WeChat has a major update, and the information flow war continues to escalate!

From pictures and texts to live broadcasts , the rapid iteration of communication methods has brought huge challenges to market participants. Therefore, marketers , especially Internet marketers , must have a keen sense of the industry.

In such a limited area of ​​the chat page, Tencent has mastered the ability to use interactive innovation to establish new entrances for information flow . This shows that Tencent has launched a battle to protect users’ time.

While emerging social and content products such as Toutiao and Douyin continue to erode Tencent's social empire based on the WeChat ecosystem , WeChat has just carried out an "annual-level" App update. Many people have not yet fully realized the significance of this move. This is a strategic move by WeChat to compete with its rivals for user time.

The changes to the floating window are reflected in the following three points:

1. After clicking the floating window, the article page will be directly reduced to a circular floating window button and return to the previous menu. The original pinned function remains on the article page after being pinned, and you can only see the pinned bar by returning to the WeChat homepage.

2. The floating window can be dragged to change its position. You can discard it by dragging it to the red area in the lower right corner. Similarly, you can use the same sliding gesture to wake up the floating window.

Just like pulling down on the WeChat chat list page to wake up the mini-program list, in such a limited interface, Tencent’s ability to use interactive innovation and establish new entrances has reached perfection.

3. The last and most important point is that the floating window function is higher than the existing WeChat UI interface in terms of page level - this means that as long as the floating window is not closed, it will always "float" on every page, even in the chat room.

It is equivalent to increasing the presence of the floating window to the same level as a reduced voice and video chat, just like the Assistive Touch dot that many Apple users like to use.

In this App update, the author found clues to Tencent’s strategic intentions - in essence, the floating window function is equivalent to revealing "multi-task".

Let’s think about it together, what kind of products will use “multitasking”? --operating system.

WeChat’s desire to bypass mobile OS and become the underlying operating system for one billion active users is obvious.

The existence of floating windows allows users to switch between multiple tasks smoothly without having to jump to other apps. The principle is the same as that of mini programs, which is to lock the traffic within their own bodies.

This is equivalent to adding a new entrance for various functions within the WeChat ecosystem, including official accounts , and is of great significance for maintaining the information flow of WeChat.

This also means that from now on, WeChat will raise its information flow business represented by "Look" to the same level of importance as the IM chat function.

Because, due to the strong presence of the floating window, you are very likely to return to the information flow after replying to the message. From the perspective of hierarchical design alone, it is even higher than mini programs - currently, mini programs cannot be reduced to floating windows. Mini programs are containers and carriers for transactions within the Tencent system. This also shows that in Tencent’s mind, competing for information flow is currently the highest priority.

A strong proof is that WeChat official accounts also underwent a "major revision" this time. The top black frame of the personal homepage of the Moments , the homepage of the official account, and the article reading page have been removed, the display area has become larger, and the overall experience has become more immersive.

WeChat's annual upgrade, which launched a series of combined punches, is actually more like a strategic defense. This is because short video products including Douyin and Kuaishou have increasingly significantly eroded WeChat's traffic. Currently, among the top 20 short video apps, 6 apps have an average daily online time of more than one hour.

Many friends have told me that since they became addicted to short videos, they have less frequently checked WeChat Moments and have spent less time on WeChat public accounts.

The data also proves my findings at the micro level. According to QuestMobile data, affected by short videos, the current proportion of instant messaging time has dropped from 37% to 32.2%. It can be seen from this picture that the two are in a substitution relationship of one increasing while the other decreases.

Data source : QuestMobile

As the Internet 's traffic story has hit its ceiling, the battle between apps has become a "war of time." The reason is not complicated. When the number of Internet users has reached its limit, if you want to make more money, you can only get each user to stay longer.

However, for Tencent, after it completed the "scale enclosure" of all Internet users, it suddenly discovered that it could no longer gain time completely based on this scale. The rise of short videos represented by Douyin has almost eroded Tencent’s social foundation in a very short period of time.

Since last year, short videos have risen at an extraordinary rate. According to data from QuestMobile, Douyin, owned by Toutiao , grew by nearly 30 million DAU during the 2018 Spring Festival alone. From the era of text and picture interaction to the era of video interaction, Tencent's social moat has received unprecedented challenges.

Data source: QuestMobile

This made Tencent realize for the first time that its product was no longer the best one on the market for killing users' time. This also became an unprecedented "time crisis" that Tencent had encountered in its 20 years of existence .

You know, the cornerstone of Tencent's business model - social networking and games - is most powerful in occupying user time. Owning user time means everything. This is also why Tencent makes a lot of seemingly restrained and introverted efforts at the product level, because it does not want to disturb and stimulate users and lose their time.

As long as users spend as much time as possible on Tencent's software, no matter how they monetize themselves or by investing in and finding ecological partners, it will be a natural outcome. In today's Chinese investment market, the reason why Tencent has been able to establish itself as a "good money sponsor" with plenty of money but no business dealings is because of the super high profits it generates from the massive amount of user time.

Since the beginning of this year, Ma Huateng has shown a very aggressive side in the field of short videos. In fact, there are traces of this. The reason behind this is that short videos have shaken the core of its traffic - once Tencent loses user time, its main business will hardly be successful.

When the main business goes downhill, the shrinking traffic advantage will even affect its investment ecology. Although Tencent Investment has long been well-known, a closer look reveals that many of its invested companies would not side with Tencent if it were not for the traffic advantages of their own products. Once the traffic dividend based on time monopoly tends to weaken, the fragility of Tencent's investment ecosystem may be exposed.

The moat on which Tencent has relied for survival for the past twenty years has faced a huge challenge for the first time. Tencent's management and operators know this better than anyone else. Therefore, Tencent's financial report this year stated, "We will adopt a more aggressive investment strategy to enhance our long-term competitive advantages in online video and payment services. We will invest in digital content, including long and short videos, to further expand our subscription user base."

Tencent’s first quarter financial report in 2018

The small update of WeChat App is just the tip of the iceberg. From Ma Huateng's debate with Zhang Yiming in the circle of friends, to WeChat's direct ban on Douyin's marketing activities in the name of "inducing sharing", and even the investment of 3 billion yuan in Tencent's short video app Weishi , this series of events all point to the same thing - Tencent is launching a "battle to protect user time."

Tencent was once the biggest beneficiary of the era of social networking among acquaintances, but its own product logic is difficult to adapt to social networking among "semi-acquaintances" or strangers. Emerging products such as TikTok not only occupy users’ time, but also become an important channel for finding “like-minded” friends in the new era. Therefore, whether it is Tencent or other information flow platforms, they all show some anxiety and reluctance to a greater or lesser extent. This may be a necessary stage in the development of the domestic Internet.

The author of this article @财经功守道 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games