Coko Online: A Two-Year Journey of Entrepreneurship
Written by Chang Xiao
(Other team members: Xiaotian, menter, pare, Xiaohuang, Heizi, Lihua, and Big Sister)
It has been almost two years. Coko Online Account Book (www.coko365.com), which was once a baby learning to speak, has now grown into a vibrant teenager. The online accounting market has evolved from being dominated solely by Coko Online to having numerous competitors, and now Coko Online stands out as the leader. Looking back on this two-year journey filled with challenges, I can't help but feel a myriad of emotions.
I. The Origin of Coko Online
The idea for an online financial management project originated from a very accidental reason. It was in the winter of 2005, probably around December. I had just arrived in Shanghai and was staying in a dilapidated little house in Zhangjiang, lying in a cold sleeping bag. At that time, my salary was not high, but my expenses were enormous. Every month, I would earn several thousand yuan, but I didn't know where all the money went. I thought I should carefully record my expenses to figure out where my money was going. There were already some similar desktop software options available on the market at that time, such as Family Financial Intelligence. However, these types of software had a flaw: they could only be installed on one machine, making them inconvenient to use. I thought it would be great if I could use it on my phone, which would make it more convenient. Then I further thought: If I could record expenses on my phone and view them online, it would be even better.
With this idea, I became very excited. After checking online, I found that there was nothing similar available domestically at the time. When I shared my idea with my good friend "Lihua," I still remember clearly what he said after pondering for a moment:
"This... will work!"
Despite countless objections from others, including friends and family who didn't see its potential, it was because of Lihua's words that I continued to persist until today.
II. Setting Off
Because I had previously operated a website called "E-Book Network," I knew that in China, once you create something, countless imitators will immediately follow. I told Lihua at the time, "I predict that within half a year, websites of this kind will sprout up like mushrooms after rain." Later, events indeed proved this point.
Once the decision was made, I immediately started assembling a team to begin planning and development. At that time, there was no prior experience to draw upon for online financial management, and we didn't know exactly what we needed to develop or which path to take. Everything was done through trial and error. Many things are like this: once they are created, they don't seem extraordinary. But before they are created, no one knows what they will look like. Just like before Google came out, who would have thought that a website could be like this: a large page with just a big text box. Technically, there was me and Lihua, but we were missing a graphic designer, so we recruited Stella.
After more than two months of development, the earliest prototype of Coko Online emerged: it was originally called "Finance Ala" with the domain name www.licaionline.com, chosen for its phonetic resemblance. Long-time users of Coko Online must certainly remember this name. The domain was activated in February 2006. So, when some websites boast about being the earliest accounting site, the best accounting site on Earth, the most professional accounting site, or even better than Family Financial Intelligence... Seeing these claims, I can't help but sneer. It's like when people from Beijing laugh at people from Shanghai talking about how important their officials are. Coko Online has always quietly focused on doing its own thing.
After the first version was released, it implemented basic income and expenditure functions. However, both Lihua and I were experienced in large-scale projects, so the technical architecture of Coko Online was made quite complex, making later development less convenient. Moreover, the interface at the time was inherited from a previous project, raising potential copyright infringement issues. Technical personnel often make mistakes like these. Therefore, over the next few months, we focused on simplifying the architecture and redesigning the interface. During this period, Coko Online developed slowly.
In April, we launched a simplified architecture version. Around this time, another member of the Coko Online team, menter, joined us. Menter's participation greatly accelerated our development work. By June 2006, a completely new architecture for Coko Online was established. Also during this time, after widely soliciting opinions, "Finance Ala" was officially renamed to "Coko Online." And at the same time, we gained a professional financial person, "Heizi."
From June to October, the market remained calm. Searching online for "online accounting" still only returned Coko Online as the sole result. Perhaps due to this reason, Coko Online's development was relatively slow. The database structure changed repeatedly, and the design direction kept wavering. Initially, it supported multiple users, but then it seemed unnecessary, so it was removed. Later, it was added again. At this time, the users were mainly friends and family, without any real external users.
III. Development
Coko Online's first true user was named "Lu'er," a user from Inner Mongolia. This first user made me incredibly excited! That night, I discovered from the backend that she had failed multiple login attempts. I immediately investigated the cause and finally found the reason at 3 a.m.: it turned out to be due to the use of Chinese character names. I immediately sent her an email explaining the issue. The scene is still vivid in my mind. This user may have already left Coko Online. Salute!
After entering October, the direction of Coko's development became a problem. On this point, I had a serious disagreement with menter: I advocated prioritizing practicality, focusing on functionality first and developing other aspects later. Menter, on the other hand, emphasized improving the interface and developing the community. Additionally, since both of us were technically inclined and inexperienced in the market, Coko Online's development temporarily fell into a deadlock. As expected, entering 2007, websites of this type began to sprout up like mushrooms after rain, appearing almost every month. Some had aggressive promotional campaigns, and a few even surpassed Coko Online. Moreover, some of Coko Online's initial creative ideas, such as SMS-based accounting, were plagiarized by others. At this point, we realized that if we continued this way, it wouldn't work. We needed to find capable marketing personnel to reverse the downward trend.
IV. Takeoff
At this critical moment, Xiaotian joined us. Xiaotian's arrival resolved our crisis effortlessly. Having managed websites for many years, Xiaotian brought a wealth of experience. After several months of promotion and offensive strategies, the website progressed rapidly. In a short time, the Alexa ranking improved from over a million to around 200,000. Daily registration numbers increased from fewer than ten people to a peak of 1,500 registrations in a single day! The daily IP count also continued to rise.
For a long time, Coko Online was developed, designed, and operated by a group of technical personnel. More than one person had mentioned to us that our software was unprofessional and did not conform to financial rules, but we never took it seriously. However, as development entered the mid-to-late stages, some problems gradually surfaced: for example, integrating and analyzing user-recorded data posed a significant challenge.
At this time, the addition of two decisive professional finance personnel—pare and Xiaohuang—completely transformed the situation. Starting from June, Coko Online began to focus on studying how to incorporate the most professional accounting principles into the software. After three months of intensive research, Coko Online V2.6 was finally born!
Coko Online V2.6 is a milestone version. Its underlying framework utilizes the most professional accounting principles, effectively recording any financial information (though not yet fully complete). Yet, it remains simple and easy to use.
The transformation of the underlying architecture is akin to equipping Coko Online with wings for takeoff. Future development and progress will be much faster and more convenient. Due to this change in the underlying architecture, we have far outpaced our competitors.
V. Conclusion
Moving forward, our development tasks remain arduous. On one hand, due to significant changes, some bugs have appeared that need to be fixed. On the other hand, Coko Online's architecture still requires continuous improvement to make it more reasonable and efficient. Market expansion is also growing larger, which consumes a lot of our energy. Our team needs more competent people to join. With rapid growth, hardware demands are increasing, operational costs are rising, and we are considering attracting some investments in the market.
However, no matter what, our development cannot proceed without everyone's support and help! Through our joint efforts, we have every reason to believe that we can provide you with the most user-friendly and considerate product! (Coko Online: www.coko365.com)