Is your product suitable for WeChat mini program? You need this product logic analysis!

On the evening of September 21, WeChat announced that the WeChat “ Mini Program ” had entered internal testing.

Since Zhang Xiaolong’s speech at the WeChat Open Class in Beijing on January 11th at the beginning of the year, more than half a year has passed, and the much-anticipated “ WeChat App Number ” has finally appeared. Compared to " application number ", the name "mini program" is more cute. Judging from the name, it seems to highlight the meaning of "connecting your program to WeChat".

We have previously analyzed the rhythm of WeChat's feature iteration: generally, the planning cycle of important WeChat features is approximately 9-12 months . By this calculation, the pace of this application number from planning to launch is quite consistent.

Let’s first look at the following comment that Zhang Xiaolong reportedly posted on WeChat Moments about mini programs:

Regarding this picture, I understand the first half to mean that the mini program is a cloud application within WeChat, not a native app, and is very light for users (and even lighter for developers) .

The second half of the sentence should be understood as: users exit the program after use and leave other people's services, but continue to play in their own WeChat Moments and read articles.

After the WeChat mini program went online last night, many friends came to ask me what I thought about this matter, so I used this article to answer them. Let me first say a few conclusions:

• Not all services are suitable for integration into mini programs, but most entrepreneurs ’ services are suitable for integration into them. We will focus on the analysis later.

• Mini programs are programs developed based on HTML5, but use a framework similar to JS-SDK (Baidu used to use the clouda framework) , providing more interfaces and components to make the program smoother and the experience closer to native APP .

• It can publish programs in the cloud (of course, it also needs WeChat review) , and it can also cache data, thus achieving the goal of making HTML5 App more powerful by leveraging WeChat, the largest Native App.

• Don’t be afraid if you haven’t been invited yet. According to the pace of WeChat’s operations, it will definitely be promoted in a gray area. This grayscale includes the gradual release to users, as well as the layered authorization and management of multiple developers, but it does not mean that the first mover will necessarily have an advantage. The competition later is still about the product itself, not the timing.

• Everyone expects to gain marketing , customer acquisition and communication capabilities through WeChat. So can the energy released by WeChat mini-programs meet everyone's needs? I think it's quite tenuous. Between product marketing and WeChat's restraint, the initiative is still in WeChat's hands.

• HTML5 and JS talents will be in great demand, so everyone can reserve some.

It can be said that there is an ambition behind the development of WeChat to the stage of mini-programs. It’s just that WeChat’s ambition has always been packed in the product box and well protected.

When talking about ambition, we must first look at the development history of WeChat.

WeChat: The transformation from IM to browser to OS

I once divided the development stages of WeChat into three stages: IM stage, browser stage and OS stage. The big moves in the IM stage are voice communication and shake, the big moves in the browser stage are subscription accounts , and the big moves in the OS stage may be mini programs.

It should be said that with the help of voice communication, Shake and Moments, WeChat quickly established its own IM advantage. Coupled with Tencent's own core asset of relationship chain, WeChat quickly gained more than 100 million users.

The browser is actually a type of OS (see Google 's Chrome OS) , and its main ability is to parse HTML (including HTML5 of course) . On this basis, subscription accounts are the biggest beneficiaries and the strongest leaders.

The core of OS is to build a platform to run services on it (call local servers and transmit cloud services) . This time, the mini program uses WeChat, a super native app, to empower third-party service providers with the advantages of local applications through WeChat. This has obvious benefits, which will be shared later.

In addition, I believe that WeChat Mini Programs will be an attempt to connect people and services, and it may completely replace the "service account" in the future.

Judging from the overall development of the Internet and Tencent's overall strategy, in the past decade, the Internet has solved the connection between people and information, and between goods and people. The next decade will definitely be about connecting people with services.

However, services are more vertical, segmented, and non-standard, which is obviously difficult for Tencent to do on its own . Although Tencent has also invested in a large number of service companies, there are still many emerging and potential services that cannot be included. If there is a product that can connect all services and directly connect services with people, it will obviously be of great value.

Mini programs may be able to take on this task. On one side are 700 million users, and on the other side are service providers. Through the WeChat platform, massive users are connected with massive services. Perfect! So although the name is a mini program and it looks cute, its ambition is definitely big!

The above briefly talks about the background of the mini program. Next, we will analyze several things with you in detail:

• Which services and businesses are best suited to access application numbers?
• If the developer accesses the application number, what is the product architecture and logic like?
• Developers, please note: You need to rely on your father to develop WeChat Mini Programs
• What important expectations do future mini programs leave for us?

Let’s look at them one by one.

1. Which services and companies are most suitable for accessing application numbers?

It should be said that not all services are suitable for mini programs, but most services and almost all start-ups can be connected to mini programs.

Which services can be accessed and which ones cannot be accessed? Let me look at a model first. We divide Internet products into four quadrants according to important/unimportant, high frequency/low frequency.

Then, we look at the embracing strategies of these four quadrants respectively. It should be said that if your service is very high-frequency and has high requirements for interaction and interface experience, you still have to use native APP . But if you provide low-frequency/medium-frequency and important services, you should join the WeChat Mini Program application team without hesitation.

Quadrant 1: Big players and high-frequency applications should not access and embrace mini programs.

This quadrant is basically composed of big players, such as 3BA (360, Baidu, and Alibaba ) .

• Alibaba and Baidu obviously won’t join.

