More than a year after its IPO, Facebook's stock price has finally returned to its issue price. Although the company's performance over the past year has not been satisfactory, there haven't been many doubts raised about Facebook. Almost no one can deny that Facebook has become another internet giant following Google.
Naturally, this raises the question: where will the next internet giant come from after Facebook? In recent years, many highly innovative companies have emerged in the internet industry, but it seems that none of them are currently capable of challenging Facebook.
Instagram was once considered Facebook's biggest challenger, but now it is part of Facebook; Tumblr also attracted many young people away from Facebook, but after being acquired by Yahoo, whether it can maintain its previous momentum remains uncertain.
Facebook's most recent formidable rival is Snapchat, a "disappearing message" social application. Even though Facebook launched a similar app called Poke, it couldn't stop Snapchat's rapid growth.
However, all these are social applications, and within the social domain, it is very difficult for any company to successfully challenge Facebook—just like how Facebook didn’t pose a direct threat to Google by Zuckerberg creating a search engine.
The next internet giant that could truly shake Facebook’s position will inevitably come from another field. This company may already exist, but we just haven’t discovered it yet.
Next Stop: Mobile Internet
It is almost certain that the next internet giant will emerge in the mobile internet space. Mobile internet can leverage offline industries, which will bring immense value.
If we consider mobile internet and the integration of online and offline businesses, e-commerce and payments are two of the most direct fields. In terms of e-commerce, traditional internet e-commerce companies are rapidly transitioning to mobile internet. Whether it's Amazon or eBay, both have made great strides in mobile e-commerce.
In the payment sector, the standout company currently is Square. By starting with merchants, Square makes payments more convenient while simultaneously transferring large amounts of offline data to the online world through mobile internet. Future use of this data could create unimaginable value.
Currently, the internet passively accepts user instructions, but as the era of big data arrives and artificial intelligence advances, the internet will increasingly be able to predict. Whether predicting people's needs or behaviors, enormous value will be generated.
There are already some mobile internet applications experimenting with prediction. For instance, intelligent calendar apps like Tempo and Cue can remind users based on the data they provide, helping them better manage their schedules. Of course, Google is also exploring in this area, and Google Now is its biggest weapon.
Another company worth mentioning is Tesla. The reason for including Tesla under mobile internet is that the cars produced by Tesla are essentially huge mobile smart connected devices. Although Tesla is not a purely internet-based company, the internet is undoubtedly the tool it uses to disrupt the automotive industry.
Next Stop: China
To say that the next internet giant will be born in China is not wishful thinking. In the global internet market, the only country comparable to the United States is China.
In terms of market size, North America, Europe, and China are the largest markets; in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation, the most active regions globally are the United States, Israel, and China—and China, in terms of both market size and entrepreneurial atmosphere, is on a fast-growing trajectory.
In fact, if we judge by company market capitalization, Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba, which is about to re-list, are among the largest internet companies globally. And the majority of these companies' business still mainly operates within mainland China.
With the rise of mobile internet, China has already seen many companies perform exceptionally well in the mobile internet space, such as Changba (Singbar) and Momo. Although in terms of scale, these companies are still far behind China's internet giants, at least they have shown other entrepreneurs the opportunities in China's internet sector.
Moreover, China's internet competitive environment is becoming increasingly open. Although the openness of China's internet giants lags behind that of Google and Facebook, at least now smaller companies can use these open platforms to quickly acquire users and grow rapidly.
These companies benefiting from open platforms will have a deeper understanding of openness, potentially allowing more companies to benefit from them.
At the same time, an increasing number of Chinese internet companies are beginning to think globally, targeting the global market from the day they are founded. This approach helps avoid early direct competition with domestic internet giants and also allows them to have a larger market in the future.
From the product and company level, China currently may not have a company that can challenge Facebook or become the next internet benchmark company, but in terms of the overall environment, China is gradually developing the necessary conditions for such a company. This increases the possibility of the next Facebook being born in China.