Analysis of the competitive products of niche stranger social apps: AiLiao, MiYi, and TaQu

"Afraid of socializing and afraid of loneliness" has become a true portrayal of many people today. Loneliness has given rise to the "loneliness business". The loneliness that has nowhere to be relieved in the world of acquaintances has given rise to the stranger social networking market, which is worth tens of billions of yuan.

According to the "Survey Report on Social Concepts and Social Relationships of Post-95s", more than 80% of the surveyed users regard stranger social software as an important way to expand their network of contacts. Among them, 25.2% of users said they use social software frequently, and 58% of users choose to find partners through social software.

In August 2011, Momo quietly went online, opening the door to stranger social networking in China. Over the past nine years, thanks to the development of the Internet, the stranger social networking market has also developed rapidly. Three years later, in 2014, Tantan, which imitated the foreign application Tinder, was officially launched.

From then on, stranger social products began to gradually develop from homogeneous competition to differentiated competition. For example, Soul, relying on the concept of "metaverse", has managed to seize a certain market share.

Although the big social pie has been divided up by Momo, Tantan, Soul, etc., the vertical battlefield in the subdivided fields can become a stage for niche social networking to exert its strength.

Today, we will not analyze the leading stranger social products such as Momo, Tantan, and Soul. Instead, we will do a special competitive analysis on niche stranger social apps, including AiLiao, Miyi, and TaQu , from the aspects of market analysis, product positioning, functional architecture, user analysis, usage analysis, commercial realization, and optimization solutions.

The reason why these three products are compared is that among niche social products, these three are basically at the same level in terms of positioning, functions, and popularity, and are highly comparable.

1. Analysis of the niche stranger social market

According to data from iiMedia Research, the scale of China's mobile social users reached 924 million in 2020, and it is estimated that the total number of China's mobile social users will exceed 1 billion in 2022.

The mobile social industry is mainly divided into stranger social networking and acquaintance social networking based on LBS and cross-regional pan-social networking. Stranger social networking is mainly divided into stranger social upgrading, product + social function and KOL mode, which enables users to enhance mutual understanding through text chat, dynamics and interactive games.

In recent years, the scale of stranger social users in my country has continued to grow, reaching 488 million in 2016 and approaching 650 million in 2020, and this set of data is still growing.

Stranger social apps are efficiency-oriented. Mainstream products all have instant messaging functions and are committed to helping users connect more quickly and establish short-term relationships.

Therefore, they will not stick to one social product, but try any one or multiple social products to satisfy themselves.

Therefore, in this case, even if leading products such as Momo, Tantan, and Soul occupy a large market share, it will not lead to a market structure where one company dominates the market, nor will it affect the success of niche social products.

Before the pattern is formed, any stranger social product has the opportunity to become a disruptor in the field.

2. Product Positioning

Stranger social networking includes three categories: marriage and love, same-sex, and others. It is oriented towards making friends and quickly matches user relationships through options such as location, gender, age, and information. With the advancement of recommendation algorithms, user matching options have been continuously refined. For example, Tantan’s distribution adopts the picture + high-precision LBS mode, and Soul uses sound as the medium for matching.

The three niche stranger social apps mentioned in this article, namely AiLiao, MiYi and TaQu, are basically based on video matching.

According to relevant data from iMedia Consulting, text chat accounts for about 70% of the communication methods used by mobile social users interviewed, and is still the mainstream communication method. In the survey on preferred communication methods, 12.5% ​​of respondents indicated that they prefer to use video, which is more than the actual usage rate. Users are clearly willing to increase the proportion of video communication.

Compared with text chat and voice chat, video chat can convey richer and more vivid information and is spread more quickly.

The three products, AiLiao, MiYi and TaQu, are basically based on making friends through video chat, allowing users to conduct two-way video matching through dating information, dating tags, geographic location, etc.

3. Functional Architecture

The latest version of AiLiao is 5.4.8, which consists of five major sections: [Fate], [Dynamics], [Live Broadcast], [Message], and [Me].

