Analysis of Himalaya user operation strategy!

Himalaya has carved out a niche in the audio and video product market with its outstanding operational strategies, but it cannot sit back and relax for the future. Faced with the craze for short videos, how can Himalaya improve content quality and continue to expand its market?

1. Product Introduction

1.1 Product Background

1) Field

Himalaya FM is a professional audio sharing platform that brings together hundreds of millions of audios, including audio novels, audio books, children's bedtime stories, crosstalk sketches, ghost stories, etc. It has a huge amount of program audio and is the most concentrated and active platform for audio creators. It uses the "PGC+UGC" content production method to share good voices at any time and listen to what you want to hear.

In early 2013, the Himalaya FM mobile client was officially launched. Earlier, Phoenix FM and Qingting FM opened up the mobile audio market with TV programs and radio station audio as content, and the fragmented dividend gave birth to more mobile audio products.

However, Himalaya developed very quickly after its launch, achieving the goal of tens of millions of users in just half a year. In early May 2014, its user base exceeded 50 million, exceeding the initial growth rate of most competitors and becoming the largest online audio sharing platform in China. Behind the huge market size is the successful transformation of an audio listening product from a listening tool to a platform that respects copyright and shares high-quality audio content.

The picture comes from Analysys Qianfan

2) Product positioning

A content aggregation and social media radio station, with listening and broadcasting functions as the core, providing PGC, UGC, social and other functions. It is the largest online audio platform in China, with a massive amount of high-quality audio that can be listened to on mobile phones.

1.2 Business Logic

1) Target users

Data compiled from iResearch

Data compiled from iResearch

The pictures and data are from Analysys Qianfan

Himalaya FM users are mainly distributed in first- and second-tier cities, with a higher proportion of males, and their age group is concentrated in the post-80s and post-90s, with the user group mainly between 20 and 35 years old.

User portraits can be roughly divided into the following categories:

• Young white-collar workers and IT practitioners: They are usually busy with work and want to use their fragmented time to enrich themselves, learn professional knowledge or listen to audiobooks;
• Student group: highly active, with plenty of time, keen on the Internet and willing to try new things, using the platform for daily entertainment and learning;
• Taxi/online ride-hailing drivers: They often need to rush to their destinations alone, get tired easily and have limited space to move around. They need voice companionship for entertainment, news and information, and to provide a relaxing riding environment for passengers.
• Anchors: Share their own audio works on the platform at a low cost and conveniently to gain a certain amount of fame and income;
• Industry elites/entrepreneurs/business owners: Most of them are high-income people with mature and stable careers. They obtain industry information and listen to financial news through the platform.

2) Demand scenarios

• Currently, you have a need for and are interested in knowledge in a certain field and want to directly acquire information and knowledge by listening;
• Listen to your favorite channels or programs, such as Tucao Conference;
• Want to listen to the updated audio of the host you follow, make it a habit for a long time, and listen regularly;
• Follow a novel or a book and feel the story more deeply by listening;
• Listen to hot information and news.

3) Core Functions

Listening, subscribing, downloading and broadcasting are the core functions of Himalaya FM. As for personal radio and social functions, they are the unique features that distinguish FM from other online audio apps.

2. Product Experience

2.1 Product Structure Diagram

Main functional structure

Android version: 6.6.12.3

2.2 Business process diagram

Main business logic

Audio listening flow chart

Content publishing flow chart

Main business logic diagram

As a tool product that focuses on content, Himalaya APP has the following two core businesses: one is to ensure content quality; the other is to organize and distribute content.

The core business of ensuring content quality requires Himalaya to continuously enrich the capacity of the audio library, the completeness of audio-related information, the audio quality, and encourage users to create audio content.

The core business of content organization and distribution is mainly completed in two ways at the product level: directly finding the target content (search, personalized recommendations, rankings, subscriptions, etc.), and indirectly finding audio content with the help of UGC content (audio album recommendations and searches, and learning about the dynamics of friends and anchor pages).

3. Determine the life cycle

Himalaya was first launched in 2013, and has been in operation for nearly 6 years. The number of users has reached 470 million. The basic and core functions of the product are already complete, and it currently focuses on profitable operations with a mature strategy. It has completed its Series D financing, which fully demonstrates Himalaya's success - so Himalaya should currently be in its mature stage.

Data from KuChuan

4. Analyze operational strategies

Based on Himalaya's life cycle, we focus on analyzing the product's user operation strategies in the start-up, growth and mature stages.

4.1 Start-up period (2013-2015)

The purpose of product operation in the initial stage is not only to acquire a large number of users, but also to make all necessary preparations to serve a large number of users in the future, including: product functions, product experience, product style and atmosphere, service capabilities, content generation, etc.

