Soul Competitive Product Analysis

In the stranger social industry, if a social application APP wants to attract more traffic and users, it needs to carry out effective design in the social relationship sedimentation link to improve the user experience. In this article, the author analyzes the matching and screening function of stranger social software in combination with other products, and summarizes the advantages, disadvantages and iteration direction of Soul in this aspect. Let’s take a look.

1. Purpose of Competitive Product Analysis

For the stranger anonymous social industry, users start social activities after completing the initial character building under the guidance of the system.

Each link in the entire process of matching and screening - interactive ice-breaking - relationship building plays a vital role in the ultimate goal of consolidating social relationships. The matching stage is the beginning of the stranger social behavior chain. A good matching experience (efficiency, matching mechanism, etc.) can enhance the user experience in the matching stage and lay a good foundation for subsequent user interactions to break the ice and establish relationships.

This report conducts a competitive analysis on the matching and screening functions of stranger social software, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of Soul in the matching process, finds the improvement and iteration direction of Soul in the matching process, and produces relevant prototypes.

2. Product Description

1. Product Overview

2. Product Usage Flowchart

3. User analysis

1) User attributes

Soul advocates soul-based social interaction, and its unique social style brings a better experience to female users. The male-to-female ratio of Soul users is close to 1:1. A good social ecology with a similar male-to-female ratio will bring positive feedback to the user's social experience.

In terms of age distribution, Soul's users are mainly under 35 years old, accounting for 63%, among which users aged 24 and below account for the highest proportion. Generation Z is Soul's main target users.

In terms of geographical distribution, Soul users are mainly distributed in first- and second-tier cities, and users in second-tier cities and above account for 57%. The educational level is mostly high school or below.

The proportion of users with moderate income or above exceeds 70%, and the proportion of middle- and high-income groups is 35%. Strong consumption capacity.

2) User needs analysis

Soul "Gen Z Social Report"

About half of young people use social apps because they want to find people with similar interests and browse interesting content. For the avant-garde Generation Z, social applications are no longer limited to communication between people; they also want to consume content, expand relationships, and relax and relieve stress.

In terms of user psychology, the survey shows that the social choices of Generation Z have overturned traditional cognition: more than 70% of users believe that the most important thing in making friends online is the same values ​​or interests; only 10% of users say that appearance is an important criterion.

In terms of user behavior, according to statistics, young people like to record their lives/moods and show their talents on social platforms the most.

User needs classification

① Romance/Friendship

Dating and making friends is the most basic and common need in social interaction with strangers. The "Generation Z Social Report" shows that nearly half of users use social software for the purpose of falling in love or finding people with similar interests as themselves. The social concepts of Generation Z have changed a lot, and they no longer just focus on appearance and geographical location. Soul focuses on soul-based social interaction. The diverse matching forms and meticulously operated plaza communities can better meet users' personalized and high-quality needs for making friends.

② Share and confide

Soul's square is like a tree hole, and the creation of community content provides users with a good place to share and express themselves. By avoiding the complicated relationship chains of familiar social networks such as WeChat, users are strangers to each other and can share their ideas more freely.

③ Self-expression and expansion

Using stranger social software to show your world view to people with similar personalities and values, posting updates on the square, and showing your talents is a process of self-expression. On the other hand, through socializing, you can understand other people's views on things, read the dynamics of soul ers in the square, and meet new strangers. This is also a need for self-expansion to contact more people.

④ Leisure and entertainment

Generation Z has a lot of free time and a variety of ways to entertain themselves. Browsing interesting content on Soul, private chat matching, participating in group chat parties, etc., can dispel boredom and alleviate inner loneliness.

3. Overview of Competitive Products

4. Comparison of target functions of competing products

1. Soul

1) Planet one-way selection

The planet keeps rotating to switch the souler displayed online, and shaking the phone can update the interface. Click the dot corresponding to a user name to enter the user's homepage and view their basic information and updates. If you are interested, you can follow or initiate a private chat. There is a filtering function in the upper right corner, which can filter the gender of the users displayed on the planet. It is not possible to filter on other user characteristics.

2) One-to-one matching

Gravity Sign

In addition to various soul tests to help Soul build user portraits, Soul has also introduced a gravity signature function to help users implement more accurate recommendations.

The Gravity Signature can be set by clicking on the personal homepage. The types of Gravity Signature include interests, occupations, special experiences, personal traits, favorite music, movies, games, books, animation, sports, etc. Users can also create their own Gravity Signature.

