Soul product analysis!

In China, stranger social apps are a mysterious existence. When it is discussed publicly, everyone sneers at it, but in private, people are quietly registering on various platforms. According to iMedia Consulting statistics, the scale of stranger social users in my country has continued to grow in recent years, reaching nearly 650 million people in 2020. Everyone wants to get a piece of the huge loneliness market. Internet trends rise and fall, but social networking remains the only constant.

With more and more social apps, it is becoming easier and easier to meet people, but it is becoming more and more difficult to understand people. Social platforms help people build connections, but they also deepen loneliness.

Why has the stranger social platform been developing for so many years but still unable to get out of the 1.0 era of "pan-social" ? Where will it go in the future? This article uses "Qian Shou" APP and " Soul " APP to understand the current situation of social APPs.

Stranger social networking originated in the United States in 1995, became popular in China in the early 2000s, and entered a stage of rapid development with the wave of mobile Internet. With the large-scale popularization of smart phones, stranger social networking has entered a boom. For the past 20 years, it seems to have been in a vortex and flying at the top of the wind.

Statistics show that the number of single people in my country has reached 246 million, accounting for about 18% of the total population. This is the fourth wave of singleness, and the scope of stranger social interaction is gradually expanding. According to the "Survey Report on Social Concepts and Social Relationships of Post-95s", more than 80% of the surveyed users regard social software as an important way to expand their network of contacts. Among them, 25.2% of users said they use social software frequently, and 58% of users choose to find a partner through social software.

1. Project Description

1. Product testing environment

2. Product Introduction

(1) Hand in Hand APP

• Qianshou, an app that allows you to feel at ease in love
• I only know people who are as sincere as you and want to fall in love.

【Super quality】Cooperation with famous companies and universities, detailed information on education, career and income, say goodbye to useless social networking

【Super reliable】All users on the platform register with their ID cards, and are manually reviewed, making real-name friends more secure

[Super Match] Love Assessment, help you find someone who perfectly matches your personality and outlook

Features:

①Strict real-name authentication

User information security is the top priority for the Qianshou Love service team. Every registered user must upload their ID card and undergo live face recognition authentication. Through machine and manual dual recognition, users are encouraged to upload real photos.

All personal information is strictly reviewed manually to ensure that the people matched by users are real and reliable.

②A large number of high-quality resources

Gather outstanding singles in the same city;

Big data intelligently recommends users and makes scientific matches based on factors such as the user’s city, basic information, interests and hobbies.

③ Rich information display

The personal profile needs to fill in the detailed information of education, work, income, car, home, hometown, etc., and you can also upload high-quality life photos to show yourself;

The information display is diversified, helping users to fully understand the information of their ideal objects.

④Two-way matching chat

Qianshou Love continues to adopt the core gameplay of "only couples who like each other can be paired up to chat", which maximizes the efficiency and matching degree of acquaintance. Users can reduce the risk of being harassed by chatting only when they like each other.

⑤Efficient video dating

One-on-one, easy and private video dating provides an efficient way for high-quality singles who are on business trips or busy to make friends;

Fifteen minutes of face-to-face communication allows you to intuitively and deeply understand whether both parties have a liking for each other and whether their personalities are compatible, without having to meet blindly offline.

⑥Matchmaker’s considerate service

QianshouLianLian provides online matchmaking services, helping members establish a quick dating channel through "online manual matchmaking + efficient video dating", and exclusive matchmakers for one-on-one in-depth communication;

The matchmaking team of QianshouLianShou has all undergone rigorous and professional matchmaking skills training, and the practitioners have many years of experience in marriage and love services. Image transformation, emotional counseling, marriage and love guidance, etc. help members find their partner quickly.

(2) Soul APP

soul, the social metaverse of young people.

Follow the soul to find you.

Features:

① Moments Square - users can post text, pictures, videos and voice through the Moments function; Soul recommends moments that may be of interest to users through algorithms, and users can comment and like content that others may be interested in.