Earlier optimization of software and hardware, the maturity of 3/4G mobile networks and the reduction in usage costs, as well as the demand for network fragmentation, led to the emergence of various mobile radio platforms around 2013. Himalaya was one of them and was in its early stages of development.

The reason why Himalaya can stand out among many FM programs is that it operates quickly, acquires users, and continuously improves users' loyalty to Himalaya FM. Adopt the "Podcast on demand + Weibo attention" model to carry out differentiated competition.

1) Acquiring users: Radio DJ and online anchor content in mobile scenarios, attracting fans to become seed users

In the early days, Himalaya seized the pain points of traditional radio DJs and internet anchors who were facing fierce competition from the red ocean of videos and mobile reading, and signed exclusive contracts with them. The content produced by the anchors themselves can be played in mobile scenarios through the platform and heard by more people. Their hardcore fans will naturally become the seed users of the platform.

Himalaya advocates that everyone can establish their own radio station and develop fans. As more and more fans listen to their programs, more and more people are encouraged to create, thus attracting more fans.

In addition, Himalaya allows everyone to upload their own programs and make them on their mobile phones.

This series of operational actions quickly attracted traditional radio DJs, anchors and their fans. The smaller the group, the greater the degree of organization and closeness within it. Therefore, through the sharing and recommendations of the first batch of seed users, the second and third batches of users with the same tastes quickly became Himalaya users.

Therefore, we can see that Himalaya’s initial seed user operation strategy can be summarized as very clear and simple, which is to grasp the user pain points in “user acquisition”, attract and serve these users who are unstable in the Internet era, not valued by large organizations, but have strong self-propagation capabilities, and let them spontaneously endorse Himalaya.

2) Activate users: PGC+UGC, enhance product sharing, social interaction, and cooperation attributes

In order to maintain interaction between anchors and DJs and their fans and increase fan engagement, social functions such as comments and sharing have been implemented. Himalaya invited popular TV programs and talk shows at the time to cooperate, such as "The Voice of China", to provide listeners with "The Voice of China" song auditions. Listeners and program viewers can listen to the songs on the platform and vote for their favorite contestants. This move effectively increased the audience and listener participation, and the exposure of the program and the Himalaya platform, achieving a win-win situation for both parties.

Himalaya also cooperated with a joke talk show of Durex, and created two "shy versions" of "Jokes Are Coming" with "Dudu Radio", which had more than 620,000 views in just 13 days. This move increased the exposure of the brand and the Himalaya platform, creating a win-win situation for both parties.

Through fan interaction, user social behavior is naturally activated; through cooperation among all parties, it not only attracts traffic to the platform, but also increases user activity.

Himalaya established a good communication platform for the anchors and their fans at that time, found a win-win cooperation method with brands, and provided rich resources for the majority of listeners. Judging from the current status of the product, the exploration in the initial stage was very successful.

4.2 Growth period (2016-2017)

For a product that has passed the start-up phase, the core goal is to achieve rapid user growth. During its growth period, Himalaya was no exception and began to use all available means and resources to quickly capture the market, and it also became more sophisticated in user operations.

4.2.1 Get User & Activate User

1) C-end users - multiple methods

①Continuous growth of content

Himalaya covers a full range of content categories, and the platform continues to add and adjust content based on user interests. Not only does it continue to promote top content such as "Logical Thinking", "Tucao Conference", and "The Voice of China" that have their own traffic and can exchange program fans with the platform, but it also improves the mid- and long-tail content in categories such as novels, crosstalk, jokes, and emotions that meet the needs of different users.

②KOL

The Himalaya platform promotes this type of users through the popularity of their programs, which means platform traffic and better recommendation positions. This operational strategy cleverly mobilizes the enthusiasm of KOLs and indirectly creates promotion channels for the platform through KOLs’ own promotion channels.

For example: Ayawawa, the most popular emotional influencer in China and a million-selling author, launched her first paid knowledge program on Himalaya, "Ayawawa Emotional Private Class: Make the One You Love Fall in Love with You." Ayawawa is a well-known emotional blogger on Weibo with millions of fans. Her promotional articles on Weibo naturally achieve indirect promotion of the platform. Indeed, the program has been dominating the charts since it was launched on Himalaya. On March 8, 2016, Women's Day, it became the most popular gift that all girls gave to themselves, and ranked first in sales on the entire Himalaya FM site.

③Activity promotion

Today, "Double Eleven" is an annual event in Internet life. Such large-scale events often have the attribute of attracting new users. Himalaya also launched its first "Knowledge Carnival" in 2016, with sales of 50.88 million yuan in 24 hours, and the second session in 2017 had sales of nearly 200 million yuan.

In addition to the increase in sales, it also used actual data to illustrate "knowledge payment", occupying the user's understanding of the concept and achieving good publicity effects. In addition, the new member gift packages distributed during the carnival effectively increased the platform’s customer acquisition and user conversion.

