Don’t make us a God
Those who witness The Times have not yet left
The introduction
Heroes die, tycoons rise
The hero chaos, rivalry, killing everywhere, The Three Kingdoms.
From the historical perspective, the 26-year journey of the Internet from 1993 to 2019 is also an unprecedented change in the past thousand years.
In this big change and epoch-making, we have seen the unscrupulous bosses, the technology-oriented cheaters, the keyboard heroes who spraying everyone, the joke makers who do not seek fame and fortune…
But more often than not, it is the savvy reaper “moguls” who are not the creators of technology or the leaders of new models, but who win by sheer ambition and hand in hand.
Heroes die, tycoons rise, perhaps that is the essence of any era of great change.
We have been privileged to witness and witness the extraordinary transition from print to digital civilization.
Perhaps 100 years from now, people will still be feeling the “information revolution” that created new history from 1993 to 2019.
Perhaps 1000 years later, the machine historian, who replaced human beings, will sigh with 0 and 1 that “Internet scholars” created a great civilization.
However, as a witness of this era, it has been 22 years since I came into contact with the Internet in 1997. I still write here that the history of The Internet in China is a history of original sin.
So when Jack Ma and 60,000 employees sing the song “Chasing the Dream”, when the mood is lit, they can sigh together: The green mountains will not change, the green water will flow long, and the river’s lake will see you again.
But behind this grand and bustling farewell party, stepping on the bones of many heroes, where is just “pure heart” so simple, ma Yun’s eyes that drop did not leave tears, hiding a gray world.
This gray world is the Internet.
01
Kidnapping history:
20 years of being stuck with plugins
As a network aboriginal 20 years is the first 20 years of kidnapping, casually download a software to the Internet, even if you are a product manager, or the director of operations, accidentally will be tied up with a pile of plug-ins, what rising antivirus, Baidu audio, small soldier weather, Jinshan family bucket…… You don’t dare to open a web page without some technology.
Here can’t help but step on Baidu again…
Said baidu as China’s three big Internet companies, building to cover several buildings, arguably, money is not bad, but always love down the style of the three way, its various software attempt to occupy the hard disk to bother god, 2008 plug-in the craziest time, make every month to help neighbors young woman to clean up a lot of don’t know when to come out of the software, Nearly upgraded to “the old king next door” several times.
Since Zhou Hongyi opened the Pandora’s box of plug-in bundling in 1998, many Internet companies, the most famous of which is the popularity of Hao123 in 2003, because of the plug-in bundling, was just listed in 2005 Baidu to buy into the arms of the high price.
And golden Hill, rising star, lu great master these companies, those who go is same kind of route, you always can see them in each software installation “coziness” figure.
85 or so of this generation of old Internet users, which was not these viruses and plug-ins, “to death”, small white users really have no way to just shut down the computer, and then “starve the virus”, even if the program ape also have to reinstall the system, a trick inadvertently also have to give the panda burn three incense.
The only consolation is that with the advent of the mobile Internet, IOS in the palm of your hand may seem like a long way from that nightmare, but trust me, plug-ins are with you.
02
History of plagiarism:
Technological ideas are Achilles’ heel
In 1998, Sina imitated Yahoo.
In 1998, QQ imitated ICQ.
In 2000, Baidu copied Google.
In 2003, Taobao mimicked ebay.
In 2009, Weibo mimicked Twitter.
In 2012, Didi mimicked Uber.
In 2019, Oasis took on Instagram.
…
If from the bottom technology thinking, Internet innovation products have nothing to do with Chinese Internet enterprises.
Connecting from World Wide Web services to HTML hypertext protocol;
From mathematical topologies to WordPress plugins;
From the Android open system to the Linux open framework;
From P2P peer-to-peer to the latest blockchain TPS.
None of these technological ideas have anything to do with the Chinese. Even including network operation technology as an example, Google’s three technical documents: Google File System, Bigtable, MapReduce are the operating basis of Internet companies’ big data business.
Wang Xing, CEO of Meituan.com, is an “outstanding representative” who has been regarded as a new god in the era of mobile Internet. He made his first fortune with the renren imitation of Facebook, and then made another imitation of Twitter with Fanfu. If it were not for some special reasons, the fanfu almost succeeded again in 2007, which would be considered a hero in the imitation.
Since the birth of The Internet in China, the technological ideas are basically copying foreign models. Even If Alibaba develops to today, it does not have any contribution in technology, but it is just an imitation.
Sometimes not only good at imitation, but also very good at following the trend, overnight emerged countless B2B, P2P, SNS websites, no one cares whether this model has the suspicion of infringement.
Copy of the gene has been deep in the bone marrow, of course, we can understand the helpless of every Internet entrepreneur, in such a beast infested jungle times, any rule of life will fail. But that’s not to say that we take copying for granted.
26 years of Chinese Internet technology history is 26 years of plagiarism. A legendary Internet tycoon once scolded his newly recruited product manager: what new, even the icon to me to copy over.
03
Vulgar history:
From the social elite to the Internet keyboard
Early Internet companies pursued content with a sense of meritocracy, and later, instant gratification.
Netease, founded in 1997, has long marketed itself as having an “attitude” and wanting to export values.
The new information platform, which began in 2013, began to cater to the tastes of netizens.
In order to attract high-end users, Tencent, founded in 1998, set up a comment department and launched comments on “today’s topics”.
