Analysis of Pinduoduo’s competitive products!

The sinking market has gradually become the focus of industry attention; developing traffic in the sinking market has also become the next step taken by many products to broaden user channels and achieve user growth.

I. Summary

By analyzing the sinking market, we can understand the overall operating status of Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition in the e-commerce shopping app category, and through the analysis of the two at three levels, including software information architecture, core usage process, other processes and functional comparison, we can draw corresponding improvement measures that both need to make in the shopping process.

2. Market Analysis (PEST)

1. Political factors

Since 2017, in order to promote rural poverty alleviation, the Chinese government has implemented the "Internet Poverty Alleviation Action Plan" on the one hand, and accelerated the construction of fiber optic networks and 4G base stations in each administrative village on the other hand, promoting the construction of network infrastructure in rural areas.

In 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Key Tasks for New Urbanization Construction and Urban-Rural Integration Development in 2020", which continued to put forward requirements for education, transportation and digitalization in rural areas, indicating the national level's considerations for rural areas.

2. Economic factors

China's economy has shown a clear slowdown in recent years, and has entered an era of stock economy from an incremental economy. According to a report by iResearch Consulting, in the revenue statistics of China's Internet economy market from 2013 to 2020, the consumer lifestyle sector including the e-commerce industry basically maintained a revenue proportion of around 34-41%, indicating that the era of stock competition has arrived (Ai Xin, 2018).

According to the "47th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet" by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2020, China had 85.4 million new Internet users, an increase of nearly 5.9 percentage points from March 2020. Among them, the number of new Internet users from rural areas reached 54.71 million, accounting for nearly 70% of the total new Internet users (China Internet Network Information Center, 2021).

At the same time, according to data from iResearch Consulting, the total Internet usage time and number of independent devices of users in China's mobile Internet sinking areas in June 2020 showed a significant growth compared with the same period in 2019 (iResearch Consulting, 2020).

This shows that Internet users in the sinking market have become a new batch of bonus customers in the Internet industry in the era of stock economy.

According to a survey report by iResearch Consulting, the overall total retail sales of consumer goods in China's fourth- and fifth-tier cities have gradually approached the overall level of first- and second-tier cities during the period 2015-2019 (Note: the city level division is based on the "2019 City Business Charm Ranking" released by China Business Network, and is divided into 5 levels from 1 to 5) (Qian Yu, 2020).

At the same time, according to the "47th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet" by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of the end of 2020, the national rural online retail sales reached 1.79 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 994% compared to 2014.

The above survey results show that the overall purchasing power of residents in the sinking market and the corresponding e-commerce market have made great progress (China Internet Network Information Center, 2021).

In 2020, under the background of "dual circulation", a large number of foreign trade export processing enterprises transferred their markets from overseas to domestic markets, the supply side grew sharply, and there was an urgent need for corresponding domestic consumer demand to match it. Combined with the previously mentioned background of the number of Internet users in the sinking market and the residents' purchasing power, it can be considered that the e-commerce industry will have further room for development in the sinking market, and will focus on C2M customized production methods.

3. Sociocultural factors

People in the sinking market prefer to buy goods with low unit prices and high cost performance. Moreover, since people in the sinking market have lower mobility, more stable interpersonal relationships, and a relatively fixed social circle, they prefer to complete commodity transactions in a certain social way rather than the systematic transaction model in urban society.

4. Scientific and technological factors

According to the "47th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet" by the China Internet Network Information Center, the Internet penetration rate in rural areas in December 2020 increased by 22.8% year-on-year compared with December 2016, far exceeding the 10.7% growth rate in urban areas during the same period.

As of the end of 2020, the proportion of poor villages with access to fiber optic cables across the country has increased from less than 70% at the beginning of the 13th Five-Year Plan to 98%, and the proportion of poor villages in deeply impoverished areas with access to broadband has increased from 25% to 98%. This shows that the current Internet infrastructure in rural areas has been further improved (China Internet Network Information Center, 2021).