② Soul interaction - the system allows users to connect with people they may be able to chat with in one click and chat online in real time.

③ Voice interaction - the system matches users with people who may be interested in it and enables online voice chat.

④Group chat party——themed multi-person voice group chat function. Users can create parties based on themes, or select parties of interest to communicate.

⑤ Facekini video interaction - the system connects users to people they want to video chat with, and allows users to have online video chats 

⑥Soul Werewolf——A multiplayer interactive strategy game provided by the system for users

⑦Campus Bar——Exclusive communication space for campus certified users

2. Market Analysis

Socializing is an essential human need. For humans, socializing with acquaintances is a basic social behavior, while socializing with strangers is a high-level need.

According to incomplete statistics from Tianyancha data, as of now, there are more than 350 stranger social-related companies in my country, with more than 600 financing events. Among them, more than 80% of financing events occurred between 2014 and 2018, with a total financing amount of 30 billion yuan. It is worth noting that this year, there have been more than ten financing rounds for stranger social-related companies, with a total amount exceeding 2 billion yuan.

1. Market Status

Data from iiMedia Research shows that the user scale of mobile social networking in China is huge and is increasing year by year. In 2020, the scale of China's mobile social users has reached 924 million, and it is estimated that the total number of China's mobile social users will exceed 1 billion in 2022. Analysts from iMedia Consulting believe that China's mobile social software already has a certain user base. With the advent of the 5G era, product innovation is expected to drive the further release of social value.

The data shows that among the mobile social users surveyed, 62.2% said they used social products to keep in touch with acquaintances, 33.9% said they used them to meet people with similar interests, and 31.6% said they were attracted by the content. iiMedia Research analysts believe that communication needs still account for a large proportion, followed by the needs for making friends, entertainment and chatting. The design direction of future social products will be to use interests as boundaries, build good community content and complete chat functions.

2. China’s single economy has huge potential

The economy is always behind any action.

"Are you in a relationship? When are you going to get married? When are you going to have kids?" are three soul-searching questions that singles often face.

How many people are there in this group? Data shows that in 2018, the number of single adults in my country exceeded 200 million, and the marriage rate has been declining year by year.

How do these singles solve their relationship problems? A Stanford study showed that as of the 1990s, only one out of five heterosexual couples were together because they were colleagues. The percentage of people finding a partner online has soared from 2% in 1995 to 39% in 2017.

3. Forecast of future development trends

The reason why new players frequently emerge in the mobile social industry is that its social attributes are valued. At present, the dividend of Internet traffic growth has gradually disappeared, and we have entered the era of stock. While platform fees are rising, the cost of acquiring customers is also getting higher and higher.

Mobile social products with strong social attributes are bound to bring in considerable user traffic of their own, and large-scale user traffic will be the basis for profitability of various channels. Mobile social platforms are an important entry point for e-commerce traffic. Successfully building own traffic will greatly reduce the company's customer acquisition costs. Therefore, mobile social products will be an important part of the territory for major Internet companies to build their own ecosystems.

In addition, mobile social products are responsible for the function of information dissemination and are one of the important platforms. Therefore, the control and supervision of the dissemination content is an area that needs to be focused on.

For any social platform, content supervision inevitably requires huge material and human resources. In the future, with the development of technology, the cost of content monitoring will decrease and the accuracy of monitoring will increase. At the same time, after experiencing tightening industry regulation and industry reshuffle, the mobile social industry has ushered in a more orderly development. A healthier Internet environment will not only benefit the user experience, but will also bring about healthy development of the entire industry.

Relying on online chat APP, online shopping, financial transactions, social interaction and other behaviors can be realized. It is convenient and fast, and is sought after by more and more people. As a result, citizens’ personal information has not only become a social resource that businesses compete for, but has also been used by some lawbreakers and criminals as a tool to commit fraud.

