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October 15, 2014, Beijing Airport.

Recently, many big names have been talking about "dimensional reduction strikes," which generally means a battle where the levels and thinking are not on the same plane. For example, we live in three-dimensional space, with depth in addition to the plane. But for ants, they only know front, back, left, and right, not up and down, so their world is two-dimensional.

The term "dimensional reduction strike" likely comes from Liu Cixin's novel "The Three-Body Problem." In it, there is a "two-dimensional foil" that can reduce all contact from three dimensions to two dimensions. It is a weapon used by cleaners of higher civilizations to strike solar system civilizations. When humans cannot adapt to two dimensions, the destruction of Earth's civilization is inevitable. However, I haven't finished reading the three books of "The Three-Body Problem." A former colleague gave them to me in 2009. I read them for a while, then set them aside. Recently, when I started writing my own novel, I picked them up again.

The term "dimensional reduction" is indeed vivid. If humans adapt to three dimensions, removing one dimension makes survival impossible. If a company adapts to three dimensions, removing one dimension also makes survival impossible. After the internet emerged, it became easy to remove certain dimensions! The result is that these strikes are extremely brutal!

E-commerce removed the dimensional constraint of geography. Previously, any shopping mall had to be located in a high-traffic area to do business, and the ceiling of business was limited to how many people could be in that area... When the internet came, the geographical dimension almost disappeared! Sorry, many offline businesses are now in trouble.

Antivirus software: Previously, companies like Rising and Jiangmin made money by charging software fees, earning tens of millions or even hundreds of millions annually. When 360 appeared, it stopped charging! What to do? This dimension disappeared! Thus, traditional antivirus software began to slowly die out!

Xiaomi phones: This example is also interesting. Previously, phone sales relied on distributors and agents at various levels, with layers of markup before final sale. Now Xiaomi has built its own fan channel, removing the middleman dimension. Other phone brands, whose previous advantages are now useless, can only watch helplessly. Of course, Xiaomi has other characteristics, but I won't elaborate.

We often say that defeating Baidu won't be another Baidu (like 360), defeating Taobao won't be another Taobao (like Paipai), and defeating WeChat won't be another WeChat (like Laiwang). Because in the same world, the first mover has advantages, and everyone who can create a successful business is not dumber than others. Once a pattern is formed, the best way to change it is through dimensional reduction strikes.

Another example is the gaming industry. The most powerful game overlord, Nintendo, suffered losses in 2013. How does Nintendo make money? It sells you a console, then sells you game cartridges. The more game cartridges sold, the more money Nintendo makes. But now it's suffering losses. The most profitable gaming company now is Chinese. In the first quarter of 2014, Tencent Games surpassed Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Blizzard, and other global giants with revenue of $1.714 billion, ranking first globally. Tencent removed the hardware dimension!

Let's continue with Tencent's WeChat. Who are WeChat's competitors? Telecom, Mobile, and other operators? But WeChat doesn't charge, and this single dimensional reduction strike leaves those operators helpless, as they are not competing on the same level.

These past few days, I attended two meetings, and at both, there was Diaoye—yes, the guy who made Diaoye Niu Nan. The cases I've mentioned here were also talked about by Diaoye.

Diaoye recently launched Hetaojia, a platform for artisans, currently focusing on nail art. It's also a great example of dimensional reduction strikes. Nail salons need storefronts and management—these are the dimensions of traditional nail salons. With Hetaojia, only nail technicians are needed, and they don't charge for the technicians! In just a few months, with only Beijing and Shanghai, there are already several hundred nail technicians. Can offline nail salons compete?

At today's meeting, Diaoye said:

"The one who defeats Dong Mingzhu won't be Xiaomi's Lei Jun, but Tan Chong of Puppy Electric."

Why? Because Tan Chong's Puppy Electric today launched a "Hi Repair" central service model, where all after-sales repairs are picked up and delivered by SF Express, and repairs don't charge users a cent! Is this after-sales experience a dimensional reduction strike against traditional appliance brands? If traditional appliance companies also did this, they'd probably be dead. Removing this dimension makes it hard for them to survive.

There should be many more such examples, such as the development of self-media and micro-business, but I won't elaborate.

Of course, all theories are summarized by so-called experts. Those who truly build great companies rarely know about dimensional reduction strike theory from the start. Jack Ma didn't know Taobao would become what it is, and Zhang Xiaolong didn't know WeChat would be so popular. So if you're starting a business, it doesn't matter whether you know about dimensional reduction strikes. Just do your current work well, and what's meant to come will come naturally!

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