Get is a knowledge-based paid service APP that provides knowledge through audio, e-books, audiobooks, etc., aiming to allow users to use fragmented time to learn and improve their competitiveness.

Since its establishment in 2015, Duoduo has been developing rapidly under the leadership of its founder Luo Zhenyu; its revenue exceeded 100 million yuan in just over a year after its launch.

As of 2018, the number of Duoduo users has grown from 3.51 million to more than 20 million, and the number of daily active users has increased from 230,000 to 720,000; in May 2020, Luo Zhenyu announced that the number of Duoduo users has reached more than 38 million.

How did Get rise so quickly in just four years? What is the current situation of the online knowledge payment industry?

This article takes the Duode APP as the starting point to deeply analyze the operating logic of this company and the knowledge payment industry.

This article will analyze from the following aspects:

1. Industry Analysis
2. Competitive product analysis
3. User Value Analysis
4. Business value analysis
5. Product Iteration Analysis
6. Product structure analysis
7. Operational Analysis
8. Summarize

1. Industry Analysis

Knowledge payment is an industry that turns knowledge into products or services and knowledge recipients consume and acquire knowledge.

With the accelerated pace of modern life and people devoting more time to work, and the rapid development of the Internet, there is a vast amount of information and knowledge online. It is difficult for people to identify high-quality learning content in fragmented time, resulting in a significant increase in the time cost of learning.

In this special environment, knowledge payment came into being, aiming to provide high-quality knowledge content services for users who are eager to learn knowledge in fragmented time but are at a loss when it comes to knowledge screening and selection.

Nowadays, paying for knowledge has become a common consumption phenomenon. More knowledge reserves have become topics of conversation when socializing with others, and knowledge has developed into a kind of social currency.

Why has the knowledge payment industry grown by leaps and bounds since 2016? Knowledge payment itself also belongs to the education industry, and the education industry is often affected by macro-policy factors, so I will use the PEST analysis model to delve into the reasons behind it.

1. Politics

In 2013, Luo Zhenyu tried to launch paid membership in Logical Thinking, and Internet knowledge payment gradually emerged.

From 2014 to 2015, knowledge payment entered a period of development.

In 2016, the knowledge payment industry developed rapidly and a large number of start-up companies emerged. Although knowledge payment grew rapidly, the disorderly development of Internet knowledge payment caused increasingly serious copyright infringement problems and hindered the sustainable development of knowledge payment.

In March 2016, the 13th Five-Year Plan clearly stated the implementation of a strict intellectual property protection system, the improvement of an intellectual property ownership system that is conducive to stimulating innovation, the construction of an intellectual property operation, transaction and service platform, and the construction of a strong intellectual property country.

In May 2017, the "Opinions on Improving the Property Rights Protection System and Protecting Property Rights in accordance with the Law" pointed out: Increase the penalties for intellectual property activities, increase the statutory compensation limit for intellectual property infringement, and explore the establishment of a punitive compensation system for infringement of intellectual property rights such as patents and copyrights.

In May 2017, the Opinions on Improving the Property Rights Protection System and Protecting Property Rights in accordance with the Law were improved and supplemented, the governance of online infringement and piracy was strengthened, and efforts to regulate copyright in the fields of online literature, film and television, animation, textbooks, and e-commerce, software application stores and other platforms were further intensified. The reprinting and use of news works were strictly controlled, and new forms of communication were included in the scope of copyright supervision.

The country's emphasis on copyright has inspired more knowledge creators to join the field of knowledge payment, and knowledge payment has entered a period of rapid development.

2. Economy

According to the 45th "Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet" released by CNNIC: As of March 2020, the number of online education users has reached 423 million, an increase of 222 million from the end of 2018. Among them, in 2019, the number of people paying for knowledge exceeded 130 million.

Such a large user scale provides broad development prospects for the knowledge payment industry.

In recent years, China's per capita disposable income has continued to increase, the proportion of basic needs for food and clothing in total consumption has declined, and people's pursuit of spiritual and cultural levels has been on the rise; the demand for knowledge has been expanding, and the cultural and entertainment industry has been increasing year by year in the gross national product.

Over the past six years, the proportion of China's cultural industry's added value in GDP has continued to increase. In 2017, China's cultural industry's added value reached 4.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 4.2% of GDP.

In the future, the status of the cultural and entertainment industry will become increasingly higher, and people will be more willing to pay for high-quality knowledge content.

3. Society

In today's society, the division of labor is becoming more and more detailed, and there is more and more cooperation between different work fields. It is difficult for an individual to achieve long-term development by only possessing professional knowledge in a certain field. Therefore, the level of requirements for interdisciplinary and cross-field knowledge is gradually increasing, which makes many people eager to learn knowledge in multiple industries.

Secondly, society is developing at a rapid pace. If one stops learning, he or she will be quickly eliminated by society. Lifelong learning is no longer just a slogan, but requires us to take practical actions.

According to Analysys data: 48% of respondents are willing to pay for high-quality content. Price is not the main factor in payment. High-quality content plays a decisive role in users' payment decisions.

This has led to an ever-increasing demand for paid knowledge, and users are eager for high-quality paid content. The importance of knowledge has become clearer among social groups.

4. Technology

Continuous technological breakthroughs have brought many improvements and changes to the knowledge payment industry.

The popularization and development of mobile Internet in 2012 enabled more people to seek relevant information through the Internet, obtain the knowledge content they needed, and cultivate the habit of online learning.

The emergence of tablet computers and the continuous upgrading of mobile phone hardware have brought significant improvements to users' Internet experience; whether watching videos or listening to lectures, listening to audio and reading pictures and texts, or reading e-books, the whole process is very smooth, and the improvement of hardware performance retains more users.

Through the application of AI intelligence and big data, the software can formulate a personalized learning plan based on the user's own learning situation, and is equipped with virtual teaching assistants to conduct timely learning monitoring, complete learning progress in a targeted manner, and improve learning efficiency.

The above reasons have driven the rapid development of the knowledge payment industry. What will be the development trend of this industry in the next few years? Can the market space continue to expand?

5. Future trends and prospects of the industry

According to statistics from the iMedia Data Center: the consumption growth rate of China's knowledge payment market has been objective in recent years, exceeding 40%; the total market size is expected to reach 39.2 billion in 2020, a growth rate of 41% over 2019; and in 2021, the market size is estimated to reach 67.5 billion, with huge market space and growth.

In addition, Analysys data shows that the scale of China's paid knowledge users has increased year by year, and the number has increased from 52.35 million in 2015 to 138.89 million in 2019, with a huge user scale.

From the above data analysis, we can see that the knowledge payment market not only has rapid consumption growth, but also has a very large user scale. There is unlimited market space to be explored in the future and it will maintain rapid growth.

2. Competitive Product Analysis

A large number of industry competitors have emerged in the rapid development channel of knowledge payment.

In terms of payment for knowledge content, the knowledge payment market is divided into three types of players.

1. Mainly including Himalaya, Zhihu,蜻蜓FM and得得, they are in the first tier due to their leading performance in user scale, active users and revenue.
2. The user scale of Lizhi Micro Class, Qianliao and others is relatively small, and the number of active users needs to be increased, so they are in the second tier.
3. Other products are in the third tier.

