[Alibaba Software Star Software Event Phase I --- Caik客 Online] (1)

[Alibaba Software Star Software Event Phase One --- Caike Online] (1)

This post is from www.alisoft.com

[Alibaba Software Star ISV Event Phase One --- Caike Online]

Preface:

With the increasing number of ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) on Alibaba's software platform, a large number of enthusiastic and proactive ISVs have emerged. In order to provide exemplary guidance in product and operation models, and to help everyone grow together with the platform, we are delighted to launch the Alibaba Software Star ISV event.

The star ISV for the first phase is Caike Online. Below, through storytelling, let us get to know them better!

Product description page: http://mall.alisoft.com/apps/shopwindow/showDetailAppAction!show.jspa?app.appId=10888&tracelog=software_10888

Understand Caike Online

"The money you earn isn't your money; the money you save is." This is the slogan of some current accounting websites. With rising prices, more and more people exclaim that "spending money is always faster than earning it." The young "moonlight clan" and urban white-collar workers under increasing living pressures are beginning to seek the best way to "break through survival." Thus, the "accounting clan" has rapidly risen due to its convenient and fashionable financial management method and its populist threshold. Why has this group developed so quickly? Is it a return or a breakthrough to traditional personal and family financial management concepts?

1. Online Small Account Book - Record Earnings and Expenses

Blogs, podcasts, flash mobs... now, the internet also includes accountants and finance enthusiasts. Simply put, "accountants" refer to those who persistently record their income and expenses online, while "finance enthusiasts" have relatively higher requirements, referring to those with some knowledge of financial management who occasionally publish articles on forums.

Yesterday, I saw such entries on an accounting website called Wallet: Breakfast cost 60 yuan, air conditioner water tray repair, bought a bicycle, earned 730 yuan through foreign exchange... On the same page, numerous registered users recorded their smallest expense as "1 yuan, parking fee," while the largest income was over 290,000 yuan without stating the source. Under different menus like "spent," "want to spend," "earned," "want to earn," netizens all displayed a meticulous attitude.

Currently, Caike Online (www.caakee.com) offers small account book services and allows finance enthusiasts to exchange financial management insights.

2. Beginner Accountants Finally Understand Where Their Money Goes

More than a month ago, Xiao Wen, a 29-year-old office worker, became a registered user of a certain accounting website. She told reporters: "I originally thought that food and housing were my biggest monthly expenses. After keeping accounts for a month, I realized that wedding gifts and birthday celebrations among classmates and colleagues, along with taxi fees, were truly shocking. Of course, these 'gifts' can't be saved, so I decided to buy a public transportation monthly pass every month. Even if I really encounter an emergency, I'll try to take a taxi halfway."

Xiao Wen said that many members of the "moonlight clan" aren't intentionally spending all their money. They also want to save, but they don't know where their money goes. Therefore, she suggests that people with similar thoughts try keeping accounts.

In fact, several free accounting services not only allow users to record their income and expenses but also set up interactions among netizens. For example, if you spent 300 yuan, the website will show what others did with 300 yuan. Additionally, the website suggests that registered users categorize their expenses, such as food, housing, transportation, etc., making income and expenses clear at a glance.

3. Accountants: Not Just Following Trends

"Recharged 500 yuan to my credit card, paid 100 yuan for my mobile phone bill, spent 79.8 yuan shopping at the supermarket, and had dinner with colleagues costing 32 yuan..." This is the account book of Ms. Hu, a white-collar worker in Haikou.

When she saw "Total Expenditure This Month" showing "1968.3 yuan" at the bottom of the webpage, she couldn't help but smile, "You know, I used to spend at least 4000 yuan per month, a typical 'moonlight clan' member."

Nowadays, young white-collar workers have also started meticulously keeping accounts, just using computers and networks instead. Thus, netizens who own electronic account books online and persistently record their daily expenses are collectively referred to as "accountants."