At the same time, since 2011, mobile payments are breaking the traditional "Heihe-Tengchong line", narrowing the gap in the availability of financial services between the east and west by 15%.

In addition, in December 2020, the usage rate of mobile payments among mobile users in rural China was 79.0%, an increase of nearly 4 percentage points compared to March 2020, and the gap with urban areas further narrowed (China Internet Network Information Center, 2021).

5. Summary

Against the backdrop of rural revitalization and stock competition in the e-commerce industry, the sinking market has become a new round of target user groups for various Internet platforms. The growth rate of Internet users in the sinking market has also hit a new high in recent years, and the online time of mobile Internet has also shown a positive trend. The increase in digital infrastructure coverage in the sinking market has promoted this trend.

At the same time, the current situation of low user mobility and relatively stable interpersonal relationships in the sinking market also makes them willing to complete purchases in a certain social way.

3. Competitive product selection and corresponding development history review

1. Competitive product selection

By querying the free list of "Shopping" rankings in the App Store on iOS, we found that as of April 27, 2021, the first place was "Pinduoduo", the second was "Mobile Taobao", the third was "Taobao Special Edition", and the fourth was "JD.com". Considering that this competitive product analysis focuses on shopping apps for the user groups in the sinking market, we chose "Pinduoduo" and "Taobao Special Edition" as our competitors for the subsequent analysis.

2. Pinduoduo

In 2015, Pinduoduo went online for the first time in the form of a WeChat public account, starting with agricultural products and gaining nearly one million users within two weeks with its "group buying" operation model.

Subsequently, Pinduoduo continued to expand its product categories and launched an independent app, maintaining rapid growth with a user growth rate of nearly 100 million per year. As of November 2020, the number of annual active buyers on Pinduoduo's platform has exceeded 700 million, and the gap with Taobao is gradually narrowing.

• Slogan: Buy together to get a bargain.
• Business positioning: Leader in new social e-commerce.
• Software version and platform: 5.57.0, iOS platform.

3. Taobao Special Price Edition

In 2018, Alibaba launched the Taobao Special Price Edition based on the original Taobao Juhuasuan project, but the download growth rate was slower than that of Pinduoduo. In March 2020, Taobao Special Price Edition was re-launched. As of December 2020, the monthly active mobile users (MAU) of Taobao Special Edition has exceeded 100 million.

• Slogan: Original goods, real special prices.
• Business positioning: Super money-saving shopping app.
• Software version and platform: 3.39.0 (14770906), iOS platform.

4. Summary

Within five years of its launch, Pinduoduo's user base has gradually approached that of Taobao. The social e-commerce model that came with the birth of Pinduoduo bypassed Taobao's traditional business transaction model and avoided the counterattack from Alibaba as an e-commerce giant, ultimately forcing Alibaba to launch a special price version of Taobao to fight back.

4. User portrait

1. Search Index

According to Baidu Index, as of April 18, 2021, the daily average value of Pinduoduo's overall search index was 59,478, and the value of Taobao Special Edition was 7,915; in contrast, Taobao's value was 194,999 (Baidu Index: Pinduoduo, Taobao Special Edition, Taobao, 2021).

2. Age distribution

According to Baidu Index, as of April 18, 2021, the age distribution of searches for Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition is roughly as follows (Baidu Index: Pinduoduo, Taobao Special Edition, 2021):

It can be seen that the overall age distribution ratio of Pinduoduo users and Taobao Special Edition users is not much different, both are mainly 20-29 years old and 30-39 years old. However, in Pinduoduo's search results, the proportion of users aged 19 or less and 20-29 is about 3-7% higher than that of Taobao Special Edition. However, Taobao Special Edition has a greater advantage in the proportion of users aged 30-39, 40-49, and 50 or above.

However, the above comparison results must take into account the numerical gap in the overall search index between Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition.