Since Himalaya and Duoduo have overlapping and competing markets and user targets, they are direct competitors; they have similarities in functions and ways of meeting user needs.

Next, we will use Himalaya as a competitive product case for analysis, explain the development history and business model of Get and Himalaya, and use this as a starting point to explore the differences between various companies in the industry.

1. Get the app

• In October 2015, it received Series B investment from Loyalty Valley Innovation Capital, Zhen Fund and others, with a transaction amount of hundreds of millions of yuan and a valuation of 1.32 billion yuan.
• In June 2016, he launched his first paid column "Li Xiang's Business Insider", which was recommended by Jack Ma.
• In December 2016, the number of APP users exceeded 3.5 million, and the revenue exceeded 100 million yuan in the first year after its launch; it received C round investment from Loyalty Valley Innovation Capital, Zhen Fund and others, and the transaction amount was not disclosed.
• In May 2017, we held the Knowledge Release Conference No. 001, launched 12 knowledge products, and shared the "Get Quality Control Manual" with peers in the industry.
• In July 2017, it was reported that the company planned to raise 960 million yuan and was valued at 7 billion yuan, which Luo Pang has denied.
• In September 2017, the company launched the Knowledge Conference No. 002 and re-launched the Listen to a Book Every Day VIP program; it received investment from Sequoia Capital China and Tencent D, with an unknown transaction amount and a valuation of 8 billion.
• In November 2017, the number of APP users exceeded 12 million, with an average of nearly 900,000 active users per day.
• In December 2017, the Dedao APP was selected as one of the APP Store's annual selections.
• In April 2018, Duoduo launched the Duoduo Junior APP and officially entered the K12 education field.
• In May 2018, Luo Pang announced on his personal Weibo that the number of APP users exceeded 20 million.
• In 2019, Duoduo launched the Spring Knowledge Conference to release new upgrades of electronic products.
• In November 2019, Shao Nian Dedao received A+ round of financing with an amount of over 100 million yuan. In less than two years since its official launch, Shao Nian Dedao has more than 2 million users and the total monthly active users of all terminals are nearly 1 million.

1) Business model

It sells digital audio courses (with corresponding pictures and texts) and e-books; it mainly invites experts, scholars and leading figures from various fields of the industry (such as computer expert Wu Jun, economist Xue Zhaofeng, etc.) to join the platform; it records multiple audio courses in related fields to provide knowledge services to the public and realize knowledge monetization, which is a typical PGC method.

As a relatively single ecological platform, Duoduo focuses on the production of professional content, which is more educational, serious and systematic. The course content covers art, history, technology, workplace, parent-child, literature, etc. The purpose is to provide users with their own vision and expand their knowledge.

In addition to audio courses and e-books, VIP members are encouraged to listen to the book every day. Each book is recommended by well-known industry insiders, and the reasons for the recommendation are explained.

After gaining a foothold in the online knowledge payment service, Duode launched Duode University in October 2018, aiming to build a general university serving lifelong learners; Duode University provides students with a set of diversified thinking model courses extracted from various industries online; offline, Duode University organizes face-to-face group learning for students from different fields.

Duoduo launched the Duoduo Junior APP and began to get involved in K12 education, targeting children aged 5 to 12, mainly promoting children's books, stories, parent classes and training camps.

According to statistics, the conversion rate of paying users is 18.3%, which is a very high conversion rate.

2. Himalayas

• Himalaya was founded in 2012.
• In 2014, it received US$11.5 million in Series A venture capital from SIG (Senate Asia), KPCB (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), and Sierra Ventures, making it the largest financing case in the history of China's Internet audio industry.
• In July 2015, it received strategic financing from China Literature Group and Toutoushidao Investment Fund, the amount of which is unknown.
• In December 2015, it received US$50 million in Series B venture capital from investors including Genesis Partners, Huashan Capital, etc.
• In May 2016, it received B+ round investment from Xiaomi Technology, PwC Capital and others.
• In June 2016, it received RMB 60 million in Series C venture capital from City Media.
• In November 2016, it received strategic financing of over 100 million yuan from Xiaomi Technology, TAL Education Group and others.
• In September 2017, it received over 100 million RMB in Series D venture capital from Whale Capital and Yuhui Capital.
• In August 2018, the company received US$460 million in E-round venture capital from Primavera Capital, Tencent Investment and others, with a company valuation of US$3 billion, becoming a giant in the audio field.
• In August 2018, in response to instructions on improving myopia among adolescents and protecting children's eyes, Himalaya created the Ximaoer Story APP, a story audio platform for children aged 0-12.
• In April 2019, the first offline physical space of the audio platform Himalaya, "Himalaya All Things Sound", settled in Xi'an; the 2,000-square-meter store is divided into a coffee cultural and creative area, a parent-child area, and a stepped theater area, integrating audio stories, coffee, best-selling books, gifts, salon classes, professional live broadcast rooms and other functions.
• In September 2019, the number of Himalaya users exceeded 600 million, the industry user occupancy rate reached 75%, and the payment rate increased eightfold.

1) Business model

Himalaya also provides knowledge services with audio as the main content form, and is a platform that combines UGC and PGC.

From the UGC perspective, Himalaya allows every user to upload audio content, so everyone is a content creator; from the PGC perspective, Himalaya also invites a large number of well-known industry figures to join the platform (such as the famous supporter Cai Kangyong, economist Wu Xiaobo, etc.) and launches paid audio courses.

Due to its UGC attributes, Himalaya has a large amount of free content on the platform, making it easier to acquire users.

Himalaya has an extremely rich variety of audio content. In addition to paid audio courses from celebrities, it also provides a large amount of music, crosstalk, radio, live broadcast, news information, books, psychology, finance, children's education and other content for free. Therefore, it not only provides professional content, but also launches many entertainment sections. Its richness has established a huge user base and also acquired a large number of paying users.

Himalaya launched offline physical stores to concretize and materialize the online content model offline, connect online and offline channels, and increase user stickiness.

According to statistics, the user payment conversion rate of Himalaya platform is 2.3%, and its monetization ability is slightly insufficient.

3. Conclusion

Summary: Duoduo was established younger than Himalaya and has far fewer users than Himalaya, so there is still a lot of room for growth in user scale; Himalaya was established longer and has reached the E-round investment stage, and has a huge user base. In terms of size, Duoduo still has a certain gap with Himalaya.

From a business perspective, the two products have some overlap in business models and user groups, both of which are mainly audio content, but there are big differences in breadth and depth.

Because it is a typical PGC method, all the content is created by industry experts, and the content quality and depth are very high. It is a vertical knowledge paid product; Himalaya has a large amount of free content and a more open platform. Anyone can participate in content creation, and the platform content is richer. Therefore, the number of users is huge, but the content is uneven.

At the same time, both platforms have begun to involve children's areas, and the target user population has expanded.

In terms of development direction, Duoduo started to expand its offline business from online in 2018, and its profit channels continued to increase; Himalaya established physical stores related to the platform content the following year, also aiming to expand revenue channels.

In terms of monetization ability, its user base is not as large as Himalaya's, but its monetization ability is very high; Himalaya should use its huge user base to improve conversion rate.