Many criminal suspects use virtual accounts such as QQ and Momo stolen or purchased on the Internet to find targets, use online chat software to contact victims, pretend to be leaders to borrow money from subordinates or transfer money to designated accounts; pretend to be students' teachers or classmates to defraud money by claiming that students are injured or sick and urgently need medical expenses.

4. Potential risks

Mobile instant messaging tools use acquaintances as the medium for communication, so users have a higher level of trust in the information and there are greater security risks. Friends’ daily life updates are flooded with all kinds of inspirational stories, questionable health tips, and sensational rumors. More and more businesses are also using WeChat Moments to engage in micro-marketing, which is extremely annoying.

Data from the Cyberspace Administration of China shows that the number of users of mobile instant messaging services in my country has exceeded 800 million. However, mobile social platforms have also been criticized for the spread of rumors, rampant fraud, and violent and pornographic information.

Low user quality, opaque information, online flirting, difficulty in offline dating, and high time cost of dating are pain points that are generally not solved by current stranger social platforms. Stranger social networking is both a "trend" and a "crater"

The styles of social apps are changing, but their essence has not improved.

5. Countermeasures and Suggestions

(1) Real-name registration is the basis of management

Implementing the registration of real identity information of chat tool users is the key to solving the problem of criminals using chat tools to carry out illegal activities. In addition to bundling personal accounts with mobile phone numbers, stricter access measures are needed for public accounts that publish public information.

(2) Conducting testing and inspection

Organize third-party testing agencies to conduct technical testing of chat software, and supervise and inspect the implementation of the main responsibilities of application distribution platforms.

For enterprises that are found to have problems during the first inspection, they will be ordered to complete rectification. If the rectification is not thorough and problems still exist, measures such as public announcement, organization of removal from shelves, administrative punishment and inclusion of the violators who have been administratively punished in the list of poor telecommunications business operations or the list of untrustworthy persons will be adopted.

(3) Ensure implementation

Carry out inspection work in light of actual conditions, enter clues of violations into the national APP technical testing platform management system, and take action accordingly. Companies operating chat tools should also conduct self-inspection and self-correction in a timely manner, immediately correct any problems found, learn from them, and effectively protect personal information.

It is necessary to improve the user rights protection system, application distribution platforms should strengthen platform management responsibilities, and actively cooperate with the telecommunications regulatory authorities to carry out relevant regulatory work.

(4) Promoting industry self-discipline

Chat tool industry associations are encouraged to organize APP developers and operators, application distribution platforms, third-party service providers, telecommunications equipment manufacturers, security vendors and other relevant units to formulate industry self-discipline conventions and technical testing standards, improve third-party review mechanisms, and strengthen industry norms.

(5) Strengthening the construction of measures

We must vigorously promote the construction of a national APP technical testing platform management system, further consolidate industry forces, encourage qualified enterprises to actively participate in platform construction, and improve the level and capabilities of automated testing. Communications Administration Bureaus in all regions should also connect to the network as soon as possible, make good use of relevant technical means, move the checkpoints forward, discover and resolve problems in a timely manner, and continuously improve the industry's governance capabilities and standards.

(6) Open complaint channels

Chat tool operators should open up user complaint channels, improve complaint handling service mechanisms and processes, accept complaints from the public, and promptly summarize and handle related issues reported by users.

3. User Analysis

1. Purpose

Through user attributes, we can explore the essential needs of users and derive core functions; secondly, we can use user scenarios to analyze user pain points and extend special functions.

2. Target Users

(1) Users with a small social circle and a low social attitude

(2) Want to accurately match with people who share the same values ​​and hobbies as you do

(3) Want to have a clean circle of friends

3. Demand Analysis

4. Product Analysis

1. Strategic level

Qianshou: The threshold of real-name authentication is a breath of fresh air among online dating apps, and we do our best to help users find the person they want.

soul: Make friends based on the soul, weakening the influence of appearance on making friends.

2. Scope layer

3. Functional structure diagram

4. Business process diagram

(1) Hand in Hand APP

From the flow chart, we can see that the process of making friends is actually very simple. You only need to fill in your personal information and set your personal preferences, and then you can make friends through random matching by robots and users’ own search in interest groups. And it is very safe, both users can terminate the matching relationship at any time.

