How did Bullet Messenger gradually ignite the nerves of the Internet?

This article will start from the product highlights, new user acquisition process, and activation difficulties of Bullet SMS, to analyze how Bullet SMS, which is currently setting off the nerves of the Internet , has achieved capital myths through operational means and gained a large number of new users.

When a loyal fan of Hammer around me was recommending Bullet Text Messenger to me, I didn't pay much attention to it at that time. I was still wondering what the hell it was. Brother, I haven't used text messages for a long time. I usually communicate through WeChat . However, reality always slaps you in the face. In just a few days, I not only downloaded Bullet Messenger, but also intermittently analyzed the process of Bullet Messenger attracting new users.

This article will start from the product highlights, new user acquisition process, and activation difficulties of Bullet SMS, to analyze how Bullet SMS, which is currently setting off the nerves of the Internet, has achieved capital myths through operational means and gained a large number of new users.

What is Bullet Messenger?

In a nutshell, Bullet Messenger mainly solves the problem of low efficiency of WeChat. In a world full of information, people have more and more WeChat groups , add more and more WeChat friends, and receive more and more WeChat messages. For all these reasons, we will pin important WeChat groups to the top, and we need to reply to countless messages at the same time . Although voice replies are fast, they are uncomfortable for the listeners. Although typed replies are liked by the recipients, they take a long time .

At present, the biggest problem that Bullet Messenger solves is the issue of efficiency, making communication as fast as a bullet, which is also its highlight that it has always boasted.

How Bullet Messenger Achieved Phenomenal New User Attraction

Step 1: Relying on the celebrity effect, we started the first round of attracting new customers (August 20)

According to the latest data from Baidu Index: starting from the launch of the Hammer smartphone on August 20, the Bullet SMS search index has increased significantly, showing a clear positive correlation with Luo Yonghao and the Hammer smartphone. Therefore, we can preliminarily judge that the first step of Bullet Messenger’s phenomenal marketing is to rely on the brand effect of Luo Yonghao and Hammer Mobile Phone to officially fire the first shot in attracting new customers.

Data source : Baidu Index

Judging from the articles published on the official account that day, according to Xinbang statistics, there were 34 articles related to Bullet Messenger that day, 19 of which were original, with a total reading number of 605,355. The top articles in terms of reading volume were mainly about Luo Yonghao and Hammer Mobile Phone.

Figure: Number of articles related to Bullet Messenger and cumulative readings

Data source: New List

In terms of new user acquisition results, according to Qimai statistics, the estimated download volume for that day was 0 (the actual number should be higher than 0), which indirectly shows that the Bullet SMS promotional campaign on that day was just beginning to reach users, allowing them to form a preliminary impression of the product and laying the foundation for the next step of acquiring new users.

Step 2: Bundle with the national topic WeChat to stimulate the market again (August 21-23)

According to Xinbang statistics: starting from the 21st, the number of articles about Bullet Messenger in WeChat public accounts began to gradually increase, from 34 articles the previous day to 133 articles, and the number of original articles reached 64.

In terms of article content, starting from the 21st, the style of the articles began to gradually move towards WeChat from the existing Luo Yonghao and Hammer labels, "touching" the national topic WeChat, increasing user click-through rates and attracting user attention.

Figure: Statistics of articles about Smartisan SMS on New List from August 21 to 23

Data source: New List

In addition, judging from articles in major media: relevant press releases of Hammer SMS also began to be gradually sent out during this period of time, using the three major labels of Hammer mobile phone, Luo Yonghao, and WeChat to detonate information flow and stimulate users' curiosity.

Judging from the download data: As the degree of integration between Bullet Messenger and WeChat continues to increase, and with the continuous release of related introductory articles, users' understanding of Bullet Messenger continues to deepen. With the new user acquisition rate remaining basically unchanged, the number of downloads has gradually begun to show explosive growth as the number of users reached increases.

Figure: Bullet Messenger APP download volume in Apple Store

Data source: Qimai Data

Step 3: Hit the Apple App Store rankings and create hot topics (August 24-26)

Apple's App Rankings are generally a concentration of recent hot topics, so they naturally promote marketing and attracting new users. As for new apps like Bullet Messenger, based on past experience, it is difficult for it to reach the top of the list, which is usually occupied by old apps. Therefore, this is undoubtedly a major selling point of Bullet Messenger. A straightforward statement of how good Bullet Messenger is is far less convincing than indirect evidence.

At this stage, Bullet Messenger started to do two things:

1. Issue press releases and use various media channels to promote Bullet SMS’s top ranking, create new records, and induce users to download;
2. With the help of Luo Yonghao again, he posted on Weibo seeking help, which indirectly highlighted the popularity of Bullet SMS. This two-pronged approach made Bullet SMS, which was not particularly popular, mistakenly believed by consumers to be extremely popular, thereby taking advantage of the user's herd mentality and increasing the number of new users.

Figure: Statistics of articles about Smartisan SMS on New List from August 24 to 25

Data source: New List

Image: Luo Yonghao's Weibo post about the popularity of Bullet Messenger

Data source: Sina Weibo

Figure: Bullet Messenger APP download volume in Apple Store

Data source: Qimai Data

Step 4: Borrowing the capital myth and fully detonating the circle of friends (starting from August 27)

As China's economic growth continues to slow, the difficulty of financing in the Internet market has gradually increased in recent years, corporate valuations have begun to return to rationality, and the probability of unicorns emerging has declined accordingly. For the Internet market, the investment trends of several major technology giants often touch the nerves of most people. Therefore, for Internet companies, if they can gain the joint support of several giants, it will be a huge hot topic for them.

