WeChat Reading Product Experience Report

The article is long and is mainly divided into the following modules:

1. Product Overview 2. Market Analysis 3. User Analysis 4. Product Analysis 5. Optimization Suggestions 6. Summary

You can choose the content you are interested in to read. I am a newbie here, and the content in this article only represents my personal opinions and suggestions. If there is anything inappropriate, please give me more advice~

Experience environment:

1. Product Overview

Product Name: WeChat Reading

Product Type: E-reader

Product slogan: Let reading no longer be lonely

Product positioning: Based on the WeChat social chain, it provides readers with a better "reading + social" platform so that reading is no longer lonely.

Introduction: WeChat Reading is the first official reading application based on WeChat relationship chain launched by the WeChat team. It aims to provide users with the ultimate reading experience while recommending suitable books to users. Users can also view the reading status of WeChat friends and discuss the books they are reading with friends. At the same time, the in-depth linkage between WeChat Reading APP and mini-programs also enables the activities and promotions of the WeChat Reading platform to be quickly exposed and spread on WeChat.

2. Market Analysis

2.1 Industry Background

2.1.1 Policy Background

Since the 2014 Government Work Report proposed "advocating national reading", national reading has been written into the Government Work Report for seven consecutive years. Promoting reading among all the people is of great significance to national rejuvenation, improvement of national quality, and construction of a culturally strong country. The country advocates national reading from the bottom up, providing strong policy support for the development of the digital reading industry. At the same time, with the introduction of the "Opinions on Intellectual Property Protection", the awareness of copyright protection in the cultural industry has been continuously strengthened. This policy has also provided a source of power for the development of intellectual property protection in the digital reading industry.

2.1.2 Industry Background

The digital reading industry, represented by the presentation of literary novels, has formed a mature business model in the process of digital transformation. It has developed from a free serialization model to a stable paid model. The content has also gradually become diversified from a single subject matter at the beginning, and then to the development of the integration of online literature and traditional literature. With the empowerment of technology on digital reading platforms, the platforms have become more intelligent, the user experience has become more convenient and diversified, and the platform content recommendations have become more personalized, presenting a variety of reading styles and reading platforms for thousands of people.

2.2 Market size

On April 16, the 7th China Digital Reading Conference released the "2020 China Digital Reading Report". The report pointed out that the scale of the digital reading industry increased by 21.8% in 2020, the average number of e-books read per person was 9.1, and the willingness of users to pay for high-quality content reached 86.3%.

At the same time, the report data from iResearch Consulting also pointed out that the market size of the digital reading industry has been growing steadily with a slowing growth rate. After 2018, the accumulation of high-quality content has provided a good content foundation for the development of the digital reading industry, attracting more users to participate in digital reading. At the same time, the reading platform has also demonstrated its media value in carrying high-quality advertisements, creating conditions for commercial development.

2.3 Development Trends

The convenience and speed of mobile Internet has made mobile reading gradually become the main battlefield in the digital reading industry. It makes full use of the advantages of fragmented time and is increasingly favored by users. In the past two years, the overall effective usage time of users has fluctuated, which means that users' stickiness to the product has increased. The product's content resources and services are recognized by the majority of users.

In the current mobile reading market, the paid reading model has become the mainstream business model in the industry. With the increasing maturity of the mobile reading industry chain, the increasingly rich reserves of online literary works and the innovative development of the mobile advertising industry, mobile performance advertising such as information flow advertising has also been generally recognized by advertisers. Free reading inserts advertisements during the reading process to allow users to read genuine novels for free, providing users with a new way to exchange reading pocket money for reducing the reading experience.

2.4 Competition

2.4.1 Mobile reading platform rankings

In the "2020 Reading App Ranking", WeChat Reading ranked tenth, and in the iResearch APP monthly list, WeChat Reading ranked seventh. From the ranking, it can be seen that iReader, QQ Reading and Shuqi Novels are firmly at the top of the list, and the monthly active users of iReader and QQ Reading are over 55 million, far higher than the monthly active users of WeChat Reading of about 1,600.

