Finding opportunities to make money from products discarded by big companies

Finding entrepreneurial opportunities is a difficult process, and how to get started is even more difficult. This article shares a method, which is to find entrepreneurial opportunities through large companies.

Finding entrepreneurial opportunities is a very difficult process, as anyone who has experienced it knows.

Especially after the company’s first project failed, it planned to transform and look for a new direction. Sometimes it may take more than half a year to find a suitable one.

In the current environment, big factories are very competitive, and small factories are even more competitive, so many people complain that they have no opportunities.

But I think entrepreneurial opportunities always exist. Today I would like to share with you a very effective method, which is to find entrepreneurial opportunities through large companies.

a. The big companies I am talking about here have an annual revenue of at least tens of millions and have multiple business modules running at the same time.

b. There are many ideas for finding entrepreneurial opportunities based in large companies. I will share six of them.

01 What big companies are doing

Let’s talk about the e-commerce field that everyone is most familiar with. When it comes to Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, everyone seems to think that e-commerce has no chance.

But in fact, China's population is too large, China's territory is too large, and the Chinese people's consumption needs and channels are completely different.

Therefore, even in e-commerce, there are still huge opportunities. For example, what have big companies done in the e-commerce field in recent years?

Let’s first look at Pinduoduo. Pinduoduo has created Duoduo Maicai, social e-commerce group buying, private domain group buying tool Kuaituantuan, and cross-border e-commerce TEMU.

Let’s take a look at Meituan. Meituan has launched products such as Meituan Maicai, Meituan Quanquan, and Tuanmaimai.

For example, before, big companies were making social products, live streaming, short videos, etc., so you have to think about whether this is a track worth studying.

Just taking the Meituan and Pinduoduo products I mentioned just now as an example, I guarantee that 50% of people don’t know that these were actually made by them.

I would like to suggest that you study carefully what products the big manufacturers actually make.

For example, if you open Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Douyin, etc., you will find that they have made so many products, including Tencent, which is still making many e-commerce mini-programs and apps.

02 In the apps of big companies

When you have time, take a closer look at various products such as WeChat, Alipay, Taobao, JD.com, and Douyin.

For example, Alipay is commonly used for scanning codes, transferring money, and making payments.

However, there are hundreds of functions and product sections in Alipay, ranging from convenient life, entertainment and shopping to financial management, education and charity, and designing all aspects.

For example, you can open the homepage of Baidu PC and take a look at its [More] function.

Any small function can be used to make a product worth over 100 million yuan.

03 Product extension of large manufacturers

Let’s take WeChat as an example. At least hundreds of companies have been born based on this product.

• There are people who make money by making WeChat emoticons
• There are companies that specialize in WeChat and enterprise WeChat management software
• There are people who specialize in publishing and typesetting articles for public accounts.

There are also software for selling goods on WeChat, such as Youzan, Weidian, WeChat Business Album, Group Chain, Kuaituantuan, etc.

As for the product extensions related to Taobao, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, we can also see many products and services, and even listed companies.

04 What big companies cannot satisfy

Douyin officially provides data on short videos and live streaming sales, but the tools provided cannot meet the usage scenarios of some users, which is why there are companies such as Chanmama and Archaeology Plus.

Enterprise WeChat also has its own backend, but many people still buy external third-party enterprise management tools.

WeChat groups also have chain functions, and WeChat also provides tools for opening stores (small shops), but people prefer to use group chain functions and Kuaituantuan.

Official accounts also provide the ability to publish paid articles and special topics, but the experience in terms of publishing and modification is not good enough, so tools such as Fenchuan APP and Maiwan Mini Program are widely used.

05 Major companies have already invested

As entrepreneurs, we usually pay more attention to financial and technology-related news. As long as there is information about financing, there will be news.

For example, DingTalk acquired me, Tencent invested in knowledge payment, and what did Meituan, Douyin, and Alibaba invest in recently.

Before large companies make investments, they have strategic investment departments to conduct market analysis, analyze specific companies, and discuss and decide on the content, which at least shows that there are opportunities in a certain track.

06 Abandoned by the big companies themselves

In recent years, many large companies have shut down their projects.

Let’s take Tencent as an example. Tencent has closed Tencent Agency, Penguin FM, Haowoquan, Xiaoe Pinpin, etc.

But if you look at the products that compete with this, such as Waterdrop List, Himalaya, Fenchuan APP, Pinduoduo, and Qunjielong, they are all doing well.

Remember, just because big companies give up on making a product doesn’t mean there are no more opportunities.

Because big companies are not omnipotent. There are things they don’t do, and there are things they can’t do due to strategy or manpower.

07 The logic of large and small factories is different

Why can we look for opportunities in large companies? Because the logic of starting a business and making money in large and small companies is different.

1. The resources of large companies are also limited

Many people are always afraid that big companies will do it, or that big companies are doing it, but I want to tell you that it doesn’t mean that big companies will succeed just because they do it.

The cost of any project requires talent, team, traffic, products, funds, etc.

When a large company takes on a project, it may have inherent advantages, such as being able to quickly get through the cold start by diverting traffic to its main business.

But the subsequent results are the same. You can see that the business of many large companies starts with a lot of excitement but ends in silence.

This is because the resources of large companies are also limited. Not all projects that large companies are working on have 10 million in funding, 100 talents, and millions of traffic imports every day.

In fact, many projects may only involve three to five or ten people.

2. Large companies do not do business for the sake of subsistence

Many large companies can allow a project to lose 5 million or 10 million yuan per year and still continue to do it.

On the contrary, some projects only lose 50,000 or 100,000 yuan a year, or even make 100,000 or 200,000 yuan a year but still choose to shut down.

Because big companies consider the logic of positioning, traffic logic, and capital logic, but as a small startup company like us, we consider the logic of making money, the logic of food and clothing, and the logic of survival.

As long as the project does not make a loss for a year and has enough money to pay employees’ salaries, we can make money.

Therefore, many projects will not be done or will be abandoned, but small companies and entrepreneurs can find opportunities to make money based on this.

08 Entrepreneurial opportunities always exist

Finally, let me talk about entrepreneurial opportunities. I think there will always be entrepreneurial opportunities no matter whether it is a large company or a small company.

Regardless of whether there are some challenges in social development or the social supply is already prosperous, as long as people's needs are there, technology is being designed, and consumption scenarios are changing, there will be continuous opportunities.

In addition, no one can guarantee that the giants will survive forever. The first three years are a challenge for ordinary entrepreneurs, while 10 or 20 years is a big hurdle for giants, so we must believe that opportunities will always exist.