3. Gender distribution

According to Baidu Index, as of April 18, 2021, the gender distribution of searches for Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition is roughly as follows (Baidu Index: Pinduoduo, Taobao Special Edition, 2021):

It can be seen that the gender distribution of users of Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition is not much different, with the male to female ratio being roughly 7:3. However, considering actual usage, the possibility of incorrect gender data identification cannot be ruled out.

4. Related words

According to Baidu Index (Baidu Index: Pinduoduo, Taobao Special Edition, 2021), as of April 18, 2021, the distribution of Pinduoduo's search-related terms is roughly as follows.

In addition to conventional demands such as downloading, search users are also more interested in Pinduoduo's corporate development, bargaining model, social events, etc.

According to Baidu Index, as of April 18, 2021, the distribution of search-related words for Taobao Special Edition is roughly as follows.

In addition to the regular download requests, search users are also concerned about the relationship between Taobao Special Edition and Taobao, the C2M model, etc.

5. Summary

According to the above data, the search popularity of Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition is currently at different levels. Overall, the search popularity of Taobao Special Edition is about 1/6 of Pinduoduo's, which is roughly the same as the gap in MAU between the two.

From the perspective of gender and age distribution, both apps maintain a high degree of similarity: users aged 20-29 and 30-39 account for the majority of both apps, and the proportion of male users is about twice that of female users.

But it is worth noting that from the perspective of age distribution, Pinduoduo has a slight advantage in the proportion of users aged 29 and below, while Taobao Special Edition has regained the advantage in users aged 30 and above. However, considering the difference in search popularity between the two, the above results are for reference only.

Judging from the related words, the search keywords of both are mainly concentrated on software downloads, which shows that how to educate users to download software is an important proposition. After all, this involves the acquisition of traffic.

In addition, Pinduoduo's search users pay attention to bargaining, company development history, and social events, while Taobao Special Edition's search users mainly focus on the differences between Taobao Special Edition and Taobao and the C2M model behind them. This also indirectly illustrates the differences between the two in terms of strategy and public acceptance.

Therefore, the profiles and needs of the user groups of the two are roughly similar:

• Mainly 20-29 and 30-39 years old;
• Male to female ratio 7:3;
• Living in a lower-tier market;
• Pursuit of low-priced goods;
• A group that is good at using local relationship chains.

5. Software Information Architecture and Usage Process

1. Software Information Architecture

Referring to the mind map below, starting from the primary structure, the software information architecture of Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition generally presents a similar form, mainly based on the homepage, video stream, classification, and personal center. The difference between the two lies in the fourth navigation pane: Pinduoduo is set to "Chat", while Taobao Special Edition is set to "Shopping Cart".

This may have a lot to do with the operating models of the two: Pinduoduo mainly adopts the group buying model, characterized by "flash sales", and increases the transaction volume after users browse the products by canceling the "shopping cart". The special price version of Taobao inherits the traditional shopping model of Taobao Mobile, with the process of "browsing products - shopping cart, direct purchase - placing an order" as the main method, so it can be regarded as a legacy product of Taobao Mobile.

Pinduoduo product structure diagram

Taobao Special Edition Product Structure Diagram

However, if we look at the secondary structure, in addition to the basic functions, the two also focus on different functions.

Taking the homepage as an example, Pinduoduo's secondary structure first highlights content such as Pinxiaoquan, Duoduo Maicai, and 10 billion subsidies. In the regular function area, in addition to the general activities of attracting new users, withdrawing money, and increasing activity, there are also pharmacies, Duoduo Orchard, experts help you choose (in the drawer), and money-saving monthly cards (in the drawer), indicating that Pinduoduo is trying to retain users (Pinxiaoquan, experts help you choose, money-saving monthly cards), expand business (Duoduo Maicai, pharmacy), and expand the coverage of the population (10 billion subsidies) when the product is mature.

In contrast, by observing the secondary structure of Taobao Special Edition taking the homepage as an example, we can find that Taobao Special Edition is currently mainly in the product growth stage. It directly displays as many as 8 functional activities about attracting new customers, withdrawing money, and points on the homepage (Receive red envelopes every day, take away 1 cent, earn special coins every day, God of Wealth is coming, ATM, place an order and withdraw cash, cash sign-in, and chickens give gifts). In comparison, Pinduoduo only has 4 items (Duoduo Orchard, Sign-in, Make a lot of money, and get it for free by bargaining).

