From 0 to 1, how does Lizhi FM solve the problem of product cold start?

From 0 to 1, how does Lizhi FM solve the problem of product cold start?
"The night is gradually deepening. In the warm yellow light, is there anyone preparing a cup of fragrant coffee for you? Is there anyone gently brushing away the threads stuck in the folds of your shirt? Can the moon tonight represent your heart? I am Lizhi FM. I am here to pick up every anchor's dream with you." 

 From the beginning, from the simplest idea to the current 200 million downloads, Mr. Li Zelong, Vice President of Product of Lizhi FM, will share with you how they helped fuel the dream of becoming a millionaire anchor. About Lizhi FM Lizhi FM is a podcast application that integrates recording, editing, uploading, listening and downloading. Founded in 2013, it not only saves the tedious preparation and operation of creating a podcast, but also lowers the threshold for creating podcasts from professional DJs to the general user population, giving everyone the opportunity to create their own podcast channel. As our slogan says, "Everyone is a podcaster." Currently, Lizhi FM has 200 million downloads and 80 million users, and its daily active users now exceed 5 million. The user base of podcasters on Lizhi FM has exceeded 1.8 million.

 Initial concept Many people have a dream of becoming a podcaster. We want to use technology to lower the threshold for podcasting so that people with podcasting dreams can realize it and showcase their voices and talents on the Lizhi platform. In the past, the threshold for making an online radio program was very high. The host needed to set up a recording studio at home and learn how to use audio editing software such as Audition to edit, dub, and mix. Then rent or buy a server to store the programs, and finally find channels to promote your own programs. Lizhi FM started out as a recording tool . While recording, it can automatically reduce the noise of the surrounding environment, beautify the sound and suppress echoes, and you can also add multiple songs at any time. The background music will automatically increase its volume when no one is talking, and decrease when someone is talking. The whole process is quite simple, and the recorded effect is almost the same as that recorded in a recording studio. Therefore, he won the favor of many anchors.

 Focus on the needs and successfully complete the cold start How to manage the first batch of users is a headache for many startup product teams, that is, how to cold start the application. How did we find the first batch of hosts to produce content? We did a survey before 2013 and found that there were only more than 2,000 Chinese podcasts on Podcast and Douban, of which about 500 were active and continuously updated their programs. We managed to invite this group of podcasters to Lizhi FM. We found that this group of podcasters had two pain points. First, the podcast promotion services at the time were all charged, and most of them were provided by foreign servers, which required a VPN, which was slow and difficult to operate. At the same time, you will also need to apply for a credit card to pay. To meet this demand, we have launched a lifetime free podcast promotion service. The hosts use our podcast management platform through this service, and then upload, share, and view the program data and effects through the platform. After Lizhi FM provided the anchors with a professional service platform, they took the initiative to stay.

 (Image from Unsplash) It took us more than a month to invite them and convince them to broadcast the program on Lizhi FM’s WeChat official account . The podcast circle was very small at the time, and it spread quickly. It not only affected online podcasts, but even hosts of traditional radio stations would start this podcast, which had a considerable influence at the time. Then, we solved the pain points of the recording tool through the APP. In the past, recording was difficult. To record an online radio program, the host had to set up a recording studio and learn professional recording and editing software such as Audition for post-production. We thought about how to use the APP to solve these problems. We made technical optimizations on the mixing and noise reduction of the recording tool until the recording effect was comparable to that of microphone recording and editing. The hosts found that the effect was very good and there were listeners, so they naturally stayed. We tried a different approach for the initial cold start of the product. We have one million seed users coming from our WeChat official account. When we were trying to verify whether the audio product direction was feasible, WeChat happened to launch official accounts. At that time, there were very few official accounts. We carefully selected the 500 most popular Chinese blogs at the time, and after negotiation, put the programs on the official accounts. Users could listen by entering keywords or listening randomly. 

 The general public finds it refreshing to listen to programs on official accounts, and the hosts are also excited about it, achieving the effect of self-propagation. We also secured the opportunity to be among the first to use the bottom menu function of the official account, and then used H5 to create the listening interface, which brought about the first wave of growth. Relying on this dissemination function, we obtained more than 1 million subscriptions in about 3 months. After we launched the APP, this group of loyal fans have continued to follow and are still active today. Throughout the entire process, we verified that the product direction was feasible, solved the problem of product cold start, and brought in one million seed users. Quality drives self-propagation, and content attracts new users After having the first batch of seed users, our key point is how to control the quality of product content in the early stage of product production. We have always believed that quality is more important than quantity in the early stages, because high-quality content can be spread quickly, bring about word-of-mouth effects, and give new users a high-quality first impression. The 500 podcasters we introduced are all elite hosts in the industry. They are able to produce high-quality content themselves. We have professional producers to help them plan and package them according to their respective strengths, allowing them to play a leading role as models.