Since the launch of WeChat Reading, it has gained a large amount of traffic by relying on the WeChat platform, standing out among a number of reading platforms and having a good development momentum. However, the growth rate has slowed down in the past two years. More and more platforms that use free novel reading as a gimmick have joined this market, resulting in new competitors in the competition for the existing market.

From the perspective of product positioning and content services, although WeChat Reading is different from iReader and QQ Reading, the competitive dividends in the mobile reading market are concentrated on the competition for the number of users and the length of time they spend on the platform. Market share in the existing market has become the main goal of each product. If WeChat Reading wants to gain more benefits in the market, it needs to clarify its own positioning and then find another way to expand its customer base.

2.4.2 Comparison of Competitive Products

Here we use iReader and Snail Reading as competing products for a simple comparison:

Reason for selection: As a long-established product in the industry, iReader has long been at the top of the rankings and is more representative among homogeneous products; NetEase Wugou Reading has a similar positioning to WeChat Reading and is a more competitive competitor among homogeneous products.

3. User Analysis

3.1 User scale

According to data from iResearch Index, the number of independent WeChat Reading devices reached 11.18 million in April. Although the month-on-month growth rate was fluctuating, the user scale has always maintained a slow growth, which also indirectly shows that the platform and its content have been recognized by the public. It can be seen from the data that during the period from 2020/11 to 2021/1, the month-on-month growth rate increased significantly, which is considered to be caused by platform activities (such as: getting paper books for 0 yuan, etc.) and holidays.

Compared with the scale data of other e-reading platforms, although WeChat Reading is slightly insufficient in terms of user volume, its month-on-month growth rate is at an upper-middle level, and there is hope for its future.

3.2 User Profile

3.2.1 Gender Ratio

According to the iResearch Index, the gender ratio of WeChat Reading users is relatively equal, with relatively more male users, accounting for 55.44%.

3.2.2 Age ratio

From the data, we can see that more than 85% of WeChat Reading users are under the age of 35, and the user population tends to be younger.

3.2.3 Regional Proportion

It can be seen that users are mainly concentrated in South China and Central China, among which Guangdong has the highest proportion of 11.35%. Judging from the provincial distribution, the user income level is above average.

3.2.4 Summary

Judging from the above data, the users of WeChat Reading are concentrated in students and young people with above-average income levels. They have certain quality requirements for reading and are optimistic about consumption.

In contrast, the book resources already on the shelves of WeChat Reading are mostly general publications with a higher tone. Literary works such as literature, knowledge popularization, and inspiration account for a large proportion. Although a large number of online novels and traffic IP blockbusters have been added in the past two years, they are not the main categories of reading materials.

Combining the two, it is speculated that the user profile of WeChat Reading is mostly students, freelancers, white-collar workers and managers. They have a high demand for knowledge, are accustomed to electronic reading, use fragmented free time to achieve self-improvement, and pay for it.

3.3 User Requirements

3.3.1 Reading Purpose

The purposes of mobile reading users are mainly divided into the following categories:

• Active learning: This type of users tend to learn new skills and knowledge in their spare time, prefer professional books, and have a high willingness to pay;
• Hobbies: This type of users has clear preferences and reads books of relatively uniform content, including suspense, science fiction, online games, history, etc.
• Time-killing category: mostly refers to random users with low stickiness, aimless reading behavior, and no special reading preference.

This article mainly analyzes the first two types of users.

3.3.2 Demand Mining

The analysis of user reading needs based on the KANO model is as follows:

• Basic needs: high-quality reading experience, rich book resources
• Expected needs: Friends interaction, stranger social interaction, book coins/unlimited card exchange
• Attractive needs: reading articles on public accounts, free books, and book recommendations

4. Product Analysis

4.1 Product Overview

WeChat Reading is an app based on "reading + social interaction" that makes reading no longer a lonely experience.