On the homepage of Yuanfen, there are two dating sections: Recommendations and Nearby, and six small sections above. They are voice matching, video matching, same-city matching, couple matching, rankings, and game matching.

The other functions are easy to understand. Let me focus on couple matching and local matching. I think this matching mode is relatively novel.

After trying it out, I found that it is a series of analyses based on the profile picture (not necessarily the real person, there is no real person requirement), including interests and hobbies, basic information, astrological pattern, comprehensive matching, facial features, etc.

After success, a user of the opposite sex will be recommended to you, and the index of couple resemblance will be displayed, including a series of analyses on the faces of both parties, and then a comprehensive assessment result will be given. As to whether this result is based on facts, it is unknown.

Speed ​​matching in the same city is done by posting a sentence or a paragraph, and then selecting the number of people you want to match with. You can choose 1, 3, 5, or 10 people. It is a bit similar to the earlier WeChat message in a bottle, where you just say a sentence and then throw it out. I tested it myself, but after a day and a night, there was no feedback, so I don’t know what form it will be displayed in.

The latest version of Miyi is 3.9.2. The entire App consists of 5 major sections, namely [Friends], [Entertainment], [Mood], [Message], and [Me].

On the dating homepage, speed matching, as the highlight feature of Miyi, is ranked first, and the remaining ones are recommendations, nearby, newcomers, active, etc.
There is also a filtering function above the friend list. Users can effectively filter according to their needs by region, zodiac sign, age, occupation, label, topic, etc.

Here I would like to focus on the screening conditions. Among the three products, only Miyi has the most detailed screening conditions for making friends. By screening relevant conditions, users can accurately match themselves with the opposite sex who meet their requirements. I personally think this is quite well done among competing products!

[Entertainment] This section covers live broadcasts and some official activities.

Judging from the overall functional structure of Miyi, like most social apps, it chooses 5 functional category TABs as the bottom navigation bar. Judging from the structural distribution of the homepage, Miyi regards video social networking as the main feature of its product, while not neglecting the functional status of traditional messaging and chatting.

Of course, it also has many features that many social apps don’t have, such as a one-click chat button on the friend homepage list and even in the mood square, which can quickly break the social ice.

The latest version of TaQu is 7.5.1.9. The entire product is also composed of five major sections, namely [Dating], [Live Broadcast], [Square], [Message], and [Me].

Let’s focus on the two sections: the dating homepage and the live broadcast. The homepage settings of the two products, TaQu and AiLiao, are very similar, and both have a speed matching gameplay function placed on the top. The difference is that TaQu has moved functions such as group chat and chat room to the top of the homepage, and also added online karaoke gameplay.

In the live broadcast section, he worked very hard. It is divided into several categories, including popular, newcomer, attention, dance, Shenzhen, gold medal anchor, national live broadcast, and making friends.

Summary: From the perspective of product functional architecture, these three apps are very similar, basically covering aspects such as making friends, live broadcasting, dynamic square, message list, personal homepage, etc., but the names are different.

In terms of live streaming, TaQu has done the best and has the largest number of viewers. Whether it is interface design or classification, TaQu's live streaming is more professional.

When it comes to making friend recommendations, Miyi does the best, with the most detailed and attentive screening conditions, allowing users to satisfy their dating needs to the greatest extent.

In terms of interaction, AiLiao is the best among the three. In addition to couples’ matches and city-wide speed matching, a new game-based speed matching mode has been added. Through the interaction of mini-games, both parties can quickly get closer.

The three products have their own advantages and characteristics.

(Picture below: from left to right are the homepages of AiLiao, MiYi, and TaQu apps)

4. User Analysis

In July 2021, the total number of users of AiLiao exceeded 100 million. The gender ratio is about 5:5, and the user group is mainly young men and women aged 21-35, mostly distributed in second- and third-tier cities.

Public data online shows that in November 2021, the total number of Miyi users exceeded 70 million. The gender ratio of male and female users is about 4:6. The user population is mainly young men and women aged 26-35, mostly distributed in second-tier cities, which include a large number of lonely people and social "working people".