By carefully comparing the differences between the two in daily user operations, we can find that Pinduoduo's group buying model has become its iconic feature, while Taobao Special Edition has innovated through various cash withdrawal activities, including but not limited to general bargaining, points, and sign-in activities, and has also added cash back activities such as "place an order and withdraw cash".

We can also notice that in the text descriptions of the eight new customer acquisition, withdrawal, and classification functions displayed on Taobao’s homepage, almost all the keywords are directly related to the most direct material rewards, namely “red envelope”, “money”, “God of Wealth”, “withdrawal”, “cash”, and “gifts”, which directly hits the psychology of the target user group.

2. Core usage process

As shown in the flowchart below, the core usage process for buyer-side users of Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition is "enter the software - find products - enter the product details page - place an order and pay - receive the goods and evaluate", which is the basic product purchasing process. But the two have corresponding highlights and distinctions in some details.

Pinduoduo user purchase flow chart

Taobao Special Edition User Purchase Flowchart

As for Pinduoduo , its core operating model - the group buying model, is reflected in the purchase entrance before confirming the order.

Pinduoduo's four purchasing entrances: ① live broadcast, ② group buying, ③ individual purchase, and ④ initiating a group purchase, all encourage users to achieve the purpose of "group buying" with other users in a direct or indirect way. In addition to directly encouraging users to initiate group orders, go to group orders, etc., the entrance for ③ individual purchase is displayed as a lighter button to guide users to ignore its existence.

The Taobao special price version has five purchasing entrances: ① live broadcast replay, ② compensation for overpriced purchases, ③ xx people are buying, ④ buy now, and ⑤ shopping cart.

As for Taobao Special Edition, it mainly adopts three strategies to compensate for the impact of Pinduoduo's group buying model.

One is to simulate Pinduoduo’s “Go to Group Buying” entrance, set up a carousel interface of “xx people are buying”, create the illusion that users are participating in group buying, and try to make up for the lack of its group buying model.

The second is to set up an operational activity of "compensation for overpricing" to encourage users to actively search for the same products on competing apps for price comparison. If the price is higher than the search results of competing apps, Taobao Special Price Edition will make certain compensation.

The third is to set up a "shopping cart" on the product details page that does not participate in the "overpriced purchase must be compensated" operation activity, so as to encourage users to stockpile purchases.

In order to further encourage users to complete transactions, when users complete an order and attempt to refund, Taobao Special Edition sets the order refund button to ① "Compensation for overpriced purchases", and places the real ② refund button on the order details page, further preventing users from canceling orders, increasing transaction completion rates, and prompting users to complete a new round of brand awareness.

But in general, the operational threshold of Taobao Special Edition's "compensation for overpriced purchases" is relatively high. After all, when users compare prices with products on the Pinduoduo platform, in addition to relying on specific keywords for searching, they also need to limit the search scope of products, such as "branded products" that are from stores that have a direct cooperative relationship with the Pinduoduo platform, and the scope is limited to the top 6 in platform sales.

Therefore, considering the actual operational intention, we believe that such operational activities may be "much ado about nothing", and the possibility of helping to shape the "money-saving" feature of Taobao Special Edition is not particularly high. Certain improvements need to be made in this area.

How to use Taobao's special edition "Compensation for overpriced purchases"

3. Comparison of other processes and functions

1) Active search & system recommendation

As mentioned above, there are two ways for users to obtain product information: one is active search, and the other is system recommendation. The corresponding representative page areas of these two are the search box (including search results) and the product recommendation waterfall flow. The ways of handling such user demands are also different in the two apps, Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition.