3. User Value Analysis

There are three user participants in total, namely consumers, professionals and platforms.

The specific business logic is as follows:

As can be seen from the logic diagram, the resulting business process is actually very simple.

By inviting professionals (KOL, or key opinion leaders, who have more accurate information in a certain field and have a great influence on user decisions) to join the platform, they work with the platform team to create courses that meet the needs of current target users; then they are published on the platform, and consumers can learn relevant courses after listening to and paying on the platform.

Therefore, if the platform wants to continue operating, it must meet the demands of professionals so that they can create high-value content in the long term and attract more users; at the same time, it must also meet the needs of users and increase their retention, purchase and repurchase rates.

Next, we analyze the needs of consumers and professionals and explain how to balance the needs of both and solve the pain points of both parties.

1. Consumers

The slogan of Get is to provide high-quality paid knowledge services to the 2% of lifelong learners. Therefore, Get mainly targets people with a certain level of cultural literacy and high requirements for their own growth.

According to Analysys Qianfan data, the main users of Duoduo are between 24 and 40 years old, accounting for more than 70% of the total users. Users of this age group are basically still working in the workplace or starting a business. They are young and energetic and under great pressure. However, they are good at accepting new things, maintain a passionate and positive attitude towards learning, and are eager to improve themselves. They are also the group with the highest consumption level.

At the same time, data shows that most of Duoduo users are in first-tier and super first-tier cities, accounting for more than 75% of the total number of users, and most of them are located in first-tier and above cities such as Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Beijing; this reflects the high positioning of Duoduo's target users, and also indirectly reflects the eager demand of first-tier city users for knowledge payment.

Through the above analysis, we can find that most of the users are located in first-tier cities and above, and are at the stage of striving for career and entrepreneurship. They face social competition and pressure, and hope to improve themselves through fragmented time learning, expand their knowledge and vision, and are willing to pay to obtain high-quality, practical knowledge that is beneficial to their growth.

With a strong motivation to improve their own competitiveness, how do they generally meet their needs?

1) Read professional books

There are a wide variety of professional knowledge books on the workplace, entrepreneurship, and different fields on the market, and consumers can easily find the relevant books they need.

According to the "Amazon Kindle National Reading Report 2020", 46% of readers have 30 minutes to one hour of reading time every day, and 37% of readers have a fixed reading time every day; therefore, reading books is still the main way for the public to learn knowledge.

However, for people in the workplace or starting a business, a large amount of time is devoted to work every day. The only time to read is during work hours, after get off work, during fitness, or half an hour before going to bed. It is extremely inconvenient to read books because of driving or squeezing on buses and subways on the way to work, and the body is constantly moving when exercising, and it is easy to cause eyestrain. Secondly, professional books often have a lot of content and are complicated. It is difficult to grasp the key points without in-depth research. Moreover, once the workload increases, reading may stagnate. Inconsistent learning leads to low efficiency and waste of time.

2) Searching for information on the Internet

In addition to reading books, many consumers also like to search the Internet for relevant information they need to expand the scope of information reference.

According to the CNNIC statistical survey on the development of China's Internet, the size of China's Internet users has increased from 700 million in 2016 to 850 million in 2019, and the Internet penetration rate has increased year by year and has exceeded 50% - this means that more people joining will generate more network information, and the amount of information will surge.

With the complexity of online information, it is difficult to identify which content is helpful to oneself without a certain level of professionalism; although brainstorming can help consumers understand problems from more different perspectives, too much information makes consumers feel overwhelmed, and most people on the Internet talk about it and interpret a problem from their own standpoint, which is not in-depth and professional enough, and it is difficult to achieve rational understanding, resulting in a high time cost for effective learning.

In this situation, people tend to become more anxious and confused.

3) Offline courses taught by famous people

Consumers participate in offline courses taught by famous teachers or celebrities in order to learn relevant experience and expertise, meet more like-minded friends, and enhance their self-worth.

However, some courses are often short in duration, and instructors often only share knowledge and experience in a certain field one-sidedly and are unable to provide in-depth explanations as a whole, making it difficult for consumers to learn substantive content; some offline training camps are longer in duration and are intensive learning, usually taking two to three weeks, which is time-consuming; for most working people, the prices are too expensive and they do not have that much time available.

2. Professionals

Professionals are the core pillars of Duoduo, and the high-quality paid content they produce over a long period of time is the cornerstone on which Duoduo relies for its sustainable development.

Most of the professionals who have settled in are KOLs in vertical fields, coming from the technology circle, investment circle, university scholars, professors or self-media, etc.; their common characteristics are that they are professional and authoritative in their own related fields, and some of them often have a large fan base.

They hope to have a better channel to use their professional knowledge, services and influence to spread their ideas to the public and get more rewards at the same time; therefore, cooperating with a platform that has both a user base and influence and a professional production team has become their full demand.

So, before the emergence of GAIN, what are the main specific income channels for professionals?

1) Lectures, scientific research or corporate work

Many teachers who have access to the platform are professors and scholars in universities. They are usually responsible for teaching and also participate in scientific research. A large part of their income comes from salaries and research funds. Of course, some teachers work in companies, and some of them are editors-in-chief or senior executives.

Although both of the above have decent jobs and good incomes, they also eagerly hope that their professional knowledge and experience can create more value, gain greater influence, and step onto a broader stage in life.

2) Book writing

Some teachers will also publish books, share their experiences and knowledge with everyone through writing, and receive corresponding royalties and profits; but currently the sales of paper books are gradually declining, and the final income is not significant.

Although there are many professionals who have received this support, including company CEOs, investors and other bigwigs who already have quite generous incomes, most of them still earn income through the above two methods. They need a platform to maximize their value and obtain more rewards.

3. Platform

From the above analysis, it is not difficult to find that the pain points of consumers and professionals have not been well solved in terms of the ways of knowledge learning and dissemination.

How do platforms balance their needs and attract a large number of professionals and consumers?

1) Focus on paid audio courses

The advantage of audio content is that it can be listened to repeatedly in fragmented time. For the main consumers of Get, the audio method meets their needs very well. It can more effectively utilize the free time of each day for personal learning and recharge, and integrate into their life scenes, thus effectively solving the problem of users having no time offline and avoiding the problems of eye fatigue and discontinuous learning when users read.

According to the iResearch Consulting Report: Since 2015, the growth rate of China's audio industry has been rapid; in 2019, the market size of China's audio industry has reached 17.58 billion yuan, an increase of 55.1% over last year; according to forecasts, from 2020 to 2022, although the growth rate will decline, the market size will nearly double.

At the same time, we can also see that the user scale of audio products continues to expand. The growth rate in 2019 dropped by about 30% compared with last year, but the user scale has reached 490 million; therefore, there are more demands in the market that are worth discovering and meeting.

The above shows that there is still huge room for development in the audio-related industries, and there is still great potential for audio courses to be tapped, and there are more users to attract.

Of course, in order to meet the needs of multi-scenario learning, relevant pictures and texts are attached to each audio so that it can be better applied in personalized scenarios.

