(Chinese Version)

Recently, shop owners on Taobao received a notice from Alibaba, announcing that it had withdrawn Alipay Delay Payment service. It is reported that a series of services, including Tmall Wallet, Convenient Security Check, Convenient Credit Card Installment, Tmall Installment, Mobile Recharge Card, will soon be dropped and integrated into other services.

On the one hand, Internet services also have a life span and should be disposed of over time, on the other hand, ill-received services also need to be given up in time, otherwise it would take unnecessary costs to keep providing these services. However, dropping an Internet services isn’t that easy in practice, and not all companies dare to do so. That’s why I am amazed by Alibaba’s decisiveness in giving up so many services at a time.

What makes it difficult to drop an Internet service?

First of all, Internet services are all inter-connected and hard to be dropped separately.

No Internet company should develop its product lines separately. Instead, its services should be inter-connected and even intertwined together. Sometimes, service A should be the foundation for service B, while other times, customer service in this product line might affect another product line.

In this case, a service has to be separated from other related services before being dropped. A lot of efforts need to be devoted in this process, while the cost is inevitable.

Secondly, it could be difficult to satisfy the users.

While it takes great efforts to launch a new service and promote it to customers, it is even harder to drop a service without annoying its users.

An appropriate transfer plan, and even bonus strategy might work on most occasions, but not always. Some users might ask for higher bonuses, while others just refuse to transfer. Even if they are forced to transfer, they might be irritated. If not handled appropriately, the company might even leave a bad impression on users.

Moreover, it is even harder to satisfy the product manager.

When it comes to dropping an Internet service, another difficulty lies in dealing with product managers. This is true for both state-owned enterprises and private companies, since it is hard for the managers to be 100% objective when making the final decisions. Nobody wants to see that his/her own sweats and efforts turn out in vain and will spare no efforts to save the service.

Besides, a lot more factors need to be taken into consideration when making the final decision: whether the performance of the service is good or not, if not, to what extent? Whether the evaluation standards are appropriate or not? Whether there is a substitute or not? Things would be a lot trickier if the service has something to do with a high-level official or expert in the company.

At last, the spared cost is hard to quantify.

No Internet company can tell exactly how much money can be spared by dropping it. It is likely that by dropping a service, the company both spends a lot more money and efforts than the spared cost, and loses a good many customers at the same time. That’s why no company dares to make any hasty decision when dropping a service.

In the mobile Internet era, as the pace of life is getting faster, the average lifespan for a new Internet service gets shorter and shorter. Old services must be upgraded or even replaced by new services, so as to keep up with the time and meet new requirements. In this case, Internet companies should establish an adequate “Internet service life-span management system”, so that a service will automatically be dropped if it fails to meet certain standards set by the management system. No bargaining. Imagine the efficiency and huge benefits brought by such a system.

That’s why, again, I am amazed by Alibaba’s decisiveness in dropping so many services at a time.

（The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Ning Yu, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.)

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at ECHO)