Reflections: Sparked by Sohu's Bai.sohu.com Status Prompt

http://bai.sohu.com/ is Sohu’s new SNS, currently still in beta. In truth, building internet products is just like developing software: you really have to treat your product like your own child and put your heart and soul into it. This level of dedication is vividly shown in Sohu’s Bai (白社会). Looking at it makes me feel quite embarrassed for my current product team colleagues and certain managers.

New Web 2.0 applications are indeed cropping up one after another. In particular, SNS platforms led by Facebook have suddenly pushed Web 2.0 to a whole new phase. Personally, I don’t hold as much sway or authority as those self-proclaimed industry experts, but my own accumulated knowledge tells me that if you want an internet product to succeed, two things are indispensable: first, innovation; second, attention to detail. Amidst the current wave of rampant, mindless clones of Facebook in China, it’s safe to say that the product with the best attention to detail will ultimately win over users.

Speaking of which, when I looked at the ‘Status Update’ (一句话) feature on Bai, my eyes lit up. Anyone can mindlessly copy Twitter, but users won’t necessarily buy into it—and what’s the point of a product if nobody uses it? But looking at Bai’s status prompt, it feels as if a friend is chatting with me, naturally inviting me to share my thoughts. It’s clear that the product managers put a lot of thought into this. Just now, as I returned from lunch, I saw ‘him’ asking, ‘Feeling sleepy after lunch?’ or ‘Any new restaurants opened nearby?’… It felt incredibly warm and welcoming, yet from a technical standpoint, it takes very little effort to implement.

I remember back when I was developing the ‘Little Flyer Bear Download System’ (小飞熊下载系统). At the request of many webmasters, I wrote an open-source download management system for everyone. Looking back, that code was incredibly naive, but the reason so many webmasters offered feedback, pitched ideas, and helped troubleshoot was simply because I was genuinely building something for the users. While the pursuit of cutting-edge technology in internet products cannot be ignored, if you don’t treat users as the ultimate stakeholders, whatever you build will just drift with the tide and end up as a futile effort.

In today’s landscape, where VCs are fiercely chasing profit, building a truly great product has become increasingly difficult. Everyone is looking at the money. Even our performance evaluations as engineers are tied to the profitability of the products we build (to the manager who came up with this metric, all I can say is: you are incredibly ‘creative’!). Fewer and fewer people are building things out of genuine passion. I miss the old days when I could think about the users every single day, slowly crafting my own system like raising my own child, completely free from external interference.

Reflecting on this really makes me feel worried and saddened by the working environment of Chinese programmers. Once again, I feel like this is not the kind of work I had envisioned. Although the company’s prestige gives me a slight sense of pride among my peers, it doesn’t belong to me; I am merely a puppet in the hands of the wealthy.

I’ve been thinking about a lot of things, and my thoughts are a bit scattered. However, I truly believe that as long as you keep a dream in your heart, you will eventually fly to the place you belong. Keep fighting, Little Flyer Bear!