④Platform cooperation

By cooperating with other brands and products, Himalaya reaches more users.

Himalaya and Didi Designated Driver have reached a deep strategic cooperation. As the first project of the deep cooperation between the two parties, during an event in December 2015, all car owners who use Didi Designated Driver will have the opportunity to receive an in-car smart hardware "Listen to the Car" and receive exclusive designated driver vouchers provided by Himalaya FM.

Himalaya has entered the Sonos smart audio system, an internationally leading smart audio brand. Sonos users only need to add the Himalaya FM service in the Sonos App to experience the massive audio programs and more brought by Himalaya FM.

2) B-side users

In order to ensure the continuous high-quality generation of user content, Himalaya continues to optimize product functions and operational strategies for B-side users.

①Product function

Different from traditional professional recording equipment, Himalaya has made it possible for users to realize their dream of becoming a broadcaster with just a mobile phone and headphones. This is extremely attractive to students and lecturers who graduated from non-broadcasting and hosting majors.

②Operation strategy

On the one hand, it expands and maintains top producers of knowledge in different fields to attract MCNs to settle in; on the other hand, Himalaya University has developed special training for content producers who actively join the platform, including how to grow into excellent anchors and how to realize monetization.

Finally, Himalaya creates personalized radio stations for all users. When new users enter the APP, they can select different field tags according to their preferences, and content will be matched and recommended based on user behavior, so that each user will see a different page when opening the Himalaya APP, ensuring that users can discover programs of interest and maintain uniqueness.

4.2.2 User Conversion

In early 2016, Himalaya APP launched the points mall. Later, membership systems for anchors and ordinary users were also launched one after another. Coupons, 123 Knowledge Carnival, 66 Member Day and other activities further boosted the platform's user conversion.

Of course, while considering conversion, we are also operating users in a more refined manner.

1) Establish a points system

Users are encouraged to sign in, share, invite friends, subscribe to albums, and complete social profiles to receive points. The points earned can be exchanged for goods in the points mall.

This greatly improves user activity and can effectively promote conversion behavior, sharing behavior and inviting friends to attract new users. Improving social information is conducive to the accumulation of social relationships, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

2) Establish a hierarchy

Users are encouraged to listen to more programs and log in continuously to help improve their levels and obtain privileges, which greatly improves user loyalty and activity to Himalaya.

3) Define the annual event in the field and cultivate users’ habit of paying for knowledge

Similar to the annual national shopping festivals such as "Double Eleven" and "618" in the e-commerce field, in the field of knowledge payment, Himalaya launched the 123 Knowledge Carnival to define the annual promotional event in the field of knowledge payment.

As a pioneer, we have effectively seized the user's understanding of the concept of paying for knowledge. The accompanying promotional activities have contributed to the platform's considerable GMV.

For platform users, Himalaya’s 66 Member Days, which offers a 50% discount, is another annual event. Promote the conversion of ordinary users into paying users and define the platform’s own annual event.

4.3 Mature stage (2018 to present)

Mature products already have a relatively stable position in the corresponding field, the growth rate of the number of active users has become stable, existing functions have been optimized, and new functions have been developed to ensure user growth.

The operational work at this stage will generally be guided by three major directions: brand image establishment, user activity, retention rate and commercial monetization, and Himalaya is no exception.

Activate users & retain users

1) User social networking - listener circle, fan group, live broadcast friendship, etc.

Social networking requires users to produce content to attract other interested users and maintain user relationship networks.

Audio social networking is based on audio content. Himalaya makes audio live broadcast and sending audio updates possible. Everyone can create their own audio and share their own voice.

The Listener Circle allows users to send their own updates and share their own creations through voice, just like WeChat Moments, to achieve self-production of content; fan groups and live broadcast friends effectively maintain interaction between anchors and listeners, and the fan economy promotes conversion and activity.

Overall, Himalaya's multi-faceted social attributes not only increase the stickiness and loyalty of the platform's fans, but also achieve the purpose of promoting activation and retention.

2) Creation satisfaction - National reading & interesting dubbing

If the platform's live broadcast function has created a fertile soil for the anchors to survive, then national reading and interesting dubbing are the creative world for ordinary users.

You can choose the reading content according to your own preferences, or select the clips you are interested in for role-playing dubbing. Everyone can leave their own voice and share their voice on the platform, and everyone can create.

UGC content can be shared on the platform, and users can adjust and optimize their own creations, gain appreciation from others, and gain a sense of satisfaction invisibly. The platform seizes the psychological needs of users and guides user participation as much as possible through rapid presentation of operating mechanisms and product functions and low-threshold creation rules.

When it comes to creative content, the platform maintains the principles of openness and inclusiveness while respecting the copyright of creators, and everyone's creative content is protected. It is for this reason that users choose to continue creating.

