NetQin takes off its safety helmet and builds a strong mobile business

April 10 (Reporter Lin Meibing) NetQin, which claims to be a mobile security expert, has been caught up in various security crises in recent years, from being named in the CCTV 315 Gala, to being shorted by "Muddy Waters", to senior executives leaving one after another, and some media even predicted: "NetQin is not far from delisting."

Faced with various difficulties, last year, security brother Lin Yu took off his yellow safety helmet; the slogan on his T-shirt at that time was more like a statement to NetQin: "I know you need a sense of security." It is learned that recently, NetQin is busy sorting out its business and seems to have found an iron shirt - mobile value-added services.

Success or failure depends on "safety"

In 2005, when everyone was paying attention to the booming PC market, NetQin turned its attention to the unpopular mobile security market. Riding the momentum of the Symbian platform, it soared to become a Symbian Platinum Member and Platinum Partner, and quickly expanded its global presence. After its listing in 2011, NetQin's registered user base exceeded 100 million.

In fact, the crisis was already brewing. With the rise of mobile Internet in 2009, more and more PC security companies turned to the mobile security field. 360, Kingsoft and other companies entered the mobile security market one after another. Suddenly, the mobile security market was in an uproar. At this time, NetQin was under double attack, with the siege of free services on one side and the impact of the Android platform on the other.

However, NetQin's security software is still not completely free. In addition, NetQin has been operating in a 2B model and ignored the 2C business, resulting in insufficient user brand awareness. Facing many well-known Internet companies, NetQin's disadvantages are becoming increasingly prominent, and NetQin's personal consumer mobile security revenue has declined. According to people close to NetQin, it is inevitable that NetQin's security business will become a secondary business line, and the mobile value-added service business that will follow will become the focus of NetQin's attention.

Building an Iron Shirt for Mobile Business

Although NetQin, which started out with its mobile security business, is about to take off its "safety helmet" title, it has not left its old mobile business. Instead, it wants to seek new development points in mobile value-added services and try to build an iron vest for mobile business.

After removing mobile security from its main business, NetQin formed five major mobile business lines in 2014: mobile security, mobile advertising, mobile games, enterprise mobility and mobile healthcare.

At present, the most concerned are mobile advertising and mobile game business lines. NetQin's 2014 financial report pointed out that the growth of NetQin's mobile value-added service revenue was mainly due to the growth of mobile game revenue and the real-time mobile social video platform revenue was included in the company's performance.

Moreover, according to the official website of NetQin, as of December 31, 2013, Feiliu had 106.9 million registered user accounts and 20.4 million monthly active user accounts. Xiuse, which mainly features live broadcasts of beautiful women, also accounted for more than 10% of mobile value-added services in Q4 2014. From these impressive data, we can infer that NetQin's focus in 2015 is to improve the business focusing on fragmented entertainment users.

But other business lines cannot be ignored. NetQin's financial report last year showed that its enterprise mobile business revenue increased by 180.5% year-on-year to US$148.7 million; advertising revenue increased by 99.1% year-on-year to US$72.9 million. Mobile healthcare is also worth paying attention to. Currently, NetQin Healthcare has two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Chengdu Ruifeng and Zhengding Fangxin. Zhou Bin, vice president of strategy and investor relations at NetQin, predicted that in the second half of this year, NetQin's mobile healthcare business may take shape.

Each business line has its merits, but it is difficult to connect them with a unified line for the time being. Now NetQin is more like making an experiment. As long as one business line can take the lead, it will be the main line, and the other business lines will be auxiliary lines.

But Zhou Bin said that after this transformation, NetQin will form its own system through self-research and mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, it can be predicted that the new brand strategy announced by NetQin in May this year is just a framework, which means that NetQin's "Iron Shirt" only has moves and actions, but no internal skills.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.