With six new functions launched, what is Mini Program thinking now?

On January 9, based on Zhang Xiaolong ’s speech at the WeChat Open Class PRO version at the end of last year and conversations with friends inside and outside WeChat, I deduced that WeChat wanted to connect offline disconnected scenarios through mini-programs .

So, a few months later, how is this idea being implemented? To be honest, it's not that great. Perhaps this situation was anticipated by the WeChat team, and they are opening up more capabilities step by step as originally planned; or perhaps, things are a little below their expectations, and they must gradually open up more capabilities, or even change the original idea a little bit, to get the mini program on a faster track. From the WeChat Index , we can see that mini programs are not as popular as they were in January:

The WeChat Open Class official account just published an article with the word " heavyweight " in the title , announcing the six new capabilities of WeChat Mini Programs :

1. Individuals can also register for mini programs, which were originally only open to enterprises
2. Official accounts can be bound to mini programs, and mini programs can be triggered from the official account menu, template messages, and notifications.
3. Developers can set up WeChat to scan ordinary QR codes and directly open the specified mini-program (similar to Mobike )
4. The link shared by the App to WeChat can directly open the mini program

Regarding the second point, WeChat officials believe that it includes three capabilities, so there are six in total.

In this article, I will still use the deductive method to talk about what the mini program is thinking after 3 and a half months.

1

Current Status of Mini Programs

More than three months have passed, and I got a fairly reliable data from a third-party statistics agency. The current number of users of these mini-programs should be considered relatively high.

• Mobike
• Bus is coming! Accurate real-time bus service
• DiDi
• Meituan Takeaway +
• JD Shopping
• Pinduoduo+
• Meituan Life
• Dianping+
• 58 City Life
• Maoyan Movie
• Ctrip hotel air tickets train tickets
• Toutiao lite
• Express 100 Assistant
• Small rice cake+
• SPDB Credit Card
• Optional stocks
• Expression Home
• Tencent Video
• Group Application
• Check Specifications

The mini programs in the list are ranked in no particular order. We can see that these mini programs with a large number of users are almost all from large companies and online products. Mobike is one exception.

What kind of real problems does the current situation of mini programs reflect?

2

What can mini programs do and what WeChat wants them to do

In August last year, the mini program, which was then named " App Number ", began internal testing. Eight teams within Tencent participated in the internal testing, and they developed mini programs including Tencent Video and Self-Selected Stocks.

Last September, the mini program opened 200 places for internal testing, and we were fortunate to participate in the internal testing. At that time, everyone defined the mini program as an alternative to apps. Because whether I write the article "Don't Develop Apps" or not, many people in the industry have already believed that when the number of users is not large enough, a WeChat account is enough.

On December 28 last year, at the WeChat annual open class, Zhang Xiaolong gave two examples of mini-programs in his keynote speech, both of which were related to offline. He also mentioned offline repeatedly during the two-hour speech. We can infer that the positioning of the mini program at this time is to connect offline scenarios that are not connected.

In order to allow developers to follow the direction of WeChat, the mini program has not yet been open to Moments forwarding or long-press QR code entry. The mini program can only be entered by scanning the code or sharing the conversation. This means that WeChat wants to indirectly force developers to find new offline scenarios through such means.

Two weeks ago, someone discovered that in the latest WeChat Android beta version, users can long press the QR code to enter the mini program. This instantly excited many people in the industry, who felt that the time had come for mini programs to explode. But later, WeChat’s public relations officer told me that this was actually a bug. Whether it is a bug or not, different people have different understandings, but it is undeniable that allowing long pressing of QR code to enter the mini program is just a switch for WeChat, which can be easily turned on at any time it wants.

Among the several capabilities that have just been opened up, we pay attention to points 2 and 4. These two capabilities can allow a mini program to be separated from offline scenarios. If your subscription account has a large enough following, you can promote your own mini program through the subscription account without relying on viral transmission or so-called offline scenarios.

By simply organizing this timeline, we can find that WeChat’s mission for mini-programs has been undergoing subtle changes.