Looking at the entire history of Bullet Messenger, through Luo Yonghao's Weibo speeches, we can clearly see his layered layout for this capital topic, making full use of the traffic of major technology giants themselves, and ultimately creating his phenomenal marketing and attracting new customers (generally speaking, companies that want to raise funds will make contacts in advance and basically determine the financing targets. And this time is usually not short. As fast as Tech is, there is sufficient reason to suspect that it has already completed preliminary contacts in the early stage, and the outsourcing of financing is more for the purpose of creating topics and enhancing the company's reputation).

Specifically:

(1) The announcement stated that Smartisan Technology only invested in KuaiRu Technology to pave the way for subsequent startups to create a myth

Image: Luo Yonghao's explanation that Bullet Messenger is not Hammer

Data source: Sina Weibo

(2) It implies that the Internet giant Alibaba will join hands with Bullet Messenger, and through Alibaba’s endorsement, it indirectly verifies the excellence of Bullet Messenger.

Image: hints that Alibaba will join hands with Bullet SMS

Data source: Sina Weibo

(3) It implies that another information giant, ByteDance (the company that owns Toutiao ), will join forces with Bullet Messenger

Image: hinting that Toutiao will join forces with Bullet SMS

Data source: Sina Weibo

(4) Fully detonating the capital myth, creating phenomenal marketing when users are not interested in the original topic

Figure: Fully detonating the capital myth

Data source: Sina Weibo

According to the latest statistics from Tianyancha: Beijing Kuai Ru Technology Co., Ltd. has gone through two rounds of financing. The first round was led by Smartisan Technology, and the second round was led by Chengcheng Capital and Gaorong Capital. The company is valued at RMB 600 million, and the investment institutions do not include the current major technology giants (whether there is investment but it has not been announced to the public is not known for the time being).

Figure: Financing history of KuaiRu Technology

Data source: Tianyancha

What are the shortcomings of Bullet Messenger in promoting activation and retention ?

Disadvantage 1: Highly creative, but unclear solution to pain points

From the perspective of the product itself, its creative idea of ​​simultaneous voice + text output can indeed attract the attention of countless people in today's society that pursues high efficiency. However, from the perspective of user activation, due to unclear product positioning and the lack of clear usage scenarios, it is not clear whether it is biased towards office or social interaction . As a result, it will be difficult for both office workers and social-minded people to identify with the product, and it will be impossible to effectively solve the pain points of both groups. A large and comprehensive approach will make it difficult to promote activation and conversion in the later stage.

Compared with WeChat, the target of its "bumping", WeChat scored 4.8 points in the Apple Store, with about 3.484 million people participating in the rating, while Bullet SMS scored only 3.7 points, with a relatively small number of participants. The proportion of 1-point evaluations was high, which fully demonstrates that the user experience is mostly poor, but the pain points are not obviously resolved, resulting in certain difficulties in the subsequent user activation and conversion.

Figure: WeChat APP rating

Data source: Apple App Store

Figure: Bullet SMS APP rating

Data source: Apple App Store

Disadvantage 2: Sincerity is perfect, but user migration is difficult

Judging from the response and iteration of the Bullet Messenger operation and product team, Bullet Messenger currently responds to user feedback in a timely manner, has a positive feedback attitude, and has a top product iteration speed, basically completing a small version iteration every two days. It can quickly adjust to user feedback and bugs, and can almost get full marks for sincerity.

Figure: Bullet SMS APP iteration process

Data source: Qimai Data

But Bullet Messenger itself is positioned as a communication software, and its most core element is the circle of contacts . Only when the platform can replicate and import the user's network of contacts will users increase their frequency of use.

Currently, the first step in the Bullet SMS contact migration path is for users to register as Bullet SMS users, the second step is to save personal QR codes, the third step is to send to Moments or WeChat friends, the fourth step is for the recipient to save the picture locally, and the fifth step is for the recipient to open Bullet SMS and scan the picture on the mobile phone to successfully add the user.

From the perspective of the entire path conversion, the operation steps are basically more than 5 steps, which poses certain obstacles to users. This is also an important part of WeChat building its moat. When a product does not have an obvious moat and is irreplaceable (currently, Bullet Messenger does not have obvious technical barriers and product barriers), if the difficulties of social migration cannot be resolved, even if users have experienced the product, the product will soon die out in the later stages (from the groups I have added, everyone had obvious conversations on the first day of the trial, and then things started to get quiet. I myself also basically never opened it again after experiencing it once).

Summarize

According to the AARRR model , from an operational perspective, Bullet SMS has fought a pretty good battle in the acquisition phase of attracting new users and accumulating seed users . It has also achieved good results in viral communication (Referral) (based on personal QR codes that continue to appear in Moments and on the Internet).

At the same time, considering that the company has already obtained a large amount of financing, Internet start-ups basically do not consider the issue of revenue in the early stages. Therefore, how to promote activation and improve user retention will become the key to the company's success in the future.

Based on my limited knowledge, without completing the clear product positioning and solving the pain points, KuaiRu Technology (Bullet SMS) will most likely use material incentives to solve the activation and retention issues in the model, achieve the sedimentation of some users, and thus lay a foundation for the gradual expansion in the future.