How does APP achieve cold start of the product?

This article takes the Moment APP as an example.

1. Product Description

1.1 Product Background

The advent of informatization in modern society has brought many changes to people's lives. On the one hand, the pace of life and work is getting faster and faster, and people's time and information sources are becoming more and more fragmented; on the other hand, there are some hidden emotional expressions that cannot be said in those social occasions. Many people are eager to escape from Weibo, WeChat , and the advertisements, rumors, and chicken soup that are rampant in various social software.

1.2 Product Introduction

Slogan: The world is beautiful, and you happen to be free; exchange the world with words

2.1 Target Users

Creators: Users who have the need to produce content: specifically, writers, writing enthusiasts, people who cultivate writing habits, diary recorders, radio host enthusiasts, etc. They love writing, are happy to publish their lives in public spaces, and have the habit of creating content and exchanging ideas in fragmented time. This type of user is the content producer of the product. Although they account for a small proportion, they are the basis for retaining users.

2.2 Value Points

Reading: Readers can obtain information at any time and express their preferences, comments, etc.

Music and radio stations: Users can choose to listen to their favorite music or radio stations online at any time, or download their favorite radio stations or music.

2.3 Main functions

Create an anthology: Create your own anthology to collect your own articles

Special topic: You can submit articles to special topics and they will be reviewed and approved.

Interaction: Recommend, comment, favorite, follow, internal message

Reading: Read through popular recommendations and articles on the homepage of the author you follow

2.4 Product Features

[Film Magazine] allows users to collect their favorite articles, music, etc. for easy reading and listening later. At the same time, you can also run your own film magazine so that more people can browse it.

Focus on and encourage people to record their feelings in various ways (a sentence, an article, a picture), emphasizing fragmented creation

APP interface screenshots

PC interface screenshot

3.1 Application Market

Data from ASO100

Judging from the data, the ranking trend of the app "Moment" remains stable. As it has not been promoted on a large scale, it means that it is recognized by a specific group of people and its product value is stable.

3.2 Media Index

Data from Baidu Index

In terms of financing status, Moment has not been sought after by capital. On the one hand, it is the same reason as content community products: the profit model is not clear. On the other hand, the Moment team has very high requirements for the product atmosphere and is very restrained about profit models other than content. After completing the A round of financing in 2014, there was no coverage from other media or subsequent capital intervention.

Judging from the Baidu search index, it has been on an overall upward trend since it was launched in 2014, but has stabilized since 2015. Considering that the product "Pianke" is product-driven and has not been promoted on a large scale, its future is still worth looking forward to.

3.3 User Characteristics

Data from Baidu Index

• 75% of users are female, which is consistent with the simple, elegant and fresh style.
• 80% of users are aged 19-35, which is basically consistent with the expected audience profile: urban office workers, literary youth
• The user distribution is relatively concentrated, and the majority of users are from economically and culturally developed regions such as South China, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The market size needs to be further explored.

  3.4 User scale

  Data from KuChuan

Summary: Since the product was launched, Pianke has quickly attracted a large number of users due to its clear product positioning, fresh style, and grand module design. However, due to the lack of capital intervention and the intervention of external operating means, and facing the impact of products with partially overlapping functions such as Jianshu and Lizhi FM, its subsequent growth has been relatively weak. Of course, with the continuous updating of versions, the content dimensions of Pianke have gradually diversified, and it has already walked out of its own way . I believe that with the exploration of business models , there is great potential for future growth.

3.5 Product Iteration Analysis

2014.1 This version is the earliest version 1.0 that can be found so far

2014.3 Updated features for this month are:

• [New] Fragments support photo taking function
• [New] Reading Channel: Divided into six categories including youth, providing more accurate article recommendations.

2014.10 Major update features of this month are:

• [New] Group module, you can apply to create your own group
• [New] Reading Channel: Divided into six categories including youth, providing more accurate article recommendations.
• [New] Music sharing function, you can add music to new topics

2015.12 Major update features of this month are:

• [New] Search function
• [New] Added "Fragments" entry on the home page

2016.2 The major update features of version 4.0 this month are:

• Upgraded UI design and interaction
• The personal center is fully optimized, you can create a magazine
• [New] Music channel, listen to heart-touching songs and make friends with close friends;
• [New] Radio and reading channel hot recommendations, rankings, popular creators and other columns, displaying articles and radio station information in multiple dimensions;
• [New] Subscription function, allowing you to discover your favorite content at the first time;
• Anti-spam and security strategy upgrades give you the cleanest moment ever;

2016.12 The interface of version 5.0 was revised this month, and the major updated functions are:

• [New] Live broadcast of a moment
• White + black mode, enhancing the different usage experience during the day and at night
• [New] User recommended content
• [New] Points redemption for goods

Summary: From the above, we can see that the Pianke team insists on being "clean" with words and writing communities, and even gives up many opportunities to increase their popularity, giving priority to writers [films] and readers' experience; after accumulating a certain amount of high-quality content, they begin to integrate these high-quality content [special topics, popular recommendations] to attract more readers; then they add social functions such as subscriptions and groups in turn, enrich the content level, and increase user stickiness. As of version 5.0 in 2017, Pianke has tried to diversify its content and form (version information comes from Iai App http://www.chinaf.iai.cn/app/898294/ver/3.0.1)

4. Cold start phase strategies and practices

4.1 Phase determination and data sources

The earliest version currently available is version 1.0 from January 2014. In order to find early content, Baidu Search can be used as a tool to collect data in the product cold start phase. On the one hand, the accuracy of Baidu search engine ’s own search data, and on the other hand, the characteristics of the high-quality content included meet the content screening criteria of the cold start phase of the analysis.