This is completely in line with Miyi's target product users - singles who need to eliminate loneliness and share their lives without social constraints.

Judging from the current public reports on the Internet, Miyi is also expanding into third- and fourth-tier cities, adopting a strategy of gradually surrounding first- and second-tier cities from third- and fourth-tier cities in order to open up the markets in third- and fourth-tier cities.

In March 2022, TaQu announced that the total number of users exceeded 200 million, with the ratio of male to female users being approximately 6:4, mainly distributed in second- and third-tier cities.

5. User Experience

Since its birth, China's stranger social APP has never truly evolved and has always been in the 1.0 era of "general social networking" and has failed to enter the 2.0 era of "deep social networking". In other words, whether it is from "face control" to "voice control", from LBS matching to interest matching, or video matching, social APPs only allow you to "know more people" rather than let you "understand people more deeply".

As mentioned at the beginning, when it comes to stranger social interaction, users will not stick to one specific social product, but will try any one or more social products to satisfy themselves.

So whether it is Momo, Tantan, Soul, AiLiao, Miyi, or TaQu, people are just changing to different versions of the "friendship tool" but are not finding real friends or establishing effective relationships on it. Apart from helping people kill time and meet short-term needs, social apps do not truly solve the problem of "loneliness" from the fundamental perspective.

After experiencing these three products, we discovered a problem: the response rate of female users is relatively high, and the real-person authentication rate of female users is relatively high, which may be due to the product design itself.

In stranger social products, genes determine that men are more inclined to take the initiative, while women choose among many suitors. However, it is precisely because of the influx of male users and their tendency to take the initiative that female users on the platform are harassed.

As long as a female user posts a selfie on a social platform, no matter what she looks like, the number of private messages in the background will basically be 99+. Some male users even use foul language, which makes female users very annoyed.

This will form a conditioned reflex in the minds of female users, and they will basically not reply to private messages from male users. This will result in many boys who are willing to make friends not getting the corresponding attention, so they will more frequently go to the square to look for the opposite sex to interact with or directly lose sight of it.

Therefore, in terms of product design, the models of the three platforms are very similar. Through incentive mechanisms, they mobilize the enthusiasm of female users and actively initiate communication with male users.

In the chat interface, AiLiao, MiYi and TaQu have designed unread and read functions, which can intuitively feel whether the messages you sent have received feedback.

When a message has been read but not replied to, the sender will think that he or she has said something wrong and may continue to send follow-up messages, thus promoting continued social interaction and information output.

When a message is unread, the sender will clearly believe that the receiver has not seen the message, and thus put their mind at ease.

(From left to right, the following pictures are screenshots of chats on AiLiao, MiYi, and TaQu)

6. Commercial Monetization

Commercialization is a major challenge for any social product, and it takes many attempts to find a way forward.

For example, Momo, a leading social product, previously launched a "Black Diamond Membership" for 50,000 yuan a year. Users who become members can use functions such as "super like", "change location at will", and "check whether the message has been read". This pricing and setting are ridiculed by users as a must-have for the rich to "select a concubine online".

After years of exploring membership fees and advertising, Momo finally developed a monetization model of "live streaming + value-added services".

Soul has been exploring monetization paths such as membership fees, value-added services, and advertising, and has also suffered a lot on the road to commercialization.

Value-added services mainly include virtual gifts and membership subscription income. Users can enjoy various services in the virtual world by purchasing Soul coins, including dressing up personal virtual images, speeding up matching, sending virtual gifts in private chats, etc.

For advertising monetization, Soul has developed its own advertising backend. Like many information platforms, it uses information flow advertising or app splash screen advertising.

As niche stranger social products, the commercial monetization methods of AiLiao, MiYi and TaQu mainly rely on membership fees and value-added services .

The chatty nobles are divided into six levels: knight, viscount, earl, marquis, duke, and king. Prices and exclusive privileges also increase accordingly. The lowest is the Knight, which costs 8 yuan a month, and the highest is the King, which costs 1,888 yuan a month.