2) High-quality course content

The quality of course content is the vitality and competitiveness of the knowledge payment industry. High-quality content is always scarce; but only by constantly creating scarce content can one ensure one's own advantages and continuously meet the increasingly high demands of consumers.

From the following survey, we can see that most consumers focus on the authority of the paid content author, the interestingness of the content and the self-improvement, which ultimately comes down to whether the content is high-quality.

So how does Get control the quality of its content and continuously launch high-quality knowledge content to satisfy users?

Duoduo now has subscription columns, premium courses, audio books, e-books and other content. Among them, the subscription column is Duoduo's main profitable business module.

Taking the subscription column as an example, I will briefly talk about the course production process and quality control.

The subscription column was launched by Duoduo in 2016, and professionals such as Li Xiaolai and Li Xiang were invited to join. Duoduo has gained 1.44 million paying users.

Every course content produced by a big name needs to work closely with a professional team to jointly create high-quality and high-end content.

After the user completes the subscription, the professionals in this column will continue to update the course 52 weeks a year, once a day. This shows that the team and the big names have invested a lot of effort in the production of the course. The production cost is very high, and it also requires a high level of energy and perseverance from the big names.

It is reported that Luo Yonghao underestimated the workload of the course column and was unable to meet the daily work requirements, so the column was taken off the shelves. This shows how high the team's requirements for the column content are.

The following is the quality control manual. The production of all courses must strictly follow its prescribed processes to ensure the quality of the content and that the user's perception of the content is certain and stable at all times.

Moreover, the course content is also "light on knowledge". The amount of information carried by the course content itself is generally not too complicated or lengthy. The team and professionals usually simplify the language, extract the key points, and use easy-to-understand language. Each audio course of more than ten minutes teaches consumers knowledge, which helps consumers to learn in fragmented time, absorb quickly, and make quick broadcasts more efficient. In addition, high-quality content also reduces the cost of consumers screening information.

Most of the consumers are working people, so the content related to improving workplace competitiveness accounts for the majority and is more popular, achieving the goal of being comprehensive while also targeting certain areas.

By cooperating with professionals, each course produced is guaranteed to meet high quality requirements, and consumers can learn the highly integrated and easy-to-understand experience and professional knowledge of professionals at a relatively low price.

From the above, it can be seen that the time cost for consumers to identify high-quality knowledge content has been reduced, and more users have been attracted by high-quality and strict content.

3) Generous rewards

Most of the professionals who were invited were self-media people or scholars before joining the platform. Except for some investors or company founders, their income often came from offline lectures and book publishing.

Take Xue Zhaofeng's economics course (divided into four modules, with a total of 366 lectures) for example. If it were taught offline, the ultimate benefits and efficiency would not be very high due to venue restrictions, rental costs, a limited number of students and excessively high unit prices. However, by recording the course and publishing it on the Get platform, with a one-time investment of time, knowledge can be shared with a large number of consumers. In addition, the marginal cost of course dissemination is close to 0, which makes the payment threshold for the course very low, and can also attract more consumers to join the course.

According to the Get APP, the number of users of Xue Zhaofeng's economics course has reached 440,000, and the price is 199 yuan. Assuming that the platform and he split the profits 50-50, after deducting income tax, the final profit will also be huge.

According to the data: at the three core product price points of 19.9 yuan, 99 yuan and 199 yuan, the paying user rates are 33.2%, 24.6% and 34.5% respectively, which shows that consumers are willing to pay and professionals can get good returns.

By leveraging the advantages of Luoji Siwei's book publishing business, we can "revive" and republish some professionals' books.

The book publishing business of Duoduo has published books by teachers of Duoduo Department such as Wan Weigang, Wang Liming, and Zhang Haixian, and they have become best-sellers on Dangdang Book Network. With the help of the platform, the originally sluggish publishing business has been strongly reversed, and it has also become a revenue point for professionals and platforms.

Summary: Through the above analysis, we explain why Get has been able to develop rapidly and grow continuously.

4. Commercial Value Analysis

Get is a vertical knowledge payment platform whose core business is selling knowledge services, including courses, listening to a book every day, e-books, etc.

We know that revenue is an important indicator for judging whether a company's business is developing healthily and sustaining operations. Therefore, we use GMV, a commonly used data indicator in the e-commerce field, to judge whether its core business is stable.

GMV = number of users * conversion rate * average order value

The number of users refers to the number of people who have registered a platform account; the conversion rate refers to the number of paying users/registered users, and a conversion is when a user consumes on the platform; the average order value refers to the average payment amount of paying users over a period of time.

Improving any one of the indicators, such as the number of users, conversion rate, and average order value, will have a positive impact on overall revenue. Below we will explore how to improve these three indicators separately to increase revenue.

1. Increase the number of platform users

The number of users is the cornerstone of sustained business growth. Only by constantly injecting fresh blood and attracting more users to register on the platform can the platform continue to grow. So how does Getai attract new users?

There are two main ways: free channels and paid channels.

1) Luoji Siwei WeChat Official Account as a traffic entry point (free channel)

Luoji Siwei WeChat public account is the official WeChat account of the program "Luoji Siwei". It has cultivated a large number of Luo Zhenyu's fans, giving it a strong potential user base.

In March 2016, three years after its official operation, Luoji Siwei had 6 million followers; 11 months later, the number of followers of Luoji Siwei’s official account exceeded 10 million. A large part of this group of fans has become the source of users for Duoduo and the main force of paid knowledge for Duoduo. They are the backbone of Duoduo's early users.

Because for consumers, the high-quality content output of Luoji Siwei makes them believe that Luo Zhenyu's Get APP is a trustworthy and high-quality knowledge service provider.

Judging from the interface of Luoji Siwei’s official account, the clickable buttons below are all information related to the Get APP. Clicking any button will pop up the relevant content involved.

In addition, clicking the relevant list button will enter the Get content interface, guiding fans to download the Get APP at all times and fully driving traffic to the Get APP.

Of course, some of the professionals who were invited are also big Vs themselves, and often bring their own traffic, which also plays a role in attracting traffic to the platform.

2) Word of mouth (free channel)

Marketers have long recognized the powerful influence of communication and recommendations between consumers, and they know that such communication is sometimes more effective than promotional advertising.

At present, the number of users of Getuo is over 30 million, and there is still a lot of room for user growth compared to the target user group. Therefore, attracting new users is an important task for Getuo at present.

Get has added relevant sharing entrances to every learning content interface. The sharing paths include WeChat friends, Moments, Weibo, QQ, DingTalk and other high-frequency and highly social tool APPs, allowing users to share what they are learning at any time.

Duode also has a special incentive sharing function module, and the sharing channel is limited to WeChat. After friends register, both parties can get a 20-yuan coupon. The purpose is to encourage users to recommend Duode to their circle of acquaintances, and use the trust between friends to make it easier to acquire new users.

3) Variety show cooperation and New Year's Eve speeches (paid channels)

Variety show cooperation: Luo Zhenyu appeared as a guest on the fifth season of “The Brain”, and Duoduo APP established in-depth content cooperation with “The Brain”.

The Duode APP sets up a "Super Brain Zone" in each episode, simultaneously analyzing challenging projects, explaining knowledge, etc.