There are many attraction signs under each major category, and the order is irregular. Users browse through the switching lists and select the attraction signature that suits them. Gravity Signature is only suitable for a certain group of users, and the label library needs to be continuously improved to meet the needs of more people.

Soul Match

The Soul soul matching function gives priority to matching and clicking on "soul matching users". After the user clicks on the filter, it enters the waiting interface, which displays "Soul matching user is trying hard to call you! Please wait patiently." Click on the icon below to display the privilege card and select to use it. After the match is completed, the chat interface will be entered. The interface will show the matching degree of the two people, as well as the other party's attraction signature, the common points between the two people and recommended topics.

Voice Matching & Video Matching

Voice matching is limited to four minutes. Exchanging 10 Soul Coins will increase the chat time by ten minutes. Users can choose whether to disclose their identity. After the identity is made public, there is no limit on the duration. If you purchase the value-added services of voice matching "positioning card" or "fairy card", the chat time can be extended to 6 minutes.

The gameplay of video matching is similar to that of voice matching. You can choose avatar and filter before matching. You can also invite your friends to play together. During the chat, you can light up the hearts by clicking on them or smiling. Once the hearts are full within 4 minutes, you can reveal your identity and continue the chat. Only after the heart grows full can you invite the other person to take off the hood.

Love Bell

Love Bell is a recommended match based on LBS geographic location. The purpose of this function is to help users find their soul mates nearby. Using an accelerator card can speed up matching. The love bell can only be turned on or off, and then wait for the system recommendation. You cannot choose an instant match yourself. After the love bell is turned on, when there is a user with a high matching degree nearby, the love bell will ring, and the interface will show the distance and direction of the other party from you as well as the matching degree. The user can choose whether to chat privately.

After turning on the love bell, click the heart in the upper right corner to display the love bell turn off button. After the user clicks it, a dialog box pops up to prompt whether to turn it off.

The love bell function is based on geographic location and matching degree through an algorithm to meet the needs of users who want to find a partner. The needs of users of the love bell function are more consistent, and combined with their close geographical locations, users have more potential chat topics. The uncertainty of the love bell ringing also makes this function more surprising and expectant in experience compared to ordinary matching.

3) Group Chat Party

In addition to self-selected matching and algorithm-recommended matching, Soul has also launched a group chat party (multi-person voice chat room) function. Users can create parties or join parties. Each room will have a "heat challenge". When the room's heat value reaches 600, the challenge is successful. The room will have the opportunity to gain traffic exposure and be displayed on the soul power list on the homepage. The heat value of a room is affected by the "room occupancy time" and the "number of gifts sent by users in the room".

The party has many categories including interest exchanges, interesting debates, emotional stories, singing and listening to music, casual chatting, heart-beating matchmaking, etc. Users can create their own parties and enter their favorite chat rooms through filtering or random matching. The maximum number of people in each chat room is 60. Only users approved by the room owner can speak. Users can apply to go on the microphone through the microphone symbol in the lower right corner of the chat room, or they can choose to mute the microphone or send barrage comments.

4) Summary

Soul has launched a variety of matching methods (soul matching, voice matching, video matching, love ring, group chat party) around the idea of ​​not looking at faces, which can better meet the social needs of users in different scenarios.

Soul focuses on soul-based social interaction, weakening the role of appearance in the matching process. The non-hormonal social positioning better retains female users. Build user retention relationships through a semi-content and semi-social format.

The matching efficiency is low. There is a gap between the matching degree obtained by the system algorithm and the matching result. The product concept of soul matching has not been well implemented, and the probability of user relationship sedimentation is low.

After being attracted by the product concept, users often find during use that users with a high match based on soul tests often have nothing to talk about, while users with a low match may have a good conversation with them. Although the function of "adding gravity signature for yourself" has been introduced as the basis for algorithm matching, the accuracy still needs to be improved.

The screening mechanism is weak, the matching mechanism mostly relies on algorithms, and the user's independent screening ability is weak .

Soul relies on soul tests and gravity signatures as the basis for algorithm matching. Often, because many users do not actively improve their user portraits, the fuzzy user portraits established only by the six questions of the basic soul test and the user's self-screening function for matching objects during matching are very simple, resulting in a large proportion of invalid matches and failing to implement the product concept well. In voice matching and facekini matching, there is a lack of effective topic introduction and guidance in the first few minutes. The process of getting to know each other is relatively long, which can easily lead to a bad experience.