(2) soul

The biggest difference between the registration process of soul and Qianshou is that Soul does not require real-name authentication; while Qianshou - real-name authentication is a threshold.

5. Underlying core business logic

（1）soul

Collect basic user information - pass personality analysis test - generate basic user portrait - recommend content based on the portrait - match users and start chatting

(2) Holding hands

User real-name authentication - Collect basic user information - User sets preferences - Recommend content based on user personal information and the preferences they hope to match - User and the other party like each other (both swipe right/click the little red heart) - User matches and starts chatting

Analysis of the matching mechanism of Qianshou APP and Soul APP

6. Product Page Analysis

(1) Hand in Hand APP

①Home

• The home page display is as shown in the above picture: it displays the personal information of the user of the current page (including the distance from "me", the other party's area XX city XX district, nickname, age, occupation, education, personal introduction, daily life) and the "real name, real avatar" authentication mark.
• Click on the little flower: It means you like it very much and can push it to the other party in a limited way
• Click ×: means you don’t like it
• Click the heart: means like
• Swipe left: means don't like
• Swipe right: Like

Suggestions after experience: Swiping left or right may sometimes result in accidental operations.

After swiping right by mistake, if the other party also happens to "like" you, "I" can cancel the match after the match is successful.

If I swipe left by mistake, I may miss the person I "like" because the system will not push the person I have already swiped past again.

②After the user logs in, match the page

The display is as above. During the matching process, the photo of "myself" is displayed until there is matching data on the page.

Suggestions after the experience: During the matching process, the page does not change much; if the user waits for a long time, it is easy to cause user loss.

③Filter condition page

As shown above, users can set it according to their hobbies and interests. After the setting is completed, the system will push it to "you" according to the set conditions.

Experience: After the settings are completed, the users pushed by the system all meet the conditions set by "me", reducing my cost of making friends.

④ Matchmaker helps you find a boyfriend/girlfriend

As shown above, the system pushes according to the user's gender; (Registered user gender is female) Matchmaker helps you find a boyfriend/Matchmaker helps you find a girlfriend (Registered user gender is male);

Features of this module: The average time to find a partner is 4 months. Scientific evaluations are conducted to recommend people who are more suitable than you think. Big data matching means it only takes a few seconds to find your ideal type. A 15-minute video date allows you to get to know each other easily and pleasantly. Matchmakers facilitate the entire process and you can find a partner in 3-6 months.

⑤My Singles Group

As shown above, users can create their own singles group by inviting friends, increase the popularity of their friends, praise their friends, and make more people like them.

Experience: If the matched user has evaluation and recommendation from each other’s friends, it will make me feel more real and give more points.

(2) soul

①Home

• The home page display is as shown in the picture above: displaying planets, total number of people currently online, soul matching, love bell, group chat party, soul test, screening and other functions.
• Click Soul Match, Love Bell, or Group Chat Party to jump to the matching page.

Feelings after the experience: Users can choose soul matching, love bells, group chat parties and other methods to match friends according to their needs; it meets users' various needs for matching friends.

②Square page

Displays the planet the user is on, recommends user content, and can search for users or posts based on user needs.

③Party page

Users choose parties based on their interests or create their own.

④Love Bell Settings Page

The user completes the settings of the love bell, and the platform recommends matches based on the user's settings.

7. Conclusion

Soul focuses on spiritual social interaction and downplays appearance. Users are required to judge whether the other party’s information is true or not. It is an entertainment and social platform and a spiritual haven. At a time when "face-based" apps are all the rage, a social app that "emphasizes substance over appearance" has attracted a large number of users who focus on social depth. This approach not only helps users open up their minds and express their inner feelings, but also enables users to meet people with whom they can truly chat.

