NetEase has launched an interesting new product. Here is an intern's full analysis and speculation about it.

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The year 2016 is known as the first year of knowledge payment . In this year, content platforms such as Duoduo , Himalaya , Fenda , and Jianshu began to embark on the path of knowledge payment by relying on the exclusive rights of their content, and achieved good results. Less than a third of 2017 has passed, and Yikuaitingting, Krypton Column, Douban Time , etc. have each relied on the existing resource advantages of their own platforms to catch the express train of content payment .

On March 8, as soon as NetEase launched Snail Reading , it attracted a lot of attention. This trend can be intuitively felt through the data from Kuchuan.com.

(Data from Kuchuan.com)

This is another attempt by the world's leading content-driven Internet giant to enter the reading field with content as the main driving direction, following its in-depth exploration of vertical fields such as news ( NetEase News ), music (NetEase Cloud Music ), and education (NetEase Cloud Classroom).

Compared with other platforms in the market that rely more on content payment as a monetization model, the NetEase Wugu Reading APP takes a different approach and focuses on the " time payment " model, proposing a " one hour of free reading every day" method (that is, one hour of free reading time every day). Through investigation and discussion with people around me, I tried to combine this with Snail Reading's existing product logic and model and conducted a simple analysis of it. Next, I will briefly talk about my thoughts from the following three aspects:

• An analysis of the positioning of Snail Reading;

• Product analysis on Snail Reading ;

• Speculations on the future iteration direction of Snail Reading .
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1. Analysis on the positioning of Snail Reading

First of all, why would NetEase launch such a product when there are already book reading platforms such as WeChat Reading and iReader on the market?

From the product name alone, we can intuitively see that Snail Reading wants to create an in-depth and refined reading environment. Secondly, Snail Reading wants to guide users to focus their attention on books and gain a more three-dimensional and comprehensive reading experience from them. Moreover, this product must be able to meet the personalized reading requirements of different users today.

If we make inferences based on the user's usage scenarios, it is not difficult to understand why NetEase wants to launch such a product. Obviously, in the current era of fragmented reading, we often face the following practical pain points in the process of establishing a deep connection with books:

• It was difficult to start, and I was unsure about the content and quality of the book, so I gave up buying and reading it;

• After reading, the content cannot be effectively accumulated;

• In the reading process, there is no reasonable reading plan and reading method;

• Without channels and entrances to share content, it is difficult to judge whether one's own ideas are right or wrong.

Why is Snail Reading so popular? Back to the product itself, it must be due to some unique function that impressed the users in the usage scenario.

If we break down all the current functions of the Snail Reading software, we will find that some of the main functions of this software, such as "1 hour of free reading every day" and "reading led by a leader" (that is, Snail Reading selects some big Vs to lead users in reading with excellent book reviews, in-depth notes, high-quality book excerpts, etc.), etc., to some extent, are specifically solving users' pain points and providing immersive and in-depth reading of classic books.

Among these features, the most popular one is “one hour of free reading every day”. The main reason why this product stands out is that this “1 hour” provides a novel reading mode. So, why is NetEase willing to provide this one-hour free time period, and what needs of users does it meet? Below I will explain these two issues in detail.

According to the monitoring data of the Aurora Big Data iAPP monitoring platform in the first two months of 2017, the average daily usage time of the mainstream mobile reading platforms that currently occupy the largest market share, including QQ Reading and Palm Reading, does not exceed 1 hour. QQ Reading, which has a clear advantage in terms of usage time, has an average daily usage time of only 51 minutes. Therefore, one hour of free reading every day can meet the time needs of the vast majority of users.

(Data from Jiguang Big Data Detection Platform)

Obviously, Snail Reading took advantage of this data fact, and the concept of "one hour of free reading every day" is very helpful to both users and the product itself:

• Help the product to quickly start cold and encourage users to read;

• The unit of measurement is time rather than books, which satisfies users’ needs for trial reading and reduces the cost of trial and error.

• Free reading for one hour every day to meet users' demand for low prices. Users can read the entire book without spending a penny.

• It creates a sense of scarcity and urgency in time, which can encourage users to cherish time and use fragmented time for efficient reading.

Therefore, NetEase Wugu Reading's positioning of free reading for one hour not only hits the pain points of users, but the product itself also naturally creates a good model for subsequent operations .

2. Product Analysis of Snail Reading

In order to give you a deeper understanding of this product, I will conduct a detailed analysis from a product perspective, from the user needs, product form, framework and business processes.

1. How are users, scenarios, and needs met?

Combining the current products and user groups, I divide the users of NetEase Wugu Reading into leisure readers, purpose-oriented readers and leaders , and summarize their respective usage scenarios and needs :

In addition, most of the books in the Snail Reading Library are high-quality books that have been collected over time. Even the popular books that have been popular in recent years mostly have high click-through rates and are recognized to be beneficial. This move meets the needs of these core users, creates a reading atmosphere, and also controls costs in the early stages.

