After WeChat and live streaming, “real-time” may be the killer feature of the next generation of social networking

Mobile Internet is entering a difficult moment. The demographic dividend of smart mobile devices is gradually disappearing, mobile applications are declining, and the voices of "APP is dead" are growing louder.

Where will the next wave of opportunities come from?

Social platforms are the first to launch new explorations. As the appeal of apps has declined, platforms such as Renren have declined, and overseas, Twitter is on the verge of being sold; but Facebook, WhatsApp, and WeChat are still the objects of use that users all over the world cannot stop using. A complete ecological system has been formed above them. In contrast, live streaming , which started last year, was once a rage across the entire mobile Internet .

Previous social platforms simply connected "people and things", but in this era, the connection between "people and people" is constantly emphasized. Compared with the scattered users on previous social platforms, connecting "people" in a centralized way is a major demand for social networking in the era of big data and intelligence.

Scenario-based and real-time features have become the powerful advantages of live streaming and other similar platforms. And in the era of mobile Internet, is “real-time” the next opportunity worth looking forward to?

Is “real-time” the direction of the next generation of social platforms?

Has social networking been "done"? This seems to have been the view of many people for some time. From Facebook overseas to WeChat in China, social platforms seem to have been taken to the extreme. The former has established a foothold in many countries around the world; and among the 1.3 billion people in China, more than 700 million have been attracted by WeChat. When social networking among acquaintances, social networking among strangers, social networking based on interests, news distribution... are all covered, where are the new pain points in social networking?

The popularity of live streaming, which began last year, has opened new doors for us. Live streaming brings together brands, users, content, transactions, etc. on the same platform, quickly attracting a large number of users. After commenting, rewarding and sending gifts, live streaming is also exploring new ways of interactive gameplay. Facts have proved that live streaming is flourishing in China, and its business model , profit model, interaction method and innovative form have all been proven to be viable.

After WeChat and QQ both supported users to initiate real-time video and voice calls, the mobile social platform Momo also took action. In the new version, Momo has added a "video chat" function, allowing users to communicate with people around them directly through voice or video. In addition, Momo has also launched "multi-person live broadcast interaction", which allows several users to live broadcast during a conversation and interact with other online viewers; when making friends with strangers, they can also communicate via live broadcast.

Social platforms are gradually shifting from text, pictures, and instant voice to real-time and more situational videos as carriers, and communication methods are changing from comments and likes to new forms of interaction.

In the view of Zhao Bin, founder and CEO of Agora.io, "real-time interconnection" is a very "interesting" trend worth exploring in the future. The audio, video and live broadcast technology support behind applications such as Momo is provided by Agora.

Zhao Bin is a veteran in the field of communications and Internet technology with about 20 years of experience. He is also a serial entrepreneur . He was a member of the founding team of Webex and previously served as CTO of YY (Huya) for 5 years. Now, the company he founded, Agora.io, is a technology company focused on real-time communication technology services. When Agora was founded in 2014, it proposed real-time cloud services and packaged real-time audio and video technologies into an SDK, allowing global developers and Internet companies to quickly access it. By building the SD-RTN software-defined real-time network, it achieved high-quality communication and live broadcasting. If developers need real-time communication capabilities, they do not need to develop them themselves. They can directly embed the Agora SDK to obtain high-quality audio and live broadcast services. In July last year, Agora announced that it had received US$20 million in Series B financing .

Zhao Bin, founder of Agora.io/Photo provided by the interviewee

The reason for entering this field is that Zhao Bin believes that real-time communication technology has entered a breakthrough period.

Real-time Communication and Instant Messaging both forward information through network communication systems, but they have different user experiences. Instant messaging is based on the TCP protocol and can tolerate a certain amount of delay. Real-time communication pursues low latency and connection rate. In layman's terms, it is more like "making a phone call", but it not only includes voice, but also includes elements such as video. This provides richer imagination space for more traditional scenarios.

For domestic live broadcast platforms , choosing multiple CDN service providers for content distribution is the current mainstream method. It can generally achieve a delay of 3-5 seconds. When the network is unstable, the delay may reach more than ten seconds. "Strictly speaking, we call this real-time interaction," Zhao Bin told iHeima. "Its communication efficiency is not that high, and the depth of interaction is not enough. However, compared with the purely one-way live broadcasts in the past, it is already a huge leap. After all, it has changed from one-way to two-way."

So, for users, is a delay of tens of seconds a problem that must be overcome? "Perhaps for many traditional Internet businesses, most users are not so sensitive to delays," said Zhao Bin. "For example, if I receive text messages or WeChat messages a little late, it doesn't matter. You won't notice it, and you won't feel upset. But have you noticed that these applications are precisely the areas where the technology is relatively mature and the user experience is relatively good? For example, live broadcasting or video conferencing, these scenarios are precisely restricted by technology and have not yet exploded."