Qianshou focuses on sincere social interaction, with authentic information and real-name authentication. The system matchmaker helps to improve the matching rate and success rate; you can rest assured to "get rid of being single" and socialize efficiently. The threshold of real-name authentication brings a high degree of credibility to the product.

(1) Hand in Hand APP

①Advantages

• All users are authenticated by their real names, and their information is authentic, which reduces the cost for users to judge the authenticity of the information.
• Online matchmaker: helps users improve their matching rate and enhance their dating efficiency.
• Users can hide their information freely, and the system can recommend and match users based on the preferences set by users.
• During the dating process, if either party feels uncomfortable, they can cancel the match at any time.
• For users who have been recommended, the system will not push them a second time after they "swipe left - don't like".

② Disadvantages

• Non-member users can only match and recommend 20 users per day, which may cause some users to lose;
• When you post something, you can show yourself. You cannot show videos, only text and photos.

③Opportunities

As the marriage and birth rate in my country declines, the government encourages online dating and blind date activities.

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, social needs are our third level of needs. When people meet basic physiological and safety needs, they will pursue social needs.

But at present, our social status has gradually changed from the previous passive collectivism to a state where everyone can make more like-minded and similar friends according to their own wishes due to the development of the Internet. This is consistent with the Qianshou APP. As long as we seize this opportunity, there will be a broader world in the future.

④Challenges

With the saturation of online dating software, the market share occupied by the top apps is very huge, and there is not much market share left for the "Hand-in-Hand" app. However, as long as we maintain our "our" characteristics and firmly adhere to the real-name dating market segment, we can also get a share in our own field.

There are certainly many different modes of online dating, but online dating apps are just one type of tool for our socializing. We must always be vigilant not to be backfired by the tools and not let them infinitely trigger our inner sins. Instead, we should use tools to reduce costs, improve efficiency, narrow the distance and create consensus.

(2) soul

①Advantages

• The user experience is good, allowing users to know their own status, deeply understand user needs, and allow users to gradually understand each other's information;
• Not looking at the face and the more tactful matching method are more in line with the personalities of most girls, thus attracting a large number of female users;
• According to the test, people can find strangers who share similar interests with them, establish connections quickly and efficiently, save each other's communication time costs, and expand their social circles. This method has become the difference of Soul and its advantage.
• Having a community is what makes Soul different from other stranger social software. Users can record and share their lives on it.

② Disadvantages

• The platform may not strictly manage the platform, which may cause the loss of some users who want to make normal friends.
• Chat records are not saved now, and cloud chat records should be established, while paying attention to protecting the privacy and security of users;
• Friends who have a good chat in Soul will move to other platforms to chat, often because this software has too many reminders, confusing information processing, and too many bugs. This phenomenon will lead to a decline in monthly and daily active users.

③Threat

• When dating develops to a certain stage, both parties will choose other products to interact, and there is a certain probability that they will leave the platform. The platform needs to do more. Not only should it innovate, but it should also learn from other IM products in terms of forms and methods of chatting or maintaining social circles.
• Although two people are matched together through an algorithm, there are not enough customized conditions, only age, zodiac sign, and gender. Many users believe that local dating is more suitable for converting online to offline. But this can easily lead users back to the content of Threat 1. For some users who are willing and have successfully interacted, you can create commemorative things for both parties, such as electronic photo albums, emoticons, chat records, etc.
• In order to break away from the current face-based dating method, various guidance methods are needed (such as making the matching gameplay more interesting, opening up more efficient chat starting points, and matching people who are truly compatible)

5. “New bottle”, “old wine”?

1. There is a natural contradiction in product logic

Stranger social apps are efficiency-oriented. Mainstream products all have instant messaging functions and are committed to helping users connect more quickly. Momo’s rise is because nearby people can move from online to offline more quickly, and Soul’s rise is because voice has higher communication efficiency than text.

But socializing is inherently an inefficient thing. Building relationships takes time, and accumulating trust requires multi-faceted interactions. As social products accelerate connections between people, they naturally dilute the emotional intensity of relationships and lower the spiritual depth of interactions.