In the active search section of Pinduoduo , users can click ① the search box to enter the search page, and then review the user's ② recent searches, or search for other products through the system's ③ search. If there is no preference, you can directly click Enter to enter the search of the default search term. In addition to keyboard input, users can choose ④ Press and hold to speak to search.

On the product search results page, users can choose products based on real purchase records and reviews (such as ⑥'s "51,000 pieces have been purchased" and the user avatar on the right, ⑦'s "All those who purchased say it's good" window and the user avatar and text reviews below). On the other hand, they can also conduct further searches through the system's related keyword recommendations (such as ⑤'Related to it's", ⑧'Try searching these').

Pinduoduo's proactive search results take into account situations where users are unable to correctly name the product, and recommend relevant search terms based on the user's usage context, while also using the purchase history and reviews of other users on the platform to facilitate the final transaction.

Pinduoduo's system recommendation section mainly exists in four parts: home page, classification, chat and personal center, and product details page. The recommendation methods and contents of the four are different.

On the homepage , taking ① Product Overview as an example, it is mainly displayed in the form of "left picture + right text description", and adds labels such as "return shipping included", "genuine insurance", and "limited time sale" to try to reduce users' safety concerns when purchasing, and adds avatars of other purchasing users on the right to indicate their purchase history, increasing the possibility of user purchase; while ②xxx hot-selling list displays products of the same category in the form of a showcase (although the ranking of products in the list is not sorted according to actual purchase volume).

In the classification section, taking ③ popular products as an example, although its display form is similar to ① product overview, it mainly highlights the price characteristics of the products, such as "instant discount of 5 yuan", "instant discount of 5 yuan for following", etc., and deletes the avatars that imply the purchase history of other users. If you dig deeper, you can find that the product recommendations in the classification section are mostly high-frequency daily necessities (such as fruits, tissues, etc., which are not shown here because the pictures are too long), with lower unit prices and different display logic from the homepage.

In the chat and personal center sections, taking ④ Featured recommendations and ⑤ Featured recommendations as examples, the corresponding products are displayed in a grid style. The content is similar to ① Product Overview, but the density of display in sorting is higher.

On the product details page , recommendations are mainly about content related to the current product. Taking ⑥ other products of the store to which the current product belongs as an example, it displays other products currently being sold in the current store, while ⑦ similar products displays other products related to the current product. The display logic is similar to ①, ④, and ⑤, but the reliable and cost-effective attributes are highlighted in the form of text descriptions (such as "a store where friends have shopped", "instant 1 yuan discount", etc.).

In the active search section of Taobao Special Edition , users can enter the search page through ① the search box on the homepage, further confirm the search scope through ② history search or ③ search discovery, use ④ voice search, or simply click Enter to use the default keywords in the search box.

It is worth mentioning that compared with Pinduoduo, Taobao Special Edition’s ③ search discovery not only uses general text keywords as descriptions, but also uses pictures and sales data as auxiliary support, which is more concrete than Pinduoduo and attracts users to further search for products.

However, on the search results page, the display of Taobao Special Edition needs to be improved.

Taking ⑤ Product Overview as an example, in addition to the necessary pictures, texts, and features (such as "shipping within 48 hours", "return shipping included", "red envelope worth ￥1.8", "more than 56,000 pieces sold"), there is only a ranking recommendation function (such as "selected in xxx best-selling list"). It can be seen that the content display dimensions of the entire search results are relatively few, and compared with Pinduoduo adding more relevant keyword recommendations on its basis, there seems to be room for improvement.

In general, Taobao Special Edition does a good job in guiding the search page (such as ③ Search Discovery), but the display dimensions on the specific search results page (such as ⑤ Product Overview) are insufficient.

The occasions where Taobao Special Edition’s system recommendations appear are similar to those of Pinduoduo, all in four categories: homepage, category, shopping cart, mine, and product details page (the entrance to the category section will be replaced when there are major operational activities, so this analysis was not able to take screenshots in advance).

