Ride QR code—Tencent’s TOB-style C-end story
Author:Chen Qingqing
Time:2020/09/18
阅读：4624
Author | Produced by Master Pi | Industrialist Song Lingyun's expression is very natural. "Why do you want to turn around? Because it has too many linkages with the industry, the bus code starts from C t […]
Written by | Pi Ye
Produced | Industrialist
Song Lingyun's expression was very natural.
"Why should we switch over? Because it has too many linkages with the industry. From the perspective of C to B, even if it is a pure B solution, the ride code has great linkage with the industry." On the other side of the phone, he told the industrialist . Song Lingyun is the general manager of Tencent’s public transportation business and the most direct observer of this structural adjustment.
The focus revolves around the latest structural adjustment of the ride code. The more accurate news is that in March this year, the ride code was officially divided from the FIT financial line to Tencent's CSIG business unit, truly becoming a member of Tencent's industrial Internet "independent group".
This seems to represent some kind of signal. Tencent has begun to gather all its travel forces, using the ride code as the C-end vanguard, to fight a "team battle" from the organizational structure level.
People are not unfamiliar with Tencent ride codes. The latest public recognition comes from the epidemic, which is characterized by the fact that it has cooperated with local transportation bureaus to record people's travel trajectories in the form of ride registration codes, covering various transportation modes such as buses and subways, and has helped build the mass transportation epidemic prevention front.
But if you look along this line, it may not be difficult to find some of the original labels of this C-end product that has only been online for 3 years: if it has 150 million users, if it already covers 29 provinces and municipalities, and if it has become The first choice for travel in many smart cities.
Tencent's product strength has obviously been demonstrated again. However, the difference is that unlike WeChat, QQ and other star products whose underlying logic is C-side, the native driver of the ride code is another aspect of Tencent's great strides today - TO B.Even a more precise positioning is that the ride code product reflects not only the accumulated C-end product strength, but also the B-end path of Tencent after the "930" revolution.
Two years after the slogan of "Embracing the Industrial Internet", Tencent is rebuilding its moat on the new battlefield.
"It used to be an independent regiment, but now it's a group army." Regarding this "translational move", Song Lingyun gave a quite vivid metaphor.
A more concrete understanding is that from the FIT financial line to the CSIG to B battlefield, the ride code team must accept not only object-oriented changes, but also industry collaboration within CSIG.
Object-oriented changes are easy to understand. "We were originally oriented to the C server side, but now we are shifting some of our focus to improving the operation and management capabilities of the B side. In the past, we only served the common people, but now some of the capabilities of the ride code can serve B-side users, such as Improvements in industry solutions, management capabilities and operational efficiency.”
It can be seen that the clear signal reflected in this translation is precisely the change in the "strategic direction" of the ride code, that is, based on the existing positioning of C-end products, the TO B attributes of the team itself are released and strengthened. Become the "spear" on the B side of Tencent's smart transportation TO.
On the other hand, this “translational” drive is also caused by changes in the external environment. “We are now talking more about new infrastructure, 5G construction, AI intelligence, and big data. The biggest symbol of smart cities is smart transportation, which is equivalent to an aorta. What is needed in this big scenario is public transportation solutions. "Song Lingyun said.
From a more realistic perspective, only by achieving business collaboration between the ride code and CSIG can we produce solutions that are sufficiently adapted to the travel industry and capture a larger share of the pie while meeting trend requirements.
The focus remains on collaboration within the CSIG team.
"After arriving at CSIG, we found that we are very closely integrated with mass travel, including map capabilities, Internet of Vehicles capabilities, mass travel capabilities, including LBS capabilities, and cloud capabilities." Song Lingyun Tell industrialists, "To go from C to B, the interaction between this kind of industrial linkage and the underlying capabilities of our entire CSIG is very important."
A general background for this is that within CSIG, Tencent has established a complete smart travel framework.
As early as November 2018, Tencent released a smart travel strategy that integrates Internet of Vehicles, maps, location services, automotive cloud, autonomous driving and other businesses, while also collaborating with ecological capabilities such as AI, content services, and WeChat to provide integrated solutions for the automotive industry. digital solutions.
This "translation" can be understood as Tencent's in-depth "blessing" of the bus code TO B path. That is to say, under the composite underlying architecture, the ride code can open up TO B's "Rent and Supervisory Lines" faster and with higher quality through the arrangement and combination of different industrial components.