2. The core logic of the product

If you look closely, the business logic of this product is relatively simple, mainly focusing on "finding books", "reading", "recording" and "sharing". While strengthening the reading experience, it also adds social elements, and forms a closed loop between users through "sharing" combined with "finding books":

The following picture is the main interface of NetEase Wugu Reading. You can feel it:

3. Product Framework

In order to have a more comprehensive understanding of Snail Reading, I sorted out its product framework. As shown below:

In terms of hierarchical structure, the snail's hierarchical division is relatively reasonable, belonging to a narrow and shallow hierarchy. The entrances to core functions such as book selection and reading are placed on the outer layers, while less frequently used and less important functions are stored in deeper layers.

From the perspective of information organization, the classification is relatively reasonable, and functions of the same attribute are divided into one module, which is convenient for users to understand and use.

4. Key pages and typical interactions

The main page of NetEase Wugu Reading is the desk. I split the desk page as shown below:

NetEase Wugu Reading has condensed most of its functions into the "desk", allowing users to quickly access the functions they want. At the same time, by leaving blank space, users can focus on the books, providing a very good user experience.

5. Key business - the business process of "book selection"

The most important thing about reading products is to select books, read books, and take notes and share them. The process of selecting books is relatively more complicated, so I sorted out the book selection process of NetEase Wugu Reading:

The book selection process is a relatively important process in the business process of NetEase Wuniu Reading, and this process has outstanding advantages during use:

• Provide recommendations, category guides, and searches to help users choose books, and the process is short.

• When "Read Now" appears with "Add to Book List " and "Move to Desk", users can enjoy the pleasure of reading immediately after selecting a book. In terms of operation cost, it can also shorten the time from "finding a book" to "reading a book", providing a better experience.

• During my experience, I found that no matter whether it was "Add to Book List" or "Move to Desk" after adding successfully, it did not jump to the corresponding interface. After thinking about it, I came up with two reasons: First, when there is a need to "read immediately", users can read directly without having to check the book list first and then start reading. Secondly, considering that users may select several books at a time, if they jump to the "book list" or "desk" at this time, the user experience will be very poor.

6. Product performance of NetEase Wugu Reading

First, I observed the ranking and rating data of the products, as follows:

(Data source: Bird Brother ASO )

The following is a user review of this product:

(Data source: App Annie )

In addition, I observed the product from within and obtained the following information:

Popular books have about 1,300 readers and the number of comments is basically in the single digit; unpopular books have about 30 readers and 0 comments. "Internet", "Studying Management", "Mind Reading", and "Reading Novels" are relatively popular, while "Social Sciences", "New Economy", and "Love Life" are relatively unpopular (data from the first and twentieth books in each category are extracted);

About 70% of users are logged in (judged by the book review avatars);

There are currently 50 readers, most of whom have around 200 followers, and the popular ones have more than 2,000 followers.

Judging from the product performance, NetEase Wugou Reading is still in the trial and error stage and has not started large-scale promotion . The reviews from the earliest batch of users are still very good.

NetEase Snail Reading is very exquisite and restrained, from its overall product form to its small business processes of small functions. The initial user feedback is also very ideal. Different from most rough reading software on the market, I believe that Snail Reading will be sought after by more people in the near future.

3. User Feedback and Competitive Product Analysis

After understanding the product situation of NetEase Wugu Reading, I will conduct a more in-depth analysis of this product through user research and functional analysis of competing products.

1. User feedback

I collected and sorted out some negative reviews and suggestions from users from App Annie, as follows:

Through the above user research, I came to the following conclusions:

1. Basic bugs: the page cannot be loaded; the 1.0.2 version consumes power too quickly and the phone easily gets hot;

2. Reading experience: It is recommended to optimize the reading layout;

3. It is recommended to increase the purchase time, sharing, and comment bonus time by one day: This is an operational plan , and it is not ruled out that there may be activities such as "comment bonus time" in the future. Android devices have always had one day of separate purchase, while iOS devices are sold for 7 days or more. Why is there a difference? I can think of three reasons:

Judging from the data , the average reading time of iOS users exceeds that of Android users and is approaching one hour. This means that some users will read for more than the free one hour every day for a long time.

In terms of user classification , most of those who need to purchase time are purpose-oriented users who have long-term reading needs.

From the user's psychological perspective , the general scenario for purchasing one day's time is that in the afternoon or evening, the free time is used up, but you still want to watch for a while longer. At this time, you have to buy time, but at this time you feel that you have lost out because there are only a few hours left in the day. Therefore, from an iOS user's perspective, it is more reasonable not to have "one-day purchase".

4. It is recommended to add note export;
5. Too few new books;
6. The countdown and battery level at the bottom are very annoying;

7…….

2. Competitive product analysis

NetEase Wugu’s most direct competitor should be WeChat Reading . The two products have very similar user groups and design styles, and are always compared. WeChat Reading is now relatively mature. I would like to find the iteration points that NetEase Wugou Reading may replicate in the future by comparing and analyzing the functions and iteration paths of WeChat Reading.