The Get APP also collaborated with the scientific consultant of "The Brain" to launch 30 basic psychology courses, which further promoted the spread of Get among target users.

Get cooperated with Jiangsu Satellite TV and iQiyi to produce the large-scale knowledge talk show "Knowledge is Power". The first broadcast on Jiangsu Satellite TV had a viewership rating of 0.425, and the number of views on iQiyi in three days was close to 40 million. The number of views ranked among the top in knowledge programs. With the support and trust of the TV station, Get achieved greater exposure and obtained more traffic.

New Year’s Eve Speech: Luo Zhenyu’s New Year’s Eve Speech “Friends of Time” is a major annual event of Luoji Siwei.

Luoji Siwei has invested a lot of financial and material resources in hosting the lecture, and he has promised to hold it for 20 years.

At the lecture venue, synchronized audio and speech-related materials needed to be obtained on the Get APP, and at the same time, it was broadcast live on Shenzhen Satellite TV. This not only attracted more new fans, but also gave the Get APP sufficient exposure. This is also an important way for Luo Zhenyu to attract traffic to Get.

2. Improve conversion rate

After attracting users to register on the platform through various means, we need to focus on how to increase the conversion rate of user payments. Only after users pay will they create value for the platform. Therefore, the following discussion will discuss how to guide users to make payment decisions quickly.

For some users, especially new users, many are not clear about what learning content they need and need guidance from the platform. For these users, what the platform needs to do is to quickly help them find content that may interest them, but users are often aimless (many users are curious about most content), so the platform must find a way for them to find the content that is most likely to attract them as quickly as possible, enter the trial listening or trial reading interface, and thus induce payment.

For this type of users, it is most convenient to search for content through the course column or popular rankings. Taking the popular course schedule as an example, after clicking into the details interface, we can find that the courses are sorted based on the data of purchase, learning and sharing in the past three days. This also conforms to the psychology of new users - that is, the psychology of following the crowd, and they believe that courses selected according to the rankings are more reliable.

We can see that the first thing we observe is the portrait of the professional and the current popularity (current ranking). Professionals often have friendly smiles. In essence, this is to help users eliminate the stereotype that teachers are old-fashioned and serious, so that they can increase their favorability towards teachers. Secondly, ranking is also a factor that affects users' entry into the teacher's course interface.

In the upper left corner of the picture is the name of the corresponding course, which is controlled within ten words. The bold font is highlighted to clarify the specific teaching content, which is also the key point whether the user is interested; then comes the title of the professional teaching; next is the price and number of courses that users are more sensitive to, which are emphasized in red letters. It is an important reason to induce users to enter the course interface; to the right of the price is the number of people who have purchased the course so that users can clearly know how many followers there are, so that they can be more confident in the decisions they make.

In terms of popular course interfaces, new users quickly enter the course introduction interface by using high-definition portraits of teachers, course names, teacher qualifications, courses/prices, and number of participants.

So, how do you get the guide to users in the course introduction interface?

After entering the course introduction page, there are specific information from the teacher, course highlights and outlines, so that users can have a clear idea of ​​what they have learned and what problems they can solve.

On the left side of the navigation bar at the bottom is the gift function (coupons can be reduced). The logic behind the setting is to allow users to use the behavior of giving knowledge courses to replace the usual gift-giving method; it not only looks high-end and unique, but also reflects the humanistic care for the recipients; because young people in the new era pursue novelty and uniqueness, they are attractive to them, thereby increasing the payment rate.

The intermediate listening function enters the content details page and the audio playback portal. For those with a large number of courses, you can listen to five courses (of course, for some shorter courses (such as less than ten episodes), there is an audio-visual experience for two courses).

According to my personal experience, the audition courses can be selected at will according to the updated content, which ensures that the team and professionals adhere to high requirements for the production of any course; and the audio is almost recorded by professional broadcasting readers, so that there will be no discomfort due to the non-standard problem of Mandarin, and users can fully feel the quality of the course at all times.

Using the method of providing enough free trial courses to eliminate users' concerns about regretting payment because the content does not meet expectations and increase their negative impression of the platform; it also gives users more opportunities to find content that they are interested in or satisfied with, which is a protection for user interests; the user's audition effect often determines the user's chances of purchasing courses, which helps improve conversion rates.

Secondly, we can see that there are course duration and number of students who have studied at the entrance of each class. In fact, this is a psychological hint - the duration tells users that the course time is short and can be completed with fragmented time, and there will be no difficulties; the number of students who have studied indirectly shows that the course is of high quality, and everyone actively participates in learning, and herd mentality will also speed up users' purchasing decisions.

There are selected user comments and collections at the end of each course text, which is a unique feeling for users after learning. Positive comments will also speed up users' purchasing decisions (because they are selected comments, the number of comments is small, and they are basically positive comments, and users may doubt their reference value).

On the right side of the navigation bar at the bottom of the course introduction page is the final purchase entrance, which is a key step for users to convert paid. As long as the card pack has coupons, the platform will automatically use the price of the coupon with the greatest discount, reminding users to use the coupons to pay quickly; subconsciously enhance users' affordable psychology for this purchase, promote users to enter the payment interface, and complete the final conversion.

We can also find that the obtained payment interface is not as complex as the e-commerce payment interface. The coupon and the optional functions of the payment platform alone cannot increase the conversion rate (because the platform has automatically added usable coupons to users before the payment interface), so the key to improving the user's payment conversion rate is a series of guidance methods before the payment behavior occurs.

Of course, for new users, the platform will give exclusive newcomers coupons, but the denomination is not large, usually a five-yuan coupon, and cannot be used in combination; but if you invite a friend to register, you will get two coupons of 10 yuan, totaling 20 yuan.

New users can use them to purchase courses with lower unit prices as a first experience of course purchases, and are relatively affordable, so coupons can also increase paid conversion rates.

From the above, we can see that there are many ways to improve user conversion rates. Online courses, e-books, and listening books are the main sources of revenue, and the user's conversion rate is continuously improved; and users are reminded of the current number of applicants for courses and the number of students who study in each course in a timely manner through data display, and the simple but practical public psychology of following the audience is used to maximize.

3. Increase the average order value

There are two ways to increase the average customer price of users: one is to increase the amount of users' consumption; the other is to increase the frequency of users' purchases.

Next, we will use these two aspects to explain how to increase the average customer price and generate more revenue.

1) Increase user consumption amount

For a long time at the beginning, 199 yuan was the highest unit price for the course, and the course price level was relatively simple, with three levels: 199, 99, and 19.9; with the enrichment of course content and changes in class hours, the highest price has reached 299 yuan, and the price level is also richer. For example, there are 249 yuan and 229 yuan between the courses and 299 yuan.

We can find that more and more courses are getting 19.9 or 99 yuan, and more low-priced courses are launched (low prices are allowed to be borne by more users); the number of courses in this type of course is usually shorter (shorter means that learning is not difficult), and we have achieved the perfection of using the concept of fragmented time.

Obtaining multiple price levels gives users more choices, and at the same time, the number of low-priced short-term courses increases, thereby increasing users' consumption amount and obtaining more profits.

