China Telecom's Tianyi Live Unlinks from MSN - Sweet IT.Net

According to a message released on the official website of China Telecom's Tianyi Live: Yesterday, the binding relationship between Tianyi Live and Microsoft MSN has been canceled. Starting from 0:00 on May 25, 2009, the official commercial version of Tianyi Live will no longer provide the function of binding with the original MSN account. Users who have already bound their accounts with the original MSN can import the contact list from the original MSN account to the Tianyi account.

Original Address: http://www.vnet.cn/im/index/info/200905/0523_2728_209069.htm

Media Reports: http://news.ccw.com.cn/internet/htm2009/20090525_630825.shtml

This first means a reduction in the cooperation between Tianyi Live and Microsoft. Tianyi Live has become a "custom domain dedicated version of MSN" developed by Microsoft for telecom, and Tianyi Live has turned into an IM software product sold by Microsoft to telecom. To put it bluntly, it is just MSN wearing a Tianyi coat.

Therefore, although China Telecom has its own IM and can operate value-added services based on IM, and in the eyes of telecom executives, Tianyi Live may be a strategic solution for close cooperation with Microsoft, achieving mutual benefits. However, China Telecom does not possess independent IM software intellectual property rights; the technology is Microsoft's, the core is Microsoft's, and even the users are interconnected with MSN. In a certain sense, this cooperation is also a kind of restriction that Microsoft imposes on telecom. Moreover, there are many uncertainties in this cooperation. Once either party changes its market strategy, it will directly affect the cooperation between both parties. At that time, if things go sour, you grab my business and I block you with the GFW? If it comes to that, what will happen to Tianyi Live? What about the millions of Tianyi Live users? Will telecom spend another fortune to hire people to modify the code?

Telecom merged with Unicom's CDMA network, obtained the 3G operation license, and then led the commercialization of Tianyi 3G. Telecom shifted a large portion of its focus from its main fixed network business to mobile services. The extensive expansion of business scope made it necessary for telecom to develop its own instant messaging software.

Mobile has Feixin, Unicom has Chaoxin, and in order to stand on equal footing with these two major mobile operators, shouldn't telecom also come up with an IM? These two main reasons make it necessary for China Telecom to have its own IM.

Let's not talk about what the launch of its own IM brings to users, but at least from a long-term perspective, the IM should be its own. It's okay to have a third party develop it on your behalf, but the intellectual property rights must be firmly in your own hands. You operate something yourself, but you don't own the intellectual property rights—what kind of situation is that? Renting out a house with someone else's property deed? What if they one day change their mind? Can you play tricks without holding the property deed?

Telecom is not incapable or lacking in funds to develop software. Moreover, having its own intellectual property rights and technology makes the construction of various related platforms much easier because all the technology and business interfaces are in your own hands. For example, Mobile Feixin has community functions similar to SNS, http://www.fetion.com.cn/. If telecom uses Microsoft's stuff and wants to build some relevant platforms later, will it have to pay Microsoft again to develop them? By then, Microsoft won't be so polite anymore. Would Microsoft develop platforms to help telecom make money?

The above is purely JarryJarry's speculation. How exactly China Telecom's Tianyi Live operates still depends on whether users buy into it. Perhaps, Tianyi's initial goal is to capture the white-collar market that likes using MSN? Let's wait and see.

Technorati Tags: Telecom, Microsoft, Tianyi, 3G, Live, MSN