The matching process is not highly commercialized, and privileged features are difficult to remember or use.

Soul has launched five types of privilege cards for the matching process: same-city card, positioning card, acceleration card, team card, and fairy card.

The same-city card matches people in the same city, the positioning card roams in other cities, the acceleration card speeds up the matching of love bells, the team card matches users who are online and have the need to form a game team, and the fairy card looks for treasure boys. Different cards can be used in different match modes. Not using it will not affect the normal matching function. Users often forget to click to use before matching, and during the matching process, users do not have time to use it due to short time.

2. Tantan

1) Matching function analysis

① LBS+Picture

The matching method is simple, direct and more efficient. On the matching page, you can see the real-life photos of other users, swipe right to like them, or swipe left to dislike them. Only after both parties like each other can you be successfully matched and start a chat.

When matching, users can set the filter range themselves. Ordinary users can set search distance, age range, whether to give priority to students and other options; after upgrading to SVIP, they can choose whether to give priority to viewing online users, the most popular users, users with real profiles, new users, etc., and can also filter by zodiac sign to protect privacy information such as location distance, age, last active time, and membership status.

Click on different positions of the photo to switch photos or display personal information. Provide more judgment basis for users' left and right swipes. The user profile interface mainly includes: age distance, last active time, album status, basic personal information, personality tags, interests and hobbies, and passing information (location, time).

After upgrading to VIP, you can enjoy privileges such as the ability to regret a mistake at any time, unlimited right swipes, five super likes per day, and the ability to change your location at will. Upgrading to SVIP can add features such as three priority recommendations per day and advanced filtering.

After a successful match, Tantan will not jump to the dialog page by itself, but will continue to stay on the filter match interface. Click on the user's avatar in the message list to enter the dialog box, which will display the other party's homepage photo, nickname, age, distance, occupation information, etc. It will also display the other party's interest tags, provide users with topics, and guide users to chat with each other. Photos are the main part of various information, giving users the most intuitive impact; it is in line with Tantan’s positioning as a social platform for appearance.

After two people like each other and successfully match, they can have a one-on-one conversation, but if one of them cancels the match, the other party will no longer be able to find the other party, protecting users from harassment.

② Online flash chat

Tantan's matching method of sliding cards left and right supports offline matching. There is no guarantee that the matched person is online in real time. After a successful match, real-time communication may not be possible and you can only wait for the other party to respond by leaving a message.

The real-time matching chat of online flash chat has improved Tantan’s matching system, and the instant communication matching intentions of flash chat users are closer. Users have 10 flash chat matching opportunities every day, and SVIP provides 90 flash chat matching opportunities every month. Each person will unlock the other person's avatar after sending 20 messages. You can also purchase the peek privilege to directly unlock the other person's avatar.

The masked mechanism in the first 20 rounds is meant to help users break the ice by chatting about topics such as world views and interests. This is not quite consistent with the product positioning, and it is easy to cause ineffective communication or abandonment in the early stages, and it is impossible to establish a good relationship.

2) Summary

Tantan's LBS-based matching mechanism helps users match with users around them, facilitating their development from online to offline. The appearance matching method of swiping left and right has a clear product positioning and meets users' appearance-based social needs. Strict two-way selection complies with the wishes of both parties, eliminates meaningless communication, and is simple and efficient. Functional details such as "real avatar" are more in line with the product positioning and are intended to increase user exposure and matching efficiency. Online flash chat solves the problems of low card matching efficiency and high latency, and improves the product matching system.

The direct and efficient card swiping matching method laid the foundation for Tantan’s business model. Based on hormonal social networking, features such as regret after swiping wrongly, unlimited right swipes for boys, super likes, advanced filtering, and see who likes me can better stimulate users' desire to pay.

The simple and direct matching method of Hormone Social has resulted in an unbalanced social ecology with a gender ratio on Tantan, coupled with an unequal ratio of right swipes between men and women. This has led to a low matching rate for boys and too many matching rates for girls, which has damaged the user experience to a certain extent.

The quick matching of profiles based on appearance makes it easy for users to be in a dilemma or make misjudgments when faced with decisions. Even if the match is successful, without subsequent interactive gameplay, it is not easy to build a relationship just by private chatting between the two parties.

Stolen online pictures are often used in stranger dating apps for illegal activities such as fraud and traffic diversion. The appearance-based matching method has higher requirements for the user's real profile picture. In order to prevent the sale of accounts, "proxy authentication" of real profile pictures and other chaos, it is necessary to continuously optimize the authentication accuracy or increase the difficulty of authentication to raise the threshold of "proxy authentication", continue to crack down on related malicious users, check abnormal accounts, and maintain the "health" of the platform.

