There are still friends around me who say that they have never used Toutiao, or they have been unloaded once they are used, and they cannot be used anymore. Is it worthy of the rumored valuation of $75 billion? A phenomenon that has occurred in the Internet industry in recent years is that those who seem to be lower seem to have won. How to define low is a matter of opinion, but the things of low are indeed very confusing. It either doesn't really work, or it can do a lot. From the perspective of investment, many investors with good results missed the headlines back then, such as: GGV and Zhu Xiaohu, or sold early; such as: Zhou Hongyi and Cao Guowei.
A similar situation has happened to Pinduoduo and Kuaishou. But may Toutiao be subverted by lower interesting Toutiao or something else in the future? In my opinion, there may be two definitions of low in Internet products: One is that the Fax List price is cheaper , but it also means that the quality is worse, such as Taobao with 9.9 free shipping and Pinduoduo with free shipping for 1 yuan or even free group delivery; One is that the threshold is lower , allowing users who could not use it before to use it, but it also means that users and content are more confusing, such as: mobile phones versus PCs, portals versus newspapers and magazines, and Weibo versus blogs.
These two lows in price and usage also correspond to Harvard professor Christensen's definition of disruptive innovation in low-end markets and disruptive innovation in new markets. Satisfying the same set of customers at a lower price is the beginning of low-end disruption, but companies must be able to find a cost structure that can still make money at that price. Emerging companies often target the business with the lowest total profit in the industry, and open a hole in it.