After 2014, we media content platforms want you to take off your pants and post photos.
…………………
From 1997 began to come to the surface of the literary website, BBS, etc., those who are all over the river and lake of the name of the aroma, banyan tree novel, the ruffian CAI, Annie baby, Ning god of wealth, now where the fame is far spread, Tianya community is crouching tiger, hidden dragon, Murong Xuecun, the bright moon, Jiangnan…… These people have unique personalities, and today’s media is all about catering to emotions.
In addition, there are poems and songs in the Tencent chat room, the family gossip of Xiciancestral Alley, the funny force wit of Maopu, the exquisite beauty of the fragrance of red sleeves, the new martial arts of Jinjiang literature, the series and essays of blue sea and silver sand, each with its own unique characteristics, and the literary talent is overflowing. Look back at that time of the river’s lake, is really a cup of wine, river’s lake night rain ten years lamp.
Nowadays, the speech is mainly concentrated on the mobile terminals of Internet companies, and the voice of reason is increasingly rare, and the content is full of emotional content. Recommendation algorithm to construct the “information cocoon room”, open the APP, full screen of large breasts and long legs for ordinary users completely lost? The natural curiosity and inertia in human nature allow most users to spend a lifetime in the vulgar mud “instant gratification”!
Now in the video era, fragmentation and multimedia have made more people become information pets of vulgar content. The Internet, which once brought great hope to mankind, now only a few highly disciplined elites are in control of themselves.
Over the past 20 years, the Internet has not evolved humanity, but dwarfed it.
04
History of piracy:
Intellectual property is just a FIG leaf
Before 2005, you were very happy. You could find anything you wanted on the Internet.
Before 2010, you’re still happy, and you can find most of it online.
It was a golden age of piracy, free music, free video, free software. Any product as long as said to charge, will always be laughed out of the teeth. There are only two words that define the Internet: free and sharing. Never heard of watch a movie to pay, which like now even the “old teacher” can not find.
From 1999 to 2011, pirated online literature was rampant. Even in 2003, qidian.com explored the VIP reading mode, but countless people could still see the screenshots on other websites.
Until 2010, the emergence of networks is a property protection twist, though it’s their controversial, but to get a boost of network copyright protection, Gu Yueting with low cost to buy a lot of copyrighted content, and then a large number of promoting the value of IP, the rights of way since then, all kinds of audio and video copyright began to get greater protection and respect.
Before this, the MP3 of Baidu is the direct possession of heist type, behind with Han Han headed 100 writers common rights protection, equally by Baidu with “safe haven” principle easily dissolve. Until today, major we-media platforms are still moving at will, and baidu Music and Baidu Library receive “mountains” of complaint documents every week.
The so-called respect for “intellectual property rights” is nothing but a FIG leaf.
05
The history of monopoly:
From decentralization to centralization
You’re not on a real Internet anymore.
Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, argued that the Internet was originally a decentralized topology, with everyone building their own website, but now it is completely centralized.
Today’s Internet entrepreneur, domain name you should go new net or ten thousand net (already ali department), server you may choose Tencent cloud or Ali cloud only. That’s not the worst thing that can happen. After all, you can build your own website.
Even scarier than this is the emergence of Apple, which has locked down every Internet company with iOS and iPhone. The only ones that can compete with it are Google/Facebook/Amazon… But these companies, too, you’d think of as apple.
China’s Internet companies are more centralized than ever. It can even be said that the history of The Chinese Internet is the history of the expansion of the giants, Tencent in 1998, Alibaba in 1999, Baidu in 2000.
Twenty years ago, it seemed, the writing was on the wall. In today’s mobile Internet era, new giants such as Bytedance, Meituan, JD.com and Pinduoduo are all self-contained systems, all islands of information.
Today’s startups do not want to build their own websites, services are completed in small programs, goods open a shop on Taobao, news published in the headlines… Why build a central point of their own, where is the flow? It might as well live on a big platform.
The centralization of the Internet today is not entirely the result of market competition. Big companies control all new possibilities with traffic. Once a new species appears, they will copy a similar product to suppress you if they can’t kill you. Ali has just acquired Netease’s “Koala” and Cloud Music.
The Internet has been so centralized that we thought it was going to give everyone freedom, but now it’s robbing us of thinking. 20 years of centralization of the Internet is monopolization, and our fate will end up in the hands of a few people.
conclusion
Original sin is also a kind of helplessness
In the 26 years of the Internet, the changes have never been seen before.
For all its glory, there are also ravines.
What I can see is that heaven and earth are unkind and treat all things as humble dogs.
Again brilliant Internet enterprises, but also covered with dirt and dirty water.
The Internet enterprise of these classics of market baptism, may also have profound stratagems, also have broad layout, but more important still is the means of two army belligerent exhaustion, it is the sword to go to the wrong end.
But as a witness of The Times, I will smile at the following:
I do not know his wife Liu Qiangdong, the way to earn money ding Sanshi; Debt does not blow luo Min, regret to create Alibaba is Ma Yun……
This is no disrespect to Internet entrepreneurs, because it is a fact of life.
However, it is understandable that in such a time of great change, “original sin” is also a kind of helplessness in many cases.
So, respect Mr. Ma’s departure, the river’s lake is a long way away, but do not give us a god, because the people who witness The Times have not yet left.
Editor of this issue | Wu Yanlin
This issue submission | Lu Buxun