The Successful Growth Strategy of APUS Group

1. Closely follow the tide

In terms of strategy, APUS has determined the tide based on two characters:

First, the three development stages of Chinese internet.

(1) 1998-2006. Essentially in this stage, Chinese internet industry was affiliated to overseas giants. Most Chinese internet companies were either invested or controlled by them.

(2) 2006-2014, the rising of native Chinese internet. This is the era when BAT and 360 rose abruptly.

(3) After 2014. Within 1.37 billion Chinese people, 1 billion have turned into internet users. The market is becoming narrower and demographic dividend is running out.

Under such circumstances, there were only two development directions: O2O and globalization. O2O is not a start-up-friendly market and while APUS put forward globalization in 2014, while the whole industry was talking about O2O. After 18 months in 2015, more than 35,000 O2O companies have collapsed. Now everyone is talking about globalization and a golden rule in the industry is that traffic is everything. O2O, E-commerce, online financing are all in the lower part of the industry and profit through service they provide. In other words, it is ones who have users and traffic that lead the direction of the industry. Because of this, we believe most O2O companies are doomed to fail and the market will be partitioned by industry giants. Therefore, APUS decided to smartly follow the tide and go to overseas market.

Second, the most important three markets.

(1) US market;

(2) Chines market. These two markets are both pioneers of global internet and new technique, and both have been mature;

(3) Emerging markets. The emerging markets including Southern Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Russia, etc., are 2 to 5 years behind Chinese and American markets. However, in the future, within 6 billion internet users in the whole population of 7 billion people, half will come from these areas. By the end of 2014, there were 2.5 billion internet users around the world and a staged market of 3 to 3.5 billion users were to be explored. This blue sea market is three times bigger than Chinese market.

2. New user precedence

A necessary but not sufficient condition to become a giant is the new users. Like the early American history, the area of the enclosed land determines the wealth of the family. In the past years APUS has learned that the acquisition of an old user cost 20 times of that for a new user, and in domestic the number will be even higher.

3. Rigid demand

Android OS has been born with a flaw with its open source strategy. Because of this, Google will have to face major challenges in the future as Google is a technique-driven. By comparison, Facebook and Apple are user-driven and therefore more active. Although the kernel technology of Android OS is better than iOS, iOS has been the winner in sales market. Freeze, slow, and crash have been insignificant but fatal problems for Android OS. And here comes APUS User System, which can great improve user experience.

4. View on product: three points and two extremes

(1) User feedback – three points and two extremes. First, painful point, i.e. get to know the rigid demands of users. Second, bright point. Without highlights, the products can never please users. APUS has developed the unique APUS Discovery to help users discover trending apps, games, etc.; APUS Headlines to catch up with the news that is happening, etc. Third, bonus point. With sweet comes user cohesion, for example, motivate users with access to trending vides with credits. Last but not least, extreme of delicacy and extreme of perfection.

(2) Data Operation. Only with accurate statistics can a company be clear about the market, for example, user acquisition, DAU, MAU, user feedbacks, etc. These statistics are the most subjective reflection of the user experience.

(3) Keep improving products through competitor product monitor and analysis.

5. Priority market– overseas market and traffic platform

(1) APUS will concentrate on overseas market. Once get involved in Chinese market, it is inevitable that the company will face competition against Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and other giants. However, in India, APUS is even more well-known than Tencent while slightly less than Alibaba. It is clear that APUS gives priority to overseas market and therefore has virtually no interest of conflict with any giants. APUS believes that to improve at a rapid rate, it is of great importance to avoid competition against giants in industry.

(2) APUS will only develop traffic entry. Three are three major internet business modes. First and foremost, traffic entry; second, content operation; three, business operation. A successful enterprise has to do something while leave some space and only in this way can a successful ecosystem be developed. APUS will concentrate on being a traffic entry and is willing to share traffic and users with mutual-beneficial cooperative partners of news, e-business, O2O, music, etc.

6. Keys to globalization – culture, innovation, and copyright

Globalization is paramount to APUS and cultural integration is key to it. The respect for local policies, laws, culture is significant to a successful enterprise. APUS team and products have great respect for local culture for every country, cities and areas.

Meanwhile, as an innovation-driven enterprise, APUS pays great attention to copyrights. APUS has applied for brand, patents, and a series of copyrights in more than 200 countries and areas. Also, the employees of APUS Groups have spontaneous respect for copyright and willingly participate in copyright application. APUS believes that in the future, copyright will be an important tool in globalization.