5. Advantages & Disadvantages Analysis

After the above analysis, we comprehensively analyze Himalaya's advantages and disadvantages from three aspects: content operation, event operation, and user operation.

5.1 Content Operation

In terms of content operation, Himalaya encourages the production of "UGC+PGC" content and attaches importance to copyright protection. On the one hand, independent creation by C-end users and entry and cooperation by B-end users enrich the types and diversity of program content to meet the needs of users with different preferences and fields; on the other hand, high-quality audio content comes from the screening and content review of creators. High-quality content is highly relevant and can more accurately meet the tastes of interested users.

However, as the number of users grows, more and more indecent content has aroused the disgust of many users, and even copyright infringement has occurred. It was leaked on other self-media platforms, sparking discussions among passers-by and eventually causing a major impact. Not only did some high-quality content get removed, but the platform was also removed from app stores.

Obviously, this not only hinders platform harmony and user creative enthusiasm, but also causes legal issues, etc. Therefore, Himalaya has also stepped up its efforts in content review and copyright protection to create a more comfortable atmosphere for sharers, creators, and listeners.

5.2 Activity Operation

The reason why Himalaya has achieved such success is largely due to its endless innovation in activities.

Whether it is the live voting activities with major popular variety shows, the platform's first 123 Knowledge Carnival in the field of knowledge payment, or the continuous cross-border marketing online and offline, there have been good feedback, and even heated discussions in the news media and search platforms many times.

It is worth mentioning that in terms of event operations, Himalaya will occasionally hold recruitment events for platform anchors of different age groups. On the one hand, it encourages everyone to create and share; on the other hand, it attracts users of a certain age group and certain fields, continuously promotes the generation of original audio, and further highlights the tone of Himalaya's universal creation.

5.3 User Operation

In terms of user operations, Himalaya attaches importance to brand cooperation and original audio content producers.

On the Himalaya platform, we can often hear audio works from authors of cooperating platforms and high-quality audio programs from original audio producers and hosts. Himalaya gives them part of the traffic to increase their exposure. High-quality audio programs are gradually recognized by listeners, and eventually various top content producers appear on the platform. The top content producers in turn bring in users, forming a virtuous circle.

In addition, Himalaya makes full use of user sharing, self-created listener circle dynamics, anchor interaction and friendship, fan groups, etc., to meet people with common interests. By adding friends, you can learn about new situations and share through dynamics. The superposition of these two systems provides Himalaya platform users with space to freely discuss and create audio content of interest.

6. Summary & Suggestions

Himalaya has become the leader in the online audio market, with more than half of the market share, a huge user base, and an effective business model. It has more advantages than other platforms in terms of copyright and content, and its operating strategies and product function optimization experience are becoming more mature and complete.

But in the future, Himalaya still faces many challenges:

1. As the online audio market develops in the future, other platforms will focus on their areas of expertise, and their target users will continue to overlap with Himalaya, and the problem of user resource grabbing will continue;
2. The content of other paid knowledge platforms also overlaps with that of Himalaya, which means that the content is homogenized;
3. With the development of AI and 5G technologies, the competition in the Internet of Vehicles market and the impact of short videos, the platform has smart terminals and has also launched video functions. So it is not so clear where the development will go, whether to focus on one or give equal attention to both.

In response to the above three challenges, the following three suggestions are put forward:

1. In order to seize user resources, it is recommended that while developing in a differentiated manner, we should deepen the platform's existing users and expand users in the sinking market. On the one hand, it can provide better and higher-quality services, further broaden the channels for content distribution, and strengthen platform social interaction, so that users can listen to content in a better way in various scenarios; on the other hand, it can deepen public welfare activities and enhance the social influence and value of the platform. For example, it can assist village primary school broadcasts, provide students with high-quality audio content, broaden their horizons from sound, and encourage students to create.
2. To address the problem of content homogeneity, on the one hand, we will improve content supervision mechanisms, platform review and user supervision, and clarify the punishment mechanisms for infringement and other bad content; on the other hand, in accordance with national laws and regulations, we will improve the standardization of copyrights across the entire platform, continue to expand brand IP cooperation channels, incubate platform anchors, etc., to build a solid copyright barrier.
3. In response to the impact of the Internet of Vehicles and short videos brought about by the development of AI and 5G, we clarify our original intention as an audio platform and suggest focusing on the development of the Internet of Vehicles. For short videos, we can cooperate with existing short video parties. On the one hand, the platform's intelligent hardware, such as smart speakers, has achieved considerable results. With subsequent continuous iterations, I believe Himalaya will eventually occupy a place in the field of Internet of Vehicles. On the other hand, with the advent of the short video craze, platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Vlog all have relatively mature products and operating mechanisms. If Himalaya wants to independently develop short videos at this stage, it will face fierce competition.

Author: Walking Moon

Source: Walking Moon