Growth Hacker: Amap’s Path to User Growth!

On October 1, Liu Zhenfei, Alibaba partner and president of AutoNavi Group, published an internal letter titled "The small goal of 100 million DAU has been achieved, and AutoNavi is setting off again from a new starting point", announcing that the number of daily active users (DAU) of AutoNavi Maps has exceeded 100 million.

Map navigation. The well-known map navigations on the market are divided into several categories, namely Amap, Baidu Maps , Sogou Maps and Tencent Maps. These map companies all rely on huge amounts of money and resources. AutoNavi is backed by Alibaba , Baidu is backed by Baidu Search, and Sogou and Tencent Maps are backed by Tencent. Map The world is a battleground for military strategists. There are maps, businesses, people, and data. Maps are like open source rivers. They can be used to do great things and change society.

The number of daily active users of Amap has exceeded 100 million, which is the dream of many companies. Amap's move today is inseparable from the joint collaboration of all product and user teams. The AutoNavi team is excellent in user activities, product cooperation, details and control of user behavior . Today, using the hacker's path, let's see how AutoNavi achieved a breakthrough and leap from 0 to 100 million active users.

In fact, before analyzing the article on the user growth of Amap, I encountered a little difficulty. Growth hacking generally refers to social products, such as WeChat Reading , Love Bank, Blue Coffee, Mafengwo APP and other social products. It was not until I thoroughly analyzed the article on the user growth of Amap that I got out of this "social" vicious circle. Growth hacking does not necessarily have to be done in social networking. Getting out of social networking in products and visual aspects will also bring greater breakthroughs. Amap and Airbnb AI RBNB were both done after getting out of social networking (Airbnb still uses social attributes to achieve this)

Fission 1: Voice Plaza

The user fission of Amap has a great boost and effect at the product level. AutoNavi signed TFBoys as its new spokesperson in March 2016 and launched the AutoNavi voice package in April.

TFBoys was a popular star in 2016 with thousands of fans. The fan base not only covers the culture of his peers, but also includes people born between 2000 and 1985, and most of the fans are women.

In the hearts of fans, it is so exciting and thrilling to hear a word from their idol. After the launch of Gaode Voice, idol users will flock to Gaode Map in large numbers.

In fact, if you look closely, the celebrity guides launched on Gaode Voice Plaza are all signed based on the most popular ones at the time. Yue Yunpeng was launched because of the packaging of the "Comedy General Mobilization" column. Yue Yunpeng also has a large number of fans.

Lin Chiling, Guo Degang, Luo Yonghao , Li Yuchun and others are idols in many people's hearts. Gaode's signing of these stars and Internet celebrities seems to be irregular, but if you look closely, you will find that the audiences of these stars and Internet celebrities overlap and iterate in succession.

The age range is very wide, from school children to retired employees. Although it has attracted some new traffic , it has also provided more navigation voice options for old users on the platform.

Maybe taxi drivers like the voices of Lin Chiling and Guo Degang, maybe young people born between 1985 and 1990 are attracted by Yue Yunpeng's funny crosstalk voice, maybe people born in the 1990s are touched by Li Yuchun from Super Girl on the stage, all these are possible. Attracting fans also drives memories and excitement among internal users.

Summary: Navigation Voice Square is the core tool for fission. It can capture hot stars, accurately reach core analysis, leverage strengths, and increase fans.

Fission 2: User Contribution and Activities

Letting users contribute and feel involved is what most companies like the most. Amap’s user contribution program uses the user’s sense of participation to provide cash rewards. A sense of participation is what humans want to express most, such as pointing out accident discoveries and modification confirmations, adding new locations and reporting location errors. Deep down, people like to do valuable things in order to gain the support of others. When there is an accident ahead and a mark is made for the first time, not only can the cars behind see it, but any vehicle driving on that section of road can also see the marker's portrait and information. It's like giving yourself a stage to magnify your halo. The word "sense of participation" first came from Xiaomi mobile phone. Sense of participation will bring users a sense of importance and retain higher active users.

Gaode also organizes some small activities, but all of them are centered around "cash," which is equivalent to throwing money around. For example, this National Day's designated red envelope grabbing activity and last year's National Day activity seemed to be giving away gas coupons for navigating. Of course, each activity is not limited to circulation within the activity, but also requires inviting new friends to help complete it. For cash activities, each growth hacker team uses different special effects. For example, WeChat Reading is a reading voucher that can be used as cash, Airbnb is a gift voucher given for inviting users, and Little Blue Coffee is a discount voucher for instant discounts within a certain limit. These are all cash red envelopes. We talked about how to play red envelopes in the previous issue.

Fission 3: Detailed Product Tools

Amap has made sufficient extensions in terms of detailed product tools. Functions related to travel, such as subway map, bus check, running, cycling, violation query, etc., are completely integrated into the toolbox. This allows people without a car to check the routes they have passed through in a familiar or even unfamiliar city, the real-time status of subway lines, and better routes when cycling. Compared with Baidu, although Baidu has achieved sufficient maturity in PC, it does not care much about or pay much attention to the application of these in mobile maps.

Summary: There is no need to promote the fission of details, but let users feel it is close to practicality. Under the third function menu, in the product logic, "navigation" is the main one and others are auxiliary. These functions can attract users to use them in non-navigation mode.

Fission 4: Growth hacking at the product and strategy level

Although it is said that it is good to lean on a big tree for shade, Amap's strategic application is particularly appropriate, from the product level: quick voice query, nearby food, hotel, gas station and other inquiries, to open source interface docking - such as Didi Navigation, Shenzhou Special Car , Shouqi Car-hailing and other platforms, opening up driving, public transportation, cycling and other product entrances in turn. The seemingly simple product operation can bring a continuous influx of new traffic and continuously increase DAU. Alibaba acquired AutoNavi in ​​full in 2014. Such a strategic vision has ensured AutoNavi's long-term development and Alibaba's overwhelming support of over 100 million traffic.

Summary: Slight functional changes at the product level can also bring users a climax experience. The nearby food query function of Amap may directly replace life portals such as Dianping.com. The way of connecting the interface to business enterprises is more like Airbnb's early routine: I am not afraid of you grabbing users, but I need you to help me expand the market.

Fission 5: Awakening of Information Flow

Every time Gaode pushes a message, it pulls me away from my busy work and focuses on Gaode's information. The information pushed by Gaode is exactly what we care about, including: traffic section information - company - family (usually pushed during rush hour) and weather, news, etc. combined with consulting information push. All of this information is related to travel routes. Gaode Summons has enabled me to go from completely ignoring it to having an opening rate of nearly 100%. It is difficult to say what happened in between, but I have indeed developed a habit.

The reason why Gaode PUSH is so successful is that it has firmly grasped the characteristics of users' travel. Any traffic restrictions, congestion, and even wind and rain will pose certain risks and threats to the destination. Knowing the information can help avoid the occurrence of "risks" more quickly. These pushed information are almost never created by Amap, but are instead linked to AI intelligent editing and third-party interface messages.

Summary: awakening has become an important means of operation . It is easier to awaken users by forming habits than by forced awakening. Habits are not formed in one day, but are instead formed by labeling users based on their attributes to push relevant content. The best content and method to awaken users is to push content that users need, want to see, have demands, and are attractive.

Amap has indeed changed the way people travel. It has become a habit to open the map before going out. If there is no map now, people may not have the courage to go out at all. Technology has indeed changed our lives, but it is also because we make technology more valuable. Amap’s hacker growth system originates from technology and travel.

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Source: Zhihu