“BabyTree” user growth case analysis!

Against the backdrop of the gradual decline of traffic dividends and the increasing cost of traffic, brand assets are extremely valuable charcoal in the economic winter, which can help them acquire new users well, over the long term, and at a lower cost.

Currently, WeChat, Weibo, short videos, live videos, etc. occupy users' attention, exacerbating the fragmentation of users' time and interests, and making social methods and channels more diversified.

The "2019 Mobile Internet Panoramic Ecosystem Report" released by QuestMobile shows that the number of monthly active users of China's mobile Internet exceeds 1.13 billion, and the year-on-year growth rate has dropped to below 3%. The acquisition and competition of traffic in the industry are becoming increasingly severe.

On March 30, Babytree, a leading domestic maternal and infant community platform, released its 2019 annual performance announcement. The announcement showed that its mobile MAU in 2019 reached a new high of 24.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 7.9% - it has to be said that this is a surprising achievement in the field of mobile Internet.

1. How to build a sense of trust?

Brand trust has become a new lever, and both user operations and product upgrades are essential.

Relevant data show that the new costs for Internet users are increasing year by year. Taking e-commerce platforms as an example, the cost of acquiring a new user for Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo in 2016 was 166 yuan, 142 yuan and 10 yuan respectively. By 2019, these figures had risen to 536 yuan, 757 yuan and 143 yuan, which have increased several times in a few years. The particularity of the maternal and infant industry is that maternal and infant people pay more attention to reputation and quality.

According to a survey by consulting firm Sullivan, brand is the main factor consumers consider when making family-related consumption decisions. Since maternal and infant products and services directly affect the health of infants, who are often regarded as the most important family members, the safety of maternal and infant products is of vital importance.

Most respondents believe that BabyTree has the most comprehensive and authoritative content compared to other online maternal and infant platforms in China.

Babytree was founded in 2007 and has been rooted in the maternal and infant industry for 13 years. It has continued to accumulate experience with comprehensive high-quality content and an active community atmosphere. Whether it is from the download volume or the user reviews in the application market, the power of word-of-mouth cannot be underestimated. Against the backdrop of the gradual decline of traffic dividends and the increasing cost of traffic, brand assets are extremely valuable charcoal in the economic winter, which can help them acquire new users well, over the long term, and at a lower cost.

In fact, there are quite a few maternal and infant companies that started out in the PC era, but most of them disappeared from the public eye as time went by. Product experience and user operations are becoming more and more of a double-edged sword for a company. Paying full attention to and constantly upgrading and innovating will enable continuous attraction of new customers and activation of new ones. Failure to adapt to the trend may result in loss of users.

Public information shows that Babytree was the first to transform to the mobile terminal in the early days of the rise of mobile Internet, and has continued to focus on product innovation on the mobile terminal. Whether it is the industry-first circle operation based on user attribute aggregation, or innovative gadget products such as whether to eat or prenatal examination schedule, they are all key driving forces for improving user experience and activity.

Recently, the data research organization BigData-Research released the "2019 China Internet Maternal and Infant Market Research Report", stating that the user scale of China's mobile maternal and infant platform reached 200 million in 2019, an increase of nearly 30% over 2018.

As the pregnant population gradually penetrates into the new generation of post-90s, users pay more attention to "independent personality" while pursuing "efficiency" and "appearance".

After reviewing the 2019 product application logs of BabyTree Pregnancy APP, we can easily find that they did at least a few things right:

1. The visual and interactive design have been completely revamped to fully meet the new generation’s requirements for “appearance”

In 2019, the new version of BabyTree Pregnancy was launched, which transformed from the original low-key pink to a refreshing orange.

This small step is very important, making it stand out among a number of APPs and conveying the tone of "confidence, self-reliance, and care", which is in line with the personalized expression characteristics of women in the new era. At the same time, a new "Me" tab has been added to the bottom of the APP, where users can enjoy a personalized and customized home interface, manage their own content and interact with other users anytime and anywhere, and have real-time conversations with fans.

This is confirmed by the report of BiDa Consulting. The data shows that among the major Internet maternal and child platforms in 2019, Babytree has the largest user base. Its Babytree Pregnancy App is the most popular among pregnant mothers born after 1990, becoming the first entry point for pregnant mothers and having the highest user satisfaction.

2. Technology investment is working, with significant product innovation and optimization of core pain point tools

Technological investment has become a core indicator for measuring the vitality of Internet companies. Continuous technological investment can reduce operation and maintenance costs on the back end, while front-end perception means that users experience "better understanding and better usability".