It is obviously not only TO B that is strengthened, but also the inherent C-side attributes. "For example, what we see in the subway is face recognition, and the support of its core algorithm comes from Youtu." Song Lingyun said, "Youtu will provide us with the product's algorithm and capabilities as a bottom-level capability. .”
Obviously, this translation brings a two-way "subsidy" to the ride code.Internally, it strengthens its inherent product form to have stronger business output capabilities; externally, it closely integrates with Tencent’s travel ecosystem to build its own TO B methodology more efficiently.
A report card during the epidemic is a silhouette of the integration of the two. "In February, our average daily number of users who swiped codes dropped by more than 95%; as the epidemic began to ease in April, the data gradually improved. By August, our overall number of active users was close to the pre-epidemic level, and our monthly Active accounts have even exceeded the highest peak in history." Wu Zhenquan said, he is the core product manager of Tencent Ride Code.
In his view, an important factor that is conducive to the upward trend of the data curve is "the optimization of the company's entire organizational structure" and "the expansion from a pure payment tool to a user-centered full-process travel service platform." This change in the underlying driving logic accelerated the recovery of ride codes during the epidemic.
Based on this, an interesting conclusion is that this "translational shift" of the ride code anchors not only the long-term shift at the strategic level, but also the short-term "immediate results" on the product side.
One phenomenon is that ride codes are becoming “slower”.
Landing in cities is the most direct manifestation. “From a pure perspective of access data, our speed is slowing down.” Song Lingyun told industrialists. The latest data is that there are now more than 150 cities with access to ride codes.
The other side of the horizontal slowdown is that it becomes "deeper" vertically. “In the past, what we pursued in FIT Financial Line was more focused on the number of transactions, but now we are pursuing more linkage of the entire system.”
Song Lingyun gave an example, "In the past, ride codes and maps were two different business lines. There was some linkage, but they would be considered from their own perspectives. But now after the structure adjustment, we consider it from an overall role. , the access to the city will be divided into two and one into three.”
This is exactly the access logic of the current ride code. That is to say, different access solutions are adopted for different cities. While considering whether the city is suitable for access, we will also consider whether to access the ride code "real-time bus, subway, bus and establish linkage" based on the city conditions and access costs. All functions are still partial.
The more obvious change is the "foot line" that is used to calculate the bus code. "In addition to the number of payments, activity has become a product indicator that we value more at this stage." Song Lingyun told us.
Corresponding to the new "foot line" is a deeper service for determining access cities. It is understood that in addition to route planning before driving, Tencent Ride Code will also use the intelligent recommendation system as the center to provide users with more fine-grained route planning and arrival reminders.
"For example, how to transfer, and which station exit you can exit from. We have even considered incorporating some benefits of subways and buses to enhance the user experience after taking the bus."
It can be understood as,If the entry point for accessing the city was only "during the ride", now the definition of "access" by the ride code has been enlarged to include the entire travel chain of "before, during, and after the ride" road,Enhance user stickiness from the depth and breadth of services.
"In the future, we will also make recommendations for surrounding business districts and scenic spots, as well as 'last mile' travel tools, such as online ride-hailing and shared bicycle connections," Wu Zhenquan said.
It can be seen that this is the fulcrum where the ride code can leverage commercial value. That is, within the scope of users' rigid needs, it can meet their travel needs of all categories, and generate "no deliberate, no intrusion" commercial value by linking external scenes.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of attitude towards commercialization, the ride code reflects the consistent "Tencent style". "Is commercialization something that needs to be considered? Yes." Song Lingyun slowed down and said, "But it is not the first priority. We should find a balance between commercialization and services."
A concrete analogy is that developing business is like marching and fighting a war. You must be able to march hastily but also move steadily and steadily. You must not only be able to see the fireworks in the distance clearly, but also know how to calculate the troops, horses and food. Only by taking steady steps can you attack the enemy and win.
If you were to give the current bus code a label, the most appropriate one would be "B+C".
"From 2017 to 2018, we mainly laid the foundation and established benchmarks and established benchmark cities; in 2019, the business level was fully rolled out, including the current 150 cities; this year, the main task of the ride code is to expand the B-end." Wu Zhenquan said.
