The older one gets, the more one tends to feel that all things are impermanent. Over 20 years ago, the most popular chat room in China was called "Bi Hai Yin Sha Chat Room," or "Bi Chat" for short. The host had to spend money to buy an exclusive chat room from the official Bi Chat. After receiving the payment, the Bi Chat official would sell the host a chat room with only the most basic audio and video functions, which is also known as a "bare shell room."
The host who got the bare shell room had to find a network expert or organization to decorate their live broadcast room. That is, to add exquisite background patterns, enthusiastic welcome words, beautiful character icons, etc., to the room. This decoration also required payment.
At that time, Bi Chat was extremely popular. During peak times, some chat rooms were so crowded that people were pushing and shoving to get in, and the doors were almost broken. Many chat rooms were full to bursting, and later arrivals could no longer log in.
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There were no "live commerce" in the chat rooms at that time. They were mainly divided into two types: one was purely for entertainment, which was singing, dancing, and storytelling every day. The other was educational, which was to teach various skills, such as English, computer, finance and accounting, etc.
At this time, the live broadcast basically had no capital entering. Many people spent several thousand yuan every year to buy a chat room on Bi Chat, not for making money, but for entertainment. The chat room had nothing to do with advertising marketing or products. At most, the host would earn a little money by selling skills through lectures.About another ten or eight years had passed? Sina UC entered the field of online live broadcasting. It broke into the live broadcast field by offering free live rooms to broadcasters and quickly became the new generation of online live broadcasting overlord. At the same time, several new live platforms were also established.
The live rooms of Sina UC had faster internet speeds, more exquisite live room images, and good voice effects. There was no need for the broadcaster to decorate personally. At the beginning, the live rooms were completely free. It quickly attracted a large number of broadcasters to Sina UC.
The characteristics of the live rooms in the eras of Bihu and Sina UC were mainly focused on individual broadcasters, with basically no company groups doing live broadcasts. Moreover, the power of the live room owner was relatively large, with the authority to appoint and dismiss administrators and kick people out. The power is similar to that of the group owner in QQ groups.
In fact, Bihu and Sina UC basically belong to the same operational thinking. They are both relatively niche network platforms, and the netizens participating are only a very small part of the internet public. The difference is that Sina UC may be more advanced in internet technology and more open in operational methods.
It was not until the advent of TikTok that there was a fundamental and huge change in live broadcasting. The live rooms were not only free, but also became a very popular thing, like reading newspapers, watching TV, and listening to the radio before. The number of people entering the live rooms has increased dramatically by hundreds, thousands, or even more times!This has allowed capital to see business opportunities, with companies and factories quickly entering the live broadcast room. Live-streaming sales have emerged accordingly. In recent years, live broadcast services led by TikTok and Kuaishou have reached a peak. Ultimately, this is due to the development of technology, with faster internet speeds, cheaper data plans, and the widespread adoption of smartphones, making video live streaming increasingly acceptable to the general public.
So, it is not so much that TikTok has made live streaming popular, but rather the progress of technology has laid a solid foundation for the widespread adoption of live streaming across society. TikTok just happened to seize this opportunity.
I use this example to illustrate that as long as the time is long enough, many things may change after twenty or thirty years. An industry leader today may be on the decline twenty years later, and a niche industry now may grow a hundred or a thousand times in the future, becoming a popular industry.
Therefore, in investment, we must have a long-term perspective to witness the miracle of wealth growth. For example, the current VR industry is a relatively niche industry. Is it possible that with the advancement of technology, it could become a popular industry in twenty years? If we invest in VR-related index funds today, is it possible to achieve astonishing wealth growth over the next twenty years? This question is worth considering.
Therefore, when we see that the stocks or funds in our hands have fallen by 30% or even more than 50%, we should not be overly anxious. Maybe many years later, they will become popular industries and stocks, bringing tenfold or a hundredfold returns! So, those who have a long-term perspective in stock and fund investment and are brave enough to hold on for a long time are most likely to achieve financial freedom.
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