In addition to online virtual service sales, we also create our own malls to sell e-book readers, books or peripheral products; all products are marked as the result, and the sales of physical products are increased through a loyal user group.

In addition to online learning, we also started an offline university. Through the online registration of the APP, we finally decided whether the candidate was admitted or not after three steps: primary selection, interview, and telephone interview of recommender.

The course adopts an online and offline learning mode, which is three months, online learning from Monday to Friday, and offline learning activities are adopted on Sunday, with a fee of 14,800 yuan.

The online and offline learning channels have been opened up and online students have been developed into offline university members. Based on the trust that online members have gained, the participation is extremely high. Currently, more than 300,000 views have been received on the APP, and more than 20,000 people have registered.

The new business channels have been continuously expanded and the amount of users paid has been increased.

2. Increase the frequency of user purchases

In order to increase the frequency of users' purchases, two member projects, VIP, listen to this book every day and VIP e-book reading, are launched to increase user stickiness and thus increase member renewal rate.

VIP listens to this book every day: Each book is recommended by professionals or big names. By highly summarized and summarized into the essence of the book with a duration of 20 to 30 minutes, users can grasp the key points of the book in a short period of time.

It is also claimed that each book has been carefully polished and completed in 204 hours, so the quality of the content can be fully guaranteed.

Users who meet different needs through three different membership systems: annual membership (365 yuan), monthly membership (48 yuan), and continuous monthly membership (35 yuan).

If you do not open a membership, it will cost 4.5 yuan to listen to each book. Users usually renew their membership in a more cost-effective way.

The relevant rights and interests of Tingshu members are arbitrarily shared with friends, and the VIP annual card has 6 15-day experience cards that can be shared with family and friends. They are all sharing scenarios for family and friends, and the joy of sharing makes it easier for users to renew.

VIP e-books: E-book reading is also a growing profit point; each book is recommended by experts or celebrities, and a recommendation reason is attached to increase users' interest in reading the book.

Similarly, e-books have established three membership systems: 6-month membership (108 yuan), annual membership (148 yuan), and continuous monthly subscription (18 yuan).

Currently, member rights mainly include massive books to read, and annual card members can get exclusive coupons. With the high-quality book reading experience and member rights incentives, members' renewal rate can also be increased.

In addition to membership, coupons can also increase the frequency of users’ purchases.

For non-new users, it is also easier to obtain coupons from the platform. According to their current use, the coupon amounts are 50, 20, 10, 5, and 4 yuan.

There are three ways for users to get coupons:

• Invite friends: Recommend to friends. After registering, both parties can get a coupon of RMB 20.
• Medal reward: Each medal corresponds to the prescribed learning tasks. As the medal level increases, you will get corresponding coupons. Medal tasks are often simpler; for example, you can get coupons for 3 consecutive days, 7 days a month, and take notes.
• Get activities: New lessons and other operational activities have the opportunity to get coupons.

The ease of access to coupons will speed up the frequency of users purchasing courses or opening members. At the same time, the coupons are valid for a long time and can be used by users at any time, which increases the average customer price.

At the same time, if you want to continue to retain users, you must also pay attention to users’ learning and growth and give them positive feedback to improve users’ sense of gain.

1) Study plan

Users can adjust the course learning order and learn in sequence; each class has a learning schedule, so that users can understand the basic situation of current learning in a timely manner, and at the same time clarify what content has not been learned yet; be clear about it, so that users can feel the rhythm and control of self-learning, and eliminate urgency and confusion.

2) Visual learning achievements

• Learning data: Get feedback to users at any time and anywhere, including the total learning time, number of notes, reading and listening to books, etc., so that users can get great satisfaction.
• Incentive for setting up medals: Each medal title represents the learning tasks that need to be completed. The progress bar below the medal represents the completion of the current task. Every time the prescribed task is completed, the medal is lit up; this is the supervision of self-learning and it is also a way to encourage users to learn more on the platform.
• Certificate issuance: Whenever a user completes a certain type of course, the platform will issue a graduation certificate to the user, thereby reminding the user that he has successfully completed the course. By using campus certificate issuance, the campus learning scenarios are simulated, so that users can have more familiarity and identity, thereby improving learning motivation and creating a sense of intimacy with the platform.
• Credit proof: The platform judges the user's current comprehensive learning performance based on five indicators of user's curiosity, knowledge sharing, notes, learning volume, and sustainability, which reflects the platform's dynamic tracking of user learning. Users adjust their learning methods based on the platform's indicator parameters to improve learning efficiency.

The above methods improve user experience, increase user stickiness, make users more willing to spend more on the platform, and increase the frequency of purchases.

Through the above analysis, we can see that in order to expand revenue, we have invested a lot of energy in revenue model indicators, attracting more new users, increasing conversion rate and customer unit price, and achieved good results; therefore, we have been able to attract more professionals to join the platform, and its prospects and benefits are very considerable.

5. Product Iteration Analysis

In order to understand the entire iteration process and explore the product upgrade logic, the author sorted out the core versions that obtained product iterations from 1.0 to 7.0.

The first stage: Product hot start stage, optimize basic functions According to the above table and the different functional directions of product iteration, I divide the iteration process into three stages:

Since its birth, it has gained a large number of users from Luoji Siwei fans, and directly diverted Luoji Siwei to have a good user base from the beginning.

Therefore, before May 2017, V1.0-V2.7.2, it was a period of hot-start product. The main task of this period is to verify user needs and improve user experience. Most of the functions in this stage are tool-oriented, such as search function, note-taking function, paid subscription, column trial reading, listening to this book every day, feedback function, etc., which are basically basic functions for users to learn.

Of course, in this period, in order to enhance the user experience on the basis of meeting users' basic needs, so that users can obtain visual feedback on learning results; a personal data center function has been added, so that users can view their learning specific situation in real time to assist users in planning their learning progress reasonably.

During this period, I did not rush to expand the user scale on a large scale, but I also tried to attract more new users on a small scale and expanded the sharing channels. The column articles can be shared with 10 friends for free reading, aiming to increase the user scale faster.

At this stage, the APP rankings have significantly improved, from 800 to 95. The main reason is to obtain strict product quality control and deep ability to solve user needs, put user needs first, focus on polishing products and strictly grasp the quality of the course.

From May 2017 to March 2019, the version iterated from V2.7 to 5.7 is a stage of rapid growth, and expanding the scale of users is the focus of product iteration; in order to expand the number of users, some operation tools have been built, such as adding QQ and Weibo sharing channels and ways to obtain knowledge red envelopes by inviting them; the purpose is to reduce customer acquisition operating costs through the means of actively sharing and attracting new users, and gradually achieve user growth.

The second phase: build operation tools, add learning scenarios, and launch more basic product functions.

At the same time, with the increase of users and the increase in the types of courses, the homepage interface has been adjusted, and free columns, subscription columns, master classes, and high-quality courses have been unified as course entrances; it not only makes the interface layout more organized, but also makes it easier for users to find the courses they need; it also adds the algorithm recommendation function that you like to help users find more content they may need, and these changes and functions have improved the user experience.

All courses and e-books can be read for free and can attract more users to register and try to learn; and the addition of learning plan function can help users plan their learning progress, aiming to urge users to learn, enhance the frequency and duration of user platform usage, and improve user stickiness and activity.