4.2 Product Information Architecture Diagram

4.3 Product Functional Architecture Diagram

4.4 User Flow Diagram

4.5 Core Page Experience Analysis

4.5.1 Login

WeChat Reading is a reading software based on the WeChat friend relationship chain. The social functions and services are all based on the WeChat+ platform, and most of the platform activities rely on WeChat social relationships. Therefore, the user login channel only supports WeChat authorized login.

4.5.2 Discovery Page

The discovery page is the home page displayed after logging in, which is mainly divided into three modules: search bar, bookstore column, and recommendation cards. in:

• Search bar: In addition to displaying popular searches, guess what you like, and search history, you can also jump to the "Bookstore" with one click (the Bookstore page will be introduced in the next section);
• Small bookstore navigation: mainly displays the main menu bar options on the bookstore page;
• Recommended small cards: The content is roughly divided into the following categories: Continue Reading (default top), Friends’ Book List/Friends’ Reading, TOP List, Recommended for You, Unlimited Card Activities, Free Reading, etc. (Among them, the display of Friends’ Reading accounts for the vast majority). The display order is relatively random, and the initial screen (that is, the first screen displayed when opening the discovery page) is mostly cards other than those that friends are reading.

Hide interaction: Pull down to display the welfare field.

4.5.3 Bookstore

4.5.3.1 Introduction

The bookstore is mainly composed of four modules: search, shake, classification area and partition display. in:

• Category area: mainly divided into boys' novels, girls' novels, audiobooks, paper books, new books of the month, category rankings, book lists and free books. It mainly classifies the scenarios that users often use, covering most of the scenarios in which users browse books;
• Partition display: It is roughly divided into what you may like, new books overview, category TOP list, today's book list, popular recommendations, etc., showing different categories of book recommendations according to different query needs of users.

4.5.3.2 Bookstore Entrance

There are three main entrances to the bookstore, namely the discovery page, the bookshelf page and the look page. As shown below:

Different from other reading software that use the bookstore/library as the primary entrance and display it in the menu bar, WeChat Reading weakens the bookstore to a certain extent and displays it as a secondary entrance. Instead, more modules are used to display social & recommendation pages such as what friends are reading, friends' updates, and recommended readings, which deepens its social reading attributes and provides a better immersive reading experience.

4.5.4 Bookshelf Page

The bookshelf page is mainly divided into two categories: bookshelf and book list. The plus sign at the top also switches the layout, imports books and enters the bookstore. in:

• Bookshelf: Bookshelf currently supports display based on four dimensions: book update, reading progress, whether purchased/free, and category display. Long press on a book to group, download, add to book list, etc., providing greater freedom and choice space for user customization.
• Book list: It is mainly divided into two categories: my book list and favorite book list. It supports settings for external display, private reading, sharing and other operations. It can be displayed as a personal business card, and you can also share your own book list with corresponding friends.

Hidden interaction: Pull down to enter the bookstore page.

4.5.5 Reading Page

4.5.5.1 Page Introduction

• Top menu bar: mainly divided into add to bookshelf, purchase books, today's reading, share and more operations. Among them: after adding to the bookshelf, the button function changes to set private reading, move group and other operations; after the purchase is successful, the purchase button adds a sharing function to meet the various usage needs of users;
• Bottom menu bar: mainly divided into operations such as viewing catalog, notes, reading progress and reading settings, providing users with a more extreme reading experience;
• Page interaction: Click to display the menu bar, long press to copy/underline/write ideas/query/share bookmarks, click on the underlined content to display ideas recorded by other readers to comment or express ideas, and pull down to add bookmarks.

4.5.5.2 Features

The reading page is concise and clear: WeChat Reading is not like some other reading products that insert advertising information into the reading content, affecting the user's reading experience. The occasional advertising information such as purchasing memberships/books is also displayed in the form of a pop-up window at the bottom, and the countdown can be turned off to minimize the disturbance to users;

Simple interaction and good communication and reading experience: Users can customize the reading page according to their own preferences during the reading process and record their thoughts at any time. They can also view other people's reading impressions and participate in discussions. This greatly expands the level and dimension of users' thinking when reading, and perfectly brings into play the attributes of reading + socializing, "making reading no longer lonely."