From the perspective of product innovation, Babytree has launched a number of smart products, including the intelligent crying translation product [Cry Recognition], which can identify the needs of babies based on the different characteristics of their cries, thereby guiding new parents to soothe their babies. [Little Tree Robot] provides AI voice question-and-answer services that can quickly and accurately answer mother-and-child related questions, play music, provide early education courses, record and other family scenario services.

As for core products, functions and user experience must be continuously updated according to user habits. The tools of the BabyTree Pregnancy APP are widely praised and recommended in various mother-and-child forums. Its tool system is classified and distributed according to the pregnancy cycle. It has all kinds of pain point tools from pregnancy preparation, early pregnancy, mid-pregnancy, late pregnancy to parenting stages, and makes intelligent recommendations based on the user's current pregnancy stage, while supporting user-defined arrangements.

During the pregnancy preparation stage, the intelligent detection function of ovulation test strips is added on the basis of menstrual period, ovulation and body temperature records, and the "number of bars" can be intelligently identified; the pain points of early, middle and late pregnancy are different, and after using the file creation assistant, the prenatal check-up schedule must be used, and then prenatal education music, counting fetal movements, and delivery bags are all necessary; after the child is born, tools such as vaccination schedule, feeding records, growth assessment, early education nursery rhymes, and maternal weight management have greatly reduced the anxiety and burden of new parents.

The tool is positioned within BabyTree Pregnancy as a product that aggregates similar content and services, which can minimize the user's time cost and improve the efficiency of meeting needs. It is a panacea for the post-90s generation who are more "lazy" and pursue "saving trouble". For example, the "Can You Eat" tool covers the entire user cycle from pregnancy preparation to parenting. It is like an encyclopedia of pregnancy diet, telling users what they can and cannot eat in different cycles, what the recipes are when they can eat, what nutrients they can supplement, what foods they cannot eat with, etc. It supports user search and query, which is convenient and efficient.

In fact, the tool system is also a good foundation for the layout of global traffic. It has strong scalability and can be quickly transferred to other ecosystems. Whether it is IOT smart hardware or platforms such as WeChat and Alipay, it can quickly seize entrances to multiple scenarios.

3. From traffic operation to user operation, motivating users to become active factors in community activity

If the product is a functional infrastructure built to meet user needs, then the goal of operation is to stimulate user activity and continuously output freshness. The Internet has entered the era of inventory, and the traffic operation thinking is outdated. It is necessary to adhere to the user-oriented operation concept in order to retain old users and attract new users.

The community activity of the BabyTree Pregnancy APP has long relied on the circle mechanism. People with the same due date and the same hospital where their birth records are located always have endless topics to talk about because their experiences and problems are highly similar. If we think that the former are passively combined and have a certain time limit, then the newly added topic operation is the active choice of users. They pay attention to the same topic because of hot spots and interests, and share, create, interact and make friends in this topic scenario, not limited by time and space.

In addition, diversified content and activities based on e-commerce promotion nodes and traditional holidays have also become a driving force for users to visit frequently. According to Babytree's 2019 H1 report and 2019 annual performance announcement, its [Parent-Child Reading Seven-Day Challenge] topic generated an average of 11.1 posts per person within two weeks of its initial launch, while the [Mother's Power] event attracted approximately 147,000 users to participate.

4. Launched the "Spring Breeze Plan" to support creators, and both content quality and user activity were improved

After a completely revamped visual and UI interface, Babytree has added a "one-click creation" tab at the bottom, allowing users to quickly create content such as questions, posts, and videos. At the same time, Babytree launched the "Spring Breeze Plan" to support creators, taking a two-pronged approach of discovering and cultivating native creators and signing contracts with external creators. It uses multi-dimensional indicators such as content quality, content interaction data, CTR, etc. as an evaluation system to achieve continuous upgrading of creators' capabilities and two-way improvement of content quantity and quality.

Public data shows that as of the end of February 2020, there were 159,000 creators on the Babytree platform, including more than 20,000 KOCs and KOLs with great potential. The high-quality content created by KOCs has been viewed 1 billion times on the Babytree platform.

Thanks to the continuous improvement of algorithms and big data insight capabilities, content, products, tools and services can be recommended and matched to different users more accurately, thereby greatly improving the content distribution efficiency and user reading experience. This is also directly reflected in its user usage time and user retention data. According to the 2019 performance announcement, the average daily usage time of users of BabyTree's flagship APP BabyTree Pregnancy was 24.4 minutes, and the user retention rate in the next month reached 64%, an increase of 2% over the previous year.