By "exposing" each daily expense, they gradually broke the bad habit of random consumption. More people use professional websites' accounting software to create financial analysis charts based on a period's income and expenditure data, planning for future personal financial management.

"Online accounting" is not only popular among the "moonlight clan," but many new employees and even "gold-collar" professionals under increasing living pressure have joined the ranks of "accountants."

Caike Online's Stormy Entrepreneurial History

1. An Absolutely Grassroots Entrepreneurial Dream

Graduating in 2004, Tian Keshan never thought about coming to Shanghai. Majoring in Physics Education, according to his family's wishes, he would become a teacher after graduation, stable and secure. For a young man from a small county in Jiangxi, this was already sufficient.

His first job didn't follow his family's wishes to become a teacher. Instead, persuaded by an online friend, he worked in sales for a company operating a B2B website in Huzhou. Although Tian Keshan discovered that the boss didn't know how to operate e-commerce either, and it was "purely a bunch of clueless people fumbling around," this first career choice changed Tian Keshan's original intentions.

"My home is on the edge of the county, and all I could see were mountains. The will to venture out began to become my belief." After working at the B2B website for more than a month, again persuaded by an online friend, Tian Keshan came to Shanghai.

Just after graduating, knowing nothing and lacking experience, Tian Keshan stayed in Shanghai for more than a week without being attracted by the dazzling lights of Shanghai. Without finding a job, he was more worried about his livelihood issues. His online friend issued an eviction notice, as the local online friend also lived in the company dormitory. With 800 yuan in his pocket, after staying with another online friend for a week, Xiaotian once again became homeless.

"After taking two bags from a friend, I recharged my phone with 50 yuan, and I didn't have a penny left. Given my not-so-wealthy family background, I could only seek help from my former roommate. I waited outside a bank until midnight, finally finding a temporary place to stay with a classmate. But I must admit that the few netizens I met back then were good people." Tian Keshan recalled his initial difficulties with gratitude towards his friends.

"In the first few years in Shanghai, I kept changing jobs, having worked in over a dozen positions, with the longest tenure lasting only one year. Many people thought I was restless. Indeed, my mindset might not have been good, and bosses wouldn't like employees like me who frequently change jobs." Tian Keshan laughed when he said this, but he was very sure that he didn't want to keep working for others. Entrepreneurship was his ultimate goal.

He ran a coffee shop during university and opened a silk store in a subway shop while working in Shanghai. As Tian Keshan put it, time and energy were wasted, but he gained valuable experiences from two failures.

2. Entering the Arena

In China, once you create something, countless followers will immediately emerge. At the time, I told Li Hua: "I predict that within half a year, websites of this type will sprout up like mushrooms after the rain." Later events indeed proved this point.

Once the idea was settled, we immediately started building the team, conducting planning and development. At that time, there was no prior experience in online wealth management to reference, nor did we know exactly what to develop or which path to take. Everything was done through trial and error. Many things are like this: once they're done, they don't seem extraordinary. But before doing them, no one knows what they will look like. Just like before Google came out, who could imagine that a website could be like this: a big page with just a large text box. Technically, there were me and Li Hua, and we needed a graphic designer. We recruited Stella at the time.

After more than two months of development, the most primitive prototype of Caike Online emerged: it was then called "Wealth Management Ala," with the domain name www.licaionline.com, chosen for its phonetic resemblance. Long-time users of Caike Online must certainly remember this name. The domain was activated in February 2006. So, when seeing some websites claim: the earliest accounting website, the best accounting website on Earth, the most professional accounting website, a more useful accounting website than Caizhi... I can't help but sneer. It's like when Shanghai people talk about high-ranking officials, Beijing people laugh. Caike Online has always been diligently doing its own thing.

The first version came out, achieving basic functions for income and expenditure. However, since both me and Li Hua were experienced in large projects, the technical architecture of Caike Online was made overly complex, making later development inconvenient. Moreover, the interface inherited from a previous project had copyright infringement risks. Technical personnel tend to make these kinds of mistakes. Therefore, in the following months, efforts were focused on simplifying the architecture and redesigning the interface. During this period, Caike Online developed slowly.