4.5.6 Social Attribute Analysis

In addition to the friends' reading cards displayed on the discovery page, today's reading/thoughts modules during reading, WeChat Reading has played its social attributes. We will also analyze its social attributes from the following three aspects:

4.5.6.1 Take a look at the page

This page mainly displays friends’ dynamics (friends’ thoughts), today’s updates (WeChat audiobook library, public account article recommendations) and content liked by friends, including:

• Friends module: In addition to today's updated content, friends' dynamics and friends' likes are all recommended content displayed based on the WeChat friend relationship chain. It is the content distribution made by WeChat Reading based on acquaintance social interaction, using friends to promote books/contents for the second time, and improving users' willingness to view and click-through rate;
• Today’s update: In addition to the audiobook function (i.e. WeChat Audiobook Library) that is being promoted by all major reading platforms today, WeChat Reading has introduced the display of public account collections, which is well linked with WeChat public accounts to achieve two-way content drainage.

4.5.6.2 Reading Rankings

Since its launch, WeChat Reading has been talked about by people based on its reading rankings. Relying on the WeChat friend relationship chain, the reading rankings have become a distinctive feature that makes people’s eyes shine in reading apps. On the one hand, it satisfies users’ “free money” mentality through the form of “reading time for benefits”, and on the other hand, it deepens its social attributes through the form of rankings, and urges and encourages users to extend their reading time through the utilitarian way of ranking (based on the user’s comparative psychology).

The WeChat Reading time exchange benefits have evolved from book coins in the beginning to changes in exchange strategies, and even to the current unlimited cards. For old users, the form of incentives has not changed, but the cost of incentives has been decreasing. However, this is understandable from a commercial perspective.

4.5.6.3 Welfare Field

The welfare field brings together all the welfare activities currently available in WeChat Reading, including activities like "Team up to draw a lifetime unlimited card", "Reading team", "Give one, get one", etc. These are all activities based on user invitations and user sharing, and are strongly dependent on WeChat social relationships. On the one hand, they achieve the effect of attracting new users and promotion, and on the other hand, they allow users to be more proactive in obtaining corresponding benefits through sharing (similar to the activity format of Pinduoduo).

4.5.7 Product Iteration Path

4.5.7.1 Update Record (only some major version updates are included)

4.5.7.2 Conclusion

The product positioning is clear and the development direction is clear:

It can be seen from the product iteration process that WeChat Reading has always been firm in its product positioning of "reading + social", and has continuously made new attempts and optimizations in social reading. While updating the audiobook module and introducing public account collections, it has also added various forms of social interaction such as sharing ideas and sharing book lists. It can be seen that WeChat Reading has remained consistent in its product positioning and development direction, and is expected to continue to iterate according to existing trends.

Still exploring the right business model:

Judging from the historical development of WeChat Reading, the product's charging model has changed from the initial book coins to the current unlimited card + paper book coupons, and the activity form has also changed from the initial "reading time for book coins" to the current "reading time for benefits". The payment model has been further explored on the basis of the unlimited card.

Compared with other reading products, WeChat Reading can basically achieve zero pop-up windows when opening the screen or switching tabs, which has minimized user disturbance. However, there are still some users who complain that there are too many and too complicated advertisements, and that paying users still need to see advertisements, etc., indicating that there is still a lot of room for improvement in its business model. How to make it accepted by users is still a difficult problem that needs to be solved.

Bug fix cycle is short and response is timely:

It can be seen from the entire process of product iteration that WeChat Reading has a short iteration cycle (updated once a month on average), and has carried out relatively timely repairs and optimizations for various issues reported by users (such as system incompatibility, poor experience, stability, etc.), reflecting the product's ability to respond flexibly and the process of continuous trial and error.

5. Optimization Suggestions

5.1 Discovery Page Optimization

Existing issues:

• Some of the Continue Reading modules are unclear, and unread books will appear (considered to be popular/recommended books)
• The recommended cards are displayed sporadically, and there is no button to return to the top.
• Pulling down to enter the welfare field is relatively hidden, it is recommended to add a new entrance

Solution:

• Added a new category module, where the more commonly used modules (such as Continue Reading, Friends Reading, Recommended for You, etc.) are displayed by default, and the others are included under "More";
• Continue reading and welfare field are displayed as default display modules in the category;
• Added a one-click back to top button.