On the homepage , there are mainly ①xxx special sales list, ②entrance to major operational activities, and ③product overview. The display logic is mainly displayed in a grid style, which is different from the display style of Pinduoduo on the homepage and categories. This also affects the display of ①xxx special sales list. It is not a horizontal window display, but a vertical window display, and corresponding rankings are set (such as "Recommended for you", "01", "02"), and the display style is richer than Pinduoduo.

②The entrance to major operational activities is disguised as a product overview to further attract user clicks.

③ In addition to pictures, text, and feature descriptions, the product overview also has a ranking description below (such as "selected into xxx best-selling list"), but it is still similar to the product search results of Taobao Special Edition mentioned above, with little change.

In the shopping cart and my section, the main features are ④Guess you like and ⑤Featured recommendations. The displayed content and logic are similar to ③Product Overview. The difference is that ④ and ⑤ reduce the description of product features (such as "48-hour delivery", "Quick refund", etc.), and instead use more attractive subsidy and other related text descriptions (such as "5.1 special offer", "Red envelope has reached 1.12 yuan") to encourage users to buy. This may be because users mainly browse this area aimlessly, rather than searching for products with a clear purpose on the homepage or active search. At this time, direct subsidy descriptions can maximize the user's desire to buy cheap products. In this part, the design logic of Taobao Special Edition is more complete than Pinduoduo, and it has more dimensions.

On the product details page , the main features are ⑥Good product recommendations and ⑦Featured recommendations. However, the display content of ⑥ is different from that of Pinduoduo. It mainly displays related products of other stores, rather than related products of the store to which the current product belongs. The display content and display logic of ⑦ are still similar to the product overview of ③ on the homepage, but the display dimension and richness in this aspect are not as good as Pinduoduo.

2) Regular operational activities

The target users of Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition are both price-sensitive users.

Combined with the actual living environment of this user group, it can be found that this user group has a great interest in obtaining direct cash, physical and other rewards by using local relationship chains. Taking into account the characteristics of this user group, Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition have launched corresponding operational activities respectively to encourage users to learn how to use the software and form software dependence.

In the Pinduoduo App , three main types of operational activities are set up to simulate the cultivation game to change prizes (such as "Duoduo Orchard", etc.), sign in to change prizes (such as "Sign in", "Red Envelope Niu Niu", "Get Cash Every Day", etc.), and bargaining to change prizes (such as "Bargain for Free").

Duoduo Orchard: Cultivating the habit of changing fruits involves the social relationship chain converted from WeChat, as well as the corresponding operation points sign-in reward mechanism and the learning of software usage operations. Specific operations include ① receiving rewards (sign-in water drops and other rewards), ② dynamic square (receiving medal rewards and game notifications), ③ receiving water drops (user software usage learning one), ④ receiving fertilizer (user software usage learning two), ⑤ watering (converting user learning into the growth of virtual fruit trees), ⑥ adding, inviting, and deleting friends (attracting new users, receiving water drops and other rewards).

In addition, there are similar activities, such as Duoduo Ranch, Duoduo Make Big Money, Duoduo Dream Factory, Daily Money Printing Machine, Free Goods, etc., which can be exchanged for corresponding physical objects, coupons, props and other rewards.

Sign-in: For further operations and new user acquisition activities, users can receive sign-in beans through this activity, which can then be exchanged for cash coupons of corresponding value or directly withdrawn. As shown in ①, there are eight ways to play.

In addition, there are similar activities, such as Red Packet Niu Niu, Duoduo Ai Elimination, Daily Cash, Cash Roulette, etc., which can be exchanged for coupons, cash and other rewards.

Bargain and get it for free: Invite friends to bargain and get products for free within 24 hours, which is a further activity to attract new customers.

The activity will first randomly display the corresponding "receivable amount", and then by comparing with friends or other users, it will imply that the current user's winning amount is larger, and then guide the user to select the corresponding product for redemption, and imply that the user is about to succeed through a bargaining progress bar, and take this opportunity to continuously guide the user to share the bargaining link with friends. If the user is ready to quit the game, he will be incentivized a second time by displaying the successful bargaining information of some friends, the bargaining status that the user has currently achieved, and randomly giving away bargaining gold.