In April, a simplified architecture version was launched. Around this time, Menter, another member of the Caike Online team, joined. Menter's joining significantly accelerated our development work. By June 2006, a completely new architecture for Caike Online was created. Also, after extensively listening to opinions, "Wealth Management Ala" was officially renamed to "Caike Online." Simultaneously, we gained a professional financial staff member named "Heizi."

From June to October, the market remained calm. When searching online for "online accounting," only Caike Online appeared. Perhaps precisely because of this reason, Caike Online developed slowly. The database structure changed repeatedly, and the design direction was uncertain. Initially, it supported multiple users, but later it was deemed unnecessary and removed. Then it was added back. At this time, the users were mostly friends and family, without any real external users.

3. Flourishing Development

Caike Online's first true user was named "Lu'er," a user from Inner Mongolia. This first user thrilled me! That night, I noticed from the backend that she failed to log in multiple times, and I immediately investigated the cause until three o'clock in the morning, discovering that it was due to using Chinese characters as her username. I promptly sent her an email explaining the issue. The scene remains vivid in my mind. Now Lu'er may have left. All the members of our Caike team wish her well!

After entering October, the development direction of Caike Online became a problem. Here, I had serious disagreements with Menter: I advocated focusing on practicality, realizing functions first before developing further. Menter advocated improving the interface first and developing the community. Since both of us were technically inclined and inexperienced in marketing, Caike Online's development temporarily fell into a deadlock. And as expected, after entering 2007, websites of this type sprouted up like mushrooms after the rain, appearing almost every month, with some launching aggressive promotional campaigns. Some even surpassed Caike Online, and some of Caike Online's original ideas, like SMS accounting, were plagiarized. At this point, we realized that continuing like this would not work. We needed capable marketing personnel to reverse the declining trend.

4. Rapid Ascension

At this critical moment, Xiaotian joined. Xiaotian's joining resolved our crisis effortlessly. Xiaotian had operated websites for many years and had rich experience. After several months of promotion and attacks, the website progressed rapidly. In a short time, Alexa ranking improved from over a million to around 200,000. Daily registrations increased from less than ten people to a peak of 1,500 people in a day! Daily IP numbers also continued to rise.

For a long time, Caike Online was developed, designed, and operated solely by a group of technical personnel. More than one person mentioned to us: our software is unprofessional and does not conform to financial rules, but we did not take it seriously. However, as development entered the middle and late stages, some problems gradually became apparent: for instance, integrating and statistically analyzing the data users recorded posed a significant challenge.

At this point, the addition of two other decisive professional financial personnel—Pare and Xiaohuang—completely transformed the situation. Starting in June, Caike Online began to earnestly study how to incorporate the most professional accounting principles into the software. After three months of dedicated exploration, Caike Online V2.6 was finally born!

Caike Online V2.6 is a milestone version. Its foundation utilizes the most professional accounting principles, enabling effective recording of any financial information (currently not fully complete). Yet, it remains simple and easy to understand when used. The transformation of the underlying architecture is akin to equipping Caike Online with wings for rapid ascension. Future development and progress will be swift and convenient.

5. On the Road

Looking ahead, our development tasks remain heavy. On one hand, due to significant changes, some bugs have emerged, requiring our attention to fix. On the other hand, Caike Online's architecture still needs continuous improvement to make it more reasonable and efficient. Market expansion is also growing, demanding much of our focus. Our team requires more competent individuals to join. Due to rapid growth, hardware facility demands are increasing. Operational costs are also rising, and we are considering attracting some investments in the market.

However, regardless of anything, our development cannot proceed without your support and assistance! Through our joint efforts, we have every reason to believe that we can offer you the most user-friendly and considerate product!

One-sentence entrepreneurial reflection: Hard work always brings many rewards, whether large or small, there's no need to dwell too much on it!