Keywords for social products in 2017: slutty, slutty, and cheap

A few days ago, I reviewed the relationship between live streaming and social products in 2016 in the article "Starting from live streaming apps, any product can call itself a social product." It has to be said that live streaming, as a product form, has been booming in 2016 and has even surpassed the boundaries of social and media entertainment, which are basic product categories. As an industry insider, I am a little surprised by this event. Based on this, in my outlook for social products in 2017, I will try to avoid talking about specific product forms, and instead try to summarize some rules from the underlying logic and expression form.

In my social product outlook at the beginning of last year, I expressed that "if social products want to grow, they must occupy the underlying function of IM; if they want to snatch IM users from Tencent and Momo, they can wait until the technology and equipment are upgraded." During this year's Two Sessions, Ma Huateng also expressed similar views when communicating with the media, and said that his anxiety came from seizing the next wave of technological changes.

Looking at all this from the perspective of the present moment, the general principles remain correct. The difference is that in the gradual technological evolution, the new user scenarios brought about by some technological changes, coupled with the young user groups, are enough to stimulate the so-called half-generation change in technology. To use a phrase that has become popular recently, the second half of mobile Internet social products has arrived this year. Interestingly, this statement was made by Wang Xing, but the second-half dividends brought about by this half-generation change have little to do with Meituan .

Technological gradualism refers to the popularization of 4G and 4G+ networks, the continuous decline in data charges, and the fact that mobile phones are powerful enough in terms of hardware capabilities such as display, computing, and cameras. The young user group refers to the post-90s users who are tired of the existing product system and love new things, as well as the changes in people's world view, social and consumption behaviors brought about by social changes. What kind of social products do today's young users like? I would summarize it as "slutty, frivolous and cheap".

The so-called "sexy" means that the product and the scenes provided by the product are attractive. The so-called "wave" means that the product is conducive to users expressing their personality and having a sense of presence. The so-called "cheap" means that the product is fun and interesting.

No need for further explanation, everyone knows that WeChat has nothing to do with being slutty or bitchy. There is the problem of conservatism caused by the older age of the product leader, as well as the problem of depersonalization caused by the overly large user base. People use WeChat simply because it is the most direct and effective platform to contact friends. However, when it comes to socializing with strangers and interacting with young peers, I find it hard to agree that WeChat is a suitable platform.

Why do people need social interaction and why do they need social products? Everyone has their own answer to this question. In my previous analysis of social products , I simply and roughly classified social products into interest-based and sexual attraction-based ones. It now seems that there is no problem with this division, however, the two demands now often coexist or appear alternately in the same product.

I have a habit when reading other people's articles. First, if they bring out the Maslow model, I basically don't need to read it. Secondly, they always cite examples of foreign products to prove that Copycat's products have a promising future, but you basically don't need to read them. Human nature is the same, but the needs expressed through culture vary greatly in different countries and regions, not to mention the differences in the macro environment brought about by the stage of economic development. If copy to China is really that effective, then Wang Xing should have successfully started three businesses . Fundamentalism that simply copies the American model will most likely end in tragedy. When Wang Xing copied the group buying model for the third time, he finally understood the truth and did a lot of localization work, so he is still alive today. Of course, it is still embarrassing to no longer tell the story of group buying but still have a name with "tuan", but that's another topic.

Meituan is certainly not a social product. I use it as an example because in recent years there have been too many products in China that were copied from the United States but ended up with nothing good. The same is true in the social field. Once Snapchat became popular, a bunch of products followed suit, such as self-destructing messages and stories. They all tried to imitate them in a very good manner, but in the end, they still ended up collectively failing. The only one that is doing okay is FaceU, which comes from a young team that is accustomed to setting off big fireworks and raising a round of funding every two years. Of course, they humbly classify themselves as a photography and video product (Apple App Store classification), and there is nothing wrong with this. After all, Snapchat also calls itself a camera company. Copying the product classification as well is sincere.