Miyi's noble center is divided into two types: silver nobles and gold nobles. The lowest is silver nobles, which pays 12 yuan a month. The highest level is the Gold Noble, which pays 25 yuan a month.

His noble privileges are divided into nine levels: knight, paladin, baron, viscount, earl, marquis, duke, king, and emperor. The lowest is the knight nobility privilege, which is 9.9 yuan per month, and the highest is the emperor privilege, which is 100,000 yuan per month.

The above conversion does not include the gift portion of recharge!

Judging from the commercial monetization models of their three products, they all appear to be relatively thin and are still focused on the social level, which means that their revenue can only be driven by value-added services such as membership fees and virtual gifts. Exploring more monetization models will remain their key development direction in the future.

(From left to right in the picture below, they are the noble privilege centers of AiLiao, MiYi, and TaQu)

7. Optimization plan

Since these three products focus on stranger social networking and single-ending functions, users do not want the opposite sex they are chatting with to see the intimate interactions between themselves and other opposite sex users.

Therefore, in Miyi's mood dynamics, comments and likes are private and not public, which can well protect the privacy of users.

However, the comments in the dynamic plazas of AiLiao and TaQu are open to the public. In this regard, I think they can learn from MiYi and develop relevant product optimization plans.

From the perspective of interaction, there are many ways to interact between AiLiao and TaQu, in addition to group chats, there are also similar mini-games. Personally, I think Miyi can learn from this and add group chat functions and some small games suitable for men and women to interact with each other. Because although social interaction is mainly about communication, interaction is also the basis of communication.

Of course, there is room for improvement in the city-matching app that AiLiao uses, and the game-matching app for playing billiards also needs to be optimized.

I tested the game speed matching, and in the billiards game, I was matched with a male user. Since it is a speed matching and social software, I personally think it is better to interact with the opposite sex, and there is no need to interact with the same sex. If there are no female users playing this kind of billiards game, you can just replace it with something else.

Just like the dynamics, if I were a male user and found that the dynamics square was full of selfies of male users, the experience would really be a bit unforgettable.

From the perspective of live broadcast, all three products support up and down sliding interactions, which can quickly switch between live broadcast rooms, and the sense of interaction is very strong.

But on the entertainment and design pages, both AiLiao and MiYi are lacking. Both the design and color matching are too simple, and there are no other classification divisions. Personally, I think TaQu is the best among the three products.

If AiLiao and Miyi want to continue to develop the live broadcast business in the future, they can make relevant optimizations.

(From left to right, the following pictures are screenshots of the live streaming interfaces of AiLiao, MiYi, and TaQu)

8. Conclusion

Through the analysis and comparison in the above aspects, we will find that the three products, AiLiao, MiYi and TaQu, are not much different in overall functions, architectural design, including user groups and commercial monetization.

From a geographical perspective, users are mainly young people, and most of them are distributed in second-tier cities, because there are more second-tier cities in my country as a whole, and at the same time there is the life pressure of first-tier cities.

At the same time, these three products are also facing a serious problem, which is also a common problem exposed by all stranger social products. The problem is that the technology used in friend recommendations is low and not accurate enough.

Friend recommendations are currently the most technologically backward among all types of recommendations. Recommendations on platforms such as Toutiao and Taobao will be optimized based on changing user behavior. But whether it is the leading products such as Momo and Soul, or the niche social products such as AiLiao, Miyi, and TaQu, I personally feel that all stranger social software have not achieved excellence, and the accuracy is even more natural.

Social networking among strangers, as a product of an irreversible era, is a low-frequency and rigid demand and has become indispensable. In the future, more people will accept and try this new way of socializing. With the continuous innovation of 5G + AI technology, social product scenarios will become richer and more novel, and are expected to reshape users' social behavior chain. The trend will continue!

The full text is more than 5,300 words, which is quite long and contains only personal opinions. Originality is not easy, thank you for reading!

The data involved in this article are all derived from relevant public information on the Internet.

Author: Yigengjiang Products

Source: Yigengjiang Products