The world of mini programs and how to operate them

1) The world of mini programs /direct services

The Internet is a world of its own and every company has its own way of survival. If we divide it by frequency of use and duration of single use, it is probably like this:

In this world, the upper right corner is the ecosystem and the lower left corner is the minions. Every App tries its best to improve its frequency and duration, because frequency × duration = total time. The longer the total time, the more ads you see and the more goods you sell.

The disruptor has arrived, it is called mini program ( WeChat , Alipay ), also called direct service (Xiaomi). The rules of the game have changed.

Ink Weather in the lower right corner is a veteran among tool apps. The way users open it once a day and take a quick look at it each time gives them a headache. “How does this sell advertising?”

In order to make money, he put a bunch of news under [Weather] and set up a [Current Scene] UGC system to increase the length of stay. A bunch of advertising entrances were placed on the [My] page.

This is also a common way of playing for tool apps, using content to increase dwelling time and making a living by buying advertisements. If the quantity is large, you can sell it yourself; if the quantity is small, you can put it on the points wall or online alliance .

Once the mini program came out, Moji Weather was in an awkward position. After much thought, he decided to develop his own mini program. “If I don’t, other weather apps will!”

Ink Weather became clean and simple again, but it also lost advertising revenue. The points wall business, which relies on tool apps such as MoJi to provide traffic , has also reached the end of its life.

Being integrated into various ecosystems through mini programs and merging with them may be the final fate of various tool apps.

Ele.me and Dianping are the leaders among transaction apps.

Transaction apps are also advertising businesses, but unlike tool apps, their advertising itself is a service. "The price of braised chicken is higher, so I put it ahead of Shaxian snacks." Therefore, mini programs have little impact on them, as users have always been “buy when needed and leave after purchase”.

News and information apps are also not greatly affected.

The Douban App in the upper left corner appears to be a separate entity on the surface, but it is actually the boss of the Gaodi Gang.

What Gaodibang is best at is high frequency with low gross profit and low frequency with high gross profit; using high frequency to attract users and using low frequency to make money.

For example, on Douban, movies are high frequency and e-commerce is low frequency. For homework helper, searching for questions is a high frequency, while attending classes is a low frequency.

Even Mr. Wang, who runs a supermarket in the community, has quietly joined the high-low gang. "I sell eggs for 4 yuan per pound, which means I lose 0.2 cents. Each person is limited to buying 2 pounds, but all the old ladies come to me to buy eggs! This is a high frequency product. If I raise the price of other low-frequency products, won't I make money?"

With the advent of mini programs, Gaodibang faces a major decision: should they make the high-frequency parts into mini programs?

If you do it, your previous business will be cut off; if you don’t do it, once other companies do it, you won’t even be able to maintain your high-frequency market position!

So we have no choice but to do it, and as a result, the high-frequency part has become more of a brand value. "It seems that Douban's rating is pretty good. Why don't you download the Douban App and take a look?"

Finally, let’s take a look at the bosses in the upper right corner. WeChat and Alipay have both launched their own mini-programs. Xiaomi has also launched a direct service.

When WeChat was developing mini-programs, many people clamored that WeChat should become a portal and replace the App Store. gab. WeChat doesn’t want to overthrow anyone’s life, it just wants to protect its own life.

For them, mini programs represent a more complete ecosystem with more monetization methods.

Some time ago, many people said that WeChat’s mini-program mall would kill Taobao . Ladies and gentlemen, long before the emergence of mini program malls, tools like Youzan were already very complete. If we wanted a revolution, we would have done it long ago.

It’s not the mini-programs that are stealing Taobao’s business, but official accounts + Weibo.

Taobao is essentially an advertising platform with advertising space everywhere. Because it controls the display logic, Taobao has the final say on what users buy.

But now, a tweet from a public account or a Weibo celebrity’s Weibo post can bring in tons of transactions. Merchants no longer need to seek advertising from Taobao. A large portion of Taobao’s advertising revenue was cut off.

At this point in the book, you may say: This is too weird. WeChat mini-programs have been out for half a year, and there hasn’t been any big movement?

Because WeChat is restrained.

To calculate by visit frequency and duration, search < Group Chat < View Public Account < Friend Chat. WeChat has been slowly opening up its services step by step, but it still hasn’t opened up the chat function for friends.

But WeChat is not in a hurry, but others are.

2) Manufacturers’ counterattack

The ones who are anxious are the manufacturers.

WeChat is a big piece of fat meat, with 50% of users using the market for 90 minutes per day. Therefore, Xiaomi and Huawei, which are larger in size, directly extended their knives.

Xiaomi has launched a direct service similar to mini programs. Compared with WeChat mini-programs, direct services are much bolder and more radical.

Xiaomi Direct Program - Portal, long press the keyword in the chat to call up the corresponding mini program. Huawei's approach is similar.

This made WeChat very unhappy, and it criticized Huawei. I myself am reluctant to touch the fat piece of meat called "Friend Chat", so why would you?

