喜马拉雅如何创造'新声活' | From Startup to Audio Giant: Ximalaya FM

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In just two short years, Ximalaya FM has become the leading audio sharing platform in China, with a user base of over 200 million. The company's APP tops the list of products, and it accounts for the largest sound library in China with nearly 15 million pieces available to users.

(Yu Jianjun (left), fouder of Ximalaya FM and Chen Xiaoyu (right), co-founder)

People are spending more and more time on our programs. In the past, they just listened for 30 minutes. Last year, the figure rose to 60. And now, it’s 97.5 minutes. -- Yu Jianjun, founder of Ximalaya FM

Although success has come briskly, the path to creating such a dominant product was anything but fast or easy.

Ximalaya FM is the brainchild of Yu Jianjun and Chen Xiaoyu, who first came together in 2009 to launch a virtual reality joint venture called 那里世界 (Na Li Shi Jie).

The product, Chen recalls, took far too much of their time and energy, but at the end, it failed to capture the imagination of users. Piped to the post by a competitor, the duo began rethinking their approach.

“We were all thinking about ourselves, instead of thinking about what our users wanted. What do they want? What do they have in mind? Are we really helping them? After thinking it over, we started our second venture.”

The approach that the duo adopted was one of leveraging opportunities that the Internet offers to ordinary people to become broadcasters. However, instead of going the video broadcasting route or offering a text blogging platform, they decided to focus exclusively on audio broadcasting.

“I had a good understanding of audio and its benefits. Take myself as an example. Before I ventured into launching this product, I had tried reading the biography of Steve Jobs, but unfortunately I often fell asleep while reading the book. However, when I was listening, things changed. It wasn't boring to me anymore – the processing and background music offered me a good experience. As it turned out, I've heard the book three times now,” explains Yu when discussing the path that led them to the creation of Ximalaya FM.

With the desire of offering a unique audio experience and providing people a platform to create and distribute content to a large base of users, the duo finally launched Ximalaya FM in 2013.

Soon, the company raised some 61.5 million US dollars in two record-breaking rounds of funding in 2014, and since then, there has been no looking back.

(Mobile Music APP Users in China)

Ximalaya FM today boasts diverse and rich content, and has become renowned as a place where people can log in not only to consume but also to share their creations.

The company has over 3.4 million broadcasters, with 60,000 of them being certified. Among those, 6,000 are celebrities and people with millions of fans, like famous Chinese economist Lang Xianping, cross-talk performer Guo Degang, and actress Li Xiaolu.

While these celebrities tend to command strong follower counts, the company's real secret to success lies in its “everyone can be a broadcaster” or PUGC (professional user-generated content) strategy.

“Our philosophy with regard to UGC is that while everyone can create content, the presentation of our content is PGC - that only the best can win listing. If a person can bring value to others, then he can be a broadcaster on our platform," said Chen.

“Our broadcasters are distributed across the country. We encourage everyone to upload their contents. However, realistically, some will do well and some will not. If a person has a good voice, good recording equipment or interesting packages to share, then he will win a lot of fans. But if not, then he can't be a good broadcaster,” adds Yu Jianjun.

Using this PUGC strategy to build exclusive copyrights has helped cultivate quality grassroots broadcasters and expanded the reach and scope of Ximalaya FM.

However, having achieved this growth, how does the company plan to sustain and keep innovating in order to maintain its position?

"On the Internet, people will turn their backs on you immediately if you are not offering user friendly services, "said Chen.

In order to keep innovating, Chen and Yu follow a rather democratic method of persuasion. Rather than adopting a hierarchical structure where the boss has the final word, they prefer bringing ideas to the table and discussing them in order to win the other over via persuasion.

“That is very challenging. But that is better. Because only when you are better than others, you can survive,” says Yu.

(Incorporate audio elements into existing consumer goods)

With that approach, the company is currently working on new devices that incorporate audio elements into existing consumer goods.

Their objective, Chen says, is to “create value” for consumers with whatever they create. “That,” he believes, “is the standard to test everything.”

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