Golden rule of super users: The top 10% of users are 5 times more valuable than ordinary users!

"In the era of super users , a new golden rule is born: the top 10% of users can contribute five times the value of ordinary users. This means that the Internet 2:8 principle is no longer applicable in the DI data intelligence era, and the 10% of rarer super users are becoming the commercial core of the mobile Internet ."

The author of this article mainly shares five secrets for defining super users:

1. The top 10% of users can contribute 5 times the value of ordinary users;
2. Connect internal and external data to create business value;
3. The usage time of information/ short video apps is more important, while the number of launches of tool apps is more important;
4. Those who don’t pay can also be super users, but those who are inactive are definitely not;
5. It is equally important to acquire, tap into and cultivate super users.

1. Under the stock pattern, App operations face new challenges

Over the past decade, the size of China's mobile Internet users has been rising, while the growth rate of Internet users has been declining and has fallen below 10%. At the same time, the penetration rate of mobile Internet has reached 97.5%, with only 2.5% not covered. It is obvious that existing users have become the main battlefield for App developers to compete for.

Entrepreneurs have long been aware of this. An e-commerce product entrepreneur expressed his sorrow:

"It costs more than 40 yuan for a user to download the app, but 70% of people don't make any purchases after downloading. For every 10 people who download our app, nearly 300 yuan is wasted."

This leads to a question: how to acquire high-value users and how to reduce the loss of existing users?

From a capital perspective, investors are also more rational and calm. Wu Bingjian, Vice President of Lenovo Star Investment, said,

"Investors are now more realistic and are more concerned with startups' user conversion capabilities and money-making skills." 

2. The Value of Super Users: Creating Competitive Advantage and Incremental Value

It is no coincidence that super user became the first hot word on the Internet in 2018. The commercial value behind super users is the answer to solving the existing competition - creating competitive advantages and incremental value.

The value of super users is reflected in three aspects:

1. Product co-creation. When users have a particularly deep understanding and experience of a product, and their needs can basically represent the needs of the vast majority of users, then super users become the best product co-creators. The most representative example is that Keep recruits internal testers to incorporate super users into product iterations, helping the product to achieve rapid and accurate upgrades.
2. Deep interaction. On the one hand, super users maintain their activity and opening rates, and on the other hand, they are more willing to recommend products, using word-of-mouth to quickly reach the product's potential user circle.
3. Profitability. Generally speaking, super users are more willing to pay than ordinary users. Eddie Yoon, the author of "Super Users", once said that super users only account for 10% of the total number of customers, but they can increase sales by 30% to 70%. Compared with ordinary users, super users are willing to spend much more money on products. In addition, super users have an emotional connection with the product. As the company's business expands outward, super users can keep up with the pace faster and achieve replication and extension in the product matrix.

3. How to define super user? General indicators + influencing factors

Super users are so important, where are they? When it comes to company strategy and actual operations , how do we define super users? In order to enable every app in every industry to quickly locate super users, we have provided common indicators and influencing factors for defining super users based on global data and user behavior .

General indicators: activity (high start-up), immersion (high stickiness), conversion (high monetization).

1. Active: Users use the product and maintain high levels of activity and activation.
2. Immersion: Users become dependent on the product, interact with it frequently, and have a more prominent depth of visit. The more interactions there are, the stronger the binding is, and the more behaviors there are.
3. Conversion: Users happily purchase products and services. For example, e-commerce consumption, membership services, content payment , etc., and they are continuous and high-frequency.

It is important to note that activity-immersion-conversion are not the more important product indicators as they go down, but rather the corresponding dimensions and indicators should be selected according to the product industry and development cycle.

The first influencing factor: the attributes and user behaviors of different vertical industries are different

Different vertical industries have different attributes and user behaviors, so different indicators and combinations need to be selected to define super users.

According to the statistics of daily average activation of 7 representative industries, the usage time of information and entertainment categories is more important; the tool category focuses on the number of activations, and the picture beautification category needs to comprehensively evaluate the two dimensions of duration and activation.