3. Jimu

1) Matching function analysis

① Swipe card to match

Jimu is positioned as a "social platform exclusively for young people's interests", focusing on youth fashion culture, and its product UI interface is trendy and cool. The matching format is similar to Tantan, but if the user you swipe to likes you, it will be marked.

In addition, the cards support video card display. Click below the card to enter the personal homepage, which displays information such as photos, location, distance, age, zodiac sign, personality tags, favorite people, and historical updates. The page will also display the compatibility information of the two people.

In addition, in the filtering settings, users can filter the distance, age, gender, topics of interest, etc. of the matching objects, and the interests and hobbies of niche trendy young people are taken into consideration in the filtering content. Advanced filtering can filter by the number of user photos, user tags, and compatible zodiac signs.

After a successful match, the system will display that both parties are matched successfully and encourage users to send statements. Click Confirm to send or close to return to the matching filter interface. Click to enter the message list and select the matched user to enter the chat interface. Similar to Soul, the chat interface will display the relationship match between the two parties, and there will be relevant topics to guide users to chat and interact.

② Speed ​​Dating

Speed ​​matching supports voice matching and text matching. It supports editing and selecting topics before matching, providing potential topics for chat. Compared with voice chat applications, the number of people matching in the dialog box form is smaller, and it is often difficult to match suitable users for chatting during the experience.

2) Summary

Jimu's unique product positioning has attracted many young people. But there is still a lot of room for improvement in the overall experience. Jimu’s requirements for real profile pictures are not as high as Tantan’s. The swiping card matches show whether the other party likes you, which adds a consideration condition for users when swiping left or right. However, it also contradicts the membership service of checking who likes me.

The interest-based options are a major difference between its screening method and Tantan, making it easier for users to find people with similar interests. The gameplay of the speed matching function is normal. You can edit and select the topic before matching, which provides potential chat topics for the follow-up.

5. Iteration direction of Soul matching function

From the previous analysis, we know that Soul creates a variety of matching scenarios for users based on personality and interests, relying on algorithms. Regardless of the reliability of personality tests, Soul relies on algorithms to match similar but not complementary souls together through personality tests. Other matching forms are ignored and the matching accuracy is not high. Although gravitational signatures are introduced to improve the accuracy of algorithm matching, the search and classification system of gravitational signatures needs to be optimized.

In order to filter out invalid strangers, Tantan requires two-way selection; in order to improve the accuracy of matching, Soul, in addition to using personality tests and gravity signatures to improve the accuracy of algorithm recommendation matching, should also learn from the user screening scenarios of Tantan and others, improve the user screening mechanism during matching, provide rich and filterable standards, increase users' active choice rights while passively waiting for algorithm recommendations, and formulate their own personalized matching standards.

1. Improve user screening mechanism to reduce invalid matches

1) Increase user autonomy and personalized matching

① Matching object condition screening

Love Bell provides users with more screening options when matching friends, allowing users to have certain control over the friend matching process, improving user satisfaction and personalized needs.

② Love Bell Edit Settings

Love Bell establishes a user screening mechanism to achieve a more comprehensive user screening mechanism for personalized matching. It is also recommended to set manual or timed start to prevent interference with normal life.

2) Improve system matching accuracy

① Optimization of gravity signature function

As a basis for the recommendation algorithm, Gravity Signature can provide assistance for accurate matching of users with good design. However, there are a large number of gravity signatures and they are arranged in no order, so users can only switch browsing effects by clicking "Change Batch". The gravity signature function is not attractive enough to users, and users do not set up and change the gravity signature frequently. Optimize the gravity signing system, improve system matching accuracy, and reduce invalid matches.

② Introducing an evaluation mechanism to improve user portraits

Establish a mechanism for evaluation by others and conduct screening based on evaluation by others. After the user ends the first chat, they can "quietly" rate the compatibility of both parties, which will serve as the basis for the system to recommend matches in the future. You can also label the other person. Improve user portraits from another perspective.

2. Increase the usage rate of privilege cards in matching

Privilege Card Offer Pop-up Tips

Privilege card offers pop up when the page loads, increasing users’ willingness to buy. If the user has a relevant privilege card, the user will be asked whether to match before matching.

Author: Danning

Source: Danning