Interface as above

The specific steps are as follows: open the Baidu search engine, use the site command and search filtering tools to accurately search for high-quality content on the site during the one and a half years of Pianke.com's embryonic stage (2013.6.29-2014.12.29). The search results screened out a total of 90 articles. It is classified by month and content and organized into the following chart

4.2 Entry Point

It is not difficult to draw the following conclusions from the above figure:

• Overall trend: the number of published articles increased
• In terms of article types, original novels (youth, suspense, ancient style, etc.) account for the largest proportion (30%), which is comparable to the current proportion of Pianke, indicating that the users found in the cold start phase are more mature.
• In addition, there are a large proportion of articles such as poetry collections and essays that focus on expressing personal emotions. Compared with other content platforms, the content is purer and there will be no articles about hot events, etc.

Based on the thematic analysis of the product content above, we can conclude that:

• Although the number of posts is relatively small, the team did a good job in controlling the quality of users and posts in the early stages of the product.
• The quality of the content reflects that the Moment team spreads the content in a small range through personal and employee relationships, invites seed users to write on the platform, and enables them to continuously produce content on the platform. For example, best-selling author Koiwai and others.
• Pianshi's entry point is to delve deeply into the emotional field, emphasizing the joy of creating reading in fragmented time. Although the tone of the content is somewhat similar to Douban , due to the control of quality, the community atmosphere is purer and the content formats are more diversified. Therefore, there is no direct competitor after the product is launched.

  4.3 Specific practices

  4.3.1 Finding users - exposing user gathering places and emphasizing differences

In addition to the team invitation mentioned above, Pianke created a group on Douban, a gathering place for literary and artistic youth, as early as 2013 to emphasize the differences of its own products. To a certain extent, it has achieved accurate traffic diversion and introduced a group of high-quality seed users. This group of users has good UGC literacy and the habit of producing articles, making them a very good source of early users for Moment.

• During the cold start-up phase of Pianke, the functional combination of text, pictures and music became a highlight. While focusing on in-depth reading and writing experience, it encouraged users to express their fragmented feelings, greatly increasing the audience range.

4.3.2 Retain users and fill in content - user experience , atmosphere creation and differentiated experience

• The layout is mainly block-shaped and not messy. The content is colorful and the display forms are rich. Pictures, texts and music can be matched at will. It is simple but not monotonous.

• The system considerately provides information such as the time when the article was read, the author's introduction, etc. It can still be saved as a draft when there is no network connection, which satisfies the needs of users in fragmented scenarios.

  4.4 Establishment of content standards

• Pianke Ting is a featured column of "Pianke". The content in it is all produced by users, and the article content is also selected from the works of website users. Everyone can record Ting for their favorite articles and submit them to the official website. After approval, the work can appear in Ting in a moment.

• "Word cards" and "perception" are two writing methods similar to topic-based essays. The latter two not only require users to comprehend the "proposition" and write based on their feelings, but the "word cards" also have a word limit of 1,000 words. If you get a recommendation from a moment, it will appear on the homepage of the recommendation column and be seen by more people.

5.1 Analysis and summary of a short cold start

2. In terms of user acquisition, in the process of development, in the face of radio applications such as Lizhi FM and writing and reading applications such as Jianshu, Pianju gradually established its own differences and focus, continuously iterated functions, completed the diversification of its content forms, emphasized the fragmented input and expression of text, pictures and music, and successfully broke out from the content products of the same period and won the user group at the junction.

3. From the perspective of content import, when the product does not yet carry a large number of users, it is important to emphasize the quality of the content rather than blindly filling it with content, and then verify in a small range whether the existing product functions meet the needs of target users. This strategy is very important in building a community atmosphere in the early stages of the product.

4. In addition to the above three points, the success of a cold start in a moment is also inseparable from the era in which it occurs. At that time, the era of mobile Internet had quietly arrived, and Douban, which focused on the "literary and fresh style" in 2005, was still focusing on the PC side. There was a huge outlet and opportunity for content traffic on the mobile side, which was one of the reasons why content products such as Moments were able to rise rapidly.

• The key factor that determines whether a product survives or not lies in its positioning and clearly understanding the differences from competing products. Especially at a time when similar products are emerging in an endless stream, a unique product concept can often quickly establish user awareness, which can save a lot of effort in later operational actions and improve the user experience. This was the case in the early days of Moment. After introducing initial users, there was almost no official operation, and the product was driven entirely by itself.
• Each individual product is unique in itself, but at the same time it follows universal rules, such as the high degree of matching between operational actions and the stage the product is in. For example, the most important task of operations in the early stage of a product is to clarify the user selection principles of the product, find out where the users are, and find ways to acquire seed users.

In short, after several years, the diversification of content formats has become increasingly complete and has successfully occupied part of the market. On the other hand, with the increasingly fierce competition for users' time and attention from various content applications, the moment when user growth enters the plateau period still faces many problems: limited operating means, unclear business model, and the next focus. These questions are worth our consideration.