2. Accelerate the layout of global user entry scenarios, and divert public domain traffic to private domain operations

In order to accelerate the capture of the global user entry scenarios, giants such as Alipay, WeChat, and Baidu are facing growth pressure. In order to improve the efficiency of traffic distribution and deeply tap user value, giants have deployed mini-programs to strengthen their own super platform status.

According to estimates from the Aladdin Mini Program Statistics Platform and the Aladdin Index, the DAU of mini programs across the entire network reached a peak of 450 million in February 2020. For users, the way of shopping has changed from the single shopping decision path of traditional centralized e-commerce with shelf-based, category-based, and search-based shopping to the emotional and social shopping decision path in decentralized e-commerce based on trust, scenarios, and sharing.

As users' time and interests become increasingly fragmented and competition for traffic portals becomes increasingly fierce, the layout of a global traffic ecosystem has become a trend, and Babytree is no exception.

"In the past, the idea was to attract users. But as a platform-based maternal and child family service company, Babytree's products and services should go wherever the users are," said Wang Huainan, founder and CEO of Babytree. "We hope to empower investors and strategic partners by exporting core advantages and capabilities such as content, social networking, and technology, and ultimately go deeper, broader, and further in the Chinese and even international markets."

According to the 2019 annual performance announcement, Babytree has actively deployed mini-programs, communities, etc. in external ecosystems such as Alipay and WeChat. In 2019, the MAU of mini-programs on various platforms reached 10.7 million. At the same time, we create and output short videos, live broadcasts, etc. based on platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, continue to seize the entrance to public domain ecological traffic, and strengthen multi-scenario and multi-form user operations.

1. Relying on the traffic entrance of Alipay’s parent-child section, innovate the super platform cooperation model

In the Alipay ecosystem, Babytree has built a matrix of smart products and mini-programs based on the traffic entrance of Alipay's parent-child and childcare section, realizing a closed-loop transaction on the Alipay platform. For example, one of the mini-programs, Mama Youli, provides selected products based on Alipay’s user portrait and the integrated mother-and-child user population algorithm. As Alipay upgrades to become a digital life service platform, it is expected to carry out more cooperation in the digital empowerment of the offline parent-child sector in the future.

2. Expand the mini-program and community ecosystem to build a core private domain traffic circle

In the WeChat ecosystem, Babytree provides layered services based on mini-programs. For example, the Babytree mini-program meets users' rigid demands with lightweight knowledge and tools, while stimulating user activity and retention through a "points distribution + redemption" system, satisfying both the "use-and-go" needs of young users in the family and the "participation in parenting" needs of grandparents.

At the same time, Babytree is actively expanding the WeChat community ecosystem, building a core private traffic circle, and deeply exploring user needs in the minds of maternal and infant users through various forms such as knowledge sharing, chatting, organizing offline activities, and online live sharing. Based on the highly active and high-retention WeChat community, it provides a variety of paid services such as goods, mom shop owners, and memberships. Thanks to the sharing fission mechanism, the Babytree Pregnancy App and the Babytree WeChat ecosystem can achieve traffic interconnection and business closed loop, improve operational efficiency and expand revenue.

3. "Break into" short video and live broadcast platforms, and coexist and prosper together

The "ByteDance Q4 Mother and Baby Group Analysis Report" shows that in December 2019, the number of views of Douyin's mother and baby content videos reached 60.93 billion. As of the end of last year, there were 47,400 Douyin mother and baby influencers and 2.6357 million content authors. For this kind of super traffic platform that has cultivated a good ecology, the best way is "coexistence and common prosperity."

Babytree has adopted a combined operating model of "self-operated accounts + signing high-quality native talents" on pan-entertainment content platforms such as Douyin. According to data, since January 2020, the number of views of Babytree's official Douyin accounts such as "Babytree Expert Group" and "Reliable Mom" ​​has exceeded 25.6 million. At the same time, it has signed contracts with high-quality influencers on the Douyin platform such as "My Dad is Super Handsome" and "I am Wang Dujing".

Taking "My Dad is Super Handsome" as an example, its positioning is "gentle dad", and the content is mostly about dads sharing their skills in raising children. His enviable image of "other people's husband" is widely loved and praised. There are hot topics such as "Don't lose each other in the game of hide-and-seek in love" and "Cherish the person in front of you" with over 2 million likes. According to Kas Data, he is currently the top maternal and child influencer on the Douyin platform.

Based on the traffic and user base of the external ecosystem, BabyTree can provide users with high-quality content while also providing commercial services to its advertising or e-commerce partners. It is reported that Babytree has already fired the first shot in commercialization on the Douyin platform.

Author: Lazy Sheep

Source: Lazy Sheep