However, the "portal" approach neither affects the user experience nor involves user privacy, after all, it is the user who actively presses and holds the button to call it out. So WeChat’s defense is a bit weak.

The real reason for unhappiness is nothing more than interest. The manufacturers have touched the cake that even WeChat itself is reluctant to touch.

This may be the beginning of the manufacturer's counterattack. In the past, WeChat was the boss and could block anyone it wanted, forcing Taobao to come up with a password. Now, the manufacturer will redirect to whomever the user chooses.

What does portal mean to the world of apps?

1) Spend more money

Maoyan Movies said: "I have already spent money to get users to download. I have also done a good job in UGC film reviews. Originally, users should come to me to read film reviews after chatting on WeChat. But now you can long-press the movie name to jump to Douban film reviews. What should I do?"

The portal means that the service is available at any time, but it also means that the significance of App downloads is weakened. Apps have to spend more money to purchase the long-press jump service, but they also get more traffic.

2) The scope is not large

It is unlikely that Portal will engage in bidding. It is very likely that it will reach in-depth cooperation with an App in each field, similar to JD.com and WeChat.

3) WeChat countermeasures

WeChat will not sit idly by and will likely launch countermeasures through technology or litigation. On the surface, it is a dispute over data, but in reality it is a fight for the right to speak.

3) How to operate

Where there are people, there is the world. The world has changed, and the way we operate our business must also change. So finally, let’s talk about the impact of direct service on operations.

After reading this part, you will understand how awesome Xiaomi Direct Service is.

There are three things to do in operations: attract new customers , promote activation, and prevent churn.

1) Attract new customers

Direct service does not require downloading and registration. The user system can directly reference the Xiaomi account and skip the downloading, opening and registration steps.

This means that for MIUI new user acquisition scenarios, such as browser downloads and app store downloads, direct service can directly save three layers of funnels. How much will ROI improve?

2) Promote activation

Direct service supports push , and sending push is the simplest and most commonly used way to promote activation.

A portal to direct access to services. Just long press the text to get intelligent results immediately and reach the target content in one step.

This not only reduces the funnel, but also increases the usage scenarios.

For example, if a friend tells you, "Little hands holding a puppy" is very cute, you might just say: Oh. But now you can long press to call out Douban ratings and view star ratings and reviews. Douban gained one more daily active user because of this.

Think about it, not only WeChat, but in the future, text messages, chats, browsers, and other services can be directly accessed at any time anywhere, thereby increasing the daily activity of the product.

Even pictures are included, after all, Xiaomi's image recognition technology is already very mature. It is not difficult to identify an Armani bag from a picture and jump to the Taobao page.

Now you will understand why WeChat always says "use it and leave it". Because in the right scenario, users will still come.

3) Anti-loss

Unlike WeChat's restraint, when a user exits Xiaomi Direct Service, the system will prompt to generate a shortcut to ensure user retention .

Even better, when users uninstall the app, the system will prompt the user to keep the corresponding direct service entrance on the desktop.

As long as users are not completely disgusted with the App and just think that it is not used frequently and takes up memory, they are likely to retain the direct service.

This simply saved the low-frequency App's life.

For example, Ctrip . I only download it when I buy air tickets and delete it after use. But next time I buy a plane ticket and find it troublesome or there is no wifi, I might find another app to solve the problem. At the same time, during the uninstallation period, Ctrip could not push notifications to me for any activities.

What if the user is so brutal that he doesn’t even keep the direct service?

Don't worry, we also have custom text messages. The SMS style, button text, and buttons at the bottom of the SMS interface can all be customized.

This kind of scenario-based text message will greatly improve the conversion rate of recall. For example, the following one (I made it up):

4) User portrait

Who is the enemy? Who is the friend? This is the primary question of the revolution.

What kind of people are the users? This is the primary operational issue.

All direct services share the same Xiaomi account system. This means that Xiaomi can use its own data to help you create user profiles.

This would solve so many problems.

For example, if I want to provide a value-added service, in order to encourage everyone to experience it, I can only pay for the subsidy myself and send red envelopes to each user. Eventually I was able to gain some loyal paying customers , but I also wasted a lot of money on people taking advantage of me.

There is no way I can accurately model a single user right from the start.

But Xiaomi can. Based on MIUI data, it knows better than us who are the losers, who are the dads, and who are the freeloaders . This would save me a lot of money, resources and energy.

Following the same logic, Alipay will be deeply integrated with the sharing system because Alipay has credit data.

Xiaomi and Alipay will both be data companies in the future.

4) Final Chapter

The era of mini programs and direct services is the harvest era of mobile Internet .

The rules of the game have changed. The giants are setting rules and opening up their capabilities, while entrepreneurs are seeking new opportunities in the giants' ecosystems.

At this time, operations must keep up. New ways of playing must mean new bonuses. It depends on whether you can find them.