Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

October 25th, Tuesday…

Handong University's family home district…

Yu Pingan got out of the taxi, took out his mobile phone, and glanced at the specific address and house number.

Today, he was going to visit Kong Zhemin, an old Arts Professor at Handong University.

Professor Kong Zhemin, born in 1946, was a first-level professor of humanities and social sciences at Handong University, a doctoral supervisor, and concurrently the Director of the Institute of Chinese Education of Handong University, the Chief editor of Chinese textbooks for primary and secondary schools, and a member of the Basic Education Expert Committee, editor, convener of the expert group for the revision of Chinese curriculum standards, etc.

In short, he was a deserving master in the Faculty of Arts of Handong University and even the entire domestic academic circle.

Yu Pingan had seen a lot of wealthy company executives, and there was nothing to worry about.

However, to meet a real master like Professor Kong Zhemin was completely different.

Yu Pingan calmed down and carefully reviewed the preparations for Useful App before going upstairs.

He came today to invite Professor Kong for cooperation, but this was not so easy.

After receiving the Useful App development task from Boss Pei, Yu Pingan immediately started to re-plan the entire department's business and optimize the staff structure.

Some people continued to develop and improve the functions of Tengda Life App while others were selected to form the Useful App research and development team.

Yu Pingan was totally confused when he received the mission from Boss Pei.

Because in his opinion, the 'useful APP' development cycle was too long, and it was extremely difficult to make a profit. It was really not a very good project.

However, he still strictly implemented Boss Pei's requirements and began preparations seriously.

That was because Yu Pingan emphasized one thing in software: 'iterate'!

It could be seen from the development process of its own department. From 'Top Student, Come Quick' to Tengda Life App; this App had been revised several times, the content was constantly adjusted, and the user groups it faced had also undergone tremendous changes.

It can be said that without the 'iteration' that Boss Pei had been promoting, the current success of Tengda Life App would not have been possible!

Therefore, the new project Useful App that Boss Pei was going to make—even if it does not seem to be reliable now—would always meet Boss Pei's expectations and achieve great success after iteration.

Yu Pingan was completely convinced about that.

However, Yu Pingan encountered more problems than he thought he would in the process of developing Useful App.

Boss Pei had already given the basic structural framework of this app: it would be a content production platform, which should be a tree-like structure.

The trunk part was a bit similar to the encyclopedia website: the root was a keyword and basic concept, the branch was the concept and explanation derived from this keyword, and the leaf would be the question and answer for a specific derivative concept.

Moreover, the structure of the entire app was like a forest composed of trees: the key basic concepts were related to each other, and they supported jumping around each other within the entry or in a large category (such as literature, physics, games, etc.) to search by category within.

In other words, the encyclopedia model and the question-and-answer model were grafted together—only a slight innovation in form, but it could greatly improve the efficiency of users in obtaining information.

However, a lot of time and energy would still need more work in details and content to realize the basic structural framework that Boss Pei wanted.

For example, how to design each level of the sub-interface of the app, how to arrange the page layout so that users could see the key information at a glance, or how to allow managers to freely add and delete entries or modify the entire tree structure…

These were the key issues that product managers need to worry about.

In addition, there was the issue of content output on Useful App.

Since Useful App was a content production platform, whether it could become popular or not would depend on the quality of the content above.

Specifically, it was nothing more than three points:

If the content was accurate and could have no error in information…

If the content was concise and free of spam…

If the index was convenient and enabled the user to find the content the user wanted in no time…

It depended on people in the final analysis.

If the content producers on the platform deliberately released misinformation and spam to defraud traffic, the platform would definitely not be able to make it.

Even if it was necessary to supervise, they could only use excellent producers to supervise less excellent producers.

When it came to some professional concepts, it would definitely be necessary to let the professional come forward to accurately determine whether it was correct information, wrong information, or spam.

So… where to find these excellent producers?

The first thing Yu Pingan thought of was college.

It was, of course, possible to invite the experts of various industries. For example, when it came to issues related to the Internet industry, it was possible to invite the senior executives of some Internet giants. These people must also have real talents.

However, the problem was that these big guys were all successful people. They must be busy with their own jobs and careers and might not have time to do these trivial things.

Moreover, there was a big difference between mastering knowledge and explaining knowledge.