In addition, at this stage, we have begun to explore new operation directions and launch knowledge city-states; as a sharing community, users' insightful study notes may be recommended to the list. Through knowledge city-states, we can learn more about students' learning experiences and dynamics, and through comments and interaction, we can give users richer learning scenarios and attract more people to register.

In September 2017, it received an unknown round of investment, which is said to be worth 8 billion yuan; with sufficient funds as a backing, it has accelerated its operational progress; for example: becoming a sponsor of "The Brain", joining forces with Jiangsu Satellite TV, and iQiyi to create a knowledge talk show "Knowledge is Power", etc.

Through these cooperations, the popularity has been continuously expanded, and the number of users has increased rapidly during this period, and as of May 2019, the number of users has reached an estimated 30 million.

Of course, every year, "Friends of Time" New Year's Eve speech is an important way to get operation. During this period, it will receive great exposure and increase visibility, and the number of users who download and register will increase to a certain extent.

From April 2019 to the present, it has been iterated from V6.0 to V7.10, and is in the mature stage of the product; at this stage, new learning scenarios have been continuously enriched, such as: getting lectures online and inviting industry celebrities to give professional video speeches to users; and for example, knowledge tips, similar to Weibo's paid Q&A, it has been claimed to have collected 100 professionals from various fields to solve 400 problems in five major fields for users; through the above methods, the learning scenario has been further expanded, and a new growth engine has been discovered.

The third phase: Continuously add new product functions, explore multi-channel growth engines, and enrich learning scenarios.

At the same time, in order to attract more users, we have continued to enrich the sharing channels, and we can use more vivid and simple pictures to share on WeChat and DingTalk; in order to retain more old users and improve the daily active users' daily active users, we have been launched to listen to this book for free, and we can listen to seven books for free.

The original graphic and text notes of Knowledge City-Bao further increases the fun of knowledge notes and is also conducive to improving user activity.

When the user experience stabilizes and enters a period of rapid development, it is time to start large-scale promotion, cooperate with variety shows, expand more sharing channels, and continuously acquire new users.

Overall, it has its own unique operating rhythm. In the early stage, we focused on meeting user needs and improving basic functions. We did not rush to promote quickly, but only gained more users through sharing channels; because it is unwise to promote large-scalely at this time, and the basic functions of the product need to be improved. If a large number of users are attracted, it will also be quickly lost, and more negative evaluations will be added, which will not be worth the loss for the development of the product.

After the number of users reaches a certain scale, it enters the maturity stage. In order to reduce user loss, on the one hand, it optimizes some functional modules and improves user experience, and on the other hand, it expands new business channels and explores new growth engines; the above is a complete process analysis of iteration.

6. Product structure analysis

In iterative analysis, we sorted out the iterative process of obtaining product functions. So what needs do these functions meet and how can functional modules be distributed in the APP?

In order to analyze the product functional structure, the author has compiled the product functional brain map of V7.10 version:

For convenience, I will analyze the product structure from four aspects: user, scenario, requirements, and functions, and organize it into the following table.

The target users I get are mostly professionals or entrepreneurs, so I call them consumers; the content I get is not just courses, so I define its scenarios as before and after consumption.

Overall analysis:

• Scenario 1: I'm eager to understand the content of the platform before consumption
• Scenario 2: Learn content operations after consumption

Scenario 1: What specific needs do consumers have before consumption, and what functions do they use to meet these needs as the platform?

Some consumers may not have learned much about Get APP before downloading the platform. After registering the platform, they want to know what learning content is available; for this high-frequency demand, all learning content is classified according to courses, e-books, listening books, etc., and the entrance function module is placed in a conspicuous position at the top of the homepage, so consumers can notice it at a glance.

In order to meet consumers' different classification search habits, the content is classified according to business, workplace, history, etc., and these special entry modules are used to the lower end of the overall classification module to facilitate consumers to understand the content based on their own habits.

In order to further dispel consumers' concerns and reduce decision-making costs, a free column entrance was provided, located at the homepage topic entrance, including free content such as Li Xiang's knowledge internal reference columns; by listening to relevant audio courses, consumers' trust in the quality of the platform content, accelerate consumer purchasing decisions, and help improve conversion rates.

After knowing the specific content, consumers usually want to understand the learning situation and enthusiasm of other consumers, which can be used as an indicator for the evaluation of the content quality of the platform, so they have launched the Knowledge City-State module.

Knowledge City-Nation can view some high-quality reading notes and experiences selected and pushed. There are also comments, likes, collections, and forwardings from other consumers below; this function module is set separately and placed in the middle of the bottom navigation bar, which is enough to see the importance of this module, because it is an important function to enhance user experience and improve the activity of the platform.

After consumers recognize the content of the platform, they usually want the platform to recommend some content to reduce the time cost of choice; they have launched popular course lists, popular listening lists, and popular e-book modules, located in the middle of the homepage, and consumers make quick decisions based on the recent rankings of the popular lists.

The entry to the introduction of the platform and all teacher introduction functions may be due to the limitation of the number of teachers. Consumers who need to know can go to the official website to learn about it.

Scenario 2: What are the needs of consumers after consumption and how are they solved?

After consumers purchase learning content, they can view all the content they currently buy through the purchased function in the bottom navigation bar.

Consumers usually do not know how to arrange their learning progress and have launched a learning plan functional module. Consumers can let the system arrange their learning plan, or adjust their learning plan according to their interests and actual situation.

The learning plan module is placed in the bottom navigation bar, which shows that the function has been paid attention to, because the function is the highest frequency used in the user's post-consumption scenario, helping consumers arrange learning plans to play a supervisory role.

Consumers often annotate key content in their daily study, and they will also publish good ideas and insights. Sometimes consumers want to view their notes or insights, so they have launched the "My-My Content-Note" function module, allowing consumers to review and summarize their learning records from time to time to improve user experience.

Similarly, consumers can share their ideas and thoughts with knowledge city-states and have the opportunity to interact with other users to discuss, which is also an important way to improve user experience.

During the learning process, consumers often need visual learning results to motivate themselves, and have launched the "My-Learning Achievements" module, located below the "My" interface, which can always view the learning duration, completed learning tasks, learning scores, etc.; through positive feedback, users can maintain a high enthusiasm for learning and improve the participation of platform learning.

Through the above analysis, we can see that consumers' different needs in the two scenarios before and after consumption are well met, and they also attach importance to user experience and care about user growth; the functions required by different consumers are reasonably laid out and placed, but some of them are missing, and overall it is a relatively successful product.

7. Operational Analysis

Operation is a necessary means for rapid product growth, and a good product must have good operation.

Products and operations are often closely related; since their introduction, what operating methods have been used to promote products and quickly expand their popularity?

Based on relevant information, the author sorted out the main operating activities since its establishment as follows:

Means 1: Self-promotion

Luoji Siwei's official account has received the APP based on its huge number of fans (currently more than 10 million).

Every year, the New Year's Eve concert of friends is held on December 31; the number of audiences in the New Year's Eve speech increased from 4,000 to 10,000; the cumulative exposure of the topic "Friends of Time" on Weibo has reached 250 million.