If WeChat wanted mini programs to be connected offline in August last year, then Tencent should have looked for offline scenarios during its own internal testing instead of making a Tencent Video mini program. If Zhang Xiaolong's speech in December set the tone for the direction of connecting mini programs to offline, then perhaps it should not open up more online distribution capabilities before classic offline cases emerge. This will obviously make developers more reluctant to tap into offline traffic .

Is Tencent Video’s mini program a good mini program? Yes, at least it satisfies my need to watch "Tucao Conference" - I don't have to download the Tencent Video app. Is there really so much traffic that can be tapped offline? Yes, it does exist, but the gameplay is not as simple as online products.

A knife can be used to cut vegetables, as chefs use it to cut vegetables; it can also be used to kill people, as some people use it to kill innocent people, while others use it to kill people in self-defense but are sentenced; it can also be used to pry open a lid that is difficult to open, although this seems like a waste of talent.

What a mini program can do and what its owner wants to use it for are two different things .

Mini programs are naturally the best product to replace apps. Installing an app is really too much trouble. Why can’t I just click and enjoy the service? Why do you still need to search in the App Store, and why do you still need to register? Why do I need to receive a mobile verification code? Why... Yes, the App experience can be better than that of the Mini Program, but most of the time, users only need "better" service, and I think this "better" means better than H5.

Mini programs are a natural extension of the WeChat ecosystem ’s services. WeChat has more than 800 million daily active users. Almost every Chinese with a mobile phone opens WeChat multiple times a day. It has evolved from a simple communication tool into an ecosystem where you can read, share, listen to micro-classes, watch videos... Since users are already in this ecosystem, they naturally hope to get more services in this ecosystem. The H5 format of subscription accounts and service accounts has relatively poor service carrying capacity and the experience is not good. Mini programs can solve the experience problem.

What does its owner want to use it for? Through the arrangement of the timeline, we can see that WeChat first hopes to connect offline scenarios through mini-programs. WeChat knows that this knife can be used to cut vegetables, but for the owner of the knife, the top priority is self-defense. For the owner of the mini program - WeChat - Tencent, it wants to connect to more offline scenarios, so it puts this important task on the mini program.

So, how does the mini program accomplish this task?

3

Why didn’t the offline scenario take off?

In the article “What Mini Programs Want”, I started from Tencent’s desire to connect everything and then proposed the best means of connecting offline:

The QR code is not from WeChat, but every Chinese who uses WeChat will involuntarily scan it with WeChat when they see the QR code.

I will not prove this conclusion here. What I want to say is that we can easily put a QR code on every object and every scene, but it is not easy to design specific services for specific scenes.

In the past three months, I have provided consulting services on mini-program product design to several companies, all of which are enterprises with offline scenarios. I encountered many challenges when designing services for offline scenarios. The user may spend a very short time in a certain scenario, or he may feel that browsing Moments is a better way to kill time than scanning codes, so he may not necessarily need the additional services provided by this scenario.

But isn’t that what entrepreneurship is all about? If it were that easy to think of, everyone would be an entrepreneur .

In the past, I was working on online products. When I tried to use my experience to help these companies, I felt overwhelmed. At least I needed to spend a lot of energy on research and study to design a feasible solution.

Companies that are currently developing mini-programs can all be called the first wave of developers. Most of these developers have worked purely on online products in the past . Like me, they probably don’t have much experience in making offline products. If WeChat wants developers to explore offline scenarios, it will actually be quite difficult for this first wave of developers.

It’s not that they don’t recognize the value of offline scenarios, but most of them are unfamiliar with offline scenarios. The offline gameplay is completely different from the online gameplay. Moreover, WeChat has blocked the online communication path. They can't even use offline scenarios as an entry point to guide users back to online communication.

Let’s take a look at the development of the App Store. In the first two years after the launch of the App Store, we saw almost all pure online products. There were not many products for offline use. It’s not that there were none at all, there were some to B connected offline products, but the vast majority were online.