Many people recognize Snapchat's sexy and vulgar product style and its appeal to young users. Unfortunately, the growth culture of American teenagers that Snapchat has internalized is not something that Chinese teenagers possess. For example, features like self-destructing messages and Snap Pay are used by teenagers in the United States to exchange indescriptive photos and trade marijuana. What’s the point of bringing this function to China? Think about whether scenes from American youth movies like American Pie and EuroTrip would appear in mainland China, and you will basically understand what I mean.

Since the product is for domestic users, we still need to consider the life scenarios and needs of domestic users. A certain graphic design team launched a mobile social product for middle school students at the end of last year. The initial launch guidance video was three minutes long and the content was vivid and touching. After entering the product, the interface is colorful, full of various animations and sound effects, and it also makes extensive use of concepts that are familiar to young people, such as "adopting a CP partner". A few months later, when I opened the product, it was, as expected, a concentration camp of robots and spam, which was embarrassing. This idea may appear frivolous and vulgar in form, but is essentially just a facelifted version of WeChat. It is obvious that it cannot subvert WeChat.

We can take a look at what interesting product forms will appear this year and how these products may be localized in China.

Houseparty, a product for video chatting when there is a disagreement. After opening the App, a video call will be initiated with up to eight friends in the address book who can be online at the same time. Because it is a social scene among acquaintances, users' behavior is generally decent. Domestic copycat products have already been launched, and have undergone certain local optimizations, such as using WeChat instead of the address book to add friends. This is obviously a cool feature, but whether it is sexy enough still needs to be discussed in light of the national conditions. Personally, I feel that if it is combined with board games , it may be a good scenario, otherwise a simple video group chat will not last long.

Monkey, a video version of Tinder, random video chat, limited time communication. Currently, several domestic products are copying this, and many old products have also added similar functional modules. Unfortunately, given the domestic situation, there is a high possibility of online exhibitionism. This is of course offensive to users, and will also create tremendous pressure for review. The scene is quite slutty, but too much is as bad as too little. The first priority is to strike down the bird-walker.

It is not difficult to see that this year's emerging social apps, including the mobile live broadcast that has been popular for a year, are inseparable from the support of video technology. This is a good direction, representing the full utilization of mobile phone hardware features and usage scenarios; but the technical and review barriers it brings also announce the end of the era of grassroots entrepreneurship in the mobile Internet . The good old days when a few people could create a hit product may be gone forever.

However, if we change our thinking, if the product's expression is not limited to the App, many new ways of playing will also be derived by leveraging existing social platforms such as WeChat and QQ. Unfortunately, so far, the several social directions that have emerged on WeChat with the help of official accounts are still only at the level of traffic business, and are essentially still hookups . The platform for hooking up cannot grow big because it is not serious enough. It’s not fun if you’re serious, and you can’t be serious if you’re fun. If you want to be serious, you might as well go on a blind date. In fact, it is a black box operation. If they want to make money, they create information asymmetry. If they want to grow bigger, they eliminate information asymmetry, or at least they pretend to eliminate it on the surface. Business is good, but whether you can turn it into a career depends on fate. To avoid suspicion of advertising, the specific name of the public account is not mentioned here.

At the end of the article, I suddenly want to say a few words off topic. In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to make social products. Because of the distance from money and the black hole effect of large platforms, capital and entrepreneurs have gradually become indifferent to this field and are chasing after various trends and hot spots. Sometimes, I feel that my persistence in the social direction is like Takumi driving the AE86 tofu truck in Initial D, speeding on the winding mountain road for years. The scenery is beautiful, but it’s a pity that no one is traveling with me. Sometimes I even doubt whether the skills I have learned are suitable for slaying dragons. The so-called loneliness of a hero is because of waiting.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too hard, and what I waited for was a group of smart and excellent people. Now I have joined a low-key Internet company and started a new journey, continuing the long road of cultivating social products.

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