The operating activities of the Taobao Special Price Edition App are similar to those of the Pinduoduo App, mainly simulating cultivation games to exchange prizes (such as "earning special coins every day", etc.), signing in to exchange prizes (such as "receiving red envelopes every day", "God of Wealth is here", "ATM", etc.), and bargaining to exchange prizes (such as "bargaining for 0 yuan"), etc., and on this basis, the first-level operating activities of "order first - reward later" (details will be explained below) and "compensation for overpriced purchases" (explained above) have been added.

It is worth noting that, constrained by the lack of social relationship chains, some of the operational activities of the Taobao Special Edition App are carried out in the form of "order first - reward later", attempting to guide users to develop purchasing habits (such as "order and withdraw cash", "full refund for shopping", etc.).

Earn special coins every day: develop the habit of exchanging points, cashback, etc. The specific operations include ① Checking in to receive cat food (signing in to get cat food and other rewards), ② Saving money area (using special coins to deduct a certain amount of cash), ③ Collecting money (exchanging cat feeding results for special coins), ④ Redemption center (using special coins to exchange for coupons or physical objects, etc.), ⑤ Special coin entertainment, ⑦ Earning cat food, ⑧ Earning special coins (various ways for users to learn how to use the software), ⑥ Feeding cat food (the process of converting cat food into special coins). Although the operating logic is similar to Pinduoduo's "Duoduo Orchard", "Tiantianzhuantebi" does not attempt to accumulate on the social relationship chain.

Similar activities include giving away gifts with chicks, making big money by starting a business, and Sunshine Farm.

Receive red envelopes every day: Sign-in activities encourage users to develop usage habits.

Similar activities include the arrival of the God of Wealth, ATMs, cash sign-in, and the fortune duck. Among them, "Fa Cai Ya" stipulates that if the user is offline for more than 4 hours, it will affect the progress of the game (such as the synthesis of gold coins, etc.).

Bargain and get it for free: The gameplay is similar to Pinduoduo's "Bargain and get it for free", but the dimensions of content presentation are not as good as Pinduoduo. For example, there is a lack of comparison with bargaining situations with relatives, friends, and others. This may also be a manifestation of its lack of social relationship chain.

Similar activities include taking away 1 cent, etc.

Place an order and withdraw cash: Through the method of "place an order first - get rewards later", users are encouraged to develop the habit of using the software. Although Pinduoduo also has similar activities, they are mainly completed as tasks within other activities, while Taobao Special Edition's "Place an order and withdraw cash" operates it as a first-level entry activity (it is displayed as a button in the homepage function area).

Similar activities include full refunds on purchases, etc.

It is worth mentioning that the "Full Refund for Shopping" activity refers to the opportunity to get an equal amount of special currency back by inviting friends to help after purchasing goods with a unit price of less than 20 yuan. This activity can be seen as a replica of bargaining for 0 yuan, but it cleverly reduces the risk of failure of the Taobao special edition due to the flow control and blocking of social software such as WeChat in the early stage of the activity (although the next action of WeChat cannot be avoided) - because it mainly conducts similar "bargaining" support activities after the user places an order, rather than "bargaining" first and then placing an order.

4. Summary

In summary, we conducted analysis at three levels: software information architecture, core usage processes, and other processes and functional comparisons.

We found that Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition basically present similar layouts in software information architecture , but the difference lies in the fourth navigation tab. Pinduoduo is "Message" while Taobao Special Edition is "Shopping Cart". We believe that this is mainly related to the overall operating methods of the two - Pinduoduo is more inclined to the group buying model, while Taobao Special Edition is influenced by the process design of general electronic commodity trading such as mobile Taobao.

In terms of the core usage process , the main differences between the two are in two parts. One is the way users place orders. Pinduoduo prefers to encourage users to place orders through methods such as "group buying", while Taobao Special Edition mainly presents itself in the form of "buy at a low price".