To a certain extent, this is more like a closed-loop attack path from "0 to 1 to N", that is, through the technical capabilities of the C side, coupled with the current industrial ecology of Tencent TO B side, and then build a "B + C "Comprehensive approach, and then through mutual data exchange and feedback from both ends, further strengthen the product capabilities of the ride code.
Objectively speaking, in the B-side battlefield, ride codes already have obvious advantages. “Compared with NFC including physical cards, we don’t need to open the card offline, and we can provide not only online QR code scanning services, but also a series of comprehensive travel services such as real-time public transportation and arrival reminders, which are also more in line with users’ usage habits. "Wu Zhenquan said, "Our advantage is not the point of payment, but the whole process of service."
This is not the only reason why the ride code was chosen. It can be understood that after joining CSIG, ride code provides all basic travel services based on Tencent’s travel framework, and the functional components of this industry can be infinitely split and reorganized according to customer needs.
There are cases that have been implemented first. It is understood that during the cooperation with Shenzhen Metro last year, the two parties worked together to customize the development of the "seniors' face-scanning ride" function.
“In the past, elderly people could use their senior citizens’ cards to ride on buses and subways. However, because many elderly people did not have senior citizens’ cards, or many other middle-aged people used senior citizens’ cards fraudulently, it was difficult to do real-name verification. Senior citizens can swipe their faces to board the bus. It can solve the problem of free rides for the elderly, and at the same time ensure that the person whose face is scanned is the real-name person," Wu Zhenquan said.
It is not difficult to see that although it is always driven by the C-side on the outside, the TO B business of ride codes has been quietly operating under the water.
But what can be seen is that the current evolution point of the ride code is not only in business, but also in architecture. It is understood that within the bus code, the solution center has been officially launched. "We not only serve the original subway and bus owners, but now our service targets are more oriented to transportation companies and their regulatory units, such as the Traffic Management Bureau, etc." For the new Song Lingyun explained the positioning of business lines.
He also has a metaphor:"It's a bit like building a building. Tencent will do what customers require if it can do it. If it can't do it, it will be left to its partners. We play the role of a general contractor."
A more concrete interpretation is that the C-side driven ride code is more equivalent to Tencent's new "vanguard" of TO B. Behind it is Tencent's full understanding, accumulation and ecological layout of industries, products, C-sides and B-sides. .
"code" upper zero boundary
A code, a picture, a cloud, an ID.
The condensed four words constitute Tencent's core line on the industrial Internet side, and the ride code can be regarded as a concrete product that integrates the four words.
Song Lingyun has his own understanding of the future of ride codes. "Now we can say that we are working on the main artery of transportation, including all scenarios of sea, land and air. Later, we will definitely enter the microcirculation of the entire travel ecology, that is, services follow people's travels."
In his view, the function of the ride code now is to open up the "Rent and Du" in the travel field, and will later be extended to every scene of the user's travel, seamlessly connected in the MaaS model.
"This is also the clearer feeling after coming to CSIG, which is user connection. The future idea is to use the ride code as the basic ID, extend to various scenarios, and use the travel field as the center to cut into each subdivided life scenario."
It can be understood that the ride code can be used as the basic ID of the entire travel field. From this point, all MaaS travel service links can be connected and activated. "Now we are making some attempts to customize shuttle buses and customized routes." Song Lingyun added.
Obviously, both the ride-hailing code product itself and its team are promoting the iteration of the product in the "B+C" travel scenario in a "zero-boundary" approach.
Objectively speaking, the ride code is a C-end product with the characteristics of "Tencent TO B". Whether it is its core C-end driver or the innate TO B/G gene, it has been developed in the past two years. On Tencent's industrial journey, its value points are enough to astonish the outside world.
For Tencent, the significance of the ride code product is not only its role as a new B-side pioneer, but the greater value point is that Tencent can find an excellent balance between its own C-side highland and industrial integration. point.
During the interview, one detail impressed me deeply. When talking about the details of connecting to the city, Song Lingyun told the industrialist, “Tencent allows access to the ride code applet, allows only access to WeChat payment, and also allows the city to make one on its own. Access the ride code through the WeChat applet.”
This just confirms the outside world's evaluation of Tencent - "Tencent is always open." And a more subtle thought is,When this kind of openness is once again perceived in the new B-side battlefield, it also means that Tencent's industrial moat is already high.
Through the ride code, we can see that whether on the C side or the B side, Tencent is obviously still the same Tencent.
Chen Qingqing 