In the past, online dating was a long-distance race of three to five years, but today, it is just a game of three to five days. From a psychological perspective, the cycle of maintaining freshness is four months, but this period of time is completely impossible on social apps, and even a large number of "one-day lovers" relationships have developed.

The fast pace online and the slow life offline have formed a strong rift. The social context built by social apps in the virtual world cannot generate emotional and spiritual satisfaction for people in the real world, creating a strong sense of unreality.

2. Deliberately skirting the rules in operations

Although many social software have never officially admitted that they are "hookup apps", it is undeniable that they do induce users to do this. They provide an outlet for China's sexual needs that have been suppressed for many years. No matter how glamorous the rhetoric used by subsequent stranger social apps is, it is difficult to avoid such skirting of the rules during operation.

Even Soul, which claims to be a soul-based social platform, has launched the square feature, but only good-looking people can give full play to their talents here. The algorithm-recommended information flow is mostly filled with "sexy" selfies of beautiful women and ambiguous texts.

Social apps are typical products of network effects and scale effects . They do not have substantial products like e-commerce, nor do they provide high-quality content like content communities, or provide specific services like other tool-type apps. They survive on frequent interactions between users.

Social networking among strangers is essentially a non-continuous and highly uncertain demand. If you want to gather enough users, the greatest common divisor you can find is Maslow's basic needs, which are both rigid and tenacious.

Therefore, no matter how rich the interactive functions that social apps provide, if they want to enter a wider market, they will eventually and irreversibly become “hooking tools.”

No matter what the original intention of creating social software is, for the sake of traffic, the product will inevitably be distorted in operation, turning a blind eye to certain behaviors and watching the platform fall into chaos step by step. Even the real-name system can only alleviate this situation but cannot completely avoid it.

3. Socializing with strangers is just a prelude to socializing with acquaintances

Chinese Internet users have no stickiness, especially in the social field. All founders of stranger social apps will face a "soul-searching question": What should I do if users add WeChat after I get to know them? This is almost an unsolvable problem. In China, stranger social networking and acquaintance social networking are two distinct entities, and WeChat’s high barriers in the acquaintance relationship chain are unshakable.

This results in stranger social apps never being able to form a closed product loop, and as a social platform, they are unable to build up user relationship chains.

The operation is facing an extremely embarrassing situation: the efficiency of user friendship matching is low, and the user loss due to unmet needs is accelerated; the efficiency of user friendship matching is high, and the user loss due to transfer is accelerated.

All Internet products are essentially in the same time battlefield. As long as users can spend time on the APP, it's fine. Therefore, social platforms do not require you to be able to really make friends on them, as long as you are willing to spend time. Socializing in appearance, but entertainment in reality.

Social apps don’t really want to help you find friends, they just want you to spend time and recharge. Entertainment consumption-oriented social networking is a typical example of "ineffective social networking", which naturally will not make users feel a sense of "gain". If users do not have a sense of "gain", the platform will naturally not be able to retain users.

4. What is the future of social products?

The essence of socializing is finding like-minded people.

In today's atomized society, mobility is increasing, the original social interpersonal relationship structure is being disintegrated, and people are forced to be divided into isolated islands. They are eager to be connected with their own kind, and stranger social interaction needs to play the role of this bridge.

In addition to producing hormones and dopamine, social apps need to provide more incremental value to connect people of the same kind. The stranger social track has also made different attempts to help users find similar users.

At least for now, stranger social networking in China is still dominated by hormones and dopamine . This cannot be entirely blamed on social media apps for not working hard. Although everyone says, "Beautiful appearances are all the same, but interesting souls are hard to find," their hands are constantly carefully photoshopping selfies, their appearance is constantly declining, and their spirits remain calm.

But the world of beauty is ultimately illusory, and spiritual loneliness will only become more intense. Perhaps when the desire for deep social interaction exceeds a critical value, the era of stranger social interaction 2.0 will slowly come.