The other is the refund threshold. Pinduoduo has not set a threshold, while Taobao Special Edition has set up operational activities such as "compensation for overpriced purchases" and hides the refund button in lower-level pages such as order details, showing the different focuses of the two in the user purchasing process.

In the comparison of other processes and functions , we mainly conducted comparative analysis on users' search and browsing methods for products, software's general operating activities, etc.

As for the former, we found that both Pinduoduo and Taobao Special Edition have carried out in-depth design in the user's active search and system recommendation parts - Pinduoduo is good at reminding in the relevant keyword part, lowering the user's text expression threshold, and using the user's social relationship to promote user purchases. Taobao Special Edition is keen on creating various lists to encourage users to compare and purchase, but it lacks the use of user relationship chains. However, this is also the biggest flaw of Taobao Special Edition at present.

As for the latter's regular software operation activities, we found that Pinduoduo's activity categories are roughly three types: simulation development, sign-in, and bargaining activities. These three are also the three most commonly used operation activities for shopping and life apps.

The Pinduoduo App is particularly good at studying user psychology. It displays software activity information of users' friends and relatives in various ways, prompting users to develop a competitive mentality, and thereby attempts to consolidate the social relationship chain originally derived from WeChat within the software (related to this is Pinduoduo's "Pin Xiaoquan").

In contrast, the Taobao Special Price App, based on similar activities proposed by Pinduoduo, strengthened the connection with physical incentives in the copywriting to increase user participation, and set up an "order first - then reward" model in the activity process, which prompted an increase in the order rate on the platform and to a certain extent reduced the drawbacks caused by the lack of social relationship chains required for "bargaining" activities (although it cannot be avoided).

As for other activities, such as Pinduoduo's "10 billion subsidies" and "Buying more vegetables", or Taobao's special edition's "factory direct supply" and "compensation for overpriced purchases", they are all parts worthy of our attention, but since this article mainly compares and analyzes the basic usage processes and functions of the two, this article will not involve them for the time being.

6. Corresponding function analysis and SWOT analysis

1. Micro: Software Usage Level Analysis

1) Pinduoduo

Highlights:

• Group buying model;
• Social relationship chain precipitation;
• The search results recommend related keywords, lowering the user's search threshold.

Disadvantages:

• The brand image of low price and low quality;
• The ranking list is not classified enough, and is only a recommendation of historically browsed products and related products, with low precision;
• Some of the products recommended by systems such as chat and personal center are not attractive enough.

2) Taobao Special Price Edition

Highlights:

• The "Overpriced Purchase Must Be Compensated" campaign encourages users to compare prices and form a new round of brand awareness;
• The "Search Discovery" section of the search input page has pictures and texts, which is highly concrete;
• Multiple products in the product information flow have their own category rankings, which is convenient for users to compare and purchase;
• In the shopping cart and My Account section, the product overview deleted unnecessary product feature descriptions (such as "shipping within 48 hours" and "fast refunds") and directly highlighted cash rewards such as red envelopes;
• The "order first - reward later" activity model increases the platform's order transaction volume.

Disadvantages:

• The "Buy at a higher price must be compensated" activity has a high threshold for operation and needs to be optimized;
• The social relationship chain is seriously insufficient, and it is necessary to take a roundabout way to establish offline user relationship chains and gradually complete the conversion online;
• It is necessary to optimize the relevant keyword recommendations in the search results to lower the user search threshold;
• The product overview in the product information flow shows a single dimension, and there are no recommendations from well-known figures such as relatives and friends, so the user may be more alert;
• The product display logic in the system recommendation part needs to be improved, and relevant products should be recommended based on specific scenarios (such as recommending more products related to current products in the product details page, products that are recently browsed by users in the shopping cart and some of my recommendations, etc.);
• The details of operation activities such as bargaining are insufficient, and the user's winning mentality is not captured, so it needs to be refined.

2. Macro: SWOT analysis

For the first time I wrote a competitive product analysis, please give me some advice!

Author: LazyGoat

Source: LazyGoat