We analyze the following three industries: news information, sports industry, and short video:

(1) Super users in the news and information industry: 11.56% of users, contributing 42.8% of the weekly time

The news industry selects two important dimensions: average daily usage time and average daily launch times. We define users with an average daily usage time of more than 50 minutes and an average daily startup times of more than 4 as super users. Super users account for 11.56% and 42.8% of the total weekly usage time, with a time contribution ratio of 3.7 times. Why choose these two dimensions? This is to combine the monetization logic of news and information.

(2) Sports industry super users: 10.2% of users, contributing 53.7% of weekly time

Fitness cycles are usually measured in weeks, so the indicator cycle is expanded from days to weeks, including the total length of the week and the number of active days in the week. The overall scale is only 10.2%, the overall contribution time is 53.7%, and the market contribution ratio is as high as 5.3 times. If you capture 10% of the users, you will capture more than 1/2 of the market.

(3) Not all industries define super users based on their browsing time and activity.

Taking the short video industry as an example, 11.8% of users contribute 37.5% of weekly time? The dimension needs to be expanded.

It is important to emphasize that not all industries define super users based on user browsing time and activity. Taking the recently popular short videos as an example, we found that top users who launch the app more than 7 times a day and have an average daily usage time of more than 30 minutes account for 11.8%, and they contribute 37.5% of the total weekly time. Compared to super user contributions in the sports and news categories, the contribution value is much lower.

However, duration cannot reflect user behavior within the App. The development of short videos is affected by the quality and quantity of content. Higher quality and more UGC content can attract more users. Therefore, dimensions related to content quality need to be taken into account in the definition of super users, and those that reflect content quality include likes, comments, reposts, downloads, etc.

The second influencing factor: Select different super users based on the business development cycle

The definition of super users varies at different stages of business development. The app life cycle is divided into four stages: preparation, rising, stable, and new cycle. Each cycle requires general and differentiated indicators to comprehensively define super users.

The biggest core logic in different business cycles is business value. Focus on identifying super users, cultivating quasi-super users, stabilizing super users, and renewing products based on super users (a new round of iteration). Each stage should be combined with differentiated indicators to prevent biased definitions.

• Ready state , mainly used to identify potential super users, mainly judged by the total number of openings;
• The rising state is mainly to cultivate super users, which is the total number of openings plus the usage time;
• In the stable state , the focus is on improving conversion rate , with visit depth and payment becoming important indicators;
• In the new cycle , products will be renewed based on super users. When an App goes through a stable period and enters a slow decline, it is necessary to think about and plan the upgrade of its business model . At this stage, apps and brands need to reflect on who their core users are. For example, in 4-5 years, the scale of video websites will be very large. With the development of the entire society, who will be the core target? Whether they are the new generation born in the 2000s or 1990s, or the elderly born in the 1950s or 1960s, a clear renewal strategy is the prerequisite for defining super users.

The third influencing factor: clarifying business goals and business logic is the prerequisite for defining super users

Example: Select the indicators and weights for defining super users based on the contribution of the ad space to the business

Taking the news industry as an example, the monetization model is mainly based on various forms of advertising. What is the relationship between super users and advertising monetization?

1. For splash screen ads, the more times users start them, the more exposure they get;
2. For information flow ads , the longer users use them, the more exposure they get;
3. For soft advertising placements/event advertising, the more user interactions (clicks/forwards, etc.), the more exposure it brings to the brand.

Final Thoughts

Here are five tips for defining a super user:

1. The top 10% of users can contribute 5 times the value of ordinary users;
2. Connect internal and external data to create business value;
3. The usage time of information/short video apps is more important, while the number of launches of tool apps is more important;
4. Those who don’t pay can also be super users, but those who are inactive are definitely not;
5. It is equally important to acquire, tap into and cultivate super users.

The author of this article @韩绍超 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