(Chinese Version)

On November 20 th 2017, TMTPost officially announced to transform itself from a tech media to a tech knowledge and data service provider, rolling out its brand new paid content brand 72 Questions as well as TMTPost’s new logo. The new logo is an integrated symbol of 72 and T (representing both Tech and TMT).

In the afternoon of November 20th, TMTPost held the very first press conference in five years ever since it came online at its headquarter at Hujialou, Beijing. Attending media and we-media guests were asked to write down their most curious questions regarding TMTPost and the press conference. A total of 72 questions written down on paper were put into a “knowledge box”. The very first reaction the attendees had was: Why are we writing down questions now?

This is one of the very principles we have developing 72 Questions, the importance of learning to ask questions: No why, no way. With the right questions, one can learn the truth and knowledge.

TMTPost’s founder Zhao Hejuan stated that the nature of learning process is a matter of learning to ask questions and continue to express doubts, and that the answers to the questions are the end goal. “Only good questions can lead to good results. Without a why, you have no way to achieve that. But the truth is most questions don’t have a standard answer. So the result people get will influence their perception. In this case, higher level of learning is not about learning knowledges, but enhancing perception,” Zhao said.

At present, most paid content products are criticized for being overly fragmented, making the audience find it hard to regard them as knowledge. However, when the fragmented knowledges are linked with a logic and under a series of deep questions, these knowledges become a knowledge system, which the users can learn during their fragmented free time.

Why call it 72 Questions? The brand name originates from a principle that Zhao Hejuan often emphasizes in TMTPost’s content team: To systematically to investigate a matter and interview a person, at least 72 questions should be prepared before each interview. According to Zhao, an interview script without at least 72 questions does not pass her bar.

TMTPost’s vice president Lin Sen added that 72 has been a magical number in traditional Chinese culture as the Confucius had 72 students while Sun Wukong, the monkey king in the Journey to West, could transform into 72 forms. Chinese people also emphasize on the 24 solar terms with each having three pentads. Ancient Chinese believed any change in the world takes place within the 72 pentads. “We named our new product 72 Questions to symbolize the exploration process of the knowledges in the world.”

When asked about opinions on Dedao, a similar paid content business model, Zhao replied that Dedao’s model is different from UGC communities as it’s a fusion of media, publication and education. “We really appreciate Luo Zhenyu and his team’s efforts in this field. Their exploration has provided the media, publication and education industry may inspirations. And these three sectors are currently undergoing fierce transition.”

But what sets 72 Questions apart from the crowd?

Firstly, 72 Questions’ end game is not merely the paid content, but rather, to congregate fragmented knowledges with systematic questions, so that we can build up a global, complete, and timely knowledge base and expert network in the tech world in the future.

Secondly, the invited speakers of 72 Questions are renowned experts of their field. And the knowledge they present is more systematic. They would present the audience with knowledges accumulated from practical experience at the forefront as well as theories. Our aim is to keep up with international first-class universities, allowing our users to utilize their fragmented time and systematically study courses that are offered by top schools in the world.

Thirdly, we have introduced a questioner mechanism. We believe that systematic knowledge comes from systematic questions. Zhao added that in the future a questioner mechanism will be open from the product level, providing bonus for the content providers and question raisers.

The development of technology and human society is driven by humans’ endless curiosity. Two sections have been launched for 72 Questions.

1. The first section is the annual Q&A, which will invite internationally renowned content providers to present their knowledge. The content will be available both in audio, photo and text. By asking a series of questions, the invited speaker’s knowledge will be constructed into a systematic column, truly providing the users with the opportunity to study systematically through fragmented time. If the column features foreign speakers, there will be introduction in Chinese besides the original audio. The annual subscription of the column is priced at ￥199.

72 Questions is established with a global outlook and targets the international audience, aiming to build a first-class online education platform in the world. The speakers that are invited to 72 Questions will be international experts from various fields, many of which are renowned and well-respected educators from top universities such as Stanford University, Harvard University and UC Berkeley etc.

For instance, the author of A History of Silicon Valley, Piero Scaruffi, is our distinguished guest for one of our earliest columns, Secrets of Silicon Valley on 72 Questions. Piero first started his own business in Silicon Valley in the 80s and since then has been a witness of the miraculous process happening in Silicon Valley. He is also a guest lecturer in several American top schools, including UC Berkeley, Stanford etc. In another column named Knowledge for Top Sales Management we have Mr. Sun Zhenrao as the knowledge provider, a well-known professional manager who was the former president of HP China. Sun was also the former board chair of hiSoft Technology International Limited, president of ATA, and senior advisor for Tencent and MediaTek. Sun has 30 years of experience in managing big firms.

TMTPost’s two founders, Zhao Hejuan and Liu Xiangming will be presenting the questions for the two knowledge providers.

TMTPost’s co-founder Liu Xiangming stated that TMTPost is aiming to further connect the development of technology with the changing commercial revolution scene. “We have to admit that Silicon Valley is still the core of the world of technologies and innovations. And to help Chinese users understand the progress of technology, we need to help them systematically learn about the history of Silicon Valley and the global tech history. That’s why we chose Secrets of Silicon Valley as one of our earliest columns and invited Scaruffi as our content provider. Chinese users will then be able to understand and better predict the major changes that will take place in the future driven by technologies. We believe Scaruffi is very good choice,” Liu said.

Scaruffi went to Silicon Valley to start a business in the 80s, during which time he made friends with many talented entrepreneurs there. This makes him a perfect candidate to decode the success and failures in Silicon Valley. Even if you have stayed in Silicon Valley for 20 year you might still don’t know many stories coming from Scaruffi.

We have noticed that many mid and small-sized companies in China are derailing in sales management, while having trouble nurturing business talents. This creates great obstacles for companies to further expand their sales scale and take it to the next level. That’s why we invited Sun Zhenrao to share his knowledge in sales management for the column of Knowledge for Top Sales Management.  There are tons of books on sales and management out in the book market, but very few authors are able to help readers understand sales theories from the perspectives of both theories and practice, and provide readers with clear solutions to problems. Sun has nearly 30 years of experience working for multinational companies, during which he had studied and explored the approaches to combine leading management theories with the local situation in China to establish competence for a corporate organization. He is the best candidate for the column.

In the future, we will keep on inviting knowledge providers closest to the front line of the tech world and have them share the hottest, most useful systematic knowledge in tech and business. Very soon we will have the surprise for everyone.

2. The second section will be made of quality small-scale classes that will be taught by top elites from the Internet industry. They would be giving lecture on specific practice and each class is priced at ￥9.9. On the very first day six quality classes had come online.

72 Questions will be available from TMTPost’s 9.0 update.

It has been five years since the initial launch of TMTPost. Different from traditional media, TMTPost has found a unique approach to quality content by constantly providing in-depth and original content and forming partnership with elite authors in society.

Prior to 72 Questions, TMTPost has also rolled out many significantly influential and exclusive articles, research reports, as well as features like TiDoc, TMTPost Pro, and Instant etc. TMTPost has garnered over 30 million subscribers with its official website, APP, WeChat page, Weibo page etc., with a monthly read volume of one billion. TMTPost is now a leading forerunner in the tech and business information sector in China.

In the future, TMTPost will continue to build itself as a globally influential tech knowledge and data service provider to actualize its mission of building a world-class tech knowledge base and expert network.

Share 72 Questions on TMTPost with your friends now and invite them to dive into a pool of knowledge now.

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Translated by Garrett Lee (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.