Interview with Mala Mala Strong: How to Cut into a Running App with Another Gesture

“Always, many investors often go to the Temple of Science and Technology to find me to drink, do not look at what the project is, just ask: “How much do you want? ”

In 2015, Si Qiang was officially invited by Guo Chen to join Maramaran and made an app for professional marathon runners. In the words of Secretary Jiang, he has seen many C-round D-teams and no one can do it. In addition to operating offline resources, it is necessary to have good government resources in order to develop IP for city marathon and cross country races. The general competition is done by the local government and sports bureau. Want to "privatize"? not easy.

People who have contact with the company know that he is "the one who knows how to run the code and is the most knowledgeable about the products and business among the runners." In addition, he is the first generation of 360 game product manager and listed on the 360. After they quit. In other words, Siqiang’s technical background led the team to accompany 360 games from scratch. Most importantly, Secretary Qiang is a marathon enthusiast and has a 12-year running age. Therefore, he is very clear that the marathon is still a niche market in China.

Entering the field

How could an invisible local tyrant with 360 big options be impressed? Secretary Qiang said to Lei Fengwang, “Guo Chen had always asked me to eat and drink, and tempted me to make more money in this industry – a marathon costs 1 to 20 million and can earn 30 to 40 million. ” But to him and Not working, " Although I don't have him. "

Secretary Qiang knew Kuo Chen’s background from a long time ago: Founder Capital’s founder, one of the country’s largest real estate investment funds, accumulatively registered over 20 billion assets in the fund industry association. Later, Secretary Jiang described Guo Chen: He is eating the bowl of rice in government relations.

At that time, Li Keqiang announced the release of the review of the race. Bicycle races and cross-country races have mushroomed. Secretary Qiang knows that it is to release the audit, but it still needs to be filed. In the tumultuous rains of the market, Guo Chen died for a year and finally said to him:

"To do Internet entrepreneurship, running is a fate you can't escape. You're sure to do a running-related thing. The tricks are complementary, and they must be extremely reliable together. They can do a great job."

Secretary Qiang carefully thought and nodded. It was already September 17, 2015.

As a running APP, Malamaran seems to have missed the best opportunity to enter. At this time, Handan has been established for 5 years, and announced that it has 40 million users. Yue Run, music and other software have begun to take shape. In the previous round of industry reshuffle, some people failed to exit. But Siqiang felt that what the market counterparts and Maramala did was not a thing. "They are socializing in sports, running in social networking, and I think we are doing professional users." Unlike similar products that do small white users, Malamaran is "top down" and pouring down from the tip of the pyramid.

Professional

On the line for three months, with its “professional background”, Malamari has become the only APP and data service provider designated by the official competitions of the Wuhan Marathon and the Beijing Marathon. This advantage has ensured that it won the largest domestic competition during the competition. The registration of most senior runners. “ Have you heard that 12306 needs to be promoted? ” Si Qiang jumped up. “ Even if the user signs up at the official website of the Northern Malawi, he receives a database from Malamara. He has to use it. ”

Relying on the registration entries of the two major events, their registered users have broken 100,000. The amount of such users is far from the 360 ​​games with millions of installed capacity. However, in 2015, the registration of the Tianyi Association was completed more than half a horse. In fact, 550,000 people.

Everyone is aware that this is only the first long-term road.

First, the mere acquisition of users is not enough. How to convert runners into their own long-term users is the key to success or failure.

Secondly, only users of service professional runners are certainly not enough. If you want to expand the market, you will surely pack ordinary users into pockets, which is bound to confront software such as crickets.

Secretary Qiang said: "Everyone wants to be more professional in their performance. I believe that professional users will be well served and ordinary users will come naturally."

Of course, other means are also available. Si Qiang introduced gamification ideas on the APP, emphasizing the honor system, allowing users to upgrade and leveling themselves, thereby improving user stickiness; and starting from the user experience and utility of the tool, the APP focuses on the running index for senior runners. Function, analyze the runner's gender, age, weight, running capacity and other data to provide users with personalized intelligent training plan.

Siqiang has participated in many domestic marathons and cross-country races. He knows what users need more. He said to Lei Fengwang (searching for "Lei Feng Net" public number) : "There are too many games organized to circulate money in the market, but it is comparable to the world's top cross-country races. There are almost no such events as UTMB. I have to do at least China. UTMB. "

Well blowout

According to industry observations, even if it is a star project for running a business, Yue Apparel and the APP have not really cut into the core marathon IP. Instead, they have chosen online marathon, theme running, and other participation modes, which shows that entrepreneurs cut into the line. The competition is very difficult. According to Secretary Jiang's introduction, many APPs have also competed in cross-country races, but they were eventually disbanded with only a few people signing up. They all took a look at the market where the blowout has been revealed. According to the data of China Athletics Association:

The number of Chinese marathon events in 2010 was only 12 games, and by 2015, it had risen to 134 games.

According to industry estimates, in 2014 alone, the operating income of a marathon event reached 2 billion yuan, driving the related industries' income to exceed 10 billion yuan. By the end of last year, the marathon-related industries had reached a market size of 30 billion yuan.  

From the point of view of the tournament operation,

The input cost of the Hangzhou Marathon in 2014 was 12 million yuan. The overall revenue was 20 million yuan, and the profit was about 8 million yuan.

Si Qiang believes that the sports market actually has three pieces of income:  

Equipment - 70%, 80%

Sponsorship fees - 1 and 20%

Registration fee - can be ignored

Tonality

The high profits have caused the entire industry to have a high fever in the past two years. However, after the brutal expansion, we should still rationally see that many events lack regular management - the track is chaotic and supplies are not in place. Problems such as the lack of medical ambulance team are not uncommon. In the eyes of Secretary Strong, the Beijing Marathon can only count as a pass. He understands that even if he works hard, he will not be able to make an event in two or three months, because there are so many things that need improvement, such as supplies, routes, and so on. At the same time, it is also understood that: “Simple things are most easily copied by people.” This is also the premise that Si Qiang repeatedly emphasizes “tone”.  

"Tonality" means that the brand is white. Talking about the current profitability situation, Secretary Qiang is not willing to say more, he just understated: "There is no difficulty in realizing." But in fact, since the division to join Marathala, the team has turned from a profit to a loss, when the cost of more than 100,000, can earn several times the advertising costs, Secretary Jiang made a determined decision, "delete"! The reason is of course: "tone." Siqiang believes that only after adjusting the tone, will consider the realization, before this, will not establish other people's brand.

Acting on such circumspection is presumably because of "money." On July 19, 2016, Marmara announced that it had received tens of millions of yuan in financing, and did not disclose the amount of investors and investment. Not long ago, it had just acquired Pathfinder and the same capital of 10 million yuan Pre-A round of investment, two rounds Financing is only a half month apart.

Strong

As for how to turn a profit, Secretary Qiang said:

"The business is that if you want everyone to make money, you can make money.

Taobao allows sellers to make money, and drops make drivers make money. Malamara will also make running money to earn money, but how to make money can't be disclosed. ”