There is a difference between real-time and regular Internet modes. In the past, users passively accepted and consumed content provided on the Internet. As technology continues to advance, the demand for “real-time interaction” is also increasing. Zhao Bin believes that he has seen the general trend of real-time interconnection. "The popularity of smartphones and 4G networks has laid the foundation for real-time Internet. The technology is developing rapidly and becoming more mature," said Zhao Bin. "Smart mobile devices also make real-time interaction and video interaction possible at any time. Cameras and microphones are built into the devices, which lowers the threshold for implementation and stimulates demand."

It is for this reason that, even as the penetration of WeChat and Facebook has reached unprecedented levels, live streaming still has opportunities for development. As a new way of socializing, it brings together users, brands, communities, transactions, etc. through a platform, and also provides a new channel for traffic monetization.

On top of this, the pursuit of a more optimized interactive experience becomes a natural thing. If users can only "watch" but cannot communicate, it will limit the monetization of the live broadcast platform and the enhancement of user stickiness.

We can perhaps also imagine that on live streaming platforms, users no longer just express their feelings by sending text, pictures or emoticons, giving gifts or rewards. What if it were possible to blur the distinction between the host and the audience, just like on-site, and communicate with the host through video or phone calls, and the host would receive cheers and applause just like a live performance; or directly arrange activities with the other party on a dating platform? What kind of scenario would that be?

This is not just a requirement for the live streaming experience. If the platform can simulate social interactions in real life and make transactions and interactions in vertical fields scenario-based, this may be a new opportunity for the next generation of social interaction. The stronger the interactivity, the lower the tolerance for "high latency".

This is also the goal that SoundNet is pursuing to achieve. "Today, our fully real-time interactive technology can support video and audio connections, with basically a delay of milliseconds. This is true real-time interaction, just like being on the scene, as if the two of us are chatting face to face." Zhao Bin told iHeima. It is reported that the Agora fully interactive live broadcast SDK can currently support video calls from 7 hosts and voice calls from 10,000 people, with millisecond-level delays between calls.

"Once the real-time problem is solved, the depth of interactive communication, the immersiveness of participation and the sense of presence are very strong, and the efficiency of communication is also greatly improved," said Zhao Bin.

In previous instant messaging, the focus was more on ensuring the reliability of information transmission. However, to achieve low-latency real-time communication, it was inevitably affected by the uncontrollable network environment, resulting in delays, freezes, etc. To achieve the above scenario, Agora has built a virtual communication network SD-RTN (Software Defined Real-time Network) and deployed nearly 100 data centers around the world to solve quality problems in real-time communication. In addition, in order to fundamentally solve network instability and sudden network anomalies, Agora also tried to adopt new technical means in coding algorithms.

It is understood that Agora.io began to be officially commercialized from the end of last year. In one year, Agora's real-time API has helped 30,000 developers, connected more than 300 million end users worldwide, and the cumulative real-time call service volume has exceeded 5 billion minutes.

Agora.io video SDK/Photo provided by the interviewee

Is “real-time” subverting the online operation model?

As for real-time Internet applications, there may be even greater room for imagination beyond live streaming. While live streaming is stirring up the social sphere and changing traffic monetization channels, the way of real-time interaction is also subverting our online life. "Based on the characteristics we see today, it is very much like the penetration of diversified scenarios and the development of application models," said Zhao Bin.

Many of these scenes are actually not difficult to imagine for the general public. For example, telemedicine, where users participate in face-to-face consultations online and complete online diagnosis and treatment through video and audio, places extremely high demands on video and audio transmission. Online education is also one of the major practical application scenarios. If real-time video transmission is used, the teaching efficiency of online classes will be greatly improved.

Of course, there is also VR / AR . In Zhao Bin's view, it has a natural connection with real-time voice. Whether it is VR games or other applications, video and voice delays are intolerable to users. Voice recognition and sound effects have always been industry challenges that affect user experience, but the application of real-time communication technology can achieve a good picture immersion experience.

"In the field of monitoring and robotics, many applications have been transformed into interactive scenarios. For example, in the United States, a type of smart doorbell and door lock has become popular. A camera is installed in front of the doorbell of the resident's entrance door. When someone rings the doorbell, you will receive a video call on your mobile phone. You can handle things whether you are at home or not. For example, you can talk to the courier and ask him to leave the package at the door. There are many interesting and diverse scenarios that can be used to achieve this." Zhao Bin said, "Now the topic of artificial intelligence has become a hot topic. Artificial intelligence itself also requires a lot of data and information. If information does not flow, its value is limited. Even the interaction of artificial intelligence requires real-time performance. Only real-time can guarantee accuracy and efficiency." At present, Agora's real-time technology has covered multiple vertical industries such as social, gaming, education, medical, and IoT.

The potential of the real-time communication market is gradually being developed. "The communications market itself is huge. The quality of network transmission does not yet meet telecommunications standards, but it has the applicability and richness of capabilities, which will bring strong value to social applications. Therefore, this market is huge. In fact, WeChat was not what it is now five years ago. Therefore, I think the future of real-time Internet is limitless," said Zhao Bin.

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This article was compiled and published by @杨洁 (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!