Get the company meetings are held internally every Tuesday to share the content of the company meeting online.

Mean 2: Cross-border cooperation

• 2017-03-30 Join forces with Xu Xiaoping, founder of Zhenge Fund, to initiate a live broadcast of [Everyone Asked Xu Xiaoping].
• 2017-05-18 Join forces with VIVO to launch the No. 001 Knowledge Conference.
• 2017-08-31 received the launch of the No. 002 Knowledge Release Conference by United CITIC Bank.
• 2017-11-24 I have jointly launched exclusive cooperative content with Xiao Ai. Through Xiao Ai, I can listen to free or paid content at any time.
• 2017-12-05 Get joined hands with Didi Special Car to create a "mobile listening library" for the special car, creating a new scenario of fragmented learning.
• 2018-06-15 The cross-border art exhibition of "Vegetable Market Meets Economics" was held at Sanyuanli Vegetable Market in Beijing to create the concept of productizing knowledge.
• 2018-08-19 Join forces with CITIC Publishing House to launch the No. 003 Knowledge Release Conference.
• 2019-04-23 Joined Shenzhen Satellite TV and Youku to hold the 2019 spring "Knowledge Release Conference" event; and jointly launched 9 e-books with 8 major publishing institutions.
• 2019-11-19 Jointly signed an agreement with Tsinghua Wudaokou to launch online video courses together.
• 2020-02-22 We have jointly organized a "suspended classes but no learning activities" with a series of universities.

Means 3: Named Variety Show

• 2017-12-09 The most powerful brain to be sponsored.
• 2018-07-27 The talk show "Knowledge is Power" was held in conjunction with Jiangsu Satellite TV, iQiyi and Shenzhen Satellite TV.

Mean 4: Helping public welfare

• 2018-04-24 Ziroom joined forces to launch a charity activity of "Helping Graduates fly bravely" to provide life guarantees for graduates.
• 2019-12-31 Get knowledge back to society, and plans to donate more than 4,000 hours of lecture time to the society.
• 2019-09-27 Received a scholarship in cooperation with Renmin University of China to encourage students to read more books.
• 2020-03-18 Renmin University of China signed an agreement with Get to establish a "Get Study Scholarship".

Most of the above operational activities cannot be analyzed due to the lack of relevant data.

8. Conclusion

The above can be summarized as follows through the overall analysis of the knowledge payment market and obtained:

• The combined effect of external factors such as national policies, economic development, social status, and scientific and technological level has vigorously promoted the development of the knowledge payment industry and maintained a high growth rate for a long time in the future.
• In this industry, Himalaya, Zhihu, and Dragonfly FM have obvious advantages in revenue and are in the first echelon of the industry; Lizhi Micro-Chat and Qianlai are inferior in user scale and revenue, and are in the second echelon of the industry; other related platforms are temporarily in the third echelon due to their small influence.
• In the knowledge payment industry, there are mainly three participants: consumers (mainly professionals), platforms, and professionals (producers of platform course content); if the platform wants to achieve rapid development, it is necessary to coordinate and balance the needs of consumers and professionals. For professionals, the platform must meet the demands of professionals, so that they can create high-value content in the long run and attract more users; at the same time, they must meet the needs of consumers and increase their retention, purchase and repurchase rates, so as to ensure the sustainable development of the platform and generate user value.
• The main business of obtaining the current main business is to sell courses created by professionals, and e-books and listening members are also important sources of income. If the platform wants to maintain positive revenue growth, it must first improve the quality of the content. Whether it is the passionate production of courses, the high-quality selection of e-books and the high-level summary of listening books, it is all about maintaining the high level of the platform content and improving the platform conversion rate; at the same time, it must focus on improving user experience, obtaining new users through user recommendations, and reducing customer acquisition costs.
• Overall, the gain has its own unique operation rhythm; in the early stage, we focus on meeting user needs, improving basic functions, and not rush to promote quickly, but only gain more users through sharing channels; after the user experience is relatively stable, we continue to optimize basic functions, and also begin to explore some new functional modules. At this time, we also start to vigorously operate, expand more sharing channels, and gain more users; after the user reaches a certain scale, the gain also begins to create new user scenarios and increase revenue new engines.
• The target users obtained are mainly professionals or entrepreneurs, so their functions focus on how to better meet their needs and design; they use two scenarios: before and after consumption; through the analysis of the functional structure of the obtained product, the functional module layout is reasonable and can basically meet user needs.

1. Personal thoughts

The target users obtained are basically concentrated between the ages of 24 and 40, which accounts for about 75% of the total number of users. Moreover, these people are basically professionals or entrepreneurs, and often have a certain level of education, usually above college.

At present, the total number of people in this age stage is about 650 million, and the level of college education accounts for about 10%. Therefore, the ceiling of the number of users obtained is at least more than 65 million. Compared with the number of users currently obtained about 38 million, there is still a lot of room for growth in the number of users obtained.

At present, about 67% of users are from first-tier cities and above, and the growth of users in first-tier cities is weak, so we should focus on the market sinking.

With the popularity of online knowledge payment, young people in third- and fourth-tier cities also have great learning needs, and for them, time is relatively relaxed, and the work pressure is not so great, and there is more trivial time to spend on learning.

Judging from the current number of course subscribers, the number of courses related to workplace and management is the largest, which is in line with the target user positioning, because more users still hope to improve their professional skills in the workplace, enhance communication and communication skills, and cultivate business thinking.

However, the completion of courses is not satisfactory, and the most popular workplace and management science is only 32%. According to the author's observation, the number of students studying in most courses continues to decline with the number of courses.

This actually indirectly reflects that the user cannot apply it well in practice after learning some course content, or the application does not achieve the desired effect after using it, which leads to a decrease in expectations for the course and stops from continuing to learn the course; of course, on the one hand, it is also because the course will exaggerate the improvement and effect that the course will bring to the user when introducing the highlights of the course, and ignores the learning and comprehension ability of most people; and after personal experience, the user finds that it is very different from what is described, so he feels disappointed, thus stopping the study of subsequent courses, which ultimately leads to the loss of users.

In addition, the number of courses with more than 300 classes obtained is getting fewer and fewer, and instead some courses with fewer sections but not low prices; for example, the courses with more than 300 classes in the past are now often only about 30 to 50 classes for 99 yuan, which is half the price, but the number of courses is five or six times less.

Personally, I guess it is to reduce the learning burden of users, and that fewer course users complete or the number of people participating in learning will also make more profits; however, this will lead to a lack of systematicity and depth in the learning content, the results achieved by users are average, and their enthusiasm will also be hit.

The user comments obtained are basically selected by the author, and the number is often small. It is difficult for other users to fully feel more people's thoughts and thoughts in the limited number of comments; therefore, I think the threshold and restrictions for comment selection should be appropriately relaxed, and more user comments will show higher the platform's participation.

The algorithm mechanism of "Guess You Like Recommended" obtained is not perfect enough, there are too many things recommended, and it is not very matched with personal interests and hobbies, which seems a bit useless. This personalized recommendation function should be improved.

Author: Wang Zai0424

Source: Wang Zai 0424