Useful App was more like a platform for explaining knowledge. The encyclopedia model had developed to the extreme, which was actually a textbook. The questions related to encyclopedia entries were actually detailed explanations of the textbook.

Therefore, university graduate students, young lecturers, professors, etc. were the most suitable candidates and the backbone of this app.

The giants of the various industries could only be used as supplements.

Moreover, Useful App was an all-encompassing and mountainous task; where should they start?

The first thing Yu Pingan thought of was some basic knowledge.

Boss Pei said… Useful APP was a long-term plan, and some ambiguous issues would rather not be made if they were made wrongly.

Start with a certain field of basic knowledge, do a little bit, test water… if the effect was good, then extend it to more fields, and expand step by step.

The focus would not be on quantity but on quality, to ensure that this app truly deserved its name.

Therefore, he went to Handong University to visit Professor Kong.

Handong University, especially the Faculty of Art and Science, was quite supportive of this cooperation. In fact, cooperation between school and enterprise had always been strongly supported and advocated by the State, and it was nothing new for many science academies to conduct joint research with enterprises.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences had less cooperation with companies due to its specialty. If this Useful App were to succeed, it would be a win-win attempt.

What's more, Tengda Group was based in Jingzhou, and President Pei had donated money to his alma mater time and time again. With this relationship, it would be much easier to talk about cooperation.

The only problem was that the college could not decide for Professor Kong Zhemin.

That was because Professor Kong needed to tutor graduate students, teach undergraduates, and do research. Would the old man have the time and energy to join the project as a special consultant? This was a question mark.

Therefore, if Yu Pingan had to do his best if he wanted to move the great Buddha that was Professor Kong today.

After calming down, Yu Pingan entered the family building and knocked on the door on the second floor.

After a while, the anti-theft door opened, and a gray-haired, energetic old professor looked up and down at Yu Pingan: "Boss Yu, right?"

Yu Pingan hurriedly said: "Prof Kong, you can call me Little Yu. I'm sorry to disturb you."

Professor Kong Zhemin smiled: "You are not disturbing me, please come in."

Yu Pingan followed Professor Kong Zhemin into the living room. It was almost the same as he imagined. The sofas and furniture were basically made of wood, which looked aged. Paintings and calligraphy were hanging on the wall, and the whole wall was covered with bookshelves that were filled with various books.

Professor Kong Zhemin poured a cup of tea for Yu Pingan, and Yu Pingan panicked a little.

After some small chats, Yu Pingan did not dare to delay Professor Kong's time anymore and went straight to the topic: "Prof Kong, my intention is that… as the leader from the Faculty of Art and Science should have already briefly talked to you… and I will tell you more and introduce the specific content of our app…

"I was originally in charge of the Tengda Life App business in Tengda Group, and now, I am responsible for this Useful App. It will be a knowledge-sharing community that combines the 'encyclopedia' and 'question and answer' models…"

Professor Kong Zhemin listened carefully and nodded from time to time, but doubt occasionally flashed in his eyes. However, he did not interrupt Yu Pingan but waited for Yu Pingan to mention everything, including specific structure, charging model, incentive model of the entire Useful App, etc. He started to integrate all the information and think carefully after he heard everything.

After thinking for a while, Professor Kong Zhemin said: "Boss Yu, after listening to your description, this software seems to be similar in positioning to academic literature search, which searches academic documents and academic papers. What is the specific difference between the two?"

Yu Pingan immediately replied: "Of course, there is a big difference.

"In layman's terms, the people we target are completely different, and the goals we want to achieve are also different.

"Academic papers and academic literature, including the textbooks of various courses in universities, are certainly the best and most cutting-edge knowledge. However, reading, understanding, and mastering these contents actually require a high threshold.

"For most ordinary people—even if they were shown this knowledge, they cannot understand it.

"If science is the goal, this efficiency is definitely very low.

"Therefore, the software we are making is mainly for the public, and we are committed to popularizing the expertise in these areas in a more accessible way.

"What we are doing is understanding professional content with lower cost, and we are more inclined to let users 'understand' rather than to 'completely master'.

"The biggest difference between this software and the question-and-answer platform is that the knowledge above is filtered. We will try our best to avoid spam. At the same time, there is a more advanced indexing mechanism to greatly improve the efficiency of knowledge acquisition."