Because those who dare to be the first to try new things are often Internet entrepreneurs . They are very familiar with the Internet's way of doing things and can develop products faster than Hong Kong journalists. For example, my good friend Cheng Hao, the founder of Chaoxi Calendar, told me that it only took them 2 weeks to develop a small program, and the user feedback was pretty good.

Another friend of mine, Shi Wenlu, the founder of Aladdin, the mini-program statistics tool with the most customers at present, also told me that most of the mini-programs currently using Aladdin are also online products.

It’s not that there are no offline scenarios that can be explored, but that the first wave of people who enter the development of mini programs are not familiar with the offline world. We may have to wait until the second or third stage of mini program development before we can see offline scenarios that are better connected with mini programs.

4

The conflict between developers and WeChat

No company wants its products to be ready for users to use.

Zhang Xiaolong defines mini programs as ready to use.

At first glance, these two sentences seem to define two contradictions. Developers hope that their products will be used multiple times by users, while WeChat hopes that users can quickly enter the mini-programs and leave quickly when they no longer need to use them. Therefore, the mini program has very strict restrictions on push notifications. It does not want the mini program to be like the app’s push notifications that frequently harass users.

Both are correct. Imagine if a mini program frequently teases users, users who don’t know the reason may think that it is WeChat’s problem and will blame WeChat for the “crime”. Imagine if Mobike’s mini app was unlocked and not opened until the next time the user needed a bike, the mini app’s presence would be too low - they wouldn’t even have a way for users to enjoy extended services in the process (although that’s not the case yet).

The contradiction between the two will eventually be resolved by finding a balance point through WeChat .

This balance point changes dynamically. At the beginning, WeChat restricted all online distribution methods except forwarding by friends, and developers and traffic players protested. Of course, the latter's protest was the loudest. Now, we can see that WeChat is gradually opening up its online distribution capabilities, such as distributing through the menu of official accounts, and for example, a version of long-press QR code sharing is currently being tested internally.

I have always been very confident in WeChat, and I have never concealed the fact that I am a fan of Zhang Xiaolong. Nowadays, most of the people who develop mini-programs are Internet developers. As WeChat, it is natural for it to make some changes for these developers - that is, to open up more online capabilities. Perhaps these capabilities are all in the plan, but no matter what, the plan will always change dynamically with the "residents" and "architects" in the ecosystem. In this regard, I have always had confidence in WeChat, and I also have confidence in WeChat's ability to restrict traffic players.

5

Several possible changes in the future

When I was writing this article, a friend sent me a WeChat message and asked if I could add his point of view to the article: "Mini Programs will shorten the business path and bring the last wave of mobile Internet dividends. Not only will it give birth to mini program entrepreneurial projects in various verticals, but it will also give birth to many third-party companies."

I agree with the second half of this view, but I don’t think this is the so-called last wave of dividends. These are all statements made by investors who follow the wind. Last year, investors said that there were no entrepreneurial opportunities in the mobile Internet . This year, they suddenly said, hey, knowledge payment and shared bicycles are entrepreneurial opportunities.

Mini programs, subscription accounts, service accounts, and enterprise accounts will inevitably form a large WeChat ecosystem, just like the App Store, or even larger than the App Store ecosystem, because WeChat naturally stays connected with users. You can imagine that the tools, third-party tools, SAAS, etc. that appeared in the years when the App Store was developed will appear in this ecosystem in a form suitable for WeChat.

In my opinion, the six capabilities that WeChat has opened up now send two signals to developers:

1. Internet developers, we hear you.
2. We don’t actually emphasize that we must do offline scenarios. We can do it online as well. Mini programs are a knife.

But this does not mean that offline scenarios are not worth exploring. For WeChat, it will still find ways to connect more offline scenarios, because there are indeed many offline scenarios that are not connected and a lot of offline traffic that is not utilized.

The same applies to entrepreneurs. Don't always focus on the online world and don't always follow the so-called trends. If you see the media saying that it is good to create paid content , then go and start a content business. If you see everyone is riding a bike, then go and copy a bike with a GPS lock. Offline, there are still huge plates waiting for you.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

This article was compiled and published by @Nan Ke Ba (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map