The reference pages are as follows (for reference only, detailed interactions omitted):

5.2 Bookstore Optimization

Existing issues:

• The classification boundaries of the bookstore navigation are weak (e.g., boys' novels, girls' novels), and the standards are not clear.
• The navigation bar is not fixed. When you scroll down the page, you still need to go back to the top to click the navigation bar.
• The category list only supports sliding down to select, it is recommended to add a navigation bar

Solution:

• Set the navigation categories to heavy-duty books, category list, TOP list, new books of the month, audio books, paper books, book lists, and free books;
• Fixed navigation bar (does not hide when the page is scrolled down)
• Category list page optimization: Add navigation bar

The reference pages are as follows (for reference only, detailed interactions omitted):

5.3 Help and feedback module optimization

Existing issues:

It can be seen from the low-level partition of user evaluation that many users reported that when problems occurred, they had no way to complain, could not consult, and had no customer service port, which resulted in such problems not being resolved in a timely manner.

Solution:

This module is divided into three parts: self-service, frequently asked questions, and feedback. in:

• Self-service mainly includes: canceling continuous monthly subscriptions and canceling automatic purchases;
• The FAQ module retains the existing module content;
• Feedback: mainly includes feedback and feedback records. The feedback records need to record the user's feedback content/time and the reply/reply time given by the platform.

The reference pages are as follows (for reference only, detailed interactions omitted):

VI. Conclusion

6.1 Product Advantages

① Relying on WeChat, flexibly integrating reading and social interaction to give full play to the advantages of the platform

Compared with other reading apps, WeChat Reading can leverage the WeChat platform’s friend relationship chain and WeChat’s social attributes to continuously develop the platform’s own social attributes and social publicity channels, and create a new social reading model and commercial promotion channel.

②The interface design is simple and the interaction is easy to use

WeChat Reading strives to create the ultimate reading experience, and continues its minimalist style in the design of the entire product. The interface is clean and concise, and the design of various interactions is extremely straightforward and easy to use, allowing novices to start the reading experience directly and smoothly.

③ Relying on the advantages of the platform to create a harmonious reading + PGC + UGC atmosphere

In addition to providing a wealth of reading materials, WeChat Reading has also introduced public account collections. In addition to meeting readers' own reading needs, it also introduces the usage scenarios of public accounts. Readers can speak freely. The platform mixes all three types of content, creating a new form of content platform for users.

6.2 Product Disadvantages

① The platform started late, and its development direction and positioning still need to be further clarified.

A close look at the updates and iterations of WeChat Reading in recent years reveals a vague trend towards promoting online fiction literature. The homepage recommendations and bookstore recommendations are all focused on online novels, which is in stark contrast to the more professional literary atmosphere when it first started. In an atmosphere of rampant online literature, it remains a heavy task to balance trends with one's own position and create a distinctive reading platform for target users.

② Further establishment of commercialization model

Given that when WeChat Reading was first established, one of the major highlights that attracted users was the "reading market exchange for book coins", which allowed users to read for free within a controllable range, so the road to charging in the future was bound to be bumpy. Compared with other platforms that are flooded with advertisements in opening screen ads, homepage pop-ups, etc., WeChat Reading has greatly reduced the exposure of advertisements. However, the ad countdown during the reading process and the fact that paying users still need to watch ads still cause some disturbance to users, and the exposure of advertisements still needs to be further optimized.

6.3 Some thoughts on the future

• Are listening to books, reading radio stations, and live broadcasts the new development trends in the reading industry?
• Can WeChat Reading build a community culture and establish industry barriers based on the platform’s UGC content?
• In addition to unlimited cards, paper book purchases and advertising exposure, are there other commercial models that can be used as reference?

Author: fantasy

Source: fantasy