• High-frequency and important applications will not be connected. Because users open it frequently and interact with it frequently, they have high requirements for the application experience, such as live broadcasts , games , videos, etc.

• Those with a high level of data security should not access it. Although WeChat only reads the interface and will not directly let the server submit data, because the mini program will definitely provide a caching function, although the developer's service is based on H5, you are running within the WeChat prototype framework.

Quadrant 2: You should embrace mini programs without hesitation.

This quadrant contains a large number of service products.

• Education, medical care, housekeeping, job recruitment , second-hand trading, tourism, ticketing, financial management , automotive aftermarket, and of course in theory there is also 12306!

• In short, if users use the product once or twice a year and then forget about it again, they should not be asked to download it through a native reference method, but should be solved through WeChat mini-programs.

• Startups should also test MVP products through mini programs, because WeChat has natural communication and customer acquisition capabilities. Native applications are not only complex to develop, but also have extremely high promotion and customer acquisition costs, which hinder MVP product exploration.

From this perspective, mini programs can help China's start-up Internet companies reduce trial and error costs and increase the probability of success.

Quadrant 3: You should access it with caution, using WeChat’s open capabilities to introduce users to your own products.

• After MVP, guide them to their own products as soon as possible, because their own products can provide better services and retain users. Typical examples include Zhihu and NetEase Cloud Music.

• For content-based products , acquiring new users through WeChat and then transferring them to their own platform is also a good strategy.

Quadrant 4: Access depends on the situation, mainly based on development capabilities.

Basically, many of them are personal interest products and tool products. They can be developed from the perspective of MVP or interest, without considering too much commercial output, but only considering feelings. However, these developers have an obvious problem, which is that their product design and development capabilities are limited. So, if your people are engaged in APP, then just use APP. If it is H5, then use WeChat mini program.

2. If the developer accesses the application number, what is the product architecture and logic like?

If you plan to connect to the mini program, you can try to understand the basic structure and logical relationship of this gameplay. Users will frequently interact with WeChat, and WeChat will also frequently interact with the OS. Of course, WeChat also obtains third-party data through APIs, and defines the interaction style, presentation method and extended functions of mini-programs through service components, development tools and interaction frameworks.

There are two directions in which mini programs will greatly reduce the difficulty of development.

• Components and front-end controls: According to the information currently revealed, WeChat Mini Programs provide basic components, front-end native controls and APIs, with the aim of enabling a cloud-based H5 product to have the components and expansion capabilities of native applications . These components were previously frameworks provided by third parties. This time, the mini program has opened up more permissions to help developers quickly access the mini program and process data in a standardized and structured manner.

• Interaction framework: As early as the first half of the year, WeChat has begun to publish a set of UI and interaction frameworks to unify UI specifications and interaction examples. These UI specifications and interaction examples have been prepared long ago. We have reason to believe that even if you are a junior programmer who has no UI, no front-end, and can only write back-end PHP, you can also complete your own mini-program by accessing the API.

3. Developers, please note: You need to rely on your father to develop WeChat Mini Programs

In fact, what excites everyone is definitely not the framework, logic, and components of the mini-programs mentioned above, because Facebook abroad and Baidu in China have done such things. What everyone is most looking forward to is WeChat’s relationship chain, and the relationship chain itself is the lifeblood of WeChat. Will the relationship chain be open to this mini program? I think so. Let’s compete with your dad.

First of all, the relationship chain is not impossible to open, but it is open under certain conditions.

As you can see from the picture above, these are basically three open logics.

• Only public information is open: nickname, avatar, which is actually the login ID. All developers can access it, such as Air Travel.

• Conditionally open: open to friends who share the use. For example, Dianping. So based on Dianping, you can see where your friends are going. For example, on Meituan Waimai , you can see your friends’ headlines. On Zhuan Zhuan, owned by 58.com, you can see what your friends are selling. But we’re sorry, this relationship chain is open to the public, and currently only companies invested by Tencent can enjoy such a privilege.

• Greater openness: In addition to login and friend relationships, Moments permissions are also open, and some operations can be directly transmitted to Moments to perform actions. Sorry, this is only available in Tencent's own products, such as QQ Music, Tencent Video, etc.

The general logic is:

• The biological son can get all the relationships;
• Godson, we can have overlapping relationships. You use it, I use it, we can see each other. If I use it and you don’t, I cannot have any contact with you.
• For outsiders, you can only scan your face, nothing else is possible.

So, don’t get too excited too soon. The current level of openness of mini programs is still very low, and there is still a gap from the full openness of Facebook.

4. In summary, what important expectations does the future mini program leave for us?

Mini Programs are a small step for WeChat, but may be a big step for mobile Internet . The WeChat gameplay is particularly suitable for the Chinese market. We also hope that this gameplay can be promoted globally and become a benchmark product.

By gradually releasing the capabilities of WeChat, a large number of developers and services will be drawn into the WeChat ecosystem, making users truly dependent on WeChat and fulfilling WeChat’s desire to build an online city.

In the first stage that I have seen so far, I think WeChat will first make the mini program process go through and invite some developers to do high-end configuration and product polishing. After all, the current mini program is still an MVP product. In the medium term, mini programs will enable WeChat to achieve an ecological closed loop from content to services, which will not only increase the capabilities of WeChat's peripheral functions (such as payment, maps, and advertising) , but also consolidate WeChat's position as the only mobile portal.

Finally, if the entrance to the mini program is so deep

You should observe the effects first and then decide whether to hug.