The following are the key product iteration paths for WeChat Reading:

Through the above display, we can find that:

• WeChat Reading is about socializing around friendships, while NetEase Reading is about socializing around the reading leader.

• WeChat has a strong sense of social interaction, while NetEase has a strong sense of being a reading tool ;

• WeChat Reading charges based on the price of the book, while NetEase Reading only charges based on the length of reading time.

Although the two products are slightly different in many aspects, NetEase Wugou Reading can still find points that can be learned from their similarities.

• WeChat Reading will provide a better experience in layout, notes, book lists and other functions;

• In the early stages of its iteration, WeChat Reading focused more on the reading experience, while in later iterations, its social attributes were strengthened.

4. Speculations on the future iteration direction of Snail Reading

Since the product has just been launched, there are still many areas that need improvement. Through in-depth experience and corresponding analysis, I have made some unreliable guesses about the possible functional optimization points and future iteration directions of Snail Reading.

1. Possible functional optimization points in the future

Fix the problem of battery consumption being too fast and the phone getting hot

According to user feedback from App Annie and Weibo, NetEase Wugou version 1.0.2 has problems with rapid battery consumption and phone overheating. Considering the number of people affected and the frequency of use, the next version of Wugou Reading will most likely prioritize solving this problem.

Reading page optimization

Optimize the "Battery", "Countdown" and "Page Number" of the reading page. Currently, the bottom of these three fixed pages will interfere with the user's vision and easily distract the user. In addition, the countdown fixed at the bottom will cause a sense of oppression to users and affect the user experience. It is recommended to only fix the "page number" at the bottom, and put the "countdown" in the middle of the top navigation bar that pops up when you click the screen.

Optimize the reading progress bar so that chapters can be displayed when you pull it down. Because users cannot quickly locate their current position by percentage when dragging the progress bar, it is best to display chapters in the progress bar to assist in positioning.

Optimize the interaction of notes

When I experienced the note-taking function of this product, my first impression was: it’s similar to the iPhone photo album. However, the core information of the iPhone album has color and can be quickly located and found in the thumbnail, while the note identification element of NetEase Wugou Reading is text, but it uses a unified layout to make a zoomed image, so users cannot quickly find the content they want.

Optimize layout settings

Judging from the user feedback from App Annie, Snail Reading still has room for improvement in the details of typesetting, and it seems that font settings should be added at present.

Optimize the directory and add notes

When reading, users need to recall previous notes, but currently users cannot quickly find the content they want. It is recommended to use a unified text layout to present it directly.

Update "My" and personal profile pages

Currently, after a user follows another user, the person they follow can only be viewed from "My" - "Profile". The entrance is relatively hidden. I tested it and found that after following several users, I couldn't find the people they followed. However, the existence of "Following" and "Fans" is similar to that of an address book, which allows users to interact point-to-point. In later revisions, it is recommended to move "Follow" to the "My" list.

Deepening the classification of readers

There are currently only 50 leading readers in Snail Reading, but I have found that Snail Reading’s recent operations are vigorously promoting the recruitment of leading readers. I guess that leading readers will be the core focus of NetEase Snail in the future, and the number of leading readers will increase. At this time, it is necessary to classify the leading readers.

2. Speculations on future iteration directions

Book List Introduction

In line with NetEase's consistent tone, NetEase Cloud Music has playlists, NetEase Aesthetics has collections, and book lists should become a very important feature of Snail Reading in the future. In addition, book lists are also of great value in recommending book selections, so there should be an introduction to book lists in the future.

Book List Collection

Book list collection has the value of book recommendation for high-quality users, especially the book lists of leading readers, and there is also a demand for collection of book lists that users are interested in.

Note Export

For users, they will want to export or transfer their notes to other places so as to share them with other users and read them again, so the note export function may also appear in future iterations.

Notifications and comments about books to be released

In the case of incomplete books, the books to be put on the shelves can give users an expectation, and "notification" can not only satisfy users' needs to obtain the shelf status of books in a timely manner, but also facilitate the book purchasing decision of the NetEase Wugu team.

Book Rating

Book rating is a relatively simple and crude function that allows users to intuitively judge the value of a book to themselves when choosing a book. There are still few book reviews on Snail Reading at present, but when there are more reviews in the future, this function will become particularly important.

Category Optimization

After obtaining a certain amount of user data and accumulating a certain number of books, popular recommendations, new book debuts , exclusive sales, etc. will become icing on the cake. I guess Snail Reading will have this feature in the future.

Voice reading

There are three ways of voice reading: machine reading, specific person reading (for example, XX star reads to you), and user reading. Voice reading makes it easy for office workers to obtain the content of books while on the bus or subway. I guess Snail Reading will have the machine reading function in the future.

The above is my analysis of the NetEase Wugu Reading product as a one-year-old product novice, as well as my unreliable guesses on its future iteration direction. Everyone is welcome to criticize.

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