 Now that we have the content, we need to try to distribute it. The difficulty lies mainly in how we recommend high-quality content to the right users, which was very difficult under the recommendation mechanism at the time. In the early stage, we adopted a method that combined rankings with intelligent recommendations, and now we have also added manual recommendations and local LBS (LBS: location-based service) methods. Our lists are divided into hot lists, new lists, boys' lists and girls' lists. We have also expanded many lists to solve the distribution of our top content. In terms of intelligent recommendation, based on the collection of users' playback, subscription and other operation behaviors, we analyze them through precise algorithms and use the generated data to prioritize and recommend more content that suits users' interests and hobbies. While helping users discover good shows, it also increases the exposure of these podcasts. Precisely because of the personalized recommendations, a large amount of user behavior is collected and machine learning is performed, and the content fed back to users will be different. In terms of manual recommendations, we now have dozens of editors working on this, and they are very sensitive to content and voice. They listen to many programs every day to find high-quality content on the platform and recommend them to the homepage and various channels. The function of local LBS is to solve the long-tail content. UGC is prone to the long-tail effect. We use this function to solve this problem and distribute it effectively, allowing more podcasts that exist underground to be exposed.

 High-quality original content and anchor economy to create a sustainable development ecosystem Unlike some other platforms, Lizhi has always insisted on the UGC model. The most important thing in this model is how to guide users to create high-quality content. Our idea is to provide a platform for the host to showcase his talents and manage his fan base, that is, the community . Our UGC model is to release the top content so that more listeners can learn and participate and then become anchors. In terms of guiding strategy, the first step is to lower the production threshold so that a recording can be completed on a mobile phone. Listeners can submit articles to the host, and the selected articles can be broadcast on the show. We have also established a podcast academy mechanism, inviting elite anchors to give classes, which are divided into different courses. The instructors will teach pronunciation practice, Mandarin practice, content planning, use of recording equipment, post-production, etc. 

 Under the UGC model, if revenue can be generated for high-quality podcasts, it will become an important motivation for hosts to produce high-quality programs. Recently, the focus of our products has also shifted to the anchor economy. Currently, we use the method of giving away lychees, that is, giving away virtual props, to increase the anchor's income. In the long run, hobbies alone are not enough to maintain motivation. We want the anchors to generate commercial value through high-quality content, which will enable the sustainable development of the entire ecosystem. The Litchi Room we are currently launching does not rely on rewards, but focuses on helping anchors to rank on the charts. The meaning of hitting the board is to get your favorite anchor on the list, which can not only generate income for the anchor, but also reflect the fans' loyalty to the anchor. When launching the ranking function, we were most worried about the difficulty of cold start. We also organized a ranking event to guide users, but in fact, after we launched it, the response from users and anchors was quite enthusiastic. Under the host's call, the competition for the entire list was very fierce. The problem of cold start difficulty did not occur. Currently, some of our top anchors have also opened fan clubs. Fans join the club by paying a membership fee, and then the host interacts with the fans in the club or by participating in activities and meet-and-greets organized by the host. Doing e-commerce through podcasts is also a direction we are currently trying. Podcasters can sell host-related products, such as photo albums and diaries, or even books. We have achieved good results so far, and these are the models we are exploring. 

 How does Lizhi FM create a light social community atmosphere? The comment and barrage functions we are currently working on have received good responses on some programs and have accumulated a considerable number of comments. What we are building is a host community, and the importance of social atmosphere is self-evident. Through observation of the data, we found that when there were no comment and barrage functions, the efficiency of fans communicating with the anchor through private messages was very low, while fans had a strong desire to communicate with the anchor. Taking this opportunity, we launched comments and barrages. With these two functions, we need to create a social atmosphere. In the early stage, we mainly rely on the guidance of the anchors. We communicate through the anchors, and the anchors will find ways to interact with the audience during the program, such as playing some small games . Each host will also design different interactive sessions. Some hosts will request songs, some will do emotional Q&A sessions, and the listeners will send barrages and comments under the influence of the host's interaction.

 On Lizhi FM, there are many psychological and emotional programs, which are easier to stimulate the emotions of the listeners and resonate with them. Listeners can express their feelings and opinions through comments, and some of the best comments can also be liked by everyone. Comments with many likes will be pushed to the top of the list and become hot comments. This helps filter out high-quality reviews. We hope that users can not only listen to programs on the Lizhi platform, but also find a group of people who resonate with them, interact with them, and engage in secondary creation, such as wonderful posts and comments. These will give the social platform in the entire online audio industry certain social attributes. The above are some of my experiences in the process of creating the Lizhi FM platform. I am very happy to share them with you and learn and communicate with you. Thank you everyone.

Mobile application product promotion services: ASO optimization services Qinggua Media information flow

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