoke frankly and directly, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
When Yang Luyu heard it, he also found it interesting, but after laughing, he changed his mind and immediately grasped the point that Zhou Dongsheng wanted to express.
Although it is just a seemingly insignificant thing in the daily use of users, it may be a potential huge product defect for the product itself!
“Although I know that Mr. Yang’s original intention for choosing this name was to take it from the Greek goddess Muse, the goddess in charge of music, which is consistent with the product positioning of music short videos…”
"But as I said before, our short videos are for the general public, and this kind of highbrow product name may sound too highbrow for the masses."
"Moreover, facing the entire domestic market, without a suitable and intuitive Chinese name, it will eventually be inferior."
"We haven't come into contact with giants like Kuaishou and Meipai yet, so there's still time to change. If we compete directly with them, I think this name may become our biggest failure..."
Facing Zhou Dongsheng's straight ball, even though Yang Luyu had some resistance in his heart, he really listened to it this time. The name issue is indeed not to be underestimated.
Originally, Yang Luyu was somewhat pleased with the name he came up with, especially the deeper meaning, which he thought was a "stroke of genius" and perfectly interpreted the positioning of music short videos.
However, in the face of Zhou Dongsheng's straightforward words, Yang Luyu's self-touching thoughts were shattered to pieces and seemed a little ridiculous.
Yang Luyu took a deep breath, adjusted his mentality, and then said sincerely: "Mr. Zhou really woke me up. At this moment, I finally deeply understand what a strategic investor is!"
"This is indeed caused by my personal bias. If it weren't for President Zhou pointing out this problem, I wouldn't have realized it..."
Zhou Dongsheng said with a smile: "This may be because those involved are confused, while those who are not involved can see things more clearly. If I hadn't listened to the daily discussions among employees, I wouldn't have realized the importance of this issue."
"This is extremely important. My original intention in making short videos was to do everything I could to lower the threshold for users to use it, so that they could easily start shooting. It was precisely because of this that the product became popular overseas..."
"I didn't expect that, because of a momentary thought, I created a barrier for users with the name. Obviously, this was caused by me copying the experience of overseas markets without considering the characteristics of the domestic market. I reflect deeply on this."
Although Zhou Dongsheng said it lightly, Yang Luyu was extremely serious and made a self-analysis very sincerely.
This also made Zhou Dongsheng sigh, otherwise he could achieve great things. Even if he has no chance to enter the domestic market in the future, the deal of being acquired by Toutiao for 1 billion US dollars is enough to make Yang Luyu one of the small group of people at the top of the pyramid.
"Perhaps this is the so-called survivor bias. Mr. Yang, there is no need to be like this. It is better for us to discover this problem ourselves than to be used as a breakthrough by our opponents in the future." Zhou Dongsheng handled the matter lightly and let it go.
Having said that, Zhou Dongsheng’s goal has been achieved.
"That's right. I will hold a meeting within the company immediately and list the issues of name and product positioning as the company's top priority. The award will be second..." Yang Luyu said decisively.
Now that we have realized it, the first priority is naturally to solve the problem.
"Well, it just so happens that I have been thinking about this issue these days. I'll give a suggestion to Mr. Yang for reference." Zhou Dongsheng revealed his true colors.
"Okay, no problem. Mr. Zhou, just speak frankly. Every suggestion made by you as a strategic investor is worth a thousand gold!" Yang Luyu couldn't help but sigh.
It is true that every profession has its specialties!
If Zhou Dongsheng knew what Yang Luyu was thinking, he would definitely smile shyly and say, no, no, I am just a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a "giant".
Although at present, this giant has not yet been born.
“Looking at the names of the three major short video giants, Kuaishou, Meipai, and Miaopai, there is no doubt that using two words to name the game is the best solution.”
"Of course, if it is directly translated into Muse, there may still be reasons why some users may not understand it. After all, for the general public, the so-called Greek mythology is not as famous as Mazu in China."
Yang Luyu naturally accepted this humbly and agreed with the naming logic of two words. In fact, not only in the field of short videos, but also in the domestic Internet products, those that leave a deep impression on users are basically excellent products with two words.
In other words, a product with two words in it is not necessarily excellent, but the vast majority of excellent products have two words in them.
However, because there are so many excellent examples that are deeply rooted in people's hearts, it is obviously not an easy task to come up with another two-character name that can leave a first impression on people.
Thanks to the profoundness , there are so many possible combinations. The thousands of commonly used Chinese characters can easily form thousands of names...
"At the same time, in order to allow users to more intuitively understand the positioning of our music short videos, I think a word for music or music is essential. Since it is music, it is natural to combine movement and stillness, and add a verb..."
"Therefore, based on this logic, I thought of names like 弹音 (Playing Music) and 奏乐 (Playing Music), but I always felt that they lacked meaning and seemed not so easy to pronounce. They were completely different from e-commerce names like Taobao, which are concise and reach people's hearts.
By chance, the name 'TikTok' popped up in my mind. After repeating it several times, I couldn't help but feel that it was particularly catchy, and the meaning of the shaking notes was very suitable for the theme of the music short video. "
"At the same time , the word '抖' seems to resonate with the young people we are targeting, who like to play music in an unconventional and unusual way. The more I think about it, the better I think this name is."
“Even this product slogan reminded me of one sentence: Use TikTok to record your beautiful life!”
Even Zhou Dongsheng was a little impressed with himself for his reading comprehension. I'm afraid that the person who came up with this name didn't think as much as Zhou Dongsheng did.
Whether it is the Golden Second Award or Douyin, both are the flagship products of Toutiao in the future. Zhou Dongsheng has obviously caught a sheep and is trying to squeeze it to death. I am afraid that he will squeeze him bald!
